primosprimos
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Posts posted by primosprimos
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If there is one actor that ever rubbed me the wrong way, it's Fred MacMurray. Still can't stand the sight of him. Has it anything to do with the role he played opposite Bogart in the Caine Mutiny? Don't think so. Couldn't stand the sight of him in Double Indemnity either--what a bummer for Stanwick. Never could understand why the studio hired such a schlemiel in the first place. Same goes for Fredric March, who was a banker before he went to Hollywood. Oh, how did he get in? Same goes for Tom Ewell. Powerful, money-loaded agents. That's all. Who the heck wanted to see Ewell opposite Marilyn in the Seven Year Itch? What was the matter with Glenn Ford? He would have been perfect! Might as well have been Fredric March, or Fred MacMurray--anybody by name of "Fred".
Can't disagree with you, Mac. AS I SAID:
He was very good, for me, he just didn't always get handed the writing and chemistry that would have endeared him to me.
I found him PERFECT, P.E.R.F.E.C.T. perfect in Double Indemnity. Not a note out of place, not a minute wasted. My teeth itch when I see Crawford or Davis or Hepburn (hold your calls and letters, I know you all love them), so pairing Fred or Cary or any of my other faves with them is a sacrilege. I adored the old 1930s pre-codes with my faves and unknown brilliant glorious actors like Ann Harding. I even liked my faves with the aforementioned teeth itchers, before Crawford was CRAWFORD and Davis was DAVIS. What a diff.
Then they found out what they did best, and did it over and over and over again. And droned on and on about those calla lilies, while those with more talent looked on.
Fred was good in The Egg and I, with Colbert. He was again good with her in No Time For Love, which is so seldom shown. I look forward to seeing Remember The Night again. Fred was very good, lavenderblue, but I never found him to possess SAAM in anything other than Double Indemnity. He positively sizzled in that movie.
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Uhh, last I heard, Cinemax was owned by HBO, not CBS. That is, it's the same ownership (Time Warner) as TCM.
Thanks, rewrite, you're right. CBS owns Showtime.
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I don't know.
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Not quite sure if the so-called "Tiffany Network" has been known to have had a "squeaky clean image" for many years now, primos.
Especially considering that they've broadcast what has evolved into one of the raunchiest sitcoms ever on TV, and one I used to like quite a lot..."Two and a Half Men".
(...though maybe you meant something else by this, and if so, please elaborate)
Nope, you kenn'ed (sp) correctly, and you're right, I gave up on 2-1/2 Men a long time ago for its filth and innuendo.
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COMCAST also charges plenty. TCM, ME-TV, THIS, ANTENNA are in the 2nd tier and I pay extra for that. Unfortunately we don't get GET-TV, MOVIES and some of the other stations that have been mentioned on the bds.lately. Last night was the first time that the 2 hours were replaced by those horrible informercials. I'm very tired but I'll force myself to tune in tonight to ME-TV, RT 66 and Naked City are on @ 3 and 4 am, and yes there will be hell to pay if those idiotic commercials are on instead.
In the meantime I did get COMCAST to credit me for a day of tv programming, came out to a $4.00 credit and I'll keep calling until they do something about this
Isn't it a shame, lavenderblue? Remember all the hoopla about the end of the cable monopolies and deregulation, when everything was supposed to be better for us the consumer?
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I like THE MOONLIGHTER , especially the waterfall scene, but I'm a sucker for Stanwyck and I love her in westerns. Stanwyck and MacMurray were a great pairing. Their chemistry comes across in all the films they made together and I think their mutual admiration and respect for each other comes thru.
REMEMBER THE NIGHT is just a beautiful, touching film. Fred really was versatile and underated. Most tend to think of him as just this conservative, one note actor. So untrue, he was so good equally in dramas and comedies. So glad that TCM allows us the opportunity to see him in all genres. Whether he's the good guy, the bad guy or in between, he's been in some truly memorable great films and his presence in those films makes them that much better
He was very good, for me, he just didn't always get handed the writing and chemistry that would have endeared him to me.
I found him PERFECT, P.E.R.F.E.C.T. perfect in Double Indemnity. Not a note out of place, not a minute wasted. My teeth itch when I see Crawford or Davis or Hepburn (hold your calls and letters, I know you all love them), so pairing Fred or Cary or any of my other faves with them is a sacrilege. I adored the old 1930s pre-codes with my faves and unknown brilliant glorious actors like Ann Harding. I even liked my faves with the aforementioned teeth itchers, before Crawford was CRAWFORD and Davis was DAVIS. What a diff.
Then they found out what they did best, and did it over and over and over again. And droned on and on about those calla lilies, while those with more talent looked on.
Fred was good in The Egg and I, with Colbert. He was again good with her in No Time For Love, which is so seldom shown. I look forward to seeing Remember The Night again. Fred was very good, lavenderblue, but I never found him to possess SAAM in anything other than Double Indemnity. He positively sizzled in that movie.
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I emailed ME-TV and called COMCAST- last night my beloved ROUTE 66 and THE NAKED CITY were bumped and 2 moronic Informercials were shown in their place. So watch out guys and keep your fingers crossed that ME-TV does NOT go that route into the dreaded Informercial land
I haven't heard about that kind of BS since my days with Cablevision, where one station was broadcast in the day and another at night. Too bad if you liked what either had at differing hours.
FIOS, however, charges up the wazoo, so it shows all of ME tv and all of GET tv. I think. I don't know what any of them show in the wee hours of the night. Cinemax, which has made an attempt to clean up its act with The Knick, is still showing soft core porn at night, the idiots. MEANwhile, I think CBS owns Cinemax, so tsk tsk on CBS's squeaky clean image.
As Fred said, liars and crooks.
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yes, yes, and yes.
Yes, but so what?
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And bribe them with a $100,000 payment of $100 bills hidden in a paper bag.
Already being done, Fred. Google 'cable television lobbyists'.
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If you want a la cart programming, you need to contact your Congressional delegation as they are the only ones who can make it happen. But be warned, many channels will go out of business and TCM might just be one of them.
Not to worry. The lobbyists are paying off the politicians to make sure this never happens.
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Well promos, first of all here, and I suppose because it's now suddenly become quite "fashionable" to question others around here as to if their posts are "remaining on-track", I'm inclined to ask you if you believe this post of yours is being such(i.e.: what this might perhaps have to do with Fred MacMurray), however seeing as how you've brought this up here AND because I've never been much of a "fashionista"(LOL), I'll then instead ask you if you might happen to have noticed a resemblance between Mr. Whiplash here and another certain actor for whom I understand you have quite the affinity????
To quote you, yourself, and you, Dargo:
Nope, MY guess is more that we just wanted you to understand that this whole "villian=heavy" issue wasn't important enough of an issue in order for it to become a "win-lose proposition" as to whom was being "right", that's all.
Did you notice in the Wikipedia definition of villain that it agrees a villain can be a heavy, and that an antagonist can be a protagonist?
On track enough for you?
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To bring this thread back around to Ben, his dad, Frank Mankiewicz, just died:
As recounted in the NY Times, Mr. Mankiewicz grew up in Beverly Hills surrounded by the famous friends of his screenwriter father, Herman. He saw combat in World War II and then became a journalist and lawyer. He was also a close aide to Robert F. Kennedy and president of National Public Radio. Quite a life.
Quite a life indeed. I never knew I was watching Ben's father in 1968!
Didn't Ben just air an interview with his father, wherein his father put to rest a lie that Orson Welles had been purporting (down to money, natch) that he co-wrote Citizen Kane with Herman Mankiewicz? Frank said he lied, Herman alone wrote Citizen Kane.
He reminded me of Lawrence Tierney, a no nonsense kind of guy who did not tolerate fools.
Condolences, Ben and Josh.
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Well, you get what you pay for. There are differences between cable/satellite providers. If CNN, TCM, etc., are important to DISH customers, they'll lobby to get them back, or leave, even if that means paying more elsewhere. We had a case in NYC a while back -- Time Warner Cable cut ABC-TV (a struggle between TW and Disney). There was a lot of fuss and publicity, then it all went back the way it was. My cable company -- RCN -- doesn't get NY1, a local station, because that is owned by Time Warner, and considered an enhancement for people to join TW (probably the least popular of the three cable options in my part of NYC).
If my cable company pulled TCM, I would switch to a company that provided it.
This is my 5000th post! (I'd have a bit more but lost some in the changeover). I know I'm not in the league of many others, but it is a milestone!
Swithin, there my be differences between cable and satellite providers, but I don't believe there are any between the cable providers. I am of the opinion there is price fixing on the part of all cable providers.
I never wanted a satellite dish because they used to be the size of a small alien spaceship. They have come down in size, but due to inertia and the fact that Cablevision doesn't carry NJTV, I won't be leaving FIOS anytime soon - and they know it. Time Warner and Comcast are still black balled in Westchester.
As Fred so wisely opined, they are all liars and crooks.
WOW, I never realized what a quiet, demure misanthropic curmudgeon I was - only a lousy 1,348 posts!
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Did you really dislike ABOVE SUSPICION? Maltin gives it three stars. I don't find it that bad (if you're willing to suspend disbelief that Joan can outfox the Nazis with Fred's help).
I did. I also often disagree with Maltin.
Well, since I instinctively dislike Crawford, whom I find to always be Crawford in movies, I wasn't impressed by her unflappability in the face of danger. Even Fred seemed to be phoning it in. I did like Basil's mother, however.
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Good for you, lavender.
CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
No.
Cute pic, from what movie?
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It's on right now !!!!!
Someone said the bad ghost is the same lady who played the "sister" cat woman in THE CAT PEOPLE in the cafe. See her in a painting on the wall of one of the rooms in this film.
What an excellent movie.
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My sentiments exactly, they are synonymous. All that occurred was a difference of opinion. After being on these bds for as long as I have, believe me there have been much worse disagreements than this one and Tom is correct, you do not need to apologize
Some levity, from Wikipedia (I wonder how they co-opted Snidely Whiplash without giving credit to Rocky and Bullwinkle?):
A villain (also known in film and literature as the "antagonist," "baddie", "bad guy", "heavy" or "black hat") is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist (though can be the protagonist), the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. A female villain is occasionally called a villainess (often to differentiate her from a male villain). Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot".[1]
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That there is a contrast between the persona actors present and their actual character goes without saying--we're dealing with actors after all. But while I don't think the sex life of Gary Cooper is particularly relevant to appreciating, say, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, I have to make an exception for John Wayne. The contradiction in his persona--he was valorized as a hero for playing a hero, in contrast to Astaire and Kelly who actually could dance, and many movie comedians who were actually funny--irritates me. Wayne's best films actually show more ambiguity about himself, but it does mean that not being enthused his myth means that a movie like The Shootist has no particular appeal to me.
Some movies are affected by their reputation. The 1963 Cleopatra has been hurt by its reputation as the most expensive movie of its time, possibly of all time, and the aggressive campaign to recoup its costs left a bitter taste among critics who are not easily intimidated. Yet arguably it is a better movie than the other best picture nominees of 1963, even if it is clearly not one of the best movies of that year.
All true. And there are those who can separate the lives of the actors and the characters they portray. About some sins, I cannot. Lee Marvin is unwatchable because of his misogyny.
Also, they have to be good enough actors to overlook their off-screen antics. Tom Cruise is not. The fact that Philip Seymour Hoffman was a drug addict would have meant nothing to me, had he lived. He was that good an actor.
Beauty and talent are in the eye of the beholder.
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Everything changes, every company goes down on service and up on price.
I spent more money to go up to a 1.5 Meg ISP DSL service, and I got a year of seeing YouTube movies WITHOUT INTERUPTION at that speed. But now YouTube has changed and half the movies stop after a few minutes, and a pop-up ad from YouTube says I've got to down load a bunch of new programs to get non-stop movies now.
My telephone company guaranteed me DSL for $15 a month. Well, that turned out to be an "introductory" offer that lasted a year. Now I have to pay $28 a month for the same service, AND that is not a fast enough speed to watch all YouTube movies now.
A bunch of damn liars and crooks.
A bunch of damn liars and crooks.
Amen.
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http://www.fairsatellite.com/national/turner/?WT.svl=nav
Well, no, they're dirty rotten liars, they don't stand for you, they stand for themselves.
An example of the profit to one cable company:
More on bundling and a la carte programming:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/25/bundles-of-cable
As I said earlier, this will eventually be worked out, and the customer will lose. Because the customer will pay more.
Yes, Fedya, everyone in the television business - emphasis on business - is a bad guy. Some are just worse than others.
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At this very moment, Fred's on TCM in ABOVE SUSPICION-- which was Joan Crawford's last film at MGM until TORCH SONG a decade later.
And boy is it a stinker. Had to turn it off.
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I completely agree.
I think what's happening is that Time Warner (the parent company) is telling Turner Classic Movies (and TBS et. al.) to show more profit in 2015. So there will be staffing cuts (to save money) and an increase in fees with the cable providers.
They are hoping that angry viewers will convince Dish to go along with the price hikes. And that laid off employees will go away quietly.
Corporate greed will affect programming quality and it will also affect whether people remain loyal to the brand(s).
So there will be staffing cuts (to save money)
Check.
and an increase in fees with the cable providers.
Check.
They are hoping that angry viewers will convince Dish to go along with the price hikes.
Check.
And that laid off employees will go away quietly.
Check.
Corporate greed will affect programming quality and it will also affect whether people remain loyal to the brand(s).
Check and double check.
Remember the first subway fare hike? Train ticket hike? Bridge toll hike? Remember the outrage?
Exactly.
People will be fired - laid off is a term only used for union employees who can come back at a later date, corporations FIRE people but use euphemisms - and go away quietly, because they are over 55 and will get severance.
People will get a bit angry at the hike in price, and then forget about it when the next sound bite hits the news channels.
You heard it here first.
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We all know that DISH is the "Tracphone of Television", i.e., if you use up all your gigabytes allowed for the month, customers must purchase more just to check email (when bundling internet and tv) but now they've shown just how greedy they really are: a multi-billion dollar corporation that treats it's customers like waste.
I encourage all DISH employees to stage a walk-out, as I'm sure the stress from complaining customers is more than they can bear. Or, if we the customers had the courage to boycott them entirely, that could work too. How much more of their greed can we stand? Do they really want us to watch FOX News? (msnbc is great, if you want "news shows" but it's just not the same as CNN.)
And CNN and TCM are---excuse me---WERE the channels I watched the most often.
Why is it that we have to suffer while these corporations have another dispute over dollars? Oh. I forgot.
People don't matter---money does.
Fascinating. The other over priced crooks are threatening this payment for internet time based on usage - what happened to the worry about cable having been a monopoly? Oh yeah, the lobbyists paid off the politicians and so deregulation did nothing at all for the customers.
Of course you are correct, Baminark, only the bottom line is of concern to these corporations. They don't care about their customers, so a walk-out or a boycott would mean nothing to them.
This is all nothing new, BTW. Cablevision stole 10 of my analog channels in the 1990s, forcing me to upgrade to digital. When given the chance - they had a choke-hold on the cable in Westchester for a long time - I switched to FIOS, which has proven (no surprise) to be equally thieving. And like others, I pay for tons of useless channels and watch only a few.
DISH and TCM will reach an accord, one of these days, and as noted, the customer will pay. They always do.
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Fascinating when a proven favorite is a yawn, and another not so favorite favorite is enjoyable.
Yesterday's birthday tribute to Constance Bennett was enjoyable overall, but some of the individual movies were astonishing bad.
Proving, once again, that it's not just the black and white, it's not just the actors, but the black and white movie with the wonderful actors must be written well.
I turned off most of them, but Our Betters with Gilbert Roland was interesting. Two Faced Woman with Melvyn Douglas, whom I've enjoyed in the past, and Greta Garbo, who looked like an old shoe, was excruciating. Similarly, Smart Woman with an old CB was sad. The rest were unwatchable.
Interestingly, After Office Hours was a delight, and sadly I missed the first 15 minutes. I usually bypass Gable, but in this movie he was suitably paired with CB. His antics on the motorcycle were almost Cary Grant-ish. That car, that beach house, all nice to look at whilst Gable and CB, of course, saved the day, however improbably. Stu Erwin, also usually unbearable, added to the mix. Maltin didn't like it, no surprise. Oh, and the script was written by Ben's grandfather Herman.
Too bad Gable believed his PR and later became only Gable on the screen, the man had real talent.
TCM has showed Hot Saturday more than once recently, I wouldn't mind seeing After Office Hours again.
Count Floyd should've introduced the Mrs. Soffel/ Kildare double feature this morning.
in General Discussions
Posted
Absolutely, SCTV was some of the finest television ever.
BUT - do you remember Uncle Floyd?
http://fooksieblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/uncle-floyd-and-oogie.html