MUSINGS, PONDERINGS, RUMINATIONS AND FANCIES

[Bronxgirl48]

WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF, meh! Did WWII audiences really need or want an MGM reworking of their classic 1932 GRAND HOTEL? I have a hard time swallowing the original cast counterparts: Ginger and Pidgeon (his ever-present pinky ring on full display) morph into Garbo and John Barrymore; Lana plus Van and Edward Arnold are, respectively, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery. Can you stand the updated excitement?

I've never seen it because I thought it would be terrible. Not even knowing cast even, but now that I know I have ceased considering it at all. Thanks.

Believe me you're not missing anything, including Robert Benchley's narration.

[Hibi]

WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF, meh! Did WWII audiences really need or want an MGM reworking of their classic 1932 GRAND HOTEL? I have a hard time swallowing the original cast counterparts: Ginger and Pidgeon (his ever-present pinky ring on full display) morph into Garbo and John Barrymore; Lana plus Van and Edward Arnold are, respectively, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery. Can you stand the updated excitement?

I've never seen it because I thought it would be terrible. Not even knowing cast even, but now that I know I have ceased considering it at all. Thanks.

Please save yourself the trouble! It's not worth watching. At least the Ginger/Walter part. It's like a completely different film. When I first heard about this remake, I thought it odd Ginger was not playing the Secretary role and Lana the star (no ballerina here). It's wartime NYC. No Berlin! But after watching it, I can see why Ginger was cast in the Garbo role. There's no real drama or tragedy in the Ginger story. She's just playing a character out of a Ginger Rogers comedy.

[Hibi]

WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF, meh! Did WWII audiences really need or want an MGM reworking of their classic 1932 GRAND HOTEL? I have a hard time swallowing the original cast counterparts: Ginger and Pidgeon (his ever-present pinky ring on full display) morph into Garbo and John Barrymore; Lana plus Van and Edward Arnold are, respectively, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery. Can you stand the updated excitement?

I've never seen it because I thought it would be terrible. Not even knowing cast even, but now that I know I have ceased considering it at all. Thanks.

Believe me you're not missing anything, including Robert Benchley's narration.

It was so completely forgettable, I forgot all about it!!!

[Bronxgirl48]

Did you guys ever notice how Walter Pidgeon smokes a cigarette? In every movie showcasing this pleasantly genteel and sophisticated actor he inhales and exhales in a frankly well, disgusting way, with a weird twist of his tongue. I swear that tongue has a life of its own.

I can't wait to check this out in my next Walter Pidgeon film! I've always found him kind of revolting, but could never put my finger on why...maybe this will seal the deal!

LOL It could indeed.

[Bronxgirl48]

I've never seen it because I thought it would be terrible. Not even knowing cast even, but now that I know I have ceased considering it at all. Thanks.

Believe me you're not missing anything, including Robert Benchley's narration.

It was so completely forgettable, I forgot all about it!!!

LOL Benchley's Oscar-winning short How To Sleep will make you drop right off....

[Bronxgirl48]

WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF, meh! Did WWII audiences really need or want an MGM reworking of their classic 1932 GRAND HOTEL? I have a hard time swallowing the original cast counterparts: Ginger and Pidgeon (his ever-present pinky ring on full display) morph into Garbo and John Barrymore; Lana plus Van and Edward Arnold are, respectively, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery. Can you stand the updated excitement?

I've never seen it because I thought it would be terrible. Not even knowing cast even, but now that I know I have ceased considering it at all. Thanks.

Trust Hibi as well on this one.

[laffite]

Believe me you're not missing anything, including Robert Benchley's narration.

It was so completely forgettable, I forgot all about it!!!

LOL Benchley's Oscar-winning short How To Sleep will make you drop right off....

He had a short set piece in the court room in Remember the Night (1939). He played a lawyer I think and he was allowed to drone on and on with a tortured monologue that was excruciatingly boring. A real 'what were they thinking' moment. It was embarrassing.

[laffite]

He didn't appear anywhere else in the film which was a blessing. He was there that 10 or so minutes signifying nothing. If this film gets restored they would do well to cut out the scene. I know, that's blasphemy, but maybe even blasphemy has a silver lining, it does here.

[Bronxgirl48]

It was so completely forgettable, I forgot all about it!!!

LOL Benchley's Oscar-winning short How To Sleep will make you drop right off....

He had a short set piece in the court room in Remember the Night (1939). He played a lawyer I think and he was allowed to drone on and on with a tortured monologue that was excruciatingly boring. A real 'what were they thinking' moment. It was embarrassing.

No, that was Willard Robertson who actually gives a HILARIOUS performance as that lawyer attempting to get Barbara Stanwyck off on a shoplifting charge by appealing to the sentiments of the jury during the Christmas season. Very funny scene!

[txfilmfan]

WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF, meh! Did WWII audiences really need or want an MGM reworking of their classic 1932 GRAND HOTEL? I have a hard time swallowing the original cast counterparts: Ginger and Pidgeon (his ever-present pinky ring on full display) morph into Garbo and John Barrymore; Lana plus Van and Edward Arnold are, respectively, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery. Can you stand the updated excitement?

I'd never seen this film before for some reason and I was totally unimpressed! Especially the GInger/Pidgeon story. They were no Garbo and Barrymore! GAG. The Lana Turner/Van Johnson part wasn't bad, but was greatly changed from the Joan/Beery story in the original. (For that matter, so was Ginger's story!) Was glad they deleted the Lionel character. What a great promo for the Waldorf Astoria though. I wonder if they filmed parts of it in the hotel? Or was it all sets? Didn't say in the wraparounds.

Several internet sources say parts of it were filmed at the hotel. The Wiki article says Waldorf-Astoria demanded that it be filmed in color, but MGM refused, and nearly switched the locale to San Francisco as a result.

Never been in the hotel, but I understand the interiors stayed pretty much the same until the 1970s or 1980s. It's been under extensive refurbishment, undergoing a partial condo conversion, for the past 4 or 5 years, and remains closed. Re-opening date keeps getting pushed out due to financing issues, bankruptcies and the like. Now owned by Chinese interests.

[LiamCasey]

Javelinas hit the national news:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/sport/ja ... index.html

[Dargo]

Javelinas hit the national news:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/sport/ja ... index.html

Packs of these little suckers roam my back yard area quite often.

Ya see, my house backs up to the rough along the Oak Creek Country Club golf course in the Sedona AZ area. They're kind'a fun to watch.

(...hit 'em with a flashlight beam at night and because their eyesight is extremely poor, they'll give out a grunt and if as to say, "HEY! Who's doin' that!")

[Andree]

Chuck Heston looks good in jeans too!

And Michael Ripper is always the landlord at those pubs. So comforting to consistently see him, lol.

Agree with what you say, Andree, about THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS. But I'm always amazed how seamlessly the very European Polanski "got" the American urban atmosphere in ROSEMARY'S BABY.

Walter Pidgeon, such a dear old fuddy duddy, even in the early 1930's.

Yeah, it's one of those romantic stories where the couple is always at odds until they fall in love.
A campy flick that partly takes place in a hunting camp, IIRC.

You say he's a count? Nobody around here like that, we're just everyday people.

Yeah, the urban vibe is very believable, including an actor who will sell his soul to the devil to
get better parts. It's tough out there.

I've always found Pidgeon on the dull side, so I really don't having any feelings about him one
way or the other. He was a dependable actor in the usual roles. Pidgeon was supposedly the
first customer of service station procurer Scotty Bowers. I know an actor can be quite different
from their screen persona, but I'm still skeptical about the Pidgeon story. And what would Greer Garson
say?

[I Love Melvin]

I may be musing recklessly and pondering where I ought not to but there's a moment in Rebel Without a Cause which always gives me pause. It's in the scene near the end where Plato pretends to be a real estate agent showing Jim and Judy around the abandoned mansion and the subject of children comes up, to which Jim replies in a Mr. Magoo voice: "Drown them like puppies." The inevitable train of thought goes to the fact that Mr. Magoo was famously voiced by Jim Backus and then to the fact that Jim Backus the actor is playing Jim's father in the movie, which makes for an odd kind of blip in the space/time continuum. On the one hand it was an acceptable cultural reference since Mr. Magoo was fairly ubiquitous in 1955; there may even have been a Magoo cartoon playing with the film in theaters at the time. This kind of self-referential "bit" wouldn't be out of place in a "Road" movie, where Hope and Crosby routinely needled each other about their real-life personas, but this is a studio-made dramatic film with a standard narrative structure, not the product of some European cineaste toying with the form and function of film itself. It passes quickly but it still seems like a risk to me because, even though it's playful, it goes too deeply into and maybe compromises the "suspension of disbelief" which movies rely on. Or am I working myself into an unwarranted tizzy? I lay it at your feet, Bronxie, the Tizzy Meister herself.

[Dargo]

I may be musing recklessly and pondering where I ought not to but there's a moment in Rebel Without a Cause which always gives me pause. It's in the scene near the end where Plato pretends to be a real estate agent showing Jim and Judy around the abandoned mansion and the subject of children comes up, to which Jim replies in a Mr. Magoo voice: "Drown them like puppies." The inevitable train of thought goes to the fact that Mr. Magoo was famously voiced by Jim Backus and then to the fact that Jim Backus the actor is playing Jim's father in the movie, which makes for an odd kind of blip in the space/time continuum. On the one hand it was an acceptable cultural reference since Mr. Magoo was fairly ubiquitous in 1955; there may even have been a Magoo cartoon playing with the film in theaters at the time. This kind of self-referential "bit" wouldn't be out of place in a "Road" movie, where Hope and Crosby routinely needled each other about their real-life personas, but this is a studio-made dramatic film with a standard narrative structure, not the product of some European cineaste toying with the form and function of film itself. It passes quickly but it still seems like a risk to me because, even though it's playful, it goes too deeply into and maybe compromises the "suspension of disbelief" which movies rely on. Or am I working myself into an unwarranted tizzy? I lay it at your feet, Bronxie, the Tizzy Meister herself.

Hmmm...and here I'VE always just assumed that THIS was all just part of some kind'a running theme interjected into this flick.

Uh-huh, I mean don't you remember at the beginning of this movie and where inside the police station and when Ed Platt is questioning Natalie Wood, the very FIRST question he asks her is "What's up, Doc?" and while unquestionably doing a Bugs Bunny impression?

Uh-huh, and then later on in this flick the scene where after James Dean does his over-the-top "You're tearing me apart" bit, Ann Doran replies to it by doing a Woody Woodpecker "Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha" laugh right back in his face?

(...must have forgotten those parts in it, eh Melvin?!)