Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion

Last classic film you saw was...?

the last flick I saw was a re-watch of (bits of) John Payne in 'Kansas City Confidential'

co-stars: Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand

Payne is a marvelous actor for playing 'every day guys you might meet in the street'. You'll find him in noir, crime drama

Tonight I saw a little bit of 'Young Cassidy' a film I very much admire. Rod Taylor, Maggie Smith. Dir by Andrew McLaglen, A semi biopic of a young firebrand playwright, Sean O'Falain I believe. Don't hold me to it.

Saw something with young Cliff Robertsion and Joan Crawford last night; subtitled. Robertson was intense. Crawford effective too but a bit miscast. She wasn't as sleek as in 'Mildred Pierce'.

Re-watched 'The Third Man'.

Re-watched 'Diaboliques'. Not much a fan of Simone SIgnoret but her co-star was wonderful in her movements and gestures. Not even an actress, I believe--the directors' wife. Astounding to be so good on her first try. Can't recall her name. Clouzot her last name of course.

re-watched 'Thomas Crowne Affair'. Nifty. Sound was off (pub environment). Still worked, even with subtitles.

Director Hall Ashbty went on years later to film Peter Sellers in 'Being There' and that character, (as you know) was a shut-in who grew up watching TV. Ashby cleverly uses footage from 'Crowne' knitted in to the screens for Sellers' character to watch.

Last week I watched Dead Ringer with Bette Davis and The Lodger. I love Bette Davis and this movie doesn't disappoint. The Lodger is about Jack the Ripper and Merle Oberon is gorgeous in this movie.

re-watched

The Magnificent Seven (1960)
(What can one say? Still brings one's heart into one's throat)

Advise & Consent (1962)
political drama by Otto Preminger. Taken from Allen Drury's Pulitzer winning novel. Henry Fonda, a wispy Franchot Tone, and a thankless role for Gene Tierney. Charles Laughton plays a cagey Southern senator but its really Walter Pidgeon's film. Of all people. Walter Pidgeon getting a role this meaty this late in his career. Well, that's what happened back in the studio era. They weren't afraid of ageing. Also: one of the first films to tackle homosexuality. Preminger was known for this kind of ground-breaking content.

'I Want to Live!' 1958 by Robert Wise. Six Oscar noms, Best Actress for Susan Hayward. Playing a bad girl, she clobbers the performance.

Watched Anatomy of a Murder. Jimmy Stewart is at his best but George C. Scott absolutely steals the courtroom drama, which comprises a good portion of the movie. A highly acclaimed movie that deserves all the accolades it garnered.

Also watched John Ford's Horse Soldiers. I have never been a fan of John Wayne, he was more of a legend than an actor, but my list of top ten movies would include at least 2 of his, Stagecoach (coming in at #1,) and the Quiet Man, and is there a more fun movie than McClintock?

I can agree that one might not be a fan of his --he's not suited to everyone's taste--but he certainly could act.

Me, I've never seen 'McLintock'--his late-career roles muddle together in my mind. "Chisum" .."McLintock"..."The Comancheros"..."Cahill, US Marshal"...these all blend together for me. And then he started doing those strange cop roles like "McQ" and "Brannigan". The one flick of note I recall is the fine "The Cowboys" where he gets a great villain to play against: Bruce Dern.

'Anatomy of a Murder' --I'd rave about that pic, on any street corner anywhere, anytime. I've had the Duke Ellington soundtrack on my player for years now. I know some scenes almost word-for-word, cuz I recorded the audio right off the tv speakers too, at some point.

McClintock is an atypical Western, a comedy Western, and has 2 wickedly funny scenes, the brawl at the mudhole and McClintock chasing Mrs. McClintock through town. Another really good late-career John Wayne movie is Big Jake. It's a kind of farewell, Wayne playing his own legend. It's set in 1909 and the Duke has come back for one last hurrah. It also has Richard Boone as the villain. Boone has one of the funniest lines ever for a man who has just been gut-shot and is about to die.

Clint Eastwood in "Hang 'em High"
co-starring Bruce Dern & Ed Begley (always great), Ben Johnson, LQ Jones, Dennis Hopper, and poor Inger Stevens

Eastwood's frst American pic after his audacious career move to Spain to work for Sergio Leone; this was the first pic from his Malpaso company

This was a pic I often saw on TV as a lad, everyone in my household knew it well and could even quote lines from it

McQueen, Eastwood, Bronson, Yul Brynner, James Coburn, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef... that's what flies, as far as I'm concerned!

'The Blue Angel' starring Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings. Awesome. The classic tale of the vaudeville stripper and the stodgy academic who loses his mind for her. Pretty hilarious film too, especially when the cabaret manager 'pals up' to the distinguished prof.

One mar, there's a 'Pagliacci' type clown in the story (Lola's former suitor) and that was inadvertently unpleasant. I'm not one of those people who find clowns disturbing (dislike magicians far more) but in this case you couldn't see at all what the actor might've been doing with his face, the makeup completely obscured his expression. So it was a 'dead zone' in the acting.

I must say also that its not quite clear to me why Dietrich was considered such a 'honey' in this debut flick of hers. She was very appealing in the role but --my goodness-- her figure is not exactly lissome. She was almost pudgy! As we know she later went on to be one of the biggest stars in history but those memorable cheekbones and cupid's-bow mouth are not in evidence here.

Musical note: the wonderful German swing band, "Weintraub Syncopators" provide the music for this legendary film. I wouldn't guessed it without studying the opening credits.

The Blue Angel was pretty awesome. Janning's ignominious fall here is similar to what happened to him in The Last Command, one of the most unforgettable films ever (in my opinion.) The directors and actors in the silent films were true artists and Jannings was one of the best. And I love the train wreck scene!

'Mildred Pierce'

I watched Mildred Pierce a few weeks ago. Zachary Scott is at his villainous best! Although I'm not a fan of Joan Crawford, I've learned to tolerate and appreciate her in some roles. Last week I caught up on two film noirs recently shown on TCM's Noir Alley: Hollow Triumph and The Narrow Margin. Both excellent.

Interesting, about Joan Crawford. It's the same as how I feel toward Kate Hepburn. I only watched her movies because of Spencer Tracy, but find my opinion of Hepburn going from I can't stand her to she's not so bad to hey, she's pretty good. Maybe you're in stage 2 heading for stage 3. Along those same lines, I'm no fan of John Wayne yet a list of my top 10 (or even 5) movies would have to include Stagecoach and The Quiet Man. Go figure. PS, Mildred Pierce is a great movie, and oh, that Veda!

It's not very often Ann Blyth played such a dark role. She is still alive at age 89!

With Joan, as she aged her appearance was so harsh looking, and she overcompensated with heavy makeup. So, it's visual for me. Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis are two for whom I have not yet developed a tolerance! With Katherine, over the years I've moved from stage 2 to stage 1, so going backward. Bette is tolerable in her really early years, but as she ages her overacting/emoting gets more pronounced. Rosalind Russell is another one I have difficulty with, but not at the level of Katherine and Bette.

Agreed. All these women are on my 'chilly actresses' list. I posted about it. Taut, thin-lipped, frosty, astringent, rigid. Eleanor Parker and Mary Astor types. Fine actresses but not inviting, engaging, appealing to me personally.

I recall your previous post on them, Feliks. All of them come across as aggressive. Assertive is fine, but aggressive is unappealing. In contrast, Myrna Loy was no pushover, but her demeanor was calm and controlled.

Last week I watched Mr. Skeffington with Bette Davis and Claude Rains. Poor Claude was abused by Bette through two world wars! Her whining voice grated on me the entire two and half hours. The movie was good, and Claude is always outstanding. But he should have packed his bags in WWI.

Aye. Another flick like that is 'Old Acquaintance' (1943) starring Bette and Miriam Hopkins. The story follows two characters across the span of years. It can get slightly tiresome. I mildly enjoyed it upon first view, but would never revisit it. 'Now Voyager',...'Watch on the Rhine'..I admire an era that could generate these stories but they feel slightly stodgy, stagey, and 'airless' nowadays. And I am not even contemporary in my tastes or habits! The world just feels more 'fact paced'. Or maybe relationships just aren't like that anymore, sad to say.

p.s. 'Old Acquaintance' was remade once though-- 'Rich & Famous' with Jackie Bissett and Candy Bergen

Both Rhine and Acquaintance have good costars in Henreid, Rains, and Lukas. I believe I saw Rhine some time ago.

fyi, tonight (Sat 5/26) at 8 p.m., TCM is showing From Here to Eternity. Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, 8 Academy Awards and that famous kissing scene on the beach. Clift and Lancaster were both nominated for Best Actor and split enough of the votes for Gary Cooper (High Noon) to sneak past them and win. I can't argue with Coop winning. His performance in High Noon was unforgettable.

Ernest Borgnine played a heck of a role in FHTOE.
Just watched High Noon last weekend, hell of a movie, and for a good read on the making of High Noon there is Glenn Frankel's excellent book:

High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic

Glenn Frankel

He used to get accosted in the street whenever he visited New York; hotheads would come up to him and want to pay him back for what he did to Maggio..

snatched a brief look at 'Days of Wine and Roses'. Jack Lemmon. Oscar-winning performance. Supported by Lee Remick and Jack Klugman; and I believe Charles Coburn or the patriarch from 'Big Country' who's name I once knew but can't now recall.

Blake Edwards flick; underrated director. He also wrote and directed a ton of radio serials before he hit the movies. That's where he learned his craft.

I taped the documentary on Leslie Howard that aired on TCM recently, Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn (2016). I have watched about 30 minutes so far. It has home movies of Howard and interviews with his daughter. I didn't realize Leslie used his VIP status to bump a child from the flight which took his life.

I didn't remember he died on a flight...have to re-acquaint myself with this story

Howard was a casualty of WWII. The Germans shot down the plane in which he was a passenger. Of course, there are rumors that he might have been working as a spy for Britain. The same makers of this documentary have also made The Mystery of Flight 777 about Leslie's doomed flight. I just found out about it today and plan to see if it's available on cable. The link to the first documentary is here: https://www.themanwhogaveadamn.com/.

This weekend I finished the Leslie Howard documentary. Originally, it was titled "Leslie Howard: A Quite Remarkable Life," but was changed to "Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn." Not sure how someone came up with the final title. I would have named it "The Man Who Was Unfaithful." I wondered whether his infidelity would be dealt with in the documentary, and it was candidly, even by his daughter. At one time he fell in love with Merle Oberon, and introduced her to his children as their step-mother. But Merle did not like his daughter so Leslie ended the affair pronto. On at least one occasion his wife offered to divorce him, but he said no as then he would have to marry his dalliances. Later he had a long-time mistress. He lived with her on weekdays and with his wife and children on weekends. His mistress died about six months before him. She had something like a sinus infection that spread to her brain, in the days before antibiotics. While she was dying, Leslie called his wife to come stay with him at the hospital . . . and she did. His wife died in 1980 at age 84. His son, Ronald (1918-1996), was deceased when the documentary was made, but some interviews with him were shown. His daughter, Ruth (1924-2013), was living at the time of the documentary but died before it was released.

the dog!

"Is he in heaven?
Is he in hell?
That damned elusive...Pimpernel..."

Watched the comedy and a forerunner to MASH, "Operation Mad Ball", (1957), with Jack Lemmon, Earnie Kovac's, Micky Rooney, Dick York.

A post WWII movie in France, Lemmon players a highly decorated NCO who can get things done under the nose's of the Officers. The unit is in a few weeks getting ready to break up, Lemmon plan's a ball for the farewell, under the nose of the Kovac's who is out to bust Lemmon, he refurbishes a French Hotel, from other units as far way as Brussel's, he and his merry band of soldiers are apt at getting the supplies, food, drinks, and the band for the event.

This weekend I watched Lady for a Day (1933). I rarely watch a movie more than once. I figure there are so many good movies (made before 1950, of course), I don't want to waste time by repeating movies. Lady for a Day is one of the few movies I have watched several times and watch about once a year. It has an all-star cast with May Robson, Warren William, Guy Tibbe, Ned Sparks, and Nat Pendleton, to name a few. Quite humorous and also brings tears to my eyes every time. I originally watched it due to Warren William, but fell in love with the movie. Of note is a number of the extras were played by actual Los Angeles street people. I always wondered how the actor who played the legless man hid his legs, but now assume he was a street person and actually had no legs. Capra remade the movie in 1961 as Pocketful of Miracles. I found a trailer online, but it pales in comparison with a cast that includes Bette Davis (ugh), Glenn Ford, and Ann-Margret.

I know of both flicks but neither ever caught my intrigue (certainly not the hideous Bette Davis version). I believe though, that the entire basis for the tale are some stories of the great Damon Runyon, America's sublime humorist of gangland life in the 40s. From the same author (ultimately) comes 'Guys and Dolls'. His fiction itself, is based on real-life con men of that era. 'Dave the Dude' (played by Glenn Ford) was indeed the king of Manhattan in those days. 23rd St was his headquarters.

Yes, Damon Runyon wrote the story on which the two movies are based. I read the 1933 version didn't resemble his original story too much, but he was pleased with the movie. Presumably, Capra said he preferred the 1961 version, but surely that was just for marketing purposes. The blue-ray of the 1933 version contains four minutes of uncut footage, which I have not seen.

'Dark Passage' written by David Goodis. Bogart & Bacall; but the story is contorted and unappealing to me. I don't enjoy it. There's strange 'POV' camera angles similar to 'The Lady in the Lake' (Robert Montgomery as Marlowe movie).

I like the San Francisco location shots in Dark Passage. Recently, I look up their apartment on Google Earth to see how it looks today. A few weeks ago TCM had a marathon of Bulldog Drummond movies, which I recorded. I watched several of those this weekend. Not sure why so many actors played the character over a short time. There were several movies made in 1937, and three different actors played the role. The movies are about 60-75 minutes long so don't require a big time investment.

Read the script for 'Anatomy of a Murder' this week. My god how superb.

Adaptation by Wendell Mayes, who also did another Otto Preminger flick, 'Advise and Consent'.

Feliks wrote: "Read the script for 'Anatomy of a Murder' this week. My god how superb.

Adaptation by Wendell Mayes, who also did another Otto Preminger flick, 'Advise and Consent'."

I probably should watch that again, Anatomy of a Murder.

Ben Gazzara has been popping up a lot lately. He is also in Anatomy of a Murder.

It's incredibly 'tight' in the plotting; even Richard Dreyfus commented on this once; (he was studying it for some preparation of his own). An extremely personable story: every facet of the drama turns on human characters; human foibles; human self-awareness. George C. Scott shines as the cunning prosecutor and wonderful Arthur O'Connell as the drunk lawyer crony of Jimmy Stewart. Ben Gazzarra is icy cold as the suspect in the case (possessed by crazy marital jealousy). And of course Lee Remick, you couldn't ask for better than that lilting, giggling, couldn't-care-less voice of hers. But yes overall the camerawork and dialog is back'n'forth, hugging tightly to every slight nuance of the trial in a way that sets a standard for such films. Preminger clobbered this one.

p.s. I've had the Duke Ellington soundtrack CD for years now; its essential listening as far as I'm concerned. First real jazz-based movie soundtrack; score specifically written for the film

'Harper' played on TCM Saturday night. Adapted by William Goldman. Paul Newman, Arthur Hill, Lauren Bacall, Shelley Winters, William Windom, the legendary Julie Harris; and a performance from young Robert Wagner which almost steals half the movie. Wagner could play surprisingly intense, almost psychotic characters when he had to. I recall he and Newman became best friends in this flick. Anyway, it all has that quintessential Goldman touch, and was one of Newman's 'three big H' roles. Newman is superb in this, and his love-interest is Janet Leigh, who is appropriately sulky and fiery-eyed. There's also dee-lish cheesecake in the form of Pamela Tiffin. DIr by Jack Smight, story from pulp icon Ross MacDonald.

After that. 'The Mask of Dimitrios' also played. I'd forgotten how much it influenced 'The Third Man'

Oops that was Robert Webber not William Windom. I always get those two guys mixed up.

And there's a hilarious sequence too, with Strother Martin as a religious zealot on a California mountaintop.

caught a little bit of John Huston's "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" starring Paul Newman and luscious Victoria Principal. Specifically the fun scene where--of all people--Stacy Keach makes a cameo as a crazed, long-haired, one-eyed, albino gunman.

That movie was a hoot, Bad Bob, was badasses, walked through a garden, drinks down hot coffee fresh off the fire, vile tongue.

Yeah! Roddy McDowall co-stars as well, I recall. But I generally like any story featuring the colorful Bean.

'The Westerner' with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan, for example. Gad I love that flick. Brennan stole the whole thing away from Coop.

saw some of Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr" tonight projected on a wall in a bar

Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'

(opening)

Sergio Leone's "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly"

'Hang 'Em High" --Eastwood fest on TCM