sewhite2000

I would hope you don't need to say the punchline! Just wanted to say I "got it"!

Edit: I'm gonna change my post, because I thought I was responding to the OP and hence it would be rather nonsensical. I'm not reading very carefully. Probably need to go to bed.

I just watched that last night! Not my first time, but first time in a long time. And I thought the same thing! He's like totally chill, as the kids say (or said five years ago). He's not trying to be a romantic rival with Joel McCrea or upstage him in his quest to get the story. He's the perfect buddy. And he's quite heroic in the scene where he keeps Albert Basserman from spilling the beans. I will say there's just a hint of how he can be ominous when he tries to blackmail Herbert Marshall with his allegedly kidnapped daughter (the kidnapping is extremely innocuous, but Marshall doesn't know that!).

Your post makes me aware I've been misspelling Barbra's first name, something I've done on and off for many years. After a while, I always forget and stick that extra "a" in there. I think that's the more conventional way to spell the name, but not the only way, obviously. Apologies.

Has anyone seen Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again? I can't scroll back through all these pages, so sorry if someone has already brought this up, but don't read any further unless you want to know the all-time ... SPOILER ALERT! I could tell from the trailer that Meryl Streep wasn't going to be in the movie much, because there's only a couple of brief shots of her, and she's off by herself looking on beatifically as if somehow apart from the proceedings. I thought her character might be off on the other side of the world on business for most of the movie. But she's not in the movie much because her character is dead! What the hell? Didn't see that one coming! It was discussed on another thread that Cher plays Streep's mother. I was looking forward to see them sharing the screen for the first time since Silkwood, but that doesn't happen because, you know, Streep's character is dead! About the only other thing of note is the performance of the ABBA obscurity "When I Kissed the Teacher" with all the pronouns changed so that the teacher is a she. Presumably this was done to make the song less Lolitaesque shocking and more platonic (a female student kissing a female teacher is just harmless fun, right?), but it could certainly be interpreted as giving the song a whole new lesbian vibe.

I haven't seen Song of Love, but I assume such scenes were incredibly rare what with the Hays Code and all. I assume this scene is done with considerable subtlety?

Um, yes, I knew that. I was just trying to spell it the way she pronounced it.

Wow, wait, did TCM really play Phone Call from a Stranger? Totally missed it. I watched it on YouTube three or four years ago, figuring it was one of those Fox films that TCM would never show.

There is an episode of this - uncertain if it was the only episode ever - included as a bonus extra on a now quite-old Casablanca DVD maybe a 60th anniversary disc from 2003, which I used to own. I also meant to mention it.

That's an interesting question, and of course one the movie doesn't address. Seeing as Sabrina doesn't seem to have any friends her own age, my speculation is she probably got to go to private school with the rich kids as a perk of her position, but that they certainly didn't welcome her or treat her as an equal.

That's an interesting question, given there's some connection between those two artists. Rich let the world know his feelings about Denver when he read the envelope naming Denver the Academy of Country Music's Artist of the Year for I think 1974. I think very likely Rich was the recipient of the award the previous year - 1973 would have been the year he dominated the charts with "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl" - which is probably why he was presenting the award. Denver was not present to accept in person. I've seen the video before on YouTube - possibly Denver appeared via early use of satellite TV? Been so long, I've forgotten. Anyway, Rich took a cigarette lighter out of his pocket and burned the letter containing Denver's name after he read it! To the approval of the crowd. The country music establishment was very unhappy with Denver, whom they perceived to be a hippie pop artist, dominating their singles and albums charts (there was no love lost for Olivia Newton John, either, who was briefly a major player on the country charts right around the same time). Though personally I found it odd that Rich should lead the campaign against him, as he was also very much an atypical country mega- success, a Sun Records veteran with a soulful voice that could dip into full-on R&B if he wanted (I would think sounding black would be far more horrifying to the country establishment in 1974 than sounding like a hippie) and who was also fully versed in jazz piano stylings. Personally, I love both of them. Edit: Scrolling back up and seeing you mentioned this moment as well.

So many early Audrey movies are about her transiting from a woman-child to full woman. More of a mental/emotional transition than a physical one (though there are changes in her appearance, too - they almost always involve cutting her hair). The scripts are always contrived so that she's placed in some situation where initially her path to full maturity has been stifled or stymied in some way. In this movie, it's her position growing up in the periphery of this dazzling wealth but not really being part of it. You get the sense that she's had no experience with men/boys at all, not even from her own class, though her father probably tried to arrange such things, she likely rejected or shied away from them. Also not having a mother in her life. It requires her traveling to the other side of the world and having new experiences to reach maturity. Which is why the sequel doesn't work for me. Julia Ormond has nothing of the childlike wonder and heartbroken adolescent yearning that make Audrey appealing in a gawky way in the original. The movie posits that she HAD to grow up in Paris first before she could understand her ability to beguile David through her appearance and manner. And what's interesting is that even though she's grown up in that way, she still has deep down this adolescent attachment to him. I think only when she falls for Linus does she reach full maturity.

For all its inanity, YouTube is really great for a lot of things, isn't it? I guess it shouldn't surprise me that at least one ep of this show is on there. Thanks for the info.

Between April and September of 1983, NBC aired five episodes of a Casablanca TV show with David Soul as Rick, Hector Elizondo as Louis, Ray Liotta as Sacha and Scatman Crothers as Sam! It was supposed to be set before the events of the movie started, but its continuity didn't precisely jibe with the movie as Rick has already met Strasser and Heinz in the series, and they're recurring characters. It appears to have been a summer try-out show that didn't get picked up for a full season. It averaged 91st in the Nielsen ratings over its five episodes. Did anyone watch this?

Just on last night: Darren McGavin's super-evil drug dealer in The Man with the Golden Arm. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048347/mediaviewer/rm3737869824

I have no idea what "mega profits mentality of CNN and MSNBC" means, but since you don't list Fox News, I assume you're trying to make some anti-liberal point.

And you didn't even mention Edward Norton! Boy I never would have guessed that actor, whom I'd previously been ready to dismiss as really self-important, could be so funny, until he met Wes Anderson. Also check him out in Moonrise Kingdom.

Somebody on a local radio station in my town said that she was David Spade's sister, which I guess is incorrect. But there is a family connection between them by marriage, I see.

Maybe their genuine voices aren't all that similar - a little bit, maybe! - but Dennis Morgan does a great Ronald Colman impression in Kitty Foyle.

I don't know how to say this without it being a Spoiler Alert, but Harrison Ford in What Lies Beneath, which has actually aired once on TCM.

It's not just character actors, of course. Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant are two examples of major stars who had incredibly distinct voices. I'll never forget Dana Carvey doing his X-rated impressions of each of them on Bob Costas' great, long-forgotten late night show circa 1991. He made Costas laugh so hard, he fell out of his chair!

Boy, I'm glad you mentioned that! I always wanted to start a thread about that and list all the Paramount films I've heard that song in. I can't remember now if I ever did or not. I think it made its debut in one of those Maurice Chevalier movies, in which everyone in the city is singing that song. Paramounts being relatively rare on TCM these days, I forget as the years go by which movies it was in. But it almost seems like every time TCM plays a Paramount film, I hear it somewhere.

Boy, I just watched Blazing Saddles for the zillionth time last night. It's free right now if you have an Amazon Prime membership. And she's sexy as heck in that movie! It's twue, it's twue ...

As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly ...

While Holiday Inn has played about three times in the last couple of years, it's been 12 years since White Christmas aired on TCM. Hey, I didn't know White Christmas was directed by Michael Curtiz! Is there anything that guy didn't do? Would have been cool if it had been included in his recent tribute.