ValentineXavier

Well, Fred, I guess we agree on something - it's a great film. I see it as a sort of inverse myth of Sisyphus, trying to get out of a hole, rather than to the mountain top. It's very enigmatic, and can't be made sense of literally, even if you accept the 'fact' of the continuously falling sand. I'm so glad that TCM is showing it. Originally, they had shown the 123m version on the schedule, but now they are listing the 147m director's cut. Very nice!

Sorry, I do my best to forget Shirley Temple, at every opportunity.

> {quote:title=Ascotrudgeracer wrote:}{quote} > I remember families being warned the film was too frightening for children...cold war children of the nuclear age. I saw it on TV, as a teen, a couple of years after it came out. That film, probably more than anything else, impressed upon me fear of nukes, and the cold war.

> {quote:title=Ascotrudgeracer wrote:}{quote} > My question, dear soulmates, do you find watching movies is more (or less) enjoyable after smoking grass? Well, for me the question would be better phrased as "did,' not "do." It would depend on the film. I remember finding *Mr. Wong in Chinatown* particularly enjoyable with the herb. I recall going to see *Fantasia*, and giggling at the dancing mushrooms, which p.oed the girls sitting behind me. I recall seeing *Yellow Submarine* straight, and coming out of the theater feeling as if I had taken LSD.

TCM shows Esther a lot. Peter Sellers hasn't had such routine coverage in the past. I was delighted to see all the Sellers films. I'm not an Ester fan, but I don't begrudge her fans seeing her films on TCM.

> {quote:title=redriver wrote:}{quote} > Then the secret agent craze came along. No more westerns! Ah, but there was The Wild, Wild, West!

He/she moved to Canada.

I apologized to aretha for the **** contest here, and that got deleted, too.

*The Wings of Beagles* John Ford's classic about a pioneering naval aviator, played by the Duke. Injured in a crash, he can no longer fly, and turns his life to raising hounds. Maureen O'Hara plays the leading lady. Ward Bond plays the leading beagle.

So, Fred, is that the one you were thinking of too?

From what I read of it on the IMDb, and allmovie.com, it does deserve a DVD release, and I'd like to see it. I'm also a Jules Dassin fan. Why hasn't it been released? I can make some guesses. It was made in Europe while Dassin was blacklisted in the US. It was made for a very small production company. It probably got little or no release in the US, and therefore is little-known. It is probably difficult to determine who owns the rights, since the small production company seems to have folded in 1969. That's a lot of obstacles. There are plenty of popular films that have never been released, even though they would stand a much better chance of being profitable.

> {quote:title=movieman1957 wrote:}{quote} > Most unique - Eugene Pallette. I love the way he says "Normans" when he is playing Friar Tuck in *The Adventures of Robin Hood*. I liked his voice in other things too. He had quite a unique and distinctive 'croak.'

I came across the Bette Davis film I was thinking of on the May schedule. It might be the one Fred, and even you are thinking of. It was on TCM a few months ago. It is called *In This Our Life*. The car crash does come at the end of the film.

Fred, admit it. You would never like anything shot on 16. *F For Fake* is a fine film, with lots of good tricks up its sleeve. No budget, true, but that doesn't hurt it in the least.

> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote} > They haven't done women or the disabled yet. I recommend waiting till June to see what is on the schedule. I hope they don't do disabled women. I don't want to see *Boxing Helena* again. They horse around too much for me in May, but that's the theme, so I'll live with it. They do have some good noirs, which always makes me happy. I'm glad to see they're rerunning *Confessions of a Nazi Spy*, because I managed to miss it the first time. There's one Japanese film I haven't seen, that's good. And Fred, I bet you'd like *Gates of Heaven*. It's really funny, and shows just how silly modern life can be. I notice they are having repeated showings of something made in 2011! It's called Now Playing May. The nerve of TCM!

They've covered the major minorities. I guess they could start over. Or, perhaps do the handicapped in film? That would be a tough one!

Least favorite male voice: Billy Mays (RIP) Least favorite female voice: Kathrine Hepburn.

If you get Flix on cable, check the schedule for this rarely shown, interesting film, which I believe is the last feature length film Welles directed. Not his greatest, but lots of fun. Its a documentary, and I think it was influential, more than is realized. Flix is showing it several times over the next two weeks.

The concept of the brains of the people the crabs eat giving the crabs the ability to telepathically 'speak' in the voice of eaten people is just so weird. The concept of the crabs literally devouring their, and the scientists', 'world,' the island they are on has philosophical ramifications. The fact that you can't touch the crabs... so many ideas, very interesting. It goes well beyond the atomic scare theme of the day.

Yep, Flaxy was definitely a "B-girl!"

I'll take the also-mentioned Claire Trevor's acting over the Duke. I love that they say Chaplin's film *The Dictator* will be released wherever people are still allowed to have a sense of humor. I notice they say Chaplin will have a "duel" role, but of course mean dual. *Gunga Din* is on my short list of best films of 1939. Sam Jaffe gets no respect! He plays the title role, and his name is in small print, at the bottom. Edited by: ValentineXavier on Feb 7, 2011 9:04 PM

I'd swear I remember a Bette Davis film with something like that in it, but can't recall a title.

There is a Laurel and Hardy film where Stan and Ollie are hiding out with black plantation workers, and do a musical number with them, in blackface. It's *Pardon Us*, 1931.

Marie Curie lucked out when they chose Greer Garson to play her. I think she looked more like Marie Dressler.

> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote} > I don't know whether you are being tongue in cheek, but later in life, when her film career was winding down, Marlene DID tour with a singing act, with a young Burt Bacharach spending time as her accompanist. Not tongue in cheek at all, just countering tracyk65's assertion that Marlene's singing was an "acquired taste," and not widely appreciated. Touring a singing act after a successful acting career doesn't necessarily prove one is a good singer, just that one has a following from the acting. My assertion was that if she hadn't been a film star, she could have been a singing star.