Saturday Night with Joan Crawford

[Lzcutter]

I'll be parked on my couch tomorrow night - I hope I'm not disappointed

Anne,

You and me both! It's five episodes over three weeks (two episodes, one episode, two episodes) but I plan on watching!

And then Game of Thorns. I love me some Sean Bean!

[klondike]

I'm revved big time about seeing "Game of Thrones" on HBO, too, Lynn, but in my case it's because I got hooked on the book when it first came out in early '96, and then followed it, with increasing pleasure, through its 3 sequels (or I guess I should say continuing novels, or installments, as it was planned to be a series ["The Song of Ice & Fire"] right from the get-go).
The only problem? The series' extremely talented author, Mr. George R. R. Martin, can't seem to assertively manage his personal life-schedule with any form of reliability, and the space between his novels has slipped from about two years, give or take, to 4.5 years between "A Storm of Swords" and "A Feast for Crows", and since then, we loyal followers have waited 5.5 years so far, and there is still no release in sight for the fifth & final volume: "A Dance of Dragons".
Even Stephen King doesn't keep his readers twisting in the wind that long!

[moira finnie]

You're so right that Wally was the guy Mildred should have married. Yes, he's coarse, vulgar, and not the best-looking one around, but when the guy started peeling potatoes on opening night, Mildred might have noticed that actions speak louder than words, and that Wally really is a diamond in the rough. Jack Carson adds little touches to every scene he's in.

Heck, yes! You're right. The peeling potatoes scene is one of the best. Another thing about Wally: he actually made Mildred smile, even when he was making an ill-timed pass.

Another thing about Mildred and her younger daughter, Kay. She never mourned for her--at least not on screen. The only time we hear her mentioned in passing is on the night that the restaurant opens and Monte, in one of his nicer, less smarmy moments, says "Didn't you have two daughters?" Also, do you think that Kay's death just as her parents were divorcing affected Veda--making her more reckless and making her even less likely to think about others than before? The only real companion Veda seemed to have, other than cradle-robbin' Monte and that poor sappy rich kid she bilked into marrying her was Kay, no?

RO mentioned that Joan considered This Woman Is Dangerous her worst film. What, she never saw Torch Song?

Or Trog?! Or The Story of Esther Costello (which I love)?

[klondike]

RO mentioned that Joan considered This Woman Is Dangerous her worst film. What, she never saw Torch Song?

Or Trog?! Or The Story of Esther Costello (which I love)?

Or (gulp) Berserk ?
[Which I'm still cringing over?]

[Lzcutter]

Holy cow!
*****************************************SPOILER***************************************************************

Mildred slept with Wally on the first date and in her push to give her children a better life than she had, she seems to have lain the seeds of Veda's narcissism and extreme selfishness.

And Guy Pearce can sure give Zach Scott a run for the money in being oily and decadent.

[mrsl]

.
Now that my tears are dry from Army Wives, I can comment on Mildred. Army Wives was a tribute to our fallen military.

Lynn:
.
For some reason I knew Guy Pearce would be good and that's odd because I think he could play nice guys just as well. I know the younger girl was Kay in the movie but in this they seemed to be calling her Ray - did you get which one it is?

This Wally is much more slimy than Jack Carson ever was, and I'm not sure I like that. I DO know I hated Veda by her second entrance on screen, and I will miss Kay (or Ray - whatever), because she was a mood breaker.

Personnally, I think this is going to be a really good series, and we will probably wish it would take longer. Did you know that on Showtime they are doing a series on the Borgias? That is another one that should be pretty interesting.
.

[Lzcutter]

For some reason I knew Guy Pearce would be good and that's odd because I think he could play nice guys just as well. I know the younger girl was Kay in the movie but in this they seemed to be calling her Ray - did you get which one it is?

Anne,

I knew Guy Pearce, too, would be good. I thought he might try to make Monte a bit less oily and more charming (while being oily) but he is delving into Zach Scott territory with complete abandon. I like how he looks a bit like Johnny Depp on a bender.

I think in the original book, the youngest daughter was named Ray but they changed it in the Crawford film because I'm sure that Jack Warner felt it was too masculine to call a girl by a boy's name. What would Veda say about that, "how provincial", no doubt.

And, yeah, I wanted to smack Veda about the same time. Though the final scene at the end of Part 2 seems to indicate that Mildred almost smothered Veda in her grief over the loss of Ray. Perhaps that leaves Veda feeling like Mildred always loved Ray more and gives Veda the impetus she needs to hate Mildred.

[mrsl]

.
I wish I had read the book a long time ago. It takes me so long to absorb anything I read nowadays that the series would be a fond memory by the second chapter. By that, I wonder what impression we received about the depth of feeling Mildred had for Ray in the book (Crawford was kind of lukewarm about her. In this series she is a good, loving mother to both girls, and unsure why Veda is the way she is, which is totally different from Crawfords version. In the series she is working just to make a decent living and do the best she can, but in the movie it was all precluded by dollar signs - the 'best' meant expensive instead of just as good as possible. From the trailer, it looks like the imaginary 'baby' is going to play a larger part than in the movie, especially since Veda already knows about her mothers 'embarrassing' employment. BTW you have such a beautifully rich way of describing how we both felt about Veda -- I laughed off my chair!

Well, on to Part III.
.

[moira finnie]

Ooh King,
Your intriguing account makes me want to view the recorded Goodbye My Fancy soon! I sort of like Frank Lovejoy (especially when he played commie hunters! and, of course, when he observed his former CO, Humphrey Bogart, teetering on the deep end In a Lonely Place). Despite the fact that he is emblazoned on memory as the ultimate Dad, I think Robert Young was a really interesting actor--at least for awhile in the forties, when he could escape MGM's stereotypical casting choices (Joe Smith, American, They Won't Believe Me, Crossfire, Journey for Margaret, The Enchanted Cottage, Crossfire among others). Unfortunately, my memory of Goodbye My Fancy is that his character maybe lost in blandness, no?

[mrsl]

.
Hhhmmmm, it's really hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea of a meal consisting of oven fried chicken and waffles, two distinctly opposite choices of food; one being a breakfast item and the other a dinner item, and how in the world could they ever come together. I even made it at home and ended up wraping the chicken for dinner later, and made more waffles to finish breakfast. Is this a favorite in a certain part of the U.S.?

First off, I feel Kate Winslet is doing a great job, and Guy Pearce is truly slimy and those (love?) sex scenes harbor very close to porn. Veda certainly learned early on how to use tears to manipulate. By the time a child is two, most parents have learned the tricks and how to avoid them, but apparently Mildred never caught on. I'm quite sure I have to read the book now to get the full impact of the story because there seems to be so much more on the written page than was offered in the original movie, or in this series which is hard to understand because it is a series, thereby giving it free rein to take the time to examine all facets of the author's intentions, unless Part III is a surprising wrap up. I don't understand the reason for Veda's aggression towards her mother:

1. She is portrayed as much more useful a person than in the original.
2. They live in a lovely neighborhood.
3. She receives everything she asked for.
4. In most cases she is treated as an adult - not good, but what most teens would love.

I'm also wondering if the murder will become a part of this series. There are only two parts left, so they have to build some anger against Guy from Veda pretty quickly.

I also have to say that "yes", you get more extremely upset over your boyfriend talking about your legs to your daughter than you do when she slaps you across the mouth. Hello Mom, slug her again!

There are a few more things botheringg me, but perhaps some of the rest of you have the same questions.
.

[moira finnie]

TCM has been showing several little-known Joan Crawford films recently. A Woman's Face (1941) is just as good as Moira and several other writers have said. One of Joan's best performances, and one of George Cukor's best films. Perhaps Moira will add a link to her outstanding Morlocks post on that film. Complex characters, noirish (or more accurately, expressionistic) lighting, thoughtful set design like the hallway mirrors, so much to enjoy. Cukor even gets some sex appeal out of Melvyn Douglas, and you have to love Donald Meek as a scummy little villain.

This movie was one of the best and least known during the lifetimes of Cukor, Crawford, and especially Conrad Veidt. I don't know if I ever find Melvyn Douglas in possession of sex appeal, but I loved him from Hud on as a great old man on film. He seemed to be working all those years as an actor, and his real skill and humanity emerged only when he was no longer young. Strangely moving to realize that about him. Here's the link you requested:
A Memorable Woman's Face

I also just saw another Crawford film, Today We Live (1933). Imagine a film directed by Howard Hawks that's as poky in pacing as if the director were Henry King. Imagine Gary Cooper being on screen and you're thinking, "Get rid of this guy and show us more of Robert Young and Franchot Tone." Story and dialogue by William Faulkner, no less.

I would watch this one only to see Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford at the absolute height of their youthful beauty, which is devastating. No offense to Mr. Faulkner, but I'd probably watch it again with the sound turned off. His. terse. dialogue. which I've read. he wrote. under. duress. like. this. for Hawks. was supposedly. a deliberate. parody of. Hemingway. with all the pauses. signifying the poetic. moments. of. the story.

It's just too much stiff upper lippy for me. Only Roscoe Karns seems to elude the script's staginess successfully. But doesn't he always?

[Gary J.]

Hawks claims MGM took the film away from him and re-cut it. Then he ran into more studio interference on VIVA VILLA (1934) and quit (or was fired), and made a point of never working for MGM again.

As for the film itself, it's everything that the posters above described, but I still find the film very affecting. Hawks and Faulkner had an affinity for each other (Hawks would continually hire the writer whenever he needed money) and it shows in the many scenes of male and female comradeship. There is a lot of British stiff-upper-lip vernacular performed by a cast of non-Anglo-Saxons, which can get silly at times, but the entire company performs in such a sincere level of underplaying that makes the entire production quite touching. This is the type of movie where a moral sense of what is right and self-sacrifice trump affairs of the hearts. Cooper and Crawford do have an instant attraction to each other (and, I might add, a believable screen attraction) but because of mitigating circumstances on both their parts it is never really acted upon until the final fade-out. There is never really any one-upmanship between the male leads as Cooper quickly comes to realize the value and worth of Young and Tone in Crawford's life and doesn't want to upset the equilibrium.

This is not a great film by any stretch of imagination but I wouldn't dismiss it as a potboiler - not with the level of talent involved.