ValentineXavier
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Posts posted by ValentineXavier
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> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote}
> What I've found out, Jean Rogers was a brunette in real life. For the 1936 "Flash Gordon" serial film, Jean's hair would be bleached and dyed platinum blonde. Studio executives reasoned the movie audience at the time would associate the good hero as the one with blonde hair as the villain with dark hair. They also had reasoned blonde would be a good color to use, as movie actress Jean Harlow was a big star at the time.
That explains why she was a blonde in the first Flash Gordon serial, but I always wondered why she was a short-haired brunette in the next two. She was really hot in the first one, but fairly plain in the others. I thought maybe they decided she was too sexy to be the 'good girl' in the first one, so made the change.
My sexiest actresses, no particular order,
Paulette Goddard
Hedy Lamar,
Ava Gardener
Myrna Loy
Maureen O'Sullivan
Jane Russell
Arletty
Ella Raines
Jean Arthur
Veronica Lake
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}
>
> Maybe Disney should have brought in a team of doctors at the end and pumped her stomach out, or he could have let Snow White die and could have ended the film with a nice funeral procession with the seven dwarfs carrying her casket to the cemetery.
>
Well, in the Fleischer Bros. cartoon, Betty Boop's Snow-White, she DID die, the dwarfs, (well, Bimbo and Koko,) carry her coffin to the underworld, for a surreal funeral procession, and a rotoscoped, ever-morphing Cab Calloway sings St. James Infirmary Blues. It's way better than the Disney version, done a few years before Disney did his. In the end, she is resurrected by a kiss...
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Sorry if I over stated your reply.
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> {quote:title=MrMorton wrote:}{quote}
> I am really looking at moving from cable TV to satellite to get more HD channels. I would love to have TCM in HD, but I'm wondering how many movies are shown in HD (widescreen). Perhaps those who have TCM HD can tell me about what percentage of movies are shown in HD. Sorry if it's a repeat question. Thanks!
Eventually, TCM will have true HD. Right now, almost all of their wide screen films are upscaled to HD. The practical effect is that they should look about as good as an anamorphic DVD, which means better looking than if you zoom a SD signal to make a WS film fill the screen.
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I think that "similar but not dead-on in looks" is acceptable, but someone who doesn't "have the mannerisms," or otherwise accurately present the persona of the character is not acceptable, And, I think Hoffman was an amazing Capote.
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I'm looking forward to seeing *The Velvet Touch* again, it's been years. I DVR'd it. I did watch *The Guilt of Janet Ames*. I was impressed. It is a most unusual film. Certainly more surrealism than one expects from Hollywood.
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It's one of my favorites, Fred. I'm glad TCM has started showing it once in a while. I think there is another thread discussing it around somewhere, from the first (recent) time they showed it.
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> {quote:title=TCMOnAirPromotions wrote:}{quote}
> 3. Are there enough films available for us to make a stirring montage? In Ms. Stuart's case, many of her films are not available to us, not necessarily because we don't have the rights *(we do use a films we don't own or have license to, thanks to the fair use doctrine)* but because we literally do not have in-house masters or even DVDs from which to use good quality images.
I thought that the "fair use doctrine" would let you use what you wanted, but in another thread, another poster said I was wrong. But, you obviously can's use it, if you can't get it. Thanks for the detailed explanation.
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For years I named my cats after Frank Zappa albums. But, no, not film stars.
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I'm very much a fan of foreign films. I agree with almost all of what has been said. Except, I'll admit I'm not a Bergman fan, which puts me in a ting minority, and I don't mean to discourage you from watching his films.
Some of my favorite directors, in no particular order:
Fellini,
My favorite film is *Juliet of the Spirits*, but to start with Fellini, probably some of his earlier work is best, like *Nights of Cabiria*, or *La Strada*. Neither has the surrealism of his later films.
Cocteau,
Yes, his *Beauty and the Beast* is wonderful, but I think his *Orpheus* is best. Criterion has his Orphic Trilogy in one package.
Bunuel,
To those already mentioned, I'd add *Belle de Jour*, which is very accessible, w/o the surrealism I love in most of his films. Also, his collaboration with Salvador Dali, *Un Chien Andalou*, aka The Andalusian Dog is perhaps the most famous experimental, and surrealist film ever made.
Kurosawa,
You can't go wrong with Kurosawa, from *Stray Dog*, an early Japanese film noir, to his later films like *Dreams*. Everyone should see *Rashomon*, and *Seven Samurai* at least once in their lifetime. But, perhaps lighter films like *Yojimbo* and *Sanjuro* (his film I enjoy most) would be a better introduction.
Kenji Mizoguchi,
When I first saw *Ugetsu*, I was convinced it was the best film ever made. I was then a freshman in college, and have seen quite a lot since. I still hold it to be one of the very best films ever made. His *Sansho the Bailiff* is also amazing.
Lindsay Anderson,
His films, starring Malcolm McDowell, *If*, and *O, Lucky Man* are probably even more timely today, than when they were made.
Of course there are many, many other great foreign directors. Check out the Hitchcock-like thrillers *Diabolique*, and *Wages of Fear* by Henri Cluzot. Check out perhaps the best political thriller ever made, *Z*, by Costa-Gavras. Check out the wonderful *Wings of Desire*, by Wim Wenders. Geeze, I could go on all night, but, well, I guess I've posted enough for now!
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> {quote:title=C.Bogle wrote:}{quote}
> TCM was planning to go with a tag team concept originally-two critics for each
> movie, but at the last minute decided against it.
One critic pro, one con, dukeing it out during the film, and we see who is left standing, when the film is over? That could be interesting!
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> {quote:title=C.Bogle wrote:}{quote}
> "Darling, there are some yummy orange fish eggs in the Sporting
> Goods section that taste almost like caviar."
And the sun glasses taste almost like the fish eggs...
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> {quote:title=MyFavoriteFilms wrote:}{quote}
> I also select from the Criterion collection.
>
The library I work in has most of the Criterion Collection, so all I have to do is go upstairs and pick them up. However, I don't get many, because TCM shows more that I want to see than I can watch.
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> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}
> Lang makes me wonder who is worse -
>
> - the insane man who has a psychological compulsion and must follow it through, even when he knows it is wrong and knows he will be caught and hung
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> - or the men who say they can control themselves, that they are civilized, but basically commit the same crime in retaliation for the brutal acts of the "monster".
These same men also commit murder as part of their criminal profession. But, yes, that is perhaps the most fundamental question of the film. Who is worse? Why is the psycho more despised than the professional killers?
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There are only two baseball films worth watching -
*It Happens Every Spring* and
*Rhubarb*,
and Ray Milland's in both of them...
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> {quote:title=scsu1975 wrote:}{quote}
> Can someone let me know the correct pronunciation of Juarez ? We haven't discussed that for a few months.
It's pronounced throat-warbler-mangrove.
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> {quote:title=johnm_001 wrote:}{quote}
> I don't like Japanese horror films. They all look alike, and they're completely joyless to me. I think horror should be scary, and fun. There is an air of depression about them that isn't scary, just depressing. I know a lot of people like them, though.
Well, I'll admit that to me, joy and horror are antithetical, generally speaking. But, I do understand how someone could find what I call a good horror film depressing.
I do have a film to recommend to you. It is a Japanese horror/comedy, that I think is great. It is *The Happiness of the Katakuris*, available on DVD. Made by Japanese horror master Takashi Miike, it is light-hearted, and not very dark, like his film *Audition*. Try it, you might like it!
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> {quote:title=mr6666 wrote:}{quote}
> VX,
> > the best horror films now come from Japan:
> I'd have to agree.(Europe also) What do you think they have a handle on that the US doesn't?
> All we can do are remakes of their stuff.
Their horror is psychological, not a quest for ever greater gore. They have a lot more mystery involved. In US films, you usually know it's Freddie, or whoever, and you don't really care about why and/or how. In the best Japanese horror films, it's all about why and/or how.
Not all Japanese horror is good. Some is formulaic, some absurdly bloody. Most is more serious, being more psychological, and less fantastic than US horror. I like that it seems more real, and more disturbing. But, I can understand why some find it depressing. Personally, I find US horror more disturbed than disturbing. That fact I find disturbing, and depressing...
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> {quote:title=HarryLong wrote:}{quote}
> When the Devil sells snow cones during intermission?
That wasn't unusual, at drive-in theaters, around Halloween, in the 50s and 60s.
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> {quote:title=Scottman wrote:}{quote}
> Maybe it was the Criterion print, but there was no mention of Criterion at either the beginning or the end of the presentation.
Any sign of Criterion's twin twin, Janus Films?
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Yes, Kyle, that is indeed a valid distinction. You made explicit what I was alluding to with my examples - there are war films, and then there are war films...
I am much looking forward to *How I Won the War*, and hoping it is shown in its OAR, 1.66:1. *King of Hearts* is also quite good, but it gets shown much more often.
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Well, in your first post, you mentioned early civilizations. Later, I mentioned films about other cultures, including *Chac, The Rain God*, which you found interesting. And, cultures other than our own are generally taught in social studies, but none of the categories on your most recent list would include anything like that. So, I wondered why the omission? I don't know what you mean by "other references excluded from your posts."
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So, other cultures are excluded from your "social studies?"
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> {quote:title=HarryLong wrote:}{quote}
> I might just be paranoid, but it seems to me a screen name of The Destroyer suggests something else, too...
Yeah, you wonder why he isn't asking them to run *Sink the Bismark* or *Run Silent, Run Deep*.
most beautiful actresses
in General Discussions
Posted
Generally, I prefer brunettes to blondes, but Jean's ethereal blonde beauty in the first Flash Gordon Serial was stunning. But Fred, in the brunette picture you posted of her, she certainly isn't chopped liver!