MyFavoriteFilms
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> I think John Huston broke his mold when he made his two best films: *Wise Blood* and *The Dead*. Look closely at these two films -- John Ford could have made them. Wise Blood opens like The Grapes of Wrath; The Dead is a John Ford film throughout, but most notably when Aunt Julia is singing "Arrayed for the Bridal" by Bellini as the camera roams around the house, stopping for a moment here and there on personal effects and family keepsakes. It's very much like the scene when Doc Holliday's girlfriend looks around his room, as "My Darling Clementine" is played in the background; or like Jane Darwell going through her stuff to the strains of "Red River Valley".
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> I think John Huston was at his best when he was in his John Ford mode.
Excellent post! I could not agree more.
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Wellman's style in TRACK OF THE CAT almost seems to foreshadow Kubrick's later work, in terms of color and mood.
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I went to film school with Sophia Loren's son and with Frank Sinatra's granddaughter. In fact, she and I made some student films together...I told my mom about this, and at Christmas, my mom sent me a CD with Sinatra singing some Christmas carols. One of the songs is sung to his granddaughter (from like 20 years earlier, when she was a newborn), and that was a lot of fun to hear it. She also sang and like Old Blue Eyes and her mom, Nancy, she had a great voice but her band did not take off. She works in animation now.
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Let me get back to you, mw...probably next month when there are more family-themed and spiritually uplifting films before Christmas, this will get me working on a more comprehensive list for you. LOL
I am sorry that PLEASANTVILLE strikes me as DULLSVILLE. We can't like every movie now, can we?
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I like the new intro also. It seems shorter than the others. Maybe by a few seconds? And it seems simpler and more focused on the elements of storytelling. _Much_ better than the other intros.
P.S. I noticed that most of the images in this new intro are from MGM, Warners and RKO films. Why don't they just admit it's a Time Warner Movie Channel, like Fox has their own.
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That doesn't mean we remember Wright less because of show biz politics that may've prevented her from getting cast in the film production.
Here is what I have gleaned about the genesis and evolution of The Miracle Worker:
Teresa Wright (Anne) appeared with Patty McCormack (Helen) in the TV version. It was so successful that it was then adapted into a play. (Usually it's the other way around with a playwright adapting his or her stage play into a television or motion picture production.) It went on the road with Bancroft and Patty Duke, eventually reaching Broadway and logging over 700 performances. Bancroft left before the end of the run, but Duke remained. Bancroft was replaced by Suzanne Pleshette.
When it was adapted into a feature film, Bancroft reclaimed the role and of course, Duke was cast, earning them both Oscars. My guess is that so many people had seen Bancroft play Anne Sullivan on stage that she had become more identified in the role than either Teresa Wright and Suzanne Pleshette.
Also, Patricia Neal portrayed Helen's mother in the stage version, to acclaim. But she was replaced by Inga Swenson in the 62 film version.
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I don't know...Bancroft is good, but I think Wright was worthy of being given the assignment. The TV version was done for Playhouse 90. I don't know if a kinescope of it survives...I hope so.
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Not to sound like a Debbie downer or a negative Nancy, but I think PLEASANTVILLE comes across as giving a trite message. Better films have delivered the same message in a better way. What I really dislike about the film is that it seems the director is giving us a lab experiment and that he's just manipulating the art design in order to make a 'grand' cinematic experience.
I have the same problem with MAGNOLIA, which I happen to like. I think the performances in MAGNOLIA are stellar: Jason Robards, Julianne Moore and a shocking Tom Cruise. But the sequence where the frogs come falling down out of the sky seems too technically manipulated. It takes me out of the film and causes me to inspect the technique too much. A good film should not draw attention to its craftsmanship like that.
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Disney and Mickey were certainly blazing the trail. LOL
I haven't seen IRENE yet, but I do have it recorded. Now I am eager to look at it. Thanks.
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Teresa still continued to get good roles in many prestige films and big budget productions. More people should remember these:
- She earned an Emmy nomination for playing Anne Sullivan in The Miracle Worker on TV in the late 50s, before Anne Bancroft essayed the role in the Arthur Penn film.
- She played the lead in the influential cult favorite THE SEARCH FOR BRIDEY MURPHY.
- Richard Brooks cast her in 1969's THE HAPPY ENDING (it airs on TCM).
- She was top-billed in Merchant Ivory's ROSELAND in the 70s.
- She is fourth billed in the classic 1980 tearjerker SOMEWHERE IN TIME.
- She had a plum role in the Mickey Rooney telefilm Bill: On His Own.
- She plays the grandmother in Diane Keaton's film THE GOOD MOTHER.
- And Francis Coppola and Michael Douglas gave her a sweet little character part at the tail end of her career for THE RAINMAKER in 1997.
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Good point. The major difference is that it's more blatant (shameless?) now.
Universal hit on the formula in the late 30s with Deanna Durbin and continued with others like Gloria Jean. David Selznick signed an adolescent Shirley Temple to his independent production company in the 40s.
L.B. Mayer also recognized the potential value of signing juvenile leads (male and female): Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Jane Powell, Robert Stack, Liz Taylor, Peter Lawford, etc.
Producers knew that there was a big market with teens (okay, Arturo, so when did the term 'teenager' come into vogue? LOL).
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I meant to mention another title, produced at the end of the 70s disaster craze...this one hit theatres in early 1980 and was about an erupting volcano on a resort island. It was the last major disaster flick produced by Irwin Allen.
Supposedly, there was a battle over billing between Paul Newman and William Holden (Newman won, and Holden was eventually third-billed). It flopped at the box office, but like THE SWARM it has become a cult favorite and has been given a DVD release.
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Well, THE BISHOP'S WIFE is on DVD...so one doesn't have to rely solely on TCM to view it. It is nice, however, to have it seen on this channel.
I enjoyed Penny Marshall's remake with an African American cast, THE PREACHER'S WIFE. Loretta Young is a better actress, but Whitney Houston's musical scenes are must-see and give the remake a special quality.
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Yes, and I think the films I mentioned in the original post about biological warfare will prove to be just as prophetic, unfortunately.
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Yes, there's a reason PLEASANTVILLE made a paltry sum at the box office. It appears that the people who liked it really liked it. But for many viewers, it failed to connect.
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One of the drawbacks of spending a night showing films for Don Knotts is that all his titles are out on DVD. And we could apply this to other stars who get evening spotlights, like Teresa Wright...all the films they screened for her are commercially available.
It would be nice if they were spending more time helping to get those obscure classics out of the vaults at Fox, Universal, Paramount, etc.
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Top billing for a cameo role?
Well, Dreyfus must either have a good agent or he's related to the producer/director. LOL
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I love all of these:
*PETER O'TOOLE & KATHARINE HEPBURN...THE LION IN WINTER*
*RICHARD BURTON & ELIZABETH TAYLOR...THE TAMING OF THE SHREW*
*JOAN CRAWFORD & BETTE DAVIS...WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?*
jane[/i]costumes.jpg]
*SYLVESTER STALLONE VS. DOLPH LUNDGREN...ROCKY IV*
*RICARDO MONTALBAN VS. WILLIAM SHATNER...STAR TREK II*
*KATHLEEN TURNER & MICHAEL DOUGLAS...THE WAR OF THE ROSES*
*ANNE BANCROFT & SHIRLEY MACLAINE...THE TURNING POINT*
*SPENCER TRACY VS. FREDRIC MARCH...INHERIT THE WIND*
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I haven't seen TRACK OF THE CAT. She and Mitchum, of course, made the earlier film PURSUED.
I want to see her with Brando in his motion picture debut:
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It seems PLEASANTVILLE wasn't the first film to feature black-and-white and color in the same shot.
Otto Preminger's TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME, JUNIE MOON is a much earlier example of this technique, from 1970. In scenes where Ken Howard is having epileptic seizures, the rest of the shot is in a surreal type black-and-white while he remains in color, wearing a yellow and red striped shirt. The yellow of the clothing and his naturally blonde hair really stand out in these shots when contrasted with the stark b&w that surrounds him. The film aired today on Flix and will be rebroadcast several more times in the week ahead.
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But I think that many of the terms you are mentioning were begun later, and applied retroactively as well.
For instance, movies in the 30s and 40s were never called soap operas...that was used to describe radio dramas and later, to describe television dramas, geared toward the female consumer. The phrase Women's Melodrama seems very academic to me and was probably developed by film critics and first used extensively by film school professors.
I would say (and it's just a guess) that studio bosses called them simply, Womens Pictures. Everything was 'Picture' back in those days. War Picture. Monster Picture. Womens Picture. Etc.
Today, we use many terms interchangeably. I don't think we need to have a hissy fit about calling an old movie a chick flick.
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Someone said she had problems with Sam Goldwyn (he had her under contract in the 40s). But even after her days with Goldwyn, she kept going. ESCAPADE IN JAPAN was for RKO right before it went defunct in the late 50s. And she turned to TV, like so many others, and worked rather frequently on the small screen. But she would occasionally appear in big screen releases. Her career spanned many years.
Her legacy tends to be defined by those first few years with Goldwyn. He did provide her with some of her greatest vehicles and most well-known roles.
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I am down to three Harlow movies I have not seen...after tomorrow and RED HEADED WOMAN, it will be two: GIRL FROM MISSOURI and SARATOGA...why doesn't TCM ever show those? It frustrates me. LOL
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That's possible. He probably was reacting. The whole nation was reacting.
Teresa Wright 11.13
in General Discussions
Posted
I think I said Teresa Wright was the first one to portray Anne Sullivan on television (the teleplay was written by William Gibson). Gibson's script was then turned into a stage play and it toured with Anne Bancroft, before reaching Broadway. Bancroft did not stay with the stage production for its entire run, handing the role over to Suzanne Pleshette. But she took the part again, when it was filmed by director Arthur Penn. Is that clearer? LOL
My guess is that if Teresa Wright had been willing to travel with the stage play and eventually get to Broadway, then she would've done the film. But instead, it became Bancroft's moment of glory.