wouldbestar

I'm glad that they brought it out from wherever it was. I found it very engrossing even if the end was unsettling. I wondered if the Nazi poison was already so strongly a part of the German thought when Hitler came to power as it seemed to be in the story. I suppose it must have been for him to get so far so quickly as he did. If this was 1940, I suppose the rest of the world besides Europe was finally catching on. I expected the couple to make it to freedom and was shocked when Freya does not even if we are left with the idea that her death helps her brother to wake up and break away from the Nazis. I couldn't help but wonder if the filmmakers tried to have it both ways; show the Nazis as evil but not let an "Aryan"-which James Stewart's character was-marry a girl who was half-Jewish. They never used that term for her but her family name was Roth and her father kept describing himself as "non Aryan" so it was obvious. As for her brothers I guess nobody had any way of knowing that by the time it was all over, that loyalty to the right wouldn't trump Daddy's ancestry and they'd be casualties of the death camps, too. All around, an interesting day at TCM. Thank you!

This is going to be a long one but yesterday was so extraordinary for me that I?m going to need to be. I really got to know Robert Stack?s work and discovered he was not just a one note, pretty boy getting by on charm but someone who grew into a really good actor. He seemed comfortable and masculine in those 16th Century costumes of The Iron Glove-something hard to do-and the Western clothes of My Outlaw Brother and Great Day in the Morning. I remember when John Paul Jones came out in 1959 and got a photo spread in LIFE or LOOK. The story brought out that much of the screenplay was fictional-Marisa Pavan?s character for one-and asked why anybody would want to see it. It wasn?t a great film but Stack did make him a heroic figure and the real Jones did rise from illegitimacy and poverty to become who he was. In the last one I was able to stay awake for, The Mortal Storm, he had little to do but when Otto starts to crack after Freya?s death, you believe he just might come to his senses and give up his obsession with the Third Reich. I saw all of these but The Caretakers for the first time and want to see them all again. While certainly not as good as The Snake Pit the premise of The Caretakers was one that needed to be addressed at that time. (I had a relative in this situation at the time and was glad it was and hopeful the hospitals would be operated as the doctor wanted them to be). His intensity made the movie believable when the nurses costuming almost scuttled the whole movie(Beautiful young girls with perfect make up and nary a hair out of place, tight uniforms, and spike heels even if only the 2-inch kind). The Elmer Bernstein score was on his usual mark as well. This seems to be what you are doing this year, introducing us to people who are not normally thought of when you say ?star? but should be. You?ve done it for Woody Strode and will tomorrow with Ann Sheridan. I will be watching so as not to incur the wrath of all her many fans on the Redheads thread. Just kidding, I like a lot of her movies. Keep up the good work!

This is a nearly impossible task. I've just been made to see again from that 36 film list why he is considered the best director ever and won so many Oscars. I really like all of the films I'm posting below but found it easier to rate one from each of the many genres he worked in but I still haven't covered those in just five. These are also not all the most popular of his films but they spoke to me and show his range. I've said before his worst films would be masterpieces for other directors. What a legacy he left! The Long Gray Line The Grapes of Wrath Mary of Scotland Sgt. Rutledge They Were Expendable

Nobody's mentioned Peyton Place yet. This is a prime example of Hollywood getting it right and making a finished product better than he book. I tried reading it once but after about ten pages or so I found it so badly written I gave it up. The screenwriters took sleazy material and turned it into a frank, intelligent, and thoughtfully done story about real problems, consequences and solutions. It still packs a wallop fifty plus years later.

I goofed! Fort Bowie is on now. Sorry! 10.45PM: This was an interesting movie with some twists. Outside of our Mr. Johnson the only other person I recognized was Jana Davi who played the Indian woman. At least he ended up with the right woman since Jack, Goddess, or I were-rats!-not available. I pitied the Colonel who got his wife back but was she worth it? You can't blame the Indians for fighting back, it was their country and the Major was out to kill them all. You knew he was going to get his and couldn't feel bad when he did. Ben was better than the movie and quite a hunky guy back then. I wish the movie had been better as it might have led to more leading roles for him but otherwise not a bad afternoon.

I goofed! Fort Bowie is on now. Sorry!

Of course it's not-thank you. Will be looking for them. I hope the "busyness" is all good. Mine's been up and down, too.

Fellow Catholic: According to my parochial school history book, The Legion of Decency was founded after the Hays/Breen office began because the hierarchy felt it did not go far enough. I?ve never heard of the first two movies but know the other two as well as Duel in the Sun, Baby Doll, The Outlaw, Walking Tall, and .Hurry, Sundown were on the condemned list and that was well into the 1970?s. Finally, they replaced the C rating-for condemned-with just a morally offensive rating (O) which explains the reason for the objections. The organization is now called The National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures. Current mores have been taken into consideration and some films condemned or objected to in part are now rated higher. Gone with the Wind went from the B list-objectionable in part-to the A 2-adults and mature teens. I?ve read that Forever Amber was a very spicy book that faced its own battles with censors before it was made into a movie. I saw the film and agreed with the negative reviews I?m told it got. It just wasn't?t all that interesting a movie. As to pre-code, I have no doubt that had the Legion been around then, many of my favorites from then-like The Divorcee or A Free Soul -would have been on it.

My vote goes to: 1) Robert Mitchum 2) Humphrey Bogart 3) Paul Newman All were hard to get through to on screen but if you did you-usually-got a prize.

"They came for the-------and I did not speak out. Then they came for the-------and I did not speak out. Finally they came for me and there was no one to spek out for me." This famous poem works here, too. If one group can ban, another can as well, then another until there is nothing of cultural value left. I saw Birth of a Nation because its production values were so revolutionary they were used for years afterwards. I also wanted to see for myself how racist it was. I did and now understand the dispute when it was put on the first AFI 100 list. I can see both sides but do find the story appalling.. For that reason, I want to see Triumph of the Will. Lani Riefenstahl was a German and the should help give me and others an idea of how the German mindset against Jews developed. I can always turn it off if I find it too offensive. An athiest group started putting anti-faith billboards up around here this week. My first impulse is to tear them down but the same law that allows us Christians to putup the "Keep Christ in Christmas" ones in December allows them to put up theirs now. I think we believers-whatever our faith-cqn take a little heat. For that reason I say use the offensive material to teach about intollerance rather than become so ourselves.

Thank you for the compliment and the info. I'll double check my posts for clarity in the future.

Izcutter, do the opening notes to LA Confidential sound like the ones for On the Waterfront to you as they do me? It doesn't matter to me which one it is as they are both great films and I still rate Waterfront as the all-time #1. I don't think Leonard Bernstein would be upset at the comparison. Jerry did it again. I watch the opening credits for Bandolero! And Rio Conchos just to hear the themes and of course Rudy. I do the same for The Comencheros, Katie Elder, and the other Wayne movies Elmer Bernstein scored as well as anything of Tiomkin even if I can't abide the movie. To me, the best scores seem to come from Westerns but not all. I can put on the cd for The Lion King ot Titanic and drift off.

Anything by Dimitri Tiomkin, with Gunfight at the OK Corral the best. Next comes Miklos Rozsa for King of Kings and Erich Wolfgang Korngold for Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk. Izcutter and John are right about Goldsmith and Bernstein being the greatest of the post 60's scorers and James Horner and Hans Zimmer are the best today. Thanks to CineMaven I went to YouTube to hear her choices and found I can hear Breakheart Pass and other goodies when I want to. I can tell a Bernstein melody from the first notes and he never disappoints. In fact, I rile folks up because I can identify a movie by the score even when I'm in another room and they hear me call out the title and "Don't touch that dial, it's a keeper!" I would have loved to be a movie scorer. I have one idea if I have any talent in that direction but somebody has to be in the audience appreciating the work. Believe me, I do.

If you find out anything, let me know. I saw her this evening on Have Gun, Will Travel as a missionary who tries to get a town to put away their guns and almost gets Paladin. Very pretty and very convincing. I hope she sees this if she's still alive and sees no performer is truly "unknown".

Goddess, I was talking about Two Rode Together and how prevalent the practice of Indians kidnapping whites really was. Was this rare or just something we think happened a lot because there are so many frontier movies that it seems that way? Since this is the basis of the film, if it?s an overstatement of fact, I want to be aware of that when I see it again. I have seen The Tall T and Boone?s is more intriguing a character than Scott?s. I keep thinking about what the judge who sentenced Ted Bundy said about how much he could have contributed to society but choose to go the other way. The Boone character was the same but when he kills the father and son, I agree he crosses the line and justice outweighs mercy. I think the woman came out of it stronger and saw herself as more than just plain. Perhaps she found the courage to stand up to her father who seemed not to appreciate her any more than the husband who only wanted her money. I don't know if she had a future with Scott's character but at least she knew one man respected her and wasn't out to exploit her. I have a new appreciation for this movie thanks to all of you which is why I keep on the boards. The grumps might make me bristle but they won?t drive me away. Edited by: wouldbestar on Aug 10, 2010 11:35 PM

Bronxgirl and MissGoddess: There is a separate thread for this movie in the forum and after I saw it posted my thoughts and asked some questions about how realistic the theme of the movie was on it. Somebody replied that it was just a movie, not a documentary or something like that. Okay, but I thought it was an honest question which might change my opinion of the film. If you saw a film with Hitler a positive person would you watch no matter how good the acting and production values were? That?s my point? I want to know if this is another movie stereotype that needs to be called out as such. I liked the movie but value accuracy more.

Fort Bowie will be on Encore Westerns Friday at 3:30PM and 1:00AM Saturday. Will get a least one of them in. This is why I just got a 32 inch HDTV and home theater system. This week-end has been just been great! Gunfight at the OK Corral looked almost 3-D and was so lifelike I thought I was along for the ride. I might be late to the party but it's my new crown jewel.

She was very honest about mistakes she made in her life and her regrets over them. I don't believe, as others in my family did, that her misfortunes were paybacks for the errors. I think she was a woman of rare courage who showed us what can be overcome with faith and determination. I loved her work, even in strange films like The Fountainhead, and of course in HUD. He was fool to let her get away. Thank you, gracious lady, and RIP.

I did. In fact I appreciated it more since I read that some missionary groups objected to it back when it came out. Yes, Rachel broke the rules and there were consequences but in the end she didn't try to let two wrongs make a right and that is what makes the movie so good. It's not God or the natives she needs forgiveness from but herself which she is finally able to do. The theology is totally Christian and the story proves the adage that were are not perfect, just forgiven. I wonder if it would be made so honestly today if at all. It was ahead of it's time in showing Rachel as choosing to be a single mother. Great acting all around, too.

Okay, I?m glad I tuned in. I liked it even though I ended up feeling that the real ?Savages? were in my camp and not the Indians?. Arrogance seems to be more brutal than blood at times. First, the premise. Just how often were white people, adults or children, taken by them? This was a set up in ?Easterns? as well as in 1960?s The Light in the Forest which was the colonial US in the 1700?s. It seemed to be widespread in this story; what is the truth? In most of the stories, as in this one, some of the captives did not want to leave the tribes. The old woman, Mrs. Clegg, knew how she would be received-or undeceived-and stayed to spare herself and her family. Others were too young to remember any other way of life or were bonded to spouses and children. Yet, the pompous whites held that they belonged back with them once they were the ?captives ?would agree. Certainly, nobody sane would choose to remain with such uncouth-to them, anyway-people. The casting was interesting. You would have thought Widmark would have played the cynical, opportunistic Marshall and Stewart the compassionate soldier. Going against type kept you wondering how the plot was going to go. Stewart?s drunken tirade to Shirley Jones? Marty might have been too hard to take from somebody else even if it was true. Of course he redeemed himself when he defended Elena to those stuffy women after she did such a great job but couldn?t finish. Another question: Did that right of passage for Comanche boys-being hung up by iron spikes-accurate? Again, it?s long been a part of Western stories but is it true? Finding out the boy was her brother was a bitter ending but real. Lastly, who played Belle? She reminded me of Julie London but I know it wasn?t. I was cheering when the now ex-Marshall told her off and left with Elena. That?s the James Stewart we love. Once again, if this was one of John Ford?s worst, he qualifies as the best director of all time. I?ll watch it again. If anybody is up at 5:30 this morning, Encore Westerns is showing Drumbeat from 1954 with Alan Ladd, Audrey Dalton, and Charles Buchinsky/Bronson. There are good and bad whites as well as good and bad Indians. At least that?s how I remember them; others might think differently. With Rachael Cade on at 1:00 I am obviously not getting any sleep tonight. This Woody Strode day idea was great. He was one of a kind. Thanks, TCM!

Well, it's on at 6:30 tonight so I'll finally get to see it all and make up my own mind about it. I've read all the comments about it and am looking forward to seeing with whom I agree. I just can't believe that Stewart and Widmark won't make it worth watching. If I remember rightly, Linda Cristal is also in it and she was great in High Chaparral. You know I'll let you all know what I think later.

It?s about time he got some recognition! He was so good in everything he did, regardless of the role. I?m glad he finally got to show his comedic side on Laredo as fellow bad guys Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Claude Akins were able to do on their shows. And of course Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou. Isn?t it ironic that these men, so known on screen for villainy, were so funny too when it warrented. Thanks to you and Fred for the military information; it?s always great to learn the actors we love loved this country enough to fight for it.

Well, I watched He Rides Tall. I don?t know what it cost Gordon Kay to make but except for a few things, he-and we-got our money?s worth. What a mostly pleasant surprise. I can almost forgive it for being b&w rather than color. The story was different and mostly engrossing. I especially liked that they chose to make the doctor a Black man and he was played as courageous, compassionate, and intelligent. Why then, did they royally muck it up with that ridiculous ?Indian? scene with Katie?s scalping? Sure she deserved a dastardly ending but for the NA?s to want her just to scalp was the most incredulous bit of stereotyping I?ve ever seen. It came close to totally ruining a really good movie. Maybe it did and wasn?t brave enough to turn it off. The actors were pretty good. Any time you get to see R. G. Armstrong work his magic is a good thing. His voice was made for Westerns and only Ben Johnson does it better. Both men can make the phone book sound like a Nobel winner. And was that really Myron Healy playing a lawman? I didn?t think after all those years on the other side of the law that he knew how. The only other time I can think of he did that was as Rooster?s deputy in True Grit. They didn?t let him live through the movie so maybe everybody else had trouble believing it too. I kept hoping that Ellie-Madlyn Rhue-, since she seemed to own the saloon, would do a Kitty Russell and stand up to those rowdies more than she did. Yes, she shot Onie but that was late in the game. Again, the story showed that friends and family of law officers have always had to accept that being killed in action is part of the deal if you chose to be one. We lost two patrolmen here last month that way. The confrontation with Rocklin in his office crackled; weren?t Tony Young and she married for a time? Dan Duryea was his usual villainous self, a mixture of likeability and loathing. He was so good at this and made his films so watchable. To think he was his sons? Boy Scout troop leader, don?t tell me he couldn?t act. Lastly, I don?t think Tony Young was all that unbelievable. The critics usually blasted him as all face and no talent. Warners didn?t give him much of a chance just using him and Michael Forest in Indian roles in their TV Westerns and his series, Gunslinger, was not Gunsmoke or Rawhide, all made by the same people. I saw him in some TV movies into the 70?s then he just faded away. I would recommend the movie with a spoiler alert about the scalping scene. Maybe the NA?s in Film thread has made me overly critical but were I one in any part I would be, too. I?m a Catholic and all the misconceptions about my faith I remember from The Miracle make me cringe.

Did you get to see Gunfight the OK Corral this afternoon? It gets my vote for best Western ever. Leon "Exodus" Uris script, John Sturges directing, Frankie Laine singing Dimitri Tiomkin, Hopper, Bettger, Van Cleef and Kelley backing up Burt and Kirk, ladies with acting chops, beautiful costumes and color-it has it all. I will respect all you Clementine fans who think I'm full of it; I like it too but I stand by my version.

Jack, I just got out of the shower and now, thanks to you, I need a cold one. It's already hot down here, now in here it's up ten degrees. Thank you anyway from somebody born too late.