Today's topic

[JakeHolman]

After this day you shall see his chariots no more.

[JakeHolman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v31sXoATz5Y

There is no law in the arena. Many are killed. I hope to see you again.

[rover27]

"White Christmas" gets my vote. Beautiful.

[TopBilled]

Movies within movies

 

http://oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/movies-within-movies/

[Fedya]

I'd like to see Ants in Your Pants of 1938.

[Dargo]

Well of course, then there's always THIS:

 

(...but be warned..."it's vulgar")

 

[TopBilled]

Hollywood Christmas pictures

 

http://oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/hollywood-christmas-pictures/

[hamradio]

Movies within movies

 

I watched REBECCA yesterday morning, and as it had been a few years since my previous viewing, I had forgotten there was a part where the de Winters watch home movies they apparently made at the start of their marriage touring Europe. There were two scenes with them watching the movies, reliving the memories of their honeymoon.

 

In a similar vein, Norma Shearer watches a home movie she made while taking a vacation in the Caribbean at the beginning of THE WOMEN. It might have been Tahiti-- there were palm trees. She clowns on camera and back in a present-day scene, she laughs while watching it with her daughter (played by Virginia Weidler).

 

In MR. SKEFFINGTON, Fanny (played by Bette Davis) learns that her brother is still alive and has been flying in WWI, when she watches a newsreel in the comfort of her home with her husband and friends. I didn't realize they had newsreels in the late 1910s, but apparently they did. The point is that the Skeffingtons had a home theater and watched movies together.

 

Then, there's ADAM'S RIB, where the feuding couple remembers earlier, happier times watching home movies with guests one night at their home. Come to think of it, there are many classic films from the 1930s to the 1950s where we see movies within movies.

 

In the movie "Twister" (1996) people are watching "The Shining" at the drive in when the tornado struck.

 

[TopBilled]

 

[kingrat]

Two Weeks in Another Town shows a clip from Minnelli's earlier The Bad and the Beautiful.

 

A big scene in Douglas Sirk's The First Legion shows home movies from India while an important event is happening upstairs.

 

In Brief Encounter Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard go to the movies on their date, and they see Donald Duck and also an invented, very bad film called Flames of Passion. Movie dates are common in the movies.

 

Sunset Boulevard shows a clip from Queen Kelly, which starred Gloria Swanson.

 

 

[Dargo]

In the movie "Twister" (1996) people are watching "The Shining" at the drive in when the tornado struck.

 

 

Then how about this flick showing the future King of Cool to the rescue?!...

 

[hamradio]

 

 

 

In the film "Halloween" (1978) they are watching "Forbidden Planet" and "The Thing" on television. 

[TopBilled]

 

[Dargo]

In Robert Altman's THE PLAYER (1992), Tim Robbins meets Vincent D'Onofrio(who Robbins thinks has been sending him death threats) inside a Los Angeles revival movie house that is showing De Sica's THE BICYCLE THIEF.

 

(...aka: BICYCLE THIEVES)

[TopBilled]

Lucy's movie star encounters

 

http://oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/lucys-movie-star-encounters/

[Fedya]

Yes, I forgot about the talking picture clip in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. Which makes me wonder if there were some such clips at Warners of their executives demonstrating the new sound technology before they gave the go ahead to make THE JAZZ SINGER.

A year earlier, WB released Don Juan, the first movie with a synchronized soundtrack. In conjunction with that film, they released several shorts which had instrumentalists (such as violinist Efrem Zimbalist Sr.) performing; various singers, and one of Will Hays introducing synchronized sound:

 

[TopBilled]

Thanks Fedya, for the info. It is much appreciated!

[TopBilled]

Cars of the stars

 

http://oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/cars-of-the-stars/

[TopBilled]

Duplicate post deleted by TopBilled

[Dargo]

Loved the Lucy write-up here TB, but..ahem...I think you MIGHT wanna consider rephrasing this one sentence of yours here...

 

...All the way home, I kept admiring that knob in my hands.

 

LOL

 

Okay, and now that the "comedy portion" of my post is over with, I'll add that for many years Lucy owned this home in Sedona Arizona...

 

 

...and that it is now owned by one of the "Doublemint Twins" of the 1950s, Terrie Frankel...

 

 

[Arturo]

Lucy's movie star encounters

 

It all started with a November 1954 episode of I Love Lucy entitled Ricky's Movie Offer. Bandleader Ricky Ricardo (played by real-life bandleader Desi Arnaz) was on his way to Hollywood, and joining him was his trouble-prone wife Lucy (Lucille Ball) and their friends the Mertzes (played by Vivian Vance and William Frawley). The inspired story arc ran for the next thirty episodes, during the show's fourth and fifth seasons. American television would never be the same again, and neither would Ball's career.

 

One reason the California-based episodes worked so well on I Love Lucy was because the show's producers resorted to a lot of stunt casting-- and it worked, because ratings were better than ever. They brought in a bevy of top movie stars who usually played themselves. Several of the special guests had been former costars of Lucille Ball's during her own movie star days. There were ones she worked with at RKO (Harpo Marx from ROOM SERVICE); ones she worked with at MGM (Van Johnson from EASY TO WED); and some from her days at Columbia (William Holden from MISS GRANT TAKES RICHMOND).

 

Other guests were old friends the Arnazes they had worked with on radio like Hedda Hopper. Or they were celebrities that Lucy was eager to work with, because they were at the height of their popularity and would keep her series hot-- people like Rock Hudson or John Wayne. In the case of John Wayne, Lucy invited him back to make another appearance on her later sitcom The Lucy Show. Again the Duke played himself and again, he had the misfortune of crossing paths with Lucy (no matter what her last name was at the time) to the great enjoyment of fans.

 

So which one of Lucy's movie star encounters is your favorite? Mine is the one where she and Ethel try to get a grapefruit out of Richard Widmark's backyard. Years later, when I was in West Hollywood, I went with one of my girlfriends to Beverly Hills to find the home where Lucy once lived on Roxbury Drive. Just like that classic episode of I Love Lucy, we walked along the wall of her former estate (and incidentally, that is the wall they used to film the Widmark episode-- see the photos below). We rounded the corner to a back alley, and we found the gate wide open. We went up to the opening and looked into the backyard. There was a swimming pool and a guest house where Orson Welles once stayed (as you know, Orson also appeared with Lucy on her show).

 

A repairman was installing a new door on the guest house and he had opened the gate to bring the old door out and set it into the alley for pick up. I asked him if this really was where Lucille Ball once lived, and he said yes. There were no grapefruits around, and I asked if he could give us something he was throwing away, to keep as a souvenir. He seemed to understand and with a twinkle in his eye, he took the knob off the old door and handed it to us. All the way home, I kept admiring that knob in my hands. When I moved to Arizona a few months later, I made sure to pack it and take it with me. Doorknobs last longer than grapefruits anyway.

 

 

Lucy's movie star encounters

 

It all started with a November 1954 episode of I Love Lucy entitled Ricky's Movie Offer. Bandleader Ricky Ricardo (played by real-life bandleader Desi Arnaz) was on his way to Hollywood, and joining him was his trouble-prone wife Lucy (Lucille Ball) and their friends the Mertzes (played by Vivian Vance and William Frawley). The inspired story arc ran for the next thirty episodes, during the show's fourth and fifth seasons. American television would never be the same again, and neither would Ball's career.

 

One reason the California-based episodes worked so well on I Love Lucy was because the show's producers resorted to a lot of stunt casting-- and it worked, because ratings were better than ever. They brought in a bevy of top movie stars who usually played themselves. Several of the special guests had been former costars of Lucille Ball's during her own movie star days. There were ones she worked with at RKO (Harpo Marx from ROOM SERVICE); ones she worked with at MGM (Van Johnson from EASY TO WED); and some from her days at Columbia (William Holden from MISS GRANT TAKES RICHMOND).

 

Other guests were old friends the Arnazes they had worked with on radio like Hedda Hopper. Or they were celebrities that Lucy was eager to work with, because they were at the height of their popularity and would keep her series hot-- people like Rock Hudson or John Wayne. In the case of John Wayne, Lucy invited him back to make another appearance on her later sitcom The Lucy Show. Again the Duke played himself and again, he had the misfortune of crossing paths with Lucy (no matter what her last name was at the time) to the great enjoyment of fans.

 

So which one of Lucy's movie star encounters is your favorite? Mine is the one where she and Ethel try to get a grapefruit out of Richard Widmark's backyard. Years later, when I was in West Hollywood, I went with one of my girlfriends to Beverly Hills to find the home where Lucy once lived on Roxbury Drive. Just like that classic episode of I Love Lucy, we walked along the wall of her former estate (and incidentally, that is the wall they used to film the Widmark episode-- see the photos below). We rounded the corner to a back alley, and we found the gate wide open. We went up to the opening and looked into the backyard. There was a swimming pool and a guest house where Orson Welles once stayed (as you know, Orson also appeared with Lucy on her show).

 

A repairman was installing a new door on the guest house and he had opened the gate to bring the old door out and set it into the alley for pick up. I asked him if this really was where Lucille Ball once lived, and he said yes. There were no grapefruits around, and I asked if he could give us something he was throwing away, to keep as a souvenir. He seemed to understand and with a twinkle in his eye, he took the knob off the old door and handed it to us. All the way home, I kept admiring that knob in my hands. When I moved to Arizona a few months later, I made sure to pack it and take it with me. Doorknobs last longer than grapefruits anyway.

 

 

 

What has always baffled me about this period of "I Love Lucy" is tied in the episode you mention, involving Richard Widmark and his grapefruit. Later, when the gang is getting ready to return to New York, the grapefruit is brought up, along with an orange supposedly autographed by Robert Taylor at Farmer's Market. There is enough mention of it that I always wondered if it was a lost episode, or more likely, an episode that didn't actually get filmed for whatever reason. Anyway, the dialogue makes it seemed like Lucy accosted another star. This is more substantial than Fred's lip print of Lana Turner, mentioned in the same episode.

[TopBilled]

 

[DownGoesFrazier]

 

What has always baffled me about this period of "I Love Lucy" is tied in the episode you mention, involving Richard Widmark and his grapefruit. Later, when the gang is getting ready to return to New York, the grapefruit is brought up, along with an orange supposedly autographed by Robert Taylor at Farmer's Market. There is enough mention of it that I always wondered if it was a lost episode, or more likely, an episode that didn't actually get filmed for whatever reason. Anyway, the dialogue makes it seemed like Lucy accosted another star. This is more substantial than Fred's lip print of Lana Turner, mentioned in the same episode.

Wasn't there a famous episode involving William Holden?

[Im4movies2]

I guess I'm a little bit like Lucy when it comes to meeting celebrities. I have this ability to recognize them in public and my friends can't believe it. No, I don't go bonkers getting autographs I usually let them have their privacy. Of course if it is unavoidable I would say "Nice to see you--------" and often it is an acknowledged smile or nod.

[Arturo]

Wasn't there a famous episode involving William Holden?

 

Yes,.it was the first episode when they finally arrive in Hollywood after driving cross country ("Hollywood At.Last"?). Ricky has to go to MGM, so the others decide to go hunting for movie stars at their watering hole, The Brown Derby Restaurant. Walter Pidgeon and Ava Gardner, among others, are.paged. Lucy and Ethel can't figure out if there is a charicature of Judy Holliday or Shelley Winters, so Lucy asks the blonde in the next booth which of the two it is; she responds acidly, "Neither, it's Eve Arden"....it IS Eve Arden who answered. Later Wm. Holden sits in the next booth; Lucy cannot keep from staring snd peeking. Holden decides to turn the tables, and stares at.her while she tries to eat her spaghetti. She is so flustered she has to leave, and bumps into a waiter who tips a full sheet cske on Holden. Later, he comes to the hotel room with Ricky; Lucy attempts to disguise herself with a fake moldable nose.

 

It is hilarious, and is rightly considered a classic episode.