JackFavell
-
Posts
14,349 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Posts posted by JackFavell
-
-
> I'm very similar to you with that. If I'm down, I rarely let people know. If I'm angry or frightened, I'll seek others. The one way to read my feelings is how chatty I am. If I'm talking a lot, I'm probably in a good mood and happy. If I'm less talkative, something is bothering me.
Are you sure you're not me?
>
There's a ton of self-importance found in the northeast. Lots of overvaluing.You really hit the nail on the head. That is a PERFECT description. I wonder if it's because it's a rich state or if there's some other factors? My favorite people around here have been fishermen and old railroad men, masons and farmers. If you went to breakfast downtown when I first moved here, they would all be hanging out at the local Bee Bee Dairy, which was a diner in the center of town. You'd go in for your cup of coffee and the old men would be holding court at the counter. It was wonderful. There just aren't characters like that anymore. They've all died or moved to retirement homes or something. Now it's nouveau riche who are more snooty than the old rich families, most of whom you'd never know had money from the way they dress and act. I understand that if you earned your money by working hard you have something to be proud of, you've paid your dues in stress when you work a high powered job. But the racism and the sexism and the hatred of middle class is very disturbing. It's a mine mine MINE attitude. A few are different from this model, but CT. is mostly like an exclusive club that they don't want you to join. And most of these people in the club are neither particularly intelligent, nor special in any other way except that they made a barrel of money. It really counts here. Eck! It's disgusting. Don't value the hard work, value the money. Don't bring your kids up to value anything but the almighty dollar, what they can HAVE. The kids are the worst because the parents let them act like little princes and princesses even when the behavior doesn't warrant it.
>
Without really knowing you, I'd say you're not selfish, only that you long to be selfish... sometimes. Dreamers fantasize about lives they wish they could lead... or so they think. There are lots of factors with dreamers. Lack of confidence, fear, self-hatred, repression, and laziness can all play a part with dreamers and their multitude of desires.But it's selfish to be a dreamer, just a bit don't you think? Like in Man in the White Suit. That's where I begin to feel doubt about myself. I know I should be happy with what I've got, and I should contribute more than just dreams. That's really where I feel like I've let people down.
> Do you see yourself as Blanche because you feel she is a delicate flower?
I really don't see myself as a delicate flower, not in the least! I tend toward the short and cute and seem anything but delicate. But on the inside, I'm sensitive, yes.
> I did watch your film. You can see where the gangster genre started.
Definitely. I believe that Francis Ford also worked in the crime drama, but from a different perspective, more serialized, and with more delineated good and evil... but of course it's hard to tell, since there are only about 3 of his movies around still today. I think they both had something to do with defining the "good bad man".
> I remember watching some of Ken Burns' "The Civil War" when it first aired. I thought it was very well done. Like you and Miss G, I also liked the reading of the letters.
I;m watching Baseball now. It is a bit of a slog at the beginning, the episodes are really long and the first couple of them are kind of pretentious. But at about the 3rd one, I really began to enjoy it, and some of the presenters speak so poetically about the game. I think Mario Cuomo was one of the most eloquent without being pretentious. I like the historical figures - Christy Mathewson, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Andrew "Rube" Foster, The Babe, Lou Gehrig (snif), Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Jackie Robinson... They are all characters, and I love hearing about them. I like hearing about what the game thinks it is.. The reality vs. the myth, the legend.
> You've got it. He says everything with a "sparkle in his eye." He liked real-life characters, as far as I can tell. He's a romantic, like you.
Yes, I guess so. It's rare to see a man who is a romantic these days. You must know that.
>
The DVD interviews with actor Daniel Gelin, assistant director Tony Aboyantz, and set decorator Robert Christides helped to paint a picture of Max Ophuls as a director. They spoke of how he liked to spend hours talking away from the set and how he was very exacting with the look of a film. I'm not sure what drew him to the stories, though. Evidently, he was very faithful to them. Ophuls was a lover and I feel his films speak to this.You can tell he was faithful to the story and loved them. He's painstaking without being didactic or dull. He's a true artist.
> Of course I was speaking of real life! I can't see you being okay with your husband visiting Maison Tellier.
NO.
> You are right, Dassin's best films do feature black humor and are usually quite stylish. I have liked the harshness of his worlds. He's similar to Samuel Fuller, in this regard.
I haven't been able to get into Fuller's world yet. I'll try again.
> "Paul's Mistress" is more "masculine." A man kills himself after catching his woman in a lesbian affair. The death of the male ego.
Oh goodness, that sounds great! I'm sure the gals here at the Torture Thread would have liked that one much better.
My ranking of your recent films:
The Man in the White Suit
The Strawberry Blonde
Beat the Devil
Le Million
Regeneration
Easy Living
A Matter of Life and Death
Lady in the Lake
The Wild One
Ring of Bright Water
Trouble Along the Way
Chicago Calling
Three Came Home
Blackboard Jungle
I actually like all of these movies quite a bit, so even if a movie comes in low, it doesn't mean I didn't like the film. Blackboard Jungle for instance I used to hate, because this is the type of performance by Glenn Ford that I didn't like, he gets all puffed up and righteous, which I have always hated in him, much like my first feelings about the Duke. But It's grown on me over the years, and now I even like Ford in the movie. This one and The Wild One have a kind of good/evil righteousness going on that just twinges me a little. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is... just a feeling of preachiness that I dislike, but overall, I really enjoy the less moralistic shadings the actors bring to the story.
Chicago Calling was fascinating in that I really didn't like the movie itself much, but I loved the idea of it, and the execution by the actors, led by the incredible Dan Duryea. He's just so great.
Lady in the Lake has moved up quite a bit in the last showing I watched. I really like it a lot now, after years of thinking it just didn't work. It is alienating, the trick of the film, distancing, but man, the last time I watched about a month ago, it just floored me how good it was. I love the relationship between Montgomery and Totter.
I think the trick of A Matter of Life and Death is almost the same as that of Lady in the Lake. It puts you at arms length. I remember sobbing through this movie as a teen, but I found it a bit remote and almost too thoughtful this time. That doesn't mean I didn't shed a tear at the end. I love the idea of it. Just wish sometimes it was a simple space and time dimensional love story, like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.
There are three versions of One Sunday Afternoon. The first in 1931, which I can't really get through easily, even WITH Gary Cooper and Roscoe Karns in it, who I love. Then there's The Strawberry Blonde. Walsh directed it AGAIN, as a musical, a few years after this one, titled One Sunday Afternoon which I've never seen.
I haven't seen these, or at least I don't remember them.
Fort Dobbs
The Great Dan Patch
Kiss and Make-Up
The Lady in Question
The Bigamist
Macabre
One Minute to Zero
The Renegade Ranger
Tight Spot
Underworld U.S.A.
The Undying Monster
-
> *I am guessing you liked Beat the Devil and A Matter of Life and Death, I don't know if they would end up as top one and two, but I bet they would be high up.*
>
> Uh-oh!
UH-OH!
> *Gosh, I love Beat the Devil.*
>
> UH-OH!
*UH-OH!!*
>"The Man In The White Suit" is another of those gentle English comedies that are so well done.
>
>It's a good one.
>
>"The Strawberry Blonde." I like Cagney a lot here. I remember Alan Hale was fun too.
>
>They are wonderful as father and son.
WHEW!
-
I've never seen it, Chris. I always wanted to but now I'm not so sure. I wonder who directed it?
-
Oh my goodness, what a great list of movies! All are interesting, I wonder if it was a good set for you.
I am guessing you liked Beat the Devil and A Matter of Life and Death, I don't know if they would end up as top one and two, but I bet they would be high up.
Gosh, I love Beat the Devil.
Edited by: JackFavell on May 7, 2013 8:45 AM
-
Ha! That's funny, the correlation to synchronized swimming, but without the water... it's true!
I used to like Busby B musicals when I first became a classic film fan. For years though I kind of lost the joy of them, didn't really care for the big musical extravaganzas, even up to last year, but it just hit me last night in the perfect way. Maybe because things have been stressful or more complicated than I would like, or I was a bit down in my real life, it was like a tonic for me! It just made me laugh.... I imagine it might have been like that for Depression era audiences.
Alice just loved Aline M, even though she could barely understand what she was saying, due to all the slang Aline was slinging. Every time the movie got a little slow, in would come Aline and bing! she brought the whole thing up a notch. She was hilarious, and was the most energetic person in the cast, pulling everyone along with her. Her upbeat and ultimately harmless sarcasm was actually kind of refreshing and fun, rather than a downer in any way. I've never seen anyone make sarcasm kind of sweet except for Thelma Ritter. Anyway it all seemed new and fresh again which was wonderful.
-
I had a GREAT time watching the Busby Berkeley musicals the other night. I really needed something fun like that! Alice watched *Gold Diggers of 1933* with me. She instantly recognized Guy Kibbee from some other movie we had watched before, and she has taken to calling him just "Kibbee" as a nickname. She loves to see him turn up.
She also really enjoys the BB musical numbers. She liked We're in the Money, now knows who Billy Barty is, and was gasping at the Shadow Waltz violin number, "In the Shadows Let Me Come and Sing.....To YOU." We got a glimpse of Sterling Holloway as the hat boy, and she knows he's Winnie the Pooh's voice. I forgot how naughty this movie really is! She's getting to the age where she catches some of that. I think she was surprised.
She also now knows a bit about WWI and the Depression, thanks to the Forgotten Man number. I was almost in tears watching, thanks to Joan Blondell's great tearful, big eyed and yet cynical rendition of the song, and Etta Moten's singing, plus the sort of montage direction by Berkeley. It's a great number.
-
RIP Ms. Durbin.
-
I've often wished that Robert Osborne would interview Dean Stockwell for TCM... his career spans such a long time, and he's always been such a fine actor.
-
Anything you say, Hugo. Now get in line.
-
Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
-
I thought I had read somewhere that Jones was being punished for something, but I have no idea if what I read was true or where I read it. It was years ago, so take this info with a grain of salt.
I've also read that Morgan had a cold so they brought in Jones to sing the part.... which makes no sense if Jones had already recorded the track.
One site says that Jones opted not to do the role, so they simply put Morgan in as a stand in, and saved time and money by sticking with the original Jones recording.
In doing a little research at IMDB, I found that Allan Jones did 2 movies released in 1936. He had a small but intensive singing role in Rose Marie which was released in January. Show Boat, in which he played leading man Gaylord Ravenal, was released in May. The Great Ziegfeld was released in April. Could it be that the role in Show Boat interfered with filming the huge number from The Great Ziegfeld?
It's up for grabs why Morgan was dubbed and Jones didn't appear.. it's just Hollywood at it's craziest I guess. But it does show a little of how the studio system worked, maybe not in the best light considering what we know now about how talented both singers were. Hey, they were going to dub Kitty Carlisle, a bona fide opera singer in A Night at the Opera! The judgment of some of the Hollywood bigwigs was a highly variable thing.
-
Yes, they dubbed him, poor lad. Or maybe I should say that Allan Jones is the poor lad.
I think he's a sergeant or something in Suzy, he comes in and says "Here's that report you wanted sir" or is among a gang of soldiers going out to a club or something. I'm not sure. I remember waiting for him to come back but he never did.
-
Oops! I forgot to say that *Mama Steps Out* must have been his second film after *The Great Ziegfeld*, because in the trailer posted below, they use that as a reminder to the audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m4eu-MZIi4
P.S. I just looked him up and it was his 4th film after *The Great Ziegfeld*. He was also in *Suzy* and *Piccadilly Jim* in between, I think I noticed him in Suzy before. I must have in the second because it says he sings. I know I always laugh when I watch *The Great Ziegfeld* and hear Allan Jones' voice coming out of Dennis' mouth.
-
There was just one very quick clip of Baby T in her gown at the end of a segment showing highlights from the first two days..I bet they will use it in future segments showing how much fun everyone has at the festival. She gave a Hollywood wave (in her long gloves) and blew a kiss I think. Very Loretta Young. Hello Gorgeous!
-
I missed Of Love and Desire.... Steve looks a little haggard in the photo you posted.
Speaking of debuts, you didn't happen to catch Stanley Morner's debut the other morning did you? Mama Steps Out was the title and someone mentioned it over at the SSO in the April on TCM thread. I was pretty sure you were a big Stanley fan...aka Dennis Morgan...so if you want to chat about the darlin' Oirish Boy over there we're waiting for you....He was adorable in the movie, with one of those little shocks of hair hanging down in front....
Jean Rogers barely even attempted a Spanish accent in HWABWF, but luckily she didn't really spoil anything.
-
Oh my gosh, Little Tea! I am SOOOOOOO happy for you! I swear you put Loretta Young to shame, you looked so beautiful in that vintage green gown! You looked very comfortable too, chatting with Ben, as if you'd been on the air all your life! I hope Funny Girl was everything you wanted it to be on the big screen.
I loved your video blog, and that vintage green dress, well it was superb. But no more so than the person in it. Was that from your grandma too? I loved watching you talk about your movies, hearing about Judy Garland, Jane Powell and Margie. Congratulations! You are still our darling girl. Never change, sweet tea.
Chris, it took me a awhile to figure out how to get to the Friday section. If you look just to the right of where it says FRIDAY, there is a vertical bar of aqua color. At the top of the aqua bar, is the grey slider, click and hold on the grey part and it will help you scroll to Tea's section. She did an amazing job!
-
Hey Ollie!!!
I guess you were lucky she didn't stretch you on the rack!
That Harry Houdini set sounds so cool! I knew he made movies, but I had no idea he did an entire serial. He was good friends with Buster Keaton and family when Buster was a child.
-
Close enough!
-
You are really getting near Ox Bow aren't you?
-
Hey now, some of us who live up north now still know how to string up a rope.... don't be dissing no Texicans!
-
I only stayed up through the beginning of Bite the Bullet, I'm sorry to say. I just couldn't make it any longer. Wish I'd seen her! I'll keep a weather eye out for her in upcoming segments.
-
I didn't know she was going to be on! I'[m so disappointed I missed it.
Hope you're having fun out there scotchie !! I know you are.
-
I think maybe you are right, Mimi. It also takes the 'special' out of watching a movie. If you know you can only see it once on TV you pay a great deal of attention.
-
As a mother I so very much understand that feeling, Sansfin...although now my daughter is twelve it's better. I also have a very active 3 year old...my dog Lily who requires a 3 mile walk every morning in order to tire her out enough to keep her asleep at night time. She's a handful but a joy as well. Sometimes I can get her to sit still for a movie if I rub her belly for an hour and a half.
I also seem to be the neighborhood pet sitter. I am watching 4 kittens this weekend for one neighbor, and maybe her black lab, depending on whether they take her with them. The kits are easy but the lab is quite the opposite, a bundle of neuroses in a body that can injure and maim you without even trying. I am hoping she won't be there.
There's a ton of self-importance found in the northeast. Lots of overvaluing.
RAMBLES Part II
in Films and Filmmakers
Posted
It was Shirley MacLaine, mimi. She stepped into the role on Broadway when the marvelous Carol Haney broke her ankle, and it made her career.
Edited by: JackFavell on May 11, 2013 1:35 PM