Summer Under The Stars

[mrsl]

Well, Klonny:

No matter what you say, yours, among 4 or 5 others on this site, are the opinions I rarely disagree with. I may sound as if I am, but not really. More likely I'm adding my ideas to yours and theirs, because it's obvious most of you are more well read than I. I'm not trying to be humble here, just realistic. I know what I know, and I know you guys know more than I.

Anyway, during Marion's day, a movie was shown - The Three Sisters - I think was the name. I watched it all the way through and wondered that it had never been remade later during the latter 50's. I know there were remakes of Our Darling Daughters with Young at Heart, and the silly Three Daring Daughters, (can't recall the name, but it was with Jane Powell and Jeannette MacDonald), and the original had Deanna Durbin and Adolph Menjou. In any case it was a good movie, each sister married a different kind of guy, and the one you least expect to find anyone at all, makes the best marriage. I certainly would not want to see it done now because there is too much heart portrayed and there couldn't be anyone around to do it justice. I wondered however, if anyone else saw it that day and agrees or disagrees with me.

Anne

[Birdy]

Anne,
I did not see Three Sisters on Marion's Day; I recorded most of that day. Could it have been They Were Sisters 1945, which was shown on Sunday?
I didn't catch it. Was it cute?
B

[Birdy]

Alright, Chio, what is this Welles/Mankiewicz thing? Or do I really want to know.
I may lose sleep.
Birdy

[Birdy]

Did anyone enjoy some of Glenn Ford's day? I watched Framed 1947 and it was great. I didn't know if he was going to make it or not.
I also recorded Convicted 1950 but haven't watched it yet.
I caught a little of Gilda, but practically know it by heart, anyway.
I think it's one of the best dramas of the 40's.
Birdy

Could someone post a picture of Glenn for me?
Thanks in advance.

[The Ingenue]

Birdy,

I'm planning to enjoy the yield of Glenn Ford's day still. I wasn't able to sit down and watch the movies as they aired (though I did happen to glimpse TCM at the moment when Rita wakes Glenn with her strumming of "Put the Blame on Mame"--my favorite part of Gilda), but I taped Convicted Woman (1940), Mr. Soft Touch (1949), Framed and The Undercover Man (1949).

There are, as yet, no portraits of Glenn in my collection of vintage movie photos (are there any other collectors here at the SSO?), but I do have this smashing scene still from The Loves of Carmen (1948).


(View a larger version of this photo.)

I hope you like it!

[ChiO]

Birdy asked:

Alright, Chio, what is this Welles/Mankiewicz thing? Or do I really want to know.
I may lose sleep.

Short version ("In the form of a question, please.'): Who wrote CITIZEN KANE?

Welles and Mankiewicz both had a hand in it, but there are those who contend that CITIZEN KANE is primarily the result of Mankiewicz (we'll refer to those persons as "The Dark Side", purely for identification purposes) and those whose diligent research has established that Welles is primarily responsible ("The Forces of All That Is Good").

[Ollie]

I enjoyed just about all of these Under the Stars days. There's usually a film in there I'd never seen, which continues to fascinate me - "How do they keep finding these?" So many a great ones.

I finally watched all of MR. SOFT TOUCH and this was pretty decent. I'm still rather glad that last year's newbie-to-me Glenn Ford entry (TIME BOMB) remains as one of his worst. If only ALL actors could have 'worst films' of that calibre!

FRAMED does indeed take a big step up because of Janis Carter. There is a good discussion of her ability to change characters - waitress, femme fatale, and did she leave her robe in the bathroom on purpose?!! Holy Kathleen Turner, Batman... that would be ONE sneaky femme! But I really liked her stripped down, "I'm just plain ol' me" confessional in the safety-deposit room when Glenn Ford walks in on her. She really DOES out-Astor Mary in that scene.

My question goes to UNDERCOVER MAN. In THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, there's an episode where Deputy Barney has seen a Glenn Ford film the night before, and the next day he's in a rage over the lax bank security. So much so that he dons a woman's dress and proceeds to pretend he's the bank's cleaning lady, only to lock himself in the vault.

I've always wondered if 'that' Glenn Ford Motivational Film was UNDERCOVER MAN. Whatcha think?

[mrsl]

Birdy wrote:

"Anne,
I did not see Three Sisters on Marion's Day; I recorded most of that day. Could it have been They Were Sisters 1945, which was shown on Sunday?
I didn't catch it. Was it cute?"

That's why I said I wasn't sure of the name, what you printed is probably the correct name. It wasn't so cute so much as good drama. Two of the sisters were not very happy, but it ends on a really up-lifting note which wouldn't be possible nowadays, but back then was he way it was.

Anne

[Birdy]

CarrieLiz - THanks...and whew!

Chio - okay, thanks, I remember something about that authoring dispute but since I really don't like Citizen Kane, or Welles in general, I supposed I'd forgotten. It's so nice to be able to ask dumb questions here.

Ollie - I forgot about the Barney/Glenn Ford connection. I just saw that episode a month ago or so and I think it's one of the funniest. I'll have to watch Undercover soon and point it out to the fam. (See: Watching old movies does pay off because you understand obscure references on reruns!)

[jdb1]

Birdy asked:

Alright, Chio, what is this Welles/Mankiewicz thing? Or do I really want to know.
I may lose sleep.

Short version ("In the form of a question, please.'): Who wrote CITIZEN KANE?

Welles and Mankiewicz both had a hand in it, but there are those who contend that CITIZEN KANE is primarily the result of Mankiewicz (we'll refer to those persons as "The Dark Side", purely for identification purposes) and those whose diligent research has established that Welles is primarily responsible ("The Forces of All That Is Good").

ChiO - you forgot to ask John Houseman what he thought his contribution was. As I recall Houseman's memoirs, he considered himself, as "assistant to Mr. Welles," to be the mise-en-scene behind the mise-en-scene. Not to take away from the contributions of any of these three talented men, but I suppose everyone who worked on the production considered him/herself to be the key figure for some aspect of the film once it attained "legendary" status.

[ChiO]

I suppose everyone who worked on the production considered him/herself to be the key figure for some aspect of the film once it attained "legendary" status.

And certainly Welles considered Gregg Toland to be an, if not the most, important collaborator from the start.

(Edit to fix a misplaced comma.)

[jdb1]

Hey, all - some of the remaining movies this month are worth a reminder. Of course, there are a lot of good ones still to be seen for this month's SUTS, but I'd like to call these to your attention:

8/23 at 4 AM (really 8/24) - Season of Passion (1959), a/k/a Summer of the 17th Doll, a sort of working-class Australian Same Time, Next Year, but in melodrama. Very interesting, with Ernest Borgnine, Anne Baxter, John Mills and Angela Lansbury.

8/25 at 6:30 PM Berlin Express (1948), worth a look if you've never seen it - a low-budget The Third Man kind of thing, with Merle Oberson (who has very little to do or say) and Robert Ryan.

8/25 at 8 PM The excellent The Lodger (1944), which we've all probably seen, but why not see it again?

8/27 at 10 AM The Bigamist(1953), which stars and was directed by Ida Lupino.

8/30 at 1 AM Can't wait to see Too Many Husbands (1940) again. It's pretty darn naughty, and really funny.

8/30 at 4:30 AM Just a point of interest -- a Jean Arthur movie called Party Wire (1935) -- something about rumors and reputations. But how many people nowadays will know what a "party wire" is? Well, we still have it, but it's called Twitter now.

8/31 at 2 AM Clash of the Titans (1981). The usual silly Classical Greek mythology pastiche, but the Ray Harryhausen stop-action animations and effects are always fun to watch. And this one has Burgess Meredith and Laurence Olivier, as well as the Star of the Day Claire Bloom.

[Lzcutter]

Ark,

I'm Tivo'ing Bite the Bullet early tomorrow morning. I saw it on its original release and I think the last time I saw it on tv, the Z Channel was still around here in the City of Angels.

Looking forward to talking about it. Gene Hackman (as well as everyone else, with the exception of Jan-Michael Vincent, maybe as I recall) was very, very good.

[klondike]

(as well as everyone else, with the exception of Jan-Michael Vincent, maybe as I recall) was very, very good.

Sadly. no argument from me!
Poor Jan-Michael; I reckon it was hard to move on, after the title role in The World's Greatest Athlete!

[MissGoddess]

Looking over the remaining days of the August SUTS schedule, I'm most interested in a few films from
Mr. Madeleine Carroll tomorrow that I've never seen, some Ida Lupinos, some early Jean Arthurs,
recording Brothers Karamazov (I hope! If my recorder works!), a 1970 movie called Loving that sounds
like it will either be interesting or terrible and Sinatra day and seeing the Merle Oberon remake (finally!)
of One-Way Passage.