speedracer5

There are so many films that never get old to me: The Long Long Trailer- My family's go-to camping movie. We've all seen it so many times that it's getting to the point where we can recite the dialogue. I like to break out lines from it on occasion like when my husband and I go the wrong way while driving somewhere: "Have you any conception how much room it takes to turn this thing around? We might have to go on for miles and miles!" The line is funny because 1) My husband has probably seen the movie as many times as I have and gets the joke; and 2) We have two vehicles for which we would have to turn around, a Toyota Corolla and a Honda Civic Coupe, neither one is difficult to turn around lol. My other favorite line is at the beginning when Desi Arnaz says: "It's a fine thing when you come home to your home and your home is gone!" Arnaz got the best lines in this movie. Most films with Errol Flynn. I never tire of watching him. My most re-watched of his films though are probably: The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sisters, Gentleman Jim and Uncertain Glory. Gilda. I just love Rita Hayworth's performance in this film so much. I never tire of watching her or this film. Singin' in the Rain. I love Gene Kelly and this film is probably his best. The rest of the cast is so charming and funny. I love 99% of this film. My favorite part though is the sultry dance between Kelly and Cyd Charisse. Great film. Casablanca. Such a romantic film, I never get tired of it and could watch the famous airport scene over and over. A Face in the Crowd. Andy Griffith gives such an amazing performance and I never tire of watching his ascent into megalomania. He's such an unbearable character, but you can't help but feel bad for Griffith since he was the one who was thrust into the spotlight-- he wasn't seeking it out at first. Clue. This film is hilarious and I love Tim Curry so much. This is probably the best movie based on a board game ever. There are so many more, but I don't know if I want to bore everyone. --- Films that I've seen and don't need to see again (but who knows? Knowing me, I'll probably watch them again someday): Black Swan. It was a great film, but it was so creepy and unsettling, it doesn't have the rewatchability. The Exorcist. Ugh. Super creepy and gross. Rosemary's Baby. It was okay. I've seen it. Don't need to watch again. Though I could watch the old woman over enthusiastically deliver her line "Hail Satan!" over and over. She was the highlight of the film in my opinion. The Lost Weekend. A great movie, but so depressing. -Many of the horror movies would fit into this category. Horror is my least favorite genre, unless its the cheesy slasher horror movies from the 70s & 80s (like Halloween, the first Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street).

I just find it a shame that there's all these people in the world who are purposefully denying themselves the opportunity to see so many wonderful films just because they're lacking in color. These films are exactly the same in black and white as they are in color. I'll agree that in some films, color is a must, can you imagine The Wizard of Oz in black and white? But for the most part, the color doesn't matter. It's only during the studio era that color was an artistic choice or something that studios splurged on when they felt that they had a big enough film that warranted it. After the studio era ended, black and white became the aesthetic choice that directors made to enhance their films. I think that 1973's Paper Moon utilized the black and white very well. The film wouldn't have been nearly as charming in regular color. I am happy that Peter Bogdanovich made the decision to have the film in black and white.

The Prince and the Showgirl. I tried to watch this film again and it just doesn't do anything for me. For whatever reason, I keep getting bored during it. Marilyn Monroe was as charming as usual, but Laurence Olivier leaves me cold. I find it interesting that on many of Marilyn's films, I will read trivia about how it took her 50 takes or whatever to get a line right and how her co-stars were exasperated by her behavior. It sounds like on many of her films, she was a nightmare to work with. However, I always find that she always brings her charm and for lack of a better word, her "Marilyn-ness" to her roles. I always find her performance to be the highlight of the film... except for perhaps Some Like it Hot, that movie belongs to Jack Lemmon. I'll See You in My Dreams. Count me among those who were interested in the Doris Day musicals that aired the other day. In fact, I DVR'd all of them. Anyway... I was intrigued by the cast in this one: Doris Day and Danny Thomas? It sounded like an unlikely pairing so I decided to watch that one first. I really liked this film. Doris Day has such a beautiful voice. I love how slow and sultry it sounds along with the jazz feel. Her songs would be the perfect thing to listen to in a dimly lit room while sipping wine (or maybe brandy in a snifter, lol) and relaxing after a tough day. I liked the pairing of Day and Thomas. I liked how their relationship was presented realistically with all the highs and lows that normal relationships experience. This was a great film and much better than I expected it to be. I liked that this film had comedic and dramatic elements that saved it from just being a run of the mill musical chock full of cheesy, forgettable songs. There were some very beautiful songs in this film and some others that I recognized from various episodes of I Love Lucy (lol). I just saw that this film was directed by Michael Curtiz. Perhaps that's why I liked this movie. Despite what I've read about Curtiz as a person, there's no denying that he directed some wonderful films. I've found that I prefer Day in more of her comedy and dramatic roles. The musicals I've seen her in so far have been on the corny side. Seeing that I recorded all the ones that aired the other day (except Tea for Two and It's a Great Feeling, which I'd already seen), I should get a pretty good idea on what I think about Doris Day musicals. At least, if anything, even if the film is lousy, I can count on hearing Day's beautiful singing voice.

Andy Devine. I was just exposed to this guy for the first time last month when I watched Torrid Zone. This guy was so annoying, I dreaded every time he reappeared on the screen. The other actor that immediately came to mind when I read this topic: Nicholas Cage. Nepotism is the only answer I have for how this guy became such a big star (an Oscar-winning star no less). He is terrible. The only movie I find him tolerable in is Valley Girl and that's only because the movie is so campy that Cage's persona kind of fits in.

Lol. I'm trying to like Mature more, I just can never figure out why he was a heartthrob... but to each his (or her) own. I do like his "I'm not an actor" quote. I always appreciate celebrities who seem to be humble and have a good sense of humor. I hope your wife is feeling better soon :-) Sometimes that's the best thing about movies. They don't need to be the most profound or revolutionary film. Sometimes, just a fun movie that entertains is all you need to escape from real life for awhile.

This thread is meant to be a counter thread to "I Just Watched..." You don't necessarily have to have recorded a particular film, this is meant for any film that you watched recently that was a waste of time. This is not limited to films aired on TCM. I mentioned this film in another thread, but the most recent waste of space on the DVR film I watched was Three Little Girls in Blue. I originally recorded Three Little Girls in Blue because I'm a big fan of Vera-Ellen. I hardly recognized Vera-Ellen in this film. While I didn't think she was fat by any means (she wasn't), in contrast to her appearance in On the Town and White Christmas, she looked very different. I didn't like this film. It was corny and corny in a bad way. It was a remake of Moon Over Miami. Moon Over Miami was a much better film. There weren't enough jazzy Vera-Ellen dance numbers in this film for my taste and the overall acting was poor. Vera-Ellen's biggest dance number, You Make Me Feel So Young (later popularized by Frank Sinatra) was such a bizarre dance number and lacked the "sparkle" that so many other musicals from that time had.

This thread is intended for people to share their thoughts on films that they recently saw. I also made a counter thread "A Waste of Space on the DVR" for those films that were total duds. This is not limited to films seen on TCM. I just watched a few films: Wabash Avenue. I just saw this film with Betty Grable and Victor Mature. I remember last summer, Dargo tried to get me to like Mature more. While I did like him in I Wake Up Screaming, I can never see him as the supposed heartthrob that he was supposed to be. Mature does absolutely nothing for me--lookswise. I do like him as smarmy characters. He seems to do smarmy well. Betty Grable was beautiful as always and wore many costumes to show off her great legs. This film was entertaining when I watched it, but is ultimately forgettable. The Avengers: Age of Ultron. This was a great film. While it was heavy on the CGI, it was a fun film with an interesting plot. James Spader was great as the voice of the villain, Ultron. The Avengers themselves were also fun, and I thought it was interesting how the filmmakers worked around Scarlett Johanssen's pregnancy (stunt doubles & CGI). I also like that the group seems to be evolving and making room for two new Avengers: The Scarlet Witch (played very well by The Olsen Twins' sister, Elizabeth Olsen) and Falcon. I look forward to the next film and the next superhero film in the Marvel franchise-- Ant-Man starring Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. I recorded this film for Jean Arthur. I'll have to admit right here that I've seen three Capra films: It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Arsenic and Old Lace. My opinion of star Gary Cooper unfortunately is not that high. He was awful in Love in the Afternoon. I found him very dull and in Love in the Afternoon, director Billy Wilder would have been better off hiring a mannequin for Cooper's part. In Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Cooper wasn't that bad, but I can't figure out WHY he was such a big star. Maybe he was better in silent films. Cooper just seems to have no pizzazz. Perhaps if they had cast James Stewart or maybe even Cary Grant, it might have been more interesting. I wanted to say Errol Flynn, but he might have had too much flair for the part of Longfellow Deeds. I hate to say it, but I liked Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder's remake better! But I did love Jean Arthur in this film. She never gives a bad performance in my opinion.

I haven't seen My Week With Marilyn yet. I wanted to see it. I heard it was really good and I think Michelle Williams was even nominated for an Oscar for it. It's still on the Netflix Instant Queue. I should just watch it one of these days. I'm glad to hear that it sounds like Williams actually tried to bring the real Marilyn to life and didn't just go for a Marilyn Monroe impression. There is so much more to Monroe than the image that seems to be idolized by the teenage girls and 20 and 30-somethings--whom I imagine have never actually seen a Marilyn Monroe film. They just love her image--she epitomizes sexuality.

Maybe I need to give The Prince and the Showgirl another chance? I feel like Olivier was almost trying too hard? I don't know if that's the right term. He just wasn't doing anything for me. Maybe I'll give TPATS another whirl on the DVR and see if I like it better.

His appearance at the end of Mr Skeffington is so heartbreaking. Job returns to Fanny's home unannounced after many years away. Fanny, no longer beautiful due to illness, doesn't want to meet Job at first because she doesn't want him to see her not looking beautiful. When she finally sees Job, she realizes that he is now blind. She rushes to his side, grabs his arm and helps him up the stairs, stating that "Mr. Skeffington has come home." Fanny remembers Job telling her years ago that "a woman is beautiful when she's loved and only then." Fanny's cousin George (who brought Job home) tells her that she has never been more beautiful and she finally realizes what being beautiful really is. Fantastic performances by Rains and Bette Davis and truly one of the highlights, if not the highlight of the film.

Misses: The Prince and the Showgirl (on tomorrow at 11am PST). I saw this movie I think the last time it was on. I'm a big fan of Marilyn Monroe and I wanted to like this film. I wanted to like it, I really did. Monroe looked beautiful as usual and apparently her production company also produced this film. She was given about 3/4 of the film's profits. I had also never seen Laurence Olivier in a film. He also directed this one. I must say, despite all the issues that Olivier had with Monroe during the making of this movie, I found Monroe more interesting. I don't know what it is about Olivier, but he leaves me cold-- like many of the Shakespearean actors do (with the exception of Orson Welles). Hits: I really loved The Stranger with Welles and Edward G Robinson. This was a great noir with two of my favorite actors. I also love the style of the film and it's overall aesthetic. I'm definitely recording this again so I can see it. Such a great movie.

This isn't related to the Hays Code persay... but is related to the overly strict television code that was in place in the 1950s... In I Love Lucy, the series started out with Lucy and Ricky sleeping in pushed together twin beds. As soon as Little Ricky was born, Lucy and Ricky's twin beds had to be separated because the network didn't want there to be an implication that there was a sexual relationship between Lucy and Ricky.

Great schedule Barton! I loved your take on the home theme with the night of home invasion films; The day of Virginia Mayo films looks like it'd be a fun way to spend the day and I also loved the "Hollywood on Hollywood" Essentials evening. 2 fantastic schedules so far! Looking forward to seeing more!!

I'm excited, I just got Ava Gardner's autobiography, Ava My Story from the library. I saw it on the shelf and feel that it'll be probably be pretty good. From what I've heard about Gardner, she seems like she doesn't hold back and tells it like she's sees it. I've heard she was involved in some scandalous escapades too, so I hope she talks about those. I'm also looking forward to reading about why she married Mickey Rooney (I've heard there was a BIG reason that she was interested in him...) and maybe find out the truth about Sinatra. Apparently Sinatra and Rooney had a BIG thing in common

I'm sure there are quite a few named after the ACME in looney tunes. It seems though that ACME is a generic company name used in movies and television, because in "I Love Lucy" in the episode "Job Switching" aka "the chocolate factory episode," Lucy and Ethel visit the Acme Employment Agency. At work, we have a vendor named Acme.

I've also been finding the pre codes to be a lot of fun. For the longest time, I tended to stay away from the early talkies (1927 up to 1933ish) because they always seemed "creaky" (if that makes sense). A lot of them had poor film quality (which I know, what can I expect from an 80+ year old film?) and bad sound that made it hard to watch. I'm happy that TCM has managed to find decent prints of many of these films and I've found a lot of them to be really fun. For the most part, they're really fun because of the content and the outrageous things these characters get away with--they're outrageous for a 1930s movie at least. I also find them a lot of fun because many of them feature some of the biggest Hollywood stars in the very beginnings of their career, before they hit it big. Cary Grant in Hot Saturday was interesting as was seeing Barbara Stanwyck in all of her pre-codes. I was so excited that TCM had those Pre-Code Fridays last September, even though I didn't have time to watch a ton of them. I'm excited for the "Summer of Darkness" coming up next month and July.

Thanks for the recommendations! I actually recorded Pick Up on South Street last week on FXM, but I haven't watched it yet. I think I've finally caught up on almost all the Betty Grable musicals.

I just got the second volume of the "Looney Tunes Platinum Blu Ray" collection and once again, it is full of hilarious amazing cartoons. I used to watch Looney Tunes all the time when I was little and then all of a sudden, the show disappeared. It's so fun to watch them again and in such high quality. Once the cartoon starts, I remember "oh yeah, it's this one." Plus, there are so many other great Warner Brothers cartoons featuring lesser known characters like 2 of my favorites (One Froggy Evening starring Michigan J. Frog and Three Little Bops a jazz version of "The Three Little Pigs." both of these cartoons are on volume 1). Volume 2 had the "Hollywood Steps Out" episode and so many other great ones. Daffy Duck is hilarious. I can't wait to get Vol 3. It has one of my favorite cartoons: "Hair-Raising Hare." Bugs Bunny gets kidnapped to a mad scientist's castle (The mad scientist suspiciously looking like Peter Lorre, lol). The mad scientist is planning on capturing Bugs Bunny to feed to his pet monster, Gossamer. While at he castle, Bugs gets wind of the reason he's there and spends much of the cartoon trying to escape Gossamer. My favorite part is when Bugs Bunny puts on a beautician's outfit and starts impersonating a gossipy beautician. He gives Gossamer a manicure and tries to give him a new hairdo. Gossamer eventually figures out what's going on and continues to try and capture Bugs, but to no avail. After multiple attempts to catch him, Bugs finally outsmarts him and Gossamer goes running.

Speaking of suffering characters... What about poor Wile E. Coyote? How many times can the poor guy be crushed by all the various ACME products, blown up by dynamite, hit by a train, etc? Then each and every time, the Roadrunner, just to rub salt in the wound, runs up, stops, says "beep, beep" and then is on his merry way.

I've been watching the colorized I Love Lucy episodes out of curiosity, but I still prefer the black and white versions that are on my DVDs. Also, not to nitpick, but last night's airing of "LA at Last!" had dialogue from the Brown Derby scene missing and there was a brief scene missing from the part when Ricky tells Lucy that William Holden is in their living room.

It aired on Retroplex last week. I think it might be repeating this week. It used to be on Netflix Instant, but it looks like it is gone now.

You can have the home theme scheduled at any time of the day you desire :-)

With all the great roles that Claude Rains has brought to life on the silver screen, is it possible to name the definitive Claude Rains role? I would say it is Louis Renault in Casablanca, but it could easily be something else. I think Louis captures so much of Rains' persona that he brings to his roles that it might just be the perfect role for him. What do you think?

I'm not really sure why TCM hasn't shown it. I watched this a year or two ago on Netflix Instant Streaming. I agree that it was very interesting. I liked seeing the painstaking lengths that film preservationists go through to restore films using the original film. Seeing the actual cans containing Citizen Kane was pretty amazing. I'm just imagining trying to be the person responsible for restoring these classics. Here you have the actual film in hand and you're tasked with restoring it. I'd hate to screw it up. I also thought the part showing how and why the National Film Registry was created and how they go about selecting films to preserve each year. The films aren't limited to full length motion pictures either-- you've got cartoons, short films, historical footage, etc. I also liked that they change up the panel of people who select the films. I think that's a good thing as you will have a revolving group of different tastes who might select a more wide array of films. I think a great prime-time theme for TCM would be to show this documentary along with some of the films that have been selected by the National Film Registry for preservation. In fact, TCM could probably do a Friday Night Spotlight featuring the films that have been saved by the National Film Registry. Of course, many will probably bemoan that some of these films are being shown, AGAIN, but... in my opinion, there's a reason why these films are popular and why they're important. They deserve to be preserved so they can be shown to future generations. Many of these films that are part of the National Film Registry are tiny capsules of American culture and history.

Omg. I hated Don Rickles in that movie. I felt so bad for Debbie Reynolds and was waiting for Tony Curtis to clobber him. Poor Debbie, I hated seeing her disgraced and embarrassed by her creep of a boss, Rickles.