slaytonf
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Posts posted by slaytonf
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On June 4, 2018 at 9:24 AM, Guest said:
This is getting old.
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If there are eggs, and they are in a bag, something or someone will hit the bag, or it will get dropped, or if they are in a basket and it is put down somewhere, something heavy will be dropped on it, or someone will step on it, or if someone puts one in their pocket, although I don't know why anyone would put an egg in their pocket, as I have never done so, or felt the necessity for it, someone will hit that pocket, or if it is a rear pocket, that person will sit down on it.
If there are roller shades and someone pulls them down, when they walk away the shades will snap back up, and when they go back and pull them down again, they (the shades) will not stay, and when they try again and again the shades will pull off the wall and fall on the person and end up a big mess.
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3 hours ago, midnight08 said:
I don't believe TCM has ever aired this film. And it's an RKO film so I don't understand why TCM wouldn't have access to it. I would also love to see it.
The Greeks Had a Word For Them (1932) is not on MovieCollector's list. But you can see it in a number of venues online. I think it's in the public domain, which may explain why the prints are uniformly wretched. It's a lot of fun, and the three women leads are, of course, knockouts.
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Surprisingly enough, it's called Inspector Clouseau (1968):
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1 hour ago, cjba1010 said:
I don't know how many times I can watch 'A Shot in the Dark', TCM.
You can keep watching until you find out. Me, I never made it through all the way the first time.
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According to MovieCollector's invaluable list, it's only been aired once on TCM. I guess you'd call it a spy-thriller of a sort, though there's not so much action as intrigue. It could stand more airings.
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1 hour ago, Dargo said:
(...wonder if she ever played her on the stage?)
She had an early and late stage career, before and after her movie career, naturally.
The Internet Broadway Database gives her career as:
The Rope Dancers (Nov 20, 1957 - May 03, 1958)- Also Starring: Joan Blondell [Mrs. Farrow]
The Naked Genius (Oct 21, 1943 - Nov 20, 1943)- Starring: Joan Blondell [Honey Bee Carroll]
Penny Arcade (Mar 10, 1930 - Mar 1930)- Performer: Joan Blondell [Myrtle]
Maggie the Magnificent (Oct 21, 1929 - Nov 1929)
- Performer: Joan Blondell [Etta]
The Trial of Mary Dugan (Sep 19, 1927 - Sep 29, 1928)- Performer: Joan Blondell
This additional information, per Wikipedia:
In 1943, Blondell returned to Broadway as the star of Mike Todd's short-lived production of The Naked Genius, a comedy written by Gypsy Rose Lee.. . . . In 1948, she left the screen for three years and concentrated on theater, performing in summer stock and touring with Cole Porter's musical, Something for the Boys.[2] She later reprised her role of Aunt Sissy in the musical version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for the national tour, starred opposite Tallulah Bankhead in the play Crazy October (which closed on the road) and played the nagging mother, Mae Peterson, in the national tour of Bye Bye Birdie.
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9 hours ago, laffite said:
Are you sure Blondell is a "Joanie"?
The quintessential Joanie!
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1 hour ago, TikiSoo said:
which month will she be featured?
I've edited my post to say.
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Forget the Christmas movie line-up. Forget the remakes. Forget (gasp!) Noir Alley. Joan Blondell is December's Star of the Month! She is one of my veryveryveryvery favorite of actresses. On the A-list of my A-list. Though she was not a great actress, she was still very good and handled all her roles with professional aplomb. Put that together with just about the adorablest, darlingest presence that ever was on a movie screen and you've got one knockout. Her story is the archetypal show-biz baby one, born into a troupe of Vaudevillians, making her way through beauty contests and modeling to the New York stage, discovered and--voila!--movie star. As well as me, the rest of America was in love with her, making her one of the most successful actresses of the early to mid-thirties. She had a naturalness and down-to-earth quality in her performances which no doubt endeared her to audiences, making her seem like a pal. If she wasn't the picture's lead that that much, she was likely the female lead, as often as not providing the clear-headed voice of reason opposite the male lead's obliviousness (viz. Lawyer Man 1932; Footlight Parade, 1933).
TCM could have improved Joanie's treatment with a larger line-up of movies. Perhaps they thought it would get redundant. Dunno. But there are three I'd have like to have seen included:
Other Men's Women (1931), in which she plays a supporting role as the lead man's intermittent squeeze, a party-girl and dance-hall habitué who isn't necessarily focused on any particular man.
The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932), in which she stars along with Madge Evans and Ina Claire as a trio of ex-Ziegfeld gold-diggers out to stick it to the men. They trade snappy repartee with each other and male characters, like Lowell Sherman who plays his typical worldly ennuyeuse. AKA Three Broadway Girls.
The Blue Veil (1951). Don't know about it, but it was an Oscar-nominated performance.
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You got me! I've amended my post
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We get a double treat tonight, with TCM airing a pair of Mike Leigh movies. One of the very best of contemporary moviemakers, Mike Leigh paints pictures of unexceptional people in daily life situations, trying to cope and make something worthwhile out of it. A master of the definitely unglamorous, Leigh is in the tradition of Yasujiro Ozu and Satyajit Ray, telling stories that seem mundane, yet by the end the viewer is struck with the realization that they have become involved in the character's lives and care about what happens to them. The movies offered are, I believe, premieres.
Career Girls (1997), 11pm, Pacific.
Life is Sweet (1990), 12:45 am, Pacific.
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4 hours ago, Dargo said:
Well, don't forget the BASE pay isn't very much, and why most of 'em are opting for the lower cost-of-living Alabama location embedment, and even though most of those who put in going there aren't big college football fans.
(...oddly though, most of 'em who opt to go there can still appreciate the lyrics to Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues")
Thanks for the info! Like the song. Like all of Steely Dan. But I won't move to Alabama for a t-shirt.
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Hot damn! I'm goin' for it!
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ooo. love that post-modern uncapitalization!
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Will the Russians never cease trying to foment discord in the American public? You know I'm beginning to think that if it weren't part of their campaign for world domination, I'd think they'd do it anyway, just for kicks.
If I were to take the poster seriously, it'd be prompted to observe that this was the first case in recorded history that somebody walked into someone's livingroom, held a gun to someone's head, and forced them to subscribe to the Comcast sports and entertainment package. At least that's the only way I'd pay $10 a month for something I detested.
Hm. I wonder what Russian operatives get paid?
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I will start holding my breath. . . .now.
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Looks like the Russians have been successful. They've got people talking about politics instead of movies. The strategy is simple and powerful. Offer up a tasty bit of incendiary bait to get people going over something inconsequential and distract them from what's important.
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But really, the Russians are getting too transparent in their efforts to sow social discord.
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11 hours ago, bdoon51 said:
But the film "Zulu" is 95% accurate according to the historians I have read.
So you can measure movies and history! What are you doing wasting your time on this backwater site? You should be out making yourself king of the world.
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As most of the old movie studios and TV networks are now owned by the same megalopses (or is there just one now?), it seems logical that access to TV movies for TCM would be similar to ones produced for theaters. Am I right? Probably not. Still, in hopes that TCM will someday have a TV movie series (Wednesday night?), I offer candidates:
Isn't It Shocking? (1973). A mix of new and old-style actors makes for an engaging and entertaining murder mystery with a lot of comedy and droll wit along the way. Alan Alda delivers one of his less off-putting performances as a small-town sheriff confronted with a series of elderly deaths that take on a disturbing character as numbers and odd details mount. He's joined by old timers Will Geer as a retired counter-cultural doctor who plays coroner, Ruth Gordon, an idiosyncratic free spirit who terrorizes the town with her cab driving, Edmond O'Brien as the candy-chomping menace, and Lloyd Nolan, a beloved deputy pal of Alda. But the true bright spot of the movie is Louise Lasser, her deft and naturalistic delivery is so delightful she steals every scene she's in, even the ones with Ruth Gordon. I don't know why she never became a bigger star.
Thursday's Game (1974). Gene Wilder and Bob Newhart. That's all I really have to say, but I'll say more, because this quirky, irreverent comedy deserves it. Wilder and Newhart play pals who, after their weekly poker game breaks up due to a dispute, decide to keep meeting each Thursday to preserve their time away from home. They go through life vicissitudes and changes, discuss and philosophize, and generally display their genius. But that's only the beginning. They're backed up by talent like Ellen Burstyn and Nancy Walker. The movie is also packed chock-a-block with a dizzying array of guest actors, each of whom has a brilliant vignette, including Rob Reiner, Norman Fell, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, and Dick Gautier.
A Cold Night's Death (1973). Robert Culp and Eli Wallach match wits at a high-altitude primate research laboratory with--with who? With an unseen enemy? With themselves? As soon as they get to the top of the mountain, everything starts going downhill, with monkeys and apes playing the chorus--and something else? One of the very few horror movies I like, because it is not a formulaic mowing down of stock victims at the hands of some quasi-supernatural malevolence. There is true character development as we watch personalities disintegrate into nameless fear, self-doubt, paranoia. . . . .it doesn't end well.
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Thanks for the info! I'm surprised Stevens would be ok with changing the format. Directors like him take great care about composition.
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45 minutes ago, HoldenIsHere said:
This is discussed by Peter Lev in his book THE FIFTIES: TRANSFORMING THE SCREEN, 1950-1959 (which is Book 7 of the History of the American Cinema series published by the University of California Press).
I guess most of the country saw the movie in the standard 3:4 format. Does the book say what George Stevens' thoughts on the widescreen showing were?
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21 hours ago, LsDoorMat said:
If you define obtuse as pointing out how ridiculous it is to have a diverse cast on an island and at a time that had no diversity of any kind - racial, religion, etc,. - then I plead guilty.
My comments were concise and appeared as criticism or dismissal. I made them so you would not feel upset at this movie's inaccuracies, as they are not unique or egregious. You should know as long as movies have been made, history has been cut, pasted, condensed, stretched, twisted and disregarded. Movies are entertainment and not scholarly works, regardless of how good they are saying something about the human condition. As the Buddha says, in his serene detachment, if you want accuracy, look elsewhere.
What has happened to your Programing?
in General Discussions
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Then. Don't. Pay. For. It.