TopBilled
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Posts posted by TopBilled
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*Non-Witch Margaret Hamilton*
I had to search under 'Margaret Hamilton beautiful' in order to find this picture! She plays a very kind landlady in RKO's CHATTERBOX and does a wonderful job as a stern but caring schoolmarm in Republic's THE RED PONY.
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Well, we know that GONE WITH THE WIND will air in July for the Howard tribute. So when that one shows up as being scheduled on the TCM database, we will be able to find some of the other titles.
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Dmytryk was definitely an animated character.
I remember him talking very excitedly about the making of CROSSFIRE, which I think he felt was his best film. He told us that the original story called for the victim to be gay, not Jewish. So, contrary to popular belief, this film was not RKO's answer to GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT. Instead, the RKO brass chose to go the anti-semitic route, instead of the homosexual route, due to the restrictions of the production code. They could imply the killer hated gays as much as he hated Jews, but while they could mention anti-Jewish sentiment, they could not touch the gay issue with a ten-foot pole.
I think Dmytryk felt that as great as CROSSFIRE turned out, he could've made it even better if they had been allowed to address the gays in the military issue, this all the way back in 1947.
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Lori,
Dmytryk's career did flourish for the next twenty years. In fact, he was one of those guys who remained in such great demand that he did not really have to find work directing episodic television. After his film career went into decline, he was much older and semi-retired, and he turned to teaching.
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I don't remember ever seeing this film on Encore before. It is scheduled for just two airings tonight.
Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur costar in De Mille's western adventure as Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.
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Another good one that Encore shows from time to time is THE GAL WHO TOOK THE WEST. Charles Coburn and Scott Brady are her costars. She ages into an old woman in that film!
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*Gig Young in Doris Day Movies*
He's second fiddle to Clark Gable in TEACHER'S PET and to Cary Grant in THAT TOUCH OF MINK.
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*RAQUEL TORRES*
WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS (1928) with Monte Blue
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS RAY (1929) with Lily Damita & Duncan Renaldo
ESTRELLADOS (1930) with Buster Keaton & William Haines
THE SEA BAT (1930) with Charles Bickford & Nils Asther
UNDER A TEXAS MOON (1930) with Frank Fay & Myrna Loy
THE WOMAN I STOLE (1933) with Jack Holt & Fay Wray
DUCK SOUP (1933) with the Marx Bros.
SO THIS IS AFRICA (1933) with Wheeler & Woolsey
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*CALL NORTHSIDE 777 (1948)*
From Agee on April 24, 1948:
A rather dogged but otherwise competent fact-fiction movie; good camera work on Chicago slums; intelligent use of natural sound. Next to BOOMERANG!, the best, so far, of its kind.
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Five days ago, on March 27th, the Warner Archives released several of the Wheeler & Woolsey films on DVD. They include: DIPLOMANIACS, KENTUCKY KERNELS (which has aired on TCM in the past year); ON AGAIN OFF AGAIN; and THE RAINMAKERS.
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I only noticed one switcheroo from the preliminary schedule you posted recently. On the day featuring those Dorothy McGuire flicks, they have changed I WANT YOU, a Sam Goldwyn picture, to RKO's TILL THE END OF TIME. The running time is nearly the same. I am disappointed in this substitution, since the RKO picture airs several times per year, and I have yet to see the other film, which costars Dana Andrews.
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Many of these in the Republic batch are available as streaming titles on Netflix. So are some of the Paramount pictures that Olive Films has started to put on DVD.
A lot of the Sam Goldwyn titles have aired on TCM...TCM has been rather good about leasing and showing them.
The Sam Goldwyn library is good but in my opinion it is not great. You have to be a fan of Gary Cooper (which I am, but I think he made better films at Warners and Fox); a fan of Danny Kaye (he was an excellent entertainer who often made mediocre remakes of better earlier films); a fan of Farley Granger; a fan of Merle Oberon (she made better films in England with Alexander Korda); a fan of Eddie Cantor (he had more memorable hits later with MGM and RKO); a fan of Dana Andrews (he made better films at Fox); a fan of Teresa Wright (at her peak with Goldwyn); and a fan of Anna Sten (the mogul's European discovery).
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This really is very interesting. When I attended film school in the early to mid-1990s, Edward Dmytryk was one of our professors at USC. Another professor who was a mentor to me did not really like Dmytryk, because he recanted. Her husband had been blacklisted and they fled to Mexico to work with Luis Bunuel on ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. They spent much of that time with Dalton Trumbo's family who had also fled to Mexico.
My professor and her husband eventually went on to work in Europe, particularly in Italy. They did not return to the U.S. and to Hollywood until the 1960s. Meanwhile, Dmytryk's career immediately rebounded after this testimony, and he continued to enjoy a string of hits and subsequent A-picture assignments at various studios up through the 1970s.
It is interesting how this all played out, and how it had long-lasting ramifications. These were real lives dealing with real threats (and not just Communist threats).
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The film was listed as having a 61-minute running time, but when it aired on TCM today, it actually ran for 88 minutes. Fortunately, I had allotted 90 minutes for it when I programmed it on the DVR.
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Thanks, Ray, for the information/explanation. I truly love this film and have wondered why it has yet to be released on DVD thru the Warner Archives. I certainly hope they produce the film with its full running time restored.
When I watched the 80-minute version, it felt rushed...as if there were scenes that had been left out to the detriment of the story. When Susan Hayward gets killed off at around the 45-minute mark, it seems hard to believe that the top-billed star (she outranks Robert Young on this picture) is gone for the entire second half. I kept thinking there must've been more.
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The TCM database and the March TCM schedule lists a running time of 95 minutes for THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME. However, when I watched my DVR recording of it last night, it was just barely 80 minutes.
That means at least 15 minutes of the film was cut. Even the entry for it on the IMDB lists it at 95 minutes. So where is the missing footage?
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*ROBERT IVERS*
SHORT CUT TO HELL (1957) with Georgann Johnson
THE DELICATE DELINQUENT (1957) with Jerry Lewis & Martha Hyer
G.I. BLUES (1960) with Elvis Presley & Juliet Prowse
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*A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA (1946)*
From Agee on May 25, 1946:
Apparently you never know when you are seeing the last of the Marx Brothers; so it is unnecessary to urge anyone who has ever enjoyed them to see A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA. It is also beside the main point to add that it isn't one of their best movies.
For the worst they might ever make would be better worth seeing than most other things I can think of. Many of the things in this one which by substance and look should be level with their best fall somehow flat.
The only two reasons I can get wind of are the manufacture of repetition and the fact that after all these years the Brothers are tired. But to anyone who likes them much I don't think that will get in the way.
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*YVONNE MONLAUR*
THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960) with Peter Cushing
IT STARTED IN NAPLES (1960) with Clark Gable & Sophia Loren
THE TERROR OF THE TONGS (1961) with Christopher Lee
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*THE POWERS GIRL (1943)*
From Agee on January 23, 1943:
Those who want to see evil, cruelty, and some archetypical national diseases should see THE POWERS GIRL. Few other films manage, even inadvertently, to get down so much. The subject here is American bitchery, with a demon photographer and his insurance-ad Mom and Pop thrown in, and some overloaded music from Benny Goodman, who should have refused to take off his glasses.
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Thanks everyone. If I don't do too well with some of the choices, I am always open to suggestions/improvements. I think most of the daily doubles will be fun.
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In a few days, I am going to start another continuing thread. For several years, I have done a 'daily double' on my Facebook page, where I put two films together and highlight a certain artist, box-office collaboration (director & actor or two popular costars), or it maybe something like a shared word in the title or a remake in a different genre.
This has gone over well on my Facebook page, and I will admit sometimes my picks are inspired and sometimes they are not. LOL
I am going to look through all my old Facebook posts and re-print/re-paste/re-post, whatever you call it, my best ones here. I think this will be a creative and fun thread that can stimulate some good discussion for those wanting to participate.
I will try to coincide some of my daily doubles with celebrity birthdays and anniversaries of well-known films. I will probably launch this on April 1st, after I have figured out the ones I want to feature for the first month. I won't always include a picture, but most of the time I will since visuals tend to add to the overall effect. Thanks.
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Right, who says a SOTM has to be an American...? It seems to be implied that it is usually a Hollywood performer, but why not look at a few international stars who had crossover appeal, as Dirk Bogarde certainly did.
And more importantly, his filmography contains many titles by the Rank Organisation and many titles by MGM, which are in the Turner library. Hello... This is a no-brainer. LOL
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*ROY THINNES*
JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN (1969) with Ian Hendry & Patrick Wymark
CHARLEY ONE-EYE (1973) with Richard Roundtree
THE HINDENBURG (1975) with George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft & William Atherton
WANTED: Classic Films Featuring This Classic Artist
in General Discussions
Posted
*STUART WADE*
MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR (1954) with Anne Kimbell
TEENAGE MONSTER (1958) with Anne Gwynne