TopBilled
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Posts posted by TopBilled
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Sometimes posters are able to provide old links of past schedules and tributes. I would like to see what Doris Day films were offered the last time she was SOTM.
Encore Westerns has been airing THE BALLAD OF JOSIE, but not in widescreen. I would also like to see WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT as it is not on DVD and seems to be one of the more hard-to-find Day titles.
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*BOOTS MALLORY*
HANDLE WITH CARE (1932) with James Dunn & El Brendel
HUMANITY (1933) with Ralph Morgan & Alexander Kirkland
HELLO, SISTER! (1933) with James Dunn & ZaSu Pitts
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Sounds interesting. By the way, this year would be the 100th birthday of Warners animator Chuck Jones.
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Some more good ones:
FANTASTIC VOYAGE on January 20th.
IT HAPPENED IN FLATBUSH on January 20th.
THREE BRAVE MEN on January 26th.
THE SILENT CALL on February 1st.
VIVA ZAPATA on February 7th.
BACHELOR FLAT on February 11th.
WE'RE NOT MARRIED on February 14th.
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) on February 14th.
YOU WERE MEANT FOR ME on February 16th.
NIGHT TRAIN TO PARIS on February 27th.
THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH on February 29th.
LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN on February 29th.
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Each year I cross my fingers hoping that they will show Universal's HARVEY with James Stewart. I love that film! And it's imaginary rabbit story is perfect for this holiday.
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I could really (and should really) make a thread called 'Least & Most Favorite of the Day' because I probably watch three or four films per day and by the time seven days have ended, there are too many to write about!
But by far, the best film I watched this week was a taut little thriller over at Netflix streaming called JENNIFER. Ida Lupino and then-husband Howard Duff star in a creepy story about a woman (Lupino) who is hired as caretaker for a large deserted mansion. As she settles in, she begins to find clues about a woman named Jennifer who was the previous caretaker of the estate who one day had disappeared.
We never see Jennifer but she haunts the entire film and Lupino. Duff plays a local man who falls for Lupino and who may or may not have had something to do with Jennifer's vanishing.
The ending is a real corker and you begin to replay the previous events of the movie in your mind, reconsidering if Jennifer was in fact real or if Lupino was insane. Excellent film and highly recommended.
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I am watching Lew Ayres right now on Netflix streaming. It's a title he made for Republic called KING OF THE NEWSBOYS (1938). He's great in this low-budget picture. This was part of a three-film deal he had with Republic where he agreed to star in two (this one and THE LEATHERNECKS HAVE LANDED) and they would let him direct one (HEARTS IN BONDAGE).
Again, Ayres proves that his inimitable charm and acting talent can make even a small production worth seeing.
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I think Lansbury was SOTM once before.
We do know that when she passes away, she will get a full-day TCM tribute like Tony Curtis did. It won't be a half day like Cliff Robertson had.
In the rare cases where Lansbury was billed higher than a second tier or supporting role, as in the western A LAWLESS STREET with Randolph Scott, it is because she was starring in a B-film.
Later films where she had top billing, with the exception of Buena Vista's BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS which does not focus on her exclusively but rather on the kids and the special effects, she is either being featured in a low-budget picture or in a TV-movie. She was never a leading star of an A-film in the way that Marilyn Monroe or Greta Garbo had been.
People didn't call each other on the phone after a long work week and make plans to go see Angela's latest film. They did not spend a Friday night going to an Angela Lansbury movie. They went to see Garbo or Dietrich or Monroe.
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I agree, Swithin, I think those two titles would make a good double-feature.
And while we're on the subject of Angela, I think THE HARVEY GIRLS and A LAWLESS STREET make a good double bill because she plays a dance hall girl in both.
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My guess is that within a few days we will begin to see which titles have been slated for April.
We do know that KING OF KINGS and EASTER PARADE are a given.
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Good post. I agree that she seriously lacked sex appeal. To say she is in the same league with a Garbo or Monroe as a titillating star of the month would be unrealistic. She was a character actress and was usually given supporting roles because she could not be counted on to draw in mass audiences and sell movie tickets.
In BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS, the magic and special effects are in reality the star, with the kids coming in a close second and Lansbury along for the ride. I really felt she should not have been chosen to do the retrospective about Disney live action a few years ago. She only made one movie for Buena Vista. Dean Jones, Hayley Mills (my pick for the retrospective), Fred MacMurray and Kurt Russell were the big stars of Disney live action, not Lansbury.
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The original poster considers Angela Lansbury and her film catalogue depressing. While that may be stretching things a bit, such an opinion is valid and gives TCM the kind of feedback it should have.
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>Frankly I fault those that let marketing drive their behavior than the ones doing the marketing, especially in the Internet era where anyone with the will to seek information can find it.
Hmmmmm... LOL
Edited by: TopBilled on Jan 1, 2012 2:21 PM
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I think for those that are more interested in Jessica Fletcher than Angela Lansbury then TVLand is the place.
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STATE OF THE UNION is a Tracy-Hepburn event; and MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is a Frank Sinatra event. TCM is not airing the few films where she was top-billed and the main event herself.
By and large, we are getting a month of supporting roles in feature film productions that are being highlighted. I don't think this was the intention of the SOTM series when it began. Lansbury and her film career are a far cry from Garbo.
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I am not exactly thrilled about her selection as SOTM, though I know a lot of people who like Jessica Fletcher (as opposed to Angela Lansbury) will be happy about all this.
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We have a thread devoted to Miss Lansbury as SOTM which others have been commenting on since October.
Since Karl Malden will be featured in March, my guess is that they may be doing a year of character actors.
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*AND THE ANGELS SING (1944)*
From Agee on May 27, 1944:
AND THE ANGELS SING is a Paramount comedy involving four small-town sisters played by Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn and Mimi Chandler. They pursue a dishonest jazz band leader played by Fred MacMurray.
A lot of the production is cruel, soggily professional, over elaborate and inclined toward snobbish whimsy. It makes me tired, and I am especially sorry to watch the exciting potentialities of Diana Lynn turning more and more into mere narcissistic chilly cuteness. But Betty Hutton is almost beyond good and evil, so far as I am concerned.
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*LINDEN CHILES*
INCIDENT AT PHANTOM HILL (1966) with Robert Fuller, Jocelyn Lane & Dan Duryea
TEXAS ACROSS THE RIVER (1966) with Dean Martin & Alain Delon
SULLIVAN'S EMPIRE (1967) with Martin Milner
COUNTERPOINT (1968) with Charlton Heston & Maximilian Schell
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What one must realize is that if it not for Dr. Kildare, Lew probably would not have been cast in both THE DARK MIRROR and JOHNNY BELINDA (his comeback films after the war), where he portrays doctors.
The Kildare series effectively typecast him as a medic, and his volunteer work in the Medical Corps during the war helped reinforce that image in the minds of people. For the rest of his career, he would often play doctors and professors.
Years later, NBC tried to get him to appear on the Kildare television series. However, NBC balked when Ayres said he would only do the show if there was no cigarette advertising. The job went instead to Richard Chamberlain.
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Time to dust this thread off...
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Right...they could've recast the part with a new starlet or just had Day's character leave town. They certainly did choose a dramatic exit for her. Personally, I would've preferred that there had been a happy ending for them, especially since Ayres was about to leave MGM soon. He only made one more Dr. Kildare picture.
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*AND NOW TOMORROW (1944)*
From Agee on December 9, 1944:
AND NOW TOMORROW is about a deaf upper-class girl and ex-proletarian doctor who, after some machine-turned comedy of sex antagonism, restores her hearing and, presumably, dissolves her snobbery. It is rather cruel to quite a number of people in the audience to show a cure for the kind of deafness that results from meningitis without letting you know whether there is in fact any such cure.
Angela Lansbury?!?
in General Discussions
Posted
Lansbury is a bit miscast in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. She has the acting chops to pull off the role, and she is fairly good with the possibilities of the character, but she is in no way physically believable or old enough to be regarded as Laurence Harvey's mother. It's like hiring Bette Davis to portray Errol Flynn's mother.
Similarly, she was only nine years older than Elvis when she played his mother in BLUE HAWAII, and since she was not going to be offered the lead role and wear a bikini, she settled for a matronly supporting part. Again it's hard to believe at this stage in her career that she's old enough to be a matinee idol's mom.