MUSINGS, PONDERINGS, RUMINATIONS AND FANCIES

[Andree]

I've never read All the King's Men. Maybe I'll get around to it some day. I do know it's a very
highly regarded novel. Until then, I'll go with Faulkner. I like Flannery O'Connor too, but I just
don't understand her Catholic view point. It often strikes me as just too bizarre.

[Swithin]

I've never read All the King's Men. Maybe I'll get around to it some day. I do know it's a very
highly regarded novel. Until then, I'll go with Faulkner. I like Flannery O'Connor too, but I just
don't understand her Catholic view point. It often strikes me as just too bizarre.

I love Flannery O'Connor's work, and the movie Wise Blood, which I think is one of John Huston's best. In a New York Times piece of many years ago, a writer made what I think is an extremely perceptive observation about O'Connor's work:

"O'Connor's short stories and novels are set in a rural South where people know their places, mind their manners and do horrible things to one another. It's a place that somehow hovers outside of time, where both the New Deal and the New Testament feel like recent history. It's soaked in violence and humor, in sin and in God. He may have fled the modern world, but in O'Connor's he sticks around, in the sun hanging over the tree line, in the trees and farm beasts, and in the characters who roost in the memory like gargoyles. It's a land haunted by Christ — not your friendly hug-me Jesus, but a ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of the mind, pursuing the unwilling."

[Andree]

I love Flannery O'Connor's work, and the movie Wise Blood, which I think is one of John Huston's best. In a New York Times piece of many years ago, a writer made what I think is an extremely perceptive observation about O'Connor's work:

"O'Connor's short stories and novels are set in a rural South where people know their places, mind their manners and do horrible things to one another. It's a place that somehow hovers outside of time, where both the New Deal and the New Testament feel like recent history. It's soaked in violence and humor, in sin and in God. He may have fled the modern world, but in O'Connor's he sticks around, in the sun hanging over the tree line, in the trees and farm beasts, and in the characters who roost in the memory like gargoyles. It's a land haunted by Christ — not your friendly hug-me Jesus, but a ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of the mind, pursuing the unwilling."

An interesting perspective on her work. Some of the themes may be timeless, but the stories are of a certain time and
place. It's hard for any writer to totally escape their time and place. And not of course all the stories are violent. Some
are just stories of the various eccentrics who populate her tales. It's a place that is fine to visit but I wouldn't want to live
there, it's just too primitive in my opinion. I prefer the modern world, even if it is duller than O'Connor's one.

[Bronxgirl48]

I apologize in advance to June Allyson fans, but she gives me the willies. Beady little raisin eyes, odd husky voice, strange pout. Jose Ferrer shrewdly tapped into her dark side when he cast June as his undermining wife in THE SHRIKE. Allyson gives a terrific performance.

[laffite]

I am probably one of the only persons on the planet that liked her in You Can't Run Away From It (1956). I am probably one of the only persons on the planet that liked the movie either. A perennial stinker and may be a candidate for the worst remake ever. I have wiggle room here because I saw near when it first came out. Not in the theater I'm sure. It must have aired on TV shortly thereafter (though that must have been a rare occurrence) because I saw it when I was really young, prior to 1960. Jack Lemmon was really good. I even remember the scene when she wakes up after a snooze and cannot immediately find ole Jack and frantically runs around looking for him for fear of being abandoned. She finds him and throws herself in his arms, wailing. That's what broke the ice for physical contact. I reacted favorably to that scene. Anyone seen My Man Godfrey (1957), another remake she was in. //

[Swithin]

I apologize in advance to June Allyson fans, but she gives me the willies. Beady little raisin eyes, odd husky voice, strange pout. Jose Ferrer shrewdly tapped into her dark side when he cast June as his undermining wife in THE SHRIKE. Allyson gives a terrific performance.

But she's from the Bronx!

[Bronxgirl48]

I am probably one of the only persons on the planet that liked her in You Can't Run Away From It (1956). I am probably one of the only persons on the planet that liked the movie either. A perennial stinker and may be a candidate for the worst remake ever. I have wiggle room here because I saw near when it first came out. Not in the theater I'm sure. It must have aired on TV shortly thereafter (though that must have been a rare occurrence) because I saw it when I was really young, prior to 1960. Jack Lemmon was really good. I even remember the scene when she wakes up after a snooze and cannot immediately find ole Jack and frantically runs around looking for him for fear of being abandoned. She finds him and throws herself in his arms, wailing. That's what broke the ice for physical contact. I reacted favorably to that scene. Anyone seen My Man Godfrey (1957), another remake she was in. //

What is YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT a remake of? I frankly have never even heard of this movie but if Jack Lemmon is part of the cast I will definitely check it out. Must confess I'm not fond of the original 1936 MY MAN GODFREY (even though I'm a Powell and Lombard fan) because I find it overly....well let's just say it is of its Depression-era time -- anti-capitalist, etc. Plus Alice Brady drives me mad, lol) so I'm certainly not interested in a 1957 remake.

[Bronxgirl48]

I apologize in advance to June Allyson fans, but she gives me the willies. Beady little raisin eyes, odd husky voice, strange pout. Jose Ferrer shrewdly tapped into her dark side when he cast June as his undermining wife in THE SHRIKE. Allyson gives a terrific performance.

But she's from the Bronx!

That's the only good thing about her!

[Hibi]

I apologize in advance to June Allyson fans, but she gives me the willies. Beady little raisin eyes, odd husky voice, strange pout. Jose Ferrer shrewdly tapped into her dark side when he cast June as his undermining wife in THE SHRIKE. Allyson gives a terrific performance.

But she's from the Bronx!

That's the only good thing about her!

LOL!!!!!!!!!

[jamesjazzguitar]

I am probably one of the only persons on the planet that liked her in You Can't Run Away From It (1956). I am probably one of the only persons on the planet that liked the movie either. A perennial stinker and may be a candidate for the worst remake ever. I have wiggle room here because I saw near when it first came out. Not in the theater I'm sure. It must have aired on TV shortly thereafter (though that must have been a rare occurrence) because I saw it when I was really young, prior to 1960. Jack Lemmon was really good. I even remember the scene when she wakes up after a snooze and cannot immediately find ole Jack and frantically runs around looking for him for fear of being abandoned. She finds him and throws herself in his arms, wailing. That's what broke the ice for physical contact. I reacted favorably to that scene. Anyone seen My Man Godfrey (1957), another remake she was in. //

What is YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT a remake of? I frankly have never even heard of this movie but if Jack Lemmon is part of the cast I will definitely check it out. Must confess I'm not fond of the original 1936 MY MAN GODFREY (even though I'm a Powell and Lombard fan) because I find it overly....well let's just say it is of its Depression-era time -- anti-capitalist, etc. Plus Alice Brady drives me mad, lol) so I'm certainly not interested in a 1957 remake.

You Can't Run Away From It is a remake of It Happened One Night. One of the worst remakes ever made. But then June Allyson is one of my least favorite actresses.

[Dargo]

Ya know, I never realized until just now that Allyson starred in so many remakes. You have:

'Little Women' (1949)

'The Opposite Sex' (1956...remake of 1939's 'The Women')

'You Can't Run Away from It' (1956...remake of 1934's 'It Happened One Night')

'My Man Godfrey' (1957)

(...am I missing any here?)

[laffite]

Maybe they were trying to re-invent her with all those remakes. Hee hee.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Ya know, I never realized until just now that Allyson starred in so many remakes. You have:

'Little Women' (1949)

'The Opposite Sex' (1956...remake of 1939's 'The Women')

'You Can't Run Away from It' (1956...remake of 1934's 'It Happened One Night')

'My Man Godfrey' (1957)

(...am I missing any here?)

You're not missing anything if you missed these remakes! As for other remakes:

There was a musical version of The Three Musketeers in 1939. Allyson was in the grand MGM version in 1948. Note that Deborah Kerr was originally cast. She would have been much better suited since I found Allyson too 'American' for the role.

[Hibi]

Ya know, I never realized until just now that Allyson starred in so many remakes. You have:

'Little Women' (1949)

'The Opposite Sex' (1956...remake of 1939's 'The Women')

'You Can't Run Away from It' (1956...remake of 1934's 'It Happened One Night')

'My Man Godfrey' (1957)

(...am I missing any here?)

And all inferior to the originals!!!

[laffite]

Looking ahead the TCM Schedule I see that Junie is in Two Sisters From Boston (1946) with Kathryn Grayson and the legendary heldentenor Lauritz Melchior (3 Sept at 5am Pacific). That might be something. At least there is the music, for some anyway.