speedracer5
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Posts posted by speedracer5
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Tomorrow I recommend The Enchanted Cottage starring Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, and Herbert Marshall. McGuire plays a young woman who works as a maid in an old cottage, one that, according to legend, is enchanted. The cottage as the legend goes, has the power to transform people and make them fall in love. McGuire is depicted as a homely woman (though honestly, she looks fine, she just isn't dolled up in the Hollywood makeup) who is employed as the cottage's caretaker. Young plays a WWII soldier who is disfigured during the war and returns to the cottage to hideout, too embarrassed to reunite with his vain, glamorous fiancee. As McGuire and Young spend more time together, they begin to fall in love, seemingly overtaken by the powers of the enchanted cottage.
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I may use the "Flames...flames on the side of my face" quote often.
Of course, I will quote The Long, Long Trailer: "Turn right here left!"
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11 hours ago, Bogie56 said:
Tuesday, February 25
6:30 a.m. That Forsyte Woman (1949). Errol Flynn without his cutlass.
I really like That Forsyte Woman. The only flaw I really find is that Robert Young is too old for his character. With that said, Errol is the best part of the movie and it's interesting to see him playing such a cold character. Errol had more range as an actor than typically credited.
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I've seen:
771 M (I'd love to see the remake with David Wayne. I think I have that on my DVR)
772 Act of Violence
777 I've seen Friday the 13th and Freddy Vs. Jason
779 The Dark Knight
780 Joker
I have The Entertainer and The Killing on my DVR. I would like to see Schindler's List someday, but haven't yet. If I ever watch A Clockwork Orange, I'll probably watch it just to say I did. I am not anticipating enjoying it. I'm not a big Kubrick fan, though I did like Lolita.
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I would like to see Three Secrets too, but unfortunately, my library doesn't have it
If I really want it, it seems I can request it through Inter-Library Loan.
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I see it listed further down in the Gen Discussions page?
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3 hours ago, Rudy's Girl said:
I watched They Drive By Night last night. I liked it a lot. George Raft was the star more so than Bogart. And I loved Alan Hale, as usual. There were so many actors that I recognized, but I couldn't tell you their names.
Ida Lupino had her spectacular meltdown in the courtroom in They Drive By Night. I only wish there was more Ann Sheridan in this film.
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33 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:
Since we're talking about Patricia Neal, I think it's interesting that no one has as yet brought up the fact that she was married to children's author Roald Dahl. (She met him a couple of years or so after her affair with Cooper.) She experienced more than her share of tragedy in her life (things that happened to her children, for one.) I really like this actress. My favourite movies featuring Neal are The Breaking Point, The Day the Earth Stood Still, A Face in the Crowd, and Hud.
I always thought she seemed very different from most of her contemporaries. She had her own looks, she looked strong. And I liked her voice.
I really enjoy Patricia Neal. I haven't seen Hud yet (I think it's on my DVR), but she was fantastic in all the films you mentioned. I love A Face in the Crowd. I also thought she was great in her small, but important role in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
She had a near-fatal stroke in the 60s and basically had to re-learn how to walk and talk, then went on to an Oscar nomination. I think her daughter died of measles at the age of 7.
I just read this interesting tidbit about Neal. Prior to her death in 2010, she had recently converted to Catholicism. She was buried in the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut where her friend, Dolores Hart, is a nun. Neal was a big supporter of the Abbey's theater program.
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41 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
You HAVE TO BE if you wanna be A STAR, BABY!
This reminds me of that Family Guy episode where Walt Disney is drawing Minnie Mouse and he wants her to take her dress off:
MINNIE: Do I have to?
WALT: You wanna be a star, don't you?
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I can see why Babs would be upset if she thought she was responsible for bringing the vehicle to the attention of Jack Warner. Warner's response was basically "b---- please."
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33 minutes ago, Paulll said:
I have some 'beefcake' photos to upload but my attachments are used up. How do you guys and gals upload so many photos without this problem?
I just right-click on the image and do "Copy Image." That usually works. Sometimes a size error will pop-up and I'll use the link method that Lawrence and Rudy's Girl mention. I also usually resize my photos by right-clicking and choosing "Edit Image" so they aren't enormous.
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Just now, LornaHansonForbes said:
The Klan is not in GONE WITH THE WIND (the movie)...although it may be in the novel. Really, compared to BIRTH OF A NATION, GWTW is (HONESTLY) tame.
I feel like I have seen Gone With the Wind because I know all the famous scenes and all the famous lines, but I really haven't seen all the famous scenes and lines within the context of the film. I do know that Scarlett O'Hara's "Tomorrow is another day" is the end of the film.
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4 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
i REMEMBER when GONE WITH THE WIND came out in VHS in 1985, my father BORROWED THE NEIGHBOR'S VCR SO HE COULD DUPE IT. It was THAT IMPORTANT. but then, I am from NORTH CAROLINA, I'm sure it's different in the PAC NORTHWEST.
It, along with THE MALTESE FALCON, was one of my first classic movie experiences.
and again, besides the exceptional acting, not just from VIVIEN LEIGH who is AMAZING- as one critic wrote "SO beautiful she need not be SO talented and SO talented, she need not be SO beautiful" , but also the aforementioned HATTIE MACDANIELL AND OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND; also LAURA HOPE CREWES and JANE DARWELL and THOMAS MITCHEL, even CLARK GABLE as CLARK GABLE as RHETT BUTLER is PERFECT (it's a role he was born to play)- who has some impressive scenes of his own.
poor LESLIE HOWARD though...
it's a gorgeously shot film, and it's honest about some things- it's quite clear that the war was not a good idea and also that the south loses, it's also honest about reconstruction and that convict labor was basically legal slavery.
it's a film clearly divided into thirds, and the biggest issue is that the FINAL THIRD IS THE LEAST INTERESTING, although it has that iconic FINAL LINE.
Well Oregon did have a big Klan population in the 20s, so who knows what this area is into. Lol.
You'd think with the amount of rain we get that I could at least find one crappy weather afternoon to watch the film.
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3 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
I agree with your comment about HOME ALONE's basic premise requiring a huge suspension of disbelief. But it's a comedy and I guess we're not supposed to think too hard. However, they could have already had the parents out of the country with him being watched by an elderly relative who took sick. Where it was hard to reach the parents, and the relative was in the hospital, with the boy lying to the police that a neighbor would look after him till his parents got back. Mainly because he wanted full run of the house and thought it would be fun to be home alone. Until the crooks show up. Etc.
Agreed. There were more logical ways to get Kevin home alone. All this really does is make the parents look completely negligent, when I don't think they were. Then in the sequel, Kevin gets lost in NYC! I've only seen that movie once, so I don't remember the premise; but come on parents!
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3 minutes ago, lydecker said:
Though film biographies always say that Crawford started her career as a dancer, all you have to do is watch her once to say: "I don't think so!" She is excruciatingly awful in "Dancing Lady." Fred always tried to make his partner look good but I've got to say that the hat rack he danced with in "Royal Wedding" had more grace and style than Joan Crawford in "Dancing Lady."
Joan Crawford is horrible in Dancing Lady. I cringed on Fred's behalf in that film.
I am not really a fan of Joan's during the MGM part of her career, save for The Women, because I thought she was good in that part. I love her during her "more mature woman until she segued into old biddy horror" part of her career. Mildred Pierce is one of my favorite films, I never tire of watching it.
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25 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
I've seen them all this time. Dog Day Afternoon, The Beguiled, and The Devil and Miss Jones are my favorites. I never liked Home Alone, and I was disappointed when I finally got around to Joan of Arc and The Women.
I like The Women, but it is very long. I feel like they could cut some scenes out to make it a little better. I love Rosalind Russell and Paulette Goddard in this film. Norma Shearer never does anything for me, she's too hoity toity most of the time.
Home Alone is okay. The best part is with the Wet Bandits. But I got so tired of the Macaulay Culkin impressions (even though I was only 6 when the movie came out, so they must have endured for awhile, for me to tire of them), and I've never liked the cloying nature of some of the scenes and the music.
And I get that traveling with a big family could be chaos, but I still find it hard to believe that you would not only forget your child at home, but wouldn't realize they were missing until you were already boarded on the plane and in flight. Don't you think you'd notice the kid was missing at the airport?! I mean, Kevin would have had a boarding pass.
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16 minutes ago, Peebs said:
Personally, I'd take Davy Jones (even in that orange floral shirt) over the bodybuilder...
I would take Davy Jones over the body builder too. I also like his shirt, I would wear it. Lol.
The body builder reminds me of that dopey Tongo the apeman guy that visits Gilligan's Island. There is nothing cute about that guy at all. He looks like an overgrown Bamm-Bamm.
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I'm on a bit of a Ralph Meeker kick right now, and by kick I've watched two of his films fairly close together. Lol. I also have The Naked Spur to watch at some point, so that'll bring me up to three.
Last night, I watched Something Wild (1961) starring Meeker and Carroll Baker. I think I recorded this during last year's SUTS? It was when Carroll Baker was the featured star that day. Anyway, I always see this movie during the Criterion sales, but had never seen it before.
In Something Wild, Carroll plays a young college student, Mary Ann, who falls victim to a rapist while walking home through a park. It is seemingly a random attack, but it is very creepy when she is walking and she hears faint noises of someone walking (twigs breaking, leaves crunching, etc.) but there is nobody behind her. However, as the audience, you know something bad is about to happen.... and it does. Mary Ann is justifiably traumatized and hesitant to tell anyone what happened. Her hesitance to tell anyone I imagine is mostly due to trauma (she doesn't want to keep re-living it over and over), embarrassment, and shame. Seeking to put this incident behind her, she destroys all of the clothing that she was wearing on the night of the rape.
The next morning, Mary Ann attempts to put her life back together. She rides the subway to school but faints as the close proximity of strangers against her body causes her extreme anxiety and I imagine, some PTSD. She ends up being brought home by a police officer, must to the shame of her prim and proper mother. Mary Ann's mother goes on and on about how much embarrassment Mary Ann has caused the family by coming home in a police car and worries about the image that they're portraying to the neighborhood. It becomes obvious very quickly that Mary Ann will never be able to tell her mother the true cause behind her fainting on the subway. Her mother would probably figure out how to make this whole incident Mary Ann's fault and how Mary Ann's rape brings shame to the family and the neighborhood.
Mary Ann leaves home (without a note or any warning) and finds a crappy apartment in a tenement next door to Edith Bunker. This apartment is awful, but only $5/week, but at least Mary Ann can be alone, or so she thinks. Edith Bunker is so obnoxious with her cavalcade of men and drunken parties that Mary Ann cannot get any sleep and the abrasive Edith and the strange men are not helping. Needing to make enough money to afford the $5/week rent, Mary Ann finds work at the Woolworth's five and dime store, working alongside the grandma from Everyone Loves Raymond. However, Mary Ann's need to keep to herself and aloofness toward her co-workers makes her the target of petty comments. At the beginning of the shift, the ladies decide to band together and rush Mary Ann through the store doors. However, this is reminiscent of the trauma she experienced on the Subway with people touching her, and she ends up having another PTSD/anxiety attack and goes home.
The next day, despondent Mary Ann decides that she's done with life and attempts to jump off a bridge. That's when she is saved by a lonely mechanic, Mike, played by Ralph Meeker. He takes her to his home and says that she can rest somewhere quiet and private while he's at work. She's hesitant at first (because duh, it's a stranger's house, a strange man no less), but when Mike assures her that he won't be home, she decides that it's a good option. Mike's apartment is only slightly better than Mary Ann's, but not by much. It's a very dingy, very minimalist home. Anyway, Mary Ann is able to rest and appreciates Mike's kindness. Until the evening... when Mike comes home absolutely trashed. Trashed to the point where he can barely walk. He sees Mary Ann and drunkenly tries to force himself on her. She is able to fight him off, but spends the rest of the night in sheer terror.
Much of the rest of the film deals with Mary Ann wanting to leave, Mike saying no, Mike leaving, Mike coming home drunk. The only difference between the other times is Mike going straight to bed after coming home drunk and not trying to attack Mary Ann. Mary Ann asks repeatedly to leave (Mike locks the door from the inside and keeps the key on his person) and Mike says no, stating that "[she's his] last chance" and "[he] needs [her]."
As the audience, I should loathe Mike and despise him for keeping Mary Ann held prisoner; but I think deep down, this is a desperate man wanting happiness. He wants a companion, he wants love. Did he go about it in a good way? No. Definitely not. Holding someone hostage is never a good plan. However, I don't think he is the monster that we're led to believe. I think this is a man that's probably had his heart broken so many times and is so lonely, that having Mary Ann with him makes him feel that all hope is not lost.
I thought this was a very interesting film, even though it featured a subject I'm not too particularly fond of--rape. However, I appreciated that the rape scene wasn't graphic and much of it was comprised of specific shots that got across the idea that she was being raped, but didn't actually show anything. I loved the grittiness of the cinematography and I loved the great music. This film was a good mix of interesting, drama, and weirdness that I appreciated. Both Ralph and Carroll portrayed very complex characters. I thought Ralph did a particularly good job with his portrayal of the lonely mechanic.
I would watch this film again.
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11 hours ago, Rudy's Girl said:
Yesterday I bought a four-film Humphrey Bogart collection on DVD. It has They Drive By Night, Across the Pacific, Action in the North Atlantic, and Passage to Marseille. I have never seen these and am really looking forward to watching them. I also replaced my DVD copy of Young Frankenstein with Blu-ray.
If it's the TCM collection, then I have the same one. I love They Drive By Night. Passage to Marseilles reunites much of the cast of Casablanca, minus Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid. Even the guitar lady with the annoying song is in 'Passage.'
I love Young Frankenstein. That movie never gets old.
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I've seen:
761 The Women
762 The Devil and Miss Jones. I love this movie!
764 The Blackboard Jungle, I think I've seen part of this movie.
765 Sex and the Single Girl
766 The Jungle Book
769 A Fish Called Wanda, I think I saw this a long long time ago. I don't recall much about it
770 Home Alone. This is one of the perennial Christmas favorites, but I never seem to get around to watching it. I have to watch White Christmas at least 4-5 times before then. I have seen it a few times however.
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I’m watching Something Wild with Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker.
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I may need to go lie down for awhile. At least until showtime.
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3 minutes ago, Dargo said:
LOL
So, you're already on your third take in this commercial, huh?!
(…and evidently are also thinkin' it's gettin' hot in here, right?!)
Haha. It's so tasty too!
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1 minute ago, Dargo said:
Nope, but I HAVE been somewhat unpoopular of late it seems!
Well the answer to all your problems is this bittle lottle.
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What do we expect from villains?
in General Discussions
Posted
I love villains, they're usually my favorite character in the movie. If I don't love the villain, it's usually because they were annoying or some other reason--like Jar Jar Binks, e.g. Oftentimes the hero is so boring that you want the villain to succeed!
One of my favorite villains is Veda in Mildred Pierce. She's my favorite character in the movie. I'm only sorry that the film doesn't end the way that the book does, with my girl getting away with it all. Veda is a girl that knows what she wants, and nothing her mother tries to do for her will satiate her desire to have the finer things in life.
Re: true crime type stories, especially ones involving serial killers I find fascinating. No I am not rooting for the serial killer, because real people are being killed; but I find the serial killer's mind to be very interesting--how he (or she) plans their murders, the type of victim they seek, the way in which they contact their victim, the way they conduct their crime, how they manage to stay on the lam for so long, what slip up causes them to finally get caught. Their childhoods I find interesting too, because there's always something there that may have contributed to their future life as a serial killer.
Sometimes a villain, even a truly disgusting, heinous villain, can be interesting because you wonder why they're this way and how they can be so evil.