Dargo
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Days Won
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Posts posted by Dargo
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47 minutes ago, Hibi said:
It's never really explained why she did that. In fact, although I've seen the film several times, I'm still confused about the motive for the murder of Rain's secretary. Can anyone explain it to me?
Thanks for asking this, Hibi. I've also been wondering about this. I do remember something being said later in the film that she had discovered some dark secret about Rains' character, but I can't remember what that actually was.
And so, can someone help us out here?
43 minutes ago, Hibi said:I'm curious about this Michael North and why he never made a film again. His delivery is too monotone and rapid in the film, but he's very easy on the eyes. I wonder what he did at RKO? I'll have to check.
Now this I haven't been wondering about at all.
Nope, and 'cause the answer to THIS was pretty much self-evident to me.
It must have been because after this film was released, it became evident to one and all that the guy just couldn't act worth a damn, and something he himself must have come to realize once he watched himself in this movie.
(...boy, I'm really hard on this poor guy, aren't I...but GOD he was terrible in this flick...yep, Curtiz needed Dana Andrews in that part...too bad he couldn't get him)
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Actor Leon Ames (left), who owned a couple of Ford dealerships in SoCal, opens another one, circa the late-1960s.
It appears to be actor Louis Quinn on the far right, perhaps best remembered as the comic relief character 'Roscoe' on the TV private eye series 77 Sunset Strip.
(...and yes, and for those whose formative years took place in the L.A. area during this time, standing behind Ames that does indeed appear to be none other than Ralph Williams, the guy who would eventually take over Ames' dealerships and hawk his wares on television and become almost as locally famous for it as Cal Worthington was in the area)
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1 hour ago, King Rat said:
Dargo, I didn't mind Michael North that much, possibly because he looks like Anthony George, one of my childhood favorites. North can also look a bit like Wendell Corey from certain angles. He isn't great, but there are guys who got leading roles in the early and middle 1930s who are less successful. And Troy Donahue is really ticked off because you don't consider him the worst studio era actor of all time.
SPOILERS: Joan Caulfield does reasonably well in a part that has certain problem areas. Matilda doesn't pick up on the fact that her beloved uncle might have a darker side. Well, OK. She's in love with Hurd Hatfield. Granted, the 1940s were much more innocent about a certain subject, but her antennae are not functioning well. The more we think about it, the likelier it seems that she could marry someone and then forget all about it. She's not even all that convincing to herself. It's interesting that in 1947 a glamorous and lovely young woman could be named Matilda. Joan Caulfield has the right look for the character, even though she's not on a par with the terrific character actors in the film.
I edited my post up there KR, and so if you'll go back and re-read it you'll see that I added the thought that I felt because of Mr. North's poor performance and his inability to in essence "carry his role" (and a role I might add which seemed pivotal and not peripheral to the storyline) and thus help carry the film, this lessened my enjoyment of the film in question and made me feel that this movie could have been a lot better if only....
(...well, you know)
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6 hours ago, chaya bat woof woof said:
This topic was prompted by the new movie about Lucy and Desi. It seems like the four major cast members were clueless about Lucy and Desi. It was a well- known fact that Frawley (who went on to play Bubba?) in My Three Sons - later to be replaced by William Demerest) and Vance didn't get along. I came to I Love Lucy after its original run (i.e., saw it in reruns). By the way, there was an earlier TV movie about the couple.
It is the same thing with Woody Allen - that is way old news.
Feel free to comment or not.
So, lemme ask you a question here, chaya.
Why do you think SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy! skits were always so funny?
Easy! Because it played off the idea that MOST actors/celebs aren't usually the most "clued-in" types. Aren't usually well-versed in scholastic endeavors and subjects such as History, Geography, the Sciences. Nope, and in many cases, not even the history of their own chosen line of work.
(...so there's your answer...maybe)
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I'd love to have been the proverbial fly on the wall the day Jack Warner called Michael Curtiz into his office and asked him why in hell he cast a guy who couldn't act nor even had any screen-presence at all in this movie and that he had helped bankroll.
Or in other words, I think I've found my new and latest "worst studio era actor of all time", and his name is...well, it's either Ted or Michael North...take your pick.
(...or in other words AGAIN...all I kept thinking while watching The Unsuspected last night was how much better than film would/might have been if only the Steven Howard character had been played by as competent an actor as the rest of the cast was)
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1 hour ago, JamesJazGuitar said:
And now, who's this, James???
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Just now, sewhite2000 said:
I scrolled up again to try to see if I could place whoever it is, but DawnM, you seem to have removed it!
Yeah, looks like she did remove it, huh.
And so Dawn. How about reposting that pic of that nice lookin' young actress again here?
(...maybe someone can identify her)
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12 minutes ago, sewhite2000 said:
I was going to say the same thing, Dargo. Your Jane Wyatt looks a lot more Jane Wyatt-y. The woman in the other photo does give me deja vu, however.
I know, she DOES look familiar to me too, but like I said, I can't quite place her face here.
(...BUT, we CAN at least rule out her bein' either Don Ameche or George Brent anyway, huh!)
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2 hours ago, ElCid said:
I've been watching episodes of US Marshall and Sheriff of Cochise County TV series. Basically the same series with a name change for some reason. Anyway, it is set in 1958 or so and the Marshall/Sheriff drives either a Chrysler New Yorker station wagon or a De Soto FireFlite station wagon. What is amusing is that these are the most expensive cars in their respective lines.
In the real world, he would have been driving a Chevy, Ford or Plymouth station wagon and from the cheaper lines.
Not necessarily, Cid!
Maybe the sheriff got real lucky at the local Indian casino's blackjack tables just before he went lookin' for a station wagon, and so then decided to upgrade his ride.
(...didn't think o' this, did ya)
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Nice additions here Dawn, but I don't think the actress in the two-piece bathing suit you identified as Jane Wyatt is actually her, and who I had posted a pic of up there.
(...she looks familiar, but I can't quite place the face)
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15 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:
I had a '67. didn't look near as nice.
But would like to know the make of that boat Lee J. Cobb was driving in THE MAN WHO CHEATED HIMSELF! Seemed all it lacked was a flying bridge!
Sepiatone
I remember watching this film when Muller showed it on Noir Alley a couple of years ago but missed it during its recent showing, and so can't quite recall the car you're referencing in it.
And so, here's the IMCDb webpage for this film...
IMCDb.org: "The Man Who Cheated Himself, 1950": cars, bikes, trucks and other vehicles
(...would it be listed/shown here?)
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13 hours ago, BunnyWhit said:
I really like this photo of Barbara Billingsley. All too often we forget how lovely she was.
Nice, and speaking of actresses primarily known for playing mothers on sitcoms of the past...
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8 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:
UMO, I posted a write-up about Belfast last month, after I first saw it. Thought, since you started a thread titled "Belfast", I'd re-post it here. I have to confess, I did not notice the logistical (?right word?) flaw in the bit about Judi Dench's Granny character and her age. But that kind of thing never bothers me much anyway. Here be my post about it:
BELFAST
Just released, written and directed by Kenneth Branagh
I just saw this the other night - in a movie theatre, the first time I've been to one since the pandemic began. Over a year and a half.
This was a good one to see, though, for a foray into a renewed cinema-going experience. It's basically actor/director Kenneth Branagh's slice-of-life memories of when he was a nine-year-old kid in Belfast, just when The Troubles were beginning ( although The Troubles were going on throughout the 20th century, and some would say, are still potentially waiting to start up again...)
The film begins with a long shot of present -day Belfast, in colour. Then the screen turns black and white, and the camera moves in on a raggedy busy street, where a young mother is calling her son to come home, it's tea time. There are kids everywhere, playing soccer and hopscotch and hanging out. Suddenly everything changes. A group of thugs invades the street and starts throwing bricks into windows and threatening people. It's a raid by a gang of Catholic-hating Protestants, mostly young men who want to bully the Catholics residing on the street to leave. The way the scene goes so rapidly from a normal happy busy community full of children playing and parents gossiping together to a frightening violent melee in just a couple of minutes is extremely effective.
However, Belfast is not just about the violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants that dominated Belfast and just about all of Northern Ireland that developed circa 1969 and continued well into the '90s ( ending , hopefully, with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998). It is just as much about the nine-year-old boy, Buddy, and his family. While Buddy is all too aware of the ever- simmering violence always threatening to break out in his neighbourhood, he's also preoccupied with other matters, such as his beloved grandfather's health ( "Pop" used to work in a coal mine), whether to steal candy in the local shop to gain admittance to a kids' club ( seemingly with no political goals), and how to get the attention of the pretty girl in his math class.
You get lots of charming family scenes, such as when the family goes to the movies, a huge treat for young Buddy. Branagh makes an imaginative decision in these scenes: the film is in black and white except when Buddy's at a film or a play, where the movie showing is in colour - and in one case, a play - but the audience remains in black and white. The two films Buddy gets to see are One Million B.C. and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, both of which the kid and his family seem to enjoy with an almost innocent enthusiasm.
But all the while, the conflict and hatred and violence keep manifesting themselves in different ways. One of the Protestant thugs wants Buddy's father to join them in their persecution of the Catholics who live on the street. I should have mentioned before that Buddy and his family are Protestant, but unlike the gang of Catholic-hating hooligans who seemingly will stop at nothing to rid the community of its resident Catholics, Buddy's parents and grandparents have no antipathy towards their Catholic neighbours, they've always gotten along and they want to keep it that way.
Buddy's father wants the family to move to England, and it's no spoiler to say that's what they eventually do, but only after another street fight, this one fraught with even more violence and bitterness than the one that opens the film.
The only actor I'd heard of in Belfast is Judi Dench, who plays the grandmother. But all the cast members are perfect, and the boy who plays Buddy, Jude Hill, is outstanding. He is completely convincing as a little boy caught in a situation he doesn't understand . He's in just about every scene, and he's absolutely up to the demands the film makes of him.
Almost forgot ! One of the best things about Belfast is the soundtrack provided by a Belfast native, Van Morrison. All the songs are fantastic and work well with every scene they're used in. But then, I love Van Morrison, so this was a plus for me.
Maybe it's partly because I'm a Hibernophile *, but I found Belfast to be a completely enjoyable movie. I loved the recreation of Belfast in 1969, the romantic yet realistic depiction of Buddy's parents and grandparents, and the entertaining family moments, sometimes funny and sometimes disturbing, all seen through the nine-year-old's eyes. I hate to use the word "heart-warming", with its connotations of facile sentiment, but Belfast is in fact heart-warming, in the best sense of the word.
* "Hibernophile" means someone who loves Ireland, its history and culture. I had to look it up.
Yes, a wonderful review indeed, MissW. Thanks for reposting it here, as I missed catching your initial posting of it.
And btw...
8 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:I have to confess, I did not notice the logistical (?right word?) flaw in the bit about Judi Dench's Granny character and her age.
I believe the correct word for this would be "anachronistic".
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54 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
No-pants Mifune wishes you a splendid weekend!
And all set to do HIS dance rendition to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll".
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Arlene, it was never how you felt, but how you looked...and you looked marvelous!
(...R.I.P., lovely lady)
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7 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
Hey look! It's the REAL King of Cool and his "younger brother" standin' next to him!
(...well okay, his "younger brother" in the movie Thunder Road, anyway)
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2 minutes ago, Shank Asu said:
I watched the show when i was a kid and the Disney channel aired them quite often. i know that the 'wooden' look he gave when performing is the same one that Chris Isaack said he emulated and stole as a musician.
This (the "wooden" thing) got me to thinking that perhaps the reason why I mentioned earlier I always thought he delivered his comedic lines so well on that show when he was a kid, might be because they were usually in a "deadpan" fashion.
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Ah, what memories this brought back, NS!
(...thanks for posting it)
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On 11/24/2021 at 7:21 PM, LawrenceA said:
Whoa! I had NO idea that Carole Landis was THAT...
(...can we say the word "stacked" here???)
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10 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:
OK, but do those reindeer wear HATS?
Sepiatone
Sometimes...
(...but I understand primarily only on or before December 25th of each and every year)
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On 11/24/2021 at 2:44 PM, ElCid said:
If you haven't, you should watch some reruns of Ozzie and Harriet, especially the later ones when Ricky was in high school and college. About as wooden an "actor" as you are likely to see.
And, what's kind'a funny about this is that IF you watch the earlier edisodes and when Ricky was a kid, he was very often given the best lines on that show and was very often the funniest character on it, and especially whenever his line started with "Hey Pop" and then go on to question something that his father Ozzie did or had done.
Maybe he should've stuck with comedy instead of venturing into drama.
(...although probably not an option once he became a teen idol singing sensation)
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9 minutes ago, NoShear said:
No, I don't think so, Dargo, so thank you...
Though familiar with both the white elephant imagery of the A's and the aforementioned jinx suits of the Giants, I don't recall such the significance with their 1911 World Series pairing - read John McGraw, Dargo!
Yep, I didn't know it either until I searched this out and after being prompted to do so by your pic and text up there.
(...did always wonder why the A's had the pachyderm as their mascot, though)
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46 minutes ago, Vautrin said:
Dukey was more likely to give out an inordinate amount of bs and I suppose some people like that. I still find their romance more
silly than anything else.
Yep, and actually so did/do I.
(...the previous was all for fun, of course)
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6 hours ago, NoShear said:
The Baseball Bug (1911) is said to have been released one-hundred and ten years ago on this day...
The silent short includes the Philadelphia Athletics star pitcher Charles Albert "Chief" Bender. Bender, a Chippewa, is seen then-just previously in the '11 World Series here with John "Chief" Meyers, a Cahuilla, who's seen sporting the so-called jinx suits of the New York Giants:
The "jinx suits" turned out to be a symbolic spell of bad luck for the Giants that Series.
You've probably come across the following website before, haven't you NS...
The A's and Their Elephants, Together Since July 10, 1902 — Todd Radom Design
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Noir Alley
in General Discussions
Posted
Yeah, except it was Fred Clark not Rains who, ahem, rounded up the usual suspects in THIS flick.