AndyM108

As another example of Power's range, IMHO he was far more effective in his Zorro dual role than Granger was in his in The Prisoner of Zenda. Granger as the king was pretty bad. Granger's another actor who I wish had been given more movies like The Light Touch and The Whole Truth to display his talents in. When I recorded those two films together on a single disk, it quickly became one of my favorite DVDs ever, especially since prior to that I hadn't seen either of them. In The Light Touch in particular, Granger exhibits a dishonor among thieves that's almost poetic, as he and his partner in crime (George Sanders) keep trying to swindle each other out of their ill-gotten gains. But I think I'll pass on his swashbucklers, and I'm sure in those he was no Tyrone Power.

What % of Sanders' roles were starring rather than supporting? IMO that's a false standard. Just to cite an obvious example, Sanders wasn't the star in All About Eve, but Addison DeWitt was utterly central to the plot, more so than Gary Merrill. Requiring a leading role just means that with the exception of the occasional Bogart or Bette Davis, you're going to wind up honoring little more than the actors or actresses with the prettiest faces. But here's only a partial list of Sanders' movies where he has key roles, many of them leading. It's a list that would make for a very solid SOTM tribute, and IMO much more interesting than a comparable list for many of the actors honored to date. Foreign Correspondent The House of the Seven Gables Rage in Heaven Sundown Man Hunt The Moon and Sixpence Appointment in Berlin Quiet Please Murder This Land Is Mine The Lodger Hangover Square The Picture of Dorian Gray A Scandal in Paris The Private Affairs of Bel Ami The Ghost and Mrs. Muir Forever Amber Lured All About Eve I Can Get It For You Wholesale The Light Touch Witness to Murder The King's Thief Journey to Italy That Certain Feeling While The City Sleeps Death of a Scoundrel The Seventh Sin The Whole Truth A Touch of Larceny The Last Voyage That's 30, not counting the many first rate Saint and Falcon films, and cutting it off after 1960. Without naming names, I'd gladly match that list against nearly all of the other SOTM suggestions I've seen made here.

I wonder whether TCM might instigate a policy of not allowing new members the privilege of starting new threads until they've participated coherently in at least 10 other threads. By "coherently" I mean engaging in the topic at hand with other people, not just posting random comments that have nothing to do with anything germane to the thread. So that means we will have spam injected into threads, as opposed to being isolated in separate ones that can easily be deleted. Read what I wrote. I don't see how any spammer could get around that, given the requirement for coherence, which no spammer yet has ever met in those semi-illiterate introductions they sometimes add before all those links. But you could add to the spammer's burden by also forbidding any new member from posting any sort of links in his first ten comments. Few spammers want to put in that sort of effort just to post spam. Another possibility would be for a thread to be red-highlighted as soon as it's been reported, rather than having to wait for the moderator to see it, and then automatically deleted after 15 minutes or so. IMO where there's a will there should be a way. BTW it also doesn't help when you respond to one of those spam posts, as you did a few minutes ago. It was a funny comment, but just seeing "1 reply" on the thread list page instead of "0 replies" gives the spammer more legitimacy than he deserves.

But my point, Andy, was on the versatility that Power demonstrated by being effective in more than just the kind of movies that you like - that he was outstanding, as well, as a swashbuckler, and there are, in my opinion, very few actors in the movies who have been outstanding swashbucklers. (It's far easier, in fact, to find an actor who's a good tough guy in a film noir). Because of your repeatedly stated dislike of swashbucklers, I don't get the impression that you appreciate that point. I don't doubt for a minute that Power buckled swashes with the best of them. For all I know he may have able to out-swash Errol Flynn and Stewart Granger blindfolded while simultaneously snatching Lady Godiva off a galloping unicorn. To me it's still little more than a waste of Power's acting talent, as opposed to the talent to swashbuckle, even though I'm not pretending that this is anything more than one anti-swashbuckler's lonely opinion.

Five new spam threads attempted (and reported) just today. (EDIT: Make that six) I'll repeat an earlier suggestion I made: I wonder whether TCM might instigate a policy of not allowing new members the privilege of starting new threads until they've participated coherently in at least 10 other threads. By "coherently" I mean engaging in the topic at hand with other people, not just posting random comments that have nothing to do with anything germane to the thread.

Janet Leigh will be SOTM in October. Is that confirmed? If so, I sure hope that TCM raids the FOX vault in order to do her career full justice.

I can't remember which person here wrote this several months ago, but I loved it anyway (raises hand) It was ME! It's one of my favorite snipes! "I've never had me quoted back to me before" (who said that line?) I suspected it was you, but I didn't want to diss anyone if I'd said it and been mistaken. I quoted it to my wife when you first wrote it, and it had her in stitches for an hour. My own favorite snipe is directed at loudmouths who can't ever shut up: "You run on like a six pack of gonorrhea". But it's one I usually let remain in the pool rooms I frequent rather than direct it against people in more civilized forums like this.

Your above statement, Andy, is more a reflection, I feel, of your own preference for one genre (and intolerance of the other) than it is a balanced assessment on Power's versatility as an actor. You may not care for swashbucklers but to those who do Power's perfomance in The Mark of Zorro ranks as a classic (and his duel with Rathbone at the film's climax as a remarkable demonstration of fencing choreography). I thought that my point was fairly clear: I think Power was a fine actor, but I'm less than thrilled with the sort of movies that he was usually cast in. I only wish he'd been given more roles like those he had in Nightmare Alley and Witness For The Prosecution, because the talent he demonstrated in those two showed that he was far more than just another pretty face. IMO Nightmare Alley is perhaps the 3rd or 4th greatest noir ever, and Witness For The Prosecution the best courtroom drama, and in both of those cases---and particularly in Nightmare Alley, but also in the latter film---Power was an integral part of these movies' greatness. Laughton and Dietrich obviously had the glamor roles in WFTP, but Tower's performance was up there with Ray Milland's Tony Wendice in Dial M For Murder, which is saying a lot.

It is likely that society will soon experience a reversal and there will be many grandmothers with sex videos floating around the Internet and intimate body parts covered in tattoos who will be estranged from their grandchildren because the young can not afford to be associated publicly with such people. I can't remember which person here wrote this several months ago, but I loved it anyway, when she said something to the effect of "The cute little hummingbird you just tattooed on your breast is going to look like a stork by the time you're 50".

Justify how? Bobby knew what he was doing was wrong and so did we. But he did it because it's a movie about a guy who does it - just like a million other guys in real life. There's no justification being sold to us, we're simply being shown one man's imperfect existence. Movies are experiences and in this one we take from it a man's actions to ponder and to judge for ourselves. 'Hud' (1962) is another movie like that - as is 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and countless others. If simply showing that these things happen is "glorifying", then I guess everything we ever see in a movie is glorification. I can live with and even love movies that center around interesting dirtballs. For instance Hoffa, in which Nicholson also starred.* This wasn't one of those movies. In Five Easy Pieces, Nicholson's Bobby was about as interesting as the guy who leans back his seat on a transoceanic flight, and says "That's your problem, not mine" when you deign to object. I still wish the waitress had just used the ketchup bottle to knock a bit of sense into him, and ended the movie on a Bambi Meets Godzilla note, only in reverse. It would have amounted to a mercy lesson. *Talk about a film that TCM should pry out of Fox; this is one of Jack's best roles.

And here are the SUTS honorees up through 2013. I haven't yet copied this year's list, but that's easy to obtain. SUMMER UNDER THE STARSAugust 2003 James Stewart, Clint Eastwood, Peter O'Toole, Joan Crawford, Fred Astaire, Robert Mitchum, James Cagney, Elizabeth Taylor, Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston, Katherine Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Gene Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Clark Gable, John Wayne, Myrna Loy, Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Bette Davis, Spencer Tracy, Paul Newman, Doris Day, William Holden August 2004 John Wayne, Barbara Stanwyck, Bob Hope, Debbie Reynolds, Sidney Poitier, Lucille Ball, Katherine Hepburn, Clint Eastwood, Ava Gardner, Henry Fonda, Jean Harlow, Laurence Olivier, Doris Day, Humphrey Bogart, Burt Lancaster, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Peter Sellers, James Stewart, Olivia de Havilland, Ginger Rogers, Charles Chaplin, Shirley MacLaine, Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Esther Williams, Kirk Douglas August 2005 Lauren Bacall, James Cagney, Joel McCrea, Alec Guinness, Katharine Hepburn, John Wayne, Judy Garland, Shelley Winters, Ray Milland, Lena Horne, Kirk Douglas, Jane Wyman, Cary Grant, Glenn Ford, Fred Astaire, Donna Reed, James Garner, Irene Dunne, Marlon Brando, James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Joan Crawford, Basil Rathbone, Sophia Loren, Norma Shearer, Randolph Scott, Spencer Tracy, William Holden, Constance Bennett, Deborah Kerr, Humphrey Bogart August 2006 Angela Lansbury, Groucho Marx, Susan Hayward, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Doris Day, Burt Lancaster, Claire Trevor, Jane Powell, John Garfield, Katherine Hepburn, Rock Hudson, Walter Matthau, Lana Turner, Richard Dix, Joseph Cotten, Carole Lombard, Bela Lugosi, Audrey Hepburn, Lee Marvin, David Niven, Rita Hayworth, Van Johnson, Ann Sothern, James Stewart, Cary Grant, John Wayne, Hedy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Stanwyck August 2007 Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O’Toole, Joan Crawford, William Holden, James Stewart, Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Vincent Price, Doris Day, Alan Ladd, June Allyson, Ernest Borgnine, Joan Bennett, Elvis Presley, Maureen O’Hara, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, Rosalind Russell, Gary Cooper, Ann Miller, Jane Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Broderick Crawford, Kirk Douglas, Loretta Young, Roy Rogers, Mary Astor, Buster Keaton, Sean Connery August 2008 Michael Caine, Charlie Chaplin, Gregory Peck, Marie Dressler, Claude Rains, Anne Bancroft, Greta Garbo, James Garner, Fred MacMurray, Doris Day, Richard Widmark, Kim Novak, Peter Lorre, Greer Garson, Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Jack Palance, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Ava Gardner, Trevor Howard, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, Henry Fonda, Ingrid Bergman, Janet Leigh, Tony Curtis, Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy August 2009 Henry Fonda, James Mason, Marion Davies, James Coburn, Harold Lloyd, Judy Garland, Glenn Ford, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Dirk Bogarde, Audrey Hepburn, Clark Gable, Gloria Grahame, Sidney Poitier, Deborah Kerr, Elvis Presley, Jennifer Jones, John Wayne, Red Skelton, Miriam Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Sterling Hayden, Angela Lansbury, Fredric March, Merle Oberon, Yul Brynner, Ida Lupino, Frank Sinatra, Peter Sellers, Jean Arthur, Claire Bloom August 2010 Basil Rathbone, Julie Christie, Steve McQueen, Ethel Barrymore,. Woody Strode, Ingrid Bergman, Errol Flynn, Bob Hope, Warren Beatty, Kathryn Grayson, Walter Matthau, Norma Shearer, Robert Ryan, Gene Tierney, Margaret O'Brien, Robert Stack, Maureen O'Hara, Ann Sheridan, Walter Pidgeon, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, John Mills, Elizabeth Taylor, John Gilbert, Lauren Bacall, Lee Remick, Olivia de Havilland, Peter O'Toole, Henry Fonda, Thelma Todd, Clint Eastwood August 2011 Marlon Brando, Paulette Goddard, Bette Davis, Ronald Colman, John Garfield, Lucille Ball, Charles Laughton, Orson Welles, Ann Dvorak, Shirley MacLaine, Ben Johnson, Claudette Colbert, James Stewart, Ralph Bellamy, Lon Chaney, Joanne Woodward, Humphrey Bogart, Jean Gabin, Debbie Reynolds, Montgomery Clift, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, Conrad Veidt, Joan Blondell, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Linda Darnell, Carole Lombard, Anne Francis, Howard Keel, Marlene Dietrich August 2012 John Wayne, Myrna Loy, Johnny Weissmuller, Marilyn Monroe, Claude Rains, Van Heflin, Sidney Poitier, Rita Hayworth, Toshiro Mifune, Lionel Barrymore, James Mason, Ginger Rogers, Deborah Kerr, James Cagney, Lillian Gish, Elvis Presley, Katharine Hepburn, Freddie Bartholomew, Eva Marie Saint, Anthony Quinn, Kay Francis, Jack Lemmon, Gene Kelly, Irene Dunne, Tyrone Power, Gary Cooper, Jeanette MacDonald, Ava Gardner, James Caan, Warren William, Ingrid Bergman August 2013Humphrey Bogart, Doris Day, Alec Guinness, Mary Boland, Charlton Heston, Joan Fontaine, Fred Macmurray, Ramon Novarro, Steve McQueen, Lana Turner, Henry Fonda, Catherine Deneuve, Mickey Rooney, Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, Ann Blyth, Wallace Beery, Natalie Wood, Randolph Scott, Hattie McDaniel, William Holden, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth Taylor, Charles Coburn, Clark Gable, Jeanne Crain, Martin Balsam, Shirley Jones, Glenda Farrell, Kirk Douglas, Rex Harrison

I recall vividly 'discovering' TCM for the first time while channeling surfing at its inception and remember that Doris Day was SOTM. Based on where I was at that time in my life, this would be either April or May, 1994. Andy, if you have the resource, could you check this? I would swear that she was SOTM back then, probably May 1994. Possible? Glad to oblige. Here's the complete list of SOTM honorees up through this month's Maureen O'Hara. I'll post the SUTS choices in a minute. STAR OF THE MONTH: May 1994: Greta Garbo June 1994: Glenn Ford July 1994: Greer Garson Aug.1994: Edward G. Robinson Sept.1994: Barbara Stanwyck Oct.1994: Angela Lansbury Nov.1994 John Garfield Dec.1994: Best of ‘94 Jan.1995: Esther Williams Feb.1995: Ronald Reagan Mar.1995: TCM Salutes the Oscars Apr.1995: Doris Day May 1995: Myrna Loy June 1995: Errol Flynn July 1995: Gene Kelly Aug.1995: Paul Muni Sept.1995: Jane Powell Oct.1995: Clark Gable Nov.1995: Barrymores Dec.1995: Best of ‘95 Jan.1996: Deborah Kerr Feb.1996: Robert Young Mar.1996: 31 Days of Oscar April 1996: Irene Dunne May 1996: James Stewart June 1996: Rosalind Russell July 1996: Fred Astaire Aug.1996: Ann Sheridan Sept.1996: Van Johnson Oct.1996: Kathryn Grayson Nov.1996: Robert Mitchum Dec.1996: Best of ‘96 Jan.97: Humphrey Bogart Feb.97: Eleanor Parker Mar.97: 31 Days of Oscar Apr.97: Ava Gardner May 97: George Brent June 97: June Allyson July 97: John and Walter Huston (also Director of the Month) Aug.97: Cary Grant Sept.97: Ida Lupino Oct.97: Walter Pidgeon Nov.97: Katharine Hepburn Dec.97: Best of ‘97 Jan.1998: Lana Turner Feb.1998: Charlton Heston Mar.1998:31 Days of Oscar April 1998: Red Skelton May 1998: Olivia de Havilland June 1998: James Cagney July 1998: Lucille Ball August 1998: Joan Crawford Sept.1998: John Wayne Oct.1998: Cyd Charisse Nov.1998: Claude Rains Dec.1998: Best of ‘98 Jan.1999: Elizabeth Taylor Feb.1999: William Powell March 1999: 31 Days of Oscar (probably) April 1999: Dennis Morgan May 1999: Bette Davis June 1999: Mickey Rooney July1999: Natalie Wood August 1999: Peter Sellers Sept.1999: Norma Shearer Oct. 1999: Gregory Peck Nov. 1999: Ginger Rogers Dec. 1999: Burt Lancaster Jan. 2000: Debbie Reynolds Feb. 2000: Robert Ryan March 2000: 31 Days of Oscars (probably) April 2000: Spencer Tracy May 2000: Alexis Smith June 2000:Wallace Beery July 2000: Judy Garland August 2000: film debuts Sept 2000: Jane Wyman October 2000: Dick Powell Nov 2000: Frank Sinatra Dec. 2000: Lauren Bacall Jan. 2001: Elvis Presley Feb.2001: Jean Hagen March 2001: 31 Days of Oscar (probably) Apr.2001: Knighted Actors May 2001: Jean Harlow June 2001: W.C. Fields July 2001: Ann Sothern Aug.2001: James Garner Sept. 2001: Robert Taylor Oct. 2001: Lana Turner Nov.2001: Glenn Ford Dec.2001: The Marx Brothers Jan. 2002: Marlene Dietrich Feb. 2002: Kirk Douglas March 2002: 31 Days of Oscar April 2002: Barbara Stanwyck May 2002: Edward G. Robinson June 2002: Greta Garbo July 2002: Sidney Poitier Aug. 2002: Joan Crawford Sept. 2002: Van Heflin Oct. 2002: Final films Nov. 2002: Shelly Winters Dec. 2002: Montgomery Clift Jan. 2003: Doris Day Feb. 2003: John Garfield Mar. 2003: 31 Days of Oscar Apr. 2003: Harold Lloyd May 2003: Olivia de Havilland June 2003: TV Actors in Films July 2003: Lee Marvin Aug. 2003: 1st Summer Under the Stars (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept. 2003: James Mason Oct. 2003: Boris Karloff Nov. 2003: Shirley MacLaine Dec. 2003: David Niven Jan. 2004: Katherine Hepburn Feb.2004: 31 Days of Oscar Mar.2004: Charles Chaplin Apr. 2004: Judy Garland May 2004: Greer Garson June 2004: Cary Grant July 2004: Stars That Died Before Their Time Aug.2004: 2nd Summer Under the Stars (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept.2004: Myrna Loy Oct. 2004: Peter Lorre Nov.2004: Clark Gable Dec. 2004: James Stewart Jan.2005: Canadian Actors Feb. 2005: 31 Days of Oscar Mar. 2005: Claudette Colbert Apr. 2005: Errol Flynn May 2005: Orson Welles June 2005: Ingrid Bergman July 2005: Audrey Hepburn Aug. 2005: 3rd Summer Under the Stars (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept.2005: Greta Garbo Oct.2005: Robert Mitchum Nov.2005: Joan Fontaine Dec. 2005: Bing Crosby Jan. 2006: Robert Montgomery Feb.2006: 31 Days of Oscar Mar.2006: Nelson Eddy & Jeanette MacDonald Apr.2006: Deborah Kerr May 2006: Bette Davis June 2006: Anthony Quinn July 2006: Elizabeth Taylor Aug.2006: 4th Summer Under the Stars (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept.2006: William Holden Oct.2006: Child Stars Nov.2006: Lucille Ball Dec. 2006: Gary Cooper Jan.2007: Jean Arthur Feb.2007: 31 Days of Oscar Mar.2007: Gene Kelly Apr.2007: Rita Hayworth May 2007: John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn June 2007: Ida Lupino July 2007: Randolph Scott Aug.2007: 5th Summer Under the Stars (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept.2007: A Star is Born (starmaking/breakthrough performances) Oct.2007: Henry Fonda Nov.2007: Guest Programmer Month Dec.2007: Irene Dunne Jan.2008: James Cagney Feb.2008: 31 Days of Oscar Mar.2008: Acting Dynasties Apr.2008: Hedy Lamarr May 2008: Frank Sinatra June 2008: Sophia Loren July 2008: Rosalind Russell Aug.2008: 6th annual Summer Under the Stars (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept.2008: Kay Francis Oct.2008: Carole Lombard Nov.2008: Charles Laughton Dec. 2008: Joseph Cotten Jan. 2009: Jack Lemmon Feb. 2009: 31 Days of Oscar Mar. 2009: Ronald Reagan April 2009: Funny Ladies and 15th Anniversary May 2009: Sean Connery June 2009: Great Directors July 2009: Stewart Granger August 2009: Summer Under the Stars (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept. 2009: Claude Rains Oct. 2009: Leslie Caron Nov. 2009: Grace Kelly Dec. 2009: Humphrey Bogart Jan. 2010: “The Method” Feb. 2010: 31 Days of Oscar March 2010: Ginger Rogers April 2010: Robert Taylor May 2010: Donna Reed June 2010: Natalie Wood July 2010: Gregory Peck August 2010: Summer Under The Stars (SUTS) (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept. 2010: Vivien Leigh Oct. 2010: Fredric March Nov. 2010: Ava Gardner Dec. 2010: Mickey Rooney Jan. 2011: Peter Sellers Feb. 2011: 31 Days of Oscar March 2011: Jean Harlow April 2011: Ray Milland May 2011: Esther Williams June 2011: Jean Simmons July 2011: Singing Cowboys August 2011: Summer Under The Stars (SUTS) (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept. 2011: Kirk Douglas Oct. 2011: Buster Keaton Nov. 2011: Battle of the Blonds Dec. 2011: William Powell Jan. 2012: Angela Lansbury Feb. 2012: 31 Days of Oscar Mar. 2012: Karl Malden April 2012: Doris Day May 2012: Joel McCrea June 2012: Teen Idols July 2012: Leslie Howard August 2012: Summer Under The Stars (SUTS) (See bottom of page for complete list) Sept. 2012: Lauren Bacall Oct. 2012: Spencer Tracy Nov. 2012: Constance Bennett Dec. 2012: Barbara Stanwyck Jan. 2013: Loretta Young Feb. 2013: 31 Days of Oscar Mar. 2013: Greer Garson April 2013: Laurence Olivier May 2013: Tough Guys June 2013: Eleanor Parker July 2013: Paul Henreid August 2013: Summer Under The Stars (SUTS) (See bottom of page for complete list) September 2013: Kim Novak October 2013: Vincent Price November 2013: Burt Lancaster December 2013: Fred Astaire January 2014: Joan Crawford Feb. 2014: 31 Days of Oscar Mar. 2014: Mary Astor April 2014: John Wayne May 2014: June Allyson June 2014: Rock Hudson July 2014: Maureen O’Hara

If you want to know who will be a likely SOTM, just peruse the list of celebs who either participate at a TCM event (Cruise/Film Festival) or someone that might be close to death. God forbid that TCM would choose an actor/actress just because he/she was deserving. Here's a list of the "Special Guests" actors and actresses for the upcoming TCM Cruise in October: Shirley Jones Richard Dreyfuss Tab Hunter Ann Blyth Diane Baker Illeana Douglas How many times has Doris Day been SOTM?? 3?? 4?? Doris Day has been SOTM 3 times, in October of 1995, January of 2003, and April of 2012. She's had 5 SUTS days since that feature was launched in 2003: In 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, and again in 2013. And they haven't selected George Sanders yet?? Nope, not for SOTM or for a SUTS day. What is it about bubble gum movies that so fascinates these people, and yet leaves an accomplish actor with a terrific resume like Sanders out in the cold? Did he do something to offend someone at some point that we don't know about?

These folks were born in November 1914: Norman Lloyd (still living) Martin Balsam Robert Alda I sure hope we don't get the idea that 100th anniversaries obligate TCM to give SOTM honors to actors who otherwise would rate a SUTS day at best. The idea of giving a SOTM to any of these three while far more significant actors such as George Sanders and Susan Hayward still haven't gotten the call would be frankly hard to comprehend. Norman Lloyd's acting career lasted for twelve whole years before he was blacklisted, during which he averaged fewer than two films per year. Many of them would be worth making into a SUTS day, or even better an interview along with a day's worth of his films to be shown on his 100th birthday, but SOTM should be reserved either for genuine stars or secondary actors with a much longer repertory to choose among. And BTW that Maureen O'Hara interview must have shown about 10 times a day since the beginning of the month, or at least it sure seems like it. She was undoubtedly a star and seems like a very nice lady, but this really strikes me as overkill. I can't recall this level of saturation for any other actor or actress, living or otherwise.

I was going down the list of AFI all-time comedies, and they have The Graduate listed 9th. Now I like the movie, the music is great, it is sort of what many guys dream would happen. However, I am not sure if it is really that funny of a movie. As a drama it is great, but as a comedy I would rank a lot of movies over it. IMO The Graduate is closer to 9th Most Cringeworthy than 9th Best anything, but then we all have different tastes in comedy, and who's to say I'm right and the critics (or you) are wrong?. My taste in humor runs more along the lines of Bombshell and The Sheep Has Five Legs, but the larger point is that the AFI list is about as imaginative as a Hallmark Greeting Card. Make up your own mind about what you think is funny or serious or stupid, and you'll sleep a lot better at night.

My only problem with Tyrone Power is with the movies he was in, not with Power himself. When he was given a meaty role like Stan in Nightmare Alley or Leonard Vole in Witness For The Prosecution, he was terrific. But when your main point is to look pretty and dress up in some antiquated costume and do sword tricks, that can get old and tired pretty fast. THIS NOT THIS

Watching the studio-era films on TCM provides a sharp contrast with today's values. Even in the so-called pre-code era, almost all the movies ended with a wink and a pirouette, endorsing conventional values. Ah, the legacy of the rock-and-roll generation. I am afraid what we have gained is not liberation, but license. We still remain as immature a culture as we ever were, but have simply removed the repression and public censure. So heists don't have to fail, foul language is a part of normal discourse, and adulteresses don't have to die. But really, has human nature changed so much in that short span of years? Mmm, I think not. I think it has been chugging along as it always has as long as there were humans, with the same levels of lust, infidelity, generosity, greed, honesty, betrayal, selflessness, and the whole gamut human virtue and vice. Rather, it is the public morality we have draped it in that has changed, from the yards of heavy cloth of earlier times, to the tight-fitting and scanty covering we have today. All this is pretty obvious, but what's the point? That we should re-institute the production code of the Breen years? Or that we should all just dress more modestly and curse only in private?

And then go hitchhiking off with the tough chicks while Bobby goes on to visit his family? Rayette doing that wouldn't seem a little incongruous to you? He could have been sentenced to a lifetime monogamous marriage with Susan Anspach in a no-divorce state. That would've been a fitting punishment for his behavior in the diner. Correction, though: I should have said that Lorna Thayer should have conked him with the ketchup bottle, not Karen Black. It's been awhile since I've seen that godawful film, and I have no inclination to see it again in order to further refresh my memory.

I didn't say FIVE EASY PIECES had a warm and fuzzy ending. The only thing that could have redeemed Five Easy Pieces would have been if Karen Black had taken a glass ketchup bottle to Jack Nicholson's skull during that diner scene.

Sticking to movies that I know that TCM has already shown, but are relatively unknown to the general audience. Sorry, but since they're all subtitled, they're not too well suited for multitasking. Traffic in Souls (1913) A powerful early melodrama about a girl forced into prostitution The Penalty (1921) Lon Chaney as a cruel and legless cripple, out to avenge his maiming at the hands of a childhood doctor. Children of Paradise (1945) Words can't do it justice. One of the great international films of the postwar era. Germany: Year Zero (1948) A brutally honest cinematic depiction of the German homefront in the aftermath of V-E day.

That's great for you, but I watch TCM while working out. I think it's safe to say that you probably represent the smallest minority around here. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you might want to consider working out in front of your computer and watching any of the many pre-1963 B&W movies that TCM On Demand provides. That way you can have a big choice of the movies you like while you're powerpacking your abs, while at the same time not forcing everyone else to cater to your singular taste.

Has anyone truly enjoyed the daytime programing this summer? To me it has been lame starting with the whole week of John Wayne. Silent films, foreign silent films, musicals, one right after the other, I'm expecting a silent foreign musical any day now. Now that we know what you don't like, what do you want to see in its place? More swashbucklers? More noirs? More pre-codes? More sci-fi B-movies? More Clever White Man vs. Noble Savages spectaculars? C'mon, give us a hint.

I remember WAY "back in the day" that many "r e d n e c k s" felt that EASY RIDER had the best ending seen in any movie! It wasn't only r e d n e c k s who didn't mind seeing a pair of lowlife drug dealers meet a bloody and fiery ending. The enemy of my enemy isn't necessarily my friend, even if that's the message that this entire sorry movie was browbeating us with for 95 long minutes. Personally, I'd have to go along with IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Any movie in which the ending provides resolution and wrap-up of loose ends works for me... There may be movie endings as good as that one, but it's hard to think of any that were better.

Please try this URL I found: http://www.angelfire.../mn/nn/TCM.html Good link, but anyone who uses it should make sure to notice the small print, which indicates that it's geared to the Pacific Time Zone, where 14.1% of the U.S. population currently resides.

I forgot Ruby Dee and Estelle Parsons, both of whom I met and could see myself socializing with. Okay, cancel all my previous choices and substitute Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and Diana Sands. My late aunt knew Sands when she was starring in the Broadway version of The Owl and the Pussycat, and said she was a terrific and interesting person. And if I get a fourth choice, I'd make it Lorraine Hansberry, even though she was a playwright and writer rather than an actress. I'd begin by asking them all to start talking about one of Lorraine's final books before her tragic early death, and let the conversation flow from there.