JackFavell

Michael Shayne has another great cast! I love Walter Abel.

I remember. A sad day.

Sheldon is another actor I just love seeing turn up! Isn't it nice that he made something of himself? I think one of the reasons I love classic films is the way they cast for voices.

Oh yes! Frank Nelson - you know him! He's that voice, you all know it (just ignore Mel Blanc in this clip from the Jack Benny show): http://franknelson.net/waiter.mp3

Oh that is too funny! Ha! "I used to be an art student." That must have been in her "wild" youth. She has such a wry way with a line, it just cracks me up. She's especially good at the tossed off exit line. I'd never heard of the Michael Shayne Detective series. I do like Lloyd Nolan, it would be refreshing to see him in a lead role. And with hair. I've always wanted to see *Lady on a Train!* What a cast! Ms. Patterson and William Frawley both, plus the ever present Allen Jenkins, who also appeared on I Love Lucy at least a couple of times. I've been watching I Love Lucy in the mornings with my daughter - talk about an education in character actors! Along with Elizabeth Patterson, Lucy must have had every misfit character player on that show that she ever worked with during her film career. It's been wonderful seeing them all turn up. So far we've seen: Elizabeth Patterson Elsa Lanchester Strother Martin Allen Jenkins Charles Lane Jack Albertson Charles Winninger Barbara Pepper Gale Gordon Edouardo Cianelli Bea Benaderet Ellen Corby Mary Wickes Edward Everett Horton Richard Crenna Janet Waldo Olin Howland Hayden Roarke Florence Bates Will Wright Hans Conried I know I'm forgetting someone here! Anyway, I Love Lucy is a character actor lovers dream show! Edited by: JackFavell on Feb 12, 2012 10:57 AM

Clara looks so beautiful there.... that's why she was a star - so compelling! Your eye just goes to her, because she's vivacious.

Wowee! I LOVE that one.

No problem, Scottman! I love collecting movie portraits.

It's New York, Jeff: http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/wellman#nowplaying

That's weird, when I collected these, they were all the same size, except the color pic. All were large, like the first one.

Mary Brian (I think there is one you might have posted before, but I am not sure) :

That would be awesome. I never thought of a screening - I would love to have some screwball like Godfrey or maybe Monkey Business - the Marx Bros. one, I mean. Maybe followed by Westward the Women. Maybe they would sit still for a few classic movies then. Edited by: JackFavell on Feb 10, 2012 9:33 AM

Perhaps it's morbid of me, but in my more ridiculous dramatic moments this is the song I want played at my funeral:

The 1945 ending is funnier, stretching out the bet for a longer, more satisfying punch line, but the 1933 ending is more beautiful, with the rain coming down and the way Margie and her beau meet. I just love the part where Margie is about to lose the 5 dollar bet for her dad by saying she was miserable at the fair, but at the last moment the phone rings and it's her boy, and she runs out on the porch and throws her hands up into the air saying it was the most marvelous fair of all! So there, Mr. sourpuss! Ah, I'm a sucker for this simple story, told eloquently.

Appalachian Spring has some good memories for me, and has my favorite hymn incorporated into it. When my theatre group did the play *Of Mice and Men*, I got to pick the opening music, and that is the song I picked - I thought it was so American, and it reminded me of the Harvest of Shame doc about itinerant farm workers. It just felt right for the story of Lennie and George - 'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free..... I like the part where it first starts to pick up pace and sounds like horses trotting along. My other favorite is Rodeo, with it's jouncy bucking sound. Maybe I just like the sound of horses.

Charmaine is super!

They are so pretty! Almost perfect, it seems to me. They made at least 3 movies that I know of together in 1928-1929 - *River of Romance*, *Someone to Love*, *Varsity*, and then *Weekend Millionaire* in 1935. *Varsity* was Mary's first talkie. *River of Romance* was an 1830's period picture. They also made a promotional short together for Loyola University: http://magazine.lmu.edu/archive/2010/live-wire I found this first picture of them at two different sites, both marked Mary Brian. To me she looks like another lady we know and I include both photo reproductions because one is higher contrast than the other. it could be Mary but I want to see if you see the resemblance to another silent actress: These are some other publicity shots I found of Mary and Buddy. I would say that they were being paired up as the next big screen couple, but she made a lot of films with Richard Arlen as you already stated, and also with Richard Dix and anyone else who came along - Neil Hamilton and Fredric March for example. She averaged between 5 and 8 pictures a year from 1926 on - in 1933 she made a whopping 9 films! From 1935 on, the number dwindles. This one has an original caption: Hollywood, Calif.: Yesterday morning may have been fogy and dismal to the casual eye, but it dampen the ardor of lovely Mary Brian screen star. Mary arose in the wee small hours in order to be at the railroad station to meet Charles "Buddy" Rogers, returned from a ten weeks personal appearance tour of the Middle West. Rumors of a romantic attachment between the two young film stars were renewed when Miss Brian greeted the handsome "Buddy" with a typical fade-out movie kiss. Dick Powell, screen newcomer, whose name Hollywood also links with Miss Brian's was not present. Rogers resumes his screen career immediately, under the Fox banner, where he has been signed for two years. Photo shows Buddy Rogers being met at the train by Mary Brian. Edited by: JackFavell on Feb 9, 2012 6:57 PM

Oh thanks, scottman, you've given me an excuse to play some Rudy Vallee :

That's so funny, Chris, it's the second time this week I've heard Fanfare. My M other in law had gotten a Copland cd for Christmas, and she was playing it on Sunday while we were visiting - she stopped it and put this selection on, it's her favorite.

I felt the same way. With very little shifting of the plot, she could have been done away with completely.

> {quote:title=MissGoddess wrote:}{quote} > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-sZswWuZcc&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SP6BC9CBF1B2B7B26C > > *Jackie*: I can't believe I missed this...love those "bloopers" from The Dick Van Dyke Show. It's hard to pick which shots were funnier, the mistakes or the ones that got printed. They're all delightful and everyone seemed so in synch with one another. Thanks for posting it. You should see the interviews and hear the commentaries on the DVDs for the show. Wonderful. I thought they were funny even in their mistakes, which sometimes doesn't happen in blooper reels.... what I loved was that their relationships off screen seemed to completely mirror the on screen personas and characters exactly - as if Rob and Laura and Sally and Buddy were the same as Dick, Mary, Rose Marie and Morey. What a great time they must have had - and they still remained completely professional.

>I was a little troubled by the relationship between Mature and Bancroft. It seemed to happen early and too easily considering how "proper" she seemed regardless of how she really felt about her husband. Maybe I was overthinking things but when Mature returns to her after leaving Preston out there the unmade bed seemed awfully prominent in the shot. It all moves too easily but that's minor. This almost made me stop watching the movie. I thought it was the most predictable part of the plot, and almost sank the movie early on for me. I thought the movie was going to be trite, but it turned out to be much better than those earlier scenes led me to believe. I'm glad I kept watching.

I saw the last half hour of State Fair, and just loved it! What a great movie! I was an idiot and forgot to record it too. I thought Henry King did a fantastic job. I am a big fan of the 40's version, but I think this one might be better, I'll have to see the whole thing before I decide. I forgot how good Janet Gaynor can be. Because she's cute, I think she has been misjudged as an actress. She hasn't turned in a phony performance in any of the movies I've seen. She can make even the most humble movie work. Lew Ayres has that same quality - the ability to make trite or simple lines work, in other words, sincerity. Will, too, just denotes honesty. I loved how he tossed off his bon mots, sliding them in under the radar sometimes, suddenly I'd be laughing at the line he said 5 minutes before. I thought the mother was a hoot in the carny sideshow scene, where she was staring with unbridled curiosity at the dancing girls, wondering what they were going to do...this is a very different mom than we see in the 40's film with Fay Bainter at MGM. movieman - it's hard enough in a household of females to get a word in edgewise, but with laryngitis? Oh dear. Edited by: JackFavell on Feb 9, 2012 7:52 AM

Low expectations can sometimes help a movie! I was pleasantly surprised by it. Victor Mature caught my eye, and then the somewhat forward thinking story kept me interested. I don't think this one looks much like a Mann film. I didn't even know the title, so when you mentioned it, I didn't know at first what movie it was.

A great big h1. *THANK YOU* TCM programming staff!