Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

Discussion of programming on TCM.
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moira finnie
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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You picked out some real gems for Claudette Colbert day. I would recommend The Secret Heart too among the Colbert movies today, as well as several you mentioned. I wrote my take on Parrish here, but I can't say that I've ever been a fan of Troy Donahue--though his movies have a certain mesmerizing power.

Can't wait for the Gladys George or Thelma Ritter days! Thanks for the heads up about Mae Clarke in The Catered Affair.
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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Moira, I watched "Tomorrow is Forever" this morning. That movie really gets to me. You know very well that I'm hardly the sentimental type, but I was tearing up and sniffling as the story unfolded.

As usual, Colbert had wonderful clothes, and looked great in them. She had such a sense of style -- her early ambition was to be a fashion designer. Even in her earliest films, where the costumes were often rather outlandish, she looked wonderful in everything she wore. Not always easy for such a non-standard body type.

After all these years, I still haven't quite adjusted to the concept of Colbert and John Wayne. Their movie was fine, and they went well together, but it seems just wrong, somehow.
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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jdb1 wrote:After all these years, I still haven't quite adjusted to the concept of Colbert and John Wayne. Their movie was fine, and they went well together, but it seems just wrong, somehow.
I also have a hard time with Don DeFore as John Wayne's best buddy in Without Reservations (1946). That chemistry really doesn't work either. It was almost as bizarre when Claudette married Robert Ryan in The Secret Fury (1950). I always think she's being unfaithful to Fred MacMurray or Ray Milland, who were more her speed. How do you feel about Joan Crawford making eyes at John Wayne in Reunion in France (1942)? I liked the movie overall, but their flirtation was just not natural, like dogs and cats living together.
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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kingrat wrote:Judith, I'm delighted you're back posting. Don't be a stranger.

Did anyone else see Two Smart People on John Hodiak day? I only caught the ending of this little-known Jules Dassin film. Hodiak and Lucille Ball play con artists, and Lloyd Nolan is a cop chasing them from NY to Mardi Gras. I think. But what makes this movie a must-see is something I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams: Elisha Cook, Jr. in a Harlequin costume.
Liked this but thought that the movie needed more Elisha.
kingrat wrote:I only saw the second half of The Underworld Story, a little-known Cy Endield film. If it isn't quite so good as Try and Get Me and Hell Drivers, it's still very good, with Dan Duryea as a sleazy editor trying to go honest. I hope this one will be repeated soon.
My *&%@#+* DVR erased my recording of this one, so we'll both have to look for it again. The machine thinks it is running out of room when it has over 57% of recording space left and then it takes steps to correct this by erasing stuff. Jeez, who's running things here? (Don't answer).
kingrat wrote:I finally saw all of Marriage Is a Private Affair, and liked this one a lot. What a great property for the young and beautiful Lana Turner, who was a better actress then than later in her career. She's poised and natural, able to hit all the right notes.
I want to like this movie, and do like certain scenes when the nubile Lana almost appears to be almost human, as in the scenes set in Vermont. She's very pretty at this stage, but whatever they put in the Kool-Aid at MGM seems to have drained her of the spontaneity that she had in Ziegfeld Girl and Johnny Eager prior to this movie, making her appear very self-conscious and more of a posing doll than a person, at least to me. Maybe a better director could have drawn more out of her here?

Other than Frances Gifford representing discontented but still powerless women of her time, I couldn't believe that anyone could ever be quite as empty as the women in this movie. I also couldn't believe anyone would risk a marriage--even one with Herb Rudley--for a tumble with Hugh freakin' Marlowe, who I think was supposed to be a dashing drunk. [Did anyone else see that car ride across the Charles River Bridge coming? How shockingly convenient. Bet it put a smile on the Production Code boys' grizzled faces].

Marriage Is a Private Affair is one of those MGM flicks that makes me wish someone would open a window and let some fresh air in to waft away those clouds of glamour--but I think I am in the minority on this one. I liked the quiet naturalism of John Hodiak in this movie, but felt he was capable of so much more than this role. May the gods of film distribution please allow TCM to acquire a print of Desert Fury (1947) when John is the dangerous object of desire for Lizabeth Scott and Wendell Corey so we don't have to see this movie again.
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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Thank you for your kind words, King. I caught only the middle part of the Hodiak-Ball-Nolan thing. I was unfamiliar with this one, and surprised to see Dassin listed as director -- not quite his kind of thing, you'd think.

I thought it seemed interesting, but even the 15 or 20 minutes or so I saw probably could have been better. Ball looked gorgeous, and made you watch her, as usual. I'm very fond of Lloyd Nolan and his authoritative but nasal delivery. I though he was quite wry in his role (at least in the part I saw - I don't know if he got tough later on).

I was not a big fan of John Hodiak in the past, and it's only recently that I've re-visited his body of work and have come to appreciate it. I was disappointed that TCM didn't schedule what I think is his best - "Somewhere in the Night." Maybe next time.
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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So tomorrow we get a full day of Paul Newman. Don't know that I'm going to watch much on the schedule -- been there, done that, yes he's a hunk, yes those eyes are sooo blue, etc.

However, I will give attention to "Somebody Up There Likes Me," which was a departure for Newman, and which he handles very nicely (although he makes a much more refined and classy Rocky Graziano than the original). It's because I remember Rocky Graziano so well from my youth that I find Newman's portrayal so surprisingly captivating. Graziano in his later years became a sweet and lovable comic performer and yogurt salesman on TV. I seem to recall him on television with Tallulah Bankhead, but I can't quite remember what that was all about -- did he call her his "goombah?" Newman shows the transition from chip-on-the-shoulder thug, to disciplined prizefighter, to nice guy very skillfully. See if you can spot Staten Island's own Robert Loggia in a small part.

Compare a performance like that to Newman's Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Pretty impressive.

And let me point out another forgotten gem on Borgnine's day - "Season of Passion." It's a hyped-up name for a quiet little indie that was produced by Burt Lancaster's company. The movie is based on a play called "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll." It's the story of two itinerant workers in Australia who come to the city once a year (this visit being their seventeenth) to meet their girlfriends. Just the premise gives it interest -- Borgnine with an Australian accent. He acquits himself well. This is not an action-packed thriller. It's an adult story about adult relationships, and there's more talking than action. Anne Baxter plays Ernie's girl, and John Mills and Angela Lansbury are their once-a-year friends. I like this one, but it may not be to everyone's taste. But anyone who might think that Borgnine wasn't a serious and versatile actor should see it.

And, incidentally, Anne Baxter was living in Australia at this time of this film, having married a businessman who bought a cattle station in some remote area there. She wrote a little book about it called "Intermission." It's really fascinating.
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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Here´s a short article with an exclusive interview with actor Marvin Kaplan ("It´s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!") and a few of his thoughts about Paul Newman for Newman´s Summer Under The Stars Day tomorrow: http://exm.nr/1pDbIxP
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

Post by Vecchiolarry »

Hi,

Last night I watched "The Smiling Lieutenant" (1931) on Claudette Colbert's day......

I had to laugh when overwraught bride, Miriam Hopkins, is stood up on her wedding night by Maurice Chevalier - and her father arrives with a checker board - and she cries out, "I don't want to play CHECKERS!!".....

Also, Maurice Chevalier arrives at a speakeasy to visit his girlfriend, Claudette, and she's playing in the "Flausenthurm Follies"....

And, the best part - Claudette and Miriam singing, "Jazz Up Your Lingerie"...... Priceless!!!

I also watched part of "Skylark" and - - what a bore... I only saw enough of it to see my old friend, Binnie Barnes, who played a bejewelled b-i-t-c-h; and turned it off after Claudette called her 'a tramp'...

Larry
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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Oh, I liked aspects of Skylark (1941), Larry--Barnes was pretty icy, but her hauteur never cracked (I do like her more when she is allowed to be funny or a tad piratical). Colbert was very good at times but the script did not help her much. Her physical comedy on the boat was exceptionally good, but her character seemed to be an indecisive ninny by the last scene. And would many women throw Brian Aherne back for Ray Milland? I doubt it. My favorite aspect of the movie: those houses leapt from the imagination of Hollywood's House Beautiful--thanks to the great art direction of Roland Anderson and Hans Dreier--all captured beautifully by Charles Lang's cinematography. Gad, even the clouds outside the beach "cottage" looked as though they had been ordered from custom made from heaven.
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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Here's my latest article celebrating the life and legacy of actress Thelma Ritter: http://bit.ly/1pcGEFL

Watch her stellar performances all day tomorrow on TCM's Summer Under The Stars!

I enjoyed The Smiling Lieutenant, too, Larry. (Sometimes you are almost too naughty!)

Moira, I DVR'ed Skylark and hope to see it soon.
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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Just finished watching Gladys George in "Madame X." I surprised myself when I remembered that I'd never seen this version before. I loved it; I thought George was terrific, and everyone else was wonderful as well.

This was a very good soap opera; not the highest-end production, but certainly easy to watch. George gives a real whirlwind of a performance as a "lost" woman. I was tearing up at the climactic courtroom scene: George, defeated, on the witness stand accused of murder, gazing with a mixture of pride and trepidation as she listens to her long-lost son, now a lawyer, defending her, hoping he won't realize who she is. So affecting, the shy and hesitant way she touches his hands as he speaks. This is one I'll be happy to watch again.
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Re: Summer Under the Stars August 2014 Schedule on TCM

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You named my favorite Gladys George movie, Judith. I love the way she makes all the preposterous plot seem realistic and possible, thanks to her talent. It is also a terrific part for Henry Daniell, who slithers across the screen so elegantly.
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