The Silver Screen Oasis

I really enjoy being able to view some of my favorite films and original productions with the cable On Demand feature. Right now, the Robert Osborne interview with Alec Baldwin is available until 4-26.


This photo is in black and white, but the episode is in living color....

But the one feature I have to recommend is the Johnny Carson interview with Jonathan Winters. If you love to laugh, please select it right away. If you've had a bad day at work, your shoes don't fit right anymore, or your Rice Krispies were stale before they came out of the box this morning, this lively time capsule of Winters at his funniest shouldn't be missed.
It's also available until April 26.

I'm watching the ROBERT OSBORNE Screening - Right Now as I type this in and I appreciate this information very much Sue Sue and I was surprised to see this thread today. I will be looking at this a lot and hope to use this function more and cut down my DVR use considerably.

My Cable Company has it available until 4/21 and I better watch it now before it's expires ... This is great news!

Thank you, Erik.

Please take time to see Hobson's Choice if you haven't already.

John Mills, Brenda de Banzie, and Charles Laughton make this film so memorable for me. Laughton has a chance to do his personal interpretation of a character who would have been done justice by W.C. Fields decades earlier. HIs initial entrance galloping up a staircase as tipsy as can be is delightful. Laughton's famous "dance of the puddles" is also entertaining just watching him float through the scene with his own peccadillos hanging on his coattail.

John Mills' transformation from a shy cobbler to a savvy businessman because of his new wife's pluck, steadily enforced by a stellar performance elicited from Brenda de Banzie, often remembered for her ditzy portrayal of the social doyenne in The Pink Panther, is such a delight for me.


The play, a perennial hit on the London stage for 40 years and adapted for the screen by David Lean's keen eye for detail and characterization, is evocative of the London era at the turn of the century.

I agree about Brenda de Banzie and the quality of Hobson's Choice as an ideal vehicle for her talent as well as each of the players in this movie.

I can't help noting how over time, I have become more impressed with John Mills' ability and range--from down-to-earth sailor in In Which We Serve to naive Pip in Great Expectations to avenging convict in The Long Memory to shaky desert rat in Ice Cold in Alex to fragile martinet in Tunes of Glory--and Hobson's Choice's rather dim but earnest and hardworking cobbler as well as adventurous and clever paterfamilias in Swiss Family Robinson! And he steals each brief scene in which he appears as the detective in The End of the Affair. Just an astounding career.

The man was a walking definition of an ideal actor who could play almost anything well in leading and supporting parts.

moirafinnie wrote:I agree about Brenda de Banzie and the quality of Hobson's Choice as an ideal vehicle for her talent as well as each of the players in this movie.

I can't help noting how over time, I have become more impressed with John Mills' ability and range--from down-to-earth sailor in In Which We Serve to naive Pip in Great Expectations to avenging convict in The Long Memory to shaky desert rat in Ice Cold in Alex to fragile martinet in Tunes of Glory--and Hobson's Choice's rather dim but earnest and hardworking cobbler as well as adventurous and clever paterfamilias in Swiss Family Robinson! And he steals each brief scene in which he appears as the detective in The End of the Affair. Just an astounding career.

The man was a walking definition of an ideal actor who could play almost anything well in leading and supporting parts.

And he wasn't hard to look at either... Not "movie star gorgeous", but calm and sweet, and someone you would love to date, er, meet....

John Mills was adorably sweet, knitty and Moira, and I see glimmering moments of his Hobson's Choice character in the character he played in Ryan's Daughter. Just a sort of frisson, a light touch to that interpretation.

I most enjoy that Hobson's Choice is about transformation, love finding its own time, and belief in one's own destiny.

Gee, Ryan's Daughter is the one time I think that the role did not bring out Mills' best. It's probably just me, but I feel that way about the whole movie. Mitchum was good in an uncharacteristic part, as was most of the supporting cast and the visuals were great, but the drama--and the leads--did not win me over. Sorry.

So tell me, Christy, is Hobson's Choice on TCM on Demand in your cable system these days? It's not in mine, which is Time Warner. All we get lately are The Barefoot Contessa (1951) & something called The Haunted Palace (1963). I think that that service may vary all over the country.

Yes, Moira, right now I am able to revisit Hobson's Choice at my leisure until 5-28. Unfortunately, as has been discussed intermittently over at TCM City on Jake's thread, not everyone has the same choices at the same time.

I do feel, too, that Ryan's Daughter was not Mills' most enthralling role for me, so I certainly sympathize with your comments. But his range, like you've stated includes the father who can do anything in Swiss Family Robinson, Pip in Great Expectations, and many more. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to see The End of the Affair.

Plus through the years I've seen some of his work on different television series, a couple from the BBC. And don't forget Dundee and the Culhane. I don't remember much about this television series except that I liked him in it. This Happy Breed, War and Peace, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips are a few others that come to mind.

I didn't know that John Mills did much television work. Thanks for the heads up. I'll have to look for it in the future.

He had done several television miniseries, most of which were on the BBC I think.