Thanks for posting about The Lost Moment, Ann and Feaito. Sounds VERY interesting!
Hubby and I went to see Frost/Nixon over the weekend. We both liked it a lot. Excellent performances all around! I am no Nixon fan, even though I was just a tyke when the Watergate scandal broke, but the film did show me more of the man underneath the caricature that I grew up with. Kudos to Frank Langella! Hope he wins the Oscar.
I try to see all five of the Best Picture nominees before the Oscar telecast each year. I liked The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, loved Slumdog Millionaire. I just need to see Milk and The Reader, now. Have to admit, as much as I love Kate Winslet, I may skip The Reader...looks like it will be pretty bleak. Has anyone seen it?
Sandy K
WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
Last night on TCM, the evening started with "The More the Merrier." I'd rank it right up there with "My Man Godfrey" and "You Can't Take it With You" as one of the funniest films from the "Classic Era" (1943 release). It has quickly become one of my very favorite films, and Jean Arthur was never better. I fell in love with her during the rooftop scene where she was sunning herself with Charles Coburn and Joel McCrea. She is my favorite actress and the paradigm I measure all other women by. Even Barbara Stanwyck falls a bit shy.
As always,
Hollis
As always,
Hollis
-
movieman1957
- Administrator
- Posts: 5522
- Joined: April 15th, 2007, 3:50 pm
- Location: MD
Well said. Jean is one of my faves. The fron porch scene is one if the sexiest in all film. It's a great film by a great cast. Too bad Stevens didn't really direct any more comedies. He certainly had a gift in that department.
If you haven't seen it get hold of "Easy Living." More Jean is good for the spirit.
If you haven't seen it get hold of "Easy Living." More Jean is good for the spirit.
Chris
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
-
sandykaypax
- Posts: 490
- Joined: April 14th, 2007, 3:15 pm
- Location: Beautiful Ohio
I have to agree with Chris--the front porch scene in The More the Merrier is HOT!
I love Jean Arthur, too. There is something so honest about her. I love her quirkiness, too.
Has anyone ever seen the remake, Walk, Don't Run starring Cary Grant in the Coburn role, Jim Hutton in the McCrea role, and Pamela Tiffin in the Arthur role? I watched it last summer and, while I enjoy Grant in ANYTHING, Hutton and Tiffin are poor replacements for McCrae and Arthur. Actually, Jim Hutton was appealing, but Tiffin...lovely face, not much else...
Sandy K
I love Jean Arthur, too. There is something so honest about her. I love her quirkiness, too.
Has anyone ever seen the remake, Walk, Don't Run starring Cary Grant in the Coburn role, Jim Hutton in the McCrea role, and Pamela Tiffin in the Arthur role? I watched it last summer and, while I enjoy Grant in ANYTHING, Hutton and Tiffin are poor replacements for McCrae and Arthur. Actually, Jim Hutton was appealing, but Tiffin...lovely face, not much else...
Sandy K
-
movieman1957
- Administrator
- Posts: 5522
- Joined: April 15th, 2007, 3:50 pm
- Location: MD
-
Ann Harding
- Posts: 1246
- Joined: January 11th, 2008, 11:03 am
- Location: Paris
- Contact:
Yesterday, thanks to Fernando, I saw Garson Kanin's A Man to Remember (1938). It was his first feature film as a director with a superb script written by Dalton Trumbo. The film is a remake of One Man's Journey (1933) with Lionel Barrymore. And for once, I have to say the remake is a lot better than the original. The script has been tighten up by Trumbo and he gave it a social message.
Dr Abbott is being burried in a small middle-west town. The attorney is opening the deceased's papers while three of his creditors (the 3 richest men of the town) are waiting to recover their money...
The film makes no bones about the idea of it is to be successful in a small town: to be rich. Dr. Abbott chose to cure all patients, especially the needy who couldn't pay him. He thinks very highly of his profession: he doesn't care about riches but he thinks truth and honesty are more important. During an epidemic of polio, he has to take matters into his hand when the rich and wealthy refuse to cancel the local fair as they are afraid to lose some money and customers. None of the actors are famous, but they all carry their parts excellently. It's a B-picture in terms of budget and in terms of quality, it's far above a lot of A-pictures!!!
Dr Abbott is being burried in a small middle-west town. The attorney is opening the deceased's papers while three of his creditors (the 3 richest men of the town) are waiting to recover their money...
The film makes no bones about the idea of it is to be successful in a small town: to be rich. Dr. Abbott chose to cure all patients, especially the needy who couldn't pay him. He thinks very highly of his profession: he doesn't care about riches but he thinks truth and honesty are more important. During an epidemic of polio, he has to take matters into his hand when the rich and wealthy refuse to cancel the local fair as they are afraid to lose some money and customers. None of the actors are famous, but they all carry their parts excellently. It's a B-picture in terms of budget and in terms of quality, it's far above a lot of A-pictures!!!
Count me as a huge Jean Arthur fan too. Jean, Stanywyck and Clara Bow are my very fave actresses.
I recently watched The Devil and Miss Jones and Jean and Charles Coburn were such a good duo. I love the scene where Jean is trying to knock Charles out by hitting him over the head with a shoe and she just can’t do it. Fortunately for her (but unfortunately for him) a box falls off the shelf and hits him knocking him out so she doesn’t have too. It reminded me of the scene in Easy Living (one of my faves of hers) where she is trying to bust her piggybank open with her shoe and she feels squeamish about it so she ties a tissue over the little piggies eyes so he won’t see it coming.
It’s been rumored that Sony is planning to release some of her Columbia films on dvd this year (read this at the Home Theater Forum in an interview with the home video head at Sony). With the faltering economy and sluggish dvd sales, I hope this will still happen.
I recently watched The Devil and Miss Jones and Jean and Charles Coburn were such a good duo. I love the scene where Jean is trying to knock Charles out by hitting him over the head with a shoe and she just can’t do it. Fortunately for her (but unfortunately for him) a box falls off the shelf and hits him knocking him out so she doesn’t have too. It reminded me of the scene in Easy Living (one of my faves of hers) where she is trying to bust her piggybank open with her shoe and she feels squeamish about it so she ties a tissue over the little piggies eyes so he won’t see it coming.
It’s been rumored that Sony is planning to release some of her Columbia films on dvd this year (read this at the Home Theater Forum in an interview with the home video head at Sony). With the faltering economy and sluggish dvd sales, I hope this will still happen.
“I never really thought of myself as an actor. But I’d learned to ride on my dad’s ranch and I could do some roping stunts and working as an extra was better than starving as an artist nobody wanted on the West Coast.” - Gary Cooper
-
movieman1957
- Administrator
- Posts: 5522
- Joined: April 15th, 2007, 3:50 pm
- Location: MD
Easy Living is one of my favorites of hers too. Oddly enough I don't find the automat scene as funny as I'm sure it is to everyone else. That little bit looks forced. For falling down I'll take the bathtub scene.
Last edited by movieman1957 on February 6th, 2009, 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Chris
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
I watched "Royal Wedding" on DVD. This must be the worst transfer to DVD that ever existed. It was muddy and made everything look underlit.
Anyway, the movie left me cold. I liked Keenan Wynn and the "I've Been a Liar All My Life" number, but everything else seemed tepid, like I had seen it done before (and better) in "Easter Parade."
I watched "Stage Door" with my son and daughter. I really like it. (I had seen it before.) Wow, what a cast.
what impresses me about "Stage Door" is that it isn't afraid to let us change our minds about the characters. We start out liking some and regarding others as ridiculous, then realize that there is more to them than what we first thought. The way the film mixes comedy and tragedy is breathtaking. A terrific job.
Anyway, the movie left me cold. I liked Keenan Wynn and the "I've Been a Liar All My Life" number, but everything else seemed tepid, like I had seen it done before (and better) in "Easter Parade."
I watched "Stage Door" with my son and daughter. I really like it. (I had seen it before.) Wow, what a cast.
what impresses me about "Stage Door" is that it isn't afraid to let us change our minds about the characters. We start out liking some and regarding others as ridiculous, then realize that there is more to them than what we first thought. The way the film mixes comedy and tragedy is breathtaking. A terrific job.
Casablanca is on as I write this, and even though it was among the first DVD's I ever purchased, I always watch it when it's on TCM. I wonder why that is? Maybe it's an affirmation of my taste and choice in movies. Ya think? "And when two lovers woo, they still say "I love you," on that you can rely. no matter what the future brings, as time goes by"
Musically, and as always,
Hollis
p,s, I know that the song was sung by Billie Holiday, but which came first ? The chicken or the egg?
Musically, and as always,
Hollis
p,s, I know that the song was sung by Billie Holiday, but which came first ? The chicken or the egg?
Hollis, this is my favorite song in the movies (probably my favorite song, period) I did a little research, and found this at http://www.wicn.org/song-week/as-time-goes-by-1931
History
The song "As Time Goes By" and the film Casablanca are inextricably intertwined; it is nearly impossible to think of one without the other. That wasn’t always so. "As Time Goes By" was written in 1931, eleven years before Casablanca debuted. That year the song appeared in a modestly successful Broadway play, Everybody’s Welcome, and crooner Rudy Vallee’s recording reached fifteenth place on the pop charts. After that, the song was virtually forgotten and its composer, Herman Hupfeld, moved on to other musicals. In the 1930s he was better known for his novelty song, "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba."
"As Time Goes By" wasn’t forgotten by Murray Burnett, a student at Cornell University in 1931 and future playwright-to-be, who purchased the Vallee recording and wore it out. In 1938, while vacationing on the French Rivera, he heard "As Time Goes By" played by a black pianist at a nightclub that was frequented by the French, Nazis and refugees, La Belle Aurora. Struck by the juxtaposition of the nightclub scene with the atmosphere of pre-war Europe, after returning home he co-wrote with Joan Alison a play entitled Everybody Comes to Rick’s. In the play, Rick Blaine, the hard-bitten and cynical bar owner of a nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco, helps an idealistic Czech resistance fighter, Victor Lazlo, escape from the Nazis with the woman Rick loves, Ilsa Lund.
Burnett was unsuccessful in getting the play produced on Broadway, and eventually sold it to Warner Brothers for $20,000. In 1942, producer Hal Wallis, with the assistance of several script writers, turned it into the screenplay for Casablanca. He hired Max Steiner to score the film; Steiner already had a notable reputation for his scores for King Kong and Gone with the Wind. Humphrey Bogart played Rick, his first role as the romantic lead, Ingrid Bergman played Ilsa, and Paul Henreid, who actually was a refugee from Nazified Europe, played Victor Lazlo. Sam, the piano player at Rick’s Café Americain, was played by Dooley Wilson. Wilson was a singer, actor and drummer, but not a piano player. Although he did his own singing in the film, his piano playing had to be dubbed. When the notoriety he received for his Casablanca role led to guest appearances later on, Wilson was surprised when he was expected to play the piano as well as sing. The role of Sam was the subject of one of the most famous misquotes in film history, "Play it again, Sam." That line appears no where in the film; the actual line, uttered by Rick to Sam, is, "If she can stand it, I can! Play it!" The closest any line in the film comes to that is delivered by Ilsa when she asks Sam to play the song, "Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By’."
In the script for the original play Burnett specified that when Ilsa first enters Rick’s bar, she asks the piano player to play "As Time Goes By". Burnett insisted that the song be retained in the film version, but Steiner wasn’t partial to it and wanted it replaced with one of his own compositions. The song was saved by a haircut. The film, including the scenes in which the song was played, already had been shot and Bergman had moved on to her next film, for which her hair had been cut very short. Wallis did not want to invest in a wig for Bergman and re-shoot the scenes to assuage his music director’s ego, so the song stayed. Steiner became reconciled to the song and used it as the leitmotif of the film.
Casablanca was one of dozens of anti-Nazi propaganda films that Hollywood produced during World War II. It had an international cast, many of whom had fled the Nazis. In addition to Paul Henreid, other cast members who were refugees included Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, S. Z. Sakall, Curt Bois and Marcel Dalio. Ironically, a number of them, including Conrad Veidt in the role of Major Strasser, had to play Nazis in the film. The film was rushed into release in late November of 1942 to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier and was not expected to be anything extraordinary. However, it was a solid success in its initial run and won three Academy Awards in 1943, including Best Picture.
"As Time Goes By" was not eligible for an Oscar because it had not been written specifically for the film. There is no evidence that Hupfeld was perturbed by his song’s ineligibility for an Oscar. He likely was ecstatic that a song he had written 12 years earlier was receiving so much attention. Because of the 1942-1943 American Federation of Musicians recording ban, Vallee’s 1931 recording was re-released, and reached first place on the Billboard charts in the spring of 1943, where it stayed for four weeks. It received frequent radio play and was on Your Hit Parade from February to May of 1943. Interestingly, in the film Wilson never sings the song all the way through. He did record a full version of the song after the recording ban was lifted in late 1943, but the timing of the recording caused it to not make a dent in the pop charts. The song’s verse was not used in the film and since then singers rarely have included it in recordings.
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny.
It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.
History
The song "As Time Goes By" and the film Casablanca are inextricably intertwined; it is nearly impossible to think of one without the other. That wasn’t always so. "As Time Goes By" was written in 1931, eleven years before Casablanca debuted. That year the song appeared in a modestly successful Broadway play, Everybody’s Welcome, and crooner Rudy Vallee’s recording reached fifteenth place on the pop charts. After that, the song was virtually forgotten and its composer, Herman Hupfeld, moved on to other musicals. In the 1930s he was better known for his novelty song, "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba."
"As Time Goes By" wasn’t forgotten by Murray Burnett, a student at Cornell University in 1931 and future playwright-to-be, who purchased the Vallee recording and wore it out. In 1938, while vacationing on the French Rivera, he heard "As Time Goes By" played by a black pianist at a nightclub that was frequented by the French, Nazis and refugees, La Belle Aurora. Struck by the juxtaposition of the nightclub scene with the atmosphere of pre-war Europe, after returning home he co-wrote with Joan Alison a play entitled Everybody Comes to Rick’s. In the play, Rick Blaine, the hard-bitten and cynical bar owner of a nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco, helps an idealistic Czech resistance fighter, Victor Lazlo, escape from the Nazis with the woman Rick loves, Ilsa Lund.
Burnett was unsuccessful in getting the play produced on Broadway, and eventually sold it to Warner Brothers for $20,000. In 1942, producer Hal Wallis, with the assistance of several script writers, turned it into the screenplay for Casablanca. He hired Max Steiner to score the film; Steiner already had a notable reputation for his scores for King Kong and Gone with the Wind. Humphrey Bogart played Rick, his first role as the romantic lead, Ingrid Bergman played Ilsa, and Paul Henreid, who actually was a refugee from Nazified Europe, played Victor Lazlo. Sam, the piano player at Rick’s Café Americain, was played by Dooley Wilson. Wilson was a singer, actor and drummer, but not a piano player. Although he did his own singing in the film, his piano playing had to be dubbed. When the notoriety he received for his Casablanca role led to guest appearances later on, Wilson was surprised when he was expected to play the piano as well as sing. The role of Sam was the subject of one of the most famous misquotes in film history, "Play it again, Sam." That line appears no where in the film; the actual line, uttered by Rick to Sam, is, "If she can stand it, I can! Play it!" The closest any line in the film comes to that is delivered by Ilsa when she asks Sam to play the song, "Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By’."
In the script for the original play Burnett specified that when Ilsa first enters Rick’s bar, she asks the piano player to play "As Time Goes By". Burnett insisted that the song be retained in the film version, but Steiner wasn’t partial to it and wanted it replaced with one of his own compositions. The song was saved by a haircut. The film, including the scenes in which the song was played, already had been shot and Bergman had moved on to her next film, for which her hair had been cut very short. Wallis did not want to invest in a wig for Bergman and re-shoot the scenes to assuage his music director’s ego, so the song stayed. Steiner became reconciled to the song and used it as the leitmotif of the film.
Casablanca was one of dozens of anti-Nazi propaganda films that Hollywood produced during World War II. It had an international cast, many of whom had fled the Nazis. In addition to Paul Henreid, other cast members who were refugees included Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, S. Z. Sakall, Curt Bois and Marcel Dalio. Ironically, a number of them, including Conrad Veidt in the role of Major Strasser, had to play Nazis in the film. The film was rushed into release in late November of 1942 to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier and was not expected to be anything extraordinary. However, it was a solid success in its initial run and won three Academy Awards in 1943, including Best Picture.
"As Time Goes By" was not eligible for an Oscar because it had not been written specifically for the film. There is no evidence that Hupfeld was perturbed by his song’s ineligibility for an Oscar. He likely was ecstatic that a song he had written 12 years earlier was receiving so much attention. Because of the 1942-1943 American Federation of Musicians recording ban, Vallee’s 1931 recording was re-released, and reached first place on the Billboard charts in the spring of 1943, where it stayed for four weeks. It received frequent radio play and was on Your Hit Parade from February to May of 1943. Interestingly, in the film Wilson never sings the song all the way through. He did record a full version of the song after the recording ban was lifted in late 1943, but the timing of the recording caused it to not make a dent in the pop charts. The song’s verse was not used in the film and since then singers rarely have included it in recordings.
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny.
It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.
Mike - I've Been A Liar truly is worthy watching the movie for - but I agree, the rest falls a little flat.
Knitty - Thanks for the great history lesson.
Thank you all for sharing these great titles, I've been keeping a list of things I'd like to look for that don't show up on TCM.
I rewatched The Rage of Paris with Danielle Darrieux and Doug Fairbanks, JR. I just love that film. I had purchased it, but do they ever show it on TCM? I wish everyone could enjoy it. Helen Broderick and Mischa Auer are a hoot.
B
Knitty - Thanks for the great history lesson.
Thank you all for sharing these great titles, I've been keeping a list of things I'd like to look for that don't show up on TCM.
I rewatched The Rage of Paris with Danielle Darrieux and Doug Fairbanks, JR. I just love that film. I had purchased it, but do they ever show it on TCM? I wish everyone could enjoy it. Helen Broderick and Mischa Auer are a hoot.
B