CaveGirl

Definitely Garbo, and Taylor. Not sure I understand your mapping with the terms. I think Norma Shearer is in the mix from what I have printed from my screen and people like Charles Boyer, Marilyn and Dick Powell. Please explain what you mean by 5:2 and all so I can follow. Otherwise this may end up like the 340 word cipher from Zodiac!

If anyone wants to read a book with early usage of the word "gay" here's one from the 1630's, that is fun reading. Nice cover too with art by Botticelli!

This guy put me off having a Coney Dog for dinner forever!

Oh, gee...how could I forget the marvy Jim Backus as Mr. Magoo as Scrooge! That actually is a really fun take on the tale. I usually love Finney in anything but I could not get into his version as the make-up looks so ludicrous. It seems a hard fix to perfectly maintain that defining delicacy of an old crotchety guy who then turns into a whimsical elfish being, but Sim had that amazing ability with the morose eyes and acting chops. Gotta say, I looked forward last year to seeing Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer on TCM and really quite enjoyed it. Though he reminds me a bit of the overacting ham who was in "The Face at the Window", Mr. Tod Slaughter, at first glance, I think Seymour did an admirable job of portraying Scrooge. Thanks for posting such an astute compendium of actors who've played the part, Eric!

I use the term "Haf a potahto?" quite frequently when I am out at restaurants just to confuse people." Love this film by Whale!

Well, this just will not do! I guess I never noticed that Ben was giving short shrift to the incredibly talented, sophisticated, worldly and handsome actor with the best acting voice, bar none, in films. I like Ben, and enjoy his intros immensely so would like to give him some leeway here and try to think perhaps he believes Ronnie Colman is so renowned that he needs no more buildup. Or maybe it is just the typical man thing, where Ben is just a wee bit jealous of such a gorgeous male with supreme magnetic powers of attraction that everyone from Benita Hume to probably Eva Braun and Madonna would go for. I do agree though, that no matter what, Colman is one of the screen's great actors and certified heartthrob. Hope this helps assuage your pain, Sandrahn.

Sirk, definitely Sirk.

I'd probably still watch even though it is hard to beat a Merchant Ivory production with Redgrave, Thompson and Hopkins.

I took a screen picture of them once and identified many of them. Even when they show it, I can spot Liz Taylor's right in the center somewhere. TCM should put it on this page in a printable version and have a contest with a prize to see who can identify the most lips from the collage. I definitely would like to be in the competition! Great question, Motown and welcome to the board.

Gotcha!

I had no idea Palmerin had a podiatric fetish, or as we call it in the trenches, a Chiropody Freak. Palmerin must be a really big fan of the films of Luis Bunuel then, since nary a foot can pass in his movies without him channeling in on it with a giant close-up. Just go check out "El" and "Viridiana" and "Belle du Jour" and "The Milky Way" and "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgouisie" and...well you get the idea.

I'd like to say I would dread seeing "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" from 1964, starring Pia Zadora but the truth is that someone gave it to me last year for Christmas, so I have already suffered. I will say I think Pia Zadora is a lot more entertaining than Taylor Swift though...

It used to be till recently that the Brits and the Americans could get along quite well, except maybe for movie titles. I have a book which lists all movies and their alternative titles in different countries and it is quite fun to read and reflect on just why the title would be changed. Sometimes due to a film with a similar title, or the original title translates badly or means something nasty in the new language. But when American film titles are changed for the UK, you know it is for more than the language, even though wasn't it Churchhill who said they were two countries separated by one language? One film that has alternative titles is Britain's "Witchfinder General" which is called "The Conqueror Worm" in the US. Playing a drive-ins in the late sixties, this film directed by the astounding Michael Reeves is famous for the fact, that it might be one of the only horror flicks of Vincent Price, where he doesn't occasionally ham it up. Reeves was determined to get a truly diabolical performance out of him as Matthew Hopkins, and he manages it. Reeves would curtail any scenes where the wonderful Vincent would go into his amusing persona, with a sly eye, that he had been honing in films like those of William Castle and others. The end result...a magnificently filmed vestige of the evils of persecution and foul treatment of those suspected of being witches. Name a film which had an alternative title in any country, if you please.

Ya know, I was gonna say Barrymore as Mr. Potter always seemed to be doing a pastiche of early Scrooge, so yes he probably would have been fine. Thanks, TB!

Excellent choices, Beth! Gotta say I love Bill Murray too, but I was not copacetic watching him try to be a good Scrooge either.

Well, with a dad with the name Rulandus, what do you expect? Una Merkel is always wonderful and never less than a W.C. Fields' daughter! Speaking of the Flamingos, if your 45 rpm changer for your portable record player, has hit the skids, you can now purchase the soundtrack on cd for "American Graffiti" which has the remastered version of the hit, to replace your exceedingly worn copy of "I Only Have Eyes for You", Dargo.

You talking about Peking Duck, sucka? Speaking of changes that were just not right. Changing Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy. No offense to JFK but it just did not have the same ring at all. This brings up a good subject for a topic here. Movie title changes, from like British films to American and so on. I think Top Billed should pursue it since he is a movie historian here in my book.

I really don't approve of changes either, Palmerin. I'm still mad about Istanbul and Constantinople.

I could never watch that movie "The Hoodlum Saint" again, after the nuns at our school made us watch it on our Festival Day. They would only let us see films about saints, like the Saint Francis Assisi film, or something about Saint Maria Goretti. Fun, fun, fun...

Stop slamming Ryan O'Neal, Dargo! You obviously just believe what you read in "The National Enquirer" and "Confidential". Give Ryan some credit, though he hated tabloids reporting on his love life and behaviour*, he was once asked why he never sued any of them for defamation. His simple answer? He said "Well, because they always have photos." Your fiend, *One of the "u" Posters

Wasn't he in that Stephen Frears' film about Sammy and Rosie? Sorry to hear of his passing. Thanks, Swithin.

It would be a lot cuter, if you told us your favorite Ebenezer, TB!

I hadn't considered that, but I see your point, Nip and I bow to your expertise in the art of being mean. Not that I'm comparing your to Leona Helmsley or anything. Just teasing! Your animated guy there looks like a cross between Jim Backus and Will Wright, who played Ben on TAGS.

I just love the scene in the original film, where Allison Hayes is running around in that bedsheet diaper, and searching for her errant hubby, yelling out "Harry, Harry!!! When she puts that giant papier mache hand into that dive club he is in with Yvette Vickers, one really feels that he got what was coming to him fer shure!

If you are one of the erstwhile fans of screen scene stealer, Zasu Pitts you are lucky for tonight at 4:30AM, TCM is showing "Dames" from 1934. Good old Zasu, who was quite spooky in Von Stroheim's masterpiece "Greed", still decided her forte might have been comedy and she perfected those skills from the early silent days up until her co-starring times on tv with people like Gale Storm in the "Oh, Susanna" show. "Dames" is formulaic, but there's no problem with that when the formula is always so entertaining. Full of the typical Busby Berkeley touches with stars like Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, I would have only one caveat emptor. If you are of the ilk that is bothered by the fact that in such films, stage sets will often include waterfalls and trains moving with people singing and dancing in their compartments, and other such whimsy...which you find upsetting because to you it would be totally impossible for such sets to be on a Broadway stage, then it might be best if you just stay in bed as this wonderful film will not be your cup of tea. But if you like films to be full of fun and fantasy [as Nip says they should be] and you don't ask questions like "Why would that really handsome guy, Link Larkin in John Water's film "Hairspray" have any interest in that overweight Tracy Turnblad?] then this is the film for you!