Winter weather watching

What better way to spend the "blizzard of '09" then watching some movies I'd taped off TCM.

The Painted Veil - I thought this one would be an automic win, what with Garbo and all, but I'm rather lukewarm about it. I'm so attached to the Somerset Maugham novel that this adaptation disappointed me. I understand they need to make Garbo the heroine, but I think that could have been done without straying so very far from the novel. In its place I would recommend the 2006 version with Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, and Liev Schrieber.

Her Cardboard Lover - This movie gets a bad rap, and is often cited as the reason Norma Shearer retired from movies, but I loved it. Granted, she does go over the top a bit with all the "darling Tony!" stuff, but I kind of expect that from her. Robert Taylor was abolutely delightful with the silly bits and one liners. And who better to play the cad than George Sanders? Character actor bonus: Frank McHugh (whose character was named Chappie Champagne, how can you not love that?).

I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang - I'd taped this months ago, when Alec Baldwin was guest hosting The Essentials. (Suggestion to Robert Osbourne: maybe next time let the guest host get a few words in edgewise?) Finally got around to watching it, and promptly went and bought the DVD from Amazon when the movie was over. EGAD. Paul Muni is brilliant, and Alec Baldwin was so right to advise the viewer to make sure and stay for the final scene (which happened the way it does by accident; I love those kind of stories). The plot is very like "The Roaring Twenties," one of my favorite Cagney movies.

Next Up: Bedlam (Karloff runs the infamous insane asylum!), Never Say Goodbye, 84 Charing Cross Road, and Girl 27 (you can read that [horrifying and true] story here.)

Squeeeeeeeeeeee!

I happened to be watching TCM today (it's Michael Curtiz today, which translates, for me, into Errol Flynn day) and they ran an ad for their new Warners Archive Collection. Lots of new movies never before on DVD, they promised! And I have to say, Ted Turner has delivered. Some of my favorite movies are now on DVD, so I scooped up a bunch: Idiot's Delight, Laughing Sinners, Dance Fools Dance, Possessed, Chained, and Forsaking All Others. There's a couple others I have my eye on, but I tried to restrain myself. ;) Maybe when I win the lottery.

For Memorial Day

In honor of the holiday, I thought I'd list some of my favorite classic war movies. I haven't been watching many movies lately, hence the lack of updates, so this will have to do.

• Objective, Burma!
• Destination Tokyo
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
• They Were Expendable
• Blood On The Sun
• 13 Rue Madeleine
• Mister Roberts
• Run Silent, Run Deep
• The Gallant Hours
• Europa, Europa
• Der Untergang (The Downfall)
• Sophie Scholl - Die Letzten Tage (The Final Days)
• The Fighting 69th
• Captains of the Clouds
• The Dawn Patrol
• Dive Bomber
• You, John Jones! (one reel short)

On an unrelated note, I'd also like to salute my family members who have served in the armed forces: Charles Kissinger, Jack Lehr, Richard Burroughs, Harry Maurer, and Buddy Sarvis.

IMDB's Top 10!

As I noted once before, IMDB numbers each star as part of the URL, and #1 is Mr. Fred Astaire. I was curious to see who the "top 10" would be.

1. Fred Astaire
2. Lauren Bacall
3. Brigitte Bardot
4. John Belushi (toga! toga! toga!)
5. Ingmar Bergman
6. Ingrid Bergman
7. Humphrey Bogart
8. Marlon Brando
9. Richard Burton
10. James Cagney (I was just thinking, he must be in the top 10)

I'm surprised. I never would have expected Belushi to be in the top 10. I assumed they'd start with all the "classic" stars first. I wonder how they came up with the "pecking order" in the first place.

A sensible review...

...of Gone With the Wind. I came across this on Amazon today and thought it made some good points.

Movie Poster Art

I love movie posters from the 1930's. They have a style, half photographic and half painted, that visually appeals to me. I have been tempted to buy certain posters, even when I think the movie is only so-so, just because I love the artwork. Some examples:

One of my favorite Harlow posters. Not my favorite Harlow movie.

My all time favorite Crawford poster. I thought the movie was blah. Look at that hair! And I like the script at the top.

I love the look of her face, although not the skin tone.

I love the poster and the movie in this case. Ann Sheridan is just beautiful.

A little over the top, but still gorgeous.

I just like the yellow, and the heads of the cast members.

Snow day = movie day!

What with all the snow and layers of ice that decorated the world this morning, I chickened out and stayed home, which translated into vegging in front of the TV, watching the last of my Christmas DVDs. It was a lovely day.

Hellooooooo, ladies!

First up was San Antonio, the case for which notes, "Despite his Tasmanian roots and elegant British accent, Flynn made an ideal all-American cowboy. With his steely gaze, lean frame, and understated humor, he tamed the West in eight thrilling sagebrush sagas." Amen to that. He is a wonderful cowboy, basically because he is a wonderful anything. Pirate, pilot, boxer, George Armstrong Custer, I don't care, as long as he smiles that smile at me. Yum.

I worked my way through my Flynn Westerns box set this weekend, also viewing Montana, Rocky Mountain, and Virginia City. Flynn's sidekick in two of these films was S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall, and I'm of two minds about that. On the one hand, "Cuddles" is absolutely adorable in everything he does, which usually includes a lot of bumbling (and how awesome is it that he always had his nickname in the credits?). On the other hand, there's few things more out of place in a Western than a chubby guy with a thick Hungarian accent. Alan Hale is my preferred Flynn buddy, but Sakall turned out to be an acceptable, if somewhat unsuitable, substitute. My all time favorite Flynn western, though, is Dodge City.

I also polished off the last of my Warners Gangsters Vol. 4 set with Invisible Stripes, and Kid Galahad. We'll talk about those next time.

Snuggly blankets and hot chocolate in front of a cozy fire

That's what the Andy Hardy movies are to me. When TCM shows them, they usually do a chunk of them in a row in one day. I think I've seen most of them now, the most recent block being shown over Christmas, which was the perfect time for them, what with the gooey family feelings and all.

They are, of course, a completely unrealistic picture of family life -- even more so now than when they were made. And yet, I love them, and watching them is so relaxing. For one thing, you always know what to expect -- Andy falls for girl, gets in some kind of (totally harmless) trouble, has man-to-man talk with Dad -- and yet the details of the story are different each time, so there's a combination of old and new which keeps my interest.

Even as the feminist in me kind of recoils from Mother Hardy's obvious belief that she's just a mere woman who can't even balance her checkbook, there is something comforting in watching her fuss over the children or bustle around in the kitchen -- and what dinners she makes! And the men always come to the table in coats and ties! It's hard to believe that people actually lived that way, although my dad tells stories of the days when men walked the boardwalk at the Jersey shores in coats and ties and hats, the women in dresses and pantyhose and gloves. There is a style about it (and classic films in general, from the manners to the decor) that seems so quaint today, but it's a style I enjoy.

My current box set dream is an Andy Hardy box set...and my birthday is next month, Ted Turner! Hear my cries! For your benefit, here's a list of the films (and in checking IMDB to create the list, I notice Mickey Rooney currently has 323 movies to his name...wow!):

• A Family Affair (Lionel Barrymore was the original Judge Hardy, but I like Lewis Stone much better)
• You're Only Young Once
• Judge Hardy's Children
• Love Finds Andy Hardy
• Out West with the Hardys
• The Hardys Ride High
• Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever
• Judge Hardy and Son
• Andy Hardy Meets Debutante
• Andy Hardy's Private Secretary
• Life Begins for Andy Hardy
• The Courtship of Andy Hardy
• Andy Hardy's Double Life
• Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble
• Love Laughs at Andy Hardy
• Andy Hardy Comes Home

Hmm. Maybe I haven't seen most of them after all.

Portraits of Hollywood's Golden Age

A nifty Newsweek photo gallery I discovered today. Say what you will about Joan Crawford, she could take am amazing picture (#5), and that's not even my favorite of her. The James Cagney picture (#8) is great, a wonderful example of what they did with light and shadow back then. The Hitchcock one (#14) is just plain funny.

Driven into exile by the Nazis, they changed Hollywood forever

I saw an excellent documentary over the weekend, Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood. The film documents the experiences of some well known (Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre) and less well known (Erich Pommer, Joseph Mai) Jews from Germany's film industry who escaped Hitler's Germany and wound up in Hollywood, with varying degress of success. Some of the history I knew, but most I didn't, and the documentary as a whole was fascinating.