misswonderly3
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Posts posted by misswonderly3
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Oh yeah, no argument there. Burt was almost ridiculously handsome. For that reason alone you have to wonder why Ava dumped him (I mean the characters in the film, of course. )
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Nice disco dancing there, finance. Maybe that's the route we ought to go with Osborne and Baldwin.
(Talking about the dancing, not the orientation.)
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As I've said on other threads, I've never really enjoyed this film, possibly because it always makes me fall asleep, right around when Ava appears, curled up on a piano or something. Nothing to do with
Ava, I'm sure.
I missed my big chance to see this tonight and revise my opinion of it (I was hoping to have a "Hallelujah- I've seen the light ! " moment). I was out seeing a first-run movie, actually. Oh well, I think I own it. I'll have to schedule some time to really give this celebrated film noir my attention, everyone says it deserves it (celebration and attention.)
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JOEL McCREA !
JOEL McCREA !
Star of the month
Just say Okay !
Tomorrow -November 5th - is his birthday.
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Well, yeah, that's what I said. Or so I thought.
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I notice that *The Innocents* is on the list. For some reason this great film about a suppressed, sensitive young governess and her two charges is overlooked on these boards. I wrote about it on the "What makes a good Horror film?" thread.
Directed by Jack Clayton, the film was released in 1961. It stars Deborah Kerr, and is based on the Henry James novella, The Turn of the Screw. Perhaps that explains its literacy and its psychological depth. This is one of the scariest ghost stories I have ever seen on film, and yet very little is "shown". The few scenes that do apparently depict a being from "the other side" are very quiet, and very frightening. Hasn't anyone else seen this exceptional movie?
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Well, putting Pavarotti and Guy Lombardo aside, (not to mention Andy Hardy), I think it's time for a Radiohead song. Now, the problem with these guys is , if you're in a certain frame of mind, they could be perceived as just a bit depressing, I prefer to think of it as melancholy. Ok, dammit, their songs often are a little on the downer side, but they make up for that by being so good.
This song is one of their very most depressing (you've been warned) but it's so unforgettable -it's simple but haunting melody, in a minor key, it's mournful tone, its intensity. There were many versions of this song to choose from on youtube, it got confusing after a while. So I'm cheating again -first a live version I picked almost at random, second the studio version (but without the accompanying video, which is too depressing even for me.) Still, there's nothing wrong with a little melancholy now and then. Thom Yorke
thinks so too, evidently, as he sings "Street Spirit/Fade Out" :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt-2rJ7MGw0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp5eCXO96C0
Something to distract you from the mournful mood you may now find yourself in: I've always thought Thom Yorke looks like a cross between John Hurt and that creepy little guy in *Drugstore Cowboy*.
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Arturo, *Come Back Little Sheba* is one of those films on my long list of "always wanted to see but still haven't had the chance". I saw just a few minutes of it on tv , long ago when I was a kid. I think it was on the late show and my parents were watching it, and I got up and wandered out into the living room and watched it with them for a few minutes until they noticed me and sent me back to bed. The few minutes I saw were very intriguing. It's based on a play, isn't it?
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filmlover, tell me about the sequel. Although I've heard of it, I know next to nothing about it. And who did play Rhett and Scarlett?
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You must be talking about *Tension*, because the character Basehart played in *He Walked by Night*
is a tad unhinged. What other noirs was he in? *14th Floor* ? But that's not really a noir, is it?
Oh well, just call him Ishmael, and leave it at that.
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Ditto. I never even liked the original *Gone with the Wind* much; I don't think I could handle a remake.
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I wonder what Andy Hardy would have made of the Grateful Dead?
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Whatever...I've made my point, I'm losing interest...
Back to "Hallelujah ! " moments: There was talk on a thread about Burt Lancaster. One of the films mentioned was *The Killers*. Now, this is one of the very few noirs that I don't enjoy. I love the beginning, that opening scene is so well-written and well-done (well, Hemingway's dialogue, yeah), and it creates such a feeling of apprehension. Those two men who walk into the diner are menacing, no doubt about it. And I always like Edmond O'Brien. But it goes kind of downhill after that first scene.
Burt's good -and so handsome ! . But then there's Ava. I've said this before, I don't "get" Ava. AS soon as she comes onscreen, I fall asleep. I've never once made it all the way through this film. At some point I always fall asleep, and I don't do that with noir.
Yet everyone always says what a great film *The Killers* is, what a classic noir. So, perhaps I'll fill up on Red Bull or those little over the counter pills you get at the drugstore, the ones with the rooster crowing on the box. Something to make me stay awake. I'm hoping that the next time I attempt to watch *The Killers* I"ll not only stay awake, I'll be shouting "Hallelujah ! I've seen the light!"
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I sort of doubt that Guy Lombardo would get the blood flowing the way the Bar Kays would. But maybe he's more Robert Osborne's speed.
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*Eight Men Out* was on late last night. It really is a very good film; it's as much about people and the choices they make as it is about baseball. I recognized quite a few actors who have become more well-known since the making of the film. Funny how the issue with the White Sox back then was low pay - it's been a while since any professional baseball player can complain about that !
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I'm sure neither of us want this to turn into one of those argumentative threads. And you know what? The topic simply isn't interesting enough to be worth doing that, anyway. All I'm saying is, I see no point in going to the trouble to post a message stating that whatever Canadian stars there were in Hollywood never went back to Canada, the implication being that somehow their "Canadian-ness" doesn't count. Who really cares, anyway?
Incidentally, I notice that you don't mention how many British and European stars came to Hollywood and stayed there. How come they're still referred to as British (or German, or whatever), but Canadians are just people who never returned to their home country? You could say the same about a great many Hollywood stars.
Anyway, as I said, it's not exactly a gripping subject. All I wanted to say was, Canada has done a lot better than the Dionne quints as a claim to fame.
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The Strawbs - I should have posted something by them a couple of months ago; a re-formed version of them was playing in my town. Who else would have a drawing by William Blake on their album cover?
The days are getting colder and colder and darker and darker. We need something to Stay Awake !
Maybe the Bar Kays will do it. I still like the idea of Osbourne and Mankiewicz, possibly with one of the guest hosts, shakin' and movin' to something danceable, played really loud. Maybe Soulfinger would inspire them:
Edited by: misswonderly on Nov 3, 2010 9:03 AM
Edited by: misswonderly on Nov 3, 2010 9:18 AM
technical problems
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Those are all great noirs, mark baby. I wonder how they decide these things. Good film noirs all day, then "Moguls and Movie Stars" all evening. How's a person supposed to do anything else but stay glued to TCM all day? Sometimes I'm kind of relieved when they show something I'm indifferent to, it means I can get on with other things without feeling I'm missing something.
Love Frank Sinatra in *Suddenly* - that must be the only time Frank's played such an out and out bad guy.
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MFF, this is the second time you've demoted Canada from a legitimate claim to being home to film stars of any significance. Just because they went to the U.S. , found a career there in making movies, and hence stayed there for the rest of their lives. does not take anything away from the fact that they spent their "formative years" in Canada. I do not include actors and film makers who were only born in Canada, but grew up in the States. That would be stretching things a bit. However, many talented people in film, both past and present , are from Canada and grew up there.
The same thing could be said of many of Canada's great musicians.
The fact is, Hollywood is located in the U.S., not Canada. Of course these actors (and other famous people in the movie making business) stay in the United States once they've made their name there -there was no such industry in their country of origin, certainly in the past. Things have changed a little since the "Golden Age of Hollywood", but without doubt, at that time there was no future in Canada for a Canadian who wanted to make it in the movies. The fact that they remained in Hollywood does not erase their original nationality.
The Dionne quintuplets were just one of any number of unusual phenomena in the 40s that were in the spotlight for a brief time and then forgotten. They certainly weren't the only remarkable thing to come out of the country to the north of you.
Edited by: misswonderly on Nov 2, 2010 10:41 PM
Edited by: misswonderly on Nov 2, 2010 10:42 PM
Edited by: misswonderly on Nov 2, 2010 10:51 PM
wrote this in a hurry and then had to go back and fix it - never try to write when you're feeling indignant
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You know, that's one of the aspects of noir I like best - an ordinary person, someone with whom we identify because they're "like us", normal, decent, liking to think that they behave within the confines of the law. And yet, given certain circumstances, they, too, yield to temptation and "bend" the law, "borrow" some money, "fix" the books, etc. The characters we connect with the most in noir are not the violent ones, but the mild-mannered people who are not criminal types, but who just need a break.
To be completely honest, if I were overpaid ten times what what my paycheque was supposed to be, I would be seriously tempted to stay quiet about it, and my decision as to whether to report the overage or not would depend, as you said, largely on whether I thought they'd find out. (Of course these days, with computer records etc., they'd find out within hours.) The only thing that might stop me would be if the employer was a "small business" person who could ill afford such a loss. A big corporation? I'd take the money and run.
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I don't deny that I probably missed a few important points re. *Miracle at Morgan Creek*. But as I said before, it's almost like a scene or two is missing. Doesn't the Betty Hutton character claim to be married, ( to someone, not sure who), doesn't she show a ring or something? I'll have to watch this thing again. The reason I thought that she must be married, and she must have proven her conjugal love for Eddie in a scene that we are not shown, is because , otherwise, Betty/Trudy has slept with someone (a) who is not Eddie and (
to whom she was not married. Or did she marry that soldier after she bumped her head? And I did not think that either of those possibilities, even the suggestion of them, would have been allowed to be shown in a film from that era. Not even a Preston Sturges comedy. It's all actually quite annoyingly confusing and coy.Yes, I thought of the Dionne quintuplets the first time I saw this film. Life wasn't much of a comedy for them, though. Canada's main claim to fame in the 1940s (outside of its formidable participation in the war.)
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JOEL McCREA !
JOEL McCREA !
His birthday's the same
As Guy Fawkes Day !
Truth be told, I am a big Joel McCrea fan, but the incessant doggerel with his name that I keep posting is more an addiction to fooling around with creating "poems" (undeserving of the word, I know) with his name than it is to a worship of him or his films. There's something about that name that works so well with a goofy jingle. "McCrea" rhymes with so many words.
Another name like that is "Ida Lupino". Hmm...
Edited by: misswonderly on Nov 2, 2010 4:31 PM
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Time to Smash those Pumpkins ! Those guys are always interesting. I thought of them last night, during part of the "Moguls and Movie Stars" program. They showed part of that Georges Melies film from 1902, A Trip to the Moon. It's a very strange and charming little film from which Billy Corgan et al borrowed for their music video "Tonight Tonight" (as you probably know).
Here are (is?) The Who, singing about Disguises. I was tempted to use the only video with the song that has something more than one image to look at, but the sound was very muffled (The Who of course were notorious for muddy production on their first few albums.) So here's one with just a pic of the album cover ( A Quick One While He's Away ), but at least you can hear all the inventive instrumentation on this, the semi-exotic, almost Middle-Eastern sound, and the syncopated rhythm (not sure if that's the right word for it) , in all their glory.
oh, what the hell...that one's muddy-sounding too. Well, take your pick. (Or listen to the song twice; it is a very good song.)
Edited by: misswonderly on Nov 2, 2010 12:19 PM
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The cast of the *Rocky Horror Picture Show* discovered it.
to whom she was not married. Or did she marry that soldier after she bumped her head? And I did not think that either of those possibilities, even the suggestion of them, would have been allowed to be shown in a film from that era. Not even a Preston Sturges comedy. It's all actually quite annoyingly confusing and coy.
"Yes we can can!" said Little Nicola.
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Speaking of the Beatles, last night I went and saw that new film about John Lennon's early years, *Nowhere Boy*. It thought it was very good. Anyway, it caused me to miss my big chance to see *The Killers* (TCM, 8:00). So I'll have to wait for another time to have my "Hallelujah !" moment with that film.
One of the scenes in *Nowhere Boy* showed the first meeting between Lennon and McCartney (Paul McCartney was played by this solemn nerdy-looking little boy !). McCartney impressed Lennon by rendering a note perfect performance of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" on his equally impressive guitar. Here it is, Eddie's version, complete with footage from some old movie (if anyone knows what it is, let me know.)
ok, I scrolled down the "comments" -apparently it's from *The Girl Can't Help It*, a movie I have never seen but would love to.
Edited by: misswonderly on Nov 5, 2010 9:49 AM