MattHelm

I wish they would stick to actors or directors ... for awhile now they've had the Who's Who of Who Cares on there picking the movies.

When is the last time they had a Richard Widmark month? I'd love to see them acquire Pickup On South Street. What a great movie.

They had a symposium on the Charlie Chan movies on Fox Movie Channel a year or two ago. The panel consisted of Chinese-Americans actors/personalities, who protested that the Chan movies were racist. How could the portrayal of a brilliant person like Chan be negative, or racist? Other than being brilliant, he quotes Confucius, which promotes Chinese philosophy/culture. No word was mentioned about Mr. Moto, though.

I think that's why too. They didn't show Jackie Cooper's Christmas Party either, I don't think, probably because it's on the, A Christmas Carol DVD.

I'm not a big fan of Bogdonovich, but I don't think it's disrespectful of him to mimic an actor or actress while reiterating what they said to him. It's obviously done affectionately. My problem with The Essentials is while they show great movies, they show them over and over and over, as if there are no other great movies out there. I don't think TCM needs The Essentials at all, since the films are in their library anyway and can be shown anytime (and are). It seems TE season is very short and is repeated as if it were a major network show. I don't know if TE hosts choose their own movies to show, but they all seem to choose the same ones half the time. The movies are great, but let's see something else that's great.

Was it, After The Ball?

As Peter Bogdonovich says, Welles was about 40 years ahead of his time when he made CK, as well as everything he did. CK was vastly different compared to anything that had ever been seen then, and I think the reason why some people don't like it is because it's not the usual Hollywood formula of the time. Welles feels that his career suffered after all of that, but I see a lot of great movies and performances. I think what he really regretted was the commercials he did. He probably was sorry about Marion, but I don't think he affected her by CK one way or the other. Her career was already over in 1937 thanks to Hearst. I think if Hearst had kept quiet and didn't make a big thing of the movie, the general public would never have connected Davies with him and the movie. Hollywood would have, because they already knew all about it anyway (Hedda Hopper certainly caught on). In fact, everytime CK was announced at the Oscars for that year, some stars booed. I just found a copy of Marion Davies' posthumous autobiography online for 75 cents. Interestingly, it has a Forward written by Welles. I can't wait to read it.

Annie Hall ... (Woody Allen approaches a couple on the street) Woody: Here, you look like a very happy couple, um, are you? Woman: Yeah. Woody: Yeah? So, so, how do you account for it? Woman: Uh, I'm very shallow and empty and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say. Man: And I'm exactly the same way. Woody: I see. Wow. That's very interesting. So you've managed to work out something?

It was either $300,000 or $350,000 ... I know it was in that range and an even number.

The answer to the Dean Martin movie/song is ... "I'm Not The Marrying Kind."

She made one movie prior to Hearst taking over her movie career, which wasn't a career at that point. It was Runaway Romany, which was financed by her first newspaper magnate boyfriend, Paul Block, and directed by her brother-in-law, in 1917. Hearst produced her second movie, Cecilia of the Pink Roses, in 1918, and then controlled everything she did thereafter. As an example of Hearst's power, when that movie came out no one liked it, yet he had all his papers print raving reviews, giving the impression it was well received, which Welles showed in CK.

Me thinks it was Movietone. Happy New Year.

You got to admit, at least they didn't show the usual cliche footage of the stars waving goodbye in slow motion.

Rags Ragland.

I just saw the tribute for the second time, and was shocked to see Linda Martinez passed away. She was a such a young, beautiful and talented woman. I remember seeing over and over again, the composer competition she was in, in between movies on TCM, a couple of years ago. While most of the people that passed this year were old, this is a tragic loss.

I can't picture anyone else but Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter. A friend of mine met Loretta Young in the 50s. She was a waitress at The Toll House Inn in Whitman, MA, home of the Toll House Cookie. The restaurant was built around apple trees that sprung from the floor and flourished throughout the dining room. Loretta Young came in and sat at her station. Young ordered their famous onion soup to start. When my friend brought her soup over to Young's table, a precedent occured ... an apple dropped from a tree and landed in Young's onion soup just as it was about to be served to her. There was a big silence because no one knew what to say. Another soup was provided and the meal went on.

Bobbie Anderson who played a young George Bailey plays a kid in the snowball fight scene in the park in TBW; Karolyn Grimes plays Niven's daughter and was Zuzu Bailey ... and probably more of the same kids were in both movies.

That Universal set came out at least four years ago though. That's when I bought it. They have shown those movies here and there, but I wish they'd beef up the horror movies around Halloween. This past Halloween was like this Christmas with the skimping on the movies. I'd even like to see the Hammer horror movies on TCM. Or even early Roger Corman movies.

I can't see anyone else playing Mildred Pierce but Crawford. I can see Crawford in From Here To Eternity as the character was in the book. What a great book.

You want a laugh? I looked up Ring of Fear on Amazon to find out more about the box set and what corelating factor underlies the selection of movies, and why they're being packaged together. This is obviously a mistake, but it cracked me up. "This title will be released on January 1, 2010. You may order it now and we will ship it to you when it arrives. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com."

I used to choose going to the movies by actor, actress, director or story ... today it's down to director and/or story. There isn't a single actor or actress that gets me in the theater. However, there's 99.9% of them that keeps me out of there.

Ida Lupino ... including ones she directed.

With all do respect, if you did know her, I'm sure you'd say nothing but kind words about her anyway, as would I. I do think she was fond of Hearst and wasn't a gold digger in the end, but in the beginning was a different story. He took a showgirl and showered her with money, gifts, a movie career ... I'm sure no one is naive to think in the beginning she fell for this old man at first sight and didn't reward him for his gifts. How could that not be gold digging? I believe in her biography she said something like, this gold digger fell in love, in the end. There was another reference somewhere else where she said she was a gold digger in the beginning and wasn't ashamed of it. I'm sure she did have a lot of money of her own, but many sources corroborate her selling her jewelry Hearst gave her to give him that million. Which still she didn't have to do. I'm not saying she was a bad person at all, many actresses got to the top sleeping with producers, etc. That's Hollywood. I just wonder how she could stay with a man like Hearst who hurt many people including friends, like Fatty Arbuckle. You're judged by the company you keep often, and can be fair game.

I'm sure he gave a bunch of interviews and said different things in all of them. No one can still for sure put his childhood together because of all the stories he's made up. I think he regrets a lot, not just about Davies, but his career went downhill because of it and he had to take parts he didn't want to pay for his movie projects, and borrow the rest. It's too bad because he only did to Hearst what Hearst had been doing to people for years. Both their assaults on each other backfired.

My Man Godfrey: (at the dump) Lombard: Could you tell me why you live in a place like this when there's so many other nice places? Powell: You really want to know? L: Oh, I'm very curious. P: It's because my real estate agent felt that the altitude would be very good for my asthma. -------- Alice Brady: You mustn't come between Irene and Godfrey. He's the first thing she's shown any affection for since her pomeranian died. -------- Powell: The only difference between a derelict and a man is a job. ------- Lombard: Godfrey loves me! He put me in the shower! ------- Selmer Jackson: Take a look at the dizzy old gal with the goat Eugene Pallette: I've had to look at her for 20 years - that's MRS. Bullock! SJ: I'm terribly sorry! EP: How do you think I feel? Message was edited by: MattHelm