TomJH

If I recall correctly, Howard does not act actually say the word "hell" but instead clears his throat with everyone knowing what he means.

John Garfield, whose real name was Julius Garfinkle, was under tremendous pressure by the FBI to name Communists working in the Hollywood community, being told that if he did so he would be cleared with the film studios for employment once again. Jack Berry, who directed Garfield in his last film, He Ran All The Way, had a memorable quote about him: "This may sound romantic, but I think what happened was, faced with the option of naming names, Julius Garfinkle of the Bronx said to John Garfield of Hollywood, 'You can't do this to me.' And John Garfield packed his bags and died."

Flynn and Niven were great, carousing friends who lived together for a short while around the time Dawn Patrol was made. It shows on screen and, aside from reading Niven's reminiscences about Errol in Bring On The Empty Horses, watching this film is the closest that we come to experiencing what it might have been like when these two men got together. Niven would move on from his early playboy days but Flynn forever remained the adolescent skirt chaser. After years of separation the two saw each other in London (in 1958, I believe) and Niven wrote that, while Flynn's features were sadly ravaged by excessive self indulgence, he felt a greater sense of calm about him than he had ever seen before.

Just saying the word DANG! is a substitute for the D word.

A lot of fans remember Flynn primarily for playing laughing, romantic Robin Hood but, as an actor, he was allowed greater range and depth that same year in The Dawn Patrol. The entire cast has great chemistry, with Niven in the role that really put him on the Hollywood map and Rathbone delivering one of his very best performances as the commanding officer on the verge of a breakdown, proclaiming, "It's a slaughterhouse and I'm the butcher." And Donald Crisp really shines in a sweet little scene in which he fantasies that he is playing with a dog. The Dawn Patrol is a fine actioner which, in my opinion, plays better than the 1930 original version because of the superior performances of the cast and somewhat updated dialogue. And did anyone ever look more dashing in an ancient WWI air ship than Flynn?

Perhaps in the same manner as this, I recall that in DeMille's Story of Dr. Wassell whenever he was surprised by something Gary Cooper would frequently say "Good gravy," an expression I assume was a substitute for "Good Lord." But he is the only character in the movies I can ever recall using that expression.

Long before Joe Pesci ever opened his mouth on screen I always found it amusing how films in the studio era tried to get around the Breen Office when it came to characters swearing in the movies. Of course, most famously, David O. Selznick had to fight like Sam Hill to keep the most famous line heard in 1939's Gone With the Wind because of the use of an expletive in it because, quite frankly, the censor did give a damn. But strong language in the movies or, at least, a version of it, was used before that film without getting the same publicity because of it. Con Starn It! and Dag Dab it! come to mind as cutesy versions of swearing we've heard, most probably in westerns. Somehow I envision some old coot like Walter Brennan, Gabby Hayes or Edgar Buchanan to be using those words. Can anyone think of any other euphemistic swearing heard during the first few decades of the talkies? That would be anything until the late 1960s when the swearing door started to get jammed open. And be careful. We have an auto censor here, as well as a moderator but, then again, it you use expressions that were used during the studio era they will presumably not be offended by what you write.

I recall when my parents, before they eventually got twin beds, slept in a big bed. I loved to crawl in between them. Mom and Dad finally figured out a way to get rid of me without saying anything by slowly pushing their butts in on me from both sides until the squeeze was so much that I ran down the hall back to my own bed. But what did I know? I was only 19.

"Well then, how on earth did we come up with this little bundle between us? No, really, I want to know because Mr.Mayer wouldn't even let us get in the same bed. Where did this kid come from?"

One of my favourite moments in the film Another is when Linda throws a vase of beer (or whatever it is) in Ward Bond's face after he makes a loud whinny sound as she passes by. I wish I could have found a gif of that one to post here.

Thanks. They should show it again then, along with the other two films.

The brutality of the sport will always make it controversial so I understand your viewpoint. However, there have been some exemplary sports legends in the history of the sport whose skill and courage have made them stand apart from others. But it is also an exploitive, cruel sport that does not take care of the vast majority of those who try to make a living in it. There is far too much tragedy associated with the squared ring. I found Muhammad Ali to be a towering figure whose shadow loomed outside the sport. In 1992 when, with shaky arms, he lit the flame at the Atlanta Olympic cauldron, his courage and "I am a proud Olympian" determination was an inspiration to all those around the world with physical afflictions. At the same time, if you haven't seen any of the three boxing films I named, I highly recommend you give them a chance because some great drama and performances are contained in them. John Garfield, Robert Ryan and Kirk Douglas all did some of the best work of their careers in them.

I went to the Ali-Foreman fight on closed circuit TV. I knew Foreman was going to win but I bet on Muhammad, who was my sports hero, and I was going to stick by him no matter what. One of the great evenings of my life as I was shocked to see Ali shake up the world for a second time in ten years. Years later, after Foreman got over his bitterness from his loss, he and Ali became good friends and Big George has nothing but kind and gracious things to say about Muhammad today, both as a man and fighter. Speaking of which, why doesn't Noir Alley show any boxing noirs, Body and Soul, Champion, The Set Up? The movies have brought us some powerful dramatics in those films.

Have you seen Bulldog Drummond, with Ronald Colman? It's a tongue-in-cheek delight. Other than that, I think you're right about 99% of 1929 films.

Tell Me In The Sunlight (1965) Steve Cochran's final film, a low budget production shot on location in Nassau which the actor also produced and directed. Clearly influenced by European filmmakers (Cochran had delivered a quite remarkable performance eight years earlier in Antonioni's Il Grido), this modest production is about as far from mainstream Hollywood as you can get. Cochran plays a cargo ship sailor at loose ends in Nassau. Lonely and looking for a little action he wanders through a sin strip section of the city, finally meeting a very pretty woman who turns out to be a headlining stripper in a local hot spot. Clearly a smooth pickup guy, Cochran doesn't want this encounter to be just another hit and run with a stranger and the girl feels the same way, hoping their encounter can be a meaningful one without rushing into the sex. This is a film that manages to be sleazy, as well as oddly endearing. Cochran's weathered appearance is perfect for his role and his performance is completely convincing. In the role of the stripper girlfriend Shary Marshall delivers a remarkably natural performance that should have led to better opportunities in her acting career. There will be, however, a scene of forced sex in the film that is uncomfortable to view. It has been reported that two endings had been filmed for the production, with the one that Cochran preferred not making it into the final cut. Soon after completing this production Cochran decided to scout locations off Guatemala on his yacht, getting two girls (one of them under aged) and a woman to accompany him. There would be a storm, however, with a mask on the yacht snapping. While trying to repair it Cochran became ill and soon after died of a lung infection. None of the women aboard knew anything about sailing and the yacht drifted for days before washing up in Guatemala. There were rumours of foul play regarding Cochran, with no evidence ever produced to prove same. In any event, Tell Me In The Sunlight was not released until two years after his 1965 death, quickly disappearing at the box office and, with it, any chance of Shary Marshall's performance being noticed. The film is an interesting curiosity piece, a bit of a walk on the Nassau wild side, with an unexpectedly sweet story about two lonely people finding love mixed in. Cochran clearly had skill as a filmmaker, with this little drama now providing teasing hints of what might have been if he had lived longer. The actor, known for his carousing, womanizing lifestyle, was 48. And, in what can now be seen as a moment of ironic foreshadowing, early in the film during his initial meeting with the girl, Cochran has one line of dialogue that strikes home. "That's one thing I don't have too much of - time." 2.5 out of 4

Yes, the reward was Lurene Tuttle's entire reason for turning Cochran in. We still don't know, though, just how well any operation went for her husband. I guess we are supposed to assume that all went well with the reward money for top surgery. The reality is, though, I suspect most viewers at the end probably aren't giving it a lot of thought so the filmmakers felt free to just let it go.

For those who enjoyed Steve Cochran's performance in Tomorrow Is Another Day, for an idea of the actor's versatility, he reverts back to gangster killer form in Highway 301, a 1950 Warner Brothers melodrama that TCM occasionally shows. Steve plays the head of the Tri State Gang, a band of bank robbers who strike banks across three states. Cochran looks hunky and brooding in his beautifully tailored suits but his character is deadly for anyone who crosses him. While the film has a cornball "Crime Does Not Pay" introduction and ending, it is quite an exciting gangster drama, highlighted by Cochran's incredibly casual attitude about shooting people down. One particularly suspenseful sequence involves Cochran looking for his girlfriend who he decides talks too much about the gang's activity.

No, that's not the song. Cigarjoe already identified "Deep Night" as the one used throughout Tomorrow Is Another Day. Since you say you haven't seen much of Ruth Roman, I might mention that one of her most appealing performances is in CHAMPION (1949), the boxing drama that made a star of Kirk Douglas. Ruth plays a waitress that Kirk romances and abandons (the rat!) and she brings a real warmth and vulnerability to her characterization. And, as you can see, a one piece white bathing suit doesn't do any harm either when it comes to her appeal in the film.

I enjoyed Tomorrow Is Another Day very much, sappy happy ending or not. It's a shame that Ruth Roman is probably best remembered for Strangers on a Train today because she is really not at her best in that film, coming across as too cold (and that short hair style hardly heightened her attractiveness). In this film, however, in the film's first half as the blonde dance hall hostess, she gets to play your hard boiled noir dame, but in the later scenes (following the hair dye job) she has a chance to portray a more sensitive side to her character, along with some emotional vulnerability. I enjoy watching Steve Cochran in pretty much anything, including when he's playing a hard boiled tough guy, such as Big Ed in White Heat. But Tomorrow Is Another Day shows that he was a better actor than just a tough guy stereotype and could play vulnerability, as well. He's very effective as, essentially, an adolescent in a man's body who gets released from prison. He's unprepared for the outside world. You see his initial suspiciousness with strangers, combined with a naivety (his scenes with the reporter). Later come his awkward moments with women in his big city loneliness, followed later by a sensitivity, as well as paranoia. Cochran brings a naive innocence to his character that makes him very sympathetic. A few years later Cochran would deliver another sympathetic performance as a flawed character seeking redemption in a little gem that recently premiered on TCM, Come Next Spring. And I like some of the other little touches of sensitivity to be found in Tomorrow Is Another Day, as well, such as the reporter who refuses to lay charges after being assaulted by Cochran because he knows he did him an unfair dirty turn for the sake of a headline and had it coming. There is also, of course, the migrant family, headed by Ray Teal (for once not playing a loud mouth louse) and Lurene Tuttle. Tuttle's eventual betrayal of Cochran for the money to help her husband, and her tearful anguish over it, makes her no back stabbing villainess. She's a human being in a desperate situation forced into performing an action she despises. Who can't understand and even identify with her situation? By the way, anyone notice that when the film ends, with all attention upon Cochran and Roman, we have no idea what will happen to Teal, badly in need of money for surgery following his accident? Classic noir imagery

That's great, cigarjoe. Thanks very much for sharing your knowledge. I see that Deep Night goes back to 1929 and was sung by Rudy Vallee. It really works well on Tomorrow Is Another Day.

Does anyone know the name of the popular song intermittently played on the soundtrack in TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY? It's played by orchestra under the film's opening titles and, early in the film, when Steve Cochran meets the reporter in the diner the reporter plays the same tune on the juxebox, commenting that the tune was popular when he was a kid and was making a comeback. A lot of '40s noirs took advantage of popular songs at the time, using them for melancholy or romantic effect. The standard "Tangerine," for example, wafts through the air from a neighbour's home as Stanwyck and MacMurray eye one another for their final confrontation in Double Indemnity. In any event, the song used in Tomorrow Is Another Day has a vague, wistful quality that appeals to me and I hope someone may know its name.

What I noticed about the Laurel and Hardy shorts scheduled for Monday is that many of the early ones are silents, with BIG BUSINESS and TWO TARS perhaps the most noteworthy of them. To the best of my knowledge, unlike the boys' sound shorts, no company has issued DVD releases of their silents that really do them justice as far as quality is concerned. Used copies of The Lost Films of Laurel and Hardy, which featured their silents, now sell for big bucks as the discs are no longer produced. And the images of the silents even in that series is mediocre, at best. I wonder if the silent prints to be shown by TCM will be better than what is currently available in the DVD market. Meanwhile Canadians with TCM, as usual, don't get access to Hal Roach Studios, therefore get stuck with the Bowery Boys. What have we done to be so punished?

I'm a fan of Dan Duryea. His performance in Too Late For Tears is memorable inasmuch as he plays a sleazy guy who turns out to have more scruples than the leading lady. He brings a touching vulnerability to the role of a not particularly nice guy. Duryea was not afraid to play a chiseler who turns into a weakling.

One of the interesting things about this film is how a wise guy who thinks he's pretty tough (Dan Duryea) turns out to be not nearly as tough or cold blooded as a woman with whom he becomes obsessed. As he becomes increasingly dependent upon alcohol in his downward spiral his character turns from nasty to pathetic, almost to the point of audience sympathy for him at the very end. Too Late for Tears may be Lizabeth Scott's finest moment in the movies but it also has one of the best performances of Dan Duryea's career. He brings a lot to this noir.

Yeh, but I always found MacMurray and Stanwyck shooting each other to death a pretty downer ending for a Christmas film. Oh, wait, that's another movie, isn't it? Never mind.