TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Calling all Classic Film Lovers!

Go To

TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#1176: Aug 6th 2016 at 4:25:06 AM

Laurel and Hardy fan here, though I also love Harold Lloyd. That man was a master of stuntwork and physical comedy. All three men's work used to be shown in heavy rotation in anthology clip shows on the BBC for years.

jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#1177: Aug 6th 2016 at 7:26:11 AM

King Vidor and George Cukor didn't find their directorial careers terminated because of their inability to stick to a budget or a shooting schedule or to hand in a cut of realistic theatrical length. John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock—it was possible to make art within the studio system. Von Stroheim couldn't do it because he couldn't color within the lines. And it was a goddamn shame because he was a master.

I know this isn't the most popular opinion but it's always seemed to me that he wasn't a victim of Irving Thalberg so much as he was a victim of his own lack of discipline.

And for that matter I've seen Greed and it is a freaking masterpiece at 140 minutes or however long it is. I didn't watch that film and think "Goodness, I wish this was five hours long."

JulianLapostat Since: Feb, 2014
#1178: Aug 6th 2016 at 8:12:38 AM

The funny thing is that the film scholar Bill Krohn investigated Hitchcock's productions over the years and he found out that the majority of his films went overschedule and overbudget mostly because Hitchcock liked to shoot-in-sequence going against standard procedure. Hitchcock avoided it because he wasn't advertising himself as an artist the way Stroheim (and his disciple Sternberg) was and Hitchcock was quite conscious promoting a certain myth about how in-control he was of his own productions, likewise he had stars and cultivated good relations with them and his movies made money, so he pretty much had his insurance there.

Stroheim was definitely a difficult taskmaster and he had poor social skills, and I guess we should be grateful for the films we have, but I cannot side with Thalberg or anybody else against him because it's not like Stroheim wrote another script for them to say yes too only to be surprised with the content. They all knew they were signing up for naturalistic, raw movies about class, sex, money and power. Stroheim was immensely influential of course, on Vidor, Sternberg, Hitchcock, Lubitsch (up to a point), Max Ophuls, Douglas Sirk, Jean Renoir and Orson Welles (that scene of Susan's close-up after she commits suicide with her face looking raw and puffy is pure Stroheim).

And again Stroheim came in the 1910s, at that time what he was doing wasn't excessive because D. W. Griffith was like that. You had multi-part silent films and Greed was to be released in 2 parts (which was denied) as was The Wedding March (which was allowed). Diptychs were also common in Weimar Cinema (which is not hollywood granted but thanks to the international silent film nature, it played in the same fashion stateside).

edited 6th Aug '16 8:15:48 AM by JulianLapostat

LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#1179: Aug 6th 2016 at 11:11:37 AM

Never seen any Laurel and Hardy. Where's the place to begin and what makes them different from Lou and Costello?

[up][up][up] I'm also a Harold Lloyd fan. I think he's underrated compared to his peers.

edited 6th Aug '16 11:15:12 AM by LongTallShorty64

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#1180: Aug 6th 2016 at 12:06:07 PM

Start with Sons Of The Desert or maybe one of their shorter films - Beau Hunks, say.

It's a very different type of comedy than Abbott and Costello.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#1181: Aug 6th 2016 at 12:22:58 PM

Sure, but what is the difference? I honestly know nothing about either other than being comedy duos.

edited 6th Aug '16 12:23:27 PM by LongTallShorty64

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#1182: Aug 6th 2016 at 1:08:23 PM

Laurel and Hardy were actually funny. They'd done hundreds of comedy films between them as separate entities before they paired up for their first team-up movie, so they were experienced on-screen comic actors. They were both masters of comic timing, with Stan Laurel usually being the slapstick guy and Oliver Hardy being the straight man, but this wasn't a universal pattern.

And for all the time he spent being the ditz on-screen, Stan Laurel wrote and pretty much directed most of the duo's work.

edit

Here's the duo's wikipedia page as a bit of a primer on them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_and_Hardy

edited 6th Aug '16 1:09:02 PM by TamH70

Robbery Since: Jul, 2012
#1183: Aug 6th 2016 at 5:03:43 PM

Laurel and Hardy came out of silents, too, and relied a lot more on physical comedy. Abbot and Costello (that's Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) relied a lot more on their patter, on verbal comedy.

LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#1184: Aug 6th 2016 at 6:21:01 PM

Thanks for the info. I'll be checking both out and seeing if I like them, but I've always hated the "Who's on first" joke.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#1185: Aug 6th 2016 at 7:43:16 PM

I can heartily recommend L&H silent short film Big Business.

Robbery Since: Jul, 2012
#1186: Aug 6th 2016 at 11:00:48 PM

Yeah, I've found Abbot and Costello occasionally entertaining, but I never understood the appeal of the "Who's on first" bit. It's really terribly contrived.

Shippudentimes Since: Dec, 2012
#1187: Aug 7th 2016 at 4:03:16 AM

I think it has to be with the chemistry, timing, and performance of the two in the bit performing it. If you don't have the first and the latter down, in my opinion, then the piece just falls flat on its proverbial ass. Hilariously, ironically, exemplified by stick-in-the-mud Skinner and hotheaded Chalmers' botched attempt during a bit at a PTA fundraiser.

(Even though the movie is past the cutoff date of the thread, but the director isn't) When I looked on the back of the Superman II box I just got, I found myself surprised (yet again) at the fact that just fourteen years earlier from that film's release date, Richard Lester directed A Hard Day's Night. Dude's got talent.

RavenWilder Since: Apr, 2009
#1188: Aug 7th 2016 at 10:45:18 AM

Something I've always wondered about is how short the credits are in classic films. Were there new union rules passed in Hollywood at some point that gave a lot more people the right to have their names credited or something?

TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#1189: Aug 7th 2016 at 10:48:13 AM

Short answer to that is yes, but there's a lot more to it in terms of lawsuits, strikes, strikes, lawsuits and did I say strikes? [lol] If you go to a credible film school's website, they may have much more information on the matter.

jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#1190: Aug 7th 2016 at 12:50:55 PM

Speaking of L&H, I just made a work page for Way Out West.

Also made a creator page for Mickey Rooney the other day. I had no idea his personal life was that dysfunctional.

edited 7th Aug '16 12:51:45 PM by jamespolk

jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#1191: Aug 8th 2016 at 12:28:42 PM

Made a work page for The Country Girl. Grace Kelly won an Oscar for some serious Large Ham.

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#1192: Aug 8th 2016 at 12:29:52 PM

Bing Crosby's really playing against type there, ain't he?...

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#1193: Aug 8th 2016 at 1:26:55 PM

That movie sounds bad and very Oscar-bait-y.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
ThePest179 Since: Jul, 2015
Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#1195: Aug 8th 2016 at 4:12:19 PM

About 30 years too late for the thread.

EDIT: Anyone here ever heard of a film called Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla?

edited 8th Aug '16 6:51:58 PM by Aldo930

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#1196: Aug 8th 2016 at 11:42:46 PM

Overall, I'd agree that The Country Girl hasn't aged well and is very very Oscar Bait-y...but Bing Crosby is pretty amazing as a jittery alcoholic. Playing Against Type, indeed.

LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#1197: Aug 9th 2016 at 6:16:36 AM

I always like when actors play against type especially of the song and dance variety. There's a movie called Black Hand where Gene Kelly plays some sort of hoodlum.

Did Fred Astaire do any gritty roles? For some reason, I have a feeling he didn't.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#1198: Aug 9th 2016 at 6:17:45 AM

No, but I can recall reading about a film where Dick Powell did.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#1199: Aug 9th 2016 at 6:48:03 AM

Yeah, Murder, My Sweet.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#1200: Aug 9th 2016 at 7:56:18 AM

Dick Powell didn't play against type so much as change his type with that film, and continued in that line for the rest of his career.


Total posts: 3,716
Top