JackFavell

I like the freckle picture. It's nice to see her "au naturale" ....

Mica- I have to see it again. I have only seen it once, and not all the way through. I liked what I saw of it, but it seems a bit different, more comedic than the others. I enjoyed Alec Guinness very much, and the predicament he gets himself into. I didn't enjoy the daughter's plotline quite as much - I would have to see it again and all the way through before making a judgement. I think that part has a bit of the leering, older man, younger woman quality that I have a hard time dealing with. But I am open-minded, and I want to know more before I decide.... I do believe that the plot must be rather circular, and that the daughter's love interests come around to guide the fortunes of the Guinness character in some way. I am always fond of stories written in such a way..... What did you think of the evening? Did you catch Brighton Rock? That was the one that I was most curious about.....

Oh my gosh, Snorky! Did you buy those OSA cards all at once, or did you collect them a few at a time? They are breathtaking.... I love that Joan Blondell pic. She was really something else! I love her movies, and I just finished reading her "novel" (autobiography) *Center Door Fancy*. What a tough life she had, but she was a real trouper. I mean really, she was on the stage from the time she was a young'un, and dealt with poverty, and all sorts of other situations, but she never stopped being a bright good-natured person.....

I love that line..... and the sad way Cotten speaks it..... it could be way too literary sounding, except he says it so simply. I saw the end of Brighton Rock (dvdr'd), the beginning of The Fallen Idol (it was a good print, wasn't it? I dvdr'd it), woke up for Anna's housekeeper getting upset, and missed Our Man in Havana completely. I would have taped it, but I am pretty sure it will be on again at some point, and I am unable to automatically tape right now. I have to say that I love The Fallen Idol almost as much as The Third Man. It is such a great movie. I really don't know how Reed was able to get such performances out of children. RO talked about it a bit in the intro, but my goodness! Bobby Henrey was good, just doing his own thing as the adults combust around him..... I love the scene in which Philipe follows Baines to the bar - and is oblivious to the fact that Baines and Michele Morgan are trying to be alone and are in the midst of saying goodbye. These are the kinds of scenes that Reed and Greene were so good at.... WE the audience are aware of every little nuance or emotion that is being played, and yet, one character may be completely out of the loop. Morgan and Richardson are openly weeping, and Bobby Henrey is eating a sticky bun. I think this is one of the best things about Reed/Greene - the juxtaposition of two opposite emotions, happening at the same time in the same place. And we are aware that Baines, as flawed as he is, is a kindly fellow, because even though he is tormented, he doesn't tell Philipe to go home, or get mad at him. It is the true exposition of the film, that scene. Reed comes very close to being my favorite director.....Oliver, The Fallen Idol, Odd Man Out, and the very best -The Third Man - these are all so high on my list. I love that Reed is a technical director. He has all the tricks that Welles or Lang had, but he has a heart and soul too. You feel so very deeply for his characters, even when he shows you their worst flaws right up front....

I want an outfit just like that one with the little wrist purse! How adorable!

That's funny, AnnieLaurie. I was thinking about Barrymore when I was writing about the other silent stars who were cast aside when sound came in. Aside from one or two performances, Barrymore had to transition from a romantic leading man into a comic character actor. Though admittedly, he was more of a character all along than a screen lover......

Regarding The Ten Commandments....true...very campy in the acting department...(my favorite line...when she tells Pharoah to bring back his sword stained in Moses' blood...he answers her..."I will....to mingle with your own." And then later on when he comes back...she says.."You couldn't even kill him." I love the tone in her voice... My favorite line is: Nefretiri: "I could never love you." Rameses: "Does that matter? You will be my wife. You will come to me whenever I call you, and I will enjoy that very much. Whether you enjoy it or not is your own affair. But I think you will..." You're right, the parting of the Red Sea is still a great moment. But I just love that the movie is on, every Easter, like clockwork......

ddalehall- I agree. There is nothing nicer than waking in the middle of the night and realizing a great movie is on. And then to have woken at just that point? How fun!

I agree that it certainly looks like Mayer (or the studio) did his best to undercut Gilbert - again, I think that salary was the primary reason for Mayer doing any dirt to Gilbert. All the stories I've heard about Mayer (and I am purposely using the word "stories" here, for I've researched none of them) have to do with money, and his being tight with it, as was his job.

I hope it's the Criterion, that would be awesome.

*The Fallen Idol* is excellent. I am sure you have read about it, so I won't say any more about it, but it is a really suspenseful, interesting movie. I have only seen really poor, scrappy looking prints before, so I hope tonight's will be clear and pristine. Or even just "good".

Thank you, Lynn, for your research into the "double wedding". I like so much that you took the trouble of checking the Scott Eyman books. Of course, the double wedding story is much more dramatic. It is easier to believe that the fault was due to one evil man than due to circumstances beyond human control. " When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Many stars lost their potential to earn money, making it hard for a studio to support a high salary. Mayer may have relegated Gilbert to B pictures, and done so with relish, but if the audience still wanted to see Gilbert, they would have put up with some crappy movies. The twenties was a mercurial time of fads and trends. The trend was for elegance in men and flirtatiousness in women. The sexes were sort of reversed, due to a more open-minded society (brought on by war and travel). Women became more manly, and men became more effeminate. The highest one could hope to achieve in the twenties was to become a rich society flapper or a dapper dan. Everyone was living a life beyond their means (sound familiar?) It was still appropriate to dream of a life in high society, where one didn't work or even break a sweat. There was an upper class, and it was OK to live like them, or even BE them. The Depression made actors like Rod LaRocque and Conrad Nagel seem almost horrifying. The rich country club youth became a slap in the face to a depression era audience member. Our Dancing Daughters had to go to work. Any vestige of twenties grandeur would have been a reminder to thirties audiences of how far the economy had fallen, how tough life had become. The "types" of the twenties suddenly seemed ridiculous and dated in the black pit of the Depression. They were not only dated, they were hated by the millions of Americans out of work. I imagine that many common people were glad to see the mighty fallen. The actors who made it in the thirties were more earthy and rugged, like Spencer Tracy, Richard Dix, Clark Gable, and Gary Cooper. They had to be. Our dreams had changed. We no longer wanted to be or marry the dapper dan. He was an anachronism. He wasn't tough enough to live anymore. William Powell was the exception. However, there was still something gritty about his portrayals that many of the twenties stars lacked. Powell seems equally at home whether playing a con man or playing a rich playboy. But his rich playboy has been around.... he knows the score. And he is played for laughs. I am thinking that *Mr. Deeds Goes to Town* is a shining example of how things had changed. The country bumpkin becomes a rich playboy. These are both twenties "types". He is completely unsuited to live a life in the "real world" of the Depression - hunger, poverty, and scam artists. It's a tough life, and he's got to change in order to stay alive. So what does he do? He gets tough, socks some people, and then realizes his rich life is no good - he gives up the persona of the rich playboy to become a man of the people. So what I'm slowly getting around to is that John Gilbert would have had to change his persona. Maybe even if one movie had been written to help him do that, he could have made it. I am looking forward to seeing *Downstairs* next week because I have a suspicion that this is what he was grasping for. Comedy might have been the way for him to go, but I don't know that he was a strong comedian. To many victims of the Depression, he was simply a reminder of how life had gone all wrong......

As some thing of a skeptic myself, I agree, with Izcutter - thanks for doing the extra research and letting us know about it. It seems nowadays, anyone can say anything and suddenly it's "the truth" because it's been said.

The Magic Box IS a depressing film, but somehow, I still love it. The cast is marvelous, and it has such wonderful emotion, that I can't help but be pulled in. Maria Schell is just perfect as Donat's wife, a meek but determined lady, who suffers because her husband has only one true love - the camera. And of course there is Donat, who continues his lovable, absent minded Chips style role, but in a darker vein. Apparently, the film was made for the 1951 Festival of Britain.... and "the actors forsook their usual salaries fro the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene." from Answers.com Unfortunately, I could not find a color image from the film - and the color is lovely...super-real in that nice early fifties way....

Ro- I am soo jealous of you! Your QT sounds like a doll! I only got to see the end of "Apley", but I have seen it before, and really liked it. Is there a bad Ronald Colman movie? I don't think so. And I agree, MissG, it would be fun to see Life with Father and George go head to head.... I missed Scandal in Paris - My dvdr is giving me trouble. If someone has a copy, please PM me. I am desperately in need of this movie! I will pay... And I loved Grant....He was a cutie, and I couldn't figure out why he wasn't the star of Susan Slade instead of poor Troy..... FF- It's funny you posted about The Ten Commandments right after Cinemaven's Susan Slade ramble, because I am sorry to say that I cannot get through "The Ten" without giggling uncontrollably. I have a hard time suspending my disbelief for this biblical spectacle. Anne Baxter emotes all over the place, and then there's Edward G. Robinson.......and strangely, I find Yul Brynner more sympathetic than Heston. However, I imagine that watching it in HD was probably a super experience! Glad you had fun - the movie IS very entertaining, despite what I have said...... Message was edited by: JackFavell

I not only watched "The Magic Box", but I taped it too. I stood in front of the TV, transfixed by Robert Donat's wonderful performance. I haven't seen it for years, but I still think that the scene between Donat and Olivier is about as good a scene as has ever been filmed. The two of them had me crying my eyes out. I think it's the one time where Olivier takes a back seat to another actor. And I hadn't realized that it was a Jack Cardiff picture, so the gorgeous, lush color was an added bonus. Unfortunately, I cannot set my dvdr to record automatically anymore, and I missed Scandal in Paris last night. I woke up about 15 minutes to late to see it, and I have to be awake to hit the record button. If anyone has a copy, I would gladly pay... please PM me..... The Big Trail is a super film. Thanks for posting the pic, April (May I call you April? It's such a lovely name). I love the different looks of each leading man.... but whew! Young Wayne still takes my breathe away!

Face- I never noticed Welles line started that way. Good job! Switzerland sounds better, anyway.

I will always watch TTM. It's a must! I gotta go, I'm going to watch Tales of Hoffman! See ya later, Mica!

He had a wry and spritely way of making films that is genuinely charming. I was able to watch 3 or 4 of his films years ago on PBS. They really made an impression on me, because he used humor, fantasy and a sort of theatrical creativity to tell the story. I would call his films fairy tales of real life. I haven't been able to watch those films since then, so I am ecstatic to see TCM presenting one of them.

I am thrilled that TCM is going to be showing Rene Clair's *Le Million* on January 18th. Clair was one of a handful of filmmakers at the beginning of the sound era who took advantage of the new addition in order to create even more imaginative movies. His use of sound advanced filmmaking by leaps and bounds. According to the TCM website: *Indeed, Clair was very cautious not to follow the herd when it came to making films at the dawn of the sound era. He was one of a number of filmmakers who feared that sound technology would prove an impediment to cinematic expression. "I was not against the use of sound," Clair said in a 1957 interview, "I think the use of sound was something very good to add to the motion picture, you see. What we were fearing was that [by] using the words we would kill all the possibilities of invention that we had in the silent times. What I wished was to keep all that we had won, using the silent medium, and add to it the sound. But we were afraid of the dialogue, because if you use dialogue you go back, automatically, to the old stage technique, and we wanted motion pictures to be always something new."* *"I tried to make my picture as silent as possible, and to use sound not only as a background but to use sound dramatically, to make it useful to add something to a picture."* *Clair didn't merely accommodate sound...he exploited its potential to illuminate characters, generate laughs, and invest his film with new dimensions of meaning. In an interview with the Manchester Guardian, noted screenwriter Sidney Gilliat (The Lady Vanishes, 1938) singled out Le Million as the film that revolutionized the use of sound, and lamented the fact that no film since had been so innovative. "Looking back over 60 years or so, I often feel the most surprising thing in movie development has been the virtual total lack of follow-up to Rene Clair's use of music in, say, Le Million... I felt certain that a truly integrated use of music, a free and natural employment of its uses and benefits, would have developed after those early Clairs. But what have we had? Practically nothing. I always wanted to try it, but never got off the ground."* I hope that TCM will show more Rene Clair movies in the future.

That write-up made me really want to see The Walking Hills! It's a shame it's not available, now that I've discovered it. . I will definitely go and put in a request.

Face- I am so sorry I didn't respond to your post. I somehow managed to "unwatch" this thread along the way.... Lime's speech on the Ferris wheel, beginning, "In Italy, under the Borgias . . . " and ending, "And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock!" -- I've seen that attributed to Winston Churchill. I'm not sure how true that is, but it's interesting to think that he might have said it first. I love these sort of myths(?) that build up around some movies. It gives me a lot more pleasure knowing stuff like this, so thanks for mentioning it. It certainly sounds like Churchill. Martins as a writer: I love the scene at the literary meeting, where they think he's a "serious" writer, and someone asks him, "Where do you place Mr. James Joyce? In what ca-TAG-ory?" Isn't that a great line? I mean, it's an unanswerable question isn't it? Even if Martins had been a "serious" writer, I doubt he could have answered that question.....so funny. Lime's smile when he's discovered by Martins is a sardonic, mocking one. I feel that half of his mockery is directed at himself for being found out, and half at Martins for being surprised. I love the way you put this. I never thought about the meaning behind that smile - Mona Lisa-ish, but you hit it right on the head. There is a lot of dialogue in that smile.....but thank goodness it isn't spoken. That last great scene: Martins standing by the roadside, the leaves falling, the zither music playing, and Anna walking toward Martins and then past him, not even looking at him. Fade out. The end. Indeed, a perfect ending. I always get a little tingly thrill as poor Holly stands there. It's awful to feel so good watching someone else's loss, but I can't help it. It must have been such a shock to moviegoers at the time - the hero does the right thing.... and loses the girl. I just love the movie so, that it makes me giddy seeing that great long walk, and the way Cotten throws away his match in defeat as the cigarette smoke vanishes in the air.....

But what happened to the crumb of cornbread?

Now there's an idea....

Thanks, clore, for all the great information! I was just going to say that your posts are quite articulate and interesting, so it's no surprise that you are a writer.... I will have to do a little research on the box sets and dvd's. I am not sure that my poor TV armoire can stand any more films crammed inside it, so I may have to Netflix the movies and docs you've suggested........ Anthony Mann is a wonderful director, and many on this thread hold him in very high regard. I have seen Winchester 73 and loved it. That was years ago, when I wasn't particularly fond of westerns, and so for me to sit through it means it HAD to be good..... The Tin Star is another I have seen and liked. I haven't seen The Naked Spur or Man of the West yet but these are high on my list... and of course there may be a discussion of some of the other westerns you mentioned, if only FRANK GRIMES would get it together and post his ramble!