[The worst possible cast selection.....]

Maureen McCormick and Barry Williams in "The Blue Lagoon."

[Underrated Gems in Someone's Filmography]

 

Some of my favorite not-so-well-known performances:

 

Bette Davis CABIN IN THE COTTON--Its Richard Barthelmess’ movie, but Bette is surprisingly sexy in it--"I love to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair."

 

Joan Crawford in RAIN—I know that many people consider Swanson's Sadie Thompson as the ultimate, but I think Joan pulled this one off pretty well

 

Loretta Young in MIDNIGHT MARY—I like Precode Loretta much better than later Loretta

 

Gary Cooper in DESIRE--He's definitely not "strong and silent" in this one. He plays an outgoing, sort of naive American duped by Marlene Dietrich's sophisticated jewel theif. He plays guitar and sings and jokes around and of course they fall in love and he takes her back to Detroit(!) with him.

 

Katharine Hepbrun in SUMMERTIME--fantastic as the lonely secretary looking for love in Venice. 

 

Katharine Hepburn in LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT--She plays Mary Tyrone's descent into drug abuse wonderfully well. She really should have gotten an Oscar for this one, rather than

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER  a few years later...

 

Lucille Ball in LURED--she's in funny wisecracking mode as she helps police in London solve a series of murders

 

 

I'm so glad you posted the quote from Bette Davis.  I watched her AFI Tribute on You Tube and at the conclusion of her speech, she repeated the "I love to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair" line, stating that it was her favorite dialogue.  I wondered what movie that was from because I didn't remember it, and now I know!

Thank you!!

[20th Century Vole Presents]

I think one can't be blamed for coming to the conclusion that

Triumph bikes are made for weenies like the Mild One. I'm

surprised he didn't have training wheels on his. Would real

he men dopers like Captain America and Billy ride one of

those tea and crumpet burners? Hell no I say.

 

Back in the day we thought the Brady kids were super vanilla

white breader TV teens. I watched some of the episodes when

TVLand showed them a while back. Still funny in a peculiar sort

of way. I recall reading there was one where Barry Williams had

just smoked some weed and was a bit high. Don't know if it's

true or not.

I totally think that he was high. If you watch the episode, there's something "off" about him. He's a little clumsy and seems a little dopey while also enjoying himself a bit too much. I think all Greg was supposed to do in the scene was come out and help someone fix a bicycle or something in the driveway.

 

I really like "The Brady Bunch." While it's definitely corny, it's charming for whatever reason. I find many of the episodes to be funny. It's one of the few shows where all the kid characters have their moments and I don't find any of them irritating (except for cousin Oliver, ick). Though Marcia and Greg are my favorites.

[June Schedule is Up]

Mommie Dearest might make for an interesting Broadway Musical, don't you think?

I think it would!

 

A Horror musical like 'Sweeney Todd.'

[June Schedule is Up]

I'm looking forward to seeing TROG for the first time.

I think it's Joan Crawford's last movie so it would be interesting for that reason alone but the story looks like a hoot.

 

A few years ago there was a production in Chicago called TROGG: THE MUSICAL (I think they spelled it with 2 g's for legal reasons).

While I've found 1940s Joan Crawford growing on me (Mildred Pierce, Flamingo Road, to name a couple), I've found it hard to take her seriously once she was in her giant black eyebrows phase.

[20th Century Vole Presents]

Oh, yes!

One of my former co-workers and I would ofen use that "Something suddenly came up" line.

We both grew up on Nick At Nite.

We talked about visting the Grand Canyon so we could yell "Bobby!!! Cindy!!!"  

 

My coworker (who grew up watching the show when it was new, lol) and I (who saw it a zillion times in reruns on Nick at Nite and TBS) like to taunt each other with "Baby talk, Baby talk it's a wonder you can walk." Which usually follows with "You stop that Buddy Hinton!"

 

We also like to say Greg Brady's classic line, "Kids. What do they know about life?" when someone says or does something dumb.

 

But I digress...

 

(Now I feel like I need to go find my Brady Bunch DVDs, but I'm watching "Five Came Back" at the moment)

[Happy Mother's Day]

Raymond can be seen as a throwback to MRFD. The incompetent father has been a fixture of US sitcoms from the beginning. In fact the ones with competent fathers might even be classified as something else, since they were invariably much more serious than the silly father shows.

 

I think the comedic shows featuring competent fathers usually has him playing the straight man while all the craziness unfolds around him.  The comedy comes from not only the situations themselves, but the father's reaction to them. 

 

Some shows featuring competent fathers:

 

The Andy Griffith Show, Andy Taylor

The Brady Bunch, Mike Brady

Happy Days, Howard Cunningham

I Love Lucy, Ricky Ricardo

 

...just to name a few.

[Happy Mother's Day]

Didn't she also play Henry Higgins's mother in MY FAIR LADY?

I always thought Rex Harrison looked too old to be her son or maybe she looked too young.

I believe she did.  I think she's also Judy Garland's aunt (but a mother type) or something like that in The Pirate.

[Underrated Gems in Someone's Filmography]

Try to see Night and the City with Gene and Richard Widmark.    Gene doesn't have a big role playing Widmark's girlfriend,  but the movie is a very good.   A real dark and sleazy noir.     If you get MOVIES-TV they show it about once a month.

You had me with "dark and sleazy noir." Thanks for the recommendation.  I have a lot of channels, I'll have to figure out what channel is Movies-TV, I just found Retroplex yesterday and watched To Catch a Thief.  I am not very familiar with Widmark's work-- I really know of him from his appearance as himself in an episode of I Love Lucy. 

 

EDIT: Boo! Movies TV is not available in Oregon But good news! It's available on Netflix.  I'll get it that way! Thanks for the recommendation!

[MARXISM, BUGSISM, AND OTHER ISMS]

Just wondering if anyone knows...

 

When these actors are parodied in the cartoons (or even when clips of them are shown, like an actual movie clip of Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in one short) does the animation department (or whoever would be in charge of this) have to ask the actors for permission to use their image? Or, are they protected by the laws that protect satire and parody? Or does having impressions of you or your image parodied just come with the territory of being a celebrity?

 

It seems for the most part, with the exception of cartoons like Hollywood Steps Out and I'm sure a few others, that Looney Tunes mostly picked on the Warner Brothers stars.  Perhaps the WB stars were fair game when it came to Looney Tunes?

[20th Century Vole Presents]

TO CATCH A COLD

 

People keep coming down with the common cold in the French Riveria.  Everyone's blaming John Robie (Cary Grant) a former cold giver who has now retired to the vineyards.  When rich tourists at the ritziest hotel in the French Riviera start coming down with colds, fingers point toward Robie.  The people demand for him to be quarantined, but Robie escapes.  Determined to clear his name as the Common Cold Giver, he heads to the ritzy French Riviera hotel.  He meets Frances (Grace Kelly) and soon she comes down with a bad cold and blames Robie. Robie, in love with Frances, needs to prove to her that he's not infected with the cold virus and sets out to find out who is infecting the rich folk by sneezing on them, coughing without covering their mouth, drinking out of their glasses without them looking and the like.  The action culminates at the costume party where Robie sees and confronts "The Common Cold Giver."

[20th Century Vole Presents]

"The Subject Was Noses" was the title of one of my favorite episodes of THE BRADY BUNCH.

 

"...something suddenly came up!..." (Greg's sage advice to Marcia on how to break the date with Charlie after making a date for the same night with Doug "Big Man on Campus" Simpson).

 

I love that episode too.

[Here's To Ben]

I like hearing behind-the-scenes facts, whether it's gossip about who hated who or who was replaced at the last minute or what not.  I also like hearing anecdotes about the what it was like making the film, things that went wrong, etc. For me, knowing for example, that the script for Casablanca was being rewritten on a daily basis makes viewing the film even more interesting, because it's amazing that they were able to create such a classic film when nobody knew what was going on day to day.  Knowing that a performer won an Oscar, or that this specific appearance was their film breakthrough, or any other type of non-behind the scenes information is also interesting.

 

While the hosts may repeat the same information that they did in a previous intro, or include information which some may view as "uninteresting," I don't think it's a big deal, it's only a couple minutes--not everything that is said/written about films has to offer in-depth analysis and only serious academic type information. 

 

I like to look up the film I'm watching on imdb to read the trivia or look it up on the tcm website to read the programming article to supplement the information provided in the introduction. 

 

I like Ben's intros because they seem a little laid back and he often has some funny quips.  Osborne's intros on the other hand, are a little more formal and old fashioned.  I don't have an issue with either man's introductions, both are fine in their own way. I am watching to watch the movie, not to watch the introductions.

[James Dean]

I'd have to say that Rebel Without a Cause is my favorite in the James Dean trilogy. 

 

I do agree that it seems unlikely that James Dean would have had trouble making friends and meeting girls.  I know if I were Natalie Wood in that movie, I would have dumped that creep Buzz in a hot second and hooked up with Dean-- he was way more attractive. 

 

Anyway, I digress. 

 

I really like 'Rebel' because of the relationship between the three young leads: Dean, Wood and Sal Mineo.  In the beginning, Wood is kind of lame because she's part of the gang that picks on Dean and she treats him like crap in the beginning, but she is soon drawn to him.  Perhaps because she senses a vulnerability in him, or perhaps he is so different from the guys that she usually hangs out with, or maybe she realizes that she has something in common with him--issues at home.  Dean's parents are constantly bickering and it frustrates him and makes him feel betrayed, even more so when Dean's father can't stand up for himself against Dean's overbearing mother; Wood is feeling like her father doesn't care about her anymore because she's growing up, she dresses up in racy clothes, wears makeup and hangs around with a bad crowd in an effort to get attention.   Mineo also feels a kinship with Dean-- he also has problems at home.  He feels abandoned by his parents, due to his father leaving and his mother being away from home most of the time.  He is left in the care of the housekeeper often. 

 

What I love about this film, is how the three kids, who feel like outcasts in their own families, are drawn to one another and basically form their own "family." I love the scene where Dean, Wood and Mineo are in the abandoned mansion (which I believe is Norma Desmond's mansion from Sunset Boulevard) pretending to be a family.  Dean and Wood are the parents and Mineo is their child. 

 

While some find Dean's teen angst to be over the top, I really enjoy his performance in 'Rebel.'  It's got a few funny parts, some interesting lead actors and character actors and is a good story about emotional struggles that many teenagers go through. 

 

It's a shame that Dean died so young.  While his young death after three films is probably a large reason for his allure, almost 60 years later, I feel that had he been able to live and make more films, he would have eventually matured and been a very interesting actor.  I could see him having a Paul Newman type career with a combination of intense dramatic films and perhaps some light hearted ones as well. 

[MARXISM, BUGSISM, AND OTHER ISMS]

Later in Hollywood Steps Out, while "The Pretty Girl" is making her way through the club, she is greeted by a group of cat-calls coming from some of Hollywood's biggest male stars:

 

Including my boy Errol in the back row, farthest to the right

[MARXISM, BUGSISM, AND OTHER ISMS]

Ironically ladies, I understand Bugs here always wore a women's size 7 also...

 

But then again of course, whenever playing the more "Southern" roles, he often went harefoo..err..I mean barefooted...

 

 

(...ya know, while I personally have never been all that swayed by Southern women, I have to say I think Bugs never looked cuter than when he was playing this little hillbilly chick here...maybe it's the red lipstick...I've always thought red lipstick on a girl, or I guess a rabbit in this case, makes 'em look especially hot!!!)

Wow.  Bugs is really rocking those stilettos.  He probably walks in them better than I would.  For some reason, I found the episodes when Bugs Bunny dressed as a girl (didn't he call himself "Honey Bunny?" or was that his girlfriend? I thought his girlfriend was Lola?) funnier than his regular episodes.  I think he also makes a great looking hillbilly.  I love the yellow crop top, blue torn skirt combo he's got going.  For someone who rarely wears clothing, he sure is a great dresser.

[MARXISM, BUGSISM, AND OTHER ISMS]

Size 7 in 30s sizes.

http://www.foxburrowvintage.com/p/finding-your-vintage-shoe-size.html

 

 

Okay.  Because I just had to know how vintage shoe sizes compare to today's shoe sizes, I googled it.  For whatever reason, I must know just how big Garbo's feet were.  Since she's no longer around for me to measure her feet myself, I measured my feet in order to get an idea how much bigger her feet are than mine.

 

I measured my foot, heel to toe and got a hair over 8.5 inches, so I rounded up to the vintage size 5. 

 

Then I measured the widest part of my foot and got a little over 3.25 inches which puts me in the 'B' range.

 

My modern shoe size is 7, my vintage shoe size is 5B.

 

If Garbo wore a 7 in vintage sizes, that puts her foot a hair over 2 inches longer than my foot.  I would speculate that in modern sizes, Garbo probably wore a 9-10 shoe.

 

I've heard that Audrey Hepburn also had large feet that she was very self-conscious about.

[Underrated Gems in Someone's Filmography]

RINGS ON HER FINGERS was Gene Tierney's first comedy, and as such, she wasn't about to replace the just deceased Carole Lombard with her timing or technique. She was better in Lubitsch's HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943), THAT WONDERFUL URGE (1948), and THE MATING GAME (1951), which she did on loan to Paramount, and which TCM plays fairly often. Of course, she was good also in THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, which was a romatic comedy-fantasy.

 

ROHF has Gene as a department store salesgirl hired to pose as an heiress, in order to attract thr wealthy Henry Fonda to fleece him. Of course, Fonda, who is now impoverished, falls for her, and she for him; this spoils the plans of Laird Cregar and Spring Byington, as the grifter couple that got Tierney to go along woth their plan. There is a hilarious scene where the big bodied Cregar tries to hide from Fonda recognizing him, in a swimming pool area.

 

This film may be reminiscent of THE LADY EVE, and I've read.that Zanuck locked several writers in ascreening room, with TLE showing, with instructions to come up with something like that. Nevertheless, it is quite.enjoyable.

Thank you for the information Arturo! Rings on Her Fingers sounds like it would be very entertaining.  I hope TCM plays it in the near future. Thank you also for the Gene Tierney suggestions.  I've seen her in Laura, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Where the Sidewalk Ends and Leave Her to Heaven, and have really enjoyed her performances.  I'd like to see more of her work.

[Underrated Gems in Someone's Filmography]

Fonda was quite good in screwballs, often playing the hapless straight man to a dizzy screwball heroine. THE MAD MISS MANTON has him paired up with socialite Barbara Stanwyck, one of the many comedy-mysteries so popular in the wake of THE THIN MAN. His best comedy, imo, is the classic THE LADY EVE, also with Stanwyck......a perfect comedy. Also that same year, 1941, is another comedy he did with Stanwyck, YOU BELONG TO ME, much less renowned but thoroughly enjoyable. The following year, he was also good in a more serious comedy, THE MALE ANIMAL, with the likes of Olivia DeHavilland and Jack Carson.

Wow.  I didn't realize Stanwyck and Fonda made so many movies together.  I'm a big fan of Stanwyck and I love the comedy-mystery films, I'll definitely be looking out for The Mad Miss Manton.  I'll also look out for You Belong to Me. 

[MARXISM, BUGSISM, AND OTHER ISMS]

That bit about Garbo in that cartoon is hilarious. Much was made of her feet back in those days, but they werent that big according to her body size. I think I read somewhere she wore a size seven. I've often looked at her feet in various films and they really arent gigantic. Size seven is nothing today.

Size 7 in modern sizes? Or size 7 in 1930s sizes? I think sizes were done differently back then. People wore sizes like 4B and 1B. If Garbo's giant feet were in fact a modern size seven, then I have huge feet too. I wear anything from a 6 1/2 to 8 depending on the shoe.

[Happy Mother's Day]

Yeah, you might be right about that, Speedy. OR, they could have all just jumped to television about that time.

 

One of recent favorites being Doris Roberts... 

Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle are the only good things about Everybody Loves Raymond.  I cannot stand the wife in that show.  She is so irritating.  I especially like Roberts because she's mean to Raymond's wife.

[The worst possible cast selection.....]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame starring Errol Flynn as Quasimodo and Margaret Hamilton as Esmeralda.

[The worst possible cast selection.....]

​The Marrying Kind with Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney and Zsa Zsa Gabor

 

 

With a cameo by Lana Turner!

[Happy Mother's Day]

Some of the mothers I love are the really crabby ones from the 30s and 40s movies--they always seem to be at odds with their son in laws. 

 

My favorite is Nora Charles' aunt Katharine (a mother figure to Nora) in the second Thin Man movie.  She is hilarious and treats Nick Charles like he's completely unfit to be part of their family.

 

In Love Crazy, Myrna Loy's mother shows up on her and her husband William Powell's anniversary and manages to send Loy out on an errand, forcing Powell to spend the evening with his cranky mother in law.  She basically convinces Loy that Powell is cheating on her, which leads to the action in the film.

 

In Footsteps in the Dark, Errol Flynn's mother in law constantly acts like he's always up to no good and is very conscientious of their social image.  Flynn constantly tries to charm her by telling her she looks like a young girl, or that he likes her new dress or whatever, distracting her from disapproving of him. 

 

I love the crabby elderly mothers, grandmothers and aunts that seem to be present in films from the 1930s-1940s.  It seems by the 1950s, with the films shifting toward more serious/dramatic topics, that the hilarious cranky mother type went away. 

[Happy Mother's Day]

 

I couldn't resist . . .

Lol.  Well there was that one episode where Bobby thought that Carol was the wicked stepmother because she asked him to clean out the fireplace and packed his bags, ready to leave home.