MyFavoriteFilms
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I noticed that a few of the Walter Wanger-produced pictures that air on TCM seem to have scratchy prints. THE HOUSE ACROSS THE BAY, with Joan Bennett and George Raft, had one of the worst prints I have seen on this channel.
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Around the time CONSPIRATOR was made, Taylor was dealing with a few blows in his personal life, which may have contributed to him looking a bit more run-down. He was being targeted by HUAC (along with everyone else at the time) and Stanwyck was getting ready to divorce him after countless indiscretions. I don't think it was a pleasant time of life for him.
And understand that CONSPIRATOR was made at MGM's studios in London. I think this was one of the first times that he filmed anything outside the United States. So maybe that, in addition to his legal issues back home, was a bit draining.
Not long after this film was completed, he makes QUO VADIS, and I think he looks great in that one. Of course, the Technicolor helps and so does all the ornate costuming.
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I tend to think of her in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, but of course she had a long career, making many important pictures before 1965. (She was a Warners contract player for many years.)
She's gorgeous in INTERRUPTED MELODY. And I wanted to like her in this role, but I just can't. The whole time I kept thinking I was being cheated out of Jeannette MacDonald in this part. Or, why not Kathryn Grayson...she was still under contract to MGM when this film was made...did the studio think it needed to have a big-name dramatic actress? The focus should've been on someone who could sing.
The only way Parker would've worked for me in this role is if all her dialogue had been dubbed by a less throaty actress. Again, she just sounds too deep and hoarse to burst into these high-range operas. When she begins a musical number, it almost becomes a cartoon.
On the positive side: Glenn Ford as the male lead is exceptional as always (this was the same year he made BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, also for MGM, so he's at the top of his game). And the production values allow the viewers an aesthetic feast...what excellent art design! They just should've replaced Parker.
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Well, for every HEAVEN'S GATE, there's a more successful, cheaply produced BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. I am fascinated by the economic situation of both. Every filmmaker is given an opportunity to make something great (as artistic as possible, despite budgetary constraints).
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I don't think the humor in Thorne Smith's books holds up well with modern audiences. The situations do, but not the jokes. However, Tim Burton borrows heavily from the Topper movies for BEETLEJUICE (with Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis basically in the Grant-Bennett roles).
As for Connie Bennett, there was another thread not long ago about her career waning in the late 40s. It's a shame she was no longer being offered leads.
Recently, I rented AS YOUNG AS YOU FEEL, a comedy from Fox starring Monty Woolley. It seems unjust that Thelma Ritter, as great as she is, winds up second billed after Woolley...but that Constance Bennett is fifth-billed. Sure, it's a supporting role...but I think Bennett really makes the most of her screen time (and not in a hammy way, like Miriam Hopkins probably would have).
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In JOLSON SINGS AGAIN, Larry Parks continues his impersonation of Al Jolson. But at the end of the movie, they reach the point in Jolson's career where Hollywood is about to make a movie on his life. So "Jolson" meets actor Larry Parks (playing himself).
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Again, you may be making generalizations. First, I don't think you have read all my replies. It was no contradiction to point out what I refer to as low brow films, then also find fault with CITIZEN KANE. I advocate for balance.
I have stated on these threads that I think a film needs to strive to reach its artistic potential, but it also needs to be somewhat commercial and connect with mainstream audiences. I felt that TOUCH OF EVIL exemplified this best out of Welles' work as a director. Its graphic depiction of crime along the border appeals to a base audience, but Welles' artful use of the camera and indeed, his sophisticated glamorizing of violence, makes it most baroque.
KANE is too early and too experimental, and Welles does not at that point have a grasp on how to make the studio system work for him. But with EVIL, he is able to use studio talent like Leigh and Heston in a way that anchors the film and allows for him to still experiment with Tamiroff and Dietrich. He is successful with THE STRANGER, to a lesser degree...using Tony Perkins to anchor the film while experimenting with Moreau and Tamiroff again.
The books on Rita and other starlets do not always focus just on their lusty personal lives. If one thinks that, then it's a disservice to the feminist writers who have created those books to advance their cause (and celebrate the early achievements of women in Hollywood).
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*INTERRUPTED MELODY (1955)*
Viewed: TCM
Cannot buy Eleanor Parker in this film. Although she was nominated for an Oscar, she's miscast. She has too deep a speaking voice to be believed as this sort of operatic singer. Indeed, when I researched the film, I learned that Parker's singing was dubbed. The vocals were actually provided by Eileen Farrell.
MGM went to a lot of trouble to get the rights to Marjorie Lawrence's story. Lawrence was a renowned Australian opera star who struggled against polio. Undoubtedly, her life served as an inspiration to many. And it's a shame that this posh production doesn't do it justice.
Personally, I think the film should've been made by MGM ten years earlier with Jeanette MacDonald. Or studio execs should've waited a few years till Jane Powell was older and given it to her.
It would've been truly spectacular if the lead actress did her own vocals. Even in THE JOLSON STORY and JOLSON SINGS AGAIN, Larry Parks is dubbed, but his natural speaking voice matches Al Jolson's. Eleanor Parker's does not match Marjorie Lawrence.
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> {quote:title=clore wrote:}{quote}
> Pee Wee Herman once played - oops, forget I mentioned that, different subject.
That's a scream! My laugh for the day...
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I don't think it's anyone's responsibility to playfully point out contradictions in others' posts. Erroneous statements, yes. But contradictions, where a person is trying to figure out how he or she feels on a subject, that is best left to the individual.
I take extreme exception to comments about Welles and Hayworth. I must say 'extreme' very loudly. There are wonderful books written on Rita Hayworth by film scholars. One must look for them and not make such broad-based assumptions about her treatment by experts in the field. And one thing we do have to take into account is that her professional (and personal) associations with Welles did shape a part of her career.
Now, as for the CASABLANCA mess, I won't even go there (again, for the thousandth time).
But I have been meaning to make a statement. I am not going to fully qualify it yet, but I know it will appear in other posts of mine, because I know it is a driving factor in what I write. I just want to be diplomatic about it...and I also want to be emphatic that this view will not ever change.
I am concerned about the proletariat emotional responses to popular film. I think they contain many biases that I am not comfortable with...again, a driving factor in all my writing on these boards and in blogs I create is to really examine the way the working classes shift their film tastes down on to the next generation and perpetuate a type of 'common film knowledge' and what I see as a somewhat uneducated, unenlightened attachment to certain films and stars. I believe this taste or preference has been handed down and taught in a pedestrian sense, rather than as a critical reflection on art, culture and nature.
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Sometimes these designations _are_ meaningful to film buffs. If they aren't to you, then it's probably best for you to find a thread that meets your preferences.
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Yes, they just sort of threw Beaver in with a group of new friends and Larry really wasn't mentioned anymore, until the last episode.
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She was on the soap General Hospital in the late 80s. When I worked on the show in the mid-90s, we had addresses of former castmembers, so we could forward fan mail that still trickled in for them. Of course, some of the addresses weren't current, but there was a list and I remember hers was on it.
So maybe (and it's a shot in the dark), you could send a note to her in care of GH, at ABC television. The production facility is on Prospect Avenue in Hollywood, though I think the actual mailing address for the studio is technically Los Angeles. You can look that up and then send your note to Janis there. Hopefully one of the production assistants will forward it on to her. It's a worth a try.
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Those morale booster pics seem to be rather fictionalized, don't they? Especially HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN.
FOUR JILLS IN A JEEP shows Martha Raye, Kay Francis, Mitzi Mayfair and Carole Landis playing themselves on a USO tour they really had taken through Europe and North Africa. But again, although it is inspired by actual events, one can't help but wonder how much was embellished.
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Sennett is also in HOLLYWOOD CAVALCADE (1939).
And speaking of Eddie Cantor, he plays himself _and_ a lookalike in THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS.
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I think the reason Ralph and Jackie did not "meet" is because they filmed that show live, so there was no way for them to do a split screen with Gleason in both roles at the same time.
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Great examples. The Morgan-Carson-Day picture was called IT'S A GREAT FEELING.
BEST FOOT FORWARD was originally intended as a Lana Turner vehicle, but Lucy does a wonderful job in it.
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In a day or so, I am going to make a thread for the best song winners of the 50s & 60s. I will stop at the end of the production code.
With this thread, I wanted to look at the idea that musical compositions seemed to be much stronger in the past. With the exception of Disney's pop hits used in animation releases of the late 80s and 90s, I think the best tunes were produced during the classic Hollywood era.
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I think I mentioned in another thread that I recently rented THE JOLSON STORY. When I was reading the production notes on it, I discovered that Al Jolson actually does appear in the film. Larry Parks plays Jolson and lip-syncs his voice for all the musical numbers, but there is one scene where Jolson (much older than Parks) appears in a stage number. It was done as a long shot, and he was in blackface singing 'Swanee.' I thought that was interesting that an older Jolson was playing a younger Jolson, but the audience probably thought it was still Larry Parks' imitation of Jolson.
This made me think of Julia Roberts in OCEANS 12. Her character impersonates Julia Roberts during an important scene. Does that make sense? LOL So we have the actress playing a fictional character who is playing the actress!
There was also an episode of the Here's Lucy television program from 1974 that did something like this. Lucille Ball's sitcom character, Lucy Carter, goes to meet Lucille Ball who is on set doing scenes for the Warners film MAME. There are actual split scenes where she plays both her sitcom alter ego and her real-life self. The episode is called 'Lucy Carter Meets Lucille Ball.' It was done to promote the release of Ball's upcoming motion picture.
In a television movie, Ann Jillian portrayed herself in a biopic about her dealings with breast cancer. In that case, there wasn't much of a fictional element.
I am sure this has happened a lot. But it's fun to note the more creative examples of actors who play themselves.
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Stephen Talbot appears in an episode of the original Perry Mason series. He's very good as a disturbed young teen involved in a killing.
And didn't you just love Lyle Talbot as Ozzie Nelson's neighbor Joe Randolph?
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From an interview that Barbara Billingsley had given, she said his character was written out of the show "due to his overly ambitious stage mother causing grief with the producers."
They phased Larry out at the end of the third season. But I think there was a carryover episode that did not air until the beginning of the fourth season. So, he just sort of vanishes.
The original series' final episode, entitled 'Family Scrapbook' is basically a clips-filled retrospective. And there is a flashback of Larry, and Beaver mentions him as being a great friend. We get the idea that Larry had probably moved away, though that was never addressed directly on screen. (And in fact, the family of Rusty Stevens, who played Larry, did move away from the Los Angeles area.)
Rusty Stevens reprised the role in the Still the Beaver reunion movie in 1983.
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Yes, I initially blamed it on my cable provider. In Arizona, as you know, we have sweltering hot weather until October. It just started to cool off this week. I was told that sometimes the transistors get overheated and do all sorts of funny things, so they have to come out and repair them or else replace them. But when this did not happen with any other movie, except PARK ROW, I knew something was up.
I continued to watch PARK ROW because the audio was good, and at least I could enjoy it like an old-time radio drama!
I saved it on my DVR, in case I needed to show the problems to the cable guys. But since this seems to have happened in many regions, I know it was not the local provider's fault.
It's a shame, because I had looked forward to enjoying the film and I would like to have seen it with a clear transfer image. Hopefully, they will reschedule it with some of Fuller's other great films like BARON OF ARIZONA and FORTY GUNS.
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It happened on and off throughout the 83-minute running time. But it was most noticeable in the beginning.
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Then, on top of that, it pixillated (a lot). It even went triptych at one point, where there were three vertical bars of varying distortion. At least that's what happened here when I watched it in Arizona.
This all began just a few minutes into the film, during the first saloon scene. It lasted for quite awhile. Then, the image would appear fine again.
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I realized that the Welles-Perkins-Moreau film I referenced yesterday was not THE STRANGER, but rather THE TRIAL. Sorry about the error.