The September Schedule for TCM

[JackFavell]

Pert Kelton should have been in every movie ever made, she's delightful.

[Robert Regan]

Theresa, you are indeed a Smart Woman, and there are more than a few on this sight, n'est-ce pas?

I once met a niece of La Cava's who was delighted that I had heard of and seen films of his besides Stage Door and Godfrey. She said Gabriel was his favorite. Good movie, but not funny enough for me.

Wendy and Kingrat, Pert Kelton was very cute. I first saw her as the original Alice Kramden of the Honeymooners, one of several regular sketches that Jackie Gleason performed on Cavalcade of Stars. When she was replaced by Audrey Meadows, they said it was for health reasons, but apparently her husband was blacklisted, and she was a victim of guilt by association. Several years later, she played Alice's mother in one episode! Bless TCM for giving us this adorable young woman in her prime.

[CineMaven]

Theresa, you are indeed a Smart Woman, and there are more than a few on this sight, n'est-ce pas?

Oui, Bob. C'est vrai.

Well...let me check out this Pert Kelton that several have raved about...

[Robert Regan]

Theresa, checking out all the "cute gals" of the screen is the work or a lifetime or two. But by all means watch for Pert Kelton. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[JackFavell]

I'm coming back around to John Garfield today. It's been a few years since I really watched him closely, as a teen of course he was the perfect movie idol to express my dissatisfaction with my place in the world. Today, I see more in him, but still find the expression of that dissatisfaction, mistrust and hatred of prejudice very satisfying. Of course he's easy on the eyes too. His acting is deceptively simple, he really internalizes everything, every little slight, every perceived hypocrisy, and this I think is the secret to his lasting appeal. That sensitivity, the prickliness that belies a soft inner life, that's what I love about John Garfield. He's explosive, like Kirk Douglas, but with this sweet pushover center that I can't get enough of. Where Douglas is an outward actor, I think Garfield is basically an inward actor. I think his characters spent most of their time hiding that center, trying to look like they aren't pushovers. But we the audience know the truth. Garfield is a right guy.

[JackFavell]

Thanks! I am just eating his movies up with a spoon today. TCM inspired me!

There aren't very many actors of the thirties who really seemed like they were outsiders... Of course many were hit hard by the Depression, or were groomed to be the moral object lesson of the movies, but Garfield is a little different, he puts himself on the outskirts, due to his uncontrollable feelings of inferiority. Yes, there was Jimmy Cagney, and Bogart, who was coming up slowly. But Cagney and Bogie never really expressed the "behind the eight ball" kind of dissatisfaction with the world (or maybe actually with himself) that Garfield did at the start of the 40's.

That thwarted ambition, and his self reproach for screwing things up mark Garfield as someone new and maybe a little deeper, making it reasonable that he might be a boxer who could play the violin. He takes us to some pretty ugly places internally, which is refreshing, long before the method actors ripped their t-shirts in angst. That poverty stricken childhood, and those mercenary leanings lend his characters some needed spice and a heavy dose of reality. He's a complicated hero for those with too little money to be completely moral.

[JackFavell]

HA! I just realized that Ida Lupino in Out of the Fog is actually Barbara Stanwyck's younger self in Clash By Night.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Confidential Agent, I completely enjoyed it because of the performers but it was rather confusing, a little over long and Charles was such an inept spy it was quite funny. Lauren Bacall slated this movie and said she was slated but I couldn't look past her gorgeous hair and expressive eyebrows enough to find anything wrong with her performance, of course she doesn't really come across as English but Peter Lorre and Charles Boyer didn't pass for Spanish and when the action moved up to Lancashire my home territory I thought it was interesting. I loved Wanda Hendrix she was the best thing in it and her scene with Katrina who is also memorable. I wonder if the film makers were thinking that a teaming with Bogart and Bacall, was box office dynamite, let's team Lauren with a man of a similar age to Bogie but it just didn't work for me, the gap just looked too big. A fun movie though and my favourite Charles as good as ever.

[JackFavell]

I didn't mind the gap (sorry for the pun). The story was very random. Boyer's disorientation translated into my own disorientation.

[Robert Regan]

Alison, I agree that Wanda Hendrix stole Confidential Agent from the big names, a remarkable feat as it was her first movie. I first saw her when I was a wee lad in Miss Tatlock's Millions with Robert Stack, later to be her brother-in-law. Her films that remain strong in my memory are Song of Surrender, Prince of Foxes, and Ride the Pink Horse. Her career seems to have been adversely and unfairly affected by an ugly divorce after a very brief marriage to Audie Murphy; after all, it looks like he was the crazy one! Two other unfortunate marriages took a toll on her, and pneumonia at the early age of 52 ended it all for this fine actress who remains greatly underrated.

And let me add my praise to Kingrat's for Claude Chabrol's Story of Women. It's one of my favorites of his many films and one of Huppert's very best performances. It's not as grim as it may sound. Tragic yes, but not gloomy. It also features a fine supporting performance by Marie Trintignant, daughter of Jean-Louis. Her career and life were cut short when she was murdered by her boyfriend, a popular French rock star. Another Lost Woman.

[charliechaplinfan]

I could watch Chabrol's Story of Women again, it was very thought provoking, I had not connected the actress with Jean Louis or realised it was her that was murdered. Such a tragedy.