johnm001
-
Posts
2,980 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by johnm001
-
-
Seeing that show changed my life!
-
Hasn't everyone seen those Universal titles about a million times by now? I know I have.
-
Is this thread for real?
-
Well, you know what they say about critics. Those that can, do. Those that can't, critique!
You mention another film I find incredibly tedious and unwatchable, *Doctor Zhivago.* We, apparently, share little in our taste in film. However, I wasn't referring to *The Sound of Music*, when I mentioned Wise. I was thinking of *West Side Story*. Which, in my opinion, is the first perfect screen musical. *TSOM* is just Wise's icing on the musical cake. Anyone who doesn't understand just how much the film version of *TSOM*, improves upon its stage origins, has little knowledge of the medium of film. As for a beautiful-looking, studio-bound films, you are completely by-passing the film that beat *MFL* at the box-office in its same year, *Mary Poppins*, which to my eye (and most of the movie-going public), is far more interesting and dazzling to watch. Not to mention an infinitely better made motion picture. While it may be just as confined as *MFL*, it doesn't feel like it is; and, it never, ever forgets it is a motion picture. Not for a second. And, if critics are your thing, *MP* received universally superb reviews, far more so than *MFL*. It was the best reviewed film of 1964.
-
While I've already stated that I think the crown goes to Robert Wise, I agree that Fred Zinnemann and company completely succeeded!
-
I am pea green with envy - I can't believe you got to talk to Liza. She certainly had IT when we saw her in The Act, though I didn't really care for the play.
The odd thing was that we were in New York to see the film, *The Sound of Music* , which was playing a limited 70MM run at Radio City Music Hall. We weren't even there to see a show. We went to the movie, then to dinner. We were on our way to dinner, when we ran into her.
That reminds me, I think you mentioned Jan Miner. I ran into her in the ladies restroom after a performance of one acts in which she appeared in the second play. We chatted for about 15 minutes while she got herself together and she was the nicest woman.... she was off to do grocery shopping after the play!
>+
> Somehow you don't think of actors running off to shop for canteloupe....+..
She was stocking up on Palmolive!
-
The film turned out to be a beautiful looking movie. It was absolutely gorgeous! Comon now! Its foolish to deny this simple fact.
I found the costumes, hairstyles and makeup a bit like an over-the-top drag show, frankly.
And, as far as Cukor goes, he was a good choice to handle this project after all the fuss and hassles about the casting. After all, Cukor was the right choice in terms of handling Hepburn.
There isn't a letter in the above on which I concur. He was the worst director possible for Hepburn, who needed someone with a clue, not a girl's best friend.
Rex was just along for the big ride that he and Stanley Holloway had already experienced on stage. Push come to shove, Warners did a good job from the look of the film and delivered a good film in many other departments. The music scoring by Andre Previn was sensational The photography by Harry Stradling was first rate.
I agree with that.
The beautiful sets and interiors designed by Cecil Beaton and Gene Allen were breathtaking!
For a stage show, yes. Not a film.
Lets not forget about the stupendous costumes by Beaton! The technical end of the films presentation cant be denied and from that angel alone, Jack L. Warner succeeded.
I already commented on the costumes. The film never knows it's a film, and I hate that about it.
Of course, Jack failed in his casting the one major role that caught the publics imagination. While I still stand behind what I previous have said about his decision based around the business end of the spectrum, I now feel that there was never any real gamble for Jack to worry about. But, at the time he was just able to get away with it, especially after the film became a classic one way or another.
Well, given the person he passed over was in the number 1 film of 1964, 1965 and 1966, I'd say there was zero gamble. The film's status baffles me.
-
> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}
> Ooooh. You got to see Davy Jones.... It's really amazing that you got to see so many original casts. The only original cast musicals I have seen are The Act with Liza, and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
I never saw Liza in a show, but I did see her in a concert, with Judy Garland (well, she came out and did one number with her mother). And, during her time filling-in for Gwen Verdon in *Chicago*, my wife and I ran into her coming out the stage door, without a single soul around, and we chatted with her for about 20 minutes, right there on 46th Street! She was lovely and fun.
I saw so many original casts, both musicals and plays. Now I'm rarely inspired to see a show. Especially musicals. To me, most musicals have scores which sound like a bunch of kids are making it up as they go along. Just horrid sounding stuff, to my ears. I still see a good play from time to time, though.
-
I may have to read your post, again, but I can't agree with a single word of your assessment of that wretched film. I HATE THAT WRETCHED FILM!!!! It makes me cranky, just discussing it.
-
I love her! I love her films. Thank you TCM for making her Star of the Month. I've stated on these boards, more than once, that I hate the '54 version of A Star is Born, that Dial M for Murder is in my top 5 favorite Hitchcock films and that I dislike The Philadelphia Story, and LOVE High Society. One of the extremely few MGM musicals that I like. I also love everything about High Noon, and think she completely deserved her Country Girl Oscar. Although I would agree that the Oscars get it wrong, far more than they have ever gotten it right.
-
> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}
>
> My personal favorite would probably be *Oliver!* by Carol Reed. But I have special feelings for it because I went to see it with my mom. I was pretty young, maybe eight or nine.... and I was completely smitten with Oliver and The Artful Dodger. I also thought Fagin was a hoot... which may or may not have been a brilliant choice on Reed's part.
>
I had seen the original Broadway production of *Oliver!,* and was so disappointed that Georgia Brown wasn't in the film, that I had intended not to see it. I went on a date, and we decided to go see a first-run film. She wanted to see *Funny Girl* and I wanted to see *Star!*, so we went to see *Oliver!* While it did nothing to erase the wonderful memory of Georgia Brown, Clive Revill, Davy Jones and Bruce Prochnik, it is a fine film, nonetheless.
-
> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}
> Alec Clunes was in the original London cast? Rex never played the role in London?
Rex definitely played the role in London. But, as in New York, he didn't stay anywhere near as long as Julie and Stanley. Edward Mulhare replaced him in NY, while Julie and Stanley remained (Sally Ann Howes replaced Julie when she left to do the London production), and Alec Clunes replaced Rex in London, while Julie and Stanley remained. Anne Rodgers, who originated Polly Browne in The Boyfriend, in London, (the role that brought Julie to Broadway) replaced Julie in the London cast of MFL. I saw MFL about 2 weeks before Julie left it.
-
> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}
> Where it should be crisp, it is soft and soggy. Where it should be small and intimate, it is huge and ungainly.
Oh, I like that!
Now the question is, will they ask Julie Andrews to play Mrs. Higgins?
Taking this back to its topic, I believe that the only perfect film musical was directed by Robert Wise, who certainly was primarily a director of dramas.
-
> {quote:title=Jenetico wrote:}{quote}
> I have to echo all those who wrote MARLON BRANDO
>
> For the ones still living, I will name Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Denzel Washington and Al Pacino
Dear lord! You managed to mention 4 of my least favorite actors in your post! But a lot of people love all of them!
The more I think of it, I like far more than I don't. It would be easier for me to list the ones I don't like.
-
The problem with the '64 film is its direction. It's awful. Completely different in tone and mood from the Moss Hart show I saw. What was an exhilarating marvel on the stage, became a gooey-gowned, plodding bore, on film. His direction of Hepburn (and she certainly needed direction), couldn't have been more misguided. The only thing that saves Harrison and Holloway, is they didn't need Cukor's direction. But even Holloway is less effective in the film, than I remember him in the show. Back to Audrey, take the number, Loverly, for example. She's got this goofy grin on her face, like she's a little girl playing grown-up, right from the start of the number. Between she and Cukor, they don't have a clue that the song is about longing for something? How obvious did it have to be for them? Another big disappointment (of many), when I saw the film in 1964, was the elimination of the great dance sequence that comes before the end of *Get Me to the Church on Time*. Even the music was cut. All they did on film was prance around to the song being played in the background. My mouth practically hit the floor. In a medium where you can be as big as your imagination, they do nothing.
As for another HIggins, although there might have been a bit of a issue with his speaking voice, I actually think Cary Grant would have been just swell! Jimmy Cagney, too! Better than Harrison and Holloway? Probably not, but certainly good. I can't think of anyone else from the period that I would want to see in the role.
-
My favorite Peter Bogdanovich film. When I saw it during its original release, it scared the hell out of me!
-
> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}
> I saw the film PYGMALION for the first time long after I had formed a mental picture of Julie or Audrey as Eliza, and I had a lot of trouble with Wendy Hiller as Eliza.
Well, I originally saw it as the musical with Julie and Alec Clunes. So Wendy Hiller wasn't a factor for me. And Rex, I only knew from the cast album. I actually saw *Pygmalion*, prior to 1964, so I had seen two people do Higgins before I ever saw Rex Harrison do the role. Since my reaction to the musical film was so negative, I lumped Rex into the mix. I've tried many times to like the film, but it won't let me. I can appreciate how good Harrison is in the role, but to this day I prefer Howard's take on it. I certainly prefer the film, *Pygmalion* to the film *My Fair Lady*. But the London cast of *My Fair Lady* remains the best show I ever saw on stage.
-
Claude Rains, Jimmy Stewart, Van Heflin, Charles Laughton. One of them.
-
I saw pretty much all the Castle films from 1959 onward, during their original release. House on Haunted Hill sent me under my theater seat, during the sequence with the skeleton. It wasn't a cheap rubber one (well, it may have been rubber), but it was very large. Larger than a full-grown man. At least that's how it seemed to me, at 9 or 10 years old.
Another fun one (and the creepiest), was *Homicidal*. I remember one lone guy going back to the "coward's corner", which was bathed in a yellow spot light. Everyone laughed. He was doing it to be funny.
I suppose my favorite was *The Tingler*. When people started screaming from the "tingling seats", it set off a chain-reaction. Some people seemed truly scared, but I remember us laughing ourselves silly. It's hard for me to now separate the original movie-going experience, when I see the films, to determine which one I actually think is the best. The three I've mentioned here remain my favorites. I'm looking forward to seeing *13 Frightened Girls* and *Zotz*, again. I chose not to watch when they showed it on TCM, so I would enjoy the DVD more.
-
> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}
> Then I guess you must have perused the Jayne Mansfield thread with a fine-toothed comb.
Ha ha. Well, yes!
I don't care anymore about MFL. This will always be My Fair Lady, to me. Everything else is a cheap imitation! Regardless how much money is spent on it.
-
I guess I'm the product of another generation, and don't see the sex-appeal of a concave chest. But then, I don't see it in tattoos or piercings, either.
-
You're not butting in, it's a public message board!
Is Knightley considered a bigger box-office star than Hathaway? Taking Pirates out of the equation, of course. I mean, nobody is stupid enough to believe anyone went to see those films because of her, are they? I'm not saying Hathaway is bigger, just thinking they're about the same. And, in some demographics, I would think Hathaway is more well-known. You can't go by me. I barely know who anyone is, anymore. If I tune in to the show, TMZ, I recognize almost no one.
-
I bet you they don't dub a note. They're not going to go through that, again. Even if they have to lower the keys, they will NOT dub her.
-
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) Sequel Moving Forward!?! WHAT!!!?.
in Hot Topics
Posted
I look forward to Hello, Dolly! with Judy Garland.