Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM
Posted: February 4th, 2014, 9:27 am
Good one, king. Love your new avatar, Nan."...he'd be convincing as a Hollywood studio executive"
https://www.silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/
https://www.silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/viewtopic.php?t=6490
Good one, king. Love your new avatar, Nan."...he'd be convincing as a Hollywood studio executive"
kingrat wrote:Bronxie, you didn't think I was going to miss The Best of Everything and Della, did you? Am still laughing about the Ramada Inn comment, and I love your comparison to "Rappacini's Daughter." As for Paul Burke, I'm voting for borderline creepy. Not my idea of a romantic lead, though he doesn't miss by much--but enough--and he's not a bad actor. Diane Baker was actually very good as the disturbed daughter in Della. This TV pilot is worth seeing for Diane, and the cinematography is really quite nice. The TV pilot elements and the diva-who-owns-the-town-and-has-a-secret story don't mesh together.
It's fun to see Diane naive in Rona Jaffe Land and then neurotic in Royal Bay, setting for the next hit TV series (well, that's what they hoped). And Robert Evans in The Best of Everything seems so sleazy he'd be convincing as a Hollywood studio executive.
Western Guy wrote:Actually Barb, I know Jan. But the Christmas cards came from both. Never got a chance to directly meet or talk to Mickey -- and likely won't now. I'll see if I can get my stepdaughter to scan the Jan/Mickey/Camel Christmas card and I'll try to post it. Sad, they look so happy together in that shot.
Hey, I live in Canada and when I mentioned I was writing a bio of George Raft, virtually no one knew who I was talking about. That's why SSO is so valuable.
JackFavell wrote:Don't you think Mr. Smith would be a better film without those cherubic kids getting driven off the roads and stuff? This is where I draw the line in the film. I LOVE Jean Arthur and Thomas Mitchell, Jean is easily the best part for me - she cracks me up, especially when she does her angry imitation of the senator's daughter. She's totally believable, and really quite pretty in this film, retaining her humor, but pulling off the serious parts perfectly. Jimmy does so well with all that serious aw shucks stuff, you never once feel he's phoning it in, he's sincere and I like him. I just can't bear the parts where the kids come in, somehow, they seem so overdone, overkill you know, so DIRECTED. I love Harry Carey, even though he has nothing to do except sit and look benign and bemused. I actually hate the ending, the dancing around... jeez, Claude Rains just tried to kill himself. The good guys are dancing a jig!
Compare that attempted suicide with Rains screaming his guilt to the quiet suicide of Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner. With anyone but Rains playing the part it would be laughable. He brings a certain crazy, off-his-rocker intensity to it that I almost buy (I especially like his waving his gun around in his hand and the people trying to subdue that wild hand), but it's filmed so corny. Sorry, I really like some of Capra... Yen, American Madness, Meet John Doe (where the goopy corny stuff is completely balanced by the darker parts), and Mr. Deeds. I used to completely love this one from start to almost the end. I love what it represented to a Fascist Europe. I love how brave it was about politics. I even love the performances here. But I don't like the hokum and how Capra really stacks the deck. The evil is just too evil, the good too good. I prefer John Doe where the evil is subterranean and quiet. Of course, one might say that Capra was just portraying Congress as it is....over-the-top evil.... and I'll say nothing to refute that...I'd have to be crazy in this day and age to argue that point.
From what I have read, actor Bradford Dillman and Parker had a good marriage, and the model turned actress took such painful drubbings from the critics in her first few films, I can see why private life's siren song might beckon so sweetly. From what I've read, the hurly-burly of the silver screen didn't mean that much to her. Btw, Ten North Frederick (1958) features an excellent Gary Cooper performance too. You can see the movie here:kingrat wrote:I agree about Suzy Parker, who looks like she should have had a big career. I've never seen TEN NORTH FREDERICK. Earlier in the studio era she would probably have become a big star.
It's a favorite of mine too, Masha! I think many of the once familiar foreign films from the '40s-'70s are completely unknown to many whose awareness of film was formed after such movies ceased to appear on broadcast television and in revival houses. With A Man and A Woman, I never saw it until about twenty years after its release, but you can sense how exciting, original, and affecting it was first released. There are many filmmakers who have imitated its editing, use of color and music, dreaminess, and longing, but no one ever quite matched the casting of Anouk Aimee or Jean-Louis Trintignant or the Claude Lelouch style. Francis Lai's wonderful music has been used for everything from car commercials to perfume ads, so I guess that is why so many people recognize that part of the movie.Masha wrote:This movie is one of my favorite of all time movies from France! It is perfection on all levels.moirafinnie wrote: A Man and A Woman (1966) is on TCM at 2:15am (ET)
I find it amazing that so many people have not heard of the movie but recognize in an instant the theme music.