College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
- moira finnie
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College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
Okay, as Cinemaven and JackFavell have recently pointed out, college professors on film, especially when they are husbands, tend to be...uh...problematical.
Where do you stand on this burning issue?
Can a professor in the movies ever be exciting--or is the inbred anti-intellectualism of American movies prejudiced against the intelligensia--leading to the casting of some of the more dessicated actors on on film in the roles of professors without a clue outside the classroom?
Where do you stand on this burning issue?
Can a professor in the movies ever be exciting--or is the inbred anti-intellectualism of American movies prejudiced against the intelligensia--leading to the casting of some of the more dessicated actors on on film in the roles of professors without a clue outside the classroom?
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Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
Well, off-hand I can think of one college professor who is also an action/romantic hero -- Robert Langdon in the movies made from Dan Brown's novels Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code.
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Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
Second thought brings up professor Indiana Jones and the series of films around him, certainly dashing and romantic, and The Mirror Has Two Faces which features a pair of Columbia University professors. Jeff Bridges' math professor starts out completely unromantic and dull, but learns from popular literature professor Barbara Streisand how to let himself go a bit, and to "hear Puccini in his head."
Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
A certain Professor Wagstaff is full of surprises!
"And since the very day that I commenced it,
I'm against it!"
"And since the very day that I commenced it,
I'm against it!"
Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
There was this professor in a 1973 film. The actor reprised the role on TV from 1978 to 1986.
I started law school in 1978, and there were two kinds of law professors at that time: those who emulated Prof. Kingsfield and those who tried not to, but couldn't help themselves.
Not "good" or "bad" or "ewwww", but merely sadistic.
Where do Dr. Julius Kelp (THE NUTTY PROFESSOR *), Prof. Brainard (THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR), Dr. Frankenstein (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN), Prof. Wagstaff (HORSE FEATHERS) and Professor Jennings (ANIMAL HOUSE) fit in? **
* As for another thread, my favorite version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE.
** As one who taught at a college at the start of my so-called career(s) and have now resumed that portrayal, I can objectively state that college professors are not necessarily problematical as husbands. There is no need to contact my first spouse for confirmation.
I started law school in 1978, and there were two kinds of law professors at that time: those who emulated Prof. Kingsfield and those who tried not to, but couldn't help themselves.
Not "good" or "bad" or "ewwww", but merely sadistic.
Where do Dr. Julius Kelp (THE NUTTY PROFESSOR *), Prof. Brainard (THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR), Dr. Frankenstein (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN), Prof. Wagstaff (HORSE FEATHERS) and Professor Jennings (ANIMAL HOUSE) fit in? **
* As for another thread, my favorite version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE.
** As one who taught at a college at the start of my so-called career(s) and have now resumed that portrayal, I can objectively state that college professors are not necessarily problematical as husbands. There is no need to contact my first spouse for confirmation.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
Noting one good and one bad from the same film - Dr. Noah Pretorias (Cary Grant) and Prof. Rodney Elwell (Hume Cronyn) in People Will Talk.
"I'm at my most serious when I'm joking." - Dudley
Don't sweat the petty things - don't pet the sweaty things.
Don't sweat the petty things - don't pet the sweaty things.
Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
BRILLIANT MOIRA!!!
I think professors are a little squirrelly because they're in their head so much of the time and not their hearts.
But brother when they fall they fall...hard. Good thread Moira!
I think professors are a little squirrelly because they're in their head so much of the time and not their hearts.
But brother when they fall they fall...hard. Good thread Moira!
Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
Sugarpuss O'Shea found a grand group of perfessers.
Best marriage material: Professor Bertram Potts or Professor Magenbruch? Discuss.
Best marriage material: Professor Bertram Potts or Professor Magenbruch? Discuss.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
I think Professor Van Helsing would have had a wonderful fruitful life with a woman, if only he hadn't been obsessed to chase Dracula around like Jean Valjean:
Edward Van Sloan
Good examples from ev'ryone. ( So we're talking strictly professors, right? Not teachers like Mr. Novak or Mr. Dadier or To Sir With Love? )
Edward Van Sloan
Good examples from ev'ryone. ( So we're talking strictly professors, right? Not teachers like Mr. Novak or Mr. Dadier or To Sir With Love? )
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Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
I don't pay any attention to this stuff - if an actor/actress did well in this sort of genre (playing a College Professor) I will make a valid comment about it - otherwise I just skip the movie and don't even bother make an attempt to post about it at all because the subject matter is irrelevant to me. That's my 2 cents on this subject matter.
Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
Cine cum laude!
Is that Mr. Chipping in your photo? If not, we must include that adorable intellectual in the discussion. A teacher of young boys, not college. But such a noble gent, and so marvelously played by two of our finest actors.
Is that Mr. Chipping in your photo? If not, we must include that adorable intellectual in the discussion. A teacher of young boys, not college. But such a noble gent, and so marvelously played by two of our finest actors.
Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
Whoa! My favorite best nom-de-plume yet![u]RedRiver[/u] wrote:Cine cum laude!
Why yes. Yes it is. It's Robert Donat as Mr. Chips. Or as I refer to him, "that guy that stole the Oscar from Clark Gable!"Is that Mr. Chipping in your photo? If not, we must include that adorable intellectual in the discussion. A teacher of young boys, not college. But such a noble gent, and so marvelously played by two of our finest actors.
Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
That makes Peter O'Toole "The guy whose Oscar was stolen by John Wayne!" Sorry, Duke.
- moira finnie
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Re: College Profs on Film: Good, Bad or Just Ewwww?
Please note: The Devil Commands (1941), which is airing on TCM right now, features Boris Karloff as a college professor (electrical engineering, I suspect). Good flick, full of understandable dread of what science was cooking up in '41. A line you don't want to hear from Boris in any movie: "I think I may have left some switches on..."
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