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I think she had some other post-war hits. She was a success at MGM for 14 years.

Some of her post-war pictures at MGM were notable...we would need to look at the box office returns and critics' reviews to accurately say which ones were flops. But again, if she had too many flops, MGM would've dropped her. It is interesting to note that they did drop Lucille Ball after the war. They kept Greer for 14 years and only had Lucy for 4 years. Lucy would bounce back with a multi-picture deal at Columbia and two hit films with pal Bob Hope for Paramount. Greer at this time was still working at MGM.

Kevin Costner's DANCES WITH WOLVES...Oscar as director. He has a WWII drama coming out later this year he directed called A LITTLE WAR OF OUR OWN.

George Sanders committed suicide a few years after TRUNK TO CAIRO. In his suicide note, he claimed he was bored with life. More than likely, he probably grew bored with the kinds of film roles he was being offered. His best late-career role in my opinion is as a drag queen in John Huston's THE KREMLIN LETTER. He's different in that one and I think he enjoys being able to reinvent himself on screen.

>Russell, like Kate Hepburn, another Connecticut Yankee, was occasionally cast in British roles. Don't forget Bette Davis, a Massachusetts girl who also was cast in British roles in productions on both sides of the ocean. I think Nichols does a superior job adapting ELECTRA. It was later re-filmed as a miniseries. I don't get the impression their main goal was to win Oscars...rather it was to bring O'Neill to the masses.

I still cannot watch TWILIGHT ZONE THE MOVIE knowing it cost those actors their lives.

I thought she was fabulous on The Colbys matching wits with Stephanie Beacham and Charlton Heston. The offer to return to primetime came from Aaron Spelling, of course. I think he had been after for a long time to star in one of his series. He put Stanwyck in a special episode of Charlie's Angels in the late 70s. The idea was to sell her as a female Charlie and spin her off with three pretty boys. Either ABC passed on 'Toni's Boys' or Stanwyck turned it down. Eventually, she did go to work for Spelling and ABC, but not until she had filmed her memorable Emmy-winning role in The Thorn Birds.

By the way, there were several edited versions of THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE. Due to feedback from test audience screenings, they pared it down. In recent releases, they have restored the extra footage, and it is now sold as a roadshow edition.

The wiki page for THE BEDFORD INCIDENT notes some significant changes that were made to the story when it was adapted for film: The film follows the novel fairly closely. However, the two have completely different endings. In the novel, the Russian submarine does not fire back at Bedford before being destroyed, and the crew of the American ship ends up skimming the sea for the remains of the sub. Finlander, in shock, receives word of his promotion - the Pentagon being oblivious to the result of the Bedford's hunt. Schrepke, realizing the catastrophic consequences that will stem from the Bedford's attack, sabotages one of the remaining ASROC's, and destroys the ship. Munceford survives the destruction - he is the sole survivor - and the book ends with him about to be found by the submarine's mothership, the Novosibirsk (an exact parallel with Moby Dick).

It would be fun to see MARY POPPINS on TCM. A few live action Disney films were shown a few years ago for Fred MacMurray's summer under the stars tribute...maybe it was back in '08 if I remember correctly.

I've seen SMITH! on Hallmark and recently it had a few airings on one of the Encore channels. It did have commercials on Hallmark.

I know there was a month in which TCM showed some Disney live action flicks a few years ago. There are plenty more I would like to see. 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA ADVENTURES OF BULLWHIP GRIFFIN, THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD, THE ALMOST ANGELS AMY APPLE DUMPLING GANG RIDES AGAIN, THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG, THE BABES IN TOYLAND BAREFOOT EXECUTIVE, THE BEARS AND I, THE BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS BIG RED BISCUIT EATER, THE BLACK HOLE, THE BLACKBEARD'S GHOST BOATNIKS, THE BON VOYAGE! BOY WHO TALKED TO BADGERS, THE CANDLESHOE CASTAWAY COWBOY CAT FROM OUTER SPACE, THE CHANDAR, THE BLACK LEOPARD OF CEYLON CHARLEY AND THE ANGEL CHARLIE, THE LONESOME COUGAR COMPUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES, THE DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE DAVY CROCKETT AND THE RIVER PIRATES DAVY CROCKETT, KING OF THE WILD FRONTIER DEVIL AND MAX DEVLIN, THE EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES (1964) ESCAPE FROM THE DARK ESCAPE FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN FIGHTING PRINCE OF DONEGAL, THE FOLLOW ME, BOYS! FREAKY FRIDAY (1976) FUN AND FANCY FREE GNOME-MOBILE, THE GREAT LOCOMOTIVE CHASE, THE GREYFRIARS BOBBY GUS HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE, THE HERBIE GOES BANANAS HERBIE GOES TO MONTE CARLO HERBIE RIDES AGAIN HORSE IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT, THE HOT LEAD AND COLD FEET IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS INCREDIBLE JOURNEY, THE (1963) ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD, THE JOHNNY TREMAIN KING OF THE GRIZZLIES LAST FLIGHT OF NOAH'S ARK, THE LEGEND OF LOBO, THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST, THE LITTLEST OUTLAW, THE LOVE BUG, THE LT. ROBIN CRUSOE, U.S.N. MAKE MINE MUSIC MARY POPPINS MELODY TIME MIDNIGHT MADNESS MILLION DOLLAR DUCK, THE MIRACLE OF THE WHITE STALLIONS MISADVENTURES OF MERLIN JONES, THE MONKEY'S UNCLE, THE MONKEYS, GO HOME! MOON PILOT MOON-SPINNERS, THE MUSTANG NAPOLEON AND SAMANTHA NEVER A DULL MOMENT (1968) NIGHT CROSSING NIKKI, WILD DOG OF THE NORTH NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS, THE NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON'T OLD YELLER ONE AND ONLY, GENUINE, ORIGINAL FAMILY BAND, THE ONE LITTLE INDIAN ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING PARENT TRAP, THE PETE'S DRAGON POLLYANNA (1960) PROUD REBEL, THE RASCAL RIDE A WILD PONY ROB ROY, THE HIGHLAND ROGU RUN, COUGAR, RUN SAVAGE SAM SCANDALOUS JOHN SHAGGY D.A., THE SHAGGY DOG, THE SIGN OF ZORRO, THE SMITH! SNOWBALL EXPRESS SO DEAR TO MY HEART SON OF FLUBBER SONG OF THE SOUTH STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD, THE SUMMER MAGIC SUPERDAD SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (1960) SWORD AND THE ROSE, THE TEN WHO DARED THAT DARN CAT! (1965) THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR THIRD MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN THOSE CALLOWAYS THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA TIGER WALKS, A TOBY TYLER TONKA TREASURE ISLAND (1950) TREASURE OF MATECUMBE UGLY DACHSUND, THE UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDBALL WATCHER IN THE WOODS, THE WESTWARD HO, THE WAGONS! WILD COUNTRY, THE WORLD'S GREATEST ATHLETE, THE

If I could program an evening on TCM, I think it might be fun to schedule the following films: PT 109 THE BEST MAN FAIL SAFE SEVEN DAYS IN MAY DR. STRANGELOVE TOPAZ

>Offhand, I can't think of anyone who had a more spectacular or effective screen debut than Deanna Durbin in THREE SMART GIRLS. Great example. Solid film debut without a doubt. From what I have read, W.C. Fields is the one who saved Universal from bankruptcy. The bank was calling in its loan and Universal could not make the payments. Their last hope was signing W.C. Fields who had just finished up at Paramount. With Fields' name on the dotted line, the bank extended them a line of credit, figuring that with such a bankable star on the roster, the studio would begin to turn a profit. That is exactly what happened. YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN, THE BANK DICK, MY LITTLE CHICKADEE and NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK were all smash hits with audiences. Adding to Universal's sudden good fortune was this dynamo named Deanna Durbin who quickly proved to be box office gold and just as important as Fields.

But David, when you were talking about Egypt and those military invasions involving Israel, that was not a political statement. That was substantiating historical fact. I think we do need to bring history into these threads. And really, folks, there are two kinds of history: film history; and world history. Sometimes the two collide and sometimes they exist in parallel universes. Meanwhile, politics and religion are altogether separate matters.

Again, I do not think comments that relate historical facts have to be seen as political or even as 'garbage.' LOL Isn't it more important that people care about what they see on TCM and that they are engaging in conversations about it? In a way, I give TCM's programming team some credit for attempting this series because it creates a dialogue...but again, I don't think it's been presented as well as it could have. Thanks for reading my point of view on this.

I am eager to read more constructive replies on this thread...I think there may be a lot of life in it. I am reminded of a story that Dick Moore mentioned in the Private Screenings piece featuring child stars. He claimed that DeMille had been very abusive towards him on the set of THE SQUAW MAN. Again, I do not think children were as well-protected on movie sets back then as they are today.

I don't think the professor's views are entirely political. If someone wishes to mention him in this thread in a more historical context, that seems fine. However, I don't think we can control what others post. I think there have been some great posts that show folks are watching the films carefully...so that part of it is good. As I said before, I particularly liked David's post. Well-worded.

Just re-read this thread. This was one of my favorites from June 2011.

Good post, David.

To be fair, Linda Evans married John Derek mid-way into the run of The Big Valley and her priorities changed. She asked to be featured less, so the producers wrote her out of many of the episodes. In the final season, she is in less than half dozen episodes, so of course Stanwyck's character seems to be the main female at the ranch. I am not saying this to downplay Stanwyck's great contribution to this series. But I think if they had recast Linda's part, then there would've been more stories involving the younger female character. Babs and Linda would work together again in the 80s on a few episodes of Dynasty. Linda was long-since divorced from John Derek and very much a major television star.

Terry, I love what you have written here! Good job! I am going to send an email to you, because I want to ask you something about these...thanks.

*Barbara Stanwyck* was directed by *William Wellman* in five features: NIGHT NURSE, SO BIG, THE PURCHASE PRICE, THE GREAT MAN'S LADY and LADY OF BURLESQUE. In Wellman's autobiography, he writes that he and Stanwyck felt THE GREAT MAN'S LADY was their finest collaboration.

I agree that Maltin really did not review ISN'T IT ROMANTIC. He does the film, its makers and its audience a disservice.

I don't think GONE WITH THE WIND holds up as well now as it once did, but it's still entertaining and fun. Most critics felt Howard was too old and miscast for Romeo in the MGM-Cukor version starring Norma Shearer (she was probably too old to play a teen as well). However, I think he's one of the better British actors of his generation. He is in top form as THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL.