Ford at Fox... and RKO, and MGM, and WB, and Columbia...

[rohanaka]

Thanks for the kind words, Miss G--don't know if I can get an A since I never registered for class....maybe I can get an "E for effort" instead. :-) PS--what a fun picture...I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that "classroom" too. I bet it was fun just to sit back and listen to all the various folks converse. :-)

[CineMaven]

Your composition was wonderfully clever.

 

Love that picture Miss G. (I'm lovin' seeing Woody Strode sit at that table too!)

[MissGoddess]

> Love that picture Miss G. (I'm lovin' seeing Woody Strode sit at that table too!)

 

Ford wouldn't have had it any other way.

[Film_Fatale]

> {quote:title=MissGoddess wrote:}{quote}

> Ford wouldn't have had it any other way.

 

Amen to that! B-)

[MissGoddess]

FYI----Ford's last film, *7 Women*, is airing August 6th at 12:30 p.m. on TCM.

[Bronxgirl48]

In LA STRADA, Basehart's natural rich voice is dubbed so that he sounds like some sort of high-pitched demonic puppet. It's very weird,

[Bronxgirl48]

In LA STRADA, Basehart's natural rich voice is dubbed so that he sounds like some sort of high-pitched demonic puppet. It's very weird,

[Film_Fatale]

> {quote:title=MissGoddess wrote:}{quote}

> FYI----Ford's last film, *7 Women*, is airing August 6th at 12:30 p.m. on TCM.

 

Thank you for the reminder, I'd really like to TiVo that.

[Bronxgirl48]

Doo-doo-doo-do.

 

Very weird indeed, lol.

[Bronxgirl48]

I commend you for NIGHTMARE ALONG MOHAWK STREET!

[MissGoddess]

> {quote:title=Bronxgirl48 wrote:}{quote}

> In LA STRADA, Basehart's natural rich voice is dubbed so that he sounds like some sort of high-pitched demonic puppet. It's very weird,

 

Oh no! I think he was dubbed in *Il Bidone*, too, but I don't think it was a bad job. I'm pretty

certain they dubbed ol' Brod Crawford, too, but I managed to get used to it. I loved seeing him

(so young!) as a sort of loveable ape in *Seven Sinners*.

 

I look forward to hearing what you think of *7 Women* (not sinners ). I didn't like it at first,

thought it rather shoddily presented (uninteresting sets and lighting) and I felt that Ann's

characterization was a bit too bold in the brushstrokes. But now the more I see it the more

I see _in_ it. Depending on what interview you read, Ford either really was fascinated with the

story idea and was proud of his work on it or he thought it was just "another job of work". I

think he was enthused from the start, and really meant it when he said he was glad to turn

his hand to a story about women for a change, but that due to his age and the way Hollywood

was changing it's production methods became too much for him. You can see by the production

values that the Old Man was running on low batteries, but you have to hand it to him for tackling

an extraordinarily unique story at the end (not that he thought *7 Women* would be his final

feature) and for his casting choices (I still think Pat Neal would have been better than Ann,

if for no other reason than I think she would have worked more congenially with Ford. I have

read nothing about what Ann's experience with him was like, so it couldn't have been bad, but

I can't imagine them "clicking" as well as Patricia). Mike Mazurki seems a daring if not funny

choice at first to play an Asian bandit, but since he is Ukranian it's not that much of a stretch.

 

The weakest memeber of the cast is, as always, Sue Lyon, but I think in spite of any

weaknesses, the movie has depth and power.

[rohanaka]

I commend you

 

Thanks--every now and then I let the looniness out. :-)

[FredCDobbs]

>You can see by the production values that the Old Man was running on low batteries,

>but you have to hand it to him for tackling an extraordinarily unique story at the end

>(not that he thought 7 Women would be his final feature)

 

Lousy film. Very stupid plot. Very unrealistic and misleading.

Made to be specifically insulting against a certain group of people.

[Bronxgirl48]

Well, I just saw 7 WOMEN. OMG, lol.

 

THE LOST PATROL MEETS BLACK NARCISSCUS: people in a rigidly structured group cope with extreme situations that test their mettle and rip the lid off repression and religious fervor.

 

Now about Dr. Cartwright: isn't that taking the Hippocratic oath a little TOO far? I loved Annie's performance, world-weary, cynical, burnt-out but compassionate and humanistic. I agree with you that perhaps Pat Neal would have been more subtle, but I don't know how nuanced one could be in that final scene with Mazurski! It was pretty ludicrous, but maybe intentionally so? I didn't buy Bancroft's sacrifice in any reaiistic way, but I don't believe the script was asking us to; as I think the drama was supposed to be over-the-top while still imparting some serious messages.

 

I like Eddie Albert before and after he finds his cajones. What a price to pay for never having to hear selfish and hysterical wife Betty Field's voice again ("Charles, don't forget my melon!")

 

Anna Lee (of the Mongols): "They're naked, and yellow! How disgusting!"

 

Flora Robson: "Then why do you look?"

 

Yep, Sue Lyon was the weakest. And unfortunately she's got the 60's hair goin' on.

 

All in all, I enjoyed it, but didn't quite extract the power and depth you did.

 

Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48

[MissGoddess]

*Made to be specifically insulting against a certain group of people.*

 

I'd like to hear more about that, Fredsie. Unless the group you refer to are critics.

[MissGoddess]

What a price to pay for never having to hear selfish and hysterical wife Betty Field's voice again ("Charles, don't forget my melon!")

 

Lol! Betty would have been the first one I'd have "volunteered" to keep company with Mike, but

I'm betting he'd have none of that.

 

I didn't see any of the deeper stuff until years later watching it a couple of times. The

disappointing production values (not to mention the lack of a compelling leading man, always a

necessity for me) put me off of it for a long time. I still don't think it's great but it keeps surprising

me.

[FredCDobbs]

Well, it was obviously made to be insulting toward missionaries and to have the lone atheist woman in the film save the lives of the missionary ladies, as some of those ladies ridiculed her for what she did for them. This is completely unrealistic.

 

I?ve been on trips with and I?ve produced documentaries about different kinds of missionaries in foreign countries, some of whom have been under bullet fire and cannon fire coming from revolutionaries, and I found the missionaries to be quite brave. They don?t all go abroad to ?preach?. Many go to work on medical and food projects, to help improve villages by digging wells, etc.

 

These are some of the bravest people I?ve even seen in my life. I?ve seen them provide medical care to communists and revolutionaries, and, in turn, they were treated with quite a lot of respect because they were so brave and they medically treated everyone in the areas they went to. But I?ve read news stories about others being captured and murdered by bandits and revolutionaries in other countries. So I really dislike anti-missionary films.

 

I'm not going to specifically blame John Ford for this. Maybe he thought it was an interesting ironic plot.

[MissGoddess]

That's very interesting, Fred, especially the work you've done! I honestly didn't get that he

was insulting them in any way, but I will watch it again (thank goodness I finally recorded it) and

see if it hits me that way. I know he could be tough on church hierarchy, but he usually had

lots of sympathy for the lay people and he was personally very religious. And then again he was

nothing if not contrary.

 

If there was one thing that still irks me it's Bancroft's truculent mannishness. She came across

to me as someone straight out of a Howard Hawks movie, not John Ford.

 

Thanks for your posting, always.

[Bronxgirl48]

I was thinking Hawks, too, with Bancroft's character. (and she even wears an ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS leather bomber-type jacket)

I found her doctor tremendously appealing in a way I don't think I would if Neal was cast. There is just something intrinsicably likeable and feisty about Annie for me (and not just that she's from the Bronx and never loses her accent, lol) Her "butchness" here is very appealing; she certainly takes charge, and I'd want her looking after MY back, in all circumstances! What a hero, what a REAL saint. So tough, yet so vulnerable....This is now my favorite Bancroft performance, and she's done many I love!

 

I like the way Cartwright describes pregnant Betty as being a heath risk because she's "menopausal" at 42. Even though I think Field was in her early fifties when this was made. And the only person I thought Mike would "go after" would have been Sue Lyon.

 

I would really like to see this again and pick up on some of that power you talk about. I think a second viewing is definitely in order. After all, it's a Ford film!

 

Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48

[FredCDobbs]

>I know he could be tough on church hierarchy,

 

I?m tough on church hierarchy too. Actually, I?m tough on any hierarchy. I can?t stand hierarchy of any kind. I like to judge people by their work, not by their presumed ?authority? or ?status? in any organization.

 

Most of the missionaries I went with were a mix of protestant (and some Catholic) medical people, and their helpers, and some were a large group of miscellaneous Catholic teens and adults who provided food, medicine, money, clothes, etc. to poor villages.

 

I used to think that we journalists were ?brave? guys, because we often go into dangerous situations, but the missionaries put me to shame with their bravery. I never felt the same about journalists or missionaries after my experience with them.

[MissGoddess]

I love the business of how Ann keeps wanting to smoke, even at the table, and the ladies are so shocked by it.

 

The theme of self-sacrifice and what might drive someone to it is what I came away with most forcefully. I think Ford liked to show the least expected person doing something that the "expected" people sometimes fail to do, if you know what I mean. Also, the "weak" man

ends up doing what many "strong" men might balk at, that sort of thing.

 

I've been "fielding" a lot of Betty lately---yesterday was *King's Row* and before that I watched *The Shepherd of the Hills* and now this. She was all over the place in terms of characters. My favorite is her role in *Bus Stop*.

[MissGoddess]

I used to think that we journalists were ?brave? guys, because we often go into dangerous situations, but the missionaries put me to shame with their bravery. I never felt the same about journalists or missionaries after my experience with them.

 

Have you seen *The Inn of the Sixth Happiness* and The Left Hand of God? I was

wondering what you thought of them in view of your experiences.

[FredCDobbs]

>Have you seen The Inn of the Sixth Happiness and The Left Hand of God? I was wondering what you thought of them in view of your experiences.

 

No, I haven?t really seen those two films all the way through. I got a little bored with them. Hollywood?s stories about missionaries are usually so far away from reality, I don?t watch many of them.

 

I like ?The Bitter Tea of General Yen? quite a lot. Although the Stanwyck character is supposed to be a young new ?missionary?, the film treated her mainly as a tough American woman, kind and na?ve, but tough. I think that film is a very interesting study of an unusual missionary/war-lord situation that was handled quite well, but of course the war-lord in that film was so darned cute, I can see why Stanwyck fell for him.

[Bronxgirl48]

I just watched the '49 THE GREAT GATSBY on YouTube. Lackluster production, to say the least, but Betty is such a good actress she makes me believe she really is Daisy, though she's miscast. And Ladd makes a great Jay, far better than Redford. MacDonald Carey isn't bad as Nick Carroway, but poor Ruth Hussey, who I normally like, is just not Jordan to me. This is a pretty ambitious film, though; if only it had a bigger budget.

 

Shelley Winters comes bursting into this drabness with her usual life-force but unfortunately it seems she's only on-screen for 5 minutes.

 

Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48

[MissGoddess]

> {quote:title=Bronxgirl48 wrote:}{quote}

> I just watched the '49 THE GREAT GATSBY on YouTube. Lackluster production, to say the least, but Betty is such a good actress she makes me believe she really is Daisy, though she's probably miscast. And Ladd makes a great Jay, far better than Redford. MacDonald Carey isn't bad as Nick Carroway, but poor Ruth Hussey, who I normally like, is just not Jordan to me. This is a pretty ambitious film, though; if only it had a bigger budget.

>

> Shelley Winters comes bursting into this drabness with her usual life-force but unfortunately it seems she's only on-screen for 5 minutes.

 

 

I'm thirilled to know this hard to find movie is available somewhere. I will have to make some

time eventually to watch it. I like some of Fitzgerald's writings and while the production

values and Sam Waterston's performance in the Redford version of The Great Gatsby were

good, I did not like Redford or Mia. Blah. I've always heard Ladd was much better. It's such a

famous novel I don't understand how this movie version got to be so obscure.