Robert Young movies

[Garth]

Does anyone know why they were showing Robert Young movies this morning? I woke up to watch TCM to find back to back movies of him.

[johnnyweekes70]

I don't know why they're on but I'm enjoying them. It's nice to see his mid-thirties quickies. I think he's so much more appealing in them than his later drippy "Father Knows Best" persona, of which the Shirley Temple film seems to be a forerunner of. I've also never had the opportunity to catch Miracles for Sale so that's also big plus, too.

[bollywood101]

Evidently a TCM-esque stream of consciousness thing.

 

Phantom of the Opera followed by

Phantom of Paris, starring John Gilbert, followed by

Fast Workers, starring John Gilbert and directed by Tod Browning, followed by

Miracles for Sale, starring Robert Young but directed by Tod Browning, followed by

Remember Last Night? (not part of the TCM library but leased from Uni), starring Robert Young (and directed by James Whale, also most notable as an auteur of horror), followed by a pair of Robert Young movies.

 

Not all that linear, but it works for me, and I have a tape of Remember to watch, having read an article on this in Sight and Sound about 30 years ago but my first chance ever to watch the movie.

[FredCDobbs]

This has been a busy day. I?ve been recording movies all night and morning. Now I?m recording one while I dub earlier ones over to DVD.

 

I agree with you about Robert Young being better in the ?30s movies than on his TV show.

 

In the movie on now, he?s just landed in Iraq. Hmm, it looks like Chatsworth to me.

[nsallieharding]

My DVD Recorder is getting ready for The Adventures of Tartu (1943) with Robert Donat. This is one of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios Ltd. films but the UK version is 111 minutes long and this one is 103 minutes so I wonder what has been cut out. No matter I will take what I can get and enjoy.

[neilelmhr]

He was the personification of the word "bland".

 

Personally, I always liked him--a nice guy, always affable, especially in lightweight roles. And he was impressive in a few "different" parts in films like NORTHWEST PASSAGE, WESTERN UNION and THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME.

 

But overall, he was usually just as bland as the role he played as the minister in Shirley Temple's ADVENTURE IN BALTIMORE or in one of the early Temple movies called STOWAWAY. Nice, but hardly memorable.

 

Neil

[johnnyweekes70]

You and I have both been busy, what with the Young films yesterday and Woody's stuff today. Unfortunately, I'm resigned to one-shot off-air DVD recordings and it's a pain when I don't cut it at the end properly!!

[johnnyweekes70]

I noticed all those connections as well but, in Canada, The Phantom of Paris got bumped in favour of Men Are Such Fools, with Priscilla Lane and Humphrey Bogart. How that fits in is beyond me, but I'm not complaining because Men Are Such Fools, along with Isle of Fury and The Big Shot, are the only Bogart Warner pictures I haven't yet seen, so one down, two to go.

[Guest]

What struck me watching The Longest Night was the cop was one of the Charlie Chans' I kept waiting for Number 1 son to show up.

[johnnyweekes70]

Sidney Toler appeared in a wide range of parts in many '30s films before being cast as Charlie Chan and it's par-for-the-course he isn't much recognized for his non-Chan work. That's the way it goes for actors who get stuck with a good part, especially something like Chan, though Basil Rathbone and Sean Connery both tried like hell to escape stereotyping. One of the best parts I've seen Toler play pre-Chan was in Roy Del Ruth's 1934 film Upperworld, with Warren William. He played a cop who figured out William's cover-up scheme (not to give anything really away) but nobody believed him. He was very good.