CaveGirl

Bebe, Dargo of course refers to Brigitte Bardot. Don't you remember your pet name for her? I think it was your resemblance to Jean-Louis Trintigant which turned her on to your charms. I'd pay good money to hear some of the back stories you were a part of during the filming of "And God Created Woman" but I know your lips are sealed. And of course, there's also the problem of the Non-Disclosure Agreement you signed... Speaking of Red Ryder guns, I met Jean Shepherd once and he said he thought it was amusing that many people would tout his movie as being about a happy couple and family. He said it struck him funny since he based it on his parents who didn't get along at all and divorced very unamicably.

He's not forgotten by me. I enjoy almost all his early and late in career films, like his Jekyll and Hyde take which to me is the best on film and much later his Paddy Chayefsky take on "Middle of the Night". I do think being that he was not often playing the anti-hero which became more attractive to later film fans, might be part of the issue, but though you can lead a horse to water ya can't make them drink any more than you can force a supposed movie fan to like an old time actor, no matter how talented and acclaimed they were in their day. Hence it is up to the fan of such a talent to tout their films for those who might skip such fodder because they only are aware of the bigger, more famous folks like Gable, Bogart, Flynn. Look at a major talent like Tyrone Power who is not particularly revered today yet is an incredible actor and could even play the Geek in "Nightmare Alley".

Well, one should not cast pearls before swine, ya know. TBYOOL is a wonderful movie, full of hope and pathos and sentimentality that is genuine and not cloying. Tough subjects like coping with war injuries, dealing with marital issues resulting from separation and other issues are tackled with taste and aplomb. Only a real dunce would rate this film as unworthy of any awards so why ask why. Teresa Wright as a woman out to save Dana Andrews from a faulty marriage, was revolutionary at the time probably, and the film even has the grace of Hoagie Carmichael to lend a musical note to the proceedings. It's a time honored classic and who cares what some critic who probably is a dolt thinks. I always watch a bit of it when it's on and am always rewarded, Lawrence as I'm sure you are too being that you appreciate artistry and talent.

Speaking of trivia, I truly would have enjoyed seeing Osgood Fielding III's, Ma-Ma if she had been portrayed by veteran stage actress Constance Collier, which was talked about in film circles as something thrown around and then thrown out. I realize she was not that much older than Joe E. Brown, but if Jessie Royce Landis can play Cary Grant's mum, and be only eight years older, what is the problem. Another wonderful candidate for Osgood's mommy, would have been Mrs. Patrick Campbell but she would have totally looked down on the proceedings for sure.

When a film has certain actors in it or directors in charge, I am always a sucker to have to view it. For example, I will watch anything with actor, Anton Diffring, since, well...I just enjoy looking at his coldly vacant light blue eyes, and general appearance of malovelence. I also will watch any film with Roland Young or Joseph Schildkraut, since they are both consummate thespians. For directors, I'm a sucker for David Lynch and just purchased his update to "Twin Peaks" boxed set. I dig the fact that he will often resurrect actors who have not been appreciated for eons, and give them a whole new aspect like Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Michael Parks and so on. Another director who is a sine qua non element in choosing to watch a film is Lars Von Trier. His film, "Riget" [aka "Kingdom"] blends elements that are evocative of horror, suspense, noirish expressionism and even comedy. Made in Denmark, Von Trier even brings shadows of Theodor Dreyer into his visions on film and I get a kick out of the fact that hypnosis often will be a critical factor in a Von Trier movie, which reminds me of Werner Herzog's use of real hypnosis in filming his movie "Heart of Glass". The storyline of a town famed for their ruby glass, whose recipe for the product dies with the local glassmaker, needed a little twist, so Herzog thought it might be interesting to hypnotize many members of the cast and film them while under this spell. Anyone who would come up with such an esoteric idea is also one whose work on film is sine qua non for me. It's always interesting to hear other film fans essentials for viewing...

And of course there is Richard Keith of Little Ricky fame [using his fake name before he went on the Andy Griffith show as Keith Thibodeaux] and Keith Richard of Rolling Stone fame.

This is a character name from Barbarella, but how about Milo O'Shea as Durand-Durand in "Barbarella"?

This film concerning the rediscovery of lost films from the early 1900's was the brainchild of Bill Morrison. His idea of assemblage of bits and pieces of old found film, reminds one of the work of avant garde artist, Joseph Cornell who constructed box conglomerates with the same ethos and dedication. The collection of 533 nitrate film reels buried in the permafrost of a Gold Rush town, makes for a fascinating story for film buffs who want to go back to the beginning days of film and enjoy unknown objects of desire memorialized by often unknown filmmakers. Combining footage with the work of directors like William Taylor Desmond, of the Mary Miles Minter ignominy, this movie is mesmerizing and tantalizingly intriquing for the neophyte fan or the diehard movie aficianado. The dvd is available from Kino Lorber at a reasonable price I believe, and perhaps elsewhere. www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/movies/dawson-city-frozen-time-review.html

I thought you were a Peugeot man ever since you dated Bebe back in the Sixties?

Hmmm, I wonder if Scott thinks Spacey would have made an enchantingly virile Captain Von Trapp? I hope they don't replace next the footage of Spacey as Verbal in "The Usual Suspects" with inset bits of Plummer extrapolating extemporaneously. Thanks, Dar!

I dunno, Sepia. Somehow I think the citizens of Frostbite Falls would just kick Stallone right out of their town. He'd stick out like a sour thumb. But I'd let his voice remain for Rocky for sure.

Of course it was... I'd suggest an Auto da Fe next time if you want success, Dar!

For me, there are many actors who one can get confused with other actors due to their possibly similar looks, demeanor or type of general role they were offered in films.Though they don't really look alike, I find Henry Jones and Tom Ewell to possibly be ones that confuse some people. In fact, a friend of our family who had a thriving business dealing in movie memorabilia, once asked Jones to autograph a film still and said Henry mentioned that he was glad it was he in the picture and not Ewell, as some folks would confuse them.The only actor I can think of currently who seems to have cornered the market on roles that would require the mien of a Christopher Walken type...IS Christopher Walken! In the golden days of Hollywood Peter Lorre would have held the same esteem I feel.Two actresses who could take the same types roles, might be Cathleen Nesbitt and Gladys Cooper, though the latter usually got the juicier ones. In terms of playing respectable citizens, one could always count on Samuel S. Hines or possibly Henry O'Neil if Sam was unavailable. If you are looking for a cheap tart or chorine, then why not get Veda Ann Borg if Joyce Compton is out of town? Lynn Overman as a fast talking cut-up could compete with Roscoe Karns for any role and on a bit higher echelon, I'd pick Frank Albertson or Lee Tracy for many of the same roles. Now I know someone will post and say "Gee, I don't think so and so looks like that actor you just mentioned" but I'm not talking about total visual identification, but an amalgam of the actor's whole being and how they can often be interchangeable. Even studios were aware of such things, and would have backup actors if a star misbehaved, yet some stars are so unique no one can fill their shoes and they remain irreplaceable like Roland Young, Edward Everett Horton or Edna Mae Oliver. Sure pale imitations of these supreme talents were possible but the unique qualities of each was not.Now, feel free to add some of your fave doppelgangers to the list if you so choose.

Ah, geez, I love June Foray but she sure messed up that voice of the kid, Mary Badham [who played Scout in Tequila Mockingbird] when she was in the "Twilight Zone" episode, "The Bewitching Pool", doncha think? Remember how the kids had horrid parents and they would dive in the pool and visit that granny chick who would give them lemonade and cake? Half the episode has the kid's real voice with intact Southern accent thick as molasses and half has June's voice. Very strange and Rod Serling should have taken control and fixed this travesty!

Well, they did treat poor Salieri badly, as if he was just a jealous fool. Of course they also made Mozart out to be silly and foppish, but still a genius which balances the score. Speaking of crappy bio films, the one about Vermeer called "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is ludicrous, being that the model for the painting was obviously his own daughter and not some chippie with a crush on him. I like your idea about Haydn being great subject matter!

Hopefully when you improve upon the Dickens' version, Nip you will not leave out Fezziwig? One improvement I can suggest would be to put Mr. Micawber though in your version, and have a digital representation of W.C. Fields as him playing a few games of pool in the movie. I'm sure Dickens meant to add this tantalizing vision to his original idea but just forgot due to too much liquor at his holiday festivities.

I think most people on the way to the guillotine were probably not singing, so I can do without a musical and also would prefer the Ronald Colman version from the 1930's. Though I have to admit seeing Colman singing as he is walking drunken on the boulevard while running into people like Edna Mae Oliver would be enchantingly mesmerizing.

You have been misled, Dargo since that upcoming film is about Rocky from the Bullwinkle show. Jay Ward says "Hi!" by the way from the other side.

Sepia, what about the other glaring "flaw" which is about Ford choosing to leave out the song as performed by Gene Pitney? Maybe Ford being an old grumpy, cantankerous, crabby curmudgeon just didn't want to pay Bacharach/David for the songwriting fees or want them to benefit from it being in the film? I'm so glad to be back as I was psychically receiving messages that people here were discussing me. Please tell my oldest and dearest friend, Dargo [if he still posts here?] that I'm back from working for the last six months trying to decipher the 340 code of the Zodiac for that History Channel special.

As we all know, the dualistic nature of people or twinning as a concept was often envoked in dramas by Hitchcock as in the relationship between Charlie and Uncle Charlie and the Madeleine/Judy paradox. So too was author Patricia Highsmith [born Mary Patricia Plangman] a master of dualism in life and print, who would have been gratified to find that the actress who portrayed the character of Miriam Haines in "Strangers on a Train", named Laura Elliott had a whole second career as actress Kasey Rogers with credits in more tame ventures like the tv series "Bewitched" and "Peyton Place" and as such is unrecognizable as the victim of Bruno Antony. This mixing up of identities internally and externally was a fixation for Highsmith in her own life, which happily she used in her art to create characters like Tom Ripley, a doppelganger who could take on the characteristics of a friend like Dickie Greenleaf, all the while disavowing the homoerotic attraction of their relationship till the fateful end. One can see the signs of this same sex adulation in Bruno's fatuous fawning over Guy Haines in "Strangers on a Train", due to the former's identity crisis and psychosexual background. The attraction to one's own sex was inherent in Highsmith's own life, possibly spurred on by the callous treatment of her own mother, a not so maternal figure due to her sang-froid personality, who once told her progeny that mama had imbibed turpentine in an effort to abort said child. Born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1921, Highsmith wasn't even really a Highsmith, since she took on her stepfather's surname after the divorce of her parents. Her first novel, "Strangers on a Train" in 1948 depicts a type of society totally in tune with Highsmith's belief that "The abnormal point of view is always the best for depicting 20th century life, not only because so many of us are abnormal, but because 20th century life is established and maintained by abnormality. On the subject of her own attraction to women, Highsmith's second novel "The Price of Salt" [later used as basis for the movie "Carol"] was based on the personal reminiscences of Highsmith concerning a woman shopper in Bloomingdale's that she found appealing enough to follow and almost stalk. Perhaps this is why Highsmith released this tale under the pseudonym, Claire Morgan. Highsmith always referred to herself as a "suspense writer" following in the footsteps of one of her favorites, Fyodor Dostoevsky, but also paralleling bits and pieces of the works of Gide, Sartre and Camus in a sort of existentialist vein. Never revered in her own country, Highsmith did receive recognition and acclaim and honors in Europe, winning the French Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere in 1957. At the time of her death in 1995 her amazing works of art were receiving little attention in her homeland till the revival of the Ripley series on film. Having no American publisher at that time, even her last book "Small g: A Summer Idyll" had been rejected in the US for publication in 1994. Yet her work lives on with the justly famous Ripley novels and other fine works yet to be discovered by the vox populi, like "This Sweet Sickness", "The Cry of the Owl", "The Tremor of Forgery" and her many excellent short stories which also revel in the casual amorality which was Highsmith's forte and trademark. Having moved to Europe after dissatisfaction with her homeland, Highsmith died in 1995 in Switzerland after having also lived in England and France.

Adam West was the best Batman. Wry, handsome, witty, well-modulated voice that was arresting. And he ended up keeping his looks unlike Robin, the Boy Wonder. Probably that was Merv Griffin's fault though for giving bad example to Burt Ward.

You are the Herodotus of the TCM board, Palmerin! Loved your post and exegesis of analogies which should perhaps be made and any post which stimulates someone to post a photo of handsome Peter Brown is one to be praised also.

Is this a remake of "Being John Malkovich", Dargo? Or you could be channeling "The Truman Show"?

I love this movie! I try to never understand it, in fact when I actually start finding myself following the plotline I go get a drink and start imbibing. I like to feel exactly like Carmen does when Bogie finds her in that weird Asian styled bungalow with the hidden camera....woozy! Why to understand this film takes all the fun out of it. Besides we all know the butler did it and Chandler was lying through his teeth about his whereabouts.

I do recall your "sarcasm" being a combination of the wit of Waldo Lydecker, Alexander King, and William F. Buckley with a little Groucho thrown in for good measure, like a bromide. Thanks for the welcome back! As to where I've been, does the name Kislyak ring a bell?