AndyM108

BTW I should add as a general note that I appreciate the fact that nobody here seems to take my sharp words about those three movies personally. That's not always the habit of mind I've witnessed in other internet forums when strong opinions are expressed, and it's one of the main reasons I always enjoy visiting this site.

As I just wrote in response to TomJH, I find Arthur (in Deeds and Smith) and Stanwyck (in Doe) to be about the only saving graces in those three films. But Cooper just puts me to sleep, as he does in 90% of the movies I've ever seen him in.

Cooper is clearly one of the more polarizing actors around here. There are a few of his early movies like City Streets where his understated persona and studied cluelessness work to good effect, and if you like Westerns I guess that sort of attitude fits in fairly well in that genre, but in Deeds and Doe it's just way, way too exaggerated for my taste. And the rest of what you say about those three Big Time movies clearly echoes the majority sentiment around here---nothing wrong with that---but I have the same problem with them as I do with Cooper as an actor. Up to a point I can appreciate archetypes, but after a while I find myself wishing for at least some part of a film to go beyond that. Stanwyck and Arthur are about the only believable characters in any of those films, and Arnold is always sublime no matter what his role, but even they can't make up for all the bathtubs full of Aunt Jemima and Log Cabin that saturate them from start to finish.

AndyM108, on 21 May 2015 - 4:53 PM, said: But I should make one major qualification to the above rant: Capra's earlier movies don't strike me as nearly so mawkish, and even when they are, they've got a charm that transcends the corn: Lady For a Day, Platinum Blonde; The Miracle Woman; The Younger Generation; etc. IMO these are terrific films, with none of the overkill of many of his later "major" movies. I only wish the next time we get a vein of Capra, we'd get those earlier films instead of the same old same old, and even more, I'd love to see his silents. I don't remember having seen any of those. Well, I'm glad I'm not alone in this cold, cruel world. And to supplement your point about early vs late Capra, look at the difference between the charm and grit of Lady For a Day versus the mail-it-in performances in Pocketful of Miracles. Warren William gives a perfect "Warren William" performance, but Glenn Ford, much as I like him in his noirs and serious dramas, is totally miscast and out of his element as Dave the Dude. And though Bette Davis is second only to Stanwyck in the pantheon of actresses, May Robson completely outshines her as Apple Annie. William and Robson look as if they were born for those parts, whereas Ford and Davis are merely acting.

Funny, but that one I can take much more than Doe, Deeds, and Smith.* For whatever reason---maybe the fact that they're fighting gentrification---I find a charm in it that's sorely lacking those other three, even if in many ways it's the corniest one of them all. * Kind of sounds like a Main Street accounting firm, doesn't it?

James, with all respect to both you and Capra, I don't really see that balance in his Big Time films, with one major exception. What I see are a lot of impossible plots that lend themselves to very well acted but nevertheless cartoonish characters, plots which invariably wind up with the same old cliched Hollywood Happy Endings, endings which fly in the face of any known reality. I guess that in fairness you might say that Capra isn't alone in his dewy-eyed view of "plain folk" and millionaires with hearts of gold, and cartoon villains who either repent or get their just punishments in the last reel. This does seem to be a common thread of most Hollywood films of the early and WW2 Breen era, and his "sin" in this respect may simply be that he executes the Breen formula better than most. But if your taste runs a bit more to realism, as mine does, it's still a bit much. It's not that the sentiments don't seem real, it's that their excesses stretch credulity to the limit. Not that all of Capra's films don't have great performances and memorable characters, including (as has been noted) the well-cast character actors who are the real blessing of the studio era. And there are some of his later works that are just so damn moving that even I can't resist their pull. Here I'm particularly thinking of It's a Wonderful Life, IMO one of the top 10 Hollywood movies ever. But here's the thing about that movie: It's openly a fantasy. Clarence is an improbable angel, and his presence and role are simply devices to make the emphatic and profound point about the sanctity of an individual's life. And while Barrymore is to an extent a stick figure, his old man Potter is far closer to reality than the villains we get in Capra's other movies. By comparison, Meet John Doe and Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, and even Mr. Smith Goes to Washington just seem like the dullest of formula flicks, especially the second or third time around, in spite of having some of the greatest actors of their time (Stewart, Stanwyck, Arthur, Rains, Arnold, etc.----Cooper is not in that category) filling most of the important roles. Their plots are impossible and their main characters even more so, and their endings are simply fairy tale-ish. But I should make one major qualification to the above rant: Capra's earlier movies don't strike me as nearly so mawkish, and even when they are, they've got a charm that transcends the corn: Lady For a Day, Platinum Blonde; The Miracle Woman; The Younger Generation; etc. IMO these are terrific films, with none of the overkill of many of his later "major" movies. I only wish the next time we get a vein of Capra, we'd get those earlier films instead of the same old same old, and even more, I'd love to see his silents. I don't remember having seen any of those.

That's great to know, and it should definitely be a TCM priority to get a hold of this restored print. In terms of Brooks's movies, it's not up to Pandora's Box or Diary of a Lost Girl (which is another film that TCM should go after), but it's certainly way above anything else she ever made in Hollywood. And Beery is as good as ever, in his brute with a heart of gold sort of way.

I just bought a DVD of Beggars of Life. Great acting by Brooks and Beery, but it may have been the worst print I've ever seen, almost totally washed out in more than a few spots. I'd like to think there's a better one out there somewhere.

I'm glad you mentioned Berlin Alexanderplatz. My wife talked me into springing for the entire set during last Summer's Criterion Collection half price sale, but so far we've only made it through the first half of the first disk. We're going to have to step it up a notch. Too many movies, too little time.

I stand corrected on the scene's location, but it's been a long time since I watched the movie all the way through. The pastoral setting of the scene was what caused the location conflation.* But regardless of the location, the scene was much better suited for the mock-kitsch of The Producers. * Although now that I think about it, it couldn't have been in Africa anyway, given that after Versailles, Germany was stripped of all her African colonies.

There's an excellent bio-critical filmography on Robert Ryan by Franklin Jarlett rom 1997, and a new one that just got released 8 days ago. The only problem with the first one is the price: Since it's published by McFarland, the best you're going to get is at most 15%-20% off the list for a used copy. McFarland controls its print runs very carefully.

Several of those Gabins you list were shown on his SUTS day in 2011 (August 18th), which may have been the greatest day in my TCM viewing history. Here's the complete list of that day's schedule: 6:00 AM GUEULE D'AMOUR (1937) A retired cavalry officer discovers the woman who won his heart was in love with the uniform. Dir: Jean Gremillon Cast: Jean Gabin , BW-88 mins, TV-PG, 8:00 AM REMORQUES (1941) A married tugboat captain falls for a woman he rescues from a sinking ship. Dir: Jean Gremillon Cast: Jean Gabin , Alain Cuny , BW-83 mins, TV-PG, 9:30 AM JOUR SE LEVE, LE (1939) A young factory worker loses the woman he loves to a vicious schemer. Dir: Marcel Carne Cast: Jean Gabin , Jacqueline Laurent , Arletty . BW-90 mins, TV-PG, 11:00 AM AIR DE PARIS, L' (1954) An over-the-hill boxer stakes his fortune on training a young railroad-worker. Dir: Marcel Carne Cast: Arletty , Jean Gabin , Roland Lesaffre . BW-100 mins, 1:00 PM LEUR DERNIERE NUIT (1953) A schoolteacher falls for a librarian who's secretly the head of a criminal ring. Dir: Georges Lacombe Cast: Jean Gabin , BW-91 mins, TV-PG, 2:45 PM DESORDRE ET LA NUIT, LE (1958) A homicide detective tries to protect a pretty drug addict implicated in a murder. Dir: Gilles Grangier Cast: Jean Gabin , Danielle Darrieux , Nadja Tiller . BW-91 mins, TV-PG, 4:30 PM MARIA CHAPDELAINE (1934) A Canadian frontierswoman must choose from among three suitors. Dir: Julien Duvivier Cast: Jean Gabin , BW-72 mins, TV-G, 6:00 PM BANDERA, LA (1934) A murderer escapes France to join the Spanish Foreign Legion, where he finds love while pursued by the law. Dir: Julien Duvivier Cast: Jean Gabin , BW-97 mins, TV-PG, 8:00 PM PEPE LE MOKO (1941) Love for a beautiful woman draws a gangster out of hiding. Dir: Julien Duvivier Cast: Jean Gabin , Mireille Balin , Gabriel Gabrio . BW-94 mins, TV-PG, 10:00 PM GRAND ILLUSION (1937) French POWs fight to escape their German captors during World War I. Dir: Jean Renoir Cast: Jean Gabin , Pierre Fresnay , Marcel Dalio . BW-113 mins, TV-PG, 12:00 AM LA BETE HUMAINE (1938) A railroad engineer enters an affair with his friend's amoral wife. BW-97 mins, 2:00 AM TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI (1954) An aging gangster comes out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped. BW-96 mins, 4:00 AM DES GENS SANS IMPORTANCE (1955) An unhappy waitress starts an affair with a married truck driver. Dir: Henri Verneuil Cast: Jean Gabin , BW-99 mins, TV-PG, Of course since Gabin was in 95 films, that still leaves us with a good way to go.... As for my comment about films set in the 19th century (and more generally, not in the present or very recent past), that was a bit of hyperbole, but not much. I do love Children of Paradise, as well as both Chaney's and Laughton's Hunchback of Notre Dame, and several others, but for the most part movies like this, especially from post-silent era Hollywood, usually devolve into little more than costume dramas and / or sword fights, neither of which particularly thrill me.

Well, unlike Dana Andrews in Laura, at least Stewart first fell in love with the girl when he knew she was alive.

My bucket list would fill many pages if I listed all the titles, so I'll condense it. The reason there aren't many Hollywood movies on the list is simply because TCM / Netflix / FMC have been doing such a good job of already filling it. Any movie in the Criterion Collection that I haven't yet seen. Any movie in the Kino Collection that I haven't yet seen. Any movie directed by Akiro Kurosawa that I haven't yet seen. Any movie directed by Yasujirō Ozu that I haven't yet seen. Any movie directed by Eric Rohmer that I haven't yet seen. Any movie directed by Fritz Lang that I haven't yet seen. Any movie with Jean Gabin in it that I haven't yet seen. Any movie with Toshiro Mifune in it that I haven't yet seen. Any movie with Barbara Stanwyck in it that I haven't yet seen. (There aren't many of those.) Any movie with Lon Chaney in it that I haven't yet seen. Any movie with Clara Bow in it that I haven't yet seen. Any movie with Louise Brooks in it that I haven't yet seen. Any independent studio B-movie noir that I haven't yet seen. Any major studio noir that I haven't yet seen. Any Japanese noir or gangster movie that I haven't yet seen. Any Italian neo-realist movie that I haven't yet seen. That'll probably keep me going till I'm about 150, assuming that science will have figured out how to extend human life well before that.

Looks like Rudolph's problem may have had more to do with Johnny Walker than asbestos filters.

My favorite line for a movie star's cigarette ad has got to be Carole Lombard's:

It was probably all those free samples. And then there were his four wives.

Well, as Jack Webb said, "In America, there's always a tomorrow", and Jack Webb was a man of his word. Although sometimes his word seems to have been sold to the highest bidder.

It might be easier to name the ones that wouldn't qualify than the ones that would, which from today's lineup would pretty much include only Arsenic and Old Lace. You Can't Take It With You, Mr. Smith, Mr. Deeds, and Meet John Doe are all so far up the cornball scale you'd have to measure their distance from the Earth in light years. Not that a few of his schmaltzfests don't work in spite of it, most famously It's a Wonderful Life, and to a lesser extent the original version of Lady For a Day. But mostly his movies are just an overdose of sap and syrup, with plots so phony and contrived that they're embarrassing. And yes, I know this is just an opinion, and like bungholes, everybody's got one. But sentiment should be applied sparingly, and not ladled out like slop in an army barracks.

I loved Cabaret the first time I saw it upon its release, but solely because of the music, which is almost on the level of the Broadway version of My Fair Lady and the 1954 off-Broadway version of Threepenny Opera. Liza and Joel Gray are beyond superlatives. But other than those two? And the movie itself? Blecchhh. The nadir was that scene in an African beer garden where the Nazi youth starts singing "The Stag in the Meadow" as if he were singing a lullaby to a baby, only to see it quickly metamorphosize into a rousing rendition of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", joined in by what seemed like the entire German colony of stormtroopers, farmers, and hausfrauen. It's hard to imagine a scene in any movie that ever reeked more of overkill than that one, with its attempt to convey the horrors of Naziism by presenting a number that would have been better placed in The Producers as a clueless self-parody. But this is what can happen when mainstream Hollywood tries to mix "history" with entertainment. They should leave history to the filmmakers from other continents and stick to doing what they know something about. OTOH take away that godawful piece of whatever, and the musical soundtrack is still sublime. Just one of life's little reminders that great things can often come in ugly packages.

I recorded it along with the Bergman movie that followed, and I'm glad I let them run together on one track, as there was less than two minutes between the ending of the first film and the beginning of the second one.

Well, if you want to watch one of Hitchcock's greatest short works on a full stomach, how about a nice little leg of lamb for dinner? http://www.schooltube.com/video/b4ffb2ed2146057eda1d/

I haven't seen the other two, but I'd forgotten about Made For Each Other, which I watched (and liked) several years ago. Good recommendation.

I just caught up with my May 6th DVDs, and I've got one more to add to my list of "underrated" or "neglected" performances: Carole Lombard: Vigil in the Night (1940, with Brian Aherne and Anne Shirley) I'm not sure I can remember Lombard in any other straightforward dramatic role, let alone one as packed with pathos as this movie. But be that as it may, Lombard gives such a compelling performance in Vigil in the Night that I only wish she'd been given more opportunities to step outside the screwball genre. It's in many ways a formula movie, but it passes the plausibility test, and the sentiments seem genuine rather than artificially grafted on. What a talent, and what a loss to the world at such a young age.

That case gave rise to one of the few worthwhile puns ever seen in a newspaper. When Loeb was stabbed to death in the prison shower by a fellow inmate to didn't take to kindly to his advances, the Chicago Daily News report led with "Richard Loeb, despite his erudition, today ended his sentence with a proposition." As for the two movies, give me Compulsion any day. Rope is a mishmash of impossible scenes we're supposed to believe before breakfast, none of which are believable. Definitely one of Hitchcock's lesser efforts.