JonnyGeetar

> {quote:title=SuzanC wrote:}{quote}What can a girl do? I stand fast to my desire to see top, premier-quality, Oscar and critic acclaimed movies, without screaming "Enough, already! I liked it the first 40 times I saw it". Is this not the proper venue for this? I do apologize for noses (and egos) getting slightly askew (bent out of shape), but I'm home bound with a badly sprained ankle amidst a NYC blizzard, and not able to swallow much more of current programming. Love it No, I think these message boards are TOTALLY the right place to kvetch about any and all things TCM...I was just warning you there are some hardcore TCM defenders/devotees out there who have flipped the hell out on yours truly numerous times in the past. In fact, they went so far as to post a thread specifically to make fun of people who complain about all the repeats. Bottom line is, I don't think it's gonna change, no one at TCM cares, and many of the people 'round here don't seem to get that a lot of us who opine about the repeated repeats of repeats (Gaslight ; I Shot Jesse James AND THE VERY SORE SUBJECT OF A Thousand Clowns ) are just blowing steam and it's clear the only people who do listen to us are the ones who want to jump down our throats for saying, "really, 3:10 To Yuma AGAIN???!!!" No, I am loving it- preach on sister, but just be careful. Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Feb 10, 2010 5:43 PM

He's perfection in Sabrina (which is actually far from my favorite Wilder movie, and I love Billy Wilder)...unfortunately, (to me) David Larraby totters a tad on the brink of being a supporting role. I kinda sorta prefer older, cranky, craggy Holden to young, sexy Holden...and definitely prefer both to Home-Perm Holden from Golden Boy

I really enjoy both of your (very) well-written posts Susan, a word of warning though, there is a sect on these boards that gets really **** when some of us dare to ask "why doesn't this movie get played" and "why does such-and-such inferior movie seem to get shown weekly?" Apparently the TCM programmers are HOLY and BEYOND REPROACH. Financial times are difficult and HOW DARE YOU QUESTION THEIR OMNIPOTENCE! Now shut up and enjoy an Angela Lansbury film festival, followed by a 24-hour marathon of A Thousand Clowns To be honest with you, I would not be surprised (petty as this sounds) that TCM doesn't show it because Lansbury passed on the role of Nurse Ratched and stews about with Osborne nightly over hot toddies and scones. Either that or it's some boring-**** rights issue or AMC or FOX or Universal wants to show it on their channels. Either way, keep up the fight...you brazen INFIDEL!

> {quote:title=stjohnrv wrote:}{quote} > I watched "STALAG 17 " again this week as I have always been a William Holden fan, but once again I am forced to wonder over the Academy's choice of Holden as best Acton for 1953? Stalag 17 is nothing more then a more or less routine rather campy war film about POWs with mostly solid but routine performances. very gutsy of you to air that out, St. John, since there are a lot of HARDCORE William Holden fans out there (even Robert Osborne has cited him as his favorite actor of all time.) myself, I like Holden, but have always been on the fence when it comes to his acting abilities...sometimes he's perfectly cast (i.e. Sunset Blvd ) but I've never seen him in anything when he really blew me away...although I do think he's great and nomination-worthy in Network in the long run of things, I'd rather have seen Monty Clift win the approval and adoration that I am sure he so deeply craved and needed. but Holden was one of those great, gorgeous movie stars who performed with confidence, even if he maybe wasn't quite the actor that Clift or Lancaster or Brando was.

> {quote:title=faceinthecrowd wrote:}{quote} > Cooper's first Oscar, for SGT. YORK, has to be understood as a wartime movie that met the emotional needs of the country. I think he should have been Oscared for MEET JOHN DOE -- I don't know who won that year -- Meet John Doe , Sgt. York , and Ball of Fire were all released the same year: 1941- quite the triumverate, and something to make everyone happy. (Me, I like him best in Ball of Fire don't care for Meet John Doe _at all_ ) And I can only presume some of you with your delicate little fingers and rapier wit have never made a typo...'Spose it only happens to less than the best of us, but doesn't negate our opinion nonetheless. Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Feb 10, 2010 1:22 PM...for typoes.

> {quote:title=ValentineXavier wrote:}{quote} > I really loathe The Quiet Man, as it personifies everything I don't like about Wayne. Plus, it makes me want to strangle Maureen O'Hara, and I don't like that... Wow! The first time I saw The Quiet Man I was also "what's the big deal?" it's one of those you have to watch repeatedly to really "get" (and I know it's a tad too long.) O'Hara's character and motivations may be hard to figure out, but the older I get and the more I learn about human nature, the more understandable her character becomes. I think it's one of the great perfs of the 1950's, and for the record, she could whoop your ****, my ****, and Duke's **** when it comes to any strangling attempts. Check out The Long Voyage Home if you want a different Wayne, or (as aforementioned) The Shootist which was on a few days back, the more I think about it, the more I think that that is his greatest turn.

> {quote:title=msbisonnet wrote:}{quote} > Gary Cooper didn't die until several years later, after making High Noon. > > Edited by: msbisonnet on Feb 9, 2010 9:07 PM Nine years is close enough to death for me (he was not a "well" man for much of the 1950's) Oh, and... One of the best examples of why Cooper was a great actor is the (awful and much-discussed elsewhere on the board) 1949 version of The Fountainhead He handles some of the clunkiest, most ham-fisted dialogue I have ever heard with grace and confidence. In my opinion....

> {quote:title=faceinthecrowd wrote:}{quote} > Thank you, Jonny, I'm blushing. Although I disagree about Jezebel -- as George Brent said to Bette, "Ah'm most poignantly delighted to see you, Miss Julie -- most poignantly delighted!" My beef with Jezebel is that if you've seen the (excellent) one-sheet poster, and if you know other Bette movies you think, "wow, she is gonna be eeeville in this, but in a good way..." I expected something with fire and/or venom... And then you watch it and she plays a woman who relentlessly does one intensely STUPID thing after another, I mean really effin' dumb. Not evil or hateful or even ruthlessly ambitious (like Viv Leigh in the second half of GWTW)...She is, forgive me, an idiot- and it's not like we can have any pity on her, because everyone says "don't do that, it's stupid" and then she goes and does it. I mean, what the HELL did she think would happen when she shows up at the Ball in that HIDEOUS thing that looks like a toilet paper cozy from a New Orleans Whorehouse? I dislike the film, but not so much her perf which is fine- although I don't think she really deserved to even be nominated for it. Same for Fay Bainter, who I also love (especially in The Children's Hour ) HOWEVER- if those TWO Oscars paved the way for her stunning winning streak from 1939-46, then fine. She deserved to be in the "two-timers" club, even if one of those was (in my opinion) for a weak film. I would have to say Jezebel is one of the most dissapointing film experiences I have had in all my classic-movie watching career.

> {quote:title=Topsey wrote:}{quote} > Norma Shearer for *Marie Antoinette* (It literally almost makes me mad to think that she did not win for this movie, her performance is unbelievably good!!!) I agree. (honorable mention to Margaret Sullavan in Three Comrades though) Norma Shearer is a revelation in Marie Antoinette especially in her final scenes. Why Davis won for the crummy Jezebel is beyond me. "Hunny Chile, you muss be outta yo' mine!" ps- FaceInTheCrowd, you have excellent taste. Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Feb 9, 2010 4:13 PM

> {quote:title=clearskies wrote:}{quote} > Such wonderful 1950's sets and divine costumes in this morning's showing of "Designing Woman." Although the story was kinda dopey, Bacall & Peck never looked so good! Thanks TCM. That "kinda' dopey story" won the Oscar for Best Story and Screenplay (or whatever the hell they called it then) in 1957. I do so wish that instead of spending all that time and dough on the fancy-schmancy introes and the flash-player website (that crashes my computer every time) TCM'd list what Oscars the film was nommed for and/or won when they show it during 31 Days LIKE THEY USED TO! Oh well, c'est la vie Cute movie, nice ideas with the narration, and I always go around saying "Now Marilla..." all day just like Peck whenever I watch it. Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Feb 9, 2010 3:42 PM

I think both Gary Cooper AND John Wayne were two of the BEST actors of the 20th century. Check out Wayne in The Searchers, The Quiet Man and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon or even The Long Voyage Home OH, AND The Shootist HE IS GREAT IN THAT ONE! Cooper was also terrific, 1941 was HIS YEAR- he SIMPLY IS Alvin York, and have you seen Ball of Fire ? Although I think the 2nd Oscar for High Noon was more because he looked close to death (which he was) and it was one of the great comebacks of all time...(Not a fan of that one am I.) Sometimes an actor just being himself, taking the mantle of a film onto his shoulders and making it look damn easy is much more the triumph than.... *ACTING!* (in the Jon Lovitz-intoned sense)

(Bless you, AudreyForever) sorry, didn't want to get timed out. The one Oscar pick I think I stand completely alone in _despising_ is Frances MacDormand's Best Actress win for Fargo in 1996 Everyone I've met just adores Fargo, including many friends with whom I share similar taste in films (and comedy), and I have TRIED, Lord, how I've tried, to like it. I have sat through this loathesome **** of a movie about five times, and have just hated it more and more each time. IN MY OPINION: It is condescending, hateful, throughly un-original piece of terminally unfunny dreck. Brutal, ugly, dull-only 90 minutes long, it seems only slightly shorter than Berlin Alexanderplatz when it's done. Frankly, I find it racist in its pointless non sequitor scene where the Asian classmate of Marge's tries to seduce her (what the HELL was up with that, btw?) Quite insulting to small town America (the sort of film which modern Hollywood just LOVES, 'cause everyone knows us folk in the sticks is a bunch of maroons) I love film noir black comedy and films that teeter on the brink of ugliness, but this one was nothing special- absolutely sub par when compared to many, many films considered "too dark" for the Oscar (Trainspotting from the same yearcomes to mind as a great example) As far as MacDormand goes, IT IS A SUPPORTING ROLE. She does not show up until well over half the film is done with. It is also a THOROUGHLY ONE-NOTE PERFORMANCE, the buck teeth, the accent, the "allowing yourself to look dowdy" which always goes over with the voters- nothing Jeanine Garofoalo or Gilda Radner (had she lived) could not have done on Autopilot. Debbie Reynolds was not nominated for Mother which was a SHAME, and say what you will about Madonna and Evita I do think it was a really solid turn that should've at least been nominated. Juliette Binoche (who was great) was the REAL lead in English Patient NOT Kristen Scott-Thomas and Diane Keaton was also in a supporting role in the rather dreary and lifeless Marvin's Room I will throw in that I love Brenda Blethyn, but the same cannot be said for Secrets and Lies In the annals of Oscar, 1996 goes down as the biggest **** year ever, one of the reasons why i think viewership in the ceremony and trust in the people handing the statues out started to really erode. ps- I know this was rambling and I am sure I misspelled any number of people's names, so feel free to point that out, it does not- however- change the fact that I just DESPISE Fargo and (in spite of really liking her in Almost Famous ) remain far from nuts about MacDormand.

a few notes on what some have written heretofore: I like Oliver! I think if it hadn't won, people would regard it much more fondly (much the same as My Fair Lady and How Green was my Valley and Tom Jones. ) Sure, it's not as good as Lion in Winter or as dazzling as Funny Girl but hey, to each their own. (ps- am I the only person alive who CANNOT STAND 2001: A Space Odyssey ?) In my opinion, Tom Hanks has a supporting role in Philadelphia taking a back seat to Denzel Washington, who I thought was better. NOTE: it has been a good, long while since I saw the movie last, but Hanks is absent for big chunks of the film. I also think his babbling diatribe while the opera music plays in the background (which was his Oscar clip if I recall) is too over-the-top for my taste- *acting* in the vein of Rod Steiger. Yeah, Dead Poets Society blows, Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Feb 9, 2010 2:17 PM

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the "Now Voyager" staircase from the Vale house. I know for a fact it turns up again in "Deception" but it seems like I've spied it again in many other Warner's movies. ps- the Culver City/MGM/Sony lot is a BIG Letdown. Very small and all the streets look like Main Street America at Disneyworld. Most of it got torn down, but there's a wonderful "60 Minutes" ep from the late 70's (?) that details its sale and destruction. Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Feb 9, 2010 9:38 AM

WORST, WORST , _WORST_ wor-hur-hur-hur-hurst movie to EVER win the Best Picture Oscar. Makes The Greatest Show on Earth look like Citizen Kane There. I said it. Sue me. ps- *WORST* Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Feb 8, 2010 1:01 PM to add an ounce more of vitriol.

> {quote:title=ss1158 wrote:}{quote} > Some bizarre Oscar nominations over the years, like Paul Zastupnevich for Best Costume Design for "The Swarm" (1978) HEY BUDDY! Do you have ANY IDEA how HARD it was to fit and measure 10,000 KILLER BEES for costumes? AND to deal with all the egos? Not to even mention hair and make-up....

YOU FORGOT HERBERT MARSHALL! Everyone ALWAYS forgets Herbert Marshall and he is so wonderful in this and many other movies. In fact, were I only allowed to give an Oscar to one person in the cast, I daresay it would be Marshall. IMDB him some time, he has quite an interesting Bio. James Stephenson is also great and sadly died within a few years of The Letter?s release. Bette owes a lot in her perf in this movie to these two. The DVD that some WONDERFUL person put together a few years ago is fantastic- two radio versions (maybe three?); a GORGEOUSLY CLEAN PRINT and maybe even a separate soundtrack? It is the BEST movie to play on a stormy day and one of the BEST classic films to show someone you know to try and get them ?in? to classic films. TCM has JG?s permission for weekly showings of The Letter, hell, give it its own time slot. That said, I would give the 1940 Oscar to Roz Russell for His Girl Friday but admit Bette would be close behind in the votes. She shoulda? won for Of Human Bondage that?s gotten to be a universal ?duh? by now. I WISH Dangerous were on DVD, I recall loving it as a kid, but haven?t caught it again. I recall thinking I preferred Miriam Hopkins in Becky Sharp . I know Bette would come out of the grave and get me for that, but I said it. I think Jezebel is a train wreck, don?t get her second OSCAR for that at all BUT? If those two (debateably um-merited) Oscars paved the way for her brilliant streak from 39-46, then fine, no arguments here. The tragedy of 1940 is that Ginger Rogers also gave subsequent post-Oscar turns that blew her turn in Kitty Foyle out of the water ( The Major and The Minor and Monkey Business come to mind) . She was never nominated again and that must?ve hurt.

> {quote:title=gilfair wrote:}{quote} > Earlier, I suggested Ronald Colman for "A Tale of Two Cities", I just looked at his credits; "Clive of India", "The Prisoner of Zenda", "Lost Horizon", "If I were King" and "Random Harvest". He was nominated for "Random Harvest", the rest went unrecognized by the Academy. Whatever source you checked, burn it. Coleman was a four-time nominee (double-nominated sometime in the early thirties I believe) HE WON THE BEST ACTOR AWARD in 1947 for A Double Life Feel better?

> {quote:title=casablancalover wrote:}{quote} > > {quote:title=JonnyGeetar wrote:}{quote} > > Why can't you find any of the old Batman eps from the 60's....I would LOVE to see them again, is it some sort of Fox vs. WB legal haggling thing? > I tried looking after you mentioned it too. What's up with that? I dunno, I REALLY miss seeing them though! They used to be on the Family Channel (albeit heavily edited.)

a version of Nicholas Nickleby came out in the early aughts and I thought it was smashing! Christopher Plummer (who is always overlooked by Oscar) once again was superb, although the film met with mixed reviews, which was appalling to me. (critics always give good stuff a much harder going over than total crap) OH AND: I would put the 1968 version of Oliver! on the list with Tom Jones and My Fair Lady as one of the most unfairly maligned Oscar winning Best Pics ever. Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Jan 31, 2010 10:40 AM

i completely forgot Oliver Twist which I have never seen! provided it is on Netflix, i'll be ordering it this week. it is also not among my favorite Dickenseses due mostly to the plot holes you could fly a blimp through, but it's solid. it's funny, the iffy 50's version of a tale of two cities with Dirk Bogarde (who's great) was on this morning...the quality of the print is terrible, but the film also kind of lies flat, which is weird because Cities is such an awesome read- really my fave of Chuck D's. Love the guy who played Mme. DeFarge though.

The Dark Corner is a lot of fun isn't it? Lucille Ball was such a good actress, I love her when she's tough as nails. Watching her today, I thought "wouldn't she have been sensational in The Hard Way (1943) ?" (nothing against Ida Lupino.)

i have no idea whether or not this is the case, but is there a chance that Ray Bradbury somehow has approval over the script or project? i could see how that could stretch forever.

It's one of those cases where real life has come to echo the message of the book so strongly, I think it would be tough to put the jist movie across, but what do I know? I have never seen Truffaut's film, but I have read the Bradbury book, and as was the case with Something Wicked This Way Comes I was kind of underwhelmed. I vastly prefer Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and would like to see a decent film made of it (it's funnier, fresher and more innovative than the Bradbury book to me,) But I think films and remakes these days seem to be so ambitiously awful, they maybe should stay away from it altogether.

Mr. Baetz, never be afraid to take a controversial stand! That said, I think Rebel is head and shoulders above Blackboard Sure, Blackboard has better music and the Black and White cinematography is as good as the gorgeous colors of Rebel but I there's just something magical about Rebel ...That scene where Dean pleads with his parents to understand him always "gets" me (it hits home big time.) I also think Natalie Wood gives one of the truly great supporting turns of the 1950's. Plus, forgive me, but Glenn Ford has never "done it" for me- sorry that's just my opinion.