Bad Movies You Love

[MissGoddess]

Wendy, I just happened to catch it when I came home, I had no idea what it was when I heard the opening music but it sounded like one of those deliciously angst-ridden 50s movies. I was expecting more of a film noir based on the lurid first scene but then we went to Efram in his charming lumberjacket shirt and pipe! He's so cute with his pipe. I like the little funny line he quipped that the pipe got him more votes than he did.

[JackFavell]

I am starting to love Efrem, Hugh Marlowe, Philip Carey, and all the other lookalikes! And although I love James Garner best, I always liked Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick. I am really sorry I didn't see this one. Angie is also growing on me as an actress, she's really quite good in the movies of that time that I've seen. I always thought she was like Jill St. John, just a vavavoom body with no real talent. Sorry, but it's true. I was prejudiced against her.

[MissGoddess]

I first took to Efram in Home Before Dark. Angie was definitely a bombshell, but I love her sense of humor and her ease.

I hope TCM airs Fever in the Blood again one day, or maybe it will come out on DVD.

[JackFavell]

Me too! I really like Home Before Dark! And he looks so good in a black turtleneck, or fisherman's sweater....

My apologies to any Jill St. John fans. I guess those old habits of underestimating bombshells die hard.

[CineMaven]

Sorry for the late notice, but I think we might want to see the deliciously titled A Fever in the Blood (1961), which is being shown on TCM at 6pm (ET) today.

How did I miss this one?

Girl, you have just GOT to start reading Madame Finnie's announcements. I set my ( VHS ) recorder before I left the house.

I am starting to love Efrem, Hugh Marlowe, Philip Carey, and all the other lookalikes! And although I love James Garner best, I always liked Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick. I am really sorry I didn't see this one.

Whew!! Spot on with your look-alikes, Wendy:


I used to get the Tys and the Tabs and the Troys a little mixed up waaaay back when I was a closeted little mini-Maven. ( Closeted b'cuz all the girls were liking Marvin, and Smoky and Eddie Kendricks. Couldn't really talk about the surfer-type to anyone then. )

Angie is also growing on me as an actress, she's really quite good in the movies of that time that I've seen. I always thought she was like Jill St. John, just a vavavoom body with no real talent. Sorry, but it's true. I was prejudiced against her...My apologies to any Jill St. John fans. I guess those old habits of underestimating bombshells die hard.

"Underestimating bombshells die hard." That made me laugh out loud.

[moirafinnie]

Actually, I was REALLY late with this notice about Fever in the Blood, so I am quite surprised that any of us got to see it. Sorry about that. I'll try to look over the scheduling landscape more often. I am hoping this arrives on DVD soon too.

I agree that Don Ameche was a much better actor in later years than he ever was in the '30s and '40s (though I have a soft spot for The Happy Land). Loved Angie all through this movie and she and Efrem had major chemistry in a completely different way than she had with Lee Marvin in Point Blank, huh? It was more like the vibe between her and Gregory Peck in Captain Newman, MD with a somber note thrown in.

I get Efrem and Phil Carey and have for years. But Hugh Marlowe? I only just got it through my head that he wasn't Richard Carlson, even though the two of them seemed interchangeable to me for years. I like Jack Kelly as Maverick's brother, but not as much as Ef and Phil. Was anyone else really happy any time Jesse White showed up to run over a kid or throw a monkey wrench into the political machine? He may be one of my favorite likable slime balls before the arrival of Stuart Margolin on the scene. Speaking of slime, Ray Danton was really a bit of a delightful surprise as the smooth-talking mouthpiece.

[RedRiver]

The Killers belongs to 1946

Yes. But who hasn't wanted to slap the living **** out of Reagan at one time or another?

I always thought she was like Jill St. John

Oh, Lord! Now I have to take my cardiac meds!

[kingrat]

Yikes, I put the "Coming Up on TCM" post here. Now it's where it belongs.

[MissGoddess]

Jesse White was great! I love him. I really loved the cast of this movie and yes, it's the first time I liked Ray Danton, too!

Richard Carlson and Marshall Thompson are the two I always confuse...

Oh, and Wendy I agree...I love Jim Garner but I really like Kelly, too---he has a very relaxed vibe to him that I find charming. Oh, these Irish!

[knitwit45]

Yes. But who hasn't wanted to slap the living **** out of Reagan at one time or another?

Me, for one.

[JackFavell]

You poor thing! Hard to fess up to liking those cool blonde boys? I'm so glad times have changed, Maven. You can always do your confessin' here! (Marvin, mmm. so good looking, such a great singer, in a perfect world I wish he could have had a film career, maybe it might have staved off some of his problems)

One day last year in April, I turned on TCM. They showed Home Before Dark and 4 or 5 other movies in a row, all starring the same gorgeous hunk, who I actually thought was Hugh Marlowe. Turns out, they were all different guys! One was Efrem (the best of the lot) and one was Philip Carey, and one was actually Hugh, there might even have been Richard Carlson in there. I laughed myself silly, and again this year at the SSO when I checked the lookalikes thread and found I wasn't alone in my confusion.

Don't be picking on my Don Ameche, the cipher that sings. I love him any time, anywhere.

[moirafinnie]

I liked Reagan in some roles in the '40s and early '50s, but not as a villain. He lacks the acting range for that kind of thing, you know?

Okay, I spouted off too soon, a major failing in my online life. On reflection, I remembered that I did like Don Ameche when he invented the telephone and died at the piano in Lillian Russell (it was hilarious). And I mentioned Happy Land (1943) already, but he really didn't deserve to get pushed aside for Tyrone Power all the time, though Don wasn't really scintillating, was he? However, he was very good in the comedy-drama Confirm or Deny (1940) with Joan Bennett, and was a good con artist in The Magnificent Dope (1943). But I love him in the radio shows about The Bickersons, Things Change (1988), and Trading Places (1983). He did get better with age.

[JackFavell]

I agree, he did get better, I love all those later movies you mentioned. I was just teasing you. And you are right, he's not scintillating, but he is actually sexy in Midnight. I also just love him with Betty Grable in Moon Over Miami. Of course, his rival in that one is Bob Cummings. Anyone would look good in comparison.

D'oh! I'm just kidding, love that Bob! Sorry!

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi Wendy,

Dear Gawd, Heaven help you if those bombshells rise up, busoms heaving and arses bouncing, and come looking for you!!!!

I grew up, eyes widened and mouth a-gape, just loving Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Diana Dors, Mamie Van Doren and Brigitte Bardot...
I once even had 2 girlfriends, not at the same time (even I was not brave enough for that!!); Roberta (Bobbi) Powers and Gilda Huff.... And, they both looked like Brigitte Bardot...

I once saw Jill St. John at a dinner party given by Barbara Hutton. Jill was married to Barbara's son, Lance at one time.
Jill was quite lovely, gracious and very smart. She knew all about astronomy and geology - not something one considers from her movie roles.
I was very happy when she married Robert Wagner - a nice guy by all reports.

Larry

[Western Guy]

Don't know Bob Wagner personally but a buddy of mine is friendly with him, and yes: Apparently he is a very nice guy.

Still, if you haven't, take a gander at Wagner's autobiography. Some of it may surprise you, especially the oft-times "colorful" writing one wouldn't expect from a classy gent like R.J.

He does tell it like it is.