MUSINGS, PONDERINGS, RUMINATIONS AND FANCIES

[CinemaInternational]

Someone brought up the 1985 film Insignificance. Very hard view for me, especially the nuclear bomb nightmare sequence near the end, but Theresa Russell gave a fine performance.

It's so good to know there's someone else who appreciates Theresa Russell. She's been in a lot of different types of movies & I always respond strongly to her performances.


CinemaInternational- your absence was noticed, you are very missed here. Sending best wishes for you & your family.

Thank you for your warm wishes here... Meanwhile, Theresa Russell never did get the big career, but she was always interesting. I was quite taken with another film she did called Cold Heaven in 1991. It's an odd story, not for everyone, but she plays an errant wife whose life turns upside down when her husband is badly injured, right on the threshold of life and death, and her dilemmas take on a very religious dimension. I thought it was kind of hypnotic, and the finale is a very moral one (adultery doesn't win out in this one....)

By the way, you probably remember that I tried to help you see the director's cut of 1990's Texasville, the sequel to The Last Picture Show, but wasn't able to. I don't know if you have a Blu-Ray player, but if you don't have one, you might want to get one. The Criterion Collection just issued a new Blu-Ray (but no DVD) of The Last Picture Show that comes with Texasville on its second disc, both in the color theatrical cut and the black and white directors cut. Being a huge fan of the original film, you will prefer the director's cut which has many more references to the original than the cut originally released in 1990.

[Bronxgirl48]

See: https://www.billboard.com/culture/produ ... 235473232/

Oh ziggy thanks so much -- I can't seem to get into that link, though. I really want to watch it old-school style, on the regular commercial networks, not online or streaming. It is just not Thanksgiving (or Christmas) without the Peanuts gang and I get very nostalgic about this.

There aren't very many Thanksgiving related movies or shows. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is one of the best.

A favorite movie of mine that includes three Thanksgiving gatherings is Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters.
Mia Farrow supposedly hates the movie, but it features one of my favorite performances of hers.

Well, no Charlie Brown Thanksgiving showed up yesterday and I suspect the Xmas one will be a goner as well. So it goes, dammit.

Mia Farrow generally gives me the creeps (I should have included her along with June Allyson, Dennis O'Keefe and Arthur O'Connell in my Willies Dept., lol, and I will also add Warren Beatty to this list) but she is indeed very fine in HANNAH AND HER SISTERS. (BROADWAY DANNY ROSE too)

[Bronxgirl48]

MIDNIGHT LACE tonight!! Do not miss!! An underrated campy classic!!

The red herrings are so obvious....

Creepy opening -- "Mrs. Preston!"

Doris Day's hysterical breakdown in the lift is memorable but for all the wrong reasons.

Myrna Loy takes what looks like about 93 pieces of luggage as she prepares to visit niece Doris in London.

[I Love Melvin]

MIDNIGHT LACE tonight!! Do not miss!! An underrated campy classic!!

The red herrings are so obvious....

Creepy opening -- "Mrs. Preston!"

Doris Day's hysterical breakdown in the lift is memorable but for all the wrong reasons.

Myrna Loy takes what looks like about 93 pieces of luggage as she prepares to visit niece Doris in London.

Not to mention John Gavin's British accent, one of the lamest ever. At least Doris got to be tortured in a Jean Louis wardrobe, one of which she wore to the Oscars, if I remember right. (As a presenter, not for "acting" in this thing,) Besides Myrna, Hemione Baddeley survived pretty much unscathed and I don't know what to say about Roddy McDowall.

[Bronxgirl48]

lol, not one of Roddy's finest hours.

I forgot about John Gavin's accent! Another reason to watch!

Doris does look good I will say that.

[I Love Melvin]

MIDNIGHT LACE tonight!! Do not miss!! An underrated campy classic!!



I don't know what to say about Roddy McDowall.

Well, we could say this: despite what SON OF FURY wants us to believe, in no conceivable universe could he have grown up to be Tyrone Power.

Roddy in a loincloth? Not the same thing at all.

[Bronxgirl48]

So who else enjoyed the synthetic, lacquered, schlocky Ross Hunter faux-Hitchcock charms of MIDNIGHT LACE yesterday? I always find it quite delightful.

[I Love Melvin]

So who else enjoyed the synthetic, lacquered, schlocky Ross Hunter faux-Hitchcock charms of MIDNIGHT LACE yesterday? I always find it quite delightful.

I know, and it's against all our better instincts too, isn't it? By the umpteenth viewing every bit of suspense has been worn away but it still calls our name when it pops up on the schedule. Part of it for me is that there was a Midnight drought for so many years; for whatever reason it just wasn't available. (Was it ever on VHS?) When it was finally released on DVD it was some kind of TCM collab because the cover has the TCM logo (The old one. The good one.) and Robert did an introduction. There was also a gallery of stills and other ephemera which seemed to have TCM's fingerprints all over it, so I'm guessing the dear man has some role in getting it back out to the public after so many years. It's no rarity now because it seems to show up at least once a year, so to any slackers out there, what are you waiting for?

Faux-Hitchcock sums it up perfectly. It's no turtle soup; it's merely the mock. The whole movie is partly an excuse for a fashion show; it's named after a negligee, for God's sake! Maybe her taste and style was supposed to make her seem off-limits to psychos, so that her targeting would be all the more horrific? Excuse me, did I say horrific? I meant to say hysterical. I totally get that finding glee in her distress makes me a bad person, but so be it. Doris always claimed that the movie drained her and that she'd never do another like it; that's right, go make Caprice and see what that one does to your legacy. But on a final serious note, I understand about her past experiences with abusive men and how this may have triggered all sorts of things for the poor woman, but what I get out of it is a giddy escapist thrill, so see you in hell, fellow fans.

[txfilmfan]

The second evening of last month's cabaret convention in New York was a tribute to Doris Day. 2023 is the 100th anniversary of Doris' birth. Rex Reed was upset that there was no general recognition of this--no special events, no documentary, no TV show--so he hosted this second of three evenings at the convention. After the first night's program devoted entirely to Kurt Weill, which included too much being sneered at in German, everyone was looking forward to Doris Day songs.

Unfortunately, Rex Reed's evening could have been: 1) better curated (no songs from the great albums You're My Thrill and Day by Night, no "Little Girl Blue"); 2) better hosted (Reed did not keep the show flowing, and he told every biographical detail about the sadness and abuse in Doris Day's life, most of which was totally unnecessary); and 3) better cast. We did hear the great Marilyn Maye singing "With a Song in My Heart," and some of the others were fine, but there were fewer singers than the other two evenings, and the overall quality was lower. In addition, Mr. Reed performed two of the songs himself. There were two schools of thought: 1) Rex Reed is not a very good singer; 2) what Rex Reed did should not be called singing.

One can understand why Doris Day found MIDNIGHT LACE painful to make, given the abusive men in her life. And Rex Reed was absolutely right to be upset about their not being celebrations of her 100th birthday--I think this shows how knowledge of her work is beginning to slip out of the general culture. Even a singer friend of mine wasn't familiar with any Doris Day songs except "Secret Love" and "Que Sera, Sera." As I hope everyone else here knows, Doris was a superb singer of the "art that conceals art" variety, the kind which would not get you very far on THE VOICE or AMERICAN IDOL.

For years no one was really sure of Miss Day's birth year. Like many celebrities, she (or her agents, or the studio's publicity departments) fudged the dates a bit. I thought it was 1922?

[Bronxgirl48]

Is it true Doris was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson in THE GRADUATE, and was also considered, along with Lucille Ball, for THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE as Raymond Shaw's mother?

EXORCIST ALERT! EXORCIST ALERT! Coming up at 8 p.m. this evening, Eastern Standard Time.

[HoldenIsHere]

Is it true Doris was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson in THE GRADUATE, and was also considered, along with Lucille Ball, for THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE as Raymond Shaw's mother?

EXORCIST ALERT! EXORCIST ALERT! Coming up at 8 p.m. this evening, Eastern Standard Time.

I think Frank Sinatra suggested Lucille Ball for the role of Raymond Shaw's mother in THE MANCHRIAN CANDIDATE.

RE: THE EXORCIST
Yay!!!!

"Your mother's in here, Karras. Would you like to leave a message? I'll see that she gets it."

[TikiSoo]

Rex Reed was upset that there was no general recognition of this--no special events, no documentary, no TV show--so he hosted this second of three evenings at the convention.

Omigod, I thought Rex Reed had died years ago! Oops, sorry Rex.

And didn't Doris Day start out singing in a famous band? Her breakout into show biz was as a velvety voiced singer.