kingrat

Well, I've never seen Fargo. I liked Shakespeare in Love well enough. Bravehair is, um, not one of my favorites, battling Going My Way for worst Best Picture ever of the ones I've seen. It's the historical picture for people who couldn't find Scotland on a map of Great Britain. Unfortunately, that's a lot of people. Mel Gibson has one of the most spectacularly bad hairdos in movie history. Titanic and American Beauty have something in common: Billy Zane in Titanic, Annette Bening in AB--using all of an actor's skill to execute a ridiculous directorial concept. James Cameron obviously wanted over-the-top melodramatic villainy, and Zane, poor devil, gives it to him. Annette Bening has evidently been asked to play a cartoonish caricature, and she uses her considerable skill to do so. If I ever saw the movie again, I would fast forward through all of her scenes. And Chris Cooper plays a career military man, so OF COURSE he collects Nazi paraphernalia and OF COURSE he's a repressed homosexual. The best thing about American Beauty is that it isn't a cookie cutter movie, and that's why it attracted attention when it was first released, but unfortunately it isn't very good.

Christopher Plummer did win an Emmy for The Moneychangers. Without giving away too much, I'll say that his character does get to display a variety of emotions. By the way, The Moneychangers is a Ross Hunter production, and this is his kind of show. Seeing Jean Peters and Marisa Pavan just reminds me that it's unfortunate they did not have bigger careers.

I'd like to thank the people who mentioned Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers (1976) in connection with the recent Jean Peters tribute. This four-part mini-series was available on ebay for six dollars, an excellent price for an entertaining show with a cast mostly drawn from the movies. As bank president Leonardo Cimino is near death, he turns the bank over to an interim caretaker (Ralph Bellamy) while Kirk Douglas and Christopher Plummer vie to succeed him. It was good to see Marisa Pavan as Kirk's wife, though all she gets to do is be crazy and catatonic at an institution run by the kindly psychiatrist Helen Hayes. Meanwhile, Kirk is having a torrid affair with left-wing lawyer Susan Flannery, who wants the bank to fund a housing project in a slummy area. That probably seemed more progressive in 1976 than it does now. Plummer is married to upper-crust Jean Peters (who has a very nice last scene with Plummer), and the failings of the marriage leave him vulnerable to the charms of Joan Collins, who goes after him on the orders of mega-rich wheeler-dealer Lorne Greene, gleeful at hanging out in the Bahamas with beautiful young women instead of with the cattle on the Ponderosa. And then there's Anne Baxter as the manager of the main branch of the bank; Hayden Rorke, an absolute delight as her financial expert husband; Percy Rodrigues as the bank's hard-nosed head of security; Lincoln Kilpatrick as a militant but reasonable black leader, and hey, that's Marla Gibbs as his wife; Burt Mustin as an old man who wants to take his money out of the bank; and Amy Levitt as a Puerto Rican teller. Timothy Bottoms has never looked cuter, rocking the 1970s curly hair and mustache look, and no wonder the scummy guys in prison are so enthusiastic to see him. I wouldn't have expected a 1976 TV production to be as explicit about what happens. And if you've always wanted to see Robert Loggia in brightly-colored speedo-sized briefs, this is your chance! And I wish James Shigeta had more screen time as electronics whiz Wizard Wong. He shows a great flair for comedy, and I wish we'd had more opportunities to see this aspect of his talent. Oh, and Patrick O'Neal has an absolutely over-the-top meltdown scene. Amy Levitt is billed as "Amy Tevill," possibly because "Levitt" doesn't exactly sound Puerto Rican. Oddly, imdb doesn't pick this up, as they usually do. She is best known for being in the original cast of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and for playing Cathy Craig on One Life to Life, doing the same "given LSD by evil guy and then killing the guy in self-defense but forgetting it because she's on LSD" story that Another World had used a few years earlier. She played a teller in Dog Day Afternoon and her credits per imdb stop in 1981 with no bio. Another soap opera connection: Susan Flannery had left her role of Dr. Laura Horton on Days to try her luck with the big screen, winning a Golden Globe as Best Newcomer for The Towering Inferno, and that probably helped her get the top female role here. She would then go back to daytime with the role of Stephanie Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful that William Bell had written for her.

For the final Ann Sheridan night, City for Conquest and Silver River are both worth visiting or re-visiting. I'll try to check out one or two of the others that I haven't seen.

I'd love to see BBC's The Idiot, which didn't make it across the channel (late 60s or early 70s). The Possessed (same vintage, and brilliant) can't be seen because the BBC lost one of the episodes, IIRC, and the other episodes are only on 16mm. The Spoils of Poynton was great, as were Sunset Song and I, Claudius (Derek Jacobi and Sian Phillips had the best roles of their careers), and The Golden Bowl as well, with Cyril Cusack and Kathleen Byron wonderful in supporting roles.

Ashes and Diamonds Black Narcissus Citizen Kane Duck Soup The Earrings of Madame de . . . Forbidden Games Gone With the Wind The Hunt for Red October In Which We Serve Jules & Jim King Rat Lawrence of Arabia The Manchurian Candidate (1962) The Nun's Story Out of the Past The Passionate Thief Quiz Show Rebecca Singin' in the Rain The Treasure of Sierra Madre The Uninvited Vertigo The Wages of Fear Yojimbo Zorba the Greek For some letters there were many great choices. Fun fact: Zorba the Greek and Zulu are my favorite films from 1964. As for X, I think the only two I've seen are one of the X-Men films--I remember only that Halle Berry had silver hair and that Ian McKellen was in it and nothing else about the film, not a good sign--and X, Y, and Zee, which might turn up in another thread as the worst film Michael Caine ever made, but maybe not, because he made so many. This is a fun topic, Det. Jim.

I believe that director's ego is the main cause of longer movies today. "If that person's action movie sequel lasted two and a half hours, then mine has to last two and three quarters hours," and so on.

I just saw another film noir with an excellent performance by a child in the leading role--Hayley Mills in Tiger Bay. I've very glad that TCM was able to show this film. A girl in a poor area of Cardiff protects a handsome young sailor (Horst Buchholtz) from the police who want him for questioning in connection with the murder of his former girlfriend. Excellent performances by all concerned, including John Mills as the policeman in charge and Megs Jenkins as the girl's aunt. A well-written script, with fine direction by J. Lee Thompson (look at some of the camera set-ups, for instance), some noir styling in the cinematography, and an always believable portrayal of the sudden crush that a child can get on an adult. However, the film wouldn't work without Hayley Mills, who seems to have the reactions of an actual child and the subtlety of an adult actor.

Julia is someone I think of as a very pretty woman. There are probably many styles and colors that would look great on her. So why would she want to try the Goth Girl with urine-colored hair look for the Oscars? Kiefer Sutherland actually looks more attractive now than he did back then.

Thanks, CinemaInternational. I haven't seen many of your more recent examples, so I'm stuck with older films. Best Actor: Weirdly, most of the performances I like least were actual winners. And I won't even mention how much I usually loathe Barry Fitzgerald. Charlton Heston, Ben-Hur—but he oils up well Gary Cooper, Sergeant York—does his best, but ten years too old for the part Marlon Brando, The Godfather—fakey fakey Ryan O’Neal, Love Story—somewhat better than Troy Donahue would have been Cornel Wilde, A Song To Remember—Fox had to nominate someone Honorable mention—Laurence Olivier, Hamlet (his weakest Shakespeare performance by far) Best Actress Ali McGraw, Love Story—would probably be high on most lists like this Sarah Miles, Ryan’s Daughter—same year as McGraw; only in Term of Trial does Miles truly impress me Rosalind Russell, Mourning Becomes Electra—a better director might have sliced the ham thinner Honorable mention: Grace Kelly, The Country (Club) Girl (miscast, with stagy material); Lana Turner, Peyton Place (more of a consolation nod for her stronger earlier work) Best Supporting Actor Don Murray, Bus Stop—hmm, he might have oiled up well, too Burt Young, Rocky—just annoying Russ Tamblyn, Peyton Place—so cute, so adorable, but he didn’t actually do much in the film Jack Kruschen, The Apartment—nice work, but blink and you miss him Best Supporting Actress—the category with the worst nominees Mariel Hemingway, Manhattan—Most Adenoidal Whine; the worst performance ever nominated Martha Hyer, Some Came Running—a bad part in a poor script, but the studio got her nominated Lee Grant, The Landlord—if you were playing an overbearing mother and rich biotch and made the most obvious acting choices in every scene, this is what you would get Terry Moore, Come Back Little Sheba—someone quipped that her bra should been nominated for best supporting Cara Williams, The Defiant Ones—same year as Hyer; more or less adequate

Thursday night I am looking forward to recording New Orleans, especially because it stars Billie Holiday. I know two of the songs from the film, "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?" and "The Blues Are Brewing," both memorable.

A woman we know had tried trimming her hair during the quarantine. When she finally got to the salon, the stylist said, "Were you taking samples for DNA testing?"

I haven't seen Ishtar, but Who Is Harry Kellerman . . . is certainly a stinker. Dustin Hoffman isn't bad, but the film is. James Stewart made many outstanding movies, and Ice Follies of 1939 is not one of them. This is one of Joan Crawford's worst, also. I haven't seen Trog, but I have seen Torch Song, with the amazing spectacle that is Joan Crawford in blackface.

I definitely need to record Tiger Bay. For late Tuesday night's Ann Sheridan lineup, I'm fond of Honeymoon for Three, which has some very funny moments. George Brent can actually play light comedy very well. The story is a bit like Noel Coward's Present Laughter, with Brent as a writer whose female fans swoon over him.

Speaking of Larry Gates: toward the end of his career he spent a decade or so on Guiding Light as millionaire H.B. Lewis. Over the years vixen-turned-heroine Reva (Kim Zimmer) was married to H.B. and both of his sons, though not all at the same time.

Love Letters and The Wall come to mind. In Love Letters Jennifer Jones has an opportunity to re-invent herself while she has amnesia.

Agreed. You don't always get good performances in Fuller films, but these are fine. 1961 wasn't the strongest year for supporting actress roles, and I believe Beatrice Kay was my choice when several of us were doing year-by-year alternate Oscars. Beatrice Kay was on the cover of a book called Dames which came out in the late 60s or early 70s, and the still was from Underworld USA.

Monday evening includes Mickey One (1965), which is much too arty for its own good and weak on story, but with outstanding noir cinematography by Ghislain Cloquet. The movie is noir meets Kafka meets French New Wave meets Warren Beatty. If you are drawn to the visual aspects of noir, you will probably want to see this.

When we were discussing Odds Against Tomorrow, I forgot to mention how much I love Ed Begley's performance as the corrupt ex-cop. And if you had to cast the role of a dame who was a little bit turned on by the fact that a guy was a killer, Gloria Grahame would be your top choice.

Totally agree, Det. Jim and Yancey. Also glad Chariots of Fire was on the other night as a kind of farewell performance to TCM fans.

I think you'd enjoy Knife in the Water. I totally agree that Russ Tamblyn is supercute, in The Haunting and other films, and I got a big laugh from your comment in the hidden contents.

Thanks, TikiSoo, I enjoyed the article. I was not aware of some of the more recent jazz biopics that Kevin Whitehead mentions. And you gotta love the part about who Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker returning in the movie to his parents' ranch in Oklahoma--only they were actually living in Redondo Beach, CA, which doesn't have quite the same vibe.

I had never seen Farewell, My Lovely and was glad to see it last night. The Jazz Spotlight has been outstanding this month. I enjoyed seeing actors like Robert Mitchum and John Ireland who began their careers in the 1940s doing such solid noir work in the 1970s. Eddie Muller noted that the success of Chinatown probably made this film possible. I would have liked the cinematography better if so many dramatic shows on TV today didn't follow the same darkened reddish-brown basic color scheme. It wasn't a cliche in 1975, but it is now. Like many a film noir, the story is convoluted to a fault, but the mood is right and the cast is capable. Eddie Muller noted that because Mitchum is tall, they needed to find someone even taller to play Moose Malloy. (I believe Jack O'Halloran gets an "and introducing" credit.) Although I always like Charlotte Rampling's performances, I had to laugh when the dialogue talked about her having curves in all the right places. The typical noir gal, yes, but Rampling looks undernourished on screen. Her thinness, sometimes even greater than in this movie, seems like part of the neurotic energy she projects so vividly on screen. Monty Alexander highly praised the score by David Shire, especially the beautiful theme heard over the opening credits.

Did anyone else watch Our Betters as part of the LGBT spotlight? The character of Ernest, only on screen about five minutes, is one of the better-known examples of a gay character in early 1930s movies. Ernest is a screaming queen stereotype who wears more lipstick and rouge than the gals. The response to Ernest over the decades from gay viewers has tended to be either 1) this is an embarrassing and hurtful stereotype or 2) better an embarrassing stereotype than no representation of gay characters at all. As seen, Ernest seems to be a nasty bit of goods, getting his revenge on life by making cutting remarks about the titled ladies who let him in the circle of their acquaintance. Our Betters is a stagy rendering of a Somerset Maugham play. George Cukor will have learned a lot by the time he directs another comedy, Dinner at Eight. It's fairly entertaining and for the most part decently acted, with Violet Kemble Cooper as the Duchess Minnie stealing all the scenes she's in. Gilbert Roland will have better roles and will look more attractive later on than he does as her gigolo Pepi. Constance Bennett, who has the main role, was a big star in the early 1930s, at one time said to be the highest paid star in Hollywood. She's a competent actress, but if classic film fans today know Claudette Colbert much better, that seems fair to me.

Fedya, I saw this several years ago and had very much the same reaction.