LornaHansonForbes
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Posts posted by LornaHansonForbes
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LornaHansonForbes--I was given a copy of Peary's "Guide for the Film Fanatic" as a birthday gift in 1987--this is THE book I depend on--he wrote up 1700 films & listed about 4200 others--I check off films as I see them, LOL--had to replace it earlier in 2015, as I'd worn the other out--is out of print But got on Amazon for 20 some cents plus shipping & handling--film books by him get a recommendation, period.
OMG, just replace "Guide for the Film Fanatic" and "1987" with "Alternate Oscars" and "1992" and the EXACT SAME THING IS TRUE FOR ME: RIGHT DOWN TO THE TWENTY CENTS ON AMAZON PART!!!!
Spooky!
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My mother loved Robby Benson.
And my grandmother liked that he was Jewish.
"Oy, such a nice young Jewish boy...but what's with the kissing the men and the jumping off the bridge? You're gonna break your mother's heart, Robby. Why not move somewhere where you can meet a nice Jewish girl instead of kissing men and jumping off bridges?..."
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I saw ODE TO BILLIE JOE as a teen with my cousins on a family visit. We were underwhelmed by the story and laughed at Benson's acting. I would love to see it again, just to compare it to my "teen" critic mind. Remain cautious if you're expecting anything monumental.
I am a HUGE fan of Danny Peary's book INSIDE OSCAR, and agree with 98% of his choices, and in the 1976 section for best actress, he thinks Glynis O'Connor deserved a Best Actress nomination for this, and he has pretty high standards, so my curiosity is piqued on BILLY JOE.
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I caught some of HOME FROM THE HILL today. The Southern accents were pretty bad generally but there were moments here and there with some authentic sound.
The scene where the mother (I think it was Eleanor Parker) tells her son (George Hamilton) about his father's philandering and reveals that the father has an illegitimate son was very strange indeed. Although generally the scene struck me as comical (especially the mother's Hollywood-Southern accent and melodramatic delivery and the son's equally melodramatic reactions) there was something about it that was genuinely moving.
The part about the mother's discovery of the "mewing" other woman shortly after her marriage was very odd.
There's a good film and a good story to be told somewhere inside the brightly wrapped package of HOME FROM THE HILL, it's such an odd mix of scenes and performances that work and scenes and performances that don't....I think the issues of the film are entirely in execution.
Yes, Eleanor Parker plays the mother, and while I like her and think she was:
A. A total movie STAR
and
B. A good actress, much akin to a tamer Anne Baxter...
....she very rarely seems to be cast in the sorts of roles she should be playing- to me, she is a vixen, a schemer, or a "lady who lunches"- and so often she is cast in victim or ingenue parts. She was far too HIGH GLAM in her part in HOME FROM THE HILL- and so urbane and world-weary in her presence, one gets the feeling her reaction to her husband's daliance would be to deal with it and open an account at I. Magnin: end of story.
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Thank you for your comments LHF. I recorded Home on the Hill, but haven't watched it yet. I see that you gave it so-so reviews, but noted that George Peppard looked hot. I can handle that being the film's only redeeming quality. Lol. While I don't usually go for blond guys, I thought Peppard was pretty foxy in Breakfast at Tiffany's as Paul Varjack (or Fred Baby as I like to call him).
HOME FROM THE HILL is still worth watching, it's a watchable failure, and has some interesting elements. I would definitely give it another look if given the chance.
I forgot to record The Lusty Men and I wanted to see it. 1) because the title sounds amazing and 2) because the synopsis actually sounded interesting. Hopefully it'll re-air next month as part of Susan Hayward's SOTM celebration.
The title is a little misleading (see also: The Constant Nymph) but it's a good movie and one that needs to be seen more than once.
I read your comments about Rachel and the Stranger and was going to set it up on the DVR before I left for work, but I forgot. I shouldn't decide to do something the night before and expect to remember the next morning. It might work for some people--not for me.
One thing that might help would be for you to check out some of Loretta Young's precodes, like BORN TO BE BAD, EMPLOYEE'S ENTRANCE, MAN'S CASTLE and especially MIDNIGHT MARY. Once that is done, I think you'll have a broader appreciation for just how good an actress and savvy a personality was Loretta Young and how good she is in RACHEL AND THE STRANGER in rather a softer role than many she had done before.
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I missed commenting on my picks for Ann-Margret day before it actually happened. Lol.
My pick of the day was Tommy. I love this movie, it's so crazy, but it's fun. I love the scene where Ann-Margret flips out in the all white room and throws beans everywhere.
I was going to record Pocketful of Miracles, but I forgot to do it last night and this morning, when I got on the DVR to set up the recordings, PoM apparently had already been on (It aired at 3am for me), so I missed it. I also missed Viva Las Vegas which I wanted to see (that was on at 530am). Ugh.
Actually...if I recall correctly, the television set Ann-Margret is watching projectile vomits beans, champagne and something else (dog food? soap suds?) on Ann-Margret. She was, of course, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for this, don't know if they used this as her Oscar clip or not.
Fate was kind to you with regard to missing POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES. Sue me, but I don't like Frank Capra and this is my least favorite film of his. It is dreadful, and the official entry of Bette Davis into Cryptkeeper territory.
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Don't get ahead of the game here, Lorna!
THAT'LL be shown tomorrow during GROUCHO'S day!!!...
(...well, "Boogie, boogie, boogie" actually of course, but close enough anyway)
God Bless You for this.
If I were forced at gunpoint to name the funniest moment in any movie ever, it would probably be Groucho's "boogie boogie boogie" reaction to the Gypsy Hag in IL TROVATORE from NIGHT AT THE OPERA.
"Boy, how would you like to feel the way she looks?"
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Well, whichever the hell Luana it was in HOME FROM THE HILL, I felt sorry for her, because I'm sure she trusted Vincente Minelli (at least two actors had won Oscars under his direction at the time this film was made) and he let her down- BIG TIME, and I know it was because of this movie that she didn't get good roles from thereon. She was a likeable, pretty girl, and I don't see how the same director (Vincente Minelli) who wrung a fire-and-ice performance of the highest caliber from LANA TURNER of all people- could fail to mold Luana into something resembling an actress. He doesn't and I lay the blame at his ( no doubt pink granite, rose-petal strewn, heather lined) door step.
.... Maybe Vincente was too busy allowing the camera to linger over George Peppard- who never seemed quite able to button the top three buttons on his shirt- not that I can blame either one for either act.
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Actually no, I was looking at Luana Anders. WTH? Dont ask me why I was looking at her. I guess Luana isnt as uncommon a name as I thought! So forget all I said about Luana Patten, it all pertained to Luana Anders!! Is all that clear now? LOL. What's odd they were both born around the same time and died around the same time. Weird.
Oooogie BooogieOooogie!
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Patten wasn't a good actress; e.g. take the scene where she tells Peppard she is pregnant in the store counter.
YES!
It was like you could hear the sound of a mortar falling from the sky and then exploding as she delivered her dialogue in that scene, which- if played right- is the stuff supporting nominations were made for.
I cannot believe a director like Minelli allowed a performance like that to happen. (and yet, he seems to have.)
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LornaHansonForbes--re Home From the Hill actress--Assume you're referring to Luana Patten, who was a dreadful actress.
Yes and yes.
And thank you.
ps- My God, what kind of name is that for a movie star?!
It sounds like she should be working the checkout at a local A&P.
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Everyone says "I love you" Everyone says "I love you"Everyone says "I love you"But just what they say it for I never knew
It's just inviting trouble for the poor sucker who says "I love you." Take apair of rabbits who Get stuck each other and begin to w oo and pretty
soon you'll find a million more rabbits who say "I love you."
When the lion gets feeling frisky And begins to roarThere's another lion who kn ows just what he's roaring for
Evry thing that ever grewThe goose and the ganderand the gosling too the
The duck up on the water when he feels that way toosays: "QUACK!QUACK! QUACK!Everyone says "I love you"the cop ........ on thecorner and theburglar too, The preacher in the pulpitand the man in the pew say "I love you." Everywhere, thewhole world through The king in the palace and the peasant too
The tiger in the jungle and the m onk in the zoo says "I love you."Everyone no matter who, The fo lks over 80 and the kid of two Thecaptain and the sailor and the rest of the crew says "I love you"
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Where?? My high school French is Only so much help!!!
Alls I know is bonjour and m e r d e.
edit- apparently Le censor parlez le Francais.
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Ode to Billy Joe is a 1976 film with a screenplay by Herman Raucher, inspired by the 1967 hit song by Bobbie Gentry, titled "Ode to Billie Joe" (note difference in spelling).
The film was directed and produced by Max Baer, Jr. (of The Beverly Hillbillies fame) and stars Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. Made for $1.1 million, it grossed $27 million at the box office, plus earnings in excess of $2.65 million in the foreign market, $4.75 million from television, and $2.5 million from video.[citation needed]
this is one I would be interested in seeing. I've heard Glynnis O'Connor is great in it.
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I watched a lot of HOME FROM THE HILL last night.
It was a film I didn't even know about before it was on the schedule yesterday, so to fill in some of you- it's a VINCENTE MINELLI film with Robert Mitchum and Eleanor Parker and was the film debut of George Hamilton and George Peppard. Sort of a lovely-to-look-at hyperstylized mess of a movie- and a loooong one too (two and a half hours to tell a pretty bare bones story.) Some fluid camera work helps alleviate the boredom (especially a boar hunting scene.) I think Minelli, having brought home so many Oscars for GIGI a year before, was allowed to indulge even more then usual. Mitchum and Parker- the leads- are honestly not in it all that much to where they honestly were supporting roles that would've been better played by older character actors (I was surprised to see the film was originally to be a vehicle for Bette Davis and Gable!) and the meat of the story is left to be handled by George Peppard (who may have been good and may have been bad, I don't know, so hypnotized was I by his hardcore sexiness) and George Hamilton (whose acting was so bad, his looks could not save it) and a young lady whose name I cannot recall, and who I had never seen in anything else ever, as the woman torn betwixt them.
I think it is safe to assert I did not recall her because she did not make many movies after HOME FROM THE HILL and this was due in some good part to the fact that she beats George Hamilton to the finish to take the gold for bad acting by a good three minutes. She's awful.
I don't know what it was with Minelli, but the acting in some of his films in the fifties stinks- (also thinking of John Kerr in TEA AND SYMPATHY and John Kerr and everyone else in THE COBWEB.)
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Max Baer Jr wrote and produced the drama Macon County Line (1974), in which he played Deputy Reed Morgan. It was the highest-grossing movie per dollar invested at the time. Made for just $110,000, it earned almost $25 million at the box office. This record lasted until The Blair Witch Project broke it in 1999.
I thought Jethro wanted to be a rock star.
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....and if I may add, while REBECCA and SUSPICION have their faults, Fontaunes performances in each are impeccable.
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I'm not really as bowled over with Fontaine, but I also haven't seen as many of her films as Olivia's. At some point I guess I should try to give her a second look.
Have you seen LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN? JANE EYRE is also a good one. IVY is obscure, and a little silly, but shes good.
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I agree with what everyone is saying about Olivia in THE SNAKE PIT, but I have to add the 1948 was an incredible year for the de Haviland sisters. Joan Fontaine does not often get enough credit for LETTER FROM AN UNKNoWN WOMAN, because it was not successful at the time, and she didn't even manage to get nominated for it, but she's fantastic. Every bit as good as a OLivia and they are- without question in my mind- the TWO best performances of the year, vastly superior to Jane Wyman in JOHNNY BELINDA.
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Maybe she was getting divorced around that time..........
she got divorced in 1952. I remember reading in " inside Oscar" that immediately after she won her second best actress award for "the heiress", her husband at the time made a big stink because her agency took out a congratulatory tradepaper ad and did not thank her as "Miss" Olivia de Haviland. He apparently encouraged her to leave, and her career never reached the heights it did in the mid forties again.
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According to the accompanying commentary (on the DVD), de Havilland made this movie in the midst of some personal turmoil in her life. But she fully embodies her character here. She changes from happy to suspicious to angry to vulnerable, sometimes all within the same scene...
Did it give details?
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*(I again note that if some of you are viewing these on phone screens, they are going to be an awful mess.)
EDIT- Unless you turn the phone and view it horizontally I just discovered!
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Don't talk to me about self-respect.
That's something you tell yourself you got
when you got nothing else. The only thing that counts
is that stuff you take to
the bank, that filthy buck that everybody sneers at, but slugs to get.
The world isn't for nice guys. You've gotto kick and punch and belt your way
up because nobody's going to give you a lift. You've got to do it
yourself,cuz nobody cares about us except ourselves. Nothing's
cheap,when you pay the price she'spaying!The private lady
of a very public enemy! A womanwho crossed the paths
of many men!You're look ingfortrouble,arent you?
That Forbes Woman again!
Joan Crawford in
THE DAMNED
don't cry!
A WARNER BROS. picture
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My comments are in red- LHF.
I didn't post anything for Rex Ingram day. Honestly, I didn't even know who Rex Ingram was until he had a SUTS day.
I hate to use the word "token," but every SUTS includes a token black actor- and they usually have to reeeally stretch to fill out 24 hours of the schedule with enough films, and often said SUTS honoree is only in the film for a minimal amount of time or it's a humiliating role. That said, I enjoyed a lot of INGRAM'S day, although I missed most of THE GREEN PASTURES- that was a hell of an interesting film. I also enjoyed the tail end of the Arabian-themed comedy with Cornel Wilde and Phil Silvers.
Tomorrow looks like it's Robert Mitchum day. I haven't seen much of Mitchum's work, other than Out of the Past which I really liked.
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE is a latter-day Mitchum flick TCM aired a while back. It's highly recommended. Also THE LUSTY MEN (airing today) is a good, intimate Nic Ray film he made with Susan Hayward.
Home From the Hill intrigued me because of the cast: Mitchum, Eleanor Parker and George Peppard. I've only ever seen Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's and The A-Team, so it'll be interesting to see how he is in other roles. Peppard was a STONE-COLD FOX, but I have heard many anecdotes (including one from his TIFFANY'S costar Patricia Neal) that made him out to be a really terrible person. I know nothing about HOME FROM THE HILL outside of the fact that it is a LOOOONG film (2 and a half hours!)
Imo, the real dud on the schedule is Mitchum's interview with Dick Cavett. This interview was SOOOOO boring. It was obvious that Mitchum didn't want to be there, he just wasn't into it at all. Robert Osborne was interviewed recently and recounted that his joint interview with Mitchum and Jane Russell didn't go well because Mitchum was so uncooperative, even denying the truth of stories that he himself had told in the past. He also said Mitchum just was not into it.
Rachel and the Stranger piqued my interest a few months ago when it aired as part of a William Holden tribute, and I tried watching it, but I couldn't get into it. It was boring. Maybe I'm missing something? I think you are. I like RACHEL AND THE STRANGER very, very much. I have recently done a full 180 on Loretta Young- who I used to be quite dismissive of. She was a SOTM a coupla' years ago and I really think quite highly of her talents now. If it comes on again, give it another shot.
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November Schedule -- Norma Shearer as SotM!
in General Discussions
Posted
I think I learned more about film from ALTERNATE OSCAR than any other book I've ever read.