CaveGirl

I wondered about that too, CMV. I just wish when they bleep things that they would have the asterisks be the total number of letters of the "bleeped word" because always using that four-star version makes even innocent words seem much more salacious.

One of my favorites and don't you dig Russ Tamblyn as her "nephew"!

Thanks so much for the info, Janet!

Last nite I watched "Bad Day at Black Rock". Now with all the millions of movies I've seen surprisingly I have never see this film from start to finish. I was excited to view it since I love Robert Ryan and it was a great film. That is until the scene where Spencer Tracy became Jackie Chan and started doing karate chops to Ernest Borgnine. Now I am good at suspending belief usually, and can accept aliens, zombies, Robert Redford being in love with Barbra and many more suspicious plot lines, but I could not believe that Spencer would in a million years be capable of the mayhem he inflicted on Ernie. Now up to that point, I think Tracy was great in the acting, and very believable but that scene just pushed me over the edge. I think Tracy always looked by the late 1940's like a guy who would have trouble doing one push-up, and could talk his way out of a fight but could never overpower even Elisha Cook Junior. Tracy looked totally out of shape, and with no arm it would have been ever more unbelievable for him to be scaring the bejeepers out of Ryan's henchmen. So then I started recasting the film. I thought to myself, it would have to be a guy who could have served in the Big One, but would not be as decrepit as Tracy and as old, so I looked up his age and was astonished to find he was only like 55 when the film came out. Nevertheless my dream casting would be a man in shape for his age but not physically prepossessing, but capable of administering some judo moves. Some of my dream casting included John Garfield [who of course was already dead], Bogart and a few others, with the criteria that it was not Tracy's age totally that was the problem, but that the role needed someone who looked more agile even though to the naked eye they might not appear strong. I finally came up with two choices that I think would have been much better than Tracy in the role. They were Henry Fonda or Richard Widmark, both of whom could have served in the war and also looked fit, unlike Spencer who appeared not to be able to hardly get off the train. They are also both good actors and could have played the calm essence of the part. Who would you have cast or do you love Tracy in the role? I apologize in advance for casting aspersions on Tracy but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Name your favorite film with the theme of ****! I'm sure this topic will bring the males here out in droves. I know nothing about this subject, other than what I learned watching Suzanne Pleshette as one in the film, "A Rage to Live". I've heard in real life this ailment is not all that much fun, at least for the victim, but you would not know it from watching movies. Next? Update: Uh, think of water "nymphs" and then add the word "mania" with an "o" before it. Sorry I got bleeped. I mean it is a legitimate medical term so who knew! OH, yeah be sure to drop the plural "s" from "nymphs" too or it will sound like dipsomania.

Name your favorite film with the theme of ****! I'm sure this topic will bring the males here out in droves. I know nothing about this subject, other than what I learned watching Suzanne Pleshette as one in the film, "A Rage to Live". I've heard in real life this ailment is not all that much fun, at least for the victim, but you would not know it from watching movies like "The Chapman Report". Next?

Love Roger Corman. Look how many people got their start with him, and learned how to work magic on the cheap!

Great feuds are so entertaining. I like both ladies but will pass judgment after I see them in costume. Thanks for the update! I hope they do one about Bogart and Holden.

Thanks for reminding me. I need to rev up my fuel-injected Stingray and make it to the dragstrip in time to see these classic JD films. Aren't they also showing the original "Fast and Furious" though I know it is not a premiere.

Can't go wrong with Thelma! Just recently I found out that her ex-hubby was later married to Gloria Vanderbilt. I read that book about Thelma's rather mysterious death, but had not known this fact or must have forgotten.

I enjoyed TTTDS, but have not seen the other film. Thanks, Mr. Gorman!

So true, DarkBlue...thanks!

Hey, Lawrence I own that "TLL" on dvd and it is wonderful. I've never ordered a Hershell film, for fear of the blood running out of my monitor but if I did it would be "Gruesome Twosome".

OMG, where is Jean Arless today? I know I've looked her up before. I feel sorry for that poor desk clerk guy she offs and then of course poor Helga, who only tried to help when she had her surgery. The way Warren keeps threatening her with that knife and then the last ride down that stairway elevator chair is horrendous to be sure. Now "Sisters" has the great scene where Margot puts that guy in the couch and what a mess! I think that guy who looks like Donald Sutherland deserved what he got though. I love Jean Moreau in the Cornell Woolrich tale too, but I only watch Hope to see Gail and Zucco in that film but thanks for all the great entries!

I love "HA" and I adore "SM". Thanks, FL!

Well, Down you could do a reverse Demosthenes experiment. If you recall, he was the orator who trained himself to speak distinctly by putting stones in his mouth. In a vice versa way, go watch a bunch of episodes of "All Creatures Great and Small" where the dialects are very thick and hard to understand and then when you watch kitchen sink British movies with the working class from Manchester it will all be cake! Either that or seriously, find dvd's with subtitles for the English!

How could I have forgotten Hershell Gordon! Though I am partial to his film about wigs and hairdos, this is a good one. Thanks, Lawrence!

OMG! This has a great write-up in the AHP book. Exemplary choice, RK!

That kid in "The Search" is a similarly talented little actor to Brigitte Fossey. Both films are superlative; thanks, Sepia!

Doesn't have to be from the Golden Age or any other restrictions, Eugenia! A one of a kind movie is great, even if it was made last year. Thanks for your choice, and I've seen it and it is a fun and innovative plot.

TGG with my fave, Stroheim! Good choices.

Wonderful entries, WG! Your take on magicians as early influences on cinema is apt, and please share more film scholarship with us! I've not seen Werner Nekes’s Media Magica (1985) that you mention but I shall look for it, WhistlingGypsy so thanks for your erudition! Even shadow puppets on a screen have been thought to be precursors of film, and since Melies later occupied the original Houdin studio in Paris, it is clear that both regimens have similar antecedents. Now that is Robert Houdin, not Harry Houdini who came later for those not so much into stage magicians.

All great choices, FL! Oooh, seances! Now there's a film theme that would always draw me in. I like the one in "Ministry of Fear".

Get this, both of those films were playing at the multiplex when I went with my friend, Princess Charlotte to see one of them. She is a die-hard magic fan and used to perform in night clubs. We get out of "The Prestige" film and she says "Oh look, "The Illusionist" is on in ten minutes, Let's go see it." I was a bit not in the mood, till she said "I'm treating!" Okay, so we saw both films in the same day and they were both good but my eyes were a bit tired I must say. Which is why to this day I get elements of both of them confused with the other film. Which one had the Tesla bit in it?

Thanks, RK for the Daniel Boone info! Yes, that show on Magic was so interesting and informative. They had scads of great and ancient film clips. Too bad they did not have the bullet catch one that killed Chung Sing Lo, or whatever his name was. Not that he was Asian anyway!