TopBilled

Yancey, Please come over to the new site. Do you have a video clip of your intro for WENT THE DAY WELL?...the one that you did with Mr. Osborne? I would love it if you could share your comments in the Guest Programmer section: https://classicfilmtvradio.freeforums.net/

Thought I would post a note here, since I am not sure if you all saw my comments elsewhere... I am building a new message board that is modeled after TCM's message board. Several people have already signed up and started posting. I am still adding sections and hope to have it all completed this weekend. I already made a Games & Trivia board and created a thread for ClassiCategories... It's easy to register, it's free (ad-driven) and I hope everyone can migrate over and join us in the days and weeks ahead! https://classicfilmtvradio.freeforums.net/

two thousand five hundred ninety-fifth category Let’s have a hoedown THE OLD BARN DANCE (1938) VILLAGE BARN DANCE (1940) NIGHT TRAIN TO MEMPHIS (1946) HOLLYWOOD BARN DANCE (1947)

ISN'T IT ROMANTIC? (1948)

GO INTO YOUR DANCE (1935)

BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (1989)

TO SIR WITH LOVE (1967)

Todd, Richard

THE ROSE (1979)

SARAH PLAIN AND TALL (1991)

THAT WONDERFUL URGE (1948)

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (2011)

ACTION IN ARABIA (1944) Next: Ranch

MONTANA (1950)

THE HOUSTON STORY (1956)

Thursday October 20, 2022 Lewton horror on TCM the leopard man isle of the dead the body snatcher the ghost ship

Thursday October 20, 2022

Today's neglected film is from 1945. It has aired 18 times on TCM. This review can be found on my blog, along with all the other reviews: https://oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com/2022/10/19/neglected-film-danger-signal-1945/ At one point in the story someone calls Zachary Scott a wolf, and it’s an apt description. Of course, we can think of other words that might apply to his character in this movie, none of them very nice. Mr. Scott had the market cornered on these types of heels, and he seems to enjoy playing them. He also seems to enjoy working opposite Faye Emerson, his costar in several noir melodramas at Warner Brothers in the mid-1940s. Miss Emerson, the daughter-in-law of President Roosevelt, is a curious combination of Alexis Smith and Eleanor Parker, two oher WB starlets. Most likely the actresses were competing for roles that had been turned down by Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. In DANGER SIGNAL Miss Emerson is a stenographer whose mother (Mary Servoss) rents a room to a handsome boarder played by Scott. His background seems sketchy– all we know is that he’s wanted by police for questioning about the death of a woman who died under suspicious circumstances. Obviously, he doesn’t mention any of this to Emerson and her mom. They find him quite charming. While staying with the ladies, Scott works on several short stories and gets a few of them published. However, he acts as if he is without sufficient funds. Also, he manipulates Emerson into helping him write a note, that seems to set the stage for a suicide-homicide. When he’s not writing, he is busy spending time wrapping Emerson around his finger. His goal is to find out how much her family is worth. After a somewhat unusual courtship, they become engaged, in secret, since he is stringing her along and doesn’t really love her. The film’s second act begins with the return home of Emerson’s kid sister (Mona Freeman), barely 18, who’s been away recovering from an unspecified illness. When Scott learns Freeman was left a sizable inheritance from a recently deceased aunt, and that she has more money than Emerson, he changes tactics. He drops Emerson and romances Freeman. Of course, that doesn’t go over well with Emerson. She fights her own jealousy and insecurity. While Emerson and Freeman do a fine job, the story probably would’ve packed more wallop if someone with Ida Lupino’s brand of fiery intensity had played the older sister. Emerson is too polite for her jealousy to register or for there to be any real sense of tension or rivalry between the two sisters. In many regards, this is a by-the-book melodrama where the relationship of both sisters is nearly destroyed. Interestingly, there are two men on the sidelines (Bruce Bennett & Richard Erdman) pining for the sisters, so these gals may get their happy endings after Scott has been dealt with, if the law doesn’t catch up with him first. The best supporting character is a European psychatrist played with flair and restraint by Rosemary DeCamp. She spouts the most memorable dialogue in the movie when Emerson seeks her out for advice. After meeting the roguish Scott, DeCamp psychoanalyzes him. She declares that he’s a man who uses women, whose whole life is driven by women…yet he doesn’t respect them. When Emerson hears this, she decides that he will start to respect women if it’s the last thing he does.

two thousand five hundred ninety-fourth category Assassinations ALL THE KING’S MEN (1949) JFK (1991) THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007)

Thanks for the kind words everyone, and the ongoing participation. I have categories planned into 2023, but of course, we will only be able to post them here until November 30th. Once we know where everyone will be migrating, then I will create a thread at the new site in early December to continue ClassiCategories. Though posting won't be allowed here after 11.30, I think the site will remain viewable until mid-February, so that will give me a few months to take screen shots of our better categories. It has been a goal of mine to create a new blog specifically for ClassiCategories, so that future fans of classic film and researchers can find our ideas and benefit from them.

KELLY AND ME (1956)

WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF (1945)

So there are 42 days left, that's six weeks...I am glad they've been transparent and provided some notice. But I don't see why they couldn't have just let the message boards continue until 12/31, as the end of the year would have been a better time to wrap things up. *** Back in the mid-2010s, I started blogging regularly. One of the main reasons I began doing that is because there was a system upgrade once here at TCM, and I remember losing nearly a thousand posts...content I spent a lot of time writing...and I thought well if everything gets lost again, I will at least have been keeping my own 'back up' of material on a WordPress blog. So now, today, I can see how wise that was! *** In 11 and a half years of posting, I've read and participated in a lot of great discussions here on the various (sub)forums. I will always remember posters who were very kind and helpful when I first started here, as well as some of the excellent contributors who passed away over the years. I was also happy to see so many newer/younger contributors join our ranks in recent years...and that brings home the fact just how far-reaching TCM's influence has been. Because of TCM, I have grown a lot in terms of the knowledge I've gained about classic film as well as the people skills I have gradually improved posting day to day and interacting with others. *** I am still processing this news but I do like change and I like to see how things evolve over time. I am in a reflective mood, and I wanted to mention a few of the threads I am most proud of establishing here: The Neglected Films thread is a favorite thread and it grew out of my frustration with TCM's programming department showing some of the same films in the Turner library over and over. I thought we needed to start looking at the classics falling through the cracks. And I am happy to say that each day on my blog, Of or Involving Motion Pictures, there is a new review of a classic neglected film. With help from FadingFast, I created a list of Neglected films I plan to cover through the end of 2023...and after FadingFast's initial suggestions, I went ahead and extended my list through 2028. So I will be posting daily reviews of neglected classic films made between 1930 to 1959 for several years to come. The TopBilled's Essentials thread started in 2015 when Robert Osborne died and TCM stopped airing Essentials on Saturdays for awhile. That was my favorite weekly series on TCM. So every Saturday I started posting reviews on what I deemed Essentials, from the silent era up to the present era. I posted a review every Saturday, and each month there was a new theme, where all the films reviewed that month fit the theme I chose. Jlewis joined me a few years later and for quite awhile we have both been deciding the themes and films and posting about those Essential films every Saturday. This will continue on my blog. We have already chosen themes through the middle of next year. The Essentials differ from the Neglected films because some of them are not neglected and very much in the public eye, but what makes this effort by Jlewis and myself different is that it's theme driven, which TCM never did. TCM's Essentials program was always a bit random. So I feel what Jlewis and I cover each Saturday is more organized and focused. Jlewis likes to look at classics through a modern yet still historical lens...and playing Siskel & Ebert with him keeps me on my toes every weekend! On my blog, I have posted many articles over the years about trends in motion pictures and television, and I will continue to add or update articles. The thread known as TCM and Other Sources for Classic Film is a hit with people. And I am going to make that a weekly feature on my blog. So if you are looking for something good to watch, visit my blog and find my brief recommendations. I think I will post this information every Sunday, so classic film fans can see what's coming up the following week. It will still reference TCM, as long as TCM is around, but it will also provide more streaming sources since things are heading that way. *** Anyway, I know this is a long post...but I wanted everyone to make sure that some of the writing I have done on this site will continue. It will just be based more on my blog, Of or Involving Motion Pictures. Anyone who is registered with WordPress can leave comments. And if some of us decide where there is a good message board to continue our more general discussions, then I will be happy to join you there...but after November 30, my priority will be my blog since I want to make sure there is a comprehensive place for classic film and classic television writing to be found for others conducting research or just looking for fun stuff to enjoy! I know there are good blogs written by other people...I really enjoy reading one called Laura's Miscellaneous Musings, but her style and emphasis is different than mine, which is how it should be! I never write about classic film or classic television for monetary gain, mostly because I am an educator not a business person...I have never done any of this for profit. And I never will. Thanks. https://oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com/2022/10/19/welcome/

ZAZA (1939)

You are welcome!