faceinthecrowd

Barrie Chase was good enough to dance with Fred Astaire, and she gave an effective acting performance in CAPE FEAR. Toni Basil, who played one of the hookers in EASY RIDER, was a first rate dancer who appeared with The Lockers.

I don't think Janice Rule's character was rude to him. He hurt her badly and she's letting him know it. She gives a fine performance, and she looks smashing in a swimsuit.

To sewhite: If the OP had said "Hope" instead of "Pray," would you find that acceptable? I don't think we should jump on every word that someone uses. And how many of the subjects discussed on this site are really significant in the larger scheme of things?

Lewis Milestone's direction, and Joan Crawford's and Walter Huston's performances, were IMO much superior to the later version. Even before we see the main characters there is the rain starting to fall, then turning into a torrent -- then the Marines slogging through the mud and singing. The only scene that put me off was Crawford deciding to go to jail as a "thank offering." I almost barfed when that happened; I couldn't believe that Sadie would have said or done such a thing. But the rest was first rate. And about Donna Reed in "From Here to Eternity": I think it was Oscar Levant who said that someone had to explain to Reed what a prostitute was. Too bad that illness prevented Carolyn Jones from playing the part. (I know that Reed won an Oscar, but I didn't give it to her.)

I rented it from Netflix, where it's part of the disc titled "Maya Deren: Experimental Films." It's still available there.

You remember correctly. After Paar's late night show ended he had a program for a while in prime time. I watched it a couple of times, but it just wasn't the same. He needed to be seen late at night, where there was the sense that anything could happen -- and in his case, sometimes it did.

I agree that Jack Paar wasn't a comedian. He was unlike anyone else -- he was just himself. Some people watched him without fail; others couldn't stand him. Which reminds me of some of his frequent guests. There was Genevieve, on whom I (and a few million other guys) had a major crush. Once Paar was talking about a movie starlet who wore a very plunging neckline. Genevieve said, "You could see her 'comme ?a'?" The station's switchboard was soon flooded with callers demanding to know what she had said. (Thanks to my high school French, I wasn't shocked.) Then there was Jack Douglas, a gag writer with an off-center sense of humor. He told of man who committed suicide in an unusual way -- he jumped into a vat of lanolin, and softened to death. Douglas also claimed to be writing a biography of Adam, titled "No Navel to Guide Him."

Check out YouTube to see why Allen and Paar stood out from those who came after.

Anything that defies the Code is fine with me (even though sometimes they go too far in the other direction). And when Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles are involved, so much the better. Still: a photographer goes to a park where he thinks there may be a corpse, and he doesn't take a camera with him? At a rock concert, the audience sits as still as statues? And the famous tennis game played in pantomime: I thought it was too clever by half. When I gave this film a negative review on Amazon I got a boatload of "not helpful" ratings. That what happens when you criticize a movie that people love.

In the commentary track, Coppola said that he used the two different readings deliberately. So it may be that the ambiguity was intended. Still, it bothered me when I first heard it. My reaction was, "Wait a minute, that's not what they said!" It might have been better if Coppola had presented it in a way that showed Caul hearing it in his mind one way, then shaking his head and hearing it the other way. At any rate, it's a very complex movie. It's already been established that Caul feels guilt over the fate of someone he bugged. And now it may be happening again. In the final scene, Caul tears his apartment up trying to find the bug -- "The **** got bugged!" -- as his rival said earlier after planting a miked pen on him. And as I was typing this, I realized that "****" is an interesting word to use. "Don't call him 'the little ****'!" ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?")

I admire this film, but the biggest plot hole of all involves the line, "He'd kill us if he got the chance." There are two ways of reading this, with two different meanings, and they are *both* used. A critic observed, "The central ambiguity is a cheat" -- and it is. It's a fine picture with a serious flaw. I give it "only" 4.5 stars out of 5.

Margaret Sullavan is, sadly, almost forgotten today, even by film buffs. *The Shop Around the Corner* is one of her best. And what a lovely voice she had!

Parker is the main reason to watch *An American Dream,* the ill-starred attempt to film Norman Mailer's novel. Once she exits the picture, it goes downhill fast.

I'm really giving away my age here, but: I don't think there will ever be anyone like Steve Allen and Jack Paar.

Another Carole L. made a great sacrifice during WWII: Carole Lombard was killed in a plane crash while on a tour to sell war bonds.

And it's always a pleasure to watch Viveca Lindfors and Maggie Smith.

The first ten that come to mind: Double Indemnity Kiss of Death Phantom Lady The Maltese Falcon I Wake Up Screaming House of Strangers Cry of the City The Trial The Third Man ...and a picture that's in color, and was not made in the classic noir era, but still has the noir feel: The Grifters

For heart-stopping beauty: Hedy Lamarr Marta Toren For sheer movie-star charisma: Bette Davis Barbara Stanwyck For the combination of beauty and talent: Helen Mirren Diana Rigg

Helen Walker is a knockout in this film -- it's easily her best performance, and it shows how much her talent was wasted in almost all of her pictures.

I hope they show *Lilith* (1964), a fascinating film made from an equally fascinating novel (by J. R. Salamanca). Seberg's co-stars include Warren Beatty, Gene Hackman, Jessica Walter, Peter Fonda and Kim Hunter. The director is Robert Rossen. On the wall of Seberg's room you can glimpse the mysterious inscription: HIARA KIRLU RESH KAVAWN. It's never explained in the movie, but it is in the book. (Seberg plays a schizophrenic who has created her own world with its own language.)

Many films have ludicrous English subtitles. The above howler is from *Ossessione.* Another: in *Lady from Shanghai,* Rita Hayworth tells Orson Welles, "My parents were Russian -- White Russian." The subtitle reads, "My parents were Russian -- quite Russian." Do any other examples come to mind?

*Annie Hall* Woody and Diane look as though they're carried away by their own cleverness.

Don Murray was a corrupt cop in "Deadly Hero." Kris Kristofferson was a rapist in "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia." Hume Cronyn was a sadistic prison captain in "Brute Force." Robert Redford was just a stinker in "Downhill Racer." On the other side of the fence, good guys were played by Robert Ryan and Zachary Scott in "The Set-Up" and "The Southerner," respectively. And in the Spencer Tracy version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Lana Turner played his (presumably) virginal fiancee.

I think it's true that there was no one present to hear Kane's last word. Let's just chalk it up to a continuity error. In that same scene, something I noticed on my umpteenth viewing was that at one point the snow seemed to be falling *outside* the globe! How could this be? I believe it was intended to show the way Kane saw it in his delirium.

The Doors The Jefferson Starship's "Blows Against the Empire" Pearls Before Swine -- the complete ESP Disk recordings (two records on one CD)