CaveGirl

Your comments kind of remind me of a family thing we had going. One thing all my relatives agreed upon on my dad's side was that if you did not get W.C.Fields, then you were not allowed to marry into the family, due to being humor devoid. Thanks as always, TopBilled!

You're such a nice person, Limey to think of all these explanations. My take was that this 62-year old woman was just a pain in the you know what, and was trying to believe that she was above watching a film about a "butcher".

Not watch movies with people who are dead? Yikes, that would mean I would be watching no films at all, GPF!

Thanks for summing up 1946 and ending with Sam Goldwyn, TB! I wonder if it was the script for TBYOOL that caused him to say supposedly: "I read part of it all the way through."

DeMille made it to make money so let's not scoff at following the leader, Nip! Religious epics showing lots of sinning and repenting are always big ticket items.

One of the first movies I ever saw about an impostor was "I Was Monty's Double" starring Clifton James as British Field Marshal Montgomery during WWII. It was a great story and was based on a true one about an actor [Clifton again!] who had been noticed by the British military due to his similarity to Montgomery. In a quest to confuse the Nazis as to where Montgomery might next be planning an attack they asked for his help in impersonating Montgomery. Supposedly it was David Niven who found James and enlisted him to be a part of the subterfuge. While James was portraying Monty, he received full general's pay for each day of work. This great film may have started my attraction to others about frauds, fakes of impostors and I like best ones based on true stories. Do you have any favorites in this genre?

With some pseudo-noirish hosts, it is mostly "phlegm" that is spewed forth, Lorna.

I once read that Roddy MacDowall said that if he met someone who did not like Irene Dunne, then he wanted nothing to do with them. I too have such a peculiarity. I refuse to have much to do with anyone who does not like the film "Marty". I watched it for perhaps the twentieth time the other nite on TCM. Besides being so heartwarming it is always touching but also has classic bits that still make me laugh. Life can be like that, both sad and hilarious and I think that Paddy Chayefsky was able to portray that in the film. The parts between Esther Minciotti as Mrs. Piletti and the lady who plays Aunt Catherine are unbelievably realistic and yet also humorous, like when they discuss family matters and all Aunt Catherine can do is tell who died recently. The catchphrases between Borgnine and Joe Mantell like "I don't know, what do you want to do" are as memorable as DeNiro's "Are you looking at me". And the bits where the guys talk about Mickey Spillane ["He sure can write!"] are such a dig, plus the bit in the bar where the women talk about the lady, married to the skinny little man, who was told by her doctor not to have any more children, are hilariously real. My favorite part of course is when the guys talk about how a man should marry a woman twenty years their junior, till they realize she would have to be one-year old at the nuptials. I met a woman recently who asked me what I was going to do that night. We only wanted to go home, pick up a pizza and watch "Marty". She said "Who would want to watch that movie? Isn't it about that butcher?" My mother said once that anyone who didn't like the film "Marty" was not worth having anything to do with. So from now on, the above person is persona non grata in my world. That's my bottom line. Either you appreciate "Marty" and are worthwhile knowing or you are not. I will go to my dying day with that exacting standard in place. What criteria do you use to separate the wheat from the chaff?

Uh, I think we both know who we can blame for that poor pronunciation from someone at TCM, Miss Wonderly. Let's recall that not everyone on TCM is a Film Noir expert or multi-lingual.

Thank you for honoring my post with your royal presence, Your Highness! Oh boy, that tale "The Monkey's Paw" has been done to death on the big and small screen, but I would still dig seeing the 1933 version. I've seen so many takes on it that one more would still not be enough. Seems like there was a version done with Richard Greene even as maybe part of one of those Hammer or Amicus anthology films. Sorry I'm too lazy to look it up on Imdb now. Thanks for the great list of wants!

I think it was actually TCM which showed "Calypso Heat Wave" from 1957, which has a song performed by the Tarriers. It was such fun to see Arkin singing. But I still thought it was Harpo without his wig!

"Bigger Than Life" is an incredible film. It is about the dangers of cortisone, and how it was first used diagnostically but was difficult to prescribe in proper dosages. James Mason puts in a bravura performance as a mild mannered teacher who is prescribed the medicine but in such excessive dosages that he turns into a megalomaniac. As usual being that it is Mason his acting is beyond the pale, and the film is rivetting. A little known film but one which is extremely rewarding to view. Thanks for highlighting it, TB. I so appreciate your taking the time to give these daily previews of films to come!

Sure, Miss Wonderly. C'mon, and you also thought "Goldilocks Meets Three Bare Men" would be an animated Disney movie.

Miss Wonderly, I've been to Parma Heights but have not visited any dairies, though I did see Elsie the Cow once in person. What in tarnation is a "3 bag milk thing" do I dare ask? Is this a Canadian staple or something unseemly?

Though I always usually totally agree with you, James I am going to have to disagree this time. "Queenie" as a moniker sounds more like a chorine who has risen to top billing in her profession and challenging Tempest Storm for top billing, and was meant as a bit of a jocular dig, plus it was rumored in many Hollywood circles that Merle was hiding something in her past as an untouchable, hence she was not so accepted in the lofty circles of that world. We can agree to disagree this time hopefully?

Definitively, Fedya!

"Silly", Miss Wonderly? And by the way so glad to see you back! As if trying to figure out why Millie is acting out in "Picnic" is not an earth shattering issue. I think the real reason this is important is that movie fans are kept off the streets where they can do damage to society, and instead kept busy discussing such things. You just know that this type of avocation is important for society and I thank you for being around to discuss aspects of Jane Austen novels and such with all of us here at TCM's message board. My personal belief about Millie and the Inge story is that Susan Strasberg, having been around Marilyn Monroe sleeping over in the nude in Susan's room so often, at the Lee Strasberg mansion, and seeing her drinking, popping pills and calling up on her teenage phone many members of the Rat Pack and their political friends, made Susan want to show a more seedy side of life in her characterization of the seemingly boring and little bookish Millie but the studio restricted that to her choking on coffin nails occasionally in the yard. She was jealous of Kim just like she was jealous of Marilyn, and incorporated this feeling into her part as Millie.

I'll go with Groucho and Maureen O'Sullivan for Saturday, Greer and Walt for Sunday, Phyliss Thaxter for Monday, Mitchum for Tuesday, Mona Freeman for Wednesday, Rin Tin Tin for Thursday and and Alice Faye and Gable for Friday. Now some people find Nick and Nora more attractive than Groucho and Maureen, but I think they are misguided!

Yes, it is one fine film to be sure. It was one I added to my collection long ago for repeat viewings. Thanks for your acknowledgment and good luck on the gold prospecting, KD!

I think I heard that Bowie's son felt the same way. Uh, you aren't Bowie's son, are you, DGF?

Comet Tv is showing "The Man Who Fell to Earth" on this coming Sunday [02/28/16] at 12:00 noon. Bowie is absolutely fabulous in this film if you've not seen it. They are also showing Mario Bava's "Planet of the Vampires" tomorrow morning on Friday at 10:00am and while Bowie is not in it, if you like Bava you will love it! I've now done my good deed for the day.

Oh, yeah there was supposedly an El Greco, a Rembrandt, a Whistler maybe and then the horrible painting by Maurice Evans of Ethel!

Oh wow, Eileen was so good as the drunken Mrs. Daigle in "The Bad Seed". I love to watch her pawing Rhoda when she comes to visit the Penmarks.

I vote for Merle Oberon. Next?

That, my dear, is because "Cute as a Button" was a shortened version of Buttonski, namely Hortense Buttonski. She was a chambermaid who ascended the ranks of royalty, serving Madame DuBarry during her bedroom intrigues and in the process meeting up with sundry males who found her a bit more of a dish than the jaded Madame, hence they started saying how "cute" she was and the term stuck. "Cute as Buttonski" developed into "Cute as a Button".