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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 9, 2015 10:23:26 GMT -5
With you on Sylvia Scarlett. What's your take on Arsenic and Old Lace, Hoosier? it's been a while since I saw Arsenic and Old Lace but I remember thinking it was hilarious and the whole cast - from the old ladies to crazy Uncle Teddy to Peter Lorre to Raymond Massey to Cary Grant - is great.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 10:29:15 GMT -5
I watched The General starring Buster Keaton at his very best. I seen it about 6 times in my life and in awe every time that it's come on TCM. It the best silent movie Buster did in his legendary career.
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Post by Prince Hal on Oct 9, 2015 11:01:03 GMT -5
I asked about Arsenic and Old Lace b/c of the bad rap it gets, particularly because of what many critics see as Grant's mugging and overacting. I never saw it that way and have always enjoyed it. Massey and Lorre are so creepy, and I just love the mix of the creepy and the slapstick. I do wish the last line did not have to be sanitized, but other than that, I love it: the Hallowe'en setting despite the fact that there's apparently a game going on at Ebbets Field); Cousin Teddy; the excellent acting all around; Jack Carson and James Gleason stellar as always; the set itself; Massey's menacing presence; the way Lorre exits; it's all so well done.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 9, 2015 11:07:19 GMT -5
I taped It's a Gift with W.C. Fields off of TCM weeks ago and I finally watched it last night. I've seen it over and over through the years. One of the funniest movies ever made.
My four favorite Fields movies are It's a Gift, The Man on the Flying Trapeze, The Bank Dick and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. It's sort of a four-way tie, but I always single out It's a Gift for its straightforward trajectory as a narrative about a regular working guy, at war with his family and himself, pursuing his dream of owning an orange ranch. The other three films are spectacularly funny but they tend to get a little side-tracked while It's a Gift maintains its focus throughout.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 9, 2015 11:14:19 GMT -5
I asked about Arsenic and Old Lace b/c of the bad rap it gets, particularly because of what many critics see as Grant's mugging and overacting. I never saw it that way and have always enjoyed it. Massey and Lorre are so creepy, and I just love the mix of the creepy and the slapstick. I do wish the last line did not have to be sanitized, but other than that, I love it: the Hallowe'en setting despite the fact that there's apparently a game going on at Ebbets Field); Cousin Teddy; the excellent acting all around; Jack Carson and James Gleason stellar as always; the set itself; Massey's menacing presence; the way Lorre exits; it's all so well done. I've also been long baffled by the complaints about Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace. But I hear very similar complaints about his performance in Bringing Up Baby, and I find these complaints kind of stupid. Bringing Up Baby is a Top Five Cary Grant movie for me.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 9, 2015 11:39:42 GMT -5
I taped It's a Gift with W.C. Fields off of TCM weeks ago and I finally watched it last night. I've seen it over and over through the years. One of the funniest movies ever made. My four favorite Fields movies are It's a Gift, The Man on the Flying Trapeze, The Bank Dick and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. It's sort of a four-way tie, but I always single out It's a Gift for its straightforward trajectory as a narrative about a regular working guy, at war with his family and himself, pursuing his dream of owning an orange ranch. The other three films are spectacularly funny but they tend to get a little side-tracked while It's a Gift maintains its focus throughout. I've got a box set of W.C. Fields films on my soon to watch list. Its been many years since I last viewed any and looking forward to it
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 9, 2015 13:00:54 GMT -5
I taped It's a Gift with W.C. Fields off of TCM weeks ago and I finally watched it last night. I've seen it over and over through the years. One of the funniest movies ever made. My four favorite Fields movies are It's a Gift, The Man on the Flying Trapeze, The Bank Dick and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. It's sort of a four-way tie, but I always single out It's a Gift for its straightforward trajectory as a narrative about a regular working guy, at war with his family and himself, pursuing his dream of owning an orange ranch. The other three films are spectacularly funny but they tend to get a little side-tracked while It's a Gift maintains its focus throughout. I've got a box set of W.C. Fields films on my soon to watch list. Its been many years since I last viewed any and looking forward to it His short films are also incredibly funny. OMG! That scene in The Dentist where the iceman is flirting with the daughter and Fields runs him out of the house and then he has to put the huge block of ice into the icebox by himself! (Also, The Dentist has the scene where he's pulling the woman's tooth and she wraps her legs around him rather suggestively.) The best short film is The Fatal Glass of Beer. It's been a while since I saw most of the other W.C. Fields films, but I try to find The Fatal Glass of Beer for free on the Internet every year or so because I love it so much.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 9, 2015 13:12:44 GMT -5
The Fatal Glass of Beer is available on YouTube:
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 9, 2015 14:54:35 GMT -5
I DVRed The Good Earth a few days ago and I'll probably watch it tonight.
I remember The Good Earth from when I was a kid in the 1970s. I didn't actually see it, I just remember it being advertised for a television broadcast. There was a copy of the novel in one of the family bookcases and I looked at it and read a paragraph or two and decided I really wasn't interested. (Among the other books I rejected at about the same time: Goldfinger.)
But years and years later, I've discovered Luise Rainer and I've seen a couple of her movies and she's so great and I decided I wanted to give The Good Earth a chance despite it being long and looking like a real downer and also for casting white people as Chinese peasants.
We'll see how it goes. I hear the special effects are good.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 9, 2015 15:00:56 GMT -5
What with all the interest in Cary Grant on this thread lately, I decided to link to a list I created at IMDB with all the Cary Grant movies I've seen. Archibald Leach. Mr. Lucky is showing on TCM soon (Sunday, I think) and I hope to add it to the list within a few days.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 9, 2015 18:52:07 GMT -5
I've seen just about all the Cary Grant films. That's because I'd watch any film he was in just because he was
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 10, 2015 15:00:33 GMT -5
The Goodbye Girl (1977) Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings
Marsha gets abandoned by her live-in actor boyfriend after he sub-leases the apartment to another struggling actor (Dreyfuss). Since both are short in cash with no other alternatives, they decide to share the apartment even though they are totally incompatible. Marsha is raising her young daughter as well
Written smartly and hilariously by Neil Simon, Richard Dreyfuss swept all the major awards (Oscar, Golden Globes etc) winning the Best Actor category for the year. The young daughter (Cummings) does a great job as well. As funny as when it came out.
When I moved into Manhattan in the late 1970s, luckily cable TV was up and running. HBO was available as well. It was on for only 8 hours a day showing the same 10 or so movies each month over and over and over again. This was one of those. I probably saw pieces of it a dozen times or so when changing channels (there weren't that many stations back then). Now, after not seeing the film after 25 years or so, it's as fresh as ever. Recommended
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 10, 2015 15:11:37 GMT -5
If You Can Only Cook (1935) Jean Arthur, Herbert Marshall, Lionel Stander
An Icon Of Screwball Comedy Selection
Herbert Marshall is an executive car designer frustrated with his companies' conservative decisions. He sits on a park bench to brood when he meets out-of-work Jean Arthur. She convinces him to pose as her husband to land a job as a butler and cook team. Even though he's wealthy, he agrees just to change his life for a short while. He sneaks back to his mansion at nights to get butler lessons from his own butler. The men who hire the pair are former bootleggers looking for a new angle
Another funny screwball comedy where the situations get more and more outlandish. Lionel Stander is a classic gruffly voiced tough guy. So far none of these Icons selections have disappointed. The title is a bit misleading because Jean Arthur can cook
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Post by berkley on Oct 11, 2015 0:02:14 GMT -5
You should fast-track both The Awful Truth and Eyes without a Face. The Awful Truth is tied with Suspicion as my favorite Cary Grant film. I keep my eyes open for Cary Grant movies I haven't seen. If you get the channel called Movies!, then you can see An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr tonight (Saturday). Following that, they're showing Houseboat, with Grant and Sophia Loren. An Affair to Remember is probably the biggest Cary Grant movie I've never seen. I've seen Houseboat, and it's not so great, but it's not without its charm if you have a high tolerance for not-so-great movies. Later in October, TCM is showing Mr. Lucky, another one I've never seen. It sounds interesting. I'm looking forward to it. TCM showed Charade a few days ago and I DVRed it. I've seen it, but it's been a long time. I'm planning on watching it tonight. I'm sure you've seen these, but if you haven't, I think they're all worth a peek: Destination Tokyo, an excellent serious war movie, with Grant as the sub commander, leading an excellent cast (John Garfield, for one) and Operation Petticoat, a comedic war movie with Tony Curtis, doing a send-up of Grant, as Grant's effete second-in-command on a pink (!) submarine. Notorious, one of Hitchcock's very best, I think, with Ingrid Bergman as Grant's love interest. Grant is excellent. You must have seen Philadelphia Story, right? And Gunga Din, too? His only Oscar nomination came in 1944 for playing the cynical drifter Ernie Mott in None But the Lonely Heart, a somewhat dark drama. And there's People Will Talk, also a kind of a comedy, but with a somewhat dour and serious portrayal by Grant as a doctor in a story that involves unwed motherhood, an ex-killer, vitriolic gossip with more than a hint of the McCarthyism just around the corner, and Grant's iconoclastic, implacable Doctor Noah Praetorious. How about two that are a real stretch for Grant: The Easy Way (aka Room for One More), in which he and his wife at the time, Betsy Drake, play average parents who take in a tough kid whose plight is made worse b/c of his heavy leg braces; and Penny Serenade, an almost unbearably sad soaper co-starring Irene Dunne, in which he again plays an average Joe who se life is not at all easy and who also adopts a child. Grant was s handsome, so sophisticated, so cool, that it's actually a challenge for him (and us) to accept him as a guy who might live next door. Still, I enjoy him in these and in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, a funny and satirical take on the post-war exodus from the cities. Another different role for Grant was as a labor organizer in Talk of the Town, an eclectic sorta screwball-sorta drama directed by George Stevens. Sorry the list is long (and could be longer), but I guess I've enjoyed watching Grant in virtually everything he's ever done. Love hearing about Cary Grant movies to see. Of the ones mentioned here, I've already seen Suspicion, Mr. Lucky, Charade, Notorious, Philadelphia Story, and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. I rate Notorious as the best movie I've seen starring Cary Grant, and perhaps also my favourite Cary Grant movie, if that's not too pedantic a distinction. My favourite comedy is probably The Philadelphia Story.
I hope to emulate Prince Hal eventually and watch all of Cary Grant's movies, but based on the brief descriptions here I am now much more interested in seeing Talk of the Town and especially None But the Lonely Heart than I was heretofore. They'll be moving to the front of my "to-view queue" .
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Post by berkley on Oct 11, 2015 0:43:25 GMT -5
With you on Sylvia Scarlett. What's your take on Arsenic and Old Lace, Hoosier? Love Arsenic and Old Lace, its detractors are all completely wrong-headed. Haven't seen Sylvia Scarlett. I've been a little put off the latter by Katherine Hepburn: I wouldn't say I dislike her but I've never really taken to her as an actress and her presence isn't a draw for me. But I do like the idea of Cary Grant in a role that sounds not too far distant from the kind of life he led before becoming an actor, so I will certainly watch it one of these days. If I can recommend one Cary Grant movie you don't see talked about much, I think every CG fan should have a look at Big Brown Eyes if they haven't already: not a great film by any means, but I love his performance in it. It's a pretty early one too, 1936, so it's interesting to see him as "Cary Grant" at that age, compared to, say, his performances in the Mae West films, where he hasn't yet perfected his screen persona. Although, now that I check, I see that Sylvia Scarlett was a year earlier, so there's another incentive for me to give that one a look.
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