CaveGirl

Uh, well said, TB! She was great in "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" though and other child roles. I would love to see some of her other films in a TCM remembrance day. Maybe they could have a day with all child stars?

Page is incredible in SBOY! Some say that in all Tennessee Williams' plays, if there is a love interest between a man and a woman, that it is based on a love between a man and a man. A writer can only write about what he knows, so if Tennessee had more experience with that aspect of life, perhaps it is transposed in his characters from female to a male version? Thanks for rooting out the good stuff for us to watch daily on TCM, TB!

OHHHhhhh! Does this mean we don't talk to each other anymore on this site? I never noticed the Nip/Spence dichotomy apparently...as I always enjoy their posts but separately.

The only exception to that is probably Romero's "Night of the Living Dead!...haha!

I just bought the boxed set of all something like 271 [or 231 or whatever number!] shorts for only a little over fifty bucks. It comprises their whole career in shorts. TCM's catalog might have it. The person I bought it for says they watch one a night, and this should last them most of the year. None of the movies are in the set though.

I'm wondering what the first movie was that used a subliminal in its make-up? I guess I could look this up but I'm sure someone here will know right off the bat. Having read a book on subliminal messaging once, it focused more on back masking in records [with crazy ideas like saying Paul was dead or wouldn't one like to meet Satan] and the instituting of images in the print medium for advertising in magazines and on tv. The famous television Chanel ad with the plane flying overhead, and people in a pool was one such that combined images in an Eisensteinian way, to create a third message, sometimes hidden and sometimes not depending on the overlaying elements. I think that was one of the best and possibly is on Youtube. Some films like "Hiroshima Mon Amour" by Alain Resnais used a flash cut sequencing to interplay the images of Riva's past lover with a victim from Hiroshima, by having the body shown in the exact same position, but this was more deliberate than a subliminal. Some subliminals seem totally unable to be discerned while viewing and others like in "Fight Club" I could see if I really paid attention. Playboy Magazine supposedly used even a subliminal technique with an item on one page showing through as a shadow figure onto its other side, creating some interesting images. Even ice cubes in liquor ads in Playboy, or even Christmas wreaths could have a double entendre effect, if you looked closely which most people probably didn't and I wonder why. How to vote on the best subliminals in a film seems unreliable because if it is truly effective as a subliminal one should not have been able to discern it, and if one did notice it, then it was not really a foolhardy subliminal anyway. Still...vote for your favorite film with subliminals in it, of any vintage as I'd like to see them. It's like looking for Waldo and keeps people off the streets and out of trouble!

I totally get a kick out of any Robert Armstrong performance, hammy or otherwise! So glad you mentioned him, Spence.

So very true, DarkBlue.

I would ignore the stars and pick all the character actors I admire. That would include, Harry Carey, Isabel Jewell, Maria Ouspenskaya, Victor Francen, Harry Davenport, Martin Kosleck, Ray Collins, H.B. Warner, Roland Young, Martita Hunt, Dame May Whitty, Nigel Bruce, Hope Emerson, Lionel Atwill, Clem Bevans, Maude Eburne, Arthur Hunnicutt, Elisha Cook [Senior and Junior], Jessie Ralph, Mary Boland, Edna Mae Oliver, Gloria Holden, Rose Hobart, Billie Bird, and Felix Bressart for good measure. I'm sure these people would have the really good stories to reveal ABOUT the stars!

I think I've watched the film so many times, I can now concentrate totally on the background and not the actors! Sounds sick but last month when it was on, that exactly what I did. Kept looking at how the flooring seems lit up and those paintings on the wall of nudes that seem baroque. It could just be a dream of Dullea's where he has rehashed old memories of room decorations and surrounded himself with them. Who knows!

Love all those films you mention, Christine particularly TIP! A great cast, with Hopkins, Francis and Marshall, and also has a bit part as a party attendee with Stanhope Wheatcroft, who is as ubiquitous in films then as Bess Flowers or the perennial drunken man, Jack Norton. What a name too for an actor! And...directed by Lubitsch, who always manages to rend somewhat salacious circumstances in such a charming and witty way that they are still resonant but not tawdry. I always have to also watch Marshall walk to see if I can detect his wooden leg. Cagney dancing often looks like a wooden puppet on a string, and I mean that as a compliment too! Thanks, Christine!

So funny, the two you've chosen, Laffite look just like two I bought from Ethan Allan once! But back to the point, I think there is something about not just the chairs but the whole room of disparate styles that is meaningful. Meaning, that the room seems to be an amalgamation of a trip through history, since the walls and floors look quite modern, and there is a very eclectic mood going on there. The chairs you chose are more from the French Country style, while the ones in the Kubrick scene are from a much finer and more expensive vein of Sun King vintage possibly. I could go on and on, but you'd be bored...

Recently here I enjoyed perusing some comments about the meaning of the end of certain movie. Some people perhaps appreciate a specific denouement in a film to feel satisfied. Others desire is to find some meaning in the aftermath of events that are viewed from the movie, which seems logical on the surface. Personally I have always been more attuned to films with speculative endings like Michelangelo Antonioni's "L'Avventura" in which what seemingly starts out to be a story about a couple, turns out quite differently, with one character totally disappearing and then forgotten as the film unfolds. I found the film fascinating on first viewing but remember it received much rage and disappointment with viewers on initial release supposedly. Sometimes I think the slapping on of the words "The End" or "Fin" on movies, were initially used only to make sure the audience knew to depart their theatre seats to make way for new viewers. I'm kidding but really, when the film goes dark, who needs such admonitions? Some films have fun with this, putting up "The End" with a question mark after or such... I believe that films are just like life, which never really ends any of its convoluted sequences with interconnected characters, but just takes a short pause occasionally like a Victor Hugo novel. Our lives are just disjointed articles that have many branches, to explore. Shirley Jackson, in her short stories would often entwine characters who were important in one tale, as bit players in another story, which made for interesting reading. Even with a "The End" at the supposed final curtain, don't we always know that there is more that will happen, just like when Shirley MacLaine said she always wondered what happened to C.C. Baxter and Fran Kubelik after the card scene at the close of "The Apartment". Back to the point though, in a film like "2001: A Space Odyssey" when one hears that Kubrick himself called it a "mythological" adventure and Arthur Clarke said it was created to incite questions in one's mind, I see no reason to try to make a specific determination of what happened in a logical vein, since it is open to interpretation. Such is also the philosophy of David Lynch to let the viewer decide for themself according to their own maxims. Even Luis Bunuel often stated that he could not figure out why people would assail him trying to ask what happened in that scene or this in his highly imaginative movies, and what does it mean. Consequently I feel that if the filmmaker has no compunction about a totally literal explanation for what transpired in the film, why should I need one? Hence...I don't, and I just enjoy the ride and accept that not all in life is explainable. So with that philosophy in mind, name an open-ended ending in films that you have enjoyed. Or if you really want to complain, one that just drove you crazy... Send

Ooph, great tale, Stephan! Hey, wait just a minute there, Buster what do you mean by this statement: "Was easy to create a state of mass hysteria, especially with the girls." Excuse me, I notice lots more men than I freaking out on those ghost hunting shows and running off like scaredy cats or little girls! I see though you later admit MAYBE the girls were "pretending" so you're off the hook. I don't scare easily though and stayed in a supposedly haunted house once, that it on the National Register and must be listed as "haunted" in any real estate transaction. I was so looking forward to meeting some spirits, and was walking around the house after midnight [with the two owners' permission] with a flashlight. My friend, who knew them and got them let us stay there, was screaming like a banshee at the top of the long stairs that looked like it was from the Shirley Jackson book, for me to come back upstairs as she was afraid to go back to her bedroom without me in the adjoining one, that was attached with a hidden stairway to the attic, since it was part of the Underground Railroad. I don't really believe in ghosts which is why I'm not really scared of them. So far I've not heard of anyone really having been offed by a ghost. I mean ghosts existing would mean there's an afterlife and I can't think of anything more distasteful than having to live on forever and not even with a body. No food, no drinks, no movies!

If you see a woman with only one arm in the picture, it might be from Lewton's "The Seventh Victim". Just kidding, don't go using a magnifying glass now...

Love Dostoevsky! Mostly because after reading almost all his books while in college, with the most depressing incidents, all life seems wonderful!

So it follows if the devil is NOT real, then the Louvin Brothers need to record a new album, Nip???

Fascinating story. I notice you are not exactly telling what happened after they used the impromptu glass as a planchette but it sounds like something spooky happened. I've never been involved in a seance, but a friend wanted to try to get the lottery numbers once with a Ouija board, and bizarrely we got every one right but the final one and were one digit off...boo hoo! Thanks, DarkBlue and I sense a screenplay might be in order from your memories. I'd pay money to see the final cut of the filmed version.

That film was what actually prompted me to make this post. I wanted to see if anyone else was into it. Glad to see someone is since it is such an odd little film but highly rewarding to view, particularly since Kim Stanley is terrific in it. Weird and offbeat storyline to be sure. Thanks!

I've not seen that but now I'd really like to. Thanks, Limey!

I miss Dobbsy posting here! Stephan, enjoyed reading your remembrances of seeing "Mondo Cane" for the first time at such a young age. I can relate to what you are saying since I had seen it as a teen, and then not again till about ten years ago and it seemed a bit more self absorbed and the shocks being used for ulterior motives and alternative purposes, than I had believed before. Whenever I would think about the title being "Dog's World" it always reminds me of the scene in Bunuel's film, "Viridiana" when the man is dragging a little dog behind his cart and mistreating it. Then Viridiana's relative, the handsome guy [Francisco Rabal I think] who is not till then shown as being particularly kind, offers the man money to buy the dog and save it from such misery. Finally the cruel taskmaster relents to give him the pooch, and Rabal rides off seemingly pleased with himself at his kindness, and as he departs you see another cart coming the opposite way, with one more little doggie attached to it being dragged along. "Mondo Cane" still sticks in my mind too, and now I'm wondering if I should rewatch it at least once more to get my current take. Thanks for a very astute retelling of its impact at the time it was released.

What a voice! No wonder they picked him to play the Invisible Man as Christine said. It's too bad though that when he left footprints it was not from a real podiatric [sp?] appearance [which he would have had being naked!] and not a shoe imprint. Thanks, Janet!

If you like a chicken in every pot, then the presentation of the terrific Robert Penn Warren novel in film form, "All the King's Men" might be the ticket. Playing late Wednesday, January 23, 2018 it has amazing performances by stalwarts like Broderick Crawford [Helen Broderick's little boy!] and Mercedes McCambridge, with assistance from John Ireland, Joanne Dru [did they meet on this film?] and a cast of excellent support. Some in the review section might quibble about this being a pastiche of Huey Long, as if it was to follow an exact replica of his life, but the point is well made about what happens when a despot takes over and sways people with his banter. Robert Rossen ably directed this masterpiece. A later film, with a similar theme might be Andy Griffith in "A Face in the Crowd".

Personally, if you have a party of two with only Herbert and Ross there, I think a third person that should be invited is the wife of Ross on Bilko, when he played Rupert Ritzik! Mrs. Emma Ritzik, as played by Beatrice Pons was a hoot. She could keep both of those guys in line. Bizarrely she also played the wife of Ross on "Car 54 Where Are You" as Lucille Toody. A match made twice in heaven! Can't wait to see your upcoming thread that this inspired.

Okay, Sepia I'm digging way back into my trivia brain, and I will say that the old comic strip called "Apple Mary" which ran in the 1930's and then became "Mary Worth" which ran for eons, was seemingly the basis for the film, "Lady for a Day" by Frank Capra and the later musical called "Pocketful of Miracles" from 1961 with Bette Davis. Those these film transitions might not have been a direct transposition of the strip, it's obvious that though they call Bette, Apple Annie in the latter film, that Apple Mary was probably the inspiration. I reflect upon this due to my grandma saying often that Mary Worth used to be a foul looking old woman, with seedy clothing who sold apples on the street and then miraculously, the strip featured a cultured looking woman named Mary Worth, who was later parodied by even Al Capp in his strip with Daisy Mae and Little Abner, called something like Mary Wart. And speaking of Daisy and Ab, they were in the movies too, in a couple film versions. The first recreated the Dogpatch citizens looks amazingly, and the latter version had fun casting like Julie Newmar as Moonbeam McSwine I think. Might have been Julie Parrish as Daisy Mae, but not sure. Don't remember who played the Yokums or Sadie Hawkins but maybe I'll look it up. My fave was always Tiny Yokum and he reminded me of Nat Pendleton with peroxided hair.