rosebette
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Posts posted by rosebette
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Terrific write-up of both films, Tom. Unfortunately, I'm teaching two night classes back-to-back on Monday and have no DVR, so will miss two of my favorite flicks! But wait.... I feel the flu coming on....
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Actually, in another noir, "They Live By Night", the young outlaw dies at the end, while the heroine goes on carrying his baby. Of course, in "Tomorrow is Another Day", the Ruth Roman character is actually the one who committed a crime, so it would be wrong for Steve Cochran to die, while she gets to live. I did find the ending a bit contrived, with Ruth's boyfriend having given a deathbed confession of her self-defense motive. Also, Ruth's character is a bit more tarnished the Cathy O'Donnell's in "They Live by Night."
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I've seen "Les Miseables" twice, and while some of the singing is not up-to-par, due to the live recording, I thought all the performaces excellent, and I actually wept several times. Eddie Redmayne was perfect and has probably the most beautiful voice of all the leads. "Marius" is usually just a pretty boy part, but he gives it real depth. I think he's destined to be a star; also, he has the most beautiful freckles i've ever seen.
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Irene Dunne, "hands down." I saw "Love Affair" on "the essentials," and she melted me. She's also a great comic actress, one of the most underrated actresses of classic films.
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A better example of Grant weeping is in None But the Lonely Heart, after his mother visits him in jail. Grant's performance in that film is one of his best.
Coop toward the end of High Noon also quietly shed a few tears of desperation when no one in town will help him. He also tears up in the last scene of A Farewell to Arms, which is the superior version of that novel.
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I almost ruined the upholstery laughing!
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I've seen it and it's a terrific and well-written film, one of the earliest to deal with the issue of racism. Darnell plays a mixed race character.
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I just watched the Jeanette MacDonald Lubitsch films last night, and the prints were stunning. "The Love Parade" was unbelievable crisp. Jeanette was awfully cute in those lingerie scenes; I think she was more appealing when she was plump and sexy, before she became the Iron Butterfly for Nelson Eddy.
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I agree with you about Claude Rains, Doherty. He steals almost every scene he's in. How many pictures would be so much less without him -- Casablanca, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Now Voyager?
More on Flynn -- watching him in Robin Hood, we don't think of his later dissolute life -- his is still the image of the dashing hero fighting for justice.
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Sometimes, personality is performance. I just finished watching one of my favorite flicks - The Adventures of Robin Hood. Who else had that unique combination of charm, charisma, and athleticism to play Robin Hood? Yet, many would say that Errol Flynn is not a "great" actor -- it's just that he has that unique spark that makes him perfect for certain roles. At the same time, I've been studying Basil Rathbone (and highly recommend the webstie thegreatbaz), and this cultivated, intelligent, and gentle man had absolutely no relationship to the evil villains he played! Both performances were great, but in Flynn's case, I would say that personality was the performance.
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Like everyone else, I also tried to watch the election, but I couldn't miss "Sin Takes a Holiday" with Basil Rathbone, who in my opinion, stole the picture. The storyline was a bit unbelievable because Connie was hardly plain, even in her drab office clothes. I don't know why she ultimately chose the boss/husband, who was a silly idiot until the end. I would much have preferred to be "kept" by Baz in that palatial villa in France. But Baz had the last line, which was a great double entendre, "They won't be needing dinner, but they will want a hearty breakfast in the morning" and delivered it deliciously.
As soon as "Sin" finished, I turned on the election results to learn that my candidate in Mass., Elizabeth Warren had won, so I broke out the bubbly, a great evening.
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George Sanders allegedly said that Basil, despite his performance as villains, was a pushover for jokes and had a wonderful sense of humor, so I wouldn't be surprised if he instigated a good bit of humor and if his performance was indeed deliberately hammy. The scene with the darts is really too much, as if he's having a battle of the hams with Atwill.
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I meant my feet are large for my height! But I don't think Garbo's were too big for hers!
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I think Garbo's understating. Size 8 is the average shoe size for most women; I'm a 7 1/2-8 myself, and I'm only 5'2"; my feet are slightly large for my heart, but would be OK for someone 5'5" or so.. Garbo was tall, and she looks like she wears a 9 or even a 10.
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I, too, have read about the charges against Atwill and I read the newspaper interview. Actually, I'm rather inclined to believe the child, based both on Atwill's reputation and Rathbone's reported response in demeanor afterward toward Atwill. As a follower of a couple of Rathbone bio sites, Rathbone, while known for portraying a villain, had an excellent rapport with the chld actors he performed with, and quite possiby was aware of what happened.
As far as the film as a whole, it's not as good a film as the earlier Frankenstein efforts, but great fun to watch, especially as a comparison to Young Frankenstein. I thought both Rathbone and Atwill quite hammy, but in an enjoyable way. The fake arm was rather comical. As to the sets, cheap, cheap. Let's just shoot the thing in a bare studio with a few pieces of weirdly shaped furniture and lots of shadows.
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I just finished watching The Unknown, which was one weird movie, although Lon Chaney was excellent. I felt as if something was missing from the film and that it ended too abruptly. I wonder if parts of the film were actually missing.
Also, I read up on the movie, and it described Nanon's revulsion toward men's hands as being neurotic. I actually thought there was an implication early in the film that she was either sexually abused or perhaps "pimped" by her father, and that might be the reason for her fears. Did anyone else pick that up?
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I tend to view "They Died with Their Boots on" as an adventure movie, a love story, an the portrait of a hero, not historical fact, so I can "let go" of its lack of historical accuracy and just enjoy it. Apparently, there were issues about even making a film of his life earlier, since his wife was still alive.
"Uncertain Glory" is a very fine film with a fine Flynn performance. It received poor reviews, but I have always enjoyed it. I think audiences weren't ready for Flynn to play a complex character, but the actor was indeed ready for it, and Walsh managed to extract a multidimensional performance. Paul Lukas is also very good in it.
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Thanks for the tribute to one of my favorite directors, Raoul Walsh. I think you named my favorite Warners' films from the 40s -- all directed by Walsh. Two of Flynn's best, two of Cagney's best, a breakthrough part for Bogart; how can you top that? Another unrecognized gem -- Colorado Territory -- which is a remake of High Sierra as a Western, and I think Virginia Mayo's best performance. I always shed a few tears at the end of that one. High Sierra is also the only "gangster" movie that makes me cry. I have a fond memory of my dad and I watching it together and both weeping as Bogie tumbles down that mountain. Very few directors could handle an action picture, yet also evoke performances of exceptional heart from the actors.
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Love the scene in "Easy to Love" last week when Genevieve Tobin goes to have a chat with the family doctor about her husband's "lack of energy" (we all know what that's a euphemism for), and the first thing doc does is offer her a cigarette.
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Kathan,
I'm wondering if you are confusing TomJH, who has been posting extensive biographical info on Flynn in an intelligent and balanced manner and has refrained from personal attack, with TopBilled, who was the more strident poster on this thread. I've been following this thread and haven't seen anything negative abot you or JG (John Garfield)? from TomJH.
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I also have to admit that even as a Davis fan, I don't find her performance as Elizabeth her best, although the film is extremely entertaining; how can a Curtiz-directed movie in Technicolor with two powerhouse stars not be? My favorite performances are Bette's subtler ones, such as The Letter and Now Voyager.
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With all the interest about Errol Flynn and the references to Matzen's book in this thread, I'm surprised the book isn't available in the Turner Shop area, or that it hasn't been promoted. I think it's a very fine book, and I find Matzen's research quite authoritative. Some may question how he uses voice and point of view, but it's a great read with wonderful candids. I was a follower of Matzen's blog and also followed his interview thread on theGreatBaz website.
BTW, TomJ, I am greatly enjoying your analysis of Flynn. I'm a fan of both Flynn and Davis, and I don't think we have to be either/or -- both were great actors and personalities in their own ways. I have an autographed copy of Mother Goddam and a copy of Thomas' Films of Errol Flynn which I've had since I was 13, so it's virtually falling apart, and I treasure them both.
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I think "Gabriel Over the White House" is a fascinating film and should be required viewing for political science classes. Perhaps it is not a great film, but it raises some profound questions about our political system, and presents many ideas that are challenging and uncomfortable -- good food for discussion. However, many aspects of the film, particularly the army of the unemployed and the Depression, shed a light on the financial problems of our own time (the Occupy Movement, the financial crisis, and the level that people in the government are tied to big business). While I find the idea of dispensing with Congress and engaging in justice without due process creepy, in many ways, this movie is not philosophically much different from today's popular action films, where heroes engage in vigilante justice because the official channels are not "doing their job." The movie's theme of an "angelic presence" in the White House somehow guiding the president's actions, also presents another uncomfortable notion that a leader's decisions are guided by God, but it is one that is perhaps even more dominant now, where a leader has to profess as a believer to be regarded as suitable for public office.
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Fascinating movie -- I was with Huston when he addresses the army of the unemployed. I kind of had the creeps, thinking about the current Occupy Movement -- could all this happen again? But then when the filjm went into executions without due process and suspending Congress it gave me the creeps. Anyway, it sure got me thinking... The best of the Left and the worst of the Right combined. Of course, we forget what a desperate time the Depression. 25% unemployment, not 8 or 9%.
Zorro and Don Juan - A Great Swashbuckling Double Bill
in General Discussions
Posted
Well, Tom, I'm a feminist, and I happen to love both Mark of Zorro and The Adventures of Don Juan because I also appreciate good scripts, beautiful music, and lavish costumes, plus as a hetero woman, I enjoy the presence of Power, Flynn, and Rathbone. Both of these films are not routine "actioners", but very skillfully written and played. I also think TCM does an excellent job spotlighting the films of great actresses who were and also played independent women. Plenty of folks wrote about Barbara Stanwyck month, Loretta Young month, and the women of the pre-codes, and I've seen those posts and enjoyed those movies.
I'm not a big Western fan, but I don't have any problem with a poster doing a couple of reviews of favorite Westerns, either. The great thing about following all these threads is that I get to read intelligent commentary about a variety of genres, and TCM provides a forum for expressing all these opinions.