TopBilled
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Posts posted by TopBilled
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STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989)
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Oberon, Merle
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Gary Collins
Next: B.P.
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A FEVER IN THE BLOOD (1961)
Next: Family
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TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY (1951)
Next: GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
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CROCODILE DUNDEE is another mega-hit from the 80s that spawned sequels.
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SAND (1949)
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THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM (1966)
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5 minutes ago, Moorman said:
"Odd Man Out" is very polarizing to me. It starts out as one of the greatest heist films put on film, then makes a abrupt change to becoming solely about the Mason character. Carol Reed does this to me. I feel the same about his other "masterpiece", "The Third Man". The trappings are there for a great film in both cases (choice of actors, cinematography, etc.) but they both fall flat to me as a whole. I want to rescreen both because enough time has elapsed to enable me to give both another try. I also find that now that I have a extensive base of classic films to pull from (I initially watched both when I first got into classic films) I can better judge both.
I'm not very fond of ODD MAN OUT...I have been rather critical about it...the biggest issue I have is how drawn out the last half hour is. It just loses a lot of momentum, expecting us to hang on for the final scene. With some tighter editing and with more information about the fates of the other characters, I wouldn't be so disappointed in it.
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O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE (1952)
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UNION PACIFIC (1939)
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Johnson, Arte
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LOUISIANA PURCHASE (1941)
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4 hours ago, kim s said:
what genre is THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN ?
It's a hybrid remake of a samurai epic...I would call it a western action film.
Kurosawa's original, SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) took place in 1586. I don't think the 1960 version mentioned a specific year, but when it was remade again in 2016, the year was 1879.
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A scene that would play out if I was a guest character in an episode of Murder She Wrote:
Me: (looks out window, sees Jessica getting off her bicycle) Oh my god, not her. Not that Jessica Fletcher woman. (turns to maid) Get rid of her. Tell her I'm not here. Every time she's around people end up dead, and I don't have time for that today!
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Today's neglected film is from 1937. It has aired 13 times on TCM.
MR. DODD TAKES THE AIR is a Warner Brothers musical comedy that gave Kenny Baker his first starring role in a studio film. He had been in other movies prior to this, but most of those were glorified cameos, where he played himself and had a specialty number to perform. Audiences knew Baker from his gig on Jack Benny’s radio show, where he sang and played a comic sidekick to Benny.
Kenny Baker was making $3,000 clams a week on Benny’s show, a nice amount during the Depression. Heck, it is still a nice amount now. With that sort of weekly exposure and income he was probably in no hurry to become a movie star. But Benny had enjoyed success on the big screen, and Jack Warner thought Baker had potential, too.
Baker’s fresh-faced appeal is put to good use in MR. DODD where he is cast as a naive working class guy who gets a chance to sing on a New York radio show. No great acting stretch here, and the storyline had been done before, with no actual basis in reality.
When Baker is able to demonstrate his vocal talent on the air, he is an instant sensation with the public. He ditches his job as an electrician and concentrates on his new career in radio. Along the way he gets involved with some interesting characters. He is a simpleton fish-out-of-water who has colorful experiences with assorted types of people, or else we wouldn’t have much of a story.
Some of these people include Frank McHugh and Jane Wyman. Dependable character actor McHugh plays Baker’s manager; while Miss Wyman is cast as a secretary…one of the first significant credited roles she had at the studio after a string of uncredited parts. In fact, I would say that Wyman probably comes off best among the supporting players. It’s easy to see why she would have a long and successful career at Warners, though more substantial dramatic roles would not come her way for nearly a decade.
Added into the mix are pros like Alice Brady and Gertrude Michael. Miss Brady plays a ditzy opera singer, the type of high-strung gal she had perfected in other pictures with screwball elements. While I enjoy Brady’s performances, sometimes a little bit of her trademark nonsense goes a long way. I am never quite sure if she is trying to emulate Mary Boland who had the patent on these types of eccentrics, or if she is just trying to keep from getting bored with what would otherwise be a routine romcom.
Regarding Miss Michael, she is wisely more subdued as a scheming gold digger. She wants to marry Baker for his money, even though he is more smitten with Wyman.
The advertising department at Warner Brothers promoted the film by calling Baker’s character a Radio Romeo involved with three women (Wyman, Brady & Michael). Also, the posters compared this production to one from a rival studio, Columbia, since Deeds and Dodd are similar sounding names. But of course, the two stories have nothing in common.
There’s a bit of rigamarole involving Baker’s voice and an invention of his. Most of that doesn’t really matter. What matters is whether viewers have been sufficiently amused for 87 minutes, and I would say they have.
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TRAIL STREET (1947)
Next: Heart
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BLESS THE BEASTS & CHILDREN (1971)
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THE GREAT MAN'S LADY (1942)
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Jean Stapleton explaining why she turned down the role of Jessica Fletcher:
https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/murder-she-wrote?clip=19881#who-talked
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Angela Lansbury's interview with the Television Academy Foundation:
https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/angela-lansbury
In her three-and-a-half-hour interview, Angela Lansbury (1925-2022) recalls growing up in England before immigrating to New York during the London Blitz, and beginning her early motion picture career at MGM with films including Gaslight and The Picture of Dorian Gray. She discusses her many appearances on live television shows, including Robert Montgomery Presents, The George Gobel Show, Ford Television Theatre, Your Show of Shows, and Playhouse 90, which highlighted both her comedic and dramatic talents. She discusses her many television movies over the years, her award-winning Broadway successes in Mame, Gypsy, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and details her involvement as star and executive producer of the popular 12-season mystery series, Murder She Wrote. Morrie Gelman conducted the interview on September 15, 1998 in North Hollywood, CA.
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two thousand five hundred eighty-seventh categoryFranchises in the 80s and 90s
FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)
POLICE ACADEMY (1984)
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990)-
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OUR DAILY BREAD (1934)
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*A to Z of Movies*
in Games and Trivia
Posted
UNCLE SILAS (1947)