SPENCER TRACY - October, 2012 SOTM

[RedRiver]

Begley Sr. was on the Dick Van Dyke Show?

"That's right, your honor. Cheap, chopped chicken feathers!" Rob sues the maker of some pillows he was duped into buying.

I like PAT AND MIKE, and think all players are outstanding.

"Little Sheba" is a heartbreaking story of a family devastated by alcoholism. If you haven't seen it, this is a big time

********SPOILER*******

Do you think Doc will stay sober this time? Meaning, the end of the movie, after he's practically killed his wife. I see no reason to have such faith. He'll try. He'll regret. Will he change? Or will his wife suffer the fears and uncertainty for years to come? This play must have been harrowing at that time. Nowadays, it's cocaine, meth, what have you. Same disease. Different substance.

[moira finnie]

********SPOILER*******

Do you think Doc will stay sober this time? Meaning, the end of the movie, after he's practically killed his wife. I see no reason to have such faith. He'll try. He'll regret. Will he change? Or will his wife suffer the fears and uncertainty for years to come? This play must have been harrowing at that time. Nowadays, it's cocaine, meth, what have you. Same disease. Different substance.

I think Doc will struggle quietly all of his life with sobriety. His wife, who is in dire need of counseling/mood regulating meds that won't exist for decades to come, will continue to harry and fuss over his every breath and thought. If I were him, I'd buy her Sheba II, a goldfish, and a cat to focus her attention on something other than him.

Will they take in another boarder? Maybe, but I wouldn't think a co-ed would be a wise choice.

What do you think of Lancaster in this role? I always admired him for trying this and the character in The Rose Tatoo. Neither was a natural fit, but at least he tried. Jeez, imagine if Spencer Tracy had played Doc! It might have killed him emotionally, but holy cats, there was a great deal he could have brought to the role.

[RedRiver]

It's Burt's finest work, and that's saying a lot. An actor who often played brash, boisterous grand-standers, he slips on a coat of defeat and fragility, and it fits. Shirley Booth is every bit as good. This is some memorable screen acting. That dog! When Little Sheba ran away, all their hopes and dreams went with her. Or something like that. You'd have to be a William Inge scholar to figure that one out! A sad and beautiful play.

There was a TV play in the 1970's with Joanne Woodward fine as the wife. I don't recall who played Doc.

[moira finnie]

There was a TV play in the 1970's with Joanne Woodward fine as the wife. I don't recall who played Doc.

Laurence Olivier. Didn't see it, but maybe someone else did.

[RedRiver]

Duh...I forget Laurence Olivier!

[charliechaplinfan]

I haven't read the previous comments because I haven't seen Come Back Little Sheba, yet. But I will.

Apart from capatalising on the Tracy Hepburn partnership and being able to make another film together I don't know what Tracy was doing in Pat and Mike, I didn't believe in him. Are there really people like that? I love Guys and Dolls and I guess there aren't people like that. I don't know, it didn't grip me, apart from Kate's athletic prowess, I loved it when she got off the train. I think the promise of the story was a good one but it missed for me.

I told you I could crab with the best of them, I try to be honest about what I like and dislike and perhaps it's the combination of Tracy and Hepburn. Surprisingly though I really enjoyed Sea of Grass the one I didn't expect to like.

I'm rolling on now through Spence's biography. It's another case of a great talent and a tortured man, not always a nice man to all people but a very human man. For a man who found both a great strength by his religion but also tortured himself with it, he never really had anyone to share that oart of his life, apart from Loretta and her commitment to her faith is what made her part with him. Even with Curtis's great work, which this undoubtedly is, I can't help feeling that the man still remains somewhat of an enigma.

[Bronxgirl48]

I'm now dying to see the Ed Begley appearance on Dick Van Dyke. (maybe it's on YouTube)

This might be a frivolous concern, but I've never held high hopes for the longevity of Kay and Buckley's marriage in the two FATHERS. Maybe it's the mopey way Don Taylor plays him, I don't know. Buckley seems like a lamb to the slaughter at the ceremony when he should be beaming with love and pride at Liz. The poor guy looked like he wanted to be left alone in his Nova Scotia cabin with the fish. And why would he think that place would be romantic for a honeymoon? Wouldn't the South of France have been the better and wiser choice? Surely his father would have footed the bill for two weeks in Provence.

[moira finnie]

I'm now dying to see the Ed Begley appearance on Dick Van Dyke. (maybe it's on YouTube)

"The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Case of the Pillow" is on Hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/114039

This might be a frivolous concern, but I've never held high hopes for the longevity of Kay and Buckley's marriage in the two FATHERS. Maybe it's the mopey way Don Taylor plays him, I don't know. Buckley seems like a lamb to the slaughter at the ceremony when he should be beaming with love and pride at Liz. The poor guy looked like he wanted to be left alone in the Nova Scotia cabin with the fish. And why would he think that place would be romantic for a honeymoon? Wouldn't the South of France have been the better and wiser choice? Surely his father would have footed the bill for two weeks in Provence.

Don Taylor! Mopey? Wasn't that his stock-in-trade? Next to Van Johnson in his bobby-sox years, Taylor moped better than almost anyone (except maybe John Kerr). It did seem strange that this prematurely middle-aged twenty-something wasn't very enthused about getting hitched to a very nubile Elizabeth Taylor, but his future relations with his father-in-law seem to have more of his attention. After the inevitable divorce from this girl (which would come in the '60s after his wife read "The Feminine Mystique"), Buckley Dunstan would be a lost soul who would undoubtedly "accidentally run into" Stanley Banks from time to time. The two of them would retire to the nearest watering hole to reminisce about all the time and money they wasted trying to appease the women in their lives. No moping in that pursuit, just fact.

I wonder if this kind of thankless role is what drove Taylor into directing?

I don't know how a man could mope when he starred in movies like The Girls of Pleasure Island (1953) and Love Slaves of the Amazons (1957).

[Bronxgirl48]

moira, thank you SO much for the Begley Hulu link!! If the hurricane-nor'easter doesn't whisk me away, I'll watch it tomorrow.

John Kerr and Van mopers, lol, how true...Buckley was probably secretly in love with Ellie. I think he was a mama's boy (although the lovely Billie Burke looked like his grandmother) but fought against it, yet in the end couldn't control the attraction to women of a certain age. He marries Liz to be near Joan -- LOLITA in reverse. When Stanley finds out, he calls Rip Torn to take care of the problem. Kay runs away and gets involved with yet another Taylor, Robert, who turns out to be a psycho.

The first movie I saw Don Taylor in was STALAG 17, looking so preppily handsome in his bomber jacket. I'm not too sure how mopey he was there, but I can hear him whining in I'LL CRY TOMORROW as the straight-arrow guy who Susan Hayward wakes up next to after a night of hard mambo-ing. He reminds her that they're now married, because she doesn't remember anything. "And I wanted Mama to leave me alone..."

Now I want to see THE GIRLS OF PLEASURE ISLAND and especially LOVE SLAVES OF THE AMAZONS (Siodmak plus Eduardo Ciannelli!), lol. Don did some, um, "interesting" directorial work, including if I remember correctly the horrendous EVERYTHING'S DUCKY. And I believe there's an OMEN sequel somewhere on his resume.

[Bronxgirl48]

Thanks to moira I just saw The Case of the Pillow and can join along with Mike: CHEAP, CHOPPED CHICKEN FEATHERS! Hahahahahahahaha!

Dick can't keep a straight face when he delivers that line, and Mary starts breaking up, too. I wonder how many takes they needed!

What a great episode, can't believe I never saw it before. This may be the only time I've ever felt sorry for an Ed Begley character, lol.

[charliechaplinfan]

I love the synopsis of what happened in the Bank's family. Is there another film after Father's Little Dividend? I know Spence didn't make anymore but was it developed into a TV show with different stars? I agree about Ellie, I thought she was lovely.

Has anyone seen Old Man and The Sea? The story of the filming and Hemingway's story itself makes it interesting to me.

[movieman1957]

I saw "The Old Man and The Sea" years ago. It's slow. A lot of time with Tracy in his boat fighting a shark. I don't remember it being terrible interesting.

[MissGoddess]

what is it about the word "chicken" or the sight of a plucked one that automatically makes so many of us laugh?

[movieman1957]

"Is that another chicken joke?" Jo Anne Worley - "Laugh-in."

Someday I may have something important to say.

[MissGoddess]

didn't Groucho have a flying rubber chicken on his show? or was it a rubber duckie?

from spencer tracy and serious acting to rubber chickens, what a trajectory!