Dargo2

Wait Sans! I'm more likely to GET murdered if I quit smokin' OR am I more likely to COMMIT murder if I quit lightin' these suckers up??? (...man, I tell ya...a guy can't win for losin' in this cockeyed crazy world, HUH!) LOL

Yeah, well, as presently a "spritely" 61, now days I consider almost ANY "49 or 50" year old guy a "nice young man", dude! LOL (...well, that is IF he IS "nice", anyway!)

LOL Yep Mr.R, you definitely have a handle on some of the crowd around here, alright! (...btw...add me to the list of those who would've liked to have had the opportunity to once again watch what I recall as being an excellent film...it's been many years since I've watched it)

Nah, I'm thinkin' Victor Mature who often played the "sullen" type, one of the trademarks of this particular superhero, would've made a better Batman back then. He also had the physique to pull it off, and thus would've have needed the padding that Adam West used. (...like the Peter Lorre idea, though)

Yeah, I remember that scene. Wasn't that the part where once Jedediah is handed the cigar, he tells the reporter that what Charley Kane REALLY said wasn't "Rosebud" but was actually 'Roast Beef" and that he was just ordering his lunch when he keeled over dead with that snow globe in his hands?! (...yeah, yeah...you probably know that I stole that from that old SNL parody of the movie, didn't ya)

Actually MissW, while I didn't respond directly to you and your earlier thoughts about (if I may be so bold as to "nutshell' it here) your distaste for "Anti-Smoking Zealots", I believe what I wrote in this baby was pretty much on-track with the present "manners required during the act of smoking in public" topic in this thread and with your thoughts about this issue...though of course MY response was in the form of mild defense of said "Anti-Smoking Zealots", and even though I DID admit I partake of the habit. (...so why no "love" for me here TOO, me lady, eh?!)

>I have just been watching How Green Was My Valley, and it has struck me for the first time, the subtext of the miners and their union fight and pay was all about raising them to the middle class status in this Welsh mining village. And they succeed, in that Angharad Morgan is considered a worthy enough woman to marry above her social station, without scorn from either the wealthy or the working class. Very coincidentally here Char, I also thought of that John Ford film after Sepia said what he said about Hollywood very often portraying the Working Class in a less than positive light. Yep, Donald Crisp's patriarchal character and indeed his whole family in that film IS portrayed as being very noble and fair-minded. >I too find the embrace of ignorance, bigotry and small-mindedness as noble qualities a bit disconcerting, even more so when Foxworthy started his red-neck routine as satire and sarcasm, yet is taken as a point of pride to remain hostile to an enlightened approach to the world around them. This is a common challenge, not only with the division of the "city mouse vs. country mouse" mentality, but a strong line in the sand concerning difference of wealth, with the opposing nature of earning a wage, vs. the accumulation of wealth through family or connections. And of course this passage of your post reminds me of back in the day when Norman Lear's "All In The Family" was a big hit, and yet there seemed to be a whole lot of people in this country at the time who didn't realize that Archie Bunker was in most cases a character to be laughed AT and not laughed WITH. (...aah, but then again and as you know, Anti-Intellectualism has deep roots in this country of ours)

RATS! I guess there goes my chance to once again observe what a "smooth operator" Stanley Kowalski was with the babes, EH?! (...though I'm pretty sure a LOT of his "secret" was that "Wife-Beater" T-Shirt he was sportin'!...it seems some women REALLY go for that look!)

I hear The Vatican supplies 'em with some kinda specially made Nicorette lozenges that look JUST like Communion Wafers, Twink.

Yep, I can go hours between lightin' up one of these "coffin nails", my friend...though your query about the "steppin' out for a quick one during an 11 O'Clock Mass" is pretty much a moot point in MY case. (...Agnostic here, remember?!) LOL And yes, while smoking HAS become rather "politically incorrect" in recent years, I think that's probably a good thing, because as everyone pretty knows now days, there is nothing about it which could be called "healthy". (...though I DO have a little "theory" as to why Americans are gettin' fatter and fatter every year, and it's because with smoking being a known appetite suppressant and with less and less people smoking now days...well...I'm pretty sure you know where I'm goin' with THIS, don't YA?!) LOL

Sepia, with all this talk of yours about smoking, you've just reminded be of this.... LOL (...btw, I too am a smoker, but I'm glad in most cases smoking has been banned within closed environments...ya see, even in my case, whenever I get a hotel room I always ask for a non-smoking one, as the few times I've had to settle for a smoking-permitted room, even to this smoker here the smell inside of them is almost sickening, and so I can just imagine how it would smell to a non-smoker...and yes, at home I always step outside to light one up, also)

>Who knows, maybe we'll do it again. Sure hope so, Eddie. I thought your lead-ins were excellent not only in content and insight, but in your presentation as well. Cheers to you, sir!

Yep, AND... Never eat at a diner named "Mom's", AND never play poker with a guy named 'Pops"!

That would interesting to know, Fedya. (...however, on a slightly different note, I DO recall James DID do one of his travelogues on the city of "Los Angle-less"!!!) LOL

So Sans, then I take it you're not a big fan of these Whoopi flicks here then, EH?! (...though technically speaking, Whoopi wasn't a "hooker" in 'em, of course)

lavender, All I'm hearing in my head right now after your mentioning of It's a Wonderful Life is George telling his father after he's realized he's made a faux pas by telling his dad about that "shabby little office" his dad works in, and then saying to his father, "Ya wanna shock, Pop?! I think you're a great guy!" (...and of course the caper being when Annie the maid then immediately responds with, " 'Bout TIME one you lunkheads SAID it!") LOL

I don't think anyone as of yet as mentioned his portrayal of Omar Mukhtar, the Bedouin leader fighting the Fascist Italian army in the years leading up to World War II in 1981's Lion of the Desert. (...I don't think he was ever better...as was Oliver Reed as his arch-rival Italian General out to capture him)

I think an excellent point to bring up here, Fred. Yep, the idea of an all-encompassing "Middle Class" is pretty much a misnomer in many ways. If one would include into that economic scale the "Working Class" category, which I've always thought should be included into it, then I think it would be hard to generalize what a "typical" Middle Class household would be...and at any time in our history. (...btw, ever notice that whenever a film's synopsis calls the characters involved "of Working Class", you can almost BET dear ol' Pop is EITHER gonna be portrayed as a drunk or at the minimum some guy who has a quick temper?...talk about your "stereotype" here, EH?!)

Being the "Gearhead" that I am, my first thought of "Middle Class Life" in the movies, but specifically to the Post-WWII era, was of George Lucas' American Graffiti....especially if one lived in a part of the country where people didn't have a public transit system to rely upon. (...in other words, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that people born and bred in NYC, Boston, Philly and a few other locales back east might not feel the same way about this as this ol' SoCal boy here does...yep, as the tagline went to that flick, "Where were YOU in '62?", IF you were a denizen of one of those eastern cities, you probably WEREN'T 'there"!)

Interesting you bring up the San Andreas Fault here, Iz...and especially because much of what was talked about earlier in this thread was about how Hitchcock would use certain National Parks for his settings. As you probably know, that most famous of fault lines eventually meets and begins its run under the Pacific Ocean at Tomales/Bodega Bay in northern CA. And of course, Bodega Bay was the location Hitch used to film the movie where our "fine feathered friends" started acting less than friendly.

Aah yes, Iz. Good point. The Vasquez Rocks formation there right off of north Topanga Canyon Blvd in northwestern San Fernando Valley(know it well...an old SoCal boy here, remember) and where many an old Western was filmed back in the day, DOES look like the "Cadillac Mountain Range" in Cars, also.

Nope, but when my wife and I still lived in Prescott, I once ran into Toni Tennille and "The Captain"!!! LOL (actually true, as they do reside there, though not that Stevie and Toni have that much in common, of course) Speakin' o' celebs who live or have lived in Sedona, Nick Cage and Madonna supposedly still have homes here. In fact, because our home is situated somewhat close to the flight-path of the small Sedona Airport, whenever we hear or see a business jet on approach(a rare occasion, as most of the little air-traffic we get here is of the small plane and sightseeing helicopter variety), my wife will sometimes jest, "Looks like Madonna is comin' back into town."

OOPS! Sorry "Cal".."ol' gal". (...thanks TB...though now I'm wonderin' if that "ol' gal" thing I just changed it to might not be any better?!!!)

Eeh! I wouldn't worry too much about having that "opinion that runs counter to everyone else's" around here, Cal ol' boy. Well, that is UNLESS of course you might one day find yourself posting the somethin' like: "Hey folks! You know those movies where Cary Grant is being chased out on NYC and ends up heading in a northwesterly direction across the U.S., AND that one about some British dude who goes to the Middle East and rallies the Arabs against the Turks? Well, I don't think TCM shows those movies NEAR enough if ya ask ME!" (...'cause THEN ya might find yourself REALLY gettin' the business from more than a few of the folks around here!) LOL

>I shall now prepare to be pelted with eggs and tomatoes. LOL Well calvin, yep, I think you might prepare yourself for that, alright! Now, while I'm not the biggest of Dick Powell fans, I think his line-readings of Chandler's "Noir-Speak" in this baby are excellently done....though as you note, in Powell's later efforts such as in 1945's Cornered and 1947's Johnny O'Clock,I've always thought his line-deliveries in THOSE seemed rather "stilted".