Jump to content
 
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...

CaveGirl

Members
  • Posts

    6,085
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    12

Posts posted by CaveGirl

  1. If you are an inveterate movie follower of old and new gems, surely you are beginning to notice that many categories from the past, which needed the services of a performer are slowly fading away, just like General MacArthur once did.

    Think of the curmudgeon roles from the past with people like Claude Gillingwater or such, and now try to think of anyone now playing such a part. Often the curmudgeon might have been a somewhat wealthy man, possibly incapacitated a bit, in a wheelchair and barking out commands at the nearby or whoever was in his sight line. This type seems to be a thing of the past but if you can think of a role like this from a current movie, please share.

    Another possible part to be played would be the man or woman of oversized girth, most notably engendered by The Fat Man of Sydney Greenstreet fame. Others who could take on this kind of role, whether it be dastardly or of milder vintage were people like Laird Cregar and the early Ray Burr. Domestics too, seem to be an endangered species in films, since maybe they are in life too. Once it was such fun to see folks like Eily Malyon brusquely serving her masters with a shrug and smirk, or even someone like John Carradine in his early days, but Eric Blore was one of the best. The daffy but still likable rich guy in films could be played by someone like Roland Young to perfection, but now it would probably be hard to cast. I can't see one of the Wahlberg clan ever ascending to the level of skill that it would take to portray such a character on film. 

    Matronly ladies with dowager humps are in short supply too. Mary Boland was one of my favorites but now I just can only possilby see someone like maybe Kathy Bates in that kind of role. I miss seeing the gum chewing chorines too with people like Marion Martin and Veda Ann Borg but Radio City Music Hall probably misses them too.

     Well, I'm done but curious what other phenotypes you see disappearing from films for good due to changing times and which ones you regret are not to be seen again in your lifetime?

    • Like 2
  2. 8 hours ago, TikiSoo said:

    I'm a little confused....when looking at my collection of "Mondo" movies I see they are actually "Mondo Macabro" movies. My all time favorite is double feature BANDH DARWAZA with PURANA MANDIR. Amazing Bollywood vampire movies that contain everything you want in a horror film: blood, crypts, angry mob with torches, songs. Instead of a cross re-pell-ing the vampire, it's a staff with "ohm" on the top.

    And my WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD/THE LABYRINTH OF SEX is a Something Weird Video release. These are favorites of mine, I have a boxful of them. I've only kept 3 disks from the box so far: TOUCH OF HER FLESH/CURSE OF HER FLESH, THE ACID EATERS/WEED and HIGH SCHOOL BIG SHOT/HIGH SCHOOL CAESAR.

    Those "keeper" titles encompass my interest in exploitation films of sex, drugs & juvenile delinquent plots. I like these films mostly because they are un-Hollywood, giving insight about smaller indie productions of the time.
    Systematically going through the box, anything I'll never watch again goes into the "sell" pile.

    These are wonderfully bizarre films that I enjoy too, TS. The Something Weird releases just boggle the imagination and I must have the same disc you do with the JM one, and the Labyrinth thingie. I so agree that these [as you call it profoundly] "Un-Hollywood" flicks definitely give way more "insights" about the society and state of things and other issues you mention,  than the sanitized and upper echelon films of the time. I read once that some people who research actual furnishings of the times in the USA, always use exploitation and such films to see real mass produced stuff for their research efforts since most of these low budget winners didn't have the moola for interior items and clothing and decor that a big film did, which makes watching such films feel almost like you are watching a documentary of the times depicted.

    I totally dig "High School Caesar" as it is just volcanically entertaining. Another thing fun to watch in JD films is laughing at how old the high school students look, some like they are about 35 years old. Being a fan of people like Richard Bakalyan and others who always played bad boys, is another good reason to watch. I'll have to look for BANDH DARWAZA with PURANA MANDIR that you mentioned. Thanks for your insightful comments and sharing some of your collection titles, TikiSoo!

  3. 11 minutes ago, Dargo said:

    LOL

    So, I take it you've been turned-off to tootsy-frootsie ice'a cream since the first time you watched that scene in A Day at the Races then, eh CG?!

    Well, I suppose I can't blame ya.

    (...funny though, and here I always thought just the sound of a guy with an Italian accent turned you ladies on like nobody's business)

     

    I've been to Rome and was hit on by a guy at the Fountain of Trevi. He offered me some champagne gelato at a joint nearby, but then his wife pulled him away by the ear, so our plans were changed.

    Those accents can be confusing. We were asking about what happened to our hotel desk person in Florence, and one of the guys behind the counter said what sounded like "He wenta to da b_tch [which put certain strange images in our minds] but we found out late he was at the beach, collecting seashells.

    • Haha 2
  4. There are certain themes in movies to which I am addicted. Seances is one of them.

    If the film starts out with the premise of a potential seance...I'm hooked!

    One film I like for this reason is "The Amazing Mr. X" [aka "The Spiritualist] from the late 1940's. What sets it apart from other great movies with seances is that the eerie quality of the spirit renderings sequences are enhanced by the artistry of cinematographer, John Alton. It also is lucky to have the exotic Turhan Bey as the con man trying to bilk money out of grieving women mostly.

    I've never had the fun of going to a seance, and even after reading a book about Houdini's exposes of the medium and its medium, I'd still go just to see faked plasma materializing above a rocking table and with knocking sounds abounding.

    Any movies involving seances you would suggest?

     

  5. 23 hours ago, TopBilled said:

    Saturday January 20, 2018

    Screen shot 2018-01-19 at 12.39.17 PM.png

    Social message dramas on TCM

    MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW with Victor Moore

    THE GUILT OF JANET AMES with Rosalind Russell

    What an incredibly moving movie [MWFT], TB! It will make even the most hard hearted person weep I bet. Thanks for reminding us it is on, so I can catch it again.

    • Like 1
  6. 18 hours ago, Princess of Tap said:

    I never think of Dorothy Malone as being a major movie star or a major actress in Hollywood.

    But she turns out to be a major actress in two of my favorite films:

     Young at Heart directed by Gordon Douglas and Written on the Wind directed by Douglas Sirk. She appeared with Robert Keith in both movies.

    In the latter film, she plays an in- your-face to the hilt nymphomaniac who  sexually harasses Rock Hudson throughout the whole film, picks up a gasoline station attendant when her father owns the entire oil company, and after that incident, she has a wild Latino music impromptu dance routine in her room, as her father, Keith, climbs the stairs to reprimand her. But he never makes it to the top--dying of a heart attack midway, As the sensual sexually out -of -control Dorothy dances on . There she won her Oscar.

    The main Oscar pay back that Dorothy Malone got was starring in the hit show Peyton Place - - where she often reminded all of the young rising stars on the show, Mia Farrow being the most popular, that she was the star because, after all, she had won the Oscar. 

    However, I do remember one time Dorothy Malone actually starred in a film that was not only an above average outing, but was also a historical Hollywood vehicle-- Too Much,  Too Soon. This film is based on the life of John  Barrymore's actress daughter Diana Barrymore. ( if you don't know what she looked like, you really must Google her because Drew Barrymore is just about a dead ringer for her.) What makes Too Much, Too Soon even more Hollywood freaky is that one of John Barrymore's friends, Errol Flynn, portrayed him in the movie.

    I don't know much about Dorothy's personal life except that she had an exceedingly, romantically, stormy marriage with Ginger Rogers' French discovery and ex-husband, the hypnotically handsome Jacques Bergerac.

    Dorothy was a beautiful and competent actress, who gave me some memorable moments in cinema.

    Wonderful exegesis of her career and life, Princess!

    • Thanks 1
  7. 22 minutes ago, Fedya said:

    The first time I commented on it here, I said it was the movie that answered the question of what sort of movie you'd get if Woody Allen played the part of a 12-year-old girl.

    Some people actually didn't like that comment.

    I don't think Frankie looked anything like Woody Allen!

    Just kidding. Being dense is so much fun. I will say I always hated Ethel Waters though, as she was so sanctimonious. I relished the fact that once someone asked Butterfly McQueen about the holy Ms. Waters and Butterfly said she was the meanest woman she ever knew. I would have cast Pearl Bailey in the role, but she was too young at the time. I also hate the song "My Eye is on the Sparrow" or whatever it is called.
     

    Personally I think Woody Allen in a blonde wig, would look a lot like Kim Richards from "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" who also looks a lot like one of the Bee Gees, Robin I think.

  8. 17 hours ago, Dargo said:

    Why CG! That wasn't Groucho in those old stag films! NO, that was CHICO!

    How do you think Leonard Marx got his nickname anyway?

    Uh-huh, from all those films he did with all those "chicks" between the sheets!

    (...actually as you may know, in a way that WAS how Leonard got his nickname...supposedly he was the real "ladies man" of all the brothers)

    C'mon, Dargo...like I can't tell the dif between that handsome devil, Groucho and his less toothsome brother, Chico? I would pay good money NOT to see Chico unattired. Can you imagine him naked wearing only that horrid fruit vendor hat?

    I think you are just a paid shill for the Marx family. Are you still dating Melissa?

  9. 19 hours ago, Sepiatone said:

    I put the "laugh" emoticon in reaction to an earlier post made by GGGGERALD, because even before it became a movie, everyone seemed to KNOW "My Fair Lady" was Pygmalion put to music.

    Meant no real offense,Gerald.  Hope you realize that. :)

    Sepiatone

    Not so fast, Sepia! You never know if "everyone" knows MFL is based on Pygmalion.

    I was dating a guy about fifteen years younger than me once, and Jeopardy was on and the question was about a big nosed fellow, and I said "Oh, yeah...Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac" and my very attractive and erstwhile boyfriend of a month looked at me scornfully and said "What...no, silly that is from the movie "Roxanne" with Steve Martin."

    End of relationship but still amusing to remember.

    • Haha 3
  10. 10 hours ago, Stephan55 said:

    I watched Au Hazard Balthasar (1966) for the first time a couple of years ago.
    For some reason that movie "moved me" in a gut wrenching way that some real life moments and only a few movies have been able to do. So much so that I felt the need to post about it on these boards immediately afterward.

    I even searched out my old thread to see how I felt and what I said about it then.
    If you click on the date next to my name it will bring that thread up so I won't have to repeat myself in this post.

    Now that your thread has perked my interest I will read through it to see what others have already posted and whether or not if I may be able to contribute to its content in any "high" or "low" brow way :D

     

     

    Great to read what you thought, Stephan. I think one thing not talked about much for the film, is the usage by Bresson of sound. The beginning with little Balthazar's birth cry, the mean boys attempting to abuse him, Balthazar's response to his circus triumphs and so on. It is a really tough film to rewatch. I'd looked for it for years, finally found it, watched and then...put it away and have not been able to rewatch. Not for the squeamish but truly a masterpiece. Thanks for your post!

    • Thanks 1
  11. 19 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

    3c8f85f72fd4f1871b51f4aa141d2cc4.jpg

    I majored in Unspeakable Horrors with a minor in Reanimation.

    Go Fighting Cthulhus!

    I was never interested in the sports program there, even though my literature teacher, Professor Abdul Alhazred was the coach. Of course that ended when he convinced the team while on sabbatical to read the "Necronomicon" for pigskin inspiration, and the quarterback, Larry Pickman burnt his fingers when the eldritch volume started smoking and then poor old Larry erupted into a form of spontaneous human combustible material. Sad but true...

  12. While living in the city of Arkham in New England while I attended Miskatonic University, I was introduced to the works of Japanese mystery writer, Edogawa Rampo [1894-1965]. His tales of the macabre, comprising elements of eros, grotesquerie and nonsensical themes were naturals for filming, resulting in movies like "Beast in the Shadows" and "House of Malformed Men" during the 1960's and 1970's. Books of his short stories like "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" combined Gothic styles with his own brand of deviant behaviours being depicted. I'm sure all have read and enjoyed his story "The Human Chair" while sitting in their Barcalounger, but if not, be sure not to be alone as you partake of the tale.
     
    Books like his "Hall of Mirrors", and "The Caterpillar" inspired much J-Horror yet to come, after some of his works were banned in Japan for being morally deviant. Japanese horror developed from such tales and also earlier writings which inspired movies like Kobayashi's "Kwaidan", Shindo's "Onibaba" and odd counterparts like "Woman in the Dunes", with later films like "Audition" and even "Ringu" visiting the genre. The Japanese seem to have a delicate underpinning that revels in the gaudy excesses of fear and then wallows without trepidation at exposing such psychological states to the general public. I find the Japanese to be masters of horror and even more possibly terror, if we follow the Ann Radcliffe definition of horror as something you see happening or know will happen, and terror as something that involves a fear of the unknown. Being that one can possibly see precursors in Rampo derived from the works of Poe, one can see why he chose his nom de plume aptly.

    I think the Japanese have a particular affinity for horror and terror, however you define it, and would like to know your favorites.
    • Thanks 1
  13. On 1/16/2018 at 10:14 PM, Dargo said:

    Hmmmm...well ham, considering you said "Any" here, I'll pressed to say I always at least thought Pee-wee's Big Adventure was a pretty funny film, anyway.

    And, I always thought Adam Sandler was actually pretty good in The Wedding Singer too.

    But yeah, I know what you mean here. Ya see, I usually don't find that whole "man-child" act kind'a thing very funny or entertaining OR impressive at all.

    (...nope, ESPECIALLY in our "elected officials"...IF ya know what I MEAN!!!!)

    LOL

    I gotta agree, Dargo that any movie with a scene with anyone dancing to the song "Tequila" has to be a winner!

    • Like 2
  14. 1 minute ago, Swithin said:

    "More" actually should have won the Best Song Oscar but didn't. That award went to the lame "Call Me Irresponsible" from Papa's Delicate Condition. I saw Mondo Cane on a double bill with Women of the World.

    I thought it won? I guess I just hoped it won? Sorry for perpetuating mistaken information, Swithin. I still think it should have won though I will admit "CMI" is a better song than something like "Talk to the Animals" from "Doctor Dolittle'...yccck!

  15. 38 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

    GGGerald reminded me in another thread of some titles that I've long wanted to see: several Russ Meyer flicks. I've seen MudhoneyFaster Pussycat, and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. But I really want to Vixen!Supervixens, and Up!, but I've never been able to track them down.

    inc.jpg

    Up_(1976).jpg

    7624219_1.jpg?v=8CA17C7488DF690

    You do know Lawrence that the only really proper setting to see a Russ Meyer flick is at the drive-in, don't you? By the way, I own "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" and it was quite a disappointment in the totemic oeuvre of Russ Meyer flicks being rather boring in spite of some bared epidermis.

  16. 11 minutes ago, Vautrin said:

    Speaking of nude rasslin', there is the Alan Bates Oliver Reed nudie non-cage

    match in Women in Love. The boys clear out the furniture to the sides and

    go at it in the all together. By the firelight we can see both men's glimmering

    cheeks and every once in a while, a fleeting glimpse of their limp and bouncing

    dinguses, as Sam Spade might have put it. For the non-wrestling fans there

    are some nice shots of MP to be Glenda Jackson's berries. A flick truly with

    something for everyone.

     

    After Burr's nude scene they considered changing the name of the show to

    Ironfront, but then decided not to.

    OMG, Vautrin! Being a fan of good old, D.H., I remember the first time I watched that film, I was almost embarrassed for that cutie Alan Bates during the [as you put it..."wrassling" scene] since it was incredibly revealing. Now I would expect Oliver Reed to relish such interplay but up to then Bates had been a bit more circumspect in films. Even the "firelight" was not disguising anything but just putting a warm, golden glow on all the proceedings. It made Glenda's scenes appear to be quite tame. I get a kick out of Lawrence's writing, since he has that same skill as Nabokov at getting sexual innuendoes into scenes which on the surface appear to only be talking about the usage of sporrans on one's kilt. Good show!

  17. I meant to post this awhile back but forgot. Am I the only person viewing TCM offerings who caught this French short from Pierre Etaix?

    This proves the theory of serendipitous happenings being often better than what one might have desired. I don't remember what I had just watched on TCM but I was about to turn off the tv and all of a sudden this strange French short comes on. It started, and though I was a bit confused about the intent, I was soon laughing out loud. It was so amusing and clever and whimsical and almost boisterously depressing proving again that there is a thin line between comedy and tragedy that I was soon revelling in its excesses of morose hilarity.


    I can only say, that the series of mishaps beautifully choreographed, deserve to be praised in film journals. Perhaps they have been and I just have not been reading enough French reviews from places like Cahiers du Cinema.

    I can only hope that at least one other person here was privy to this delightful short. If not, all movie buffs should put it on the Buffet Bucket List.
     

    Here's the IMDB synopsis which hardly does this masterpiece justice:

     

    Rupture (1961)

    When picking up his mail, a man is excited to see a letter from his sweetheart. His excitement turns to sorrow when he gets home to his flat and sees that it is a Dear John letter. But that sorrow turns to anger as he figures that he will send her a Dear Jane letter in return. However, writing that letter isn't as easy as he hopes as he encounters one problem after another, from a broken fountain pen, to a temperamental ink well, to stuck stamps, to a broken desk.

  18. Beth, I think there would always have been an audience for Judy. Witness her adoring reception by fans at the Palladium concerts. Now I realize that this was quite a few years before her demise and way after Sid Luft had helped restore her movie legend but with talent like she had, and the pathos she incurred in people while performing, she would have always been able to make a comeback. Unlike Whitney Houston, even if Judy's voice failed, I think the audience would have been behind her. Judy had an uncanny relationship with her fans who were adoring. Now would she have been starring in films. Probably not, but I think her singing career would have always been there for her. I remember her line in one later movie, about how she "sings for herself" and something about not being a "piece of meat" was a later comment. That somewhat pitiful, waif persona served her well and she would at least have been able to perform in Vegas I bet. Who knows, maybe she would have gone the route of older stars like Crawford and Davis in acting in some Grand Guignol type roles too. 

© 2022 Turner Classic Movies Inc. All Rights Reserved Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Settings
×
×
  • Create New...