WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[CineMaven]

KATINA PAXINOU AS JASPER HADLEY



TCM OUGHT TO EXTEND AN INVITATION FOR DOROTHY MALONE TO APPEAR AT THE 2013 TCMFF...

I didn't read the review at the time because I knew very little about the movie and just had to wait until I could get hold of a copy. I love the colour of Sirk's movies and this is no exception. I thought Dorothy Malone's character the antithesis of Lana Turner's character in Imitation of Life, the same look but very different morals, her's is the best part in the picture and wow does she steal the movie.

Yay! I'm so glad you finally saw the film. Even if you didn't like it, you had to see it for cocktail party purposes.

GUEST: "Pip pip cheerio Allison. Have you ever seen that old American movie "Written On the Wind"?
ALLISON: Why yes. Yes I have. Will you join me in some tea and crumpets?

I'm glad you enjoyed it. (Enjoying is always better).

I can see why Lucy went with Kyle, he was such a little boy, scarred by his rich childhood and by his enforced friendship with Mr Perfect. He was far more exciting than his buddy. Lucy kept Kyle happy for a year but with the witch of a sister in law working against her, what chance did they stand? They should have got out of that house.

I see your point. Kyle would keep things exciting, suffering from adult A.D.D. Your "Mr. Perfect" comment gave me a chuckle!

Lucy kept Kyle happy for a year but with the witch of a sister in law working against her, what chance did they stand? They should have got out of that house.

You're sooooo right. A couple that stays with their in-laws is running the risk of a doomed marriage. But gosh, that mansion was soooo big. I went to Rhode Island last weekend and took a tour of the Vanderbilts' mansion...two families could get lost in there and never see each other for five years. But we know why Kyle wouldn't leave. He had some kind of symbiotic relationship with his best friend. The proximity also always through the comparison in his face.

Brian Keith is wonderful as th father, who could have a problem with having him as a father? Unaware of his daughter's tramp lifestyle, actually he was too nice to give support to the dipsimaniac tendencies of his children.

Robert Keith played the Dad and I enjoyed him play Susan Hayward's father in "My Foolish Heart" starring Dana Andrews. Have you ever seen it?

Lucy was too perfect but it's good to see Bacall in a later role showing she's just as capable without Bogey. I thought Robert Stack was perfectly over the top and never would I have thrown him over for his best friend, I think I'd have walked out and left them all behind and gone back to advertising. A great melodrama and a visual joy.

You know, that would be the wise and sane thing to do, but if you're living in a soap opera world...would you really? She would have had a nice career in advertising. She'd have found love in NYC. I'm not sure how Lucy had a peaceful night's sleep with that gun under Kyle's pillow. Here is where the 50's marital twin beds come in handy.

So you like classic films, ey? How did you come to like classic films? How did you come to like classic films, from America. The British had their own films (Gaumont, is that right?) Are you as knowledgeable about your own country's cinematic past? Were there retro theatres (like we had in the 70's) that showed classic films from England? Give me an example of what's on TCM's English schedule for one day. And who are some of your favorite English movie stars that were big in the 30's, and 40's. Would they be names that we here would know?

Lotta questions, and you say you have lots of interruptions. Answer when you have the chance. Ohhhh, one more... how does the average Brit feel about having the Olympics take place over there?

[charliechaplinfan]

Robert Keith not Brian Keith, when I don't look at the imdb lost I'm liable to confuse performers with similar names, a scatty, dizziness sometimes overwhelms me. I did like the film, another example of me typing away with interruptions. I did like the film and I preferred Robert Stack to Rock Hudson, Rock Hudson has never managed to warm the cockles of my heart and playing such a perfect guy, I prefer wounded or imperfect types although a sensible girl would have run a mile I'm guessing Lucy had a bit of a mothering complex about her. I'm liking Robert Stack I've not seen him in much, To Be Or No To Be, that was him I think, many years before.

Where to start, how did I get into films. Heavens knows, it's not an inherited love, I spent my childhood getting a little way through films to have the channel changed so Dad could watch football. So I have all these half remembered plots with people I don't know or remember, I don't remember any of the film stars from these snippets, the only movies I remember watching fully are L&H, Harold Lloyd shorts and a little Charlie Chaplin and the Carry On movies. So the next link in the chain was getting into Monroe in my early teens, a friend and I had a book each then we swopped and read each others. Next I got Hollywood Babylon, a real trashy piece of reporting but it was page turning and finally my Mum and Dad got a video recorder and at the same time a few of the big stars popped their clogs, Fred Astaire, James Cagney and Cary Grant died around the same time I seem to remember and I recorded some of their movies and started from there. White Heat I remember watching because Madonna had incorporated some of the lines into a song. That fuelled more reading and then more watching, Errol Flynn was my earliest favourite. Then I saw GWTW and I discovered Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, both becoming favourites. Red Dust led my to Jean Harlow. Viven led me to Larry Olivier, who led me to Rebecca who led me to Hitchcock, who led me to Ingrid who led me to Casablanca which led me to Bogart, then Bacall. I bought books here there and everywhere. British TV used to be really good for movies and I remember my first non comedy silent, Flesh and the Devil and I was captivated by the images and the beauty of the cinematography and Garbo's face. I was always more captivated by Hollywood, until I'd mopped up most of the glamour then I turned to the British movie industry properly.

I'm probably more knowledgeable about your film history than ours but big names from the 30s and 40s, George Formby, Tommy Trinder, James Mason, Larry Olivier, Robert Donat, James Mason, Stewart Granger, Ralph Richardson, John Mills, Phyllis Calvert, Margaret Rutherford, Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Ann Todd, Michael Wilding, Anna Neagle, Wendy Hiller, Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson, Will Hay, Magaret Lockwood, Kenneth Moore, Kay Kendall and Rex Harrison.

Don't know much about the retro theatre thing, these things tend to get concentrated in cities and ignore people in smaller towns. It took us 6 months to get The Artist and only then because it was Oscar week. The Olympics, the torch is going past our road next Friday, that's quite exciting. The cost though, that's something else in these tough times, a lot of grumbling about it, why does the opening ceremony have to be so big and who started making them big deals? That would be America we're told. So we shake our fists across the pond but will all be sweetness and light and get completely caugh tup when it starts. It's not completely ignited yet because we're really gearing up for the Jubilee which is fast approaching. That's the big one for me, I can't wait, 2 public holidays, a long weekend, Saturday through to Tuesday, there's going to be a huge hangover.

[charliechaplinfan]

You asked me my favourite British movie stars joint number one and by themself, Vivien Leigh and Charlie Chaplin, two Audrey Hepburn, then in no particular order, Robert Donat, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton (when he could be bothered), Stan Laurel and Sid James.

Here's the link to TCM UK, from what I can tell it tends to run the same movies over and over and doesn't run very many unusual movies or early movies, it works out better to rent movies, that way I get to see more of what I want to see and it's cheaper too

http://www.tcmuk.tv/listings.php

[JackFavell]

Oh my goodness, the jubilee is coming up in June right? Does it start on the 1st? Wow, I wish I were there for it. Congratulations and celebrate a little for me!

[charliechaplinfan]

I shall have a glass of bubbly for every member here over the long weekend. I think there will be an out pouring of emotion towards our Queen, it will be great to celebrate.

[CineMaven]

Maven, thanks for the pic of Katina Paxinou. Is she one scary customer or what?

She could be Brother Rat. But let me be more fair to Oscar winner Ms. Paxinou. Here she is out of character, and rather striking:


ACADEMY AWARD WINNER KATINA PAXINOU

Robert Keith not Brian Keith, when I don't look at the imdb lost I'm liable to confuse performers with similar names, a scatty, dizziness sometimes overwhelms me. I did like the film, another example of me typing away with interruptions. I did like the film and I preferred Robert Stack to Rock Hudson, Rock Hudson has never managed to warm the cockles of my heart and playing such a perfect guy, I prefer wounded or imperfect types although a sensible girl would have run a mile I'm guessing Lucy had a bit of a mothering complex about her. I'm liking Robert Stack I've not seen him in much, To Be Or Not To Be, that was him I think, many years before.

Thanxx for weighing in with all your interruptions. I think I might be the "sensible girl" type. I don't want a lot of drama in my life. And Stack's Kyle Hadley was a barrel full of problems. But you would know you'd be in for a ride with him. Yep, he was in "To Be Or Not To Be" and Friday night over here in the U.S., TCM will show him in "The Mortal Storm." Always liked his raspy voice. He probably cemented his cinematic immortality with "Airplane" but I liked him in "The Tarnished Angel" and "The Last Voyage" with our girl: Dorothy Malone...and Woody Strode (who I will NOT be sharing).

Where to start, how did I get into films. Heavens knows, it's not an inherited love, I spent my childhood getting a little way through films to have the channel changed so Dad could watch football. So I have all these half remembered plots with people I don't know or remember, I don't remember any of the film stars from these snippets, the only movies I remember watching fully are L&H, Harold Lloyd shorts and a little Charlie Chaplin and the Carry On movies.

I LOVE the "Carry On" films. Sid James, right? "...Constable" "...Cleo" "...Cabbie"(?) aaaaaahhhhh-----> "Carry On Cruising" (which might have a different meaning here in the States).

So the next link in the chain was getting into Monroe in my early teens, a friend and I had a book each then we swopped and read each others. Next I got Hollywood Babylon, a real trashy piece of reporting but it was page turning and finally my Mum and Dad got a video recorder and at the same time a few of the big stars popped their clogs, Fred Astaire, James Cagney and Cary Grant died around the same time I seem to remember and I recorded some of their movies and started from there. White Heat I remember watching because Madonna had incorporated some of the lines into a song.

Ha Madonna! Funny to see her name linked with these great ol' stars.

That fuelled more reading and then more watching, Errol Flynn was my earliest favourite. Then I saw GWTW and I discovered Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, both becoming favourites. Red Dust led my to Jean Harlow. Viven led me to Larry Olivier, who led me to Rebecca who led me to Hitchcock, who led me to Ingrid who led me to Casablanca which led me to Bogart, then Bacall.

I...LOVE...YOUR...SIX-DEGREES-OF-SEPARATION LINKS!!!! HAAA!! WOW!

I bought books here there and everywhere. British TV used to be really good for movies and I remember my first non comedy silent, Flesh and the Devil and I was captivated by the images and the beauty of the cinematography and Garbo's face. I was always more captivated by Hollywood, until I'd mopped up most of the glamour then I turned to the British movie industry properly.

GARBO...I kind of think she gets a bit of short shrift today, but I thought she was amazing. "CAMILLE" was just on here at TCM as an Essential about two Saturday nights ago...and though I didn't sit and watch it (for the umpteenth time), it kept me company as I toodled around the house and when I would look over to the tv, there'd she be. She pulled out the stops there, and only Vivien Leigh could have outdone her as she did that year (1939). An ex-coworker's husband saw Garbo walking down the street many many years ago. < ( sigh ) >

I'm probably more knowledgeable about your film history than ours but big names from the 30s and 40s, George Formby, Tommy Trinder, James Mason, Larry Olivier, Robert Donat, James Mason, Stewart Granger, Ralph Richardson, John Mills, Phyllis Calvert, Margaret Rutherford, Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Ann Todd, Michael Wilding, Anna Neagle, Wendy Hiller, Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson, Will Hay, Magaret Lockwood, Kenneth Moore, Kay Kendall and Rex Harrison.

Whoa, I am only unfamiliar with Formby and Trinder and Will Hay(??)...but your other stars have hit these shores.

Don't know much about the retro theatre thing, these things tend to get concentrated in cities and ignore people in smaller towns. It took us 6 months to get The Artist and only then because it was Oscar week. The Olympics, the torch is going past our road next Friday, that's quite exciting. The cost though, that's something else in these tough times, a lot of grumbling about it, why does the opening ceremony have to be so big and who started making them big deals? That would be America we're told. So we shake our fists across the pond but will all be sweetness and light and get completely caugh tup when it starts. It's not completely ignited yet because we're really gearing up for the Jubilee which is fast approaching. That's the big one for me, I can't wait, 2 public holidays, a long weekend, Saturday through to Tuesday, there's going to be a huge hangover.

Aaaaah America...always startin' somethin'! The jubilee, now that's really something. I know a lot of folks on your side of the pond want to do away with the Monarchy...but I suspect they're also very proud of the lineage and the thread the Royal Family runs through history. America is so young compared to your country...but for a rebellious country who ran away from home to be on its own, I think we did pretty good. Your history and tradition is quite impressive to this little olde New Yorker.

Thanxxx for fighting through any interruptions to shed some light on your love of films. If you're of a mind to, share some fotos of the festivities you folks are about to have. I will toast to the Jubilee and maybe we can share a hangover!

[charliechaplinfan]

I tihnk the people who moan or want a republic really are in the minority, they've been given plenty of fodder in recent years with Diana, Charles, Fergie etc but this will show that the country at heart wants to keep what we've got and there are an awful lot of monarchists on these shores who think Queen Elizabeth is the bee knees.

Carry on Cruising would have different connatation today.

George Formby was really big during the war played the ukelele and sang some really funny songs, just listen to the lyrics, we didn't have censorship, not on George. If you don't have time to watch just let the songs run, they are funny and completely politically incorrect these days. George was a huge star, the biggest.

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[CineMaven]

For several reasons, Marilyn Monroe always makes me sad as she sashays around exuding the obvious, especially in this movie, as she appears in one dance hall floozie outfit after another, loaded for bear and looking for attention in a pathetic attempt to hide her lost soul. Her vulnerable presence--not her talent--always makes me wish that Monroe really could have kissed Hollywood goodbye and gone off to San Francisco with Joe DiMaggio to make babies and have a real family instead of becoming a shopworn icon still being passed around fifty years after her death. But maybe it's just me.

DON’T CRY FOR ME NIAGARANS...WELL, NOT YET ANYWAY



Sadness does not wash over me when I see MARILYN MONROE in “NIAGARA.” I don’t feel sad, b’cuz I see a strength. Even her name is alliteratively grounded to me. Boy, is she cold here. No, not in a bone-chilling Claire Trevor/Helen Walker way. Maybe I should say her actions are lethally and tauntingly calculating. She is simultaneously cold and hot. Moira, you say “dance hall floozie outfit” but when I see her loaded for bear, I see it as her uniform, her armor. She is the uber-femme fatale... in hot pink. You fashionistas out there can correct me and tell me it’s chartreuse or some such wacky esoteric name on the color wheel. (My favorite color is blue). Moira, you say “exuding the obvious.” Yeah, does she ever; no denying that. But I’d say she personifies The Flame that cinema moths willingly dive into. And isn’t everyone in this film a kind of obvious ‘OTT’ <-------(how ‘bout that Wendy?) stereotype? ...The “Hale Fellow Well Met” Husband, The “Sexually Muted” HouseWife, (though I like how her husband occasionally tries to pump up her sex appeal), The “Blow Hard” Boss, The “Understanding But Put Upon” Boss’ Wife (have I ever mentioned I love Lurene Tuttle?) and the “Handsomely Dark, Wet Dream-y, Matinee Idol” Lover. Throw in Joseph Cotten as your “Shell-Shocked, Green-Eyed Monstered, Older” Husband and you’ve got yerself a talkin' picture.

The best laid plans of femmes fatale often go awry, their road strewn with mice and men and other sundry items. If only Marilyn had taken a gander at the “Helen Walker Playbook for Marital Homicide” which was unsuccessfully used in “IMPACT” she might’ve survived these proceedings. Murder is cheaper...and quicker than divorce in the movies; and Marilyn certainly does give it the good ol’ college try in “Niagara.”

PSST!! A QUICK TANGENTIAL ASIDE:

If you want to read up on the great Helen Walker described by Moira as: “Intelligent, beautiful, pitiless and very dangerous...” just scroll down to her post two and a half years ago on Nov 19th here .

Now, back to Marilyn...

Her vulnerable presence--not her talent--always makes me wish that Monroe really could have kissed Hollywood goodbye...

So I see your sadness for Marilyn is not related to her talent. Whew! I’m glad because I think she gives a good solid performance here. Two Marilyn moments I’m particularly fond of are when:

( * ) she’s about to leave with the Cutlers, hears the bells, walks away and then smiles; she's wearing that short red jacket
( * ) she faints in the morgue

I don’t feel sad when I see Marilyn here because I don’t find her vulnerable in this film. She is good as a lethal lady. She wants to get rid of her husband, and has just the lover who can do it. She shows a wonderful mixture of disdain and desirability. She’s no lost vulnerable little girl and no dumb blonde either. She’s a heat-seeking missile. She’s powerful and I love that she knows it...AND uses it.

...looking for attention in a pathetic attempt to hide her lost soul.

She knows her effect on people. How can I feel sad for her in the scene when she comes outside to play her record. Check out the extras dancing behind her in soft focus and their reaction. (I also love the Cutlers’ mutual appreciation of her “charms” and how they humorously & healthily talk about it). When her character is told: “You kind of like that song Mrs. Loomis.” She definitively replies:

“There isn’t any other song.”

You...go...girl.

I don’t have a sense of sadness for her because she rules the world, and knows it. In fact, she’s in her own little world and doesn’t care who’s around her. She sings her rememberings, takes her moment, holds that close-up for all its worth. Lust at 78-rpm. Whaddya gonna do...blame the sun for shining?

Of course it alllll catches up to her as cinematic law demands for lethal ladies...a rumpled heap on a bell tower floor; her best-laid plans wrapped tightly around her throat.

With a teenage marriage already behind her, a few Marilyn movies in her career so far include: “The Asphalt Jungle” ( 1950 ), “All About Eve” ( 1950 ), “Clash By Night” ( 1952 ), “Don’t Bother to Knock” ( 1952 ) and “Monkey Business” ( 1952 ). Her stock rises and goes threw the roof more than FaceBook with “Niagara” and immediately afterwards, with “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” ( 1953 ), and “How To Marry A Millionaire” ( 1953 ).

As I watch her in “Niagara” I don’t see what I know lies ahead in her future. Oh maybe when I look at “Bus Stop” or “The Misfits”, and those not too often, I can see her peel off the layers and tap into her well of loneliness; her poignancy is painfully palpable to me. I feel sad that the studio never again let Marilyn be this savvy and calculating. In “Niagara” I don’t think of lost loves or pills or miscarriages. I don’t think of Joey D. or JFK or that last day in August 1962. I don’t think of what could have, would have, should have been for Marilyn. I see what is... right now...up on that screen in 1953. I feel her strength and power and confidence (false bravado though it may be).

Sadness doesn’t wash over me when I watch Marilyn Monroe in “Niagara.” I’m too busy admiring her.

But there is absolutely NOTHING you can do with Max Showalter's Hawaiian shirt. Now there's where I pity the fool.

[RedRiver]

As one who loves waterfalls in real life and in movies, NIAGARA is hard to resist. Not one of the great murder dramas of all time, it nonetheless offers thrills and chills, and iconic, if not brilliant performances. This movie, more than almost any other, defies the idea that creepy crime stories must be told in black and white. Here's one in rich, beautiful color, and a fine one it is. To take this tour in anything less would have been disappointing.

[RedRiver]

Has anybody seen a British thriller called THE WHISPERERS? At least, it looks like a suspense tale. I haven't watched it yet. I have it out from the library. It looks good.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've got to agree, rarely does anything compete with Marilyn Monroe for attention but Niagra Falls does a pretty good job.

Did any of you see Seance on a Wet Afternoon when it was on TCMs British day recently? I've just watched it via lovefilm, to me it's the kind of film that British cinema of the 60s did best, small in execution with good use of location work, usually set in suburbia somewhere with smallish casts but most importantly, a cracking storyline usually geared around one or two performances. Kim Stanley stars as a medium who persuades her husband played by Richard Attenborough to kidnap a child which they then keep in a hospital type room in their spralling suburban house. She doesn't want to harm the child, just solve the dissapearance but things go a little awry. Kim Stanley gives a tortured performance, she didn't leave behind enough film work, Richard Attenborough gives a pivotal performance as her husband, the dymanics of their marriage has many twists and turns that one's never quite sure who is pulling the strings and why.

[RedRiver]

I like "Seance," for exactly the reasons you've described.

[JackFavell]

Oh! I do know The Whisperers! I didn't know the title.

I particularly liked that one when I saw it on TCM one day. It's got a lot of atmosphere, and Dame Edith is of course, great.