Janet0312
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Posts posted by Janet0312
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Oh, I have got to see this!
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On 12/23/2020 at 5:33 PM, TomJH said:
San Antonio (1945)
The script may be routine but this handsome, grade "A" western, designed as a star vehicle for Errol Flynn, still entertains. It's not a film to be taken seriously for a second, with Flynn's performance establishing the production's light heartedness.
Flynn plays his role of a Texas cattleman out to get the bad guys who drove him out of the state with a lightness that tells its audience, "Relax, sit back and have a good time." If not Flynn at his best, he's pretty darned close to it in this production. The actor plays his scenes with a wink-in-the-eye, certainly in the earlier portions of the film.
He briefly strums a guitar while singing "I love you" to co-star John Litel, and soon afterward slides feet first into a stagecoach to introduce himself to leading lady Alexis Smith in a particularly delightful scene. Later the screenplay will have an angry Smith tossing pieces of pottery at him. Most of the vases will miss, with Flynn ducking out of the line of fire, before finally re-appearing with a piece of a broken vase sitting on top of his head. Maybe that bit is a little corny but, again, Flynn's performance sells it.
Yet, aside from the humour and charm that Flynn could bring to a film like this, he was also, above all, the foremost action "A" star of the Hollywood studio era, ably playing in westerns like this, as well as swashbucklers and war dramas. And in those films, while very much playing a man's man, he did so with, at least during his prime years before drink and drugs ruined his health, a remarkable grace. All of that is very much on display in San Antonio, the actor's most financially profitable film of the war years.
Aside from Flynn, Alexis Smith is also quite terrific here. Flynn's scenes with Smith always had more spark than with most of his other leading ladies. But Alexis also shines in a couple of lavish musical numbers in which she sings a song before a saloon full of cowboys, the highlight of these being "Some Sunday Morning" which became a popular hit at the time, a song that even made its way onto the soundtrack of a Bugs Bunny cartoon two years later, "Easter Yeggs." The crane shot of the Bella Union Saloon, slowly pulling back from the stage where girls are dancing to show what must have been a major casting call of cowboy extras filling the screen gives an indication as to why this film won an Oscar nomination for best art direction.
David Butler directs a particularly stylish gun fight in the street between Flynn and bad guy Tom Tyler, Tyler turning around after being shot and walking a few steps before collapsing dead. The chief bad guys in the film are ably played by Paul Kelly and Victor Francen while S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall is the film's chief comic relief as Smith's excitable manager. Many actors disliked working with Sakall because his language mangling would throw them off their cues but Flynn later wrote that he enjoyed working with the roly poly Hungarian, utilizing his services in two more films in his career after this one.
Outside of the gun fight with Tyler, San Antonio crams most of its action scenes into the film's final 20 minutes, with a massive saloon brawl (shades of the one featured in Flynn's Dodge City, though not quite so impressive), a gun fight within the shelled out walls of the Alamo, and a cross country horse chase followed by a fist fight. The final fist fight at the end is short and ends quite abruptly. But if that fight seems a little anti-climactic, that is, overall, only a minor disappointment.
A fun show, San Antonio further benefits from Max Steiner re-utilizing his earlier musical score from Dodge City. The epic sounding score works equally well with this production. Above all, though, this film remains a reminder of the remarkable combination of good looks, charismatic charm and athletic grace Errol Flynn possessed during his prime years as one of the great Hollywood stars.
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3 out of 4
Hokey smokes! That is one gorgeous picture of Errol! Be still my heart!
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I can't think of it, The Bad and...
I must have seen it. At any rate I love him in all his roles. I always look forward to watching anything he's in.
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The new format stinks.
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Anybody out there have any info on Gilbert Roland's career? I just watched him in an episode of Bonanza. He seems to have been active throughout his career, but I only know he was a major actor in the early talkies and then the next time I saw him was in Beneath the 12 Mile Reef. Quite a stretch.
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There were a lot of people left out. I was looking forward to this year's tribute, kept telling myself it was going to be a long one. But alas, it was not meant to be. I'm very disappointed.
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Well? Well?
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I must say that I am thoroughly disgusted with this year's tribute. I have been looking forward to a tribute all year long of so many of our heroes that passed away. I was assuming a fifteen minute tribute as this have been a year of many deaths of so many of our favorites. I found more info on that crummy MeTV channel about the deaths that I did on TCM.
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They just do movie actors? I didn't see Robert Conrad, Lyle Waggoner, Ken Osmond... And what about John Karlen???
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18 hours ago, midwestan said:
TCM Remembers (the 2020 edition) just aired right after the Laurel & Hardy film, "Battle of The Century" and just prior to the start of "Lilies of the Field". I caught it in the middle. Not crazy about the song selected for this year's tribute, but it might grow on me with subsequent views. As expected, Olivia de Havilland got the final images of this year's tribute. Alex Trebek made the cut too! I looked for it on YouTube to see if I could find out what the song was, but it hasn't been posted there yet.
How long does it run? It seems like we lost a lot of people this year. A lot.
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Don't forget Master's laundry.
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Andreas, you are a complete and utter fool...
There's a Stooges short where they are portraying Hitler types and Curly lists the vital installations that have been bombed, one of them being cemeteries. I think of this every time I watch Return of the Vampire because the bombers do indeed target the English cemeteries.
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You can find Moose and Squirrel episodes on TubeYou, but they don't fall in order. When one episode ends, it doesn't pick up on the next one and it's very frustrating.
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On 12/9/2020 at 11:43 AM, Sepiatone said:
The humor of ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE was on several levels. Some so obviously appealing to kids, and some for older individuals. For instance---
"Fractured Fairy Tales" using the story of Sleeping Beauty in which their prince charming was obviously drawn to resemble WALT DISNEY and who, when encountering the sleeping princess, sets up velvet ropes and starts selling tickets so people can walk by and view her!
All the puns used when naming the next episode in some adventure.....
In one "Mr. Know-It-All" segment, we see Bullwinkle relaxing in an easy chair, resplendent in smoking jacket talking about stereo components. And sounding quite intellectual---- With classical music pouring out of his system, he says something like; "Today's home stereo components offer an amazing level of quality sound reproduction technology.(then while turning it up) But did you also know you can TELL TIME with them?" Just then we hear Boris Badenov pounding on the door complaining, "Hey! TURN THAT DOWN! Is TWO A.M. "
Gotta love that stuff!
Sepiatone
Oh, most certainly an adult cartoon.
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On 12/8/2020 at 7:33 PM, Dargo said:
Sure, maybe there's no 'e' IN Tracy, but there sure are a heck of a lot of 'a's AROUND him in that pic of him up there, anyway!
Thank you.
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On 12/5/2020 at 7:42 PM, Dargo said:
Was Charles Boyer one of your dad's favorite actors too, Janet?
Nah. He liked Burt Lancaster, Spencer Tracey.
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Pepe le Pew was my father's favorite.
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2 minutes ago, Dargo said:
Yep, it's a still from the Marx Bros' Go West.
Go West. Don't put any ice in mine. It takes up too much room. Louisiana!
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2 minutes ago, txfilmfan said:
They are probably already edited by the distributor of the material. MeTV has a fairly small staff.
I have an idea that the folks at MeTV are expecting too much.
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1 minute ago, Dargo said:
Well, I guess you'd had had to be a big regular fan of Bugs' Saturday morning show like I was to have noticed it.
Know what I mean, Doc?!
(...err, I mean Janet?)
Hey, Dargo, is that gun made of licorice?
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If you want to take a lookeeloo at violence, check out Tweety's revenge on Sylvester. "Aw, poor Putty, his skin is all pink..."
"What's the matter, Puddy? Don't you like to play with the bears?"
"It was a terrible storm. The boat rocked and rocked..."
"*Aw, the poor putty tat is turning green.."
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7 minutes ago, Dargo said:
You might remember here Janet that many of the cartoons shown on the old Saturday morning The Bugs Bunny Show during the late-'60s and early-'70s were even then starting to have edits done to them, and primarily the scenes which depicted an immediate result of some violent interaction between two of the characters.
(...it was all part of the "Anti-Violence on TV" movement back then)
I don't really, Dargo Baby. I remember the powers that be said that the cartoons were too violent.
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Plenty of comments on MeTV that the cartoons will be edited for uh.... political content. I doubt they will be showing Speedy Gonzalez episodes for sure. We shall see.
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OMG! I had a Beanie Boy doll when I was a kid.
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
Once again subjected myself to Babes in Toyland, March of the Wooden Soldiers, whatever you want to call it and that hideous Mickey Mouse monkey thing. It creeps me out, but I find myself somehow drawn to it. The actor in the pussycat costume is okay, but that mouse creature just freaks me out!
I wonder how Stan Laurel hit his pee wees every time? How did he do that???