Right before that they showed another classic, (while not classic on the same level as a great movie like Ben Hur) one of my favorites ;

HOUDINI with Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.

Although it was not as factually accurate as the later made movie, The Great Houdini with Paul Michael Glasser, it is still a really good and entertaining movie.

I've never seen The Greatest Story Ever Told. Please don't tell me how it ends.

TONIGHT is Jane Powell's 80th birthday celebration on TCM (this is a VERY big deal for me) and TCM is about to show a musical with both she and DEBBIE REYNOLDS(!!). Something I had NO idea even existed, but this should be UN-believable.

(Oh, and I just found out that today is ALSO Debbie Reynolds' birthday. So Happy April Fools B-day to two of my favorite entertainers ever - how cool is that!?!)

Two Weeks With Love - Original Trailer 1950

For anyone interested, TCM will be playing several classic religious movies today. Movies such as Ben-Hur, Soloman and Sheba, King of Kings, etc.

just finished watching ben-hur yesterday...really great movie, and i sure hope this is never made into a remake.

Watching Judy Garland and Fred Astaire in, Easter Parade (1948), at the moment. Easily the most successful film in Astaire's career, the light and airy spring-time aesthetics of this film help make it a perfect musical, and the perfect match for its Holiday namesake.

And ya know, there really is a good reason the Beatles wanted to include Judy Garland on the cover of St. Pepper's - She just pretty much had the best pipes ever:

Another showing again tonight, as TCM is giving 15 select viewers from around the country the opportunity to be guest programmer for a night, as part of the station's 15th anniversary celebration! (It was also the FIRST film ever shown on TCM.)

And this is a film that absolutely gets better with a second viewing (I'd really like to read the novel, the ONLY work by Margaret Mitchell).

Gone this time from my viewing experience are all the dreams of Ashley Wilkes and the Old South; the Knights and their ladies fair; no, the second viewing is all about the absolute electricity that resonates between Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. As the guest programmer stated - to see the electricity and ROMANCE generated between thee two actors on screen is truly life changing, from a personal as well as artistic standpoint.

That said, the beginning written narration, which proceeds the incredibly unique opening credits to the film, is one of the greatest openings to any movie I've ever seen (And that's giving all respect to Bonasera and Vito's opening exchange).



'...Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered.'

And what about that Virginia Reel Dance scene?!? How could you NOT raise a toast to the Old South during this?

Definitely one of my favorite movies of all time. Scarlett is one of the greatest female characters ever created, and Vivien Leigh was incredible in the role. Scarlett was such a bitch, but if she wasn't, they would have lost Tara and starved to death. And who else could have loved such a woman, except for Rhett, that seemingly simple yet so complex man?

Gerald, Aunt Pittypat, Prissy, Mammy, Melanie - the film is so brilliantly casted and performed (with the exception of the puzzling English accent on the Southern-born Ashley Wilkes).

Who can forget that great moment when Scarlett wants to visit Melanie in Atlanta, and Mammy tells her that she knows that the only reason that Scarlett wants to go to Atlanta is because Ashley will be coming home on leave and that Scarlett will be "waiting for him, just like a spider!" She hisses that last bit with such perfect delivery, no wonder they gave Ms. McDaniel an Oscar.

I could watch GWTW over and over, just to see Scarlett at Ashley's party in that red dress.

GREAT synopsis, Babe. We could definitely write a thesis based simply on the character arc of Scarlett O' Hara, but even the deepest of analysis could only scratch the surface b/c the story leaves so much to be ascertained about the fate of her character. That's part of what makes this story so deep.

Leaving the movie's technical greatness and innovation aside, the dialogue is certainly some of the most clever I've ever seen within the scope of general cinema, and I think the film is justly compared with The Godfather.


When Rhett walks out on Scarlett, he and his big brown eyes are walking out on "the old-south and anyone who ever harbored even the most subconscious of fantasies about the old-southern/Nordic myth of caste, and 'proper' breeding within the 'Aryan' race."

Ah, but we just couldn't let that big, dark-haired s.o.b leave, huh, Mrs. Butler.

This really cute girl from Austin was the first presenter last night, and she was AWESOME, but it made me jealous b/c I know I could do as good if not better, though her "career" is RTF.

But man, she had waaay better legs.

"But Rhett! Where will I go, what will I do??". What will she do? Think about it tomorrow, of course! I don't think there's one scene that's not well done in that film. And we didn't even touch the scenery! How did they do that, back in 1939?? Those sweeping views of Tara and Twelve Oaks, the acres of wounded being cared for by Dr. Meade, that camera angle as Scarlett sees Rhett Butler for the first time. Oh, I love this film!!!

... I know, I know. I've been thinking about it all day and all night. And of course, The Wizard of Oz was released the same yr, and I don't think it's a sheer coincidence that historians usually refer to this almost precise time period as the start of true 'modernism' and industrialism in America and around the world.

And this story really is one of the deeper, refined, and complex ever made into film, but it's also enjoyed on many other levels as you said, Babe. My ex-girlfriend used to talk about this movie ALL the time and believe me, she was NO historian or film buff. And I wouldn't watch b/c I thought it would be 'campy' and cheesy, but geez, now I'd give anything to have a girlfriend who wanted to watch this film..

Ice, you really should read the book. Although it was published well before the film was made, the description of Rhett Butler really IS Gable. Also, the back stories are so rich and full of detail - how Gerald came to America and acquired Tara, how he got to marry Ellen, who was well above him in social stature, that the O'Hara's were only accepted because of Scarlett's mother, that Scarlett actually had three children, not just Bonnie (although Bonnie was her favorite). There's so much that they obviously had to cut out, including a lovely character named Will, one of those returning soldiers who Melanie feeds at Tara, and ends up staying on to run it when Scarlett returns to Atlanta and buys the mills.

Obviously, I could go on and on (and have). Maybe we should start a separate GWTW thread!

Ice, if 1939 saw the birth of "true" Modernism (seems late to me), Murnau (a German) was ahead of the game when he made his first American film, Sunrise, in 1927 (just as talkies were coming in).

It's one of the finest American films ever made.

Thanks Capo. You're definitely right. It's like asking which airplane had the greatest impact on society: The early original airplane of World War I? Or the later planes of WWII which led to the airships of today? It's hard to beat the impact of the original talkies, but GWTW and TWOZ took it to the moon just a few short years later.

And Babe, what about a GWTW message board like we have here with GF? But of course, we know who opened Scarlett's drapes.

I dunno, but something that further demonstrated to me how much GWTW has resonated within American folklore and colloquialism (though it was just as big in Japan as it was Atlanta, Georgia), was a quote from the movie that I heard from my dad (and elsewhere) more than once in my earlier years, and mind you my father is a man who has seen fewer films than most blind people:

But,

'Who's gonna milk that cow, Ms. Scarlett? We's just house niggas (slaves).'

Poor Pork! So outside of his realm, as they all were! It was an interesting commentary on slavery, that even the slaves had their caste system.

Scarlett and her drapes!! HEE! I loved that scene when she rips down those drapes, and then wears them to see Rhett in the jail. And Rhett, so in love with her that he buys her act, at least for a brief moment.

Wasn't the original "King Kong" also released in 1939? That's another of my favorite films. "Twas beauty killed the beast."

King Kong was released in 1933.

LMAO at the good ol' reactionary idealist portrayal of Black-White relationships in Gone With the Wind.

"We just happy, chirpy slaves thankful for a roof over our heads at night. Chains, you say? We've nothing to lose but our humour (and worldly wisdom)!"

As an actual southerner, I will say with great understatement how much I fucking despise GONE WITH THE WIND.

The Singing Nun is a 1966 semi-biographical film about the life of Jeanine Deckers, a nun who recorded the chart-topping hit song "Dominique". It starred Debbie Reynolds in the title role.

Jeanine Deckers (October 17, 1933 – March 29, 1985), better known in English as The Singing Nun, was a Belgian nun, and a member (as Sister Luc Gabriel) of the Dominican Fichermont Convent in Belgium. She became internationally famous in 1963 as Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile) when she scored a hit with the song "Dominique". In the English language world, she is mostly referred to as "The Singing Nun".

Deckers rejected the film as "fiction".[2] Sally Field spoofed the role starting the following year as the title character in the television series The Flying Nun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singing_Nun


Despite the film's criticism, Debbie Reynolds is every bit as good a singing nun as Julie Andrews

And of course, the music of the Soeur Sourire (Smiling Sister) herself was truly celestial.

MALTESE FALCON was on friday night, and as always it kicks ass.

Really, John Huston that fellow really did figure out that sometimes for a mystery movie, the mystery itself isn't necessarily need to be the most important facet.

I got woken up by some LOUD thunder and couldn't fall back to sleep so I turned on the tv only to see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in "Top Hat".

Aside from their chemistry and skills, it still remains a thing of wonder to watch. And, for the life of me, I can't get John Coffey (from "The Green Mile") out of my mind when I watch them dance their big number ("Heaven").

I was going to bed too when I saw this and just couldn't look away, which is just like everytime I turn on the channel.

(I hope to get into some Joan Crawford and maybe Lauren Bacall this week, but TCM's 15th anniversary celebration is showing one gem after another.)

Top Hat! Ever since I watched The Green Mile I've wondered the name of that movie.

...'I could have conquered Europe - all of it - but I had women in my life.'


One of the monumental pieces in modern cinematic story telling and dialogue, The Lion in Winter (1968) is a film based on the 1966 Broadway play. Starring Peter O' Toole as King Henry and Katharine Hepburn as his Queen, the film marked Anthony Hopkins and Timothy ("007") Dalton's legendary film debuts, and won the 61 yr old Katherine Hepburn the Academy Award for best actress. Much like watching a great Shakespearean play, all of the fireworks (and there are many in this film )take place around the great but aging King Henry II (great-grandson of William The Conqueror) and the chess game that takes place between his heirs, his wives, and all of the other global and lineal factors that normally accompany European royalty, as to who is to take over his throne.

This story can be discussed just as extensively as the history and the lives of all of the events and royal figures involved. Shakespeare wrote often of these characters and this time period, and it's nearly impossible to offer any real historical analysis in a overview like this one. But this film offers a presentation of some of history's most well known events, empires and people: King Henry, the English-French Angevin Plantagenet Empire, Richard the Lion Hearted, King Phillip II, and of course Queen Eleanor, portrayed by Hepburn.

The film is set at Christmas, as Henry is trying to bring together the whole dysfunctional family for the holidays. The whole story has a very biblical like quality to it b/c the European connection to the Pope and the Church was at perhaps one of it's most dramatic times (At the film's end Henry looks to be damn near ready to go sack Rome ala Alaric the Visigoth who sacked Rome in 410). The film thus ends on Christmas day, though really the entire film is like one long stretching scene, similar to Hitchcock's Rope.

Henry wants John to take over, Eleanor wants Richard (Anthony Hopkins), and it all culminates with Henry locking them all in a dungeon after John plots with Phillip of France against Henry. It's sort of hard to follow some of the story if you don't do a little historical research such as; why Henry keeps Eleanor locked away, why Eleanor would have been in bed with her husband's father many years before, or why Henry is involved with the half sister of King Philip II of France, the son of Eleanor's ex-husband. But in reality, of course, there were many incestuous ties in those days, and Henry would have had many wives.

Though this of course marked Anthony Hopkins and Timothy ("007") Dalton's legendary film debuts, and both turn in two of their best roles, neither stars shine quite as luminous as Katharine Hepburn, who, even at age 61, the same age that her character Eleanor of Aquitaine was in 1183, is the greatest actor ever (male or female) IMO.

A very few of the legendary and briskly delivered lines of dialogue:

...
Henry II: Now see here, boy...
Philip II: I am a king - I am no man's "boy"!
Henry II: A king? Because you put your ass on purple cushions?

"Henry II: I haven't kept the Great Bitch in the keep for ten years out of passionate attachment. "

"Eleanor: [to her husband, Henry II] I wonder... do you ever wonder... if I slept with your father. "

Philip II: A king like you has policy prepared on everything: well, what's the official line on sodomy? How stands the Crown on boys who do with boys?

Eleanor: I even made poor Louis take me on Crusade. How's that for blasphemy. I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn... but the troops were dazzled.

[to Prince John]
Prince Geoffrey: If you're a prince, there's hope for every ape in Africa.

"Prince John: Poor John. Who says poor John? Don't everybody sob at once! My God, if I went up in flames there's not a living soul who'd pee on me to put the fire out!
Prince Richard: Let's strike a flint and see. "

...

My favorite scenes are the exchanges between O'Toole and Hepburn, but this scene includes Hopkins and Dalton, and represents nicely the sheer power and precision that is delivered with every line of dialogue in this film:

(Oh, and I forgot to mention the academy award winning score, heard here set to Eleanor's arrival at the castle, by John Barry, who later composed the Dances with Wolves soundtrack. The film also won best screenplay.)


And the 61 yr old Hep was the easy choice for best actress that year:

Gold Diggers of 1933 is a Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics), staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell and Ginger Rogers and features Warren William, Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks and Aline MacMahon.

The story is based on the play The Gold Diggers by Avery Hopwood which ran for 282 performances on Broadway in 1919 and 1920.[1]. The play was made into a silent film in 1923 by David Belasco, the producer of the Broadway play, as The Gold Diggers, starring Hope Hampton and Wyndham Standing, and again as a talkie in 1929, directed by Roy Del Ruth. That film, Gold Diggers of Broadway, which starred Nancy Welford and Conway Tearle, was the biggest box office hit of that year, and Gold Diggers of 1933 was one of the top grossing films of 1933.[2] This version of Hopwood's play was written by James Seymour and Erwin S. Gelsey, with additional dialogue by David Boehm and Ben Markson.

In 2003, Gold Diggers of 1933 was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The "gold diggers" are four aspiring actresses: Polly the ingenue (Ruby Keeler), Carol the torch singer (Joan Blondell), Trixie the comedienne (Aline MacMahon) and Fay the glamourpuss (Ginger Rogers).

The film was made in 1933 at the nadir of the Great Depression and contains numerous direct references to it. In fact, it begins with a rehearsal for a stage show, which is interrupted by the producer's creditors who close down the show because of unpaid bills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Diggers_of_1933




Gold Diggers of 1935 (Part Two)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gGVryQDvv4&feature=related
Here's the big dance scene in the 'gold diggers' show, and it's one of Hollywood's all-time grandest scenes for sure. The entire spectacle and dance is a parable on the roaring 20's and the great depression of sorts, and probably one of the very best that Classic Hollywood ever had to offer in terms of dance and choreography mixed with SPECTACLE.

Ginger Rogers - We're in the Money
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtOLpyqankQ&feature=related
This is Ginger Rogers' big welcome into Hollywood, though she wasn't so sure. She decides to sing the end of this in pig-latin - something she later thought would have gotten her fired - but they kept it in, and the rest is history, both for Ginger and this film. Both the song and film have become synonymous with the Great Depression Era and the role that art played in relieving that real-life tension through song and dance. Ginger is accompanied by scantily-clad showgirls dancing with giant coins.