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Geraldine Page was one of the great actresses of her time. Superb in Dear Heart, Interiors, and Sweet Bird of Youth. Also in the underrated Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?

Pia Zadora won again.....

With Nicholas Smith's passing, all the original stars are gone. Frank Thornton, Wendy Richard, Trevor Bannister, Arthur Brough, Harold Bennett, and the always hilarious John Inman and Mollie Sugden . The two head maintenance men Mr Mash (Larry Martyn) and Mr Harmon (Arthur English) are also gone. Senior menswear replacements played by James Hayter, Alfie Bass, Milo Sperber, Benny Lee are gone. Mr Grace's replacement (Kenneth Waller) is gone. Canteen manageress (Doremy Vernon) is still alive as is the nurse (Vivienne Johnson). The major cleaning lady is gone (Hilda Fennemore). I imagine many of the secretaries are still with us. Chief among them Candy Davis, Penny Irving, Isabella Rye, and Nina Francis. And Mike Berry is still with us. The Ab Fab Joanna Lumley made 2 guest shots.

A social worker visited.... We're supposed to hear something by end of today.

I forgot about the parrot. Yes another "not as it seems." Martins ducks into a dark room and hears a voice... it's a bird. The alpine zither would have been practically the national instrument in old Austria, so it is entirely appropriate for this film.

It's another "not as it seems" moment. They see the shadow and think it might be Lime. It's a shadow of a man in a wide brim hat, arms stationary, hands maybe in pockets. The minute the shadow passes from view, the balloon man shows up with upstretched arms holding balloon and the other arm swinging his walking stick. The balloon man does not match the shadow at all and there's no shadow of the balloons. Yet when he reaches the corner and the light source changes, the balloons clearly throw a shadow on another wall. He's also not in any shot with Trevord Howard and Bernard Lee as he tries to sell them a balloon. After Lee buys a white balloon the old man, who seems drunk or unsteady on his feet, puts on his soft hat (no stiff brim) and goes away. So was the shadow Lime? It certainly does not match the balloon man.

I think there was a decision to keep this "quiet" until we see what MPTF does today. If they pull a fast one or go into bureaucratic stall mode, several news sources will be given the story. Blackmail? YOU BET!

West Coast time..... only 7 AM there

Or maybe just misidentified in the credits.... I think it was probably dubbed in later; it sounds dubbed. M (1931) also features a bearded balloon man as well as a boy bouncing a ball.....

His horrendous shadow precedes him. From the ominous to the benign. I don't see any credits that list the baloon man although the film's credits list is fairly exhaustive. Also I noticed in this viewing we never see the man ask "Ba---loon?" The camera is always on Howard and Lee when the questions is aked.

Actually I think Sunset Boulevard is the best film of all time, certainly my all-time favorite, but The Third Man is right up there. With these great classic films, you can watch them over and over again and always find something new in them. The ending with Alida Valli walking down that road toward the camera must rank as one of the all-time great film endings. Anton Karas' theme song was #1 on the US charts for 11 weeks.

HEY,,,,,, the sewer scenes are nothing to sniff at.

and will gladly do so!!

I think we may see some action on Monday. There are several well connected individuals on Nitrateville who have been contacting some very big names in Hollywood. We shall see.

And her mother and step-father spent all the money she earned.

Baby Peggy and Jackie Coogan were probably the first real child stars of American cinema. It's estimated she made more than 150 short films between 1921 and 1926. After a 6-year absence she returns to films... talkies. She made 9 or 10 films as an extra under the name of Peggy Montgomery. She left films in 1938 aged 19 or 20. I've only seen her in Captain January (remade as a Shirley Temple vehicle), and she was very. good. Have not yet watched The Family Secret, which TCM recently aired.

The Motion Picture and Television Fund recently denied Diana Serra Cary (Baby Peggy in silent films), a frail 97-year-old woman) non-medical in-home assistance. Founded in 1921 by Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and others specifically to help those associated with the art of filmmaking in their hours of need, it is as tragic as it is ironic that Ms Cary, who stood at Pickford's side at the opening ceremony of the original Motion Picture Relief Fund in 1921, and who made many films in the 1920s and 30s, was deemed not eligible for assistance. There has been a flurry of activity on several message board sites devoted to silent films to force the MPTF to help this lady. Many of us have emailed the CEO to get personally involved in this case and help the last surviving star of silent films. TCM recently aired a few of her films in connection with a DVD release by Ben Model. I think people should be aware of this story. Diana Serra Cary is probably the only living person to have met Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, William S. Hart and other film legends.

http://fan.tcm.com/blogpost/the-perfection-of-the-third-man

Norma Shearer would NEVER have co-starred with Bette Davis in Old Acquaintance because Shearer would never have worked for Warners. Up to her retirement in 1942, Shearer had spent nearly her entire starring career at MGM. While Crawford moved on to Warners with spectacular results, they didn't make the kind of films Shearer wanted to make. By 1942 other Warners queens like Miriam Hopkins and Kay Francis were winding down their starring careers. But Marion Davies had gone from MGM to Warners with so-so results. Jeanette MacDonald was about to end her MGM run in 1942 (although she returned after the war for a few films). A real changing of the guard. MGM was building up Greer Garson and Hedy Lamarr. Shearer, MacDonald, Crawford were all very expensive, plus Shearer had reportedly wanted to quit after Thalberg's death anway. LB Mayer was nothing if not consistent. As they approached 40 and their box office dipped, Mayer had no use for them.

I didn't recognize dancers from Gold Diggers of Broadway and the jitterbug dancers from A Day at the Races. Again, if you turn on the CC symbol, the names of the films are shown.

Watching Two Weeks with Love tonight. Debbie just finished "Abba Dabba" with Carleton Carpenter. She steals every scene she's in.

Great idea for trying to fund film preservation.....

I added a list of stars in order of appearance on the YT page.... only a few I didn't know.

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS.... turn on the closed captioning. It lists the movie titles. Would love to have seen Ann Miller "Too Darn Hot" in KISS ME KATE and Carol Haney "Steam Heat" in PAJAMA GAME.

And people forget that Debbie Reynolds was also a recording star. She had 4 hit singles in the Top 40 between 1951 and 1960 along with a couple albums and all those movie musicals. Her recording of "Tammy" went #1 and Gold in 1957 and was the year's biggest seller by a female vocalist. Reynolds also starred on Broadway in 1973 in the musical Irene and won a Tony nomination as best actress. She starred in Debbie in 1976 and in the early 80s starred in Woman of the Year in the role Lauren Bacall created.