Janet0312
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Posts posted by Janet0312
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Just now, Janet0312 said:
I have to say my favorite film of hers is They Drive By Night. She most certainly should have won an Oscar for that role. She was amazing!!! Do you have her biography?
You know she directed a lot of TV shows in the 60's.
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2 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:
Me too. So far, I've only seen two of the films that she directed (The Hitch Hiker and The Bigamist), but both were excellent. I have all four of the films she directed in a box set. I really loved her in her two film noir with Robert Ryan (Beware My Lovely and On Dangerous Ground). She was amazing in The Hard Way with Joan Leslie, I want to watch that one again. I also loved her in Out of the Fog with John Garfield. And of course, she's fantastic in They Drive by Night. She's amazing and needs to be talked about a lot more. When I was younger, before I discovered all of Ida's films, I only knew her from her guest appearance on an episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour with Howard Duff. I thought she was very funny in this episode, but I had no idea who she was other than that she must have been someone who was "big at the time" when she made her guest appearance. How silly middle school me was. I'm very happy I've been able to see all these wonderful films that she made.
I have to say my favorite film of hers is They Drive By Night. She most certainly should have won an Oscar for that role. She was amazing!!! Do you have her biography?
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4 minutes ago, Janet0312 said:
Have a potato.
It's a famous quote from the movie.
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Just now, TopBilled said:
Yes, I will have to look at an episode or two on Hulu.
Interesting. Thanks for recommending it!
Have a potato.
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4 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:
I loved it too. I was surprised that they let Ida sing her own vocals. Her voice wasn't particularly strong, but it worked for her character who had a bit of a mystique surrounding her.
I adore Ida Lupino. She was terrific and one of the first woman directors.
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17 minutes ago, Janet0312 said:
Gee, Toppy, I figured yo to be around my age... wicked old.
I have to say that I am very disappointed that these series by Irwin Allen used the same monsters in all three or four shows. Lame. Just lame.
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As for The Old Dark House. Lord only knows who smuggled the film out of Universal's vault to do a full time restoration. It is indeed one of the spookiest films I have ever seen.
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4 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
I think the reason I stayed away from The Dick Van Dyke Show is because I associated Moore too much with her self-titled sitcom. And I associated Van Dyke with his Disney movies. To be honest, when I was a kid growing up in the 80s, The Dick Van Dyke Show was not in wide syndication like other classic shows. Nick at Nite was busy showing Lucy, Dennis the Menace, Ann Sothern, Bewitched, Green Acres and Beverly Hillbillies. Not Dick Van Dyke.
Another sitcom I didn't see during that time was The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet because it was being rerun in the 80s on the Disney Channel and we didn't get that channel. I didn't catch up with the Nelsons until the late 90s when I bought DVDs of special episodes at Circuit City or Best Buy.
Well, check it out sometime. MTM and DVD had some amazing dance routines, often playing the suburbanites. Often having parties at their home. It was supposed to be the happy family of the earlie 60's and boy oh boy, did they ever collapse when JFK was murdered. It simply devastated them all.
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2 minutes ago, Janet0312 said:
Wait. You've never see Dick Van Dyke??? The Old Dark House??? Ack!!! Where have you been hiding, man? I.. uh oh... I have to pee. The Old Dark House 32. I can't believe it. I...
Would you like to see the Dick Van Dyke show? It was a milestone in early television.
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1 hour ago, NoShear said:
"There's something out there - I just hope it didn't see us!"
For me, LOST peaked during the first episode(s) - not unlike its predecessor's child's play:
Gee, Toppy, I figured yo to be around my age... wicked old.
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5 hours ago, TopBilled said:
Okay fans (and naysayers) chime in...
Classic TV
I have never seen an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show
I have never seen an episode of Lost
I have never seen an episode of The West Wing
Classic film
I have never seen THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932)
I have never seen CAREFREE (1938)
I have never seen THE MEPHISTO WALTZ (1971)
I have never seen DEEP THROAT (1972)
I have never seen the original STAR WARS (1977)
I have never seen TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983)
I have never seen any of the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit movies
Wait. You've never see Dick Van Dyke??? The Old Dark House??? Ack!!! Where have you been hiding, man? I.. uh oh... I have to pee. The Old Dark House 32. I can't believe it. I...
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7 minutes ago, Janet0312 said:
I always thought that Tweety was pure evil to Sylvester. "Aw, the putty tat's skin in pink under his fur." "Aw, the poor putty tat is turning green again." "What's the matter, Putty, don't you like the big teddy bear?"
It was a terrible storm! The boat rocked and rocked. Up one wave and down another...
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I always thought that Tweety was pure evil to Sylvester. "Aw, the putty tat's skin in pink under his fur." "Aw, the poor putty tat is turning green again." "What's the matter, Putty, don't you like the big teddy bear?"
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Yes! Overture, hit the lights... I was thinking that the hosts would boggle down the show, but I was so happy to see that they didn't. I was even more surprised that I remembered the dialogue. Them's fightin' words! Yeah, them's fightin words! They had a myriad of Warner's characters. Road Runner and the Coyote, Tweety and Sylvester...
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5 hours ago, Det Jim McLeod said:
One of my favorite comedies of all time. I loved the porch swing sequence. As he tries to take a nap, he has to deal with annoying neighbors. There was the mother/daughter sing-song conversation as the daughter is being sent to the store. "I don't care!" "I don't care either! You tell me where to go and I'll go". Fields mutters "I d like to tell ya both where to go!"
The blind man scene was hysterically funny as the gags come rapid fire one after another as Fields tries his best to be polite to this blind man destroying his store. More laughs are supplied by a short tempered customer looking for "Cumquats!"
You've got that door closed again!
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2 hours ago, speedracer5 said:
Last night I had a double feature with two films that have absolutely nothing in common, other than they were both made in the 1940s and they were both first time watches for me.
Road House (1948)
Source: Personal Collection, Fox Film Noir Series #26 DVD
Ida Lupino plays nightclub singer, Lily Stevens, who is hired by Jefty (Richard Widmark), the proprietor of a small town "Road House." This road house seems to be a combination bar/bowling alley--definitely much tamer than Patrick Swayze's road house in Road House (1989). The most action that happens in this road house is when a big, fat drunk guy tries to grab Ida Lupino and he starts a massive one-sided bar brawl, culminating with Cornel Wilde beating him up and pinning him to the ground until the cops show up.
Anyway, it seems that Jefty recently took a trip to Chicago where he met Lily and offered her a position entertaining at his bar. It seems that Jefty has a history of traveling, getting drunk and then offering women jobs as "entertainers" at his club. Presumably, part of the job entails being Jefty's lover as well as the chanteuse at the club. Once Jefty tires of the woman, he tasks his manager, Pete (Cornel Wilde) to kick the women to the curb and accompany them back to the train station to send them away. Pete very understandably is tired of doing Jefty's dirty work, so when he sees "Lily, the new entertainer from Chicago," he is not pleased. To save time, he drives her to the train station and tries to pay her off, but Lily is not easily dissuaded and she stays in town.
We see Lily perform "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" while playing the piano. Her voice is very weak (Ida Lupino did her own singing), but it has an enchanting, mesmerizing quality about it. As cashier Susie (Celeste Holm) says, "She does more without a voice than anybody I've ever heard!" Lily is a sensation at the club. I think we're supposed to believe that part of the reason for Lily's success is that she dresses a little more provocatively than the other women in town. We hear constant comments from women saying things like: "My husband would never let me wear that!" or Pete telling Lily that she'll need to wear slacks for her bowling lesson. And a lot of other comments alluding to the idea that Lily's dresses are too revealing. Imo, her dresses are fine and they're cute. She seems to favor halter top necklines and one-strapped dresses. I loved that Lily continued to dress how she wanted. Personally, I loved her clothes and would wear them if I had Ida's figure and it wasn't 40-something degrees and raining.
Anyway, the main conflict in this film is that Jefty likes Lily, because "she's different than other women" (a theme repeated throughout the film). However, Pete and Lily find themselves falling for one another, much to the chagrin of Susie who seems like she either liked Pete too, or she was Pete's girl (but nothing serious) until Lily showed up. Anyway, the main conflict erupts when Jefty finds out about Pete and Lily's romance.
This film was very interesting and I liked how Pete and Lily's budding romance evolved. Richard Widmark plays another of his crazy characters, a part he does so well. I loved the ending of this film. It was very suspenseful and unexpected. Celeste Holm was fine. She seems to play the nice, amiable woman role pretty well. I love Ida Lupino. She is such a great actress and she was fantastic here as well.
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Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Source: TCM recording from yore
I know everyone has seen this one, but I hadn't until last night. In this film, Greer Garson stars as Kay Miniver, who is referred to often as "Mrs. Miniver." Mrs. Miniver is portrayed as a very kind, beautiful woman. She is very warm and welcoming and treats everyone the same across the board, regardless of class or status. She seems to be well liked by everyone in her English village, especially by James Ballard (Henry Travers), the local train engineer. He shows Kay a rose that he cultivated in his garden outside the train station--a beautiful red rose that he's named "Mrs. Miniver" in honor of Kay. He basically says that he named it after her because of the kindness that she shows him again and again when she visits his station.
Anyway, Kay along with her husband Clem (Walter Pidgeon) live in a beautiful estate named "Starlings," on the River Thames. Clem is also part of the River Patrol and is enlisted to help out in the Dunkirk evacuation at one point in the film. Kay and Clem live at the estate with their two young children. Their oldest son, Vincent aka "VIn" (Richard Ney) attends Oxford. He comes home as Germany's invasion into England is imminent during WWII. He announces his intention to enlist in the Royal Air Force because he wants to do his part. Kay of course doesn't want her son in the war, but knows that they're all in the fight with Germany together.
At the same time, Vin meets Carol Beldon (Teresa Wright), the granddaughter of the very wealthy Lady Beldon (Dame May Whitty). Lady Beldon is very much "old money" and resents the lower classes trying to acquire the same material possessions that she and her fellow rich folk enjoy. She basically doesn't want the middle class trying to be upper class. Anyway, there is a conflict when Vin and Carol fall in love and want to marry. Meanwhile, during all of this, Germany officially invades England and the Minivers are right in the midst of all the "action" (so to speak).
This was a heartbreaking film. I'm not one to cry at movies and I didn't at Mrs. Miniver, but I can see how someone would. There are so many emotional scenes, some tragic and some happy. The scene of the Minivers hunkered down inside of their shelter while bombs blasted all around them was very suspenseful and scary. I cannot even imagine being confined to this small little bunker while bombs are literally falling down all around you, shaking your shelter. I can just imagine how scary it would be knowing that you could possibly emerge from the shelter and your home is leveled to the ground. I thought the scene with Kay and the German soldier was very suspenseful and also showed the strength of Kay's character. She remains so stoic throughout the entire scene and throughout the film.
This was such a fantastic film. I loved it. I loved it so much in fact, that I bought the Blu Ray right after seeing it. I love wartime dramas and this is definitely one of the best. I wish I had seen it earlier. I also forgot how much I liked Greer Garson. I think I have a bunch of her films on my DVR that I'll need to prioritize.
I love Road House. I was singing the song, "Set 'Em Up Joe" at work one day and a coworker said, "That sounds like a barroom song."
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5 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
Hey, everybody! It's a new year, and for the third year in a row I'm going to try to provide a review of EVERY movie I watch during the year! My previous efforts have stalled for one reason or another fairly early on. In 2019, I had to economize, and cable TV seemed to be the one thing I could really do without, so I lived without TV or Wifi at home for four months. That made posting on here difficult, obviously, and I abandoned the project. And 2020 was the year all the movie theaters closed down, and I spent much the year wrapped up in some family crises, so I never really got going then, either. I'm going to try to stick with it this year.
Okay, so I will try to review each movie only once. If see North By Northwest five times this year, which is always a possibility, I'll only review it the first time. I haven't decided if I will acknowledge that I watched more than once. May be extraneous information. I'll give the title, studio, year of release, date I watched it and the source and hopefully a relatively brief and pithy review. I will try to acknowledge when it's the first time I've seen a movie. And I will try to provide an image from the poster or a still from the movie, although the last time I tried to do that, it seemed that imdb was no longer permitting copying and pasting images from its site, so I'm not sure how easy that will be anymore. Oh, yes, and I will keep a running tab of how many movies I've watched in 2021.
Here we go!
January 1 It's a Gift (Paramount, 1934)
Source: TCMAll I knew about WC Fields from childhood was "Go away, kid, ya bother me!" which was the one line my generation identified with him (Just like all I knew about Cary Grant before I became an adult was "Judy! Judy! Judy!", which he apparently never actually said). I was just never exposed to him anywhere until I became a TCM watcher. I see now he was of that sight gag humor milieu of the '30s/'40s that also characterized the Three Stooges shorts I watched as a child, as well as Abbott & Costello and Laurel & Hardy and others. This is the Fields film TCM shows most often. Probably because it doesn't have Stepin Fetchit in it. Sounds like Fields wrote all the gags himself, much like Stan Laurel, and the directors were just kind of along for the ride. I don't know if Fields ever did shorts. This movie could have easily been broken up into five or so shorts, as it tends to take one situation and just milk it for all it's worth.
So, Fields plays a New Jersey street corner grocery store owner who dreams of buying his own orange grove in California and gets the chance when his Uncle Bean (shown in a family portrait it appears as Fields with a fake moutstache) dies, and Fields takes a loan from the bank on speculation of the inheritance money he's about to receive. And so, it's a road trip for Fields and his constantly critical wife (some of the best scenes involve him sneaking out of the room while she's droning on), his cusp-of-adulthod daughter who's mooney-eyed over the earnest young man who sold Fields the property ( and now wants it back, realizing it was not as advertised) and his roller skating young son who seems to dote on his dad though he has an unfortunate habit of leaving his skates carelessly around the home (and guess who ends up stepping on them? The same gag as Tom Ewell in The Seven Year Itch).
Anyway, it's a mostly pleasant diversion. Some gags work better than others. Some are over in a second (love when the boy says "Look Pop I found an orange!" and hands Fields something that's more the size of a walnut). Some seem to go on way too long (they practically make a whole movie out of Fields' efforts to sleep on a porch swing when every force in the universe - including a seemingly sentient coconut and a blathering insurance salesman - are aligned against him). The best extended bit is admittedly very funny albeit not so PC anymore, as a blind customer destroys Field's store from top to bottom while trying to get some chewing gum. TCM did not feel the need to issue a warning about the insensitive portrayal of blind people prior to the movie, but that day is probably coming.
My childhood impression of Fields from that one line I knew was that he was a drunken misanthrope, but here he comes across as a pretty regular guy, just trying to get ahead in the world and do the best he can for his family, who mostly don't appreciate him. This film would have been made around the time of the great Okie migration, and I think there's a bit of class-conscious humor when the family drives onto a millionaire's estate thinking it's a public park (and immediately running over a Venus de Milo statue! Ha ha ha ha). It all breezes by in something like 71 minutes, and I laughed a lot.
I had to go to Google Images to get this. It seems to be impossible to do from imdb anymore, but admittedly I am pretty computer stupid. If someone knows how I can make these images smaller, I would like to learn that, too.
Total movies seen this year: 1
TCM did not feel the need to issue a warning about the insensitive portrayal of blind people prior to the movie, but that day is probably coming.
Oh, come on. Really?
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5 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
Hey, everybody! It's a new year, and for the third year in a row I'm going to try to provide a review of EVERY movie I watch during the year! My previous efforts have stalled for one reason or another fairly early on. In 2019, I had to economize, and cable TV seemed to be the one thing I could really do without, so I lived without TV or Wifi at home for four months. That made posting on here difficult, obviously, and I abandoned the project. And 2020 was the year all the movie theaters closed down, and I spent much the year wrapped up in some family crises, so I never really got going then, either. I'm going to try to stick with it this year.
Okay, so I will try to review each movie only once. If see North By Northwest five times this year, which is always a possibility, I'll only review it the first time. I haven't decided if I will acknowledge that I watched more than once. May be extraneous information. I'll give the title, studio, year of release, date I watched it and the source and hopefully a relatively brief and pithy review. I will try to acknowledge when it's the first time I've seen a movie. And I will try to provide an image from the poster or a still from the movie, although the last time I tried to do that, it seemed that imdb was no longer permitting copying and pasting images from its site, so I'm not sure how easy that will be anymore. Oh, yes, and I will keep a running tab of how many movies I've watched in 2021.
Here we go!
January 1 It's a Gift (Paramount, 1934)
Source: TCMAll I knew about WC Fields from childhood was "Go away, kid, ya bother me!" which was the one line my generation identified with him (Just like all I knew about Cary Grant before I became an adult was "Judy! Judy! Judy!", which he apparently never actually said). I was just never exposed to him anywhere until I became a TCM watcher. I see now he was of that sight gag humor milieu of the '30s/'40s that also characterized the Three Stooges shorts I watched as a child, as well as Abbott & Costello and Laurel & Hardy and others. This is the Fields film TCM shows most often. Probably because it doesn't have Stepin Fetchit in it. Sounds like Fields wrote all the gags himself, much like Stan Laurel, and the directors were just kind of along for the ride. I don't know if Fields ever did shorts. This movie could have easily been broken up into five or so shorts, as it tends to take one situation and just milk it for all it's worth.
So, Fields plays a New Jersey street corner grocery store owner who dreams of buying his own orange grove in California and gets the chance when his Uncle Bean (shown in a family portrait it appears as Fields with a fake moutstache) dies, and Fields takes a loan from the bank on speculation of the inheritance money he's about to receive. And so, it's a road trip for Fields and his constantly critical wife (some of the best scenes involve him sneaking out of the room while she's droning on), his cusp-of-adulthod daughter who's mooney-eyed over the earnest young man who sold Fields the property ( and now wants it back, realizing it was not as advertised) and his roller skating young son who seems to dote on his dad though he has an unfortunate habit of leaving his skates carelessly around the home (and guess who ends up stepping on them? The same gag as Tom Ewell in The Seven Year Itch).
Anyway, it's a mostly pleasant diversion. Some gags work better than others. Some are over in a second (love when the boy says "Look Pop I found an orange!" and hands Fields something that's more the size of a walnut). Some seem to go on way too long (they practically make a whole movie out of Fields' efforts to sleep on a porch swing when every force in the universe - including a seemingly sentient coconut and a blathering insurance salesman - are aligned against him). The best extended bit is admittedly very funny albeit not so PC anymore, as a blind customer destroys Field's store from top to bottom while trying to get some chewing gum. TCM did not feel the need to issue a warning about the insensitive portrayal of blind people prior to the movie, but that day is probably coming.
My childhood impression of Fields from that one line I knew was that he was a drunken misanthrope, but here he comes across as a pretty regular guy, just trying to get ahead in the world and do the best he can for his family, who mostly don't appreciate him. This film would have been made around the time of the great Okie migration, and I think there's a bit of class-conscious humor when the family drives onto a millionaire's estate thinking it's a public park (and immediately running over a Venus de Milo statue! Ha ha ha ha). It all breezes by in something like 71 minutes, and I laughed a lot.
I had to go to Google Images to get this. It seems to be impossible to do from imdb anymore, but admittedly I am pretty computer stupid. If someone knows how I can make these images smaller, I would like to learn that, too.
Total movies seen this year: 1
Well, that goodness somebody here mentioned this film, one of the most hilarious films on the planet.
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This year's tribute stinks. I'm very disappointed. Go to MeTV if you want to see some of the television personalities that have passed away this year.
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Watching The Thin Man series this morning. Take a lookeeloo at the actors. Every one of them has their own personality. That's one difference between today's movie stars. These days everybody looks alike, or so they seem to. You think we'll ever come across another actor like Ed Brophy? Or anyone else from the olden days?
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I don't know what to say. I feel insulted. I don't go to the movies anymore. I have no idea who the latest and greatest actors of today are and I really don't care. I do like Johnny Depp as Ed Wood. I like Tom Hanks in That Thing You Do. Robert Downy Jr was great as Chaplin. But I find myself looking forward more so to an adventure with Ma and Pa Kettle than with any of the movies you've mentioned. Sorry. But that's just me.
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On 9/14/2020 at 12:45 PM, MovieCollectorOH said:
End titles for some kind of tragic drama. An entire town gets wiped out or something.
My cousin over in Sweden says ABBA is still a most popular band.
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On 9/14/2020 at 12:38 PM, MovieCollectorOH said:
This one is for any number of Interstate road travel movies out there.
Man, I could go for a road trip right about now... 😁
Now you're talking my language.
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17 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
In the interview I posted, she talks about getting pulled over by a cop in Idaho and arrested for having marijuana in the vehicle. But apparently it was a rental (a van I think she said) and she claimed that someone who had used the vehicle before her had left the drugs in it.
Not sure if I believed that but the way she tells the story, it's kind of interesting...and she said the tabloids raked her over the coals for it, because sweet innocent Maryann getting arrested for drugs was newsworthy. On a serious note, she said that arrest had a consequence since it tarnished her reputation for awhile. She did a lot of public speaking events and would talk to young girls who looked up to her as a positive role model.
Yes. Of course they would do that. Seeing her do promos on MeTv - I had no idea she was in her eighties. She looked wonderful. Vivacious still.
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I've never watched these...should it be a New Year's resolution to watch these in 2021?
in General Discussions
Posted
A quote from Melvyn Douglas. Where is that film person... The one who knows everything Universal? Oh, phooey, I can't stand not remembering names!