BRONXGIRL'S MOTHER, HENRY FONDA'S HIRSUTENESS, ETC.

[Bronxgirl48]

Yep, I've got DRAGONWYCK for the "upper-class" Nick. Good going on THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, didn't remember Vincent was a Nicholas in that one, too, along the same aristocratic lines. We coulda had good times at that theatre...

 

Guess what? Big surprise, LOL, Anthony Quinn is chock-a-block with Nicks. Nicholas Mazaney in PARTNERS IN CRIME, Nikki Kusnoff in DANGEROUS TO KNOW, Nick Buller in EMERGENCY SQUAD, and Nick Acropolis in ONLY THE LONELY.

[MissGoddess]

My favorite Nick:

 

[Bronxgirl48]

Awwww, he's mine, too, Goddess!

[Bronxgirl48]

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

> I'm positively swooney for Joseph Calleia, Nick or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know, I've recently begun to look on him in that same way.

>

> I looked up Edward Brophy, thinking he might have played a Nick or two, but no...he was Bugsy, Killer, Porky, Goldie, Torso, Weepie, Dwarfie, Potsy, Stuffy, Dixie, Dippy, Roxy, Sleeper and Nosey... but not a Nick in the lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hilarious, Jackie. Where's Snow White?

[JackFavell]

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

> Hilarious, Jackie. Where's Snow White?

 

 

Ha! I was thinking the same thing!

 

MissG -

Now that Nicky is so sweet! My fave!

[Bronxgirl48]

Two 1931 Gable Nicks -- THE EASIEST WAY as a laundryman, and NIGHT NURSE as the chauffeur.

[lavenderblue19]

I thought of Gable in *Night Nurse* last nite, just forgot to post. Glad you thought of it. Thank You for starting this Bronxie, best laughs I've had in awhile.

 

How about all the St. Nicks (HA)

 

There's also Derek Bond as Nicholas Nickleby in *The Life and Times Of Nicholas Nickleby* (1947)

[Bronxgirl48]

I'm glad you're enjoying my paltry thread. "Bad rice! Bad rice!"

 

 

Ah, Derek Bond. The poor girl's Robert Donat. Or, maybe not. Love his gentlemanly ways in NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, up against the cold cruel world.

 

 

Yeah, all the St. Nicks. That's an untapped Nick market. And I'll bet there's a character named Nick (reformed semi-shady gambler, lol) who plays St. Nick for the neighborhood kids during Christmas.

 

\

[JackFavell]

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

[Bronxgirl48]

Ah, tis charmin' Jackie! Happy St. Patrick's Day to you as well, and our friends on the boards and TCM.

 

Everybody sing!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZRWNdGCUc

[Bronxgirl48]

 

Edited by: Bronxgirl48 on Mar 17, 2011 7:26 PM

[JackFavell]

That was lovely! It made me feel like the only one didn't know the words!

 

That theatre! Gorgeous.

 

Have a happy!

[Bronxgirl48]

http://www.celtic-lyrics.com/forum/index.php?autocom=tclc&code=lyrics&id=195

 

Ha!

 

One of my favorite screen couples (if I get around to making my own list as you and Miss G. have done so wonderfully in rey's thread) are Nora (Anne Baxter) and Stephen (Tyrone Power) from THE LUCK OF THE IRISH.

 

I of course was watching BONJOUR TRISTESSE again last night. Alerted Mom to it, but all she said afterwards was: "So depressing".

"Yes", I told her, but they're suffering on the French Riviera"

 

Mom was brutal on SUNNY SIDE UP: "They sound like those Alvin chipmunks" I replied that I agreed, but after a performance like the one Janet Gaynor gives in SUNRISE, she's entitled to sound like a cute little rodent in an early talkie

 

Edited by: Bronxgirl48 on Mar 17, 2011 7:36 PM

[JackFavell]

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

 

Thanks for the lyrics! It will take me till next year to learn them by heart.

 

> One of my favorite screen couples (if I get around to making my own list as you and Miss G. have done so wonderfully in rey's thread) are Nora (Anne Baxter) and Stephen (Tyrone Power) from THE LUCK OF THE IRISH.

 

If I had to pick from the ones on today, I would pick Jimmy Cagney and Frank McHugh.... er...I mean Jimmy Cagney and Olivia de Havilland from The Irish in Us... I forgot how exciting Jimmy could be back in 1935.

 

> I of course was watching BONJOUR TRISTESSE again last night. Alerted Mom to it, but all she said afterwards was: "So depressing".

> "Yes", I told her, but they're suffering on the French Riviera"

 

EXACTLY! I find that the more I see it the better it gets. It was nearly perfect this time. I've decided I want Elsa's room, with the doors that open it up to the air. If not hers, I'd take Cecile's for that gorgeous iron bed.

Oh heck who am I kidding, I'd sleep on the floor of the kitchen if I could only live there for a week!

 

> Mom was brutal on SUNNY SIDE UP: "They sound like those Alvin chipmunks" I replied that I agreed, but after a performance like the one Janet Gaynor gives in SUNRISE, she's entitled to sound like a cute little rodent in an early talkie

 

Oh, that kills me! I thought it was very good for 1929 and I enjoyed it a lot.. A friend of mine said you have to look at it as a silent with music, blocking out Janet and Charlie's voices with your mind. Well, at least Charlie's. But who cares? he was so good looking.

[Bronxgirl48]

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

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

>

> Thanks for the lyrics! It will take me till next year to learn them by heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, don't worry, lol, that audience seemed definitely irish to me, so they probably knew that very popular and beautiful song by heart.

>

> > One of my favorite screen couples (if I get around to making my own list as you and Miss G. have done so wonderfully in rey's thread) are Nora (Anne Baxter) and Stephen (Tyrone Power) from THE LUCK OF THE IRISH.

>

> If I had to pick from the ones on today, I would pick Jimmy Cagney and Frank McHugh.... er...I mean Jimmy Cagney and Olivia de Havilland from The Irish in Us... I forgot how exciting Jimmy could be back in 1935.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jimmy's best screen partner, other than Pat O'Brien, was good friend Frank McHugh. Not the women who the writers had him kick around and basically mistreat until about 1940 and THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE with Livvy. Up until RAGTIME, where he was obviously physically ill, Cagney was always lively to me. (although I can't stand to watch ONE, TWO, THREE. I start hyperventilating)

>

> > I of course was watching BONJOUR TRISTESSE again last night. Alerted Mom to it, but all she said afterwards was: "So depressing".

> > "Yes", I told her, but they're suffering on the French Riviera"

>

> EXACTLY! I find that the more I see it the better it gets. It was nearly perfect this time. I've decided I want Elsa's room, with the doors that open it up to the air. If not hers, I'd take Cecile's for that gorgeous iron bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wasn't Elsa's room originally Cecile's? Elsa was just there recovering from her un-brilliant sunburn. But I adore that room with the (sigh) view.

> Oh heck who am I kidding, I'd sleep on the floor of the kitchen if I could only live there for a week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch out for Leontine, Albertine, and Claudine. They just might shoo you away, ha! I want that villa so bad....I wonder who owns it now...do you think they rent it out?

>

> > Mom was brutal on SUNNY SIDE UP: "They sound like those Alvin chipmunks" I replied that I agreed, but after a performance like the one Janet Gaynor gives in SUNRISE, she's entitled to sound like a cute little rodent in an early talkie

>

> Oh, that kills me! I thought it was very good for 1929 and I enjoyed it a lot.. A friend of mine said you have to look at it as a silent with music, blocking out Janet and Charlie's voices with your mind. Well, at least Charlie's. But who cares? he was so good looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie and Janet make such a cute couple, and Janet in SSU even tells him, "You were in 7th heaven with that other girl". Is the script trying to defensively remind us of their glory days? Farrell is so handsome, yes. I didn't mind his speaking voice here, just the singing. Everybody else including Janet really did sound helium-filled.

The only song I really enjoyed (other than "Sunnyside Up" itself, was that Harry Lauder-type WWI vaudeville ditty sung by Gaynor's roommate to cheer her up. I wish I knew the title of it.

[Bronxgirl48]

I couldn't agree with you more about BONJOUR TRISTESSE being better each time.

 

Also, I must confess this: I'm ambivalent about the character of Anne.

Half of me is relieved when she's finally gone, the other half grieves.

[MissGoddess]

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

> I couldn't agree with you more about BONJOUR TRISTESSE being better each time.

>

> Also, I must confess this: I'm ambivalent about the character of Anne.

> Half of me is relieved when she's finally gone, the other half grieves.

 

I react the same way, and always have.

[Bronxgirl48]

SPOILER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the tragedy, back in b&w Paris, Cecile tells us she and Raymond are going south again, only this time, to the Italian Riviera, and my emotions get all mixed up. I'm like, ooh, now they're going to vacation on the Italian Riviera! They're free! Free! Then at the same time I get a sort of lump in my throat, and reflect: but at what price is this freedom? Anne was a deluded, emotionally fragile control freak, yet I can't help feeling a great loss...

 

Edited by: Bronxgirl48 on Mar 17, 2011 10:03 PM

[MissGoddess]

BONJOUR, SPOILERS

 

> After the tragedy, back in b&w Paris, Cecile tells us she and Raymond are going south again, only this time, to the Italian Riviera, and my emotions get all mixed up. I'm like, ooh,now they're going to vacation on the Italian Riviera! They're free! Free! Then at the same time I get a sort of lump in my throat, and reflect: but at what price is this freedom? Anne was a deluded, emotionally fragile control freak, yet I can't help feeling a great loss...

>

 

It's hard not to envy those stunning places they go and where they live. As we've talked about before, I can't think of many places lovelier than that beach house.

 

I did read the novel by Francoise Sagan a long time ago, but I don't remember much about it except it was rather different from the film. I think Otto was sort of venturing back to the milieu he knew, the one from *Laura*, only with an even more jaundiced eye.

 

The problem is we have two women who are hard to like all the way (let's leave out Elsa for a moment, she's actually the most well adjusted creature of the bunch). One isn't a woman, she's really still a child and reacts like a child though she is trying to grow up---fast. The other is a woman, but she's messing around with people who ultimately don't share her values or point of view about life. She has been seduced, not just sexually, but sensually and emotionally. She was asking for trouble. And I find myself often agreeing with her ideas, while disliking her "teacherish" manner. But she was right. And that seems to be the point of telling this story from Cecile's viewpoint, but in flashback. She's telling it from a wiser more mature point of view. She admits a few times, that Anne was right and she and Raymond were not behaving well. It's well done, we see Anne is right, but we feel almost as constricted and annoyed as Cecile.

 

I want Cecile's little black Parisian dress.

 

Edited by: MissGoddess on Mar 17, 2011 9:49 PM

[Bronxgirl48]

I love reading your insights into this movie, Miss G. I agree with you that Elsa is probably the most well-adjusted, the least "complicated", although she apparently is a "drifter", too. I haven't read the novel but now want to. I don't know anything about Sagan but have the feeling she majored in philosophy (which Cecile in the film is supposed to be studying) because, during the course of another discussion we had before about BT I mentioned the ideas posed about living a good life as opposed to just living the good life, and I'm assuming Sagan was very interested in this subject. Such a perceptive point you make about the ways in which Anne is seduced, certainly by that relaxed, carefree, warm, sunny, pleasure-loving Mediterranean lifestyle. The moral corruption isn't in geography or nature, but people. Anne gazes out into the sparkling blue water and laments she can't reproduce that color in her dress designs. She longs for a world of purity, grace, simplicity, upstanding moral values. But as long as human beings are on this planet, never mind just the south of France, lol, Anne would always be perpetually disappointed.

[CineMaven]

Bon soir mesdames! :-)

 

Bronxie, both you and Miss Goddess made really excellent and succinct observations about "Bonjour Tristesse." Very nice.

 

I'm ambivalent about the character of Anne. Half of me is relieved when she's finally gone, the other half grieves. Then at the same time I get a sort of lump in my throat, and reflect: but at what price is this freedom? Anne was a deluded, emotionally fragile control freak, yet I can't help feeling a great loss... - << (( Bronxgirl )) >>

 

Yes, Kerr was a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. But Niven and Seberg were definitely morally worse for the wear with what they both did to Kerr. Her character was like Shelley Winters' in "A PLACE IN THE SUN." We feel sorry for her, all pregnant and everything...but we want her out of Liz's and Monty's way. It's like Hitchcock?s "PSYCHO." OMG, Marion's killed by Norman's mother and now he is getting rid of Marion's body. Poor Marion. Uh-oh, the car stopped sinking. I hope Norman doesn?t get caught.

 

What a conundrum directors put us in.

 

Oh heck who am I kidding, I'd sleep on the floor of the kitchen if I could only live there for a week! - << (( Jack Favell )) >>

 

HA! Who am I kidding? After eating Albertine and Leontine's cooking, I won't fit in the bed.

 

I want Cecile's little black Parisian dress. - << (( Miss Goddess )) >>

 

And I want David Niven.

 

He's a playboy, and rich and dashing. And he's not into 'Commitment.' So, knowing all of this going in...I think I'd:

 

* have a great fling with him

* stay in a lovely villa

* not be perceived to be a threat by his possessive daughter, and escape with my life, and my memories. I'll e-mail you guys the pix.

 

Go in with your eyes wide open girls, I say.

[JackFavell]

This is great! I am LOVING your discussion of Bonjour Tristesse.

 

Yes, Anne was right, but I don't LIKE Anne. I felt more sympathy for her this time, in her fussy clothes, that somehow look bland even thought they are high style... she takes the color out of things, washes everything out. I am probably closer to Anne, but somehow, I can't sympathize with her, and I actually do get mad at her, at the end of the picture, because she ruined it all - She was the grownup, supposedly, but she is more child when in love than Cecile in many ways.

 

Anne could have been played more sympathetically, she is only longing for love. But as Maven said, she is in deep shark infested waters, and hasn't got a knife. Its very sad if you were to look at it played by anyone but Kerr, she gives Anne a stubborn uptight feeling that is hard to reconcile. It's brilliant, for the shock factor - we only realize that Anne is human as she drives away, just asCecile only realizes what she has done. It's not that she isn't right, or human with emotions as deep as Cecile's, it's Anne's manner - she is didactic and has no subtlety. Raymond and Cecile have nothing but subtlety. If she had guided Cecile, instead of jumping in and telling her that she didn't approve.....no wait.... it wasn't that she didn't approve, they knew that already, it was that she suddenly said she was RESPONSIBLE for Cecile - it was that too big leap into motherhood that Cecile could not accept. Anne handled the specifics quite badly. Vulnerability and stubborness are bad bedmates, and Anne has them both in spades...take it from someone who knows...yes, I am very much like Anne, I hate to admit.

 

She does not have the warmth of Raymond, or the charm, she only has love - one that cannot stand up to corruption. Her love seems weak to me in many ways, because I really think she didn't know either Raymond or Cecile very well. A gentle veer into goodness from a stronger woman would have been the way to go with these two - make it more inviting for them to stay home, rather than forcing two people to change lifestyle immediately at her request - cold turkey - just for her. She frankly does not offer much in return, maybe she cannot free herself enough to offer anything.

 

I think it's fascinating that Preminger makes Cecile and Raymond's lifestyle sooooooooo attractive, even in the black and white sections, but he is somehow able to make us understand the ennui, the boredom and the vacuity of it there, as opposed to the warmth and delight of the color sections. Overripe...it cannot last, everything is ready to split open. The only movie I can compare it to is Black Narcissus. What an incredible movie Bonjour Tristesse is! Really, I am beginning to see it as a masterpiece.

 

One thing that caught my eye -did anyone else notice this? As Anne and Raymond's relationship drifts into uncomfortable waters, with Elsa placed in the middle by Cecile, did you notice the colors?

 

When Elsa returns, she is wearing a smashing lavender and purple dress with the most beautiful sleeves I've ever seen.... she is tan...well, anyway, Each time Raymond and Anne are together after Elsa's return, there are lavender and purple things placed very purposely between them, just as Cecile has placed Elsa between Raymond and Anne (he keeps tripping over her, literally). First, a bowl of lavender and purple flowers in a pot during a conversation between Anne and Raymond.... then I think it was a set of new drapes... I don't have a copy or I would go back and post pics... it was fascinating how these colors started showing up in between Raymond and Anne. Lovely and evocative of the split in philosophy too.

 

As for the book, I read it long before seeing the movie - but I remember it being cold and hard like a diamond, shocking, honest, and told completely in the first person by Cecile. I think the movie captured it perfectly, and stayed remarkably true to the tone of the book, if not the events. I remember being quite horrified at Cecile's coldness at the end, and the last line.

 

Martita Hunt really caught my eye this time, she is wonderfully full and vapid at the same time.

 

And the song....what a perfect, perfect way to introduce the story... one of my favorite shots is of Jean Seberg's face, half cut off by her partner's shoulder and head, staring toward us...she is only half a person at this point... it's disturbing, and it makes you want to look to the right, so you can get a better view of her whole face.

 

You know, I love Jean Seberg - Preminger was so totally right to keep casting her...she's wonderful, and she grabs the camera like no one I can think of. It's too bad that it's taken years for her to be appreciated.

 

I am completely in love with Jack Cardiff and Georges Perinal - I watched FANNY this week, and now Bonjour Tristesse - I want my own personal DP - I want to see the world through Cardiff/Perinal colored glasses.

[MissGoddess]

I've really enjoyed all these observations on BT. For simply ages I thought I was the ONLY person to value this movie. I think I was a teen when I first saw it. Young enough to better relate to Cecile, though I fully admit my admiration back then stemmed purely from the superficial aspects (setting, clothes, music). Then the lingering sadness (the "triste") remained foremost in my mind and caused me to believe that Preminger had made something evocative. Critics only fairly recenlty have come around to the movie. I remember never finding a fully sympatico viewer. Until now. The irony is the movie isn't as intensely felt by me as it was in those days when I was more hopeful myself. It's not a hopeful movie, yet I responded more strongly to it at a time when its cynicism couldn't really touch me.

 

I have always liked Jean, but more for her look than anything else. She does have a certain something. A slightly tremulous sensitivity shimmering underneath a still surface. Preminger could be so awful but he actually did understand a lot of things about women and life. However, he was a cynic in a very Germanic way. He's so much like my mother, ha. Responsive to beauty in nature (or art) but so very mordant about human nature. I sometimes think he _was_ Waldo.

[MissGoddess]

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

> I mentioned the ideas posed about living a good life as opposed to just living the good life,

 

That is superb. I'm going to remember that. "Living a good life vs. living the good life." This song says it well, non?

 

 

[JackFavell]

That's so interesting, MissG - It's so very real, the way it feels - It really captures something of intensely felt youth, but that something is almost indefinable, as wispy as a dandelion frond floating on the wind. I think this is one reason I enjoy the movie so much... I don't have to feel the pain of youth, but it helps me to remember the beauty of everything and the sweetness, when time was not an enemy, and everything was ahead of me.