speedracer5

I'm watching the 1949 Little Women. It's like a Meet Me in St. Louis reunion: Mary Astor, Leon Ames, Margaret O'Brien, and Henry Davenport are all in this film. I'm surprised they didn't cast Donald Crisp as the doctor--he always seems to play the longtime family doctor in these period films. I think June Allyson looked better after Jo chops off all her hair.

In Family Matters, aka "The Urkel Show," one of the Winslow's daughters disappear. In Step By Step, one of Patrick Duffy's children disappear. Re: Happy Days. Losing Chuck was no big loss. He was lame. Now if only Chachi had taken the same route.

Yeah. I like that they kind of combined the two sides of Lucy's career with the glamorous stamp with a comedic photo on the side. Lucy was after all a glamour queen prior to her career in radio and television.

I always like all the villain falls in Disney movies. Re: correcting errors. Instead of making a point to correct someone, I like to reply to their comment and casually use the correct name in my response.

I know this will come as a big shock to everyone, but I have the sheet of Lucille Ball Legends of Hollywood stamps, framed.

Cool. I just read the 20 year tidbit in an article about the new GM, I must have misremembered what I'd read.

Even I Love Lucy which HAD the same writers the entire time had continuity issues. Ethel Mertz had three middle names: Louise, May, Roberta. The Ricardos' apartment number switched from 3B to 3D to accomodate a joke about Lucy appearing in "3D." I don't think people had any idea that people would be finding all these issues 50 years later.

Robert Osborne was just the main host of TCM. When he passed, Ben Mankiewicz assumed his role as the main host. While I can imagine that Robert may have influenced scheduling and such, I do not believe that he held any sort of position related to TCM's business operations. This new manager is replacing Jennifer Dorian who stepped down after 20 years as TCM's manager.

Thanks! I am especially intrigued by Eve Plumb as Beth? I am also a big fan of Dorothy McGuire. Looking at Amazon, there's also a Masterpiece series of Little Women on Amazon Prime. There's also a 1919 version. There's a PBS American Masters episode about Louisa May Alcott that is on Amazon Prime. That might be interesting.

Little Women (2019) I saw the newest iteration of Little Women last night--loved it! I am trying to decide which one I liked better: this new version or the 1994 version with Winona Ryder as Jo. I liked the non-linear way that director Greta Gerwig chose to tell the story. It was a different approach to an old story. Greta also added some new scenes and dialogue that I thought were very effective. My only real complaint about the film is that they used the same actress for both young and adult Amy. Using the same actress for 12-year old Amy might have worked if the actress (Florence Pugh) had a less mature sounding voice. I was also confused if Amy was supposed to be the youngest (like in the novel) or whether Beth was the youngest (as in the 1949 version). The only reason I say that is she seemed to act so much less mature than the other girls. Even Claire Danes' Beth in the 1994 version was more mature than the Beth in this version. In the novel, Beth is a year older than Amy, which places her at 13. However, the Beth in this film was scene feeding a doll during breakfast. I find it hard to believe a 13-year old would still be playing with dolls--even a Civil War era 13-year old. I thought that Saorise Ronan was an excellent Jo. I liked her better than June Allyson in the 1949 version. She may be on par with Winona Ryder in the 1994 version. I loved Laura Dern as Marmie. Meryl Streep was hilarious as Aunt March. I loved when she told Amy that if women don't marry rich, the only chance they have at earning their own wealth is by owning a cathouse or being an actress--"almost the same thing" she says. Timothee Chalamet was excellent as Laurie. He seems to be touted as the next young hot male actor--aesthetically, he does nothing for me, but I thought he was an effective Laurie. I liked him better than Peter Lawford in the 1949 version and even better than Christian Bale in the 1994 version. While I didn't dislike Emma Watson as Meg, I wasn't sure that I bought her as the eldest girl of the group, even though I know that Emma Watson herself was older than all the other ladies in the cast. She has a very young face, which maybe works for 16-year old Meg. It was hard to accept her as married with children Meg. I also can't look at her without seeing Hermonie in Civil War garb, so that perhaps is my own issue. I noticed with both the British Watson and the Irish Saorise Ronan, that their native accents sometimes crept through their affected American accents. I also found it interesting that none of the girls playing the All-American March sisters were actually American. I thought that they all hid their native accents fairly well--except for the occasional slip by Watson and Ronan. I recently just saw the 1994 verison of Little Women, but I am interested in seeing all the iterations again: 1933, 1949, 1994 and the newest one again to see the different interpretations of the story. I also just got a Kindle for Christmas and was able to download the original novel for free. I just started the novel. It'd also be an interesting comparison to see how all these different versions of the story adapted the original source material. I'm watching the 1949 one right now because it was on On Demand. I could maybe handle June Allyson as Jo if her voice wasn't so obviously that of a grown woman. Of all the ladies in the 1949 cast, Margaret O'Brien as Beth and Mary Astor as Marmie are the best cast. I also like Miss Trumbull as Hannah, the March's maid.

I think the "OK Boomer" nonsense is counterproductive to the point that Millennial/Gen Z are trying to make. They want their opinions taken seriously and such, but responding with such a flippant response like "Ok Boomer," with the requisite eye roll completely reinforces the stereotype about those two generations and negates their whole objective. I don't identify with the plight of the Millennials--which is why I choose to embrace my Gen X label. Lol.

My birth year is on the cusp between Gen-X and Millennial, depending on the report. I choose to identify as Gen-X. Lol.

Lol. To make it a Lifetime movie, there would have to be some torrid element. Something like, I Fell in Love with the Mall Santa: The Blanche Devereaux Story. Or I Fell in Love with My Easter Bunny Stalker.

I don't like when they digitally remove cigarettes after the fact. One problem with this picture is the botched photoshop on her glove. There is a line between her fingers where the cigarette would be. It looks like she's giving a secret baseball sign or something. I know Bette Davis smoked a lot, but I know that there are photos of her available where she's not smoking.

I love The Major and the Minor. I also like Monkey Business. When I watched Westworld, I approached it from a camp point of view, so I found it very entertaining. I'm not a big fan of science fiction, but I did like this film. I don't think it'd have to be something I'd watch all the time. But I'd watch it again. I found Janet Gaynor irritating in A Star is Born. I'll have to give it a re-watch. I only watched Saratoga once to see how they used body doubles for Jean Harlow. But I honestly cannot remember anything about it. If you want to see Clark Gable in something interesting, I'd watch some of his precode like Red Dust or Night Nurse. I also liked him in It Happened One Night. He's also fantastic in his last film, The Misfits. The Gable film I cannot seem to get through is Mocambo.

I have that exact same Blu Ray as well. Now I have the Criterion version. So I own two copies. I do not know why so many people dislike the film, I think it's excellent. Its only flaw, in my opinion, is that Thelma Ritter disappears halfway through. I guess we can assume that Eve insinuated herself so far into Margo's life that Birdie was no longer needed. But I also don't see Birdie leaving quietly. She goes off to get the movie star's sable and never comes back! Re: people not liking the film. Oh well. There are a ton of highly regarded and beloved films e.g. The Harry Potter series, that I can't stand. So everyone's different. Right now, I'm watching my Criterion of Now, Voyager--which I also owned previously. I had it as part of the TCM Greatest Legends Bette Davis collection.

I thought I kind of look like Millie from Picnic but with dark blue eyes instead of brown and slightly lighter hair. My hair is more dark dark blonde/light brown.

I just picked up the Criterion of All About Eve from B&N. I had a gift card. I love this movie.

No they don't. She could have benefitted from some orthodontia as well.

I believe so--which makes his "Make 'Em Laugh" number even more extraordinary. It amazes me that a dancer, like O'Connor, and even Gene Kelly, could smoke and still have the stamina to perform all those dancing scenes.

I think it might be a nostalgia thing for me. I believe that The Parent Trap might have been one of the first live-action Disney movies I saw and I loved it. I still love it. Maybe I'll watch it today while I'm working on my projects. Hmmm. (Man, I love working from home!) Every Friday night, my family would get a take-and-bake pizza. The pizza place was next door to the video store. While waiting for them to assemble our pizza, we would go next door to rent that evening's movies. I think I rented every single Hayley Mills movie (multiple times) and most of the other Disney movies as well. I cannot remember a lot of the other live action Disney films, except for the Hayley Mills ones. And Mary Poppins, of course. I also vaguely recall Freaky Friday.

I just watched this documentary last night. Loved it. In fact I tried watching the aforementioned Joseph McCartney documentary on PBS and fell asleep. I did not fall asleep during the Mary Astor documentary however. I had already heard quite a bit about the scandal from a podcast episode of You Must Remember This about this same trial. However, this documentary did share details that I had not heard previously. I had not realized that Astor had had such an awful childhood. It was fascinating to me as well that as a 15-year old, she dated a 39-year old John Barrymore. I know things were different in the 20s, but I cannot imagine a 39-year old being interested in a teenager. There is only ONE thing I can think of that they might have in common. Re: Astor's diaries. I thought I'd heard that there were some rather salacious and explicit details described in the diary. Actual excerpts regarding Astor and Kaufman's affair were not shared on the program--however, now knowing that the diaries were destroyed in the 50s, I am wondering if the details I'd heard actually came from the fake copy of Astor's diary that was passed around during the trial. Speaking of Kaufman, what a bum he was! I wonder if he ever experienced any consequences of skipping town when he was subpoenaed to testify in the trial? I also wondered about the legalities of Mr. Mary Astor and his lawyer stealing the evidence and basically using it as blackmail to get what they wanted from Astor. I loved the anecdote about Ruth Chatterton supporting Astor throughout the trial. What a great friend. I am now wanting to see Dodsworth. I've never seen it before. I'll have to keep an eye out for it on the TCM schedule. Speaking of Dodsworth, how amazing was the story about Robert Osbourne leaving Alexa money to purchase Dodsworth clips? I would love to see Alexa on more TCM programming--it'd be interesting to hear/see the interviews she conducted with classic film stars. I would also love to see more Astor films. I've seen: The Maltese Falcon, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Great Lie, Little Women, Red Dust, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, The Kennel Murder Case, The Palm Beach Story, Act of Violence...

While I like Mary Poppins, I think the Hayley Mills Disney films are my absolute favorite of all the live-action Disney movies. Those, and The Ugly Dachshund.

With both Bogart and Desi Arnaz, you can tell that they smoke as there is often some type of build-up on their bottom teeth. One thing I like about old movie star teeth, is that while many of them did receive some type of orthodontia (see Errol Flynn's front teeth in Captain Blood versus his teeth post-Captain Blood), or wore some type of fake teeth (i.e. "flippers"), many of them just had their normal teeth. They aren't the giant, white, every tooth the same size, Chiclet teeth that every movie star has these days. Some of today's movie and television personalities have such bright white teeth, they remind me of that episode of Friends where Ross has his tooth whitening cream on too long and his teeth glow in the dark.

Hospital/doctor scenes in old movies always floor me. Not only are people smoking IN THE HOSPITAL in the waiting room, but even the doctor, and sometimes the patients are smoking too! In Footsteps in the Dark, Errol Flynn goes to Dr. Ralph Bellamy, DDS for a check-up. Bellamy offers Flynn a cigarette. A dentist! I cannot imagine going in for a teeth cleaning and smoking while your teeth are being cleaned. It seems very counterproductive. Does anyone know if teeth whitening existed back in the 30s-50s? Perhaps it's a good thing that many of the classic movies are in black and white. Then we don't have to see how bad the stars' teeth are. Bogart has bad looking teeth, you can tell even in black and white. Flynn on the other hand, who also was a smoker, has pretty good looking teeth!