CaveGirl

And a Squigelum dedicated to you, Tom for all the fine shots from this classic!

With the current weather nationwide, quoting the line "T'ain't a fit night out for man nor beast" seems totally appropriate. I could watch that short on my death bed and still laugh out loud!

I own the complete boxed set but found myself of course watching numerous episodes during the 48 hours. Caught all my favorites like with Gig Young, Inger Stevens, Donna Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Billy Mumy, Shatner in "Nick of Time". Love the "Miniature" one wit Duvall which did not originally play due to legal reasons as I recall. The passing of Serling at such an early age was a real loss to the entertainment world since his self-penned episodes and earlier dramatic works always centered on humanity which seems to be in short supply now. Great post and thanks for featuring TZ as a topic!

"Buster and Billie" with Jan-Michael Vincent. Typical drive-in fare that turns out not to be typical but very moving.

That bit about Marie asking pardon for stepping on the executioners foot, seems like Hollywood lore but probably is true. Great and sumptuous film to watch even with the silliness of the script.

I'd kill to see "History of the World, Part 2" also! Kill someone else, not me though...

I say "Drat!" because there are only so many hours in a day to watch W.C.Fields. I'm not a medical professional but if I were I'd prescribe at least a half hour daily of viewing his onscreen bits to up one's endorphin levels by experiencing the joy of pure laughter. TCM kindly gave us many hours yesterday of such pleasures and included even such rarely scheduled gems like "Million Dollar Legs" with the great Jack Oakie. One dose of such films could cure incessant depression if one has a viable sense of humor, but I digress. As Robert Klein says in one of the TCM Fields promos, "He's soooo funny!" Those with insufficient humor quotients might take umbrage at some of Bill's remarks like on the train with Gloria Jean, when he talks about Shriners, tent-size pants, and the girth of diner waitresses or other such cracks, but as Fields once said...he's not prejudiced, he hates everyone. Not really true, but as a screen persona, it is very egalitarian and takes away the guilt of any admirers who are not attuned to a man who says "Anyone who hates children and dogs can't be all bad." I first became aware of Fields when my parents took me and siblings to a Fields festival film marathon locally. I think they felt viewing Fields was de rigueur, and they were right. Later when it became time for my eldest sibling to choose a spouse, our parents had only one requirement for all of us: "Don't bring home anyone who doesn't like W.C. Fields." As I recall from reading countless bios, Fields somewhat attributed his vocal mannerisms of bombastic tone to hearing his pater familias and local fruit vendors hawk their wares in the neighborhood. Another definitive influence was his mother, Kate whose sarcastic asides came to full fruition in his seemingly henpecked husband demeanor onscreen accompanied by devastatingly caustic quiet digs at the expense of those who continually assailed him. I think they deserved any invectives and am always totally with Bill in his revelry. As the Tramp Juggler, Fields travelled the world in the vaudeville circuits, and later with the Ziegfeld revues, earning fame for his unique talents as comedian and juggler. It's one thing to juggle admirably the normal objects, it's another to make your act fail purposely and then retrieve the lost object in mid-motion with aplomb. This was one of the secrets to his original success but there were other elements which solidified his place as a natural for film, even in silents like "Sally of the Sawdust" and others. Perhaps the belief by Fields that "broken" is not funny, but "bent" is, were a part of his appeal. Fields years on the road included legendary stories about his marking his liquor bottles to ensure no one had confiscated any booze, even though many say he was not entirely dependent on it till a bit later, since juggling requires skills of steadiness. One time he supposedly tried to teach a fellow he secretly disliked, to juggle knives...with the intended result. Often being stranded in small towns in the early days of his act, he would abscond without paying the hotel bill, and the lack of money caused him to start the practice of opening bank accounts in many places under assumed names, many of which might still be out there or in the unclaimed funds dossier. One legendary story concerned an elderly man in Ohio, who as a boardinghouse owner, caught Fields trying to escape without paying. Fields was forced to explain that he simply did not have the money and to his surprise, the man reportedly said something like "That's okay. Just mail me the money when you can." Fields said this was one of the few kindnesses he had ever experienced on the road and he never forgot it, inviting the man in later years to California events and keeping in touch. I think this says something about Fields that I like. Fields had married early in his career to his assistant in the act, Hattie and had a son with her, William Claude Junior. Though they separated at an early point, Bill did continue to support his family and after his death, William Claude [who was a dead ringer for him in both looks and voice] had a brief career in the 1960's doing tv commercials when the Fields persona was again being admired and sought in film revivals and such. My favorite movies of Fields are...all of them! But I have a special place in my heart for any in which he juggles things like plates in "Her Majesty Love" or cigar boxes like in "The Old Fashioned Way" [with Baby Leroy] or when he is playing pool and ruining the felt, or pulling teeth like in "The Dentist" or ruining a golf game as in "The Golf Specialist" or when he gets continually hit in the face with faux snow in "The Fatal Glass of Beer" which TCM kindly showed also last night. I also love "Poppy" with Rochelle Hudson and "It's a Gift" which is one of the best of the family intriques he loved to satirize. Fields once called Chaplin not a comedian but a ballet dancer, and said the only act he could not follow was with the Marx Brothers, but deep down he probably respected both, using the Groucho term in his bit with Franklin Pangborn in last night's showing of "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break". The storyline for "NGSAEB" seemingly is the prototype for ideas which seem unfilmable like "The Princess Bride" since the action in "Sucker" breaks off interminably back and forth between Fields explaining the action to come, and then a respite of seeing said action evolve visually. Another Fields invention was to incorporate in everything seemingly his affinity for pool and if he could have put it in "David Copperfield" he would have. His love though for Dickens, to whom he attributed his verbal terminology for antiquated words in his ad libs, had been attained while on the road when Bill carried with him a suitcase of books, due to his lack of normal education as a child. Add to this his patented hat and cane tricks and the beleaguered father routine in which Bill would tell a child "You're not going to say I don't love you!" accompanied by a rap on the noggin, and you have classic Fieldsian humor. I usually have an immediate connection with anyone who gets Fields and finds him hilarious. Bill is the browbeaten man, trampled upon, who can't even get a moment of peace to shave, eat or simply be, with people like Mr. Muckle torturing him by brandishing a cane around a light bulb display. or a wife like Mrs. Bissonet yelling at him while sleeping on a porch hammock with the invective "Wake up...and go to bed!" These events strike a deep nerve and Fields' ungodly view of the vicissitudes of mankind which assail all of us, and his way of defeating it by acceptance and basically talking behind others backs, still resonates, through our veils of frustration with annoying people. One's favorite Fields' film can tell a lot about one. Post yours here and risk some amateur analysis. And thanks to TCM for keeping the Fields persona alive with such scheduling of his oeuvre!

Thanks so much, Limey and I intend to hit on every one of your http's, since I now am very interested in which films this site was used in. I bet a lot of ones that I like very much since I'm partial to the British film industry which has done such classic films over all times.

Yeah, really it is integral to the original seeming plot and then disappears like a load of bricks into the river bed along with Marian and the car, never to be seen or worried about again. I gotta agree with you, Jakeem...good call!

Wow, good choice in O'Neal in that flick, James. He was quite good even if Tatum overshadowed him at the time. The movie also had that great soundtrack with songs like "On the Banks of the Ohio" by the Blue Sky Boys and other gems like of course, "It's Only a Paper Moon". Thanks. I've also seen the GCS film but don't remember as much but know it was a worthwhile movie.

No holes in choices for sure, but could be some plot holes [which you are not responsible for at all] since they are typical in many noirs, Christine since suspension of consciousness, like Dick Powell swirling around in an inky darkness, help keep things rolling along on those dark and wet streets in the Noir World. Love all the films in your list!

Now you just know, T.B. that normal surgery for a good purpose, as in war injuries would never be my modus operandi, right? Surely even a nice person like you can come up with one awful movie featuring quasi-surgical modification that went horribly wrong? I'm waiting...

Yeah, yeah, yeah...really? That's the best you can come up with, Dargo? Don't you ever watch any other people in movies than your favorites? I pity you. Try to expand your horizons and watch a little Harry Langdon or maybe even the Ritz Brothers...okay?

OMG, NIP! You've mentioned one of my favorite movies that my brother turned me on to..."What About Bob?" Anything in that movie can contain a favorite never miss scene. Thanks so much for reminding me about it, Nipster.

You're a sick person, Beth. But I like that in a person so please keep such mentally aberrant thought responses coming...

Please, Christine...did you have to remind me of that? Haha! Glad that Dr. Strangelove can't be fruitful and multiply, particularly with that bad arm and resemblance to Henry Kissinger! Great choices, much thanks!

I love Margaret Lindsay and you have a great list there, but can I also include her work in "Seven Keys to Baldpate"?

Miquel is Jose Ferrer's son by Rosemary Clooney and played Arnold on the original "Twin Peaks". He is the spitting image of his dad and has a very dry sense of humor. Now I love Jose's work in films but Mel kind of left me cold, so I might have to agree with you here about playing the dead monkey. There was one film he was in that I liked his acting but now I can't remember what it was...boo hoo!

Oh, what a fantastic film is "Island of Lost Souls". Sorry I have to go on about it first since those mutilated men wandering around near the House of Pain still give me nightmares. Wonderful choice, Christine! And yes, I would have forgotten about "The Raven" so thanks for the nod.

Thanks, dahling! Don't get me wrong, I think reflecting on how any normal and glamorous woman of 1950 would have looked, that Swanson looks quite nice. It's just that women then did not aspire I think to look like teenyboppers or constantly in their 20's, even when they are much older. Consequently I think Swanson's hairdos and make-up reflect her wish to look attractive but in a mature way appropriate to then styles. Body wise she actually seems to be in great shape. She's marvelous in the part for sure! Hope that clears up any misconceptions I might have caused about her appearance in the film.

Tom, do you have the dvd with the unused footage of the corpse being delivered to the morgue? Billy Wilder's rather cryptic and sardonic nature really came to fruition in that movie for sure, and the monkey funeral is my favorite part, along with of course anything done by good old Erich von Stroheim. If they had remade this film I would have cast Miquel Ferrer in that part and too bad he is gone from us sadly.

The Prequel/Sequel thread made me reflect on films which simply cannot have a sequel for various reasons. For example, that horrid film with Liza Minnelli called "The Sterile Cuckoo". I would hate to see a sequel due to its basically vile and puerile nature, but how could it happen anyway since the title would have to be possibly: "Son of the Sterile Cuckoo"??? I don't think so... Sure, the awful couple depicted in the film could adopt but still, just doesn't really work movie wise in my opinion. Please don't even ask me if the "Cuckoo" appellation referred to Minelli or her swain as I never want to revisit that film in my mind. Name a movie which you either hope will never have a sequel due to its unworthiness or can't have one due to something in its storyline.

I think Gloria was around fifty when the film was made and though she did not look decrepit at all, I think women of fifty years now probably look quite a bit more youthful. Holden was quite fetching in the film, and looked good dripping wet. Nobody here turn me in for sexual harrassment or inappropriate sexist language please!

T.B., I thought Beulah Bondi was in this film and she was, but just checked and noticed the film also has Clara Blandick. What a great duo! This killed me...the credit for Maudie Prickett, way down in the cast list, said she played: "The Ugly Old Maid Tenant" Hilarious. Thanks for the nice write-up!

I'll watch almost any films with elements of bizarre surgery on unwitting victims, due to some aberration in my psyche obviously. This theme of the mad scientist operating with a demented assistant bringing back bodies to the laboratory, reached a peak during the Universal days. Though these films are still fun to watch for me, I am more attuned to what started occurring in movies in imitation, after the release of the Georges Franju film "Eyes Without a Face". With this movie, elements of a poetic horror began to emerge that influenced other filmmakers. To this day [Spoilers Ahead] I still remember the eerie scene wherein the surgeon merely is drawing a faint line around an unidentified female face, in anticipation of peeling back the skin to use as tissue repair for his own daughter's ravaged countenance. This simple act that went no further, still packed more fright in a few seconds than so many bloody gore movies to come. Adding to this movie's evocative dreamlike fugue state, were the performances of Edith Scob, an ethereal creature trapped in a world contained mostly by the limits of her boudoir and the halls of the mansion. The scenes of her waiflike figure wandering aimlessly are hauntingly moving. Aided by a perverse turn by Alida Valli, here not as a romantic European noblewoman but rather a sadistic procurer for torture on the unsuspecting, she cuts a fine figure. The film is also scored by the talented Maurice Jarre and filmed by cinematography legend and inventor of the famed Schufftan Process, Eugene Schufftan himself. There is a certain nod to the work of Val Lewton possibly, in that Franju was able to blend a certain subtle sensibilty into a gruesome storyline. Bizarrely it may be that the restrictions placed upon Franju by the producer to have no "mad doctors" or "too much blood" helped him create such a masterpiece of seeming normalcy yet with subversive tendencies. A side note, Franju used the authors of what would be the basis for the film "Vertigo", Boileau and Narcejac for the script which probably heightened the frisson of fear inherent in the text. EWAF elevates the genre to new heights with its evocative and sophisticated mood, creating a film that could appeal to an adult audience in 1962 and not just the typical teen ticket-goers. A certain formerly hidden and Mengele-bound medical experimentation pervades the atmosphere and comes out of the shroud at times, and prefigures the many horror laden films to come with Nazi terrors unleashed. This film is my favorite surgical cinema and quite highbrow, yet that's not to say that I don't also totally enjoy a more lowbrow take on such medical issues, as in the revolting yet immensely entertaining cult classic, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" starring Herb [not yet Jason!] Evers! Name your favorite medical atrocity film with surgical improprieties.