TopBilled

*FRIC-FRAC (1939)* From Agee on June 19, 1948: Three good comedians (Fernandel, Arletty and Michel Simon) work in second gear in a third-rate comedy about a jeweler's clerk who falls in among thieves.

*FRED MACMURRAY* CAR 99 (1935) with Ann Sheridan & William Frawley THIRTEEN HOURS BY AIR (1936) with Joan Bennett THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936) with Sylvia Sidney & Henry Fonda CHAMPAGNE WALTZ (1937) with Jack Oakie COCOANUT GROVE (1938) with Harriet Hilliard Nelson MEN WITH WINGS (1938) with Ray Milland INVITATION TO HAPPINESS (1939) with Irene Dunne CAF? SOCIETY (1939) with Madeleine Carroll NEW YORK TOWN (1941) with Mary Martin ONE NIGHT IN LISBON (1941) with Madeleine Carroll VIRGINIA (1941) with Madeleine Carroll & Sterling Hayden THE FOREST RANGERS (1942) with Paulette Goddard & Susan Hayward TAKE A LETTER, DARLING (1942) with Rosalind Russell & Macdonald Carey FLIGHT FOR FREEDOM (1943) with Rosalind Russell AND THE ANGELS SING (1944) with Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton & Diana Lynn PARDON MY PAST (1945) with Margeurite Chapman CAPTAIN EDDIE (1945) with Lynn Bari SINGAPORE (1947) with Ava Gardner THE MIRACLE OF THE BELLS (1948) with Frank Sinatra FATHER WAS A FULLBACK (1949) with Maureen O'Hara FAIR WIND TO JAVA (1953) with Vera Ralston AT GUNPOINT (1955) with Dorothy Malone & Walter Brennan THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956) with Barbara Stanwyck & Joan Bennett GUN FOR A COWARD (1957) with Jeffrey Hunter DAY OF THE BAD MAN (1958) with Joan Weldon THE OREGON TRAIL (1959) with William Bishop BON VOYAGE! (1962) with Jane Wyman & Tommy Kirk

*FRED MACMURRAY* CAR 99 (1935) with Ann Sheridan & William Frawley THIRTEEN HOURS BY AIR (1936) with Joan Bennett THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936) with Sylvia Sidney Henry Fonda, Beulah Bondi, Spanky McFarland & Tuffy CHAMPAGNE WALTZ (1937) with Jack Oakie COCOANUT GROVE (1938) with Harriet Hilliard Nelson MEN WITH WINGS (1938) with Ray Milland INVITATION TO HAPPINESS (1939) with Irene Dunne CAF? SOCIETY (1939) with Madeleine Carroll NEW YORK TOWN (1941) with Mary Martin ONE NIGHT IN LISBON (1941) with Madeleine Carroll VIRGINIA (1941) with Madeleine Carroll & Sterling Hayden THE FOREST RANGERS (1942) with Paulette Goddard & Susan Hayward TAKE A LETTER, DARLING (1942) with Rosalind Russell & Macdonald Carey FLIGHT FOR FREEDOM (1943) with Rosalind Russell AND THE ANGELS SING (1944) with Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton & Diana Lynn PARDON MY PAST (1945) with Margeurite Chapman CAPTAIN EDDIE (1945) with Lynn Bari SINGAPORE (1947) with Ava Gardner THE MIRACLE OF THE BELLS (1948) with Frank Sinatra FATHER WAS A FULLBACK (1949) with Maureen O'Hara FAIR WIND TO JAVA (1953) with Vera Ralston AT GUNPOINT (1955) with Dorothy Malone & Walter Brennan THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956) with Barbara Stanwyck & Joan Bennett GUN FOR A COWARD (1957) with Jeffrey Hunter DAY OF THE BAD MAN (1958) with Joan Weldon THE OREGON TRAIL (1959) with William Bishop BON VOYAGE! (1962) with Jane Wyman & Tommy Kirk

First, I want to say that I find some very interesting titles scheduled for September. I am definitely not complaining. However... My WANTED thread has over 10,000 views. Why am I mentioning this fact? Maybe because it proves that TCM viewers who visit this website are clamoring for the many Paramount, Universal, Fox and Republic titles that I often feature on that thread that never get played anywhere. TCM is where we would like to see these films...not two airings of Lauren Bacall's Private Screenings (which we love but enough is enough). If there aren't enough Bacall films available, then end the evening early and instead of inserting filler, use the time for airplay of classics we do not get to see.

It is nice to be able to find information on internet blogs. It would be even nicer if one of Virginia Weidler's relatives created a blog in her honor. Or maybe some dedicated fan could...?

Thanks for mentioning Patty Duke. How did we overlook her?! She's excellent as a young Helen Keller.

Corcoran was often paired with Tommy Kirk. They did believably act like brothers. Corcoran gets the chance to carry TOBY TYLER all by himself.

It seems as if some posters are not in favor of Lauren Bacall as a choice for SOTM. Perhaps these are the same individuals who did not think she should have been awarded an Honorary Oscar. I'm a Bacall fan and had the chance to meet her once. It truly was a pleasure, and I think her approach to acting and to the business in general is very interesting and worth honoring/remembering.

*George Macready* To Glenn Ford in GILDA, regarding his knife-concealing cane: It is silent when I wish it to be silent. It talks when I wish it to.

*PAN-AMERICANA (1945)* From Agee on March 3, 1945: This is another one of those buckets of good-swill that make me wish some Latin American movie people would come north for a change and take fair vengeance on the United States. There is a general air of casual lousiness about this picture. The song-and-dance numbers are fairly poor, and the love story is about the fifth-rate conduct between a professional seducer and even less scrupulous nice girl. But some of it is written and directed, and is played by Philip Terry and Audrey Long, as if such a relationship were worth honest observation, as indeed it is.

*Screenplay by David Mamet* Mamet wrote and directed HOUSE OF GAMES, and later adapted his award-winning play GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS for the screen.

*ELIZABETH INGLIS/ELIZABETH EARL* THUNDER IN THE CITY (1937) with Edward G. Robinson. Luli Deste & Constance Collier MUSEUM MYSTERY (1937) with Jock McKay RIVER'S END (1940) with Dennis Morgan THE LETTER (1940) with Bette Davis & Herbert Marshall

Roger Mobley...needed to add him. And did anyone bring up Bobby Driscoll?

Agree. The only reason a man keeps a woman around like that is if she's darn good in the sack. LOL

I just watched Dickie Moore this morning in MY BILL with Kay Francis. He plays the title character and gives a smashing good performance. Bonita Granville plays one of his older sisters and Bobby Jordan is his brother.

I didn't mention Bobby Blake, because someone else had already done so earlier in the thread. I agree that he was cute as Little Beaver in the Red Ryder films he made.

Every now and then there's a real gem. Yesterday I watched HIGHWAY DRAGNET, an Allied Artists release from the mid-50s made mostly on location. The characters are so well drawn and the performances are so good that it's truly a great show to watch. Joan Bennett portrays a shrew in the story, and it is obvious she's having fun especially in the final scenes. She is paired with Richard Conte, as a Marine on leave who is wrongly accused of a crime. Circumstances lead him to Bennett and her assistant, played by Wanda Hendrix.

I look forward to discussing the September offerings in detail. This was my favorite month last year with the premieres of CONSTANT NYMPH and THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE, not to mention the tribute to Merchant Ivory.

*Femme Fatale: Barbara Stanwyck* She's a dangerous lady in Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY and Robert Siodmak's THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON.

*DICK HAYMES* IRISH EYES ARE SMILING (1944) with Monty Woolley & June Haver STATE FAIR (1945) with Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews & Vivian Blaine DIAMOND HORSESHOE (1945) with Betty Grable DO YOU LOVE ME (1946) with Maureen O'Hara & Harry James THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM (1947) with Betty Grable CARNIVAL IN COSTA RICA (1947) with Vera-Ellen, Cesar Romero & Celeste Holm ONE TOUCH OF VENUS (1948) with Robert Walker, Ava Gardner & Eve Arden UP IN CENTRAL PARK (1948) with Deanna Durbin ST. BENNY THE DI (1951) with Nina Foch & Freddie Bartholomew CRUISIN' DOWN THE RIVER (1953) with Audrey Totter ALL ASHORE (1953) with Mickey Rooney

*LIFEBOAT (1944)* From Agee on January 22, 1944: The initial idea, that a derelict boat and its passengers are a microcosm of society, is itself artificial. It seems to me the only way to counteract the basic artificiality would have been to do two things: 1) attempt an implacable physical and psychological realism; and 2) squeeze the poetic and symbolic power out of the final intensities of this realism, rather than tempering the realism to allegory. As allegory, the film is nicely knit. It is extensively shaded and detailed, often fascinating. But unlike the first-rate allegories of Shakespeare or Kafka or Joyce, this version is always too carefully slide-ruled. Every performance has within the limits which seem so arduously and coldly set, fine spirit and propriety. But only William Bendix occasionally transcends those limits and becomes an immediate human being.

*Constance Collier* To Katharine Hepburn in STAGE DOOR: You're an actress now. You belong to these people.

I don't know if these have been mentioned yet: Jimmy Lydon Jackie Cooper Baby Sandy Robert Coogan Kevin Corcoran Gigi Perrau Mona Freeman George Winslow Bonita Granville Billy Halop Butch Jenkins Sharyn Moffett Claude Jarman Bobs Watson Dickie Moore George 'Spanky' McFarland Billy & Bobby Mauch Lyn & Lee WIlde The Blackburn Twins: Ramon & Royce

It's interesting that the first evening focuses more on Bogart than it does on her. I would like to have seen some of her later work, like THE SHOOTIST, MISERY and especially her Oscar-nominated performance in THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES. There are other titles from her filmography during the classic studio era that are missing: Fox's WOMAN'S WORLD, Fox's SHOCK TREATMENT, and an excellent British action film she made with Kenneth More called FLAME OVER INDIA (sometimes known as NORTHWEST FRONTIER).

I really did make it a Sybil Jason day here at home. After LITTLE BIG SHOT and THE GREAT O'MALLEY, I went on to watch THE CAPTAIN'S KID, then STELLA PARISH and COMET OVER BROADWAY. I realized I do not have a copy of THE SINGING KID, so I just ordered it. I am curious to see her Republic picture, WOMAN DOCTOR, and hopefully that will turn up as a streaming title on Netflix, since they seem to have access to a lot of the Republic and Paramount catalogue over there. As I watched these flicks of Sybil's, several things occurred to me. First, she has good chemistry with Kay Francis, and they are very believable as mother and daughter in the two films they made together, but she really works well with Guy Kibbee. It is truly a shame that Warners did not make a sequel for THE CAPTAIN'S KID and turn it into a series. Missed opportunity with that one. The second thing I realized is how adaptable she is...she is equally at ease playing poor ragamuffin girls _and_ upper class dolls (something that I don't think Shirley Temple could do). Her accent (being born in South Africa and living in England before America) really makes her comes across as more sophisticated than other female child actors of her era. I think my favorite film of hers, after these viewings today, is now THE GREAT O'MALLEY. Pat O'Brien really connects with her in a genuine way and so does Ann Sheridan. That's a beautiful film.