RAMBLES Part II

[Bronxgirl48]

Frankie always had a twinkle in his eye; Jean seems a bit more, well, serious. I didn't see GUELE D'AMOUR. Gabin's looking French-hot with a turtleneck and leather jacket in GRAND ILLUSION. Hard for me to get through this. It's supposed to be a great film, but I'm bored. Maybe it's because I have a headache and upset stomach after plowing through 20 chocolate wafer biscuits, hence the subtleties of Renoir's direction is eluding me at the moment.

 

ALGIERS is a scene-by-scene remake of PEPE LE MOKO, except for Pepe's last moments. I prefer Charles and Hedy; they make such a glamorous couple, and, even though ALGIERS is more Hollywood-slick, I actually think it's got more "soul". I mean, I really hoped Boyer and Lamarr would get back together in their beloved Paris, but with Gabin and the French actress (don't know her name) I wasn't emotionally involved at all. Jean gives a more"naturalistic" performance, but, I don't know, in the Casbah, I think I want romantic,exotic "chic", lol, and a more charismatic Pepe.

[JackFavell]

Oh, dear. Do you have any bromo? Poor thing.

 

I haven't been watching today at all. I've tried watching La Bete Humaine before, and Grand Illusion, too, but could not really get into them, and turned them off. I am waiting for the right fatalistic moment when I can really appreciate them.

[CineMaven]

"I am waiting for the right fatalistic moment when I can really appreciate them."

 

JackaaaAaaay, 20 chocolate wafer biscuits should do it. You'll be Gabin all over the place.

[JackFavell]

Aaaah! Now that's scary!

 

You've reminded me of that awful scene in The Meaning of Life.

 

"A wafer thin mint?"

 

If you haven't watched it, DON'T.

 

It's guaranteed to make you even more ill than you are.

[Bronxgirl48]

Whaaa? What did Ben say? Ginger Rogers had a fling with Gabin?

Wow. I just can't picture it....although didn't she marry a Frenchman?

 

Yes, Laird over George, anytime, LOL. But you know what? I'd choose Jessel over Larry King.

 

 

 

 

[lzcutter]

> Ginger Rogers had a fling with Gabin?

 

Hopefully not at the same time as Marlene Dietrich. In a fight, my money's on Marlene over Ginger.

[Bronxgirl48]

THE MEANING OF LIFE is one Monty Python film I've never seen. Thanks for the warning, ha!

[JackFavell]

Maybe she did.

[Bronxgirl48]

Seems like the conversation was getting, um, interesting right about the time I hit the hay, lol. Not that---

[CineMaven]

I enjoyed Debbie and Bobby in "The Affairs of Dobie Gillis." I remember it coming on for a week on Million Dollar Movie.

 

Now sometimes when it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium. But then sometimes when it's Tuesday, it must be...

 

 

 

 

(That's my Dobie Gillis stream-of-consciousness for ya!! Go figure)

[JackFavell]

I have a great fondness for Dobie Gillis the movie and the TV show. They are different as apples and oranges, but both make me chuckle.

 

I love the dance numbers with Van and Debbie and seeing Bob Fosse as a young man. To me, the dances are far above the usual ones in films of this type and time, thanks to choreographer Alex Romero. Reynolds, Van (who's cute as a button), and especially Fosse really lift the film to a higher plane. It ain't the greatest, but it's light and fluffy in the most genuine, enjoyable way, and there is something to appreciate if you like dancing.

 

 

 

Oh, yeah, I love Tuesday Weld!

 

Edited by: JackFavell on Aug 20, 2011 2:33 PM

[CineMaven]

"A PLACE IN THE SUN"

 

I think I've said this before in a previous discussion of this movie...I found it interesting, or funny or sad or shamefully manipulative of the film to exponentially increase George's view and entrance into Paradise (represented by Angela's beauty and wealth) with the other end of the see-saw which represented he would NOT be allowed entrance.

 

MONTGOMERY CLIFT and ELIZABETH TAYLOR

 

They were incredibly beautiful to look at, don't you think? Also on that unfair teeter-totter, the contrast between the life he could have Angela and the life he would have with Alice was as different as (the * Ballet Russe and crepes suzette) night and day. The way the film set up those contrasts turned a nice quieter girl...into some one who you wanted to get rid of.

 

I CONFESS:

 

I have a confession to make. (What the heck...another one?!!!) Yeah. Another one.

 

Movies own me.

 

Yeah, I gotta tell ya, they own me lock, stock and bleeding heart. I can be manipulated.

 

 

I want to be manipulated. In fact, I see the strings, feel 'em tugging at my funny bone or at my heart and I just give in. I want to move outta the way, but I can't. (Actually, I don't want to move out of the way). It takes sheer will power for me to see the other side of the coin in movies. I can do it...but it's a struggle: i.e. "The Letter" and Sondergaard's role as The Wife...so I know I can do it. But last night I lost the struggle with "A Place in the Sun" and I didn't even see the movie from the beginning. Oh Georgie Georgie (Stevens, not Eastman). His dissolves had me swoooooooning...and I was hog-tied by the strings. :x

 

Poor George (Eastman not Stevens)...he was like Icarus. He was satisfied with what he had with Alice until Angela was presented to him. And there she was...on a silver platter. She offered herself to him. And as I said, the more she offered herself...her world...the more doomed George Icarus Eastman was going to be. Did his reach exceed his grasp? What did Geraldine Brooks say to Van Heflin in "Possessed" when she watches him check out a passing cigarette girl: "It's so American to want something better."

 

Yes, Elizabeth Taylor was quite something else in "A Place in the Sun." And Icarus didn't stand a chance.

 

And neither do we.

 

Oh I know some out there may say "Uh...no, not me. I see what they're trying to do and I won't let 'em. I'm not impressed by her beauty. He's good looking but soooo what. I'm me and I'm strong. That plot better make sense and not resort to trickery."

 

Really?

 

 

Really.

[MissGoddess]

> What did Geraldine Brooks say to Van Heflin in "Possessed" when she watches him check out a passing cigarette girl: "It's so American to want something better."

 

Ha! That had me rolling. Great post. The movie is terrific at making you confront the very nasty feeling of wanting to sink poor Shelly into the middle of the lake so George can have his American Pie-Eyed dream. Every time I watch it I feel the same.

 

I like the all the subtle ways George is treated as "different" by the money people.

[Bronxgirl48]

Maven, I'd lurve to read your complete write-up of A PLACE IN THE SUN; where's it at?

 

I'd never heard of Monty's last film, THE DEFECTOR, so had to tune in, sleepy though I was. Cheapjack production, no music score, good cast (with an "And", in this case "And Roddy McDowell, which means of course he's there for about 10 minutes) including the stolidly charismatic, blonde, German Hardy Kruger who I've never seen before but he definitely has international star quality, and then poor Monty, looking hauntingly gaunt, yet, along with Hardy, trying to bring some life into a lifeless screenplay, hampered not only by the low-budget, but amateurish direction. I started to doze, then woke up just as a man was telling Clift "Beware of that silver ray, it could ruin your brain". At least, that's what I THINK he said.

 

[CineMaven]

I have a college buddy who is this Maven's maven. What he knows about movies, I could put in a thimble. Or at least that's the pedestal I lovingly put him on. Recently he wrote me and told me he finally found and saw "THE MACOMBER AFFAIR" after many many, too many years.

 

Quote:

 

"Joan Bennett owned the forties."

 

Unquote.

 

< ( Gulp! ) > Well that's enough for me. I'm going to need my little backpack and toiletries. It's going to be a loooong nite for movies.

 

He and my other college buddy thought I saw this movie called "AVENTURERA." Nope, I haven't. Bob described it to me as thus:

 

" 'AVENTURERA' is a Mexican movie from around 1950 about an innocent young girl whose father commits suicide after her mother runs off with a lover. Alone in the world, she is seduced, betrayed and sold to a brothel where she becomes a popular singer and dancer who makes Mitzi Gaynor look like a sleepwalker. She then plots her revenge against those who have done her wrong. The confrontation between Ninon Sevilla and Andrea Palma makes our tough gals look like pussycats. The movie's level of melodramatic intensity even surpasses the Italians. If you did see this, as Brian believes, you are not likely to have forgotten it. If you haven't, you should.

 

Buenas dias, mi amiga,

 

Bob"

 

Well...my boys sure know how to win this girl's heart.

 

*************

 

Bronxgirl writes: Maven, I'd lurve to read your complete write-up of A PLACE IN THE SUN; where's it at?

 

It was in my imagination, Bronxie. What I thought I wrote, I actually only thought.

 

I'd never heard of Monty's last film, THE DEFECTOR, so had to tune in, sleepy though I was...

 

I have an extremely vague memory of that movie when it came out, and I also have a very very faint memory of a small obituary of Montgomery Clift in the Daily News. I would love to go under hypnosis to see what my memory holds of hearing of Marilyn Monroe's passing. It was a big deal that I have no memory I can hold onto. In one of my family's home movies, we were at a penny arcade near the Loew's theatre on 125th Street and on the marquee: "CUBAN REBEL GIRLS." I always look at the marquee of movie theatres if they're shown in a film.

 

...the stolidly charismatic, blonde, German Hardy Kruger who I've never seen before but he definitely has international star quality...

 

Hardy was a cutie pie. (Cuter than Oskar Werner, but I should know better than to talk about any Oskars. The great homolkan is still haunts me). I remember Hardy in "THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX" which I saw in the movies. Everyone had very cracked lips from being in the desert...but even with cracked lips and little round spectacles I remember thinking Hardy was cute.

 

Miss Goddess writes: The movie is terrific at making you confront the very nasty feeling of wanting to sink poor Shelly into the middle of the lake so George can have his American Pie-Eyed dream. Every time I watch it I feel the same.

 

"American Pie-Eyed dream." Ha!! Cutely said. Oh how, HOW to know we're just good enough... until someone better comes along; this way we can get outta the way. George is a cad for not coming clean, but I shamefully do wish he could have gotten away with it. Imagine going to prison for your THOUGHTS...and circumstantial evidence. Ugh! Looks like George and Frank Chambers (in "THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE") paid very dearly for what was in their hearts.

 

I like the all the subtle ways George is treated as "different" by the money people.

 

Yes...and not so subtle.

[CineMaven]

Whew! You got that right. I was walking down Sixth Avenue in TriBeCa when people started pouring out of buildings, fire trucks were screaming down the street and I had no phone service.

 

One question re: George...was he actually even running away from Angela without any explanation? Without even a "by-your-leave?" D'ya think she would have run...gone on the lamb with him? Or was she not about to give up her creature comforts?

[JackFavell]

I immediately thought of this when I heard the name of the hurricane:

 

 

 

Gone with the Wind!

[rohanaka]

Kind of like that earthquake we just had

 

I only just heard about that this morning and this was the first time I have had to get online and check in. I hope you (and Miss Maven too) and any other of you folks out there are doing A-OK. Having lived in Alaska as a kid.. I have been in a few minor yet noticable "shake ups" myself and they DO get your attention.

 

Please everybody, take care!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

(ps.. Miss G.. hope your "boys" weren't too shaken up. Were you away when it happened? I bet they were huddled in their little kitty blankies and missing you for sure.)

[Bronxgirl48]

JACKIE -- "Woo-woo-woo-woo!" I just noticed in your clip that Barbara is shaking her head as Irene is whooping it up, lol. I missed that during my last viewing of the movie.

 

MAVEN -- I don't have hurricane shutters, but Mom does. Forecasts predict Florida won't get a direct hit, but I'm very converned about all you guys on the mid-Atlantic seaboard and the Northeast. Please take care. Get bottled water, batteries, tuna fish and crackers.

[Bronxgirl48]

I do hope it's not the end of the world.

 

[Bronxgirl48]

KONA COAST! Sublimely awful t.v. pilot masquerading as a movie! The great Richard Boone plays Sam "The Man" Moran, fishing boat captain, and he's p.o.'d! Get out of his way! Pipe the "cast", er, I mean, the guest stars -- Joan Blondell's (still her day, though you'd never know it, lol) character is called Kittibelle! Vera Miles is an old girlfriend. And -- get ready -- KENT SMITH! Cheesy late '60's action/psychedelia, "nostalgic" Hawaiian scenery, bad acting, could it get any better? Or more hilarious?

 

 

 

 

If you didn't see or record KONA COAST and need some laughs, take a look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by: Bronxgirl48 on Aug 25, 2011 7:01 AM

[MissGoddess]

Poor Richard, what would Paladin say?

 

I've always preferred Judy Garland's few forays into straight drama (no singing), especially *A Child is Waiting* which is on later today at 6:00 p.m. (EST). Judy has a role I could see, strangely enough, Marilyn Monroe playing. But then the actresses always reminded me of each other in the degree that their private demons seem to reveal themselves in their faces and expressions. Placing someone as fragile as Garland in the role of mediator for damaged kids is smart casting, too. Burt is appropriately quiet and doesn't try to take over. Strange movie, strangely affecting at times.

[Bronxgirl48]

I never knew Richard Boone had such a good pair of legs. He apparently lived in Hawaii at the time. Looks like they didn't have to spend for wardrobe, lol. Richard looks like he just walked out of his own house wearing the shorts.

 

A CHILD IS WAITING is unique. Haven't seen it in some time but I'll be watching tonight. I totally understand the Marilyn/Judy connection with the character. In their own pain and raw-nerve vulnerabilities, they can reach out to young people who are challenged by life on a very basic level. It's the movie that drove Cassavetes into independent filmmaking, as Burt was a frustrated director and wanted to take over! But their styles compliment the story beautifully -- Burt's controlled, strong/tender, tough-love personality/persona meshes well with John's improvisational, cinema verite sensibilities.

 

I'm always moved by Paul Stewart introducing his daughter to Steven Hill.

 

[MissGoddess]

> {quote:title=Bronxgirl48 wrote:}{quote}I never knew Richard Boone had such a good pair of legs. He apparently lived in Hawaii at the time. Looks like they didn't have to spend for wardrobe, lol. Richard looks like he just walked out of his own house wearing the shorts.

>

 

lol. Another thing he and I have in common, I'd love to move to Hawaii. Boone strikes me as a kind of Paul Gaugin type of the movies, ha, preferring to be a beachcomber over impressing suits in the front office or going on publicity tours.

 

> A CHILD IS WAITING is unique. Haven't seen it in some time but I'll be watching tonight. I totally understand the Marilyn/Judy connection with the character. In their own pain and raw-nerve vulnerabilities, they can reach out to young people who are challenged by life on a very basic level. It's the movie that drove Cassavetes into independent filmmaking, as Burt was a frustrated director and wanted to take over! But their styles compliment the story beautifully -- Burt's controlled, strong/tender, tough-love personality/persona meshes well with John's improvisational, cinema verite sensibilities.

>

 

Brilliantly descriptive! I do remember reading of the clashes behind the camera on this one.

 

> I'm always moved by Paul Stewart introducing his daughter to Steven Hill.

 

I don't remember that scene!

[movieman1957]

*lol. Another thing he and I have in common, I'd love to move to Hawaii.*

 

And I thought it was going to be that you had such a good pair of legs. (ok, I'll behave.)