TopBilled

*Burl Ives* To Tina Louise in DAY OF THE OUTLAW: Mrs. Crane, when my men and I leave here, there will be a showdown and you will be a widow.

*Entire Cast Nominated* WHO'S AFRAID OF an Oscar with VIRGINIA WOOLF? Not the cast of SLEUTH.

>James Cagney in One, Two, Three. I am glad you mentioned him. The thread is not about best last performance, just one that is later in the actor's career and shows off his or her technique. Cagney is simply sensational in ONE TWO THREE. I think his work in this film is right on par with YANKEE DOODLE DANDY and WHITE HEAT.

>Hanks is a terrible actor. People like HIM because in his youth he was "every" man cute, but his acting limits have become painfully obvious as he's aged. He personifies the star who needs a "vehicle". I like Tom Hanks, but I agree that he is no Spencer Tracy (who also had back-to-back Best Actor Oscars). If Hanks had remade either CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS or BOYS TOWN, would he have brought as much to it as Spence did? Probably not.

Interesting comments, and I think what you are saying is very valid. To see if I am getting this right, you would likely say that Henry Fonda's work in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST is not a typical performance...? That he stretched himself in that sort of role, more than he did with ON GOLDEN POND. If so, then I would agree with that. Kate Hepburn and Susan Hayward are kind of like actresses who started with their persona already intact and pretty much played the same roles throughout their long careers. They didn't change it up too much. We never find Kate as a shrinking violet in any of her movies, and we never find Hayward too soft or docile, either. Nobody would ever accuse either one of them of trying to copy Dorothy McGuire's style. But then, we would need to ask...what are they supposed to do to give a truly noteworthy performance? Are they supposed to play against type, like Fonda or Lancaster, and become killers? I always found it interesting that in order for Tom Hanks to win two Oscars as best actor he had to play a mentally imbalanced man and a homosexual. Meanwhile, Nicole Kidman had to wear a prosthetic nose to earn her award. Is it really acting? Must a performer take on a part that deviates dramatically from the norm? Whatever happened to subtlety? In ATLANTIC CITY, we do have Burt playing a rather sleazy human being, but he does it vividly as well as subtly.

*Cecil Cunningham* To Greer Garson in BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST: My husband and I have decided to give the advantage of our home to one of your foundlings...of course, we wouldn't want one that cries.

*HAPPY LAND (1943)* From Agee on December 18, 1943: HAPPY LAND tells how the ghost of a man who fought in the Civil War comes to comfort his middle-aged grandson, whose own son has just been killed in the present war. The old man leads him through the small town and through his own remembrance and his remembrance of the life of the son. Some of this is idyllic and pretty, which is fair enough. But you get no impression that the son had any troubles that a glass of Pepsi-Cola wouldn't cure.

*Groucho Without His Brothers* Groucho goes solo with A GIRL IN EVERY PORT, finding DOUBLE DYNAMITE with Jane Russell.

*John Harvey* PIN UP GIRL (1944) with Betty Grable, Martha Raye & Joe E. Brown FOUR JILLS IN A JEEP (1944) with Kay Francis, Carole Landis & Martha Raye THE SPIDER (1945) with Richard Conte & Faye Marlowe

Saturday's installment, FOR THE LOVE OF RUSTY, was a lot different in tone than its predecessor. First, the cast had been revised, with Ann Doran filling in as the mother and Tom Powers as the father (he too will be replaced in later entries). Doran is good, but almost too peppy compared to Margaret Lindsay from the original. The overall feeling here was much more like what we would see in situation comedies of the 1950s. There was considerably less psychoanalyzing in the plot, though there was still a fair amount of moralizing (preaching?), especially on the subject of why boys and fathers are not as close as they once were. In the story, Danny (Ted Donaldson) develops an attachment to a vagabond (Aubrey Mather) that seems to unsettle dear old dad. Dear old mom invites dear old drifter over for dinner in the hopes that dear old Danny will see the man doesn't measure up to dad. Of course, it doesn't play out as expected; at least not for the characters, though my guess is the audience could see the story twists coming a mile away. Dear old Rusty has very little to do since most of the action revolves around Danny. Though the fierce canine companion does, in tandem with the bum, eventually help Danny see things correctly.

Since HIGHWAY DRAGNET, I have enjoyed the following titles at Netflix streaming: - BRIMSTONE (Walter Brennan as a grizzly outlaw patriarch in Trucolor by Republic); - EL PASO (Paramount western in Technicolor that features John Payne and Sterling Hayden in the prime of their motion picture careers); - BLANCHE FURY (atmospheric drama features a pre-Hollywood Stewart Granger in gorgeous Technicolor); - ACCUSED OF MURDER (Vera Ralston crime drama, unfortunately not a lost film); - SO THIS IS NEW YORK (sometimes charming, sometimes overdone comedy with radio star Henry Morgan); - DOWN IN ARKANSAW and ARKANSAS JUDGE (hillbilly act The Weavers overcome script deficiencies and typical cornball routine); - IT'S IN THE BAG (alternates between amusing and dreadful, headlined by Fred Allen and Jack Benny).

How does one save/record these titles?

Fred MacMurray was a vocalist on Broadway and played several instruments. He was skilled at violin, piano, guitar and saxophone. According to the IMDB, he is a musical performer on the soundtrack of 13 films he made. He played the sax on occasional episodes of My Three Sons.

Thaxter is like Jane Wyatt, in my opinion, the type that can quietly lead a picture and not draw attention to herself. I think she is particularly effective in westerns, and fortunately Warners put her in a few of those.

Whether or not the casual viewer agrees with its politics, this film is a very interesting experiment in movie-making. I happen to like it a lot, not because I agree with the points being made, but because it made me think. Also, unlike Stone's JFK and later conspiracy theory movies, it is closer in history to the actual Kennedy administration. Being produced during the Watergate era gives it another advantage, when corruption in Washington was at an all-time high, and the faith of the American people in their system of government was being challenged considerably. Will Geer gives a very effective supporting performance in this picture. EXECUTIVE ACTION lost money for Warners, but at least they were willing to make it. And more importantly, they were finally willing to release it on home video after it had been unavailable for decades.

John Wayne gives a truly great performance in THE SHOOTIST (arguably as good, if not better than, his Oscar-winning work in TRUE GRIT a decade earlier). Duke was ill and battling something during the making of the THE SHOOTIST. The production had to be shut down at one point so that he could admit himself into a hospital. They were filming on location in Carson City, Nevada. Producer Dino de Laurentiis and the rest of the crew were not sure if the movie would even be finished. Duke rebounded and rushed back to the set as soon as he could to finish his role. If he had died during production, they would not have been able to finish the movie with a double. Why not? The climactic scene at the end where Books (Wayne's character) has his fateful shoot-out had not been filmed yet. There is no way they could have done that without Duke. Needless to say everyone breathed a sigh of relief when he recovered enough to resume filming. Probably after this, he slowed down because he would have been hard to insure...though he had bought a script that he wanted to do with Ron Howard, his young costar in THE SHOOTIST. It never came to pass. This would be his last film, and it's a miracle that it was completed and we have it to enjoy.

Speaking of Doris Day, I thought of another one for this thread: Doris and Frank Sinatra. They did YOUNG AT HEART in 1954 for Warners. That was it. Of course, Doris did provide the theme song for THE TENDER TRAP, but she did not appear on screen with Frankie in that later film.

*LADY IN THE DARK (1944)* From Agee on March 11, 1944: LADY IN THE DARK is something I'm not sure I can talk about fairly. The whole idea of mixing psychoanalysis and production numbers leaves me irrecoverably cold. Some may find a good deal to enjoy in LADY IN THE DARK. But I like my dreams the hard way.

I am glad to hear that people are watching ATLANTIC CITY. I am surprised that it took me so long to finally see it. Now, I am curious about the other American-produced films that Louis Malle made. I have a copy of AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS, but these other titles he made in Hollywood between 1978 and 1994 are ones I haven't caught yet. TCM should really do a month-long spotlight of Malle, like they did for Merchant-Ivory last year.

*PHYLLIS THAXTER* THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO (1944) with Van Johnson & Robert Walker BEWITCHED (1945) with Edmund Gwenn THE SEA OF GRASS (1947) with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn & Robert Walker LIVING IN A BIG WAY (1947) with Gene Kelly & Marie McDonald BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948) with Robert Mitchum & Barbara Bel Geddes THE SIGN OF THE RAM (1948) with Susan Peters & Alexander Knox TENTH AVENUE ANGEL (1948) with Margaret O'Brien & George Murphy THE BREAKING POINT (1950) with John Garfield & Patricia Neal NO MAN OF HER OWN (1950) with Barbara Stanwyck & John Lund JIM THORPE ALL AMERICAN (1951) with Burt Lancaster & Steve Cochran COME FILL THE CUP (1951) with James Cagney & Gig Young FORT WORTH (1951) with Randolph Scott & David Brian SHE'S WORKING HER WAY THROUGH COLLEGE (1952) with Virginia Mayo & Ronald Reagan OPERATION SECRET (1952) with Cornel Wilde & Steve Cochran SPRINGFIELD RIFLE (1952) with Gary Cooper & David Brian WOMEN'S PRISON (1955) with Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling & Audrey Totter MAN AFRAID (1957) with George Nader THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT (1964) with Peter Sellers & Paula Prentiss SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE (1978) with Christopher Reeve & Glenn Ford

*Jesse White* To Joan O'Brien in IT'S ONLY MONEY: Listen, Lester's my buddy. I don't want him killed...until I claim the reward.

*'Day' & 'Night' with the Marx Bros.* The boys spend A DAT AT THE RACES and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA causing all kinds of mayhem.

Richard Farnsworth, who was around for ages, does a nice job (and picks up an Oscar nomination) for David Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY. He died a year later, and though he did not take home the Best Actor trophy, it was a good way to end his motion picture career. Going back to Burt, it looks like he made about ten more films after ATLANTIC CITY, plus he appeared in six different miniseries throughout the 1980s.

OVER THE WALL was strictly B-formula, the kind of prison movie that Warners did so well in the 1930s. This version is a bit different in that it turns into a semi-musical half-way into the picture, with Dick Foran singing behind bars (sort of like Roxie Hart in CHICAGO). I thought OVER THE WALL was vastly entertaining.

>We may already have a winner! People get all tied up over Tracy in GWCTD or Fonda's pond adventure, but this one is also my fav for a sunsetting performer. The difference here is that Burt made a few more films after ATLANTIC CITY. Fonda and Tracy ended their careers with those roles and that is probably why they stay etched in the public's memory. One thing I wanted to add is that Burt is sexy in ATLANTIC CITY...not beefcake centerfold sexy like he was in his younger days, but he hasn't really lost any of his virility when this film comes along in his career. I love the scene where Sarandon pulls him off the bus and says she is his daughter to the driver. Then, he proceeds to tell the driver some perverse story about how he made love to Sarandon and held her in his arms all night. It is played for laughs in a dark humor sort of way, but there is a disturbing truth that he is still sexually active and desiring Sarandon. In fact, there are shots of him earlier in the movie as a peeping tom. I seriously doubt that Fonda or Tracy would've been able to pull off such scenes.