faceinthecrowd

I also think Lee Marvin is great. The only thing about POINT BLANK I didn't like was the scene where the kitchen appliances go haywire -- it goes on too long. I'm going to buy Season 3, Volume 2 of The Untouchables -- it includes an episode called "The Element of Danger," in which Marvin plays one of his patented psycho roles. It's been years since I've seen it, and I still remember it vividly.

Maybe we should make a distinction between traveling forward in time and traveling back in time. Based on today's scientific theories, the former is possible, the latter is not. Almost all time travel movies involve going back in time, so that puts them in the realm of pseudo-science.

In that sense you're right. Let me pause here and quote Woody Allen from BULLETS OVER BROADWAY: "I don't want to be didactic or facetious..." But I won't let that stop me. For me, true time travel means being able to move back in time and have an effect on what happened in the past. But as you said, maybe it's a question of semantics.

The chess scene is great. I love the way Faye Dunaway strokes the rook -- I wish it were mine. But McQueen is too cool to knock the pieces over; he just says, "Let's play something else." And they do. But isn't that Lee Marvin in POINT BLANK? Another cool guy, to be sure. And another intriguing ending.

To misswonderly and HollywoodGolightly: Einstein never said that traveling really fast makes it possible to travel in time. The faster one moves, the more slowly one ages. (Many Hollywood stars would be interested to learn that.) But traveling at the speed of light is impossible -- one's mass would become infinite. And there's no time travel involved.

TANK GIRL -- Lori Petty is so cute!

My ten faves, in the order in which they occur to me: Orson Welles Burt Lancaster James Cagney Edward G. Robinson Richard Burton Robert DeNiro Ronald Colman Richard Conte Anthony Hopkins Erich von Stroheim

The Silence of the Lambs

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

In a made-for-TV movie called THE STAR WAGON, top billing went to Orson Bean. Fourth billed was a young, unknown actor named Dustin Hoffman.

You got that right about WITHOUT LOVE: Ball and Wynn steal the show. And Lucy showed that she could be funny without mugging or falling into a vat of yeast.

Robert Donat is excellent (as always!) in THE WINSLOW BOY. And the last line of the film is perfect.

Since the topic is _worst_ real names, how about Joanne Dru's: Joanne LaCock

CITIZEN KANE First alternate: CITIZEN KANE Second alternate: CITIZEN KANE I'll save my other choices for a thread that specifically asks for Top Ten, preferably divided by silent vs. talkie, or by genre, or by color vs. B&W.

In fact, the delectable Ann Sheridan doesn't appear on screen for more than 60 minutes after the opening titles begin -- and she's top billed! I don't think any other movie can make that statement.

After Claudette Colbert filmed her last scenes in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, she's supposed to have told a friend, "Well, I just finished making the worst picture in the world." Maybe she changed her mind later -- like after she got an Oscar for it.

That's true. Now that I think of it, Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Future, "Is this what _must_ happen?" The Ghost doesn't answer, but the ending makes it plain that the vision was only a possibility. So I have to strike this fine movie from the time travel category. Just the same -- and this has nothing to do with this thread -- I'm always a little startled when I see Patrick Macnee as young Marley, long before he was lucky enough to be Mrs. Peel's partner.

Thank you, Hot Splice, that makes sense. Those few seconds always bothered me -- I knew they must be there for a reason. My reaction was, "What's going on here? What are those significant looks for?" Now I won't find it so distracting the next time I see the picture.

I located a VHS of MADAME SATAN via Amazon. Now if only there were a legitimate (not bootleg) copy of ALIAS NICK BEAL, starring Ray Milland and Audrey Totter. Even a VHS would be welcome.

Scorsese may have been referring to the way Harlow did dramatic scenes, which were not her strong suit. In comedy she was terrific. But when she discusses their relationship with Cagney, she's out of her depth as far as the acting is concerned. The same thing happens in CHINA SEAS. When she says, "It's China Doll, the gal that drives men mad," she's right on target, and very funny. But when she has a serious scene to do later on, it's not convincing. Of course, Harlow was still learning her craft -- she died so young! We'll never know how she might have developed. And even Garbo's talents were within a certain range, as she herself admitted.

Cliff Eastwood starred in a movie called SCRUFFY HENRY, about a homeless person who's always panhandling for a few dollars more.

Does anyone remember Eastwood as Rowdy Yates on the TV series RAWHIDE? And the first time his picture appeared in TV Guide, the caption identified him as "Cliff" Eastwood. Whatever happened to Cliff Eastwood? He had such a promising career.

Spencer Tracy was no spring chicken when BAD DAY was released -- he was 55 -- but I wouldn't call him elderly, either. And he definitely wasn't wizened. Wise, but not wizened. Now, if it had been Jagger or Brennan who mopped up the floor with Ernie Borgnine, I would have said, Waaaiiit a minute! But I believed it when Tracy did it.

Ryan, Borgnine, Marvin -- three great villains in one picture. And Walter Brennan, the first actor to win three Oscars, with lines like: "Los Angeles! That hotbed of pomp and vanity?" And, asked how he sees things: "With the innocence of a fresh-laid egg."

I've mentioned this before regarding MR. SMITH, but here goes again: At the dinner given to see Smith off to Washington, he says that his father and Claude Rains were close friends in college. At this, Rains looks startled, then looks questioningly at Smith's mother -- and she nods. Was there an implication that Rains might actually be Smith's father? If so, it would certainly add an interesting dimension to the film.