I Just Watched...

[CinemaInternational]

Hosted by JOHN WATERS and JACQUELINE STEWART :
HAIRSPRAY (still love it). The soundtrack contains the best and longest overlooked of the original singles used. WATERS is a true record lover.
CRY BABY (what was interesting 33 years ago remains interesting. JOHNNY DEPP inexplicably loses his pants).
POLYESTER ( a few larfs, remains just plain bad, not extraordinarily so).

Hadn't seen Polyester until after it aired that night. It's an odd film. I thought Divine was excellent in it, and Edith Massey was fun, but its "spoof" of melodramas sometimes is so heavyhanded that it sometimes becomes too cruel to the character Divine plays. Still has funny moments though.

[CinemaInternational]

ALSO TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO REPLY.

I FEEL LIKE FRANK MORGAN AT THE END OF "THE WIZARD OF OZ"

So are you indeed THE Lorna Hanson Forbes from the defunct TCM message boards, whom I usually referred to as LHF???

If so, It is so great to see you here!!!

I am the same SAVED BY THE BELL and GREASE 2-loving HoldenIsHere from the TCM boards.

To use a line from "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from Andre LLoyd Webber's SUNSET BLVD:
"I'm trembling now.
You can't know how I've missed you . . .

OH HONEY, SAME.
MY THERAPIST has heard about all of you in detail, as well as that time I killed CAROL LYNLEY.
It was getting to be kind of a "I'D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT....MADELINE ASHTON" moment with us, so he highly suggested i try signing back on here.
(for the record, I TRIED to log on here six months ago and it only just now let me.)

This post made me laugh (via the Death Becomes Her and Carol Lynley(RIP) references), and I needed that right now. Thank you, my good friend. I never forgot you, and always hoped you would return.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Recent viewings:

Born to Win (1971) is another in the long line of drug addiction films of the early 70s. The print was very grungy and looked just about as seedy as the story. George Segel was good as the addict, ditto Karen Black as his call-girl lady love, but it is impossible to really connect on an emotional level, and the film shows severe signs of editing (Paula Prentiss is billed above the title but is only in the film for three minutes)

Four's a Crowd (1938) might just be inconsequential fluff, but it is delightful fluff, with energy and charm to spare. Nice to see Errol Flynn doing comedy, and Olivia De Havilland and Rosalind Russell are great foils for him.

I have also been watching a lot of episodes of the 80s series Cagney and Lacey recently, given that the whole series is up on MGM+.

Nice to see someone mention Four's A Crowd. I like the film and Flynn was charming and funny. The film gives us a hint of what would become a trend in Rosalind Russell films: light comedy with rapid fire dialog. Note that the film was an "A" production with Curtiz as the director. The film also features Walter Connolly in another fine comedic performance as Olivia's father, and steady secondary lead, Patrick Knowles.

[I Love Melvin]

Hosted by JOHN WATERS and JACQUELINE STEWART :
HAIRSPRAY (still love it). The soundtrack contains the best and longest overlooked of the original singles used. WATERS is a true record lover.
CRY BABY (what was interesting 33 years ago remains interesting. JOHNNY DEPP inexplicably loses his pants).
POLYESTER ( a few larfs, remains just plain bad, not extraordinarily so).

Hadn't seen Polyester until after it aired that night. It's an odd film. I thought Divine was excellent in it, and Edith Massey was fun, but its "spoof" of melodramas sometimes is so heavyhanded that it sometimes becomes too cruel to the character Divine plays. Still has funny moments though.

Definitely odd (and heavy-handed at times) but, hey, that's John Waters. But it had its moments. The scene at the "upscale" drive-in showing a Marguerite Duras triple feature, with the traditional snack bar promo featuring dancing oysters and champagne instead of hot dogs and soda and the snack bar itself where high-toned attendees munched on delicacies and thumbed through Cahiers Du Cinema...Priceless. It worked on a couple of levels, as an inspired comic bit and as a sly takedown of film snobbery. I'm old enough to have followed his films from early on and it was great seeing him come into his own as a filmmaker, especially using stable camera set-ups instead of hand-held and really learning to frame his shots. He was finally tapping into funding from within the industry itself and that was starting to show too. I remember being in awe of the opening helicopter shot over the Baltimore suburb, perfectly narrowing in to find Divine's home and then seamlessly dissolving into a Steadicam shot heading up the stairs to find her at her dressing table. Now stuff like that is standard, but it was fairly new technology then and when he finally got some money he put it right into the movie like a pro. I'm also a big Mink Stole fan and her brazenness as an actress was particularly suited to John's style of stilted, deliberately gawdawful dialogue and scenarios. This was her last major role for him, though she always showed up for a cameo, as did some of the other original Dreamlanders, and to me it was always like watching for Hitchcock, waiting to see how John would use them. I can't deny that I hold him to a different standard, but that comes from an intense love of his work and of the man himself.

[CinemaInternational]

Hosted by JOHN WATERS and JACQUELINE STEWART :
HAIRSPRAY (still love it). The soundtrack contains the best and longest overlooked of the original singles used. WATERS is a true record lover.
CRY BABY (what was interesting 33 years ago remains interesting. JOHNNY DEPP inexplicably loses his pants).
POLYESTER ( a few larfs, remains just plain bad, not extraordinarily so).

Hadn't seen Polyester until after it aired that night. It's an odd film. I thought Divine was excellent in it, and Edith Massey was fun, but its "spoof" of melodramas sometimes is so heavyhanded that it sometimes becomes too cruel to the character Divine plays. Still has funny moments though.

Definitely odd (and heavy-handed at times) but, hey, that's John Waters. But it had its moments. The scene at the "upscale" drive-in showing a Marguerite Duras triple feature, with the traditional snack bar promo featuring dancing oysters and champagne instead of hot dogs and soda and the snack bar itself where high-toned attendees munched on delicacies and thumbed through Cahiers Du Cinema...Priceless. It worked on a couple of levels, as an inspired comic bit and as a sly takedown of film snobbery. I'm old enough to have followed his films from early on and it was great seeing him come into his own as a filmmaker, especially using stable camera set-ups instead of hand-held and really learning to frame his shots. He was finally tapping into funding from within the industry itself and that was starting to show too. I remember being in awe of the opening helicopter shot over the Baltimore suburb, perfectly narrowing in to find Divine's home and then seamlessly dissolving into a Steadicam shot heading up the stairs to find her at her dressing table. Now stuff like that is standard, but it was fairly new technology then and when he finally got some money he put it right into the movie like a pro. I'm also a big Mink Stole fan and her brazenness as an actress was particularly suited to John's style of stilted, deliberately gawdawful dialogue and scenarios. This was her last major role for him, though she always showed up for a cameo, as did some of the other original Dreamlanders, and to me it was always like watching for Hitchcock, waiting to see how John would use them. I can't deny that I hold him to a different standard, but that comes from an intense love of his work and of the man himself.

Thanks for mentioning the scene with the drive-in. That was the best scene in the film, I thought. Wickedly funny.

[Allhallowsday]

...Thanks for mentioning the scene with the drive-in. That was the best scene in the film, I thought. Wickedly funny.

Indeed.

[Lorna]

No matter, how frustrated, angry or dejected, I may get with the state of the world, modern technology, or just personal stuff – there are a handful of images, scenes, and songs that never fail to amuse me no matter how low my emotional state may be.

One is the “ LOOK WHAT YOUVE DONR MONA, YOUVE PUT YOUR MOTHER IN AN IRON LUNG!!!!!!” scene from CRY BABY

the other is THE SIGHT OF MINK STOLE IN CORNROWS from POLYESTER.

I could literally be on my deathbed, and if you showed me an image of either, I would probably start CACKLING like Cesar Romero.

[Lorna]

[CinemaInternational]

Assorted notes on films watched by you or subjects talked about all during the past month.... (Typed this all on the tablet while offline, gosh how I have missed you all the past month, and maybe because of it, I'm especially chatty right now)

I admit to thinking very highly of Paris, Texas when I first saw it probably 8 years ago, and while Stanton's character had a bad past, I think the film kind of hints about it long before it is revealed in that climactic scene. I mean, no screen family falls apart that badly unless something terrible happened. I always got the impression at the end that Kinski would quit her job at the peep parlor and go back to raising her son. Stanton steps away because he doesn't want to harm those he hurt before, because he has learned from his mistakes. There is a little hint of 1956's The Searchers in that ending (and frankly, in the 80s, characters were given the benefit of the doubt if they reformed their past ways, because in Tender Mercies, Robert Duvall's character is said to have nearly killed his ex-wife in the past, even though the film otherwise limits his bad behavior to the opening five minutes of the film). Kinski is far too young for her part, but I think she delivered a wonderful performance. The performances paper over all of the issues for me. That said, Wim Wenders came acropper with one film in the 90s called The End of Violence, which was downright painful to sit through, and was seemingly edited with a hacksaw.

It's been a long time since I saw Autumn Leaves and Any Wednesday, but the former is one of Joan Crawford's strongest vehicles from her later career (better than Baby Jane), and the latter, while morally suspect, is froth made with a capable cast, especially Rosemary Murphy as Robards' wife

Dear Heart is a jewel of a film, one of my favorites from the mid-60s and probably my favorite Geraldine Page performance. Its tender, gentle, and very touching.

Valley of the Dolls might be a mess, but it is at least hot camp played for all its worth, and thus ridiculously entertaining. {its for the best that Judy Garland didn't remain in it. It would have developed a morbid edge with her in the part} [Other side note: while watching the tepid 1998 film Playing by Heart about six weeks ago, I think I gasped when the pathological liar character played by Dennis Quaid entered a gay bar, and somebody was lip-syncing to Susan Hayward's recording of "I'll Plant My Own Tree") The other two Jacqueline Susann films were not so lucky: The Love Machine (1971) was lukewarm camp, spoiled by its antihero beating a call girl, redeemed somewhat by a typically juicy Dyan Cannon performance, while Once is Not Enough was camp taken seriously (and therefore boring and dull) save for a terrific turn from Brenda Vaccaro as a man-hungry magazine editor. Meanwhile, Mark Robson did a very fine job with Peyton Place....

1977's Suspiria? The threatening music is fascinating and the odd colored sets are intriguing, but the story is preposterous and very slender and the gore is overstated. Still, nice to see Joan Bennett one last time as a villainess. That was one of the many more modern horror films I saw the last month, done to see if I could warm to one of my least favorite genres. The experiment had mixed success at best: Halloween felt vastly overrated, The Lost Boys was a wash outside of Dianne Wiest, Christine had a ridiculous premise, but was done with enough skill to make it quite watchable, Wes Craven's New Nightmare was a bit too sick for me, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was appalling, An American Werewolf in London was gory but really well done, Magic had good perfomances but was slow as molasses.... I did quite like the 1996-2000 Scream trilogy even in spite of the strong violence, because they managed to point out how ridiculous most other slasher films are. I only wish that that series had spared Rose McGowan in the first film and Parker Posey in the third film from the mad killers; both actresses delivered extremely charismatic work and I wanted to see more of them. (And Scream 3 does have a deliciously salty cameo from Carrie Fisher that is too good to spoil.)

The 1940 Pride and Prejudice is a treat, with one of Greer's best roles, and while it makes some changes from the book, its great fun. (I love the carriage chase early on.)

Leonard Maltin? I have copies of both his movie guides and I use the Classic one a lot, the more modern one mostly for titles from the mid 60s through the 90s. Reviews are obviously short due to space, and although he didn't review all the films, he is still clearly passionate about films, classics especially. Even if I find some of his ratings extremely puzzling, I have still used his books for research many times.....

I confess to quite liking The McConnell Story. Alan Ladd is an actor that I have seen quite a few films from this year, and I really think he was a very undrrated actor. I'm just sorry that it took me so long to realize that...

Thanks for the warning on the new Napoleon film. The trailers made it look pretty interesting, but I guess it was not to be. Maybe I should have known based on the leads: Joaquin Phoenix has been good in some films (To Die For, Two Lovers, Her, Irrational Man) but he simply does not have his late brother's effortless charisma, and Vanessa Kirby, in her Oscar-nominated role a few years back, was a KO victim in that film since Ellen Burstyn stole her thunder with just seven minutes of screentime.

Never saw Bloody Mama, but like most AIP titles of the era, it was a hit on the drive-in circuit. Sounds pretty wild and unforgettable. I will confess that this year I was shocked to find out that AIP once bankrolled a Merchant Ivory film! (1975's The Wild Party with James Coco, Raquel Welch, and Perry King)

The Halloween lineup on TCM this year left things to be desired, but I got another chance to hear the line "Darlanne, you didn't have to pull it so hard" left in Eyes of Laura Mars as a majorly entertaining goof, so I am content. A little Mario Cantone goes a long way, but he's grown on me the more I see him.

James Corden must be one of the most hated modern day celebrities. I've rarely if ever heard anyone defend him. Sorry to disagree with your niece, Lorna, but the film version of Into the Woods was a crushing disappointment to me. It had some very good elements and performances, but the color scheme should not have been so bleak in the first half, they cut some of my favorite lines from the original Broadway text, and the deeply emotional Broadway ending was replaced by a timid, small thing. I wanted so much more, because the original Broadway book and music are luminous.

Jason Robards was a very good actor, and he is sublime in Long Day's Journey Into Night. He rarely gave a poor performance at any point in his career, although it was curious to have him as an extra without lines in Beloved.. I see Max Dugan Returns is premiering in December, it's a very likable Neil Simon piece where he plays a rogue who tries to make up for his decades of absenteeism by showering daughter Marsha Mason and grandson Matthew Broderick with expensive gifts. It's great fun to watch.

Yes, Decision Before Dawn only scored one Oscar nod besides it's BP nomination, and it was in a tiny category. Only Four Weddings and a Funeral and Selma repeated the trick since then.

Never had a desire to see Angel Heart, as it sounded far too warped for me. Otherwise, I went overboard and pretty well carpet-bombed 1987, having seen over 100 films from that year, some downright excellent. I heard about the friction on the Cosby Show set after Lisa Bonet was in. Definitely not a film that one would have expected her to be in based on her TV character, but downright hypocritical given Cosby's offscreen record. I am sort of surprised that Phylicia Rashad's career hasn't suffered since Cosby's fall. She did two series with him, yet her career is in good shape, and she just got a Tony last year.... As for old tabloids, they did have the most ridiculous headlines. I saw a program on another channel that splashed some old tabloid covers for effect, and I paused to read them. I chortled at one they had from 1993 relating to the series finale of Knots Landing that read: VAL'S BACK ON KNOTS AND JUST LOOK AT HER NOW, with a really haggard picture of Joan Van Ark, who played Val on the show. If you watched the finale, you would know her character was presumed dead for the entire final year, and the haggard look (think ragged auburn poodle perm with Woody Allen glasses and jean jacket) was her temporary disguise so she could get back home.

Universal has always scrupulously reused their backlot sets to the point of it nearly being comic. In one era, it might have been Leave it to Beaver and The Munsters, then later Murder She Wrote milked them for all they were worth, and they still were milking them as late as Desperate Housewives.... They probably have continued, but most of the TV series I love come from the period from the 60s to the early 90s so I would not know.

Lorna, Marian Seldes is the actress you compared to John Hurt in drag. She was well regarded on Broadway, where she famously played over 1,600 performances as the doomed wife in Deathtrap, and she won a Tony or two. She was a close personal friend to Angela Lansbury. She didn't have much luck in movies though ending up nearly resolutely in poorly reviewed films like The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag, Home Alone 3, the 1999 remake of The Haunting, Town and Country, Mona Lisa Smile, and August Rush... That said, there is a brief amusing moment in the mediocre Home Alone 3 where the little boy keeps changing her TV stations from next door, and her face expresses indignation when it switches to a suggestive MTV music video.

It was kind of tricky to sign up here, and perhaps it kept some of our old friends from joining here. It took me about three or four times to get through, and some I think said they tried 10 times. I really like this place, but I still miss some who didn't make it here...I used the old boards or even just read along for a long time, even before I started my account there. I kbow we all have some anger that the site took them away from us, but I have some great memories and we are all still like a big family here.

Dressed to Kill is a movie that is intrinsically trashy, but boy is it done with gusto, and that helps it to a large degree, and makes it into one of the better films of calendar year 1980. I don't know what print they aired last weekend in late night, but the print they used in October in the Creepy Cinema block was the X/NC-17 extended cut which was more explicit in blood and sex than the 1980 theatrical release. I can't say that Brian De Palma had a perfect record (I didn't like The Fury or Wise Guys), and it feels strange saying what I'm about to say given the way I stayed away from most of his titles until recently, but I think he really is an excellent director. Some of the scripts he had to work with were truly unfortunate, but despite my usual distaste for cinematic overkill, he somehow made it often seem riveting.

[Allhallowsday]

Still love it.

[Bronxgirl48]

I watched the Ray Bradbury-penned "Special Delivery" episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents last night.

All I will say is that I pray nobody has made mushroom stuffing for their turkey today.

[Masha]

Cecil B. Demented (2000)


It is a John Waters film. I believe that is all the explanation necessary.

The only performance which was greatly to my taste was: Alicia Witt. All of the others seemed either a bit inane or mechanical.


6.8/11

This movie is available for viewing for free with commercials on: TubiTV.

[CinemaInternational]

All I will say is that I pray nobody has made mushroom stuffing for their turkey today.

This reminds me of some weird sort of coincidence in the world of modern films.... In 2017, Universal Pictures' art house branch Focus Feat released not just one, but two films in the same year that involved poisonous mushrooms: Best Picture nominee Phantom Thread and a remake of The Beguiled... I always thought it was strange that they financed both at the same time.

[Bronxgirl48]

Ha!

[Allhallowsday]

BEYOND TOMORROW (1940) Lots to like with a good idea and a lousy script.