TCM Love Thread — Page 16

You know I love "YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER".

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Last night they showed Trip to Bountiful. Geraldine Page's performance as Carrie Watts is one of the most astonishing performances ever captured on film.

Updated On: 2/3/08 at 12:06 PM

According to Andy -
The Harvey Girls cost 2,524,315.06 to make.
The Harvey Girls grossed in excess of 5,175,000.00 in its initial release.
Van Johnson said he thought M-G-M stood for Make-Garland-Money.

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That was simply breathtaking.

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Did you see my question above?


This part always cracked me up. That Greek chorus and the big egg.

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Updated On: 2/3/08 at 01:28 PM

No - but I can see from his picture that he would look even more like you! He's one of the principal dancers (dancing Prince Desire) but he didn't dance yesterday. Sascha Radetsky was the Bluebird and David Hallberg was Desire.

edit - I may have spoken too fast. He's pictured in the program as one of the principal dancers but I can't find him listed on any of the performances.

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Updated On: 2/3/08 at 01:41 PM

He's definitely a cutie but you look just fine to me. Don't change!



Time for those cute Pontipee boys! (I can never get anything done on weekends when I'm home with TCM)

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Updated On: 2/3/08 at 01:56 PM

Okay, maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps the last 20 minutes of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS is the best!

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It makes me cry every time I see it. I'm sitting here alone, and I actually applauded at the end. And I've probably seen this movie 25 times!

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It's the backwoods of Oregon in 1850, where the mountains are one-dimensional and all the main characters have movie-star looks and perfect makeup. The fact that they sing and dance at all is completely preposterous, so who cares if it's opera, jazz or punk. It's a musical! It's fantasy!

(P.S. I miss Michael Kidd.)

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I remember that story, too, Besty. It may be the greatest ending to any film.

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Updated On: 2/4/08 at 08:00 PM

Wings is on right now... so exciting. I've never seen it!

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Zeppy---I LOVE Wings. It's such an epic story and the aerial battle scenes are jaw-dropping. Remember, there were no CGI special effects back then.

One cool thing---and I don't know if the footage has ever been found---This movie actually had its sky battles open up into WIDE SCREEN back in 1927 in the Hollywood premier run. They achieved it not unlike the early Cinerama filming of "How the West Was Won" nearly 25 years later. The center screen played the print you're now watching, and at the end of the first half (right before intermission), the sides opened up to reveal left and right screens, extending the footage taken from two other cameras simultaneously. They say the audience gasped and applauded every night.

After the intermission, the projection was reset back to the one (center) "normal" screen. Then, once again during later aerial battle scenes, it opened up again.

From what I understand, the footage for the "left" and "right" screens has been lost, since it was only used at the one theatre equipped to show it that way. I hope someday Paramount finds it. What a great DVD that would make!

By the way, this is one of only TWO Best Pictures not available on DVD.

And one more bit of personal trivia: I met and got to know Buddy Rogers (the film's lead) back when I first moved out to L.A. I met him through a mutual friend (an actress) and went to dinner with him a few times. He was such a nice, spirited man, even at that age. Very energetic, and a great sense of humor.

God! Everybody's dead now.

*crawls away sad*

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Updated On: 2/4/08 at 08:23 PM