[The Essentials: The Brad Bird Era begins May 2]

52 minutes ago, jakeem said:

This was The Beatles first film, and many still consider it the best.

Not a hard call.

[Iconic “North by Northwest” monument focus of “woke” forces?]

Fight rock with rock.

[Iconic “North by Northwest” monument focus of “woke” forces?]

11 hours ago, speedracer5 said:

The anti-Mt Rushmore armchair activists should focus their efforts on getting Crazy Horse’s monument in the Black Hills finished instead. In the 90s, while enroute from Minnesota to Oregon, we went to Mt. Rushmore three times and the monument was always under construction. I think it’s still under construction. 

That's from one armchair to another?

[1960s Film -- Old House/Dysfunctional Family/Murder Themes]

From your description, I decided it couldn't be James Whale's The Old Dark House (1932), with Melvyn Douglas, Lilian Bond, Charles Laughton, and Gloria Stewart, despite the plot similarities.

But it was remade in 1963 by William Castle, and starring Tom Poston and Robert Morely:

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/27813/The-Old-Dark-House/

Click on the READ THE FULL SYNOPSIS icon for a longer description.

[Iconic “North by Northwest” monument focus of “woke” forces?]

5 hours ago, Dargo said:

Although he DID have a strange tendency to throw out the word "Excelsior" from time to time. Could never quite figure that one out.

Ah, Tourette Syndrome.

[Iconic “North by Northwest” monument focus of “woke” forces?]

*Ahem*  To paraphrase:

A traveller, by the faithful hound,

Half-buried in the snow was found,

Still grasping in his hand of ice

That banner with the strange device,

      Non-sequitur!

 

(With apologies to Mr. Longfellow)

[Billie Holiday! In a movie!]

Well, yes, as most movies since 1929, the movie was dubbed.  But Holiday, Armstrong, and the musicians dubbed themselves.  Here's a quote from a good IMDB review of the movie, I bold what's important for here:

Love this movie for what it is, not for what it could have been

mgconlan-127 February 2009

"New Orleans" started out as an Orson Welles project at RKO -- a Louis Armstrong biopic with Armstrong playing himself -- and it morphed through several different incarnations (including a version by writer Valentine Davies that ultimately got filmed as "Syncopation" in 1942) before ending up with producer Jules Levey as the film we have. There's certainly a sense of might-have-been about this movie that was only accentuated in the early 1980's when an independent jazz reissue label called Legends released the surviving pre-recordings made by Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday in October 1946 for use in the film -- including a treasure trove of music that hadn't made it anywhere near the final cut -- and the idea of basing a film about the history of jazz around a set of boring white characters and reducing the African-Americans to extras in their own story is all too familiar in Hollywood's treatment of just about any story involving African-based politics or culture.

[Iconic “North by Northwest” monument focus of “woke” forces?]

That what Matty saw?

[The Essentials: The Brad Bird Era begins May 2]

6 minutes ago, jakeem said:

Wasn't that back in the day when nobody watched the NBA on TV, and CBS showed The Finals on tape after the local late news shows?

Ah, the song of envy.  But the Lakers Rule.

[Billie Holiday! In a movie!]

Dorothy Patrick was dubbed by Theodora Lynch.  You can still ding her for her anemic acting.

[Iconic “North by Northwest” monument focus of “woke” forces?]

Can't forget great music.

Gotta go and find someone to pull wool with. . . .

[Iconic “North by Northwest” monument focus of “woke” forces?]

Bully!

[Billie Holiday! In a movie!]

Not someone playing her, but the real she herself!  No, she's no actress, but when she starts singing, the dull formulaic B-movie turns into great cinema.  This is one of the most valuable movies for her presence in it and her performing with Louis Armstrong.

Eddie Muller commented in the introduction that this was a primetime premiere.  Well, maybe for primetime, I guess, but it's certainly been shown many times on TCM before.  I have a recording of it.

[Iconic “North by Northwest” monument focus of “woke” forces?]

 

HERE WAS BURIED
THOMAS JEFFERSON
AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

Thomas Jefferson's gravestone, designed by himself.

Jefferson said, “On the faces of the Obelisk the following inscription, & not a word more.”  He continued by writing, “because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be remembered.”

[Iconic “North by Northwest” monument focus of “woke” forces?]

8 hours ago, JeanneCrain said:

Amid protests over racial injustice and police brutality around the nation, statues that celebrate America's historical figures associated with slavery have come under fire and are being torn down.

Mount Rushmore depicts U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in huge granite in South Dakota's Black Hills. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were known enslavers.

So, when is our woke revisionist priesthood going to insist on blowing up Mount Rushmore? 

Oh, I get it.  You're just trying to provoke.  Didn't have anything else to do today?  I tried provoking a rock, once.  It just sat there.  Most provoking.

With regard to the reference.  I am sure all the persons represented in that gargantuan offense to the natural beauty of the area, had they the opportunity to see it, would have been horrified at the appropriation of their images for quasi-deification--to say nothing of the monuments on the Mall.  Had they the choice, they would have demurred, saying the place was good enough as it was.

[Eddie Muller on The Warped Ones movie]

Yet another russian operative, working to sow discord in the American populace.  Beware people, our enemies are working to turn us against ourselves.  And when we are weakened, they will walk in and take over.

[One Tough Movie.]

On 6/18/2020 at 9:29 PM, Allhallowsday said:

You must not have seen GERMANIA ANNO ZERO or TWO WOMEN...

I was not aware you were expecting a reply.  But I have done you the courtesy of watching Germany Year Zero (1948) again, as I forgot how it ended.  It's sure a downer of a movie, in the true Rossellini tradition.  The ending is shocking and stunning, though not drawn out the same as I Want to Live! (1958).  I'd watch Two Women (1960) again, but I can't take so much at one time.  And I still have to get to the second half of I Want to Live!  I guess I'll get to that tomorrow.

[Gone With the Wind: Margaret Mitchell's Cautionary Tale to the south.]

You post is a good example of how most people view Gone/Wind, that is they see what they are looking for and not what is there.

1.  Scarlett's preoccupation with Wilkes persists despite all the evidence to the contrary.  It persists to the point of ruining her marriage with Rhett Butler.  That is irrational and obsessive.

2.  One of her determinations after Rhett Butler leaves is that she will get him back.  Nothing indicates at the end that she is looking past him.  Her expression of "tomorrow is another day" is an indication of her retreat into passive wishfulness.  This is a complete revolution from her earlier vigorous and active pursuit of her goals.  Scarlett had always acted immediately on events. 

3.  Scarlett's successes come from the city and her mercantile and lumber businesses.  It is her marriage to Frank Kennedy that saves Tara from being auctioned off for taxes.  It is Rhett's and Scarlett's wealth that is made from the city that is used to renovate Tara to its pre-war state.  The voices from the past Scarlett hears are siren songs her mind calls on to justify her abandonment of reality.  Since the end of the war Tara has not been of source of strength, sustenance, or security for her.  She vomits eating food from its soil.  She is the one who has to protect it from intruders.  It is her strength of character that revives Tara to provide a minimal sustenance.  It is her own personality, intelligence, and drive that has been the source of her success.

[Gone With the Wind: Margaret Mitchell's Cautionary Tale to the south.]

I see Blanche DuBois as the natural evolution of Scarlett O'Hara.  Mebbe so did Tennessee Williams.

[Gone With the Wind: Margaret Mitchell's Cautionary Tale to the south.]

I was thinking more something like this:

[Gone With the Wind: Margaret Mitchell's Cautionary Tale to the south.]

14 hours ago, TomJH said:

Let's face it. If Rhett hadn't left Scarlett there would be a lot less audience respect for him. He had simply taken too much self absorbed behaviour from her. It's no wonder he no longer gave a damn, which, when he said it, was a declaration of emancipation.

 

And to think, it only took about eighty posts to get around to discussing the point of my thread.

[One Tough Movie.]

I'm not bothered, just wondering.  You say here and elsewhere you are not negatively affected by this execution scene or hangings because you know it's only actors playing roles.  Are you made happy by movies?  Or angry by what you see?  Does an action sequence excite you?  But you know it isn't real.  It's only actors, and the action is staged.

[Gone With the Wind: Margaret Mitchell's Cautionary Tale to the south.]

Now, where have I heard that before?

[One Tough Movie.]

As you say here and elsewhere it doesn't affect you negatively.  Then how can movies affect you otherwise?  So why watch?

13 hours ago, Sepiatone said:

And I have to agree with Darg's assessment of Hayward's excellent performance

But not mine.

[Gone With the Wind: Margaret Mitchell's Cautionary Tale to the south.]

Thanks.