LornaHansonForbes
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Posts posted by LornaHansonForbes
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...oH AND i FORGOT to mention that Jacques Tourner (sp?) directed EASY LIVING. That man has one kooky filmography.
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-Sam's going away.
Did you hear what I said, Walter?
- Yes, I heard you.
-We can't let him go, can we?
-Martha's waiting for your answer, Walter.
-We'd always be afraid of him.
We couldn't live that way.
We'd be fools to let him go,
knowing so much about us.
-You may have a little trouble squaring this one.
-You broke into the house.
You demanded money.
You tried to attack me
and I shot you in self-defense.
I've a right to kill in self-defense.
That's what the law says, doesn't it, Walter?
Isn't that what the law says, Walter?-
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EASY LIVING (1949)
I did not know that there was a second EASY LIVING besides the one with Jean Arthur made in 1937, but apparently there is.
Victor Mature is a pro football player with a heart problem- I can't recall the fictitious name of the team he plays for, but the players are billed as the LA Rams in the credits and wear helmets with rams on them, although the fictitious name has nothing to do with rams. Lizabeth Scott- who keeps popping up all over the board and the schedule- is his untalented interior decorator headcase of a wife (the set designer has a ball with her apartment, I think he had almost as much fun as whoever got to design what Doris did to Rock's apartment at the end of PILLOW TALK. ) and Lucile Ball- with unflattering hair and make-up, but the only decent part in the whole thing, is the team secretary who has a motherly thing for Mature and puts up with a lot of crap from him. She is terrific and her scenes are the only ones that still resonate today.
Sonny Tufts is also in it.
Victor finds out he has a heart problem. He shouldn't play...Lizabeth wants better things in life, they fight (stiffly), Lucy listens all the while....
ThenI go out for twenty minutes to walk the dog. When I return all hell is breaking loose.
The very presence of Lizabeth Scott in the movie has seeped into the story and we're in Dark City...a boozy Lizabeth, the edges of her fiberglass mane fraying, pores over a newspaper headline:
TOP MODEL LEAPS TO DEATH FROM PENTHOUSE!
She's dumped Vic and taken up with some rich old guy (maybe the team owner?). The old rich guy dumps her. She goes and begs for Vic- who has agreed to play ONE LAST BIG GAME AND GIVE IT HIS KNUTE ROCKNIAN ALL-AMERICAN ALL EVEN IF IT MEANS DYING IN THE PROCESS- to take her back.
He takes the field, decides not to play, and on the way to the locker room meets up with Lizabeth where he grabs her,
HITS HER IN THE FACE SO HARD THAT HER MOUTH IS BLEEDING!!!!!!!
Kisses her.
HITS HER AGAIN WIPES SOME OF THE BLOOD AWAY AND THEN TELLS HER HE'S TAKING AN ASSISTANT COACHING GIG AT A COLLEGE AND SHE BETTER LEARN TO LIKE IT OR ELSE!!!!!!
(Just try that kind of crap with Lucy, Pal. You ever had someone put a cigarette out on your eyeball?)
And then Paul Stewart, who plays a slimy sports photojournalist and manages to darken all the scenes that are missing Lizabeth, takes a picture of the happy (?!) couple (which earlier in the film is something that we are told brings bad luck to the athletes he gets photos of.)
the end.
WEIRD [...] MOVIE.
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Yes, I would have thrown the kid off the observation platform and been done with him a la Double Indemnity.
Lydecker
A sequel THE NARROW MARGIN 2: PROBLEM CHILD which dealt with McGraw's increasingly futile attempts to bring his new stepson Junior into line was planned, but not produced.
Seriosuly though, I really don't think McGraw is thinking it through here on hooking up with the mobster's widow; clearly her mothering skills need some work and she obviously lacks good judgment- and all the while she looks like she'd be a real uptight drag to live with. I give it 18 months at best, and 2:1 it ends in murder/suicide.
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"Now, Sam. Do it now. Set me free. Set both of us free.
He fell down the
stairs and fractured
his skull. That's how he died.
Everybody knows what a heavy drinker he was.
Sam, it can be so easy.- I thought you loved me.
- I thought I did, too.
- Now, you hate me.
- Now I'm sorry for you.-When I dreamed about you coming back...
-Your whole life has been a dream.
-I thought you'd be the Sam I knew as a child.
-Martha, you're sick.
-I could run to you when I was in trouble.
-In your mind, I mean, that's where you're sick.
-And you'd help me.
-So sick that you don't even know the difference...between right and wrong anymore.
-You've killed. It says so in your record.
-I've never murdered.-
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I watched THE NARROW MARGIN LAST NIGHT.
While I would still rate it **1/2 stars out of a potential four, I have to say I was wrong in being dismissive of McGraw. He's really good....and although I don't care for the farcical scenes near the middle (re: the breakfast tray and the ANNOYING KID)- he handles them well and would have been great at comedy. I in particular can only imagine what he could have done in with the Tracy Role in FATHER OF THE BRIDE.
THAT KID THOUGH. He brings the whole thing down every second he is on screen.
I have to say, despite The Cid's correction- and a smart line of dialogue that was alongf the lines of "all kinds of women are married to crooks, I've always heard that, but didn't believe it til now" I STILL don't quite buy the Actress who plays the Real Mrs. Neal in the role.
ps- why was Marie Windsor- ultimately revealed to be an internal affairs cop- trying SO HARD to coerce Charles McGraw into selling her out to the hitmen? Does she not realize that:
A. That is entrapment.
B. The successful endgame of this will be her death.
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I agree about Marie Windsor. She never quite made it to the top, but was good in everything I've seen her in. I'm thinking she really needed rent money or a house payment to make Swamp Women (LOL).
Her peroxide bills were a b****.
Marie Windsor did a few episodes of MURDER SHE WROTE- playing drastically different characters in each and is great. There's also an old MGM short where she plays Marie Antoinette
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The Strip (which I had never seen before) was not a bad little noir. Loved seeing William Demarest in a more well rounded role and for once, Mickey was not out of control.
Lydecker
yes, yes, yes, and yes. And the music is terrific too.
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I was being kind of facetious about the " bus noir" thing, but I do recall hearing that "it happened one night" was originally called "night bus"...I would love to see that movie reworked as a film noir, but then again I would rather see nearly all of Frank Capras movies reworked as films noir.
"It's a Wonderful Life" would become "Pottersville" and John Doe would hit that pavement like a sack of flour in my versions.
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Yes, OBNOXIOUS TO THE MAX! Especially if you've seen the film more than once. UGH. Thanks for the list!
Greatest Show On Earth?????????? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I dunno, from what I've heard about (and what little I've seen of) MY SON JOHN it seems like the fact that it was even nominated is at least an equal crime.
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He did some good films early in his career, but as it progressed, I agree the quality went down....
But you get the feeling the backstory was really something....
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To take it back to this picture there, I mean- wow- beyond the fact that this is an ODD LOBBY CARD, and raises all sorts of questions, I have to add that one observation I make is how damned inconsiderate Toni is being here. I mean, just take your half right out of the middle, honey, no need to make room for me.
This is the sort of thing that would not be tolerated three months down the line in a relationship, and after about three years of marriage would likely result in someone getting dragged off the bed by the ankles, followed by the remark "that's nothing compared to what I'll do if you ever don't replace the Half and Half when you use it all again."
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http://retro-otr.com/2013/12/molle-mystery-theater-female-of-the-species-460607/
Eva Lester proves that old quotation that
the female of the species is more DANGEROUS than the male.
A smartly dressed woman takes her story to a swanky law firm. As Eva tells her tale, we go into a flashback to about a year ago. A busy beauty salon owner, Eva deals with squeezing her appointments in, and manages to meet the husband of one of her clients. Fred Maxwell and Eva fall for each other, and soon plan to get married. Can he get a divorce? Is his wife as tired of him as he is of her? Does she suspect that her trusted salon lady is the other woman? Helen refuses the divorce, and it takes Eva to nudge the marriage into a more permanent termination.
I'm bumping this up without shame.
I listened to it last night and it is really something. For ALL YOU NOIR fans out there, it's something YOU MUST HEAR. Again, PLEASE GIVE IT A LISTEN IF YOU HAVE A SPARE THIRTY MINUTES, and let me know if you do.
And if you like it, I highly recommend giving other episodes of The Molle Mystery Theater a shot.
(I've really gotten in to classic radio this summer.)
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"Who THE HELL didn't WHISPER my NAME???!!!!"
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I will also note that the director of THE NARROW MARGIN, Richard Fleischer went on to have a real SCUD Missile of a career. He went on to do a lot of potboilers, one more solid noir that I like very much (COMPULSION 1959- HIS BEST FILM) some big big movies like 20000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, DOCTOR DOOLITE and SOYLENT GREEN, the contoversial CHE! and THE BOSTON STRANGLER and ended his film with a trio of dogs: AMITYVILLE 3-D, MILLION DOLLAR MYSTERY and the infamous RED SONJA. He also directed CONAN THE BARBARIAN.
I think the phrase "where's my cocaine?" was heard a lot on the set of his films.
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SPOILER FOR The Narrow Margin.
1. In the context that her husband was the mob accountant and he fooled her.
2. BTW, as a train fan, I could really pick it apart, but I just ignore the discreapancies and throughly enjoy the movie.
3. As for Marie Windsor, should see her in Swamp Women.
I like everyything you wrote, but to single out these three statements of yours:
1. Dang. I had a feeling I was remembering it wrong. Thanks for that correction.
2. Aren't trains the BEST? I took an Amtrak last summer and just loved the experience to pieces. It was as if time had stopped and I was back in 1953, and I loved being able to see many of the towns I miss when I just take the highway. It was hard to believe something like this is still around in 2015.
3. As a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, I have seen Swamp Women aka Swamp Diamonds numerous times. It is typical Roger Corman film- thoroughly paint-by-numbers with every decision in the storytelling process clearly dictated by the bottom line. Roger Corman was one of the worst directors EVER and how he gets this reputation as an Indie Maverick galls me. However, I bow at the altar of Marie Windsor and love her in almost everything she did- such a damn shame she didn't ever get THAT BIG ROLE to put her over, but she is good in everything, even her TV and short film appearances.
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Yes The Narrow Margin is a cheap movie, they went by train, not by plane.
Shame the makers didn't decide to embrace the uber-potential of a noir set on a Greyhound Bus.
If ever there was a perfect setting for a noir, it's that.
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in re: the post below.
Wow, I've said before, but here's one more time, I really wonder what the Academy was smoking in 1952 that in nearly every category the nominations were so off.
MY SON JOHN was an Oscar nominee and the winner, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, became the first screenplay written in Crayon to be awarded an Oscar.
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The only thing really bad about the movie is that obnoxious kid! I've seen the movie enough I have to FF through his scenes. UGH.
. Wasnt the script Oscar nominated?
YES! That kid, I meant to mention that kid, but forgot. I hate that kid.
Best Writing, Motion Picture StoryWINNERNOMINEES -
Another possible alternate title for MARTHA IVERS: TONIGHT I EAT YOUR FACE!
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"What strange mints they leave after turndown at this hotel..."
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If someone tried to set me up with a blind date, and when I asked what she looked like, I was told that her skull was protruding through her face, I'm not sure I'd be all that interested.
"But she's as sweet as can be...C'mon...For a pal?"
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Yeah, but why?
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS in re: THE NARROW MARGIN
It's been a little while since I've seen it, but I've sat all the way through it a couple of times and then seen bits and pieces of it on a few other occasions....and each time I wanted to like it, but each time I found it dull and didn't find Charles McGraw to be that interesting, and I ADORE Marie Windsor, but...I don't care for her in this role at all. There are also numerous instances where her expressions when she is alone do not match up with the truth about her character when we find it out. That's an awkward sentence, I know, but basically I'll just say that once you know the plot twist and you rewatch the film, you'll see that a lot of things that don't add up.
I think a lot of the dialogue is weak and the situations needed some punching up and it is obviously a cheap film without much directorial flourish (again, as I recall it.)
Specific beefs I can recall having- there is an extended scene wherein McGraw tries to get breakfast for Marie Windsor's character without letting anyone know she's in his compartment. It's too drawn out and farcical and doesn't fit the tone of the movie. I also don't like that Windsor's character doesn't get a proper send off, a simple shot of a body being unloaded from the train while McGraw looks on would be nice. I also don't buy the actress playing the real mob wife, she seems about as mafia to me as June Allyson.
Again, I know this was a little disjointed, I will certainly try to watch it again tomorrow- but each time I see some of it, little issues pop up here and there.
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I guess the title was long and odd as it was, calling the film The Strange Love of She Whose Name Must Only Be Whispered wouldn't have fit the marquis.
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
SERIOUSLY: WATCH THE SILENT 1925 VERSION!
It is so much better. I've never appreciated the story at all until I saw the silent version.
Hopefully TCM'll show it again soon, but if not you can maybe netflix it or possibly watch it online, if you're in to that sort of thing.