The March 2014 Schedule for TCM

[Bronxgirl48]

Betty Compson! An actress who has definitely flown under the radar. (forgive me, I've been watching too much CNN...) This is why I really love TCM! (I'm hoping for a Dwight Frye festival) Before today, I must sadly admit that my only exposure to Ms. Compson had been from THE INVISIBLE GHOST, where she plays the mysteriously vanished wife of a mentally unravelling (what else is new?) Bela Lugosi. Betty makes the most of just a few moments of screen time in basically a non-speaking part, popping up in the story here and there to basically drive Bela further round the bend (just a hop, skip, and jump) but I also always noted in her performance a certain connect-to-the-audience poignancy and dramatic nuance. I was semi-busy today celebrating Spring Break, but managed to catch most of STREET GIRL. I couldn't figure out what country Betty was supposed to be from; the accent was, well, pretty bad, lol. Plus, that role seemed to be made for someone like Vilma Banky. I enjoyed her more in THE LADY REFUSES, (especially the last scene) where I feel Compson had a talent for more Madame X-suffering type parts. However, the majority of these very early talkies were of course pretty primitive, dull, and just not very good all-around, so it was hard to gage the extent of Compson's talents. Would love to see DOCKS OF NEW YORK.

[Bronxgirl48]

I just saw MAD YOUTH. Oh, my goodness!

What in the Sam Hill is Betty Compson doing in this exploitation "drama"? Why, playing a flighty, selfish, insecure woman (almost like "Fran" in DODSWORTH, lol) who is constantly hiring young "escorts" to take her to bridge parties, and being decidedly unconcerned with what her neglected daughter is up to. This "teenage" spawn already looks like a hard-living hooker in her mid-twenties, so it's difficult working up any sympathy or for friend Helen, who is so desperate to avoid Iowa ("the tall corn, the mooing cows, the hicks who think they're city slickers and paw you...") that she winds up in white slavery at a cathouse after responding to a lonely-hearts ad. Then there's the gigolo who unexpectedly reforms and gives Betty a lecture about American motherhood.

But wait, there's more! Lousy "specialty" acts -- a sleep-inducing dance duo, followed by a "bullfighting" comic who reminded me strangely of the nightclub scene in LA DOLCE VITA with Marcello and his father. Plus -- dirty jiggerbugging; adolescent strip poker; provocative acrobatics by a heavy-thighed young girl in a band outfit; carnival "freak" shows, and last but certainly not least, reams of lovingly ornate calligraphy supposedly from the diary of an 18 year old tramp.

[moira finnie]

Bronxie, I must admit I was distracted by real life when Mad Youth came over the magic box, but your vivid description sure jibes with my impressions. After awhile, I turned the sound down, and found myself wondering who did the hair on the women in this movie. Whoever they were, they should have stepped away from the curling iron--though if "repulsive trampiness" was the effect they were going for, they were a roaring success. I loved the clown/matador act and the way the crowd in that seedy hole ate it up. I guess Betty Compson had adopted the Kay Francis career strategy for her movie career by 1940. She didn't care what the heck she appeared in if she got paid at the end of the day.

My favorite scene from this mess, which made me turn the sound back up--was when the jitterbuggers were joined by the baton-twirling majorette. Here's the whole freak show:
[youtube][/youtube]

[Bronxgirl48]

Woo woo! MAD YOUTH on YouTube! Moira, it's an invaluable service you've provided (pipe my Irish phrasing) for anyone who did not catch this laugh-fest. I own a variation of that fabulous sunburst mirror at Betty's bridge party. So chic overlooking my dining room table!

At least, according to Compson's filmography, she got to be in a Hitchcock film. (MR. AND MRS. SMITH) It also says she's hanging around STRANGE CARGO, one of my favorites.

Speaking of career trajectories, I have nightmares that Valentino, had he lived, might have wound up in something like MAD YOUTH as Count De Koven. I can just see him in my mind's eye, particularly the scene where this gigolo-with-heart-of-gold is admiring a Monogramish/PRC horror mansion prop of armor at the brothel. (perhaps used for certain kinky clients?) Rudy would have lent some authenticity here as he appreciated and collected European antiques.

[Rita Hayworth]

The Loved One, 1965 Comedy

[youtube][/youtube]

I watched this movie last night and after watching it for the first 50-60 minutes - I couldn't not take it anymore and I declared this movie - a dark comedy not worthy and I hope anyone here did not what this movie at all. I just can't figure out why in the world that TCM schedule a movie like this and its was horribly directed by Tony Richardson and I'm terribly sorry that I just can't find anything good about this movie at all.

[Mr. Arkadin]

The Loved One, 1965 Comedy

[youtube][/youtube]

I watched this movie last night and after watching it for the first 50-60 minutes - I couldn't not take it anymore and I declared this movie - a dark comedy not worthy and I hope anyone here did not what this movie at all. I just can't figure out why in the world that TCM schedule a movie like this and its was horribly directed by Tony Richardson and I'm terribly sorry that I just can't find anything good about this movie at all.

One of my absolute faves. Sorry it did not work for you, but I find it hilarious.

[ChiO]

I love it, too. Certainly not for all tastes, but I find this farce about the operation of a funeral home and cemetery in California, and its critique of American Capitalism, to be hilarious. Outlandish, over-the-top, and great.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

And The Loved One is never boring!

Heaven Knows Mr. Allison is on TCM this afternoon!

[moira finnie]

I do like the film in part, but felt that it was quite uneven. Evelyn Waugh's very brief book of "The Loved One" was funnier since it was not quite so literal, and still managed to be scathingly satirical about the movie and funeral business. The best bit in the book was the effort to make the public believe that a starlet (similar to Lupe Velez) named Juanita del Pablo was actually an Irish starlet. John Gielgud's role seems closest in spirit to Waugh, satirizing the British enclave in Hollywood, the dottiness of unmoored writers lost in Babylon, and the crassness of their employers.

Part of the problem with the movie may have been the casting of the American actor Robert Morse as Gielgud's poet-nephew. If someone like the young Michael Crawford and an even younger version of Ian Carmichael had been in the part, the movie might have been more effective. It also seems that the story was conflated from its slight original plot and the movie seems overwhelmed by the heavyweight cast and elaborate story lines. Sadly, after six well-received films that have stood the test of time, The Loved One badly damaged director Tony Richardson's professional reputation. He did some good films after this, notably Laughter in the Dark (1969), which is almost unknown now, and The Border (1982) with Jack Nicholson. He ended his career directing Jessica Lange in her Oscar-winning role in Blue Sky (1994), released after his death. Having just finished reading Donald Spoto's "The Redgraves" recently, it seems that the director's life may have spun out of control after leaving Vanessa Redgrave in the mid-60s. I would love to have seen one of his reputed abortive projects, a biopic of Nijinsky with Rudolph Nureyev, but it was never released. I wonder if film fragments of this exist anywhere?

Jeff Stafford wrote a good account of the chaos off-camera during The Loved One's production that led to the movie's mixed reputation. That article can be seen here: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3032/The ... icles.html

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Thanks for that recommendation, David!
I also want to recommend Indiscreet tonight, and it's follow by another of my favorites, Notorious!

Indiscreet is supposedly Cary Grant's favorite film of all that he made, and he and Ingrid Bergman are still continuing the chemistry they had when they made Notorious.

From the Norman Krasna play, Kind Sir,, the sets are lovely! I adore her apartment. According to the TCM database article I found, " The set of Anna's flat, according to a January 1958 New York Times article, was furnished with Pablo Picasso drawings and works by artists Raoul Dufy, Georges Roualt and John Piper that were borrowed from English scene designers Oliver Messel and Roger Furse, and various English art galleries. The automobile Anna's chauffeur drives is a 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, which, at that time, was valued at $23,000. According to a modern source, Grant bought the car after the completion of filming. "


Cecil Parker, Phyllis Calvert, Cary Grant, and Ingrid Berman

Phyllis Calvert must have had a difficult time on the set as her husband, actor Peter Murray-Hill, had passed away during filming, and I feel her effervescence and her adorable comments are some of the cutest in the film.

Rehearsing on the set for the dance sequences...

Those adorable dresses!



Love the clothes and the jewels.. Costumes were designed by Christian Dior.

Ingrid, Cary, and director Stanley Donen on the set...
It's tonight!

[Bronxgirl48]

From the sublime, INDISCREET, to the God-awful, ZARDOZ.

I'd love to know what substance John Boorman was on when this was conceived. Did Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling actually read the script? What were they thinking? Paycheck? I've always had a soft spot for John Alderton since "Upstairs, Downstairs" and was so embarrassed for him here.

The whole mess was like a Monty Python skit.

[Rita Hayworth]

Indiscreet and Notorious - Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman


I thoroughly enjoyed both of these films tonight and loved the chemistry that GRANT and BERGMAN brings - the romance, the suspense, the tension, and the sizzling drama that unfolds tonight as I watched these great films of yesterdays. I haven't seen these films in a very long time and I appreciate the talents of these two stars that effortlessly entertained me tonight. Man, I just loved these two films for different reasons and that alone makes them unique in every way. I never, ever seen Ingrid Bergman so beautiful in Notorious and the way she seduces Grant and Grant seduces Bergman was beyond description. I loved the fashions that Bergman was wearing in Indiscreet and the mannerisms that both of them brings. I just in awe of these two talented performers and I just wanted to let everyone here that I was delightfully entertained by all. The supporting cast was superb and that alone makes it a great films to watch. There were not a dull moments in these two movies and I was very happy to see them tonight.

Notorious was the first film that both GRANT and BERGMAN worked together and I was surprised it was - knowing how well they worked together so beautifully crafted by Hitchcock himself.

Loved them both ... and rightly so!

Trailer for Indiscreet
[youtube][/youtube]

Trailer for Notorious
[youtube][/youtube]

Romance in Notorious
[youtube][/youtube]