ValeskaSuratt

> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}It may be bizarre and childish, but it's fun. Perhaps ... for devotees of whoopie cushions and "pull my finger" jokes ... but it might be more "fun" for all concerned if it was confined to the George Brent thread rather than inserted into other threads. But, hey ... it's a free country ... so insert it anywhere you like.

> {quote:title=UniversalHorror wrote:}{quote}"Spam" in slang terms (not the canned food product) referes to unsolicited commercial purposes. This has nothing to do with that. "Hijacking" means to stop a thread and take it over with a completely unrelated subject...which is what happened here. "Trolls" is indeed the word used for what you described. Considering the rather bizarre and childish obsession with the human posterior, I think "bottom feeders" might also be an applicable term.

Mae was only about 5 feet tall and so, for over 60 years, she wore shoes like these hidden by her long dresses most every time she made any kind of public appearance. Between the heel and the platform, these shoes added 9 1/2 inches to her height ! (h/t to FIDM - http://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/2009/08/mae-west.html)

Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was a compulsive gambler, a con artist and a crook. Where managers normally get 10% of a client's income, by the early 60s The Colonel was taking 50% (!!) plus he negotiated fat fees for himself on Elvis' movies. When asked in 1968 if it was true he really was taking 50% of everything Elvis earned, Parker replied, *"No ! That’s not true at all. Elvis takes fifty percent of everything I earn."* It's widely believed that Parker was a smooth talker who could cajole and intimidate Elvis into doing whatever he (Parker) wanted -- like the truly dreadful movies which Elvis HATED doing. It's been rumored, however, that Parker had something damaging on Elvis -- like compromising photos of E. with an underage girl ? -- but that's never been proven. *"Gimme back them pitchers, man !"* What WAS ultimately proven is that Colonel Tom robbed Elvis blind. According to a website called Elvis Information Network (!): " Attorney Blanchard Tual was appointed by Judge Joseph Evans to fully investigate the case and he spent four months looking into Parker’s financial dealings. "Tual speculated that Col Parker had sold Elvis cheaply to the Hilton to help pay off his gambling debts which were said to be in the millions. It was also noted that by the 1970s Elvis’ RCA royalty rate was far below any other performer at his sales level. Even Elvis' royalties were underpaid because Elvis' contract had no audit provision. This is industry standard ... "Tual finally concluded that both Colonel Parker and RCA had acted in collusion against Presley's best interests. Colonel Parker was guilty of self-dealing and overreaching and had violated his duty to both Elvis and to the estate." http://www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_thedarksideofcolonelparker.html (The website backs up these claims with statements from many who worked with Elvis.) Even worse is that for years The Colonel sapped Elvis' creativity and self-image, and even contributed to his death. The notorious Dr. Nick (the guy who supplied Elvis with drugs) told Colonel Tom in no uncertain terms that Elvis' health was being damaged by the lengthy tours and Vegas stints Parker kept arranging (like, he had Elvis doing two shows a day, seven days a week, for up to 30 days ??)... but Parker just ignored him. IMHO, Elvis Presley was a gentle, unsophisticated country boy -- most everyone who ever met him remarked on how polite he was -- and Colonel Tom Parker was a greedy weasel who helped to destroy one of the great talents of the 20th Century. Amen. Tune in next Sunday when my sermon will be: "Judy Garland's Mother Made Medea Look Like Auntie Mame."

Totally agree re: the score ... TCM's Young Film Composers Competition is a lovely and noble idea, but the results so far should all be consigned to the SAP track.

h3. No, it's not the Brown Derby ... *It's a vintage Stetson covered with the autographs of nearly 400 movie notables, circa* *1928 to 1936.* *Some of the names are iconic, others (like Mona Maris, Tom Patricola and Sojin) are barely even footnotes in cinema history.* *In just a few square inches of the brim, I can make out the signatures of (among others) Lew Cody, Joan Blondell, Billy Haines, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Reginal Owen, Bebe Daniels, Russ Columbo, Ricardo Cortez, Charles Bickford and Leo Carillo.* *And whoever owned the hat respected movie directors as well as stars:* *Looks like Woody van Dyke only needed one take to sign his name ...* *So ... whose hat was this ???* *I don't know ... I just wish it was mine.* *The full story:* http://autographmagazine.com/2012/05/the-hollywood-hat-vintage-autographs/

Just stumbled on some great photos ... *Fred Astaire, age 6:* *Fred Astaire, age 60:* More pix of Fred at 60: http://www.retronaut.co/2012/05/fred-astaire-1960/

*Gunga Dinner at 8* This epicurean epic about the Gastro-Indian Wars asks the burning question “What if they threw a war and somebody dropped the aspic ?” The all-star cast includes Billie Burke as flighty, flustered Lt. Colonel Whimsyfingers who can’t quite muster the troops for her curry dinner party, Wallace Beery, Victor Mc- Laglen and Jean Harlow as a trio of bawdy, bare-fisted platinum-blondes, and the irrepressible Marie Dressler as Burke’s faithful cook, Gunga Dinah, who saves the day by serving Sam Jaffe over saffron rice.

According to Cineaste Magazine: "Shot on location during an actual blizzard, this harrowing sequence features Gish’s character, having fainted on an ice floe, floating toward a waterfall with her right hand and her hair in the freezing river. With no computer-generated effects, and no stunt woman taking Gish’s place, the actress recalls, in her autobiography, actually going out into this dangerous situation in subfreezing temperatures, 'this kind of dedication probably seems foolish today, but it wasn’t unusual then. Those of us who worked with Mr. Griffith were completely committed to the picture we were making. No sacrifice was too great to get the film right ...' "Gish recalled in later interviews that she never quite got full feeling back in the hand she let soak in the icy waters ..." http://www.cineaste.com/articles/emway-down-eastem-web-exclusive And according to a biography of Gish: "The camera was warmed by acetylene torch, but the star had to endure the icy blasts of the storm, occasionally fainting ... *When icicles formed on her eyelashes, Griffith exulted in the fine effect her frozen face would make on film.*" That's g-g-g-g-g-g-great, Mr. G-g-g-g-g-griffith ...

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}Early Sunday morning, Aug. 19, TCM will be airing this film at 4:30 AM, Eastern Time: > > > > > > > > > > *Sepia Cinderella (1947)* > > > > > > > > > > A girl raised in a theatrical boarding house loses her man to success and a high-society temptress. > > > > > > > > > > Dir: Arthur Leonard Cast: Sheila Guyse , Billy Daniels , Tondaleyo . > 67 min, TV-PG > > > > > > > > > > This has a black cast. I don't know why they are burying it at 4:30 AM. The only reason it is showing up at all is because Freddie Bartholomew is in it for a few minutes. What does this have to do with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers ??? My favorite Fred solo is Slap That Bass ... supposedly inspired by an afternoon stroll across the RKO lot when he started dancing in time to a cement mixer. As for "Best Fred & Ginger Pas de Deux," I think I'd go with Let's Face the Music and Dance -- both because of the painful whack in the snoot Fred receives from Ginger's heavily-beaded sleeve AND because the notion that anyone could ever dissuade Ginger Rogers from doing ANYthing is SO fantastic. Edited by: ValeskaSuratt on Aug 13, 2012 11:35 PM

Thanks for posting this, TomJH. Pickford seems to have been one of the more "Technicolored" of silent movie stars. In addition to The Black Pirate, she did a Technicolor test for Disney in 1933 to see if she could still play a girl as young as Alice in a live-action Alice In Wonderland ... (sadly, she couldn't) ... ... plus she was again immortalized in a 1934 short called Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove Grove[/i]-+Pickford.jpg] For those who enjoy seeing early motion picture stars in color, here's an amazing 1922 Eastman Kodak color test of Mae Murray: http://tinyurl.com/99j33cz

> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}I don't see how an actor who was the third lead in GONE WITH THE WIND could be "forgotten". By whom? I dunno, finance ... these days, if you talk about GWTW and "Gable," most people will know who you're talking about. Say "Howard" and I imagine the majority of under-40 Munchkins will ask "You mean Moe?"

> {quote:title=kriegerg69 wrote:}{quote}Sometimes looping is done to change a line of dialogue...the first one I think of is Adrienne Barbeau's character in Creepshow (1982), who has the line: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > "...Emily Vanderbilt...or Amy VanBuren...whoever that etiquette crotch is!" > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > It obviously sounds post-looped. Watching the unaltered deleted version of the scene, what she actually said originally is: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > "...Emily Vanderbilt...or Amy VanBuren...whoever that ****ing **** is!". > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Maybe director George Romero thought the original was too strong for the character to say, as much of a foul-mouthed shrew the character is, but it was changed in post production. Sorta like Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest ... when she tells Cary Grant "I never DISCUSS love on an empty stomach" instead of the original line, "Hey stud muffin, let's (expletive deleted) until the cows come home !" (Or whatever the original line was ... I'm just grateful Hitch didn't get Paul Frees to loop it.) And that's a funny thought -- that George Romero would be worried about graphic language ... :^0

So, I was watching The War Lord (1965) this morning on another movie channel -- it's a Chuck Heston epic in which he plays an 11th century Norman knight named (ya ready?) Chrysagon de la Cruex who's charged with defending a Druid village ... ? Anyway, out of the blue, whose voice do I hear both as the film's narrator AND looped for one of the minor characters ? Paul Frees. It's starting to feel a little like a Twilight Zone episode ... like, if I go grocery shopping, the voice that'll come over the p.a. announcing "Clean up on aisle 6 !" will be Paul Frees'. ( He's everywhere ! He's everywhere ! ) If anyone ever takes on the Herculean task of compiling a full and accurate filmography on the guy, it might be easier to make a list of the films he's NOT IN since it'd apparently be a shorter list than those he IS in.

> {quote:title=Dargo2 wrote:}{quote}Ya know VS, I find it astounding to learn that Tony Curtis evidently couldn't affect a falsetto voice when playing "Josephine" and thus they had to have Frees do it for him. I mean, what guy CAN'T talk in falsetto? > > (...and in SOME cases such as in the Brothers Gibb, even make a CAREER out o' SINGIN' in that manner, EH?!) Ugh ... for some reason, male falsetto singing voices like the Gibbs (and especially Frankie Vallee) work on me like a chorus of ambulance sirens. As for Curtis ... I knooooow, huh ? It'd be interesting to learn if Tony just couldn't get it right and they HAD to call Frees in ... or if maybe Wilder was sitting in post-production, Frees came in to do the Mozzarella lines and he took a crack at being "the Josephone" and it was SO great he just went with it ... or what. They sure kept it secret for 40 years -- Tony certainly never revealed it -- and when that article turned up online, it was a little like finding out Marni Nixon had dubbed Streisand's songs in Funny Girl ... Heresy!

misswonderly and dpompper, Thank you ! It's high praise indeed coming from a couple of Vole virtuosi as yourselves ...

> {quote:title=kriegerg69 wrote:}{quote} > > {quote:title=ValeskaSuratt wrote:}{quote}Frees' voice recordings from as far back as 1956 are still heard on Disneyland rides and old Disney TV shows. > Most memorably, he is the voice of the "ghost host" narrator who leads visitors through The Haunted Mansion attraction. > He also did countless voiceovers for god-only-knows how many movie trailers...the one I know the best is The Abominable Dr. Phibes ("Probably the most terrifying motion picture you will ever see!"), and on that film's soundtrack album (which is more of a "music inspired by" thing), he sings several songs, a couple of which are actually heard in the background of the film itself. There's also a wonderful album he recorded of himself singing several songs and performing each in the voice of a different actor (Bogart, Karloff, etc.). He also worked with musican/comedian Spike Jones, most memorably on the song "My Old Flame", where he does a deliciously wicked impersonation of Peter Lorre. OMG! My Old Flame !!!!! -- "Dat eye dat kept WEEENKING ... and BLEEEENKING ... toddlmph ... iggleschnitz ... !!" If you're familiar with THAT, maybe you've also heard of an album called Paul Frees and the Poster People ? It includes such tracks as: Peter Lorre "singing" Hey Jude ... ... Humphrey Bogart snarling Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head ... ... and (my favorite) Sydney Greenstreet's "cover" of the the immortal Sugar, Sugar by the Archies ... Some Googling turned up a fairly lengthy list of Frees' voices though it's incomplete -- for example, none of his work on SLIH is listed: http://www.voicechasers.com/database/showactor.php?actorid=1248 What a task it'd be to put together a full list since so much of it was unbilled ... Like ... I only noticed when Some Like It Hot ran this past Saturday that in addition to Josephine, Frees is ALSO the voice of the funeral home director, Mr. Mozzarella, who lets Pat O'Brien into the hidden speakeasy in the opening scenes. As with all the great, A-list voice-over guys, he worked ALL the time, and there are very few professions that pay as well -- like, they get out of the limo, walk into the booth, read (sometimes just a line or two which takes about two minutes -- and SOME of these guys flatly refuse to do re-takes !) and then they walk out $10,000 richer. There's another V/O guy -- less famous but who you hear all the time, especialy in movie trailers, but he also turns up occasionally on camera (as in The Unsuspected, which just aired on Claude Rains Day): Art Gilmore, who just died last year at the ripe old age of 98. I got to work with him in the early 1980s and he told an hilarious anecdote: While announcing the Rose Parade sometime in the late 40s-early 50s, he got very annoyed when some executives sitting near him kept talking while he was trying to announce. Finally, when they were too engrossed to realize the show had cut to a commercial break, he loudly announced, "And here's comes the Rose Queen ! And look at the t**s on her !!" He said it was like the control room scene in Network when Howard Beale announces his impending suicide -- "Did you HEAR that ???"... "WHAT did he just say ???" -- but they DID shut up for the rest of the broadcast. Finally, there's a something I don't understand: this thread is from back in March of this year ... why did it suddenly "spring back to life" ? (No biggee ... just curious ...)

*The Way We Whirr* A four-hankie love story about two star-crossed cyborgs. She's a computerized Communist programmed to take life too seriously, he's an easy-going outer space assassin whose piercing blue eyes will melt your heart, not to mention anything metallic. But despite destroying most of the Earth together, not even the birth of their daughter, Xbox, can ultimately prevent their love from short-circuiting. (The door is, however, left open for a sequel set in the Caribbean when she delivers her parting line: "Klaatu Bermuda Nikto.")

Mystery solved ! How'd you do it ? I'd never heard of Selwart ... turns out he was an interesting guy. According to Wikipedia: "In 1995, now legally blind, Selwart was interviewed by William F. Powers for his book, Alive and Well: The Emergence of the Active Nonagenarian (Rutledge Books, 1996). In the interview, Selwart reflected: 'If I died today, I could say only that I had lived a very beautiful and charmed life. Even when it looked at times like something bad had happened, it soon turned back again to something positive. The loss of my eyesight, although difficult, did not make me bitter. I figured that at my age I have to expect something and remembered all those poor people who suffer from cancer and are in terrible pain. I say to myself that I may have trouble seeing, but I don't suffer any physical, mental, or emotional pain.' " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonio_Selwart He died in New York City in 2002 ... at the age of 106 !

> {quote:title=misswonderly wrote: > }{quote}Kirk Alyn is not on that list, but that doesn't mean it isn't him. Correct. It's the difference in the shape of the nose, ears, eyes, lips, jawline and hairline which prove it is not Kirk Alyn.

Any additional information about the photo could help -- like, if there's any date anywhere on it, what's he wearing (looks like he's bare-chested ?), etc. Some info, in case it helps: A list of all the shows produced at Ogunquit Playhouse since 1950: http://www.ogunquitplayhouse.org/about-op/history/shows A list of "The Stars of the Ogunquit Playhouse": http://www.ogunquitplayhouse.org/about-op/history/stars And I don't know how much money you want to spend in your search, but there's a book called "The Ogunquit Playhouse: 75 Years" ... according to amazon it's "not available" but here's what it looks like: http://www.amazon.com/The-Ogunquit-Playhouse-75-Years/dp/193458200X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344325516&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=TheOgunquitPlayhouse%3A75Years%22 Good luck.

> {quote:title=AddisonDeWitless wrote:}{quote} > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > WHY ON EARTH IS FELICIA FARR THIRD BILLED, RIGHT BELOW FORD AND HEFLIN ON THE MAIN TITLE CARD WHEN SHE IS IN THE FILM FOR MAYBE ALL OF 8 MINUTES AND HER CHARACTER HAS (frankly) VERY LITTLE IMPACT ON THE STORY AT ALL ???? (And I didn't find her performance to be all that inn-teresting or memorable to be honest.) Am I to understand that the jaded AddisonDeWitless believes there's some relationship between billing and ... fairness ??? :^0 Ye Gods and little fishes ! Next thing, you'll be worrying that the Oscars might be a popularity contest ... :^0 When Tallulah signed to do Clash By Night for Billy Rose in late 1941, the title was prophetic and all Broadway waited for the explosion between the famously tempestuous duo. When the brawling started, theater columns gleefully reported Bankhead's outrage that her 5'2" producer was nothing but "a BULLY !" as well as Rose's retort: "How do you bully Niagara Falls?" The problem was billing. Tallulah's contract said only her name could go above the title, but when she arrived for rehearsal one day, she discovered a sign being unfurled from the floor just above her name which read "Billy Rose Present ..." According to Miss B's bio: "Modestly he had his name in letters no larger than mine. With characteristic taste he had neglected to mention the name of the play or its author. Aside from his grammatical lapse - 'Billy Rose Present' - he had airily omitted Joseph Schildkraut and Lee Cobb ... I called his manager and delivered an ultimatum in rich, ripe words ... *"If your foul employer insists on 'Billy Rose Present' you need only add 'Tallulah Bankhead Absent !! '* " The sign came down. Bankhead -- "the only volcano dressed by Mainbocher" Or ... as Eddie Mannix put it to Elizabeth Taylor when she tried to get out of Butterfield 8 in order to do Cleopatra by citing her years of service to MGM ... ? "Unfortunately, Miss Taylor, sentimentality went out of this business a long time ago." (But your loyalty to Ms. Farr IS touching ... )

Madame Bovary (1949) contains an interesting example ... In the famous sequence where the title character (Jennifer Jones) and her cloddish husband (Van Heflin) attend a fancy ball, the experience doesn't merely seduce her into a life of materialism, hedonism and immorality, it practically ravishes her. "I don't waltz," Jones tells Louis Jourdan as if refusing to wash his windows, but he literally sweeps her ON to her feet. Vincente Minnelli's still-astonishing dance sequence reaches a literally-crashing climax when Bovary cries she can't breathe and the wealthy host demands all the windows of the room be smashed open to give her fresh air. Even on the umpteenth viewing, it's SO dramatic ... But watching it this time, thanks to this thread, I started thinking about the music under the waltz and I realized that, though technically it's an unnamed portion of Miklós Rózsa's wonderful score, his waltz is a plot point as surely as the cataclysmic storm in Hurricane (1937). (Sadly, Jennifer Jones doesn't make out nearly as well as Dorothy Lamour did.) Jourdan may be dancing with Jones, but it's Miklós Rózsa's music that actually seduces her.

> {quote:title=Gellar47 wrote:}{quote}Russo's book is classic in only one way. It is a classic example of an author trying to 'gayify' films that had no under or over current of homosexuality in them. His book and others like it do no service to gay or to films, in general. I find it hard to understand why we are supposed to find a gay theme in films and scenes that have no reason to be interpreted as gay oriented. > > > > > > > > > > Case in point is the famous dispute over the scene between Messala and Ben Hur in the 1959 version of Ben Hur. *There is absolutely no reason to interpret a friendship between men as 'gay' without some actual evidence of such.* The assumption is always that any relationship is non-sexual unless there is evidence otherwise. You can't just say they were gay because you want to. It's absurb and a cheat to try it. Russo's book is full of this stuff and only the sloppiest of thinker would be taken in by it. > > > > > > > > > > Some "*actual evidence of such*" courtesy of Ben Hur screenwriter Gore Vidal: "Over the years I have told the funny story of how I wrote a love scene for Ben-Hur and Messala and how only the actor playing Messala was told what the scene was about because, according to director [William] Wyler, 'Chuck will fall apart.'" http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2012/08/02/read-never-seen-letter-gore-vidal-defending-gay-subtext-ben-hur?page=0,1 Thank you, Gellar47, for illustrating how easily "sloppy thinking" can be avoided -- by simply closing one's mind to everything, including the facts.

> {quote:title=Lazyking wrote: > }{quote}you know who really stole the movie? Astor the terrier... Myrna stole it back with the best line in the picture: "Waiter, would you serve the nuts ? I mean, will you serve *the guests* the nuts ?"