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| Syd |
 Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 7:58 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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whiskeypriest wrote: But wait - wasn't it Eeny Meeny Minnie Moe, and not Ten Little Pick Your Ethnic Insult? Been years since I saw KHAC. Either way, the unfortunate word would have been in the English version of the rhyme at the time.
We were using it in the 1960s in Maine. Then there was the ethnic term for Brazil nuts. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:10 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| My supervisor in the computer typesetting department of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Connie, was a black woman, and she told me that some neighbors she was friendly with invited her over one evening for dinner. There was a bowl of mixed nuts on the table and the wife told her cheerfully, "Try the niggertoes." Then went red and embarrassed and apologetic. Connie thought it was hilarious and assured them she wasn't offended. But I'm glad my folks never called them that. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:18 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| And then there was the time my maternal grandmother gave her father's old Edison phonograph to my mom, the kind with the hand crank and cylinder records, and my sister and I listened to those records for several days, not understanding that my great grandfather's fondness for minstrel show tunes would be... not appropriate for the mid-60's. Particularly not to start singing whilst in a discount store in downtown Flint, even if you thought the song was about a raccoon. Not that anyone did that mind you. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 11:34 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Kind Hearts and Coronets was set in a time considerably before the 1949 in which it was released, as well. At least it looks that way from the costumes. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 11:42 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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Apparently (according to Wikipedia) the film is loosely based on a novel written in 1907 and the film can be considered to be set in edwardian England (1901 to 1910).
I found this extract interesting (which coincidently also ties in with the earlier part of this thread about the use of the word nigger.).
"American version:
To satisfy the Hays Office Production Code, the film was censored for the American market. Ten seconds of footage was added to the ending, showing Louis' memoirs being discovered before he can retrieve them; which is implied in the original film in any case. The dialogue between Louis and Sibella was altered to downplay their adultery; derogatory lines about the Reverend were deleted; and in the nursery rhyme "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", sailor replaced the word nigger. The American version is six minutes shorter than the British original." |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 11:46 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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| Unfortunately, sensitivities are making it difficult to use the useful word niggardly. It's just not worth the effort explaining that this doesn't mean 'niggerly' or in anyway has a common etymology. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 2:48 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 5 was quite good.
But Volume 4 has been a pretty bad.
Wanted Man is just a real clunker. A powerful lady boss of a magazine falls for her secretary, who is engaged, her husband is out skirt chasing. A rather casual approach to adultery, but a poor story, told in a completely artificial manner with fake characters. And too much Andy Devine as comic relief, in the role of roommate.
One thing interesting is that Kay Francis is considerably more pair-shaped and maternal than your average leading lady. Even in an age where actresses were allowed to be slightly plump, they tended to have compensating topside features. She does have a pretty face and super smile, though her nose is a little big.
In both Man Wanted and Jewel Robbery, she plays a married woman. Though in both she is the romantic lead, getting a divorce and a younger man in Man Wanted. Jewel Robbery is kind of silly but somewhat amusing. William Powell plays a debonair thief who falls for one of the society dames he robs. He also passes out marijuana cigarettes as a means to incapacitate some witnesses. They giggle a lot, act foolish and apparently pass out for hours, allowing him to get away. Kind of a throwaway film.
Lawyer Man is kind of a convoluted story of a small NY lawyer from the Lower East Side who battles the big firms on behalf of poor immigrant folks. Then gets co-opted by the power elite and finally breaks away and crushes the party bosses. It's a pretty unlikely melodrama, told in a breezy fashion, with the most improbable newspaper headlines you're likely to find.
William Powell stars as the lawyer. Joan Blondell is his long put-upon secretary, he finally in the end realizes is in love with him. That relationship is in some ways a prototype for some film noirs, such as Kiss Me Deadly. Which got me thinking how some of the noir relationships seem to derive from screwball comedies of the 30's.
Another anomaly, Powell's lawyer chomps a cigar, talks fast at times while zooming across a room. Seemed at times like a definite nod to Groucho's shyster lawyers. |
Last edited by gromit on Mon Sep 09, 2013 10:20 am; edited 2 times in total
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 3:08 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I only got a little ways into the 4th film, They Call It Sin. Which seems mostly notable for Loretta Young looking rather scrumptious.
Looking through the Kay Francis filmography, it seems Trouble in Paradise is the only one people still watch. She also had a small part in the Marx Bros. Cocoanuts, her first film. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 6:27 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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whiskeypriest wrote: It was the original English title of an Agatha Christie novel we know of as And Then There Were None, published less than ten years earlier.
This is absolutely correct, and Joe, you ought to know that. Not that any of this makes "nigger" remotely an acceptable word. But it makes the scene in the movie the accurate decision, in that using "sailors," for instance, would count as ridiculous political correctness. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 9:43 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I'll watch anything with William Powell. A particular favorite is "I Love You Again," a highly improbable romance with Myrna Loy. You have to go along with the concept that he fell overboard six years previously, was rescued but had amnesia and an entirely different personality (from upright and uptight to scheming and sharp), and discovers now that he was a banker and can pull a con game on the town. But Myrna is his wife--who'd thought (and rather hoped) she was a widow--and she's a tough obstacle to get around, especially since he's smitten with her, of course. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 11:25 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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gromit wrote: I only got a little ways into the 4th film, They Call It Sin. Which seems mostly notable for Loretta Young looking rather scrumptious.
Looking through the Kay Francis filmography, it seems Trouble in Paradise is the only one people still watch. She also had a small part in the Marx Bros. Cocoanuts, her first film.
People still watch One Way Passage. She was in Raffles with Ronald Colman, which you still see sometimes. I'm seen Let's Go Native but not too many other people have. 1932 was definitely the peak of her career. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 12:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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whiskeypriest wrote: And then there was the time my maternal grandmother gave her father's old Edison phonograph to my mom, the kind with the hand crank and cylinder records, and my sister and I listened to those records for several days, not understanding that my great grandfather's fondness for minstrel show tunes would be... not appropriate for the mid-60's. Particularly not to start singing whilst in a discount store in downtown Flint, even if you thought the song was about a raccoon. Not that anyone did that mind you.
I own an Edison phonograph. Don't own any minstrel recordings, though. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 12:25 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: whiskeypriest wrote: It was the original English title of an Agatha Christie novel we know of as And Then There Were None, published less than ten years earlier.
This is absolutely correct, and Joe, you ought to know that. Not that any of this makes "nigger" remotely an acceptable word. But it makes the scene in the movie the accurate decision, in that using "sailors," for instance, would count as ridiculous political correctness.
But I did know that, and it makes it not a whit less offensive. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 6:39 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Perplexed as to why Redbox is holding back on the release of Sharknado. Are they waiting for some kind of word-of-mouth groundswell to build? The DVD is out now - what are they waiting for? |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 8:25 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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Ruby Sparks is a cute writerly fantasy about…er…a nerdy writer (Pau Dano) who is surprised to find one of his characters made flesh. As luck would have it, not the gimpy psychopath, but the eponymous Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan) a kooky, cute girl (think Zooey Daschanel in “500 Days Of Summer”) who just happens to be in love with a prodigious, but lonely writer. Of course, in Hollywood, the course of true unearned friends with benefits never did run smooth…I think the rest wrote itself.
In summary, Ruby Sparks is a slighter version of the already slightly slight, Stranger Than Fiction, is all premise and little delivery. It’s not without charm or wit, but it needed to get dark and deep or fly or…2˝ Stars (out of 5).
Footnote:
I have grown wary of any writing that involves sensitive writers or fearless journalists or…It’s not supposed to be about you guys. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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