The Silver Screen Oasis

ChiO wrote:

Moira wrote:
Did you know that they...stuck her in movies with Abbott & Costello for a time?

My best guess is I first saw her in WHO DONE IT? or, maybe, I Love Lucy. She is one of those actors that I can't remember first seeing because it's as if she always existed.

My Dream: A Mary Wickes Day on TCM and it has a TCM Premier -- TOO MUCH JOHNSON (Orson Welles 1938), her second movie credit.

And, Moira, why didn't you sneak out a copy for me while it was being restored at George Eastman? Yo! A little help!

I have an ear to the ground waiting for the inside scoop if this becomes available for viewing by the great unwashed (me) who lurk in the bushes outside The George Eastman House offering archivists bribes for a peek. From what I know about the folks at TCM they will be zeroing in on bringing Too Much Johnson to our screens (and perhaps the TCM fest) asap.

Dang, Wendy. Your list is stupendous, especially the mention of Anna May Wong, Chester Morris, William Bendix, and Juano Hernandez, all of whom are just great. How about a Lloyd Nolan day too??

The only one that I can't agree with is that I don't think I could watch 24 hours of Stepin' Fetchit without getting awfully sad. I'm glad he had some success, (I'd love to see a picture of the champagne-pink Cadillac he once drove with his name emblazoned on the side in neon lights), but after adopting and creating the standout character as "the laziest man in town" in the early sound era, his opportunities seemed to devolve (except for a few late moments in later roles like When the Sun Shines Bright).

Chris, you're not old. You just have a great deal to think about!

Um, I am SO embarrassed.

It has been pointed out to me that I have forgotten one rather delightfully obscure actor on this wish list. Maybe TCM could even run his Cisco Kid movies if they gave him his own day?:

Moira, I really thought about it quite hard before listing him. I hate the idea of losing out on watching a person's entire life's work because they generally played a stereotype. I like him in many movies, almost in spite of the position he was forced into. I am quite certain it would never happen anyway, because if it did, the TCM message board would melt. Perhaps it isn't a good idea, since an entire day of his films could be a bit of a downer and politically incorrect. But I genuinely respect the man for breaking through and getting into films, and for finding a way to keep working in an all white industry.

I would also like to see a Clarence Muse day, not that they are in any way interchangeable, and forgive me for thinking of him in conjunction with this topic of conversation. I really love him, especially in Safe in Hell and actually there are at least one or two later movies by each man that got just a little beyond the stereotype.


It has been pointed out to me that I have forgotten one rather delightfully obscure actor on this wish list. Maybe TCM could even run his Cisco Kid movies if they gave him his own day?

Gaucho!

JackFavell wrote:Moira, I really thought about it quite hard before listing him. I hate the idea of losing out on watching a person's entire life's work because they generally played a stereotype. I like him in many movies, almost in spite of the position he was forced into. I am quite certain it would never happen anyway, because if it did, the TCM message board would melt. Perhaps it isn't a good idea, since an entire day of his films could be a bit of a downer and politically incorrect. But I genuinely respect the man for breaking through and getting into films, and for finding a way to keep working in an all white industry.

I would also like to see a Clarence Muse day, not that they are in any way interchangeable, and forgive me for thinking of him in conjunction with this topic of conversation. I really love him, especially in Safe in Hell and actually there are at least one or two later movies by each man that got just a little beyond the stereotype.

I think that Lincoln Perry (Stepin' Fetchit's real name) in his own lifetime got criticism from others because progressive groups such as the NAACP (which had once pressured Fox studios to pay him the same as the white actors during his heyday in the '30s) came to feel that his portrayals were holding other actors back and reinforcing the prejudicial norms of society, so it doesn't sound as though he could win either way. Of course, his character may have been putting one over on the whites, who expected such behavior, but that message was pretty hard for most general audiences to detect, even today--especially if they are young enough to be unfamiliar with the historical context of his portrayals.

Clarence Muse was a fascinating man. A lawyer, a playwright, songwriter, performer and producer, he was instrumental in unionizing actors in Hollywood and seems to have made a kind of bargain--to play certain characters in "acceptable ways" but maintaining a kernel of independence and dignity, no matter what he portrayed. I really think he would be a good choice too.

Fabulous recommendations, everybody!

Please add Gilbert Roland. GAUCHO! And I've secretly had on crush on Paul Douglas ever since the first time I saw Letter to Three Wives. Hush. Shhhh. Don't tell anybody....

moirafinnie wrote:Um, I am SO embarrassed.

It has been pointed out to me that I have forgotten one rather delightfully obscure actor on this wish list. Maybe TCM could even run his Cisco Kid movies if they gave him his own day?:

OOh. I am so embarrassed that I had to repost that steamy photo of Gilberto....

Oh Sue Sue, you and I can form the Paul Douglas fan club!

Paul Douglas!! A love of Paul is one of the ways I felt that I first got to know Sue Sue & Miss G a little better. That was way back in the "good old days" when people were still pretty civilized. The earth was still cooling, dinosaurs were still seen in Central Park, and mankind had yet to adopt Ptolemy's theory that the earth revolves around each of us instead of the sun. You remember...2007:

Let Us Now Praise...Paul Douglas, found here:
http://forums.tcm.com/thread.jspa?threa ... 02#7903602

I hate to tell you guys this, but some of dear old Paul's 34 movies are REALLY hard to find. I have been looking for a copy of The Guy Who Came Back (1951) for eons. I have fond memories of this story of a veteran football player (Douglas) who tried to hang onto his career way too long. I saw it a couple of times as a kid and really liked it.

And the nominees keep on a'comin' (and there just may be a perverse sort of theme here):

Sal Mineo

Dennis Hopper

Russ Tamblyn

Harry Dean Stanton

Dean Stockwell

Klaus Kinski

And separate (kinda) from the above: Raymond Burr

But connected (via the ABA) to the immediately preceding: E.G. Marshall

Stop me before I edit again!

E.G. Marshall would be good, since he was always playing thoughtful characters and fairly complex, slightly starchy authority figures. I especially like him in his legalistic tinged roles such as Twelve Angry Men and Town Without Pity. Marshall also portrayed one of the most sympathetic milquetoasts whose decency was trampled on by a bombastic women very well in The Journey.

Marshall reminds me a little of Frank Overton, a really good character actor who specialized in guys leading lives of quiet desperation (The Dark at the Top of the Stairs) or decent guys trying to do the right thing (To Kill A Mockingbird). He only made 14 movies and in several of them he wasn't even credited, so I don't think he could be a 24 hour guy next summer.

I love the idea of Raymond Burr (from fascinating baddies to melodramas to comedies), Russ Tamblyn (whether boy, man, dancer, actor--he's great fun to watch), and Dean Stockwell (whose career arc may still be evolving).

Methinks that ChiO has been viewing Paris, Texas (1984) of late. The mention of Harry Dean Stanton, (whom I like even though many of his performances sometimes seem awfully similar), Russ Tamblyn and Klaus' baby girl, Natassia Kinski all make me think of that haunting Wim Wenders film.

Love Donald Meek! Yes that would be a fine day, another actor I could watch for 24 straight hours easily.

Also love Dean Stockwell, I wish they could get him on TCM, he's had such a vivid and varied career, and it's not over.

I thought of another actor who I would love to see in back to back performances -

Charley Grapewin

Paul Douglas fan club! Yes! Moira and Jackie, I'll make buttons for us...

Dean Stockwell would be wonderful as a guest programmer....

Lora Mae throws one of those looks at Porter...

I would assume Judy Holliday had a day but if not then they could also show "The Solid Gold Cadillac" and get another Paul Douglas feature in there.