sewhite2000

Star of the Month Doris Day. Unless they're showing that one '60s movie of hers that seems to have vanished off the face of the earth, there's probably not going to be anything on there I haven't seen before.

Woah, cool! Don't know when I'll have time to look at this. I'm already two weeks behind on posting reviews of every movie I watch in 2021 and haven't even looked at TopBilled's movie-guessing game, which I usually frequent, in several days. But thanks, just the same! Glanced at it just long enough to see it's still not 31 Days. Guess they're postponing until April, which I I believe will be the month of the actual ceremony.

The worst movie I saw in 2020 was Hillbilly Elegy. It's supposed to be inspirational, but I found it a depressing onslaught of death, addiction and poverty beating down one American family over the course of several generations. The tragedy keeps on coming with the dependability of a slasher film. A disappointing misstep for the usually dependable Ron Howard.

I've seen Magnolia, and I'm going to say I've seen Alien Nation too, so I've seen three.

I mean ... there is an app called Shazam, which I'm pretty sure is free. You could download it onto your smartphone and then hold it somewhere near your TV and turn it on when one of these songs is playing.

I have to assume if MovieCollectorOH hasn't figured out a way to access the March schedule yet, then it simply isn't available. If this is true, then we seriously may not know until March 1. I am struggling to remain patient ...

It was a very busy day for me, and I'm only checking in relatively late at night. But I see the answers haven't been posted yet, so .... 2252 Looks like Anthony Quinn and James Cagney? Not entirely sure who the woman is. Possibly something I've seen before, but I'll have to wait for it to be identified. 2253 Van Johnson? And an actress I'm not sure. I don't seem to be so great at identifying actresses. 2258 Death on the Nile! This was just on, but I've probably seen it a dozen times. The first one I'm absolutely sure I've seen. 2259 It's Alien Nation. I am really pretty sure I rented this from Blockbuster a million years ago. But I'm not 100 per cent certain. If snippets from some individual scenes surface in my mind I will count it as one I've seen. Anyway, there's only one I'm absolutely sure I've seen.

That's funny, Chaya Bat spelled the censored word the way I imagine I would have spelled it if I ever wanted to use it in that context (the way I imagine it would have been spelled the way Marlon Brando gets very angry about being called in A Streetcar Named Desire), and autocensor is totally cool with it. But when I spell it like an actual person's last name, oh, no, buddy, you're getting away with that filth! Taps! I was unable to identify it, but I've seen it. So, I've seen two.

I can't identify the older ones. 2246 is The Nutty Professor. Yes. 2249 is The Pelican Brief. No. 2250 is ****. No. I think I've only seen one. Edit" I don't know what about the man's last name autocensor finds offensive. Let's call it Jackson. Second Edit: Ohhh ... I guess it might be determined to be offensive to residents and descendants of a certain European nation, though I would spell it slightly differently, if I was the sort to use racial slurs.

Incorrect on all my actress guesses! Indeed, I've only seen one all the way through.

On the previous list, I've also seen The Cook, the Thief, et. al, so I've seen five on that list. I'm going to take a guess and say 2231 is The Smiling Lieutenant, which I just watched again the other night and noticed there was an unusually long kiss between Miriam Hopkins and Claudette Colbert. Unsure if these are the same actresses. 2233 The still is in black and white, but it looks a little like Geraldine Fitzgerald, so I'm going to take a guess and say it's Leave Her to Heaven, in which she figures prominently into a courtroom scene late in the film. 2238 It's Deliverance. That's yet another one that I've probably seen 80 or 90 per cent of from many random viewings over the decades but that I don't think I've ever actually sat down and watched the entire film from beginning to end. So, I'll call it a no. 2239 is Legal Eagles. No. 2240 is The Brady Bunch Movie. Yes. Only one I'm sure I've seen.

2221 I know there's a Marx Brothers movie where they work as animal doctors, or at least Groucho does. I've seen it, whatever the title is. Is it Animal Crackers? 2222 The Bells of St. Mary's. Yes. 2223 Good News. Yes. 2224 From Here to Eternity. Yes. 2229 Wayne's World. Oh, man, I've seen big chunks over the many years, but I guess I've never sat down and watched the whole thing from beginning to end, so I'll call it a no. A lot of people on here probably hate it, but what I've seen is really funny. I can't identify the others. Looks like I've seen at least four.

All the actresses in Gold Diggers of 1933 suddenly seem very obvious to me once you've identified them. I especially couldn't figure out Ruby Keeler for some reason. That's also a movie I've seen, so I've seen five.

2214 is Fort Apache. Yes. 2215 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? I've seen the first half hour or so, but I've always kind of avoided that one. 2216 is Houseboat. Yes. 2218 is Marooned. Yes. 2219 is Love and Death. Yes. 2220 It must be Cujo! I haven't seen it. Think I've seen four this time.

Your intent is to highlight Dean Stockwell as a child star, but I must confess I mostly know him from his adult roles, and he is a rare actor to go on from child stardom to a very long and successful adult career. I suppose I first became aware of him through Blue Velvet and the TV show Quantum Leap, and I'm only still slowly discovering some of his child roles. It was maybe my third viewing of Gentleman's Agreement that I realized he was playing Gregory Peck's son. Some other movies I've seen him in as a child: Anchors Aweigh (1945) The Secret Garden (1949) And as an adult: Compulsion (1959) Sons and Lovers (1960) Paris, Texas (1984)

Well, your Sunday theme this week is easy enough to guess - sports movies! But I still don't know most of the older ones. 2202 is probably Jim Thorpe, All-American. No. 2206 is Slap Shot. Yes. 2207 is Hoosiers. Yes. 2208 is Cool Runnings. No. 2209 is Any Given Sunday. Yes. 2210 It's Kirsten Dunst, but I don't remember the movie. I think I've seen three.

Okay, it was The Emperor Waltz, so I've seen three.

I've seen a couple of those. They surely have some screen time together in The Petrified Forest. Been a while since I've seen that one.

I read your posts with interest. Since I'm allegedly committed to reviewing every film I watch this year, this is next chronologically on my list. Hope to get around to it tomorrow. I'll try not step too much areas already covered by you.

I'm an old comic book fan, and I liked Steve Lightle's work. He had the misfortune of following Keith Giffen's heralded run on Legion, but he had a clean, polished look that I liked.

I never really warmed up to Sandy Dennis, but I admit I haven't seen a lot of her movies. I get utterly exhausted with her every time I watch Who's Afraid with Virginia Woolf?, but The Out of Towners is really funny. She has a small part in Splendor in the Grass.

Oh, well thanks for the hint! That jarred my memory. It's Alice, which I have seen, so I've seen at least two, I think.

Once again, I can identify a lot of the actors (well, I think I can - I thought John Cassavetes was Paul Newman the other day, so who knows?), but I'm not placing any of the older movies. 2193 might be The Emperor Waltz. Bing Crosby, pretty scenery. Just a guess. I've seen it if it is. 2195 Looks like Robert Mitchum wandered on to the set of The Sound of Music with evil intent. Those kids better get the hell away from him! 2197 It must be a version of The Portrait of Dorian Gray, but given its chronological placement, a newer version than the one I've seen with Angela Lansbury and George Sanders. 2198 Well, this is the only one that's obvious! Ghostbusters! Yes. 2199 William Hurt and ... Ellen Burstyn? Mia Farrow? Not a hundred per cent sure who the woman is. 2200 Secrets and Lies. No. Only one I'm absolutely sure I've seen.

I've seen parts of The Dark Corner. I never heard of most of the others. Looks like there were zero that I've watched from beginning to end.

January 5 Dark Victory (Warner Bros., 1939) Source: TCM This movie kicked off the primetime programming for the first night of TCM's monthly theme of the studio system, which focused entirely on Warner Bros (after the daytime programming was devoted to Columbia features). I did enjoy the discussion between Alicia Malone and the two critics preceding the movie. Mark Harris I think used to work for Entertainment Weekly and wrote a great book about the five Best Picture nominees for 1967 and another one I haven't read about the five US directors who went into combat zones to make documentaries for the government during World War II. His newest book is a biography of Mike Nichols, which I will probably check out. He talked about how MGM was clearly the prestige studio of the era but how Warner Bros. had the best young stars and also tended to have a little more grit in their films than the other studios and dealt more openly with contemporary social issues. He also said they had a staff in New York that kept up with all the latest plays and novels and were ready to buy the rights to them usually well ahead of their competitors. I believe this movie was adapted from a play. I've already forgotten the female critic's name, but she's also written for magazines. She wanted to talk more about Warner's more recent history as the premiere nostalgia studio left and emphasized more than once that we may be currently standing at a crossroads for what the future of the movies are going to look like, as Warner recently announced they're going to release every one of their 2021 features to theaters and on streaming the same day (this intro to the film must have been recorded fairly recently). Anyway, on to the movie. I'm sure it's well known to all regular TCM viewers. Bette Davis plays a fabulously wealthy heiress who lives on a beautiful estate I believe in upstate New York that she shares with a gal pal (Geraldine Fitzgerald) who gets no backstory. She parties a lot and is surrounded by an entourage that rarely leave the house, most notable of which is future president Ronald Reagan. She also breeds horses for racing, and her trainer is Humphrey Bogart. It's funny to see all the future WB leading men popping up in supporting roles in the first 10 minutes of movie. Presumably Cagney and Flynn were unavailable. We're told she's 23 (I believe Davis was 31 at the time) and she supposes she will one day marry but is in no hurry about it. She begins experiencing bouts of double vision and gets thrown from her prize horse when her view of the fence directly in front of them suddenly splits in two. Later, she falls down the grand staircase in her home. These incidents alarm the doctor who delivered her (Henry Travers), and he seeks out a brain specialist (George Brent) on the very day he's about to close his office in Manhattan and relocate permanently to his country home in Vermont. Having lost his last patient on the operating table, he's decided to switch to pure research on cells. He tells Travers as much and is about to show him out, but Davis has accompanied Travers, and went Brent sees her in the waiting room, he's partially captivated by her beauty and partially alarmed some telltale signs something is seriously wrong she's exhibiting. And so he tells his nurse to cancel his train tickets, saying "There will be other trains on other days", but we of course now he's now staying in New York for most of the rest of the movie. Spoiler Alert So, Brent operates on Bette's brain, but it's clear that the malignancy will return, probably in a little less than a year, and this time it will certainly be fatal. Not sure how he could tell all that, but hey, it's the movies. Also, it's one of only in the movies diseases, maybe not quite Ali McGraw Syndrome, as Roger Ebert once called it, wherein the dying patient suffers no symptoms other than getting more beautiful, but pretty close. We're told Bette will live perfectly happy and symptom free for the rest of her life until maybe a handful hours before she'll drop dead she will suddenly have a darkening of her vision. Brent and Travers decide not to tell her, and eventually Brent lets Fitzgerald in on the secret, too. Davis complicates matters by falling in love with Brent, and he's already fallen for her. Davis is in one regard lucky in that everyone around her wants her to be as happy as possible for whatever amount of time she has left, and everyone works hard to ensure her happiness. But she'll read the words "prognosis negative" (hilariously later the title of a movie of the cast members of Seinfeld want to go see - I didn't know until later that was a sly reference to this movie), and this is where the moments of heaviest drama come in. Feeling betrayed by Brent, Davis momentarily seeks refuge in Bogie's arms. I guess this was the only movie they ever did together. Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong. She was the star, and he was just a contract player, but you feel his weight in his one big scene. I like Reagan, too, in a smaller part, as a drunken hanger-on with a good heart. Brent is pretty blah, as he usually is. I have a crush on young Geraldine Fitzgerald, and this was certainly good year for her between her roles in this movie and Wuthering Heights. Davis, of course, is uber-intense. Those eyes! Boy, I didn't know when that song came out what that really meant. I was just entering my teen years, and I only knew from Death on the Nile and that Witch Mountain sequel. But this movie highlights the eyes intensely. She doesn't get to ugly herself up very much, as she seemed to enjoy. She's supposed to be glamorous in this film. But she runs the gamut of emotions from fiery and independent to helpless and terrified to lovesick with just a tinge of jealousy to bitter and resentful to joyously happy to finally resolved and brave. It's an even broader range than Jezebel, I think. I really like this movie, and it's hard to say why, exactly, other than the acting. It's really preposterous a lot of the time, a weepy "women's pic", but I always get swept up by it. Total films seen this year: 10