JamesJazGuitar
-
Posts
35,217 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
52
Posts posted by JamesJazGuitar
-
-
So how many movies made before 1954 would make your top 100 list?
-
I found this comment 'strange': SOTM is not in the same class at all.
Yea, I agree but you appear to imply that SOTM is in a lower class than SUTS.
SOTM features a lot more movies for a specific star than SUTS. At least 4 days (sometimes 5) for a star (yea, not an entire 24 hours), while SUTS is one day and of course there are 31 others being featured.
Powell is one of my favorite actors but it has nothing to do with 'deserves a day'. There are only 12 SOTM per year and Powell was one of those 12. To me that is a higher honor than 1 in 31.
-
As I said related to the Top 100 AFI movie listing, the key to a person's list is what movies have they seen.
Take a list with NO movies before 1954; How many movies made before 1954 has that person seen?
In other words did that person see at least a thousand movies made before 1954 and decide NONE of those were in their top 50 OR have they seen very few and this is why there are no movies before 1954? Big difference in how one would judge (interpet really) a top 50 listing. (e.g. mine wouldn't have many foreign films but only because I'm not very knowledgeable about those (expect the Gabin ones thanks to TCM!).
-
Great info on Joan. Thanks for posting this. I have a book called The Leading Ladies. It features 6 actress; Davis, Crawford, Stanwyck, DeHaviland, Russell and Blondell.
The into tells us the book wasn't about the so called greatest actresses (e.g. Kate Hepburn would likly be in that top 6 for most critics), but actresses that represent a spectrum of stars. But Blondell does stand out in this group. One can say that she never was the lead star in a great movie. She even puts down her own career, but to me she is special.
-
I have a specific legal question here; If someone takes public domain material and restores it, can they copyright the restored version? I assume the answer is yes.
So anyone selling that restored version is using copywritten material even if the original source material is in the public domain. I assume that is what is going on here, but it would be interesting to know if that is actually the case.
Edited by: jamesjazzguitar on Aug 18, 2012 4:07 PM
-
Well how creditable can someone be when they complain about a star not being in SUTS when that same star was SOTM less than a year ago.
It would interest me to know what TCM uses as the criteria for both SUTS and SOTM. For example, Kate Hepburn or James Cagney in SUTS. These two major stars are shown often since they have been in so many films with so many other actors; e.g. If Tracy is featured Kate will be also (to some degree). Note that when Blondell was featured a while back so was Cagney.
So to me SOTM is more for 'major' stars (but of course what is major to some might be minor to others), while SUTS should be reserved more for what I call 2nd level stars and supporting players that left a mark.
-
Andy; I'm in agreement with you. In fact, I would rate Elvis as the most disappointing 'artist' of the 20th century. i.e. the person that started out with the most potential that ended up being the biggest flop.
I don't think Elvis improved in any area as time went on. e.g. he could of become a better musician. he could of become a songwriter (gee even Madonna improved her guitar playing and songwriting ability over the decades). Then there are his movies. Yea, many (most), artist sell out to some degree and produce 'crap' just to make a buck, but they also produce material that shows how they have grown as an artist. Not from Elvis. What a waste of talent.
-
With regards to Elvis; I just can't take him as a serious artist, especially after the early 60s. Note that while other musicians started off as commercial sell outs (e.g. The Beatles), as they matured they took more control over what they produced NOT less.
I look at Elvis and his silly movies and his concert performances where he is dress liked a clown. If he didn't wish to do these things he should of found a way to complete the terms of his contract and than be independent. Yea, it is easy to put all the blame on the Parker, but that is only half the story.
-
Gish plays Mrs. Smith. But yea, this isn't a movie I would show to highlight Gish.
-
",,that feels manipulative to me". Yes, much of City For Conquest is about stirring emotions with a somewhat over the top plot. Take the last scene; One can either 'buy into' the manipulation and thus be filled with a lot of emotion or laugh at how over the top the dialog is in that scene. Add to this the Max Steiner music and yea, that is manipulation. But in some ways that is manipulation as an art form.
Take a movie like Casablanca and the line 'is that cannon fire or my heart beating'. Who would ever say thus a thing? That line is corny and way over the top, but in the context of the scene it, like a lot of the dialog in the movie, stirs the emotions the screenwriter intended.
-
I like this statement: ,,,,are the product of strictly independent judgments and not a slight case of the herd mentality.
To me the first question I would ask someone that is voting is what movies they have seen. Andy mentions a post WWII German movie. I'll admit I have seen maybe 1 or 2 German movies. If question is 'what are the top 100 movies of all time, from all countries', than I would say very few people are qualified to vote. One would have to spend at least 20,000 hours or more viewing all of these movies, taking notes and reviewing these notes to come up with a top 100 list.
But even if the question was 'what are the top 100 English language movies (mainly US and British releases), that would still thousands of hours. So my point is that most of us are not qualified to vote when the scope of the question is so wide.
The question that is really being answered here is: What are the top 100 movies based on the movies you have seen.
Note that while I love to play the 'what is the top XX' list game, I feel it is more useful is the category is narrow instead of wide open; e.g. what are the top 10 US comedies of the 30s. (of course this raises other questions like 'well define what is a comedy!!!).
-
Tom: While I like the movie Cagney is too old for the role and to me it shows. Being unmarried to Peggy, being a boxer, still trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life; These are things, especially back in the 30 40 for someone under the age of 30. Not a guy that just turned 40.
Yea, Cagney pulls it off mostly but still someone like Flynn would of been better for Warner to cast in that role.
-
I made a typo; Yes, 1899. If I remember correctly I believe it was a very minor injury, but a WC claim was filed. I had a copy of the bill but once the President of our small company found out (because I told him), he made me destroy that copy because of medical privacy concerns.
I managed a data base that contained many of the medical treatments. I would search this to look up injuries from time to time. Others that came to mind was when Bing Crosby fell off a stage, Jane Fonda hurt while making CountDown, and Stella Stevens was poked by a spring while making a commercial for a mattress company (the description of that injury was a hoot).
The most interesting thing I found was the basketball player Magic Johnson. I knew about his HIV case before his press conference since I was a major Lakers fan and used to search for the players just to confirm if the press releases about a player's injury matched the actual medical treatments they were getting. This was before the medical privacy standards were imposed (mainly due to protect AID patients). Now that info is encrypted.
-
Tom, I tend to agree with Deb comments expect about Gary Cooper. There are so many movies with Cooper in them that I really love. It think we was good in comedy, but of course mostly playing the straight man with a 'true' comic star like Arthur or Stanwyck. The exception being Along Came Jones which is a 'camp' film in many ways.
Then in dramas he really moves me. Pride of the Yankees, Sergeant York, as well as his westerns.
-
Tom, like you I love those pre-code Cagney movies. Yea, one can find faults in them if that is what one wishes to do. They are clearly 'programmers' but they are also a hoot. Packed full of fun and action in around 80 minutes or so.
Here is a funny personal story; About 30 years ago I was writing software for the workers comp medical billing industry. Well QA came to me and said there was a bug with how the software was deriving a claimant's age. NO WAY I said! Well they showed me the medical billing.
The claimant's data of birth was 1899 and since I only stored the last two bytes of the year (99), it computed an age that was negative! Well I felt 'that DOB must be wrong'. I looked at the claimant's name; It was James Cagney. It had a description and it indicated he was injured while working on RagTime. It wasn't until we converted the software to be Y2K compliant that I fixed this bug.
Edited by: jamesjazzguitar on Aug 14, 2012 3:01 PM
-
I find it interesting you site The Strawberry Blonde as a movie where Cagney gets the girl. The girl he was trying to get was Rita Hayworth. That was at the center of the plot. He failed at that and ends up with Olivia De Haviland. It really wasn't until the end of the movie that Cagney's character realizes he got the right (best), gal.
That movie changed my view as it relates to romance. Like the Cagney character I was always chasing the Hayworth type of gal. Most of the time I failed but when I was successfull the relationship wasn't since the gal was way too selfish, self-centered and controling. After seeing this movie I decided to try to find my Olivia, and I did!
-
My favorite Eric Blore scene is the bird calling one in It's Love I'm After. A very funny comedy with Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Olivia DeHaviland.
-
Well to some Vertigo is a highly political movie because it is set in San Francisco. Just saying the name of that city can get under some people's skin!
-
Yes, ranking the 6 Thin Man movies is like splitting hairs. I would also rank After The Thin Man as the 'best', due to having Steward, the studio having a better idea of what to showcase and increased production values. I rank Another Thin Man and Thin Man Goes Home as the two weakest efforts.
I really enjoy Shadow of the Thin Man for the reasons noted but I rank Song of the Thin Man just a little bit higher since it has Gloria Grahame which increases the noir vibe, as well as the the jazz music theme of the movie.
-
Nice to see someone give Fashions of 1934 credit. Davis is low key in this film with William Powell being the star here. This film did lead to Davis saying she would never let the studio dictate her look.
-
Yes, but the discussion is about the restored 1929 version that of course didn't star Bette Davis.
-
The 1929 version has been show before?
The Bette Davis 1940 version is shown a lot but I don't remember seeing the 1929 one.
8:45 The Letter (1929)
Edited by: jamesjazzguitar on Jul 23, 2012 10:12 PM
-
I believe I read somewhere that Burr got injured and so they had others, like Davis, fill in for him. Thus I believe this went on for a few weeks in a row until Burr was well enough to return.
-
The painting of Gene Tierney from the film Laura.
SUTS actor/actress frequency lists
in General Discussions
Posted
I do see your point about the 8:00 PM start, but hey I'm on the west coast so a 5:00 PM start works well for me. With SUTS, and me being a working man, I miss more than half the movies because they start at 3:00 AM EDT.
I'm also bias towards SOTM because my favorite actor, Leslie Howard was the last SOTM in July. 33 of his movies shown that month (over 5 Tuesdays).