Only in the movies...

Discussion of programming on TCM.
benwhowell
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Post by benwhowell »

More pre-code "bounce-"Clara Bow (sans bra) in "Call Her Savage."
jdb1

Re: Only in the movies....

Post by jdb1 »

Moraldo Rubini wrote:... is one small suitcase is sufficient to carry several ensembles (including a ball gown and evening wear).

... venetian blinds will emit light to the eyes while allowing shadows to caress the jawline (or lack thereof).
Not only is one small suitcase enough, but when it's being carried, it's always effortlessly; the luggage (or handbag, for that matter) is always so obviously empty.

There's that other phenomenon of light in movies: one small light or candle instantly illuminates an entire room.
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Post by SSO Admins »

benwhowell wrote:More pre-code "bounce-"Clara Bow (sans bra) in "Call Her Savage."
Ooooohhh. This is really worthy of its own topic.
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movieman1957
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Post by movieman1957 »

1938 bounce -

Jean Arthur bounding down the stairs in "You Can't Take It With You." Short but sweet.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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sugarpuss
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Post by sugarpuss »

Only in the movies - can a man propose marriage two seconds after meeting the leading lady--and she accepts, willingly!

Only in the movies-- can women cry a flood of tears and not resemble a raccoon afterwards.

Only in the movies--can a dying paitient in a hospital bed look absoutely and totally ravishing. I mean, absoutely perfect. A dying person looks better than a normal person on their best days!
"Some of the best parts of life are frivolous." - Arthur Kennedy in A Summer Place
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The Roadshow Version: A Modern Take on Classic Movies
jdb1

Post by jdb1 »

and only in the movies --

do gangsters, cab/truck drivers, soldiers/sailors/marines, etc. never utter four-letter words;

are participants in bar fights able to break furniture and bottles so easily over the heads of their opponents, and sometimes the opponents don't even pass out;

and in other circumstances a single blow, shot or knifewound causes instant death;

can people sign documents legibly with just a quick pass of the pen, without even looking;

does it rain torrents while the sun is still shining in the background, and where even outdoors in the dark of night there are shadows on the ground.

are major roles depicting Native Americans so often portrayed by dark-haired caucasian actors sporting a coating of brown shoe polish in a hue Nature never intended.
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Moraldo Rubini
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Weapons of Mass Movies

Post by Moraldo Rubini »

Ben said:
When someone coughs we know their days are numbered.
Knitty said:
If a soldier/sailor/airman wants to show his buddy a picture of his girl....DOOMED!!!!!!
Both of these reminded me that if you see a gun early in the picture, someone is going to be shot later. If you see a knife, there'll be a lunge.

I'm always amused that the single hero has the incredible skill and aim to shoot dozens of bad guys, but none of the dozen are able to hit the hero -- with the exception of a stray shot to the deltoid.
filmlover
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Post by filmlover »

...when you turn on a radio, it is at the exact second that the newscaster annouces exactly the item that is important to the plot.

...gangsters and hookers have hearts of gold.

...do guys cheerily give up their girl because his best friend is better for her.

...gunshot wounds are barely felt.

...do people get riddled with bullets and have no blood or holes in their clothes.

...do kids go back to a summer camp where the year before many others were massacred by a mysterious killer.

...do people keep living in a house that tells them, "Get out!"

...do gangsters throw their empty guns at the hero.
klondike

Post by klondike »

benwhowell wrote:Nobody finishes a cigarette. They are stubbed out after a coupla drags or thrown on the floor!
All drinking establishments have "open bar" policies. Nobody pays!
Unless it's a Classic Western; than the two-to-four-bit coin is fished brusquely from out the shirt or vest pocket after the red-eye's been downed, and flipped dismissively onto the bar, so that it's still ringing with cold machismo as the stranger strides away.

8)
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MissGoddess
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Post by MissGoddess »

[quote="filmlover...do kids go back to a summer camp where the year before many others were massacred by a mysterious killer.

...do people keep living in a house that tells them, "Get out!"

[/quote]

Wow, those two always baffle a confirmed coward like me! I always thought Lou Costello was the one with brains---he always wanted to get out before trouble started! :lol:
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moira finnie
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Post by moira finnie »

To dovetail a bit on Miss G.'s point, another movie convention that always confounds me is when people are alone in bed at night in a spooky house.

The person hears a noise and gets up to go see what's making that noise. Duh, of course you get killed, you fool!

Do what all surviving cowards do, pull those covers over your head and don't look around or--for heaven's sake--get out of bed until morning...if you live that long.
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Moraldo Rubini
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Science!

Post by Moraldo Rubini »

...Every science research project employs one woman scientist with five male colleagues. She's too smart to think about sex; that is, until she removes her glasses. The time will come when she must run from approaching threat -- while wearing a negligee -- and she will fall.
cmvgor
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The brass-carpeted West

Post by cmvgor »

Only in the movies are shooters never seen to save and pocket the spent
shells or cartridges ("brass") after target practice to be reloaded with powder, primer and slugs to be used again. This is pointed out in Quigley Down Under: With an ocean between him and his gun shop,
and using an experimental rifle, Tom Sellick goes through a desert ordeal, having numerous occasions to fire his weapon. When he gets back
to civilization, he does have the spent rounds for a local shop to reload for
him, but he is never seen picking up that brass! Guess he did it
when the camera was pointed somewhere else.

In Valdez Is Coming, Burt Lancester has a conversation about using
"my own load" for a thousand-yard shot, and he is seen sitting at the table
with his reloading gear, but he is never seen making a point of conserving
the brass. On the frontier, they had to perform that basic economy
after target practice, and they probably would do the same after a fight
was over. But I've never seen it represented on the screen.
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traceyk
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Post by traceyk »

What I wanna know (and have wondered about ever since my "Brady Bunch" years) is--What the heck do stay-at-home wives do all day? Especially if they have live-in staff?? Sometimes you see them lunching or going to the beauty parlor or shopping, but every single day? I suppose there's always commitee work and the Women's Auxiallary, but still--!
No wonder they had affairs with their voice/dance/art teachers and became alcoholics and vapors and such.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. "~~Wilde
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knitwit45
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Re: The brass-carpeted West

Post by knitwit45 »

cmvgor wrote:Only in the movies are shooters never seen to save and pocket the spent shells or cartridges ("brass") after target practice to be reloaded with powder, primer and slugs to be used again. .
Just watched "Nevada Smith", and Brian Keith tells Steve McQueen to "Pick up that brass!". Thought of you, cmvgor.

Happy trails
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The way we cope with it, is what makes the difference." ~ Virginia Satir
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