kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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Welcome to the boards, Undine. Anyone who likes THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY can hold her own with any crowd.
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TIME AFTER TIME is a charmer, even for those of us who don't ordinarily care for Malcolm McDowell.
Other San Francisco movies:
THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL
ANGEL FACE
FLOWER DRUM SONG
POINT BLANK
FOUL PLAY
MILK
Not to mention PBS' wonderful TALES OF THE CITY, with its own echoes of VERTIGO.
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Jackie, I love your suggestion that the three-sided mirror reminds us of the three strands of the story. The film has so much to do with who looks and who looks away, who actually sees what's going on with other people. Myrna Loy's part is mostly looking and noticing and reacting. Marie and Peggy see Fred's behavior in different ways.
One detail I love is Fred sleeping it off in Peggy's very dainty canopied bed. Wyler and Toland make sure we got plenty of views of that canopy.
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Hibi, I agree with everything you said.
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Great rambling! Did anyone else notice the amazingly complex mirror shots in the wonderful ladies' room scene? Wyler tricks us into thinking it's one mirror, then we see there are two mirrors angled, then actually three. Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, and their reflections keep popping up from unexpected places. This is a complex emotional scene, too. You have to wonder how many times "80-take Willie" put these fine actresses through their paces. You can't argue with the results.
I happened to watch the second hour of the film when it was shown the other night. The shots are so well composed, whether it's Dana Andrews looking up at the drugstore boss in his second-story window or Teresa looking from her car as Dana tries to get into the apartment or Fredric March at breakfast always looking back over the wrong shoulder as he tries to have a conversation with his wife.
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Hey, guys, THE SEVENTH CROSS will be shown again on Monday, Feb. 8 at 4 pm EST, 1 pm PST. Anyone interested in making this the subject of a ramble?
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For many filmlovers the most obvious example of an actor who should have won Best Actor is Jack Lemmon for SOME LIKE IT HOT in 1959. He got run over by the chariot wheels of BEN-HUR. Lemmon gave not only the performance of his career, but one of the best comic performances ever. Charlton Heston also won over Laurence Harvey, brilliant in ROOM AT THE TOP, and James Stewart, excellent in ANATOMY OF A MURDER. Not one of Oscar's finest moments.
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Bronxgirl, you're right about Betty Lou Holland's overacting, though I like her well enough in the second half when she becomes a religious fanatic. At least she has some quiet moments then!
The next film I'd taped after THE GODDESS was JEANNE EAGELS. Interesting that Kim Novak, a genuine screen goddess, plays the stage star and Kim Stanley, a stage star, plays the movie siren. Though Novak does some occasional overacting of her own, she gives me the sense of a real person, which Stanley does not. Whatever Novak's limitations as an actress, she conveys 1) beauty that the camera loves; 2) sex appeal; and 3) the sense of damage from the past. This can be enough. In THE GODDESS when the studio guy says that Stanley may not even be pretty but has warmth on screen, I couldn't help thinking that warmth is the last quality Kim Stanley projects.
Did any of you ever see Kim Stanley on stage?
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OUTLAND (1981) starring Sean Connery is essentially HIGH NOON in space.
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Tunes of Glory
Moonrise
Kitty
Kiss of Death
The Snake Pit
The Crowd
The Killers
Seconds
Seven Days in May
The Uninvited
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Thanks, Ark. I definitely want to tape this.
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Countess, another fun schedule, especially with the food fights. I'd thought about using Smashing Time. So glad you included it.
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Here's an unusual way to start a movie: a woman shows up emoting dreadfully in a bad Southern accent. A bit later, her little girl's grown up and now she's the one emoting dreadfully in a bad Southern accent. Clearly, THE GODDESS deserves its own thread.
I'm only halfway through the movie and still waiting for Emily Ann to go to Hollywood and take some acting lessons. Bronxgirl mentioned on another thread that Kim Stanley in this film brought new meaning to the word "mannered." So far, I completely agree.
About those Southern accents: Mama is supposed to be from Clarksville, TN, which is not the Deep South. Daughter has lived near Hagerstown, MD since the age of four. So why do both of them sound like the first day of rehearsals for an amateur production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE? Every cast member of THE STRANGE ONE, shown immediately before THE GODDESS, manages at least a passable Southern accent, and some like Pat Hingle are excellent. The bigger problem is that Stanley doesn't have a particularly attractive or expressive voice.
Presumably she seemed very different in her stage roles. As for films, I recall liking her work in SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON; Bryan Forbes is an excellent director of actors. Here she doesn't get much help from John Cromwell, and Paddy Chayefsky's script is florid and uncinematic.
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Great topic, Maven! Hugh Grant with just about any of the screwball comedy stars. He was born into the wrong era. Cary Grant would be great with Julia Roberts; I can also see Fred MacMurray or Dennis Morgan with Julia.
How about Betty Hutton with Nicolas Cage?
John Wayne with Mo'Nique?
Montgomery Clift with Matt Damon?
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Gone With the Wind
Lawrence of Arabia
Children of Paradise
The Mother and the ****
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Did any of you other noiristas catch the lineup of THE SEVENTH CROSS, BRIGHTON ROCK, and MAN HUNT a week or so ago? Three enjoyable films. If you've never seen BRIGHTON ROCK, Richard Attenborough makes one of the scariest young punks ever. Hermione Baddeley plays a most unlikely avenging angel. I think several of you discussed MAN HUNT and concluded that the "sporting stalk" has hard to swallow, but the film really picked up when Joan Bennett appeared. That was my take, too.
THE SEVENTH CROSS will be repeated next month. It's like THE MORTAL STORM crossed (no pun intended, of course) with ACT OF VIOLENCE. Spencer Tracy plays an escapee from a pre-WWII Nazi concentration camp. There are connections to other Fred Zinnemann films, especially HIGH NOON. It started a bit slowly, but then swept me up into Tracy's search for friends or people in the Resistance who can help him. If you like mirror shots, THE SEVENTH CROSS has a most unusual and effective one.
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Not the first director you think of for noir, but Fred Zinnemann for ACT OF VIOLENCE. Michael Curtiz for THE UNSUSPECTED. If we're considering British films, John Boulting for BRIGHTON ROCK.
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No, though they're both based on works by Mary Roberts Rinehart.
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I hope that some of you got the chance to watch or record THE KREMLIN LETTER. George Sanders not only appears in drag but is also playing "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" on the piano. A moment that's hard to forget--whether you want to or not. Clore is absolutely right: this film has a plot as confusing as THE BIG SLEEP. People who expected a conventional spy movie with lots of action were no doubt disappointed, and the film did poorly at the box office.
And yet, that's not the whole story. The French director Jean-Pierre Melville called Huston's directing "magisterial." The color cinematograhy of Ted Scaife, which deserves all the superlatives you can give it, kept drawing me into the film. The color palette of each scene, of each shot, focused attention where it belonged. The set design and art direction are as wonderful as the cinematography.
What did the rest of you think?
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To clarify, the Fox premieres are Me and My Gal, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Tender Is the Night, and A Farewell to Arms (1957).
The other premieres are Paid in Full, Private Worlds, Trade Winds, Counsellor at Law, Peter Ibbetson, The Foxes of Harrow, Magnificent Obsession (1954), A Summer Place, Fanny by Gaslight, and The Furies.
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Yes, the Fox premieres are counted separately in the schedule itself. Me and My Gal is the fifth film from Fox.
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The Star of the Month could only be the much missed Jennifer Jones, and Wednesday highlights four of her Fox films new to TCM. Sunday is Mother's Day. Perhaps your mom has faults, but can you imagine having any of the three terrors as your mother? On a lighter note, sometimes Hollywood mothers are close to the age of their screen children, and these are four famous examples. Jean Eustache's masterpiece The Mother and the ****, though much admired, is not readily available.
Monday takes its cue from Three on a Match to present five groups of three related films. 15 films in 24 hours: it works for the 1930s, but sure wouldn't work today. Tuesday salutes the Southern belle. During the classic era the South was the most exotic part of the country, and unlike most women, the belle had permission to be stubborn, willful, manipulative, sexy, eccentric, neurotic, or just plain nuts. Hollywood paid a surprising amount of attention to the aging belle as well. It's no coincidence that the films scheduled include four Oscar-winning performances and three other nominations.
Today a surprising number of Americans have negative views of the French, but that was not true earlier, especially in the 1950s. Hollywood kept trying to make stars of French actresses, though most of them did not succeed.
Food, Glorious Food: OK, I'm playing with the ham idea. Barrymore plays a ham actor in Twentieth Century, and Scout dresses as a ham in To Kill a Mockingbird. But Stanwyck cooks eggs for her man, and Paul Newman bets that he can eat 50 hard-boiled eggs. A life-changing scene in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang involves a hamburger in a diner. Too bad we can't all have family dinners like the one in Meet Me in St. Louis. The quotation is from Joni Mitchell's song "Banquet," so the evening continues with the movie that inspired her when she was a girl. She loved the Rachmaninoff theme used in The Story of Three Loves. Mitchell wrote songs for The Arrangement and Alice's Restaurant.
Friday features clients of Henry Willson, the agent who found and re-named a number of extremely good-looking movie stars. The guest programmer is my other half, who supposedly doesn't like classic films but has been known to get thoroughly hooked on some, including these four, which aren't the obvious choices to convert someone to TCM. TCM Underground visits Camp Joan: Joan Collins as a nun and Joan Crawford lip-synching in blackface. After Crawford in Torch Song, why did I think of zombies? Oh....
On Saturday you don't have to wait until dark to watch film noir. The End of the Affair, The Seventh Cross, and The Black Book apply noir styling to subjects not normally associated with noir. The Furies, that noirish psychological western plus women's melodrama, is essential viewing for me. The rest of the day features films starring the first five actresses from Mother's Day.
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Sunday, May 9, 2010, Mother's Day
What If She Were Your Mother?
6:00 am Katina Paxinou. UNCLE SILAS (1947). BW-98 min., p/s. D: Charles Frank.
7:45 am Blanche Yurka. A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1935). BW-127 min., p/s. D: Jack Conway.
10:00 am Judith Anderson. REBECCA (1940). BW-131 min., p/s/ D: Alfred Hitchcock.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
12:15 pm Barbara Stanwyck. STELLA DALLAS (1937). BW-106 min., p/s. D: King Vidor.
2:15 pm Lizabeth Scott. PAID IN FULL (1950). BW-98 min. Premiere #1, Paramount. D: William Dieterle.
I'm Not Old Enough To Be Your Mother
4:00 pm Jessie Royce Landis/Cary Grant. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959). C-131 min., p/s. D: Alfred Hitchcock.
6:15 pm Angela Lansbury/Laurence Harvey. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962). BW-126 min., p/s. D: John Frankenheimer.
8:30 pm Jo Van Fleet/Susan Hayward. I'LL CRY TOMORROW (1955). BW-117 min., p/s. D: Daniel Mann.
10:30 pm Bette Davis/Alec Guinness. THE SCAPEGOAT (1959). BW-91 min., p/s. D: Robert Hamer.
Silent Sunday. 12:15 am Vera Baranovskaya. MOTHER (1926). BW-89 min. D: Vsevolod Pudovkin.
TCM Imports. 1:45 am Bernadette Lafont. THE MOTHER AND THE **** (1973). BW-215 min. D: Jean Eustache.
5:30 am Now Playing?May 2010.
Monday, May 10, 2010?Salute to the 1930s: Three on a Match
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy at Warner Brothers
6:00 am THREE ON A MATCH (1932). BW-64 min., p/s. Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak.
7:15 am BIG CITY BLUES (1932). BW-63 min., p/s. Joan Blondell, Humphrey Bogart.
8:30 am FIVE STAR FINAL (1931). BW-90 min., p/s. Edward G. Robinson.
Joan Bennett Premieres
10:15 am ME AND MY GAL (1932). BW-79 min. Fox Premiere #1. w/Spencer Tracy. D: Raoul Walsh.
11:45 am PRIVATE WORLDS (1935). BW-84 min. Premiere #2. Paramount. w/Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea. D: Gregory LaCava.
1:15 pm TRADE WINDS (1938). BW-93 min. Premiere #3. UA. D: Tay Garnett.
Directed by William Wyler
3:00 pm THESE THREE (1936). BW-93 min., p/s. Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea.
4:45 pm COUNSELLOR AT LAW (1933). BW-82 min., p/s. Premiere #4. John Barrymore.
6:15 pm THE GOOD FAIRY (1935). BW-97 min., p/s. Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall.
Gary Cooper: Young, Handsome, and Versatile
8:00 pm PETER IBBETSON (1935). BW-88 min., p/s. Premiere #5. Paramount. D: Henry Hathaway.
9:30 pm LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (1935). BW-109 min., p/s. D: Henry Hathaway.
11:30 pm THE WEDDING NIGHT (1935). BW-83 min., p/s. D: King Vidor.
Girls, Songs, Busby Berkeley Production Numbers
1:00 am 42nd STREET (1933). BW-90 min., p/s. Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler. D: Lloyd Bacon.
2:45 am DAMES (1934). BW-91 min., p/s. Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler. D: Ray Enright, Busby Berkeley.
4:30 am GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 (1935). BW-98 min., p/s. Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart. D: Busby Berkeley.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010?Scarlett Women: Hollywood and the Southern Belle
6:15 am Bette Davis. JEZEBEL (1938). BW-104 min., p/s. D: William Wyler.
8:00 am Paulette Goddard. REAP THE WILD WIND (1942). C-123 min., p/s. D: Cecil B. DeMille.
10:15 am Maureen O'Hara. THE FOXES OF HARROW (1947). BW-117 min. Premiere #6. Universal. D: John M. Stahl.
12:15 pm Vivien Leigh. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951). BW-125 min., p/s. D: Elia Kazan.
2:30 pm Gloria Grahame. THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1953). BW-118 min., p/s. D: Vincente Minnelli.
4:30 pm Jennifer Jones. RUBY GENTRY (1953). BW-82 min., p/s. D: King Vidor.
6:00 pm Dorothy Malone. WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956). C-99 min., p/s. D: Douglas Sirk.
7:45 pm Elizabeth Taylor. RAINTREE COUNTY (1957). C-173 min., p/s. D: Edward Dmytryk.
10:45 pm Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn. SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1959). BW-115 min., p/s. D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
12:45 am Eleanor Parker. HOME FROM THE HILL (1960). C-150 min., p/s. D: Vincente Minnelli.
3:30 am Vivien Leigh. SHIP OF FOOLS (1965). BW-149 min., p/s. D: Stanley Kramer.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
When America Loved the French
6:00 am Leslie Caron. LILI (1953). C-81 min., p/s. D: Charles Walters.
7:30 am Colette Marchand. MOULIN ROUGE (1952). C-120 min., p/s. D: John Huston.
9:45 am Zizi Jeanmaire. HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN (1952). C-112 min., p/s. D: Charles Vidor.
11:45 am Corinne Calvet. THE FAR COUNTRY (1955). C-97 min., p/s. D: Anthony Mann.
1:30 pm Denise Darcel. WESTWARD THE WOMEN (1951). C-117 min., p/s. D: William Wellman.
3:30 pm Brigitte Bardot. SHALAKO (1968). C-113 min., p/s. D: Edward Dmytryk.
5:30 pm Capucine. THE SEVENTH DAWN (1964). C-123 min., p/s. D: Lewis Gilbert.
STAR OF THE MONTH: JENNIFER JONES
7:45 pm LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING (1955). C-102 min. Fox Premiere #2. w/William Holden. D: Henry King.
9:45 pm THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT (1956). C-153 min. Fox Premiere #3. w/Gregory Peck. D: Nunally Johnson.
12:30 am TENDER IS THE NIGHT (1962). C-142 min. Fox Premiere #4. w/Jason Robards, Jr. D: Henry King.
3:00 am A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1957). C-152 min. Fox Premiere #5. w/Rock Hudson. D: Charles Vidor.
5:45 am Short: MANHATTA (1921). BW-11 min. D: Charles Sheeler, Paul Strand.
Thursday, May 13, 2010: Food, Glorious Food
6:00 am ALL THE FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS (1960). C-112 min., p/s. Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner. D: Michael Anderson.
Ham and Eggs
8:00 am TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934). BW-91 min., p/s. John Barrymore. D: Howard Hawks.
9:45 am TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962). BW-129 min., p/s. Gregory Pecl. D: Robert Mulligan.
12:00 pm LADIES OF LEISURE (1930). BW-99 min., p/s. Barbara Stanwyck. D: Frank Capra.
1:45 pm COOL HAND LUKE (1967). C-126 min., p/s. Paul Newman. D: Stuart Rosenberg.
"Some get the gravy, some get the gristle...some get nothing"
4:00 pm I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (1932). BW-91 min., p/s. Paul Muni. D: Mervyn LeRoy.
5:45 pm OLIVER TWIST (1948). BW-116 min., p/s. Alec Guinness. D: David Lean.
7:45 pm SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (1948). C-111 min., p/s. John Mills. D: Charles Frend.
9:45 pm MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944). C-113 min., p/s. Judy Garland. D: Vincente Minnelli.
A Tribute to Joni Mitchell
11:45 pm THE STORY OF THREE LOVES (1953). C-122 min., p/s. Moira Shearer, James Mason. D: Gottfried Reinhardt, Vincente Minnelli.
2:00 am THE ARRANGEMENT (1969). C-125 min., p/s. Kirk Douglas, Faye Dunaway. D: Elia Kazan.
4:15 pm ALICE'S RESTAURANT (1969). C-111 min., p/s. Arlo Guthrie. D: Arthur Penn.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Henry Willson Clients: The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson
6:15 am Lana Turner. ZIEGFELD GIRL (1940). BW-132 min., p/s. D: Robert Z. Leonard.
8:30 am Jon Hall. THE HURRICANE (1937). BW-110 min., p/s. D: John Ford.
10:30 am Guy Madison. TILL THE END OF TIME (1946). BW-105 min., p/s. D: Edward Dmytryk.
12:30 pm Rory Calhoun. THE SPOILERS (1955). C-84 min., p/s. D: Jesse Hibbs.
2:00 am Tab Hunter. LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE (1958). BW-93 min., p/s. D: William Wellman.
3:45 pm Rock Hudson. MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954). Premiere #7. C-108 min., p/s. D: Douglas Sirk.
5:45 pm Troy Donahue. A SUMMER PLACE (1959). Premiere #8. C-130 min. D: Delmer Daves.
Guest Programmer
8:00 pm THE MORTAL STORM (1940). BW-100 min., p/s. James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan. D: Frank Borzage.
9:45 pm THE LEFT HAND OF GOD (1955). C-87 min., p/s. Humphrey Bogart, Gene Tierney. D: Edward Dmytryk.
11:15 pm SHERLOCK JR. (1924). BW-45 min., p/s. D: Buster Keaton.
12:15 am SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941). BW-90 min., p/s. Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake. D: Preston Sturges.
TCM Underground Visits Camp Joan
2:00 am Joan Collins. SEA WIFE (1957). BW-81 min. w/ Richard Burton. D: Bob McNaught.
3:30 am Joan Crawford. TORCH SONG (1953). C-90 min. D: Charles Walters.
5:15 am I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943). BW-69 min., p/s. Frances Dee, Tom Ellison. D: Jacques Tourneur.
Saturday, May 15, 2010?Day for Night
6:30 am CRISS CROSS (1949). BW-88 min., p/s. Burt Lancaster, Yvonne DeCarlo. D: Robert Siodmak.
8:00 am THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946). BW-84 min., p/s. Dorothy McGuire, George Brent. D: Robert Siodmak.
9:30 am HANGOVER SQUARE (1945). BW-77 min., p/s. Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell. D: John Brahm.
11:00 am GASLIGHT (1940). BW-85 min., p/s. Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard. D: Thorold Dickinson.
12:30 pm FANNY BY GASLIGHT (1944). BW-107 min. Premiere #9. James Mason, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger. D: Anthony Asquith.
Noir Has Many Faces
2:30 pm THE END OF THE AFFAIR (1955). BW-105 min., p/s. Van Johnson, Deborah Kerr. D: Edward Dmytryk.
4:30 pm THE SEVENTH CROSS (1944). BW-110 min., p/s. Spencer Tracy, Signe Hasso. D: Fred Zinnemann.
6:30 pm THE BLACK BOOK (1949). BW-89 min., p/s. Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart. D: Anthony Mann.
Return of the Mothers
8:00 pm TCM Presents the Essentials: THE FURIES (1950). BW-109 min. Premiere #10. Barbara Stanwyck, Judith Anderson, Blanche Yurka. D: Anthony Mann.
10:00 pm THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946). BW-116 min., p/s. Barbara Stanwyck, Lizabeth Scott. D: Lewis Milestone.
12:00 am DEAD RECKONING (1947). BW-100 min., p/s. Lizabeth Scott. D: John Cromwell.
1:45 am LADY SCARFACE (1941). BW-66 min., p/s. Judith Anderson. D: Frank Woodruff.
3:00 am FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943). BW-168 min., p/s. Katina Paxinou. D: Sam Wood.
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I agree with you about THE LEFT HAND OF GOD. A very satisfying film.
A Walk on the Noir Side
in Film Noir--Gangster
Posted
In the current programming challenge I included THE SEVENTH CROSS with THE END OF THE AFFAIR and THE BLACK BOOK as "Noir Has Many Faces"--films that apply film noir techniques to subject matter not ordinarily associated with noir. THE SEVENTH CROSS, for instance, has noir-style shadows and dark streets, with the sudden contrast of the brightly lit home of George Macready. BRIGHTON ROCK uses exactly the same technique when Pinkie goes to see the rival gangster in the brightly-lit hotel balcony. Not only does the man on the run theme fit into noir, THE SEVENTH CROSS also has voice-over narration by a dead man, so Billy Wilder didn't invent this for SUNSET BOULEVARD.
THE SEVENTH CROSS is actually set prior to WWII, like THE MORTAL STORM. It's a true Zinnemann film, with many connections to HIGH NOON.