TomJH
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Posts posted by TomJH
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10 hours ago, Bogie56 said:
Tuesday, February 25
6:30 a.m. That Forsyte Woman (1949). Errol Flynn without his cutlass.
Greer Garson wrote the following about working with Errol Flynn on this film:
"We greeted each other warily on the first day of shooting, in an electrical atmosphere of mutual apprehension, while gleeful columnists and set siders waited breathlessly for the predicted clash between MGM's Nice Lady and Warners' Bad Boy. It never came. Instead there was swift rapport, easy friendship and a deal of harmless fun and laughter . . . happy memories of a picture that wasn't much, I'm afraid, for the audience, but was a ball for the cast and crew that made it.
Soon afterwards he left for England, hoping to unwind and relax by putting some distance between himself and his then current difficulties. He was facing a blue phase of personal loneliness and professional uncertainty, and he knew it, but he took leave of us all with his customary debonair insouciance. I met him a few years later at a friend's party in New York, and for one startled moment I didn't recognize him, he looked so ill and changed."
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19 minutes ago, Dargo said:
I kind'a doubt this poster is nearly that young, RG. Nope, not nearly.
I'd bet, and due to past experiences around these here parts, that the poster is in fact some older set-in-their-ways type, and probably one of those folks who thinks TCM should never show any movies which were made after the fall of the studio system.
And maybe even someone who's sense of humor (and speaking of "Does everything have to be a joke with you") not only possesses little of, but is probably also one who finds it nearly impossible to ever laugh at themselves.
(...that's my guess, anyway)
Well, knowing that is certainly a relief. Speaking of which . . .
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Haunting imagery
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"Blasphemers! Idolators! For this you shall drink bitter waters! . . . Those who will not live by the law shall DIE by the law!"
(I especially use this line whenever I'm at a party and feel there's an o r g y going on in the next room that I wasn't invited to).
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"When a woman has dinner with me I expect her to look me in the face. That's the price she has to pay."
From A Night at the Opera
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11 minutes ago, Dargo said:
LOL
Well yeah, SURE! But you have to remember we were just high school kids there, Tom.
(...and probably wouldn't have learned THIS sort'a trick of the trade until apprenticing at the Pasadena Playhouse)
If only you had been Pasadena Playhouse graduates at the time. Then I'm sure there would have been plenty of strangling.
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10 minutes ago, Dargo said:
LOL
Yeah, I remember he brought a little cap gun to school for this, and as I recall, even THAT misfired on him.
(...btw, kind'a doubt he'd be allowed to do that today, huh)
A true acting professional on stage, with all eyes watching him as a gun prop failed, could have responded by straggling Lenny to death. Not as quick as a gun, I admit, and a bit of a deviation from Steinbeck but it would have yielded the same result.
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Young Man With A Horn (1950)
Atmospheric, engrossing drama exploring the world, from sleazy dives to classy salons, of a jazz trumpet player, loosely based on the life of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke.
Michael Curtiz’s assured direction of a superior cast, combined with the behind the scenes trumpet playing of Harry James, makes this one of the most compelling film examinations of that special breed of man who lives for his music, often at the expense of other aspects of his life.
Kirk Douglas, following up on his star making role in Champion, is impressive, his drive and intensity perfect for the role of Rick Martin, the central figure of this drama. Douglas also does some most convincing lip synching to the sounds of James’s trumpet playing. The actor became a competent horn player during his practise sessions for the film. Curtiz, in fact, had to tell him to cut out his horn playing in his dressing room, Douglas’s enthusiasm for the instrument being such that his playing had become a distraction to the film set.
Doris Day adds immeasurably to the jazz club feel of the film in what was, I believe, the only film in the former band singer’s career in which she played a band singer. Day is fine dramatically in this film, as well, but she particularly shines when giving her renditions of such great old standards as “Too Marvelous for Words”, “The Very Thought of You” and “With A Song in My Heart.” It’s a pleasure to hear Day sing these with great orchestral accompaniment. We sometimes forget what a treasure this lady was as a singer due to her acting talents overshadowing that aspect of her career to a degree.
Ironically, Douglas and Day did not get along well while making the film but you would never know it by watching them in their scenes together. The two actors work off each other just fine.
Hoagy Carmichael, who knew the real Beiderbecke, brings great jazz club authenticity to the film as “Smoke,” a pianist who becomes Rick Martin’s best friend, trying to look out for him as best he can. Needless to say, with his nickname in the film, Carmichael is pretty much a walking chimney much of the time. Speaking of which, this is yet another Golden Age Hollywood film in which just about everyone in the production smokes, even Doris Day.
Yet another fine portrayal in the film comes from Juano Hernandez as an old time jazz trumpet player who becomes the young Rick Martin’s inspiration, teaching him everything he knows about playing a horn, becoming a father figure to him in the process. Hernandez gives a lovely performance, quiet, dignified, and sensitive. He and Douglas have an affecting chemistry together in the jazz club scenes as they play. Hernandez is particularly affecting, in his own gentle under stated way, in the last scene in the film he shares with Douglas.
The film, unfortunately, loses focus for a while when it takes a melodramatic downward turn for Martin after he meets and falls in love with an unstable woman with failed pretensions, played by Lauren Bacall. Bacall’s performance is as unsteady as the character she plays and I say this as a viewer who usually enjoys this actress’s work.
As Martin spirals downward and aimlessly wanders New York City streets towards the end, the on location photography of those streets brings an atmospheric reality to the film. SPOILER ALERT: the ending, while contrived, is different from the ending of the tragic Beiderbecke’s life, returning us, once again, to a recording studio and the uplifting sounds of Doris Day blending her strong singing voice with the horn of Harry James.
At that, every bit as much as the film’s assured direction and generally superior performances, it’s the sounds of Harry James’ horn that brings this film much of its musical heart.
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7 hours ago, Dargo said:
"And where they'll be rabbits that I can pet and stroke and take care of, huh George?!"...ahem, I mean Bogie.
And FWIW, I remember once playing Lennie in my high school drama class. Just one scene from it though. The last of poor ol' Lennie and when George shoots him in the back of the head. The teacher thought I was very good (perhaps just a case of good casting?) but not so much my classmate who played George. He kept forgetting his lines.
Just so long as he didn't forget to shoot you in the back of the head.
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10 hours ago, Allhallowsday said:
The member has 9 posts and belonged since last year.
9 hours ago, LawrenceA said:And all of those were to complain about how awful TCM is. If you check their posting history, you'll see that only three remain, as the others were deleted by the mods for being aggressively offensive. In fact, I suspected that the poster had been banned after their last tirade, but alas...
I was getting a little concerned about the newbie OP's lack of followup on this thread, particularly worried about just how tragically "sad" he or she may be regarding this dire TCM situation he/she reported here with this thread. But then I read Lawrence's report on the posting history of the newbie.
In response to that I have now decided to send a repeat message to the poster.
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"TCM's bad? Oh no, did they stop showing my films?"
"TCM cancelled broadcasting The Jerk? I can handle this, I can handle this . . . No, I can't."
"Oh, Mr. Newbie TCM belly acher, . . ."
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Arthur Haley’s The Moneychangers (1976)
TV mini series that aired over four nights in December, 1976. Ross Hunter produced this adaption of Haley’s popular pulpy novel about power and corruption in a fictitious LA bank, with slick production values and a big cast of stars.
The primary plot involves a power struggle between two vice presidents for the top job at the bank when the long time president announces he’s dying of cancer. One of them (Kirk Douglas) is an idealistic corporate head who wants to see a kinder face on the bank by financing the construction of better homes for the poor.
The other vice president (Christopher Plummer) concentrates, instead, more conventionally, upon the bank’s bottom line, a more is better, money is power philosophy, and he is soon spreading rumours on the phone to an influential member of the bank’s board of directors about Douglas’s private life.
Two other sub plots in the film will deal with the people in the projects and their pressure tactics to try to stop the bank from cancelling assistance to their community, and a bank card fraud scheme in which a former teller, convicted of embezzlement, is hired to become involved in trying to find the source of the counterfeit bank cards, at peril to his own life.
Aside from Douglas and Plummer, the film’s two principal players, the cast of this slick soapy drama includes Timothy Bottoms as the embezzler recruited for street undercover work, Susan Flannery as a lawyer in the projects in an open relationship with the married Douglas, Marisa Pavan as Douglas’s wife, institutionalized because of a mental illness, Joan Collins as a high end prostitute used as a lure for Plummer to get him to form a collaboration between the bank and a multi million dollar international corporation, Loren Greene as the smooth taking, morally dubious head of that corporation, Jean Peters as Plummer’s wife, Anne Baxter as the bank manager, along with additional roles for Ralph Bellamy, Robert Loggia and Helen Hayes. Not as well known as the other cast members, Percy Rodrigues makes one of the strongest impressions as the head of bank security.
The mini series turns quite melodramatic in its final chapter but enjoyably so. As the plot threads are resolved the interest in the drama increasingly belongs to Plummer due to the skill of his performance. His character is not admirable but the actor makes him seem a flawed human being as the series progresses, rather than just a cardboard villain. In fact, Plummer’s final dramatic moments in The Moneychangers are quite possibly the ones that will linger in the memories of many viewers the most, I suspect. The actor, a stage and film acting icon in Canada, won an Emmy nomination for his performance in the series and I can well understand why.
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7 hours ago, Dargo said:
Why, I think that might be Robert Benchley filming one of his comedy shorts here, isn't it???
Ya know, they used a lot of the same sets for different films back then, don't ya Tom?!
(...looks like sometimes even at the same TIME!)
You're right, Dargo. Maybe Benchley was filming his latest short, HOW SNEAK INTO A FILM WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING.
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One Wayne feature that nobody mentions but I think is one of his best is REAP THE WILD WIND.
It's a De Mille film, of course, more than it is a Wayne movie and he doesn't get the girl. Is that the reason? I think he's quite good in the film playing a flawed character, even if the characterization is superficial compared to some of his later efforts.
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48 minutes ago, Roy Cronin said:
Thanks to my fellow posters for mocking and berating those of us who enjoy and appreciate the merits of Gone With the Wind.
You guys just never, ever give up in your attempts to demean us.
Who is "us"? Besides, no one here knocked the film. It was the President who was mocked.
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The price of a marriage challenging torrid affair on an actor's features:
The Fountainhead, filmed in 1948 as the affair was beginning
1950: filming Bright Leaf with Neal
1951, the year High Noon was filmed
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5 hours ago, Bogie56 said:
Sunday, February 23
Just for you, Mr. President …
10 p.m. Gone With the Wind (1939). No subtitles and not one Korean in it either.
And a valuable history lesson for the President, too, in case he's not certain who won the war.
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11 hours ago, TomJH said:
Yellow (1991)
For those interested, there is currently a nice looking print of Yellow on You Tube.
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Turner Classic Movies, the last cable channel launched by Ted Turner as an independent media mogul, hit its silver on-air anniversary in early 2019. But the TCM brand is well positioned to enter a golden age as the tide turns in the marketplace for cable TV channels.
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Lorna Thayer as the waitress with attitude when she takes Jack's order in Five Easy Pieces
It sure is tough to get a chicken sal sandwich in this diner.
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Jody Gilbert as a waitress from Hell in NEVER GIVE SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK.
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20 minutes ago, txfilmfan said:
I never cared for Mogambo when watching it on television, but I saw it at last year's festival, and enjoyed it more.
My favorite Garnder film would probably be either On the Beach or Night of the Iguana. It's tough to choose. Knowing Bette Davis played her Iguana role on stage always runs through my mind when watching it.
I think a slightly aging Gardner brings a touching vulnerability to her role in On The Beach, and she and Gregory Peck have lovely chemistry.
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13 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:
If Ava should have been nominated for any part she played, it should have been for Night of the Iguana. She was fantastic in that movie.
I'm glad Donna Reed beat Ava for the Oscar. I love From Here to Eternity. I can't say the same for Mogambo.
Gardner was good in Night of the Iguana. But she is also appealingly down-to-earth in Mogambo and is the primary reason to watch the film, for me, at least. She is sexy but also a grounded character in the film without pretensions, an enjoyable contrast to the Grace Kelly character.
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11 hours ago, Bogie56 said:
Saturday, February 22
You finally did it.
3 a.m. Planet of the Apes (1968). Damn you all to hell!
I don't care what he just found out. Difficult to feel sorry for any guy who's got Linda Harrison hanging out with him.
HITS & MISSES: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow on TCM
in General Discussions
Posted
I enjoy watching Flynn's aplomb when George Murphy fails to introduce him and he half bows to Greer Garson who is following and passes him. I also noticed that Spencer Tracy is introduced by Alvin the Chipmunk.