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Calvin, I don't know what the theme is for the 24th. I'm stumped! Here are some July birthdays, though: _JULY_ 1 Leslie Caron, Olivia DeHavilland, Charles Laughton, Madge Evans, Farley Granger 2 3 George Sanders 4 Eva Marie Saint, Gloria Stuart, Gina Lollobrigida, Gertrude Lawrence 5 6 Nancy Reagan, Janet Leigh, Cathy O'Donnell 7 Vittorio DeSica 8 Eugene Pallette 9 10 11 Yul Brynner, Tab Hunter, Thomas Mitchell 12 Jean Hersholt, Milton Berle, Vera Ralston 13 14 Annabella, Polly Bergen 15 Marjorie Rambeau 16 Barbara Stanwyck, Percy Kilbride, Ginger Rogers, Sonny Tufts 17 James Cagney, Diahann Carroll 18 Red Skelton, Hume Cronyn, Lupe Velez, Richard Dix 19 20 Natalie Wood, K.T. Stevens 21 C. Aubrey Smith, Don Knotts 22 23 Gloria DeHaven, Michael Wilding 24 25 Walter Brennan, Lila Lee 26 Grace Allen, Charles Butterworth 27 Donald Crisp, Keenan Wynn 28 Rudy Vallee, Laird Cregar, Joe E. Brown 29 William Powell, Theda Bara, Clara Bow, Richard Egan, Maria Ouspenskaya 30 31

*WILSON (1944)* From Agee on August 19, 1944: WILSON is by no means the first film in which one might watch Hollywood hopping around on one foot, trying to put on long pants. Nor are the immense responsibilities and potentialities of moving pictures so nearly Mr. Darryl Zanuck's personal discovery, patent applied for, as he feels them to be. Mr. Zanuck may be better than excused for regarding his new film as an important one, a test case. Very likely it is, not only for him but for Hollywood in general, for a long time to come. If WILSON fails, Darryl Zanuck has promised never again to make a picture without Betty Grable. If WILSON fails, worse things than that may happen. It seems very possible that even any attempt at making serious or idea films of this sort might be postponed in this country for years to come. If WILSON succeeds, on the other hand, it is likely that we will get a lot of other pictures like it, not only because a new box-office formula will have been established but also because, I feel sure, Hollywood is as full as any other place of men of fairly good will who would gladly devote some of it to the public weal so long as no risk is involved.

*RANDOLPH SCOTT* WOMEN MEN MARRY (1931) with Sally Blane THUNDERING HERD (1933) with Judith Allen & Buster Crabbe MAN OF THE FOREST (1933) with Verna Hillie HELLO, EVERYBODY! (1933) with Sally Blane, Kate Smith & Charley Grapewin COCKTAIL HOUR (1933) with Bebe Daniels AND SUDDEN DEATH (1936) with Frances Drake & Tom Brown HIGH, WIDE AND HANDSOME (1937) with Irene Dunne & Dorothy Lamour THE ROAD TO RENO (1938) with Glenda Farrell & Helen Broderick 20,000 MEN A YEAR (1939) with Preston Foster & Margaret Lindsay COAST GUARD (1939) with Frances Dee & Ralph Bellamy PARIS CALLING (1941) with Elisabeth Bergner, Basil Rathbone & Gale Sondergaard CORVETTE K-225 (1943) with Ella Raines & Barry Fitzgerald HOME, SWEET HOMICIDE (1946) with Peggy Ann Garner, Lynn Bari & Dean Stockwell GUNFIGHTERS (1947) with Barbara Britton, Bruce Cabot & Charley Grapewin CHRISTMAS EVE (1947) with George Brent, George Raft & Joan Blondell THE WALKING HILLS (1949) with Ella Raines THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA (1949) with George Macready & John Ireland

*Films Adapted for Stage* The smash hit 42ND STREET makes it to Broadway almost fifty years later, and 9 TO 5 takes about thirty years before it becomes a stage musical.

>I was tickled to see Lemmon chase down and tackle a pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone! Yes, Stallone before he was Stallone.

*THE ROOSEVELT STORY (1947)* From Agee on September 13, 1947: This film is interesting to see, chiefly because it includes a good many revealing portraits of the lat President, and because in most other respects it is so archetypically awful. It claims to be nonpolitical, which is as absurd as if one put out a biography of Babe Ruth, taking care to avoid the hot subject of baseball. You can't help realizing as you watch it, still more as you listen to it, that a terrifying number of Americans, most of them in all innocence of the fact, are much more ripe for benevolent dictatorship, and every dictatorship is seen as benevolent by those who support it, than for the most elementary realization of the meanings, hopes and liabilities of democracy. It is doubtless an exceedingly well-meant film, but that doesn't exactly reduce its power to sadden and to disturb. It includes a good many shots of the dead-march in Washington. These are some of the most beautiful shots ever put on film. They were very well ordered in the newsreels just after Roosevelt's death. Here they are so used as blinders, and as springboards for flashbacks, that most of their possible power is thrown away. But even in this mangled state some of the single shots are enough to stop the breath.

*Written by Rosalind Russell* Roz authored the script for Esther Williams' THE UNGUARDED MOMENT, and she also wrote the adaptation for MRS. POLLIFAX.

*FLIPPER* FLIPPER (1963) with Chuck Connors & Luke Halpin FLIPPER'S NEW ADVENTURE (1964) with Luke Halpin & Pamela Franklin FLIPPER (1996) with Paul Hogan, Elijah Wood & Luke Halpin

I just watched PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE recently. Good flick. I like the pairing of Lemmon with Bancroft.

*SCOTTY BECKETT AS CORKY WALLET* GASOLINE ALLEY (1951) with Jimmy Lydon CORKY OF GASOLINE ALLEY (1951) with Jimmy Lydon

*Mames* Roz & Lucy, let the comparisons begin...

*THREE STRANGERS (1946)* From Agee on March 23, 1946: A director I had never expected to praise is Jean Negalescu, who has always made me think of Michael Curtiz on toast. Mr. Curtiz, in turn, has always seemed like Franz Murnau under onions. I may be wrong in praising Negalescu now, since THREE STRANGERS is smartly written by John Huston and Howard Koch and is still more smartly played by Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Rosalind Ivan, and Joan Loring. But this rather silly story of three blemished people buzzing around a sweepstakes ticket is told with such exactly fancy terseness, even in casual street scenes, that I think nobody should be left out. It is one of few recent movies you don't feel rather ashamed about, next morning.

Thanks krieger. The poster who started this thread makes such volatile statements that I would imagine it turns off people who might have considered buying his book. Why patronize an author who behaves that way?

From the glass is half full department: Releasing some of Kay's films, even in this format with no extras, will bring new people to his fan base. That is what we should keep in mind. Anything else is sour grapes.

*JULIETTE COMPTON* WOMEN LOVE ONCE (1931) with Paul Lukas & Eleanor Boardman THE MAN CALLED BACK (1932) with Conrad Nagel & Doris Kenyon PEG O' MY HEART (1933) with Marion Davies & Onslow Stevens THE MASQUERADER (1933) with Ronald Colman & Elissa Landi

Thanks, Arturo.

*BLAZE OF NOON (1947)* From Agee on March 22, 1947: BLAZE OF NOON is a story about four flying brothers and the anxious girl one of them marries. So long as it sticks to stunt flying and mild comedy it is pleasant enough. But the last half, during which the obsessed brothers come one by one to grief and the little woman waits it out, gets pretty monotonous.

I like Agee's comments about TARTU very much. His writing indicates that the phrase 'film classic' is not a new thing. There already were classics back in the mid-40s. We need to realize that.

*Violence on Screen* How much trouble could The Three Stooges cause as wedding singers in TURN BACK THE CLOCK...? Their kind, gentle nature is also on display in ROCKIN' IN THE ROCKIES.

*Kenneth Branagh & Emma Thompson* The couple does beautiful work in films like HENRY V and DEAD AGAIN.

*JIMMY LYDON AS HENRY ALDRICH* HENRY ALDRICH FOR PRESIDENT (1941) with June Preisser, Martha O'Driscoll & Rod Cameron HENRY ALDRICH, EDITOR (1942) with John Litel HENRY AND DIZZY (1942) with Charles Smith & Carl Alfalfa Switzer HENRY ALDRICH HAUNTS A HOUSE (1943) with Charles Smith & John Litel HENRY ALDRICH GETS GLAMOUR (1943) with Frances Gifford, Diana Lynn & Gail Russell HENRY ALDRICH SWINGS IT (1943) with John Litel & Mimi Chandler HENRY ALDRICH, BOY SCOUT (1944) with Darryl Hickman HENRY ALDRICH PLAYS CUPID (1944) with Diana Lynn HENRY ALDRICH'S LITTLE SECRET (1944) with Charles Smith & John Litel

*THE ADVENTURES OF TARTU (1943)* From Agee on September 25, 1943: THE ADVENTURES OF TARTU disguises British Agent Robert Donat as a Rumanian whose business it is to destroy a Nazi poison-gas plant and escape the consequences with Valerie Hobson. It is so easy to enjoy that it is easy to overrate: that is, it gave me nearly as much simple fun as thrillers a dozen times better; but not quite. You are seeing all it has, and bald spots as well, the first time around, whereas with a good Hitchcock or even a good Carol Reed, even the pleasures visible at a first seeing stand up, or intensify, under a third and a fifth; new ones turn up with each seeing, and it is a long time before the whole work wears thin or takes on the staleness of a classic indulged too often.

The original poster seems to want to be able to control the way the Warner Archives offers prints to the public. It's a negative thread that in my opinion lacks class.

*Intended for Another* David Selznick had originally purchased DARK VICTORY with Greta Garbo in mind. Garbo didn't want to do it, so he sold it to Warners who used it for Bette. Around this time, Margaret Sullavan stepped in at MGM to do THE SHOPWORN ANGEL which would have starred the late Jean Harlow.

*TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST (1946)* From Agee on August 31, 1946: The film would be fair enough as a piece of straight sea-melodrama. The performance of Howard da Silva as the Captain and the presentation of the claustrophobia that is developed aboard the ship, made in wartime entirely ashore, are better than fair. What I object to is Paramount presenting this heavily hopped-up piture of what a merchant seaman was up against, a century ago, as if it were historical fact vouched for in Richard Henry Dana's book. Dana, if they would care to tell the truth about it, said that he would have hated to command a crew of that sort unless the law gave him flogging rights.