AndyM108

I've seen plenty of miscast actors in my time, but of the many thousands of films I've watched, there's never been a more risible mismatch of role and actor than Katharine Hepburn's portrayal of a backwoods hillbilly in the 1934 romantic comedy Spitfire . Being that it's Katharine Hepburn, you know that she plays the role with complete conviction, but listening to this New England upper class patrician woman struggle through Hollywood's conception of a hillbilly accent is a bit like imagining Fred Astaire playing a foul-mouthed rap singer. You can't believe that she can do it and keep a straight face, but there she is, fighting on until the final bell. You've gotta love it in spite of it all.

Of course the more you watch TCM, the more that endless repeats like Some Like It Hot , NBNW and the godawful Splendor in the Grass are going to annoy you. But when I see that they're going to show the rest of the Lone Wolf series and then begin with Boston **** ( *PLEASE* show them all), I won't complain too much about yet another screening of Natalie Wood's sexual frustrations. And to put things in a bit of perspective, in the 26 months since I've had a DVD recorder, and counting what's on tab through March, I'll have over *two dozen* Warren William movies. So yeah, I wish they'd lay off the old chestnuts and give more air to rare noirs, foreign flicks and pre-codes, but all in all I can't really complain about a network that's helped me build up a film library of many Warren Williams for the tiny outlay of cash that it's costing me. TCM is definitely going to be in my will. What *would* be greatly appreciated by many of us long-time watchers, though, would be if each new schedule release could be accompanied by a master list of TCM premieres, or at least a master list of those films that haven't shown for at least 3 or 4 years. That would enable us to focus on the movies we're least likely to have already seen over and over. I'd bet for the vast majority of us LTVers, these films are the highlights of every month.

So if you had a very tall center who was good at jump balls and a good ball tipper, the team could almost keep control of the ball for the whole game. What were they thinking Not very much, apparently. But in their defense, when Jim Naismith invented the game back around 1892, he didn't have George Mikan or Yao Ming in mind when he instituted the rule. It took quite a few decades, well into the 1940's, before basketball evolved to the point where it became almost completely dominated by big men.

I'm very lucky, in that I can read a long plot summary and often use it to detemine whether to give the movie a shot, but my short term memory is so poor that fifteen minutes into the film I've forgotten how it's supposed to turn out. Of course it often takes me several re-watchings of a good movie to remember it all, anyway----I'll probably be able to watch The Killers or Out of the Past another half dozen times before I really absorb everything that transpires between the opening and the closing scenes. Hell, I can barely figure out The Lone Wolf plots the first time around (and I love every one of them), that's how dense I can be. And The Big Sleep or L.A. Confidential ? Ha! Those'll take me another 30 years! BTW I'd love to see someone try to give a plot synopsis of My Dinner With Andre---the short version would be about one sentence, and the long version would be almost as long as the movie itself....

Yes, probably staged. Based on typical speeches he often gave to his full team. That newsreel was definitely staged. No team would've allowed cameras in their locker room like that. It would have been far too much of a distraction. He says, "If we receive..." and "If we kick off..." and that implies it is a pre-game speech. It could have been filmed before a real game, after a real game, or on a day off. Not necessarily, since in Rockne's time it wasn't that unusual for a team to choose to kick off to start the second half, even though they'd kicked off in the first half. If Notre Dame had won the pre-game coin toss, they wouldn't necessarily have known for sure whether their opponents would choose to kick or receive to begin the second half. In Red Grange's most famous game, the one where he scored four touchdowns against Michigan in the first quarter, Michigan chose to kick off back to Illinois every time Grange scored, even after the strategy kept blowing up in the Wolverines' face. It seems strange today, but then in this same era in basketball, every time a basket was scored they had a new center court jump ball to determine the next possession. That rule didn't change until 1937-38.

Definitely Eugene " What future is there in being a Chinaman? Let's have a drink. " Pallette, and of course a definite thumbs up to your earlier suggestion of the one and only Jeanne Moreau, who was in my original list and who'd deserve a full SOTM treatment if enough of her films were available for TCM's use. The Bride Wore Black , Jules and Jim , and Elevator to the Gallows have all been shown here in the past few years, but I'd love them to come up with The Lovers and Bay of Angels , to this day the finest depiction of a compulsive gambler I've yet to see.

I love character actors too, and can't believe I forgot Edward Arnold AND forgot my all time favorite character actress, Thelma Ritter! Six time Oscar nominee and never won, unbelievable! I also can't believe I forgot the great Thelma Ritter, the living embodiment of Brooklyn. Another addition to my SUTS want list would be Sylvia Sidney, the "Proletarian Princess" with the most soulful eyes this side of a Margaret Keane painting.

More noirs, pre-codes, silents and foreign films, especially those from France, Italy and Japan. Oh, and more premieres. Fewer costume dramas, biohagiographies, musicals, westerns, and teenage romances from the saddle shoes era. I'll leave the details to the programmers. Just a 10% increase in the first set of categories and a 10% drop in the second set of categories would be the best Christmas present we could have. TCM is the world's greatest network, but there are times when it gets a little stale and very bland.

The thing about the Library Of Congress, is that IF you are giving them something that is in the public domain and which is viable for video release, then any third party can go there, have a copy made, copyright their copy and start making a buck for themselves, all compliments of your "donation"! This is what happened with *Reefer Madness*. Someone back in 1971 found a copy of it in LOC, made a transfer and started making moolah! People are still making "lettuce" off of that "public domain" film! Whoever it was, must have made hundreds of thousands, if not millions off of it! Thelma, you may or may not appreciate this, but my ex-GF (who's now a law prof in Brooklyn) and I were actually the first people to get the LOC to make a copy of Reefer Madness . They charged us 300 bucks (about $1,665 in today's dollars), and we did make quite a few thousand bucks (maybe ten thousand) off it by showing it on college campuses and renting it to a few theaters---- *UNTIL* New Line Cinema got the same idea, and with their financial resources, had many multiple copies made and left our little cottage enterprise in the dust.** But it was fun while it lasted, and before it was all over, we showed that film so many times that I can still recite every line in my sleep---- *"GOSH! HOT CHOCOLATE! THANKS, MRS. LANE!"* **NORML actually had the same idea, but for some strange reason they cut their version by about 10 minutes, and it never caught on like our (and the New Line Cinema's) unabridged version.

Thanks, Helen, and I'd also second your Zachary Scott mention, as well as clore's Aline MacMahon and VP19's "Triple-C" trio of Cobb, Connolly and Cortez---to which I might also add Richard Conte, many of whose best films like Thieves' Highway are unfortunately locked up by Fox. When I made that list, I tried to be inclusive, but to be honest, with the exception of the foreign stars who seldom make it onto TCM, I'm mostly partial to the great character actors, which is why I was so thrilled to see Ann Dvorak and Joan Blondell get their SUTS days this year.. I've seen plenty of duds featuring some of the biggest names in Hollywood, but it's very hard for me to think of many movies with Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Charles Coburn or Louis Calhern that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. AFAIC the stars are what draw the crowds, but the character actors are what make us want to see those films over and over again. My favorite example of this is one of my all-time favorite screwball comedies, Libeled Lady . Now there's a movie with three of my all-time favorite stars (Harlow, Powell, Loy) all together, and even my not-so-favorite Spencer Tracy was pretty damn good in this one. An all-star cast for the ages, indeed. But let's be honest: Don't you all remember Walter Connolly's exasperated complaints and general confusion just as much as any of the big names? And wasn't it fitting that the movie ended with Connolly throwing up his arms and looking as if he were headed to Bellevue, as if Jean Harlow had committed "arson" to his torso?

This year's SUTS was the best in recent memory, with Gabin, Chaney, Dvorak, Blondell, etc. In that same spirit I'd nominate the following actors for 24 hours of recognition. A few of these deserve the full SOTM treatment, but you have to start somewhere: Dana Andrews Edward Arnold Richard Barthelmess Anne Baxter Wallace Beery Clara Bow Louis Calhern Jack Carson Charles Coburn Paul Douglas Marie Dressler Glenda Farrell Glenn Ford Kay Francis Susan Hayward Van Heflin William Holden Walter Huston Guy Kibbee Myrna Loy Ida Lupino Adolphe Menjou Toshiro Mifune Robert Montgomery Jeanne Moreau Chester Morris Edmund O'Brien Jack Palance Nat Pendleton Vincent Price Ann Sheridan Lizabeth Scott Franchot Tone Lee Tracy Richard Widmark Warren William Hey, I can dream, can't I?

This wasn't the strongest of weeks, although there were some that I would've caught if I hadn't seen them half a dozen times already, particularly The Lady Eve and A Foreign Affair . But the unquestionable highlight was Bardot's And God Created Woman . I saw it many years ago, but I liked it much better this time around. Bardot's Juliette seems like a slightly more erotic version of the Jeanne Moreau character in Jules and Jim , the eternal femme fickle, even though at the end she seemed to realize she'd married the right guy after all. It had enough of the classic elements of French New Wave films to keep me hooked from start to finish. The other highlight was also French: Truffaut's Stolen Kisses . I absolutely hated that movie when it first came out, but this time it somehow improved from about a 1 to a 7 or 8, and I have a feeling that the next time it'll be even higher. Too bad that TCM resists showing more than a relative handful of foreign films and keeps running second rate musicals and third rate westerns into the ground, but I guess that's what most people apparently want. What we really need is a TCM International Network that has a balanced schedule of the best movies from all countries and all eras---Hey, I can dream, can't I?

I'm of course thankful for TCM, most recently for showing And God Created Woman , but this year I'm also thankful to Eugenia for all the work she's done on the Barbara Stanwyck thread. It's also great to see that so many others here have such appreciation for the greatest of all actresses.

Rita Hayworth is to the rest of these pretenders what Secretariat was to the rest of the 1973 Belmont field, and what the 1998 Yankees were to the rest of baseball.

There's an excellent book I picked up through amazon called City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s. It talks about all aspects of Hollywood, not just its stars: Eugenia strikes again! When I had a book shop I must have sold 20 copies of that title when it was remaindered, but since I wasn't systematically collecting film books at the time, I never took home a copy. But I am SO looking forward to getting it now, and I just found a VG copy in a VG DJ for only $5.00 + postage. Thank you once more, Eugenia.

I've got these Lone Wolf films lined up like ducks in a pond, and IYAM Warren William is worthy of a SOTM treatment. He had a short career, but I can't think of a more quintessential pre-code male actor. (Funny how several actresses fall into that category, however.)

Terrific movie, but it's played at least 2 or 3 times in the past 2 years, and it's scheduled again on December 15th, during William Powell month. That may be rare by Splendor in the Grass or Some Like It Hot standards, but I only wish that a few hundred other movies like The Lady Gambles or Double Indemnity would show that often.

Well, do remember that when Harlow first got a pair of scripts that enabled her to show off her true talent level --- Red-Headed Woman and Red Dust ---she was all of 21 years old. And if there's ever been a better pair of gumsnapper comedies than Bombshell and Libeled Lady, I've yet to see them.

What a great site! Of their 38 noirs, only a few of them show very often on TCM, and there are a few gems like The File on Thelma Jordan and Too Late For Tears. I've been waiting for years to see that Stanwyck either here or on Netflix, with no success. Thank you, Mr. Rickey.

That picture of Young is also nice. Again, I put her mug side by side with Harlow and I just find Young way more attactive. Platinum blond hair must blind men, otherwise how would anyone find Mae West sexy. My take on those two is that Young's far and away the bigger babe, but Harlow, as always, can act circles around her. There's never been a more stunningly beautiful actress than the young (and even not-so-young) Loretta Young, but there's never been a more talented comedienne than Jean Harlow. And if you don't agree, I'm turning you in for arson!

Loretta Young, Barbara Stanwyck, Cyd Charisse, Louise Brooks, Clara Bow, both Hepburns, Leslie Caron, Gene Tierney, Rita Hayworth and Jeanne Moreau, for starters. Oh, and every single female lead in any movie by Eric Rohmer, from Zouzou to Emmanuelle Chaulet and Sophie Renoir. Monsieur Rohmer knew how to pick em.

God, am I glad that February comes but once a year. Every one of these films has been ground into the dust by now, and once again we're reminded of just how totally market-driven the Oscar awards are. Hopefully TCM will find room for a few misfits and premieres in between all the technicolor spectacles and cheesy historical hagiographies, but I'm not holding my breath. Oh well, we'll always have August.....

Bad remakes are too numerous to mention, but there are a few good ones that stand out. The Garland version of A Star Is Born took the very good March / Gaynor original and made it even better, in maybe the best remake ever. It's one of a tiny handful of musicals that actually has a compelling dramatic plot, and the casting is simply perfect. But there's also one outstanding case of a great movie that was redone 11 years later with an identical plot, and came out every bit as well the second time around---no better but no worse. I'm talking about Vicki, the 1953 remake of the classic 1942 noir, I Wake Up Screaming. Before I first came across the 1953 version, I couldn't imagine anyone matching Laird Cregar's creepy detective character, but I can't see where Richard Boone misses a beat. It's too bad that both of these are controlled by Fox, with the result that TCM gets shut out while the Fox Movie Channel seems to show them about 3 or 4 times every month.

I could watch all of these movies until I was blue in the face, and I can't believe how much longer this list has become, thanks to TCM and a faithful DVD recorder: The Penalty The Unholy Three (both silent and sound versions) The Crowd Pandora's Box The Godless Girl Diary of a Lost Girl The Public Enemy The Miracle Woman The Match King Three on a Match I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang Wild Boys of the Road Heroes For Sale Baby Face So Big Call Her Savage 42nd Street Footlight Parade Red-Headed Woman Bombshell Little Big Shot It's a Gift Libeled Lady Sons of the Desert Easy Living Stella Dallas Marked Woman Bringing Up Baby The Captain's Kid The Women The Philadelphia Story His Girl Friday The Great McGinty The Lady Eve Pepe Le Moko Johnny Eager I Wake Up Screaming This Gun For Hire The Hard Way Laura Double Indemnity Open City Paisan It's a Wonderful Life The Killers Out of the Past Crossfire Kiss of Death Dark Passage The Bicycle Thief Shoeshine I Walk Alone Road House The Big Clock Drunken Angel The Bribe Stray Dog Thieves' Highway The Set-up Too Late For Tears The Asphalt Jungle The Damned Don't Cry All About Eve The Racket The Sheep Has Five Legs Sudden Fear The Big Heat L'Air de Paris Witness to Murder Executive Suite Trial (Glenn Ford) A Star Is Born (Garland version) Touchez Pas au Grisbi Time Limit Rififi Where The Sidewalk Ends Elevator to the Gallows The Bad Sleep Well Kapo Kanal The Naked Kiss High and Low Bay of the Angels Nothing But a Man The Battle of Algiers The Producers The Panic in Needle Park The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz Mean Streets Payday Animal House Breaking Away Raging Bull Angi Vera Pixote Winter of Our Dreams Come and See Boyfriends and Girlfriends Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle The Color of Money Goodfellas Short Cuts Night on Earth Husbands and Wives A Bronx Tale Children of the Revolution Jungle Fever Smoke / Blue in the Face Letters From Iwo Jima Katyn An Autumn Tale Menace 2 Society Days of Glory The Lives of Others The Wrestler Cinderella Man ADD: Gilda, The Tin Men, The War of the Roses, LA Confidential And so on.... And pretty much anything else directed by Kurosawa, Rohmer or Fuller, or starring Stanwyck (anything with Stanwyck), Harlow, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis (but no costume dramas on ante-bellum schlock), Lancaster, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Ryan, Kirk Douglas (but no westerns or Bible epics), Judy Davis, Sybil Jason, Jean Gabin (anything with him in it), Toshiro Mifune, and probably any comedy with Fernandel. Edited by: AndyM108 on Nov 5, 2011 12:32 AM

This has been a great November so far: Detour , Tension , Lady in the Lake , Brute Force , The Big Sleep , and the two noirs Supreme: Out of the Past and The Killers . It doesn't get any better than this. Next to the last two, Detour is my favorite of the lot, in great part because it has the feel of a pure B movie. Savage's sheer viciousness and Neal's melancholy hopelessness make for a perfect combination, and the lack of any sexual chemistry between the two is of little distraction or disappointment to me. And who in the hell could ever be attracted to a Black Widow Spider like Ann Savage to begin with? Tension is also terrific, and I agree with the previous poster who said that Richard Basehart often gets overlooked in his noir roles, not to mention his tour de force in one of the most underrated movies of the 50's, the Army hearing drama Time Limit . Although in the case of Tension I have to admit that Cyd Charisse was part of the main attraction. AFAIC she and Anne Bancroft leave the Monroes and the other Blonde Bombshells of her era in the dust.