The Silver Screen Oasis

Is it worth going through a bad marriage to get to these two hirsute hunks?

"Take the ribbon from your hair..."

An ex-member of TCM City just FaceBook'd that he would wear adult diapers so as not to miss a moment of it.

I'm gonna need photos!

PICTURES!! Hell, I can't get even get you to show us a photo of your imaginary dog, Sugar!!!

Jack, I thought you might like this:

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Oh my gosh, you must have read my mind! I swear, I just saw this video a few weeks ago and was thinking of posting it...LOVE it! Harold and Maude is such a great movie.

I watched "Blood and Sand" (1941) directed by Rouben Mamoulian.

I wasn't expecting much from this film, but it really impressed me. I loved the childhood part of the film in which we see how bullfighting has a hold on the hero. I'm not the world's biggest Tyrone Power fan, but I liked him here. Really liked the supporting work by Laird Cregar, J. Carroll Naish and John Carradine. Rita Hayworth was terrific. The scene in which she enters the restaurant with Power and then abandons him in favor of Anthony Quinn is superb.

The movie reminded me a bit of "The Gunfighter" and even "The Natural."

I have to say this film made me think more highly of Mamoulian. I never liked his "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" or "Queen Christina." (Movie heresy alert.) But "Applause," "Love Me Tonight" and "Blood and Sand" are wonderful. (As well as "Mark of Zorro.")

Mamoulian is such an experimenter. I think some of his experiments work, and some don't. And his fans remind me of Preston Sturges fans. Each of these directors has a following but within that following there are widely divergent opinions about which movies are good.

MikeBSG,

I'm glad you like it ... "Blood and Sand" ... that movie launch the career of Rita Hayworth to Super-Stardom. It is one of the better movies about Bullfighting and I agree with your assessment of this movie. Laird Cregar, J. Carroll Naish and John Carradine were fabulous in this movie and I often forget about them as well ... the problem is that this movie has too much star power. Powers, Hayworth, Darnell, and Quinn is a formidable quartet in this movie.

Mike, your posts usually start out with you writing about having low expectations for a film you're going to watch. Do you think that when you place such low expectations on something...that THAT is what you will get? Do you adopt that mindset to keep you from being disappointed?

Jack, "HAROLD & MAUDE" was made in 1971, close enough by a year to what we spoke of earlier ( "Catch-22" - I'm still chuckling like a nut here thinking of "A chair or my Dad's girl---..." ). It's a great film. What a pixie Ruthie is. I've got to check it out again. In fact, Criterion's trailer is serving as inspiration or template for me to create a trailer for "Meg Ramsey." Imitation is the greatest form of flattery they say...hope I don't get sued for plagarism.

Cinemaven's ARE mind-readers. And Capricorns.

Regarding expectations on watching a film: I always try to approach a "new" movie with hope. If I hear from several people I trust that movie X is really lousy, I will tend to steer clear of it.

In the case of "Blood and Sand," I guess I had low expectations because I hadn't heard much about the movie at all over the years, and I had some vague idea that it was a preposterous thing with all the women walking around with roses in their teeth. (Maybe from some long-gone Carol Burnette show?) I wouldn't have tried to see the movie if I hadn't been so impressed with "Applause" a few months ago. That made me look for some other Mamoulian films. "Blood and Sand" was the only one I hadn't seen that was available. (I gave "Applause" a try because the BFI book "100 Film Musicals" made it sound pretty interesting.)

MikeBSG wrote:Regarding expectations on watching a film: I always try to approach a "new" movie with hope. If I hear from several people I trust that movie X is really lousy, I will tend to steer clear of it.

In the case of "Blood and Sand," I guess I had low expectations because I hadn't heard much about the movie at all over the years, and I had some vague idea that it was a preposterous thing with all the women walking around with roses in their teeth. (Maybe from some long-gone Carol Burnette show?) I wouldn't have tried to see the movie if I hadn't been so impressed with "Applause" a few months ago. That made me look for some other Mamoulian films. "Blood and Sand" was the only one I hadn't seen that was available. (I gave "Applause" a try because the BFI book "100 Film Musicals" made it sound pretty interesting.)

I know what you mean here ... and its okay to have these thoughts. I love "Applause" too and I gave it a try because a friend of mine in Canada invited me to his house to watch the movie when it was on one of various cable channels that he carries.

[u]MikeBSG[/u] wrote:Regarding expectations on watching a film: I always try to approach a "new" movie with hope. If I hear from several people I trust that movie X is really lousy, I will tend to steer clear of it.

Glad to read you approach movie - watching with hope. By all means, steer clear of movies that friends have said are lousy, though I'm of a mind of making up my OWN mind. To be disappointed after seeing something is one thing. ( I don't mean a "Planet 9 From Outer Space" or "I Sailed To Tahiti With An All Girl Crew" which you can sort of surmise what you'll get before you watch it. ) To aim low before you go in, is another. Thanxx for the reply.

By the by...I LOVE "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "I Sailed to Tahiti With An All Girl Crew." And aaaahhhhhhh, Carol Burnett. Her spoofs made watching classic films inspiring.

CineMaven wrote:
And I'll also have to look at what films came out in 1970 and see what I was gravitating to as a teenager.

Here are the then-current releases I remember seeing in 1970 (my final year as a teenager). Seems that there should have been more.

AIRPORT
CATCH-22
ELVIS: THAT'S THE WAY IT IS
GETTING STRAIGHT
THE HAWAIIANS
HUSBANDS
LOVE STORY
M*A*S*H
A MAN CALLED HORSE
PATTON
START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME
WOODSTOCK

There are about three keepers in there. I can, without hesitation, blame four of them directly on a young woman I was dating. But, as we know, Love means never having to say you're sorry.

BLAME? Why I'm checking out your list ChiO and I should think you were a lucky teenager to date a girl who liked "Patton" and war movies ( ). I was going to compile a list of all the movies made in 1970, But when I saw the cut 'n paste job I'd have to do with Wikipedia, I abandoned that idea...for now.

I'm right behind you in the teenage department in 1970, and of what you listed, I saw:

AIRPORT
GETTING STRAIGHT
HUSBANDS
LOVE STORY
WOODSTOCK

Gosh, in looking up the films of 1970, I realize that so many of those films were made for grown ups as compared to nowadays. No wonder we kids wanted to grow up in a hurry! Look at what I saw that year:

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

The Over the Hill Gang Rides Again

The Aristocats