JackFavell

Oh my, I am enjoying it already, MissG! Paul Henreid is so evil! And it's filmed very tautly. Haven't seen Burt yet.

> {quote:title=FrankGrimes wrote:}{quote}*Your screencaps are killing me! Not only are they so appropriate, but Burt is amazingly gorgeous in them.* > > I need to post more Yvonne! She really is breathtaking in this movie. Best I've ever seen her. > But I failed! Anna is the one who says, "Go. Don't go." Steve is the one asking if he should go. Anna is kind of defeated, at that moment. But those mixed signals remain prevalent... with both. Ah, I didn't remember. I could have sworn it was him. Because he's threatening her with leaving...The whole scene is priceless! "Are you happy?" "Oh I LOVE it." "He gives you everything." "Diamonds." Steve: "Should I go?" (but the tone is closer to, "I'll just get up and leave if you're going to be that way about it.") So she comes off all cool, "Go....don't go. Anything you like." "I didn't think he was the type to marry ya" and she says, "Oh but he did, he did!" (she seems to imply that Steve didn't have the guts to, but Slim did. But there is regret mixed in there too.) "I take my hat off to you." "Yeah. Yeah, I'm a prize." "Tramp........ TRAMP. You cheap little no good tramp." "Stick around. You make it all so nice and sad." (I love the way she says this line, so sarcastic. But now Steve is taking off his coat. He's heard the important part - Stick around.) Then this exchange: "Why'd you do it?" "YOU told me why. Diamonds." (Another zinger... she's just following through on his bad opinion of her. If he trusted her more, she'd not feel the need to live up to that bad opinion. What she's really saying is, "You think I'm a tramp after nothing but money. You think it anyway so what's the point of arguing? I know it will kill you if I tell you I am one.") "WHY, Why did you do it?" "_You_." the truth comes out. And it hurts more than if she had been a tramp after nothing but diamonds and furs. Spectacular writing and acting. I've never seen DeCarlo so good as she is in this movie. Their back and forth scenes are so deliciously motivated by one another - deceitful, but also truthful and painful. > Even worse is that you and I seem to be on the same page. > > *I don't know how that happened! It must be your fault. * Yeah, yeah. I'm a prize. > I believe so. Steve speaks of this since it's his tale... and tail. And her tail! Ahhhh, Anna. She never looked so beautiful - round and sensuous and soft. > *Here is the great divide between man and woman, I think. Their wants are different. Maybe men have just as much want, but it's grounded and earthy, somehow.* > We want one thing! Our ego is a big problem. We want what we want. If we want a girl, we need to have her or our ego takes a beating. And once we have a girl, we don't want to lose her unless we want to lose her. It's all about our ego. Women are more complicated. Women want a man to provide. Even the most modern of women want a man to provide. It's just it may not be money and material things like the past, it may be other things, such as emotional support and encouragement. "Aggggh! I hate you!" (real meaning: "You're right.") > Where we run into problems is the levels we set our needs at. We also lose sight of the difference between needs and wants. We get greedy. We complicate love. We make it unimportant. Yet we still say we need it. Do we? Anna seems to be more true today than ever before. Again, I hate you. Maybe it's better to be truthful (Anna) than deluded (Steve). Naaah. I guess not. They end up in the same place. > Precisely. Film noir is mostly about male longing. They are male fairy tales. In some ways, *Criss Cross* is a film noir "*Wuthering Heights*." Now I really hate you. That's perfect!

> {quote:title=FrankGrimes wrote:}{quote} > I feel the same way! Goodbye summer and hello manic-depression (football-induced only)! That's how school is affecting us this year! Sixth grade is much harder, but exciting too. I have a lot of worry right now. Worrying about my daughter worrying... And I started running again, so I feel good and bad right now. > I believe I'll be getting the box set tomorrow. I was told to go in order but I may have to jump around. I'd like to watch *Woman of the Year* first because of what you've said about it and CineMaven. I'm very curious to see *Pat and Mike* because of the sports angle, though. I wonder what you'll think of them. In fact, I'm a big fan of all the movies. I'm curious as to which you'll like the best. I'm thinking it will be Woman of the Year, but I'll be pleased with any other choice too. > It's about a daughter's rebellion against her father but told in a breezy, charming way. Yet another "female" Hitch. Another point in it's favor. > The weather sucks. I definitely understand not being in the mood to watch certain films. *The Manxman* is on the heavy side. But I do believe you'll end up liking it. The first part of the film is light before it eventually starts to gain weight. There have rarely been any Hitch films I haven't enjoyed. Even the ones I am not particularly fond of (North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Spellbound) I've enjoyed at one point or another. They are not hard to sit through, by any means, and almost all are pleasurable. Rich and Strange just scared the bejesus out of me for some reason. It's the only one that I had a hard time with, because it was so disturbing to me. I think I was literally up on the edge of my seat.

> {quote:title=FrankGrimes wrote:}{quote} > A woman's work is never done. And I'll be watching football. A man's work is done never. Oh dear, it's football season again already? Bleah. Maybe you should break in your new box set watching *Pat and Mike*. It's about sports. > It's a playful kind of film in the mold of the 30s. I think you'd find it agreeable. Oh, maybe I will like it! > *The Manxman* is about Society and its mores. It's a straight drama. A great triangle film with heavy consequences. I love the setting, especially the young couple's abode. I think you'll enjoy it. It plays as a "woman's picture," really. I like women's pictures. I also tend to like critiques of society and it's mores and norms. I know that once I sit down to it, I'll be caught up in it. Hitch is good at that. But I have to say, it's not thrilling me right now. Nothing is really, for some reason. Maybe its the weather. And I ran out of Joseph Calleia and Burt movies.

Your screencaps are killing me! Not only are they so appropriate, but Burt is amazingly gorgeous in them. "Go, Don't Go..." I loved the way he said that - you really capture his expression there. That's hard to do when capping sometimes. Even worse is that you and I seem to be on the same page.

It doesn't hurt that Duryea got the last line. He's so darn good at that type of irony.

I may have to try *The Manxman* on Monday - Weekends are rugged around here, with lots to do. *Champagne* is the one I am most curious about. I just like the title.

Oh, I reeeeally loved *Kiss the Blood Off My Hands*. If I knew I was going to get another movie like that one, I'd run to watch it! I think you'd like it Chris. It threw me a little at first, Burt in England, but it fit his character so well to be an outsider. They didn't try to make him British or anything. And I thought they got the milieu and atmosphere just right. Not to mention casting Robert Newton. It was directed very well too. That combination to me spells a great movie.

> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}Hi there Jackaaa*A*aaay. Always good food for thought from you. But first let me say, I loved the henchman Vincent. I loved his matter of fact way and vocal cadence. I don't really remember him, was he the rather tired acting fella with the monotone New Yawk way of speaking? He was good! I liked Percy Helton too, and the waiter who looked like Maude's husband, only young. > To me, Anna is the kind of a girl who wants what she cannot have. > *Aren't we all. I mean...yeah, that Anna. Brother!!* That made me giggle. I can see being in Anna's shoes, she's a smart cookie, and her lover is none too bright. He's either blinded by her, or he just can't think more than one step ahead. Anna's all about the ahead - she's ten jumps ahead of anyone, but you can't stay that far ahead without someone getting upset with you. > The forbidden...it holds a lot of sway, I must say. For me, she went out on a date with Slim b'cuz she's no longer married. Now you don't just go out on a date with a guy like Slim (Dan Duryea-Steve Cochran-Ricardo Cortez-Jack LaRue). They're not buying you roses and kissing you on the cheek. These are rough guys...and a date with them means they want to possess you. She should have dated a soda jerk after Steve. (Where's Dana Andrews when you need him. But not in *"Brainstorm."*) You've got that right - she picked the wrong guy to rebound with. But see, that's what she does. She picks danger. Look at her choice of dance partner! Tony looks dangerous in this movie, even at this young age. She didn't pick a nice Ralph Bellamy type, a rich sugar daddy to bounce her on his knee and that she could get rid of easily. She can't help it. She's going to run as fast as she can to the anti-Steve. That's Slim. > I hear ya Jackie. Anna doesn't do things purposefully or with malice aforethought. Girls like her sometimes ponder: "How did I get into this mess?" A little self-reflection might have done Anna some good. She blows with the wind but not like Little Miss Moffet: (Kathie). Nicely put! She's governed by her capricious nature - and she thinks Steve has rejected her - he hurt her. She can't leave it alone - her first thoughts are to run AWAY from Steve, to his least favorite person. "I'll show him!" On some level she wants to hurt him. And I think on some level, Steve wants to be hurt. When the one who wants to be hurt is Burt Lancaster.... well, that's exciting. > The next thing...the next thing. I didn't quite get that sense from her. Maybe if she'd played it a little edgier. But she was so soft. I wish I did get that from her, because her (DeCarlo's) very dangerous dark looks would jive with using them to get her what she wanted...knowing what effect her looks have on men. She is a Delilah. Maybe it was too subtle for me. You're good schweetheart. You pick up subtleties. Me? I need a brick wall to fall on my noggin. When it does...I get it. > > > I did love it when she told Steve: "I made the first move Steve. You don't have to be proud." > > > Why couldn't he settle in with that. Nawwwww, he couldn't pick up she was letting him off easy. Maybe I didn't mean "the next thing"... maybe I meant she wanted "more". I think they were alike in one way - they both wanted MORE - he wanted more of her, and she wanted more FROM him, a life with the money and for him to be more sensible. > I'd have wished for Anna to egg Steve on a little more if she's looking for the next thrill, but she seemed to be telling him "Hey, whaddya doin'?! Let's get outta here!!" as Steve was settling into his (half-baked) idea about the heist. Yes, she has cold feet at first. But then at the end of that scene the camera lingers on her face for a second. She's getting that old feeling... maybe they can have MORE... > She can't help herself any more than Steve can help being who he is. That's why they are so rotten for each other. > > > Yes I agree. Here's a movie about two people who are really no good for each other. They should just go to bed but live their real lives elsewhere; you know... compartmentalize. This trying to build a relationship was disastrous. They didn't have what it takes: selflessness. The selflessness of Love to think of the other person. Yes, even though we see that Burt loves her more than she loves him, he is not being selfless at all. He wants her.... perhaps because she is just out of his reach? Maybe he is the one who wants what he cannot, should not have. > Why do you like this film Jack? It's tight, and it's got a good suspenseful plot that uses flashback to tell the story in a very intriguing way. Its filmed well. But honestly, there is something about Burt's sensitivity and almost girlish **** that I find much more interesting than almost anything he did later. I like Burt vulnerable, but I like that it is a sick and twisted vulnerability. Running after Anna, then pushing her away when he's got her. It's so human, and very much true to some couples. I've been in that relationship. It's tough. I'm drawn to men like that. > On some cosmic fatalistic molecular level...I think Steve got what he wanted. He couldn't do it himself. He couldn't control his self. Slim put him out of his misery. He did him a favor, actually. You almost have to laugh: what does it take for this guy to get it? A heist gone awry...busted up in a sling...a dear friend, dead. Steve's resigned acceptance the last fifteen minutes of "CRISS CROSS" was interesting. Anna's scream was shockingly visceral. I couId tell from that scream that this was *not* what she wanted. Ha! Powerful of the director to have Steve and Anna face us. This (under)statement ironically says it all: > > > *"Well, I'll know better next time."* Love that line! Love that you used it as a metaphor for the movie. And that last paragraph you wrote is just how I feel about it. She wasn't ready and he was - it sums up their whole relationship. It wouldn't matter if they were deeply in love. They were connected, but never on the same page. > May I say just one thing about *"The Story of Temple Drake"*? I fell asleep during the last third of the picture, but while I was awake I got the sense that this movie was like a Morality Play...an Old Dark House story. I mean that inbred hillbilly family looked like something out of the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Everything was Heightened. Not that any of this is a bad thing mind you. I just remember saying..."are they for real?" There is a Lesson To Be Learned from Temple's story. She was like a little Alice in DegradationLand. I like the movie...but it had an over-the-top feeling to me. I agree. The stumbling block for me is the idea that a tease should learn her lesson, brutally. However, I do enjoy Miriam's performance, and of course the stone cold sexy Jack LaRue. I also like the mystery involved. Did she go with him because she was scared, or because she wanted to be with him? Did she kill him because he raped her, or did she kill him because she liked it, and had to kill it within herself? I think last night it seemed a little too pat to me. She was just scared. I wish it were more grey, but maybe next time I'll see the mystery in it again. Last night's print was spectacular. I've only seen the movie in a bad print on youtube before.

I'm thinking it was 1928, going from memory, and Great Britain was behind in making sound films, so I bet it is silent. I am dying to watch something right now, but can't seem to settle on what I want to see. I wish there was another young Burt movie, but I seem to have run right through those. Thanx for the lynx.

I'll keep an eye out for it. I also was thinking about him in Battleground. I am not a big war movie fan, but I watched part of that one because of the way it was filmed, but mainly because I saw Whitmore in it. He's one of those actors who have always been around - like part of my family. He was always on TV in something, for as long I can remember. That's why I have such a fondness for him. Now I realize how good he is. The older I get, the better an actor he seems to be.

Oh, he's so wonderful, isn't he? I remember my mom and me watching Give em Hell, Harry on PBS years and years ago. He was magnificent. There isn't a movie he's in that he doesn't catch my eye. He's heartbreaking in that Stephen King movie, the one about the prison...the name escapes me right now.

I haven't , but yes, you can watch a Hitch film with the sound turned off and know EXACTLY what is happening. That is how I first saw *Sabotage*. I was eating lunch at home one day, and had to get back to work. I turned the channel and saw a boy walking down the street with a newsreel can under his arm. I knew immediately it was Hitch, and I knew immediately there was something wrong with the can. I was compelled to watch to see what happened to the boy... I had no choice! And I was late back to work, too, because of it. But I went and found a copy of the movie as fast as I could to see what the rest of the story was about. I think I need to watch some more Hitch, I've been very lax lately. Maybe the silents are the way to go. *Rich and Strange* scared me so much, I haven't wanted to watch another for a while. To me, so far, it's the most frightening Hitch of all.

I was just thinking about the studios copying one another while watching *Riffraff* (1936) day before yesterday, which is MGM's answer to Warner's "plain folks" picture. It's a topical Depression era story of tuna fishermen starring Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow. It's a great movie, thanks to brilliant performances by Tracy and Harlow. The wonderful supporting cast includes superb turns by J. Farrell MacDonald, Joseph Calleia, Una Merkel and George Givot. Because it was made at MGM, *Riffraff* cuts quite close to being a disaster - in fact, after going to IMDB and reading some of the reviews, I was shocked to find that there were people who hated this movie, and thought it was awful. The music in particular really annoyed me, MGM's treatment is like a sledgehammer compared to Warner's orchestrations - the score touting it's own Arthur Freed/Nacio Herb Brown song, "You Are My Lucky Star" got more and more annoying to me as they pounded it to death. And I like the song. It made me wonder if sheet music sales were tied up in this film. Luckily the director J. Walter Ruben keeps a tight reign on the proportions of the film, not letting it get too epic, though one can see it was a struggle at MGM to keep the film within bounds. It crackles like a Woody Van Dyke film, and it stays sweet and unassuming. I think this might be one of the first films where Tracy takes his time and really lets us see how he feels, he's sublime here especially in the second half, and Harlow matches him in every scene - whether they are fighting or making love. J. Farrell MacDonald is the only actor I have ever seen who can steal a scene from Tracy.... make sure you bring a box of kleenex while watching his scenes. There is one rather exciting moment where Mickey Rooney (as Harlow's nephew) and Tracy meet up, long before *Boys Town* - Mickey does some wonderful acting in this picture. Joseph Calleia is just hilarious and a little heartbreaking in this film for a couple of reasons. His character is pathetic, losing the girl not once, not twice, but three times to Tracy. On a deeper level, it must have been a real bummer to play such a stereotypical "greaser" role - coming from Malta, and having pride in his Italian/Arab heritage, it must have hurt on some level playing this Italian maroon who destroys the English language at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, he is so good, so funny and endearing, it's impossible not to appreciate his comic timing and hysterical patter with George Givot. Joe is definitely the more subtle, and tosses off his humorous lines with an effortless delivery, making every line he speaks an absolute riot. Una Merkel gets a great meaty role as Harlow's married sister, always pregnant, letting her kids run rampant. She's just as much fun to watch as the rest of the stellar cast. This is an A production all the way, and it is almost done in by that classification. Luckily, the MGM bigwigs didn't falter and start beefing the movie up, trying to ensure that their top stars got the "proper" treatment. I really enjoyed Riffraff, and think it deserves a second look.

By the way, I started *Asphalt Jungle* - I really am enjoying how all the characters start out seeming evil or at least low-life, but somehow change in your mind into just everyday people.... people looking for a last deluded chance at a normal, happy life - only through corrupt means (as long as we seem to be on the subject of our weaknesses doing us in). There is a lot of delusion here, and not enough James Whitmore, who really seems the most likeable character in the whole thing. Unfortunately, the pace is so slow and deliberate, I fell asleep again watching. I like the way things play out very slowly, but it's a killer for this sleep deprived gal. This second week of school, my attention span has dwindled to nothing.

I have a tendency to be drawn to director's so called "misfires" myself. I too think Hitch was digging a little here, trying for something different and I enjoy the attempt. "Bad" Hitch is pretty good compared to a lot of movies.

Here's my favorite Jackson Browne song. It reminds me of when I was working in theatre. It's the best, most poignant description of what it's like performing. It gives me the chills every time I hear the band pick up the tune from Browne's piano and start rocking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtuvXrTz8DY

Chris - How succinctly you put this post, you really got to the heart of the matter splendidly - all of them have weaknesses that keep them "locked up", even Charles. I really loved what you wrote, and agree about the tension and the setting.

Jeff, did you notice a Colleen appearance on Sunday night? Not a silent, but The Power and the Glory (1933) with Spencer Tracy?

I think it is that ardor - he does seem possessed by his emotions or by something greater than he - that makes Connie so interesting as an actor. It's almost like a religion with him. I can think of so many moments in his movies where this happens, where he seems overcome by some sort of spirit or by his own will.

I hear you! The wind is blowing and the temp is dropping.... I'm inside the house and it's getting a bit too chilly even in here! Argghhh.

we'll all need a great big Burt to cuddle up with.

Hey Jeff, did you know Tom Moore and Renee were married briefly? You probably already know this. Here is a photo of the two, from Made in Heaven most likely: and here is another photo of Tom which looks like it might be from the same movie :

Wow, that one is amazing.... I've never seen that Renee photo before!

I'll try it again, even though I am definitely a frou frou.... I occasionally like to take a ride to the dark side of town. Which reminds me, *Temple Drake* is on tonight at 8.