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| marantzo |
 Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:04 am |
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| Two and a half pages of new members, from all over the world. I say if they don't send in their dues we banish them. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: [
I've heard of Room at the Top, and some mention of it recently, maybe in connection with Lawrence Harvey in I Am A Camera (?)
Probably from me when I was discussing the 1959 Oscars and Simone Signoret's for Best Actress, one of the most deserved awards in Academy Award history. A great performance, one of my top ten in film history.
Want to know the others? Yes? No? Okay, here goes (in alphabetical order).
Nicolas Cage, Leaving Las Vegas
Leslie Caron, Lili
Alec Guinness, Tunes of Glory
Buster Keaton, Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Grace Kelly, Rear Window
Martin Landau, Ed Wood
Peter Lorre, M
James Stewart, Rear Window
Orson Welles, The Third Man |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 11:47 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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Quote: How dare that asshole bring up Karloff? You think it takes talent to do Frankenstein? It's all makeup and grunting.
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:38 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| It's not if you grunt, it's how you grunt. |
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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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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:21 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Only the Lonely features John Candy as Danny Muldoon a Chicago police officer, Maureen O'Hara as Rose, the mother who he lets run his life, and Ally Sheedy as the Theresa, the shy daughter of a funeral home director and the woman Danny falls in love with. Sheedy has graduated as a cosmetician and is biding time while trying to find a job by painting faces for the funeral home. She likes to paint them in the style of old movie stars and hasn't gotten a complaint yet. (I think she may after choosing Jimmy Durante as one of her models.) This job makes it rather difficult to talk about her work, and has left her shy, introverted and a bit scary at first.
But for romance to run true, it has to fight Rose's desire to keep her son attached to him, Danny's brother's desire to keep Rose with Danny (to the extent that the brother buys a house in Florida for Rose and Danny to live in--without consulting Danny first), the partner who thinks Danny should play the field, and a pair of lifelong bachelors. If this sounds like Marty, that's because this film is a partial remake. Danny is so used to having his brother and mother depend on him (or at least he thinks they depend on him) that Theresa has trouble breaking through to get him to put her first.
Often funny but served with a bittersweet taste. Chris Columbus was attempting to get something more substantial than I expected, and wasn't entirely successful. Frankly, Columbus has always struck me as a rather pedestrian director; it's nice to see that he tried something more for once. It's also nice to see John Candy as a romantic leading man. It's too bad he died so soon after making this film. |
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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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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:37 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Calling Chris Columbus "pedestrian" is overrating him considerably. Columbus is a working definition of "hack." Just sayin'. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:42 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Saw Marty again and must repeat (I think I've said this before) that Ernest Borgnine gives one of the greatest screen performances I've ever seen. Never much liked anything else Borgnine ever did, but his Marty Piletti is an acting lesson in every frame. The movie is a complete charmer, betraying its television roots with humdrum camera setups but beautifully acted by Borgnine, Betsy Blair, and the whole cast, and stylishly written by Paddy Chayefsky.
Marty has the reputation of being overrated, but not by me. It's a deserving Oscarwinner. And Borgnine--there are no words. Add one to my top ten all-time favorite performances. Make it eleven and put Borgnine right there on top--alphabetically and quality-wise both. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Tue Feb 01, 2011 7:06 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:49 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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For hilariously stupid horror movies, you can't do better than 1972's Night of the Lepus, which I saw for the first time the other night. Somehow Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh, former Oscar nominees (eleven and 12 years earlier) and Rory Calhoun, all three sort of "name" actors, were persuaded to star in this terrifying tale of giant killer bunny rabbits. Never have "monsters" been this cute or this unfrightening. When the gore comes, the producers seem not to have even been able to afford ketchup. It looks more like V-8 or water color. The movie is jaw-dropping.
It's also funny that Whitman and Leigh, both in their mid-40s, are described as a "young couple." (They both look great, btw, but "young" is a stretch.) This is particularly amusing when juxtaposed with Marty's description of Borgnine's aunt and mother as being ready to croak in their mid-50s. Attitudes toward age and the way they've changed over the years are very interesting. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 7:05 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Wow. Just noticed that Syd--on Facebook--referenced Marty in his discussion of Only the Lonely. This is weird by me. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:07 am |
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Borgnine's portrayal in From Here to Eternity and Marty are about as far apart as you can get characterwise. It really does show an exceptional range.
I'm trying to think of another role that Mr. Borgnine had that was even a challenging role, but I can't think of one. Of course he spent a lot of years on his TV show, McHale's Navy. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:09 am |
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| Being married to Ethel Merman must have been a challenging role. Though the time I had her in my cab and when I dealt with her at the Art Deco store, she was quite nice. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:19 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: Being married to Ethel Merman must have been a challenging role. Though the time I had her in my cab and when I dealt with her at the Art Deco store, she was quite nice.
Merman, it seems to me, gets a bad rap. She was undoubtedly a tough cookie and had a seriously potty mouth, but the one time I met her she was not only pleasant but great fun. Seems she was a little too edgy for some, but that "some" wouldn't include me.
Her autobiography featured a chapter titled "My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine," which was a blank page. Very funny, very telling--but who in their right mind would have thought Merman + Borgnine equaled romantic chemistry? |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:38 am |
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| When I heard about the Merman/Borgnine marriage I immediately thought, what a strange pair and I guess that's what everybody thought. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:01 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Caught a Fritz Lang double bill at the Film Forum tonight, neither of which I'd ever seen and neither of which are available from Netflix. While the City Sleeps is a sort of serial killer melodrama but more like a His Girl Friday-style newspaper comedy-drama. The genres are weird together but the movie is never boring even though it's dated and far-fetched. A "fabulous" cast includes Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, George Sanders, Ida Lupino, and Howard Duff.
The other feature, Secret Beyond the Door..., is more interesting, a kind of Rebecca/Spellbound mash-up with Joan Bennett as a new wife moving into husband Michael Redgrave's country mansion before belatedly realizing he has some verrrrry serious hangups, all of them Freudian and all too easily explained a la early psychoanalysis. Get the Rebecca and Spellbound similarities? Well, the movie isn't as good as Rebecca, but it's better than Spellbound and it's worth seeing for the very stylish directorial touches and the eerily beautiful photography. All in all, we had a good night out at the movies. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:21 am |
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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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Quote: Being married to Ethel Merman must have been a challenging role. Though the time I had her in my cab and when I dealt with her at the Art Deco store, she was quite nice.
I love Gary; taxi driver to the stars. |
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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.
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