speedracer5

I have seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, I thought I had mentioned that one. I remember typing that, but then I reworded what I had written and must have forgotten to put that back in. I did like SBFSB. Russ Tamblyn and Jane Powell were good in that film. I'm not a big fan of Howard Keel, but he was fine in that film. I remember liking SBFSB, not only for the dancing but because it took place in Oregon! Actually it was the Oregon Territory, because Oregon was not yet a state in 1850 which is when I believe the film takes place. I'll have to rewatch Royal Wedding (I know it's been on a bazillion times lately, but I didn't watch it any of those times) when it's on next and re-evaluate Jane Powell. Jane Powell is from Oregon too!

Great schedule LP! I love your "How to" movies and your Disney Vault. I would watch the entire John Williams day. I also loved the movies vs TV. 3 Great Schedules!! I'm looking forward to seeing more. 8 days left!

Cool! Sounds like a fun job.

I also liked him in Rocky Horror Picture Show!

You've also mentioned working with Jane Fonda... May I ask what your job has been on all these film sets? My nosiness wants to know.

Your drug-induced state was accurate. I watched the movie stone-cold sober and I thought it was amazing. disco, roller skating, greek gods, neon, magic, gene kelly, gene kelly playing the clarinet, and olivia newton-john's great songs? What else could you want from a movie?

ooh I haven't seen that one. I've seen him in some other movies, but imo, he's best in The Wizard of Oz. The other film I saw him in I thought he was kind of annoying. I just can't picture him and Doris together.

I had this idea earlier and thought it would be a fun game and also perhaps inspire some conversation. You're in charge of scheduling the weekly double feature at the local movie theater. The only rule is that these two films need to have something in common with one another. Whether it's two films with the same actor, two films about dinosaurs, two films about cheese, whatever, there needs to be something that ties the two films together. It can be either as serious or ridiculous as you like, as long as the two films have something in common. MY FIRST TWO DOUBLE FEATURES: A Face in the Crowd & Network- Both films deal with the rise of fame and what that can do to the person who is in the middle of it. Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman & The Amazing Colossal Man- Both films deal with giant people who rampage the town. ...you're next! Go!

Roller Boogie is now my second favorite roller skating movie after Xanadu. I loved Linda Blair's car! Except it'd be a little better if it wasn't the ugly mint green. Black would have been better. My favorite part of the film I think is when Linda Blair announced that she was forgoing her flautist scholarship at Julliard saying that she's going to participate in the roller boogie contest instead-- this announcement leads her mother to having to go down a couple Valium to recover.

Lol. I think the fun girls were a little too much for Andy and Barney to keep up with. Maybe Andy could have gotten together with Charlene Darling. She was crazy about him and would probably willingly devote herself to the domestic lifestyle that Andy would be seeking out.

I'll admit I haven't watched many new to me films in the last couple of days-- right now I'm watching episodes of Alton Brown's Good Eats on Netflix. I'm trying to decide what to watch now that I've finished eating and have learned how you use a pie bird. Thanks to Alton Brown, now I know. Anyway. Yesterday I watched "Tangled," a cute animated film from Disney. I loved this movie. It is the story of Rapunzel, a princess with magic hair that has the ability to heal. Rapunzel was kidnapped as a child by an old woman who wanted to stay young. She kept Rapunzel captive in a tower in the middle of nowhere, where the two of them lived for 18 years. When the old woman would start experiencing the effects of aging, she'd ask Rapunzel to sing a special song while she brushed Rapunzel's hair. Rapunzel had to sing the same song each time to activate her special powers. Every year on Rapunzel's birthday, her parents, the King and Queen, release two lighted lanterns into the sky, hoping that Rapunzel would see them and come home. Eventually everyone in the kingdom began releasing the lanterns, creating a beautiful "starry" sky. Rapunzel sees these glowing lights every year and wants to see the display in person. Enter Flynn Rider. Rider, a criminal, stumbles across Rapunzel's tower while on the run. He manages to climb inside the tower. Eventually after Rapunzel is understandably freaked out, she makes a deal with Rider: He must take her to the castle to see the lanterns released, and she will give back his satchel (that she's stolen and hidden) that contains the items he has stolen. Inevitably, the two fall in love and Rapunzel's "mother" is upset that Rapunzel is gone and seeks out to find her. This was a great movie with fun characters and fun songs. My favorite part was when Flynn takes Rapunzel on a romantic boat ride so she can view the annual lantern display from the best spot in town. The scene is so gorgeous, accompanied by a romantic song. I'm a sucker for sweet romantic stories. Plus, Flynn Rider was super hot, which throws me into a dilemma: I used to maintain that Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty was the hottest Disney prince, but Rider gives him a run for his money. (Yes I realize they're cartoon characters). Anyway. Throughout all my fangirl swooning over the animated Flynn Rider, I have settled upon watching Days of Wine and Roses with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. So far, so good with that movie. In about two hours I'll know if it'll end up in my "Waste of DVR space" thread or this one.

So I've been trying to get through all the Doris Day musicals I recorded the other day and I found one that was a total dud. By the Light of the Silvery Moon This was the sequel to On Moonlight Bay. I discussed OMB in the "I Just Watched..." thread. I still find Gordon MacRae to be about as interesting as an unsalted, unflavored rice cake. Doris, on the other hand, has a personality and is fun to watch. By the Light of the Silvery Moon however, was boring-- I don't know what it was about the film that I didn't like, but I lost interest in the film once everyone in town thought that Leon Ames was having an affair. The best thing about this film was the title song that is performed by Day and MacRae in the film.

Yes he did. Apparently director Dick Powell asked John Wayne to come into his office to discuss starring in one of the screenplays Powell was working on. Powell was called away for a brief second and when he returned to his office, he found Wayne pouring over the screenplay for the ill-fated The Conqueror--Wayne had pulled this screenplay out of Powell's trashcan. Powell had found the screenplay absurd and threw it away. Because of Wayne's enthusiasm over the script and for the fact that he was John Wayne, Dick Powell felt that he couldn't deny him the pleasure of portraying Genghis Kahn in film. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/the-conqueror/making-of-movie-that-killed-john-wayne/ I want the poster for this film, it's hilarious:

Bogie, don't make me have to choose!

I really liked Cover Girl. I should have listed that in the films that I will keep watching. Gene and Rita made a great dancing couple and I loved the overall storyline as well. Phil Silvers is the only blight on the film in my opinion--he seems to only have one character, and it's irritating. He's more tolerable here though than he is in Summer Stock. Anyway, I thought Rita looked beautiful in this film and I loved the costumes. I've always thought that Columbia's makeup artists didn't seem to know how to do Rita's makeup for Technicolor films. She does look good in this film though. Gene Kelly's musical numbers were amazing per usual. I especially loved the famous routine where he's dancing with his reflection. I also found it interesting that Kelly later reprises his Cover Girl role in Xanadu, filmed some 35 years later.

Ugh nobody should date Goober. Andy should have hooked up with Barbara Eden when she came to town to work as a manicurist.

I completely agree with the writer's warning to Opie-- 1) Helen Crump is a shrew; and 2) Who'd want their dad to be dating (or worse yet, married to) their teacher? And she's always Opie's teacher since she keeps getting bumped up to teach whatever grade Opie is in. Andy should have stayed with Miss Ellie or moved in on Thelma Lou after Barney leaves Mayberry to take the big job in Raleigh.

Good points about the establishment of film noir. Did film noir even exist when they first started being made in the 40s and 50s? Or was film noir a genre that was created after the fact and then the crime/drama films were re-classified and re-labeled as "film noir" ? I agree that while Gilda has many noir elements, it could also be classified as a straight crime melodrama as well.

I would love to see John Wayne's The Conqueror, if only to see how bad it was and since this film is so notorious for being the film that killed most of the cast and crew within 10-20 years after making it. John Wayne as Genghis Kahn? Count me in.

Lol! Nope. Moby Dick was a **** whale. I'm honestly surprised we're even able to talk about Moby Dick at all. This topic just screams for censorship. Herman Melville had his mind in the gutter when he came up with this story!

I agree with you about the ending. It was a little too contrived. Johnny and Gilda, despite having that passionate love/hate thing going on, I doubt would go on to have a healthy relationship. I believe Johnny should have been arrested for his part in the tungsten cartel that he was heading. Ballin was doomed to either be arrested for the death of one his German backers or to be killed since he was trying to kill Johnny and Gilda. Ultimately, I think a more realistic ending would have been for Gilda to be left with nobody and she'd even go back to Montevideo and continue working (I doubt she'd stay in Buenos Aires) or move back to her home in The States. I can see how this film might not be for everyone, but I really liked it. If Rita Hayworth hadn't of starred in this film, I don't know if I would have liked it as much. Hayworth is what makes the film work.

I've been wanting to see this film! I believe it is (or was) on Netflix Instant Streaming. I believe that this film was banned in some places (even places like Chicago!) because of words like "rape," "penetration," "s perm," that were part of the film. However, it sounds like Preminger didn't have the trouble getting it released like he did with The Moon is Blue six years prior. I imagine having James Stewart, someone typically associated with being clean cut and conservative, helped to get audiences to accept the film. I'm so glad for directors like Preminger who pushed the boundaries of film-making in the 1950s. While I enjoy the studio era Production Code films, I also like some of the grittier films of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. I've found many more serious 1950s and 1960s films that I really enjoyed. It's nice to sometimes watch a film that doesn't end with a nice big sugar coated bow wrapped around it. Sometimes I'm in the mood for those films and sometimes I'm in the mood for an enthralling drama or gritty romance or something. Nowadays, it seems like anything goes, the film has to be particularly violent or raunchy to get a NC-17 rating. *Apparently s perm is a banned word on the boards. What is this 1959? Come on TCM.

In the 1940s, you could see Johnson, in blackface, singing "Mammy" at the nightclub he owned-- The Torcadero. This gave him to the opportunity to hobnob with all the stars he'd met in his illustrious movie career.

I think Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? is another film that really made a big impact despite the controversy surrounding it at the time. At the time it came out, in 1967, America was in the middle of the Civil Rights movement. The idea of interracial marriage was a hard pill to swallow for many people. I believe that it was also illegal in many states when this film was released. Spencer Tracy filmed the final scene--the most poignant scene of the film where he states his approval of the marriage between Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton, just two weeks before The Supreme Court overruled the ban on interracial marriages.

I thought Desi Arnaz' part was one of the highlights of the film. The prayer he tells while succumbing to malaria was a particularly poignant part of the film--especially since in the beginning he was so optimistic while also very homesick for America.