TopBilled

Huggett, Pet -- played by Petula Clark in VOTE FOR HUGGETT (1949)

How about-- SHE HAD TO EAT (1937) WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING (1995). THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED (1940) IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (1949). WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? (1945) TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (1948). I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE (1949) but THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME (1947). MOTHER DIDN'T TELL ME (1950) WHERE'S POPPA? (1970).

TOO YOUNG TO KNOW (1945)

Barbara Hershey Next: Lois May Green

Wayne, Patrick

THE VALLEY OF DECISION (1945)

A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (2006) another Lily Tomlin-Robert Altman collaboration Next: LONGTIME COMPANION (1989)

I especially like Paul Lukas' interpretation of the Professor Bhaer role in the 1933 version.

Today's neglected film is from 1942. It has aired three times on TCM. Though this picture was released through United Artists, it originated at Paramount. It has all the high class production values we’d associate with a Paramount picture, from its elaborate sets and decorative costumes to its detailed street scenes and ornate carriages. It’s an expensive looking motion picture, and they’ve borrowed some of Warner Brothers’ top talent, including George Brent and Priscilla Lane. Miss Lane in particular is very glamorous…in fact she was never photographed this well at Warners. The supporting cast includes Eugene Pallette as Miss Lane’s father. He plays a man that made his fortune on a silver mine in Nevada, who had come to New York City to raise a daughter with all the finest advantages in life. By nature he’s a gambler, and the opening sequence of the story depicts an evening when Lane is hosting a charity event at their opulent home. Pallette gets a bit carried away and gambles too much. The next morning it is revealed he lost the deed to his mine, and he no longer has the assets or bank balance to pay off a slew of creditors. Bruce Cabot turns up as Lane’s suitor. He’s supposed to be protecting her best interests when her father suddenly dies and all those debts threaten to put her into the poorhouse. He proposes marriage, but she wants to square things with the creditors that are foreclosing on the family manse– on her own terms. So she heads west with her maid to find a job. Her idea of a job is to become a gambling queen at a casino in San Francisco. She reasons that if cards got her father into trouble, then cards can help her get out of that trouble. With this type of “logic,” she may not be playing with a full deck but hey she’s game; and if anything, she has plenty of determination to make it without Cabot’s direct assistance. While Lane is in Frisco she rakes in a bunch of dough then sends the winnings back east to Cabot, who has agreed to settle accounts with the men her father owed. However, Cabot decides to ignore the wolf at the door; and he invests the money in a venture involving the Nevada mine that Pallette lost to George Brent. A large part of the narrative involves Lane’s conflicted feelings about both men. She seems to have more romantic inclinations towards Brent, but she foolishly relies on Cabot to the point that it could cost her everything again. There are some nice scenes where she is wined and dined by Brent, and I have to say that Mr. Brent is right in his element as a debonair squire about town. This all leads to the final sequence in Nevada. The men have gone to check on the mine, since it is rumored to have another rich vein. Meanwhile Cabot is planning to wed Lane to cover up any fraud he’s committed. There is a huge brawl inside a hotel when Brent confronts Cabot with evidence about his shady business dealings. The dramatic highpoint comes when Cabot pulls out a gun and Lane rushes down the grand staircase to stop the men. She gets caught in the middle, a shot rings out and she goes down. Of course we know she will pull through. When she regains consciousness as well as her senses, she will decide that Brent’s character is the one who’s done right by her. He’s the one she should spend the rest of her life with, since she will be happiest with him. What I like most about the film is how leisurely plotted it is. It gradually builds to the big fight scene and shooting at the end, but is not in a hurry to get there. The story gives us a lot of slower moments to take in the characters, situations and surroundings. It’s a modest ‘A’ film. I would call it more of an indoor western as opposed to an outdoor western. It’s about gentlemen and gentlewomen during a rough economic period of American history…a time when progress and uncertainty existed side by side.

I was starting to wonder if maybe people hadn't seen it...especially if the 1949 version is more popular. *** From this list, I have not seen THE WHITE COUNTESS (2005) and I have seen almost all of the Merchant-Ivory films.

THE RAGING TIDE (1951)

TWO FOR THE ROAD (1967)

Urich, Robert

AND BABY MAKES THREE (1949)

STELLA (1950)

THE ROSE (1979)

BITTER RICE (1949)

DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER (1957)

NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) a film TCM never broadcasts

Sothern, Ann

18 AGAIN! (1988)

THE LATE GEORGE APLEY (1947)

Cody, William -- played by Joel McCrea in BUFFALO BILL (1944)

Quinlan, Anthony

Cheat Sheet: 2961. LITTLE WOMEN (1933) with Joan Bennett, Katharine Hepburn, Spring Byington, Jean Parker & Frances Dee. 2962. TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) with Carole Lombard & Jack Benny. 2963. UNCERTAIN GLORY (1944) with Paul Lukas & Errol Flynn. 2964. THE NEVADAN (1950) with Forrest Tucker & Randolph Scott. 2965. DRIVE A CROOKED ROAD (1954) with Harry Landers & Mickey Rooney. 2966. COOGAN’S BLUFF (1968) with Clint Eastwood & Don Stroud. 2967. PETE ’N’ TILLIE (1972) with Walter Matthau & Carol Burnett. 2968. THE MOUNTAIN MEN (1980) with Brian Keith & Charlton Heston. 2969. MICKEY BLUE EYES (1999) with Hugh Grant, Jeanne Tripplehorn & Burt Young. 2970. THE WHITE COUNTESS (2005) with Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave & Natasha Richardson.