Movies I Watched in December

I NEVER thought I'd say this but... I have a thing for Robert Ryan now. It started last month with Tender Comrade and has continued this month with me watching whatever movies of his I could get my hands on. I also discovered there is a shameful lack of Robert Ryan gifs out there. I'm going to have to fix that...

Also this month I watched, you guessed it, Christmas movies. I didn't watch some of the ones I usually watch - Miracle on 34th Street, The Bishop's Wife - as it literally felt like I had just watched them. Some were not classic Christmas films but set at Christmas (Susan Slept Here, Period of Adjustment).

1. Anne of Green Gables (1934) - Anne Shirley, Tom Brown
2. A Slight Case of Murder (1938) - Edward G. Robinson 
3. Golden Boy (1939) - William Holden & Barbara Stanwyck, Adolph Menjou, Lee J. Cobb
4. *Meet John Doe (1941) - Gary Cooper & Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan
5. Manpower (1941) - Edward G. Robinson & Marlene Dietrich, George Raft
6. Dressed to Kill (1941) - Lloyd Nolan
7. Rage in Heaven (1941) - Robert Montgomery & Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders
8. One Foot in Heaven (1941) - Fredric March & Martha Scott
9. The Constant Nymph (1943) - Joan Fontaine & Charles Boyer
10. Marriage is a Private Affair (1944) - Lana Turner & John Hodiak, James Craig
11. Action in Arabia (1944) - George Sanders, Virginia Bruce
12. *Christmas in Connecticut (1945) - Barbara Stanwyck & Dennis Morgan, S.Z. Sakall
13. Homecoming (1948) - Clark Gable & Lana Turner, John Hodiak, Anne Baxter
14. Berlin Express (1948) - Robert Ryan & Merle Oberon
15. Act of Violence (1949) - Van Heflin & Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Mary Astor, Phyllis Thaxter
16. The Breaking Point (1950) - John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter
17. Three Little Words (1950) - Fred Astaire & Vera-Ellen, Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl
18. I'll See You in My Dreams (1951) - Doris Day & Danny Thomas
19. Duchess of Idaho (1951) - Esther Williams & Van Johnson
20. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe
21. Lovely to Look At (1952) - Kathryn Grayson, Red Skelton, Marge & Gower Champion, Howard Keel, Ann Miller
22. The Naked Spur (1953) - James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker
23. Dream Wife (1953) - Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr
24. Pushover (1954) - Fred MacMurray & Kim Novak, Dorothy Malone
25. *White Christmas (1954) - Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger, Mary Wickes
26. Susan Slept Here (1954) - Dick Powell & Debbie Reynolds
27. *Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) - Clifton Webb & Dorothy McGuire, Louis Jourdan & Maggie McNamara, Rossano Brazzi & Jean Peters
28. Betrayed (1954) - Clark Gable & Lana Turner, Victor Mature 
29. The Last Voyage (1960) - Robert Stack & Dorothy Malone, George Sanders
30. Period of Adjustment (1962) - Jane Fonda & Jim Hutton, Anthony Franciosa 
31. *Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) - Alan Young
32. *Elf (2003) - Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, Bob Newhart, Ed Asner
33. Psych: The Movie (TV Movie-2017) - James Roday, Dule Hill, Maggie Lawson, Kirsten Nelson, Zachary Levi

Least Favorite Movie: Lovely to Look At but ONLY because I can't stand Howard Keel. Oh, and the end of Susan Slept Here was pretty disturbing. Apparently there were no 35 year old actors in Hollywood that year and the closest they could get was a 50 year old actor that looked 50.

Favorite Movie: There were lots of movies I really enjoyed this month but my favorite performance by far was Danny Thomas in I'll See You in My Dreams. I was so excited that TCM aired it this month as I read Thomas's autobiography recently and really wanted to see it after reading his memories of the film. He was adorable in it and I learned that his character Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics to a couple of my favorite songs. I'll leave you with this scene.

"It Had to Be You"

Cinema Wedding Gowns: Her Twelve Men (1954)

Today's wedding gown is one of those brief fantasy sequence gowns. It is worn near the very beginning of Her Twelve Men (1954) starring Greer Garson (I reviewed it in August).

 

In the promotional photo below the gown looks white, but in the film, which is color, it is actually pale pink which is totally befitting for a dream sequence!

 

As you can see, the dress, designed by Helen Rose, has a full tulle skirt and a high-collared lace bodice (over a sweetheart neckline) with long sleeves and peplum at the waist. The veil is also of tulle and appears falls gracefully to the floor. It is attached to a close-fitting cap on the back half of the head with some standing ruffles.

 

The bouquet is comprised of small flowers surrounded in lace with ribbons cascading halfway down the front of the dress. It is an absolutely gorgeous dress and one can only hope that Garson's character got to wear a gown just as beautiful after the end of the film.

You Can Own Your Own "Portrait of Jennie"!!!

source

I recently rewatched Portrait of Jennie (1948) starring Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, and Ethel Barrymore and was just as enchanted by it as the first time I viewed it (the full movie can be watched here).

It got me to think about movie portraits which led me to wonder if there was a poster of the portrait in Laura (1944) that could be bought and framed, since not everyone is lucky to have been Robert Osborne and own the actual picture. And while I unfortunately did not come across just such a poster, I did find where you can buy the publicity photo version of the one in Portrait of Jennie. It is available in both black and white and color as well as in several sizes. I would definitely get the largest one and frame it with a wide, ornate gold frame. This would also make a lovely present for a fan of the film!

 

The actual "portrait" and the poster version of Jones posing like the portrait.

Lovely post on the film by Classic Movies Digest

 

History of Graves Lighthouse

Movies I Watched in November

This month wasn’t very earth shattering. The biggest discovery was Robert Ryan’s romantic side in Tender Comrade, one of his early roles. I liked the beginning scene so much I put it on YouTube:

I watched my first MacDonald/Eddy musical (and discovered I have record album of several of their duets). I also finally watched Bell Book and Candle. I mainly wanted to get screenshots of Novak’s tea set, which was later used in the tv show Bewitched.

* means a rewatch

1. Rasputin and the Empress (1932) - John, Ethel, & Lionel Barrymore
2. Thirteen Women (1932) - Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne
3. *No More Ladies (1935) - Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Franchot Tone, Edna May Oliver
4. Barbary Coast (1935) - Miriam Hopkins & Joel McCrea, Edward G. Robinson
5. Men are Not Gods (1936) - Miriam Hopkins, Rex Harrison
6. Rose-Marie (1936) - Jeannette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy
7. The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) - Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas, Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone
8. Listen, Darling (1938) - Judy Garland, Freddie Bartholomew, Mary Astor, Walter Pidgeon, Alan Hale
9. Four Girls in White (1939) - Florence Rice, Ann Rutherford, Una Merkel
10. Tender Comrade (1943) - Ginger Rogers & Robert Ryan
11. Vacation From Marriage (1945) - Robert Donat & Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns
12. A Letter for Evie (1945) - Marsha Hunt, Hume Cronyn, John Carroll
13. The Window (1949) - Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Ruth Roman
14. The Racket (1951) - Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Lizabeth Scott
15. Glory Alley (1952) - Ralph Meeker & Leslie Caron
16. Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) - Esther Williams, Victor Marture, Walter Pidgeon
17. *When in Rome (1952) - Van Johnson, Paul Douglas
18. Bell Book and Candle (1958) - James Stewart & Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Elsa Lanchester
19. *Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) - Maculay Culkin, Catherine O'Hara
20. Space Cowboys (2000) - Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, James Garner

I guess we can say my least favorite were the two movies I started and didn’t finish. I probably would have finished them but I was watching them the night before they were to be removed from WatchTCM and I was ready to go to bed. Kismet (1944) starring Ronald Colman did not have enough Marlene Dietrich in it. And Pagan Love Song (1950) with Esther Williams and Howard Keel was just too corny for the mood I was in. The whole “drop your kid off to live with the single white guy” was weird too.

I greatly enjoyed Vacation From Marriage, one of Caftan Woman’s recommendations. I really want to delve more into Glynis Johns’ filmography.

Accurate portrayal of me every evening (except it’ a space heater and I'm just wearing jeans and a t-shirt and the cat is black with white feet ;)

ANNOUNCING The Bill & Myrna New Year's Blogathon!

For the past few years, TCM has shown the Thin Man films for a New Year's marathon. To celebrate our favorite fictional married couple, The Flapper Dame and I thought it would be fun to celebrate with Bill and Myrna in another way - with a blogathon!! Therefore, we are excited to announce The Bill and Myrna New Year's Blogathon 🍸 which will take place from January 1-3, 2018.

Bill and Myrna made fourteen films together and many, many more on their own, so there are lots of fabulous movies to talk about. They also had amazing friendships and lots of personal stories that would be fun to write about, so we ask that there be no duplicates so we can cover as much of these two amazing actors lives and careers as possible. Once you've decided on a topic, let one of us know in the comments section with the name and link to your blog. Finally, grab a banner (I'm pretty excited with how they turned out) and spread the word! Oh, and free martini's for everyone!! ;)

The Guest List:

Phyllis Loves Classic Movies: TBA
The Flapper Dame: TBA
Love Letters to Old Hollywood: I Love You Again (1940) & So Goes My Love (1946)
The Midnite Drive-In: The Thin Man (1934)
Movies Meet Their Match: The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Maddy Loves Her Classic Films: Powell and Loy as an on-screen couple
Caftan Woman: After the Thin Man (1936)
Musings of a Classic Film Addict: Double Wedding (1937)
Critica Retro: Love Crazy (1940)
Hamlette's Soliloquy: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Charlene's (Mostly) Classic Movie Reviews: Evelyn Prentice (1934)
Blog of the Darned: Another Thin Man (1939)
Old Hollywood Films: Libeled Lady (1936)

Man's Favorite Sport? (1964)

Roger Willoughby (Rock Hudson) is happily employed as one of the world's great angling experts. Unfortunately, even his own boss doesn't know that Roger has never been fishing in his life. So when press agent Abigail Page (Paula Prentiss) arranges for Roger to participate in her resort's upcoming fishing tournament, he's thrown into a panic. At the resort, he and Abby commence a crash course to turn him into a genuine outdoorsman - only to have their plan riotously upset by a surprise visit from Roger's fiancé.

This description from the DVD case for Man's Favorite Sport? (1964) immediately called to mind two films for me: Christmas in Connecticut (1945), in which Barbara Stanwyck's character writes for a magazine pretending to be married, have a baby, live on a farm, and be an excellent cook; and Libeled Lady (1936), in which William Powell's character pretends to be an expert at fly fishing in order to become friend's with the father of Myrna Loy's character, leading to a hilarious fishing scene where Powell tries to fish and look at a manual at the same time. As I watched I was reminded of yet another film, Bringing Up Baby (1938). The "love impulse" quote, ripped back of dress (in this case a stuck zipper), and "strangely attracted" bit as well as all the bad things that happen to Roger when Abby is around are practically lifted right out of the beloved Screwball film. But it's really not that much of a surprise, seeing as both films were directed by the legendary Howard Hawks. Hawks even originally wanted Cary Grant in the lead role! Cary turned it down for Charade (1963) so he had to settle for Hudson, who was fresh off of his first two films with Doris Day.

While this film is no masterpiece, it's a fun little comedy with plenty of laugh out loud moments. The film starts with what will become a pattern for Roger (Hudson) as Prentiss's character Abby steals his parking space with her tiny car as he's about to back in. He tries to explain that she is in his space, where he parks every day, but she's not budging, telling him if he wants to park there he'll have to move her car himself. It's reminiscent of the scene in Bringing Up Baby where Katharine Hepburn drives off in Cary Grant's car. What follows is a classic tall man tries to get in small space, in this case Roger trying to release the break by sticking his top half through the sun roof. A police gets involved and he ends up with a ticket for leaving his car in the middle of the parking lot.

When Roger finally gets upstairs where he's late to a meeting, he discovers his meeting is with none other than the young lady from the parking lot. She is naturally embarrassed and he tries to control his anger and annoyance. It doesn't help matters when he hears the purpose of her visit. As the author of a best selling fishing book, she thinks Roger should enter the annual fishing tournament!

His boss is all for it, not knowing the truth about his employee (Christmas in Connecticut anyone?). Roger takes Abby and her friend out for a drink and in an odd scene in a musical museum he confesses he doesn't know the first thing about fishing. Since Abby got him into this situation, she's determined to help him get out of it. With five days before the tournament begins, they head to the lake to begin a crash course in fishing. Roger's boss sends a carload of equipment for him to try out for the store while he's there. This causes no end of troubles for Roger, culminating in some inflatable fishing pants that nearly drown him than save him - Roger can't swim of course.

Abby finally hits upon an idea she thinks will work. What if Roger breaks his arm? Well, not actually break it, just plaster it up so everyone THINKS it's broken. So, Abby plasters it up. While it's drying she discovers that another famous name in the world of fish is participating in the tournament so Roger can simply drop out! Right? Wrong. The other guy REALLY gets a broken arm and once again Roger is stuck as a contestant in the tournament.

And so it begins. Somehow Roger manages to catch a good sized fish on the first day, coming in second in the days results! Of course it's completely by accident and he gets completely soaked in the process but so far so good. He also manages to catch a large fish on the second and third days of the tournament and finds himself with a trophy for first place!

Also in the course of the tournament he loses his fiancé due to a scene taken right out of the aforementioned Bringing Up Baby. It's taken a step further with Roger's tie getting stuck in a zipper - which happened earlier with a sleeping bag and also witnessed by his fiancé - causing his engagement to be broken.

 

Abby has by this time fallen in love with Roger but is upset that he won the tournament purely by accident. She tells him he has to confess to being a phony, even if it means losing his job at Abercrombie and Fitch. Roger had already decided to do just that but Abby goes off into the woods by herself to be miserable.

 

After he is fired, Roger goes off to find Abby and they get caught in a downpour, sharing her covered sleeping bag for protection from the rain. Back at the lodge, the other fishermen convince Roger's boss that he is missing out on a huge marketing scheme, that any man can win a fishing tournament as long as he has the right equipment!

And so, Roger gets back his job and redeems himself in the eyes of Abby, who he's "strangely attracted" to despite all the trouble she has caused him. And there the movie ends, with the two of them in their sleeping bag floating in the middle of the lake.

 

While the film didn't do to well at the box office, due to 25 minutes being cut and the overall phony look of the studio-built sets, I greatly enjoyed the film and found myself laughing aloud at several comic moments. Hudson and Prentiss are great in their roles and the supporting cast, particularly the other fishermen, added greatly to the film.

Love this outfit Abby wears!

Here's a great clip I found on YouTube of Prentiss after a 2010 screening of the film talking about her experience working with Hudson. The first eight minutes are about Man's Favorite Sport? and then she talks about some other films from her career. You can watch the trailer for the film here.

 

 

Happy Birthday Rock!

Cinema Wedding Gowns: Until They Sail (1957)

Today's cinema wedding gown comes from a short scene in Until They Sail (1957) starring Jean Simmons and Paul Newman, with Piper Laurie as the bride. Her marriage will not be a happy one - being World War II there's basically no men left in her hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand so she marries the one guy that IS there. And while the union is a disaster - deadly in fact - the gown is a beautiful one.

The bodice has a button up front and collar with a sweetheart lining and short cuffed sleeves. It is covered with a floral applique. The veil is gathered tulle attached to a floral trimmed headband. Small pearl earrings add the perfect finishing touch. Unfortunately the costume designer is not listed on either TCM or IMDb.

Promotional photos for the film show Sandra Dee wearing a gorgeous lace dress that looks very much like a wedding gown but we do not see her character get married. I thought I'd include them as it's such a lovely gown.

 

The Eve Arden Blogathon is Here!!!

The Eve Arden Blogathon has finally arrived! I will update this post as entries come in so please check back throughout the weekend! I can't wait to read all the entries about this fabulous comedienne. A huge thank you to all who participated!

The Posts

The Story Enthusiast, like myself, went on an Arden kick after seeing The Voice of the Turtle (1947).

 

The Midnite Drive-In talks Grease-y Relationships.

Realweegiemidget Reviews relates how Arden's small role in Grease (1978) left a big impact.

Caftan Woman shares the wartime comedy The Doughgirls (1944).

Hamlette's Soliloquy wants to know what Arden's character is up to in No, No, Nanette (1940).

Hometowns to Hollywood takes a look at Arden's career and the town where she grew up.

Love Letters to Old Hollywood finds Arden perfect for her role in Cover Girl (1944).

Critica Retro looks at Arden's small role in the dazzling Ziegfeld Girl (1941).

Once Upon a Screen finds Arden to be the bright spot in Three Husbands (1950).

Keep an eye out for my next blogathon announcement!