This shot of George Sanders in Ivanhoe cracks me up :D
This month was more Robert Taylor (I mean, after last month I might as well watch any that TCM shows that I’ve never seen before, right?) and, fittingly, disaster movies.
I’ve been wanting to rewatch The Ghost and Mrs. Muir for some time now and finally got around to it. I noticed it was based on a book in the opening credits (by R. A. Dick) and so checked it out and read it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The main differences were that she also had a son, her meddling sister-in-law was even more meddlesome, and she only saw Captain Gregg in a dream at the beginning. The rest of the time she only heard his voice in her head. She also met Miles differently. Oh, and she called Martha back to apologize for getting angry. That part made me happy.
I also downloaded the Hoopla library app and HOLY COW!!!! So many good books!! There’s also a small selection of classic movies and television shows. I’m reading Me and Jezebel by Elizabeth Fuller. Fuller is a psychic so some parts are kind of different (she speaks to spirits and holds a séance) but I’ve discovered that first-hand accounts of Bette make for delightful reading.
- Battling Butler (1926) - Buster Keaton
- The Divorcée (1930) - Norma Shearer & Chester Morris, Robert Montgomery
- Pygmalion (1938) - Leslie Howard & Wendy Hiller
- The Long Voyage Home (1940) - John Wayne, Ian Hunter, Thomas Mitchell, Barry FitzGerald, Arthur Shields, Mildred Natwick
- Lucky Partners (1940) - Ronald Colman & Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson, Spring Byington
- Johnny Eager (1941) - Robert Taylor & Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Edward Arnold
- Bombardier (1943) - Pat O’Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley, Eddie Albert, Robert Ryan
- *The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) - Gene Tierney & Rex Harrison, George Sanders, Natalie Wood, Vanessa Brown
- B. F.’s Daughter (1948) - Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Charles Coburn, Richard Hart, Keenan Wynn, Spring Byington, Margaret Lindsey
- I Want You (1951) - Dana Andrews & Dorothy McGuire, Farley Granger & Peggy Dow, Martin Milner, Jim Backus
- Ivanhoe (1952) - Robert Taylor, Joan Fontaine, Elizabeth Taylor, George Sanders
- Knights of the Round Table (1953) - Robert Taylor & Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer
- The Master of Ballantrae (1953) - Errol Flynn
- D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) - Robert Taylor, Richard Todd, Dana Wynter, Edmond O’Brien
- The Law and Jake Wade (1958) - Robert Taylor, Richard Widmark, Patricia Owens
- Countdown (1968) - James Caan, Robert Duvall
- The Poseidon Adventure (1972) - Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Roddy McDowell, Leslie Neilson
- The Swarm (1974) - Michael Caine & Katherine Ross, Richard Widmark, Olivia de Havilland, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Richard Chamberlain, Slim Pickens
- Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979) - Michael Caine, Sally Field, Karl Malden, Telly Savalas, Shirley Jones, Slim Pickens
- Best Friends (1982) - Burt Reynolds & Goldie Hawn, Jessica Tandy, Keenan Wynn
- The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) - Mel Gibson & Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt
- The River (1984) - Mel Gibson & Sissy Spacek
The Sea Around Us (1953)
Least Favorite Film: The Long Voyage Home was kind of depressing and The Swarm was kind of ridiculous. The first half of Knights... was slow but I finally got into it.
Favorite Film: Lots of solid movies but none really stood out. I loved Ronald Colman in Lucky Partners.
Even in a WWII movie Robert Ryan's face is made for noir.
Least Favorite Film: The Long Voyage Home was kind of depressing and The Swarm was kind of ridiculous. The first half of Knights... was slow but I finally got into it.
Favorite Film: Lots of solid movies but none really stood out. I loved Ronald Colman in Lucky Partners.
I love Burt Reynold's goofy grins :)
We're going to get in a lot more movies than usual these days.
ReplyDeleteI'm always hopeful TCM will have something I really like scheduled for Saturday afternoons during my dialysis treatment. This weekend was great with The Set-Up and Winchester '73. The week they had The Swarm - not so much.
Even Olivia couldn’t save that one lol. Hope you are staying safe! :)
DeleteI'm about ready for a re-reading of the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, it really is a delightful read. :) The last few months I seemed to have been on a sci-fi, horror, and mystery streak (Bela Lugosi in the The Corpse Vanishes was certainly interesting), but with everything going on I'm thinking I'm ready for some movies that are fluffier. Hope you are staying well!
ReplyDeleteIt was so good ❤️ I’ve definitely been watching out of the norm movies for me the past couple of months. Same to you!!
DeleteYou did another month without a single movie that I've seen! I do want to watch Ivanhoe and I didn't know there was a 1938 Pygmalion! I'm interested now.
ReplyDeleteWell you definitely need to watch The Ghost and Mrs. Muir!! Pygmalion is on YouTube. It was kind of weird because a lot of the dialogue was exactly the same as My Fair Lady but they said it differently. Also, it was set in the “present.”
DeleteI was so sad to miss the Dana Andrews film I Want You. Did you enjoy it?
ReplyDeleteIt was good but since it’s basically a Korean War version of The Best Years of Our Lives it seems a little weak. I still enjoyed it :)
DeleteDear Phyl,
ReplyDeleteYou watched some marvelous movies in March! Your thoughts on them are very interesting. I enjoyed reading about the original source of "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," a movie I watched a couple of months ago for the first time. I really enjoyed it! The original book sounds fascinating!
I read in one of your more recent posts that you have been liking Mel Gibson recently. I have only seen one movie with him, "The River," which I see from this article that you watched in March. (I also have heard his voice as Captain John Smith in "Pocahontas.") What did you think of it? This is one of only a handful of 1980s movies I have ever seen. I watched the movie because a good friend of mine, Mark Erickson, is in it. He plays Baines, the young farmer whom Tom (Mel) befriends at the factory and who later works for Joe Wade. Mr. Erickson was a professional ballet dancer, so he now is my sister's dance instructor. I breened this movie, saying how it could have been a Code film: https://pureentertainmentpreservationsociety.wordpress.com/2019/10/14/breening-the-river-for-the-third-annual-great-breening-blogathon-r-for-realism/. I would love to hear your thoughts on this film!
By the way, I would like to invite you to join two events we are hosting in July. Firstly, we are hosting the Code Concepts Blogathon in the middle of the month to celebrate American Breen Era (1934-1954) adaption of classic literature: https://pureentertainmentpreservationsociety.wordpress.com/2020/06/06/announcing-the-code-classics-blogathon/. Also, we are hosting a month-long celebration of Code movies called #CleanMovieMonth2020: https://pureentertainmentpreservationsociety.wordpress.com/2020/06/09/announcing-cleanmoviemonth2020/. We could really use your talent!
Yours Hopefully,
Tiffany Brannan
You should definitely read the book. I want to buy my own copy.
DeleteThe River was pretty good. That’s so cool that you are friends with Erickson!! I will make sure to check out your post :)
I’m being very cautious about joining Blogathons this year as last year I signed up for several but dropped out of almost all of them. I already signed up for the Robert Donat one next month. I will think about it though :)
Dear Phyl,
DeleteI look forward to reading the book after your recommendation! I hope that you enjoy my article. I understand about your reluctance to join too many blogathons. I have done that myself. The articles seem so easy to write when you sign up, yet everything is different when the time comes to actually write them! If you are too busy, I understand. Let me know if you change your mind! Good luck with all your writing endeavors.
Yours Hopefully,
Tiffany Brannan