Filmgoddess
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Posts posted by Filmgoddess
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It's what Hitchcock would call a "macguffin." It just doesn't matter.
Cathy Cartee
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I'd love to see some of the silents that I've never seen. I adore William Powell. Who doesn't?
Cathy Cartee
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Fact: Congress was investigating (rightly or wrongly is another question) Communist associations in Hollywood; not liberal politics. I used to say that if all the people who claim to have been blacklisted actually were there would have been exactly 3 movies made during the 1950s. Overblown!
Cathy Cartee
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I found John Garfield mostly disappointing not because of the films which were terrific but because of Ben's endless blather about Garfield and the "blacklist." Nary a word about his acting. That's a shame that they chose to focus on this alleged side of his life. And then they completely "whitewashed" instead of "blackwashed" his death by claiming he died of the stress of the blacklist (what hogwash) when everyone knows he died in the bed of another man's wife of a heart attack brought on by a long time heart condition, not "death by blacklist." Why not stick to the facts, TCM, and not unsupported conjecture??
Cathy Cartee
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Ignored would be better than stampeded.
Cathy Cartee
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One of my best friends says "people aren't black and white." I love her to death but I can't even get her to watch CASABLANCA. She's into every other area of the arts but no black and white films. There is simply nothing I can do. It saddens me.
Cathy Cartee
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Well, I'm just back from vacation and catching up on stuff on my DVRs -- both at 93% capacity!
I haven't followed this thread but I've been watching films from a week ago Sunday and, yes, Ben is making his usual goofs and trying way to hard to sound relevant (jeez, on Jimmy Stewart day when discussing Shop Around the Corner we got more about icky Tom Hanks than about Stewart!) but ...
He's wearing those nice tight jeans and an open collar shirt sans jacket and he looks HOT HOT.
Cathy Cartee
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Lassie is boring. I wonder if there are any actors or actresses that everyone agrees on?
Overrated: Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck,
Underrated: Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Olivia de Havilland
Could do no wrong: Barbara Stanwyck, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy
Agree? Disagree?
Cathy in Timbuktu
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Rather than an attempt, a lame one, at pithiness why not an actual response?
Name me all those different film genres (other than drama) that Brando was so superb at. Comedy? Film noir? Musicals? Westerns? Screwball comedy? Melodrama? Anything other than an occasional fine dramatic performance and years of over-the-top, over dramatizing scenery chewing?
Cathy in Timbuktu
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David: Can't speak for Tony but the Professor's feelings on those subjects are in his writings and comments in other forums, not TCM, for the obvious reasons that TonyWendice pointed out. They wouldn't be acceptable on TCM but they show a different side to his methodology and feelings elsewhere. I think one must look at the totality of what a person thinks and feels and not just the rather benign things they say in just one place. That place being TCM in this case. I think only then can you really judge where a person is coming from.
Cathy Cartee
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Of the 3 you listed, I would say that only DETOUR is a film noir.
Cathy Cartee
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Darkblue: I think your first sentence just described quite a few sexual encounters I've had over the years ]
I don't get this obsession with things always have to be one way: all films must have linear storytelling, all films must be slowly edited, all films must be short, etc. Some posters are really hung up on this.
There is no one right way to make a movie or tell a story. That's what makes filmmaking such a great art form. Different filmmakers make films the way they want to make them. And there is no right or wrong. Bad or good. All ways of making a movie have good points to them.
Oh, and for the record, I've never bailed on a movie after 25 minutes. I stick it out because you just never know.
Cathy Cartee
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I haven't watched a film with commercials in something like 10 years. Maybe longer.
Cathy Cartee
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Range and versatility? All of the films you mention are dramas. That's not range and versatility to me. Range and versatililty to me means the ability to do other genres. Brando was incapable of that. His one foray into a musical was a complete mess. His forays into comedy were, well, laughable, and not in a good way. He made only one good comedy -- The Freshman -- and then he disavowed that performance. Shakespeare? His performance in Julius Caesar is basically Terry Malloy in a toga. It reminds me of Tony Curtis "Yonda lies da castle of my fudduh." Aargh.
I'd say that Irene Dunne was more versatile than Marlon Brando. To me, versatile means moving from genre to genre and be successful in each. Brando was successful only in drama -- and even there so many of the performances are so mannered. Not my cup of tea. August Moon or otherwise.
He didn't just make bad choices; he gave atrocious performances.
Greatest screen actor of all time? Not in the top 50 for me. Dana Andrews was a better -- and more watchable -- screen actor.
Cathy Cartee
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It's called marriage.
Cathy Cartee
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Deadbeat and a loser are a tad bit judgmental to me. I think he's a guy responding to unfortunate circumstances. Sort of like the 16.2% of the US population currently unemployed. He can't find a job, no one will help him, and he's behind in his payments. He turns into a drive way and sees a potential way out.
Who in the same circumstances wouldn't do the same thing? A "deadbeat and a loser?" Methinks not.
Cathy Cartee
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Game, set, match.
Cathy Cartee
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Dargo: I prefer not to think of it as "sides" but rather just simple, plain common sense. We're all on that "side", right? Except for Fred, of course -- I say that with love, dear!
Cathy Cartee
PS: I just find this theory rather silly. I don't need my art to be uncomplicated and simple. I don't like to look at a work of art just once.
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Call me crazy but I don't think his character is a "ghost" at all. He's a narrator. That's all folks.
Cathy Cartee
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Lex Barker whipped and tied to a pole.
What more can you expect me to say? Heaven, pure heaven.
Cathy Cartee
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It's a good thought; unfortunately, it doesn't apply here. My DVR is at 8% full. The rest of the online guide is completely "populated." Only that one time slight on TCM says "to be announced." Has said that all day and it still has it.
Just another strange cable happening, I guess!
Thanks.
Cathy Cartee
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All week my cable system, in the onscreen guide, listed TARZAN AND THE SHE DEVIL at Noon on Saturday. Today, it abruptly removed the title and changed it to TO BE ANNOUNCED. All the other films are stil there?
Did something change on TCM? I can't find anything on the website. Don't wanna miss my Lex.
Cathy Cartee
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Oh, I see what you're saying and you know what? It's utter, complete nonsense. What you describe is not what brings me back to see a film again and again or to buy a DVD. I'm over 60 years old. I've been buying movies -- original on 8mm -- for over 45 years. I buy a film because I like it. No other reason. I liked THREE KINGS when I first saw it in the movie theater 12 years ago. It didn't take repeat viewings.
Any complex film will need several viewings to see all that it contains. That's true from the silents until today. All great works of art reveal more to the viewer upon each viewing. You are equating repeat viewing with something that's negative.
And, yes, it's true with STAGECOACH and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Both are favorites of mine and after having seen them a dozen or more times I am still discovering new and wonderful things in them.
I think your argument lacks any merit whatsoever, despite it's being "right."
Cathy Cartee
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That certainly doesn't apply to me as I'm over 60 years old. I think executed well that "rapid fire editing" technique works beautifully. As it does in THREE KINGS.
Are films and film technology expected to stay static circa 1943?
Cathy Cartee
Who are the top directors who made classics in your opinion?
in Hot Topics
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I think the top two names are obvious: John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock. Many others, of course, but they are the absolute tops!