[Dem Peeps Wuz Robbed!]

Love Cagney as a sociopath!

 

But exactly what kind is he, one wonders.

 

Now we can vote on it.

Check out this site:

http://www.ehow.com/about_5371687_types-sociopaths.html

I'm gonna go with the Disempathetic Sociopath since he did love his Ma!

 

Vote now for your choice.

[Dem Peeps Wuz Robbed!]

I don't have any problems with the Oscars that Katharine Hepburn won during her distinguished career. The real crime is that after winning her first award for "Morning Glory" in 1934, she didn't receive her second one for 34 years! 

 

And people wonder why she never picked up any of her awards in person...

 

The only time that Hepburn attended an Academy Awards ceremony was in 1974. She was there to present the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to her good friend, producer Lawrence Weingarten.

 

Nice outfit, Kate!

 

Looks like she just came in from tending her Victory Garden.

[Mad Scientist Hall of Fame]

This is what happens when mere mortals meddle with matters reserved for the Almighty - imaginary, or not!

 

In a classic example of science fiction gone too far, random thread topics created at an isolated classic movie forum outpost known as either the Clonus compound, or The Island (depending on your lawyer), are duplicated to provide a ready source of spares for those annoying incidents when you lose a 2000 word posting due to computer crashes/power cuts/fat finger syndrome...

Yikes, Limey!

 

Now I have to worry about doppelganger threads?

 

Shades of William Wilson!

[Dem Peeps Wuz Robbed!]

Thanks, Kingrat for your post. I couldn't agree more about Katharine Hepburn.

 

Let's face it, often the Oscars are more a sympathy vote or popularity contest, than about great performances.

 

I swear, if someone offed themselves the year of their nomination, or got leukemia they'd probably be a shoo-in.

 

 

[Jammin' the Blues [1944]]

If you are into Lester Young, or liked Count Basie or enjoyed the film "Round Midnight" this short is on today with a peek into a jam session starring Young and other jazz notables.

 

2:41 PM JAMMIN' THE BLUES (1944)  

In this short film, prominent jazz musicians of the 1940s get together for a rare filming of a jam session. Vitaphone Release 1315A.

 

BW-11 mins,

 

[Dem Peeps Wuz Robbed!]

For Best Picture, 1952:

 

Stanley Kramer for United Artists--"High Noon"

 

John Ford & Merian C. Cooper for Republic--"The Quiet Man"

 

Pandro S. Berman for MGM--"Ivanhoe"

 

Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show On Earth" won as Best Picture.  Is generally considered the Worst film to win "Best Picture".  All three above films are better than TGSOE, IMO.  All were robbed.

Uh, this is embarrassing to say but I've never seen the whole film of TGSOE.

 

I know I know, a film buff should, but often the really famous films are the ones that don't interest me. Seeing Jimmy Stewart as a clown makes me lose interest every time I start to watch.

 

I just went to look at the IMDB listing, and my guess is that the reason it won was because it has the largest cast I've ever seen and they probably all just voted it in!

 

Here's my favorite credit from the IMDB for it:

 

Christy and Gorilla ...

Christy & Gorilla (as Christy & Gorilla)

 

Do you think that gorilla got to vote for it also?

 

The cast even included Daisy Earles as "midget" and Lee Akers and Bobby Diamond as "boy spectators".

[Who Done It?]

Yes, but which among the following selection of items did the butler USE to perform his dastardly act, CG?...

 

(...the candlestick, right?!...yep, it's always the candlestick, ain't it)

Uh, well except for the rope aren't those metal thingies all part of a Swiss Army Knife?

 

As Errol Flynn might say to Randolph Scott, "Unsheathe that scabbard!"

 

P.S. Those top four metal "tools" look like the dental instruments from the David Cronenberg film, "Dead Ringers" by the way.

[color films from the 1940's]

I think you are dead on!

 

There seemed to be a heightened reality to the colors then which made the films more amazingly beautiful. I have a book on the Technicolor processes and other earlier types of film used and it did seem much more evocative.

 

Wasn't the 1935, "Becky Sharp" film in color? Even minor song and dance films of the 1940's with people like Betty Grable have a much prettier look than later films of like the 1960's and on, except of course with things that have color palettes by Cecil Beaton or the like.

 

The Douglas Sirk melodramas of the 1950's, have breathtaking color which goes with the windswept sturm und drang of the plots.

[Dem Peeps Wuz Robbed!]

1954 Best Actress?  I would have picked Giulietta Massina for La Strada but pretty hard to win the Oscar if you are not even nominated.

Judy would not have been my pick of the nominees in any event.

Well, duh!

 

If I had my druthers I would have voted first for Massina too, Bogie. But it seems to me that for some reason which I've forgotten even though "La Strada" should have been in the AA stuff for 1954, it won the Best Foreign Language Film for 1957.

 

Go figure.

Love Massina in anything, except maybe "Juliet of the Spirits" in which she seems miscast as a Fellini-inspired wifey. Haha, I know, she WAS his wife but still!

[Mad Scientist Hall of Fame]

Though I have so many mad scientists in films that I adore, I am partial to Herbert West of "Re-animator" fame since it was written by my old professor, Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

 

Yes, back in the days of my Alma Mater, Miskatonic University I sat daily in my English Lit class, listening to Professor Lovecraft describe the craft of, well writing of course.

 

He had detailed the style needed to write good pulp fiction, and at that time was working on this book about Herbert West, based on an eldritch tale told him by his own grandpapa, about a science experiment gone wrong during his days in college.

 

For this reason, I shall pick Herbert West as my top mad scientist in films, due to these personal connections.

 

By the way, old H.P. was not as ugly as his mother said, and many female students including moi, found him very attractive. Besides, when I forgot the time of my final and missed said exam, H.P. did not require me to do a make-up test and gave me high marks just for knowing who David Belasco was in class previously.

 

Nominate the mad scientist of your nightmares here!

P.S. I have no idea why this posted twice...sorry!

[Need Dargo's Help [Marxism question]]

Just be careful to NOT put DESCARTES before the horse! 

 

Sepiatone

Don't even mention Descartes, since I just heard someone on the radio pronounce his name as:

 

"Dess Cart"!

 

That sounds like some costermonger entertainer from Liverpool.

 

Shades of Hades, poor old Rene is probably rolling over in his tomb.

[Need Dargo's Help [Marxism question]]

..and if you don't want to slog through the books, there's a series of Kierkegaard classic comics.

Much appreciation, Down!

 

I am currently reading #81 in the Classics Illustrated line, which is the best version of "The Odyssey" by Homer ever committed to print.

 

And it only cost me 15 cents!

 

Shall look for the "The Philosophy of Soren Keiregaard" comic book.

 

Would there be a Cliff Notes version to explain the comic book version I wonder?

[Need Dargo's Help [Marxism question]]

LOL

 

Well CG, first, all this here stuff is, as they say, "way above my pay grade", as I must admit I possess but scant knowledge of these metaphysical disciplines and/or how they would correlate to any philosophical theorems ascribed to Mr. KARL Marx.

 

However, I CAN tell you that many of the answers you seek are often to be found within books.

 

(...and according to ANOTHER Mr. Marx of some repute, "Outside of a dog, a book is Man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read!")

 

As usual, brilliant, Dargo!

 

I think I read that book one time.

Did it have a blue cover and was written by a guy named Jerry Atricks??

[Need Dargo's Help [Marxism question]]

My god CG, you sound just like one of my fanatical old professors....

You aren't, by any chance, a repressed former educator, are you?

I once had an instructor who was a former nun, and she just couldn't get out of her old habit!

As long as Dargo is receiving the brunt of your attention the rest of the 'class' can breathe a temporary sigh of relief!

Ya got me, Stephan!

 

After many years in the convent, I escaped and here I landed.

 

Though still repressed, I am out of the habit, which was always a goal after seeing that Elvis film, "Change of Habit".

 

Dargo may be the student here I most need to crack the whip on, but I would expect more of a student of your calibre, especially in the ill-advised use of those emoticon elements in your posts.

 

Please, restrain those emotions next time, young man!

[Who Done It?]

The butler at the beach house!

 

Oh, you didn't mean that?

 

Never mind.

[The flaw in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre]

Hmmm, you bring up a very interesting point, Slayton.

 

I took a jewelry course one time and the teacher was continually yelling at people about taking care of all the gold, even the dust, as some were blowing it off their tables after filing down their pieces. But of course that is not exactly like what we have in the movie.

 

I once bought a most interesting book on B. Traven, discussing who he really was and his background. I have never since seen this book anywhere and it tells how Traven was perhaps using an assumed name and had a most mysterious past. He also was majorly ticked that he was not invited by Huston to any of the Hollywood festivities celebrating the film and its success. I think I shall have to browse through it to see if Traven [or the man he sent as his emissary...Hal Groves] actually had any real experience with gold prospecting or if he was just fantasizing.

 

You make very good points though about the illogicality of the ending.

 

Now this is making me want to go rewatch that film and also "Greed" since there's a lot of gold in both films!

[Golden age: Roll call]

Thanks for another great career synopsis, TB!

 

Have you read that book on George called:

"Hollywood Kryptonite: The Bulldog, the Lady and the Death of Superman"
 

I can highly recommend it as it adds many more layers to what was happening in his life during the Superman tv years.

 

 

 

 

 

•  

 

 

 

 

 

[Dem Peeps Wuz Robbed!]

 

In this happy [for some] time of giving honor to rewarding [once in a while] films of artistic [occasionally] merit by the Academy of Arts and Sciences, let's look back at some of the times when quality might have been a mite [ya think?] overlooked.

 

I shall start and get the whiny [yet extremely cathartic] ball rolling.

 

In the race for the best actress of 1954 we find as the female combatants, Grace Kelly for "The Country Girl". Jane Wyman for "Magnificent Obsession", Dorothy Dandridge for "Carmen Jones", Audrey Hepburn for "Sabrina" and Judy Garland for "A Star is Born".

 

In my most humble [debatable] opinion, Judy wuz robbed!

 

In ASIB, Judy sings, dances, cries, mourns, wears ugly freckles and a fright wig, messes up her hair to look like Sid Vicious unleashed, lets them put a putty nose on her and has her hubby walk out into the ocean to off himself and then has a screaming match with that guy [the one who was dating Lorelei Lee] who wants her to go and declare that she is "Mrs. Norman Maine" in front of the world, which she does to great effect. The poor thing certainly deserved that Oscar even if only for those ugly freckles.

 

But she wuz robbed!

 

The winner, Grace Kelly merely took off some make-up, stopped with the peroxide on her locks and wore an old ratty sweater and...won the Big One. 
 

In essence I would have picked any of the other nominees over Grace but I'm not a white man over 55 [just kidding!]. I'm sure there were many white women in the academy voting group, who also chose Grace as the winner, but for the life of me I'm not sure why.

 

Seems a bit unfair but I'm sure Garland got over it.

 

So that's my take, about the most egregious Oscar choice of all time.

 

Now it is your turn to speak up about another one of dem peeps who wuz robbed of their rightful Oscar by some pinheads [oops, I mean academy members] out there in LaLaLand.

 

Please state your case.

[Juvenile Jungle Epics]

Dance of the Dwarfs a.k.a. Jungle Heat (1983)

 

Peter Fonda and Deborah Raffin encounter a lost tribe of pygmies and lizard people.

 

Like a fine wine.

Now excuse me, Lawrence as you know how much I always appreciate your posts, but should that title not have been "Dance of the Dwarves"???

 

I mean one would not say the singular "scarf" and plural "scarfs" would they?

 

Or maybe they would, if they were Goldie Hawn's ex-hubby, Gus Trikonis as the director.

 

Gee and you know I just never miss a Deborah Raffin movie!

 

Never mind!

[Art in Movies]

What about him? More importantly, what about me? (Quicksilver Messenger Service)

What about YOU? Anne Murray recorded "Hey, What About Me?" and she said to say "hi".

 

So, "hi".

[Juvenile Jungle Epics]

Some of my favorite films are of the jungle variety, wherein rather mad scientists from the states travel off the beaten path to unearth mysteries of life that can benefit their kin back home.

 

Anything with cannibals, headhunters or with people wearing pith helmets is okay by me.

 

Now sure, when you have an endocrinologist who is injecting his wife with some serum that will remove about thirty years of wrinkles from her exterior and be like the answer to Ponce de Leon's fountain, it does get a bit juvenile but still...lots of fun to watch even if a bit ludicrous.

 

Hence one of my always watch films is "The Leech Woman" with Colleen Gray in just such a predicament. Plus she has dreamy Grant Williams to salivate over after she gets rid of her nasty and old hubby who was using her as his guinea pig, and so deserved his fate.

 

Do you have a favorite jungle influenced film that I might not have seen yet? If so, try me!

[Art in Movies]

Yo

 

You left out Art Treacher and Art Godfrey.

He also left out Art Acord who was in silent films and westerns and was a big rodeo star.

 

Acording, I mean...according to my "History of the Silent Screen" book.

 

By the way, what about Art Linkletter, DGF?

 

 

[Too bad I can't watch TCM, I miss it]

You  can watch it at my house, assuming you are not a grizzly bear that weighs more than 1,000 pounds and promise not to leave my house in small pieces.

Wow, DGF, you are one really generous person.

 

Will there also be snacks and libation for visiting friends from TCM?

[Need Dargo's Help [Marxism question]]

I've never totally understood the Hegelian philosophy of which Karl was one of the supreme masters, so could you please explain it to us, Dargo.

 

Plus a primer and tutorial on general Marxism would be beneficial also.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

I took Philosophy 101 but we only got to the Soren Kierkeggard [sp?] part and then the semester ended abruptly.

Also please connect your exegesis to German Expressionism and the films of Fritz Lang.

 

Correction; That should have been Kierkegaard.

[Need Dargo's help! (Marx query)]

Any knowledgable person knows that Karl Marx played the electric guitar. He could give Hendrix and Clapton a run for their money.

And everyone knows Richard Marx was his son and he also played a mean axe.