roverrocks
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Posts posted by roverrocks
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BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946) is certainly a very fine and innovative French fantasy movie. Watched it last night for the second time. Simply amazing it was filmed while the Nazis were still in power over France. A lot of very artistic touches in the fine movie. Very easy to fall head over heels in love with the exquisite Josette Day.
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I am looking forward to viewing The Viking tonight as I have never seen it. A young Donald Crisp seems intriguing to watch.
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The Lord of the Rings trilogy because of the mesmerizing epic New Zealand scenery is truly beautiful to behold. I also cast a vote to The Red Shoes as being one of the most beautiful as well. 2001: A Space Odyssey is also gorgeous to behold backgrounded by the amazing music. A visual experience of A+ magnitude as are all three in my short list.
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The Canuckidians should quit complaining forthwith!! You've got these and we don't!! I want one!!! Even say Canuckida on them with a weed leaf!!
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I AM SICK AND TIRED OF THIS "NO cANADIAN RIGHTS" BUSINESS !
AND YOU ALL KNOW I'M SERIOUS BECAUSE I'M WRITING THIS IN BLOCK CAPTIALS ! AND BOLD ! ! WITH LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS !!!
DID I SAY %$#@*&**?*^%$$#@!!!! WHAT THE F R I G IS GOING ON !!!!
Well, that was fun. Everyone should do that once in a while.
Ok, I was thinking of watching Stagecoach. I'm not much of a John fan, neither Wayne nor Ford. But I kind of like this 1939 Western, it's much more entertaining than many of Ford's later Westerns (to me), and it's got Claire Trevor. Plus, I have a special fondness for it because it was studied in a film class I took. (Although of course I'd seen it before the film class screening.)
Anyway... f r i g, aaargh, s h i t e, $%&*#?!@$#! It's not being aired in Canada ! Instead they're showing some boring war movie - Back to Bataan. Ok, ok, maybe it's good, and I respect Edward Dmytryk (except I always have to look up how to spell his name.)
But I'm not much of a fan of war movies, and anyway, I wanted Stagecoach.
Why the f r i g are there all these issues around "rights" in Canada? And it seems to be getting worse, not better. Oh, why can't we all just get along? Where's the humanity in the world today?
I think I've lost it.
(ps Did I say "&%$#@#?!&*!@& * ? )
Also...does the auto censor edit everything ? Testing...damn hell egad sacrebleu
Since when did you Canucks even get electricity and running water let alone TV channels?
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Ah!! BLOOM COUNTY!! The most awesome comic strip ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bill the Cat for president. So sad when the strip ended. Like a death in the family to me.
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Wasn't John Wayne a great physical specimen in his youth though.
That he was, but he was one of the worst actors ever. As I said, Room 101.
Did you catch his brief appearance in The Life Of Jimmy Dolan, where better actors astonished and amazed? Aline MacMahon wrestling with her scarf was priceless.
Yea, I never thought Wayne was much of an actor but he was exceptional in a few such as The Searchers and Red River. I did not catch The Life of Jimmy Dolan.
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Most favorite: SPIONE, a very rapid fire silent movie that confused me at times (I am easily confused) as to what was going on but certainly was the highlight of my week. I need to see it again so I can put some of the rapid fire scenes together in my withering mind. Love the German silent cinema!! "Haghi" the criminal mastermind seemed like a blend of Dr. Strangelove and Lenin/Trotsky as a personality and screen persona. Excellent movie that I hope to see again so I can pick out more of the nuances.
Least favorite: All the ancient John Wayne flics from the early 30's. I know that it is very important and worthwhile for TCM to show them and I complement them for showing them but they bore me terrifically and I've just watched bits and pieces of them. Can't view more. Wasn't John Wayne a great physical specimen in his youth though.
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basilrathbone.net: Great but very sad/moving website info on Mr. Rathbone and his WW1 experience. Thanks very much for posting it. I had not known of it before. This year being the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1 I think we should all reflect back on the War To End All Wars and the many millions lost and wounded in the tragic affair followed by the even more murderous Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-20. My own little hurts and whines and travails are so very very trivial in comparison to what that agonized generation on all sides went through.
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After turning back to TCM from the ballgame in order to record Spione at midnight, I have to add one more set of movies that drive me to the funny farm:
ANYTHING with Howard Keel in it. I've seen about 10 minutes each of about half a dozen of his films, and his singing cowboy roles remind me of everything I hate about a certain type of "family entertainment" movies. I'd rather watch Hitler do a jig with Lady Godiva's horse at halftime in the Super Bowl (which admittedly would be an improvement over the usual Super Bowl halftime entertainment) than to sit through another minute of Howard Keel's baritone bleeting.
Seriously, I'm now going to have to watch Goodfellas, Pink Flamingos, and the barroom brawl between the Mafia and the Hell's Angels in A Bronx Tale just to get ten minutes of Howard Keel in Annie, Get Your Gun out of my system.
Yea, Keel gives me the hives as well. Bleh.
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Basil Rathbone: a picture of him as an actor and as a WW1 soldier.
Also a picture of a very young Charles Laughton in WW1. Laughton did not serve with the London Scottish Regiment but another unit and was injured in one of the numerous WW1 gas attacks.
Am also including a picture of Maurice Chevalier in his WW1 service with the French Army during which he was wounded by shrapnel, taken prisoner by the German Army, and spent two years as a POW.
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"A Beautiful Mind"
All "Die Hard" movies
"Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" (1991)
"Braveheart"
"Apocalypse Now"
"Singing in the Rain" as well as most musicals not starring Rogers/Astaire
Anything with Sylvester Stallone except "Rocky" #1.
Most movies in the last 15 years. I won't even go see anything modern except an occasional movie like "The King's Speech" or "The Book Thief".
"The Shining"
Lana Turner
Grace Kelly
Randolph Scott
Liz Taylor except for her youthful movies where she was so absolutely charming
Tom Cruise- A big yuch
Johnny Depp-A big yuch.
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I'm nearing the end of a fascinating though often horrifying history book published in 2013 called "Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes To War" by renowned historian Max Hastings. Have learned in this book just today that an amazing number of superb British actors at one time or another during WW1 all served with a hard fighting British Army regiment named the London Scottish Regiment. Ronald Colman, Herbert Marshall, Claude Rains, Cedric Hardwicke, and Basil Rathbone all served with valor and distinction with this crack unit at some time during their WW1 service. Makes one wonder how many fine would-have-been great great actors perished during The Great War on both the Allied/Entente side and the Central Powers side. RIP all.
RONALD COLMAN: Served as a Territorial Army (British reserve army) soldier starting in 1909. Called up and sent to France in September 1914 with the London Scottish. Suffered a severe shrapnel wound at the brutal Battle of Messines on the Western Front on Oct. 31, 1914 in an ankle. Probably kept him from being killed during the war. Colman was invalided out of the army in 1915 after serving with distinction. Colman limped the rest of his life and hid it well in moviedom and on the stage. The rest of his post WW1 life is a Hollywood legend.
HERBERT MARSHALL: Marshall was shot in his right knee by a German sniper. He went through various operations but ended up having the leg amputated at the hip. Marshall was fitted with a prosthetic leg. Marshall went to great lengths in his acting career to hide the fact both privately and professionally of this severe wartime disability and I had never known it until today. His distinctive walk was a result of this disability which was little known. The rest of his post WW1 life is a Hollywood legend.
CLAUDE RAINS: Served with distinction on the Western Front and rose from private to captain during his British wartime service. Rains was gassed severely in action and remained nearly blind in one eye. The rest of his post WW1 life is Hollywood legend.
CEDRIC HARDWICKE: Served in the British Army including service with the London Scottish Regiment from 1914 to 1921. Once again his post Army life is the stuff of Hollywood legend.
BASIL RATHBONE: When called up to service in 1914 he trained with the London Scottish Regiment as a private. Underwent officer training subsequently and was then commissioned an officer in the Liverpool Scottish Regiment where he rose during the war to a captain in Intelligence. Rathbone led daring nighttime and daylight intelligence raids to ascertain enemy German positions. After his younger brother John was KIA in 1918 Rathbone became even more daring in his intelligence patrols and was awarded the Military Cross for"conspicuous daring and resource on patrol". At points he and his intelligence patrols wore camouflage outfits designed to look like trees. After WW1 once again his life was the stuff of Hollywood legend.
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Good stories are universal, and the geographical space between the settings of the two films has little to do with the point I was making.
It is kind of charming, the way at the very beginning of Casablanca, they show a map of "the theatre of war" in Europe, and then close in on Morocco and finally Casablanca, in the very likely event that people in the audience then (and now !) wouldn't know where it is.
Yes, I agree with you. Glad you finally do as well : GWTW is a "good" story. Just did not know why you had to travel from North Africa to Georgia to attempt to diss on GWTW yet again. I prefer Casablanca to GWTW too but will not diss on the great GWTW.
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Char baby, I loved Casablanca the first time I saw it, and I still do. I know exactly what you mean about it, how one can view it many times and still enjoy it.
What just struck me as interesting is, on another thread here, they're talking about Gone with the Wind, another old, classic, famous, well-beloved film.
Not to be negative (gawd forbid !) but I don't like GWTW and never much have. I'm not saying this to start a fight (how silly would that be...Gone with the Wind versus Casablanca...apples and oranges), but because it just got me thinking, how much I dislike that one famous well-beloved etc, classic film, and love the other.
It is silly to compare them, and yet, now I've started, I seem to want to go on. They're both set in war-time, they're both (partly) about how war can change people and affect their lives, they're both love stories. That's where the similarities end. Casablanca is so much more economical, telling its story in a tidy yet riveting 102 minutes, while GWTW drags on and on at a wearying 238 minutes. (I realize its based on a very loooong novel, ok....)
Anyway, I just brought it up because both these films are often listed as among the top 10 most famous and popular classic movies ever. One I don't care if I never see again, and the other, I cherish.
It's a long long way from North Africa to Georgia but for some reason you have made the journey.......................now back to posts about Casablanca......................I love the charm and wit of the great movie but then I love (adore) both Bogie and Bergman. They's angels!!!!!!!!!!!
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Kim Novak deserves respect and honour from our society, and especially the movie-loving culture.
There is no excuse for her not receiving a standing ovation at this year's Oscars. While there may have been a few ignoramouses who were unaware of her contribution to film, there were also many there who knew full well her history in the movies.
I'm thinking in particular of Martin Scorsese, who is almost as famous for his dedication to preserving film history as he is as a great film director. If he had stood up when Kim appeared, and begun applauding, I believe others would have followed. Wonder why he didn't?
No point in getting yourself into such a tizzy. Life is what it is. While Kim Novak certainly deserves respect from the movie-loving culture of a half century ago and as much as possible from our present vacuous entertainment culture, she certainly does not deserve respect and honor from society as a whole. She was a great beauty not a person who developed a vaccine or or invented something of economic significance/enhancement or created a better society. She did not better the world such as a Mother Teresa did. She will remain famous and glorious to a declining many but she is what she was: a great beauty not an earthshaking stateswomen such as Thatcher. Far better beauties and greater actresses are ill remembered. Such is life.
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"All glory is fleeting" for both the great and the small. That is just a part of life. While I'm sorry Kim Novak is not more recognized for the great and beautiful actress she was that is just life. She can not escape it any more than the small such as myself or you and yours can. Fame and fortune is just as fleeting as a glorious sunset. Today's handsome and beautiful "greats" will suffer the same thing in the future. No sense in lamenting what is a natural progression of history and life. I'm just glad so many are captured forever on film and tape and modern electronics with modern preservation so that even in ignominy and death they still will live on. Don't be so sad about perceived slights to the "greats" as that is just life as it was meant to be and is: "All Glory is Fleeting".
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But as I said in an earlier post here, I would not dislike the film so much if others didn't adore it so disproportionately. Somebody has to even things out here.
Somehow I really don't think you are anywhere remotely close to evening things out. I don't "adore" the movie but it's a great, must-see film for everyone whom has never seen it. I certainly don't dislike any movie simply because others really really like it. That's kinda over-the-top. One either enjoys a movie or one doesn't. Liking or disliking any movie intensely based on what others think about the movie is not a good viewability index IMO.
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Um -- I think it was John Ford who made Monument Valley famous.
With a little help from his friends..............................
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YANKEES!!! What an obnoxious nasty 4 letter cuss word!! My condolences to your fanhood. The one thing I love most about Wayne movies (not a big Wayne fan) is the overall lack of sidewalks and the glorious outdoor scenery in so many of them. Sidewalks are highly overrated as scenic commodities.
Nah, once you've seen one stage set tumbleweed, you've seen em all. When I want to savor the great outdoors, I like it in three dimensions and in odorama. Much better for the lungs, unless you're downwind from a factory farm.
OTOH I seldom run into Jimmy Cagney or Robert Ryan when I start walking around the downtown streets of Washington.
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Somebody once said that "John Wayne represents America and American values". I think that's a fair assessment.
I take John Wayne in the same spirit as I take an equally popular American icon:
"Here's to alcohol: The cause of, and the solution to, all of life's problems!"
-----H.J. Simpson, Springfield, USA
Monument Valley, Professor Valley, New Mexico, San Juan River, Colorado River, Valley of the Gods, Arizona, Utah in general: John Wayne made these famous in various films. Only a Yankee fan would only think stage sets and and sidewalks in regards to Wayne and Ford.. I'm only a few hours from most of these epic Ford filming sites. They dwarf the concrete Manhattan and smell so much better.
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Haley Mills is 68!! That makes me feel very old indeed. Wow!.
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I recently came across this...I hadn't heard of it before and found it interesting. The use of huge tarps of camouflage "buildings, streets, trees" to cover the Burbank Aircraft Plant & other defense factories...the military & movie scenic painters, prop masters all hiding the real thing underneath so enemy aircraft would be deceived:
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2010/12/how-military-hid-lockheed-burbank.html
I know they had done similar things in England to hide the aircraft factories and used inflatible planes & tanks to fool the Germans, but didn't know about them doing that here.
edit: well, nevermind about that link as it won't connect...this is beginning to become a bother.
The WW2 camo was truly amazing.
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I'm not much of a John Wayne fan either, but I like some of his movies.
I don't mind Wayne all that much, but his movies bore me s t i f f*. Too many horses and not enough sidewalks. Good thing the Yankees are off to a good start as an alternative to an entire week's worth of him.
*I really should begin counting the inane words that get replaced by asterisks.
YANKEES!!! What an obnoxious nasty 4 letter cuss word!! My condolences to your fanhood. The one thing I love most about Wayne movies (not a big Wayne fan) is the overall lack of sidewalks and the glorious outdoor scenery in so many of them. Sidewalks are highly overrated as scenic commodities.
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Never heard of it, obrien. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll have to look it up.
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Me too. THIS would be an excellent movie for TCM to bring to us all. I could view Gina all day and Quinn playing the hunchback sounds really interesting.
TCM Has Become So Annoying This Year!!!
in General Discussions
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Yes, there have been interesting movies on all day today. SWEEPINGS is an excellent hard-bitten movie that pulls few punches.