kingrat

I finally watched They Met in the Dark, the last film from the James Mason tribute with five early films, and it's a charmer, along the lines of Hitchcock's Young and Innocent and The 39 Steps. Joyce Howard, an actress I didn't know, played the lead opposite Mason, and they made a cute couple. It's wartime in Britain, and Nazis, theatrical agents, aspiring performers, a hypnotist, and a dark old house all figure in the story. Not profound, but definitely fun, if you like the genre.

Do you suppose it was either/or? Either give Pia Zadora this award, or you have to see the movie! I remember that when Kathleen Turner won a GG for Romancing the Stone, she mentioned in her acceptance that the first time she was nominated for a GG, she lost to Pia Zadora. Agreed, Kilgore. Until seeing Reds, I never knew that the Russian Revolution was only a plot device to bring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton back together again. Maureen Stapleton's Emma Goldman seems to come from a much more interesting movie, however. I actually wish that Reds had been made in the 1940s with John Garfield and Ida Lupino directed by, say, Jules Dassin.

Comments about a couple of films: Taxi zum Klo (Taxi to the Toilet) is a German film about a rather engaging but quite promiscuous gay man, played by the director himself. He does begin a serious relationship with another young man as the story develops. Some critics and viewers thought this was a much better film than Hollywood's Making Love (which did, of course, have Harry Hamlin, Michael Ontkean, and Kate Jackson), certainly grittier and more honest. I liked Taxi zum Klo quite a bit when it was first released, but haven't seen it since. Prince of the City is in the mode of Serpico, but much more downbeat. It was not a financial success, and thus Treat Williams did not get the Oscar nomination that was originally expected. Williams' career really suffered as a result of the financial shortcomings of this film; some had expected this role to catapult him to stardom. Prince of the City is a long movie, capably directed by Sidney Lumet, about corruption in the New York City Police Department, based on actual incidents. The strength and weakness of the movie are the same, that there is really no one to root for. I think it's worth a look.

Let's hope the lovely ladies from Hidden Figures take advantage of the constructive criticism from our group and rock some old-style Hollywood glamor for Oscar night. "Hidden Figures" doesn't exactly describe Taraji P. Henson's get-up. Why did Janelle Monae go for the Mouseketeer ears hairdo and the dress that looks like crushed egg cartons? Octavia Spencer is in "But I always heard black was slenderizing" country. Maybe a royal blue for Octavia, or whatever shade of blue shows off her skin tones best. Either Janelle Monae or Taraji P. Henson could easily be the most stunning-looking woman on the red carpet. Neither needs to go for gimmicks to get noticed.

My spouse and I both enjoyed The Founder, and I was actually surprised when it was over, because the movie had gone by so fast. Who knew a film about McDonald's would be this interesting? Of course Michael Keaton has no problem diving into the character of wheeler dealer Ray Kroc. His perfect foil is Nick Offerman as Dick McDonald, deadpan, a solid rock of a man with strong ideas about integrity. John Carroll Lynch as Mac McDonald, Dick's brother, a taller but more accommodating man, is also outstanding. Linda Cardinelli as Joan Smith, eventually to be Joan Kroc, is quite lovely and looks good in the period costumes. At the end of the film Kroc offers what are now, I believe, called "alternative facts" about the founding of McDonald's. The film is very much about two different visions of America as reflected in two different approaches to business. For car buffs, this film is a must, with many fine 1950s vehicles on display. If the subject interests you, you'll probably like the movie.

Because I think Lorna and others will enjoy this: Boz Hadleigh's Hollywood Lesbians has interviews with various stars who evidently were believed to be lesbians. (Don't expect any big revelations. Some people have questioned how genuine the interviews were, too.) However, Hadleigh had the inspiration of asking Judith Anderson who she thought the most masculine actress in Hollywood was. After deliciously and maliciously considering some other alternatives, the name Dame Judith came up with was: Jane Wyman.

I would never think of calling The Player a comedy, though it does have comic elements. It's a neo-noir, a cynical view of Hollywood from an insider's perspective, and the lengthy tracking shot in the opening scene, which includes discussions of tracking shots in other movies, is both self-reflexive and self-regarding. Although I enjoyed The Player when it first came out, I have no particular desire to see it again. Altman is a talented director, but I don't think many of his films have held up particularly well.

Well, keep an eye out for Between Two Worlds, pre-empted today, but it shows up regularly on TCM. Lucy Gallant was fun, if not great cinematic art. Edith Head's fashion show was definitely worth seeing. Getting to see Thelma Ritter in an expensive evening gown was fun, too. Claire Trevor added a lot to the movie as "Lady Macbeth." They couldn't quite say she was a madam. Seeing the real governor of Texas was another plus. In a weird way, I could see Jane Wyman and Charlton Heston as a couple. Wyman is believable as a dedicated businesswoman, and yes, Heston as a male chauvinist is excellent casting. I have to agree with Lorna that Magnificent Obsession is far from being Wyman's best work. The movie itself is way below All That Heaven Allows, but I have watched all or parts of it more times than I care to admit.

I don't agree that Wyler didn't put a signature on his films. Films like Jezebel, Dodsworth, and The Best Years of Our Lives, to name only a few, could have been directed by no one else. Building tension by showing actors' backs and shooting important scenes through glass windows (BYOOL) are only two of his trademarks. Some of the auteurist criticism was excellent, some was incredibly foolish, and not regarding Wyler as one of the great directors is foolish. Essentially, all the established critical favorites (like Wyler) were junked by the auteurists because praising them didn't distinguish the auteurists' critical work from their predecessors. Incidentally, when I saw Lawrence's topic "50 Greatest Directors," my first thought was, "In my opinion or in their own minds?"

Friday's schedule has a special favorite of mine, Between Two Worlds (1944). Passengers on a ship discover that they are bound for the afterlife. A remake of Outward Bound, but the remake, updated to WWII, is even better. So many favorites, mostly from the Warner Brothers stock company, are here: John Garfield, Sydney Greenstreet, Eleanor Parker, Paul Henreid, Faye Emerson, Edmund Gwenn, Isobel Elsom, George Coulouris, and Sara Allgood, to name a few.

Greg Ferrara had an excellent recent column on Hopscotch in what used to be the Morlocks. He likes the movie better than I do, but it will never have a better case made for it. I recommend Mon oncle d'Amerique. The other handful of Resnais films I've seen, the obvious suspects, I admire but don't really love. I didn't care for La guerre est finie. But Mon oncle d'Amerique I thoroughly enjoyed and look forward to seeing again. This isn't so neck-up as most of Resnais' other films. He even uses a plot device worthy of a Warner Brothers women's melodrama. I was always intrigued to see how the lives of the three characters would intersect. This would actually be an excellent first film for those who have never seen any of Resnais' work.

I thought Lipes' cinematography made the New England light another character in the story. We also saw a full palette of colors, always well chosen, rather than the overfiltered junk which is the "now" style and which I detest. The fact that the cinematographer isn't underlining every effect and calling attention to filtering and underlighting in every scene is remarkable for this era. To borrow a quote from Goethe (I think), "One sees the intention and is sickened by it." Or, to borrow a Zen phrase, show us the moon, not a jeweled finger pointing at the moon. On the other hand, those who like the visual style of, say, the TV show The Americans, which I could not loathe more, might not see anything special about Lipes' work.

Jody Lee Lipes was robbed. He certainly deserved a Best Cinematography nod for Manchester by the Sea. I much preferred his work on this film to Moonlight's cinematography, which I did mostly like, and as I mentioned earlier, the trailer for Silence looked like a 2016 visual cliche. Everything blue-toned! How original and imaginative . . . NOT.

It is, Bogie, it is! Very pretty cinematography, Roman tourist sites with nary a tourist except Troy and Suzanne (good luck finding that on your next trip), Constance Ford as a liberated woman (and straight), the pleasant song "Al Di La," Angie, Suzanne & Troy looking young and lovely.

It's interesting that Dana Andrews is billed above Henry Fonda in DAISY KENYON. With Fonda off at the war, Andrews had become a bigger star, thanks to THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. But this situation doesn't last. If Joan requested Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda, she couldn't have chosen better. Tom has written well about the merits of this fine film, with all three stars delivering strong performances.

Kathleen Ryan also plays the lead in Try and Get Me, a first-rate film noir directed by Cy Endfield (Zulu). Endfield's one of the best directors most of us have never heard of. Ryan plays the loving wife of Frank Lovejoy, who gets into as much trouble as poor Johnny McQueen did in Odd Man Out, thanks to the villainy of Lloyd Bridges. TCM has shown this film. The Robert Krasker filmography is very impressive, just by quality of films. Some you might try include Henry V, Olivier's wonderful re-creation of Shakespeare; Cry, the Beloved Country, an excellent film directed by Zoltan Korda and shot on location in South Africa; Luchino Visconti's Senso; and the Joseph L. Mankiewicz version of The Quiet American. Trapeze is nowhere on the level of the best Carol Reed films, but it is a lot of fun. I love Vautrin's mention of the Stations of the Cross in Odd Man Out. Each encounter tells us more about the other people involved, many of whom want something from Johnny McQueen. The cast is wonderful: James Mason at his best; Cyril Cusack as the driver of the getaway car (I love all of his performances); Fay Compton as Rose, the woman who tries to bandage his wounds (I love all of her work, too); Robert Newton as the painter (Long John Silver as a painter; this makes so much sense); the many fine actors from the Abbey Theater. Because W.G. Fay is so believable as Father Tom, I wish he had played all of Barry Fitzgerald's roles in Hollywood. His work is as honest as Fitzgerald's usually isn't (sez me). F.J. McCormick is perfect as Shell, the horse cab driver, and then there are the actresses who play Theresa (Maureen Delaney) and Grannie (Kitty Kirwan), equally fine. Ben mentioned that Odd Man Out had won an Oscar for editing (much deserved). William Alwyn's music also makes a sizeable contribution to the film. The script is fair-minded, with the British inspector (nicely played by the handsome Denis O'Dea) able to extend sympathy and, implicitly, love to Kathleen without betraying his duty. John Ford's The Informer, though effective in a heavy-handed way, looks awfully crude by comparison.

I was excited about the early James Mason night, especially because I'd never seen or even heard of They Were Sisters and They Met in the Dark. Like Dargo and MissW, I really liked They Were Sisters, with its unusually clear portrayal of verbal and psychological abuse and its hints of incest. You could show this film to people to today if you were trying to explain how an abusive spouse operates. I think it's a strength of the film that, although the preceding is true, there are many lighter moments and quite a number of well-drawn characters. Vera, for instance, isn't a bad person, but simply cannot be unselfish or put herself in someone else's position. James Mason can play a charming sadist better than just about anyone, and it's a credit to the film and to Phyllis Calvert that the good character, Aunt Lucy, is as interesting and complex as the others. There's no weak link in the cast. Warner Brothers really should have done an American remake with, say, Ida Lupino as Charlotte, Eleanor Parker as Vera, and Olivia De Havilland as Lucy. I guess that would give us Paul Henreid as Geoffrey and John Garfield as Terry. Now I want to see The Seventh Veil again, for it seems to be much more sympathetic to the James Mason character who isn't all that different from the one he plays in They Were Sisters.

In the British tradition, actors learn vocal technique. Most American actors do not. This leads to situations like a TV soap, Brothers and Sisters, having a Welsh actor (Matthew Rhys) and an Australian actress (Rachel Griffiths) playing American siblings, quite believably too. I agree completely with your praise for Naomie Harris.

I completely agree. With the right vehicles Billy Dee Williams could have been the African-American Cary Grant.

Lawrence, I'm fascinated that On Golden Pond was the #2 box office hit of the year. Granted that Fonda and Hepburn were and are popular, but I wouldn't expect it to have made more money than mainstream comedies like 4-6, or Superman or Bond. Also that The Four Seasons made the top ten. Carol Burnett and Alan Alda were certainly popular, but the movie never had the feel of a big hit.

With the Paramount/China deal, there will be even fewer Chinese villains in movies. Scriptwriters are already told not to have Chinese villains because China is such a big market for action movies. Jake, thank you for posting the awards given by the casting directors. It's hard to argue with the awards to Hidden Figures, Moonlight, and Manchester by the Sea. I do think, however, that Superstore would have been a good choice for television comedy.

Two of the most fun things about Autumn Leaves are 1) Cliff Robertson throwing a typewriter at Joan Crawford and 2) Crawford calling Vera Miles a term beginning with "s" which implies a woman of loose morals--not Miles saying that to Crawford, as you might expect. The beautiful title song is from the French "Les feuilles mortes," lyrics by the poet and screenwriter Jacques Prevert, who worked on several great films with Marcel Carne, like Children of Paradise, Port of Shadows, and Le jour se leve (Daybreak).

I'm not sure if any of the remembrance threads have mentioned the recent death of Dick Gautier, much loved by fans of Get Smart as Hymie the Robot. Of course, he had a long career in movies and television. I was surprised to read in his obituary that he appeared on only six episodes of Get Smart. Not many men as handsome as Gautier are adept at comedy.

The 1970s, a decade in which women made great strides, was a decade in which the supporting actress category was exceptionally weak. Best Actor: Stacy Keach, Fat City Best Actress: Sissy Spacek, Badlands Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Walken, The Deer Hunter Best Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep, The Deer Hunter

I loved Two Way Stretch, a 1960 British comedy I'd never heard of. Peter Sellers plays the most normal of the characters, which is unusual for those of us familiar mostly with his later films. Lionel Jeffries was hysterically funny as the tough guy ready to shape up the prisoners. Favorite line: "SILENCE when you're talking to me!" And will it be possible when doing jumping jacks not to think of a particular scene in this film? Irene Handl was also wonderful as the mother of the none too bright prisoner Lenny, played by Bernard Cribbins. Mom is upset that he isn't living up to the family tradition of trying to escape from prison. Of course, there's also Maurice Denham as the prison warden whose vegetable marrow is the subject of several double entendres, and Liz Fraser as Sellers' Monroe-esque girlfriend, and, well, the whole cast, every one of whom knows how play this comic style. I had never heard of the director, Robert Day. Here's hoping Two Way Stretch will be repeated soon on TCM.