I Just Watched...

[Allhallowsday]

...
This TV film was a somber drama called The Shadow Box, based on a Pulitzer and Tony award winning play, which initially aired on ABC in December of 1980. It could be best described as a series of vignettes and monologues involving reactions to life and mortality among three terminal cancer patients (bisexual bon vivant Christopher Plummer, quiet James Broderick, and angry and somewhat forgetful Sylvia Sidney) and their loved ones (Plummer's current male lover and his hard-living ex-wife, Joanne Woodward, Broderick's frantic wife, Valerie Harper, and son, and Sidney's long-suffering daughter and caretaker, Melinda Dillon). I was a bit surprised that the story ends before any of the patients passes away, but that maybe makes it even more unique. It is by its very nature stagy, but with the quality of the dialogue and acting level, it doesn't matter as much. The performances are all strong (what else could be expected with that cast?), but Melinda Dillon comes through with the most affecting performance, and the whole enterprise is sensitively directed by Paul Newman.

I haven't seen The Shadow Box, but what a wonderful cast!

[jamesjazzguitar]

I just watched Berkeley Square (1933). What a wonderful and romantic film. Leslie Howard gives a great performance (nominated for an Oscar).

I was also very impressed with Heather Angel. I wish TCM would show more of the films she was in, but many are early Fox or Paramount films.

The only film I know I have seen her in is The Last of the Mohicans (1936) with Randolph Scott.

[Allhallowsday]

SMILIN' THROUGH (1932) Wonderful romantic nonsense. Fabulous cast!

[jamesjazzguitar]

SMILIN' THROUGH (1932) Wonderful romantic nonsense. Fabulous cast!

Yea, another Leslie Howard film, with Norma Sheer and Fredric March.

[Masha]

I apologize that this is off-topic for this thread but I am very curious as to attitudes and beliefs of those here on this matter.

I have been watching: Picket Fences (1992–1996). Am I suffering a significant cultural disconnect or is this series totally bonkers?

[Intrepid37]

I apologize that this is off-topic for this thread but I am very curious as to attitudes and beliefs of those here on this matter.

I have been watching: Picket Fences (1992–1996). Am I suffering a significant cultural disconnect or is this series totally bonkers?

Wish I could be helpful on that - but I never saw it. Not a single episode.

[LostHorizons]

The Time Machine which is a mediocre movie. I never understood btw, why the old TCM message board named its special insider community the “movie morlocks” after the “morlocks” from this movie because the morlocks are both incredible evil and wicked but also the movie itself isn’t that great.

[Lomm]

I apologize that this is off-topic for this thread but I am very curious as to attitudes and beliefs of those here on this matter.

I have been watching: Picket Fences (1992–1996). Am I suffering a significant cultural disconnect or is this series totally bonkers?

I watched that show way back when it was airing, so I don't remember a lot of the details...but yes, it's bonkers. That much I do recall.

[CinemaInternational]

I apologize that this is off-topic for this thread but I am very curious as to attitudes and beliefs of those here on this matter.

I have been watching: Picket Fences (1992–1996). Am I suffering a significant cultural disconnect or is this series totally bonkers?

I saw about 48 episodes of Picket Fences. It is in many ways a deceptive show, because many of the regulars are grounded, relatable characters.... but what the guests bring in is usually nothing short of insanity: dead nude bodies in dishwashers, mummies in closets, human test tube babies carried to term by cows (which was particularly crazy and helped to cheapen poor Leigh Taylor-Young, who gave the show some of its best moments in season 2), freezer murders, polygamy cults, animal sacrifice groups, shoe fetishes, gun-toting Santas, etc.

The acting quality and the level of the dialogue helps a lot, and its not a bad show, but it is definitely bonkers, seemingly vying to be part of the early 90s TV dysfunction trio along with the dark-hued Twin Peaks and the cheerful Northern Exposure.

[Masha]

I apologize that this is off-topic for this thread but I am very curious as to attitudes and beliefs of those here on this matter.

I have been watching: Picket Fences (1992–1996). Am I suffering a significant cultural disconnect or is this series totally bonkers?

I saw about 48 episodes of Picket Fences. It is in many ways a deceptive show, because many of the regulars are grounded, relatable characters.... but what the guests bring in is usually nothing short of insanity: dead nude bodies in dishwashers, mummies in closets, human test tube babies carried to term by cows (which was particularly crazy and helped to cheapen poor Leigh Taylor-Young, who gave the show some of its best moments in season 2), freezer murders, polygamy cults, animal sacrifice groups, shoe fetishes, gun-toting Santas, etc.

The acting quality and the level of the dialogue helps a lot, and its not a bad show, but it is definitely bonkers, seemingly vying to be part of the early 90s TV dysfunction trio along with the dark-hued Twin Peaks and the cheerful Northern Exposure.

It seems to me a wee bit insidious in that it posits a plausible scenario to draw the viewer into believing that it will be a straight-forward situation which will have a clear-cut resolution and then it dismantles it into a thousand absurdities.

Tom Skerritt is a great lead and very easy on the eyes but I find myself identifying most with Ray Walston. I empathize with his having to chose between options which are equally just but are also equally disagreeable. The thing which I find most odd is that I can not disagree with his decisions even when they are not what I would have chosen.

I am deep into Season Two but have not yet reached all of the episodes you mentioned. Amazon Prime Video has all four seasons. It has become my go-to when I have time to watch television rather than merely having it on as background noise.

[Sepiatone]

What I remember best about Picket Fences was that no matter how old he got DABS GREER always seemed to find work. But as it increasingly got into half-azzed debates about theology I decided I'd had enough.


Sepiatone

[Cinemaspeak59]

I just watched Berkeley Square (1933). What a wonderful and romantic film. Leslie Howard gives a great performance (nominated for an Oscar).

I was also very impressed with Heather Angel. I wish TCM would show more of the films she was in, but many are early Fox or Paramount films.

The only film I know I have seen her in is The Last of the Mohicans (1936) with Randolph Scott.

A favorite of mine. Also works as a comedy of manners.

[Swithin]

I was also very impressed with Heather Angel. I wish TCM would show more of the films she was in, but many are early Fox or Paramount films.

The only film I know I have seen her in is The Last of the Mohicans (1936) with Randolph Scott.

I'm a fan of Ms. Angel as well. She's very good in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), a film of which I am very fond. She plays Rosa Bud.


Douglass Montgomery and Heather Angel in The Mystery of Edwin Drood

[jamesjazzguitar]

I was also very impressed with Heather Angel. I wish TCM would show more of the films she was in, but many are early Fox or Paramount films.

The only film I know I have seen her in is The Last of the Mohicans (1936) with Randolph Scott.

I'm a fan of Ms. Angel as well. She's very good in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), a film of which I am very fond. She plays Rosa Bud.


Douglass Montgomery and Heather Angel in The Mystery of Edwin Drood

This is a Universal film and as we know TCM doesn't feature that studio much expect for their horror films, so I have never seen it.

Relooking at her list of films, I have seen The Informer (1935), since this is an RKO films and thus one of the 3 studios in the original TCM library.

[Swithin]

I was also very impressed with Heather Angel. I wish TCM would show more of the films she was in, but many are early Fox or Paramount films.

The only film I know I have seen her in is The Last of the Mohicans (1936) with Randolph Scott.

I'm a fan of Ms. Angel as well. She's very good in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), a film of which I am very fond. She plays Rosa Bud.


Douglass Montgomery and Heather Angel in The Mystery of Edwin Drood

This is a Universal film and as we know TCM doesn't feature that studio much expect for their horror films, so I have never seen it.

Relooking at her list of films, I have seen The Informer (1935), since this is an RKO films and thus one of the 3 studios in the original TCM library.

You can find it on YouTube. It was directed by Stuart Walker, the same year he directed Werewolf of London, and features a few of the same actors: Valerie Hobson, Ethel Griffies, Zeffie Tilbury. John Balderston co-wrote the script. He wrote screenplays for many great films.