TopBilled
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Posts posted by TopBilled
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I completely agree. Thank you for stating that. At the very least, calvin could've let us know which actors were being featured on the days I had not figured out then graciously alluded to his new thread. Instead, it seemed underhanded and snarky, which does not usually seem to be calvin's usual style.
When I created the other thread, my intention was to simply offer a list of all the honorees and elicit comments about that. I had no intention of adding all the individual titles by day, because that is labor intensive and quite frankly, with a busy schedule, I did not have time to put into that. Plus, calvin usually does a good job with that, so why not let him continue doing that. There is room for everyone to enjoy the great treats TCM's programmers offer us each month and to post threads in anticipation of future schedules.
However, when it seems like posters are threateing to boycott or make unnecessary duplicate threads, that is what in my opinion erodes away at the good spirit and community feeling of these boards. So again, I do agree that calvin sort of made a mis-step here, and you are right to point that out to him, and with no hard feelings, I think we can move on and should not worry about monopolizing certain kinds of threads. We are here to share information about a cable channel we enjoy, that's all. And that's where it should end. Thanks.
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>Overall the WB factory of the 30s and 40s cranked out quality movies, even many of the 'B' pictures. The character actors are a key reason. i.e. they alway brought a certain level of quality to these WB movies.
I think that is a very true statement. Movies today do have character actors. It is just that they are dwarfed by the Tom Cruises and Sandra Bullocks. They do not get the chance to really shine like character actors did back in the 30s or 40s. And they most certainly do not, with rare exception, get the chance to carry a major studio film (unless it's a low-budget sleeper that was independently financed and has found distribution through a major studio).
John Malkovich is what I would call a character actor today who occasionally gets to do meatier parts.
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It is possible that one of the days I could not figure out will feature an international star. If anyone knows the information for the 9th, the 18th and the 24th, feel free to post it.
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We can add JEANETTE MACDONALD to August 27th.
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*TAWNY PIPIT (1947)*
From Agee on September 27, 1947:
This is an English pastoral comedy about bird lovers. They are both lay and profession, and it is about what happens to them in mid-wartime when two very rare birds decide to breed.
With sharper treatment, this might have been a real beauty of a comedy. Instead, it is an almost unimaginably genteel picture. If you were to sit in the same parlor with it, you would probably suffer a good deal.
But the picture is so obviously a labor of love, and the job of a lifetime for actor Bernard Miles, an actor who has always seemed to me a particularly nice guy. He co-wrote and co-directed it with Charles Saunders. In spite of its profuse cuteness and genteelism, it has a good deal of genuine charm, humor and sweetness of temper.
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*Femme Fatale: Jean Gillie*
The British beauty comes to Hollywood to do DECOY and an equally interesting role in THE MACOMBER AFFAIR.
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*BING CROSBY*
THE BIG BROADCAST (1932) with Stuart Erwin
TOO MUCH HARMONY (1933) with Jack Oakie
COLLEGE HUMOR (1933) with Jack Oakie
WE'RE NOT DRESSING (1934) with Carole Lombard, George Burns & Gracie Allen
HERE IS MY HEART (1934) with Kitty Carlisle & Roland Young
SHE LOVES ME NOT (1934) with Miriam Hopkins
MISSISSIPPI (1935) with W.C. Fields & Joan Bennett
TWO FOR TONIGHT (1935) with Joan Bennett & Thelma Todd
THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936 (1935) with George Burns & Gracie Allen
ANYTHING GOES (1936) with Ethel Merman & Ida Lupino
RHYTHM ON THE RANGE (1936) with Frances Farmer, Bob Burns & Martha Raye
DOUBLE OR NOTHING (1937) with Martha Raye & Andy Devine
WAIKIKI WEDDING (1937) with Bob Burns & Martha Raye
SING YOU SINNERS (1938) with Fred MacMurray & Donald O'Connor
DOCTOR RHYTHM (1938) with Mary Carlisle
PARIS HONEYMOON (1939) with Franciska Gaal
THE STAR MAKER (1939) with Louise Campbell
EAST SIDE OF HEAVEN (1939) with Joan Blondell
IF I HAD MY WAY (1940) with Gloria Jean & Charles Winninger
RHYTHM ON THE RIVER (1940) with Mary Martin & Oscar Levant
BIRTH OF THE BLUES (1941) with Mary Martin & Brian Donlevy
HOLIDAY INN (1942) with Fred Astaire & Marjorie Reynolds
DIXIE (1943) with Dorothy Lamour & Marjorie Reynolds
HERE COME THE WAVES (1943) with Betty Hutton & Sonny Tufts
THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S (1945) with Ingrid Bergman
BLUE SKIES (1946) with Fred Astaire
WELCOME STRANGER (1947) with Joan Caulfield & Barry Fitzgerald
MR. MUSIC (1950) with Nancy Olson & Charles Coburn
JUST FOR YOU (1952) with Jane Wyman & Ethel Barrymore
LITTLE BOY LOST (1953) with Claude Dauphin
WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954) with Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney & Vera-Ellen
MAN ON FIRE (1957) with Inger Stevens
SAY ONE FOR ME (1959) with Debbie Reynolds & Robert Wagner
HIGH TIME (1960) with Fabian & Nicole Maurey
STAGECOACH (1966) with Ann-Margret, Red Buttons & Van Heflin
DR. COOK'S GARDEN (1970) with Blythe Danner
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August 1st: JOHN WAYNE
August 2nd: MYRNA LOY
August 3rd: JOHNNY WEISSMULLER
August 4th: MARILYN MONROE
August 5th: CLAUDE RAINS
August 6th: VAN HEFLIN
August 7th: SIDNEY POITIER
August 8th: RITA HAYWORTH
August 10th: LIONEL BARRYMORE
August 11th: JAMES MASON
August 12th: GINGER ROGERS
August 13th: DEBORAH KERR
August 14th: JAMES CAGNEY
August 15th: LILLIAN GISH
August 16th: ELVIS PRESLEY
August 17th: KATHARINE HEPBURN
August 19th: EVA MARIE SAINT
August 20th: ANTHONY QUINN
August 21st: KAY FRANCIS
August 22nd: JACK LEMMON
August 23rd: GENE KELLY
August 25th: TYRONE POWER
August 26th: GARY COOPER
August 28th: AVA GARDNER
August 29th: JAMES CAAN
August 30th: WARREN WILLIAM
August 31st: INGRID BERGMAN
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*Denim*
BLUE DENIM was marketed as BLUE JEANS in England.
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*DOWN TO EARTH (1947)*
From Agee on August 30, 1947:
DOWN TO EARTH, and as far as I'm concerned six feet under it. It is Mr. Jordan, dry-ice mist and heaven too. A Broadway musical called Swinging the Muses. Terpsichore (Rita Hayworth) intervening to turn this rotten piece of commercial entertainment into still worse high art. There are, however, some prettier than average tunes. And a few glimpses of Miss Hayworth are also prettier than average.
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*LUCILLE BALL*
BUNKER BEAN (1936) with Owen Davis Jr.
GO CHASE YOURSELF (1938) with Joe Penner
NEXT TIME I MARRY (1938) with James Ellison & Lee Bowman
TWELVE CROWDED HOURS (1939) with Richard Dix
BEAUTY FOR THE ASKING (1939) with Patric Knowles
THAT'S RIGHT?YOU'RE WRONG (1939) with Kay Kyser, Adolphe Menjou & May Robson
MARINES FLY HIGH (1940) with Richard Dix & Chester Morris
LOVER COME BACK (1946) with George Brent & Vera Zorina
TWO SMART PEOPLE (1946) with John Hodiak
HER HUSBAND'S AFFAIRS (1947) with Franchot Tone & Edward Everett Horton
SORROWFUL JONES (1949) with Bob Hope & William Demarest
FANCY PANTS (1950) with Bob Hope & Bruce Cabot
THE MAGIC CARPET (1951) with John Agar
MAME (1974) with Robert Preston
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Okay, Fred. Can't wait for your thread about telephones in old movies and your thread about airplanes in old movies. No hard feelings!
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Thanks, Jake, for the note. I didn't like the PEYTON PLACE thread, but at least that was focused on a film.
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The original title of the thread was 'Why the word STOP was used in telegrams...' _not_ 'Why the word STOP was used in movie telegrams...'
In fact, nothing in the original post referred to movies. And there was a link provided that went to some website that said nothing about movies.
I don't understand why lessons have to be shared with posters about inventions when this is a classic film website. Am I missing something here...?
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I would like to see less nonsense threads. I feel they are spamming up the boards, and this is a site devoted to classic film discussion.
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I still fail to see how this thread relates to classic film. Where are the references to films and the uses of telegrams in films?
I think if people wanted to know more about the telegram, they could just study it on their own and they would be posting about it in a forum that discusses inventions.
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5 AGAINST THE HOUSE has a great cast and it is a delicious blend of film noir and caper/heist film. From Columbia Pictures in the mid-50s.
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I'm watching GRANNY GET YOUR GUN which TCM aired this morning. It has a bonanza of character actors. Among them: May Robson, Harry Davenport & Granville Bates. In fact, Robson and Davenport are top-billed. It's a B-film, but it dawned on me how this type of casting would not occur today. In youth-conscious Hollywood, no major studio and certainly not Warners (which produced this picture) would bankroll anything with two older veteran actors in the lead roles. It continues to be our loss.
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Sounds interesting. Some of Virginia Weidler's films will air in July on TCM. I was happy to see a few of them on the schedule.
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*Bit Part James Dean*
Early film roles include a part as a soda fountain customer in Universal's HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY GAL? and as a boxing opponent in Paramount's SAILOR BEWARE.
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*KERWIN MATHEWS*
5 AGAINST THE HOUSE (1955) with Brian Keith & Kim Novak
THE GARMENT JUNGLE (1957) with Lee J. Cobb
TARAWA BEACHHEAD (1958) with Julie Adams & Ray Danton
THE LAST BLITZKRIEG (1959) with Van Johnson
THE WARRIOR EMPRESS (1960) with Tina Louise
MAN ON A STRING (1960) with Ernest Borgnine & Colleen Dewhurst
JACK THE GIANT KILLER (1962) with Judi Meredith
MANIAC (1963) with Nadia Gray
BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH (1967) with Robert Ayres
BARQUERO (1970) with Lee Van Cleef, Warren Oates & Forrest Tucker
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*WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? (1945)*
From Agee on August 11, 1945:
A fantasy in which Fred MacMurray strolls through American history to music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, it is nine parts heavy facetiousness to one part very good fun.
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John Qualen has a very memorable face. I always thought he and Dick Powell sort of resembled each other.
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Maybe I misunderstood. Why not mention specific scenes from movies? It seemed like a random thread topic.
In war films, it usually means a message about the death of a soldier to relatives back home.
In fact, THE HUMAN COMEDY, where Mickey Rooney plays a telegram delivery boy, is a perfect film to discuss here.
Classic Character Actors
in General Discussions
Posted
Also, I think since the advent of Saturday Night Live, we have been given a new variety of the character actor. It is usually a young, loud brash comic (male or female) who is not sexy enough to play romantic leads but who is allowed to carry a film at a major studio if there are enough laughs or outrageous situations to bring in the bucks at the box office. That is the main type of character actor we have in movies today.