TomJH

Curious that the American and Swedish stamps of Garbo are both the same image

Really? It's the comedic side of Lucy that made her a legend. Isn't that the aspect of the actress' career primarily remembered that should be honoured on a stamp? Do you really think there would be a Lucille Ball stamp based strictly upon her glamour image in MGM movies?

Hitchcock loved his falls

One of the most famous romantic images of '40s films, and an action that was undoubtedly copies by thousands who saw it on the big screen

At the 5:10 mark

Sophia. You might not see it but I really fall for her. Oh, sorry, that's not exactly what you're talking about, is it? So, then, how about this one, at the beginning of yet another Hitchcock classic, VERTIGO

Here's a closer look

Nice to see the tributes to some childhood shudder favs of mine.

This is a topic on which I know nothing since, living in Canada, I can't recall seeing any stamps with film stars on them. Does anyone know the reason for the selections of the specific stars? I assume they are the ones with which the current public may be most familiar. Another thing, does anyone actually see any of these stamps in use, or are these , more likely, memorial issues for collectors? In any event here are a few that I found on the internet. Interesting that a little nation like Tanzania is familiar enough with Marilyn to have a stamp series tribute to her. Speaks of Monroe's still legendary international reputation. If anyone knows of any others with the ability to post them, please feel free.

I have an audio recording of the last interview Sheridan did about a year before her death. In listening to it you're struck by the frequency at which you hear the sounds of matches being struck.

I used to look like Huntz Hall. Now, though, I have a sort of Brad Pitt thing going on. Mind you, my eyesight is getting worse so I could be wrong.

The Maltese Falcon is probably the most viewed Astor film today (well, that and Meet Me in St. Louis). But it's interesting watching the lady in her other film with Bogart, Across the Pacific. It's lighter in tone than Falcon and is noteworthy for the light hearted comic bantering between the two actors in the film's first half. At one moment, on a boat trip, they kiss just as she is starting to come down with a case of sea sickness. "Are you feeling sick?" Bogart asks her when he looks at her following the kiss. "I don't know," Mary replies, "How do most women respond after you kiss them?" "They don't turn green," he says. Much of their word by-play is light hearted like that in the film's earlier scenes, and it's worth noting as a contrast to the dramatics of Falcon.

I have watched and enjoyed a few subtitled films, some Kurosawas, in particular, as well as a Fellini or two, as well as a couple of Bergmans and, a few months ago, Antonioni's Il Grido but, on the whole, I find it a real effort to struggle (and that's what it feels like) to both watch and read a film at the same time. Some of the Kurosawa films can have so much great action in them that it's not as much of an issue for me with them.

It's not so unbelievable for me. I can't stand subtitles. For starters, I want to watch a movie, not read it. Besides that, you can miss a lot of the action on screen, particularly if the subtitles are fast. How many subtle expressions in faces are not even seen by you because you're reading the dialogue? There can also be the exasperation of white titles placed over a light backdrop in which you can't even read them. Depending upon the limitations of the size of your television screen, as well, sometimes you can't even see the full subtitles as they can be cut off at the bottom. I have no similar problem, by the way, with reading title cards in silent films since you're not missing any of the action. The problem there can be title cards that stay on the screen seemingly forever (for the slowest readers), slowing down the pace of the film.

Vidor wanted Bogart.

THE FOUNTAINHEAD has too many compelling virtues, including the direction of King Vidor and the towering, swirling musical score of Max Steiner (one of his best) to be dismissed. And who can forget the erotic symbolism of that pneumatic drill in the quarry pit scene as a fevered Patricia Neal watches? As stilted and unreal as the dialogue may be in that bizarre trial scene I appreciate the daring courage of Gary Cooper for putting his wholesome all American screen image on the line by a scene in which, in essence, he rapes Neal (or, at least, as close to rape as the Production Code would allow).

Dolores Moran got a career shaft because of Bogart's affair with Bacall. She was scheduled to have a far larger role in To Have and Have Not (director Hawks had an affair with her after, much to his chagrin, Bacall preferred Bogie to him) but something must have gone wrong with the tryst because Dolores' role in the film got cut back (to make more room for Bacall). As it turned out, the blonde Moran never really got a shot at any part of substance at Warners. To Have and Have Not was her lost opportunity. Despite the trailer tag line on her for To Have and Have Not, poor Dolores didn't get much of an opportunity to be captivating in that film Martha Vickers, as Bacall's thumb sucking n y m p h o sister in The Big Sleep, makes more of an impression than Moran in the earlier film but, even here, you have to wonder if Vickers might not have had more screen time in the film if the studio hadn't been so interested in pushing the career of Mrs. Bogart. At least Vickers had a good part here, though she never got one again from the studio, much the same as Dorothy Malone.

Why didn't Malone's performance in THE BIG SLEEP alert the studio as to how "hot" the actress could be on screen? Her Warners films of the '40s, excluding this one, did not do much to distinguish her career. Then again, with only a few exceptions, Jack Warner's studio seemed to be one that concentrated more upon the careers of its big male stars.

THE BIG SLEEP can also be seen as a celebration of the romance and marriage of Bogie and Baby

In honour of the ladies in THE BIG SLEEP:

Thanks to Eddie Muller in his comments today for giving a plug to the performance of Sonia Darrin, as Agnes, the bookstore clerk Jonsey is crazy about, in THE BIG SLEEP. She gives a very solid performance in the film but, incredibly, the actress was unbilled. According to both IMDB and Wiki Darrin, born in 1924, is still alive at 95. Anyone else find it a bit ironic that an unbilled player in the film (with a fair sized role including sharing a couple of dialogue scenes with Bogart) is, possibly, the only living cast member of this famous film today? That's Sonia, second from the left behind director Hawks.

I couldn't care less about who killed who in Howard Hawks' marvelously entertaining The Big Sleep. In fact trying to understand the film's intricate plot is a bit of a bore to me (though I understand whose who enjoy the challenge). What counts for me is the stylish black and white noir ambience, the sexual word bantering, the women swooning before the ultra cool Marlowe, who is virtually a sexual magnet in this film, and a couple of memorable scenes of violence. So many moments from this film stay in my memory even though I probably haven't watched the film all the way through for at least a decade. "What's the matter? Afraid it's poison?" a cold blooded Canino asks poor Jonesy as he hands him a fatal drink. That is arguably the moment seared into my memory more than any other. But there are also the film's lighter moments, such as the famous racetrack analogy sexual bantering scene between Bogart and Bacall. At this moment these two actors and the witty rapartee bring us a delicious sense of worldly sophistication that is impossible to resist. But then there is the moment of thumb sucking Carmen (Martha Vickers in the role for which she will be remembered) impulsively falling back into Marlowe's arms, of that cute perky female cabbie (Joy Barlow) giving the private eye her phone number and, of course, a sleepy eyed Dorothy Malone taking off her glasses and literally letting down her hair for an afternoon frolic with the P.I. in a bookshop suddenly closed for the day. Why do I never see cab drivers or book store sellers like these? But that, of course, is one reason, among many others, why I tune into the tough guy romantic fantasy world of The Big Sleep, a film I am definitely due to watch again, and soon.