Ascotrudgeracer

"Dark Passage" (1947) California law enforcement intelligent enough to set up an extensive dragnet to catch dangerous escaped (wrongly) convicted murderer Bogart, but Bacall convinces them to not look under a huge lump in the backseat of her station wagon by warning the inspecting cop "Careful! You don't want to get paint all over your hands." By the way, don't all illegal doctors have a sign on the door of their illegal practice ("Dr. Walter Cooley") and stay open all night so trusted oddball cabbies can bring them clients who need their mugs altered? Yes...this will always be my favorite B&B film; it is a delicious truffle and iconically noir.

How about the black guy who thinks he's an American Nazi or ??? and makes the big screed about preserving the white race and segregation? If that wasn't so unintentionally funny, it would have been bizarre.

It might have been a charming moment amidst an horrific war, but I seriously doubt Union officers would invite Confederate "blockade runner" Rhett Butler out of his private cell (?) for cigars and extended poker games with whiskey.

Frank Bigelow is in a big city (to get some breathing space from his clinging girlfriend back home in Banning, CA) and when he's feeling a bit green about the gills, he simply runs around San Francisco and finds specialists waiting for him -- no appointment needed! -- who diagnose him with a rare form of poisoning in a matter of minutes! AND they never give him a bill or a form to fill out.

You know, Dobsy did call me on this dumb point I'm obsessively trying to make when I've brought it up before...he's giving me a break this time. But I've looked at maps of Mexico and there is NO water in their deserts but for flash floods when it rains. Anyway, "Treasure" is a favorite masterpiece of mine; don't understand how anyone couldn't love it (Robert Blake was perfect!). And that cantina fight scene was realistic (until the final punches).

OK, everybody jumps on Dobsy for his complaints regarding "Elevator to the Gallows" and yours truely was roughed up for some I've pointed out, but you can't excuse every plot hole by using the "dramatic license" excuse or "it's just a movie." After all, if Bogart suddenly announces in the middle of "Casablanca" that he wants to learn ballet, would that make any sense? In any event, here's some "holes." 1) The extreme public outrage successfully orchestrated by a newspaper over a stupid building ("The Fountainhead") 2) The idea that 15 gangsters would "go to the mattresses" and bunch up in a single apartment during a NYC gang war...for one thing, a single bomb thrown through the window and the war be over! (We all know the movie.) Same movie: mafia warlord is too religious and politically connected to sell heroin...but murder is OK. 3) Water is freely available on top of a desert mountain in Mexico for gold mining. But moments before, water is "more valuable than gold." You know the movie. Yours? LET THE SLAUGHTER BEGIN!

Nuart Theater - 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles. (310) 281-8223. This landmark has been a hidden treasure for cinephiles decades now; you might sit next to the biggest stars, directors or producers on any night, but you wouldn't know it.

Innocent, ignorant me...I always thought if a movie was old enough, it fell automatically into "public domain." But when trying to bring some gems to public access local TV, I was informed that is not the case whatsoever. I suppose I could find the answers myself -- this being the information age -- but I'd rather open it up to all my kindred spirits on this board, because there exists a great deal of knowledge on this site.

Every studio, of course, had their own, and I've come to appreciate them and look for them. There is no "fire" but rather strips of white silk with a blower where the logs should be making the fabric dance upward in a rather amazing visual trick. Notice the lack of smoke? Notice the "flames" always look the same? Just as those same staircases you've seen in 100 films, those ersatz fireplaces are iconic, in my book; can't have real fire on a movie set, unless you're counting Bette Davis' cigarette lighters.

Best hydroponic pot EVER comes from British Columbia...affectionately called BC Bud. Now...uhhh, wot wuz I talkin' 'bout? Oh yeah, and they have B&Bs whereby they bring you grass via room service in the morning with your flapjacks. Uhhh, now what's this about them Kardashian chicks?

...and a beautiful person. Imagine "Strangers on a Train" or "Rope!" without Granger. Makes me feel old, his passing. He was unappreciated and underrated.

You missed one helluva film.

I could never stand Gene Kelly...always thought he acted so goofy, but you nailed it. He was always mugging for the camera, trying (badly) to steal scenes. Oddly, I liked him in "Inherit the Wind." He was pretty good in that.

Tell me that lady who does the Progressive Insurance commercials (think that's the outfit) couldn't have played the lead in "Wasp Woman"? SHE LOOKS LIKE A BEE!

Garbo is the textbook example of a star who was "discovered" then manufactured. Look at her pictures from Sweden prior to being sent for by MGM...you wouldn't bother to throw rocks at her! But Thalberg and Mayer wanted to make a point: they could make ANYBODY a star. She was starved, the fat rubbed off her daily, teeth reconfigured then the makeup, hair and lighting geniuses in Culver City did their magic. She could act...a little. Edited by: Ascotrudgeracer on Mar 28, 2011 1:30 PM

I did try running for mayor in my hamlet; didn't do too well. I will say this: were I President, there would be no American tax dollars spent on anyone BUT Americans and there would be no foreign adventures wherein American blood is spilled for nothing more than replacing dictators or exporting "democracy" (which has become a religion) at the point of a gun.

Those stupid, gross Kardashians earned $65 million dollars last year?!? Think of all the great talents still living who have nothing, or very little. The actresses, actors, screenwriters, directors who can't find work, who have given up. This points to one thing: our pop society has been dumbed-down to the point of sheer idiocy. I don't like "new movies" but I suggest everyone watch "Idiocracy." The dumb keep breeding and the intelligent (like TCM enthusiasts) aren't doing enough of that!

Maurice Chevalier. Horrible!

There is something about that song that makes me ILL!

The Exalted Leader wishes all the camels of Arabia graze in your flowerbeds for eternity!

Fred CEE Dobbs ;-D

Jay Adler to Walter Pidgeon...the poker party scene. "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1953)

This discussion reminds me of a debate during the days of the old rating system: "Kiss a breast...you get an X rating; cut it off with a sword, you get a G rating." We tend to protect children from pornography, but they are never protected against violence, despite what every psychologist has warned society about.

"When did you start telling the truth? Don't tell me 'today,' tell me WHAT TIME today!" Give me the actor who said it, who he said it to, and the movie. ;-D

"Let's take the kids to the movies for a life-lesson on...killing." People go to the movies for escape, for entertainment. Children are to see cheerful moments of joy, not murder and death of a mother, for gawdsakes! Realities of life and death are not the stuff of cartoons. Many people have hated Disney for "Bambi." There must have been discussions regarding whether or not to include that scene. Walt Disney insisted on it and he was so wrong.