CaveGirl
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Posts posted by CaveGirl
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39 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
i ALWAYS feel like Dorothy in that episode of THE GOLDEN GIRLS when Rose forces her to go to MR HOT DOG'S HAHAHACIENDA for her birthday.
but thank you.
OMG! Is that the one where the clown host or something keeps calling all the kiddies with birthdays to come up to the front? And Dorothy has to go and well...hilarious.
Lorna, Happy Belated Birthday and remember, we all read your original post which is the important point, and speaking for myself, thoroughly enjoyed your take on FFMN and the like, and that's the important thing. Only really great stuff usually gets censored by small minds. It's the boring and mundane things that never get any attention since they are, well...boring and mundane and offend no one. To offend no one, is to end up bland like a bowl of rice...not that there's anything wrong with rice of course.
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14 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
i watched SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) on TCM ON DEMAND- which was great, because I don't think I'd've been able to watch it in one full viewing. I did not realize that it is THREE HOURS AND 31 MINUTES long until i paused it to go to the bathroom.
thusly, i was actually able to watch it in three hour long installments- which may not be how you were intended TO SEE IT, but it worked for me and my drain-bramaged attention span.
(it also helped that it had just begun pouring rain when i watched the last third, which takes part in the rain)
while i am a Film Snob, I am NOT WELL SCHOOLED IN "FARN" FILMS at all, honest to God it's usually because I have a hard time focusing on subtitles and there's always so much extra effort involved.
however, i have seen RASHOMAN, and honestly, I'd (still) say that that is my favorite foreign film OF ALL TIME, so I was set for this, and I was not disappointed.
it's a genuinely great movie- i think the BEST thing about it is the editing, I'm by no means a film tech snob, but someone wove a masterful and compelling 3 hours and 31 minutes out of what i can only assume was 10,000 feet of film of people getting DICED.
My favorite thing about the Japanese films I've seen are the sounds of grass and bamboo in the wind and running water, there is plenty of both. I loved the sound work in this. There was no music except for three brief (AND ODD) moments, and that makes it INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE.
Some actors are not actors, they are FORCES OF NATURE. Anna Magnini is one such case, TOSHIRO MIFUNE is another. He is wind. he is fire. He is rain. He is fetching as all get out in a saucy little leather vest/helmet with a hemline up to there. TAKASHI SHIMURA is in the "elder statesman" role, and honestly- they're neck and neck for who ultimately steals the film, one doing so much so well, and the other (seems to) effortlessly anchor the proceedings.
The ending was terrific, it was a film that dealt with violence in the "right" way (if such a thing is possible)- ie it in no way romanticized it- and it showed the emptiness of War.
I could not help but find as gay subtext to the young understudy samurai who picked flowers and always seemed so well-groomed and seems to have had daddy issues of a sort.
God, this thing was watchable- even though it was presented in a perfect square format, with letter boxing on the sides too- just some masterful filmmaking- and whoever did the translation for the subtitles did a great job with the dialogue, i have no clue how closely it follows that of the original.
edit- I have the feeling that if Akira Kurasawa were alive and had this review translated to him, he would leap to his feet, scream at me and whip out a couple of two-sai. Nonetheless, i give you four out of four stars, they're just minor suggestions is all.
Hooray! So glad to see another Anna Magnani fan here, there or anywhere. I could watch "The Rose Tattoo" daily. But I digress since my point was to ask if you would still prefer reading subtitles for something like "Rashomon" over the version called I think "The Outrage" [too lazy to look up but I think that's the title though I've tried to erase it from my memory forever] with Paul Newman? I have only one beef with "farn" films with subtitles. I like the ones best which isolate the words in a block background over the scene, since they are so much easier to read. Other than that I am a foreign film addict for sure. Speaking of Kurosawa's masterpiece, reading the original story it was adapted from is very interesting also, if you've not read it. Great post, Lorna!
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53 minutes ago, Stephan55 said:
I was hoping that you'd pop in here CaveGirl, because you were also one the eight posters to which I replied in my post (twice).
In one post You wrote:
I've never seen a Gay Indie Film. Though one would probably think I had considering the reactions of some wimpy men I've dated who freaked out at films that weren't even close to that extreme. For example, I remember watching the great Paul Verhoeven film, "The 4th Man" [1983] with a guy I was dating and there was some really mild scene between Jeroen Krabbe and some guy, and my date almost blew a gasket, and was flipping out saying "Oh golly, I can't watch this..." as if he was seeing the Hindenburg burn and was in shock over the loss of human lives. What a baby! Do you know how many films with full female nudity, any woman in the US who watches fairly many mainstream movies, has probably seen in a lifetime? Hundreds probably, but then some men who claim to be heterosexual go ballistic if there is any male nudity in a film, even if it is a guy getting out of a bed.So if I get any Gay Indie films, I guess I will not be inviting any of the heterosexual men I know over, as they might go into cardiac arrest. Get a grip, guys...it is not catching through the tv screen or just from watching it through almost closed eyes!
My response to that post was:
After reading through all these enlightening posts I began a little self exploration as to the roots of my own aversion, not necessarily to FFMN, but to two (or more males) openly engaging in homosexual behavior in front of me.
I admit to a double standard here, as I find two women doing the same quite provocative (in the enticing sense), but I suppose that that derives from a common male fantasy of the Ménage à trois possibility.
I do not recall in elementary school having such same sex FFMN phobias.
I remember those long horse trough urinals we'd all flock to. Openly examining each others weiners and making observational comments, not understanding that some of us had been circumcised and others not, but recognizing that there were obvious anatomic differences.
Engaging in the jocular practice of urine "sword fights" with each other, which I am sure made all the girls envious at such an ability.
But somehow (perhaps with the advent of closed stalls and pubertal onset) during Junior high, and certainly by H.S. such an aversion transition became apparant.
In gym we still shared those open shower bays, but anyone whose eyes lingered too long on anothers "junk" could quickly be labeled a " f a g " and such shaming rumours would quickly spread and be whispered about among both sexes in school.
Perhaps that is the shared root of it. A commonly uncomfortable adolescent period and conditioning that persists into male adulthood in our society.In any event, and for whatever reason, we (most of us "All American" guys) still carry that burden of uncomfortableness, much to the chagrin of our female counterparts which have had to deal with prevalent female nudity and lesbianism on the "big" screen throughout their lives.
In another post You wrote:
I've been on the "road to ruin" since I read The Marquis de Sade's "Justine" in high school.What's more salacious..."SBTL" or "Salo"?
Speaking of salacious though, I would be interested in seeing any of the blue movies supposedly starring an early Joan Crawford. I've seen some stills and she is really frightening in them and could scare anyone off sex for good, I believe.
My response to that post was:
It was also in H.S. that I first became aquainted with the writings of Marquis de Sade.
A friend of mine called to tell me that when he was walking home from school he kicked something in the gutter and discovered it was a book.
He picked it up and began reading some of it. He sad it was the most disgusting stuff he'd ever seen. It sounded unbelievable to me that such words were actually in print. So he gave me the book to read for for myself.
I did. And I admit that I was both shocked and titillated by much of what it contained.
It was a fat little paperback that contained the English translation of the misadventures of "Justine" and some other stories by this infamous author.
The book was too shockingly "good" to keep to myself, so I secretly shared it.
I secured a non-descript brown paper cover to it, and left it in a conspicuous location in school. Then I secretly observed to see who would pick it up and their reaction to it. It was amusing, to say the least.
I began to hear stories about this obscene "book" circulating in the school.
Sometimes I'd even catch a glimpse of it as no one saw fit to remove it's distinctive brown cover.
Eventually it was picked up by some teacher and sadly was removed from of our local circulation.
Still I obtained some devious delight in thinking that I had perhaps enlightened or corrupted some of my peers at that time.Never saw the other, but I think Pasolini's Salo (1976) would have made Sade "proud".
I have also heard (read about) those blue movies supposedly starring an early Joan Crawford (and others).
It would not surprise me if some of that may be true as several young actors/actress' resorted to such activities as a means of "survival" before a few of them made it on the "legitimate" screen. And sadly some also felt the "need" to do so after whatever "fame" they had once attained waned...
I think those two replies were probably as potentially "offensive" as I may have gotten in my post.
Don't know, but if this thread gets deleted after reposting them then I'll be fairly certain that this was the part that got Lorna's thread in trouble with the "law" around these parts....????Hey, Stephan! I so appreciate your responses to my post as I think both were well thought out examinations of why we all do, well, what we do. Now my original post about the film "The 4th Man" was referring to a rather mild scene with no real sexual content between the men, just maybe a kiss or something. That was why I was making fun of the way some [not all] men become exceedingly overwrought. Now I have read Masters and Johnson and I remember reading that though many men in their testing would proclaim distaste at any sexual behaviour between people of the same sex, the researchers noticed that their physical reactions belied what they would say on the questionnaire about seeing women together. Finally they realized that the men were mentally injecting themselves into the scene with the women mentally, hence they then found it unobjectionable. As for the Marquis de Sade, I think it can be seen by many literally as only about sex, and then to others it finally becomes a diatribe against censorship of any kind and freedom of thought processes. It becomes the reverse of its outer vestiges, kind of like the old New Yorker cartoon of a very sophisticated man looking at a painting of a nude woman and saying "Oh, it reminds me of a rose." From my vantage point your very honest and introspective study of yourself, is more moral and adult and deserves to be read, than many posts that are immaturely titillating yet would not be condemned to the junk heap due to being seen as the typical bawdy comment but deep down are much more salacious in nature. Thanks for sharing such an incisive commentary on what is it like to grow up male in our society.
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Even for those of us who like movies, occasionally we need some shut eye. But still...we might want to have a movie on in the background as we rest our eyes, to be a kind of white noise channeler to dreamland. That means that we choose a film that we really don't want to watch. Get it?
Now this type of film may be abhorrent to you when you are actually watching it, but it could be very useful just as background sound to aid in a sort of narcoleptic trance state being achieved. Make sure the film has no redeeming value in actually being watched though, or you may hear dialogue that would make you wish to sneak a peak, and then the spell is gone and you have to get out the brandy or knockout drops.
For me, "Paint Your Wagon" often suffices. I would never have spent money on owning it but someone gave it to me under the mistaken impression that I would just love to hear Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood singing. The triumvirate of those two croaking out songs with Jean Seberg makes it a soporific masterpiece. Be sure to turn the sound way way down though, so that you can just barely hear them all chatting and flitting around. Hopefully you will wake up after the whole debacle has ended and the dvd is back at the beginning screen.
I am getting a bit tired of this film though for inducing restful snooze times, so add any other film soporifics that you enjoy ignoring while laying on the couch, and I will have a larger repetoire to choose from hopefully.
There are human soporifics who can bore one to sleep, but I'll leave the release of their names to Robert Benchley. -
Every movie on today is a great one with films by Tati, Kurosawa, Camus, Fellini, Truffaut and so on.
I particularly liked "Babette's Feast" when I first caught it. -
Dargo, I heard it was because in that photo, Tor had been drinking and thought his toupee was a merkin, which made the photo objectionable...
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1 hour ago, NipkowDisc said:
a symbolic tribute to the fall of american liberalism...
29 minutes ago, rayban said:An idiosyncratic actor, whose work should be recognized.
It takes a rare brain to appreciate a rara avis!
Thanks, Rayban.-
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On 2/11/2018 at 8:05 AM, Sepiatone said:
Yeah, I like just about all (with few exceptions) the "stars" of classic movies, "golden era" or whichever you prefer to call them, but there's some who, although very good at their craft, get put in roles that don't work for me. I'll give a couple examples to show where I'm going with or coming from with this.....
BARBARA STANWYCK: Very talented actress to be sure. But IMO, while not totally UNattractive, not particularly pretty or "sexy". But who has been placed in roles that call for an actress that fits those bills. Like HENRY FONDA or GARY COOPER getting all befuddled wen she cuddles up to them like she's some kind of "sex kitten", or FRED MacMURRAY risking life and livelihood for her. Just doesn't cut it for me. JEAN ARTHUR is an actress in this box. Like Barbara, LOVED her in most of the movies she was in, but, the gorgeous vamp roles too, didn't work for me.
ROBERT MONTGOMERY: GREAT actor. And a very likable countenance. So much so that for me, his sometimes tough guy or "hard-boiled" roles didn't work for me either. Like the friendly bookstore clerk trying to play "gangster". Or the middle school English teacher playing at being a mob "wiseguy". Although his meek drunk driver "sent up" for manslaughter in THE BIG HOUSE was deftly handled by him, had they tried to make him a fiendish murderer instead, I wouldn't have bought it.
RANDOLPH SCOTT: Big Western hero often, he still came off(to me) like a vacuum cleaner salesman playing cowboy. The generally affable JIMMY STEWART handled Western roles better IMHO.
I know there'll be much disagreement with me here, and that's OK. This IS mainly a "personal opinion" thread, But with only ONE rule-----
The actors and/or actresses YOU list must be ones you LIKE, and not to turn this into a sounding board about those any of you DON'T like. Just that the ones you like may have been put into roles you didn't think they for some reason didn't or couldn't pull off.
Sepiatone
I think you make good points, Sepia about some ill-fated casting choices. I think it was theater critic John Simon who was taken to task back in the day, when he wrote a critical review of actress Maureen Stapleton taking on the role of Amanda Wingfield on Broadway in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie". Simon said something to the effect that it is well known that the character was supposed to have been quite the beauty and southern belle in her youth and that there was no way Stapleton could ever have been such, hence she was not right for the part no matter her acting skills. This of course was roundly critiicized as being cruel and unfair, yet it perhaps depends on one's viewpoint. Could Richard Dreyfuss, though a fine actor take on the role of Captain Blood in Sabatini's tale, as well as someone who looked like Errol Flynn? Does the mortal coil often make the role seem apt?
We must remember though that there is no accounting for taste. I've been told supposedly that there's a male here who finds women who look like Jim Croce, to be the cat's meow!
One man's meat is another man's poisson! -
Enjoyed reading the majority of the posts here, and as for one or two others, I now realize apparently that projection isn't only found in the movies.
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Some may scoff but even in the early days of Bud's career a case could be made for giving him his own festival.
I will begin the selection process by submitting the Robert Altman film, "Brewster McCloud".
Caution and Note to Stephan: all film performances of Bud's are worthy of inclusion and are welcome...unless they contain FFMN!
Next...?
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Yikes, Stephan...I hope I was not identified as the chick who was swatting Ray during some of the heavy drinking scenes. She was one scary customer. Thanks for your very sobering take on Rogosin. As for Sam Kinison, I wonder if he was buried in his fur coat and that beret?
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On 2/8/2018 at 2:55 PM, NipkowDisc said:
I prefer irradiated 50 foot babes just itching to grab a hold of their doll-sized hubbies.
I bet you love seeing Allison Hayes calling for her hubby, Harry while wearing her bed sheet as a diaper, Nip! He should never have been dancing that close with Yvette Vickers in that roadhouse.
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Jetta Goudal
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Bravo, Nip!
As usual you have brought to the forum's attention a little known and most esoteric connection between coffee makers and films. Many don't know that the original name for the college in the movie, "Animal House" was to be Farber College and not what eventually resulted in it being called Faber College.The creators of the film, being avid coffee fans wanted to honor the legacy of the founder of Farberware, namely one Russian emigrant, named Simon Farber. They knew that though he first started as a match peddler in New York, his eventual genius in inventing the clip-on light for bed headboards had been instrumental in the lives of many college students being able to cram during late hours and graduate. Without such luminosity aids, our world would be a poorer place with a lot of flunked out grads. Using the Farber name though became a problematic thing due to the Hanson sale and a potential lawsuit over the name.
Now the ne'er do wells in "Animal House" like Kent Dorfman and Eric [aka Otter] perhaps never studied but surely there were some in the Delta Tau Chi frat house who did. And without Mr. Farber, none of them would ever have made it in the world. Of course the other film connection is that the Farber gents were also grads of Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, where Barbra Streisand also went to school, and when Milton Farber went back for reunions he and she were celebrated with a party using Farberware's hard anodized aluminum coffee makers, that really kept the mocha java hot. Milton Farber died in 1973, never knowing that his company's many contributions to social standards of living and their generous donations to other colleges like Curry College were to make them immortal in the world of aluminum and Hollywood films.-
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On 2/6/2018 at 2:22 PM, papyrusbeetle said:
I love 1947
It is the prime year for FILM NOIR
"hollywood" was about to implode.
But FILM NOIR was being BORN.
mY favorite film noir of all in this year is FEAR IN THE NIGHT starring DeForrest Kelly and Paul "Killer" Kelly.
It is low-budget and low-tech and takes you into the ordinary terrifying world of "noir".....
That is a really good movie that's not so well known. I have the short story book of works by Cornell Woolrich [or under one of his pen names of William Irish] and enjoyed reading his original version way back before I saw the film. Personally I like the 1947 version you mention more than the 1950's one with Kevin McCarthy, but they are both interesting takes on the tale.
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Thanks, Jinsinna!
Good choices. I think I read once that Liz said she was holding Clift's teeth in her hand as they whisked him off to the hospital, or something like that. Looking forward to reading your WA/AC information! -
5 hours ago, Sepiatone said:
I don't ever recall any of THE BOWERY BOYS drinking all that much.
And it always did seem that if a film maker wanted to receive great praise as a "film maker", the best way to go about it is to exploit those whose situations are seemingly hopeless and "expose" the existence of them to the public hoping THEY will do something to help them. Which really never happens.
Sepiatone
Sorry, Sepia I guess I was confused. It was I who was drinking a lot after watching the Bowery Boys...
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20 hours ago, ChristineHoard said:
CaveGirl, if you only attend events on Skid Row then I'm sure you've visited a certain little shop of horrors.
Yes, that's where I first encountered Dick Miller and conceived our first child, Audrey Junior.
Thankfully, as a baby she never cried or babbled out the words "Feed meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"
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On 11/11/2017 at 11:14 AM, TomJH said:
Sandrahn, I wonder where you got this information, particularly the part about Colman leaving his career for 2 years during the 1930s, taking a chance on endangering a comeback. A quick perusal of the actor's filmography shows that he made at least one film every year during that decade. It was, in fact, his busiest decade in the movies.
I know his relationship with Goldwyn ended rather bitterly and his last film for that studio (The Masquerader) was released in 1933 but he was making a film (Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back) the following year at Fox. 1935 and 1936 also had Fox films for him. It would appear that any European/Asian vacation to which you referred was of a shorter duration.
I hope I don't appear nit picky, especially since you're new here. I'm just hoping to clear up some confusion with your statement.
It's great to have another Colman fan here because, quite frankly, he's not discussed all that much on these boards. Thanks.
I'm a giant fan of Ronald Colman, so I can applaud your comment about any post about him being good, Tom.
I don't really get though the need for Ben to rhapsodize over Colman, when all one needs is eyes to see, and ears to hear by watching any Colman film [except the silents of course!] to see what a giant of cinema he is.
Do we really need Ben Mankiewicz to tell us that? My guess would be that probably the more typically bandied about information on a big star like Ronald, is not what a host might think is needed. I would tend to believe that if the most obvious adulatory info about most big stars, is only for neophytes. One does occasionally have to do their own homework on information and not expect all and sundry to be supplied by any host or hostess.
One good thing though...Ronald, if alive would not probably be disconcerted reading this thread about him, because I think I read once that he had terrible eyesight and would walk right by people he knew on the street since he couldn't see well, but never wore glasses in public.
Ronald in glasses though, would still be a handsome devil. -
17 hours ago, Fedya said:
He's survived by his wife of 43 years, actress Constance Towers.
I wish John Gavin and Constance had both starred in any film by Samuel Fuller.
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In the annals of anti-mimesis, no greater exponent of this belief system is there in my mind than actor, Tom Neal.
Distinguished by his pivotal role in the Ulmer classic, "Detour" ironically Neal's later life proved to contain many of the same elements of his personality, that subsumed Vera to a tragic death.
Not going into details, as they are all to be found online, but Neal seemed a creature destined to have much of the bad luck and karmic justice, of his film characters.
Bouts with Franchot Tone over actress Barbara Payton, signaled to many in Hollywood his erratic and volatile nature which could prove physically dangerous for an opponent. This fall from grace in Hollywood consigned him to lesser roles and eventually he ended up as a gardener, but not revered like Chance, as played by Peter Sellers. His conviction for manslaughter over a real woman in his life, resulted in a jail term that might have befallen his film character from "Detour" if the movie had a sequel.
Name another Hollywood personage whose life imitated their art. Oscar Wilde coined this terminology in his essay, "The Decay of Lying" which stated unequivocally that "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life."
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2 hours ago, ChristineHoard said:
I didn't see it this time around but saw it on TCM a couple of years ago. I found it compelling because it is real and not sanitized. As much as I've enjoyed the Hollywood fiction movies about alcoholism, most do tend to end on a somewhat optimistic note but ON THE BOWERY is sadly true.
By the way, isn't the Bowery undergoing gentrification now?
Thanks so much for confirming my opinion of the quality of this film, Christine.
As for gentrifying the Bowery, you would be better served by asking one of the Dead End kids like Gabriel Dell, since I only attend events on Skid Row!-
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Just now, CaveGirl said:
After I wrote my post here concerning what I remembered from past information, I saw the hour long show on tv over the weekend about the case. There was much more revealed about the boat captain named Dennis, saying he was told by Wagner exactly how their stories should all coincide, about the details of her being missing. He says Wagner got him and Walken to basically confirm the Wagner details, but the Dennis now says he heard Wood and Wagner in a vituperative battle with loud voices that suddenly ended in silence. Hence he believes Wagner would have had to have been witness to her falling off the boat. That is probably the reason for the reopening of the case. They also said there were witnesses on other boats who backed up his story about a tremendously loud argument ending abruptly. These are details that were new to me, even after having read most versions of what happened that night in publications like "Vanity Fair" et cetera. I think this new version was on something like "48 Hours" or the like, possibly last Friday or Saturday night. Walken has always seemed noticeably silent on this whole debacle bizarrely. There were also discrepancies from this Dennis about Wagner breaking a wine bottle over Walken's interference in Natalie's career in her presence, but Wagner said it happened after she went to bed. Who knows???
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On 2/9/2018 at 2:10 PM, Janet0312 said:
There was always plenty of boozing in these people's lives. According to Edd Byrnes (Kookie on 77 Sunset Strip), auto/bio, he and Wagner were close pals. Maybe somebody ought to ask him what he thinks happened.
And it always did seem that if a film maker wanted to receive great praise as a "film maker", the best way to go about it is to exploit those whose situations are seemingly hopeless and "expose" the existence of them to the public hoping THEY will do something to help them. Which really never happens.
I LIKE them, but.....
in General Discussions
Posted
Cary really knew how to play off the Ralph Bellamy character in that film too. And the scenes with the doggie taking the hat, putting it behind the mirror, and so on were classic. Didn't hurt to have both men fighting over Irene Dunne either as she was so impudent while being classy. I think Cary's background before he was in films, in being able to do a lot of acrobatic physical comedy showed him to be a lot more than a pretty face. To see such a stalwart and sophisticated looking man, appear to be a fool in a woman's negligee or peignoir was amusing.