TomJH
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Posts posted by TomJH
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1 hour ago, cinecrazydc said:
But he died a great death at the Alamo with John Wayne ! What surprised me is that for someone I ASSUMED for so long was born a BRIT, I was recently shocked to find out that he was born
Zvi Mosheh Skikne in Lithuania. That is a name that likely would not have gone far in Hollywood ! At least as an actor !Well all I can say is that I will never say or write his Lithuanian name either. I feel extremely confident that this is a vow that will NEVER be broken (if only because I won't remember his name)..
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7 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
I don't care much for Jerry Lewis, or the Three Stooges.
Good to see you back, Lawrence, and thanks for the double reminders.
Aside from He Who Shall Not Be Named, I can't stand Jerry Lewis. Not funny, not funny, not funny! But loud and annoying, yes.
I do like the Stooges, except for their final shorts in which they recruited Joe Besser as the third stooge. Joe Besser is painfully unfunny, with an emphasis on the pain part.
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9 hours ago, Dargo said:
Another thing which might differentiate this film from your standard "horror" picture and thus make it more a "drama", is that it's one of the very few movies in which the "monster" lives at the end of it, and thus making for a happy ending IF you've been rooting for Quisimodo, and as you're supposed to do.
(...can anyone think of any other "horror" movie in which this happens?...I can't...not right off the top of my head anyway...seems to me it's almost a sure thing that the "monster" dies at the end of every TRUE "horror" movie)
It depends upon which version of Hunchback you've seen. Quasimodo dies in the Chaney silent, for example. I can't remember how the Anthony Quinn version ended but at the end of Hugo's novel Quasimodo's breathing days are all over, too (not to mention those of Esmeralda).
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Just now, Dargo said:
You're welcome, Tom. Ya know, ever since I discovered your extreme dislike for Laurence Harvey I've tried to not....
WHOOPS!!!
(...slowly Tom turns...step by step...)
Now you spoiled it! Nevertheless, alone as I may be, I shall proudly continue to refuse to either say or write the name of this actor who brings with him the same delirious joy as a trip to the dentist.
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5 hours ago, Dargo said:
When I saw Allhallows' thread here Tom, I immediately thought of you and the guy who shall remain nameless here.
(...and come to think of it, like I said about Warren up there, they could ALSO easily put THIS guy's picture next to the word "smug" in the dictionary TOO, huh!)
Thanks for keeping him nameless, Dargo. That's the 'I refuse to say this turkey's name" spirit!
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I don't like one actor,my dislike of him is so extensive that I have neither said nor written his name for about 30 years. He did appear, though, in Room at the Top and The Manchurian Candidate so I guess you know who this cold stuffed shirt is.
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Possibly Quasimodo, associated with the gypsy girl with whom he is in love but can never have, is classified in the minds of many as yet another of the Beauty and the Beast stories. That, combined with the hunchback's unfortunate appearance, is probably enough for the tale to be classified as "horror" in the minds of many. Having said that, I can understand why someone might question the classification.
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4 hours ago, EricJ said:
One time I spent a month working part-time at a nature sanctuary taking care of the domesticated caged wolves (leaving out Cycle 3 once a day and feeding them by hand, twice a week...Which was my dog-person idea of heaven 🥰 ), and we also had one cage for a coyote that had been found abandoned on somebody else's property.
The coyote's cage was just up the hill overlooking a down path to the big storage bin of where we kept the extra bags, and while the other wolves in the area were used to people, every time we would come back up the hill, we would first see the coyote just...crouched down against the ground, watching us from emergency stealth position. This, I thought, was the true species of Wile E.
I have nothing but sympathy for coyotes forced to live in suburbs. I once had one rush past me as I was walking my small dog, no more than a foot from my pet. I didn't see him as he came from behind and he just wanted to get away from us. I've seen more than a few people panic and shout and even scream when they saw a coyote, afraid they might be attacked by him. The poor animal just ran faster than ever to get away. Of course they often say that shouting will frighten these animals but, in these cases, these people were shouting because they were almost as afraid as the coyote.
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6 minutes ago, nakano said:
Totally agree, it was Rin Tin Tin on speed.. the phony stills were scarier than the whole film and they looked bad...
Cry of the Werewolf should be supplied with a pillow to make it that much more comfortable for you when you sleep through the thing.
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I just viewed Cry of the Werewolf for the first time. Competition for Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man this film is not. In fact I think I had a better time earlier in the day when I had to unplug my toilet.
Columbia produced it, not a studio known for its horror films and it showed here, even though that same studio had produced the atmospheric, entertaining Return of the Vampire only a view months before. Speaking of atmosphere, Cry could have used some, as well as a leading man who didn't have the excitement of a vacuum cleaner salesman. Done on the cheap with somebody's german shepherd substituting as a werewolf. A total waste of good actors like Nina Foch (as a gypsy queen yet) and Blanche Yurka (who had a better time rolling around on the floor with Edna May Oliver - talk about erotic! - in A Tale of Two Cities).
The next time you're having a difficult time getting to sleep I highly recommend putting this film on. It may be almost as good as trying to read the first two pages of Silas Marner (I've never made it to page 3). Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . .
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1 hour ago, Bethluvsfilms said:
JAMAICA INN, while not up there with the best of Hitchcock, still carries a certain amount of charm to it thanks to Laughton and Maureen O'Hara.
One of the hammiest performances Laughton ever gave. And to think, this was done the same year that he would later give his great performance as Quasimodo. O'Hara, though, is quite good in the Hitchcock film.
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20 hours ago, Janet0312 said:
Cry of my Werewolf Friend - Coming home from work the other night, driving by a sheep farm, I see something in the road ahead running. What is that? Is that a dog? It was a coyote and he was running in front of me. Come on, move to the side, little pal, and he eventually did, little ****. I take great delight in listening to them cry at night. It's soothing and creepy at the same time. I doubt the sheep farmer would have been pleased tho...
Coyotes are in the suburbs in southern Ontario. I frequently see a mangy one rushing along side a creek nearby, as well as having seen a young one in the park behind my house. Some people are afraid of them, and there may be reason to be concerned if you have a cat or small dog. But I find coyotes to be very skittish around people and don't find them a threat in any way. Just shout or bang something and they will probably take off.
Coyotes are truly victims with their natural habitat disappearing on them due to developers. The animals have to go somewhere so they invade suburbs, much to the consternation of many of their inhabitants. They don't want to be in the burbs, I'm sure, any more than suburbanites want to see them there. In that respect, we're all victims.
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There are a lot of great Barrymore anecdotes, with the following one a nice illustration.
Not long after Jack's 101 night run as Hamlet to smash theatrical reviews in 1922, Warner Brothers was determined to lure the actor to their studio for the prestige that his name would bring to their fledgling organization. Barrymore had already made a few silent films for other studios but his status zoomed to greater heights (not to mention his income) and he was soon being entertained by Mary Pickford and Doug Fairbanks at Pickfair (anyone invited there knew they were "in" in Hollywood society), as well as by William Randolph Hearst at his San Simeone castle. Charlie Chaplin's second wife later recounted that the comedian went into a strange retreat at the time, feeling that Barrymore had automatically overshadowed him.
On one occasion, while making the social rounds, Barrymore met Elinor Glyn, the portly British authoress, known at the time for her erotic fiction and perhaps best remembered today for coining the expression "It" as a description of sexual allure. Clara Bow would soon become known as the "It Girl" due to Glyn.
Upon their meeting Glyn asked the celebrated actor, "Mr. Barrymore, are you passionate?" as she held his hand to her expansive bosom.
"I have been and I have high hopes of being again," he replied, "but, at the moment, not in the least."
". . . not in the least."
"I may be feeling a little something now, though."
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On 8/14/2020 at 3:29 AM, Bogie56 said:
Saturday, August 15
Nina Foch
10:30 a.m. Cry of the Werewolf (1944).
What is it with these women who love their bad boys?
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I agree that Flynn was touching when he played Barrymore. However, just as the film's screenplay jettisoned a lot of the truth behind the stories of Diana and John Barrymore, I think Errol gave a gentle toned down portrait of his old friend and drinking buddy. The real Barrymore, towards the end, was often a crude vulgarian, none of which is even hinted at in the film, thus making Flynn's portrait of Barrymore a more sympathetic one than would have been a more historically accurate account.
But Flynn's portrait did capture the tragic ruin that comes with alcoholism, as well as the often dysfunctional family relationships that are a result of it. Flynn knew all about the physical and spiritual decline as well as self loathing that Barrymore went through only too well.
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3 minutes ago, Dargo said:
Good quote.
Except for the word "tragic" being added, it's completely a Flynn quote.
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10 minutes ago, Dargo said:
So in essence, how to get from looking like one of the studliest guys in the world (the guy on the right here, that is) to this...
...in LESS than two decades' time.
(...just follow your idol's lead)
These tragic men with a zest for living but, as Flynn wrote, twice an urge to die.
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1 hour ago, Allhallowsday said:
I have read that JOHN BARRYMORE and ERROL FLYNN were good friends... it's sad, interesting and ironic to see FLYNN play his friend in TOO MUCH, TOO SOON (1958). ERROL FLYNN died the next year.
This is the only photograph I have ever seen of the two of them together. Judging by his appearance this looks like it's clearly towards the end of Barrymore's life. According to those in attendance at the time Flynn was providing anecdotes about Barrymore, among other Hollywood legends, just an hour or so before his own death.
Two decades later here's a photo of their sons together, taken when John Drew Barrymore visited Sean Flynn in his dressing room when the latter was filming Son of Captain Blood.
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Just now, yanceycravat said:
From IMDB trivia - There is no surviving footage from this film according to UCLA Film and Television search page on this film. The surviving element listing for this film is the Vitaphone soundtrack disks.
Anything that I've read of The Man from Blankley's indicates that Barrymore's light comedy skills were on full enviable display. It's a shame this one is lost. It's interesting, though, that the soundtrack disks still survive.
Another lost Barrymore is the silent version of his last silent, General Crack. There is a talkie version still in existence (I saw a very grim looking version of it) but, apparently, the silent version is the superior one.
Here's an existing clip of the silent version
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1 hour ago, TikiSoo said:
Arsine Lupin is one of my favorite Barrymore Bros. films, along with the fantasy The Return of Peter Grimm. My favorites though are the "smaller" films he did like Topaze '32, State's Attorney '32...I even like The Invisible Woman '40.
I'm a big fan of Topaze (a really lovely, gentle performance by Barrymore, particularly in his earlier scenes when he plays an idealistic, naive school teacher who has never lived outside of academic circles) and State's Attorney. In the latter John plays his character as slightly potted in most of his scenes, one of the first films in which audiences must have been starting to see Barrymore's real life character merging with that played on screen. The film is slick, efficient and Barrymore delivers a commanding, completely charismatic performance. He was also fun to watch in The Invisible Woman even if he can be accused of playing his character "cutesy."
It's a shame that one of Barrymore's earliest talkies, a comedy, The Man from Blankley's, is a lost film. The actor got solid reviews at the time playing a character in a slightly inebriated condition throughout the film. One of our fellow posters here, Arturo, said that he saw a print of this film when he was young. He may be the only one on these boards to be able to make the claim.
The lost Man from Blankley's
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12 hours ago, Dargo said:
I watched both Night Club Scandal and Arsene Lupin last evening. Had never seen either before.
Thought Barrymore was good in the former as the wife killing husband who almost gets away with it, but besides all the many plot coincidences and contrivances in it which makes the use of one's suspension of disbelief a necessity, Barrymore's role is almost secondary to both Charles Bickford's and Lynne Overman, whose wise-cracking newspaper reporter reminded me a lot of Red Skelton.
AH, but in Arsene Lupin, I found Barrymore was at the top of his game and VERY entertaining as the suave and charming thief. He carries that picture.
(...and even though his brother Lionel was also very good as the police inspector attempting to apprehend him)
I agree. The Barrymore brothers are both at the top of their game in Arsene Lupin and make very entertaining cat and mouse antagonists with one another. John is charming and elegant in his role. This part can be seen as pretty much the same one he would play again in Grand Hotel. As far as the writing is concerned, though, for a "smart cookie," don't you think Lupin puts an awful lot of stock in depending upon his many underlings to not spill the beans on him?
I also watched Night Club Scandal again, an efficient B programmer, I thought, one of those many films in which a smart aleck reporter gets to follow cops around on a murder investigation and even ask questions of suspects in the middle of the cop's investigation. Barrymore is understated and, you're right, missing from the film for stretches of time. It's certainly not a Barrymore star vehicle. My favourite moment of his performance is when he is about to operate on J. Carol Naish and Naish is indicating the possibility of giving away the game on him. There is a telling closeup of Barrymore's face, his features eerily hardening and a fierce look in his eyes as he hears Carol speak. You can tell that something significant is about to happen as a result of this verbal exchange.
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1 minute ago, Princess of Tap said:
I first saw "Grand Hotel" when I was a child. And I was impressed with Garbo and John Barrymore.
It's one of my few favorite classic films that I revisited as an adult and had to change my opinions completely.
I have to give the kudos to Joan Crawford and Lionel Barrymore in this movie.
John Barrymore, of course is passible, but Greta Garbo is simply awful.
The only explanation I could think of for her public renown in this film is that her fan base was still seeing her through their Rose Colored Glasses from the silent film era.
Poor old Wally Beery. He's not half bad and he was the only cast member to attempt a German accent. But few seem to talk about his performance in Grand Hotel. For me it's Crawford and the Barrymore brothers who run away with the film.
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37 minutes ago, Allhallowsday said:
I can't believe you said what I daren't.
You daren't? If you're leery of being assaulted by a stream of Garbo fans for criticizing her performance just tell them you vant to be alone.
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HITS & MISSES: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow on TCM
in General Discussions
Posted
I've been looking forward to this one but now my Canadian supplier says they are showing The Heavenly Body instead.
DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!