kingrat

I was fortunate enough to see the restoration of Losey's M on the big screen at the Palm Springs film noir festival last year. It was simply incredible, with stunning cinematography. If you get a chance to see this on the big screen, do not pass up the opportunity. The scenes shot on location in downtown LA at the Bradbury Building will knock you out. Losey has a top cast, with strong performances throughout. About David Wayne: for my money, he steals THE THREE FACES OF EVE from Joanne Woodward. If you like his work, don't miss O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE. In the segment called "The Cop and the Anthem" he plays a homeless man who's a friend of Charles Laughton. He is absolutely believable every moment he is on screen. Clore, let us know how your friend likes the Losey version after he actually sees it. Great comeback about Lang's Renoir remakes!

Thanks, Bogie. I will move Charles Coburn and Mary Astor to lead categories. Hint: another Mary Astor performance might already be in my top five Best Actress picks for 1941. I forgot to mention an interesting note about Arletty's performance in LE JOUR SE LEVE (DAYBREAK), which some of us mentioned in our Best Actress nominations for 1939. When that film was remade in Hollywood as THE LONG NIGHT--and that film will most definitely be mentioned in my 1947 picks--Arletty's role was played by Ann Dvorak, and it's clearly a supporting role. Barbara Bel Geddes as the innocent girl has the leading female role. Her role has been somewhat increased and deepened in the American remake. The main difference is that Arletty is a star, and Jacqueline Laurent, who plays the innocent in the French original, is not, so Arletty registers more strongly. Arletty even gets a big star entrance with a long camera movement which follows her across the room. Questions about 1941: I'm considering Lana Turner in ZIEGFELD GIRL as a lead and Paulette Goddard in HOLD BACK THE DAWN as a supporting role. Is that how others of you see them? (Paulette is delighted that Mary Astor's performance in THE GREAT LIE being booted upstairs.)

Bernard Herrmann's music for GARDEN OF EVIL is so great that I would watch the film again for that alone. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the stars do a good job.

Don't you think Streisand might want to play the Karl Malden role?

THE LONG VOYAGE HOME is based on several short plays about the sea by Eugene O'Neill, all worked together to provide a continuous narrative. John Wayne gets top billing, due to his breakout performance in STAGECOACH the previous year, but Thomas Mitchell has the largest role, and he is quite good. The style is rather expressionistic, with much atmospheric lighting (Gregg Toland is a huge plus to any film). Several of the actors John Ford liked to work with are in the film. John Wayne plays a quiet, shy, and rather gentle man, and I think it's one of his best performances.

NOT AS A STRANGER has been shown on TCM. Some people take it seriously as a romantic movie. Others (that would seem to include DGF and me) cannot. It's set in Min-ne-so-ta, and John Qualen is there with his specialty "Yumpin Yiminy" accent. Yikes, Olivia has a "Yumpin Yiminy" accent, too. Pauline Kael said she was asked to leave the theater for laughing so hard when Robert Mitchum's nurse, during an epidemic, says he's not at the office because he's giving his last shot to the widow, and the scene cuts to Mitchum and Gloria Grahame in a romantic clinch. The mentor/pupil relationship between Charles Bickford and Mitchum is perhaps the most successful part of the film, and some viewers really enjoy the way Mitchum comes to love his less than glamorous wife (Olivia). Other parts of the film make some viewers fall off the couch laughing. It's too bad this couldn't be included in the SOTM tribute. More on LADY IN A CAGE: This picture wasn't released in Britain for several years, and when it was, Sight and Sound liked it so much that they named Olivia their Best Actress of the year. No, Lorna, I'm not making this up. Thanks for posting those photos of James Caan.

A fun fact about Hayley Mills: at a presentation of Whistle Down the Wind at the TCM Film Festival (2011, I think), Hayley Mills said that she was offered the chance to play the title role in Lolita. The producers were so eager to sign her that they offered her parents a painting by Renoir. They declined. As Hayley Mills said, had her parents let her take the part, her career would have been very different--maybe better, maybe worse, but definitely different. Around the time of her appearance at the festival, she was filming a series in South Africa, which she said she was enjoying very much. She seemed as friendly and full of spirit as her fans could wish. Whistle Down the Wind is a superb film, but hard to find. The last time I checked, it was available only in a Portuguese version. Perhaps it is available online or in a Region 2 format. Based on a novel by Hayley's mother, Mary Hayley Bell, Whistle Down the Wind concerns an escaped convict (Alan Bates, in a career-establishing role) whom the children believe to be Jesus. Hayley commented that Alan Bates was "the most beautiful Jesus ever." She had nothing but praise for the director, Bryan Forbes.

Anne Jackson was very funny in LOVERS AND OTHER STRANGERS, which would make a nice tribute to her.

All three husbands in HUSBANDS. Although since they are in London, having them run over by a double decker bus might be more economical than searching out a pitchfork.

I love both of these films. I'm even fond of the next film to be shown, PINKY, but that's because it brings back memories of visiting relatives in the Deep South. Three of Ethel's best performances.

It occurred to me that both of my choices in the supporting category, James Stephenson and Judith Anderson, do a great deal of their splendid work internally, without much in the way of movement and gesture. Anderson's Mrs. Danvers, ever the perfect servant, uses very little vocal inflection and keeps an emotionless mask, yet we never doubt the malevolent forces roiling within. She does have her big scene where she urges the second Mrs. de Winter to kill herself, yet how much bigger many actresses would play this. (The one gesture we do remember is Mrs. Danvers caressing Rebecca's delicate underwear.) James Stephenson, playing a basically good man, never has scenes where he says 1) that he has always loved Bette Davis' lying and hypocritical Leslie Crosbie; 2) that he is shocked that she has killed her lover and is asking him to jeopardize his career for her; 3) that he will do this nonetheless; and 4) that he will never recover from these events. Yet who doubts that this is what he feels? Of course both he and Judith Anderson perfectly understand (as did Daphne du Maurier and Somerset Maugham) the society in which the English never express their deepest feelings.

1940 was an exceptional year. My top 10 would be something like this, with the first three very close: 1. Rebecca 2. The Letter 3. The Grapes of Wrath 4. His Girl Friday 5. Remember the Night 6. The Mortal Storm 7. The Great McGinty 8. The Great Dictator 9. Waterloo Bridge 10. Johnny Apollo

Best Actor of 1940: Henry Fonda, THE GRAPES OF WRATH* Anton Walbrook, GASLIGHT Cary Grant, HIS GIRL FRIDAY Brian Donlevy, THE GREAT McGINTY Laurence Olivier, REBECCA Fred MacMurray, REMEMBER THE NIGHT Honorable mention: James Cagney, CITY FOR CONQUEST; Charles Chaplin, THE GREAT DICTATOR; W.C. Fields, THE BANK DICK; Herbert Marshall, THE LETTER; Raymond Massey, ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS; Thomas Mitchell, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME; Tyrone Power, JOHNNY APOLLO; James Stewart, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY Best Actress of 1940: Bette Davis, THE LETTER* Rosalind Russell, HIS GIRL FRIDAY Vivien Leigh, WATERLOO BRIDGE Margaret Sullavan, THE MORTAL STORM Joan Fontaine, REBECCA Barbara Stanwyck, REMEMBER THE NIGHT Honorable mention: Katharine Hepburn, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY; Dorothy Lamour, JOHNNY APOLLO; Maureen O'Hara, DANCE, GIRL, DANCE; Ginger Rogers, KITTY FOYLE; Ginger Rogers, PRIMROSE PATH; Margaret Sullavan, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER Best Supporting Actor: James Stephenson, THE LETTER* George Sanders, REBECCA Jack Oakie, THE GREAT DICTATOR John Carradine, THE GRAPES OF WRATH Charley Grapewin, JOHNNY APOLLO Honorable mention: Felix Bressart, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER; Dean Jagger, BRIGHAM YOUNG; John Wayne, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME Best Supporting Actress: Judith Anderson, REBECCA* Barbara O'Neil, ALL THIS, AND HEAVEN TOO Ida Lupino, THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT Lucile Watson, WATERLOO BRIDGE Jane Darwell, THE GRAPES OF WRATH Honorable mention: Ruth Hussey, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY; Marjorie Rambeau, PRIMROSE PATH; Gale Sondergaard, THE LETTER

Speedracer and I are so on the same page about: 1) the opening of THE LETTER - possibly the best opening of any movie ever - and Worst Casting Decision of 1940 - "Hey, we need someone to play a Frito Bandito Mexican outlaw. I know--Humphrey Bogart!" Does anyone remember Joe Bob Briggs and his drive-in movie reviews? He invented one absolutely essential critical term: the Stupid White People movie, as in nobody would behave this way except . . . Stupid White People. Stupid White People Award: Irene Dunne, MY FAVORITE WIFE Apart from this, 1940 was a great year with many outstanding performances.

Best Supporting Actress: 1931 - Nina Mae McKinney, SAFE IN HELL 1932 - Aline MacMahon, ONE WAY PASSAGE 1933 - Pert Kelton, BED OF ROSES 1934 - Fredi Washington, IMITATION OF LIFE 1935 - Blanche Yurka, A TALE OF TWO CITIES 1936 - Mary Astor, DODSWORTH 1937 - Alice Brady, IN OLD CHICAGO 1938 - Fay Bainter, JEZEBEL 1939 - Olivia De Havilland, GONE WITH THE WIND* Best Supporting Actor: 1931 - Dudley Digges, THE MALTESE FALCON 1932 - Adolphe Menjou, A FAREWELL TO ARMS 1933 - Jack La Rue, THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE 1934 - Ned Sparks, IMITATION OF LIFE 1935 - Eric Blore, TOP HAT 1936 - Henry Stephenson, BELOVED ENEMY 1937 - Erich Von Stroheim, GRAND ILLUSION 1938 - David Niven, THE DAWN PATROL 1939 - Bert Lahr, THE WIZARD OF OZ (No award for Best Supporting Actor of the decade, due to the overall weakness of the category)

Best Actress: 1930 - Greta Garbo, ANNA CHRISTIE 1931 - Dorothy Mackaill, SAFE IN HELL 1932 - Greta Garbo, GRAND HOTEL 1933 - Katharine Hepburn, LITTLE WOMEN 1934 - Aline MacMahon, HEAT LIGHTNING 1935 - Francoise Rosay, LA KERMESSE HEROIQUE 1936 - Greta Garbo, CAMILLE 1937 - Irene Dunne, THE AWFUL TRUTH 1938 - Vivien Leigh, SIDEWALKS OF LONDON 1939 - Vivien Leigh, GONE WITH THE WIND* Best Actor: 1930 - Lew Ayres, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT 1931 - Charles Chaplin, CITY LIGHTS* 1932 - Paul Muni, I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG 1933 - Warren William, EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE 1934 - Harry Baur, LES MISERABLES 1935 - Charles Laughton, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY 1936 - William Powell, MY MAN GODFREY 1937 - Cary Grant, THE AWFUL TRUTH 1938 - Charles Laughton, SIDEWALKS OF LONDON 1939 - Clark Gable, GONE WITH THE WIND

Lawrence, I think you summarize my own feelings about Cooper's work very well. To put it another way, I'm not a fan of his work except when I am. The young Cooper is wooden in MOROCCO, but very good-looking. He learns something about screen acting along the way. Cooper is a decade too old to play SERGEANT YORK, and let's not even talk about LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, where he should be playing Audrey Hepburn's grandfather rather than her lover. It's funny, but in MAN OF THE WEST, he's older than the man playing his father (Lee J. Cobb), but that doesn't bother me. But then there's BALL OF FIRE, where everything works, and he and Stanwyck are so good together. No one has yet mentioned THEY CAME TO CORDURA, one of the late Cooper films I like quite a bit.

The BBC around 1970 did a wonderful mini-series of Dostoevsky's THE POSSESSED, starring Keith Bell, Rosalie Crutchley, Angela Pleasence, and James Caffrey, among others. Apparently this now exists only in a 16mm version and has never been released on VHS or DVD. They also produced a much acclaimed mini-series of Dostoevsky's THE IDIOT, never released in the U.S., starring David Buck. I've always wanted to see this, but the BBC evidently lost one of the episodes, and thus it is not available in any format. You would expect the BBC to be an excellent curator of its own work, but this is not the case.

Four films which should be readily available: King Rat Deep Valley The Long Night Ashes and Diamonds Four films which would be hard to get: Whistle Down the Wind Experience Preferred . . . But Not Essential (1982) - delicious British comedy The Killing Game (Jeu de Massacre) (1967) - Comic-Con fans years before Comic-Con This Special Friendship (Les Amities Particulieres) (1964) - Dangerous Liaisons in a French boarding school run by priests - disturbing but brilliant

HOLD BACK THE DAWN is one of Billy Wilder's most personal scripts. Being able to emigrate to the US meant everything to him. Although Mitchell Leisen directed, this has the feel of a Wilder film, including the mixture of genre and mood. Fans of Wilder--or Charles Boyer or Olivia or Paulette--will want to see this one.

Kingrat's Sweet Sixteen Foreign Films for the 1960s (mostly chronological): L'AVVENTURA PURPLE NOON (PLEIN SOLEIL) LA DOLCE VITA THE VIRGIN SPRING LES BONNES FEMMES IL POSTO JULES AND JIM CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 THE ORGANIZER THE FIRE WITHIN (LE FEU FOLLET) THIS SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP (LES AMITIES PARTICULIERES) LIFE UPSIDE DOWN THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG WOMAN IN THE DUNES PERSONA THE KILLING GAME (JEU DE MASSACRE)

Gosh, I wonder why no one has put ICE FOLLIES OF 1939 on the list of favorite films and performances. "Follies" seems like an accurate word to describe this film. The only question is whether it's too dull to qualify as one of those "Bad Movies We Love." Joan Crawford and James Stewart - not an ideal pairing Joan in a role that would have made sense for Sonja Henie - not ideal casting Inside info about how to become a star - insist that you don't want to be one; it works for Joan in the movie A makeover scene that may have inspired the bad makeover for Judy Garland in A STAR IS BORN - Joan in black hair parted in the middle, sort of like Morticia Addams; now that's worth seeing. Joan as Cinderella in a "play within the play" - Say What? A dumb movie that has gay subtext - Say What??? Jimmy's ice skating partner is Lew Ayres, and Joan openly challenges him when she starts getting interested in Jimmy, as well as replacing Lew as his skating partner. Jimmy has a Murphy bed that folds out of the wall, and above it is a poster of himself and Lew Ayres in skating costumes. This is one very strange movie. If there had been Razzies in 1939, it would have won a bunch. Joan must have been box office poison to be forced to make it, and goodness knows she must have been box office poison after it. Fortunately, she got the role of Crystal in THE WOMEN, for which she was ideally suited, and she played it for all she was worth.

For Bogie and everyone else who hasn't seen MIDNIGHT, I think it's one of the best romantic comedies of its era. Script by Billy Wilder, direction by Mitchell Leisen. Claudette Colbert has rarely looked as sexy as she does in her slinky gown. Don Ameche has rarely looked as masculine or as attractive as he does in the leather cap, pullover, and leather jacket he wears. (Had I been a movie star of the time, I'd have wanted Leisen to choose my wardrobe, on and off screen). Add John Barrymore and Mary Astor as an unhappily married couple and Rex O'Malley as Mary Astor's (obviously gay) friend, and you have a strong cast. I'd also like to put in a plug for THE RAINS CAME, one of Clarence Brown's best films. The big flood sequence is impressive, even winning the Oscar for special effects over GWTW. The characters are interesting, too. Nowadays we don't like the idea of Westerners putting on bronzer to play characters of other ethnicities, but it's respectfully done here. I absolutely believed that Maria Ouspenskaya was the Indian royalty she plays, and Tyrone Power has never looked more handsome. No wonder Myrna Loy is so crazy about him. Myrna may not be the most obvious choice to play a titled Englishwoman with a shady reputation, but she gives it her best effort. George Brent probably has the most screen time, and though George will probably never make one of my best-of-the-year lists, this is one of his strongest performances.

A particularly fine "come into the light" scene is Van Johnson's vision in HIGH BARBAREE of an afterlife very much like his childhood.

A MAN AND A WOMAN TWO WOMEN THREE WOMEN THREE MEN AND A BABY SEVEN WOMEN TWELVE ANGRY MEN THIRTEEN WOMEN ONE HUNDRED MEN AND A GIRL