feaito
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Posts posted by feaito
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Excellent choices...there are so many good westerns...two "DeMille's" I enjoyed very much, come to my mind: "The Plainsman" and "Union Pacific", as well as Nicholas'Ray excellent psychological western "Johnny Guitar".
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Dorothy Granger?
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Silent Movie Fans and Movie Buffs in general,
TCM has scheduled this wonderful film on January 16th 2005, at 12:00 AM.
Do not miss it!!
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Although I'm a Hedy Fan, I can state rather "objectively" that this films is highly amusing and that Tracy & Lamarr are a good match. Verree Teasdale's character is enjoyable.
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Thanks for the info.
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Think Fast Mr. Moto
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Welcome Path!...thank you, for the great job you always do at the thread "Great Movie Alert" & for the great site you created on the web (Classicfilmguide). BRAVO!
Also thanks TCM, because it was here I could watch for the first time "Smiling Lieutenant" & "Trouble in Paradise"...and although I could not catch it, TCM also aired the very rarely seen "Design for Living", I hope I can see it someday. I'd love to see "Lady Windermere's Fan" too, I thought It was a lost film, Did TCM aired the whole film or just an excerpt?
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Therealfuster,
I just love Ernst Lubitsch, in fact some of his films, like "Trouble in Paradise", "The Shop Around the Corner", "The Smiling Lieutenant", "The Merry Widow", "Ninotchka", "Heaven Can Wait", are among my very favorite films.
That's why I had so high expectations for "That Uncertain Feeling"...I tried hard, but I couldn't "connect" with the movie, it just didn't "click" with me...on the other hand, you are right, Burgess Meredith did a very good acting job portraying the annoying artist, saying "phooey!!" all the time.
It has nothing to do it being and old classic movie, because I love old movies...it happened something similar to me with "Citizen Kane", I'd read so much about it, the best film of all time, that the first time I saw it I felt somewhat disappointed too...although I could recognize the genius behind it and the great camera work. When I watched it a second time, I liked better, although I have to admit I'm fonder of "The Magnificent Ambersons".
Oddly enough, a Lubistch film like "Angel", which hasn't very good reviews, I found it very entertaining and well done. The same happened to me with John Ford's "Mary of Scotland", I just loved it.
I think that when it comes to tastes and to the "connections" one feels for certain films, there is nothing logic about it.
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Joe I agree with you, "That Uncertain Feeling" was a big disappointment to me...you know, Lubistch, Melvyn Douglas, ...I expected more, and I found the film boring, maybe I had too high expectations.
On the other hand, "These Three" is one of my fave films, and all, Oberon, Hopkins, McCrea, Granville, etc, were great in it. In fact I liked it more than the remake: "The Children's Hour". And yes, this one and "Wuthering Heights" easily rank among Merle's best films.
As for Dolores del R?o, she was an exceptional beauty indeed and after she returned to Mexico in 1943, she "acquired" a greater acting talent under the deft direction of Emilio Fern?ndez in films like "Flor Silvestre", "Mar?a Candelaria", "Bugambilia", etc.
As for her Hollywood films, I loved her in the 1929 "Evangeline", a great silent picture. She was highly amusing in "Madame DuBarry", although IMHO, Reginald Denny as Louis XV more or less steals the show; and "Bird of Paradise" is an entertaining escapist pre-code film, with very sexy scenes opposite Joel McCrea, BTW the Roan Group DVD edition is good.
It would be great to have a day dedicated to her.
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Welcome guys,
You won't regret it, Colbert and Stewart work very well together.
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I think that MGM had spent too much money already in "Marie Antoinette": the sets, costumes, all the antiques and furniture they bought, etc., to film it in colour, but I read somewhere that originally it was intended to be a Technicolor Movie, Not 100% sure.
Also, the original choice for director was Sidney Franklin, but instead MGM put W.S. "One Take" Van Dyke to get the picture on time and on budget.
I think that in this film Norma was better in its second half.
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Another excellent movie starring Colbert, which by the way belongs to the TCM Library and is scheduled in December, is "It's a Wonderful World!" (not to be confused with Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life"), a great madcap, screwball comedy, produced by MGM and directed by W.S. Van Dyke, with Colbert in the role of a runaway-poetess opposite a "not-so-nice" Jimmy Stewart....A really hilarious movie.
Don't miss this great film, 'cos it's neither available on VHS nor on DVD.
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Yes, Norma looks fabulous in "Riptide", as well as in the stills of that picture. They say she always knew what her best angles were, the best light to be filmed/photographed, etc. I think that maybe there and in "Strangers May Kiss" & "The Divorcee", she looked greater than in any other picture...well in "A Free Soul" too.
BTW I bought "Riptide" some 4 years ago, and boy! it is one of the most expensive VHS I have ever bought...it cost me 26.99 plus shipping and handling...I don't know why it's so expensive.
Did you see "Marie Antoinette", she looked gorgeous in those ravishing XVIIIth Century gowns Adrian designed for the film.
I haven't seen any of Norma's Silents, I taped "He Who Get Slapped", so I'll watch it someday. I'd like to see her in "The Devil's Circus", "Tower of Lies", "The Student Prince" and in "After Midnight".
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In Knock on Wood
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Let's not lose our hopes guys, I remember last year's 31 days of Oscar (March 2003) I watched such rarities as 1929's "Weary River" with Richard Barthelmess and Betty Compson and "Dynamite" with Conrad Nagel, Charles Bickford, Kay Johnson and Joel McCrea, both of which were Oscar nominated in some category.
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Wow Moviejoe,
Every time I read a post of yours, it's like you were taking words out of my mouth!...Norma has certain magic, indeed! At least, for us.
And, yes, since I was a teenager I had been looking deperately for any book on Norma, and of course Lambert's biography "Norma Shearer: A Life" was on the top of my list. Some 5 years ago, or so, I found it second hand and bought it...and I liked it very much.
In fact I've been trying to buy too Lawrence J. Quirk's "Norma: The Story of Norma Shearer" too (although 2nd hand copies are way too expensive), which has excellent reviews, some people say it's better than Lambert's; so you have read both and think Lambert's book is better? Well, that makes me happy, 'cos then, I won't feel so desperate about having it.
I also had the luck of finding the largely out-of-print Citadel Press "The Films of Norma Shearer".
One of the reasons I bought Mick LaSalle's "Complicated Women", was because her portrait was on the cover, and she was widely discussed there.
have you seen Riptide? Try to catch it on TCM, you won't regret it.
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Yeah the gowns & hairdos in that one were really very elaborated....(Travis Banton?)...Most of DeMille's extravaganzas of the 1920's and early 1930's displayed luxurious wardrobes.
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I agree with all of you, "Freaks" is an odd picture to carry the "MGM" Logo, but it's a landmark movie and thank God it was produced...hadn't been for Thalberg.
I owned the VHS edition, but let me tell you that the DVD Edition (which I bought recently) is a MUST for movie buffs of the 1930's.
In the same "vein" (fantastic-horror), although not as "shocking", I recommend to all of you the DVD Criterion edition of "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932) (aka "The Hounds of Zaroff") starring Fay Wray, Joel McCrea and Leslie Banks (great villain).
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I agree with you MovieJoe, I don't know what happens to me with Norma Shearer, but since I was a kid, when I hadn't yet seen any film of her (only had read a lot 'bout her), I felt immensely intrigued, attracted to her "persona". Yeah she was no special beauty and no great actress, but she had that extra "something"....she was classy, she was smart, she worked hard at achieving the best she could.
The first film I saw her in was "Romeo and Juliet", and I thought it was a decent version, in spite of the fact that she and Leslie Howard were way too old (especially Howard) for the leading roles. The production values and the supporting cast are great.
It is true that sometimes she overacts but her charisma is undeniable.
I agree that her role in "The Women" must be one of her best. I also liked her in "Marie Antoinette", especially when she was "older". Another very worthwhile movie is the delightfully pre-code "Riptide", opposite Herbert Marshall and Robert Montgomery, although somewhat episodic is grand fun.
"A Free Soul" and "The Divorcee" are also good, and I'd love to watch her in the 1932 "Smilin' Through" which along with "Imitation of Life", "Magnificent Obsession" and "The Bitter Tea of General Yen", where THE movies my grandma always kept mentioning over & over as her faves.
I have taped from TCM "The Barretts of Wimpole Street", "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney", "Strangers May Kiss", "Private Lives" and "Strange Interlude", which I will try to watch as soon as possible.
I would like to watch Norma"Idiot's Delight" and "Escape" too.
If I had to define Norma Shearer, I'd have to say she was the epitome of the sophisticated and classy Movie Star.
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What a pleasure to read this thread..."Imitation of Life" has always been a fave of mine, because as a kid my grandmother kept talking me about the 1934 version starring the grand Claudette Colbert. Besides I had seen the 1959 version on TV and I loved it...those opening titles with the diamonds falling down, were really inventive.
I like so much both movies that in spite I had bought them both on Tape, I have the double DVD edition, which is great (I got it as a gift).
To compare both versions is difficult 'cos they answer to different Era's needs & codes, but the two are ravishing and excellently acted, although Claudette Colbert is my fave actress (compared to Lana Turner).
I also must add that sweet Louise Beavers' performance blew me away, it is a real treat to watch her...if you can, pleae watch her great performance in the 1940 "No Time for Comedy" (1940) (aka "The Guy with a Grin") starring Rosalind Russell & Jimmy Stewart, a very special film indeed, not your "typical" comedy.
Claudette Colbert made so many good movies, the aforementioned "The Smiling Lieutenant", "Midnight", "It Happened One Night", "Palm Beach Story", "Tovarich", "Without Reservations" (one of my fave too, in spite of having a "dubbed" version), etc.
Sadly, many of her "Paramounts" aren't available nor I have seen them scheduled anywhere: "Arise My Love", "Skylark", "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife", "The Gilded Lily", "She Married her Boss" (Columbia)...
She was also very sexy in both "The Sign of The Cross" and the tongue-in-cheek 1934 version of "Cleopatra" opposite Warren William and Henry Wilcoxon...much better than the mammooth, too serious 1963 Taylor spectacle.
It's a pity so many good films from the 1930's aren't available on DVD and the VHS editions are out-of-print; for example the excellent "Craig's Wife" with Rosalind Russell and John Boles, the magnificent "Theodora Goes Wild" with Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas, the marvellous "Death Takes a Holiday" with Fredric March and Evelyn Venable (which was included in a special edition of "Meet Joe Black", the remake of the same story), the great "Remember the Night" with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck, the unique "History is Made at Night" with Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur...all of which I had the luck of purchasing at very good prices, to some marketplace sellers at Amazon.com.
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Latin Lovers?
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Abraham Lincoln
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Fred Astaire in The Sky's the limit?
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Lou Jacobi in Avalon
Can you name a film....
in General Discussions
Posted
The credits of "Funny Face" are great, also many Hitchcock movies like "Psycho", "North by Northwest", "Vertigo" wonderful credits & music.
I also agree with whom mentioned "The Lady Eve". "My Man Godfrey" is noteworthy in that area too.