TomJH
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Posts posted by TomJH
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12 minutes ago, ClassicMovieholic said:
Absolutely. A choice every viewer has to make for oneself, and I certainly wouldn't try to "drive the point home." Not my place to tell a Black person how they should feel about anything. If one feels they can get past the stereotypes and see the value of the performer, great! If one feels personally hurt by it and just doesn't want to deal with the pain, totally a valid choice.
My source is primarily the biography I mentioned, Opposite Attraction. Not sure where the author sourced their information. It was a library copy so I don't have it on hand, but I recall there was an extensive index. Admittedly there's a lot anecdotal information circulating about her out there on the web and various gossipy books, not all of it flattering, and much of it doubtless untrue or exaggerated. One thing that becomes clear at least in the way her life is presented in Opposite Attraction is that Paulette herself rewrote her own narrative so many times it was hard to keep the facts straight (her fluctuating birthdate for example). Like all the best stories, it's often hard to distinguish legend from truth. One shouldn't confidently assert the former as the latter, and that's not what I mean to do. One can still enjoy the ride, but be sure to have the proverbial grains of salt on hand for the taking😉. My general impression is that Paulette Goddard lived the hell out of life, liked a bit of fun, and a flashy piece of jewelry as you say, and I don't begrudge her that one iota!🍻
Paulette was also a friend of Errol Flynn, who never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Kindred souls perhaps.
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I have a book, An Actor Prepares, which was once owned by Tyrone Power. Or, at least, that's what I was told by the clerk of a book store which specializes in Hollywood memorabilia.
There is a sticker on the inside cover, with a drawing of a book and two burning candles over it, underneath the book the expression "Ex Libris" followed by "Tyrone Power."
Opposite that is an inscription to Power from Serge Bertensson, a Hollywood dialogue director who worked at Fox, among other studios.
Bertensson wrote, "To Tyrone Power whose talent Stanislavsky would admire and cultivate, with best wishes from Serge Bertensson - one of Stanislavsky's associates. February 22, 1939."
The book has a 1936 publication date.
I guess I'll never know for sure if it really had been owned by Power but the inscription and the sticker with Power's name on it sure look authentic. Would anyone know if Power used to put stickers of this nature on his books? Perhaps he had a library.
And I'll tell you something else. For a book published over 80 years ago it is in beautiful condition, to the extent that I have to wonder if Power or any of its subsequent owners ever read it.
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50 minutes ago, ClassicMovieholic said:
I agree about Best, and have nothing but admiration for the great Black performers of yesteryear who made their talent, charisma, humor, and humanity shine through the demeaning stereotypes they were obliged to play to be working professionals in Hollywood. One reason I'm wary of "canceling" pop cultural artifacts that today's standards deem (often rightly so) racist; you're also canceling the legacy of these amazing performers who did the best they could with the only options they had at the time, and left some wonderful work despite what they had to face.
On Goddard, I too developed an impossible crush on her when I watched her as a kid, and have never really shaken it! We're in good company, as many of the great geniuses of the era lost their heads over the unique, vivacious charm you describe; George Gershwin, Diego Rivera, and of course Chaplin to name just a few. There's a magnificent dual biography of Goddard and last husband Erich Maria Remarque, tracing their oft-diverging, oft-intersecting lives in the decades before and after their last-act marriage. It's called Opposite Attraction. She had a rollicking, adventurous, whopper of a life! It reads like a modern retelling of an 18th-century picaresque novel...Moll Flanders in tennis shorts and knee-length skirts.
I tried to get a friend of mine, who was black, to watch Ghost Breakers with me. She was stony silent while it played and I could tell by the expression of her face that she was not happy. Finally she walked out on the film, not able to take the character played by Willie Best. I respected her sensitivities, obviously coming from a different place than me, though I thought she did Best's skills as a comedian a disservice by concentrating only upon what she viewed as a racially demeaning characterization. Still, as Atticus Finch said, you have to walk around in another person's shoes to understand where they're coming from.
I hadn't heard of Paulette Goddard's bio. Yes, I know she was a free spirit and had a few relationships. But she also always remained a very private person about her personal life which was undoubtedly a very interesting one. I don't think we really know all that much about her activities away from the screen (at least before the biography), though I do know she had a legendary jewelry collection and was an international jet setter after her film career ended, dying in her Swiss residence, probably not too far from where Chaplin had died. One more thing, her screen tests as Scarlett O'Hara make the mouth water.
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20 minutes ago, ElCid said:
Interestingly this was her first major role according to Eddie although she had been in a lot of movies before Gilda.
Cover Girl had been a big hit for Hayworth and Gene Kelly prior to Gilda. If Eddie said that he was wrong.
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15 hours ago, Vautrin said:
I didn't even bother to watch Gilda. Seen it a number of times and it never did much for me.
It's an okay flick, just never got into it. Rita is in fine form and Macready is creepily cold as
the villain of the piece. Glenn Ford's character is kind of a tiresome jerk. I wish someone
would shut him up or just bump him off, but then you wouldn't have much of a picture.
And that waiter kum philosopher dude, Captain Peepee or whatever his name is. God is he
annoying. Take the orders and shut the **** up. The first go round isn't too bad, but once
you know the plot it loses a lot of interest. And Glenn spending half the picture trying to
figure out if Rita is screwing other guys, pretending to screw other guys, not screwing
other guys, or screwing herself. Dull. Dull. Dull. I'm sure everyone concerned gave it the old
college try, but they just came up woefully short.
I pretty well agree with everything you say (particularly the Glenn Ford character being a jerk part) but Gilda was, of course, a huge hit at the box office right after the war.
And, my God, when Rita sensually moves around on a swanky dance floor or does a "naughty" one glove strip tease . . .
. . . is there anyone who can take their eyes away?
If there is only one reason this film deserves a repeat viewing it's for the sight of Rita Hayworth at the zenith of her career as a sex goddess. She really was remarkable.
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15 minutes ago, ElCid said:
I actually like Dead Reckoning a lot and don't see it as close to self-parody.
I like Dead Reckoning but a lot of the film's tough guy dialogue makes me almost chuckle because it sounds so stereotypical. Bogart is solid, of course, and the film looks great but some of the time when some of the characters open their mouths I wish that different dialogue was coming out of them, dialogue that didn't sound quite so self consciously hard edged.
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4 hours ago, ClassicMovieholic said:
Curious to see Nothing But the Truth now, but of course can't speak for it, not having seen it. I'm glad you like The Ghost Breakers and Cat and the Canary as they are two of my favorites as well! Generally I'll watch almost anything with Paulette Goddard 'cause I just find her infinitely adorable, and Bob Hope is an American treasure for all the obvious reasons. I guess I can picture what you mean about him playing "comedian as well as hero," as I was perennially frustrated by the "Road" movies for him always having to play farcical second fiddle to Bing Crosby's romantic lead straight man, when Hope seemed so much more appealing. Fun to see him in a similar type of movie, being the hero, getting the laughs, and getting the girl!
That's one of the interesting things about Cat and the Canary and Ghost Breakers. It's a slightly different Bob Hope than the one that would be firmly established as his persona by the time of the "Road" films. In these two films he is quick witted and dapper in appearance. Hope had the ability to play a comedian with leading man qualities, at least in the early part of his career.
In Ghost Breakers, once the action has been transported to the haunted castle, it's Willie Best who provides 99% of the laughs in the film (a sweet, endearing performance by Best even if his character is a racial stereotype) while Hope turns hero (even after his often cowardly activities in the first half of the film). And, like yourself, I adore Paulette Goddard, finding her during her early years at Paramount one of the most vivacious and charming of all leading ladies. I fell in love with her when, as a boy, I first saw her in Ghost Breakers. Who wouldn't want to rescue that beautiful spunky lady?
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48 minutes ago, ClassicMovieholic said:
I've never seen Nothing But The Truth. Could be something about the send-up and genre mixing about the scare comedies lent itself well to their dynamic, or maybe the scripts were sharper, or the director(s) knew better what to do with them. Who can say? Not to get gossipy again😏☺️, but Goddard did have a way of breaking hearts, so maybe Bob was smarting in the personal department. Purely speculation, of course.
Hope had the opportunity to play both comedian as well as hero in his two scare comedies with Goddard while she was most appealing as spunky girl who became a lady in distress in them. Nothing But The Truth, based on a stage play, took those kinds of roles away from them, and, in doing so, denied them the opportunity to shine together as they had before. Considering the two leads I was very disappointed by this film, especially since Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers are two of my favourite films, with Bob and Paulette one of my favourite screen pairings.
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33 minutes ago, midwestan said:
Looking forward to next week's offering, "They Won't Believe Me". It too has an ending that would want to make someone take one of those cartoon mallets and beat themselves about their heads! Still, it's a cool movie with a nice cast, so I'll definitely be watching.
I see that They Won't Believe Me is listed by TCM as 90 minutes. Hopefully that will be the case. Previous versions of the film shown on the channel have been 79 minutes.
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Gilda. Everyone's good in the film which, along with the film's production design and overall slickness, helps to make it very watchable. And Hayworth, of course, was at the peak of her beauty as she played this declasse screen goddess. The problem, though, is that no character in the film is likeable. The filmmakers also tried to have it both ways, too, with that ending, in which the title character turns out to be a tease rather than a tramp. I also agree with MissW that watching an ongoing "love-hate" relationship with all the lousy things that one participant will do to the other becomes tedious after a while when that is all the story has to offer.
Gilda does have, though, one of the greatest introductory closeup shots ever taken of a star. Hayworth would never again have quite the same impact on the screen as she does in this film.
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11 hours ago, ClassicMovieholic said:
The point about Lou Costello and Marjorie Reynolds Just reminded me that Paulette Goddard and Bob Hope had delightful chemistry in the two horror-comedies they made together, The Cat and the Canary, and The Ghost Breakers. I usually kick off the coming Halloween season with one or both of those. So much humor, and such a spirit of fun between them.
I know the OP was referring more to non-romantic pairings, but this came to mind just now.
I agree that Hope and Goddard have great chemistry in those two scare comedies, though I don't think they are a particularly "unusual" screen team. Curiously, though, they went on to make a third comedy together, Nothing But The Truth, in which all that established chemistry between them in their first two films strangely disappeared.
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14 hours ago, EricJ said:
Dead Man's Treasure, where Steed, Peel, and their Rolls-Royce and sports car, enter a Wacky Races-esque auto race on a country estate to try and retrieve valuable information hidden in the prize, isn't a great first episode, since S&P are split up for 3/4 of the story, but it's still enjoyably silly, thanks to its own unforgivingly earworm Laurie Johnson theme throughout the ENTIRE episode:
It's been a lot time since I saw it but I recall enjoying Dead Man's Treasure more than most of the colour Emma Peels.
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From the final episodes of the first season of Emma Peel Avengers, The House That Jack Built remains one of the best directed episodes of the series, as well as an intriguing story. Mrs. Peel is lured to a country estate she had been informed by letter she inherited from her "Uncle Jack" whom she has never met. Once inside the house, though, she finds herself trapped in a structure full of maze-like rooms that look the same, haunting laughter and the rumble of a lion's roar. It's up to Mrs. Peel to unravel the mystery before she goes mad. Steed, suspecting something may be wrong, tries to find his way to the house to help. This episode is primarily Diana Rigg's as her character must use logic and reason to try to understand what is happening to her in the house. The final resolution may be a little simplistic perhaps but the overall presentation, with frequent off angle camerawork, still keeps the viewer engrossed as to what will happen next.
By contrast, the final episode of the season, Honey for the Prince, is light hearted and amusing, dealing with a planned assassination of an Arabian prince visiting England. It will also involve a company called Q.Q.F. (Quite Quite Fantastic) in which people pay money to realize any fantasy they desire, from one client dressed as Napoleon to another as a cowboy. Ron Moody, a few years before appearing as Fagin in Oliver, is suitably eccentric as the head of the company.
Steed, in trying to solve the death of a fellow secret agent who had been there, asks to have the same fantasy as him, only to find out it will be as a eunuch in a harem. Speaking of which, Mrs. Peel's appeal will rise to even greater heights than usual in this episode as she disguises herself as dancing "Emma" in a harem outfit to lure an Arabian prince. Silly but fun with the rubbing of lamps as harem girls and others suddenly appear and disappear with a puff of smoke, Honey for the Prince is not intended to be taken seriously.
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I watched another pair of Avengers from the first black and white season, lesser efforts but both with enjoyable aspects to them. With the wild Man-Eater of Surrey Green, influenced, I assume, by the recent British film Day of the Triffids, the sci fi plot involves a thinking plant from outer space (yes, you read that correctly) which is able to transmit brain waves to humans (including some scientists) turning them into zombie-like creatures carrying out its orders for world germinaton. The plant also feeds on humans.
This episode is, to put it mildly, pretty far out there but, even with the obvious limitation in the series' production values as far as special effects are concerned, the climax, in which a giant plant is crawling all over a house with Steed and Mrs. Peel inside is still pretty entertaining, if more than a little ludicrous. The always delightful character actress Athene Seyler brings her warm eccentricities to the role of a botanist coming to the rescue with a container of herbicide. This is one of the few episodes in which we see Steed and Mrs. Peel physically fight one another after Emma's brain falls under the influence of the man eater plant. The doubling of the two actors is pretty obvious. Mrs. Peel is in her cat outfit again towards the end, for which all male audience members can be grateful.
Two's A Crowd has Patrick Macnee enjoying the opportunity to play dual roles, one as Steed and the other as a lookalike second rate actor and model who is hired by Russian agents to pose as the secret agent. The audience, along with Mrs. Peel, has the fun of trying to figure out whether it's really Steed or his impersonator towards the end of the episode. Again, the series' budget limitations become painfully obvious with some closeups of planes and a submarine that are so obviously miniatures that I wondered if they were supposed to be toys (I don't think they were). It's the charm of Macnee and Rigg, along with a reasonable amount of humour in the form of one slightly stumble bum Russian agent who just can't get the respect of his fellow agents, that helps to carry this episode, I feel.
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26 minutes ago, midwestan said:
Diana Rigg was in 51 episodes of "The Avengers".
Memorable ones for me were: The Cybernauts (ep. 3), Castle De'Ath (ep. 5), Too Many Christmas Trees (ep. 13), Quick-Quick Slow Death (ep. 19), A Touch of Brimstone (ep. 21), How to Succeed...at Murder (ep. 25), Never, Never Say Die (ep. 36), Something Nasty in the Nursery (ep. 40), You Have Just Been Murdered (ep. 47), Murdersville (ep. 49), The Forget-Me Knot (ep. 51).
My memory of the series with Mrs. Peel is that I enjoyed the first black and white season more than the second colour one. So far I've just been re-watching episodes from the first season, though that will change, I'm sure. If memory serves me correctly all of Diana Rigg's leather cat outfit episodes were in the black and white season. Diana was happy to get away from those outfits which she found sticky and uncomfortable, much to the chagrin of many male viewers, I'm sure.
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I watched another couple of Avengers episodes I hadn't seen in years. Dial A Deadly Number has Steed and Mrs. Peel investigating an investment company which had six chairmen suddenly die. This will involve electronically adjusted "bleepers" in suits of the victims activated by a phone call that will trigger a thin steel rod plunging into their hearts leaving no sign behind outside a slight bruise.
There's an enjoyably creepy performance by John Carson as the ingenious electronics expert given the murder assignments who, as a memento of his crimes, keeps a clock frozen at the time each victim died. Among other things he will plant a small bomb in Steed's watch, triggered to explode the next time he opens it to check the time.
Mrs. Peel will start wearing her leather cat suit towards the end so you know some action involving her is to come. There will also be much wine tasting among wine aficiondos, with Steed not only able to tell the vintage and its year but also the field from which the grapes came. It's all engaging fun set in the London business world.
One of my very favourite silly moments of the series occurs at the end. The climax takes place in a wine cellar. After the villains have been disposed of Steed and Mrs. Peel stop to share a wine. Suddenly one of the heavies fires a bullet at them. Steed shakes his wine bottle and, taking careful aim with the sealed bottle, fires a wine cork at the bad guy, knocking him out. The two then nonchalantly resume their drink, Steed commenting that it was an "adaptable" wine.
Too Many Christmas Trees is one of the more bizarre and intriguing episodes, involving Steed having a Christmas nightmare that involves a creepy looking Santa Claus, the dream ending with Steed finding a secret agent he knows dead. The next day he reads in the paper that that agent did die. Soon he and Mrs. Peel are invited to a large house with a Christmas Dickens motif and telepathic games being played at Steed's expense.
Too Many Christmas Trees is also the only post-Honor Blackman episode that makes reference to her character in the series, along with a sly reference to the current James Bond franchise. At one moment Steed and Mrs. Peel are opening Christmas cards addressed to Steed. Mrs. Peel reads one of the card's inscriptions out loud, "Best wishes for the future. Cathy." Steed then looks at the card. "Mrs.Gayle," he smiles, "How nice of her to remember me. What can she be doing in Fort Knox?"
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They only share a couple of scenes but Errol Flynn and Flora Robson demonstrate a surprising chemistry in The Sea Hawk. Flynn was tardy in remembering his lines on the film set but, after hearing that Robson was concerned about time spent on her scenes in the film holding her up on a stage play appearance she wanted to make, the actor had all his lines memorized letter perfect for their big scene together in Queen Elizabeth's private chambers. Years later Robson spoke well of her working experience with Flynn. I think that the mutual respect these two actors had for one another shows in their scenes together.
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37 minutes ago, yanceycravat said:
My favorite of all the Abbott and Costello movies.
With the exception of A & C Meet Frankenstein, it's my favourite too.
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Lou Costello and Marjorie Reynolds in THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES.
In perhaps the most unusual film they made Abbott and Costello do not work as a team. Beginning in American Revolutionary War times Lou plays a tinker who, along with Marjorie Reynolds, is shot down by American troops, their bodies dumped into a well as they are unjustly branded traitors. The story then changes to modern times (1946) with Costello and Reynolds as ghosts still desiring, after all those years, to prove their innocence. There's an unexpected sweetness to this film and, although sentimental, that sentiment is, thankfully, never excessive. But a large part of the success of this fantasy comedy is because of the unexpected chemistry that exists between Costello and Reynolds, bringing a delightful warmth to their scenes together in this gentle little film.
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I watched Quick-Quick Slow Death this evening, a delightfully droll episode of The Avengers, much of it set in a terpsichorean school where identity swaps are made to bring foreign agents into England. There are an assortment of engaging eccentrics to be found here, including an Italian accented shoe maker (who at one point loses his accent) who is sweaty faced passionate about Mrs. Peel's feet. The beautiful Eunice Gayson (Sylvia Trench in Dr No and From Russia With Love) plays the head of the dance school who hires Mrs. Peel as a new teacher at her studio while John Steed poses as a Mr. Lonelyhearts new student. Larry Cross is a hoot as the inebriated dance studio band conductor (the "band' being a tape recording).
There are many Avengers episodes that fans cite as favourites and Quick-Quick Slow Death has always been one of mine. While the episode has a light hearted larky tone and never takes itself seriously, it's the performances that add so much to the delight to be found here. Patrick Macnee's elegance and Diana Rigg's style and impish humour are both at their peak here.
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13 hours ago, TomJH said:
"Repeat after me, my dear, All men bad, Massaging female psychiatrist body parts good."
"Oh, yes, I agree. I so, sooooo agree."
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7 hours ago, Dargo said:
Wow! What a thoroughly engaging, entertaining, charming and unpretentious lady Miss Rigg appears to be here! Thanks for posting this, Tom.
(...but now that you have, I've found myself once again falling in love with her and even more saddened by her recent passing)
It was lovely hearing her heart felt tribute to Patrick Macnee and amusing anecdotes about Vincent Price and Coral Browne. A lovely lady. Yes, I was in love with Mrs. Peel, too, Dargo.
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"Repeat after me, my dear, All men bad, Massaging female psychiatrist body parts good."
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Tyrone Power
in General Discussions
Posted
Well, he at least may have opened the book's front cover to put in that sticker with his name on it.
He's reading a book here but with that gettyimages label right across it I can't tell if it's my book.