laffite

skipping x Yarbo, Lillian

The Best Man blowing bubbles

*409* "Anyway, here's a great story. It's our wedding night, see, the reception is over, and so we go upstairs, and ..."

>A rather thankless role, but she runs with it. I think you're right in the sense that she plays an unlikeable character, but OTOH it's a role that many an actress would go for, she is the most interesting character in the story and she has so much to do. Very challenging role. Chatterton makes this so her own, she is so good at being strong women. There varying amounts of sympathy Fran Dodsworth garners with viewers, but the fact she can get any at all is a credit to her performance.

*Maybe Laffite remembers.* The sleigh ride took place what looks to be twilight. When in shadows it looked really dark, other times there seems to be sun, so twilight or early evening. If a choice had to made, I would say night. Your conversations are amazing. You talk about so many different movies and in such detail. I try to read through them but it's hard if I haven't seen the movies, which is usually the case, ha. I conducted a search of my VHS collection (which is quite vast) and uncovered a tape that had all three Fanny movies on it. They were all taped at the slowest speed so I was worried about quality but amazingly the transfer was very good. I watched Cesar without too much difficulty, the subtitles were a little hard to read, white on white, but I got through it. Really loved it. Frank, you said you liked this one the least because it had less humor than the others. I think I was so engrossed that I didn't even notice that, but you are absolutely right. I guess the story had all this seriousness business to resolve, so the humor more difficult to weave in there. There some bits in the early Panisse section, but after he left it became a serious movie. I will look forward to any comments that you two may have and/or I might do a few paragraphs of my own in a day or two. I have to find some time.

*409*

La Belle et La Bete (1946) vituperate

*Hello Captain Johnny!* Hello Mlle Greer *Absolument, mais il est glace partout!* Mais non partout, pas en Californie, if falt toujours beau *Bien se reveiller! il est temps pour le plaisir! You got that? FUN!* Tu a raison. Quelle bonne philosophie! Desormais, je vais m'amuser toujours. *Well that's just dandy. Now I can't pout anymore in front of you!* C?est exact, il ne faut pas pout-ay devant moi. *You are so reminding me of Kevin Kline in The Pirates of Penzance right now. Heehee! I bet you even get all soft hearted when you see orphans!* *or Ted Hamilton in The Pirate Movie. Either one works... * Did he get soft hearted with orphans? And he was a pirate? Oh, Kevin? I don?t know Ted Hamilton but that?s fine with me if he is anything like Kevin Orphans don?t make for good kidnapping because there?s no one to pay ransom. (Oh, laffite, no? ) You see how mean I am. *I still have my machete!* Uh-oh! *Well when i do that in person it doesn't work either. People just start laughing at me. Heehee! BUT, I could it's about trying, right?* You mean, Muhahaha? No doubt you can actually do it quite well, being a singer; and you can probably do it with the appropriate coloratura flourish. But as to sounding evil, well, I guess you ARE too hopelessly sweet for that. You would make a lousy Torsten Barring, even a female version . *Ha. Ha. Ha. I haven't the foggiest notion what you are talking about. Greer wouldn't ever hide anything. She was too sweet for that.* Well, now, let?s not exaggerate I mean you can't be that sweet if you carry a machete *It's a cheesy 90's pirate movie with Geena Davis starring. She pulls off the womanly pirate quite well and would't hesitate to push you off the plank. But you would like it!* Yes, Greer, I'll think I try this, hmmm a woman pirate who looks like Geena Davis, who could go wrong with that . But I don?t think I would like being made to walk the plank (or did you mean I would like the movie?), not for a Geena Davis, not for anyone, not even for a sweet machete-carrying lass with a Greer-ish smile. .

_*Frank wrote:*_ *Thunder Road (1958) -- A very poorly acted and directed "bootlegger" flick. It seemed like the entire picture was spent with one shots, as if the director did not trust actors exchanging lines in the same shot. Maybe he was right. Robert Mitchum did what he could in his scenes.* *Best of luck! And if you happen to love it, no need to be shy about saying it.* _*Mlle Greer wrote:*_ *Je ? sais ce film dont vous parlez! It's a pretty good one of Mitchum. I like that his brother was in it with him. Did you like it? I really like Keely Smith for her singing, but when she is on film there is almost something missing a lot of the time for me.* Yes, you are right, Keely is a little out of her element here, she is singer, not an actress. Same with James Mitchum (brother in the movie, son in real life), who was stone-faced throughout but still managed not to embarrass himself IMO. Lots of shots of Robert Mitchum sauntering, looking cool, talking cool; driving a car cool; that is, when he is not delivering karate chops, gosh I'm surprised that guy ever got up. Speaking of whom, amusing that he (the city crime boss) should be given a penchant for classical music, a guy like that. When the cops finally cuff him, he?s listening to (pedantry alert ) the famous Spanish Dance No. 5 "Andaluza" by Granados, I wouldn't identify him with that, I think of him more as an 1812 Overture kind of guy, ha. Neither the story nor the little dramas among the characters really grabbed me. I hate to say this but the "characters" I liked the best were those snazzy 50s Chevys and Fords, long and low, super-chromed (Chevy?s), flair-out fins (Ford), I mean this was a great film for the autos with all the booze running and stunt driving. When the final fade out came with Roxanne and Robin (young Mitchum) walking away "in the sunset," I was recalling a conversation earlier in the movie when Roxanne was trying to get romantic with Lucas (Robert Mitchum): *Lucas*: Roxy, why don't you just find yourself somebody that'll be content to punch a time clock or plow a field, and have a mess of kids. *Roxanne*: I would, if they looked like you Taking into account the especially STRONG resemblance between the Mitchums, I was amused at the possibility that the movie might be winking at us with Roxanne now going after Robin so that her children would "look like you," meaning Lucas. I know, I know, that?s not right, but I was not excited about the story and I was looking for redemption. I was prepared to like the film if they could make me believe that Roxanne was so dumb that she was in love with the resemblance and not the man. Well, I was amused for a moment anyway. In that same conversation there was a hint that Lucas was suggesting Roxanne go after Robin but she was clearly in love with Lucas (and getting him killed for it. ).

If you please, Mongo, why is Carole Landis unfortunate? Thanks.

Talk Radio mano a mano

Nice seeing Joan and John having fun, they sure didn't have much in the movie, they were at each other's throats practically the whole time. As John's character (Boret?) said to her, "We are like a couple wrestlers looking for a hold."

*Jackie:* So interesting! I remember so well that wonderful Ford camera, especially in those trilogy of films of the late 40s. I was new to Ford (yeah, I know ) at the time I finally got around to them but I remember immediately taken and I screen capped quite a good number of scenes, they have a sort of iconic feel to them, as if, okay, this is what it really looked like back then. Wonderful comparison study. *CineMaven:* Nice post about Sara Haden. Of course, I don't know her either Wonderful collage!

>Dargo, thanks for mentioning the lovely Eva Marie Saint and her choice to grow old gracefully. She is something else. Years ago Eva was interviewed on local talk show on the NPR station and she was so breathtakingly down to earth, it was pleasure to hear her...so this growing old gracefully sure fits her. Unfortunately, I don 't remember much but she said that she always saved some little thing, some small prop, from each movie she made. For North by Northwest, I believe it was a scarf.

*408*

Tolliver, Maggie in The Mill in the Floss (Emily Watson)

Bonjour Mlle Greer *C'est un joli matin! Appreciez-vous ce?* Mais non. Je n'aime?pas le matin. Je dors. Zzzzzzzzzz *You would even kidnap children with puppy dog eyes?* My favorite kind! *! That pure savage!* Oh shucks, thanks. You?re making me blush. We love compliments * Just for the record, I'm glad you aren't as bad as Torsten. He scares me!* Well, I'm almost as bad. So you'd better watch out. *I would just whip out my feather boa and strangle you if you tried! I would use my long black gloves, but they are strictly reserved for frankie.* Thank heaven for that! Whew! I feel sorry for that Frankie. But I hear you're pretty good with the machete. * Muwahahahaha!* Was that suppose to scare me? You?ll have to do better than that *Have you ever seen Cutthroat Island?* No, but it sounds like my kind of film. *Que m'a fait rire! Je l'ai jete dans la riviere! Go swimming for it!* Tu a jete la rum dans la riviere? Eh bien, j'ai swimm-ay dans toutes les rivieres, and Eureka! I found it! It was being guarded by Torsten Barring. He said he was hired by someone who was armed with a machete and had a ghoulish look (or was it Greer-ish ) *I'm peaches N' Cream, thank you! Are you doing or watching anything fun this weekend?* Bien sur! Je vais watch-ay un film qui s'appelle ROUTE DE TONERRE aka Thunder Road. Connais-tu ce film?

Regen (Dorothy Tutin in King Lear ) Welles version

The Blue Angel lugubrious

Neri in Don Juan (1926) (Gustav von Seyffertitz)

JOHNNY APOLLO APOLLO 13 or STALAG 13

It happened one night taking a pill

*Bonjour Mlle Greer * >Tu es drole!! You should know better than to think we could ever hate you, dahling. Really? Not even after my horrific career as a slashing, looting, pillaging, take-no-prisoners, swashy of the high seas? 'Course I'm not as bad as Torsten Barring, I would never kill a child. Kidnap, yes, there's great money in that (ransom, you know) Ah oui, je suis drole, comme un bouffon, alas. Ou est mon rum? Hope all is well with you, Greer *Bonjour M. Grimieux* >Eddie was coming off of Little Caesar and Jimmy was coming off Public Enemy, so you'd think both would be on even footing. But evidently the studio liked Eddie more in this kind of role. Really! Public Enemy! That makes me more surprised than ever, it being so one-sided. It was practically all Eddie. >I fell for her sweetness, as well. I liked being taken! Ditto I love the way they looked back then. >Yeah, I thought she was on the up and up. But I'm going off of memory. That's never a wise thing! No one knows that better than me. But I think we're both right this time. >I just re-watched that scene and noticed something the film was going for that I didn't originally catch. There's the mention of it's "1941" and then Torsten goes on to talk about power. There's definitely a WWII message being spoken. Also, there's the sharp words of God and Heaven and the Devil. Torsten is being played as the "Devil" and Dr. Segert is an angel. Great points and great screen caps. No wonder Conrad was so good. He was playing the Archfiend itself! Perhaps a dubious pleasure. >I hope you do watch the Swedish version of A Woman's Face. You won't like it nearly as much because the Hollywood version is much more dramatic. But I think you'd appreciate seeing how the story was first told........The Hollywood version gives the Swedish film a "wink" by calling Anna's alias "Ingrid Paulsson." In the Swedish version, her name is "Anna Paulsson." I am curious about it, the Swedish version. Thanks for mentioning. I have THUNDER ROAD in hand and am ready for it (or am I ) Actually, I have an open mind about this...sort of. ==

*laffite wrote:* > Maybe he experienced an epiphany. He suddenly realized that love is not predicated in what you know, what you can do, or even in what you can understand. He suddenly saw things they way she saw things and wanted the same thing. Love is something you can't understand, but perhaps only what you can know inwardly and feel. He can get his intellectual/ego stimulation elsewhere, he doesn't need to get it from her because he loves her the way she is. Maybe he doesn't see her as a puppy dog Hi Frank, I threw this out but couldn't get you to bite However, I do want to say something about this and then we can re-put the capper on this one. Just that some of those things that Dave said to friend (DeanM) contain the seeds of what is popularly referred to as a spiritual experience, a new way of looking at things; realizing that we might not know what is really in our own best interest, helping others, etc, and although I am sort of pleased with looking at Dave that way I have to admit at the same time, it's a guilty pleasure because normally I find myself on the other side of the question, i.e. the cynic/realist/don't-really-believe-in-all-that-crap school...One last harrowing thought. Suppose they rode off into the sunset at story's end and then one day sometime later, having an after-dinner drink on the veranda, she should casually say to him, "Oh, did I ever tell you about my conversation with that school teacher. It was just before you proposed to me, I told her about us and she had the most awful look on her face." So much for spiritual experience. Instead, I think we're looking at homicide. But that's another movie, one let's hope that never gets made.

Dothery, thank you for the link. I watched the whole thing. I see what you mean. Reminds of a Domingo/Freni duet from MB in a movie made by Ponelle some years back, which is also quite, uh, hot. I'm thinking of starting an OT opera-related thread. I don't think it will do well but maybe...I'm trying to decide where is the most appropriate venue for that, Favorites, I guess (although the traffic is lower there) Anyway, if I do, I hope you drop in for a hello. Thank you. laffite