TopBilled
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Posts posted by TopBilled
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>I'd need a pace maker if Tyrone Power was SOTM. And if they aired MISSISSIPPI GAMBLER, I'd post on these boards from the after life.
That is why you may want to look at lovingtheclassics where you can purchase a copy of it and watch it during this life.
http://www.lovingtheclassics.com/The-Mississippi-Gambler-1953-DVD/prod_1742.html
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And don't forget his late 40s and early 50s titles where he was freelancing post-MGM: THE SENATOR WAS INDISCREET (Universal); TAKE ONE FALSE STEP (Universal); DANCING IN THE DARK (Fox); and THE TREASURE OF LOST CANYON (Universal). It would be nice to see them on TCM. None of them are on DVD yet.
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I think the poster who mentioned the holiday weekend is right.
Also, you have to keep in mind that he had a long month...not every month has 31 days and not every SOTM gets five evenings. Most only get four evenings.
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I think Robert Taylor had probably as many films shown during his month a few years ago.
It helps if the performer did not move around a lot and if they remained with the same studio for many years like Taylor and Powell both did. In the 21 or 22 years that Taylor was under contract at MGM, he was only loaned out once to Universal and twice to Fox. That's it. So there is this huge catalogue of film output for him at the lion.
I think TCM's programmers did add some of the titles that Robert Taylor made freelancing after his long association with MGM...plus, they aired CATTLE KING which he made back at MGM after he had been freelancing for several years.
In fact, there were so many films they showed for Taylor that month that I don't think they got through all his MGM titles.
Lansbury, by comparison, was not at the studio a long time. And even when she was on the lot, she seldom had starring roles.
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Yes thanks for mentioning that. But instead of something as comprehensive, I would like to see products that focus specifically on MGM's war films or on MGM's westerns. And since Time Warner seems to control the RKO titles, wouldn't it be great to see a few volumes with clips and interviews about the post-war noir.
The way they are presenting the 'That's Entertainment' series, they seem to imply that MGM's trademark was musicals. It was not. The studio's trademark was high-brow entertainment and glamour. This is definitely evidenced in the musical output but can also be seen in dramatic fare like MARIE ANTOINETTE and MRS. MINIVER.
Though if we are focusing in on the MGM musicals, then I really think there should be more research and discussion about the high-art of signees like Jeanette MacDonald, Lauritz Melchoir, Mario Lanza and Ezio Pinza. The musicals were not exactly catering to working class families. Producers like Joe Pasternak tried to elevate the genre, though I agree they included performers like Jimmy Durante in comic relief to sell some of this high-art to the common masses.
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There should be volumes devoted to MGM's other genres. Otherwise, it is really 'That's Musical Entertainment.' MGM's entertainment programming covered a vast array of styles and formats.
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I think you are definitely making too much of it. Look at how many of his films just aired these past few weeks.
There's a daily thread I do, called WANTED, about classic film stars whose films hardly ever get shown. We go months, sometimes years, before we see a film with Buster Crabbe or Marceline Day or even more 'recent' classic stars like Suzanne Pleshette.
By comparison, William Powell is in heavy rotation. Even when he's not SOTM, he is on the schedule on a consistent basis. Disrespect? No. The programmers have a lot of respect for his talent and schedule his films regularly.
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*JAMMING THE BLUES (1944)*
From Agee on December 16, 1944:
JAMMING THE BLUES, a hot-jazz short by the Life photographer Gjon Mili, is exciting quite a few people around Hollywood, and has some right to, for it is one of the few musical shorts I have ever got even fair pleasure out of hearing, and the only one, barring the jam scene in PHANTOM LADY, which was not a killing bore to watch.
Yet I don't really care much for the picture. It is too full of the hot, moist, boozy breath of the unqualified jazz addict, of which I once had more than enough in my own mouth; and I thought the two effects which wholly compose it, chiaroscuro and virtual silhouette, too pretentious and borrowed and arty.
There are a few things in any art or art-industry more discouraging to think of than the middle-brow highbrows. Half a brow is worse than no head.
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*LARRY CRABBE/BUSTER CRABBE*
THE SWEETHEART OF SIGMA CHI (1933) with Mary Carlisle & Charles Starrett
THUNDERING HERD (1933) with Randolph Scott & Judith Allen
MAN OF THE FOREST (1933) with Randolph Scott & Verna Hillie
KING OF THE JUNGLE (1933) with Frances Dee
YOU'RE TELLING ME (1934) with W.C. Fields & Joan Marsh
THE WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND (1935) with Dean Jagger & Gail Patrick
NEVADA (1935) with Kathleen Burke
HOLD 'EM YALE (1935) with Patricia Ellis & Cesar Romero
DRIFT FENCE (1936) with Katherine DeMille
LADY BE CAREFUL (1936) with Lew Ayres & Mary Carlisle
ARIZONA MAHONEY (1936) with Joe Cook & Robert Cummings
DESERT GOLD (1936) with Monte Blue
ROSE BOWL (1936) with Eleanore Whitney & Tom Brown
FORLORN RIVER (1937) with June Martel
SOPHIE LANG GOES WEST (1937) with Gertrude Michael & Lee Bowman
MURDER GOES TO COLLEGE (1937) with Roscoe Karns & Marsha Hunt
KING OF GAMBLERS (1937) with Claire Trevor & Lloyd Nolan
DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI (1937) with Anna May Wong & Charles Bickford
HUNTED MEN (1938) with Lloyd Nolan & Mary Carlisle
TIP-OFF GIRLS (1938) with Mary Carlisle & Lloyd Nolan
UNMARRIED (1939) with Helen Twelvetrees, Buck Jones & Donald O'Connor
COLORADO SUNSET (1939) with Gene Autry
WILDCAT (1942) with Richard Arlen & Arline Judge
SWAMP FIRE (1946) with Johnny Weissmuller & Virginia Grey
LAST OF THE REDMEN (1947) with Jon Hall, Michael O'Shea & Evelyn Ankers
CAGED FURY (1948) with Richard Denning & Sheila Ryan
CAPTIVE GIRL (1950) with Johnny Weissmuller
THE LAWLESS EIGHTIES (1957) with John Smith
GUNFIGHTERS OF ABILENE (1960) with Barton MacLane
ARIZONA RAIDERS (1965) with Audie Murphy & Michael Dante
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*BATHING BEAUTY (1944)*
From Agee on July 1, 1944:
BATHING BEAUTY swarms with bathing suits and their contents; most often and most carnally in focus on Esther Williams, lolloping in a friendly way before underwater cameras.
Above water level Harry James and Xavier Cugat play, and Red Skelton, for my leathery taste, is occasionally rather funny.
I could not resist the wish that MGM had topped its aquatic climax-- a huge pool full of girls, fountains and spouts of flame-- by suddenly draining the tank and ending the show with the entire company writhing like goldfish on a rug.
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*MARCELINE DAY*
THE WILD PARTY (1929) with Clara Bow & Fredric March
THE ONE WOMAN IDEA (1929) with Rod LaRocque
TRENT'S LAST CASE (1929) with Donald Crisp
TEMPLE TOWER (1930) with Kenneth MacKenna
THE MAD PARADE (1931) with Evelyn Brent, Irene Rich & Louise Fazenda
SKY RAIDERS (1931) with Lloyd Hughes
THE FIGHTING FOOL (1932) with Tim McCoy
FROM BROADWAY TO CHEYENNE (1932) with Rex Bell
THE TELEGRAPH TRAIL (1933) with John Wayne
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THE SONG OF BERNADETTE was a film that Goetz oversaw, and Zanuck had relatively little to do with the production of it since he was in Alaska and then Africa during the war. The film was a major commercial hit for the studio (bigger than Zanuck's own WILSON), and this is rather ironic since Zanuck felt the need to fire Goetz. I am sure Goetz had his favorite actors and actresses, though he did put Baxter in the adaptation of THE EVE OF ST. MARK which was an important Broadway play at the time (forgotten today).
My guess is that Fox had on-going development deals with David Selznick. I think Dorothy McGuire was under contract to Selznick, and he loaned her out to Fox and RKO rather often, even more when he began to focus on Jones' career. But one thing that should be mentioned is that McGuire had been hugely successful in the stage version of CLAUDIA. So while Baxter may have coveted the part, she was likely not going to get the chance to do it on film.
Baxter managed to flourish with the material she was given. In addition to the dramatic roles, she was also good in high-brow comedies like CHARLEY'S AUNT and A ROYAL SCANDAL.
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I don't think we have much to worry about. It seems like business as usual, with many of the classic titles still in rotation.
January 8th:
LOVE ME TENDER
APRIL LOVE
MR. HOBBS TAKES A VACATION
January 9th:
PUNCH AND JODY (1974 TV-movie starring Glenn Ford)
DAY-TIME WIFE
CONEY ISLAND
HELLO, FRISCO, HELLO
CAPRICE
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I haven't watched this one yet, though I did record it for later viewing.
The one I was most impressed with was I LOVED A WOMAN, where Edward G. Robinson is teamed with Kay Francis and Genevieve Tobin. Excellent production and way-above-average performances from these three.
The story, about a tyrannical meat packing tycoon (Robinson) who falls under the spell of a mistress (Francis) he intends to make into a world-famous opera star, was very reminiscent of CITIZEN KANE...and honestly, I could not help but think Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles borrowed considerably from it.
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I believe they showed them last year, too, for his birthday. He's just so good in this role. He elevates B-film fare and makes you think you are watching an A-film.
My first exposure to him was in the 80s, when he guest-starred three times on Michael Landon's Highway to Heaven. He was great then, too. Over 60 years of screen performances, and he never strayed far from his formula of presenting distinguished, mostly professional men who faced life's situations with grace and dignity.
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I am enjoying this marathon of Dr. Kildare films. I have seen them all before, with the exception of two (and I am glad to see they will play later this afternoon).
He has to be one of the most stylish physicians ever on screen!
I love this guy.
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The ads for MGM's ADVENTURE proclaimed 'Gable's back and Garson's got him.' Of course, we're talking about Clark Gable's return to motion picture acting after his service during World War II.
But he wasn't the only studio star who had returned with great fanfare after a stint with the U.S. military.
At Paramount, Alan Ladd's first film after the war was AND NOW TOMORROW, a romance with Loretta Young. The studio's advertising department had written across the upper portion of posters two words that were sure to bring cinemaddicts rushing to movie theatres. Those words: 'Ladd's Back.'
Meanwhile, at Fox, Tyrone Power hadn't made a new picture in three years, since CRASH DIVE. Zanuck cast him in a unique type of story-- this time, it was as the post-war hero in Somerset Maugham's THE RAZOR'S EDGE.
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*RODDY MCDOWALL AS CORNELIUS*
PLANET OF THE APES (1968) with Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans & James Whitmore
ESPCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (1971) with Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman, Natalie Trundy, Sal Mineo & Ricardo Montalban
CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972) with Don Murray, Ricardo Montalban & Natalie Trundy
BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (1973) with Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy, Lew Ayres & John Huston
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From what I have been reading in a book about Zanuck, he was not too partial to Anne Baxter. He felt she was too patrician (as the real-life granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright) and could not be considered for roles in many of the studio's musicals and light-weight comedies. Of course, she did fare better in serious material, earning an Oscar for THE RAZOR'S EDGE and a nomination for her bravura performance in Fox's ALL ABOUT EVE.
I am not sure if she was signed to Fox before or after Zanuck had gone off to war. Zanuck inherited some business decisions that had been made by William Goetz during his absence. Zanuck ousted Goetz when he came back from the war and then set to work on fixing projects currently in production and dealing with new signees like Baxter who were now on the payroll.
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*THE PALEFACE (1948)*
One of the most popular recent comedies is Bob Hope's THE PALEFACE. Most of the laughs in THE PLACEFACE are verbal. Bob Hope is very adroit with his lines, and now and then, when the words don't get in the way, he makes a good beginning as a visual comedian.
He is funny, for instance, reacting to a shot of violent whiskey. But he does not know how to get still funnier. The camera has to fade out on the same old face he started with.
One sequence is promisingly set up for visual comedy. In it, Hope and a lethal local boy stalk each other all over a cow town through streets which have been emptied in fear of their duel. The gag here is that through accident and stupidity they keep just failing to find each other. Some of it is quite funny. But the biggest laugh should come at the moment, and through the way, they finally spot each other. The sequence is so weakly thought out that at that crucial moment the camera can't afford to watch them; it switches to Jane Russell.
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We should note that Alice Faye did appear in Fox's remake of STATE FAIR in 1962. However, she was 17 years older and took the part played by Fay Bainter in the 1945 version.
As for Crain, I have always felt that her work with Cary Grant in PEOPLE WILL TALK was rather good.
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*CASABLANCA (1942)*
From Agee on February 20, 1943:
Apparently CASABLANCA, which I must say I liked, is working up a rather serious reputation as a fine melodrama. Why? It is obviously an improvement on one of the world's worst plays; but it is not such an improvement that that is not obvious.
I can quote two lines which I snickered at and then, I blush to say, forgot. One, Miss Bergman's plea to her husband, takes the season's prize for exposition: "Oh, Victor, please don't go to the underground meeting tonight." The other, more tender, is Miss Bergman's too, just after she collapses on to a sofa with Humphrey Bogart: "From now on you'll have to do the thinking for both of us, dear."
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You're right, Fred. So by the time we reach the 1950s, the story has evolved into a film noir.
In the late 50s, it takes another turn...where deranged student John Saxon stalks Esther Williams in THE UNGUARDED MOMENT.
Then, in the 60s, a step further where a hoodlum student sexually assaults teacher Sandy Dennis in UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE.
WANTED: Classic Films Featuring This Classic Artist
in General Discussions
Posted
*NEVA PATTERSON*
TAXI (1953) with John Garfield & Constance Smith
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) with Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr
DAVID AND LISA (1963) with Keir Dullea, Janet Margolin & Howard Da Silva