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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:56 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Rod wrote: Can't disagree. I think it's her best, nonetheless.
Could be, although she was okay in The Postman Always Rings Twice and actually rather good in Peyton Place, where she was well cast as a woman who processes every moment of her life, a perfect fit for Turner's forced artificiality.
I'm so grateful she turned down Anatomy of a Murder (the costumes reportedly weren't pretty enough), paving the way for scrumptious, sumptuously talented Lee Remick to step in.
Still, Turner was a genuine 1940s icon and forever immortalized in the classic standard "These Foolish Things":
The smile of Turner and the scent of roses
The waiters whistling as the last bar closes
The song that Crosby sings
These foolish things remind me of you |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 7:43 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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Or even:
Liz Taylor is not his style
And even Lana Turner's smile
Is somethin' he can't see
My baby don't care who knows
My baby just cares for me
Oh god I thought she sucked in Peyton Place...but then I hated everyone in that film and the film in general. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:06 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Rod wrote: Or even:
Liz Taylor is not his style
And even Lana Turner's smile
Is somethin' he can't see
My baby don't care who knows
My baby just cares for me
Oh god I thought she sucked in Peyton Place...but then I hated everyone in that film and the film in general.
Peyton Place is one of those movies that you either love or hate. If you get into the style of the piece--classy soap opera--you go with it. IMO it's one of the prime examples of a movie that far outstrips the source material. And the score by Franz Waxman is one of my five favorites. It's more authentically Aaron Copland than Copland's own score for The Heiress. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:14 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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I'm not so sure about that, Billy. I haven't seen it in years but I certianly didn't love it. I didn't hate it either. I suppose I find it kind of campy and it works as some sort of mindless escape.
Great songs, guys. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:43 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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I see that the TV "The Untouchables" w/ Robt. Stack as Elliott Ness (sp?) is coming out (Vol. 2). I haven't seen any mention of it before. Can't help but wonder how it holds up today.
It was a terrific series at the time. I'd like to watch these episodes on DVD. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:47 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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billyweeds wrote: Marj wrote: yambu wrote: I rented Arsenic and Old Lace, because my brother reminded me that he played Raymond Massey's role of the evil brother Jonathan in high school (one of thousands in the '50's nationwide). A delightful old chestnut, pretty black for its time, now dated. The weak link is the hero Cary Grant. He can't do frazzled. With Peter Lorre.
Yam -- For once I have to disagree. Cary Grant may have been a little over the top, but he can do frazzled and then some. I love this movie and one major reason is Cary Grant.
I also love the way they got the feeling of autumn so right. I know it seems like a minor point but back then, no one ever seemed to get it the way in which this film did. I didn't grow up in Brooklyn but it reminded me of Halloween when I was a child. The only other film that did as well was Meet Me in St. Louis.
I've never seen the movie of Arsenic and Old Lace even though I like the play a lot. The main reason I've avoided the film is because I've always heard it featured a bad performance by Cary Grant. Now it looks like I'll have to check it out for myself.
Grant certainly can do frazzled, and brilliantly, as anyone who loves Bringing Up Baby can attest.
And "I Was a Male War Bride." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:49 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marj wrote: I'm not so sure about that, Billy. I haven't seen it in years but I certianly didn't love it. I didn't hate it either. I suppose I find it kind of campy and it works as some sort of mindless escape.
Great songs, guys.
Parts of PP are definitely campy. Others, usually the scenes involving Diane Varsi and Russ Tamblyn, are touching--at least as I recall.
Varsi was a sad case. Delicate talent, Oscar-nominated too early, not ready for prime time, early demise, self-inflicted. She's part of (at least) a Trifecta which also includes Elizabeth Hartman and Maggie McNamara.
Just checked, and apparently Varsi was not a suicide. But her retreat from the limelight was premature and accompanied by a total "nervous collapse." |
Last edited by billyweeds on Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:52 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:50 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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One conclusion I made when I read Lana Turner's autobiography was that she was not the brightest of actresses. I thought a lot of her personal woes were the result of that.
That said -- does anyone like her performance in "Imitation of Life?" |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:55 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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mo_flixx wrote: One conclusion I made when I read Lana Turner's autobiography was that she was not the brightest of actresses. I thought a lot of her personal woes were the result of that.
That said -- does anyone like her performance in "Imitation of Life?"
I think Imitation of Life was bad in every conceivable way. I know Douglas Sirk fans will go to the wall for it, but it's the essence of kitsch, and not in a good way. Two not-so-hot Oscar-nominated performances by Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner do not make it good. And Turner was awful. But she was dressed in the style to which she was accustomed, the kind of clothing she wanted for Anatomy of a Murder. My, my, my. |
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| bocce |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:24 am |
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Joined: 24 May 2004
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billyweeds wrote: paving the way for scrumptious, sumptuously talented Lee Remick to step in.
wow, lee remick forced me to go to the doctor so many times after the proscribed four hour period that i had to stop watching her pictures...
i think i mentioned here before that she had the best goddamn posture i've ever seen other than audrey hepburn. and those liquid blue eyes...
oh,oh... |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:31 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
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Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| I really wanted to enjoy Peyton Place as a glossy, full-blooded melodrama. Instead, I found it trite, listless, and the classiness tripped it up. The only thing I enjoyed was the cinematography that looked like a '50s magazine Coke ad. It was especially disappointing considering that barely a few weeks before I'd caught Vincente Minneli's ripping Home From the Hill. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:35 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Rod wrote: I wanted to enjoy Peyton Place as a glossy, full-blooded melodrama. Instead, I found it trite, listless, and the classiness tripped it up. The only thing I enjoyed was the cinematography that looked like a '50s magazine Coke ad. It was especially disappointing considering that barely a few weeks before I'd caught Vincente Minneli's ripping Home From the Hill.
I can certainly understand not liking Peyton Place, and I too think the photography was great. But the best single element was Waxman's score. My only suggestion: listen to it again. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:57 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Good discussion.
My quartet of half-pennies:
Arsenic and Old Lace was probably the film that got me into watching movies from the classic Hollywood period. It seemed fresh, zany, and had a young skinny Cary Grant running around all frenetic -- not what I had expected, since I mostly knew him from his Hitchcock films.
I was hooked and started to watch more.
Prior to that I would watch 10-15 minutes on TV and flip past (even back in the days when there were only maybe 8 other channels to flip to). But ... I re-watched it recently with anticipation and it seemed like a good play handled somewhat poorly. Cary Grant just seemed off half the time and most of it seemed a bit forced. Big letdown, though I still am fond of it (I think).
I just picked up Imitations of Life.
A two-fer set including the original 1934 with Claudette Colbert (a post-Code release), and Sirk's 1959 remake with Lana Lana Banana-fana Fo-fana.
Might even give Claudette a whirl tonight.
I'm intrigued by the racial dimension, quite uncommon then in Hollywood films.
Mo, The Untouchables sounds like good fun.
I think I'd go for that. I think.
The Complete Addams Family Tv show arrived here, and I'm debating about getting that. I hadn't realized it had such a short run (3 seasons, I believe). |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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| As much as I'm enamoured of the Sirkian Legacy, the original Imitation of Life is MILEs better than the remake. In almost every single way. |
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It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:45 am |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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billyweeds wrote: ....Grant certainly can do frazzled, and brilliantly, as anyone who loves Bringing Up Baby can attest. |
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