I Just Watched...

[scsu1975]

Was that "Like" too quick? I read the Macy's ad, featuring their "Fruit Syrups" and assurances of quality, and enjoyed the quaintness of it all. I'll wait longer to "Like" next time.

I was just commenting on your alacrity.

[kingrat]

Well, keep an eye out for Between Two Worlds, pre-empted today, but it shows up regularly on TCM.

 

Lucy Gallant was fun, if not great cinematic art. Edith Head's fashion show was definitely worth seeing. Getting to see Thelma Ritter in an expensive evening gown was fun, too. Claire Trevor added a lot to the movie as "Lady Macbeth." They couldn't quite say she was a madam. Seeing the real governor of Texas was another plus. In a weird way, I could see Jane Wyman and Charlton Heston as a couple. Wyman is believable as a dedicated businesswoman, and yes, Heston as a male chauvinist is excellent casting.

 

I have to agree with Lorna that Magnificent Obsession is far from being Wyman's best work. The movie itself is way below All That Heaven Allows, but I have watched all or parts of it more times than I care to admit.

[scsu1975]

The Massacre (1912) youtube

 

Thirty-minute western flick from D. W. Griffith about cavalry vs Indians, with an uninteresting romance on the side.

 

Blanche Sweet chooses Charles West over Wilfred Lucas (probably because Lucas wears lousy duds), so Lucas goes off to become a scout for the army. A few years go by, and Lucas takes part in a raid on an Indian village. Meanwhile, Sweet and West join a wagon train, and eventually run into Lucas. The Indians decide to get even by attacking the wagon train.  Who will survive?

 

There are some good shots of the fighting. Although the camera is mainly stationary, there is one scene where the camera pans slightly, but maybe it’s because cameraman “Billy” Bitzer hiccupped.  As white men die, they throw their arms into the air, which only happens in silent films. One guy is actually picked up by an Indian and knifed several times, so that caught my attention. The most ridiculous scene is when the settlers are surrounded. In the background, you can see the Indians riding around in circles … away from their intended victims. The second most ridiculous scene is early on, when Sweet and West embrace … and West gets his hand caught in a bush. This was obviously not planned, since we see West swatting at the bush as the scene fades out.

 

Can someone explain why an Indian would throw a bearskin over himself while trying to sneak up on a white man? I mean, if the guy really think it’s a bear, isn’t he gonna blow its brains out anyway?

 

Lionel Barrymore is supposed to be in this, but I couldn't spot him … unless he was under the bearskin.

 

[Dargo]

The Massacre (1912) youtube

 

Thirty-minute western flick from D. W. Griffith about cavalry vs Indians, with an uninteresting romance on the side.

 

Blanche Sweet chooses Charles West over Wilfred Lucas (probably because Lucas wears lousy duds), so Lucas goes off to become a scout for the army.

....

 

Is it only me, or does this plotline sound similar to that '36 movie based on Tennyson's poem, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, and where a spurned Errol Flynn(unbelievably the odd man out after de Havilland picks Knowles over him) volunteers to be even more in harm's way?

[scsu1975]

Is it only me, or does this plotline sound similar to that '36 movie based on Tennyson's poem, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, and were a spurned Errol Flynn(unbelievably the odd man out after de Havilland picks Knowles over him) volunteers to be even more in harm's way?

I didn't get that impression.

[Dargo]

I didn't get that impression.

 

Oh, okay.

 

(...in that case Rich, were there at least any "empty horses" in that silent flick???)

 

[scsu1975]

Oh, okay.

 

(...in that case Rich, were there at least any "empty horses" in that silent flick???)

 

No, but while making the film, Griffith was known to have yelled at his actors "you guys think I know ef nothing."

[Dargo]

No, but while making the film, Griffith was known to have yelled at his actors "you guys think I know ef nothing."

 

But of course in Griffith's case, said without an Hungarian accent, I presume.

[LornaHansonForbes]

Jane Wyman is the big glaring fault in so many otherwise fine movies.  I always ask the same question about her -- Why?  She's stiff, one note, and almost never smiles.  I last saw her in,"Miracle in the Rain,"  with poor Van Johnson, who was desperately trying to emote enough personality and enthusiasm for two actors, because she seemed to be heavily sedated through the entire thing.  Finally, in the last scene, he proposes to her on the street before being shipped out and I thought, "Now!  She'll smile!"  She did, but it was a tight little close lipped simper and I just want to shake her.  Most boring actress ever.  Even her bangs are boring.

 

dang girl! don't hold back!

 

thank you for being the little Devil on my shoulder that has been playing it too nice with the angel on the other one of late, there is definitely a part of me that is simpatico on all things you say, however, two things weigh in Wyman's favor for me:

 

1. the interviews she did when she was older that run from time to time on TCM. She seems, honestly, like a fun broad, who if we managed to stay away from politics, I'd probably get along with great.

 

2. NIGHT AND DAY (1946) which sucks, and in which she does not have a lot of screen time, but she's very fun and genuine and likeable and seems decidedly less plasticine that she does in most everything else she did.

 

outside of that, yeah, i'm underwhelmed by most things i've seen her in- but i still say the genuine potential was there and that the right director didn't manage to bring it out.

 

ps- both Angel and Devil are of the same opinion as you in re: the bangs.

[kingrat]

Because I think Lorna and others will enjoy this: Boz Hadleigh's Hollywood Lesbians has interviews with various stars who evidently were believed to be lesbians. (Don't expect any big revelations. Some people have questioned how genuine the interviews were, too.)

 

However, Hadleigh had the inspiration of asking Judith Anderson who she thought the most masculine actress in Hollywood was. After deliciously and maliciously considering some other alternatives, the name Dame Judith came up with was: Jane Wyman.

[hamradio]

Funny in that there is no difference between "Scanners" (1981) and this past November's election.

 

HE won????

 

 

 

Other movies with head explosions, man how messy.

 

"Raider of The Lost Ark" (1981)

 

 

 

"Mars Attacks" (1996)

 

 

 

"Prometheus (2012)

 

 

 

 

Maybe TCM should pay tribute to those that go boom.

[cigarjoe]

White Sands (1992) Andy of Mayberry meets Marv and Jules

 

 

Deputy Sheriff  Ray Dolezal (Willem Dafoe) has a dead body and a half million dollars sitting at the edge of the Rio Grande Gorge in the New Mexico desert.

 

Willem Dafoe puts in a good performance but there is a lot of hesitation evident in which way the director wanted to go. M. Emmet Walsh's character is built up nicely then disappears entirely from the rest of the film, Dolezal's wife and son are treated likewise. Later two apparent lesbian goons assault Dolezal in a motel room then also are never really part of the film except as background. There are a lot of dead ends. Expectations are dangled in front of us but never followed through. White Sands, New Mexico, BTW, makes a very brief appearance in the last 5 minutes, what's up

with that? 

 

It probably would have worked better if it would stayed a bit simpler. The sum is not as good as it's parts, there was a good film in there someplace. 6.5/10 Full review in Film Noir/Gangster thread and with more screen caps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/01/white-sands-1992-andy-of-mayberry-meets.html

[Fedya]

The Baby (1973)

 

Anjanette Comer plays a social worker investigating the case of a mother (Ruth Roman) and her two adult daughters taking care of an adult son. Said son goes by the name "Baby", and can't walk or talk, sleeps in a crib, and wears diapers and short pants.

 

Comer comes to the conclusion that the three women deliberately did this to Baby, but why? And why is Comer taking such an extreme interest in the case?

 

A bizarre little movie with a lot of twists and turns. The plot is supposed to be one of horror, but the real horror is the elder daughter's hairstyles.

 

The Baby has flaws, but its bizarreness makes it a really interesting watch, and one that ultimately works precisely because it's so bizarre.

 

7/10

[AndreaDoria]

More Jane Wyman:  Well if Lorna's Angel is going to go outside the movies to Jane's funny interviews, my Devil will mention her treatment of her children.  Shortly after she divorced Ronald Reagan she shipped both children off to boarding schools.  Michael was about five and Maureen eleven.  It's probably just as well, because Michael says she used to whip him with her riding crop.  The least she could have done was keep them home to scrub floors like Joan did!

 

 

[RoyCronin]

From what I've read, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Fontaine (and there are probably others) didn't exactly have stellar maternal relationships with adopted children. 

[AndreaDoria]

From what I've read, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Fontaine (and there are probably others) didn't exactly have stellar maternal relationships with adopted children. 

There's "less than stellar,"  parents which I imagine many stars would be considered by today's standards, and then there's essentially giving them away at a tender age because they become inconvenient.   In any case, I've never subscribed to the rationalization that if you do something wrong, it's okay so long as you can find someone else who did the same thing.

[TomJH]

The Baby (1973)

 

Anjanette Comer plays a social worker investigating the case of a mother (Ruth Roman) and her two adult daughters taking care of an adult son. Said son goes by the name "Baby", and can't walk or talk, sleeps in a crib, and wears diapers and short pants.

 

Comer comes to the conclusion that the three women deliberately did this to Baby, but why? And why is Comer taking such an extreme interest in the case?

 

A bizarre little movie with a lot of twists and turns. The plot is supposed to be one of horror, but the real horror is the elder daughter's hairstyles.

 

The Baby has flaws, but its bizarreness makes it a really interesting watch, and one that ultimately works precisely because it's so bizarre.

 

7/10

 

Ruth Roman was of a certain middle age as an actress and, needing to put food in the table, was obviously slumming it when she appeared in this film. I doubt she was particularly happy about this assignment. However, I agree that the film does have an interest because of its bizarre nature. Perhaps one of the saving graces of The Baby is that it is never quite as exploitively sensationalistic as it might have been.

[hamradio]

"Avenged" (2013) a horror movie with a unique plot, a deaf mute woman is raped and killed then the spirit of an Indian chief takes over her body not only avenging her but the atrocities commit by the past generations of the perpetrators.

 

Got a little chuckle, I know duct tape can be a fix-all but putting back together the undead, well that's new.

 

Undead, falling apart, no problem.

 

 

 

 

Like to add, this movie is rated R, there is a new horror film "Rings" rated PG-13.  Please give me a break, a horror film with that rating is going to scare me??  Yeah, right - YAWN!

[film lover 293]

"Sweethearts" (1938)--Starring Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, and Frank Morgan.

 

Film is notable for being MGM's first Technicolor movie.  "Sweethearts" won cinematographers Oliver Marsh and Allan Davey special Oscars for their work with color film.  MacDonald looks gorgeous--black and white didn't do her justice.

 

The music is pleasant enough, but not memorable.  TCM's plot synopsis is incorrect.  The couple is Not bickering in the film--they are nauseatingly in love through the first hour, and Then break up for publicity purposes.

 

When MacDonald and Eddy aren't singing, film seems endless.  Not even the scenes with animals make this amusing.  Eddy is the one who brings off some sight gags--three of them.  Frank Morgan and the rest of the cast are stranded without any funny lines.  They just made me groan--and I'm an easy laugher.

 

Trivia I noticed--the opening operetta is on the same set that "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) used for the "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" number.  One of the opening credits: "Immortal Music by Victor Herbert".  There is a lengthy end credit explaining that the actors on the screen didn't write the 1913 operetta "Sweethearts".  MacDonald has a five minute fashion show and proves she looks good in any outfit, no matter how misguided.

 

If you see this, watch the first thirty minutes and the fashion show for the cinematographers playing with colors, then fast forward between songs.  Disappointingly bland and Long.  2.3/4.

[EricJ]

Like to add, this movie is rate R, there is a new horror film "Rings" rated PG-13.  Please give me a break, a horror film with that rating is going to scare me??  Yeah, right - YAWN!

 

 

Like the old joke goes, "Only 14-yo.'s hate PG-13 movies."

 

(As for Rings, the producers wanted to resurrect 00's Movies We Remember, and heard there were new Rings sequels in Japan, but...those turned out to be too loopy to remake in the post-VHS era--No, seriously, Japan's Sadako now leaps out of a cellphone?? 

So, they just did what they usually do, and make up their own tribute to the earlier films, pitching it to the younger "Now you can be alive to see it in theaters, too!" audiences.)

[film lover 293]

EricJ--You forgot older nostalgia buffs who remember the mistranslations of the 1960's Pepsi slogan "Come Alive With Pepsi".  Snopes.com says these mistranslations can't be proven or disproven.

 

In Germany, it was translated as: "Come Out of the Grave With Pepsi!"  (Thanks to GoogleBooks for this nugget of information.).

 

In China, mistranslations included: "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From The Dead!"  "Bring Dead Ancestors Back From Heaven With Pepsi!"  "Come Alive Out of the Grave With Pepsi!".  (According to keepmarketingfun.com and snopes.com).

[Hibi]

Because I think Lorna and others will enjoy this: Boz Hadleigh's Hollywood Lesbians has interviews with various stars who evidently were believed to be lesbians. (Don't expect any big revelations. Some people have questioned how genuine the interviews were, too.)

 

However, Hadleigh had the inspiration of asking Judith Anderson who she thought the most masculine actress in Hollywood was. After deliciously and maliciously considering some other alternatives, the name Dame Judith came up with was: Jane Wyman.

 

 

LMREO!!!!

[Fedya]

Because I think Lorna and others will enjoy this: Boz Hadleigh's Hollywood Lesbians has interviews with various stars who evidently were believed to be lesbians. (Don't expect any big revelations. Some people have questioned how genuine the interviews were, too.)

 

However, Hadleigh had the inspiration of asking Judith Anderson who she thought the most masculine actress in Hollywood was. After deliciously and maliciously considering some other alternatives, the name Dame Judith came up with was: Jane Wyman.

And Yosemite Sam was a butch lesbian trapped inside a man's body.

[LsDoorMat]

This weekend I watched a cable channel tribute to Mary Tyler Moore which involved showing the final season of the MTM Show, 1976-1977, and although I remember most of the episodes, one really took me aback. I remembered S7E19 "Mary and the Sexagenarian" where Mary dates Murray's stepdad who is 68 when here character is 37. What I didn't know because I wasn't into classic film at the time was that the older man was played by Lew Ayres who was exactly 68 at the time!  I didn't recognize him 40 years ago because I had no idea who he was.

 

The whole thing got kind of weird for me when I realized that if Mary really had been born in 1939, then Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare was old enough to have delivered her and given her naked behind its first spanking! Goofy mental imagery ensued.

 

In the end he dumps her for another 37 year old woman he had previously been dating, but he did it in that charming way Lew Ayres always had about him.

 

I did notice one thing the script got wrong. I think I noticed it when I saw the episode the first time too. Ayres' character is talking to an older friend of his about how they should not have voted for Hoover in 1928. But 20 year olds were not allowed to vote for president until the 1970s. Actually Herbert Hoover was not such a bad guy. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong economic theories. But that's another story.

[Dargo]

This weekend I watched a cable channel tribute to Mary Tyler Moore which involved showing the final season of the MTM Show, 1976-1977, and although I remember most of the episodes, one really took me aback. I remembered S7E19 "Mary and the Sexagenarian" where Mary dates Murray's stepdad who is 68 when here character is 37. What I didn't know because I wasn't into classic film at the time was that the older man was played by Lew Ayres who was exactly 68 at the time!  I didn't recognize him 40 years ago because I had no idea who he was.

 

The whole thing got kind of weird for me when I realized that if Mary really had been born in 1939, then Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare was old enough to have delivered her and given her naked behind its first spanking! Goofy mental imagery ensued.

 

In the end he dumps her for another 37 year old woman he had previously been dating, but he did it in that charming way Lew Ayres always had about him.

 

I did notice one thing the script got wrong. I think I noticed it when I saw the episode the first time too. Ayres' character is talking to an older friend of his about how they should not have voted for Hoover in 1928. But 20 year olds were not allowed to vote for president until the 1970s. Actually Herbert Hoover was not such a bad guy. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong economic theories. But that's another story.

 

Yeah, I do this sort'a thing too sometimes, calvinnme.

 

(...yep, they DO say doin' math in our heads is one way to keep those ol' brain synapses firin' on all eight cylinders as we grow older, ya know)