Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion

Imps of Satan!

I say each of these troublesome tykes should have been taken out to the woodshed while there was still time set them straight. (Only thing is, I'm not sure but what they would've enjoyed it?)

Anyway this thread is the place to praise or impugn their very questionable 'characters'. What rake-hells! What scamps they were!

Faugh!

Perhaps another 'Peck's Bad Boy': Sam Fuller needs mention here as well. Though he's a sight better than either of these two hobbledehoys.

What Stygian impulses plagued these notorious ne'er-do-wells? Impudent! Impertinent! Unbridled firebrands of the silver screen!

I always though Ray was a nut case although he did direct some good films. But his personality and habits caught up with him and he died broke.

Then there was Sirk whose films were trashy and flashy and he was written off as a hack although his films were popular with the public. but later in his life, his work was reevaluated and now he is not a hack. Is he a hack or isn't he? But he did give life to Lana Turner's late career. And he was not broke when he died. So go figure.

from their combined output the one movie I admire most so far, is 'Written on the Wind'.

Wow what a fun film.

the one flick I have so far hated the most is 'In a Lonely Place'. Excruciatingly bad.

Ray managed to bed Natalie in all of her Rebel Without a Cause hotness. And God only knows what kind of shenanigans went on behind the scenes of Johnny Guitar. Anyway, more power to him.

I detested In A Lonely Place. yuck!!!!

Hurrah! Jill is with me on this. My tumbril to the gallows is not so empty now. Noir purists 'call for my head' over this matter.

But it was truly one of my worst theater-going experiences ever. There's nothing quite like watching a really, really squirm-worthy movie on the BIG SCREEN and being unable to slink away!

Spencer wrote: "...went on behind the scenes of Johnny Guitar."

Except that good ole boy Sterling Hayden was revolted by the crab-ridden Joan Crawford! ha

Only Sirk film I've seen is All That Heaven Allows. Neither loved or hated it. Don't really remember much about it. I think I liked the cinematography.

Feliks wrote: "Hurrah! Jill is with me on this. My tumbril to the gallows is not so empty now. Noir purists 'call for my head' over this matter.

But it was truly one of my worst theater-going experiences ever. T..."

Bogart was completely miscast and looked uncomfortable throughout this stinker. I have never read anything he said about the film but he surely knew that it was awful.

Thank God I didn't have to see it on the big screen or I would probably have lapsed into a coma. Ugly movie.

I've chatted with folks who told me (astoundingly) that Bogart supposedly adored his casting; supposedly exulted in it as his finest work; some gibberish about how he had allegedly 'felt constrained all his career' by 'playing shallow tough guys all his life' and that this role was the first time he enjoyed an opportunity to 'send up all those gangster roles' he had 'supposedly suffered so long'. Malarkey!

What rubbish. I don't believe that for a minute.

Yes that was a knock-down drag-out dust-up I had over it.

Bogie enjoyed some of the peachiest acting assignments handed out to any actor of his era. There's no way he could have felt-short-changed by his career up to that date when IALP was filmed.

It's hogwash, poppycock, and codswallop

Zounds!!! Those are good words, Feliks. Too bad you don't hear then much any more.

What an ulra-maroon!

:0)

and a flibberty-gibbet!!! as well

Don't pussy foot around the issue.