CaveGirl

I have to admit thegreatman has a point though about The Essentials. Seeing the recent clips of George C. Scott speaking at the Cagney tribute, made me think of his refusal of the whole award insanity. One has to admire him but even then one has to laugh to think that probably the best way to get an Oscar is to call their bluff and say it is baloney and then they HAVE to give it to you. I guess one has to look at TE as being a primer perhaps for those who are not big film devotees and leave it at that.

"Seinfeld" was a show about nothing, so if you don't think nothing is funny, you probably won't laugh. In a recasting I'd make Bogie be George Constanza wearing the glasses from TBS, Cagney of course would play Kramer but on stilts and Eddie would be the wry Jerry. I can just see Cagney bursting in Jerry's doorway with the energy he used in WH when he went nutso. I like to cast against type. Mary Astor could play Elaine.

Well, why not do a completely revamped Picnic? If Joseph Cornell could make a film isolating all the scenes of Rose Hobart and it now shows in museums, I think you should take Picnic apart scene by scene and make it fit your synopsis. I'm available if you need anyone for continuity purposes...

She's so talented! Hilarious in TPBS and always believable. Could go from vamp to the most lovely mother, as in MF to MMISL. Maybe she learned to act well after her diary about her love affair with...uh, was it George Kauffman [sp?] came out in the papers. I only have one beef...she was gorgeous but I so wish she had not had that horrid hair-do in The Maltese Falcon. Kay Francis could have given her some tips on being a bit more stylish methinks.

I must concur totally. She was a joy and was really articulate. The lady was able to debate Osborne on certain points since it was obvious that she really knew her films. Some people come on and actually seem totally devoid of knowledge about the film they are touting. Kind of like when supposed celebrities write an article for a mag and you just know someone else ghostwrote it for them. Madeleine Stowe was a pleasure and I really enjoyed her take on SING and the other films. Good call, Dargo!

Have you ever noticed how in "Vertigo" in the green lit scene where Scottie views the newly revamped Madeleine, and peroxided Judy walks slowly out of the bathroom toward him...that the bed light shade, suspended right below the flowered picture behind her, is there...then not there? It's kind of spooky...since the scene is eerie anyway but it appears and disappears. Also in the scene at Scottie's apartment, what is with the bit where the curtains keep hanging up the actors as they walk near the window? It almost looks like someone is behind them. Gee, is Elster hanging out there to watch the action? Just kidding... Hitchcock was such a consummate planner, it's hard to figure why he did not notice the missing bed light shade. Planned or not? I have a lot of fun going frame by frame during some scenes, where Scottie imagines a woman looks like Madeleine, to see that first Hitch used Kim in the scene and then the other actress. All those profiles too. They jump out at you and if you slow them down you can see they are from different takes.

Lavender always was Kim's favorite color, or so she said in old interviews. I believe I once read and saw an article in which rooms in her abode were all in lavender, with her gracing the mansion in beautiful color photos accompanying. Of course...Kim would look good in any color.

Well, an amazing array of fabulous interpretations. Thanks to all. I love the Mamie Eisenhower connection, as I've always dug the McCarthy connection to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". As for Dietrichson not being on the train, what's more questionable is who the heck is B.Traven and why was he hiding in South America under an assumed name after writing TOTSM? I don't really like to pick films apart and say "Oh this is impossible and Kong couldn't have been brought back to civilization because he was bigger than the boat" as suspension of belief is always fun, but oftimes one wonders if there is a hidden interpretation in the director or writer's mind, a bit like Mother Goose rhymes being politically inspired heresy. I think if Scottie did fall on that poor policeman, he must have made mincemeat out of him...haha! Edited by: CaveGirl on Sep 12, 2013 2:45 PM

Okay, so first I have to make it through "I Confess" as I plan to stay up to watch one of the few Bergman films I've not seen. And I start having this Proustian feeling every time the soaring music comes on during the Hitch film. I'm like...why is this bringing up scenes in my mind of some other film. So I look up Dimitri Tiomkin's film scores in my trusty film library on the shelf and see he scored "It's a Wonderful Life" and then it all becomes clear to me. He's used some of the same motifs in "IC". Well, seems a bit cheesy to crib one's own stuff but okay. So now "WL" is on and I'm enthralled as it is Bergman at his most depressing. Fab city! Spoilers alert...the priest actually manages to counsel a really down in the mouth parishioner [Max von Sydow] and the poor guy immediately goes off and shoots himself in the head. The the girlfriend gets told by her paramour that he is still in love with his dead wife and basically she is just annoying him and to back off as he's become a non-believer and that's that. So...as usual I see why TCM has scheduled this at 4:00am. Those great pre-70's Janus Films are always on at this time. But here's the sad part...I zonked at five minutes before the end. What happened? Did everyone kill themself or what? And by the way...have you ever noticed how Woody Allen's films, just always look like a Bergman film but with a laugh track added? Edited by: CaveGirl on Sep 12, 2013 2:35 PM

Did I say it was "good"???

Dargo, of course I knew that you knew that I knew that you knew that and we were just joshing the rest of the folks here to see if they would fall for it. And thanks for mentioning Glenn Corbett as he was a cutie and much more attractive than John Gavin who was a bit stiff in my not so humble opinion AND not a former football player, not that I'm into that or dating men with money. He married [Gavin] that lady who was in "Shock Corridor" but I can't think of her name. They both looked a bit like mannequins. What else am I thinking? Your turn...and I'm not thinking about if Jackie Searl really was a brat in real life either.

Thanks, lavenderblue for the "Bitter Rice" info! Dargo, your very boastful comments about not dating for money, remind me of W.C. Fields describing his family as being poor but dishonest. Bragging about not dating for money, is beneath you. Unless of course you dated Christina Onassis.

Dargo, Dargo, Dargo!!! You have lost your mind trying to come up with Jack Oakie puns. Pat Breslin was not the cross-dresser in "Homicidal" she was Warren's sister. Jean Arless was the chick, playing both Emily [?] AND Warren. Now how could you forget that! Hopefully not because you have homicidal tendencies yourself.

Okey,-dokey, Dargo! As for you being not-punctual, are you also non-punked as in "Tillie's Punctured Romance"?

Well now, sfpcc2 I would think the Videodrome Channel could show "Salo" or "The 120 Days of Sodom" or whatever it is called, as it quite comfortably fits in with their most admired programming aims. Surely you have that channel in your cable or satellite line-up...hmmm?

But my dear Dargo, I never kid. Think of me as sort of the female version of Zachary Scott. Not Lizbeth, Zachary. He was so much more dastardly. Killing with humor though is better than killing with other things, as in that erstwhile Sci-Fi classic, "Liquid Sky". And stop rolling on the floor as it is putting creases in your freshly pressed pantaloons.

I love Patricia Breslin and who can forget her in the amazing Castle bizarro-world film, "Homicidal"? That Helga story and the bit about sex changes in some Swedish clinic, kind of like Christine Jorgensen, topped even Hitchcock. I know, I know...it was B-rubbish but what fun-filled B-rubbish.

Dear Kid-Dabb, Your suggestions only bring to mind a comment made by Sian Phillips, when asked why she was so good as the most diabolical Livia in the BBC production of "I, Claudius". She said "I was taught by nuns..." I too was taught by nuns so can pass on all your most wonderful suggestions, which of course I've seen even if under duress. Now if they ever make a movie about the nun we had in first grade who was sent to an insane asylum, I'd watch that! I would have to say that I can watch "Black Narcissus" over and over but that might be due to Jack Cardiff. Audrey is great in TNS though...

Dargo2... Waiting, waiting. This is like waiting for Godot. You aren't he, are you? I'd say I'd like you at my Beckett/call but then I'd be one pun up on you. C'mon, give it your best shot!

"Noir" being a French word is as important in determining origins as certain food in the US being called French Fries to the typical Parisian's mystification. I do see the Italian connection though. We all know what noir is based on...Venetian blinds. Venice is in Italy, and venetian blinds are visible in any good noir film, so discussion closed. Yet if you are creating something of which you know not till it's done of what it is, which is the noir basis, then you can't really take credit for it. Kind of like even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, even if he were not searching for it. The deference toward A-film standards which did not apply to outsiders like Edgar Ulmer, was what allowed him to attempt certain risky situations in film. But he can't really take credit for knowing he was starting a genre, he can only take credit for being a true original who knew how to film a scenario which packed a wallop. That death by telephone cord scene is still a killer. Of course, "SOTTF" could be in contention but we'll get there when we get there. All I know is...only women can be true fans of film noir, as men who like noirs always turn out to be just like the wimps in the storyline who get taken by the femmes fatales...haha! And I know this from experience. Don't ask...

Thank you, mister 6666 for most sound sentiments and if you had one less 666, I would be contacting you for some Faustian favors! Thanks also, jamesjazzguitar for your insights. I believe there is a form of narcissism so rampant in show biz from time immemorial, that the respect the writer of what made them famous seems to get completely obscured over time. Now...if you are brilliant like Chaplin and can write, direct, act in and also even write your own theme music, which is actually quite melodious, like "Limelight"...then you deserve all the praise there is to bestow. I will admit, often some source material has been greatly improved by a director with vision, but still...one should salute one's sources. I too find it risible that people quote lines from films as if the character as played by the actor came up with it on the spot. We can probably only praise a few oddball folks like W.C. Fields for writing his own trenchant cracks as he went, but that's life I guess. As Rodney Dangerfield once said...for writers, it must be a hard pill to swallow.

Thank you both kingrat [good movie!] and lzcutter for your help. As for you, Dargo2...very funny and though Grouch, being the first choice by Margaret Mitchell to play Rhett Butler has always been one of my favorites, I am less into Chicolin than I am my all-time heartthrob, Jack Oakie as Napolini in "TGD". I triple dog dare you to top that one!

I think "Vertigo" is Hitchcock's paean to the non-existence of a belief still being paramount if you refuse to deny it. C'mon, Scottie was hanging on the edge of a rapidly being destroyed gutter when last we saw him. The film is about what happens between when he looks down and sees the dead cop on the ground...and when he falls himself. Being that Scottie is a passionless soul, with no real love affairs to think back of in his death throes or to reflect upon...he dreams about the elusive Madeleine, who does not exist, as he falls to his death. Why Madeleine? Well, maybe Scottie spent his long, lonely nights reading Proust and that makes as much sense as Kane saying Rosebud in his last expiring breath. Yep, the story in "Vertigo" reflects Hitchcock's own mortality and the fact that he himself was always dreaming of blonde women who would never give him a tumble. Alma, the soul...allowed Hitchcock to make these films to vent his frustrations and "Vertigo" is the crowning achievement to this ode to onanism. Prove me wrong and we can talk...

One must remember in trying to figure out anything in a Tennessee Williams' story, that well...all female figures are based on male figures ostensibly if there is an erotic element being discussed, being that this is what Tennessee knew in his personal life, hence he used that knowledge and just changed the character's sex in the tale. I should know...my brother's schoolmate was the last lover of Tennessee Williams, though we don't talk about it much at grade school reunions...

As a film one cannot deny the talents of its director. As tribute to demagoguery, one cannot deny its inherent manipulatory stance. Great visuals with a less than admirable message. Who can deny that Calvin Klein's ads totally usurped the visuals filmed by Leni of the males participating in the Olympics in Berlin in the 1930's. All those intensely eroticized close-up shots of muscles and flexing that she initiated apparently inspired many modern ad campaigns. I love films by Busby Berkeley but I hear to get them he was a horrible tyrant on set. Now I'm conflicted, should I enjoy a gold diggers film or not? What to do, what to do...as Buddy Holly might have said.