Calling all Classic Film Lovers!

I don't see that there's anything wrong with Ben Hur becoming a Christian. It's a Christian movie. That's the deal. It's long and boring but criticizing it for having Ben Hur converting is silly.

Oh, and James Stewart was great in a pre-war Western! Destry Rides Again!

Marlene Dietrich was in a Western? TIL.

And that's where the Lili von Shtupp character from Blazing Saddles comes from. Even the song. Straight from Dietrich in Destry Rides Again.

And it's a great movie too!

Dietrich also popped up playing basically the same sort of character opposite George Raft in the Western-themed bit of the David Niven/Cantinflas version of "Around the World in 80 Days."

Watched one of Long Tall Shorty's films, namely, Why Be Good?. It's a naked ripoff of It but I still liked it a lot. Colleen Moore was so cute.

I've never seen It so I didnt have that point of reference for this film. I thought that it was a fun little movie, and Moore is just so...yeah, cute is the word. I also like it as a historical record because it's wedged between the fall of silents and the rise of takies, and you see how this film tries to compensate with the soundtrack.

I had to post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h_xLVB8Mew&t=327s

No idea how to imbed videos, but whatever.

edited 29th Dec '16 2:08:48 PM by LongTallShorty64

Like this:

edited 29th Dec '16 2:37:07 PM by Aldo930

You needn't show off, Aldo. Makes me feel very technologically-impaired.

Thanks, BTW.

edited 29th Dec '16 2:49:52 PM by LongTallShorty64

Re: Ben Hur.

I've read the original novel, and it's very Christian. And long and boring, too (imo). The newest film version actually hewed closer to the original text than either of the earlier film versions.

Which is why it was such a success with a broad spectrum of people, outside of a tiny minority of hard core Christians of all sorts who were told from the pulpit to go and see it.

Oh wait. Lemme see what Box Office Mojo has to say about that, shall me?

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=benhur2016.htm

Just over 24 million domestic, which is a bit ouch, and just over 67 million foreign, which is also a bit ouch.

From a production budget of 100 million. Which is more than a bit ouch.

Oops. And thanks to Hollywood Accounting, it actually lost MGM more than 47 million dollars.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/11/mgm-reports-478m-writedown-after-ben-hur-box-office-flop

I don't think anyone is disputing that the 2016 Ben Hur was a disastrous failure. The observation above was that it was more faithful to the novel.

I still say the 1925 version is the best. And I think it is the best at least in part because it is more overtly Christian than the 1959 film. I am not religious, but really, if you're going to take a point of view you should stick to it, not forget the point of your movie to look at Charlton Heston being so damn manly.

So I watched a film that was made for you, jamespolk. Night Nurse, the film where Joan Blondell and Barbara Stanwyck undress constantly. Clark Gable also plays the villian. It's a pretty crazy/fun pre-code at that.

Surprised you haven't made a page for Blondell.

I actually watched Night Nurse once, I have to go look at that page now.

Was tempted to make a page for Blondell but she seems to waver on the edge of Not Important Enough. Maybe I will some time, or you could have at it. She certainly was the epitome of girl-next-door sexiness, the kind of thing that Hugh Hefner tried to capture in Playboy a generation later.

Her career seems to have fizzled out after the Hays Code crackdown. It's a damn shame though.

I'll probably take a crack at making a page for her. No one is too obscure for me!

She was in the film version of Grease, believe it or not.

edited 4th Jan '17 4:40:01 PM by Robbery

Yes, I saw that while looking up her filmography. Actors with such long careers sure end up in unexpected films.

edited 4th Jan '17 5:23:09 PM by LongTallShorty64

I was surprised to find out that silent film star Bessie Love's last film appearance was in The Hunger (1980), the vampire movie with David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon.

Ray Milland of course spent his latter years appearing in crappy horror movies for the Money, Dear Boy.

Robert Mitchum continued appearing in movies until the 90s. His last film appearance was Dead Man for Jim Jarmusch. Joan Bennett reappeared in Suspiria.

My favourite of these is Don Ameche: toiled around the studio system, never really becoming a star, but he did get a few leading roles. He spent a lot of time on radio, too. Then came his career resurance while in his seventies in The '80s with Trading Places (along with Ralph Bellamy!)and actually winning an Oscar for Cocoon.

I've heard that for a short time after Don Ameche played Alexander Graham Bell in a film, his name became a slang term for the telephone ("I'll call you on the Don Ameche"). Not sure how true that is, but I did hear it referenced in another film (whose title, unfortunately, I can't remember).

I remember in the 90's they tried to put Robert Mitchum in a TV series as the crusty grandfather of a bunch of orphaned kids. Seemed a terrible fit. Kinda glad his last appearance was in a creepy Western.

edited 5th Jan '17 9:39:34 AM by Robbery

Yeah, "I'll get you on the Ameche." That's in Ball of Fire.

My all-time favorite example of old classic actors is Lillian Gish, Bette Davis, and Vincent Price, all together in 1987 for The Whales of August.

I've been trying of late to watch documentaries and foreign films. I've already mentioned The Bridge from West Germany in 1959. I've also made documentary trope pages for Kon-Tiki and a Russian war documentary, Moscow Strikes Back from 1942. That last one is pretty harrowing.