HITS & MISSES: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow on TCM

[kingrat]

Although My Fair Lady and The Informer would have been way down my list of possible additions to the National Film Registry (I appreciate their merits, but there are many, many films I consider more worthy), Thursday offers four films that seem especially worthy of note. Patterns is one of several interesting films from the 1950s that examine the costs of the business world; The Prowler is an interesting film noir that gets better and better in the last half hour as the characters escape to a ghost town; Act of Violence is even more satisfying on repeated viewing; and Dames has choreography that is wildly imaginative even by Busby Berkeley's standards. Some people try to be surrealists, but with Busby it just comes naturally.

[Bogie56]

Friday, December 14

3:30 p.m.  From Hell It Came (1957).  One of the better vengeful South Sea Island tree spirit films.

 

[scsu1975]

10 hours ago, Bogie56 said:

Friday, December 14

3:30 p.m.  From Hell It Came (1957).  One of the better vengeful South Sea Island tree spirit films.

 

[Bogie56]

Saturday, December 15

10 a.m.  Popeye: I Wanna Be a Lifeguard (1936).

 

8 p.m.  Trail of Robin Hood (1950).  With Roy Rogers.

 

[scsu1975]

5 hours ago, Bogie56 said:

Saturday, December 15

 

 

8 p.m.  Trail of Robin Hood (1950).  With Roy Rogers.

 

This one could be fun. It features a bevy of western stars going back to the silent era.

[LornaHansonForbes]

On 12/12/2018 at 6:34 PM, kingrat said:

Although My Fair Lady and The Informer would have been way down my list of possible additions to the National Film Registry (I appreciate their merits, but there are many, many films I consider more worthy),

huge huge huge fan of early JOHN FORD, but I have NEVER seen THE INFORMER.

 

[LornaHansonForbes]

At 8:00 pm (eastern) tonight- THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955)

I think I am the only person here who doesn't like this movie.

[scsu1975]

2 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

At 8:00 pm (eastern) tonight- THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955)

I think I am the only person here who doesn't like this movie.

What is it that you don't like?

[LawrenceA]

5 minutes ago, scsu1975 said:

What is it that you don't like?

Probably all of those ill-mannered youngsters disrespecting their elders. 

[Bogie56]

Sunday, December 16

Two brilliant films on in the wee hours.

midnight.  The Passion of Joan of Arc (1927).  By Carl Dreyer.

2 a.m.  Children of Paradise (1945).  Amazing Marcel Carne period film made during the occupation.

 

[LornaHansonForbes]

13 hours ago, scsu1975 said:

What is it that you don't like (about BLACKBOARD JUNGLE)

 

13 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

Probably all of those ill-mannered youngsters disrespecting their elders. 

Lawrence nailed it. 

If a bunch of 32-year-olds want to still be in high school, that’s their business. Glenn Ford has no right to pick on them for that.

[scsu1975]

1 hour ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

 

Lawrence nailed it. 

If a bunch of 32-year-olds want to still be in high school, that’s their business. Glenn Ford has no right to pick on them for that.

OK. I thought it was because you thought Vic Morrow was doing a bad impersonation of Rod Steiger.

[LornaHansonForbes]

24 minutes ago, scsu1975 said:

OK. I thought it was because you thought Vic Morrow was doing a bad impersonation of Rod Steiger.

The acting in general has something to do with it...

But it’s not a bad movie by any means, sometimes I just don’t like a movie and I can’t laundry list 8-10 definite reasons exactly why, I just *dont*

(I’m the same way with people.)

I should also note that one of my absolute favorite films of the 1950s is REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, So Lord knows I got NO room to criticize showboat acting and geriatric high school students in one film when I’m mostly ok  with them in another.

[LornaHansonForbes]

And I will totally give you that the Juxtaposition of the MGM lion roaring with the opening beat of ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK is a MAJOR film moment that honestly gives me chills.

[sewhite2000]

On 5/15/2015 at 9:23 PM, TomJH said:

This is for those familiar with SAN FRANCISCO, which just aired on TCM. My take on the film:

 

1. Spencer Tracy may have got an Oscar nomination for his role but this was Clark Gable's movie all the way.

 

2. Tracy's priest character turns into an irritating busy buddy, particularly in the scene in which he gives Gable that "you can't sell her immortal soul" business because Clark wants Jeannette to show off her legs while singing

 

3. The earthquake special effects are STILL outstanding, a great sequence

 

4. The final scene in which the production code demands that a repentant Gable kneel and pray to God is cringing to watch - everyone wants to see Gable as a bad boy, not see him turn into a choir boy

 

Any comments?

 

 

I agree with everything you say! Tracy as a priest is not my favorite Tracy. I just watched Boys Town again the other night. In the opening scene, the condemned prisoner asks the warden for a drink. The warden apparently keeps a flask under his jacket for just such purposes! And he's about to give it to him, when Tracy walks in and silently cluck-clucks the whole thing, and the warden tucks away the flask, and I'm like OH COME ON! The dude is going to THE CHAIR in 45 minutes! Let him have a belt, you sanctimonious blowhard!

[TomJH]

21 minutes ago, sewhite2000 said:

I agree with everything you say! Tracy as a priest is not my favorite Tracy. I just watched Boys Town again the other night. In the opening scene, the condemned prisoner asks the warden for a drink. The warden apparently keeps a flask under his jacket for just such purposes! And he's about to give it to him, when Tracy walks in and silently cluck-clucks the whole thing, and the warden tucks away the flask, and I'm like OH COME ON! The dude is going to THE CHAIR in 45 minutes! Let him have a belt, you sanctimonious blowhard!

Yeh, Tracy sure seemed to get on the Holy Joe Brigade once he switched studios from Fox to MGM, didn't he? I'm definitely less than enthralled whenever he played a priest. Well, at least we have his Captains Courageous performance to cherish. No sanctimonious stuff there.

Speaking of Boys Town, the only part of the film I enjoy is when Mickey Rooney is playing the tough brat in his early scenes. But once Rooney's character reforms (he turns "good," I suppose), in particular when he starts weeping (and weeping and weeping) after Pee Wee gets hit by a car, did you ever see just violent overacting by an actor?

 

[sewhite2000]

Love the scene where Tracy hints he might spend some of his shore leave with women, and Freddie Bartholomew is like, "Come on, Manuel, you're just kidding about all that girl stuff, right?", and Tracy kind of does a double take like "Are you kidding me?" until it dawns on him that the kid isn't into that yet, and so he claims that yeah, he was just kidding. 

That used to be the movie stereotype of boys, anyway, that they thought girls were yucky and gross and had cooties until they got to their teens. I don't know how much that corresponds to actual reality. I was falling in love with girls and totally tongue-tied and shy around them as early as age five or six.

[Swithin]

This lovely lady will grace our screens later this afternoon:

Ayllene Gibbons as Mrs. Joyboy in The Loved One, in a scene perhaps not quite as iconic as the eating scene from Tony Richardson's previous movie:

Joyce Redman in Tom Jones

 

 

 

[GordonCole]

On 12/14/2018 at 2:41 PM, LornaHansonForbes said:

At 8:00 pm (eastern) tonight- THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955)

I think I am the only person here who doesn't like this movie.

Apparently you don't know that Clare Booth Luce frequently posts here.

[LornaHansonForbes]

37 minutes ago, GordonCole said:

Apparently you don't know that Clare Booth Luce frequently posts here.

You made me go to google to figure that out, BUT it was worth the trip.

this is a link to an old radio show discussing CLARE BOOTHE LUCE's involvement in removing THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE from competition in THE VENICE INTL. FILM FESTIVAL:

https://www.wnyc.org/story/censure-of-the-film-blackboard-jungle-at-the-venice-film-festival/

[TomJH]

6 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:

Love the scene where Tracy hints he might spend some of his shore leave with women, and Freddie Bartholomew is like, "Come on, Manuel, you're just kidding about all that girl stuff, right?", and Tracy kind of does a double take like "Are you kidding me?" until it dawns on him that the kid isn't into that yet, and so he claims that yeah, he was just kidding. 

 

Yeh, that's a wonderful moment. The thing is marvelous as Tracy is in this film he's matched by Freddie Bartholomew who gives the performance of his career as the spoiled brat who grows up. The scene in which Harvey says he doesn't want to return to his father, initially baffling Manuel, until Barthlomew looks at Tracy with tears in his eyes and says, "I want to be with you, Manuel" never fails to put a lump in my throat. A once arrogant little boy, that arrogance long gone, now putting his heart on the line as he expresses his love for a crusty wise fisherman who has become a mentor-father figure to him. It's one of the most heart breaking expressions of love I have ever seen on the screen.

[Fedya]

8 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:

I agree with everything you say! Tracy as a priest is not my favorite Tracy.

I imagine him waking up in bed with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, naked as the day God made him except for the clerical collar around his neck.

[Bogie56]

Monday, December 17

10 a.m.  The Asphalt Jungle (1950).   Everyone is good in this John Huston heist film: Sam Jaffe, Marc Lawrence, Louis Calhern, Sterling Hayden and Marilyn Monroe!

 

[mr6666]

Anyone seen this......Comments??

-------------------------------------------

airs tonight......

10:00 PM (ET)

 

Little Women (1994)

Synopsis: With their father away at war, the March sister's make the best out of life in 19th-Century New England.
Dir: Gillian Armstrong Cast:  Winona Ryder , Susan Sarandon , Claire Danes .

"..... It is arguably the finest adaptation to date, with a beautifully calibrated sensitivity toward the essence and details of Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel, even as it injects a bit of modern feminism.... Over the years, it has stayed alive through annual holiday revivals and deservedly worked its way into the hearts of many fans as a family film of the purest sort--honest, buoyant and just sentimental enough to tap into anyone's nostalgia for the exuberances and even pangs of childhood."
 

TCM article: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/81605/Little-Women/articles.html

- BTW article wrong here: " Susan Sarandon plays Marmee, a role first made famous by Katharine Hepburn, ..."

Even I know Herburn played 'JO' 

[LawrenceA]

15 minutes ago, mr6666 said:

Anyone seen this......Comments??

I saw it in the theater when it came out and liked it quite a bit. I haven't seen it since, though, and don't know how well it holds up. I prefer it to the Hepburn or Taylor versions, but I wasn't thrilled with either of those, so it's faint praise. 

There's reportedly yet another version coming out next year or in 2020.