speedracer5

I've watched quite a few movies lately: City For Conquest, this was another pairing of James Cagney and Ann Sheridan. I thought this was a great film. It was very dramatic and had quite a cast: Cagney, Sheridan, Anthony Quinn, Elia Kazan, Arthur Kennedy, Lee Patrick... This film was very interesting and I was happy to find out that I already owned the film as part of the TCM Greatest Gangster Films: James Cagney collection. I didn't realize I already had it. Lol. Honeymoon for Three. This film paired Ann Sheridan with George Brent whom she apparently married a few months after making this film. Brent is still whatever with me. He's not bad, but he doesn't "grab" me either. This film was okay. It wasn't the greatest film, but it wasn't terrible either. I think Sheridan has made better films though. The film tried to make Brent out to be some casanova Don Juan, and I just wasn't buying it. Perhaps with a more attractive male star or someone with more personality, this film would have worked better. People Will Talk. For 1951, I thought this was a pretty scandalous film. Cary Grant plays a professor who gets mixed up with his student (Jeanne Crain), an unwed mother. There was also a suicide attempt (Crain's character after finding out about her pregnancy). Overall, I thought this was a very weird film. I didn't get into the storyline much. I'll Be Seeing You. This was a great film. At first, I was skeptical because the storyline sounded weird, but I recorded it because I like Joseph Cotten and adult Shirley Temple. I am not the biggest fan of Ginger Rogers (I don't know why, she always seems bland to me) and have been trying to give her a chance. I did like her in Top Hat. Shirley Temple was good as the teenager who is at first nervous at sharing her room with Rogers, on leave from prison, but later warms up to her after hearing the circumstances of her sentence. This was different from the roles I've seen Rogers in prior and I really liked her. Although, I am wondering how she ended up imprisoned. I know she's there for involuntary manslaughter, but it appears she killed the guy in self defense. Although I suppose with no other witnesses except for her and the dead guy, there isn't much she can do to prove her case. Three Little Girls in Blue. I recorded this film because it had Vera-Ellen. I hardly recognized Vera-Ellen in this film. She was not fat by any means, but definitely a little bigger than she was in On the Town and White Christmas. This movie was ridiculous and not in a good way. It was very cornball and Vera-Ellen's dance number in "You Make Me Feel So Young" was bizarre. While I liked the actors in the film, I found the dialogue cheesy and lacking in splashy dance numbers. Night Nurse. This was a crazy pre-code with Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell and Clark Gable. While I liked the cast, this was a very dark film. It focused on Stanwyck trying to thwart Gable's plan of murdering the children in his household. I liked Blondell and Stanwyck's quips and dialogue. A young Clark Gable was also very interesting and very sinister. Rat Race. First I thought this was the original version of Rat Race from 2001, but it most definitely was not. Tony Curtis almost seemed like the same character from Some Like it Hot sans the drag. He played a struggling saxophone player trying to make it in New York City. Debbie Reynolds played a taxi dancer who is also struggling and spends her days trying to bribe the man from the telephone company (Norman Fell aka Mr. Roper from "Three's Company) and dodge her landlady. The landlady was hilarious. This film also featured Jack Oakie as a wise old bartender. I thought this was an interesting film. Reynolds didn't play a bubbly young woman in this film, she played a cynical, bitter young woman who is frustrated that she can't make a life for herself in New York. Step Lively. This was a musical remake of Room Service. I recorded it for Sinatra. Gloria de Haven co-starred and she was good and sings beautifully. Of course, Sinatra sings a few songs and seems to be the key to saving the show that they're trying to produce in a hotel room. Eugene Pallette was funny, although he seems to play the same guy in every film. Without Love. Another of the Hepburn/Tracy films. I've been trying to see all their collaborations and this one also featured Lucille Ball in a supporting role. This film was good I thought the entire beginning part with Spencer Tracy trying to take a drunk Keenan Wynn home was funny. Wynn's girlfriend in the film was a total nag. Her character irritated me. Lucy was funny. She does the supporting character with the smart quips thing very well. Deception. I got this one through Netflix because it starred two of my favorites: Bette Davis and Claude Rains and Paul Henreid. Paul Henreid is okay, he's passable in his films, but he seems rather interchangeable. While Bette Davis was fantastic as the woman who has been keeping a secret from her lover (Henreid) and scorned lover (Rains), this film belongs to Rains. His character was so deliciously evil and nasty that I loved him. He is really what made this film work. Had they cast someone else in Rains' part, this film would not have been nearly as entertaining. I've got so many more films to watch and my list never gets shorter. Thanks to finding the Fox Movie Channel and now Retroplex, it's getting even longer.

The bikinis would have made more sense after all, the shallow Stepford Men were replacing their wives with the ideal wife. You'd think prancing around in skimpy clothing would have been the first thing on their list of ideal wife attributes. Lol. The ruffle dresses are hilarious though, because they're so ugly that they only add to the camp factor of this film. Plus, they were a good symbol to show that the wife was a Stepford Wife. As soon as she was donning the ugly ruffle dress, you knew she'd been replaced.

The only film I've seen Jean Peters in is Niagara. She plays the newlywed who visits Niagara Falls and encounters married couple Joseph Cotten and Marilyn Monroe. She eventually catches Cotten doing something incriminating and ends up on a boat with him in Niagara Falls and has to be rescued. She was also married to Howard Hughes for 14 years.

Another good one is Lucille Ball's autobiography Love, Lucy. An unfinished manuscript of Ball's autobiography was found among her possessions and was posthumously published a decade or so after Ball's death. This book tells Ball's life from birth to about 1964. It's a very interesting story telling about Ball's sometimes difficult childhood and her childhood dream of being an actress. She tells of leaving high school and moving to Manhattan to attend a dramatic arts school, but flunked out-- one of the star students was none other than Bette Davis. She later finds work in chorus lines on Broadway and as a model. She discusses her life after moving to Hollywood (originally being brought out to be a slave girl in Roman Scandals with Eddie Cantor) and later becoming "Queen of the B's" at RKO and meeting Desi Arnaz. She is very honest about her marriage with Arnaz and how it was very tempestuous at times. It's a great story. It's a shame that it doesn't cover the last 25 or so years of her life.

Yeah. Desi's autobiography is hard to find unfortunately. I found it probably over 10-15 years ago in a used bookstore for only $5. I'm glad I snatched it up when I did, I have never seen another copy since. I don't know if your local library would have it or not. I know mine doesn't.

That was sad when Charmaine's tennis court was torn up. I loved the ugly ruffle dresses the Stepford Wives wore. As if real women would wear those dresses in the 1970s. Women weren't even wearing those types of dresses in the 1950s! I also liked when Katharine Ross stabs friend Paula Prentiss. "...I thought we were friends!..." This is such a campy movie, I loved it. I found it for $3.99 at a movie store I go to occasionally. I thought it was a total score. Lol.

I'm among those that probably haven't seen all the Stanwyck and Arthur films. I think the Arthur films are part of a Frank Capra salute. I'm recording Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take it With You and Meet John Doe (although I've read mixed reviews about it here). I think there was a Stanwyck pre-code on that morning that I just remembered, I'll have to make sure to set that one up to record. The pre-code Stanwyck is a very interesting contrast to the production code Stanwyck. I love Barbara Stanwyck so I don't mind that her films are shown often. I'm also liking Jean Arthur more and more with every film of hers TCM shows, so I'm all for this schedule.

I'll admit that I've only seen this film once, but I agree that Liza Minnelli was fantastic as Sally Bowles. It's great to see that she was talented on her own and was not just riding the coattails of her famous and very talented mother, Judy Garland. Liza, like her mother, had her own distinct style that set her apart from others. I was reading some trivia about this film on IMDB and apparently, the author of the story on which Cabaret is based, thought that Minnelli was too talented for the part of Sally Bowles. Bowles was supposed to be an amateur talent who thought she had what it takes to be a star, but doesn't. Minnelli definitely does not fit that description. I thought Joel Grey was also great as the Master of Ceremonies. He apparently performed extensive research in order to affect an accurate German accent.

Thanks for the recommendation Sepiatone! This film is on TCM later this week. I'm a fan of Lemmon and haven't seen this one yet. It'd be nice to see a different side of Lemmon.

I thought Constance Bennett was really good in Topper, her persona (at least in that film) was kind of in the same vein as Carole Lombard and Jean Harlow. I really liked Joan Bennett in The Woman in the Window. I've been wanting to watch Scarlet Street. It is/was on Netflix Instant Streaming for a long time, I'll have to see if it's still on there.

Thanks Arturo! I'll make sure to set these up on the DVR. I'm excited that they're showing so many Gene Tierney films. I think I've recorded all the Betty Grable films they've shown, and they're starting to show the same ones again. I really wanted to watch Call of the Wild just because of the behind the scenes scandal involving Loretta Young and Clark Gable's love child, lol. I've never seen Linda Darnell in any film. I only know that she died tragically in a fire--so I'll definitely record this one.

Yes! There is! That is definitely an indelible moment in that film. That whole scene, like Eugenia pointed out is memorable. That look in Perkins' eyes is so chilling. How he didn't get Oscar-nominated for this role I have no idea. This is the second bad experience Janet Leigh has when going into small roadside motels. First in Touch of Evil and now in Psycho. I think Leigh either needs to splurge on fancier hotels or not travel alone! Psycho has many indelible moments (imo): -Of course the classic shower scene. The music is really what makes the scene, but Leigh's scream and later her hand running down the shower curtain before pulling it down is probably one of the most famous moments in film. -The entire scene in the beginning of the film after Leigh has stolen the money and is on the lam driving from Phoenix to LA. Again, the music is really what makes it. -Toward the end of the film when Vera Miles sees the back of "mother" and taps her on the shoulder. The skeleton wearing a wig turns around and Miles screams. -The end of course when Leigh's car is showed being towed out of the swamp.

Great schedule Skimpole! I love how you took advantage of all the allowed and exempt premieres. I especially loved the evening of heist films and the monarchy films. We have 1 excellent schedule so far, I hope to see more posted within the next couple weeks! Challenge ends on June 4!!

Just to throw out 2 of my favorites, both autobiographies: "My Wicked Wicked Ways," Errol Flynn. This was probably the most entertaining celebrity autobiography I've ever read. It was also very well written. Flynn was known as a great raconteur and this book was no exception. I'm sure he took some liberties and embellished things but to great effect. He was also very honest about some of the more negative aspects of his life which I think was a nice break from the more fantastic stories he told. "A Book," Desi Arnaz. This was another great and very entertaining autobiography. Arnaz' voice (fractured English and all) comes through in the narration of his life story. He tells tons of great stories about his childhood in Cuba, working for Xavier Cugat and meeting Lucille Ball. He also has some more inspiring stories like when his family lost everything due to a revolution in Cuba and ended up living in an unheated, rat infested warehouse in Miami. The fact he was able to overcome all that and eventually become a top Television Star and the top television producer running his own studio makes for an amazing story. Like Flynn, Arnaz is very frank about his life and doesn't hold back even telling about mistakes and bad decisions he made.

That's one of my favorite parts of the film. I just love watching Sanders destroy Baxter's entire scheme in one fell swoop. He truly deserved his Oscar for his performance in this film.

Was *69 around in the mid-50s?

For me, All About Eve is full of indelible moments. There's a reason why this is one of the best films of all time. Probably the most famous scene in this film is when Bette Davis goes up the stairs with her classic line: "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night." Pretty much after that point in the film, it's downhill for Bette Davis as Anne Baxter slowly takes over her life, piece by piece. It's only until the end when she and Gary Merrill get engaged that she's got her life back. Another indelible moment in the film is when George Sanders exposes Baxter's lies and tears her down piece by piece... then, just when you think it couldn't get any worse for Baxter, Sanders blackmails her by threatening to expose her lies in his column. Another memorable moment is at the end of the film when Barbara Bates is tasked with packing Baxter's award in her travel trunk. In the 3-way mirror, Bates tries on Baxter's cape and holds the award and pretends to accept it. It is clear in this scene that Baxter is about to get a taste of her own medicine, thanks to Bates. My favorite scene, the scene that is the most memorable to me is toward the end after Baxter finishes accepting her Sarah Siddons Award. In her speech, she mentions something about leaving her heart in the theater while she's off in Hollywood making her film. People pass Eve and offer their congratulations. The other characters in the film pass by Eve. Then here comes Bette Davis, with one of her classic zingers: "I wouldn't worry too much about your heart. You can always put that award where your heart ought to be." BURN!

Is it bad that I really want to go to Bodega Bay where The Birds was filmed and find the building they used as Suzanne Pleshette's house and lay on the stairs the same way she was found after being killed and have someone take my picture? I have no idea why I want this picture of me, but I think it would be funny.

I heard (I think in the Fonda on Fonda documentary that was on last month) that in this film, Fonda really wanted to play up the bad guy angle of his character. From the sounds of it, it sounded like he was really looking forward to playing a character that was so unlike the ones he'd played previously. On the first day of shooting, Fonda showed up to the set wearing brown contact lenses. The director asked Fonda what was up with his contacts and Fonda stated that he thought a bad guy should have dark colored irises. He thought his bright blue eyes would undermine the idea that his character was supposed to be the villain. The director countered by saying that the bright blue eyes would make Fonda's character look even more dangerous. Fonda acquiesced to the director's desire and removed the brown contacts. I'd have to agree with the director. The piercing blue eyes seem a little more sinister coming from a villain.

I've heard that Lana was supposed to star in Best Foot Forward. I've seen this film a couple times and while I love Lucy and I think Nancy Walker is hilarious (although more so as Ida Morgenstern, Rhoda's mother) this film is just kind of meh to me. Lucy has appeared in better films. While I think Lucy is pretty, especially at the beginning of her career before years of smoking started taking their toll, I think the premise of the film would have been more believable to have a more glamorous higher caliber star. Lucy was never known for being the star of an A-list picture. That's why she later turned to radio and then television where she finally found her niche.

This also sounds really good. I'd love to see Lombard in a less "screechy" role like she plays in My Man Godfrey and Nothing Sacred. After seeing these screwball comedies, it'd be nice to see Lombard in a change of pace role like a straight drama.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll also keep an eye out for this film.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've been trying to "get into" Carole Lombard more and I want to see a wide variety of her work, not just the screwball comedies which she was known for. She's starting to grow on me with My Man Godfrey, but that's a rather known film for both Lombard and co-star William Powell. Do Lombard and MacMurray also star in Made for Each Other ? I haven't seen Hands Across the Table yet. I really like MacMurray's early film appearances before he became Disney and Steve Douglas-fied.

I just got The Sun Also Rises (it was $5 used and ended up being free after an in-store sale, lol) but haven't watched it yet. I've heard that Flynn and Eddie Albert are the highlights of the film, but I've been afraid (or timid? there isn't actual deep-seated fear) to watch this, because I don't know if I can bear seeing my beloved Errol Flynn not only near the end of his life but looking much worse for the wear. I do want to watch the film though, I'll just need to buck up and watch it. I finally saw him in Too Much Too Soon and thought he was really good as John Barrymore. Although, after his part in the film was over, I kind of lost interest in the film, lol. I was surprised when I saw Flynn's parts in Thank Your Lucky Stars and The Sisters. In the former, I was so excited to see Flynn in a musical and doing a musical part (cough cough Bogart cough cough, lol). I love musicals and to see my boyfriend singing and dancing was the highlight of the film for me, lol. In The Sisters was surprised that Flynn was able to bring such a vulnerability to his character, Frank Medlin. While his charm and good looks were still in full swing, that wasn't enough to make him happy. He had a wife (Bette Davis) that he deeply loved and was very depressed when he couldn't give her the life he felt she was entitled to. I thought he was especially good in the scene where Davis is leaving for work and his pride is wounded. At first my schoolgirl crush side marveled at how good he looked just waking up... but after I got past that, I thought he was great in conveying support for his wife but also demonstrating how depressed and hurt he was that she was forced to work to support the family and he was failing. Flynn was a much better actor than he was given credit for.

For whatever reason, I always get Jean Simmons and Jean Peters confused--and not because both are named Jean.