Sometimes you hear (contemporary) criticisms about Chaplin "milking a gag." I think that speaks more to a short attention span than to any offended sensibilities. That scene in The Great Dictator when the conspirators are waiting to see who has the pudding with the coin in it--that goes on...

The bigger the hair, the closer to God.

I feel that way about seeing Garbo's apartment building in NYC the next time I go there.

I love Charlie Chaplin, the memory of the man and his work. I wanted to be careful not to duplicate threads that might already be extant, so I checked around the board before starting this one. I found: • Chaplin coming this summer to the big screen. • Revelations about Chaplin's mother • Sydney Cha...

It's been a while since I saw Love in the Afternoon, but I do remember being really impressed by Chevalier's acting chops in that one. I think he grew a lot since his pre-code musical days. Or maybe it was the influence of Wilder (arguably Lubitsch's heir).

How's your health, CCF?

I thought this forum could use a little love. I had seen Shadow of the Vampire (2000) a long time ago, when my interest in film was still pretty cursory. And, although it was released in the year 2000, it's a historical picture, referring back to the making of the Nosferatu by FW Murnau in 1922. I r...

I know this is a really old post, but I have a story about The Barbarian that I thought was worth sharing--sort of a case study. A number of years ago, I was putting on my shoes to go to work and flipped on TCM to see what was on. It just happened to be the celebrated "bathing sequence." O...

I watched that one recently too, CCF. It's not bad, but it plays like a "programmer." Did you notice the nudes and other pictures of women on Spade's office walls? Hilarious! I must say too that Dwight Frye is pretty chilling in his role as Wilmer.

I watched Gene Kelly with Rita Hayworth recently in Cover Girl 1944 . Although made during the war, there was something about it that seemed to me to harken forward to other technicolor productions that came out post-war and into the fifties. Gene's character is abrasive, possessive and self-involve...

I agree about Zucco and Lucy. I don't think I've ever seen Zucco let his hair down...so to speak.

I completely agree with you Anne, and I usually separate the two (the performer and the part). But that Fred MacMurray performance just pressed a button in me that I still haven't been able to reset.

It's nice to be in such good company w/my new-found appreciation of Sir Cedric! He is now officially on my "Actors you watch, no matter what the film is about" list. And thanks for pointing me to that other thread, Moira. I read it from top to bottom with great delight. I do remember him a...

I was poking around the Mary Astor thread the other day and saw a lot of comments about the Ruth Chatterton part in Dodsworth. It seemed like she played it so well, it cost her a lot of affection. I just thought she was a hoot. That got me thinking of my own experience watching Fred MacMurray recent...

I have to give it up for Cedric Hardwicke. I have a copy of Stanley and Livingstone (1939) that I recorded but always seemed to pass over when it was "movie time." I guess I expected it to be a little too much Hollywood sanctimony from Zanuck et.al. for my taste. I expected Spencer Tracy (...

Wow, that's one pre-codey pre-code!