AndyM108
-
Posts
4,255 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
18
Posts posted by AndyM108
-
-
Unless you excluded "So Bad It's Good" ( Reefer Madness, Ed Wood) or "The Emperor Has No Clothes, but he's still the Emperor" ( The Jazz Singer ) from the "stinkeroo" category, I doubt if we could ever come up with any real consensus of a top 10 Stinkeroo list.
I'm sure we can all compile lists of our own, but I'm sure that every one of them would meet with at least a few objections. I've even heard there are still a few surviving fans of The Jazz Singer.
-
I just watched Easy Living again for the first time in about five years, and it just solidified my opinion that this is one of the top half dozen screwball comedies. I'd almost forgotten how great Luis Alberni was as the financially challenged hotel owner "Louis Louis", but that's one advantage of having less than a perfect memory for plots.
-
Another one of my favorite Jean Arthur films is Billy Wilder's "Foreign Affair" with the great Marlene Dietrich. Why this classic is not on DVD here is a shame. An over looked beautiful piece of film making...
Totally agree, but that movie shows up at least once or twice a year on TCM, so just look for it and get your recorder ready. And don't overlook Millard Mitchell's sardonic performance as Arthur's tour guide amidst the postwar ruins of Berlin.
-
You must've been going over his filmography around the same time I was. He made 90 sound films and he is fifth billed or higher in just about every one.
One of my all-time favorite pre-codes is Three on a Match, and in that one Arnold's billing is only 11th on TCM's overview page, in spite of the fact that he's the mob kingpin who's insistence on a debt repayment is what drives Ann Dvorak's lover Lyle Talbot to his ultimate ruin. You'd think that a mob boss known as "Ace" would rate a bit more respect, but no such luck for Arnold.
But it wasn't as if Arnold didn't have some pretty stiff billing competition in that 63 minute programmer, given that the names above him included Bette Davis, Ann Dvorak, Joan Blondell, Warren William, Lyle Talbot, Humphrey Bogart and Allen Jenkins. And then below him was Frankie Darro. Has any regular movie of that abbreviated length ever featured such an all-star lineup? I can't think of any.
-
Just curious. In what % of Arnold's roles did he play either a powerful politician or businessman? Probably most of them.
In fact Edward Arnold was one of Hollywood's great character actors, limited in his roles only be his age and corpulence. He was hardly restricted to playing politicians or tycoons.
In Three on a Match, Arnold plays a mobster called "Ace".
In The Devil and Daniel Webster, he's Webster's defense lawyer, trying to void Webster's pact with Old Scratch (Walter Huston).
In The Hucksters, he plays a Hollywood agent.
In The Mighty McGurk, he plays a shady saloon owner.
In The Glass Key, he plays a reform-minded gangster.
In Wednesday's Child, he plays a cuckold.
In The White Sister, he plays a priest. (Not bad for a dude whose career began in the Yiddish theater.)
In Hide-Out, he plays a police lieutenant.
In Miami Expose, he plays a crooked lobbyist.
In City That Never Sleeps, he plays a corrupt criminal lawyer.
In Week-End at the Waldorf, he plays a promoter.
In Take Me Out To The Ball Game, he plays a bookie with an inclination to fix ball games.
And so on. You could easily fill a SUTS day with Arnold's movies without getting into repeats of old chestnuts like Mr. Smith and Meet John Doe, even though he's terrific in both of those films.
-
When I had a book shop, I kept it open 362 days a year, closing only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's day. I couldn't imagine asking anyone to work those three days if I wasn't inclined to do it myself. I would have been a poor businessman if my profit margin had been dependent on three days out of 365.
The question of holiday openings is just an extension of the issue of Sunday Blue Laws, which have gone as extinct as the dodo over the past 50 years. I wasn't thrilled about opening on Sundays, either, even though I haven't attended any formal religious service since I was about 4 years old.
But this would have been my idea of a Grand Bargain: Since my Sunday sales accounted for about 20% of my weekly total, if the landlord had cut my rent by 20%, I would have been glad to close on that day. But if I didn't get any income on Sundays, why should he?
I'm sure that many small business owners would be glad to make such a tradeoff, if only their landlords would cooperate.
-
(Removed because link didn't connect.)
-
After many months of waiting, my pre-ordered copy of Victoria Wilson's first volume of her Barbara Stanwyck biography just arrived today. Sure hope it's as good as the hype, as when it's completed it promises to be the fattest movie star bio since the massive Zigman and Morgan two volume critical filmography on Jean Gabin.
-
Late to this thread, but if I had to pick my absolutely favorite Ryan movies, they'd probably be The Racket, The Naked Spur, and House of Bamboo. But then I can't remember a single film of his where he didn't excel. I can't think of any actor I admire more for his willingness to take on the sort of unglamorous, non-romantic roles that he could have almost certainly avoided with his chiseled good looks.
-
Aaauugggh! I forgot to record The Pitfall!
I wouldn't worry too much. It's now played twice in the past 10 weeks, and I'll bet it'll show up again before too long. This doesn't seem like one of those one shot wonders.
-
After over four years plus of patiently waiting for the "real" Easy Living to show up on TCM, and after about a dozen false alarms with that mediocre 1949 Victor Mature movie of the same name, I see we're FINALLY getting the real deal at 11:45 tonight. Everyone get out their DVRs and DVD recorders, because this is one you don't want to miss.
If anyone has never seen the film in question, I'll say up front that it's right up there with Bombshell, Libeled Lady, His Girl Friday and The Lady Eve as among the greatest screwball comedies ever. The opening scene with Edward Arnold and his wife (Mary Nash) sets the stage for the entire film, and it never lets up for a minute, with Jean Arthur at her absolute best as the lucky recipient of a surprise present from above. And for those who aren't too young to remember one of midcentury America's great communal institutions, the famous "riot in the Automat" scene will bring back many pleasant memories, although not of broken dishes.
-
I love Lizabeth Scott, but if TCM had substituted Too Late For Tears and I Walk Alone for Easy Living and The Company She Keeps, we would have seen the great majority of her best movies today in barely over 11 hours. With only 22 movies in her entire repertory, you'd almost have to be able to show all of them in order to fill out a month.
-
*And movieman, what dramas are you thinking about? I do seem to recall a few of them like Blackboard Jungle starting out with a song, but other than those godawful widescreen spectaculars I can't think of a lot of others.*
My first thought was High School Confidential (assuming you believe it's not a comedy), which has Jerry Lee Lewis singing the opening theme on the back of a flatbed truck as the students come to the high school which doesn't look anything like a high school.
At the time of High School Confidential * Jerry Lee Lewis was married to his 13 year old cousin, so at least there's a certain amount of credibility to that high school scene.
Added thought: They weren't quite as irritating as those godawfully sappy 1950's Westerns introductions, but you had to wonder just how many WW2 movies got introduced by either a standard American patriotic song, or "La Marseillaise," or "The Volga Boat Song." Or for that matter, how 90% of the baseball movies began with "Take Me Out To The Ball Game". Musical originality in the opening credits wasn't exactly a strong point in the late studio era.
*Which in terms of category I'd put in "Reefer Madness Lite"
-
Did anyone here ever marry someone thinking that he/she reminded them very much of a famous movie star, and how did that marriage turn out?
I often call my wife "Gigi", because at 54 she's still got a lot of the gamine in her. But when we first met, she used to say that other women (never men) sometimes told her she looked like Isabella Rossellini. I didn't believe it at first, but then a woman running the checkout counter at Air France told her that to her face while I was right there. Hearing was believing.
-
I don't know what others may feel, but to me My Name Is Julia Ross was somewhat of a letdown, considering the buildup. The plot was thin, the acting was nothing special, and the ending was almost as predictable as that of the 300th episode of The Lone Ranger. Bob said something like it was a B movie that seemed like an A movie, but I've seen many scores of B movies with twice as much pizzazz as this one.
-
A face, body, motion, and speech, all cast in stone. shows no emotion what so ever. He has fooled most of the people most of the time but not all of the people all of the time.
That comes a lot closer to describing Gregory Peck or John Wayne than Burt Lancaster, though even those two had their moments.
-
Yeah, I guess I should've made it clear that both Joe and I would put Sophia Loren well into the non-Rubenesque category. Not a gamine, but not exactly Liz Taylor of Virginia Woolf vintage.
-
Solid point. I think it is a fair assumption that anyone that was in a good marriage (again, based on what we can tell) for a long time was flexible and willing to compromise and that they would make a good partner.
But just being married for a long time doesn't count. Spencer Tracy was married for a long time but based on what I have read he was a pain in the rear.
Yeah, but as far as I know, neither Woodward nor Judy Davis were Catholics who were raised in the Spencer Tracy or Bing Crosby School of Sham Marriage. I'd like to think that their marriages were on a slightly more solid footing.
-
I have a long list of actors who I would love to have shared a fling:
Steve McQueen
Sean Connery
Fredric March
Robert Montgomery
David Niven
and many, many others.
SansFin, maybe you should switch your handle to "Anytime Annie". The one of whom George E. Stone said in 42nd Street, "The only time she ever said no, she didn't hear the question."
-
So you think Barbara was a black widow spider in real life? (LOL)
Well, in baseball terms she was 0 for 2. And anyway, I doubt I'd want to be married to anyone who actually took Ayn Rand for a serious philosopher.
-
As for me? Well this thread really is just another ?who is the best looking one?, since none of us know what it really would be like to be married to any of these stars.
True, but the reason I'd named Joanne Woodward and Judy Davis is in part because both of those women had (or have) a long-running first marriage without any need for a do-over. So at least there's that to go on. If Barbara Stanwyck's real life persona had matched some of her less black widow spiderish screen roles, I might have gone for her instead, but that didn't seem to be the case.
-
As I mentioned before Johnny Mathis singing A Certain Smile is lovely, and whether anyone feels it's hokey or not I LOVE Thee I Love from Wyler's Friendly Persuasion just a touching, beautiful song that also fits this film perfectly.
As I remember both of those songs with a certain amount of fondness from the days of AM radiio, I'm kind of glad I never heard them in the context of a movie I probably wouldn't like for other reasons.
-
And don't forget, most movies teach us that the best way for a driver of a car to get into the car is from the passenger's side, and then he slides over to the driver's side.
Which actually made a lot of sense before bucket seats in the front became universal. The driver didn't have to be standing in traffic to get into his seat.
-
I remember liking some of Frankie Laine's songs BITD, "Moonlight Gambler" in particular. But IMO the movies in the 40's got it right when they wanted to introduce music: They simply showed a singer performing in a night club. Totally believable in a real world context, and not in the least bit annoying. For me Westerns and music just don't mix.
Edward Arnold and the two JOHNNYs
in General Discussions
Posted
If you just try to list the top character actors of the '30s and '40s, Arnold should certainly be well in the top ten.
I'd be hard pressed to think of a better one, at least if versatility was considered a necessity. There were a lot of great one-note role players, but Arnold could handle pretty much everything other than romantic leads, swashbucklers or athletes. He had a solidity of character that made you remember him in whatever role he played, serious or comic, hero or villain.