CaveGirl
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Posts posted by CaveGirl
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3 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
And don't forget Lynch employing Ann Miller in 2001's MULHOLLAND DRIVE.
Right on! She was marvelous as the apartment manager. Oh, gosh...when she talked about cleaning up the puppy offerings on the walkways, I had to laugh. Great addition to that film, fer shure.
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4 minutes ago, Bethluvsfilms said:
On Dark Shadows, séances were pretty much the norm of the day. It was unusual if a day went by when they DIDN'T have one!
What a great show! That Willie was a hoot, always walking around, and whimpering to Barnabas, and of course that horrid little beast and brat, David at Collinwood was always trying to snoop around at the other estate and the Collins' family crypt. I kept hoping he would get locked in, like the tale of the cask of Amontillado, but to no avail. I'd love to own the entire DS dvd set, but I think it costs around 500 semolians or so. Thanks, Beth!
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Just now, TopBilled said:
Yes, Maggie McNamara was also in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, the last thing she ever did in Hollywood. I think she had trouble making ends meet in her later years, and she suffered a mental breakdown.
Actually that's quite sad. I will admit some people do cause their own demise, or just get caught up in things like Betty Hutton and fall out of favor, but one still wonders others are totally cast aside from films. One thing I really like about David Lynch is his love for bringing back occasionally actors and actresses who have been waylaid from a career for awhile, and showcasing their talents. Not saying such people he has used were ever MIA on their own accord, but their careers just seemed to peter out a bit through no fault of their own. I loved seeing Don Murray in his recent "Twin Peaks" revival. Also enjoyed in the original series seeing Russ Tamblyn, Michael Parks and others. Thanks, TB!
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1 minute ago, Bethluvsfilms said:
Peter Ostrum, Charlie Bucket from 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, declined following up with another movie because he was more interested in leading a normal life.
Oh, yeah! Saw him profiled on some tv show as an adult. Probably a smart move but he was endearing as the child in that film. Thanks, Beth!
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18 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
Luise Rainer definitely. Began in films in 1935, quickly won two Oscars, and her career was essentially over by 1938, with two isolated appearances in 1943 and 1997. She did live a long long life though.
Didn't Fellini offer her a role in one of his films? Can't remember what ended that but possibly her insistence on some kind of control over her participation. Thanks, CI!
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18 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
Maggie McNamara comes to mind. She played the female lead in her first film, Otto Preminger's THE MOON IS BLUE. Fox quickly put her into the romantic drama THREE COINS IN A FOUNTAIN (in a supporting role) then she turned up in PRINCE OF PLAYERS with Richard Burton. Her fourth and final film came eight years later, again for Preminger, in THE CARDINAL.
She did a bit of television but by 1964 her screen career was over. In the 1970s she was employed as a secretary, far from the Hollywood spotlight. She committed suicide at the age of 49.
Definitely, TB! Wasn't she in a tv episode called something like "Ring a Ding Girl" on TZ? Probably in the 1960's, and it was about the last thing I ever saw her in. I still remember laughing about the supposedly overly sexual talk in "The Moon is Blue" and then seeing it finally and it was tame enough to be an episode for "Father Knows Best" with Princess playing her part. Great choice and one wonders also if the suicide had anything to do with dashed career hopes or was not connected at all. Thanks!
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On 1/13/2018 at 7:05 PM, Princess of Tap said:
Dargo-- What you said reminded me of a creepy song that I used to love in college called " Mama Told Me Not to Come".
I think this was a Three Dog Night song. I never cared that much for them, but they put it over in a cute way.
But when I heard Eric Burdon, my favorite British Invasion rock /blues singer, do his version he knocked it out of the park. Some songs Just are more conducive to certain artists. Or you could also say, some artists know how to utilize their material better than others.
And one of the things that I always liked so much about Eric Burdon was no matter what material he had, he knew how to make the most of it and put his own indelible mark on it.
Even after all these years when I hear " The House of the Rising Sun",it still sounds fresh and gritty to me.
In the 60s, The Stones and The Animals used to do some of the same Rock classics on their albums--One particular song by Chuck Berry was called "Around and Around". I was totally amazed how different both of their versions sounded.
The Stones:
Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman were light years ahead of The Animals in terms of their instrumentation and approach to playing. Simply put, The Stones were the most technically Superior Group in the British Invasion.
But I always preferred to listen to The Animals version of "Around and Around because Eric Burdon simply understood the song and knew how to sing it better than Mick Jagger. Jagger was good for television with his quirky little dancing jerks and he wrote some good songs better suited to his own ability with Keith Richards, but when it came to singing these rock and roll standards, he just didn't really come up to snuff.
I totally agree with you, Princess about "MTMNTC". I was never much of a fan of Three Dog Night [not that there is anything wrong with them] but they always seemed to put a cutesy spin on songs, and I too much prefer the Eric Burdon version of this Randy Newman song. Burdon could put anything over, even "HOTRS" which I would always wonder why more women weren't singing it, based on the lyrics. I do think the Animal's keyboardist, Alan Price was spectacular though and I loved his score for the film "O, Lucky Man" with Malcolm MacDowell.
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Some people come to Tinseltown looking for success and never find it.
Others come and find it, and then leave disillusioned and just seem to mostly disappear like a thief in the night. This is the topic I am interested in and the theme of this post.My first nomination for this category is actress, Diane Varsi. Scoring a massive success in the original movie version of the Grace Metalious potboiler, "Peyton Place" with Lana Turner, Russ Tamblyn, and Lee Philips amongst a fine cast, Varsi was nominated for many prestigious awards. Soon after she did appear in a few productions, like "From Hell to Texas" and "Compulsion" and then pretty much disappeared, not fulfilling her contract, saying things like ""Hollywood is too impressed with superficial cheapness."
Though none could probably deny that statement, her slight return in the 1960's came with little fanfare and basically her career ended. There is some speculation that true reasons for her original departure were never revealed, but the mystery would make a fine movie itself.
Name others who achieved stardom only to seemingly throw it away.
With his expertise in film lore, I'm breathlessly awaiting Dark Blue's input on this topic, and from other film aesthetes here!
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On 1/21/2018 at 11:10 AM, Mozart1791 said:
... is beyond any doubt the worst telling of that tragic story!!!
What can you say in favor of a ludicrous farce that is so deceitful and downright fallacious that it actually expects the viewer to be gullible enough to believe that the T's passengers--terrified beyond words at the prospect of a sure death in freezing waters--had the patience and presence of mind to stop, control their panic, and sing together a rendition of NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE that would have done the Mormon Tabernacle Choir proud???!!!
I've done a little tatting on the trains, but I don't crochet or croquet.
What was the question again? Oh, yeah...you find it ludicrous that those passengers near death were singing their little hearts out as the freezing water rose up?I gotta agree with you, of course some say John Jacob Astor was privy to that tune, so it might be true. He used to sing it right before he would eat his Walforf Salad every night at the Astoria.
Glad to see people questioning such legends which might be faux, Mozart!-
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5 minutes ago, NipkowDisc said:
I doan know. there were so many seances on that show.
Right on, bringing back Josette took more turns than Doctor Hoffman gave Barnabas those blood transfusions. Thanks, Nip!
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Was Doctor Julia Hoffman one of the participants?
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On 1/21/2018 at 10:28 AM, sagebrush said:
George Clooney seems like a really nice dude, but kind of strikes me as humorless. Might make for a long night.
I think what made Carson and Hope such great hosts was their ability to go off script and roll with whatever was actually happening. Gervais has that same quick wit, but I think would be too much for Oscar!
I liked Steve Martin, both solo and with Alec Baldwin. Will Ferrell I think would be good, too.
So agree! Clooney doesn't seem quite quick witted enough to handle this event with aplomb.
Johnny Carson hosted once and was not really in movies, just something like a Connie Francis film, so how about...ta da, Larry David?
At least there were be some humor being bandied about by a master. -
Thanks, Dark Blue!
You remind me of a favorite saying in Latin:
"H-o-m-o sum humani a me nihil alienum p-u-t-o."
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On 1/20/2018 at 5:20 PM, TomJH said:
Ray Milland was in a couple of wartime films with effective seance scenes, Ministry of Fear (with the beauteous Hillary Brooke as medium) and The Uninvited.
Those are definitely two of my favorites that I didn't want to mention to see if anyone else liked them. Thanks!
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17 hours ago, Sepiatone said:
OK:
1. SAD SACK debuted as a comic strip in the magazine Yank, The Army Weekly in '42. the comic BOOKS didn't start until '57.
2. Actually, POPEYE was just one of the MANY characters in the strip THIMBLE THEATER, that focused mainly on the Oyl family. But, it'll pass.
3. SLAYTON, I don't think The '40 Victor Mature movie, nor the '66 Raquel Welch flick had anything to DO with the B.C. comic strip.
4. And PALMERIN, I did state NO comic books, remember?
Sepiatone
Yikes! Mea culpa beforehand if I make a boo boo and post a "comic book" title, Sepia.
I'm going with good old Krazy Kat by the intellectual set's favorite comic strip artist, George Herrimann.
Being of indeterminate sexual persuasion, Krazy Kat, could appeal to all people [just like Greta Garbo and her androgynous personality] and his/her unrequited love affair with Ignatz Mouse, and a brick, brought joy to many till Herrimann died. One of the few newspaper strips that it was determined could never be drawn or created by anyone than Herrimann so it ended for Hearst newspapers.
I think there were maybe ten or eleven movie shorts made from the Krazy Kat persona. That's all I own and have ever found available.
Great topic, Sepia!-
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3 hours ago, calvinnme said:
I just watched "The Night Visitor" (1971) about a man, Salem (Max Von Sydow), sent to an insane asylum after being wrongfully convicted of the ax murder of a farm hand two years ago, who escapes at night to avenge himself of those that did him wrong by having a part in his imprisonment. And then somehow he lets himself back in without anybody at the asylum noticing.I never saw a location mentioned, but one imdb reviewer said it was Jutland, in Denmark.
It is obvious from the beginning what Salem is doing once he is loose - he is trying to pin the murders that he is committing on the person he thinks actually committed the murder of the farm hand - Anton. But the police inspector (Trevor Howard) is having none of it. For one thing, Anton actually saw Salem in his house - Salem let the guy see him - so Anton would sound crazy when he talked to the inspector. Why would Anton make up this particular story, casting blame on a man who is locked up? And this has the inspector visiting the asylum to see if it would be possible for Salem to escape and then get back in, and it looks pretty impossible and yet...his doubts linger because he does not arrest Anton in spite of having plenty of evidence.
This little thriller was pretty unique despite some implausibilities and some linguistic problems. Why is the asylum so close to the homes of the village in which Salem lived? How is he able to run through the woods for what looks like a few miles in his underwear in sub freezing weather without freezing to death? Wouldn't all of this been easier for Salem in the summertime? Why does half the cast sound Swedish and the other half sound British? In spite of this I really enjoyed this unique little film. And the final irony of the film is delightful. I'd give it 8/10.
Source: TCM Underground
I just read about this movie in some horror film book I own and I'd really like to see it. I love movies about people escaping from asylums so it sounds right down my alley. Thanks for the review, Calvin!
As to your below question, methinks that maybe priests trained to be exorcists have thicker skin than most and can go almost naked in sub-freezing weather with no travail?:
"How is he able to run through the woods for what looks like a few miles in his underwear in sub freezing weather without freezing to death?"-
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I just watched...well, not "just" like in the last hour and a half, but more than 12 or more hours ago, a great movie called "The Corpse Grinders". This was directed by Ted V. Mikels, and the V stands for Vincent, as in Vincent Van Gogh or maybe Vincent Van Patten, as you prefer.
The storyline is convoluted. A guy [who kind of looks like Bobby Goldsboro or maybe a young George Segal] has a buddy [who doesn't look like anyone much] and they go into business making cat food and incorporate as Lotus Cat Food Incorporated. Problem...they don't have the ingredients to really make food for felines, so they begin using dead bodies to put into the grinder. I loved the shots down in the factory in front of the grinding apparatus, because it was so colorfully shot, with great red and green filters, a lot like a Star Trek episode. There is a doctor named Glass, who is cute and looks like Robert Horton mixed with a bit of Tom Selleck, and maybe J.D. Salinger had something to do with the screenplay since he always used the Glass family in most of his writings.
I think this is a cautionary tale, much in the spirit of someone like Upton Sinclair and his exposes like "The Jungle" showing how cats are not man's best friend and will turn on you and rip your throat out, for just about anything. Don't blame the cat food since I doubt Kuru would be the diagnosis by any trained epidem...epidemo... uh, stomach doctor. What I mostly enjoyed watching was all the great zooms [which would make Mario Bava so envious!] and I bet the cinematographer went on to some really prestige films after this stirring flick.Oh, there are a few partial nude scenes like when the wife [who looks like she could be either Lulu's mother or Pat Carroll in a red wig] of the mortician guy brings in some girl, whose breasts look like they were made out of silly putty with dents, and when Doctor Glass's nurse is put on the grinder Wabac machine, but all in all they are done quite tastefully. Not as good as Mikel's "Astro-Zombies" and maybe needed a shot of Tura Satana but all in all a wonderful film.
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If you have visited Whitechapel, browsed at the Black Museum and Madame Tussaud's and see definite connections between events at Mitre Square and the Freemasons, or doubt that Walter Sickert was painting in blood [or if you are just an armchair follower of London's fiend] you might have a favorite movie depicting elements of the nemesis of Scotland Yard. Nicknamed Jack the Ripper in a letter, probably by an eager reporter having fun sending false confessions, Saucy Jack has inspired so many films and even as diverse groups as the lads from Spinal Tap to create works about him [or her as in Jill the Ripper, a demented midwife!] like "Saucy Jack: The Musical".
Jack even made the annals of the book "Psychopathia Sexualis" by noted sex researcher, Richard von Krafft-Ebing. In that book, I must say Jack's crimes didn't even seem so lurid compared to the totality reported on. But I digress...
If you are an active Ripperologist or even just a casual fan, name the film you think best uses the legend. Even mentioning favorite episodes of tv shows like "Thriller" or "The Veil" is acceptable unless you have a ginger mustache or impregnated Mary Kelly. For me, I like "The Ruling Class" with Peter O'Toole since it just might have been such an aristocratic fellow who was doing in all those ladies of the night!
P.S. In a similar vein, TNT will be showing the first episode of their new series, "The Alienist" tonight. If you read the book about a serial killer stalking young male prostitutes in New York in the late 1800's, after Jack had finishing his reign, you might want to catch the premiere.-
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52 minutes ago, EricJ said:
Mondo Cane was the big, big thing even without its validating Oscar nomination, just on shock value, and yes, it was the coin-of-the-realm "catchword" on anything you could slap together and call "shocking!" (Until the 70's, where, if you wanted to sell cheap forbidden thrills, you just slapped "Emanuelle" on the title.)
Those lovable bottom-feeders at Amazon Prime dug up a few Mondos a month or two ago--Managed to catch "Mondo Balordo", which, apart from getting the day-dub from Karloff, didn't...seem to have a clue what it was Mondo-ing. (Cane was supposed to be "Primitive practices around the world", so, on reputation, the idea for everyone else was to stick some nude natives in the first ten minutes, and wing it after that if they wanted to keep the money-title.)
Another shock-doc Prime dug up was Primitive London (1965), which, despite predating Cane, was billed as a "mondo" movie with strippers on the poster (who barely get ten minutes in the movie), as it's still a plotless conservative docu-satire look at "shocking" society in pre-swinging 1965 London--Best remembered for documentary interviews with the Mods vs. the Rockers (the Beatles are used on the soundtrack as an example of the "decadent" music the Rockers listen to), and other things that must have seemed shocking in '65, like teen idols, swinger key parties, and...gasp...nasty political themed standup comics making fun of Harold Wilson!
I might have seen "Primitive London" at a midnight movie once. I think I enjoyed it. Thanks for all the other fine examples you have listed, Eric.
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When you have a class act like Kim Stanley doing the adult narration as Scout, in a film like "To Kill a Mockingbird" it just adds to the film's allure.
Kim had a limited career in movies, with things like "The Goddess" but her talent is unquestionable and her voice touching. Though she was later on tv, I do wish she had done more films since she is a one of a kind talent.
Name your favorite film narrator, if you please. Or name a narrator who you think possibly ruined the production. -
Yes, your P.I's and gumshoes are a dying breed, Dargo.
Maybe with your profile picture's instrument that could pack some heat, and that black hat, you could bring back the shamus routine in films?
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Which did you prefer, Eric..."Ringu" or "The Ring"? I like the original Japanese film but some I know actually like the remake instead surprisingly.
I will have to take you to task about Catholics "believing" all such afterlife stuff, since I had 12 straight years of schooling and didn't believe in any of that by the second grade, but I will agree with you though that Catholics probably do have special insights into exorcisms and Holy Ghosts so are proficient in translating such ideas to the screen. You are forgiven though, so say one Act of Contrition, three Hail Marys and deposit 200 bucks in my online account as a plenary indulgence.
Thanks for your very spirited remarks!
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3 minutes ago, Swithin said:
There are many, but I have a particular fondness for the one in Night of the Demon, when the great Athene Seyler sings "Cherry Ripe." (
But I hate it in seance scenes when there an annoying disbeliever who won't shut up, as there often is.)
One of the best with that great take-off of Aleister Crowley too! Thanks.
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I've seen both of those films but will really need to refresh my memory about the George C. Scott one with a seance. I probably did want to see it due to the general theme, which I do remember.
The part I liked best about "The Others" was the album of dead people. Used to visit an antigue mall which had one booth we called the Death Booth, since it had scads of photos of dead people in caskets. Something very eerie about this type of morbid fascination, which fits right in of course with the seance idea. Thanks for reminding me of both films, Eric!
Ripperiana
in General Discussions
Posted
YES! That was a really good one. I loved it when I first saw it.
I think he played Sir William Gull. Depp did a fine job with his accent and it was an atmospheric film though some did not care for Heather Graham as I recall. Thank you!