wouldbestar
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Posts posted by wouldbestar
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{font:Times New Roman}:_| Those of you think *Heaven’s Gate* is the worst Western ever made have never sat through a mess called *The Master Gunfighter* from the 70’s. Picture Spanish-American aristocrats fighting like Japanese Samurai in 1800s California, if you can, and you get an idea of how muddled this is. {font}
{font:Times New Roman}The hero is a “man of peace” yet is also a hired gun with guilt issues over a massacre of Native Americans organized by his in-laws that he briefly participated in then ran away from rather than betray his wife’s family. He comes back when he learns it will happen again and this time his conscience won’t let him ignore it as he knows it’s all about getting “Indian” gold to use to save their estate. This part might have made a good film in better hands and without the Asian subplot. It’s also a slam at the U.S. cattle industry and the missions, in fact pretty much all authority some of which doesn't jibe with history. {font}
{font:Times New Roman}The best part of the film is Lalo Schifrin’s score. The “actors”-Tom Laughlin and Ron O’Neal-should have had their SAG cards called in for this. Avoid it like the plague unless you have two hours of time to kill; that’s what it will do. {font}
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Regarding: Chad Everett:
Thank you, Mongo, for another example of an actor looking more handsome with age. Richard Gere looks better with grey hair than he ever did with it dark and at 67 Tom Selleck still has his appeal. If only our culture showed the same appreciation for women that age. I've chosen honesty and decided to send Clairol packing, letting my hair grow out naturally.
RIP to a good actor, movies and TV.
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> {quote:title=kriegerg69 wrote:}{quote}Chad Everett has died at age 76.
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> Also, Sherman Hemsley (The Jeffersons) at age 74.
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> Simon Ward at age 70.
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Add Frank Pierson to this sad list. The final TCM Remembers list is going to be very long this year.
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Turn on the History Channel. They have a 2-hour documentary on *The Godfather* and its impact on our culture. Ten minutes in it's pretty interesting. They're rerunning it at 1:00AM.
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I saw that oil derrick and these song lyrics from an appropriate movie came to mind:
This land is Texas
Lone Star State of Texas
This is the giant land I love
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*Come to the Stable,* for which she was Oscar-nominated, will be on Wednesday night. I've not seen it since I was a teen and really want to again. It's a great mix of comedy and drama and I remember liking it a lot but being Catholic I might be biased. Isn't it uncanny that it's being on so soon after she died but was scheduled way before that?
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I was beginning to think the thread was out of business. What a comeback.
Austin looks like a great little city. Now I have places for my sister to take me if I ever get out there besides the State House she helped renovate a few years back. Thank you, Jake.
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Hank Worden became one of my favorite members of the Ford/Wayne stock company before I knew his name. What a delightful photo. I always figured that he was smarter than the often slow-witted but loyal characters he played Thank you.
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{font:Times New Roman}And what was last night's “Essential?” {font}
{font:Times New Roman}The introduction was done way before that and this thread only began Thursday so they did not have our comments to draw on. All of the major cast members were mentioned but Dolores Moran so perhaps those of you who do not find her talented or of no particular appeal are not far off. {font}
{font:Times New Roman}Since I spoke up in her defense I paid attention to her time on screen. I still think she was capable as the patriot’s wife and with her sultry voice and face find it hard to believe she was only a teen-ager. In those costumes she looked more slender than Lauren “Slim” Bacall and a good deal taller-and Bacall is not a “junior petite”. Plenty of other women might have been just as good but she registered with me. I wish she were still around to see that even her brief career was worthy of discussion. {font}
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Thank you, Sue. I'll be waiting to read this. I wasn't a particular fan of his but might find that like George Clooney I like him better as a person than performer.
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{font:Calibri}From *The Magnificent Seven:* Bernardo O’Reilly (Charles Bronson) and the village boys {font}
{font:Calibri}“Our fathers are—cowards”{font}
{font:Calibri}“Your fathers are not cowards. Do you think I’m brave because I carry a gun? Your fathers are brave because they carry responsibility for you, your sisters, and your mothers. It’s a rock that weights a ton and twists them into the ground. No one makes them do this; they do it because they love you. They farm the land knowing nothing may come of it but they do it. This is real bravery. I’ve never had it and never will. “ {font}
{font:Calibri}I think of this every Fathers’ Day.{font}
{font:Calibri} {font}
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I was thinking about *December Bride* after seeing Frances Rafferty on a *Perry Mason* episode this week and remembering how funny it was. The cast-Ms. Felton, Ms. Rafferty, Spring Byington and Harry Morgan-was totally unknown to me then but not afterwards. Enjoyed the photo.
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{font:Times New Roman}This is one of my favorite classic films because Lauren/Slim is not a wallflower but gets right down into the middle of the action. She gets the guy, too. {font}
{font:Times New Roman}I am also quite aware of Dolores Moran when she’s on screen. Her character is honest about her failings, overcomes her fears to be with her husband because she understands it’s best for him, and devoted to their cause enough to rather Steve or the ocean have her jewels than the Nazis. You see she is a lot more than just a spoiled brat.{font}
{font:Times New Roman}In that TomJH photo, she looks more like Virginia Mayo that Lauren Bacall. I can’t believe she was only 18 at this time.{font}
{font:Times New Roman}If I read the posts right the original plot was a quadrangle with Slim and the married woman battling over Steve while the husband remains unknowing. Add some lions and tigers and you had “Red Dust/Mogombo of the Caribbean.” I like it the way it came out.{font}
{font:Times New Roman}The real story is a cautionary one that was played out thousands of times over the years. I’d be curious as to how many actresses had any kind of successful careers due to “couch casting”. Very few, I imagine. For all his efforts Hawks doesn’t seem to have “scored” with as many women as he wished to which I applaud my fellow women who said no. {font}
{font:Times New Roman}This is a different, informative and interesting thread. Thank you, Tom {font}
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Did anybody catch our Bill Hader 's getting an Emmy nomination today for SNL? The man must be doing something right!
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{font:Times New Roman}Every time I see this movie I wonder if I’m the only one who thinks of Arthur Godfrey. If you put all the times it’s been on this year I don’t think it would equal a week’s worth of Godfrey’s air time. {font}
{font:Times New Roman}Like Lonesome, he was all over the radio and TV dials day and prime time as a talk and talent show host, advertising pitchman, and commentator. He believed only certain people should be allowed to have children; of course he saw himself in the group that should. While several entertainers became successful through him, his treatment of them and insistence in interfering in their personal lives became infamous. Singer Julius La Rosa was fired on the air. He was also a master of the double entendre and could outleer Benny Hill. He finally went too far and fell as fast as he’d risen. Today he’s largely forgotten except for a road in South Florida named for him and that movie with Doris Day. .
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Unlike Godfrey, I never tire of this movie. It’s an accurate picture of Southern rural life at that time and it amazes me that somebody what was coming and it still happened. A real cautionary tale
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{font:Times New Roman}{color:black}There have been many versions of the Bible like this recently where they put the KJV alongside of the RSV and a couple of newer translations. You can compare them and get understanding of something you didn’t before or see if the newer ones have gone afield of the older and if you agree. {font}
{color:black}{font:Times New Roman}I actually like having this version next to the original. This would be good for students who might have trouble understanding Elizabethan English-which might be a lot of us. The modern wording is still lyrical and true to the story but clearer in current meaning without becoming slang. Cliff notes they are not. {font}
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Okay, tell me I'm not the only one who saw that photo of Hume Cronyn and first thought it was Warren Beatty. This is not the old man I'm so used to seeing on screen. Another Mongo surprise.
Thank you for the information on Joan Evans. I remember the flack her marriage and retirement caused and was delighted to learn she did the right thing for her.
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> {quote:title=TopBilled wrote:}{quote}A FREE SOUL is on. I love this movie.
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> I also like the remake that MGM did twenty years later, THE GIRL WHO HAD EVERYTHING.
{font:Times New Roman}Thank you, TopBilled. I’ll have to watch for this one.{font}
{font:Times New Roman}What a night! I started watching to appreciate Mr. Howard more and got Norma Shearer in a triple treat. Great deal on both fronts.{font}
{font:Times New Roman}Yes, nearly all the major actors in *Romeo & Juliet* were at least 20 years too old for their parts and Norma’s hair was 500 years too modern for the era but it still was a fine movie version of the story. If you forgot that the couple and their friends were supposed to be teens you could stretch credibility. {font}
{font:Times New Roman}*A Free Soul* was just as engrossing this time as when I first saw it. Here everybody could pretty much act their age or close to it. The real star of the movie is that white gown Norma wears in the beginning. How can you look naked and covered at the same time? The way it was cut, especially that diamond-shaped piece in front, no underwear and the material just this side of transparent was the definition of “pre-code” in motion. This must have been made after *The Divorcee* as there’s no way her husband could have seen this and not though she wasn’t sexy enough for that role. Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo *never* topped this. {font}
{font:Times New Roman}Smilin’ Through was schmaltzy but good. Again, everybody fit their parts and I even liked Fredrick March, which is unusual for me. {font}
{font:Times New Roman}Mr. Howard was great in all three of his roles and I doubt anyone else in his situation could have done as well as he did as Romeo. He was not a he-man type and the gentle, upper-crust or English drawing room folks seem to be where he best fit but he made you believe his characters. These are the guys we women often reject for the macho types and live to regret it. They have strength and character which they’re too busy living out to be shouting it out. So far, Mr. Howard seems to be speaking for these gentlemen quite eloquently.
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I’m wondering what the rest of his movies this month will show. This man deserves his SOTM.
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From *Mary, Queen of Scots:* Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I to Vanessa Redgrave as Mary Stuart who is awaiting execution
"Madam, if your head had matched your heart, I would be the one awaiting death".
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{font:Times New Roman}I seem to remember stating I have used Warner Archives and found it very good for the most part. One film was not that great but as it was low budget, not well-known and hard to find to begin with so I couldn’t complain. The rest were just fine. I will go back again and unless I get burned as some of you seem to have been keep it up.{font}
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> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote}I wish you hadn't given away the plot like that. I might still have a chance to see it.
I just told you about Peter O'Toole's part. There's a lot more to see. Andy Garcia, Eva Longoria, Ruben Blades and Bruce Greenwood are also in the cast as well as Latino actors probably known to them and, hopefully, now to us. "Put on a happy face"
and go see the whole thing. -
It took five minutes of intense study but I finally believed that really was Barbara Stanwyck's photo. I've never seen her that glamorous and sultry before; she was beautiful. Ginger Rogers also looked more glamorous that "girl next door". Your pics so often bring out different aspects of the performers.
So many actors you've highlighted have died young with William Bishop being the latest. Although he will probably always be best remembered as a villain, I've seen him in many "good guy" roles lately and he was convincing in those as well.
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Regarding: Phil Carey
There's also that *All in the Family* episode where "Archie" blasts gay people then finds out that his macho football player hero is gay-that was Phil Carey. I understand he got some flack for taking the role. Evidently he had a sense of humor-witness his role in *Laredo-* and saw the opportunities in work like this. He probably got seen by more people as "Asa" on *OLTL* than anything else he did. He had a full and varied career which put him ahead of a lot of "Stars".
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Another face to put together with a name-Mervyn Vye. I wish I'd been able to do it earlier as we was in a lot of WB TV shows but I never could put the actor with his name. Thanks!
and go see the whole thing.
Western Movie Rambles
in Westerns
Posted
> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}Oh dear, it sounds awful! But then, all you had to say was 'Tom Laughlin' to send me running for the hills....
I know what you mean. The strange thing is that he has a nice role in *South Pacific* and he's very good in that.
The hills are a good place to run as most of this movie took place on the California coast rather than the haciendas, another strange thing. You couldn't tell if it was Baja or the U.S. side or the time frame. Barbara Carrera's costumes looked about 1840 or 50 but I don't think the big American cattle ranches came until later on. The narration didn't say when it was supposed to have happened, just that is was based on some legend. That's what I meant about muddled; you couldn't get a handle on anything. They just threw a bunch of cliches and new wrinkles together and slammed the hash that came out on the screen. At least Michael Cimino got a few things right.