Bad Movies You Love

[JackFavell]

Oh geez, I love him in After the Fox! With that hair dye dripping down the back of his neck... oh lordy, he was wonderful at sending up his own image! He was so good natured, I really would have loved to sit down and have a drink with him, listened to his take on Hollywood, or just about anything.

My favorite Vic story was perhaps apocryphal, but I still love the humor behind it:

Leaving school at 15, he became a salesman with a wholesale candy house, then went out on his own as a candy jobber. Four years later he packed his car with canned goods and candy and headed to Hollywood, armed with the following advice from his father, who had become a success in the refrigeration business: ''As long as people think you're dumber than you are, you'll make money.''

Mr. Mature said he telegraphed his father: ''Arrived here with 11 cents and an ambition. I am going to become an actor.''

His father wired back: ''Forty-three years ago I arrived in New York with five cents and could not even speak English. You are six cents up on me.''

[moira finnie]

I love those "something will always turn up" stories about people trying to be actors. I am currently reading Margaret Talbot's splendid "The Entertainer: Movies, Magic, and My Father's Twentieth Century" about her father, character actor Lyle Talbot. It is a biography of her father seen through the perspective of the evolution of entertainment over the past 100 years. He had that same kind of bounce--believing, for some reason that had NOTHING to do with reality, that things would work out and that being an actor was a kind of calling (and a great way to meet girls)! I really recommend this book to anyone interested in this mentality and period of American history--even if, like me, you groan with recognition whenever Lyle the slick guy pops up in movies in the early '30s. It's delightful as well as thoughtful.

[JackFavell]

I am crazy about Lyle Talbot, so this is definitely for me. Where did you pick this one up, Moira?

[Bronxgirl48]

Wow, moira, thanks so much for the Egan suggestions! I'm excited to know there's some good stuff out there with him, most notably THE FACE IN THE MIRROR, which I've never even heard of. Maybe I can get lucky on YouTube.

I always thought Victor Mature was an underrated actor.

[Bronxgirl48]

Bronxie -

At last we hit on something we both watched.... er....should I say, didn't watch. I have tried 3 times to watch The Reivers, and have struck out 3 times. Apparently, just as Victor Mature before him, McQueen denigrated himself for taking on the role in this movie by saying that it would probably be his last, once people got a look at the thing.

Oh my gosh you couldn't get through it either! Hahahahahahahaha! I'm vindicated!!

[moira finnie]

I am crazy about Lyle Talbot, so this is definitely for me. Where did you pick this one up, Moira?

At a bookstore. Full Price! Not even used. I must be slipping. But after reading The New Yorker excerpt by Margaret Talbot I was hooked.

Wow, moira, thanks so much for the Egan suggestions! I'm excited to know there's some good stuff out there with him, most notably THE FACE IN THE MIRROR, which I've never even heard of. Maybe I can get lucky on YouTube.

I always thought Victor Mature was an underrated actor.

oops! I misquoted the title which is The Voice in the Mirror. That movie and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue have both been on TCM in the distant past. Let's hope that the programming dept. catches these next time they are available.

[Rita Hayworth]

I for one supports BronxGirl48's assessment that Victor Mature was an underrated actor.

[moira finnie]

I think that makes at least a few of us in agreement, Kingme. He was one of a kind, certainly...(and I hear that he and Rita were very much an item for a little while before he went into The Coast Guard during WWII).

[RedRiver]

BRONXIAN EMISSARY!

Lyrical meditations on life, love, and Richard Egan

It's hard to compete with the singing ghost of Elvis!

I was looking forward to THE REIVERS, but was immediately turned off

It's time to retire the hooker with the heart of gold once and for all. Not buying it! I read a book that employed that device. It turned out, she was manipulating somebody. She wasn't really so kind-hearted. That made it more palatable. Even then, it was hard to take. Let's this one go.

I think Moira and myself are the only two people in the world who have seen THE VOICE IN THE MIRROR. I like it a lot. It is, for all practical purposes, the fictionalized account of the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. The names are changed. So is the situation. But, clearly, no recovery program exists until the characters form one. This small, contained drama features fine support by Arthur O'Connell, Walter Matthau and patient wife Julie London, who also provides the theme song. It's a moving, and at times terrifying, story of a "good man with a bad disease."

I've said too much, without even warning of a spoiler. I struggled with that decision. In the end, I chose to share some of the substance of the story, and hope I haven't ruined the experience for others. This is a fine and sensitive movie, all but completely forgotten.

[RedRiver]

Ira Levin also authored "The Stepford Wives", "The Boys from Brazil" and the little-known sequel to "Rosemary's Baby", "Son of Rosemary".

If we're to believe Morey Amsterdam, there was one more. The story of a woman who gives birth to a piano. ROSEMARY'S BABY GRAND!

[ChiO]

Speaking of Victor Mature and Richard Egan and -- though we weren't speaking of the King of the Erratic Directors -- Richard Fleischer, I don't believe anyone has mentioned VIOLENT SATURDAY (1955). Though merely a movie I love rather than a bad movie, it's chock full of the underrated: Sylvia Sidney, Billy Chapin, J. Carrol Naish, Stephen McNally, Tommy Noonan, Brad Dexter and -- as our favorite Amish leader -- Ernest Borgnine.

Oh, and that Lee Marvin guy (when you're that good, you're always underrated).

[moira finnie]

Speaking of Victor Mature and Richard Egan and -- though we weren't speaking of the King of the Erratic Directors -- Richard Fleischer, I don't believe anyone has mentioned VIOLENT SATURDAY (1955). Though merely a movie I love rather than a bad movie, it's chock full of the underrated: Sylvia Sidney, Billy Chapin, J. Carrol Naish, Stephen McNally, Tommy Noonan, Brad Dexter and -- as our favorite Amish leader -- Ernest Borgnine.

Oh, and that Lee Marvin guy (when you're that good, you're always underrated).

Not to mention the much-loved and often mentioned Virginia Leith in the cast. I have taken a closer look at Violent Saturday in the past, though I don't think it is a great part for Mature or Egan. I think that the "pacifist" Amish Ernie and J. Carrol Naish's coke-bottle wearing crook are the real standouts in this heist flick.

[JackFavell]

Hey, Violent Saturday looks excellent. Check. Added to my Vic Mature movie list. Besides, is there a heist movie that ISN'T good? I don't remember seeing this on the list of TCM heist films this month.

After forcing myself to sit and actually watch How The West Was Won last week, I finally understand what Cinemascope is supposed to do for film=making. Your review of Violent Saturday made me very curious indeed.

Especially the part about Gun Crazy.

[moira finnie]

Wen, Violent Saturday is online on youtube--though it would probably be more impressive on the big screen. I wish that they had spent more time on the script. There are so many characters with intriguing aspects, I wish that they had been developed further. I'd love to read your reaction to it. Don't miss the confrontation at the farm!!

[youtube][/youtube]

[JackFavell]

I will definitely watch it, Moira, just to see all the crazy hand squishing, amish baiting fun.