[Actors and accents]

MFF, You're right, Grant does turn up the Cockney accent in *None But the Lonely Heart*.

 

Claude Rains in *Mr. Smith* ? Yeah, maybe he does sound a little funny -and here I just thought it was because he was trying to hide something.

 

Actually, there are a lot of ex-patriot Brits who meld their English and American accents.

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Oct 5, 2010 11:09 AM

["Yes we can can!" said Little Nicola.]

> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}

> I haven't either. The only reason I know Vince Neal is that I soak up trivia like a sponge.

 

You do ! That's why you're always hanging out on those games and trivia threads, I imagine.

 

Good Pink Floyd song, and I'm not the biggest fan. They were such a serious lot. Did you know that Roger Waters is on a 2010 "The Wall" tour? He kicked off the tour in Toronto. He corralled a bunch of kids from the local schools to sing "We Don't Need No Education" or whatever it is.

 

I know I just recently posted a Beatles song, but here's another. Not to go all personal or anything, but this song has a special significance for me on this day :

 

 

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Oct 5, 2010 12:40 PM

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

Wow, MovieProfessor, I feel like I should applaud or something. I'm not saying that ironically. But I think you should copy it and paste it in the "Robert Taylor was as Snitch" thread. Otherwise, we're sort of duplicating the topic on two threads. (No, wait a minute, that would make four threads, wouldn't it?Aargh, these threads are being turned into pods !)

 

Thank you for your heartfelt and enlightening message on this subject.

 

It did occur to me that to start a thread on "Communist Movies" would invite some political and historical discussion, and I wasn't sure I wanted us to "go there", because I was thinking we could keep this thread apolitical. But perhaps that was naive of me. I will say, I feel like something of an outsider on this subject, as I am not American, and while I believe Canada also experienced the "Red Scare" in the 50s, it was as far as I can tell only a faint echo of how it was in the U.S.

 

I was mainly interested in the number of films made about communists and the fear of them, especially from that time. Actually, I just thought of one of the greatest "fear of the Soviets" film of all, and I don't think it's been mentioned on this thread yet: *Dr. Strangelove.*

[Actors and accents]

> {quote:title=MyFavoriteFilms wrote:}{quote}

> ... I can't remember much about Robert Montgomery. Did he use a fake-sounding British accent?

 

He used a very fake-sounding Irish accent, and it was wretched to hear. I often like Robert Montgomery, but in *Night Must Fall* he was utterly mis-cast. Plus, he kept forgetting; like a lot of actors who attempt accents, he kept slipping in and out of it.

 

One of the most interesting "accents" was Cary Grant's. I'm not talking about him putting on an accent for a film, I'm talking about his natural way of speaking. How old was he when he emmigrated from England? I can't remember off hand. But he completely naturally fuses his original English (Cockney?) accent with the standard American way of speaking, and comes up with an absolutely unique style of speech. He sounds neither fully English nor fully American, but some kind of charming hybrid.

 

However, as far as I know he never assumed a particular accent for a film, so Grant isn't really on-topic, I suppose, with this thread.

["Yes we can can!" said Little Nicola.]

Well, that explains it, finance(baby). I don't believe I've ever knowingly listened to Motley Crue in my life.Maybe I should. Any recommendations (song-wise) ?

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

I'm always impressed on these threads by the number of films people know that I haven't even heard of. I guess that's partly why we do this !

 

It's ever so slightly off-topic, but I can't resist: remember the Seinfeld episode in which Elaine dated a Communist? Here's clip from it:

 

 

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

I'm all for any movie about people digging a hole to the other end of the world! Isn't that every little kid's dream?

 

I just remembered a sweet little low-key British film from 1985, *Letter to Brehznev*. Two Woviet sailers have leave in London England for one night.One of them meets an English girl, and they fall in love. But worlds collide! One is a British working class girl, the other a Russian sailor for the people, who will get into big trouble if he defects from his country. It's a nice, quirky little film.

 

("Woviet": when a denizen of the Soviet union spent any time, even authorized time, in the West, he was referred to as a "Woviet". Is this not more interesting than just thinking it was a typo?)

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Oct 4, 2010 1:21 PM

["Yes we can can!" said Little Nicola.]

REM is one of my favourite bands. Like the B52s, they're from Athens, Georgia. For this reason alone I wanted very much to at least go through Athens when I was in Georgia, but it just wasn't anywhere near where I was going. Another time, maybe.

Here is one of the most beautiful and elegiac songs REM have ever done: "The Sweetness Follows".

I had a lot of difficulty finding the original version from Automatic for the People , but none of the live versions had the mystery and majesty of the album version. I don't know why the video says its 7 minutes long; just click it off when the song ends, around 4:20.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZmJ7oAOfc&p=B5BE1FCE126DCEFF&playnext=1&index=48

[Joel McCrea for Star of the Month]

I see that *Come and Get It* is airing at 9:30 a.m. this Friday (Oct. 8th). A good Joel McCrea vehicle.

 

JOEL McCREA ! JOEL McCREA !

Star for a month -not just a day !

 

(hey, I realize these jingles stink...I'm just having some fun with being silly.)

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Oct 4, 2010 10:09 AM

["Yes we can can!" said Little Nicola.]

Well, actually, the song Nebraska (from the album by the same name) is more about *Badlands* the film than is the song Badlands. (no matter how I try and word that, it comes out sounding quite the convoluted sentence.)

 

The lyrics to Nebraska are quite specific to the narrative of the film, beginning with "I saw her standing on her front lawn, just twirlin' her baton" which is exactly how the film begins. Anyway...*Nebraska* is one of the Boss' greatest albums, and much different from the fist-pumping arena rock people often associate with him.

 

Hey, the Homer and Jethro clip was kind of fun, by the way., although I don't know what the kittens had to do with it. No matter. I'm fond of kittens, myself.

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

By the way, I just want to make it crystal clear that I have absolutely no interest in or sympathy for Soviet Communism (or any kind of Communism). I simply thought it would be a theme for a thread that had possibly not been done before, and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that there were many movies about Communists, and it might be worth listing them and discussing them a bit. I do not support Communism any more than someone who might start a thread about Nazis- movies would support Nazi -ism.

Hopefully this was pretty clear from the start, but I just wanted to state it outright.

[I love waking up on a cloudy Sunday morning...]

mark, I love waking up on a cloudy Sunday morning, period. I actually like cloudy days - it doesn't even have to rain (although I like rain, too.) And with fall and the coming colder months, it's always seemed to me like perfect classic-movie-watching weather. (What do those people in Califormia , where it's warm all year long, do? That association with cold weather and cosiness and watching old movies just isn't quite the same without the "cold weather" part of the equation.)

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

That is interesting, LonesomePolecat. I had been thinking about *Ninotchka* and *Silk Stockings*, and was going to mention them, but I hadn't worked out the differences between them as cleverly as you did. Good points.

You know, I've never seen *The Glass-Bottomed Boat*. I'll have to check it out next time Turner has a Doris-fest -which doesn't seem to be infrequently.

 

*The Russians are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!* yes, good one. I like Alan Arkin's performance in this. Do you think the "we're all just people who want to get along" approach was affected by the fact that the director (Norman Jewison) was not American?

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

clore, I was thinking of that film, and I couldn't remember the title ! Thanks. I think TCM aired this a few months ago. I remember I wanted to watch it because of Van Heflen and especially Robert Walker, two of my favourite actors. But it was disappointing, not so much because of the "Communist subversion" plot, but just because it wasn't all that entertaining.

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

Mr. Dobbs, I wasn't around in the 50s, but if we follow that logic, then that means nobody can ever comment or muse about the years before they were born, because they weren't there. There'd be no point in studying history (an admittedly subjective discipline) because the majority of us "weren't there".

 

I did not live through the McCarthy era, but neither did I live through, say, the 1930s or 40s, and yet I like to think I know enough about those decades to at least make an informed conjecture as to what it might have been like to live through them. If we limit taking seriously a person's comments on another time only if that person lived through that time, then we're putting pretty severe limitations on examining the past.

["Yes we can can!" said Little Nicola.]

Watched *Badlands* last night. I love this movie, it's always been my favourite of the "young lovers on a killing spree" type. There's something about the film, the laconic characters, Sissy Spacek's voiceover ("Ah realized that Kit was rale trigger-happy"), the highways, the lack of articulation on the part of the lovers (about anything ), that I find haunting. On the other hand, maybe it's just the 90 minutes of a 28 year-old Martin Sheen in a tight T-shirt. Whatever.

Bruce Springteen's song *Nebraska* was inspired by this film, which of course was inspired by the Starkweather killings in the 50s. I seriously wanted the album version, but Sony Entertainment says "NO". Here's a very quiet low-key live version of an already very quiet and low-key song. But it's a great song, any way you hear it.

 

 

 

Can't resist adding another piece of music I associate with *Badlands*. This tune was actually written for children, it was part of a project the German composer Carl Orff initiated to help children learn to play music, particularly percussion instruments. I've always liked it, it's a sweet little bit of music:

 

 

[Film noir runneth over on the schedule lately]

Rare Film Noir !

Rare Film Noir !

Come on TCM,

Let's raise the bar ! (of your standards for frequency of showing rare noir films.)

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

clore, thanks for the info on Siegel. I wasn't really sure what he was trying to say with *Body Snatchers*

but now I have a better idea of where he stood. I've always liked the ambiguity around the "message" of that film.

 

markbeckuaf: I've never seen any of the three movies you list, but I certainly would like too. Especially

*I Married a Communist* (Robert Ryan ! ) and *The Fearmakers* -love that title ! Anything with Dana Andrews is of interest to me.

[You Didnt Like WHAT?]

I did see *Springtime in the Rockies* when it was on tcm a few weeks ago. It was fun -and, bonus for me, supposedly happened in Canada! (although really, I doubt they'd go on location shooting all the way to the Canadian Rockies just for a little low-budget musical. But it was fun hearing the characters say "Canada" now and then, just because you don't hear my country mentioned very often in old movies.)

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

Oh yeah, *Invasion of the Body Snatchers* is the other movie that immediately comes to mind for me, when you're talking Communist infiltration. The Don Siegel, 1956 one of course.

 

What's interesting about this film is that it can be given two completely different interpretations . Yes, the "pods" could be seen as a metaphor for alien/Communist takeover, usurping someone's very personality and soul. Fear of subversive Communist replacement of real Americans is a classic 1950s theme, and this film is a perfect enactment of such fears.

"On the other hand" - it could also be seen as a criticism of 1950s conformity, a society in which everyone was expected to behave, dress, act and even think much like their neighbour. People who were "different" were suspect -if not of Communism, at least of somehow being "unAmerican". So a completely opposite understanding of *Invasion of the Body Snatchers* can be derived from the story.

Was Siegel making a subtle commentary on the oppressive cultural atmosphere of 1950s America-perhaps he was saying, we're all potential pod people if we don't watch out.

 

Either way, I agree it's a most enjoyable and fascinating film.

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Oct 2, 2010 4:22 PM

[You Didnt Like WHAT?]

> {quote:title=LoveFilmNoir wrote:}{quote}

 

> Then again, I prefer the 90 minute no real plot, cute costumes, splashy Technicolor, catchy songs that Fox pumped out in the 40s.

 

I'd love for you to give us an example. I confess, one area (probably of many) where my film knowledge is sketchy is studios, and what studios produced which films (except for Warners, RKO and Republic, because of the noirs). What's a fun, short and sweet musical that Fox pumped out in the 40s?

 

( I like musicals, there aren't many I can't sit through. Some, though. I know it seems contradictory, someone who likes film noir also liking musicals almost as much, but there you go. )

["Better Dead Than Red" : Movies about COMMUNISTS !!]

In view of the ongoing discussions on the "Robert Taylor was a Snitch" thread, I thought it would be a good time to talk about, list, etc. some films about communists, especially the "red scare" movies from the late 40s and the 50s. NOT "communism", the political philosophy or whatever you want to call it. Movies about "communists", especially if they're trying to take over the USA.

 

One that comes to mind is one of my very favourite movies about anything, in any genre, Sam Fuller's *Pickup on South Street*. Skip McCoy isn't a Commie, but he just doesn't care about fighting them -he'd just as soon keep the secret microfilm that the Commies want and sell it to them, instead of doing the American thing and handing it in to the FBI or CIA (didn't exist then?) or whoever the right American authority is. On the other hand, Moe, the wonderful Thelma Ritter character, would rather die than help a Commie.

This film was made in 1953, a prime "Red Scare" year.

 

Edited by: misswonderly on Oct 2, 2010 2:37 PM

[ROBERT TAYLOR WAS A "SNITCH!"]

*The Front* is probably the best examination on film of the McCarthy HUAC hearings. Quite a few people mistakenly think it's a Woody Allen film, but it's directed by Martin Ritt. The Hecky Brown character is tragic.

[You Didnt Like WHAT?]

(Sweet) GeorgiaBrown, I agree. I don't understand what all the fuss is about, when it comes to *Seven Brides for Seven Brothers*. It's got that one great song and great scene, of course the one in which they're all dancing at the barn raiser (and the one Martin Scorsese uses as an example of why letter boxing is a good idea). but one great scene does not a great musical make.

The rest of the songs are not memorable (ok, "Lonesome Pole Cat" aint bad), and the premise of the story kind of bothers me: these guys think it's ok to raid the town and kidnap the girls in it? I know they don't "do" anything to them, but it's still kind of an offensive idea. I am not one for applying severe political correctness to movies, and of course it's understood that it's all in fun, it's just a thin plot device to hang a musical on, the girls actually like the young men who stole them, etc., but it still doesn't "work" for me.

 

But what I don't get is why people seem to prefer it to *Oklahoma!* Never mind the stories or the characters, the latter has far better music and dancing , and that's what a musical is all about.

["Yes we can can!" said Little Nicola.]

Who's Vince Neal?

 

Yes, Elvis C. hasn't done anything to shake the world in the last decade or so, but he's certainly still going on strong. The last album he made in which every single track was really good was 1994's

All This Useless Beauty. I wanted to post the original version from that of Complicated Shadows, a truly great song, but it does not appear to be available on youtube. The live versions are not the same.

(Apparently this song was used in The Sopranos - I was not aware of that.)

 

Anyway, just to show that he's still in the game (well, not really, this pick is from 14 years ago), here's a tv live version of another song from All This Useless Beauty, "You Bowed Down". I wish I could have found the original studio recording, as it's meant to sound like the Byrds at their 12-string peak, and it does. It's kind of an homage to the Byrds. Anyway, this gives you an idea of the song.

 

Elvis Costello, circa 1996, "You Bowed Down" :