JarrodMcDonald
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Posts posted by JarrodMcDonald
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Interesting. Her voice is one of the things I like best about her. It sounds like a singer's voice (and a smoker's voice). Bing Crosby and Doris Day also have interesting speaking voices because they use their vocal cords so much for singing, it textures it more than other actors.
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My favorite part is the end. And I mean that seriously AND sarcastically. I think the end of the film is interesting...but I am also glad, after 65 minutes of suffering through it, that it's over. LOL
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I also think these films would be fun for a thematic viewing:
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?
HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE
LADY IN A CAGE
DIE! DIE! MY DARLING
We have Joan, Bette, Olivia and Tallulah all turning in some interesting performances.
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You could do a trio of films consisting of FRANKENSTEIN, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. All in the horror family.
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Those are great pictures. It's fun to see the generations of an acting family through the years.
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Someone posted a comment on the database for THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X and said Bogey was being punished. Apparently, there had been a public incident between him and his third wife Mayo. I don't know how true that is. This film and another one, SWING YOUR LADY, were the two that Bogey regarded as his worst.
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There weren't any mulatto actresses at that time, at least none in Hollywood.
I feel that PINKY should be remade...some films are redone to cash in on a past success...but I feel this film especially should be remade, so that it is finally done correctly. They need to get a real-life mulatto to do the role. The difficulty will come in finding supporting actresses that can match the two Ethels of the original (Barrymore & Waters), since they were superb.
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I do like Stewart and Allyson...they are a very appealing screen couple. THE STRATTON STORY, THE GLENN MILLER STORY, and STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND were all very good.
Cary & Roz only made one film together...I don't think most people realize that. I often wonder why they did not team again, and my guess is that she had such a strong A game it intimidated him. She matches him every step of the way and actually has more screen time than he does...he's absent for about 25 minutes in the middle of the film. She's the star of HIS GIRL FRIDAY.
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I have not seen THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X, but I read that the role was punishment. Apparently, he had done something the brass at Warners didn't like. So they purposely miscast him. Thank goodness it didn't ruin his career! (The role was originally intended for Lugosi, which makes sense.)
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Perkins sort of becomes a caricature of himself as he career goes on in Hollywood. He is certainly not a romantic lead. I like his work though...I think he's interesting, especially in films like THE TRIAL and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.
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Oh great...can't wait!
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I think that people like Julie Harris had to excel at their craft just to be taken seriously in Hollywood. She did not make films for awhile after EAST OF EDEN. She just didn't have the look they wanted.
Bogart was definitely not a Cary Grant in the looks department, and look at EGR, he was rather short and was typecast as "LITTLE" CAESAR for a large part of his career (but he certainly cashed in).
If we had THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC going into production now with the same actors as they had in 1956, by today's standards, Judy would be kept in the lead, Bill Holden would be brought on as her romantic costar and Paul Douglas would still be used, but bumped into one of the executive roles.
Also, by today's standards, Cary Grant would be Myrna Loy's costar in CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, not Clifton Webb. In fact, I don't think Clifton Webb would have a film career at all in today's Hollywood. He would be considered too effeminate and certainly could not be used in gangster films or westerns. He is sort of an anomaly.
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YOU'VE GOT MAIL. There's one. LOL
I like A LETTER TO THREE WIVES, done as a remake with emails. Great idea!
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When I watched THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC, one of my thoughts was: if this was remade today, who would they cast? Maybe because I was thinking of the film TWO WEEKS NOTICE, I immediately thought of Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. And honestly, I think that is who they really would cast in a remake. An actor like Paul Douglas would not get a lead role in today's Hollywood. Neither would Ernest Borgnine. You have to be a pretty boy, young or old, to star in a picture today. You cannot have average looks. You're stuck in supporting roles if you are an average looker.
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Interesting the way some ideas get reworked and refilmed in Hollywood. But Ford is a great director.
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I think THE HOSPITAL starring George C. Scott is another good one for those considering the medical profession. An interesting film!
Those considering a life of crime may want to check out THE GODFATHER or GOODFELLAS.
I don't know if there's a good movie for internet posters.
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Yes, not everyone is going to be a Liz Taylor, a Sue Lyon, a Brigitte Bardot or a Capucine.
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I think NORTH BY NORTHWEST gets played a lot because of Hitchcock, Saint, Grant and Herrman. It's also a very interesting film. But it is not any better, in my opinion, than THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.
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Thanks...forgot all about them.
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Yes...and some make a mark, like Patrick Wayne did or Lucie Arnaz did, but they come nowhere close to being as successful as their famous parents.
I forgot to mention the Mitchum acting dynasty: Robert, James, Christopher, Bentley, Carrie, John, Kian
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Good example...I think Ernest Borgnine and Paul Douglas are part of that group I call 'lead-character actors.' But they are not romantic leads. I think THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC should've been a reteaming of Judy Holliday and William Holden.
Julie Harris is another 'lead character actor.' She is so frigid in THE HAUNTING. She was no ingenue, but a great actress.
I like your suggestion about Hedy as PINKY, but Lena Horne would've been the best choice.
Clifton Webb's real-life sexuality is alluded to in SITTING PRETTY. It is suggested that he is carrying on with another man in suburbia and that is where he gets all of his gossipy tidbits. It is very much implied. When TV actor Christopher Hewitt did 'MR. BELVEDERE,' he was heterosexual and gets married in the final episode.
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She would be an interesting choice. I think Sally Field would be another good choice, too.
I thought of another Hollywood family: Robert Montgomery and his daughter Elizabeth.
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As for gay actors not coming off believable in a straight role, I have to mention Clifton Webb in CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN. I don't buy him as Myrna Loy's husband. It should've been Clark Gable in the role, or Spencer Tracy. Webb's a great comic actor, but it's best when he's more sexually ambiguous like in SITTING PRETTY.
Paul Douglas in THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC is not convincing as a romantic lead. He's a darn good actor, but he's no romantic lead. In THE MATING GAME he works with Una Merkel, but they are supporting the movie's true leads (Debbie Reynolds and Tony Randall). The only time Douglas is believable as a romantic lead is in CLASH BY NIGHT, but even then, we know that Barbara Stanwyck's character does not truly desire him, her passion is instead saved up for Robert Ryan.
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Sometimes they seem too young in the part. I think Geraldine Page is great in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, but she was only 38 in real life and still possessed beauty, so I didn't buy her being a washed up movie has-been. But when Liz Taylor did a TV movie version in the 80s, she definitely looked the part of a fast-aging former ingenue.
Jeanne Crain in PINKY definitely comes to mind with regards to the wrong ethnicity. She is of Irish descent, and her eyes, hair and bone structure do not resemble a half-African mulatto at all. Even the black-and-white cinematography cannot conceal the fact that her physicality is all wrong for the part. Linda Darnell and Gene Tierney had also been considered by Zanuck and they would've been miscast, too.
Now Susan Kohner as the black daughter in the remake of IMITATION OF LIFE is not exactly the right ethnicity either. But somehow she's a bit more convincing than Crain.
Inability to sing: I've mentioned Audrey in MY FAIR LADY. It seems like Barbara Stanwyck is dubbed at the beginning of BALL OF FIRE. Lucille Ball was often dubbed, especially in SORROWFUL JONES where she has a number near the beginning of the film and the singing voice seems much higher than her natural low-sounding speaking voice. (I think Ball does her own singing in THE LONG LONG TRAILER and she does seem a bit off-key.)
Lack of chemistry: sometimes this happens if one of the actors is gay in real life and they have to do a straight love scene.
Technique: I like Errol Flynn in THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH & ESSEX, but I think that compared to Bette Davis, he lacks technique. His physicality is perfect for the role, so he is not entirely miscast. More rehearsal and more helpful direction might've improved his technique in this early film.
Not attractive enough: I don't think Brian Donlevy is enough of a romantic lead to be the lover of Anna Lee in HANGMEN ALSO DIE. Donlevy was better in character parts or in supporting roles. Dane Clark is another one. He's a great actor and his style was compared to his real-life friend John Garfield, but he did not have the type of romantic leading man looks that Garfield had. Maybe this is the reason Clark's lead roles were in B-pictures, not A-pictures.
Slumming: I think Vanessa Redgrave slums a lot, for money. I don't expect to find her in a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie, but there she is. She also did a cheesy made for TV movie about the mob costarring Kirstie Alley. It seemed beneath her. But when she does roles like the one in HOWARDS END or in JULIA, she is right where she belongs.
HOLLYWOOD FAMILIES
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We also mustn't forget that through films and TV seasons, there were several generations of our beloved LASSIE on screen.