I Just Watched...

[Lorna]

I didn't get up this morning with the intention of being a b****, but...

I've been watching the murder she wrote season 3(?) episode STAGE STRUCK which was clearly based on a time in the early 80's when LIZ TAYLOR and RICHARD BURTON reunited onstage for a revival of NOEL COWARD'S PRIVATE LIVES (author's note: sorry NOEL, my computer don't do umlauts.)

i'm being 100% serious when I say that the sum total of this episode's various issues make NIGHT OF THE TARANTULA look dead-serious, cleverly written and well-researched

MOTHER, THIS IS CAMP.

the location is unspecific but JESSICA visits two OLD FRIENDS who happen to be FADED MOVIE STARS (damned if she and FRANK didn't get around) played by EDWARD MULHARE (on autopilot, which is fine) and ELEANOR PARKER who is not fine. I don't even think she is okay...



she is struggling VISIBLY onscreen, and it's not easy to watch...and honestly I feel bad for her.

BUT every time it gets hard to watch, this episode throws something PREPOSTEROUS at us, like someone waving two semifore flags to try and distract from HOW BAD ELEANOR IS, some awful line of dialogue, a UNIQUELY awful performance from JOHN SCHUCK that would take the cake in any other episode, a really good performance from DAN O'HERLIHY- who I personally would have liked to have seen in ELEANOR'S PART he's serving such c***y side-eye. (DAN O'HERLIHY always gives 110%) and the following line of dialogue from the play-within-the story {which i sadly have to paraphrase from memory"

MAN: "Darling, won't you go back to being my number one?
WOMAN; "Yes, but first we must get rid of our number twos."

I MEAN, C'MON, TELL ME THAT WASN'T DIRTY ON PURPOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

SPEAKING OF DIRT: I also have to mention that ELEANOR WAS DONE SO DIRTY BY WARDROBE as she has to wear a baggy gem-encrusted satin jumpsuit in torquoise that does NOTHING FOR HER FIGURE ESPECIALLY SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR, later on, the same outfit is donned by her understudy played by an [incredibly bad] actress who looks JUST LIKE CARLY SIMON and it manages to be equally unflattering on a statuesque 30-something-year-old body, so props to that.


ELEANOR is serving HUNGOVER JULIE ANDREWS at the start of the episode in some EPIC MOM SHADES- sadly i could not find pictures

[Lorna]

addendum: not meaning to pile on, but I also wanted to mention that I got a strong sense that the STAGE STRUCK EPISODE of MURDER SHE WROTE was rewritten during production to lessen ELEANOR PARKER'S part, she is in the second act a lot less and is absent from the denoument and there is a strange scene between JESSICA and a CONCESSIONS WORKER that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the story.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Out Of The Past(1947) TCM On Demand-7/10

An ex private eye (Robert Mitchum) is revisited by shady characters from his past.

I have not seen this from start to finish in decades, so I did not recall too much This is often credited as being the quintessential film noir and it is a very tough, twisty crime film if a bit confusing at times. I once heard Roger Ebert call this one of the greatest cigarette smoking films ever, especially Mitchum is rarely seen without a cig in this. He is at his laconic best here, tossing off classic lines like "Baby I don't care".
Jane Greer is the standout as one of the coldest and most twisted femme fatales ever. The way she smiles when she watches a brutal fight is chilling. Kirk Douglas has a good early role as a menacing crime boss.

The shocking climax kicks this one up a notch, I may need another watch with this film.

[Lorna]

...I'm being 100% honest: isn't there some story about FERRARI doing something to p!ss off some chicken farmers who went on to start LAMBOURGINI or am I misremembering details?

Close here Lorna, but while the Lamborghini concern began operations in 1948 making tractors for farmers, they didn't begin manufacturing automobiles in order to compete against Ferrari in the high-end sports car market (and not in racing, btw) until 1963, and so with this being some 6 years after the story in this film unfolds.

This movie does however present the idea that Enzo's main competitor in both road car sales and in racing at this time (once again, 1957) were the cars made by the Maserati concern, a firm that actually predates Enzo's firm by a few decades.

being someone really interested in history and not possessing a lot of knowledge about AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY specifically (which is a HUGE PART OF 20TH CENTURY HISTORY obviously) I set out a couple of years ago to kinda study up on the history of car manufactuING- and it's funny to me how EACH COUNTRY'S HISTORY OF CAR MANUFACTURING says A LOT ABOUT THEIR NATIONAL CHARACTER.

HONESTLY, with ITALY, the impression I got was that it was A MIRACLE they were able to get their s*** together for long enough to manufacture even one single car, much less some of the most famous, admired, fastest and lusted-after cars of all time.

[Lorna]

(so hats off to them is my point)

[Hibi]

I didn't get up this morning with the intention of being a b****, but...

I've been watching the murder she wrote season 3(?) episode STAGE STRUCK which was clearly based on a time in the early 80's when LIZ TAYLOR and RICHARD BURTON reunited onstage for a revival of NOEL COWARD'S PRIVATE LIVES (author's note: sorry NOEL, my computer don't do umlauts.)

i'm being 100% serious when I say that the sum total of this episode's various issues make NIGHT OF THE TARANTULA look dead-serious, cleverly written and well-researched

MOTHER, THIS IS CAMP.

the location is unspecific but JESSICA visits two OLD FRIENDS who happen to be FADED MOVIE STARS (damned if she and FRANK didn't get around) played by EDWARD MULHARE (on autopilot, which is fine) and ELEANOR PARKER who is not fine. I don't even think she is okay...



she is struggling VISIBLY onscreen, and it's not easy to watch...and honestly I feel bad for her.

BUT every time it gets hard to watch, this episode throws something PREPOSTEROUS at us, like someone waving two semifore flags to try and distract from HOW BAD ELEANOR IS, some awful line of dialogue, a UNIQUELY awful performance from JOHN SCHUCK that would take the cake in any other episode, a really good performance from DAN O'HERLIHY- who I personally would have liked to have seen in ELEANOR'S PART he's serving such c***y side-eye. (DAN O'HERLIHY always gives 110%) and the following line of dialogue from the play-within-the story {which i sadly have to paraphrase from memory"

MAN: "Darling, won't you go back to being my number one?
WOMAN; "Yes, but first we must get rid of our number twos."

I MEAN, C'MON, TELL ME THAT WASN'T DIRTY ON PURPOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

SPEAKING OF DIRT: I also have to mention that ELEANOR WAS DONE SO DIRTY BY WARDROBE as she has to wear a baggy gem-encrusted satin jumpsuit in torquoise that does NOTHING FOR HER FIGURE ESPECIALLY SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR, later on, the same outfit is donned by her understudy played by an [incredibly bad] actress who looks JUST LIKE CARLY SIMON and it manages to be equally unflattering on a statuesque 30-something-year-old body, so props to that.


ELEANOR is serving HUNGOVER JULIE ANDREWS at the start of the episode in some EPIC MOM SHADES- sadly i could not find pictures

LOL! I don't think Eleanor is that bad. She's supposed to be a neurotic middle aged "star" actress and plays it so. But I agree that wardrobe choice was NOT flattering! (not that Eleanor ever had a weight problem, but it's too tight around the midriff)

I never gave any thought to a double meaning to that stage line, just thought it was awful! LMAO.

[Lorna]

MAN: "Darling, won't you go back to being my number one?
WOMAN; "Yes, but first we must get rid of our number twos."

I never gave any thought to a double meaning to that stage line, just thought it was awful! LMAO.

what's even funnier is that RIGHT AFTER THE LINE, EDWARD MULHARE slaps the glass out of ELEANOR'S HAND.

I remember watching this on it's first network airing around 1987 or 88, I would have been ten- and I can still recall how shocked and amused I was my the moment.

even at that young an age, I was drawn to CAMP- not even knowing what it was.

[Lorna]

i keep trying to post pics of THE UNDERSTUDY CHARACTER who also wears THE HIDEOUS TEAL PANTSUIT but they WILL NOT POST.
THAT THING AROUND THE NECK is part of the blouse.
It's not a necklace.
NANCY REAGAN would wear this in red.

[Hibi]

i keep trying to post pics of THE UNDERSTUDY CHARACTER who also wears THE HIDEOUS TEAL PANTSUIT but they WILL NOT POST.
THAT THING AROUND THE NECK is part of the blouse.
It's not a necklace.
NANCY REAGAN would wear this in red.

I agree that understudy actress was bad. I was glad when she got killed off! John Schuck, though, I thought was a hoot!

[CinemaInternational]

i keep trying to post pics of THE UNDERSTUDY CHARACTER who also wears THE HIDEOUS TEAL PANTSUIT but they WILL NOT POST.
THAT THING AROUND THE NECK is part of the blouse.
It's not a necklace.
NANCY REAGAN would wear this in red.

The actress who played this part was named Ann Turkel. She had a tendency to only pop up once on TV series MSW was no exception. I gather she had a bit part in 1968's film Paper Lion but I could not see her in it when it was on a few months ago....

Also interesting to see John Pleshette still had another slithery role after Knots Landing.....

[CinemaInternational]

MAN: "Darling, won't you go back to being my number one?
WOMAN; "Yes, but first we must get rid of our number twos."

I never gave any thought to a double meaning to that stage line, just thought it was awful! LMAO.

what's even funnier is that RIGHT AFTER THE LINE, EDWARD MULHARE slaps the glass out of ELEANOR'S HAND.

I remember watching this on it's first network airing around 1987 or 88, I would have been ten- and I can still recall how shocked and amused I was my the moment.

even at that young an age, I was drawn to CAMP- not even knowing what it was.

Looking on IMDb, it seems as though the episode aired a week and a half before Christmas in 1986.

[CinemaInternational]

addendum: not meaning to pile on, but I also wanted to mention that I got a strong sense that the STAGE STRUCK EPISODE of MURDER SHE WROTE was rewritten during production to lessen ELEANOR PARKER'S part, she is in the second act a lot less and is absent from the denoument and there is a strange scene between JESSICA and a CONCESSIONS WORKER that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the story.

Eleanor did only work one more time after the episode , so maybe something was up. She did seem very jittery in the episode, almost as though she might have had a nervous tic. She lived on though to 2013. I remember she died right around the time of a badly reviewed TV version of The Sound of Music. Some muttered at the time that the remake killed her.

[Lorna]

Eleanor did only work one more time after the episode , so maybe something was up. She did seem very jittery in the episode, almost as though she might have had a nervous tic. She lived on though to 2013. I remember she died right around the time of a badly reviewed TV version of The Sound of Music. Some muttered at the time that the remake killed her.

we had a kinda nutty poster on YE OLDE BOARDS who was a huge fan of ELEANOR PARKER, so I let it go- but outside of THE SOUND OF MUSIC
where her character THE BARONESS is hands down MY FAVORITE, I've never found her all that deep or interesting an actress- although there's a lot of stuff of hers I have never seen. she was an incredible beauty though- no arguing that.

i think she did a really bad slasher film in the 70's 80's as well...?

[CinemaInternational]

Eleanor did only work one more time after the episode , so maybe something was up. She did seem very jittery in the episode, almost as though she might have had a nervous tic. She lived on though to 2013. I remember she died right around the time of a badly reviewed TV version of The Sound of Music. Some muttered at the time that the remake killed her.

we had a kinda nutty poster on YE OLDE BOARDS who was a huge fan of ELEANOR PARKER, so I let it go- but outside of THE SOUND OF MUSIC
where her character THE BARONESS is hands down MY FAVORITE, I've never found her all that deep or interesting an actress- although there's a lot of stuff of hers I have never seen. she was an incredible beauty though- no arguing that.

i think she did a really bad slasher film in the 70's 80's as well...?

She did so horror material on TV, but not theatrical (unless you count 1969's Eye of the Cat) One of the few films she was in after the 60s, the mediocre 1979 film Sunburn, her role in that was a blip. I mean, why bother getting a well-known actress if she only had two or three minutes of screentime.

[Lorna]