faceinthecrowd

"Remember the Maine" is good, scsu1975, but even on this site there may be some who don't get the reference to Fredric March, and I was going to mention that anyway, so: In the original version of A STAR IS BORN, with March as Norman Maine and Janet Gaynor as Vicki Lester, March commits suicide by walking into the ocean, as Joan Crawford does in HUMORESQUE -- which is one of my favorite movies. As a previous poster pointed out, Garfield had two violinists standing next to him, one doing the bowing and the other the fingering. Meanwhile, Isaac Stern was playing, and in some scenes Oscar Levant was accompanying on piano. Levant quipped that the five of them should go on tour. Most of Levant's wisecracks -- many of them bitter in tone -- were original, such as, "I didn't make the world -- I barely live in it." At least one, however, was lifted. When Paul Boray's childhood sweetheart asks Sid Jeffers what Helen Wright is like, Jeffers says, "She has a large alumni association." This was first said by Edmund Wilson about his lover, Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Doris Dowling was a good actress, and very attractive. She deserved to have a bigger career; she's not even listed in Ephraim Katz's Film Encyclopedia. She had a good role in THE LOST WEEKEND, but aside from that, the only film I remember her in was a western, the title of which eludes me. I liked Will Wright's line when a cop tells him, "Your umbrella must have gotten wet." Will replies, "That's what I bought it for." The name Dickie may have been influenced by the child star Dickie Moore. It still sounds like something you wear, rather than something you name a child. A good movie, and good work by all concerned.

BRIT.: Crisps AMER.: Potato chips BRIT.: Are you having me on? AMER.: Are you putting me on?

After I watch the DVDs I bought recently (there are quite a few of them) I'm going to subscribe to Netflix, and I'll put some of the movies you mentioned on my list. I want to check some Lake films that I haven't seen for a while. Watching a beautiful blonde? It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Thank you for the link. I read the whole thing, and it was very interesting. Like almost everyone else, I believed that story, and I was especially interested because I listened to Uncle Don in New York. I'm glad I didn't claim that I heard the non-existent broadcast. As to why A FACE IN THE CROWD didn't win any Oscars (or even nominations), well, there are a lot of strange omissions in the history of the Oscar. I've heard that Edward G. Robinson and Joseph Cotten were never nominated, so what does that tell you? And the critics' reaction? Pauline Kael gave it a mixed review -- she praised the first half -- but Andrew Sarris called it "liberal propaganda," which I think tells us more about Sarris than about the film. What "liberal" or "conservative" has to do with this movie is beyond me.

The winner, by unanimous decision: mr6666! That was indeed BODY AND SOUL, a must for Garfield fans. Roberts was played by Lloyd Goff (Gough). Your turn . . .

Barbara Stanwyck has a great name in BALL OF FIRE: Sugarpuss O'Shea. That's one of my two favorite character names, the other being Snake Plissken in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Cooper and his cohorts are hilariously drawn -- when one of them gets a package, he says, "It must be the statistics on saltpeter production in San Salvador! I had it sent air express." Exciting news, indeed. And when Stanwyck throws Coop out of her dressing room at the theater, she says something like, "Scree, scraw, scram!" "A complete conjugation!" cries Coop happily. "All right, I'll, er, scraw." ROTFL!

Yes, some movies are worth watching even if the print is only so-so. Actually, I didn't take my user name from the movie, but FACE IN THE CROWD is a good one. Andy Griffith is perfect for his role, and Patricia Neal is great -- I haven't seen it for a long time, but I'll never forget the crazed look on her face when she's holding on to the control panel so the audience will hear what Rhodes is saying. "Hell hath no music like a woman playing second fiddle." I'm old enough to remember listening to Uncle Don, though I don't think I was listening the day he became part of radio history -- or infamy.

Very good, Dan! I love that line. Everyone in that movie is good -- Elisha Cook, and Timothy Carey, even Vince Edwards -- he showed he could do more than be Ben Casey. Your turn . . .

I assume it means that parents or guardians should consider whether to allow 14-year- olds to watch. Why is that considered an appropriate rating for THE THIRD MAN? Beats me, unless the powers that be are concerned about Harry Lime's speech on the Ferris wheel, beginning, "You see all those dots down there?" But if pre-teens are allowed to watch news programs on TV, Lime's cynicism shouldn't be a problem.

"I do declare. . ." is from Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer." The next line is, Lie-de-lie, . . . And that's repeated umpteen times. There doesn't seem to be anywhere to go from there, so back to the main thread.

I was thinking of THIS GUN FOR HIRE, but that may have been an aberration. I'm not saying she was bad in TGFH, just that she was kind of bland -- unless you were looking at her, in which case you would be too dazzled to critique her performance.

If only Veronica Lake's talent had been equal to her looks.

After you've seen the 1936 SHOW BOAT, the others are interesting only as curiosities. Helen Morgan shows why she was the ultimate torch singer -- her "Bill" is unforgettable. Irene Dunne is very appealing, too. And Robeson's "Old Man River" is one of the greatest moments in film musicals. In THE DARK CORNER there's another great line, this one from Mark Stevens: "For six bits you'd hang your mother on a meat hook."

Thank you for those pictures!

Holly's plea to Anna reminds me of a line from ANGEL AND THE BADMAN, in which Gail Russell has fallen in love -- for the first time -- with John Wayne, who at that point isn't in love with her. She says, "I didn't know one could be in love, and not the other." A heart-rending line.

BORDERTOWN is interesting. Part of the plot was reworked for THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, in which Ida Lupino is terrific in the BD role as a woman whose passion leads her to commit a crime. And Paul Muni (in BORDERTOWN) is always good. THE CORN IS GREEN is a must for BD fans. Bette is an independent woman who says, "I've never met a man I could talk to for five minutes without wanting to box his ears." Note: the role was created on Broadway by Ethel Barrymore, who made a memorable entrance riding a bicycle. Bette couldn't get the hang of it, so they had her enter walking her bike. Message was edited by: faceinthecrowd

18 AGAIN! is funny and moving, and Anita Morris is something to see. Here's a line: "Everything is addition and subtraction. The rest is conversation."

THE DARK CORNER is terrific, with Clifton Webb in one of his patented waspish roles, and William Bendix as a thug (watch what happens when they meet in an office building). Lucille Ball is used to good advantage, and the plot is a doozy. I've seen only the 1936 SHOWBOAT. Helen Morgan sings "Bill," and Paul Robeson sings "Ol' Man River." Enough said?

I think that OF HUMAN BONDAGE is the one that really made Bette's career take off. When she died, a TV announcer said that she won an Oscar for it -- not true, of course; didn't the TV station have a research department? But it shows how memorable her performance was. We could fill an entire thread with nothing but quotes from her movies, but I've always liked this one: "I'd love to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair." --from CABIN IN THE COTTON Aw, don't let that stop you, Bette!

To: randy and Belle A couple of films I forgot to mention are: GUILTY BYSTANDER -- here Scott is reunited with Faye Emerson (who gives such a good performance in DIMITRIOS). This is really noir: as I recall, the entire movie takes place at night, except for a very brief scene at the end. RUTHLESS -- Scott is determined to become rich; when his friend, Louis Hayward, tells him he's made $750,000 in a business deal, Scott says, "You didn't make a fortune, you were just well paid for your work." When you see this you'll know why Greenstreet pushed Scott down the stairs in FLAMINGO ROAD, which came out a year later -- here it's Scott who betrays Greenstreet. Well, they were both fun to watch, especially when they were being mean.

To: Izcutter and JackFavell Thank you for the kind words. It was like an itch that I had to scratch. When I thanked Ms. Rubin for the information, I told her that my website buddies would be impressed. Wikipedia tells you when a statement requires a citation, and they and IMDb both invite corrections and additional information. I don't think I'll ever be able to learn Wiki's system; maybe I'll have better luck with IMDb. What makes me feel better about the whole thing is knowing that Welles didn't plagiarize the speech; he said that he was quoting someone, although most people don't notice that. And how many people still think that Bogart said, "Play it again, Sam"? Error dies hard.

CUCKOO CLOCK UPDATE -- PART 2 After seeing the Churchill quote in Gretchen Rubin's book, "Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill," I e-mailed her to ask for the citation. She got back to me very quickly with the information that it was cited in "The Irrepressible Churchill," by Kay Halle, who knew the Churchills well (Winston's son Randolph proposed to her). Halle's book was published in 1938. That satisfies me; but if you Google that quote, 99% of the sites you get will give Welles or the movie as the source. But the way Welles put it in the film, he was acknowledging that it was a quote. Not exactly an earthshaking issue, but as my grandmother used to say, "Sometimes cake is more important than bread." And I wonder what the source of THAT quote is?

To: All When we see the word "best" as the subject of a thread, it might be helpful to mentally translate that as meaning "favorite." I can't prove that CITIZEN KANE is a "better" movie than GONE WITH THE WIND, or even the Adam Sandler remake of MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN. All I can say is that I like the first one better than the others. Let's not forget that very useful acronym, IMO.

THE CAINE MUTINY is worth seeing even if the only scene you watch is the one where Bogart is on the witness stand. Actually, I think it's ball bearings that he's clicking in his hands. So he's playing with his -- oh, never mind.