Dothery

Flawless article on the Monday double bill, Tom ... I'll be watching, and I'll DVR them as well. My reason is that I have that greatest of privileges, showing these to someone who has never seen any of the old movies. When I moved to Hawaii five years ago ... a return after living on the mainland for six years to take care of my husband until his death ... I made a friend who comes once a week to watch movies with me, on Tuesday nights. I never knew what fun it can be to re-watch movies I saw decades ago with somebody who never saw movies at all growing up. She will go mad for Zorro. Maybe not so much for the Flynn picture, but certainly she'll like it. Zorro has one special highlight for me, and that's the dance between Linda and Tyrone, to "El Sombrero Blanco." Beautifully done, very strong and passionate. How smoothly choreographed. The whole movie was lovely. What a production. I must say I love your reviews. So eloquent.

In this and other threads discussing How to Steal a Million, mention has often been made about that sports car, but incomprehensibly, no one has named it. Is it because nobody knows what it is? Well, I will tell you, becasue it is the sexiest car ever designed by the company with about the sexiest cars overall in the history of cars. It is the Jaguar E-Type, 1965 convertible. Doubless there are carheads (or do they call themselves gearheads?) with much more detailed information. I don't know how well it handled, I don't know how reliable it was, but I do know that it is the only car that I ever positively desired to own, if not a Bugatti from the 20s or 30s. I didn't name it because I wasn't sure, since it was a convertible. I know the E-type Jag very well, but only as a coupe. I have a friend who's had one forever and swears by it. The only problem he has with it is that the battery is under the seat and you have to take the seat out to get at it. I particularly liked the car color in the movie.

It's true. They're the same movies again and again. But I still watch, because my DVR will only hold so many, and I have to capture some because I can't bear to let them go without capturing them. "Rebecca" was on the other day and I grabbed it, even though I've seen it over and over again, just because I love the scene with Florence Bates where she's telling Fontaine she'll never make it as Lady DeWinter. Also George Sanders is delightful to listen to as he's being the sleazy relative. Same with Walter Pidgeon in "Design for Scandal" and "Julia Misbehaves." There they sit, month after month, so I can open them up and listen to him sing, only a few bars, but so wonderful, and look at that gorgeous face. I captured "How to Steal a Million" so I could see the blue-eyed Peter O'Toole and that darling Audrey Hepburn tooling around Paris in that glorious sports car and hanging out at the Ritz Bar. Wonderful. I'll keep watching, even though they repeat and repeat and repeat. It's the only game in town.

Dolores Hart.

Mongo, one of the funniest descriptions I've ever read was in a national magazine (I think it was Time), where they referred to Estelle Winwood in a movie review as "a pencil with eyes."

Gloria Swanson, Marion Davies, Constance Bennett, Jean Harlow.

I just finished watching the Cavett interview. Interesting to learn how many of his own stunts Danny did. The sword fight with Basil Rathbone was always amazing to me, since Danny had never known how to fence until that movie. Rathbone said in his autobio that Danny was the smartest man he ever met. He said the saber was very difficult, and he had been working with it for years, but in a couple of weeks Danny had mastered it and was almost as good with it as he was. Amazing. I followed Danny from his first movie on, and always liked him. I liked his early pictures more than his later ones, with a couple of exceptions.

Referencing my favorite Dirk Bogarde, I wonder what happened to the marvelous movie he made with all the children, called 'Our Mother's House?" He said in one of his books that it was the happiest experience he had in films and he loved making it with the kids. It was grim, and weird, and beautifully done, and it's never played anywhere that I've seen. The kids were all terrific and of course Bogarde was perfect in the part.

Weren't INTRIGUE, BLACK WIDOW, and OUTPOST IN MOROCCO also scheduled to be shown, or am I imagining things? No. You're not imagining things. They ran both Black Widow and Outpost in Morocco and I saw them both. I'm always fascinated by Marie Windsor's nose, because she had it fixed at some point in her career and I'm always looking at it to see if it's before or after. She had a rather severe look with the old nose but when it was shortened she was gorgeous. I didn't see Intrigue but it may have been on late at night.

I think you might of misunderstood me. I never said anyone walked over George Brent. My point was that he was utilized by Jack Warner and company in the best way they could use someone of his ability. He wasn't used in the same way as, say, Cagney, because he didn't have the ability, charisma, and screen persona of a Cagney. I'm sure they weren't fools, and they used him as they judged him. Cagney was who he was and Brent was who he was. BTW, he and Cagney were great friends until death. There's a place in Lomas Santa Fe where the WB alumni used to meet over the years, calling themselves the Tuesday Lunch Bunch ... Cagney when he was in town, Alan Hale Jr., Harry Carey, Jr., and less well-known actors. It was exclusive, though. Even his daughter was only invited once.

I agree, George was definitely sexy........................................... He mentions in one bio that he and Valentino worked at the same hotel, dancing wih the women on demand. He said he and Valentino never had time to talk to each other because they would no sooner sit down after a dance than the lady who ran the place would come over and tell them what table to go to to dance with the occupant. Valentino wasn't in movies then, so George and he were just considered hot by the women.

So I wonder if Raft was really advised by Jack, producers or directors to be soooo low key. I didn't say he said that. I said he found that no-smiling look effective when he was in movies, so he did it there. He said that himself in one of his biographies.

Well I find it hard to believe any actor would "pretty much had his own way in movies" in the studio era. The producers had the control and then the directors. Even a star like Bette had to give in to the director. I'm going by his family and their recollections of his career. He was very much his own man, contrary to his sometimes docile-seeming image. When he got sore at the studio he just took off, flying his plane on trips, buzzing the locations to disrupt filming when he felt like it. As to the directors, they were all his friends, even the "women's directors" like George Cukor. He knew how to work within the system when it was important, and didn't cause trouble when it wasn't warranted. He was really rich and didn't have to worry about being put on suspension, as so many at WB did. He had a 100-foot sailboat, and he'd just pack up the family and take off and sail to Hawaii. He wasn't at all what he seemed on screen. He was a practical joker, for one thing, and would set up elaborate jokes to get his friends. At any rate, he's gone now, so nobody can tell whether he had it all his own way or not, but I would doubt that they walked over him much.

Now I know the reason some claim why the other George, Brent, was wooden; as to ensure co-stars like Bette Davis got all of the spotlight in her 'women' pictures. Interesting, that rumor about George Brent. I don't like to contradict, but talking to his friends, it's pretty obvious he pretty much had his own way in movies, since every woman he ever acted with was crazy about him, without exception. A.C. Lyles, the producer, who was his good friend, said it was amazing how they all went for him. Loretta Young was mad about him. Garbo wanted to marry him. Bette Davis was wild about him, and she wanted to marry him, but couldn't catch him between wives, as she says in her autobiography. They would never have tried to upstage him, which is what that would have been. His leading ladies worked well with him in every picture he ever made. I didn't find him wooden in the same way as Raft, whose flat voice made him sound dull. I thought Brent was pretty good, particularly in pictures like DARK VICTORY, where he actually made me cry toward the end. It's all pretty subjective anyway. I never thought Cary Grant was particularly romantic, for instance. I liked him in comedy. Suspense, sure. Loved him in NOTORIOUS. I never thought he was a particularly wonderful actor, though.

Here's Georgie being very pleasant. I would have gone out with a guy like this in a heartbeat. A gentleman, nice manners, soft spoken but outgoing too.

Raft was by far the worst actor out of Warners' "Murderers Row". Part of that was the poker face they made him adopt. They never let him smile, as a dancer, and in one of his biographies he said it was seen as very effective in movies, so he did it. He was much more pleasant in person and laughed a lot. I think if that had been part of his screen persona he could have been a lot better.

George, in his early years ... the Bolero, with Carole Lombard. Sexy and great.

Mongo, I love this picture of the cast of YCTIWY. I particularly love Ann Miller, who wrote in her autobiography that she had no idea you were supposed to put cotton in your toe slippers, and during the making of this movie went around dancing on the wooden stiffeners, nearly crippling her feet and making herself bleed all the time. Poor little kid. She was only thirteen, had lied about her age, and had no real show business mentors. Her mother was her only help, I believe. Dragged herself up by her bootstraps, you might say. Becoming the greatest in her field years later was a real feat. No pun intended.

I love Georgie. He always had a fascination for me. I liked watching him rhumba today, since he was a dancer originally. I like his smile and I wish we could see more of it in movies, but he's usually in something where he has to be grim. What always surprised me is that he went out with Betty Grable for so long and didn't marry her. She finally gave up and took off with Harry James, who abused her. Maybe she just went for guys who weren't that good to her.

Nice to see Rod Taylor's still around. I watched him on The Time Machine a while ago. Charming man, I always thought. Always heard good things about him. His costar, Yvette Mimieux, is still with us also. She's married to a billionaire real estate man, Howard Ruby. CEO of Oakwood Apartments.

Answering my own post here, but I may have gone overboard painting myself as an expert on "schwartz," since my experience of it was (a) in New York, and ( among Jewish friends, none of whom was black. I may have misinterpreted their use of it as benign when perhaps it wasn't. If I did, mea culpa.

The first time I saw Sen. Inouye speak was at the 1964 Democratic convention. Before the camera panned to him and I could see who it was, I could have sworn I was listening to a recording of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Inouye's voice and cadence were just that similar. I can't imagine what he sounded like before those elocution lessons the officers gave him. Over here every so often you run into a couple of local boys speaking the kind of pidgin nobody can understand without living here a couple of years. I was sitting in a restaurant once with a visitor from the mainland and two of the guys walked by, talking. My friend said to me, "What language are they speaking?" She wouldn't believe me when I said "English." You may like this:

Has anyone ever notice that people from other countries like India don't seem to have the same problems with their skin color as negros? Actually, they do. Living overseas in a compound consisting mostly of Asians, we found that color really mattered to them. One of our friends from India was really dark, and at a party celebrating his wedding anniversary, he gave a speech teling how hard a time he had convincing his wife's family to let him marry her, since his skin was so dark. It all worked out in his case, because he was one hilarious talker ... some would have said he could talk the devil into going to church ... and I expect his prospective in-laws didn't have much chance to get their opinion across. At any rate he made it clear that it was tough going for him until he won them over with his charm.

Jewish people have always referred to Blacks as "schvartzes". I guess it's technically derogatory, but the implication is actually more comical, and harmless, than derogatory. Anyone disagree? I certainly don't. Living in New York for a couple of years imbued me with the nuances of Jewish humor as nothing else could, and I could never take offense at their references. We used to love Jewish words thrown into conversation, and "schwartz" or "schwartzer" was a routine word for "black." Nothing derogatory about it, in my view. One of my favoriteTV shows was THE NANNY, with all its Jewish references, and I sort of sink into it and get comfortable when I watch the reruns. It's home to me ... at least one of my homes.

In my personal experience this 'local connection' can depend of a few factors but in most cases it is highly tied to one's childhood. i.e. if one grew up as a Red Soxes fan (e.g. went to the games with Dad), one would remain a Red Soxes fan for life regardless of where one lives as an adult. The teams in the city where this person lives as an adult often become the second tier teams they root for. James my dear, I must caution you that in your reference to the Red Sox, you are speaking not simply of a ball team, but of a RELIGION. A philosophy. A boulder pushed up the mountain for decades, that Sisyphus finally got to the top. This is hardly just a matter of geography. Be reverent.