Bildwasser

Jane just wanted to go with a winner, though that doesn't explain some of her marriages.

Me neither. I'm guessing he heard or read about it and the doggie part interested him. And who better to write a bittersweet but witty song about her. And it does move right along. I suppose he could have done a whole album, maybe Lowe Sings Anger, about all those Tinsel Town tragedies, though it might have been a little monotonous.

Let's face it, no actress could show their naughty bits in American movies in the early and mid 1960s, when Jane first started out. It just wasn't done then. Wiggle and shake and show a little cleavage, but that's about as far as it went.

Yes, Kenny stretched the truth on this one, writing that the dog was eating Marie and not that he was trying to wake her up. And how much could a dachshund eat anyway, plus Marie was known to have rather acidic tasting flesh, not something that would entice rover to chow down. Nick Lowe wrote a song about Marie Prevost, though he spelled her last name wrong and went with Anger's version of events. Sometimes, in the name of art, one has to take a little poetic license. This also gave him a chance to invent this humorous little couplet: She was a winner, Who became a doggie's dinner.

Talking Heads, (Nothing But) Flowers.

Why not? They could have a whole month of classic porn essentials- Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones, Behind the Green Door, and there must be one other I can't think of offhand. These things are about forty years old anyway. I'd also like to hear the banter between the two on the subject. Uncle Bob might wind up sounding like Jimmy Stewart, um...er....well you see...I...say...do you..er....wear panties...I mean....

Aren't "mature" audiences the main TCM demographic anyway? B-)

I can understand that Johnny's interviews will take the place of movies, even if many of the interviews are with movie stars, and that's a legitimate complaint. I just have fond memories of his program, so I will enjoy watching them, and some of my comments are colored by that fact. I'd imagine that the suits (as frequent guest Robert Blake used to put it) at TCM saw, rightly or wrongly, some advantage in programming these interviews. I think it will be interesting to see how much his guests talk about their Hollywood memories and how much is just the usual plugging some new project. Time will tell.

Those were the days. Afternoon talks show, late night talks shows. There was just something about Merv's personality that turned me way off, not that I was in the habit of watching a lot of talk shows. Mike Douglas seemed like the blandest host around, except maybe for...Joey Bishop? I guess Joey wasn't quite as bland, just pretty boring. One that just popped into my mind was Virginia Graham(e). Remember her? She was sort of an old scold who was still living, at least mentally, back in the 1950s. Hilarious.

Nope. I've heard of Les Crane and vaguely knew he was some sort of TV host, but that's about it. According to Wiki, he was married five times. If he had also married Dawn Wells, he might have wound up in Ripley's. Not to stray too far, but one talk show host I couldn't stand was Merv Griffin. To me he just seemed so smarmy. Yuck.

If I remember correctly, when Dick Cavett was on ABC opposite Johnny his format was much the same--monologue, guests, a band, etc. Some of his guests might have been a bit more "intellectual," but he had a lot of the usual show biz suspects on too. I believe the big change happened when he went over to PBS. I'd love to see Carson again on TV, even if they only showed him interviewing the little old lady who had potato chips shaped like objects. And don't forget some shots of Ed yucking it up. Hitch also told Truffaut in their series of interviews about how he shot the crashing airplane sequence in Foreign Correspondent. Of course on TV you could watch him explain it.

Simon and Garfunkel, America.

Oops, I meant apples and bananas.

186 These fashion runways get weirder by the year, but I'm just going to look straight ahead and keep on walking, like any true professional model would.

Better get it in before BB's antennae start to vibrate. Jane Fonda and John Wayne, separated at birth. Of course her politics and her trip to Hanoi will be remembered, as will her influential work out tapes, but I think she'll be mainly remembered as an actress, with the other things secondary. She was pretty hot as a young Hollywood ingenue, as were a lot of other sexy actresses of that time. I enjoyed her performance in Stanley & Iris. The film is a little on the corny side, but she was very believable in her role.

Perhaps there wasn't a better way to put it, but it sounds like the Clutter case itself was reopened. That really would be something. The Florida case is inter- esting too. Before DNA there would likely be years of speculation about it, but if they can obtain DNA, it will be known fairly soon if they are guilty of the Florida murders or not. I'd give it a 50/50 chance at this time.

Nope. Steeleye Span were first out of the gate. They were named after a character in an English folk song, while Steely Dan were named after a ****. Apples and oranges.

185 "Darn it. Now I won't be able to make it to the St. Francis Hotel. Talk about bad timing and rotten luck."

Steeleye Span, Alison Gross. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwdyU5ZnpzE

184 "Now ladies, what's it going to take to put you in this 1937 Granny Victorian Low Rider rocker? It was used by only one mummified mother who kept it in her cellar and barely moved? This is a deal you just can't afford to pass up."

I personally wouldn't consider Holiday Affair a noir, but I can see how an application of the handy dandy film noir transformation kit could change it into one. You've got a disillusioned WW II vet with a temp job who is down on his luck in the big city, a cityscape of light and shadow. This situation might lead to all kinds of noir vices--drugs, vagrancy, sexual perversion--though in the end it doesn't. Then there's the Wendell Corey character. He obviously represents the world of middle-class vanilla respectability, that Mitchum, as an outcast from that world, doesn't have. In between these two worlds is Janet Leigh, who is attracted to Mitchum's bad boy vibe. And don't forget her son. He obviously has a problem separating fantasy from reality. What is real and what is a surrealistic hallucination? Last but not least is squirrel in the park. There is an interesting article on the symbolism of squirrels and other furry creatures in The Complete Film Noir Omnipedia (Abridged Edition). I don't want to spoil things by repeating it here.

That's one schedule I don't think we'll ever see, at least I hope not. "Hi, I'm Robert Wagner..."

White Stripes, The Same Boy You've Always Known. Live version.

183 "Great job Mickey. But remember, you're not at MGM anymore, so this is strictly a one take thing."

(182) "Coming up later tonight...A Face in the Crowd, North by Northwest, and Some Like It Hot. TCM is going to test your patience. Big time." "Hi, this is Fred Thompson..."