“I discovered what went with orchids was a game of hide and seek with fate played in off-beat night-clubs, out of the way bars, remote restaurants. A game I never had a chance of winning.”
THEY WON’T BELIEVE ME ( 1947 )
21
Category Archives: MY FAVORITE FILMS
HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT
Submissions should be flooding in today and I can’t wait to share them with you all on Monday ~ July 24th. With my ‘Till Death Us Do Part Blogathon, bloggers will explore films where spouses attempt to murder each other. Some succeed, some fail, some get off Scott~free, some are caught. Since I’m hosting this shebang, I guess I’ll go first with a film that precedes Julia Roberts’ “Sleeping With The Enemy” by 54 years.
“GILDA” ( 1946 )
Here it is again. There is something blazingly epic and biblical about this shot:
Every classic film blogger and their grandmother’s great-uncle Fang has written about this movie. Now…it’s my turn.
THE OX~BOW INCIDENT ( 1943 )
I WALK ALONE
I MET SPARTACUS!
Yep, I actually met Kirk Douglas. My friend Chip Duckett was getting memorabilia autographed for a giant AIDS ball being held in Vienna he helps brings talent to. He invited me along to Barnes & Noble with him for a Kirk Douglas book signing. ( “Let’s Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning.” ) Chip was going to get some Kirk memorabilia autographed. I wasn’t going to buy the book just go along for the ride. The seriousness of WHO I was actually going to meet struck me when we were taken to the bookstore’s “green room” ~ a storage room of books ~ to actually meet him, thanks to one of Chip’s connections at the store. We were going to meet him before the formal book signing began. Just before the B&N guy knocked on the door, Chip gave me one of his Kirk memorabilia items to have something in my hand. Wha’? The door opened and there was Kirk Douglas sitting at a table. I knew I was going to see him, but I didn’t know I was actually going to MEET him.
CROSSFIRE: GLORIOUSLY GLORIA
“CROSSFIRE” (1947) Robert Young, Robert Ryan and Robert Mitchum, directed by Edward Dmytryk.
[ November 28th, 1923 ~ October 5th, 1981 ]
The testosterone level is high in this rough and tumble drama. You see those leads? But there’s another piece of this movie; the girls they leave behind.
PITFALL ( 1948 )
Husband Wife Mistress Creep
“PITFALL“ is taut tense quiet drama and I like how it plays out. You think it’s going to go one way and director André De Toth takes you in a different direction. For Dick Powell who plays John Forbes, your average, postwar, 9-to-5, Everyman, Insurance man, what happens outside his marriage comes crashing into his suburban home like a tsunami. (Gosh, insurance guys sure lead fascinating lives; remember Walter Neff?) Powell’s a hero to his son, a good provider to his wife, but his life is in a rut. Then Lizabeth Scott falls into his lap.
NORA PRENTISS ( 1947 )
How would you like a little film noir in your adultery? Yes…there will be SPOILERS:
Nora Prentiss kneels before the ashes of her dreams of home, hearth and a husband of her own
“NORA PRENTISS” is really a showcase for Ann Sheridan. Director Vincent Sherman gloriously holds the camera on her many times, to which I, as a Sheridan fan say “Yay!” She’s excellent. As Nora Prentiss, she hadn’t sign up for this. She’s not a bad guy; no vixen or femme fatale or Vamp. She wants to be married, have kids, live out in the open. It gets increasingly dark for her too. She soon sees he’s not any closer to divorce and this is not working out for her in an open way.
THE DEVIL COMMANDS ( 1941 )
It’s so hard for me sometimes to explain exactly why I love these ‘old’ movies as I do. I have such a visceral and emotional response to these shimmering ( or murky ) B&W films whether they be “A” pictures or “B” that it’s hard to explain intellectually. Maybe words aren’t needed among us.
HIGH BARBAREE ( 1947 )
Hi Kiddies! It’s that time of year again. TCM’s annual SUMMER UNDER THE STARS event, where every August, TCM has one full day of programming to celebrate a different classic movie star. 31 Count ‘em 31! This year the likes of Lucille Ball, Hedy Lamarr, Humphrey Bogart, James Edwards, Spencer Tracy, Charles Boyer and many more will be featured. The blog Journeys in Classic Film, helmed by Kristen Lopez, will host the TCM Summer Under the Stars Blogathon ( or SUTS as we vets like to call it ) where bloggers write about the day’s star.
CineMaven's ESSAYS from the COUCH 