CaveGirl
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Posts posted by CaveGirl
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2 minutes ago, jimmymac71 said:
I lived in the boonies as a kid. We had an 'aerial' up in a tree, and had what was called twin lead wire to the house. This was before coaxial cable. Do you remember the flat antenna wire? We didn't get a lot of TV channels, but I did watch cartoons. I didn't pay attention to the names of the characters.
So, my dear, who is Sweetums?
Frankly my dear, I don't do Muppet trivia but I do know of a Snooky, namely Snooky Lanson who my granny loved on "Your Hit Parade". She once said putting a slice of baloney [bologna] on your rabbit ears could improve reception.
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2 hours ago, TopBilled said:
Yes, I'd forgotten who Wayland Flowers was...until I looked him up and saw a photo of him with Madame.
I do think Melba Moore was quite well known at that time and I can see why they wanted a musical guest to sing with Bea. But it would have been nice if Angela had been included. We should add Angela could have had Bea as a guest star on Murder She Wrote but that didn't happen either.
How could you forget Madame, TB? Once seen, never forgotten. Melba Moore was slightly famous at the time for her performance on Broadway in "Purlie" after previously having been in "Hair". One of the authors of "Hair" was a friend of the family, and predicted big things for Moore when my mother met her during the run, but I don't know if they totally materialized in the way she wanted after "Purlie". Angela was a much more well rounded performer but a part of the Hollywood set who were not in films much anymore but using their talents on Broadway, like Ginger Rogers. Fame is fleeting apparently even though she had been in so many films.
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5 minutes ago, Vautrin said:
Yeah, despite trying so hard, Powell never made much of an impression on me as a
tough guy, mainly because he looks like a medium wind could knock him over. He's okay,
but no big deal. This isn't because of the contrast between his noir roles and his earlier
persona as the grinning boy next door in musicals since I've never seen many of the latter.
There is likely a noir fantasy where instead of being the handsome good guy with a lot of
spending dough, it's one of lowlifes who swill booze, crack wise, and slap the women around
just for fun. Hey, whatever gets your motor running. I think Fred is a bit more sexy than
Powell if only because Barbara Stanwyck can't help but lend him a little bit of hers. Right
to the end of the line.
I think Eddie was talking about this Saturday's movie where Jane Wyatt plays a femme fatale.
We'll see. IMHO dishwater is duller than ditchwater. You can never be sure what you'll find
in ditchwater, whereas you pretty well know about the contents of cold dishwater.
Normally Babs has sex appeal to spare, but with that horrid wig which looks like it was made for George Washington, as Billy Wilder mentioned, I find her appearance in the film a bit disturbing. Her acting was on target though throughout. Yeah, Muller was talking about this week's film "The Man Who Cheated Himself". I probably could never imagine good old Margaret Anderson from "Father Knows Best" show as a femme fatale, even if she was hitting on Robert Mitchum. She is just way too much a stiff, straight-laced looking New England type of woman. Attractive, yes...sexy, no!
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I had a friend who would sing that song which begins "Be my love, for no one else can...blah blah" continually which did turn me off a bit toward Mario. But one has to sympathize with any singing truck driver who is faced with a studio determined to slim him down to below Laird Cregar and Raymond Burr size by constant dieting.
What's the movie in which he does singing imitations of others? He's fun to watch and has a fine voice. -
10 minutes ago, jimmymac71 said:
I didn't realize he had a name. I had to look up Foghorn Leghorn. I have to agree with Dargo, as there are a terrible number of TV voices that drive me up a wall. I am not a Noir Alley kinda guy, but he is the best sounding host.
Dargo is the "best sounding host" you say, Jimmy?
I gotta agree. And Dargo looks the best too since his lookalike, James Coburn is much more attractive than Eddie Muller, and Dar probably knows more about wine too.
And pardon me, Jimmy for mentioning that this is a serious gap in your education if you had to look up Foghorn Leghorn. Why were you not watching cartoons during your formative years and destroying your mind like the rest of us. By the way, Foghorn was based on a radio character from the Fred Allen show, called Senator Claghorn, in case you are interested. Fred is way before my time, but my grandpa had some old radio broadcasts of him and company so I know the characters. -
4 minutes ago, laffite said:
Probably because there are so many different ways to spell his name.
At least his comedy routines are not full of foeitid material.
Or foetid or even fetid...-
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19 minutes ago, jimmymac71 said:
I probably have as good a chance to speak with Joan Lunden as you do. Not sure how "A Place For Mom" got its name. Perhaps because the ladies live longer. I am in a 55+ community where there are many single ladies living alone.
So, what you are saying is, your shoes are safe. If they were licorice infused hemp, now we're talking.
I relate to what you are saying, but in a musical sense. I am a mainstream TV and movie kind of guy, but love music that is different. We could get into trouble with the TCM police, for dropping music videos here. So, I will only mention "You Can't Tell The Difference After Dark" by name.
I love Paula Prentiss, mostly for "Man's Favorite Sport," but would love to see "Saturday The 14th" on TCM.
I know who Alberta Hunter is, Jimmy due to my dad being a big fan of pre-World War II jazz and blues. He liked her music and also a lady named Nellie Lutcher, who you might know too. Both had some pretty double entendre titles and could really swing.
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1 hour ago, misswonderly3 said:
Hmm, kind of like when people say "If you think that, you've got another thing coming!" , while I believe the original expression is "If you think that, you've got another think coming !"
"Thing" and "think" sound so much alike.
And then there's "Music soothes the savage beast", when it's actually Music soothes the savage breast" . But anyway it's actually "Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast". But, just like "ditchwater" and "dishwater", and "thing" and "think", one can see why people would believe it was "savage beast", which makes as much sense as "savage breast".
Apropos of nothing: I cannot and do not pretend to be a knowledgeable person, whether we're talking film noir or commonly used quotations and expressions (or anything else, for that matter). So I will freely admit I am often wrong. And I was wrong about "music hath charms to soothe a savage breast" (perhaps it would be better to say "a savage beast's breast", then we'd be covering all our bases.)
Anyway, I thought it was from "Twelfth Night", but no, it's from William Congreve's obscure play , "The Mourning Bride". Who knew? Pas moi.
I always said "If you think that, you've got another thing coming!" when I was a kid, because as you say, it did truly sound like that. Same as the "savage beast" confusion with "savage breast". I only learned the correct versions probably around age twenty, when I became interested in the origination of certain slang terminology and sayings, and had a few books detailing such. Sometimes one has heard a phrase for years, without ever looking it up, and then they learn accidentally its origins, for example just yesterday I heard the saying "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" was from Keats, which I had not known even though the saying was so familiar. I guess we learn new things daily, which is fun since knowing it all might be a bit boring. I am not familiar with Congreve's play "The Mourning Bride" but now find I want to research it, so thanks for this new tidbit to explore, Miss Wonderly. Learning new words or the true meaning of old words is always so entertaining and rewarding I feel and I enjoyed your post.
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4 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:
I think it's "dishwater".
But I don't think old Dick Powell is dull at all, whether you prefer ditchwater or dishwater. I really like him as a noir protagonist. I enjoy his dry line deliveries. And two of my favourite noirs star Powell: "Murder My Sweet" and "Cry Danger !" True, he's kind of goofy-looking. But so is Fred MacMurray. Goofiness in itself doesn't preclude being a noir hero. And I think Dick often shows a bit of a sense of humour, sometimes even a slightly self-mocking one. No, I don't believe I'd toss a pan of dishwater over Dick Powell. Or toss him into a ditch, either.
Back again...I found Powell as boring as could be, in "Pitfall" but I like him a lot in "Murder My Sweet" and other roles. Just don't think Lizbeth would dig him in "Pitfall" unless of course she just hopes he will get that repulsive Ray Burr off her back! He does show humor in many other roles and in general is quite talented, except for picking June Allyson as his wife. Sorry...I'm so mean. Never was big on Fred MacMurray except as the disgusting Mr. Sheldrake in "The Apartment" in which he was amazingly fabulous as a cad, hence choosing never to play such a role again...boo hoo! So glad to see you have returned to the TCM fold, Miss Wonderly and welcome back. Maybe you've been back but I just haven't seen you so I apologize if I am in error?
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3 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:
I think it's "dishwater".
But I don't think old Dick Powell is dull at all, whether you prefer ditchwater or dishwater. I really like him as a noir protagonist. I enjoy his dry line deliveries. And two of my favourite noirs star Powell: "Murder My Sweet" and "Cry Danger !" True, he's kind of goofy-looking. But so is Fred MacMurray. Goofiness in itself doesn't preclude being a noir hero. And I think Dick often shows a bit of a sense of humour, sometimes even a slightly self-mocking one. No, I don't believe I'd toss a pan of dishwater over Dick Powell. Or toss him into a ditch, either.
Not to give you a hard time, since I'm thrilled to see you back, Miss Wonderly but I always used to say "Dull as dishwater" and then one time looked its derivation up and found "ditchwater" predated "dishwater".
Check this out and then I will be back:
"very boring, or miserable.
old english phrase dating back to the 1700s, which plays on the double meaning of dull (boring/opaque).
modern english and american english also uses the phrase "dull as dishwater", probably evolved through mispronounciation and familiarity with the latter."andy has a new girlfriend but i can't understand why, she is as dull as ditchwater"
"wear the purple one, that black dress is dull as ditchwater"
(1) who specifically, or at least when specifically, did originate the phrase?
{Example answer - "that was one of Shakespeare's!"}
(2) why?
(3) when first did someone screw up and use "..dishwater"? why? who?
Thank you.
(PS note that in print, apparently "...dishwater" become more popular from about the 1970s. I am interested in the above three questions, if anyone has any info on those three specific questions, thank you in advance.)
BTW I appreciate this question may be "easily answered by some reference book", if so, please (A) tell me the book and (B) close the question. (I'm afraid I couldn't find anything.)
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2The switch from ditchwater to dishwater is very likely to have been in speech, since they sound very much alike. So it's going to be undocumented. (Although you might be able to figure out roughly when and where the switch happened.) – Peter Shor Sep 10 '14 at 12:12
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Love Mulligan!
Wonder if there are any films with Brubeck and Desmond in them? Thanks for the info! -
6 hours ago, spence said:
Think he would have enjoyed this little tidbit W.C. Fields Hollywood Walk-of-Fame Star is-(or was) located directly in front of a ladies GENTLEMEN'S CLUB i.e. STRIPPERS on H. BLVD
He lived on a hill right near Errol Flynn & John Barrymore-(all now raised, not to be confused with Flynn;s legendary Mulholland residence though) that came later & at last count was at least still standing, matter of fact Ricky Nelson lived in Flynn;s mansion when he was suddenly killed on a New Years eve Plane Crash in 1985.
& who saw *Rod Steiger's 1970's performance/bio as W.C. fields opposite Valerie Perrine?
By the way Charlie McCarthy is & has been for yrs is at THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE/MUSEUM
(FINAL NOTE: Typically of the man he became W.C. had great difficulty with his old man & once rigged a horse rack, or a rake of somekind so when his father would step on it it would absolutely pop up & smash him, in his face, one day it worked & then Fields simply left & took to the road becoming a juggler,etc)
I normally love Rod Steiger but that film was a travesty and horrid. If I were king, I would have started with Fields as a young man, and would have chosen Malcolm MacDowell to play him. If you've seen photos of early Fields, then you know there was a resemblance, but this was when Malcolm still had brown hair and not the white shock of hair he has now.
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Maybe forgotten by the general public, but not by those who enjoy comedy legends.
I always think about how he said a scene with him playing pool, in "David Copperfield" would add to the script. And though he said "anyone who hates children can't be all bad" and he only liked children if they were "parboiled" deep down it was said that he did like Baby Leroy, even if he did give him that little nudge kick as Professor MacGonigle. I would have liked to have met the mother of Fields, since he said he got most of his sarcastic style from comments he heard her make growing up. She must have been hilarious.
I've read all the books, and seen all the documentaries but watching Fields in action in any film, is the way to become a fan. As Robert Klein said "He's just so funny."
I seriously don't think he will ever be forgotten, he will just be an acquired taste by the comedic intelligentsia. But I am glad you highlighted good old William Claude in your post, Spence!
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On 6/19/2018 at 8:00 AM, Sepiatone said:
Just saw that for my first time yesterday. Kinda tickled me. "Rock'n'Roll" prison farm.
And it too made me wonder---just what DID ever become of Ms. Doren? and remember too, in those times ANOTHER busty blonde "actress" named Monique Van VOOREN, who some thought was either van DOREN with a different stage name, or whose name was "made up" to get the public confused between van Doren and her?
That was the era in which having blonde hair( real or not), a big bustline and marginal talent made one a "STAR", with the parade of MONROE, MANSFIELD, EKBERG, DAGMAR, Van DOREN and VOOREN leading the way.
And seeing EDDIE COCHRAN do a tune made me think the producers missed a "golden" opportunity for Eddie to do a version of the old blues tune "Parchman Farm"!
And too, it kept making me think of the movie HOLES,('03) which did sort of have a similar premise. But minus the "chicks" and music.
Sepiatone
I love watching that film mostly for Mamie but also for Eddie Cochran. Once talked to someone male, who was quite good friends with Cochran, telling me about him even being able to pick up stewardesses as dates when they were on airplanes together, since he was such a flirt. I always look at his feet, since he had incredibly small tootsies for a guy. I wish they had him sing something like his "Three Steps to Heaven" instead of the song they picked, as I've never seen a live video version of it. It was the inspiration for the Who's "Overture to Tommy" and if you've never heard it check it out on Youtube for comparison. Cochran was an excellent guitarist and is missed.
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On 6/18/2018 at 7:06 PM, TopBilled said:
Will it take Mr. Rourke's magic?
Or maybe Khan's wrath?
He could always take his shirt off and get on his knees.
Or he could take Priscilla Presley hostage again.
Or wear a really great looking hat.
What a long and fruitful screen career Ricardo Montalban had.
It baffles me TCM hasn't featured him as a Star of the Month (yet). Especially with all his MGM films in their library.
All those Esther Williams musicals, the noir, plus his westerns and the sheer longevity of his career makes him a perfect candidate.
I believe TopBilled that poor Ricardo is suffering the Curse of Being Related to Attila the Nun, aka Loretta Young.
By marrying Loretta's sister, Georgiana, Montalban is being ignored as payback for all the folks who found Loretta insufferable. Why even her other sisters, Polly Ann Young and my favorite Young, since she took another name, Sally Blane, said Loretta could be a pain at times. I know this is unfair but memories last forever and Ricardo is just the innocent victim of the antipathy towards Loretta that still exists today unabated.
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On 6/19/2018 at 12:04 AM, musicalnovelty said:
I too was surprised and disappointed that he said that about Lizabeth Scott. Here I was agreeing with and enjoying his post-movie comments, until the crack "nobody would accuse her of being a good actress" (or whatever the direct quote was). If he had said "great actress" maybe I would not have objected as much, but I think she was always "good" to very good in everything. I have never had any problem with her performances in everything I've seen her in.
No one would also accuse Muller of having any real background as a film critic or as a knowledgeable movie viewer per se, so it is not surprising that he just gives his off the cuff impressions of films and actors for his monologues. "Surprise, surprise" as Casey Anthony would say. Go to any of his seminars and ask him an unrehearsed question about classic movies and you will find he has no real background knowledge of movies and probably doesn't know the difference between Ann Sothern and Anne of Green Gables, when it comes right down to it. He obviously researchs films online before commenting hence does not give off an aura of really being sponge worthy about movies in general or actors and their careers ostensibly.
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On 6/18/2018 at 5:01 PM, Vautrin said:
Dick Powell beating the **** out of Raymond Burr? C'mon man. The suburban setting
is an agreeable change from the usual big city locations and the lowlifes who live there. I
think Burr stopped being subtle when he met Dickie in front of his garage and beat the
**** out of him. That I could believe. I found the Powell character to be just as tiresome
and dull as the other middle class folks he disdains. And then after all that tumult, it's
back to the salt mines. Tough break for the non-thinking man's Walter Neff.
Powell is dull as ditchwater, Vautrin. But Muller continually overpraises and overrates this routine film. One would think he has some personal attachment to its theme and I will say Muller looks a bit like a second string Dick Powell. Maybe this is the noir that Muller relates most to, hence he can't get it out of his head. Often one is drawn to films which relate to one's own life, and many men live lives of quiet boredom even if they are on television and touting less than Swank-y cufflinks and wine continually.
I seriously doubt that the fascinating Lizbeth Scott would go for either Powell or Muller, since she likes to drive her speedboat faster than ten miles per hour and would find both inducing somnambulance daily. No surprise, since Eddie thinks Jane Wyatt could be a femme fatale which is like saying Miss Jane from the Beverly Hillbillies could give Ava Gardner a run for her money in the allure category. These noir lover men who write the books and herd up old stars for their own aggrandizement at festivals, are just like the men in the noir movies they adore, lame-o and as interesting as watching wallpaper peel off in some dump boarding house!
By the way, Freddie boy as Walter Neff was as sexless as Jane Wyatt but at least he could play an instrument. Next time I'll tell you what I really think though...so excuse my reticence. -
3 minutes ago, jamesjazzguitar said:
Mentioning Gottfried and Ben in the same post. Man, you fight dirty!
I heard Dargo sounds a lot like Foghorn Leghorn!
And have I mentioned, Dargo that I think Foghorn Leghorn has a lovely speaking voice. -
10 hours ago, TopBilled said:
I was watching the interview Bea Arthur did about her career. It's on the EmmyTVLegends website. She covers her stage work, her hit TV series and guest appearances she made. She also talks about a variety special she made which aired on CBS in January 1980.
It was called The Beatrice Arthur Special. She does comedy, musical numbers and other variety skits. It sounded as if it was a pilot for a weekly variety show that didn't get picked up so the network aired it as a special.
Anyway, she says that when they were planning it, she thought of the people she wanted to appear with her. She and Connie (her pet name for Conrad Bain) were good friends so she featured him in one of the segments. Wayland Flowers and Madame appeared, and so did Melba Moore. She tells the interviewer that the one person she really wanted on the special with her was Angela, meaning Angela Lansbury.
But CBS vetoed this choice because the execs said Angela Lansbury was not a big enough name. When Bea says this she seems flabbergasted that they shot down Angela Lansbury as a guest. Like she still can't believe it all these years later. They ended up using Rock Hudson as the other big name guest. Of course this was four years before CBS put Murder She Wrote on the air and Angela became a household name.
So was Angela's career really at a low point in 1979/1980?
She was doing "Mame" on Broadway on on tour in those years after leaving movies for a few, wasn't she? I of course would have thought of her as a big name but maybe not the general public, though one hopes she was certainly more famous than Wayland Flowers and Melba Moore at that time. There's no accounting for taste by tv executives so I'm not surprised, TB.
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22 hours ago, Dargo said:
A few weeks back and during TCM's Memorial Day weekend programming of war films, nasally Ben mentioned during his wraparound for the movie The Battle of The Bulge that former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was so incensed over all the "mythinformation" he found contained within it that he was prompted to hold a press conference and denounce the film.
(...some of you folks around here might remember ol' Ike, I'm sure...he was a President back in a day when unlike presently, Presidents actually acted presidential...yeah yeah, I JUST couldn't resist saying this last part, again...oh, and also of course that thing up there I said about "nasally Ben", and 'cause THAT'S no "mythinformation" EITHER!!!)
LOL
If Colonel Tom Parker had been Ike's campaign manager, he would have made a mint by printing up "I Hate Ike" buttons along with the "I Like Ike" ones, as he did for Elvis, thus making money off both sides and then Mamie would have had more money to buy new curtains for the White House as she redecorated.
Speaking of mythinformation please don't follow up your post with any lies and prevarications about Estes Kefauver, Dargo who also was a bit nasally sounding! -
22 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:
this sicko wants to soil Bancroft's daughter after overwhelming her mother?
If he'd just gone into Plastics as advised, none of this debauchery would have occurred.
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Really? Well, now I am focusing and I can kind of see what you mean, though Karloff might have seemed a bit scary in "Brideshead Revisited" but he definitely could have hit his marks in playing the twins in "Dead Ringers". Great visualizing and they are both a bit craggy looking, mostly playing it serious but with a talent for deadpan humor if needed. Thanks so much for an outre concept that might just be on target. Looking forward to Irons playing William Pratt in a biopic now...
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On 6/15/2018 at 9:55 PM, slaytonf said:
If. . .(1968) is available for viewing on YT. We have been fortunate enough to have seen O Lucky Man! (1973) on TCM.
Thanks, Slayton! I own the album to "O Lucky Man". Any Alan Price fans would totally enjoy it!
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On 6/16/2018 at 3:54 PM, jimmymac71 said:
Okay, color me stupid or something, but if this movie is so 'hot', how could it be allowed to play on TCM?
About your shoes. The good news is your feet would smell like licorice. Bad news is they could turn black.
Now I'm thinking Lucy and Ethel, in the I Love Lucy episode where they stomp grapes.
I'm sure "A Place For Mom," (Joan Lunden TV ads) can get you a retirement village with TCM.
I enjoy your wisdom and your humor.
Hey, Jimmy! It's hard to go into detail about "Salo" due to its excruciatingly sadistic plotlines, but the word "hot" in its usual sexual sense does not apply. The film is more of an expose of political and psychosexual manipulations in a fascist regime. The sex is used not for the usual purposes of titillation or arousal but in more of a power structure way with dog eat dog tendencies. It is not really a film which would play well on tv, which is why I really don't see it ever playing on TCM. The elements of debauchery would never probably be seen in the light they were intended by director Pasolini. I purchased "Salo" mostly because I'd read about it numerous times and also thought it might go out of print, and like to see things people like to ban. I've only watched it once as it is a bit rough, but even with numerous events which on the surface would appear to be sexual, I can see that the film is not really about sex, if that makes any sense.
Thanks for your very kind words and please ask Joan Lunden why she doesn't even care about finding "A Place for Poor Old Dad!"
Mad about Musicals & Mario Lanza
in General Discussions
Posted
You're a nice person, Laffite. Not being one, I can say I was almost excommunicated by the nuns for saying I hated the song "Ave Maria". The only thing worse than hearing it sung by a choir would be having it sung by someone like Kate Smith. Feel my pain!