feaito
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Posts posted by feaito
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Groucho Marx
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Thank you very much M.L. Now it's easier...but it didn't use to be easy to share such "intimate" stuff with people I don't really "know"...but it's part of a "healing" process, and above all, I think TCM boards are one of the most mature, decent & respectful boards ever!
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Now that you mention Gloria DeHaven, I was in awe yesterday 'cos I read somewhere, maybe even it was in these threads, that she was featured as the waif's (Paulette Goddard) little sister in Chaplin's "Modern Times"....I hadn't realized that at all...and I have watched both discs of the DVD special edition (wonderful)....Now I'll have to watch the film all over again to have a glimpse of Gloria as a child!
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Excellent movie...In its time in my country it was considered an "outrageous" movie, not "apt" for young ladies...It was "banned" by the Catholic church. An it is a masterpiece.
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I cannot quite recall in what thread, or who was it, well it was a lady I'm sure....when I mentioned that I had ordered through Amazon.com, Corinne Griffith's DVD of "The Garden of Eden" (1928- United Artists), the only of her movies available on the market, on any "format" (VHS/DVD/Laserdisc too?)...and one of the few chances to watch this silent legend in her glory (TCM is the only channel? which airs sometimes, two of her films: Frank Lloyd's "The Divine Lady" and "Back Pay"?), she went in awe, I think she said she was going to buy it or order it through Netflix.
Well, I have seen the DVD in its entirety, and Silent Film Lovers, this is a Gem, a Faberg? Egg....
This Comedy-Drama is truly highly enjoyable, It made smile & laugh lots of times, it's charming, cute, elegant, I don't know..I haven't seen too many silent films, but I feel this one belongs to the "superior" category. It has sort of a kind of "Lubistch's" touch...Lewis Milestone's direction is deft.
Corinne's interpretation of a viennesse ingenue who travels to Budapest to become an Opera Star is so good! I didn't expect that much....The Cast is great: Lowell Sherman as a lecherous Rich Man, Marvellous Louise Dresser as the heroine's sort of "surrogate" mother, Charles Ray as her love interest, Edward Martindel (great as Charles Ray's Uncle)....Maude George...Won't tell you anymore about the plot, don't want to give away its surprises.
The Bonuses are a topic apart. Never had seen so much "worthwhile" bonuses: extensive text excerpts, lobby cards, memorabilia, promotional stuff, from the original press book of the film, etc. Contemporary (1928) biographies of all the six principal players. Lots of info!!!
The digitally recorded score by the composer Robert Israel, is grandiose...excellent, what a joy to watch this film with such a "right" score, which also "sounds" so well.
The print is in-all very good, there are some portions which are more damaged, but in the whole, it's greatly restored. I'd say the quality of the copy, surpasses what they did with "Sunrise"...It's quality is similar to "Evangeline's" (1929), perhaps a little inferior, but I repeat, in the whole great.
There are also original promotional photographs and production stills from the state of Lewis Milestone.
Furthermore, there's a lost bi-color technicolor dream sequence of Corinne, when she's travelling by train (where she imagines herself as a "Prima Donna"), which is thoroughly analyzed in an "exploration", which contains still photos, original press book excerpts and promotional images.
And if all this wasn't enough, you get two shorts, one filmed in early bi-color technicolor...a charming cutie called "The Toy Shop", a tale made by Tiffany-Stahl Studios (of Poverty Row) and another one, sort of a "documentary" of architectural styles & "pop culture" in 1927 Hollywood & L.A. (B&W or sepia toned) called "Hollywood The Unusual", a sort od travelogue of a lost era!
In all a experience not to be missed! Really, this time when you read on the cover of the DVD: "DeLuxe DVD Edition", it is true as it is stated!
TCM, this film and those shorts belong to your Schedule!!!
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IMHO: The Red Shoes is the best "ballet" film/or film "about ballet" of all time, ever. Period. A Work of art. Shearer, Walbrook, Leonide Massine, Robert Helpmann, Marius Goring, are all at their best here. In fact one of the best films (in general) of all time.
It's really an awesome achievement. Few films can compare to this british handsomely filmed movie. Maybe the best musical ever made?
Happy about you Mary Lou, I know it must be high in your top five, maybe it's your absolute all-time fave...or is it "Shane"? (chuckles)....
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Keith...you have a point too, very respectable indeed. all points of views are respectable, when you are serious and tolerant. And I (again) respect your opinion and what you add. Indeed if a performer is gay or straight, or muslim or catholic, or latino or from Nigeria, or whatever, shouldn't matter as sth positive nor negative, it should be only a fact... his/her talent should be the important "item". And if he or she wants to keep his/her private life "private", the better. I do not like public faces who "trade" their private lives in the media, they're so many of them right now!.
I extended myself on the "stereotypes" stuff, 'cos, (I'm gonna share sth. personal with all of you, so I expect a bit of respect please) as boy I was isolated from my classmates in school, because I didn't like football, I wasn't rude, I didn't use "foul" language, and I was isolated and was much harassed. In fact I was so shy that I didn't defend myself, although I was a tall & muscular boy for my age (due to some sort of child trauma, 'cos as a baby I was "stereotyped" as agressive, thus my parents repeated to me, stop!! no!! don't fight)...result: the boy didn't fight back anymore, then the boy ended as an item in his school, sort of an isolated kind, sterotyped as sort of "sissy"..you also know...good student+ bad at sports=not popular... I was also a good student & didn't like sports at all. Luckily, I "reacted" in High School and at University....and I'm a pretty "normal" (psychologically speaking) human being who fell in love with the loveliest woman of them all (at the age of 19), my wife for 11 years..and who can deal with his "sad" past, and do not feel a victim, and who love his parents in spite of their mistakes & do not blame them for it (unintentional anyway). I was the first of five children. Nobody taught mum & dad how to be good parents. they truly believed what they did was the best. and I love them for that.
Sorry for all this "personal" stuff, but I wanted to explain why I hate stereotypes and prejudice. I was victim of it most of my life. Thank God, i.e.: I can Love Streisand right now, or whatever, and couldn't care less what other people think (here in my country, where a people are much less tolerant than in the States).
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Path has nailed it....what he says, I understand it as that sometimes people use "icons" or "public faces" for "negative purpose" sterotyping, not the "icons" but the people who like them or follow them. i.e.: I've always loved Barbra Streisand, since I was small boy, as my father does, and then suddenly learned-sth. that wasn't known widely in my country in 1977 or 1985, now it is- that in the U.S., since she had a sort of huge gay following, she was sth. of a "gay" icon, just as Bette Davis (I've read) was too (and she wasn't gay at all, it's just that he appealed to gay men I read, which is all right), I'm not bashing gay people, on the very contrary, those who know me here know I'm tolerant...but I don't like stereotypes...a gay man can like Elvis Costello or Shania Twain, a straight man can love Streisand or Judy Garland, etc...
I even noticed this prejudice last year at Xmas in my company, when I picked up a gift (randomly) and it was a Streisand cd...and some of the guys, sort of made deririsive comments, after I stated that I loved Streisand and was very lucky with my choice, 'cos here it's already public that Streisand is a gay icon (well,speaking of this, when "In & Out" with Kevin Kline, was shown here, many people realised what was goin' in the States...all that crap about if you like to dance very much (if you're a man) it's "suspicious"...or if you like movie musicals....it's all so stupid!! We don't need those prejudices...
The same thing happens with Cary Grant, Stanwyck, et al .... some people tend to "appropiate" or "identify" with them, in what they believe to "see"...or they want "to see" in those public figures...
Sth. similar happens here with for example jazz music; here, I don't know in the States but Billie Holiday is highly praised, by all the intellectuals, the ones that speak of her sentiment, her talent (which is grand INDEED) and tend to overlook and minimize Ella Fitzgerald's gifts as a singer...dismissing her about "lacking" feeling in her interpretations, thus only recognising her "technique", being of more "massive" taste....What is all that!!! Both are excellent singers! Both unique! Ella Fitzgerald is my fave american singer of all time. period. I like Holiday but no su much. Many jazz lovers of the "pseudo"-intellectual type, when I tell them I love her so much, and that I don't like that much Holiday...look at me as if I was insane...
Isn't one entlited to its own tastes? So you cannot Like Ella Fitzgerald and be smart, or at the same time enjoy Electronic Music or Portuguese Folklore?....The Blonde always has to be air-head? The latin always has to be sort of either latin-lover-muscle type or a blue collar worker? If you come from Brazil you're supposed to be a good dancer always? If you come from Africa, necessarily you have to wear feathers? In South America all of us live in Huts? If you watch European cinema (vanguard) you have to strike a pose of "intellectualness" wear dark-framed glasses and black clothing, and look with an "air of disdain"? All New Yorkers are sophisticated? The girls who use make-up and take care of their appearances are stupid? An the ones who do not care about their appearence, and look sort of like "just awakening" are "smarter" 'cos they use their time for more useful stuff? Something humanity has to stop is to put people in categories and to categorize people because of their appearances, tastes, etc....We have to learn to love diversity...and not try to do "math" with human nature.
Excuse me for writing this much.
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Good inquiry MovieJ...To watch & listen to Joan Fontaine again!!! or Jennifer Jones, thrilling...!!
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sorry for the mistakes:
second paragraph: "Bankhead"
third paragraph: "...his own opinion about..."
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I've read all three books that Keith cites, and it's true, there is that info, sometimes "hinted" about Stanwyck...also read info of the kind in Axel Madsen's "The Sewing Circle"...and I once saw a book in Barnes & Noble called "Hollywwod Lesbians" by Boze Hadleigh (which I didn't buy), where Stanwyck (or Stany as some of her colleagues called her), was featured...
Thus, this is totally irrelevant regarding Stanwyck as star, and icon, an actress... she embodied perfectly all of these, and whatever she Garbo, Dietrich, Bankehad, did in their private lives is their sole business...
One can read whatever one wants, but that stuff maybe it's really better to leave to ourselves, . Everyone can form his one opinion about actors private lives, but writing it on a thread it's pretty sensitive, 'cos we're not entlited to "elucubrate" about other people's private lives, even if they are/were "public faces", much less if they're already death.
Well we can say or state sth. but always, at least name the source as Keith did. But one can never tell for sure, 'cos if some actors/people didn't want their private lives exposed, it's absolutelly respectable, and as far as I know the lovely Barbara Stanwyck, was a highly "private" person. Period.
Concerning the object of this thread I'd say that Betty Grable, Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell, Ann Sothern, Bette Davis, Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Irene Dunne, Barbara Stanwyck and Carole Lombard, embody and come to my mind as all of the different "types" of the all-american woman.
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Manhattan Melodrama?
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That's on of my fave "newer classics"...I even bought a second hand dvd of it....but cannot recall what you ask!....This film is a must-see for lovers of film-noir!!!
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Deborah Kerr in "Tea and Sympathy"...and I couldn't agree more with her, I hate stereotypes about anything.
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BTW.. Preston Sturges also had "writing credits" in "The Good Fairy", in 1935.
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Path I tried hard...but I couldn't like "Indiscreet"... found it somewhat "forced"...I don't know, it's not bad, it's charming in a sense...but I just didn't connect with it. Same happened with "The Grass is Greener", sort of left me "cold". They're not bad movies, but they "lack" "sth". sparkle? IMHO (respectfully).
On the other hand I liked very much "Notorious".
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Yes "That Midnight Kiss" and "The Toast of New Orleans", both from 1949, are MGM's and his only colaborations with Grayson...she didn't work with him again, as far as I've read. Both films are highly enjoyable. I love Grayson. Did you like her in "Two Sisters from Boston" with June Allyson? Delightful.
Then "The Great Caruso", also MGM, then "Because You're Mine" with Doretta Morrow? ..I remember that one from childhood....then his voice is featured in MGM's 1954, "The Student Prince" with Edmund Purdom (in a role originally intended for Lanza) and Ann Blyth, ....Then MGM, apparently sent him to Italy to film a couple of films...I remember MGM's "The Seven Hills of Rome" with an italian Marisa Allasio (Long haired?) and Eva or Zsa Zsa Gabor....Ooppps he also made for Warners? "Serenade" with Joan Fontaine and Sara (Sarita) Montiel in 1956...
Almost all of them, except "Serenade", of which I've only seen photos in books, I saw them as a kid or teenager.
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This one also deserves a 2nd watch...I think Maggie Sullavan shines a bright here as she did in "Shop Around..."
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Love Me Tonight, deserves 2nd and 3rd watches...I'll be watching it soon enough..to discover new things & subtleties!!!
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"Tower of Lies" and "The Devil's Circus", must be on Shearer's line-up!
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So its M.L.'s turn...congrats for nailing it...Lost Horizon...one of my top-five
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Yes you're right...but the latter is far the superior film.
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MovieJoe..thank you very much for the feedback, info & opinion...I sort of had it in my mind like "Trouble..."...So I'll have in account your opinion...maybe, now I'll feel so much less eagerness to watch it, that when I finally get to see it.. maybe I'll like it very much!!
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Interesting Slappy...I think I read both "Animal Farm" and "Homage to Catalonia", years ago...also saw the movie adaptation of his "1984" at the cinema, when it was released, good...John Hurt was very good...
The Spanish Civil War, was very harsh to many people of "both sides", many spaniards emigrated from their country to Latin American countries during the '30s and '40s.
I've seen many Spanish movies about the spanish civil war...and a couple of american movies, one depicting Lorca's life and "For Whom the Bell Tolls", with which (as far as I've read) Hemingway wasn't pleased, although, IMHO it's a good drama.
There always were some mistakes done, when Classic Hollywood, depicted latin countries, Spain, Russia, etc..... or details of the period with which they were dealing, or in "creating" stereotypes, but at least in the cases of the movie object of this thread (Blockade) and in the case of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", Hollywood tried to do sth. serious, worthy and "consistent"...in spite of certain "historical" or "enviromental" faults or mistakes they might have made, in the process. It's valuable that they did made movies about it.
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
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Yes Mary Lou, I'm also deeply pleased because most silent films are lost, and it's pretty amazing that some companies have taken the care & preocupation of preserving and releasing them in such "worthwhile" editions. I'd Love Warners/Turner to release a DVD containing "La Boheme", for example, full with all kinds of bonuses.