Dargo

Don't recall if anyone has yet mentioned that Garner starred in one of the better television movies(HBO) ever made, "Barbarians at the Gate"(1993), a seriocomedy about high-finance and corporate takeovers, and with a teleplay by the great Larry Gelbart.

Personally, I still think the funniest story about John Wayne is the one told by Bruce Dern and the conversation those two had just before the scene in THE COWBOYS was to be filmed where Dern shots Duke in the back. (...everybody comes away soundin' like they had a great sense of humor in that story)

Can't quite agree with your premise here Tom, because to this very day when people first see this classic and because of how well Jimmy plays his part, some people afterward will say he DID feign his cowardice as a last good deed to his pal O'Brien and then again some will say he didn't. In other words, because of its somewhat purposeful unclear ending, who's to say all or even most of those street kids of long ago who went to go see this movie would automatically assume, let alone "know", that Jimmy faked it as they walked out of the theater?

Very nice write-up...or I guess eulogy, Tom.

Yeah, I know what you're sayin' here Lorna. The idea of irreverently calling attention to and making fun of entrenched mindsets, in this case corporate versus communistic mindsets, DOES sound like it would be right up my alley, doesn't it. Possibly in the vein of how DUCK SOUP did the same thing with the concept of ultra-nationalism. However, perhaps it's just that I've felt the Cagney movie doesn't really go far enough on the "wacky side of things" in order to make its point, and that its "frenetics" somehow have always seemed just shy of truly hitting their mark for me. Though, I have to admit the dialogue IS very clever, somehow that clever dialogue doesn't make me laugh all that much, as it seems to me almost all the actors are forcefully spitting their lines out in order to get the laugh. Now that think about it, perhaps it might have been better if Wilder had played it in a lower key, and perhaps more in the vein of his "A Foreign Affair". (...sorry, but that's about the best I can explain this here, I suppose...however, who knows...maybe that NEXT time I watch this movie I'll start gaining a greater appreciation for it)

Yep Tom, true...on both counts.

Well hep, I think we ALL know that all John Derek was doing with Bo was just "trading in his older Ferraris (Ursula Andress and Linda Evans) for a newer Ferrari"! (...OOPS!...there I go AGAIN with that whole car analogy thing, huh...sorry!) LOL

Sorry SableG, but then how do we reconcile James Dean's older Rink character dating of the daughter of his real true love who he couldn't have(Elizabeth Taylor's Leslie) in the film GIANT? Would this same "incestuous overtones" apply here? This is pretty much the same storyline here, isn't it? Settling for the daughter of "the one that got away", but with no real "blood ties" between the older man and the much younger woman. Nope, I'm not sure if this "incestuous" thing applies nearly as much as just, say, the phenomenon of an older man being obsessed with getting the "thing"(or a close facsimile) he missed out on getting when he was younger man. (...kind of like perhaps the present phenomenon of middle-aged men finally purchasing that now classic car they always wanted back in high school and when it was a new model) (...btw...I certainly hope I haven't offended any women here by analogizing them with automobiles!) LOL

LOL Well, I guess in my defense, I'll offer up THIS in response, Tom...

Don't get me wrong here, folks. I'm not saying I think the film is a turkey or anything. And while I understand everyone is free to like any movie over any other movie they wish to, I just can not understand how one could personally rate ONE, TWO, THREE over Wilder's other two recognized masterpieces...one often rated as the "best comedy" ever made, and the other, one of the few comedies ever to win the Best Picture Oscar. (...but once again, no offense intended)

"Felixsh! You're drivin' me crazshy, Felixsh!"

Hmmmmm...once again, I always thought everybody and especially perhaps Jimmy in that Cold War comedy was tryin' just a little too hard to be funny and just SLIGHTLY missing the mark. And though I know you've always liked the "rapid-fire-ness" of this film, finance, it's always seemed to me to be a bit "forced".

1. If you could invite 6 classic film stars to your home, who would you invite? Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, George Burns, Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers, Ava Gardner (...c'mon now...what would be more fun than havin' sort of a Friars Club meeting at your home, AND havin' Ava sittin' right next to ya, HUH?!) 2. If you could only keep 1 DVD classic film - which would it be? THE APARTMENT...with a close second of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN 3. Which classic film actor/actress do you feel is overrated? Which person is underated? overrated-Brando underrated-Victor Mature 4. Who do you think was the most handsome classic film actor? Cary Grant 5. Who do you think was the most beautiful classic film actress? Ummm...of course...AVA!!! 6. Who is your least favorite classic actor? Glenn Ford 7. Who is your least favorite classic actress? Patricia Neal 8. If you could star in a classic film, which film would you want to be in and what character would you want to play? Why, C.C. Baxter, of course. 9. What is your favorite line in a classic film? "That is my least vulnerable spot!"-Claude Rains in CASABLANCA, immediately comes to mind for some reason 10. If you were stuck in an elevator, which classic film star would you want to be stuck with? I'll give ya three guesses, and the hint would be, "Here he is! The one, the only.......!", and George Fenneman said it. 11. Do you have a favorite biography or autobiography of a classic film star? John Huston's autobiography, "An Open Book" 12. What critically acclaimed classic film do you not enjoy watching? A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

My original reply in support of Casa's thought self-deleted. (...due to my not wanting to get any armchair Supply-Side economists around here started on a rant) LOL

I can agree with that, however for sheer "Ava at her absolutely radiant best as a beauty", I still would say her 1951 Technicolor title role as "Pandora" is hard to beat.

True finance, however it really wasn't until and after "Maverick" that Jim become more than just pretty much a bit player on the big screen.

Well, what say we look at this issue THIS way, folks... AT LEAST both these James Garner threads ARE legitimate "news", RIGHT?! LOL (...btw, I made my comment about Jim in the other one, but like many others have said here that I think Multi's video tribute here IS a nice additional touch)

And let us not forget(that is if no one has mentioned this yet) that Garner was one of the first "television stars" to successfully make a career on the big screen, and primarily of special note because it was something few other working actors were able to do during the '50s and '60s. (...RIP Jim)

Well, first GR, I'm sorry about your friend, and secondly, yes of course, wearing a helmet is still no guarantee of survival in a motorcycle crash. All I can tell you here is that I remember like it was yesterday the time in '95 while riding my newly purchased Triumph motorcycle to work at LAX and when a kid suddenly pulled right out in front of me and when I flew over the hood of his car AND when my helmeted head bounced three times on the road surface, and when MY first reaction was to right myself, hobble over to the kid's driver's side window and read him the riot act about his lack of attentiveness behind the wheel. (...I STILL think I probably wouldn't be around here today in order to bug all the idiots who don't wear helmets IF I hadn't been wearing one that day!)

Sorry James, I didn't see your post earlier here. Well, lets see. I guess I feel that Lawrence might have felt "invincible" just before he crashed that beautiful Brough Superior, as maybe he figured after bein' shot at by all those Turks during the war, nothin' was ever gonna get him. (...and THAT'S very often the cardinal mistake many M/C riders will make just before their own "downfall")

I see you replied to my post before I added that thing about "Harley riders not wearing a helmet are freakin' morons", EH?! LOL

Once motorcycling gets in your blood, and in my case after I purchased my first little Honda at age 15 back in '67, it never leaves, General. And yeah, I've always of course recognized the increased risks associated with this endeavor, and have been suddenly and unexpectedly reminded of 'em a few times while riding all these years, if ya know what I mean. This is one the reasons I think so many riders(and usually on Harleys) who ride around with just that idiotic little doo-rag on their skulls and sans a helmet are freakin' MORONS!!! Maybe being born and bred in Greater L.A. and learning how to operate a vehicle upon the crowded roadways of that megalopolis has contributed to my developing that "extra sense" needed to survive riding these babies for so long. (...knock on wood!)

This was in the early '80s, and so yeah, she had already made a name for herself as Elvira on L.A.'s Channel-9 KHJ-TV's "Fright Night Theater" and which was of nationally syndicated, and replacing the deceased actor Larry Vincent who hosted it as "Seymour". However as I recall, this was at the time when she was attempting to get away from that character and do other roles. (...gotta say, while out-of-character she IS still an attractive lady, but of course not nearly as "sultry" as she is when she's in that get-up)

Yep. I met her and my old roomy at a bar for drinks.

Yep! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af0Yei2sAbE (...turns out he was just practicin' for what he'd later figuratively do to Mikhail Gorbachev...well, SOME people think this anyway!) LOL