feaito
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Posts posted by feaito
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Let's say that I "went on a mad shopping spree" and bought the three Glamour Collections (West, Lombard and Dietrich), the DeMille and the Busby Berkeley Sets.... Sometimes I become a compulsive buyer when it comes to my beloved Classics. My only REAL Hobby along with music.
The films in the Lombard Collection have been mostly a pleasure- the one I least liked was "We're Not Dressing". I have yet to see "Man Of the World" and "The?Princess Comes Across" Which I saw on VHS around 2001-02. In that one I remember she sort of imitated Garbo, when she impersonated the "Princess".
Yes in "True Confession" (1937) she's a pathological liar; she has a nervous tic before starting to lie! It was remade as "Cross My Heart" with Betty Hutton and Sonny Tufts in 1947. The Black Humor of "True Confession" is not for everybody's tastes and Lombard's character is pretty daffy. In fact, Maltin in his TV Guide, states it's "an alarmingly unfunny comedy" and gives it a star and half (the lowest rating before BOMB). As I said, it may not be for everybody's tastes but hardly that bad.
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I agree with you Jack. Very good analysis!
I checked my "Gotta Sing Gotta Dance" book and yes, the mention of Begin the Beguine was much shorter than I remembered. There is small prologue or introduction at the beginning titled "How Fred and Ellie Began Begin the Beguine", and it's two pages long.... In my memory it was much longer! And yes, later the number is mentioned three times or so, especially when Eleanor Powell is interviewed by Kobal. A great book; he also interviewed many of the Berkeley girls; It was my first book on musicals and I had such a good time reading it!
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I watched both "True Confession", good, offbeat, black comedy with Lombard and Mac Murray and "Hands Across the Table", with the same duo; an utter delight! They played so well together!
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Well Jack, what's done is done....I'll try to elaborate again....
I was telling you that I have not seen many of Eleanor Powell's films, only "Broadway Melody of 1940", "Rosalie" and "Born To Dance"....Oh! and a specialty number she did in cameo in "Duchess of Idaho", I believe. I've also seen some excerpts of numbers she did in the "Broadway Melodies" of 1936 and 1938, "Honolulu" and sequences or out-takes of her "Fascinating Rhythm" number from "Lady Be Good" (that's one of my fave Gershwin songs), all these thanks to the fact that they are featured in the Extras of the "Singing in the Rain" Special DVD Edition and in the three "That's Entertainment" films and "That's Dancing" (I bought the DVD Boxed Set of "That's Ent." a while ago; I already had them on VHS, but not all the great extras included in the Set!!!).
Of Ellie's numbers I've seen, I think that maybe "Begin the Beguine", from "B. Melody of 1940" is the best, (although "Jukebox Dance" and "All Shore", both from the same film, are quite grand too).
Talking about the "Rosalie" number, it was the first Ellie Powell dance sequence I ever saw (in That's Entertainment I). I was very young and was absolutely entranced, impressed, in awe, especially because of the dimensions of the elephantine, jaw-dropping huge production that surrounded the number. "Broadway Rhythm" and "I've Got a Feeling You're Fooling", from "B. Melody from 1940" are quite great too! The same can be said of "Born To Dance's" "Swinging the Jinx Away" .....I can't recall Ellie's dancing number for "Easy To Love"; I only remember the sequence in which Jimmy Stewart sang it to her; I'll Have to watch it again.....I also wish I could see the complete "Fascinating Rhythm" number.......There should be more of Ellie's films on DVD!!
Have you ever seen the number in which Ellie tapped out a Morse Code message in "Ship Ahoy"? I've read that it's quite sth!
John Kobal, who was a super fan of Eleanor Powell, wrote prominently in his book "Gotta Sing Gotta Dance", about her pairing with Astaire in "B. Melody of 1940 and analyzed thoroughly their meeting and how they worked out their routines together, especially "Begin the Beguine". Kobal said that Ellie was Fred's best dancing partner ever. A one of a kind meeting!
Onthe other hand, in other books I have read, some authors have stated that although Fred and Ellie are probably the best tap dancers of all time, when they worked together their unique individual talents did not properly "blend" in the routines they did together, as a "couple", but they rather were individual dances done together by two masters. They felt there was no real "partnership", but more a competition, a battle of talents between two pros, who showcased their individual skills together, not really "blending" into a perfect "coupling". I'm not an expert in this area, so it's hard for me to tell for sure, but what do you think about these statements?
These authors have also stated that Fred was complemented in a better way by ladies like Ginger Rogers and Rita Hayworth, who while not the best dancers in the world, danced very well with him and complemented Fred's innate elegance and awesome skills perfectly, forming real "couples", blending into a perfect partnership. It has also been stated that Cyd Charisse was Fred's best dancing partner; Again, What do you think about it?
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I saw "The Devil is a Woman" back to back with "The Flame of New Orleans", and I noticed the huge difference of Marlene's Look and make-up and the way in which she was photographed to best advantage in the former. In "Devil" Marlene had "fuller" lips and "bigger" eyes and she looked like a Goddess. Von Sternberg was a real artist.
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I'm so annoyed! I wrote almost seven paragraphs answering your question and I pressed "post" and it was all LOST! I can't believe it! This site has always had terrible technical flaws when one writes longer posts and I forgot about it.
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The Crowd (1928)?
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I completely agree with you. I watched it last weekend and I just LOVED it. Dietrich never looked more attractive than in this film; and those Travis Banton outfits; awesome, jaw-dropping! The transfer included in Dietrich's Glamour Collection is flawless: pristine, clear, sharp,.... The sets, decors, the atmosphere, ....a sumptuous looking, visually stunning movie! Love Von Sternberg's baroque, decadent universes......Did you see "The Shanghai Gesture" when it aired on TCM years ago? Great film too! Von Sternberg is a master, a creator of a unique Universe......
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Hedy Lamarr, Grace Kelly and Gene Tierney.
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In my family my maternal grandmother was absolutely in love with Nils Asther; she just swooned for him. My paternal grandmother loved Clark Gable (with the moustache). My mum has three favorites: Tyrone Power, Charlton Heston and Sean Connery. My mother-in-law swooned over Burt Lancaster, Jean Sorel and Alain Delon.
Others whom I read were favorites with the ladies in their respective times, because of their looks & physique and haven't been mentioned are: Johnny Weissm?ller, George O'Brien, Duncan Renaldo, George Montgomery, Gilbert Roland, Wallace Reid, Richard Greene, Patric Knowles, James Ellison, James Craig, Lee Bowman, David Manners, Charles Boyer, Gordon Scott, Steve Reeves and Chester Morris.
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You are right Ayres, Carol and Bob's number is more jazz-oriented. Thanks for replying.
Another number that now comes to my mind is Eleanor Powell's (my fave female tap dancer) mammoth number around the song "Rosalie" in the same title film.
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Wow! All the mentioned numbers are great. What about the "From This Moment On" number from "Kiss Me Kate"; all 3 couples are fantastic, but I especially love Bob Fosse and Carol Haney's "pas-de-deux".
Other favorites I play over and over again are (I'm not sure if they fit into the "tap" category): "The Girl Hunt" number with Cyd and Fred from "The Band Wagon"; "The Red Blues" with Cyd and Fred's "Ritz and Roll Rock", both from "Silk Stockings".
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feaito
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I loved Yolanda when I watched it too; I think it's one of the best, most sophisticated and underrated musicals ever. Fred and Lucille Bremer ignite the screen! I'd buy the DVD definitely.
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Stagecoach?
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I think that the film you are looking for sounds more likely to be "Aloma of the South Seas" (1941), starring Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall. Check the following description of its plot, which I found at All Movie Guide:
The South Seas romance is set on the scenic island of Tahiti where the island chief betroths his son to a woman and then ships him to the US to attend Harvard. During the return voyage the lad is befriended by the ship's captain who also protects the beautiful girl the boy meets, but doesn't know he is supposed to marry. The two end up falling in love, even though the young man has sworn not to marry the girl his father picked out for him 15 years before. Meanwhile another jealous girl interferes with the romance as does another chieftain who wants the betrothed girl for himself and so tries to kill the young man. The whole mess is later resolved by a tremendous volcanic eruption which destroys the island and leaves the girl standing alone on a rocky peak staring at the blood red sun slowly sinking beneath the horizon.
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Sorry for the mispelling of Thermopylae, in Spanish it's "Term?pilas", so I made a mess
. Yes they finally lost the battle (not the war), after rejecting the Persians many times and there were not only 300 Spartans but 700 Thespians too. The events took place pretty much as you describe them. It's a very interesting film and much more accurate than I expected, except for certain details, like the Spartans wearing Roman-style helmets. The Spartans were very brave indeed. When I was watching the final scenes of the film Custer's battle at Little Big Horn came to my mind.
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His Girl Friday
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I think you are talking about "Ever Since Eve" which TCM aired in January or February of this year, If I recall correctly. I haven't seen the ones you talk about either; you are lucky because US TCM airs lots of Ms. Davies films, TCM Latin does not air any of them!
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I watched "We're Not Dressing" with Bing Crosby, Carole Lombard, Ethel Merman, Leon Errol, Burns & Allen and Ray Milland. Cute but nothing special.
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I finished watching the "I Claudius" BBC Series, the complete 13 episodes. Excellent!!
I've also watched this weekend: "300 Spartans" (1961) with Richard Egan, Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker and David Farrar, about the Thermopiles Battle, where the Spartans prevented the Persian invasion of Greece. Great action and very entertaining; "Love Before Breakfast" (1936) a fluffy comedy with lovely Carole Lombard, supported by Preston Foster and C?sar Romero; quite enjoyable; "Scarlet Street" (1945) with Joan Bennett, Edward G. Robinson, Dan Duryea et al; I watched the Kino Edition which contains the best print available on the market (which is full of lousy prints of this masterpiece); a thrilling experience, because it's like watching a "new" film and noticing all kinds of details on this crystal-clear transfer; "The Devil is a Woman" (1935); another great transfer (from the Dietrich Glamour Collection); visually opulent and stunning; Dietrich never looked more beautiful and ravishing and those awesome Travis Banton gowns; "The Flame of New Orleans" (1941), an amusing comedy with Marlene, Bruce Cabot, Roland Young, Melville Cooper, Theresa Harris, Clarence Muse, Laura Hope Crews, Anne Revere, Mischa Auer, Franklin Pangborn, Andy Devine....a great cast!!!!!
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"one of our most unsung and finest actresses." Beautiful statement Dolores and how very true.
Ann combined in her being the quality of a first magnitude, beautiful, alluring star with first-rank acting ability. For example, she would have been perfect as Nina in MGM's 1932 "Strange Interlude". Don't get me wrong, I love Shearer (she is a fave of mine too, especially in sophisticated comedies), but she was definitely out of her depth here. That role required the innate, natural talent that Ms. Harding possessed. I have also read that many film buffs liked better Harding's 1930 version of "Holiday" than Kate's 1938 version.
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Ann Harding is indeed one of the best and most appealing actresses of the Classic Era and continued giving excellent performances, well into the 1950s (she made her debut in films in 1929)- check the 1956 excellent drama "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" (in which she was cast as Fredric March's wife, with whom she had starred in of her very first films, 1929's "Paris Bound")
It's fantastic that TCM's Library owns the rights of many of her 1929-1937 pictures, because most of them were produced by Path?, RKO and MGM. I loved her in "The Animal Kingdom", "The Life of Vergie Winters" (it's scheduled in June so check it), "Devotion", "Love From a Stranger" and "Peter Ibbetson". She's even worthwhile in some creaky very early talkies released in 1929 such as "Her Private Affair" and "Condemned". I have yet to see her in "When Ladies Meet", "The Flame Within", "Biography Of A Bachelor Girl", "Enchanted April", "Holiday"...all of which belong to TCM's Library.
She was a first magnitude star during the Early Talkies Era (1929-1934, more or less). Why her stardom did not last is a mystery to me, because she was an excellent actress; she was also classy, beautiful, elegant, charming, apt for playing comedy and drama. She had a natural, unaffected acting style and her performances seem very modern today in comparison with another actresses of the same period.
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Acting as Bond Girls in different versions of Casino Royale. Andress in the 1967 version as vespen Lynd, Green as the same character in the currently produced version and Christina in the 1954 TV Version.
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No at all.
Did you read Alexander Walkers' Biography of her? I found it entertaining and telling.
. Yes they finally lost the battle (not the war), after rejecting the Persians many times and there were not only 300 Spartans but 700 Thespians too. The events took place pretty much as you describe them.
SEEN ANY GOOD MOVIES LATELY?
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I know what you mean... I have many tapes (not as much as you though), and I have many movies twice (on VHS and on DVD)....I just can't help buying the newer Editions on DVD.....One tends to think they'll be of better quality (not always) and above all, they will last longer.