This Is the END

[JackFavell]

Oh that's a wonderful one, MissG... I'm looking through the lists and I can't find a fitting category, except maybe wrong place wrong time? But that doesn't seem to cover this one quite adequately.

You know, it's funny, I've come to really appreciate Van Johnson in his later roles so much.... like in The Last Time I Saw Paris and The End of the Affair. Both are good solid performances by this supposed 'lightweight'. And Liz is perfection in the first one.

[MissGoddess]

He's pretty good at anguish. The Last Time I Saw Paris is probably my favorite performance by him, along with 23 Paces to Baker Street.

[JackFavell]

I had to look it up, but I knew I had seen that one. He IS really good in that one too. Somehow he found a deep well of anguish, resentment, and loss in himself, once he was able to get out of the musical boy lead parts. I find more serious, complex feelings show up in these later movies. He kind of reminds me of Robert Young, in that he can look boyish, but once you see him in the more serious roles you keep going back to see what he could really do. I can't make up my mind which performance I like better, The Last Time I Saw Paris or End of the Affair... they are both agonizing to watch in the end, but somehow I end up watching them when they are on no matter what.

[rohanaka]

Just thought of one of the---for me---most heartbreaking deaths---Elizabeth Taylor in THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS. How would it be categorized, though? It's not "Too Good/Innocent" because she had her faults and made mistakes...it wasn't "fate" because how she died was rather needless and due to a terrible lapse on husband Van Johnson's part (part of why it's so sad).

Based only on what you wrote here.. how about.. 4)Tragic Hero/Heroine

And.. ha.. at the risk of quoting myself. the explanation I gave for this category was someone who is so full of life.. and then, whammo

Ha. I know... not exactly a Webster's Dictionary definition. But if it helps, the examples I gave were poor Edna May in Drums Along the Mohawk, or better yet.. Victor Mclaglen in Wee Willie Winkie.. and it also could be from a tragic illness like Bette Davis in Dark Victory... any sort of tragic "senseless" or unexpected death (OR expected but just really tragic in the case of Bette's illness) would qualify, I think. ha.

Ha.. because you know.. this is a VERY scientific process I have come up with in determining my categories. HA!

Incidentally.. we have two-(TWO, count them two) categories in one on the tv right now, even as we speak. Ha.

It's #14 Gone But Not Forgotten AND #9 Death as Comedic Relief as we are having fun tonight watching TOPPER on TCM. The kidling has never seen it before so she did not know what to expect when I told her it was a ghost story. ha.

She got a real kick out of watching George fix the car while he was invisible. "Mom.. we need to have him along with us the next time you get a flat tire.. we won't have to wait so long for dad or the tow truck to show up" HA. (Alas.. car repair is NOT on my list of skills and/or talents. ha. Oh that kidling, she knows me well!)

[JackFavell]

Our favorite scene is when Marion and George carry Topper out through the lobby of the hotel....only no one can see THEM. Roland Young is so hysterical!! I always wonder how he perfected that walk....

[rohanaka]

Ha.. Jackie, when I posted the first time, they had not quite gotten to that part yet. She laughed out loud. And then when the lady's undergarment went floating through the store too... ha. I am glad she is getting a kick out of it. And you are right.. how he ever managed that walk was really something. Too funny.

She JUST figured out that Mrs. Topper is her beloved "Glinda" ha. She is beside herself. "That CAN'T be Glinda.. she's too much of a WHINER!" ha. (meanwhile. I forgot how much I loved the butler! ha. He is cracking me up!)

[JackFavell]

Oh my gosh, I love how snide and snooty Alan Mowbray is! He's far more class conscious than Mr. and Mrs. Topper. After seeing the other Topper films, I'm quite convinced that he is in love with Mrs. Topper himself. In the most genteel fashion, of course.

[CineMaven]

Based only on what you wrote here.. how about..4)Tragic Hero/Heroine

And.. ha.. at the risk of quoting myself. the explanation I gave for this category was someone who is so full of life.. and then, whammo

Sooooo, through process of Scientific Elimination I present Van again. This time:

#4 - TRAGIC HERO



In "MIRACLE IN THE RAIN" happy go lucky soldier ( Van Johnson ) meets lonely girl ( Jane Wyman ) and they have a short-lived romance. He dies...she's heartbroken...but he comes back in death to give her a memento. I agree with you ladies of the untold depths sometime revealed in Van Johnson. He wasn't just another pretty face.

[MissGoddess]

Based only on what you wrote here.. how about.. 4)Tragic Hero/Heroine

And.. ha.. at the risk of quoting myself. the explanation I gave for this category was someone who is so full of life.. and then, whammo

Ha. I know... not exactly a Webster's Dictionary definition. But if it helps, the examples I gave were poor Edna May in Drums Along the Mohawk, or better yet.. Victor Mclaglen in Wee Willie Winkie.. and it also could be from a tragic illness like Bette Davis in Dark Victory... any sort of tragic "senseless" or unexpected death (OR expected but just really tragic in the case of Bette's illness) would qualify, I think. ha.

I'll buy it! Helen (Elizabeth Tayor) definitely lived life to the full, often to excess but she never had any malice in her. And without spoiling things (I guess they are spoiled already), Helen's death was also tragic for three people: her husband (Johnson), their child and for Helen's sister, Marion (Donna Reed). I like how everyone in this movie (except the child) is shown to have their own weaknesses (mostly selfishness or neediness) and how Marion's feelings are a mirror for her own husband's. When Helen dies, everyone pays dearly in different ways. I think this movie is rather better than its reputation.

[rohanaka]

SOLD! ha.. Miss G.. we have a winner. (see.. a category for every occasion) And even though I am no big "fan" for Ms Taylor, your description of the loss of her character in this movie sounds very moving indeed. I may have to check it out.. if I can ever get past poor Joan Fontaine in the LAST tragic heroine story.. ha.

Miss Maven.. VAn.. in Miracle in the Rain... aggghhh!!! (break out those Kleenex for SURE!!)

PS: Jackie.. re: the Butler on Topper.. ha. Snide and snooty.. that is the perfect way to say it. But I KNOW you are right, too. He absolutely l-o-v-e LOVED her.. but was as you say.. even MORE class conscious than SHE was.. so of course it would never do for him to show it. (ha.. what is that line in the Pink Floyd song.. "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way". I am SURE that song must have been written for butlers everywhere.)

[Bronxgirl48]

Ro, your thread is getting more fascinating by the minute! I particularly love the Too Stupid To Live category, and will try to think of some, lol.

[rohanaka]

Glad you are enjoying the fun, little missy. Will look forward to hearing more from you!!

[CineMaven]

Thought I'd raise the dead here as the weekend begins by adding this acclaimed film:

( #15 ) THE UNSEEN DEAD

“ORDINARY PEOPLE”


Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton and Donald Sutherland

A brother/son has drowned. His death has repercussions that ripple throughout this family's relationships.

[RedRiver]

This may well be my favorite movie from the 1980s. The term "Instant Classic" could have been created for this one!

[rohanaka]

Oh me, oh MY, I just re-watched The Third Man this evening (for a little change of pace) and wowsa!! I had forgotten how marvelously WONDERFUL it is to hate that despicable Harry Lime! ha. What a GREAT ending that film has.. (MAJOR SPOILER) and it's definitely a great ENDING for that rotten Harry LIME guy as well.

GOOD gravy, if ever there was a candidate for Category #2, "TOO ROTTEN TO LIVE" it would be him, ha. (did I mention oh me, oh MY???)

You know, I have always liked this film since the first time I saw it a few years ago, and I really love the resolution for Harry (and for Holly Martins, too) and yet for some reason, tonight I seemed to pick up so much more about how perfectly fitting it was. OH that awful Harry.. trapped in a sewer, to die like the RAT he was.. and in the end, even HE realizes there is no hope as he looks over his shoulder and more or less just gives up, and then gives poor Holly the nod to do whatever he had to do... wow.

I don't know.. if it had been ME.. I might have had to NOT give him what he wanted. Might have been more fitting to just turn and walk away, and let him lay there utterly defeated on those stairs.. covered in the muck and slime and his own blood, and let the police catch him instead.

But then that would be a WHOLE other thread I'd have to post in, wouldn't it??? ha.