traceyk65

*Birthdays Today:* *John Barrymore* 20th Century: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=212558 Not chewing the scenery in A Bill of Divorcement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs34M15UXzw *Claire Bloom is 80:* Limelight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol8CALr-PwI&feature=related *Cesar Romero* Dancing: The Joker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjiIHfKwi0Q&feature=related *Gale Sondergaard:* Menacing Bette in The Letter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ppjBD1XdZg The Life of Emile Zola: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=238191#player_area

Katharine Hepburn A Bill of Divorcement 1932 Love Affair 1994 Carole Lombard A Perfect Crime 1921 To Be or Not to Be 1942 Mae West Nigt After Night 1932 Sextette 1978

My Holy Grails (which may be out there somewhere, but if so, I'm unaware of it): Beyond the Forest (Bette Davis Joseph Cotton) The Monte Carlo Story (Marlene Dietrich and Vittorio deSica) Red Dust (Jean Harlow and Clark Gable) Love Among the Ruins (Katharine Hepburn and Lawrence Olivier--I know it's out there; I just haven't found a copy) Martin Roumagnac w/ English subtitles (Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich)

Could be.

*Today's birthdays:* *Jack Benny* Buying a watch: With Mel Blanc: To Be or Not to Be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9zaMlFrHGs&feature=related *Thelma Ritter* Pillow Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FNGZnlSj1o Pick-up on South Street: All About Eve: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp#player_area *Stuart Erwin* With Helen Kane (Betty Boop) in 1930: *Valentines? Day:* *Romance, Hollywood style:* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHVzyw62kds Holiday: Disney-style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJiQiLNZZAo&feature=related Han and Leia-style:

> {quote:title=ValentineXavier wrote:}{quote} > > {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote} > > You were tricked into thinking you were *watching a good documentary,* simply because it had Welles in it. With no Welles, you would have never seen this trash. > > > > You have misunderstood the film very badly. The whole point of the film is that ALL film, even documentary, which is supposedly true, is artifice and deception. It pretends to be a documentary, then reveals that it is all lies. > > Not in the same league with *Touch of Evil*, true. But, still an excellent film. > > Edited by: ValentineXavier on Feb 12, 2011 11:06 PM That's what I meant by profound (or possibly pseudo-profound--I haven't decided yet) comments at the end of the film. I still think it would have made a good, straight fiction movie--like a thriller or crime drama.

Thanks! I'd love to know where she got her voice, though--I can carry a tune, but my voice is very ordinary and her father can't even do that.

To quote Margo Channing: "Bill's thirty-two. He looks thirty-two. He looked it five years ago, he'll look it twenty years from now. I hate men." As a society, I think we are easier on men--we value that look of character and, I don't know--wisdom maybe?--that aging brings most men. Women on the other hand are supposed to be all bright-eyed and fresh and smooth-skinned. As soon as the first wrinkle sets in, it's all over. I get the feeling that things aren't so cut and dried in Europe--that they have a much better attitude towards againg than Americans do. To name a woman who seems to be aging gracefully and well, Jamie Lee Curtis looks just fine, silvery hair and all.

There's nothing quite like that final scene in City Lights, in which the formerly blind little flower girl touches the "Little Fellow's" hand and realizes who he is. Chaplin's face is a masterpiece of love, uncertainty, and hope. I think he remained more a "silent" actor even in his sound filsm. So much of the "action" is in his expressions. He had a face like rubber and could move from one expression to the next with ease. He appeals to the everyman in us all I think--his characters were usually down on their luck and getting by the best way they could manage.

He could let others be funny while he played straight man--In Tillie's Punctured Romance, most of the laughs go to Marie Dressler and he just gets to react to her silliness.

*Kim Novak* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HObbAl57ar0&feature=related *Beginning of 2 Day Valentines? Day Tribute:* Classic Couples: Tracy and Hepburn: Dick and Ruby: John and Maureen: Jeanette and Nelson: Rock and Doris: Myrna and William: Joan and Clark: Clark and Jean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSOy07Kneqg&feature=related

Wow. Hedda should have started writing for the movies. She's as least as sarcastically funny as Billy Wilder.

Chaplin could be funny. Often it was the situation that was funny--for example, in The Pilgrim, he's an escaped convict who's mistaken for the new minister and he pulls it off for a while...or in The Dictator, he's a Jewish barber who pulls off pretending to be Hitler. Some bits are funny becasue they are so silly and childish--in A Dog's Life, he escapes from the police by rolling back and forth under a fence while the poor cop runs back and forth through the gate. Instead of getting up and taking off, Chaplin continues playing around almost like he's enjoying it, very much like a little kid would. In some ways it's funny like Bugs Bunny is funny or Lucy for that matter. This scene reminds me of both Bugs and Lucy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CReDRHDYhk8&feature=related

I always thought Sean Connery looked better in his 60's than in his 20's. This is great:

Ok, here's a dictionary definition of classic. It pretty much covers ALL the bases: classic [ˈkl?sɪk] adj 1. of the highest class, esp in art or literature 2. serving as a standard or model of its kind; definitive 3. adhering to an established set of rules or principles in the arts or sciences a classic proof 4. characterized by simplicity, balance, regularity, and purity of form; classical 5. of lasting interest or significance 6. continuously in fashion because of its simple and basic style (and if someone already posted this and I missed it, 1000 apologies)

> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote} > What instrument does she play? Actually, she sings. A lovely dark alto voice. She and the rest of the group who went did very well--1's and 2's across the board in class A (in Ohio they are rated 4-1 with 1 being highest and class A being the most difficult)

*Birthdays today:* *Forrest Tucker* The Crawling Eye: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ncbb1KD4dY F Troop: *Looks like it?s 1939 all over again on TCM tonight:* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfhFSPruFDo&feature=related GWTW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOADcNfOMh4&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NHuIrANIrE&feature=related Dark Victory: Wizard of Oz: Wuthering Heights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxX8f6sVOOw&feature=related Ninotchka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pehl6oID9c&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1z5HEO_SLg&feature=related Goodbye Mr Chips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sql6he-UgvI&feature=related *Not playing tonight, but also from 1939* Destry Rides Again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BOVDv-NSMM&feature=related Midnight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5RN2azadVo&feature=related Gunga Din http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm_N4pmcRx8&feature=related

My daughter, practicing her solo for the state competition tomorrow...very nice.

It is interesting though--when TCM dies show a more modern film, it's usually an award winner or highly praised by critics (and no I'm not referring to Night of the Lepus, which is, BTW, a hoot to watch and I highly recommend it to anyone who has that sort of sense of humor). When it comes to those movies from the Golden Age, they are not nearly so selective. There are a lot of pre-1960 films that TCM plays which are completely ordinary and if I may say it, pretty darn boring.

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote} > You were tricked into thinking you were watching a good documentary, simply because it had Welles in it. With no Welles, you would have never seen this trash. > > The hand-held camera work was some of the worst Ive ever seen. They used to call that style Cinema Verit?. Lol, thats French for wobbly camera. I actually thought it was sort of unneccessary for it to have been a documentary--the story of the forger wasinteresting and might have made a good fiction, maybe a thriller-type movie. I agree w/ you on the wobbly camera thing--I hate that! Another good reason to have made this a straight fictional movie.

*Birthdays Today:* *Joseph Mankiewicz:* Dragonwyck: All About Eve: Cleopatra: Sleuth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCRWZv6kwpo&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Gd-J9xY0A&feature=related *Eva Gabor* Green Acres http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGJmJ6Trkb8&feature=fvsr *Leslie Nielson* Forbidden Planet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6gkE6kkhIc&feature=related As Frank Drebin: *Billy Halop* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF07Mw762AY&feature=related Angels With Dirty Faces: Dead End Kids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXXV1GMFn3o&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOneN0J8g7g

> {quote:title=musicalnovelty wrote:}{quote} > > {quote:title=traceyk65 wrote:}{quote} > > Bringing Up Baby > > > >She leads him on a merry chase ... and destroys his dinosaur. > > > > Yeah, don't you hate when that happens! I know it ruins my day...

I'm probably way behind on this one, but I saw in my Now Playing that Charlotte Chandler did a bio of Dietrich. Has anyone read it? I was very disappointed with her sanitized, boring Davis and Crawford bios.

Maybe I'm easily fooled, but I liked it. I was completely sucked into the story of the forger and his work and connection to Picasso and so on and then Welles comes on and says, "Fooled ya!" I was sort of conflicted at taht point--I thought it was unneccesary (with some way to wrap up the plot, it could have been done as a straight movie, instead of documentary style--it was an interesting story), but then what he says at the end about fiction and forgery and so on was...porfound maybe? Or maybe it was only psuedo-profound and that's why I am conflicted?

> {quote:title=Fedya wrote:}{quote} > Am I the one person here who hates, hates, hates *Member of the Wedding* ? I keep hoping Ethel Waters would strangle Julie Harris. Harris' character is what Woody Allen might have done if he played a 12-year-old girl. That sort of character is irritating when Allen plays it; and it's downright rage-inducing coming from somebody like Julie Harris No. Julie Harris as a little girl gives me the creeps. She doesn;t really look or act 12-ish. It probably worked on stage because there are no close-ups. She's perfect in The Haunting though. Ethel Waters, on the other hand, is great.