AndyM108
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Posts posted by AndyM108
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skimperpep, if you stick around here long enough you'll see that for the "major" stars, the number of repeats are almost directly proportional to the length of a star's career and the number of entries in his or her filmography. With over 80 features to her name, in which she was the lead or co-lead in the great majority of them, it's inevitable that she's going to get more showtimes here than Carole Lombard or Marilyn Monroe. That's just mathematics.
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If Cary Grant ever made a Western, I don't even want to think about it.
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Many posters, not necssarily Andy, have defined "classic" movies as high-quality movies on any era. The definition would appear to rule out "schlock" from the '30s. So TCM should not show '30s films unless they are "high-quality". I think many posters would object to that strategy.
Just to be clear, while I'm glad that TCM shows "classic" movies from every era, I'm also glad that they show plenty of programmers from the 20's through the 50's, especially those from the pre-code era and the noir genre. IMO those two categories, especially the noirs, pretty much qualify as "classic" even when they fall short of "classic" in the ordinary sense.
There's also this: Part of what makes TCM so great is that the movies prior to the 60's, "classic" or not, often give us a tremendous insight into the values, mores, and language of those decades, even given the fantasy worlds that so many of those films depict. In fact I'd argue that if you immerse yourself in the movies of (say) the 30's from all the studios and with all their different marketing angles, you'd have a much better overall sense of life in that decade than you'd get from almost any history course.
(Well, at least we get an overall sense of life within the various white communities. Let's not take it too far.)
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The scene in which Taylor Holmes, as crusty millionaire cynic Ezra Grindle breaks down in his garden, pleading for forgiveness from God and what he believes is the spirit of his long lost love ("What right do I have to ask for mercy when I've never shown mercy to anyone?" he cries) has never failed to touch me. It's a wonderful great moment of acting.
I agree, and what makes it even better for me is that I always associate Taylor Holmes with the slimiest characters imaginable. To name but two outstanding examples, the shyster mob lawyer in Kiss of Death, and as the murderous (and aptly named) Corpus P. Mills in Double Deal. I know he's played somewhat nobler characters in other films, but those are the two roles of his (other than Nightmare Alley ) that have always stayed with me.
And, of course, sharing this scene with him is the marvelous Helen Walker, the one character in the film who has outwitted him. Her cold blooded dismantling of his wavering confidence is chilling to behold. The con artist has been conned.
Indeed, and I think that Walker's overall performance is every bit as good as Power's, which is saying a lot.
It's that moment when you hear the siren of the police car approaching, Walker smoothly saying "What siren?" and a shaken Power now looks like he is starting to question his own mind, that you know this poor guy is a goner.
Exactly, even though the actual scene is a bit ambiguous. Is Power imagining the sirens, or are the sirens real, and he's just imagining that they're out looking for him? Either way, it's a sublime moment.
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Is it my imagination, or hasn't virtually EVERYONE who has responded to MissW's thread stated that they liked Nightmare Alley? There haven't been any dissenters, which is a bit unusual. Then any, this extremely well crafted and provocative study of the dark side human nature, involving carny acts and fake spiritualism, among other things, is truly a fascinating film, so the approval rating that it is receiving is, to me, something that the picture fully deserves.
The only people I can imagine *not* liking Nightmare Alley would be either those who wanted Power to stick to his usual swashbuckler roles, or those who simply don't like "dark" movies to begin with. Evidently there must have been a lot of people like that in 1947, given the way the movie sunk at the box office like a lead balloon.
But other than that, what's not to like? There were plenty of familiar names in the credits, the acting was great from A to Z, there was the carny angle, the grifter angle, the phony spiritualism, the phony shrink angle, the perfectly played femme fatale who registered 100 on the Evil Scale, the hobo camp scene, a bit of romance**, a change of pace role for Taylor Holmes, and an ending that almost (until the last minute rescue) approached the ghoulish level of Freaks. Even the often erratic Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 100% approval rating.
**You're right that there wasn't much of that involving Power and Walker, since those scenes were pretty much all motivated by money, not love. But I have to think there was a bit of personal attachment implicit in his decision to trust her with the money, even if it was a delusion.
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I was lucky enough to catch "Sudden Fear" on youtube a few months ago. The performances of Crawford, Palance, and Grahame are so good, I watched it 3 days in a row! I wanted to post the link, but I just checked youtube, and it appears that it has been removed.................
I've probably seen close to 50 Crawford movies by now, and other than Mildred Pierce and (possibly) Flamingo Road and The Damned Don't Cry, Sudden Fear may be her best film. Geminigirl is absolutely right to also note the fine performances of Palance and Grahame, and the way that Crawford schemed to foil Palance's plot against her made for one of the more satisfying endings to a noir I can think of.
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I was talking about Nightmare Alley last night with a longtime friend who's lived his entire life in the underground scene: Dope, pool hustling, poker, sports betting, etc., all peppered with con artists and grifters of various varieties. (He's now out of the drug scene, and he's extremely self-observant and honest about the life he's led.)
He liked the movie, but he made two related points that reinforced one suspicion I'd also had about the plot, the part involving the cash in the envelope.
Point #1: Nobody my friend had ever known, given the paranoid and suspicious nature of the people he'd known who engage in such con games, would *ever* have handed over the money to anyone else for "safekeeping", as Power did to Walker.
Point #2: When Walker handed over the envelope to Power, and Power began to open it, but was nervously told by Walker not to do so, that should have (and would have, in real life) immediately set off a five alarm fire of suspicion on Power's part. For Power to have been so credulous at that point, when his entire future was at stake, simply didn't pass the smell test for my friend.
The counterpoint to that was Power's romantic attachment to Walker: Love is blind, etc. Not to mention that it was absolutely necessary for the plot to continue as it did. Under my friend's real life scenario, the movie would have ended with Power tearing open the envelope on the spot, and then likely strangling Walker to death in a blind rage once he discovered nothing but $1.00 bills. It might have been more realistic, but it wouldn't have been as good a movie.
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It's sad that the point has to be made so repeatedly, but "Classic" movies can come from *any* era. TCM concentrates mostly on older movies for many reasons, but thank God it doesn't limit its mission to nothing but movies from the 30's through the 50's.
Great movies didn't begin with the sound era, they're not restricted to the Hollywood studio system, and they didn't stop being made on New Year's Day of 1960. TCM has done a *great* job in presenting a wide range of films from the 1890's through the 2010's that otherwise we'd have to go to New York or Los Angeles or various specialized film festivals to see, and it saddens me that so many people can't seem to appreciate that, due to their own narrowcast vision.
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So i guess I should just buy a case of Pepsi, sit down on the couch, and watch.
288 full ounces, that's a lot!
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I guess I see that "happy" ending in Nightmare Alley in relative terms. By the standards of the hundreds upon hundreds of phony happy endings and other plot impossibilities that I've endured in so many other Hollywood movies, this one barely registers on the radar, even with that reunion just prior to the fadeout.
How did the novel deal with the ending? Does Molly simply not show up at the carnival, leaving Stan to a future of rotgut gin and live chickens? And before Molly's "rescue", how long had Stan been a geek? In the movie that's left to the viewer's imagination, and given Stan's apparent quick recovery into sanity once Molly shows up, my take was that it'd only been a relatively short time, which made the ending at least marginally plausible.
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This is hardly an exploration of new vistas. How many times has Crawford been SOTM?
This'll be the third time, which will make her even with Garbo, Stanwyck, Doris Day and Greer Garson. Only Stanwyck among those had a film resume remotely comparable to Crawford's. Given the length and breadth of Crawford's career, three SOTM tributes in 20 years, the last prior to this one in 2002, isn't what I'd call excessive.
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Lord, am I glad that TCM is finally showing Nightmare Alley after all these years. I've always put it up there in the upper pantheon of noirs alongside The Killers, Out of the Past, and Rififi. This movie is so great that even though I've seen it several times already, I'm even considering skipping the major part of the Tigers - Red Sox game tonight in order to watch it again.
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The last time Crawford was SOTM was in August of 2002. There are plenty of her early movies on the schedule, more than a few likely TCM premieres, and other than Sudden Fear and Daisy Kenyon (both jealously guarded by Fox), nearly all of her best movies are on there. I'd rather have seen George Sanders or some other actor who's never gotten the honor, but if they're going to present one of the tried and true greats, Crawford seems about as good a choice as any. The mere fact that there are 64 selections speaks volumes about the length and scope of her illustrious career.
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Isn't it interesting that two former champs, Baer and Walcott, now both retired, would actively participate in a film that was an indictment of the sport in which they had gained their fame. Speaks volumes, doesn't it?
It's also interesting that Walcott later became the head of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission, which of course oversees boxing events. He remained in that office until the mandatory retirement age of 70, and lived until he was 80. At the time he won the heavyweight title he was the oldest fighter ever to gain the honor, but in his second title defense he ran into a brick wall named Marciano, who survived a first round knockdown and scored a 13th round KO in one of the greatest heavyweight championship bouts ever.
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I know U all heard me state my humble views before BUT aren't any of U a bit tired of seeing what Turner shows? Namely 100 yr old SILENT THINGS that really just do not compute...WHO HELL Is goint to sit & watch?
Lots of us. Deal with it.
That torture is a bit much. And also, they repeat too much as well, are they (the programmers) that incompetent? I suppose so!
If they have to show same films, well they ought to purchase some newer films. And that is why I hardly watch. Thankfully I've other stations.
Just don't let the door hit you where the dog should've bit you.
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Tom, if ever I needed an excuse to visit these forums, posts like the one you just made would be very high on the list. Great information and even better links.
And yes, I've also thought about the dynamic that was going on between Baer and Carnera during the filming of The Prizefighter and the Lady, which stands on its own as a terrific fight flick. Max Baer was quite a story in his own right, and it's too bad that the otherwise first rate Cinderella Man was spoiled by its unfair portrayal of him as a braggart and a thug. He was indeed brutal within the ring, but far from that once the fight was over.
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Don't get your hopes too high. I couldn't have imagined a movie with Edward Arnold and Peter Lorre sinking like a lead balloon, but somehow this one did. I'll watch it again because of my regard for the actors, but I'm not expecting much of a bump upward.
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Naturally, don't suppose Dangerous Mission with Victor Mature and Piper Laurie is scheduled either.
Look on the schedule. It's on tonight, mislabeled for some strange reason as a "musical".
*1:30 AM*
*C- 75 min*
*TV-G*
*musical*
*Dangerous Mission (1954)*
*A woman flees westward after witnessing a mob killing.*
*Dir: Louis King Cast: Victor Mature , Piper Laurie , William Bendix .*
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To Vincent Price's resume we might also note that for many years the "Treasury of Great Recipes" cookbook he wrote with his wife Mary was a perennial bestseller in that category. He also wrote books on art and architectural history, and in general seemed to be full of interest and curiosity about nearly every subject imaginable.
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Price is another one of those actors, like Duryea, whose personal life was far different from his screen personas. I believe all of them were, but Price was so far removed from how many people think of him from his film roles.
In that category, two who may stand out as much or even more than Price or Duryea would be Robert Ryan and Richard Widmark. Ryan once famously said that he'd lived his entire life fighting against the sort of characters he'd portrayed in his movies, and Widmark was every bit as exemplary.
Of course the opposite types are also legion, beginning with Bing Crosby and flying forth from there.
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What places Price into a nearly unique place among actors is his ability to play a wide range of villains. Not just the truly dark ones (Shock; The Bribe), but also the dark and slightly deranged (The Long Night), the raffish and charming (The Baron of Arizona), the not-quite-villainish but smarmy nevertheless (While The City Sleeps; Laura), the sort-of-hero who still isn't quite all there (His Kind of Woman) , and then of course all those roles in the horror genre, which he portrays on a level seldom achieved by anyone not equipped with about 30 pounds of makeup.
If I had to put my finger on the unifying force behind Price's appeal, it's the way he always seems to realize exactly how he appears to everyone else. He knows underneath his bluff that you're on to him, but he also knows that by the sheer power of his charm he can neutralize your self-protective instincts until it's too late. There isn't anyone quite like him, and I'm glad that he's finally being given a month long showcase.
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"Western noir" is a dubious category, but with that qualification, The Naked Spur would be my first choice for inclusion. Jimmy Stewart is at his conflicted best, and then of course you've got two of the greatest noir archtypes of all time in Robert Ryan and Ralph (Kiss Me Deadly) Meeker.
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Okay, here goes. It's a picture of me and my college sweetie.
Outstanding, and thanks for the simple and elegant suggestion.
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Can I interrupt for a technical question?
In this new "improved" website format, how does one post a picture?
Used to be easy: Copy and paste. Problem is that that doesn't work any more, at least not for me on either Chrome or Firefox.
Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Westerns
in General Discussions
Posted
Well...Cary Grant did fight Indians in Gunga Din.
Cue in a reply by "the Major" in Fawlty Towers.