rosebette

This one is definitely R-rated, a perfect example that dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal activity.

I saw this movie a year or so ago, and I thought John Hoyt was the best thing in it. I actually thought the movie was better than it had been given credit for. I liked Bette Davis' character very much and she gave a nice, unaffected performance. Jim Davis is definitely the weak link here. It could have been a better film with a stronger male lead.

I don't like Lanza in films, but I admit he had a great voice. I have a recording of Andrea Bocelli singing "Be My Love", and my mom insists it's not as good as Lanza. However, I've heard that Lanza was a pig with women. I think Kathryn Grayson and others had some "Me Too" kind of stories about him.

My error I meant Walter Connolly

I think the L'age D'Or was on TCM, the same year as that endless documentary on film narrated by the Irish guy with the extremely boring voice. I would like TCM to air Loyalties, a 1933 Brit film about anti-Semitism starring Basil Rathbone. I believe it was shown at the British Museum within the past 10 years, so copies may be available. I'd like to see some of Anna Neagle's work, especially from the 30s and 40s. I just saw her in Lilacs in the Spring, a later film which she made in the 50s with Errol Flynn, and I thought she was delightful and very talented. I heard she was one of Britian's top box office draws.

And out of period costume, she is so tiny compared to Flynn! She is kind of what my husband calls "adorkable."

I watched Secrets (1933) on Tuesday night. It was a mixed bag, almost 2 different films in one. The film was stronger in the middle portion, when Pickford and Howard are out west, and her performance in that section is quite strong, unlike the rather cloying girlish playing in the early portion. The filmmaking in the Western portion is powerful, although I find it hard to believe that Howard would go out and enact vigilante justice on anyone! I won't give a spoiler, but there is a Man Who Shot Liberty Valance element to this movie, and those who sit with it through the end might understand what I mean. Four's a Crowd (1938) - Warners' attempt at a screwball comedy with Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, Rosalind Russell, Patrick Knowles, and William Frawley. It's fun but not entirely successful. I don't find the plot especially credible, particularly Flynn's quick switch between his affections for deHavilland and then Russell, but I guess no one is expected to take it too seriously. DeHavilland is a bit tiresome and silly as the heiress ; that being said, the sexual chemistry between her and Flynn is stronger. The romp around the bedroom looks like it could get dangerous at any moment. There's almost zero chemistry between Russell and Flynn, although it's clear that she has a way with rapid-fire dialogue, a warm-up for His Girl Friday. This is definitely her comfort zone. Flynn's also great with dialogue and physical comedy; Knowles is a just a better looking Ralph Bellamy.

Is Geena Davis one of the models in this?

I just looked this one up on Amazon, and it had mixed reviews (for film and copy quality rather than content). However, I was able to see the final duel on YouTube, and Flynn was in good form in that fencing scene.

I don't know if I want to see that one. To see Flynn tired and old would only make me sad. There is a lovely wistful quality in his performance in Lilacs. I love how he goes from playing so-so music hall performer,lover, husband, and father. He has a wonderful quiet presence, the essence of how less can be more in a performance. Anna Neagle spoke very highly of him: "I love naturalness and simplicity and Errol Flynn has this to a charming degree. He has made so many friends on this picture with his sense of fun and his conscientiousness and he has been enormously co-operative. It's so unfair to judge people by what you read or hear and I must confess I was not prepared to find him such a hard worker."

I finally had a chance to view my newly purchased copy of this one. While not a great film it's the source of many pleasures. I had never seen an Anna Neagle film before, and I can see why she was a top star in England. She was incredibly talented, and I was rather shocked to find out that this woman who played her own daughter and danced like a sprite was 50. Flynn was excellent, charming, delightful, and later more than a bit melancholy underneath that dapper exterior. I also enjoyed the in-joke about Burma.

Steiner and Korngold are my favorite film composers, although I have a weakness for a few of Alfred Newman's scores, particularly Wuthering Heights, All About Eve, Captain from Castile, and The Razor's Edge. By the way, John Williams has said in interviews that he deliberately "quotes" and pays homage to Korngold's scores for the Flynn films in scores for action movies like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Since TCM is featuring these two actors: Leslie Howard and Basil Rathbone. Part of Howard's attraction is the intelligence that radiates throughout his performances. And since it's the Baz's birthday, I should also note that he was known for being an intelligent and highly cultured gentleman. His memoir, In and Out of Character, is a delightful read that reflects on theater, literature, music and the arts. It's too bad that financial circumstances forced him to take many mediocre roles in his later years.

That's what happens when you don't marinate yourself in booze and take care of your body. Watch Basil in The Court Jester with Danny Kaye. He's in his 60s in that one and still able to manage a sword fight with a much younger man.

After Basil Rathbone as Tybalt was killed, the film had no interest for me. I found Norma Shearer especially cloying, and I like her in most movies. Apparently, Rathbone had just played Romeo with Katherine Cornell on stage, to excellent reviews. While he also was too old for the part, I think he would have given it more sex appeal than Howard.

I used the word beginning with w to describe a woman of easy virtue. It's often paired with Madonna in literary criticism and gender studies.

It's not the one where I stayed. I think it was either the Sugar Hill or Sunset Inn. There were many more big hotels and resorts there at that time than there are now. Many closed, were demolished, and one was transformed into a Best Western. There is a picture of Bette at a Christmas or New Year's Eve Party at Mittersill, which was more of an alpine ski resort by Canon Mountain. Mittersill still exists, but is a timeshare, where we own.

Oh gosh, they blanked out that word in my post! I thought it was a common literary trope, not a cuss word. If I were Marlene, in that one, I'd have returned, taken Dickie out of the crib, and then joined Cary! Rosemarie

Blonde Venus is my favorite. She has this wonderful Madonna/**** quality. Somehow, even when she is at her lowest, grubby and riding in a haywagon, she is as beautiful as when she's bejeweled in a nightclub. I find the whole mother love story rather moving. Plus, Cary Grant....

Thanks, I just ordered the last copy from Amazon -- 16.97

The score is terrific, and I have at least 3 recordings of parts of it (one from Andre Previn, which also includes parts of The Sea Hawk, The Prince and the Pauper, and Captain Blood is especially fine). I think Flynn is better than he was given credit for -- his character's egotism and callousness about the feelings of others plays convincingly. He also has great chemistry with both leading ladies. Gig Young is a dud in this,and one wonders what Fionella ever saw in him. I think he may have learned from Flynn, though, in his later performances as a light leading man.

I just came back from the Sugar Hill/Littleton area of NH. Bette owned a home there in the early 40s, where she met and married Arthur Farnsworth, who died from complications of a concussion. Bette Davis was at the Littleton NH theater, when the Great Lie premiered. There are lots of clippings from that event at numerous museums throughout the area. Bette was also a guest at Mittersill Resort (which was a ski resort hotel back in the day), where my husband and I stayed.

Where did you find this, Tomjh? I've never seen it on TCM or anywhere else for that matter. It looks like a little treasure.

A Woman's Face (1938) - Swedish version with Ingrid Bergman. This was the inspiration for the later Crawford film by the same name. Bergman's performance is excellent, and I was amazed at how young she was. Now I understand why Selznick wanted to recruit this gifted actress. The toughness and bitterness in her walk and even her voice in the early part of the film, and her later inner transformation due to the love of the family and the child are remarkably authentic. The story is more straightforward than the Crawford version, but the ending is different from the typical Hollywood ending in the Crawford film.

I actually read the book many years ago, and the film covers about half of the book, which is quite epic. I also think that because of censorship and the Catholic League of Decency, there were many things that couldn't have been shown. The book's coverage of the inquisition is pretty explicit, as is its depiction of human sacrifice by the Aztecs. However, the book makes some interesting parallels between the torture and executions of the inquisition and the human sacrifice of the Aztecs, implying that morally, the Spanish conquerors are morally equivalent to the "savage" Aztecs, or in fact, even more morally debased. The love story between the Tyrone Power character and the woman played by Jean Peters is also openly sexual, and she even has an out-of-wedlock child by him.