CaveGirl

Yes, you will be very sorry if you don't get to see this film, CF since Ryan is so fetching in it and Booth her usual heartwarming and delightful self.

Well, you have completely found the real "flaw" in the TMF, SCSU and it is Mary's most horrible hairdo! No wonder that everyone thinks she looks too old for Bogie, and one wonders how Miss O"Shaughnessy could get any men to fall for her with that abomination gracing her head. Now I don't blame Mary at all for this perception, since I think she was a very lovely and attractive woman, but in that film the hairdo is so awful, that it looks like she is wearing a cast-off wig from character actress, Cecil Cunningham who if you don't remember, played Aunt Patsy in Leo McCarey's "The Awful Truth" with Cary and Irene. That kind of hairdo was usually reserved for society dames or dowager queens, in the style of a Weegee photograph of that kind of woman coming out of a DAR meeting and a cool chick like Mary should never have been abused by being hairdressed in such a hair helmet. And I have gotten to the bottom of this debacle by looking up who is responsible for the hairdos in TMF and the culprit's name is below in the IMDB listing I have copied: Makeup Department Perc Westmore ... makeup artist Jean Udko ... hair (uncredited) I think it is pretty obvious why Ms. Jean Udko went uncredited; probably because no studio would ever want her to ruin a major star's appearance in a film again! I looked up further credits for her, and they follow in the same abysmal pattern as Mary's not hair-do, but HAIR-DON'T! She was the hair stylist for the Jack Benny show [no wonder his toupees looked like crap], "My Favorite Martian" [must have worked on Martin's antennae], "Get Smart" [Don Adams' hair always looked painted on], "Death Valley Days" [probably did the old prospector's pate], "The Untouchables" [they killed off the gangsters with the Aquanet fumes] and lastly "Hawaii Five-O" [which had Jack Lord with the ridiculous spit curl in front for which he should have said "Book'em, Danno and put that Jean Udko in the slammer also]. Okay, I'm done. Hair today and gone tomorrow as they say.

If you like the amazing actor Robert Ryan, don’t miss tonight’s showing of the film “About Mrs. Leslie” from 1954 with the also incredible Shirley Booth. As a wonderful dramatic actress, whose talents go way beyond those comedic ones exhibited in the tv show “Hazel”, this movie is so much more than the IMDB synopsis which reads: “A rooming house landlady recalls her past in flashbacks.” Seeing Robert Ryan in a part like this, makes one wish he had more opportunities in similar modes. Besides the very insightful and moving story as directed by Daniel Mann the film also has a supporting cast which includes great character stars like James Bell, Harry Morgan, Philip Ober, Virginia Brissac, Ray Teal, Ellen Corby, Kasey Rogers, Maidie Norman, Ian Wolfe, Joan Shawlee, Percy Helton, Amanda Blake, Mabel Albertson, Nana Bryant, Jerry Paris and even Superman’s Jimmy Olson, aka Jack Larson! Even if you don't know all their names, you will recognize them when you see them I bet. I was only lucky enough to see this movie once, with commercial interruptions but it still sticks in my brain, so I’m really looking forward to tonite’s TCM presentation. Don't thank me now, thank me after you see the film!

So true! I find it instructive that the old musicals had songs one could remember and hum, and the later ones like "Doctor Dolittle" had non-songs that you didn't want to remember, like "Talk to the Animals" and after that it was even more downhill. The theme from "Shaft" is surprisingly good.

You are so lucky to have seen her on stage, Swithin. I'm so jealous! She was great as Antonia, in the Claudius epic, but her Bette really showed her true talents!

I used the word "hirsute", Tommyboy so I would not have to talk about what the nuns called "ciliciums" from the Latin, that were those old hair shirts that wacky martyrs used to wear to auto-torture themselves and gain salvation. I think a lot of them were made from old goat's hair, but when I say "old goats" I do not mean the human kind. When you say "hair suit" all it makes me think of is that song by Warren Zevon called "Werewolves of London". Haha!

There's a certain similarity to Mae and Shirley if you look deep down below the surface. Where one ends the other begins. Thanks for the reference to the New Yorker article!

Were they from the TCM Opioid Taylor line, SansFin? I think they phased out the Chuck Taylor All-Star line recently, but there are still some black market ones around in Mayberry.

Lon, or Creighton is kinda more appealing to me as the Wolfman than as Larry Talbot. He reminds me of another real life sideshow attraction, called Jo-Jo, the Dog Faced Boy. He had that hirsutism issue too.

Nice physique fer shure!

So laughable, Lawrence. I think Nestle's Farfel would be more scary than the guy on the right.

The sun never sets on the films of the British Empire ya know.

Don't restrict yourself, CF. You can put in monsters that you have met in real life if you like also.

I don't know why but your monster reminds me of Glenn Ford.

So you found Arness attractive all encased in ice, CF? And you didn't like Nessie? I have bought Jimmy Page's old mansion on the banks of Loch Ness if you'd ever like to visit and we can talk shop.

Let's face it, a lot of times while watching a movie with supposed monsters, one finds them more appealing than the stars. Point in fact, it was Greta Garbo who said "Bring back the beast" after seeing Jean Cocteau's "La Belle et Le Bete"'s ending, where the beast became a sugar coated guy who looked like he belonged on the lid of a candy box. For me, Kong is very appealing. Those cute, twinkly eyes, the delicate way he takes off Fay Wray's attire while she is tied down, and of course his cute stalking techniques. Of course most films do not have the great Willis O'Brien helping the action, and for my money only the 1933 version is really hypnagogic and dreamlike, as the later versions do not at all show Kong's personality as well. Name an endearing movie monster and one that should have been offed for being too stone-faced or badly costumed to live more than a few days. I saw some film the other day with Robert Shayne on maybe Comet and it was the worst monster mask I've ever seen in a movie. Even worse than all those Mexican ones like the Brainiac film!

How wonderful, N&N! I once bought a giant roll of wrapping paper which looked a lot like your collage of black and white stills from films and I used it to paper a wall in my house. It looked super and I think your collage will be great also when you finish. Thanks for sharing and how many albums did Barbra actually make I wonder?

Yeah, he is a weak, spineless baby, CF. But he still was a cutie. Great hair by the way!

Wasn't Mary Ure married to Robert Shaw? She was married to a writer first but can't remember which one. Thanks for the film list!

And a great two cents it was, N&N! It reminds me of the time Dionne Warwicke went to a numerologist who told her to either take off the final "e" of her name, or add it. I can't remember which way it went but she did and I believe years later returned to the original spelling. Apparently it did not help her career, but good to know that Bette's did, but she probably would have been successful if she was named Bertha Davis too.

Down, have you ever seen that great movie called "The Night They Raided Minsk"?

I "hoid" you were related to Phil Rizzuto, Dargo. True or false?

I think Miss Wonderly that you have hit on why I never watched the film in the first place. The setting actually really kind of gave me a claustrophobic feel. Now I know that actually for the point of the film that this is a good thing, but every time it would be shown I'd start to watch and then start feeling a bit like I was in a strait jacket. I sure would not want to live in Black Rock. Not unless John Ericson was the marrying kind!

Ya know, Lawrence I own both the "Deranged" film and the "Ed Gein" one and I really think both are great. But no one film can totally explain the strangeness of Eddie, what with his offing local women and also digging up recently buried ones and scavengering body parts for his collection of lips and other things, and it takes both Leatherface and Norman to show even some of his demented deeds on film. What was the old Plainfield joke at the time of the killings? "Why did Eddie Gein not go to his high school prom?" "Cuz he couldn't dig up a date!"

Mum's the word apparently!