scsu1975
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Posts posted by scsu1975
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Welcome to the boards. Your question comes up periodically. I think the film is O.S.S. with Alan Ladd.
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Why not a gay rendition of Romeo and Juliet ...
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Since this is the topic, I have to ask: Is getting Watch TCM credentials up to TCM or up to the provider ?
My guess is the provider. I have Charter, and I am able to access Watch TCM on my laptop, which is usually how I watch movies these days. I can also watch on my IPad, but I had to download the "Watch TCM" app.
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I agree there are flaws in the film, but I would still take a look at it, just as a period piece.
I mentioned in another thread that there apparently was no radio in the school, which seems absurd. If phone lines go down, how you would know what was going on? And yes, it was ridiculous for the principal to send all the kids home. Most were probably safer in the building, and, in case a bomb actually fell, at least the kids would be accounted for, dead or alive. Instead, they are all scattered across the countryside. It was even more ridiculous for the principal to decide to call all the kids back to school once he discovered it was a false alarm. I would have fired William Daniels and replaced him with Kathryn Hays.
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And what relevance does the strange, strange title have to the material in the film?
Old nursery rhyme:
Ladybug ladybug fly away home,
Your house in on fire and your children are gone,
All except one and that's little Ann,
For she crept under the frying pan.
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Ladybug Ladybug
This was kind of a mixed bag. The film starts off well, with an alarm going off in an elementary school, indicating a nuclear attack is imminent. The Principal (William Daniels) tries to get confirmation by calling the phone company (not sure why) and another school. I’d have called the cops. Also, apparently there is no radio in the school, which struck me as odd. Daniels evacuates the school. The bulk of the film involves how the school kids react as they walk home in groups. One group lock themselves in a bomb shelter, and won’t allow another kid in. I expected Rod Serling to show up at this point.
Daniels sounds a bit wussy, but Nancy Marchand and Kathryn Hays do some good work. Alice Playten, as one of the kids, is rather obnoxious and bossy. If a bomb had actually fallen on her, no doubt the audience would have erupted in cheers. Linda Meyer, as another of the kids, steals her scenes when she tries to convince her mother (Estelle Parsons) that the bomb is coming. Parsons basically blows her off, forcing Meyer to hide under her bed with her goldfish. This poor kid actually looked terrified throughout. In an interview, Playten (who had some stage experience prior to this film) said that the kids discussed off-camera how they would really react during an attack. According to her, some of that dialogue was put into the finished film.
The film did involve me in one respect, because one of the girls (who is the only one to die) looks remarkably like a dear friend of mine when she was younger.
The movie was filmed at an elementary school in Gradyville, PA. Frank and Eleanor Perry screened over 2000 kids before settling on thirteen, causing Frank Perry to quip “I never knew so many kinds were out of work.”
Probably worth a look, if only to relive a time when we had drills in school and did useless things like close blinds, hide under our desks, and cover our necks as if any of that would have protected our a**es when the blast came.
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Tuesday, July 11
10:30 p.m. The Night of the Iguana (1964).
I love these dinosaur movies.
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Weekend at Bernie Sanders’
During the primaries, two dudes go to Vermont to help their favorite socialist senator campaign. Upon arrival, they discover that Bernie has bought the farm (but expected everyone else to pay for it). Hijinks and lojinks follow, as the imbeciles drag Bernie’s carcass all over the place in an attempt to convince everyone to vote for him. In one side-splitting scene, Senator John McCain carries on an hour-long conversation with his dead colleague. Meanwhile, John Podesta, as the DNC-hired hit man, keeps assassinating Bernie. At this point, Hillary Clinton, sagging in the polls, takes to the airwaves and announces that Bernie is dead. She blames his death on a youtube clip from the film My X-Girlfriend’s Wedding Reception, which shows Bernie as “Rabbi Manny Shevitz.” Clinton then shouts out “Having said all this, ‘Why aren’t I fifty points ahead?’ you might ask?” Tor Johnson can be spotted briefly as the state of New Hampshire.
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Aside from the privileged silver spoon in the mouth aura that hovers about Peter Lawford I find him incapable as an actor to make any characterization even moderately interesting.
His was a thin talent, from my perspective. I have a difficult time thinking of any film enhanced by his appearance in it.
That probably explains why he was well-suited to play in The Thin Man on tv.
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would you like living in a place totally isolated from the world, where nobody and nothing ever change?
Live in that place? I worked there for forty years ... it's called a university.
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The Sealed Room (1909) youtube
In this D. W. Griffith short (about 11 and a half minutes long), a Count (Arthur V. Johnson) discovers that the Countess (Marion Leonard) is engaging in a little sheet music with the minstrel (Henry B. Walthall). So he walls them up in an alcove while they are making out. That’s pretty much it. I’m not sure if this was meant to be a farce or a tragedy, but it is somewhat entertaining. Mary Pickford and Mack Sennett are supposed to be in this, but I couldn’t spot them.
Moving Picture World wrote “one’s nerves are strung almost to the breaking point under the strain.” Uh … no.
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Is this one of those American/Canadian film rights things where for once the Canadians come out on top with "Run of the Arrow"? Just wondering.
No. Actually, there were two versions of this film, one Canadian and one American. Only the Canadian version survives. In the American version, Steiger chewed all the scenery.
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On the other hand I think the naked guy really was naked. If he was wearing pants they were SUPER skin tight, and since he's covering his front with his clothes the illusion obviously was supposed to be one of nudity. Sure convinced me. I couldn't spot long johns at all, replaying the scene several times to be sure before typing this since everyone else say they saw long johns.
I will have to watch that scene later for the third time. When I saw it on my 32-inch tv last night, he looked naked. Then I watched it on my laptop earlier today and I wasn't so sure. One thing I am sure of - you can see his buttcrack, whether he is wearing long johns or not.
I just watched the scene again and paused it. I vote for start naked.
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You should. It's good. Charles Bronson has one of his better early roles.
And of course, Sara Montiel, as Yellow Moccasin, looks like your typical American Indian:
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While Ronald Colman and Gary Cooper had contrasting screen images what they had in common was their understated, minimalist acting techniques. Cooper was a big admirer of Colman.
SPOILER ALERT:
Colman gave Coop this advice on his death scene:
"Easy does it, old boy. Good scenes make good actors. Actors don't make a scene. My own feeling is that all you have to do is take a nap, and every woman who sees the picture is going to cry her eyes out."
Did I miss something? Abe Lee kicked the bucket? I didn't get that from the film at all. He looked okay the last time he was speaking with Barbara. Incidentally, Abe does not die in the novel, and it turns out that Barbara is the niece of Greenfield.
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Not a laugh track. Alas, this score to THE WINNING BARBARA WORTH was recorded at a live screening event many years ago. Preformed by the legendary Theater Organist Gaylord Carter on the Mighty Wurlitzer. Much like the TCM Orchestral score to LOVE (1927) had also been recorded at a live screening. Inevitably, a few audience reactions noises were audible in the process.
Incidentally, That guy was definitely wearing long johns. No nudity there.
Thanks gagman. That explains the weird laughs. I also revisited that scene, and the guy is wearing long johns. But they are skin tight, and he is also clutching clothes in front, which adds to the illusion that he might have been naked.
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A few random observations on The Winning of Barbara Worth:
1. Gary Cooper's cowboy hat was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big.
2. Gratuitous nudity during the evacuation of Kingston. A naked guy runs across the street.
3. What is with the laugh track? On at least four occasions, I could hear a few guys cackling during some comic scenes. For example, when Texas Joe wipes the mud off Greenfield's face, only to discover it's Greenfield, he slaps the mud back in his face. You then hear a few guys laughing. I know it wasn't Ben back in the studio.
4. Just prior to that scene, Greenfield is brought into the house on a stretcher and dumped on a couch. There is a pillow on the couch with a swastika design. Before anyone thinks there were Nazis out west, I should point out that particular design was used by Native Americans before some German guy appropriated it.
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Then Samuel Goldwyn bought the rights to the film from Lesser and cast Vilma Banky instead.
Funny you should bring her up.
I had a customer the other day, and when I saw her last name was "Banky", had asked if she was any relation to Vilma - she IS! And boy was she surprised that I knew who Vilma Banky was!
Hit her up for some money - Vilma and hubby Rod La Roque were loaded.
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Nicely done, Princess. Here is a better shot of him, from The Big Trail. Can anyone identify the actor with him? Thread is open after that.
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Thus far, we know the actor is not Noah Beery, Sr., and was not born in the United States.
The photo is from the actor's final film.
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Thursday, July 6
10:30 p.m. The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926). Henry King film with Ronald Colman, Vilma Blanky and Gary Cooper.
A little backstory to this film - after 400 screen tests, producer Sol Lesser chose a lovely unknown named Marceline Day to play the lead. Then Samuel Goldwyn bought the rights to the film from Lesser and cast Vilma Banky instead. The fact that Banky was an accomplished rider may have had something to do with it, plus she had worked with Ronald Colman before. As for Ms. Day, she had a decent career in silents.
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Ji-Tu Cumbuka (1940-2017) - Imposing character actor best known for his roles in Roots (1977), Change of Habit (1969), Blacula (1973), Mandingo (1975), Bound for Glory (1976), Brewster's Millions (1985), and Volunteers (1986). In all, he amassed over 80 film and television credits in a nearly 40 year career.
He had a recurring role in the short-lived tv series "A Man Called Sloane," starring Robert Conrad. He had a metal hand, or arm, which he used as various tools, something like that. I recall a critic describing the character as a "walking cuisinart."
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Oh, for chrissakes, Rich!
(...pronounced with a short "i" sound here in this case, of course)
LOL
How to insert an image?
in PROBLEMS with the Message Boards
Posted
Looks like you are Myrna Loy, so you must have gotten it to work.