What are you reading?

[JackFavell]

I love them both, and would be out at that festival like a shot if they ever appeared there. I'd love to see them intro THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, one of my top 10 movies of all time.

And then Sean could also intro Marnie, and Caine could intro Alfie... or Deathtrap, or The Wrong Box, or whatever he wanted to... heck, I'd even watch The Island if he was there to present it.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Good ideas all...you know a double Sean/Michael bill would draw an industrial gawker like me!

Both of those fellows would demand extreme coaxing and several treasury bills!

[JackFavell]

I know but I can dream can't I?

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Oh, definitely! Me, too!

[CineMaven]

Sean and Michael appearing at TCM's film festival?

Ha! You'd have a better chance waiting for Olivia deHavilland and Joan Fontaine to sit together for a chat on the stage at Graumann's Chinese Theatre's Macy's window. I have a feeling that some stars think they might be considered "has-beens" if they appeared at the film festival.

They would be soooo wrong. They'd be appreciated and loved.

I'll take whoever would recognize the honor TCM's offering. Me? I'm holding out for Lizabeth Scott.

But if Sean Connery were to appear, I'll eat my hat, do your dishes, and sleep at the theatre's door until they opened next year.

Oh...and do your windows too.

[JackFavell]

Done! I hope you realize that's written down here at the Oasis for all to see.....though I won't get my hopes up for 007 appearance.

[charliechaplinfan]

I don't get the impression that Connery is the type of guy to appear at the TCM festival. Michael Caine perhaps, he has a love of old movies and movie stars. Just hearing him talk about Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember makes me appreciate him as a movie star and movie lover.

[CineMaven]

But if Sean Connery were to appear, I'll eat my hat, do your dishes, and sleep at the theatre's door until they opened next year. Oh...and do your windows too.

Done! I hope you realize that's written down here at the Oasis for all to see.....though I won't get my hopes up for 007 appearance.

What'? Huh?

[JackFavell]

If he does show up, you have to do my dishes... or was that offer only open to Sue Sue?

[CineMaven]

Ma'am, if Connery and Caine show up at the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival, I will do your dishes Wendy, AND Christy's dishes. Ladies, you can start piling up those dishes now. And I won't use your dishwasher, either.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

charliechaplinfan, I enjoy Michael Caine's Word of Mouth interview, too. It is so lovingly appreciative of Cary that it is obvious he has reverence.

Mave and Jacks: My dishes are stacked and piled right now. I just made Spicy Italian Spaghetti Sauce, Texas Garlic Toast ('cause a regular sized piece just ain't big enough) and Kate Hepburn's homemade brownie recipe with the crunchy, buttery outer crust......

I have the impression that Sean would be a little too above us at the festival.

But Sean and Michael would be a wonderful combo.

I still want to recommend The Elephant to Hollywood because Caine makes it dishy and grateful. I didn't realize that
Shirley Maclaine had so much to do with his coming to Hollywood. (She demanded him for the lead in Gambit.)

[charliechaplinfan]

Something else to like Shirley Maclaine for, what a lady.

I've just finished a biography of Dickens by Claire Tomalin, quite a good biography but why are my geniuses mostly flawed? Now I've started Nicholas Nickleby a Dickens I haven't read before.

[JackFavell]

I want to like Dickens as a person, romanticized, but yes he was flawed in some terrible ways, and treated his wife abominably. I really wish I didn't know about that part of his life.

I love Nicholas Nickelby! but I admit I only read it after seeing the 1982 BBC version with Roger Rees, John Woodvine, Edward Petherbridge, Emily Richard, Alun Armstrong and David Threlfall as Smike. They captured the book very well, but of course they had eight hours to do so. A very inventive production.

My favorite Dickens book is still The Pickwick Papers. It doesn't have any social significance, but oh, the characters!

[charliechaplinfan]

I haven't read The Pickwick Papers yet, my favourite so far is Bleak Times but there are so many characters, it's quite difficult to get into.

[moira finnie]

I haven't read The Pickwick Papers yet, my favourite so far is Bleak Times but there are so many characters, it's quite difficult to get into.

Alison, I hope you find a copy of the highly enjoyable adventures of the Pickwick family soon. It may be the perfect Dickensian story for the summertime. The episodic stories mix together to make a light and dark effect like dappled sunshine beneath a cool tree in a garden. Funny and gently mocking the world of its characters; it is a pleasant place to visit. I've never entirely understood why these Dickens stories aren't more widely read today. (A suppose because they don't have that tragic, epochal air of the giant works of literature such as Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities! The latter is my Dickens favorite).