JonnyGeetar

i will check out the phantom menace thing, but i warn you, I am one of the (tragically) rare people born during the Nixon/Carter years who really has no interest at all in any of the Star Wars movies- good or bad. I did watch a good deal of Phantom Menace when it aired on TV as few years ago...the last 20 minutes brought to mind one of the best quotes in MST 3K history: "I've never known more about what isn't going on in a movie than right now."

...And I do love Mrs. Irwin Allen as the Mayor's wife. I remember watching as a kid and praying she made it out. It's a solid performance, but UGH, that dress ! And the giant, fur-lined pink satin cloak she wears in the beginning, was she getting ready to go ten rounds with George Foreman? And that enormous, platinum cow patty on her head.... Okay, I'm stopping. ps- the guy who plays the mayor is terrific too. Hokey as many parts are, the scene where the last elevator goes out is very touching and well-done.

it's been a while since i lived in LA, i did live there sometime in the early aughts and i do recall some hoopla over some building being built downtown, could've sworn it was the library tower but my memories are clouded by a haze of marajuana smoke. All apologies. English Leather! OMG, That takes me back! ps- I still say a 150 story building in SF wouldn't fly, but plot-wise a 90 story building works better as it heightens the drama of the evac...another problem i had was that the 150 story building apparently only has four elevators going to the top (none freight.) Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Jan 19, 2010 9:49 AM

> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote} > *And give Newman's son (who played one of the firemen, quite badly might I add) a job in the prop dept, 'cause he ain't exactly got "the stuff."* > > He committed suicide four years after the film was released. He had a drug problem as I recall. Both Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were devastated by it. Yes, I knew that already. He was still awful in the film. Sorry.

damn, one more thing. did people use Kerosene as an aftershave in the 1970's, or did some of the partygoers rent their tuxes from some sketchy rental place that used cheap Chinese-made tuxedoes soaked in gas...because it seemed like some of the people went up mighty easy at the first open flame.

Thank you. But I would never dream of tinkering with the brilliance that is Rifftrax (have you seen the job they do on Carnival of Souls ?) Brilliance. The reason I get so irked with Poseidon and Inferno is because both are excellent concepts, with great moments and ideas- squandered by sloppy mechanics. It's hard to believe the same guy wrote Inferno and In the Heat of the Night and the guy who directed it also did Death on the Nile both films not perfect, but neither is laughably ridiculous. If nothing else, make the building 90 stories tall. Keep SF and keep the candy-glass windows, but make both kids deaf too. And give Newman's son (who played one of the firemen, quite badly might I add) a job in the prop dept, 'cause he ain't exactly got "the stuff."

Thank you, CasablancaLover...I see your point and it is well made. And yet, two MORE things: (spoilers included) 1. Windows in a high rise should not smash so easily (axe, maybe. chairs, no way) 2. At the very end, why on EARTH do the medics or whoever SHOW Bill Holden's daughter's character the remains of her dead husband (the eeeevil Richard Chamberlin.) He fell 150 stories! What did they do, open a Hefty Bag and ask her to look inside? There. I'm done.

we're about 45 minutes into it...is anyone else bored to tears?

This may require viewing on someone's part, but I wanna know: How is it that OJ and the unconsious deaf lady make it down to the ground while Jennifer Jones, Paul Newman and the STUPID CHILDREN WHO DID NOT WAKE THEIR DEAF MOTHER UP WHEN THE SMOKE AND FIRE CAME POURING IN THE APARTMENT have to go up to the Promenade Room? (I admit, I fast-forwarded bits, but I really missed that) ps- STUPID, _STUPID_ Children! Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Jan 17, 2010 10:39 PM to emphasize how damn stupid those kids were.

Yeah, but the world's tallest high rise at 150 stories? I think the citizens of SF would've thrown a collective hissyfit, besides they've also had their share of fires there too. I know it was roughly the same year that the Sears tower and WTC opened, but Chicago or NYC would've made more sense. Even Boston. Or an 80 story building... They built the Library tower in LA around 2003, it's 60 stories tall and people had a fit then.

10:18, Sunday I'm not an expert by any means on this: but...Am I nuts or is this print of Cyrano DeBergerac (sic I'm sure) from 1950 not very good quality? It looks like a filmed Teleplay.

They also do not make it clear whether or not the black fireman who remains in the "Promenade Room" lives at the end and the Mayor's death is rather ambiguous as well. And while I'm on it, was everyone alive in the 1970's conspiring together to make it the ugliest era in all human history? The yellow rubber tulips and the trellising, and that wallpaper! And those hideous dried straw arrangements in the white plaster urns! Ugh!

> {quote:title=HollywoodGolightly wrote:}{quote} > I'm not sure if I understand why SF would be a particularly bad city in which to build a skyscraper. I mean, that's just assuming any major metropolitan area is going to have roughly equally capable fire departments. It has nothing to do with the SFFD and everything to do with the San Andreas Fault.

on a lark, i netlfixed the towering inferno and watched (the good parts) last night. _SPOILERS_ what a shame! the story itself is really solid, and there are some wonderful moments, some thoughtful shots (especially the exploding water tank scene and dousing of the fire), and a real sense of drama...potential ruined by the STUPID dialogue and elements of the plot that don't hold up to any kind of scrutiny. WHY on EARTH would they built the WORLD'S TALLEST BUILDING in San Francisco??!! Anyone? Anyone? Also, the brutal story elements ( the fate of Wagner and his mistress, stunning demise of the Jennifer Jones character after she's made it through so much, and the roasting of the passengers in one of the elevators) WORK and heighten the drama, but the effect is muted by the **** dialogue, the lousy acting of some (cough,cough, ojsimpson, cough) and the general clunk of 2/3 of it. i'm sure when it's inevitably remade, they'll do an even worse job than they did with Poseidon and that is saying a lot oh, and in the name of good taste in interior design alone, i was 100% "Team Fire." PS- Her Royal Fayeness was never more gorgeous than she is in that giant nude stocking. Props on that.

Dear Ziggy, You have one cool mom. My first movie experience that I remember is along a similar vein. I was born in 1978 and can remember the "dark days" before VCRs. The local library was holding a screening of The Maltese Falcon . I was about five or six and my Dad (a big Bogart fan) took me. SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE TWO OF YOU WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE MALTESE FALCON I remember being blown away by the ending where Bogie hands Mary Astor over to the cops and says "somebody's gotta take the fall", and then tells her she'll probably only spend a couple of dimes in Quentin for it. It was the first thing I had ever seen that wasn't Care Bears and lollypops and Smurfs singing and holding hands and it blew my mind, but in a very good way. Everyone who knows a kid between the ages of five and ten, rip the WII control out of their hands, and sit them down in front of something great and black and white. They'll thank you for it 25 years down the road. ps- this is a really charming thread, odd little cancer tangent aside.

Below are my picks for some of the most egregious Oscar snubs (I didn't take it much past 1965 or it would have been 12 pages.) Feel free to give a shout-out to your own favorite non-nominees (Lord knows I missed many.) _Picture_ Queen Christina, Trouble in Paradise, My Man Godfrey, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, Gunga Din, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Women, Pride and Prejudice (1940), Shadow of a Doubt, Laura, Cluny Brown, White Heat, Gun Crazy, The Asphalt Jungle, Ace in the Hole, The African Queen, Johnny Guitar, A Star is Born (1954),The Searchers, Kiss Me Deadly, Touch of Evil, The Miracle Worker, Harold and Maude _Actor_ Alec Guinness in The Horse?s Mouth, Charles Laughton in Hobson?s Choice, Karloff and Colin Clive in Frankenstein, Andy Griffith in A Face In The Crowd, Anthony Perkins in Psycho, Alan Ladd in Shane, Cary Grant in The Awful Truth, Monkey Business, Arsenic and Old Lace, and His Girl Friday, Mitchum in The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Anton Walbrook in The Red Shoes, Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt, Cagney in One, Two, Three, Tony Curtis in Some Like it Hot _Actress_ Jean Harlow for Dinner at Eight and Bombshell, Joan Crawford in Rain and Flamingo Road, Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, Maureen O?Hara in Rio Grande and The Quiet Man, Roz Russell in His Girl Friday, Irene Dunne in Penny Serenade, Bacall in To Have and Have Not, Ginger Rogers in The Major and the Minor, Jane Greer in Out of the Past, Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Jean Simmons in Elmer Gantry, Vivian Leigh in Ship of Fools and Waterloo Bridge, Ruth Gordon in Harold and Maude, _Supporting_ Robert Shaw in Jaws, Gladys George in The Hard Way, Jack Carson (in many things), Mercedes Macambridge in Johnny Guitar, Patricia Collinge in Shadow of a Doubt, Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat, Herbert Marshall in The Letter and The Little Foxes, Jan Sterling in Ace in the Hole, Roddy McDowell in How Green was my Valley, Lana Turner in The Bad and the Beautiful, John Huston in Chinatown

I wish more movies were based on quotes by Groucho.

> {quote:title=casablancalover wrote:}{quote} > Wow, do you think so? What part? As Olivia is creating cold cream? I don't remember that. Is there a line that gives it that slant? > it is purely something another poster mentioned to me in another thread a few months ago...something to do with the line "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" And I am PARAPHRASING that from (bad) memory.

_And_ at 8:00 pm, _and_ followed by A Foreign Affair which, if TCM has shown it, certainly doesn't get aired much. Very exciting indeed. ps- anyone else heard that To Each... has a slightly Marxist leaning in its message? DON'T GET MAD AT ME! I _DON'T CARE_ IF IT DOES, I'M JUST REPEATING SOMETHING SOMEONE WHO HAS SEEN THE MOVIE TOLD ME. THAT'S _ALL_. (folks are so sensitive about politics 'round here)

This was on TCM when Peter Lorre was (most deservedly) either Star of the Month or had a day on Summer Under the Stars. It is _fantastic_, although I kinda' wish they'd called it Andy Hardy Goes to Hell .

> {quote:title=sweetsmellofsuccess wrote:}{quote} > Marie Windsor in The Killing and The Narrow Margin was fantastic. She may not be considered a conventional beauty, but I thought she was very sexy... In his (great) book on film noir Dark City, author Eddie Muller describes Windsor as such: "5'9, statuesque, and with a balcony that could support a double run of pinochle."

my parents love to tell the story about going to see doctor zhivago some time circa 1965 at a rather artsy movie house in Raleigh, NC. It was winter and the owners of the place prided themselves on giving their patrons the "full effect" experience of seeing movies, so they turned on the air conditioning full blast. At least that's how my Dad tells the story. (for the record, neither of them seems like they much appreciated the extra effort of the owners)

The Man Who Came to Dinner Murder on the Orient Express All That Heaven Allows Doctor Zhivago The Shining And if it helps to attain the "full effect"- open all the doors and windows while you watch.

> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote} > Ginger also played a much younger female in MONKEY BUSINESS Which I also love and which I also wish she'd been nominated for, along with Cary Grant. One of the great underrated films of the 1950's.

If Elvis had ever gotten a decent script or role, I have no doubts he could have knocked it out of the park- he had "the stuff." It's a shame he didn't end up in Thunder Road or Rio Bravo or get a small role in a legit pic that would've paved the way for bigger things. I wish they'd show that western Kurt Russell always talks about during the Elvis promo commercial. Kind of grateful he didn't do A Star is Born with Streisand- I have the feeling that would have been a debacle of The Conquerer proportions.