I Just Watched...

[TikiSoo]

I agree with everyone's posts about CROSSING DELANCY. I only saw it for the first time recently, like the past year or two and found it charming.
And yes, this fabulous scene was dropped into the movie like a cannonball in a kiddie pool but for some reason clearly resonates-

Amy Irving is perfectly cast as Izzy in CROSSING DELANCEY. She doesn't look like a Hollywood starlet; she looks like that girl in your college English class who is both pretty and smart, and who quite plausibly would take a job on the fringes of the literary world where she deals with books and authors. At the same time, she can look radiantly beautiful. I wish TCM would show THE COMPETITION, another film that shows her to best advantage.

I first fell in love with Amy Irving in some After School Special and think she's just adorable. I love her wide set almond eyes, heart shaped face and the Kinky hair is so 70s-90s JewIngenue.

[Swithin]

I agree with everyone's posts about CROSSING DELANCY. I only saw it for the first time recently, like the past year or two and found it charming.
And yes, this fabulous scene was dropped into the movie like a cannonball in a kiddie pool but for some reason clearly resonates-

Amy Irving is perfectly cast as Izzy in CROSSING DELANCEY. She doesn't look like a Hollywood starlet; she looks like that girl in your college English class who is both pretty and smart, and who quite plausibly would take a job on the fringes of the literary world where she deals with books and authors. At the same time, she can look radiantly beautiful. I wish TCM would show THE COMPETITION, another film that shows her to best advantage.

I first fell in love with Amy Irving in some After School Special and think she's just adorable. I love her wide set almond eyes, heart shaped face and the Kinky hair is so 70s-90s JewIngenue.

I have to answer Kingrat's question about Paula Laurence, which I will do later, but, in looking at the cast for Crossing Delancey, I notice that there are other cast members whom I've met or worked with. I've worked with Amy Irving, David Hyde Pierce, and Rosemary Harris. I've met Sylvia Miles and Amy Wright. It's such a New York movie, so it's not surprising that I've had contact with a few of the actors.

[Allhallowsday]

In a way, CROSSING DELANCEY makes a nice follow-on to AN UNMARRIED WOMAN, which in its last half hour is the 1970s fantasy version. The wife gets out of her marriage, meets an artist (so much more fun than a stuffy old lawyer) and she Finds Herself and is Free and Fulfilled and presumably lives happily unmarried ever after. Or, as we progress to CROSSING DELANCEY and the greater realism of 1988, she has a small apartment, sleeps with a married man when his wife is out of town, has a poorly-paying job at a bookstore, pines for a celebrated novelist who is a jerk, and spends a lot of time alone.

Amy Irving is perfectly cast as Izzy in CROSSING DELANCEY. She doesn't look like a Hollywood starlet; she looks like that girl in your college English class who is both pretty and smart, and who quite plausibly would take a job on the fringes of the literary world where she deals with books and authors. At the same time, she can look radiantly beautiful. I wish TCM would show THE COMPETITION, another film that shows her to best advantage.

I love AN UNMARRIED WOMAN!
AMY IRVING is perfect as Isabelle.

[Allhallowsday]

...The women in the center of the photo is Paula Laurance, playing Diva and singing "Some Enchanted Evening." She was a dear friend. I miss her very much. (But I've never seen the movie!)
...

TCM shows it frequently. I can't imagine not seeing the film especially since you know participants!
My favorite is Bubbe... someone mentioned REIZL BOZYK for the Oscar? Damned straight.

[Swithin]

...The women in the center of the photo is Paula Laurance, playing Diva and singing "Some Enchanted Evening." She was a dear friend. I miss her very much. (But I've never seen the movie!)
...

TCM shows it frequently. I can't imagine not seeing the film especially since you know participants!
My favorite is Bubbe... someone mentioned REIZL BOZYK for the Oscar? Damned straight.

I'd like to see it for her. She was a star of the Yiddish theater but made few movies. Her husband Max Bozyk was a bit older and appeared in a few of the classic Yiddish movies of the 1930s, including Mamele, The Dybbuk, Yidl mitn Fidl, (with Molly Picon), and that ultimate tearjerker, A Brivele der Mamen.

[TikiSoo]

Last night I watched the first of double noirs recorded from TCM last month spotlighting fave Gloria Grahame directed by Fritz Lang, THE BIG HEAT '53. While I had seen this many years ago had forgotten most of it, so it was a fun rediscovery.

The direction was impeccable, the scenes were beautifully shot & edited to the actors best advantage. The acting was good and the dialogue was typical noir.
The story, rather complicated begins with a suicide of a Police Officer. The woman in the house's reaction upon finding the body is surprising- cold & unmoved she makes a phone call- but not to an ambulance/police!

Glen Ford plays a detective looking into the suicide and as he uncovers Mob connections receives a car bomb that mistakenly kills his wife. He is then taken off the case and goes on a personal search to find his wife's murderer.
It's a great unraveling of all the connections that led to these crimes involving both mobsters & of course, Police corruption.

But the stand out here is Gloria Grahame. She fleshes out what's really a small role & by doing so evokes personal tragedy we can empathise with. Graham's Debbie is a wholly innocent charactor, completely discounted by the men, but remains lighthearted despite their dirty dealings.

Her charactor is defined by the scene where meeting up with the "Big Boss" whom everyone is afraid of, Debbie converses about him personally, his daughter, his home life, treating his as a person. You are then all the more horrified when she is cruelly disfigured by her supposed bf. It's as shocking as Richard Widmark pushing the lady in the wheelchair down the stairs-

The end wraps up nicely, but the impact of the undeserved deaths & destruction are what stays with you. That mostly due Grahame's performance.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Three Secrets (1950) Youtube-6/10

A little boy needs to be rescued from a mountain after a plane crash kills his adoptive parents, three women who all gave up a baby for adoption years ago await to hear if the child was hers.

This was a Robert Wise directed film that i finally saw, now I have seen all of his films but one Two People (1973) which I cannot find anywhere.

I thought this was a pretty good tearjerker film, not one of Wise's best but watchable. We get to see the stories of each woman in flashback.

One (Eleanor Parker) had a fling with a soldier who was engaged to another. She is now is an loving marriage but cannot have any more children. She has a scene where she has to explain to her current husband about the baby. It is similar to a scene she has the next year in Detective Story where she also talks of a baby given away. The husband in this film (Leif Ericson) is a lot more understanding than Kirk Douglas in the later film.

Patricia Neal plays a hard nosed reporter who ends up divorced when her husband thinks she spends too much time on her job. Neal would reunite with Wise the next year with The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Ruth Roman plays a dancer who is convicted of manslaughter of the father of the baby when he refuses to acknowledge it.

The reveal of the mother was a surprise to me.

[CinemaInternational]

Time for some writeups.... Sorry that I haven't posted foe a few days. I was sick over the weekend, and only really recovered last night.

Bandits (2001) is another in the long line of Hollywood films where bank robbers are the "heroes" This new millennium take, which also includes a romantic triangle/ square element reminiscent of Paint Your Wagon. In other words, definitely not a film with upstanding characters. But Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett are all extremely likable here, and that helps paper over things to make this a decent film.

Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965) served as a theatrical pilot for the subsequent TV series Daktari, but it is a mostly likable film aimed at children with a vet working in Africa teaming up his daughter and a female researcher to attend to the afflicted lion of the title. It's mostly meant to be very cozy, and it is, outside of an ill-advised violent scene near the end. It's nothing major, but it has a distinct charm to it.

The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996) was an Oscar nominated film I avoided for years because I was vaguely uncomfortable with it being directly about pornography ... and having relented, I still feel troubled. It's not as though I'm a prude, after all, I thought Blue Velvet was a masterpiece. But there is something alarming about this movie's sheer celebration of pornography, seemingly minimizing or condescending to any complaints to it, seemingly fully endorsing its dehumanizing treatment of its female models without batting an eye. And that just seems kind of queasy. For what its worth, Woody Harrellson is good as an increasingly loony lead, Courtney Love and Edward Norton turn in exceptional work as his wife and lawyer, respectively, and Milos Forman directs smoothly, but this film just needed to be more tempered. Maybe I'm the wrong person for this.

Half a Sixpence (1967) was one of the costliest of all British made musicals, and it wasn't successful. Perhaps this was because it didn't have any really big names, or maybe because toothy Tommy Steele is an aquired taste (and a mite too old for his teenage/early 20s character). But the film itself is handsomely made, the music is likable, the dancing is winning, and its story of rags to riches to rags is absorbing. It's another one of those late 60s musicals that looks better and more charming with age.

Speechless (1994) feels like an artifict now from an earlier era. It's a battle of the sexes romantic comedy where the on/off lovers are chief speechwriters for opposing senate campaigns. Geena Davis is the Democrat, Michael Keaton is the Republican. It's all meant to be very breezy and regardless of which political party you allign with, the film has barbs for both (and a late development finds that both barely seen candidates are corrupt), so I am not sure if many would really like this today. But Davis and Keaton do have a very nice crackling chemistry, and Bonnie Bedilia is spot-on as Keaton's co-worker who just happens to be his ex-wife. The whole film might not stand up to scrutiny, but its very likable fun.


And now, a few notes on recent posts...

I have seen Crossing Delancey many times, as it is one of my father's favorites. It's a very nice little film, charming and very adeptly written. Reizl Bozyk shines as Amy Irving's grandmother.

Just about everything about American Beauty felt like a dirty cliche to me, and it is in such bad taste. I much prefer two other films of suburban dysfunction from around the same time, The Ice Storm and the low-budget indie Judy Berlin (which featured an extraordinary final performance from Madeline Kahn)

I never saw Le Corbeau, but there actually is a remake, done not too long after the original. It was 1951's The Thirteenth Letter, which reset the story in Quebec. That version was an Otto Preminger film for 20th Century Fox, starring Linda Darnell, Michael Rennie, and Charles Boyer. It's decent, with the atmosphere being the most memorable quality of the film.

Now, as to Criterion. Yes, their $30/$40 discs are extremely expensive (even though they have a half off sale every July at Barnes and Noble), but I will be eternally grateful to them for finally getting a home edition of Cluny Brown on the market, something Fox never did, not even on VHS...

But my big beef with Criterion is the effect it has had on film viewers born in the 80s/90s/early 2000s, maybe even later, and what films they will indeed watch from earlier years. For a film to get such a release from Criterion gives it an immediate cachet with these younger viewers, and if sonething isn't in the collection they do not deign to give it any attention or acknowledge it even exists. For them, Criterion offers the only classic films they will even want to see, and well, not all the films are up to par. (1998's Armageddon? Seriously?!?). Thus, someone who would be a contemporary of theirs chronologically like me, or Speedy, or Bagel, or someone else could try to go on another website and reccomend a non-Criterion classic until we were blue in the face, and the other people just would not budge. These youthful Criterion addicts are very reminiscent of the cinematic guerillas in John Waters' 2000 film Cecil B. Demented.

This type of Criterion worship has bled into film criticism as well, with disastrous results, culminating in last year's eye-rolling Sight and Sound critics poll saying that 1975's Jeanne Deilman (a nearly three and a half hour film about a prostitute who scrubs dishes, peels potatoes, mops floors, and performs other menial tasks until she snaps and kills a client after 200 minutes of household chore ennui) was the best movie in movie history. You read that correctly, and its Criterion standing helped it immensely. The "best" movie critics in the world found that anti-film as the best movie of all time. It's pomposity at its most lethal. Plus, Criterion also creates some skewed suggestions of the past by championing films that were not exactly warmly received on their first release (case in point, Spike Lee's no holds barred blackface satire Bamboozled, which offended many black audience members in 2000 now gets the luxury treatment, even though the film significantly set back Lee's career for close to 20 years)

As for other features of Criterion discs, they always do include those color tests, and I don't know why, they are hardly necessary. And those lengthy essays range from decent to awful. The one included on the release of Metropolitan is actually pretty good. But, they had two that were absolutely unbearable on 1986's True Stories, which were insults to that joyously quirky film.

[Lorna]

Three Secrets (1950) Youtube-6/10
This was a Robert Wise directed film that i finally saw, now I have seen all of his films but one Two People (1973) which I cannot find anywhere.
One (Eleanor Parker) had a fling with a soldier who was engaged to another. She is now is an loving marriage but cannot have any more children.
Patricia Neal plays a hard nosed reporter who ends up divorced when her husband thinks she spends too much time on her job. Neal would reunite with Wise the next year with The Day The Earth Stood Still.
.

ROBERT WISE and ELEANOR PARKER would also re-team for what was maybe the biggest film in either's career THE SOUND OF MUSIC.

[TikiSoo]

The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996) Maybe I'm the wrong person for this.

Count me in with ya. Beautifully stated explanation.

Half a Sixpence (1967) It's another one of those late 60s musicals that looks better and more charming with age.

Never heard of it-THANK YOU a musical is always needed, especially over dreary winter.

Just about everything about American Beauty felt like a dirty cliche to me, and it is in such bad taste. I much prefer two other films of suburban dysfunction from around the same time, The Ice Storm and the low-budget indie Judy Berlin (which featured an extraordinary final performance from Madeline Kahn)

Agree 100% about A. Beauty. I loved The Ice Storm, although for some reason a bit less with each viewing.

But my big beef with Criterion is the effect it has had on film viewers born in the 80s/90s/early 2000s, maybe even later, and what films they will indeed watch from earlier years. For them, Criterion offers the only classic films they will even want to see, and well, not all the films are up to par.

As for other features of Criterion discs, they always do include those color tests, and I don't know why, they are hardly necessary. And those lengthy essays range from decent to awful. The one included on the release of Metropolitan is actually pretty good. But, they had two that were absolutely unbearable on 1986's True Stories, which were insults to that joyously quirky film.

Thank you for articulating my thoughts, I could never pinpoint what bothered me about Criterion. They still fall farther to the positive side for me though, just getting these films preserved & available. I also like the new quirky cover art.

[Lorna]

I also like the new quirky cover art [on CRITERION DVDs].

oh yeah, absent from my beefs with CRITERION is the COVER ART, which is a real rabbit hole to go down on pinterest or google images. Trying to find the best is near impossible, you can only highlight your faves:

[Lorna]

you know,

i'm torn.

i have never seen CROSSING DELANCEY and, while all your remarks have me wanting to...I also kinda don't wanna spoil what fun it is to view this photo without knowing just what on earth the context of the scene is.

not a clue.

If I had to caption it, it would be: "MISS HAVISHAM TO ANITA BRYANT: "**** YOU AND **** YOUR ORANGES, NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF THE EAST VILLAGE!"[/b]

[Swithin]

Half a Sixpence (1967) was one of the costliest of all British made musicals, and it wasn't successful. Perhaps this was because it didn't have any really big names, or maybe because toothy Tommy Steele is an aquired taste (and a mite too old for his teenage/early 20s character). But the film itself is handsomely made, the music is likable, the dancing is winning, and its story of rags to riches to rags is absorbing. It's another one of those late 60s musicals that looks better and more charming with age.

I haven't seen the film of Half a Sixpence, but I like the score of the original show and have it on my phone. It was nominated for nine Tony Awards, though it didn't win any. (It was the year of Fiddler.) The musical (which is based on Kipps) had good runs in London and on Broadway. I'm unfamiliar with the film version.

Tommy Steele has been regarded as Britain's first rock-and-roll star. He was so popular, that he was seriously injured by "adoring" fans after a concert. That may be why he segued into a more sedate theater career.

"Tommy Steele was almost torn apart by young fans in amazing scenes at Dundee Caird Hall last night. He was mobbed and collapsed, unconscious. The scenes happened at 10.45pm. With two choruses to go in "Mabeline" a song written by Tommy himself, he let out an enthusiastic "Oh Yeah" and fans, mostly girls, who had been flooding down on to the stage from the capacity audience, took that as a signal for the end."

https://bygone.dundeecity.gov.uk/bygone ... index.html

[Lorna]

MY REPLIES IN RED- LHF

Speechless (1994) feels like an artifict now from an earlier era. It's a battle of the sexes romantic comedy where the on/off lovers are chief speechwriters for opposing senate campaigns. Geena Davis is the Democrat, Michael Keaton is the Republican. It's all meant to be very breezy and regardless of which political party you allign with, the film has barbs for both (and a late development finds that both barely seen candidates are corrupt), so I am not sure if many would really like this today. But Davis and Keaton do have a very nice crackling chemistry, and Bonnie Bedilia is spot-on as Keaton's co-worker who just happens to be his ex-wife. The whole film might not stand up to scrutiny, but its very likable fun.

ohmigah! I almost mentioned this back in the 1994/5 posts we were making, I saw this in the theater with a group over the holidays in December 1994 and was the only one who liked it, everyone else reaaaaally did not, so I never saw it again. it was a surprise flop, maybe the first in the downturn of GEENA DAVIS'S career, I remember thinking her hair was a little too severe in the part. it's wild that this was a reunion with MICHAEL KEATON after BEETLEJUICE. I still remember it only made $19 million at the box office, which is terrrrrible.

I never saw Le Corbeau, but there actually is a remake, done not too long after the original. It was 1951's The Thirteenth Letter, which reset the story in Quebec. That version was an Otto Preminger film for 20th Century Fox, starring Linda Darnell, Michael Rennie, and Charles Boyer. It's decent, with the atmosphere being the most memorable quality of the film.

I can see LINDA DARNELL being perfect for the part.

Now, as to Criterion. Yes, their $30/$40 discs are extremely expensive (even though they have a half off sale every July at Barnes and Noble), but I will be eternally grateful to them for finally getting a home edition of Cluny Brown on the market, something Fox never did, not even on VHS...

GOD I LOVE CLUNY BROWN!

But my big beef with Criterion is the effect it has had on film viewers born in the 80s/90s/early 2000s, maybe even later, and what films they will indeed watch from earlier years. For a film to get such a release from Criterion gives it an immediate cachet with these younger viewers, and if sonething isn't in the collection they do not deign to give it any attention or acknowledge it even exists. For them, Criterion offers the only classic films they will even want to see, and well, not all the films are up to par. (1998's Armageddon? Seriously?!?). Thus, someone who would be a contemporary of theirs chronologically like me, or Speedy, or Bagel, or someone else could try to go on another website and reccomend a non-Criterion classic until we were blue in the face, and the other people just would not budge. These youthful Criterion addicts are very reminiscent of the cinematic guerillas in John Waters' 2000 film Cecil B. Demented.

This type of Criterion worship has bled into film criticism as well, with disastrous results, culminating in last year's eye-rolling Sight and Sound critics poll saying that 1975's Jeanne Deilman (a nearly three and a half hour film about a prostitute who scrubs dishes, peels potatoes, mops floors, and performs other menial tasks until she snaps and kills a client after 200 minutes of household chore ennui) was the best movie in movie history. You read that correctly, and its Criterion standing helped it immensely. The "best" movie critics in the world found that anti-film as the best movie of all time. It's pomposity at its most lethal. Plus, Criterion also creates some skewed suggestions of the past by championing films that were not exactly warmly received on their first release (case in point, Spike Lee's no holds barred blackface satire Bamboozled, which offended many black audience members in 2000 now gets the luxury treatment, even though the film significantly set back Lee's career for close to 20 years)

As for other features of Criterion discs, they always do include those color tests, and I don't know why, they are hardly necessary. And those lengthy essays range from decent to awful. The one included on the release of Metropolitan is actually pretty good. But, they had two that were absolutely unbearable on 1986's True Stories, which were insults to that joyously quirky film.

AS TO ALL OF THIS,
YES!!!!!