kingrat

Seems like most of us generally like the same parts of The Big Night and are less fond of the teen angst. John Barrymore Jr. is an adequate actor, perhaps more, but without the kind of star power that would make us care more about his character. I think some of the supporting performances are very good. I'm not sure I've ever seen a better performance by Preston Foster; Howland Chamberlin puts so much into the small role of the bartender Flanagan who has been a kind of substitute parent (mother, in effect?) to Johnny; Howard St. John is a hissable but believable villain; Dorothy Comingore does well with a small role (I actually find her rather hard to take in Citizen Kane); and Philip Bourneuf makes the alcoholic doctor of philosophy a memorable character. I also like the long take where Barrymore goes on and on to Joan Lorring, who is at the left of the shot and seems about to respond or interrupt several times but doesn't. That's clever directing. Losey has quite a few nice directorial touches. The two twists toward the end of the film are nice, too. I also like the kind of free-floating sexual attraction Barrymore feels toward Comingore, Lorring, and Mauri Lynn, without his having much idea of how to proceed. Losey and the actors handle this well, I think. It seems very true to life.

The continuity errors on sitcoms are nothing compared to the continuity errors on soaps, where there's a frequent turnover of writers, and children suffer from SORAS (Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome) so that they can be old enough to have teenage love affairs and unplanned pregnancies.

I don't know Rush's music well, but "Fly by Night" is an incredible song, one of my absolute favorites.

Lawrence, I'm sorry this wasn't better. I have fond memories of Elvi Hale as Anne of Cleves (delicious comedy with a touch of pathos) in The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth and of Sarah Badel in the lead role of Cold Comfort Farm (which Fay Compton stole), BBC productions in the late 60s or early 70s.

Bogie, I find Gentleman's Agreement pretty interesting, even if towns like Darien, CT no longer have exclusionary policies against Jews. Perhaps because it is based on a novel by a woman (Laura Z. Hobson), this film has four strong and complex female characters. I love how Gregory Peck is attracted to the sexier and more sophisticated (and more brittle) Celeste Holm, but ultimately feels more comfortable with the slightly prudish Dorothy McGuire, which makes sense given the way his mother (Anne Revere, in a great performance) tries to shape his moral responses. June Havoc is also quite interesting as the secretary who changes her Jewish name. The moral issue the film shows, but doesn't discuss, is whether Peck does wrong in how his masquerade as being Jewish affects his little boy.

Gervais' opening monologue can be seen on YouTube. I find it very funny, but not everyone will. The dig at Leonardo Di Caprio was my favorite, but there were many good zingers.

The lineup of Mary Astor films for Monday night is certainly strong. If you haven't seen Scandal, the documentary about her sensational divorce and custody case, I think fans of Mary Astor would enjoy it. It's also nice that TCM is showing two 1949 films back to back, with Mary Astor as Marmee in Little Women and then as a lower-class prostitute in Act of Violence.

Lawrence, thanks for including a link to this great article about one of my favorite directors. Kenneth Lonergan makes so many valuable points about Wyler's work. Wyler made films about adults for adults, and that's one reason his best films resonate so strongly today.

I'm a big fan of Between Two Worlds, with the Warner Brothers stock company sinking its teeth into some meaty roles. Edward A. Blatt must be the most obscure director who ever made a film this good. The cinematography is definitely noir-influenced. I do like Outward Bound, but prefer the remake, where I think every actor is an improvement on the actor in the original, as good as they are. I also like the added characters. Sutton Vane, author of the very successful play Outward Bound, was a veteran of WWI who suffered from what we would now call PTSD. He was gay, and unfortunately, he eventually killed himself, IIRC.

How about A Man, A Woman, and a Bank, with Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, and Paul Mazursky? I remember this as being quite entertaining. Elevator to the Gallows belongs, too.

We're on the same page about the credibility of Joan Leslie in The Hard Way as a Broadway star. It's a good movie, though, and maybe Eddie should schedule it for Noir Alley. After all, it starts with a dame in a mink coat jumping in the river.

I believe Herman's personal favorite among his shows was Mack and Mabel, which has some fine songs, although the story has its problems. Herman really knew how to write for the stage. My favorite Jerry Herman song is "Song on the Sand" (from La Cage aux Folles) which I have sung in public a few times. It's a great song to dedicate to your spouse, same-sex or otherwise.

Thanks for starting the topic, Jim. 1. Charles Laughton. If they had had a supporting actor award, Franchot Tone would have been a good choice. 2. Since I can't stand Barry Fitzgerald, my vote would be for Bing Crosby. But seriously, folks, there were many better performances this year. 3. "All About Eve"--Bette Davis. One of the classic performances. 4. "From Here to Eternity"--Montgomery Clift. Probably his very best performance. 5. "Giant"--This is a tough one. James Dean overdoes at times, but his is the performance I remember best, so Dean. 6. "The Defiant Ones"--Definitely Sidney Poitier. Tony Curtis does a good job, but he's no Southerner. The South Bronx, maybe. 7. "Suddenly Last Summer"--Elizabeth Taylor. 8. "Judgment at Nuremberg"--I'm not always a big Spencer Tracy fan, but this is one of his very best performances. Subtle, as Jim said, and he is the center of the film. Maximilian Schell belonged in the supporting category. 9. "Becket"--Richard Burton, for the reasons Jim mentions. 10. "Midnight Cowboy"--Jon Voight. Two actors doing first-rate work. 11. "Sleuth"--Probably Laurence Olivier. 12. "Network"--Peter Finch. This is the one people remember best. 13. "The Turning Point"--It's been a while since I saw this. Probably MacLaine. 14. "The Dresser"--Albert Finney. The role of the screaming queen dresser doesn't offer many opportunities for Tom Courtenay to show how good an actor he really is. 15. "Terms of Endearment"--Debra Winger, though I have no problem with Shirley MacLaine winning the Oscar. 16. "Amadeus"--Tom Hulce. 17. "Thelma and Louise"--Geena Davis has the bigger, showier role.

Very nice pictures of Cameron and Trebek, Bogie. You could probably win a lot of bar bets asking people how many times Donald Sutherland has been nominated for an Oscar. The correct answer? Zero.

George Peppard was also good in The Strange One. Notice how we're mostly mentioning films from the beginning of his career? And George Hamilton is really quite good in Home from the Hill, too. Great idea for a thread, Tom. Since I was unkind enough to omit June Allyson from a list of the stars in The Opposite Sex, it's only fair to note that she is excellent, and very attractive, in High Barbaree, a little-known 1940s romantic gem. She's also good as the unsympathetic stepdaughter in The Secret Heart and as Jose Ferrer's unkind wife in The Shrike.

An article on this website suggests that Noir Alley will be showing Big Night, the movie from the 90s starring Stanley Tucci. I'm guessing that the actual movie being shown will be Joseph Losey's The Big Night, a movie I've never seen. The Prowler, M, and The Criminal are all mighty good noirs, so I would like to see more of Losey's lesser-known crime films before he rebooted his career in England in the 1960s.

Oh, are their tattoos different?

Tom, I really feel bad that I left out Dolores Gray. Too bad she didn't make more movies. On the other hand, Ms. Allyson doesn't have the greatest number of admirers around here. The picture you posted above proves one point: June has rarely looked less attractive than in the first half of this movie. The hair and makeup are anything but flattering. One can understand why her hubby might be tempted by Joan Collins. For June at her best, both looks and performance, I would recommend High Barbaree.

Joan Blondell night includes a film I've never seen, Advance to the Rear, which has a score by Randy Sparks of the New Christy Minstrels that is much better known than the film. "Today," which was a big hit for the New Christy Minstrels, is part of the score. The film has a very low rating on imdb, for what that's worth. The Opposite Sex is fun for all the stars it includes like Joan Blondell, Joan Collins, Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller, and Agnes Moorehead.

Both Gypsy and Robin and the Seven Hoods suffer from stodgy direction (Mervyn LeRoy for the first, Gordon Douglas for the second). Despite great music and the beauty of Natalie Wood, Gypsy is slow-paced, though downright zippy by comparison with Robin and the Seven Hoods, which wastes an outstanding cast (Barbara Rush is my favorite, too). Gypsy doesn't catch the grimy and sometimes exciting edge of low-rent vaudeville and burlesque. I almost always like Mervyn LeRoy's B films for Warner Brothers and his full-length, bigger budget early films for MGM, but as he grew older, his films got slower and not in a good way. Gordon Douglas is a very hit-and-miss director, and Robin and the Seven Hoods is one of the misses.

Counsellor at Law is yet another film with basically one location, brilliantly directed by William Wyler, who also directed Detective Story. Sorry I missed Cash on Demand.

Obviously that's what Stone wanted, which is what made the film dishonest from the get-go.

Kevin Costner was wildly miscast as Jim Garrison, an oily character who could have been perfectly played by Barry Corbin.

I recently watched Postcards from the Edge, and Dennis Quaid definitely brought the heat. If you're lookin' for a super sexy guy who'll drop you off at the ER after a night of passion and your drug overdose, he's da man! Mikhail ain't too shabby, either.

If you ever get the chance to see The Killing Game (Jeu de massacre) (1967), don't miss it. Written and directed by Alain Jessua, with Claudine Auger and Jean-Pierre Cassel as a couple who write a superhero comic strip. Then a rich Swiss wackadoodle (Michel Duchaussoy) turns up who believes that the comic strip is actually written about him. Is the story going to remain a comedy or go somewhere darker? In the days of Comic-Con, this film seems more timely than ever. I don't think this ever made it from VHS to DVD.