LornaHansonForbes
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Posts posted by LornaHansonForbes
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Last night I watched A Foreign Affair. . I hate to say it, but I didn't get this film. I didn't understand why it was considered a comedy.
Jean Arthur was okay in the film, though she seemed to be lacking some of her usual charm. I still enjoyed her, though I wasn't crazy about the Swiss Miss hairstyle that she had going on. I was hoping when she put on the evening gown that she would let her hair down, but alas no.
However, maybe I'm missing something, but I found the film a little boring. I don't think it is as good as some of Wilder's other efforts like Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina, and The Apartment.
I'm not entirely sure A FOREIGN AFFAIR is strictly classified as comedy, or if it is, it's one of those films where the comedy mirrors the ludicrousness of life (especially in wartime): a speciality of Wilder's...it's not really one of my favorites either, and I love Wilder too...Jean Arthur, however: notsomuch, and this is one of her frostiest, most unlikeable roles- a pretty blatant retread of her grating character in THE MORE THE MERRIER (and I CAN'T STAND her in that film.)
That's funny, I think I've referred to Arthur's hair in AFFAIR as being "Swiss Miss"-style too.
The really great post-war reconstruction comedy of Wilder's is ONE, TWO THREE (1961) with James Cagney in an incredible perfomance: I love that film and it is laugh out loud funny (although, like A FOREIGN AFFAIR, there are plenty here who don't like it.) the other truly great unsung war film he did is FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO, which is EXCELLENT and which TCM only recently began to show.
weird trivia: A FOREIGN AFFAIR was one of the top twenty biggest money-makers of 1948, so whatever the fimmakers were selling- it sold.
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i think I'm actually creeping up on the 7th or 8th -year anniversary of a particularly bad case of stomach flu that wiped me out (rare, since I don't usually get sick during the summer.) anyhoo, I was DEATHLY ill, like could not get out of bed deathly ill, and TCM must have been showing a really bad line-up (this was, I think before they started improving the diversity of the schedule and they used to just run 24-hour loops of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY and tributes to Elvis, dark days) anyhoo, the only reason I go into detail on this is to explain why I was watching the BRAVO! network that afternoon.
Anyhow, I spent most of the morning watching this show about a walking, talking shaved ferret in a Madonna c. 1998 wig that goes around procuring dresses for Hollywood trophy wives to wear to awards shows (I think it was called THE RACHEL ZOE PROJECT.) It was a marathon that listed 'til noon, and while it wasn't exactly Ken Burns walking us through the intricacies of Prohibition, it was watchable.
Then, without warning: GREASE 2 came on.
I was too sick to get out of bed to turn it off. Seriously, this deathly ill was I.
There's really not much more to this post, except to say that I will, I think, always remember some part of how ludicrous a two hours it was as I laid there- my electrolytes depleted, my joints aching, my head swimming with fever, my eyes unable to turn away a'la A CLOCKWORK ORANGE- watching GREASE 2.
I think at some point I started hallucinating and imagined the Smurfs were there with me watching it.
People doing peyote and watching THE WALL at 4:00 in the morning have had less surreal experiences than I did watching this film.
David Lynch can only dream of creating a viewing experience as insiduous, confounding and disturbing as I had that day watching GREASE 2.
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"I want a coo -oo-oo-ool rider. . ."
That whole number reminds me of a very bad commerical for mentholated cigarettes.
Love the big bowling number that's laden with sexual innuendo.
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MY COMMENTS IN RED- LHF
Tomorrow is Ingrid Bergman day, which I'm excited about. Ingrid Bergman is one of my favorites. I think I'll have an Ingrid Bergman movie marathon on Saturday to celebrate her birthday. Saturday would have been her 100th birthday and also 33rd anniversary of her death. Poor Ingrid came full circle and died on her birthday.
I did not know that. Thanks for the FYI.
Rage in Heaven, another film co-starring Bergman and Sanders.
And not a terribly good one, although it did inspire a plot point in one of the greater episodes of MURDER, SHE WROTE featuring a completely unique performance by the late Buddy Hackett.
Saratoga Trunk, not a big fan of Cooper, but the film sounds interesting.
It's not. It's baaaaad.
SIDE NOTE: Wow, Leonard Maltin does not care for many of Bergman's movies. Though, as we all have figured out... What does he know?
Yes true, and yet- just like a Bergman day on a SUTS festival 2-3 years ago, it's like TCM went looking to show every dog she ever made- and I didn't realize how many she made. In spite of having a hot streak from 1939-1946 (arguably beginning with INTERMEZZO and ending with NOTORIOUS) that rivaled those of Bette Davis and Greer Garson in terms of triumphs, Ingrid was in A LOT of bad movies. Speaking of which:
I've also seen Under Capricorn, which was disappointing. I was intrigued by the cast: Bergman and Joseph Cotten, the director (Hitchcock) but it was a boring film. I did not care for it.
Yeah, this one. Pretty much a nadir for all involved. It was, however, one of the first big Major Hollywood productions to be filmed on a Viewmaster.
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I just found this online. It's a slideshow, but it's legit and it is SO WORTH checking it out!
hope this link works!
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Yes. Douglas Shearer. His name appeared in the credits of every MGM film for many years.
Yes, yes. Him.
...but even if John Gilbert's voice was all right, and he was a more solid actor than I heretofore realized, I have to say, I'm with a lot of others who just don't find him sexy in his prime and there's no denying either way that he was losing his looks, although there are male actors who moved past the matinee idol stage of their initial careers (Frederic March comes to mind.)
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Yes, but Britain does not have the Euro.
It's 100 pence to the pound so much like the dollar.
I did not know that!
Thanks!
(been a long time since I have crossed ye ponde.)
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I also meant to add that in reviewing the imdb trivia entries for SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, I came across one that referenced a rumor that MGM sound technicians sped-up his voice because they were under orders from "someone with an agenda."
I have no idea if this is true or not, but an interesting fact is that Norma Shearer's brother was (I think) a major (if not the head) of sound at MGM.
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I think, aside from all the instabilty that came with it, people were ultimately relieved when Euros came along.
This pence, shilling, bob, thing is confusing.
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Oh thank you all!
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You should have told me that 3 days ago.
Sorry. I only saw it for the first time on...Tuesday? Monday?...whenever the hell it was they showed it...
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Bela Lugosi - highly watchable theatricality + extra accent = Paul Lukas
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The fatal flaw in DOWNSTAIRS is that deadly slow first fifteen minutes.
(Well, actually maybe it's the first twenty. I missed the first five minutes of it to be completely honest.)
my advice to any and all on this film is: try to make it through the start, it's worth staying for.
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I'm kind of reluctant to shatter another of life's mysteries, but what they hey:
A question for any and everyone who posts here: what the hell do they mean in older/period British movies when the say "the cab ride cost two bob" or "Ten Bob? For a fetid old perambulator? What gives?" or "oy guv'ner, it'll cost ye a bob or two to find out" (etc)?
IS "a bob" a lot? Generally the character reaction when told something costs something in terms of "Bob" (never plural?) gives me the idea that maybe 1 Bob= $37.50 in today's dollars.
Like, I know it's all Euros now, so it doesn't apply...and if this helps: I am familiar with old British currency in terms of pounds and pence and I assume a "quid" is a five....
what is a "Bob" and is there actually a guy named Bob on the coin/bill?
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Have you seen this woman?
"Piccadilly Lil- the Toast of the East and West Ends."
missing since Saturday.
height: 5'6, weight twelve stone. Likes betting on dogs, playing with matches.
all those with pertinent information are
requested to contact the offices of the
London East End Times
#4 East Circle WEST
TWO BOB REWARD OFFERED FOR INFORMATION!
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I saw it when it was on during the salute to pre-codes and was a bit disappointed because I was expecting it to be more salacious based on the way it was described.
It's still on the DVR so I think I will re-watch it.
I mean, "salacious" for a pre-code film is a different standard for "salacious" today...the three things that struck me as really notably salacious in DOWNSTAIRS were:
*Oh, I guess technically these are spoilers:
1. John Gilbert- major romantic screen figure- has what is clearly a sexual affair with the 50-something, overweight cook, then proceeds to belittle and abuse her (calling her "grandma" and pushing her by the face into a wall!) after stealing her money. This was kind of a mind-blower on numerous levels, and an example of how Gilbert was really risking what he had left of a dashing, romantic image with this movie.
2. There is a scene where- in a very tight shot- he caresses the ankles of the Lady of the House Olga Baklanova (sp?), and while I am reminded of the ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS joke: "oh darling, I can just imagine the kind of scandals they had in your day: "Strumpet Shows Ankle to Chimney Sweep!", it was surprisingly erotic and intense.
3. But finally, when Paul Lukas's butler confronts his wife over the affair she has had with Gilbert, she pretty much tells him it was because he (Lukas) was bad in bed, treating her as yet another household duty to be performed, like laundry or serving dinner. She mentions that Gilbert has driven her wild with passion. This kind of frankness- and the fact that the wife was not punished for this admission and (okay, this is a real spoiler here:) and that they manage to salvage their relationship is what made this film so ahead of its day.
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11:45 p.m.--"The Man Who Came to Dinner"--(1941)--classic comedy, if anyone hasn't seen/taped it.
An enigma;You know how some films are so very well done in one department, & how the rest of the film is tripe? Here's one, IMHO.
You want to expand on this?
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*****SPOILERS BELOW*****
I couldn't believe it when Jane left Edward and went back to her aunt. Her aunt is on her deathbed and Jane "valiantly" agrees to once again put her life on hold to be with her. But maybe that was more the norm back in those days.
I understand that she had no future with Edward (in her mind) but why go back to that witch? Just get another governess job, no?yeah, my version is more believable than that.
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Yes, overall its a good adaptation of the book, they did leave out a section of the book, but its been so long since I've read it, I cant remember what it was about.
Bertha sneaks down from the attic, steals and pawns the Rochester family silver, goes to Brighton, puts it all down on a lucky dog, WINS BIG, goes to London, becomes a baller and big-time shot-caller- running her own gin joint and becoming known as "PICADILLY 'LIL- THE TOAST OF THE EAST AND WEST ENDS" before she is discovered by a family lawyer, darted with a tranquilizer and brought back to be chained in the attic.
But there I go again, "spoiling" JANE EYRE for all of you who haven't read/seen it.
I'm the worst.
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That is the latter-day image of Joan (BENNETT), after all her noirs in the 40s. But she spent most of the 1930s playing pert blonde ingenues, spunky maybe, but not nearly as worldly as sister.Connie. I think she would have also been a good choice as Scarlett.
I have not seen many of Joan Bennett's thirty films, but in going on what I recall my gut feeling to be on seeing her Scarlett screen test- her voice was so deep and husky, very mature-sounding. Maybe she, like Leigh, was a heavy smoker, although it didn't end up showing in Vivian's voice until the fifties.
There is just a certain growling, mature qulaity to her delivery (ditto Susan Hayward)- that I don't think it would've been as good as Leigh or Goddard's potential Scarlett could've been...
One expects dominance and fire from Hayward and Bennett- notsomuch with the dainty, high-voiced Leigh- which is why her Scarlett is such a triumph (and effective as a deadly weapon.)
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I wish I had recorded Downstairs. It looked interesting, but it had already started by the time I put it on. And a precode. I was just too tired to devote the time to it. John Gilbert looked shockingly thin.
I did not notice that. He looked about as good as he ever did to me- although I haven't seen a whole lot of his stuff.
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Count me in as enjoying THE INVISIBLE WOMAN.
It makes me mad when people write off John Barrymore at the end of his career- because that is when some of (if not the) best performances he ever gave occurred (see also: MIDNIGHT and THAT THING WITH KAY KAISER.)
He was an utter hoot in this movie, loved how he kept saying "me" for "my"- never once in watching him would you guess he was thisclose to The End.
He may've been a pain to work with, but from what i saw, he was 100% invested in the part and he MADE the film.
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Two consecutive films today with Walter Pidgeon and Virginia Bruce. Is this Walter Pidgeon day or Virginia Bruce day?
What was even weirder was that one of them SOCIETY LAWYER (?) was clearly a remake of PENTHOUSE, which aired on Mae Clarke day.
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I understand that she had no future with Edward (in her mind) but why go back to that witch? Just get another governess job, no?
I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
...but it's a likeable dullness.
Not like Raymond Massey's dullness or Gregory Peck's dullness or Wendell Corey's dullness...where you just want to grab them and shake them a'la Bette Davis to Miriam Hopkins in OLD ACQUAINTANCE....