CaveGirl

Actually, no...for your particular type of fetish of preferring women who are weightlifters and have a Parisian past, I would think you would dig Hope Emerson as Olympia La Pere. Remember how she lifted Tracy up with ease? Probably due to her duties in so many films having to contend with chicks in the slammer, when Hopey would play the very strict and sadistic female warden. She was all woman, all 6'2" of her!

Hey, you can say that now but I distinctly remember you posting that the only thing which would have improved Winkler's version of "A Christmas Carol" would be if it had been a musical, and if Potsie could have sung and played the part of the Ghost of Christmas Past. Was Jerry's version called "A Hava Nagila Carol"? Speaking of Italian men, why did they always use them in Hollywood films as Native Americans, I ask you!

The child who was in the film "Savannah Smiles"? She had a rather tragic life as I recall. What do you feel is missing from her bio that is not caring, if you don't mind me asking?

Define "good" in this context please?

Good catch! I'll have to think about this since I always watch for all the famous goofs in films, like characters wearing watches in ancient times, and telephone wires on films set way back, and women like Lee Remick changing from a skirt to slacks as they move from room to room but haven't lately been paying much attention.

C'mon, Dargo, the only connection you have to that concoction, is that you've watched Radley Metzger's film, "The Lickerish Quartet" around twenty-three times...

I am bowing in respect to anyone who was in the immortal classic, "Glen or Glenda"! I try to rewatch it every year or so, just to enjoy the profundity of the lines spoken by Bela. It's been a while though since I've rewatched all the films in the Ed Wood boxed set, which I bought years ago in its original faux pink angora displayer. Was Conrad one of the policemen who knocked over the cardboard headstone in the cemetery scene? Loved that part of the film, and also Ed's use of a shower curtain for the cockpit doorway in the plane scene. Thanks, Lawrence for the update and so sad to see another Wood player make his final appearance on earthly shores. RIP, Conrad!

Sorry I didn't see that, as I was staring at my autographed photo of Nigel Bruce on the wall above my monitor. But I do love Cheerios aussi, especially with Bailey's on the top and a drib or drab of egg nog as a chaser.

My Google is out of order, Nip! I used Goggle, but couldn't see anything through those crappy lenses, Sorry!

With the advent of Christmas upon us, one gets to see on film the many incarnations of one of the most iconic of all characters imagined by Charles Dickens, good old Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens was noted for his insightful ability to coin names for characters that seemed to define and explain their innermost soul and even outer extremities to a "T", and in "A Christmas Carol" this talent does not fail him. In other tales his characters like Uriah Heep, Mr. Bumble, Miss Murdstone and so on, show how masterful Dickens was in delineating a personality and with the appelation of Scrooge, Dickens managed to show Eb's grasping nature for wealth, since the word reminds one of things like squeezing or screwing folks out of their money mayhaps. So many actors have taken up the mantle of Scrooge and attempted to play him, and I welcome them all. If you have a favorite, please enter them in the competition so others may too look for their appearances in upcoming films, since TCM is gracing us with many versions of the story this month. I've seen movies with as diverse folk as George C. Scott, Albert Finney, Seymour Hicks, Reginald Owen, Patrick Stewart and some say even Rich Little, Buddy Hackett and Jim Carrey has played the role though I've not seen those unfortunately. For me, the best Scrooge is Alastair Sim who seemingly was born to play the part. The fact he had a whole period of life experiences as a Professor of Elocution in Edinburgh and didn't even venture into acting until he was thirty, gave both his dramatic and comedic roles a richness and layered quality which seemed genuine. The role of Scrooge demands both wit and pathos and Sim had it all, plus he was of the correct age and appearance with no make-up needed to don Ebenezer's skin. He was also aided by one of the finest casts of character actors like Kathleen Harrison, Ernest Thesiger, Hermione Baddeley, Michael Hodern, Patrick Macnee and others. A bonus is that this is one of the only filmed versions which does not have a cloying and diabetes inducing Tiny Tim, since Glyn Dearman is just an adorable little boy with no annoying tendencies. Another fun thing to do is recast the film with actors you think would have made a great Scrooge, but never got the opportunity. I would have picked W.C. Fields, since he was such a devotee of the work of Dickens, and admitted he tried to educate himself by reading his works and attributed the usage of many oddball words in his films, to things he had picked up from reading Charles, which made him perfect to play Mr. Micawber in "David Copperfield". But I think Fields would have been a bit too wry for the part, and probably could never have shed a tear when he reconciled with his nephew, so he's out for me! So please enter any other fine contenders who have played this role as it's fun to see more takes on such an iconic role. I seem to recall my oldest and dearest friend here, Dargo mentioned that he felt the definitive version of the Scrooge character [though with a different name] was his idol, Henry Winker in "An American Christmas Story" which sadly I've missed up till now.

I had no idea, Nixon was involved with Angie. For a guy who wore his wingtip shoes on the beach, that is pretty wild stuff... Next you'll be telling me one of the McGuire sisters had a liaison with Sam Giancana. Stop messing with me, Dargo!

Really, Vautrin? The only thing Pips make me think of is that old Sherlock Holmes tale with the five orange ones. And of course old Pip from the Dickens' tale. What I like better than a Pip though is Vip, the stuff Rock Hudson was selling as an advertising man, in that comedy he did with Doris Day.

Ealing films are the best!

Ya know, I never thought about it before, but Christine looks a heck of a lot like Angie Dickinson!

Christine and her friend, Mandy Rice-Davies were too smart to be snookered by the lot of high British government men, like the Prime Minister, who thought they were using them back in the day, a la John Profumo. I still remember the great retort by Davies on the stand when the defense attorney confronted her saying his defendant denied having any relations with her, and Mandy looked at him smugly and said "Well, he would, wouldn't he?" Whalley was quite good portraying Keeler in that film, by the way. Thanks, Swithin for the update.

She was very pretty, Dargo. I was surprised when she has that sex change though... By the way, enjoy the old Samantha, Dargo as they will be showing her in the following film, on late Wednesday at 4:00am: 4:00 AM WALKING STICK, THE ( 1970) A beautiful polio victim is seduced into helping with a robbery. Dir: Eric Till Cast: David Hemmings , Samantha Eggar , Emlyn Williams . C- 101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Thanks sincerely, Stephan and it is such a pleasure to see you are still sharing your extensive film knowledge here. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your very fascinating personal take on the area mentioned in the film since it is an area I have absolutely no real experience with to compare to things in the film. The old Gold Rush days would have been an amazing place to have lived during such a fabulous era and I envy you your time there albeit quite a few decades later. I am surprised the Blu-Ray is less, since it was more where I bought it, but it was not on Amazon. Here's hoping you enjoy the film as much as your time in the town. By the way, I love Jack London!

Oh, you should...seriously. It is one of the most esoteric and deep interpretations of Hitchcock's oeuvre I've ever had the pleasure of reading. It has chapters on "Vertigo", "Rear Window", "Marnie", "Torn Curtain", "North by Northwest" and maybe one more. Talks about diegetic issues, the use of profiles in "Vertigo" and the idea of falling being central to the interpretation in it and also the spiral effect in Madeleine's French twist hairdo and the staircase and how color influences Hitchcock's board planning ideas for her clothing. I'm making it sound boring with such a panoply of mixed up thoughts, but don't go by my description and decide for yourself. Even the placement of Grant and Saint when they end up on the back of the monument is delved into, with Pomerance saying Hitch planned for the audience to find themselves in the same dilemma as the actors leading to a sense of dangerous disequilibrium. If you read it, please report back with your take, Swithin.

Pretty much, yeah! That's also why I read "The Godfather" by Puzo, and "Justine" by the Marquis de Sade and "Valley of the Dolls" by Jackie Susann and watch all the films by Cecil B. DeMille as no one could milk the bible for more people sinning in flagrante delicto situations. Don't be knocking "u" users, you salacious and langourous usurper of female virtue while sitting in any glamourous girl's parlour.

You mean like Terence or his bro, Chris? Clever of you to use the "collector" connection in your riposte.

Crimeney, Dargo! I read it when it came out years ago and was first published. I think I was fixated on the bits about how Hitch was...well, shall we say, being sexually abusive to his female stars. I remember some stuff about asking Grace Kelly to disrobe or something that engendered his peeping tom tendencies to flourish, and hitting heavily on Tippi Hedren and when she would not cooperate, well...she got some nasty birds pecking at her face in scenes. There is actually a lot more about the emanation of meaning in the kleptomania bits in "Marnie", in the Murray Pomerance book than Spoto's. Spoto tends to concentrate more on the psyche of Hitchcock and his somewhat dysfunctional sexual psychopathology with Alma Reville. Hope that helps!

I bought that book by Spoto on Hitchcock years ago and really enjoyed its research and theories. I can see that this trilogy works as a premise. "Marnie" deserves a great musical score and could be as effective as "Sunset Boulevard" with one. Thanks for your fine review of the stage play, Swithin. By the way, have you read the book "An Eye for Hitchcock" by Murray Pomerance which came out in 2004?

Uh, weren't they the guys who would gleefully whip themselves as they traipsed through the streets in the Middle Ages and torture themselves with cat of nine tails devices and such? Oh, wait...those were the Flagellants not Flatulence. Never mind.

Dar, and here I thought the parts that brought a tear to your dilated pupils, were anytime Sam Wainwright says "Hee Haw", or Alfalfa gets the dance floor to pull back and expose the pool, or when we find out that Violet was headed toward a life on the streets as a paid harpie? Thanks for clearing this up... www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNKQkbBhgBc

Speaking of Jack Cardiff, perhaps in the top five of all cinematographers in my book, I just purchased his directorial effort, "Girl on a Motorcycle" with French heartthrob, Alain Delon and Mick Jagger's old girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull. It's from 1965 I think and if I recall it correctly is an amazing time capsule of the time period. You should buy it, Nip!