Vidor

The "Thin Man" movies have a steady, geometric decline in quality from first to last. The first is a brilliant classic, the second is very good (buoyed in part by young James Stewart in a playing-against-type role), 3rd and 4th are mediocre, 5th is poor, 6th is straight garbage.

You always read the conventional wisdom that "oh, Marion Davies' career was ruined by William Randolph Hearst putting her in costume dramas when she was a natural comedienne", but if you actually look at her career she was in a lot of comedies and most of them were undistinguished. "The Patsy" is pretty good, "Show People" is a stone cold classic and one of the best films of the late silent era...but I dunno, she made comedies for a good decade and most of them are mediocre.

Sucks, doesn't it. Probably applies to William Fox's original studio as well, since "Sunrise" is not on the list. Of course, in three years "Sunrise" will be in the public domain.

"Gone With The Wind" isn't airing during 31 Days of Oscar but it is airing in March. Weird. Anyway, I don't think I'll be watching anything on that list for the whole month but it's mainly because I've seen most of the movies. It's a pretty good list. The A-Z format leads to certain categories being neglected; I've complained about foreign films and shorts already, and there aren't very many documentaries either. But as it is, it's a good list.

You should. See "The Awful Truth", "His Girl Friday", and "Bringing Up Baby".

Terrific. Just a great movie.

They're running "Here Comes the Navy". I recorded that off of TCM once solely because it got a Best Picture nomination. It is the most generic film you could possibly imagine, James Cagney and Pat O'Brien getting into wacky sailor hijinks. It wasn't a *bad* film, but it was just like a lot of other Jimmy Cagney programmers. It's interesting because it's got gorgeous young Gloria Stuart in it if anybody's curious about the old lady from "Titanic", and it's interesting because a whole bunch of it was filmed aboard the USS Arizona, believe it or not. Otherwise, it's like they found themselves one nominee short that year and someone drew out of a hat.

I think I'll just rely on you fine people to give me notice about the short films that they'll be running between features. Maybe, maybe one day we'll get actual time in the schedule for the Short Film categories.

I say make it a "no fourth wall" movie. Have Dr. Sheppard talk to the audience. But you may be right as really no one has ever done it when other famous Christie books have been done multiple times. There's a Russian miniseries but it doesn't have English subs.

Once again don't see anything new in the foreign films. That seems like low-hanging fruit they're passing up. There have to be all sorts of long-forgotten foreign films out there that they could get a good set of subtitles for. I've been watching a bunch on ok.ru. I liked "The Boys of Paul Street".

I hope not. I like Kenneth Branagh as a filmmaker and "Murder on the Orient Express" was solid. He needs to do "Roger Ackroyd". The world needs a good screen rendition of "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd".

A lot of people liked Kevin Costner's "Long, slow, wet kisses that last three days" (or whatever it was) monologue from "Bull Durham" but I've always thought it was terrible. Prime example of a writer writing a slab of dialogue that no one would ever actually say. Rest of that movie's a terrific snappy screenplay, but that line, not so much.

Here's another idea: make You Tube and Internet films eligible for the Short Film categories. Now that doesn't mean that you have to give "David After Dentist" an Oscar, but short films that got over, I dunno, a million views could be eligible for nomination.

Ah yes, "Red-Headed Woman", where Jean Harlow is briefly topless, gets off on being slapped, and ends the movie still gold-digging. That's a good one.

Let's see, Oscar movies that I don't recall TCM showing a bunch... Agnes of God Almost Famous Block-Heads...turns out a Laurel and Hardy movie got nominated for Score Carol (2015!) Eskimo The Hanging Tree Honeysuckle Rose Ice Castles Inside Daisy Clover--actually I know TCM has shown this multiple times, but gotta say, this has always sounded like a pornographic film to me Leaving Las Vegas Lies My Father Told Me Mona Lisa Mr. Hulot's Holiday Nebraska One Million BC--my God, Carole Landis was so good-looking Operator 13--Marion Davies! Paisan Passion Fish Primrose Path The Pumpkin Eater Romance--Greta Garbo film I've never even heard of The Secret of Santa Vittoria Star Witness--Walter Huston film I've never heard of The Truman Show

In fact, this thread title should be changed to "31 Days of Oscar 2021" if possible.

"Oscars A to Z" Cue the complaining!

Occam's Razor says that no, the ending of "Female" is a sincere depiction of Ruth Chatterton forsaking both being a badass businesswoman and being an unapologetic s!ut, for the pleasure of having George Brent's babies. It *was* made in 1933, after all, and as you note even in the pre-Code era the bad girl either repented or was punished in the end; the difference was how bad they could show her being. EDIT: Amusing, the words this forum blocks.

1970s "Columbo" had several stars from the classic movie era. Ray Milland (twice), Ida Lupino (twice), Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, Lew Ayres, Vincent Price, Myrna Loy, Don Ameche.

I haven't watched "The Night of the Hunter" in a long time, but the last 15 minutes or so did strike me as weirdly anti-climactic. IIRC the kids just hang out with Lillian Gish for a while and nothing happens.

While it is moronic to suggest eliminating Best Foreign Language Film (not using the stupid new name), the award could certainly be reformed. Expand the field to, say, seven nominees, like Best Picture was expanded. Establish a quota of at least 1 film a year nominated from Asia, 1 from Africa, and 1 from the Americas, try to push against the Eurocentric tendency of the award. And expand means of eligibility--let a film qualify if it runs in a theater in New York or LA just like how Best Picture films qualify.

Well that's stupid. Also stupid. This one might have some potential, although it would have to be *after* the nominations lest the Oscars be nothing but Marvel movies. Incidentally that article linked above isn't behind a paywall.

The worst remake of all time was the Gus Van Sant "Psycho".

"The Other Side of the Wind" was hit and miss but it was certainly interesting. I really liked the art film that Jake Hannaford is directing, which is a spot-on parody of Antonioni's art films like "Zabriskie Point".

I just watched, off of TCM Underground, "Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw", or as it is actually known, "The Film Where Lynda Carter Takes Her Top Off". It's the sort of cheesy, grainy 1970s car chase and shootout movie that Quentin Tarantino homaged with "Grindhouse". Unmemorable, which is probably true of most of those movies which is why we remember the style but not any particular film. Unmemorable, except for oh my goodness, the glorious physical specimen that was Lynda Carter. She was a pretty terrible actress so you can see how her career really didn't go anywhere after "Wonder Woman", but holy cow, her body was strong evidence for the existence of a benevolent God. Apparently they were only able to talk her into shooting one sex scene, so they just repeated it in the second half of the movie.