kingrat

For Thursday night: A Dream of Kings has top-notch performances by Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas (as his wife), Inger Stevens (as his mistress), and Sam Levene (as his best friend). This doesn't come around often, so if you are a fan of one or more of those actors, you might want to watch or record it.

I'm not sure if it's her best performance--that might be The Spy Who Came In From the Cold--but Claire Bloom is remarkable in the dreadful The Chapman Report, giving a serious dramatic performance in what is a tacky piece of camp.

Kauffmann was usually considered the best critic of actors. His reviews were collected in book form, and some libraries may still have them. I always enjoyed his work, too.

I can't argue with The Grapes of Wrath for Henry Fonda, although The Long Night is another strong candidate, which also has the best performance by Barbara Bel Geddes and possibly Ann Dvorak. Tyrone Power: Nightmare Alley Katharine Hepburn: Little Women Lee Remick and Jo Van Fleet: Wild River James Stewart and Kim Novak: Vertigo Ida Lupino: Deep Valley Robert Ryan: On Dangerous Ground Deborah Kerr: Black Narcissus Rosalind Russell: His Girl Friday Montgomery Clift: From Here to Eternity Mary Astor: The Maltese Falcon Jean Simmons: Home Before Dark

Graham Greene was upset with the changes. However, and I will try not to spoil this for those who haven't seen the film, the changes made by Mankiewicz make perfect sense to me, as a character who feels smugly superior is shown to be the most naive of all. Jean-Luc Godard considered this the best film of 1958. Um, no, but it's a well-made and satisfying film, with an outstanding performance by Michael Redgrave. Thanks for highlighting it, Bogie.

To all the recent British films that suggest that Britons of the past were actually very tolerant and understanding of interracial affairs--see Darkest Hour, the remake of Murder on the Orient Express, several episodes of Father Brown, etc.--Sapphire (1959) issues a Cher-like slap and a "Snap out of it!" in its portrayal of the ugly realities of the times. Sapphire is a young woman whose murdered body is found on Hampstead Heath. About twenty minutes into the film, her brother arrives to identify her body, and to the shock of the policemen investigating the case, he is a coloured man (to use the common terminology of the time, and yes, Dargo, there is a superfluous "u" in it). Did Sapphire's fiance and his working-class family know she wasn't white, and if so, when did they know it? What about the coloured men she had dated at the jazz club? Sapphire uses the interesting angle that Secrets and Lies would use thirty years later, that some of the black characters are further up the social scale than the white characters. Janet Green's screenplay is taut and not too preachy, with an intriguing mystery and some complex characters. Nigel Patrick is the leading investigator. Paul Massie, whom I had only seen in the excellent and little-known Orders To Kill, is the fiance. Yvonne Mitchell (his sister), Bernard Miles (his father), and Olga Lindo (his mother) all give top-notch performances. The murdered girl is a complex and contradictory character, and I'm not sure that all the parts fit together. However, this story held my interest from beginning to end. Sapphire is now available in the four-DVD Basil Dearden's London Underground, which also includes Victim, The League of Gentlemen, and All Night Long. With Saraband for Dead Lovers and Khartoum also to his credit, Dearden is clearly a better director than he has been given credit for.

One of my favorites, from Life of Brian: "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!" And the final line of Repo Man, which can be used in many different kinds of situations: "The life of a repo man is always intense."

Swithin, was his name pronounced "roves" or "reeves"? I remember him well from Ulysses, but lost track of him. He was very appealing.

Not one of my favorite years, but with many enjoyable films. Oscar did not do a great job of picking the best film nominees, and Marty rightly won that contest. Pather Panchali Smiles of a Summer Night All That Heaven Allows East of Eden Summertime Night of the Hunter Bad Day at Black Rock A Kid for Two Farthings Richard III To Catch a Thief Best Actor: Robert Mitchum, Night of the Hunter (or James Dean, East of Eden) Best Actress: Julie Harris, East of Eden (or Katharine Hepburn, Summertime) Best Supporting Actor: Raymond Massey, East of Eden (or Sal Mineo, Rebel Without a Cause, who is much cuter) Best Supporting Actress: Jo Van Fleet, East of Eden (no alternatives here, although I love Jessie Royce Landis in To Catch a Thief: "Avez-vous BOURBON?")

I'm another big fan of Three Strangers. All of Jean Negulesco's B&W films are worth seeing. He fought to get Peter Lorre in a role different from usual, and he wanted Geraldine Fitzgerald. Negulesco also had cast Lorre against type in The Mask of Dimitrios. It will be fun to hear what people think who are seeing Three Strangers for the first time.

Even if the rights can be untangled, two more steps have to be taken: 1) the film may need to be restored and 2) the film has to be digitized. TCM has done just that with quite a number of films that once were in the rights limbo category. The Constant Nymph and Home Before Dark are the first two that come to mind. So there is hope.

For Wednesday daytime: The Long Night is an outstanding remake of the French classic Le jour se leve. Fans of Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak and/or Elisha Cook, Jr. should not miss it. The doom-laden French story (which has superb performances by Jean Gabin, Arletty, and Pierre Brasseur) is updated to post-war America, with Fonda as a returning veteran. Outstanding noir cinematography by Sol Polito. The remake builds up the character of the innocent young woman played by Barbara Bel Geddes, and helps us understand why she might be susceptible to the creepy magician played by Vincent Price. The Long Night is one of my favorites in the film noir genre, and also one of my favorite Henry Fonda performances. Thank goodness one of the posters here from a dozen years back recommended it because I had never heard of it--even Ann Dvorak's biographer could find almost no information about it--and there is a stupid review of the film in Leonard Maltin's guide which is evidently copied from a remark in a book about RKO.

That's what hinted at, all right, and at the time they couldn't do more than hint. The love triangle goes in every direction, and all three stars look great in their skintight costumes.

I enjoyed The Sign of the Ram quite a bit. In terms of visual style, it's definitely noir. Superb cinematography by Burnett Guffey. The framing and lighting of shots is expertly done, with some nice effects of lights passing across the screen. Superb performance by Susan Peters. Excellent work with her hands, with a glance here, a reaction there. Alexander Knox is not an actor who projects much sexual charisma, but that works well enough for his character. The supporting cast is fine, and Dame May Whitty is, as usual, a delight. I like domestic melodramas and don't really care whether it's considered noir or not. SPOILERS: It does contain an attempted murder and an attempt to drive someone to suicide, which is noirish stuff. I wonder if people would have liked the film better had it not been shown on Noir Alley. What if it had been programmed with, say, Rebecca, The Uninvited, Queen Bee, and No Man of Her Own?

The color cinematography and set design of The World of Henry Orient are just amazing. I had the strange experience of watching this film on a high definition TV in a bar with the sound turned down. It would be a wonderful film to watch on the big screen. Guilty pleasures: films that you would never argue are great films or even very good films but that you find compulsively watchable, for whatever reason. Susan Slade, for instance, has a scene in a beautiful house in Monterey, but it also has a gloriously cheesy low-budget moment that I won't spoil for those who haven't seen it; it wants us to believe that Troy Donahue is going to write the Great American Novel; and among many other irresistible moments, early in the film it has Dorothy McGuire wearing a mustard yellow dress that is perhaps the least flattering color she could possibly wear. So many "What were they thinking?" moments!

Peebs, The Lords of Flatbush has one of the scariest scenes I've ever seen in a movie. It's the scene where Sylvester Stallone's girlfriend and her BFF railroad poor Stallone into buying a way too expensive engagement ring with the money he's saved for the car of his dreams. Now that's scarier than any horror movie!

Tom, Agatha Christie turned Appointment with Death into a play and changed the killer. Some of the subsequent movie/TV versions follow the book, some follow the play.

Branagh was indeed outstanding in Henry V. An unusually strong field. Robin Williams essentially got an award for his career rather than for that specific performance.

Bogart as a Frito Bandito character in Virginia City is not inspired casting.

The Silver Chalice is the first one that comes to mind. And Susan Slade.

That year offered a choice of two great performances for Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis with one of the great exterior transformative performances and Morgan Freeman with one of the great interior reactive performances.

He was excellent in Lisa, and certainly held his own in Ben-Hur. Starring in The Oscar may not have been his best career move.

By the way, Paul Telfer (Xander) was nominated for a Daytime Emmy, but didn't win. Neither did James Patrick Stuart (the sexy Valentin Cassadine on Gonorrheal Hospital). Mr. Stuart's dad was Chad of Chad & Jeremy, if some of you remember them.

Brideshead Revisited really helped Jeremy Irons to a much bigger career. Beautifully done. Having Laurence Olivier and Claire Bloom as the Marchmains didn't hurt.

Speedy, you might consider Two Weeks in Another Town. Alongside Lylah Clare, it would look like the work of relatively sane people, but this movie about making a movie in Rome is a campfest. Just when you're hoping that Claire Trevor, whom I love in other films, will have another scene where she chews all the scenery in Cinecitta, she does, she does! The Oscar is another possibility.