TomJH
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Posts posted by TomJH
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Somebody really should show Joan the correct way to get to get out of a tub
Jean Peters coughing and scrubbing at the same time
Zsa Zsa applauds herself for cleaning her jewelry at the same time.
Lana: "Hello, everybody, and welcome to my bath world."
Kim Novak: "I'm so shy. Why did I invite all you photographers here?"
Marilyn's just watching this time. There could be a surprise for her when her girlfriend stands up.
"I think I just dirtied the water."
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Nobody talked about it much but I always thought Jayne Mansfield had a nice face, too.
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The Light At The Edge Of The World (1971)
Kirk Douglas's second appearance in a film adaption of a Jules Verne novel (following his box office smash for Disney, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea). But this film couldn't be more contrasting to the earlier light hearted adventure. This is a grimly serious tale of survival with Kirk as the assistant lighthouse keeper on a barren rock bound island in 1865 (the location is never identified but it is, apparently, off Argentina).
Kirk is hiding and on the run on the island after the old sea captain and chief lighthouse keeper (Fernando Rey) and his young assistant are both murdered by a gang of ruthless pirates, headed by Yul Brynner. The pirates want the island so they can bring wayward ships to its barren rocks to wreck them in order to collect the spoils. Samantha Eggar plays a young woman from a ship taken as a pretty plaything by Brynner.
This film has a nasty tone as the pirates are a leering, sadistic bunch (one of them cross dressing and whopping and hollering in a strange dance to terrify Eggar). There will be men left hanging upside down swinging in the breeze, a gang rape and a man hung up and flailed alive. It's no wonder Kirk doesn't want to be captured, as he sneaks around and eventually sets about to try to knock off as many of the pirates as he can.
The characterizations in the film are paper thin and there's isn't much plot but a bearded Douglas is clearly in good shape and Brynner brings a little interest to his role by playing a sadist who likes to act like a gentleman. Not an easy film to like but, even though it's overlong at more than two hours, a passable time waster. I'm not certain how many would want to view this film a second time, though.
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Joan Blondell in Blonde Crazy
Myrna Loy in The Barbarian
Clara Bow
Ava Gardner
Jane Russell
How did that get in here?
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Now Cecil B. De Mille was a director who really liked his actresses clean, going right back to the silent era.
Claudette Colbert in The Sign of the Cross
Paulette Goddard in Unconquered
See what I mean? De Mille's even helping her shampoo her hair. This man really cared about cleanliness.
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Too many bubbles, Jakeem.
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I thought that title would get your attention.
The movies like to sell through sex, as we know, and one of the surest ways to draw attention to a film is to have a scene that audiences will talk about in which an attractive woman is in a bathtub. Even better there will be publicity photos of her in this state, as well. Often to keep the censors satisfied during the production code days, there would be, unfortunately, a lot of bubbles, too. Anyway, this thread is just an excuse to post photos of women in the movies who have drawn our attention by lying in a tub, so feel free to post those images.
Here's one of the most famous, Marilyn in The Seven Year Itch (including a few behind the scenes images). I was surprised to come across an X-rated image of the lady from this shoot. Due to my delicacy (and the wrath of the board moderators) I have decided to not include that image here. You have to google it for yourself. I was surprised, though, that Monroe, if I can believe the picture and it wasn't photoshopped, may have actually been au naturale beneath those bubbles on the film set. I figure Billy Wilder and Victor Moore went home a happy men that day.
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1 hour ago, lavenderblue19 said:
That post was meant for Bogie but just wanted to say that Gigi is the only performance of Maurice's that I like. I always found him "creepy" and I pass on watching a film when I see he's in it but since Bogie recommends One Hour with You, I'll give it a try but only because it's a Lubitsch film.
Lavenderblue, please do NOT let your aversion to Chevalier stop you from seeing director Rouben Mamoulian's delightful LOVE ME TONIGHT (1932), also co-starring Jeanette MacDonald. It's a musical comedy of inventiveness and great infectious charm that first brought, among other songs, Rodgers and Hart's "Isn't It Romantic?" to the world. In another scene, we see Sir C. Aubrey Smith (in a night gown) singing some of the lyrics to "Mimi" and looking like he's having a great time!
And the film is also clever funny. Myrna Loy, in a supporting role, plays a man hungry woman. At one point Charlie Ruggles asks her, "Could you go for a doctor?" to which Myrna replies, "Sure, bring him in!"
This film is clearly Lubitsch-inspired but many think that Mamoulian out-Lubitsched Lubitsch here.
TCM has shown this gem in the past but, since it's a Paramount film, you may also want to check out your library as KINO released it on DVD a few years ago, as well as a release from the Universal Vault Series.
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The Juggler (1953)
Edward Dmytryk directed this modest but effective Stanley Kramer production about a psychologically scarred German Jew and concentration camp survivor relocating in the newly created Israel of 1949. Having lost his family in the camp he was in he now suffers from post traumatic distress, with a profound paranoia of police of any kind, regarding them all as "Nazis." That includes Israeli police. Once a celebrated juggler and clown entertainer on European stages, he is too proud to admit he has emotional problems as he arrives at an Israeli refugee camp at the film's beginning.
This film does not attempt to explore the bigger issues of the time, such as the formation of the new Israeli state, but remains an intimate study of a war survivor who has difficulty adapting to his new life in a new land. Pursued at one moment by an Israeli police officer, the paranoid man viciously lashes out at him then, after fearing that he has accidentally killed the cop, goes on the lam, wandering along isolated country roads, trying to avoid the police along the way. The police, in response to the officer's severe injury (he's hospitalized), are in a search for him.
Kirk Douglas delivers a sensitive performance as the conflicted former juggler. He shows charm at some moments as, in a defensive measure, he resorts to the persona of his stage performer who once had audiences in the palm of his hand. The charm disappears, however, if his fears are suddenly aroused and he is potentially capable of physically lashing out. Douglas also learned how to juggle for this film and puts on a few impressive displays of his skill.
Milly Vitale co-stars as a young woman he meets in a kibbutz who feels for him, while Paul Stewart is fine (when isn't this character actor good?) as a compassionate police officer who travels the countryside in pursuit of the juggler.
Shot on location in Israel, the wide open vistas and rolling countryside bring a strong sense of authenticity to the production. A minor drama, its on location photography, combined with Douglas's tortured performance, make it worth viewing.
A minor note: Kaaren Verne appears in a short scene as a woman Douglas mistakenly believes to be his dead wife. The film industry is a ruthless one, as we know. A bit more than a decade earlier this actress was leading lady to Bogart and would be married to Peter Lorre. In The Juggler, though, you will have to be able to recognize her face as she is unbilled in the film, even though she does have some dialogue.
That's Kaaren Verne, unbilled in the film
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2 minutes ago, nakano said:
I hopeTCM will show the Walls of Jericho.I would suggest they do a day of Kirk Douglas on TV i.e. his tv movies ,they can show 9 or 10 films,these tv films are getting scarce.Rights must not be expensiveThey could be shown on his next birthday,as a tribute,whatever...
Kirk did quite a few TV movies. I've never seen a good looking print of AMOS, which he made in 1985 and is one of the best. Douglas is a resident in a seniors' home in which the nurse who runs the operation is murdering any seniors by injection she sees as a financial burden on the place. All the seniors there live in fear of speaking . Kirk tries to tell outsiders what she is doing but no one will believe him as he is dismissed as a doddering old man loosing his mind while the nurse is seen as a near saint. The film has a unique ending I didn't see coming and has fine performances from all, especially an alternately charming and icy cold Elizabeth Montgomery as the nurse.
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6 hours ago, TomJH said:
Lonely Are The Brave (1962)
3 hours ago, Det Jim McLeod said:My favorite scene was a long jail break where Kirk and his fellow prisoners trying to file down the bars in the jail.
That jail break sequence is nice because of the camaraderie of those prisoners with a common cause.
Lonely Are the Brave is a film with so many lovely moments in it, including some of gentle humour to be found such as in the scene when Matthau is looking out his office window and commenting on the dog across the street u r i n a t i n g on its favourite fire hydrant again. "Yup, there he goes," Walter says dryly (if you'll pardon use of that word here).
But if I had to choose one scene in the film as my favourite it may well be that moment when Douglas is ready to use the dangling rope to scale the mountain, with freedom just on the other side for him, but meaning, in the process, that he has to leave his horse behind. It's when he changes his mind and decides to take Whiskey with him, consequences be damned, endangering his freedom in the process, that I get a bit choked up. It's a wonderful moment of a man's love for an animal.
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21 hours ago, speedracer5 said:
I wonder if the repeat of The Breaking Point will literally be just a repeat or if Eddie has filmed a different intro for it.
I honestly wouldn't mind if they added some repeats of the series. I missed a bunch of the films during the early days of Noir Alley when it was only once a week at 7am on Sunday!
I wonder if those films selected for repeats are based on viewer feedback, Eddie Muller's own preferences or just a programming decision made to fill in a gap in the schedule. It's interesting that The Breaking Point is one of the few repeats inasmuch as I probably like that film more than 99% of the other Film Alley offerings.
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Lonely Are The Brave (1962)
Whether you regard it as a tale of individualism in a conforming society or a drama about a man living out of his time or, arguably, Kirk Douglas's finest moment in the movies, Lonely Are The Brave is a moving, even poignant, film that deserves to be seen. Unappreciated for the most part at the time of its release, by both critics and public, the film is slowly coming into its own, at least among many critical circles. Douglas called it his favourite film.
Based on the novel, Brave Cowboy, by Edward Abbey, David Miller ably directs this Dalton Trumbo-scripted film about a modern day cowboy in New Mexico who gets himself thrown into jail when he finds that a friend is there. He plans on breaking the two of them out. The friend refuses to go, out of concerns for his family and not wanting to be on the run afterward, but the cowboy goes, heading on horseback to the mountains and, hopefully, Mexico, with the law on his tail using modern technology to try to track him down.
Director Miller and cinematographer Philip Tathrop splendidly capture the beauty, as well as ruggedness, of the American southwest in the scenes of pursuit with some striking black and white photography. The film's opening scene, in fact, with Douglas relaxing, his hat over his eyes, as he lies on the ground, a moment seen in so many other westerns, the peace suddenly shattered by the sonic sounds of jets flying overhead, is a wonderful metaphor for what is to follow. The film also features a remarkably well staged and intense bar fight between the cowboy and a mean spirited one armed veteran (played by an unbilled Bill Raisch, best known for television's The Fugitive series).
Douglas delivers one of his most relaxed and engaging performances as Jack Burns, a loner, as he calls himself, whose greatest love is for a horse, Whiskey, to whom he talks and gently scolds, at times, throughout the film. At the same time, though, the actor, has great chemistry with Gena Rowlands as the wife of his imprisoned friend. There's an unspoken special feeling between these two when they first sight one another in the film, and they afterwards share a few moments of great sensitivity. It's a shame that Douglas and Rowlands were never re-teamed on screen again.
Another highly effective performance in the film is that of Walter Matthau, as a gum chewing, laid back sheriff, in charge of pursuing Douglas in the wild countryside but who, for two cents, would probably just as soon like to see the cowboy get away. And, in contrast to Matthau, there is a mean spirited George Kennedy as a nasty prison guard who enjoys tormenting and beating up prisoners.
Lonely Are The Brave has a memorable, poignant finale, one that will stay with you, as much as Douglas's quite extraordinary performance. This film is a little gem that is available on DVD and occasionally shown on TCM. Do yourself a favour and watch it if you can. You won't be disappointed.
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On 2/8/2020 at 1:06 PM, speedracer5 said:
I find with Tom Hanks, while I don't dislike him per se, I never see his films more than once. I also usually find that he's not my favorite part of the film. I liked Cast Away, but thought that Wilson delivered the best performance.
Yeh, that Wilson was a ball!
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Anyone with any speculation on what happened to Strother Martin's character after Valance is killed?
My guess is he either went into politics or got a job cleaning out spittoons.
"Friends, vote for me and I promise not to steal as much money from you as the other guy will."
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2 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:
I think after a defeated Scott tells his chauffeur to "take me home' he shoulda gone to see Eleanor Holbrook. ten to one she woulda wrapped her arms around the guy still being madly in love with him.
She was through with him. It was the Douglas character who had a rain check from her.
From Wikipedia:
According to Douglas, an alternate ending was shot, but discarded:
General Scott, the treacherous Burt Lancaster character, goes off in his sports car, and dies in a wreck. Was it an accident or suicide? Coming up out of the wreckage over the car radio is President Jordan Lyman's speech about the sanctity of the Constitution.
This alternate ending echoes the novel, which ends with the apparent vehicular suicide of Senator Prentice.
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20 minutes ago, NipkowDisc said:
to me that has never been a consideration with the film. I doan think Tom could care less if anyone knows how he takes out valance. I always felt his silence was his way of laughing at Hallie for not wanting him. maybe that's why he kept her charred room standing...so she could someday stare at it and remember the man who's heart she broke.
Doniphon would be charged with murder if the manner of his killing of Valance was revealed.
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I understand that the scene towards the end in which Greenwald extols the virtues of captains like Queeg was done to appease the U.S. Navy, which didn't like the idea of a film about a commander out of a cracker jack box. Would anyone know if the play had a different ending from the film?
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THE FOUNTAINHEAD is a film of many virtues that some love to attack because of the Ayn Rand message. But I have always ignored that message (which is rather laughable) and concentrate, instead, upon Vidor's direction (the marble quarry Freudian drill bit, while obvious in its symbolism, is still effective, for example) or the sexual assault scene. The film further benefits from the highly dramatic, at times swirling, musical score of Max Steiner, one of the composer's best in my opinion, perhaps never more effective than in the film's final scene of triumph. Also of interest to me is the courage of Gary Cooper in tampering with his wholesome all American screen image in a scene in which, in essence, he rapes the leading lady.
So my advice to those who have yet to see the film is to judge it on your own and don't be swayed too much by the negative comments on this thread. Some times I think that some are inclined to laugh at a film only because others are doing so. I'm not saying The Fountainhead doesn't have over the top issues but, in the final analysis, it's an uneven film, not a bad one.
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The Hook (1963)
Intimate drama of three men in war and the moral conflict which divides them when they are given an order by a commanding officer to kill a prisoner.
Set in Korea in 1953, the film involves three American soldiers, a hardened career sergeant a year from retirement (Kirk Douglas), and two privates, one who plays flunky to the sergeant (Nick Adams) and the other a sensitive, idealistic soldier the sergeant has been trying to “toughen” (Robert Walker Jr., looking remarkably like his father, in his first film role).
The three are aboard a Finnish freighter taking supplies to an army location. But also with them is a Korean airman, saved from drowning by Walker, who the captain of the ship says has to bunk in with the military men. Douglas contacts his commanding officer by radio and, in reporting the prisoner’s presence, is told to dispose of him since he would be only be killed, it is speculated, by an angry Korean populace where the ship is headed.
Douglas winces at the order but quickly hardens himself to it as an “order is an order” and he doesn’t want to do anything to spoil his spotless record. Adams is ready to go along with Douglas, as usual, but Walker is appalled by the idea of killing a prisoner tied up in their room, calling it wrong.
This is not a war drama of big action scenes but instead a story of human drama and moral decision making in dealing with soldiers ordered to kill a man they have come to know, at least to a limited degree.
What sustains interest in the drama are the superior performances of the cast. Douglas’s sergeant is not a likable person but the conviction and strength of the actor’s portrayal gives the audience a feeling for an officer who, beneath the macho bluster, is a lonely man with little to go back to in his upcoming retirement. Walker brings sensitivity and humanity to his role. He represents the film's conscience.
Then there’s Nick Adams, with relatively little to do in the film’s first half, who suddenly breaks out into a terrific performance as the sergeant’s toady. Douglas gets him drunk and leaves a revolver in his hand to kill the prisoner. But Adams, his resentment towards the sergeant building, will turn the tables on Douglas in a highlight sequence in the film in which he drunkenly hunts for him on the ship with that gun.
Nehemiah Persoff delivers a lovely performance as the ship’s humane captain and, cast in the role of the Korean prisoner, is Filipino actor Enrique Magalona. In an almost silent portrayal (his character speaks no English) Magalona’s performance makes an impression with the haunting quality of his eyes, eyes that will haunt the three soldiers involved, as well.
A tale of human anguish and morality, The Hook leads the viewers to a powerful, poignant climax that will stay with them. An affecting drama with strong performances by a small but rock solid cast, this little known film of humanity deserves to be seen.
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Has anyone mentioned that Robert Francis's love interest in the film, named May Wynn, is played by actress May Wynn, one of the few instances of a film character with the same name as the actor performing the role (she adopted the name from this role). Wynn would be married to Jack Kelly of Maverick fame for a while and is, I believe, the only cast member of The Caine Mutiny still with us today.
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Diamonds (1999)
A three generation family relationship drama, about a middle aged man, his teen son and his aging father, the latter still doing lip and tongue exercises after suffering a stroke, who travel by convertible from Canada to Reno in a search of some diamonds hidden in the wall of a house years before.
Okay, so there's problems between the father (played by Dan Aykroyd) and his father (Kirk Douglas), as well as between that father and his son. Yet, as always in manipulative "heart warming" dramas of this kind, we know that by the end of the trip their relationships will be strengthened.
But before turning off this comedy-drama, the inspiring aspect of the film, and what makes it worth a viewing, is Kirk Douglas. The film opens with clips of a young Douglas from Champion (1949), made when the actor was in, literally, his fighting prime then see a closeup of the 82-year-old Douglas doing lip and tongue exercises as he continues to recover from a stroke.
The film is clearly designed as a showcase for Douglas, and inspirational from the feistiness and, yes, even energy of his performance. No matter what you may think of the story and dialogue, we are watching, in Douglas, the fighting spirit of an actor who had battled back from a stroke, with that battle still continuing. At one point when his character talks about the early frustrations he felt after suffering the stroke, we know that Douglas is expressing his own frustrations.
Douglas's speech is quite easy to understand and the actor shows us determination, as well as tears, at times, from the loneliness of being a widower still in love with his wife (he occasionally looks skyward as he talks to her) who, somehow, just keeps going. Unless you're ready to die (and he isn't), what else can you do? There is, however, a reasonable amount of gentle humour in the screenplay.
Aykroyd, looking heavy and rather tired as the son, didn't make much of an impression upon me but, on the other hand, there is Lauren Bacall, the actress reunited with Douglas for the first time since Young Man With A Horn 49 years before, as the madame of a Reno cat house the three men visit.
In fact, some of the nicest moments in the film are a couple of gentle, introspective scenes between Douglas and Bacall (the latter looking terrific, by the way). There is chemistry between these two old pros as their characters speak briefly to one another of their life stories. There's some laughter, as well as reflections of life's pain in both their faces.
At one point Bacall asks Douglas if he's scared. He pauses for a moment then answers that he is. "So am I," she replies.
Douglas reaches across to her.
"We hide it," he says and smiles.
It's a touching moment of truth.
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Just now, Dargo said:
True, but then again, perhaps the very reason this film is often considered Ford's last great film is because it contains something for everyone?
My parents took me to see The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance at the show when it came out. I was very excited to see both Stewart and Wayne in a western together and enjoyed it very much. But Lee Marvin is great in the film, too, of course, and one of my favourite moments in the film is when the Duke boots sycophantic Strother Martin in the jaw.
"I'll get it, Liberty . . . OOPH!"
He got it alright.
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Women In The Movies In Bathtubs
in General Discussions
Posted
Gable found Harlow in rather rustic bathing conditions in RED DUST . . .
. . . only to find her again in similar circumstances in HOLD YOUR MAN
Once the code started to get enforced Clark stopped finding her this way