I’d never heard of Holiday Affair until my husband rented the DVD from Netflix. I’m sure most others haven’t either, except for dedicated TCM viewers (It’s an RKO release) or hardcore Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum fans. It’s a little movie. It was a disappointment at the box office, and it doesn’t have the hook that makes a movie a cult fave, yet it’s a reliable and entertaining programmer that whiles away the time pleasantly, and its predictable ending doesn’t marr the proceedings.

Janet Leigh stars as Connie Ennis, the worst secret comparison shopper I’ve ever seen captured on film. Connie works hard, but not well at her job to support her son Timmy. She’s a war widow who’s almost alone with him. Wendell Corey as Carl Davis has been wooing her patiently for two years, and he’d like to become spouse to Connie and father to Timmy.  Connie can’t quite get over her husband, and Carl is too nice to push her.

And then Robert Mitchum’s Steve Mason enters the film. He’s a toy salesman, and he spots Connie for the fake she is. She buys an extremely extravagant toy train set from him without any questions, and she has the exact change including tax in hand. When she goes back to the store the next day to return the set, he’s made her and he’s obligated to report her, but doesn’t out of kindness. He ends up fired and tags along with Connie for the day and romantic complications ensue.

Janet Leigh embodies Connie with nervous energy. She’s in denial about living in the past, and Steve is the catalyst that stirs her up. She’s believable in not being able to help herself around Steve, she somehow keeps getting entangled with him, but she does not understand the obvious until the very end. She somehow dresses fantastically on her small budget.

Carl is suitably nice. He’s not too handsome, but not too plain. He’s just too understanding. There’s a scene that underscores how too comfortable he and Connie are. He calls her from bed underneath a pretty, shiny comforter. That instance reminded me of that scene in Sleepless in Seattle when Bill Pullman lies in bed with Meg Ryan. He’s got her and his tissues. They’re dropped any romantic pretensions of coupledom. They just are. Carl and Connie don’t have any big romance either, but Carl does present emotional and financial stability.

Gordon Gebert’s Timmy doesn’t want change. He’s been the verbalized man of the house, and his mother constantly compares him to his father. A husband wouldn’t be replacing not only his father, but also him. The sciptwriters  and actor show how intelligent Timmy is without making him sickeningly precocious while making him seem like a real kid, sweet at times and manipulative at others. Timmy understands that Carl is a good man, but he prefers Steve.

Steve fought in the war and took up a conventional life when he returned. He meets Connie when he’s preparing for another life change. He wants to build boats, and he’s going to follow his dream. Maybe his enthusiasm rubs off on Connie, who tells him a lot about herself in one afternoon. He teaches Timmy to dream, too. Connie’s trained Timmy not to dream because she doesn’t want him disappointed, but Timmy can’t help himself, and Steve calls her to task for not fulfilling any of Timmy’s dreams ever.  Steve’s the kind encouraging paternal figure Timmy’s been needing. Mitchum’s scenes with Timmy work because Mitchum talks to Timmy like a person.

There’s a lot of humor in this romantic Christmas comedy where no one is the bad guy. All the male characters are much more self aware and straightforward than confused Connie. They say and do what they mean. There’s a funny scene where Steve and Carl accidentally meet. Connie hasn’t informed either of the other, and their introduction is awkward. Connie abandons them at one point, and they don’t come to blows; their talk goes from competitive to begrudgingly mutually respectful. TCM has that scene available for viewing here.

Like a lot of Christmas movies, Holiday Affair actually ends on New Year’s Eve. Connie finally makes a decision about her lovelife that may not surprise any viewer, but feels deserved for all the characters, and leaves us on an up note–an important trait for any holiday film.

Turner Classic Movies, one of my favorite TV stations (though I wish they’d broadcast Wings more often! It beat out my beloved Sunrise at the first Oscars and I haven’t been able to see it since it’s not on DVD in region one), is having their first-ever film festival in April! It’ll be held in, of course, Hollywood.

Gods, I want to go to this thing! So many movies, so many people… the chance to see Sunset Boulevard on the big screen, the chance to see 2001: A Space Odyssey and re-evaluate my position on it (which basically boils down to, “meh, it’s ok”), and the chance to rub shoulders with other film fans, well… it just sets my heart aflutter, is what it does.

Sadly, I can’t afford to cough up the $1,200 I’d need for the pass that I want. I guess that’s what 401 (k) loans are for, right? Or I can put it on my list of “Things to Buy After Rich Uncle Sidney Dies”.

Oh, well. Even if I can’t go to it, I can at least groove on the notion and… maybe next time!

Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the premiere of the epic Civil War saga, Gone With the Wind.  Turner Classic Movies played the film in it’s entirety with no interruptions.  I happened to catch it just as Atlanta was falling to those Yankees.  So I missed some of my favorites scenes with the prettiest dresses at the beginning of the movie.  After all, what girl didn’t imagine herself at the barbeque in that beautiful green dress that her mammy deemed so inappropriate because it showed her shoulders before evening.  On top of that, she was surrounded by all the handsomest beaux in the county.  Truly a dream!

I promptly sat down and watched the remainder of the movie.  I still turned my eyes at the most difficult to watch scenes of war and suffering and this time turned the sound down.  But this time around, I was struck by how amazing the film was.  I don’t know if you know any of the history of this movie and all the difficulty that happened in trying to get it made.  The short end of the story is they went through multiple directors, many rewrites, budget issues, casting challenges.  You name it, they experienced it.  They even started filming before the role of Scarlett O’Hara was even cast.  But through it all, what remained was one of the most exciting, visually engaging and well produced films of history.  I’d forgotten how much I loved this movie.

I’d also forgotten the incredible writing that the film contained.  My favorite line comes at the end of the movie.  No not the one Clark Gable is remembered for, the classic “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”, but instead the one that Scarlett says after he leaves.  In her grief and sadness as she is trying to figure out her next step, she makes the statement that is my favorite-”Tomorrow is another day”.  I love this.  Tomorrow is another day, it is a new beginning, a new start, an opportunity to do the right thing and take the next chance.  That is the promise made to us.  We will have another go at it.  If we are lucky it will happen with beautiful clothes and fabulous lighting but if that isn’t the case, grab at it anyway with both hands and make the best of it.

I am now currently watching Arsenic and Old Lace on TCM. I love this movie. It is one of my all time favorites. Quite humorous. If you have never seen it, I will give a small synopsis of it: 1944 Frank Capra film, starring Cary Grant, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Priscilla Lane, John Alexander, Jack Carson, John Ridgely, Edward McNamara, James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton.
A drama critic and confirmed bachelor, Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), has written a number of books describing marriage as an old-fashioned superstition. Nevertheless, he falls in love with and marries Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane), who grew up next door to his old family home in Brooklyn.

Immediately after the wedding – on Halloween, as it happens – Mortimer visits the bizarre relatives who still live there, his elderly aunts Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair) and his brother Teddy (John Alexander). Teddy thinks he’s Theodore Roosevelt; each time he goes upstairs he blows a bugle, yells “Charge!”, and takes the stairs at a run (an imitation of Roosevelt’s famous charge up San Juan Hill).

Mortimer finds a corpse hidden in a window seat and suspects Teddy, but his aunts explain that they are responsible They have developed the “very bad habit” of ending the presumed suffering of lonely old bachelors by serving them elderberry wine spiked with arsenic, strychnine and cyanide. The bodies are buried in the basement by Teddy, who believes he is digging locks for the Panama Canal and burying yellow fever victims.

To complicate matters further, Mortimer’s brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) arrives with his alcoholic accomplice, plastic surgeon Dr. Herman Einstein (Peter Lorre). Jonathan is a psychotic murderer trying to escape the police and find a place to dispose of the corpse of his latest victim, a certain Mr. Spenalzo. Jonathan’s face, as altered by Einstein while drunk, resembles that of Boris Karloff in his makeup as Frankenstein’s monster. Jonathan, upon finding out his aunts’ secret, decides to bury Spenalzo in the cellar and soon declares his intention to kill Mortimer.

Mortimer makes increasingly frantic attempts to stay on top of the situation as his bride waits for him at her family home next door, including multiple efforts to alert the bumbling local cops to the threat Jonathan poses, as well as have the paperwork filled that will have Teddy declared legally insane and committed. He worries whether he will go insane like the rest of the Brewster family, or as he puts it “Insanity runs in my family, practically gallops!”. While explaining this to Elaine, he claims they’ve been crazy since the first Brewster’s came to America as pilgrims. But eventually Jonathan is arrested, while Teddy and the two aunts are safely consigned to an asylum. In the end, Mortimer is overjoyed to learn that he was adopted and is not biologically related to the Brewsters after all. He is actually the son of a sea cook, exclaiming: “Elaine, Elaine, Where are you? Can you hear me? I’m not really a Brewster. I’m a son of a sea cook!”

Hilarious as it is. It can be very crazy. I would love to see the play that it was adapted from. I love when Cary Grant begins poking the character of Jonathan in the leg with a fork.

Ah Cary Grant…. I love him, one of my favorite actors. So charming at times, as in That Touch of Mink with Doris Day, and in An Affair to Remember with Deborah Kerr. Or his wry sense of Humor very evident in Arsenic and Old Lace, and Monkey Business with Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe. The first movie that I ever watched that made me fall in love with Cary Grant movies was Father Goose, with Leslie Caron, (another favorite as far as actresses are concerned, Daddy Long Legs and Gigi.) After that was Operation Petticoat with Tony Curtis.
It is so easy to sit and watch a Cary Grant movie. Its somewhat calming. Laughably so. lol

Forgot to shout out a Happy Hanukah to the other tribe members.
Made my way back from Tampa, weather was very gray and cold until today.  I had a great time though.  I miss Sasha,  and little Bella,
and the kids. We checked the market over there, wow, great home buying opportunities!  Maybe for me???
These are some of the photos I took.

Aaron’s 250 gallon tank only has 3 fish at this time, the big puffer, lion fish and small clown.  The salt water tank is hard to maintain, he might sell the fish and go fresh water, he loves oscar and pacu fish.
The weather as I mentioned was weird, a cold front came through and the winds coming from the northeast off the lake were intense and felt so cold.  The sky was mostly dull the whole time until today.   It was gray and dreary.  When I left this morning, it was sunny and warm again.   I only got off at 4 stops on the way back, traffic was not even that bad.   I stopped at lakeland to get some fries and found a little bookstore called Mary’s. It even had women’s hats.  On the way back, it’s always good to see the outline of downtown.  
I had to stop on Washington St. at RT Art and pick up my photos that were made.
you notice I made them bigger than the others, that’s marketing. As always, Roger and Trish do terrific work, and their dogs are adorable and posed for me too.   They were awesome subjects!
Finally I got home and the sky became totally overcast. I did fish with the heron female on the nest, she flew down and got a few treats. The cranes did a dance, they seemed glad to have me back.  I’m back in the cave, now to get working on my spring crow exhibition and also send a few pics over for the Gateway next month.
Of course I will let you know the dates.
And that’s it — oh wait, the other night, TCM, Turner Classic Movies had a wonderful “short” where dogs starred in all the actor rolls, it was very funny.

And I have no idea what this has to do with anything, just thought I’d let ya go with a smile, (or a growl) …ARF ARF

Yep – it’s that time of year to give thanks to consumerism. Eat up, DVD junkies: you won’t get another meal until you’re through spending the cold night in front of Best Buy. Here’s my pick for one new blu-ray release to get your hands on. Let the violent hoarding commence!

Also, if twelve hour food comas are more your thing, here’s a comedy coming up on TCM this week that’ll give you an excuse to spend the weekend indoors. Here’s One to Rent, One to DVR for the week of 11/17/09 – exclusively at ForReel.net.

RENT

Funny People (2009)
dir. Judd Apatow
Availability: DVD & Blu-ray (11/24/09)

Why?: Yeah, it’s probably an hour too long. Yeah, it’s two or three movies in one. Still, however, “Funny People” charmed me almost entirely. The film suffers terribly in a last act in which all of the main players do something completely out of character, but beyond those false-notes it is certainly as entertaining as Apatow’s previous efforts. Sandler, Rogen, and Mann are all terrific – perhaps among the best “forgotten” performances of the year.

DVR

The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
dir. Anthony Asquith
Playing: Sunday, November 29th, 7:00 PM (central) on Turner Classic Movies.

Why?: An adaptation of the play by Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” remains breath-takingly funny over one hundred years since it’s theatrical premiere. This 1952 film adaptation stars Michael Redgrave and Michael Denison as John and Algernon, but most noteworthy is the brilliant performance by Edith Evans. As Lady Bracknell, she completely devours every scene she’s apart of. Watch for the famous delivery of “a handbag?!”.

Dear Turner Classic Movies,

I’m concerned about Robert Osborne, he’s looking quite gaunt. Is he OK?

Ever faithful,
My Paranoia

Southern Roadtrip/GWTW event wrap up:

I’ve decided I’m most definitely not a “Windy” but rather a “Viv and Larry-y” (I just coined that term).  Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Gone with the Wind; it literally changed my life (cheesy, I know, but I’m totally serious), but I don’t feel like I fit in with the costume-wearing/convention-going crowd (unless this counted as a convention?).  Sorry, Windies, but keep on keeping on anyway!

I love seeing GWTW on the big screen, and I hope all of you get a chance to see it some day.  It’s a great experience! My favorite thing about the screening last night was when Robert Osborne introduced Maggie and Kasia and said they were from Warsaw, and the whole crowded theatre clapped for them!  Coming all the way from Europe: that’s dedication, people!

All in all it was a great and memorable trip.  I enjoyed traveling with my friends from Poland, and meeting new friends at the event.  There were some awesome moments, some awkward moments, and some strange moments–all of which added up to an experience I think will stick with me for a long time.  And Anne Rutherford said I could call her on the phone (we live in the same general area) about a little something I’ve got brewing on the side.  Exciting!  I hope she remembers.

Highlights:

Drayton Hall, Charleston, South Carolina

Good lord it was freezing that day, but I can finally check “seeing a real plantation” off of my bucket list.  Drayton Hall was beautiful!

Team Vivien

I like talking with other people who know a lot about my favorite actress/couple.

Robert Osborne and Anne Rutherford

And look at the giant GWTW poster/drapery/billboard/thing in the background!

Me, Maggie, and Anne Rutherford

Anne is such a doll.  She’s also really sharp and very enthusiastic!  Us kids seemed to captivate her for quite a while!

The Windies

They’re real!!

Thanks to all of you who made this trip what it was: AWESOME.  Now that I’m home in CA (blessed constant 75 degrees), I miss being back in Georgia.  Good times!

And now, I think London is the next stop for a group Vivien/Larry sight-seeing tour

So I’ve been meaning to post these but was wayyyy too lazy. But TCM has a movie fest called ‘The Summer Under the Stars’ and they created modernized classic movie posters that are pretty neat looking. Enjoy.

Yesterday at the Coach K Leadership Conference, James McCaffrey of Turner Broadcasting gave a talk about leadership in a technology disrupted organization. He talked a lot about the evolution of the Turner brands, including CNN, Turner Classic Movies, TNT and the rest, in the face of massive change in the media industry. Sometimes we forget just how fundamentally the way people consume news, information, and entertainment has been revolutionized over the last few years, and this talk really got me thinking.

James showed a couple of videos I thought were freakin’ awesome. The first is called Did You Know, and it does an fabulous job of conveying the scale of change. I’d seen the original, but had never seen this version:

And the second video is laugh out loud funny. A quick look at how the media would have covered the moon landing if it happened today.

Hello, website blog.  It’s been a while.  I recently did a little poll on the vivandlarry.com facebook fan page about what visitors most wanted to see on the website.  One of the suggestions was more film reviews, and I thought that was a good idea.

I just finished watching Franklin J. Shaffner’s 1978 film The Boys from Brazil, which Turner Classic Movies aired as part of their month-long salute to the thriller genre.  The film stars Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier in surprising roles.  Surprising for Gregory peck because he plays a ruthless Nazi, Dr. Joseph Mengele, a total departure from Peck’s all American screen persona.  Surprising for Laurence Olivier becuase he had just done a turn as a ruthless Nazi in John Schlessinger’s 1976 film Marathon Man, and in The Boys from Brazil he plays a frail Jewish Nazi hunter.

I have to admit that The Boys from Brazil isn’t a very good movie (so this review may contain some sarcasm and/or mockery).  Disappointing because it has so many big names.  Aside from Olivier and Peck, the cast includes James Mason and Lilli Palmer, and that guy who plays the creepy cart operator who lures the children to Willy Wonka’s factory of wonders in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the one with Gene Wilder, not the Tim Burton movie that I refused to watch because no one beats Gene Wilder as the Candy Man).  I just checked, his name is Günter Meisner.

The story is based on the book of the same title by Ira Levin, in which we follow a Nazi Hunter named Ezra Lieberman as he unfolds a plot by Nazi-on-the-run Joseph Mengele to clone little Hitlers (I know, right?  Huh?).  According to the recent documentary about thrillers that aired on TCM last weekend, the 1970s were prime for making people paranoid about the potential second rise of the Nazis, and Hollywood really took advantage of this.  War criminals on the run and hiding in South America, waiting to come to the US to wreak havoc after they find out “Is it safe?”  Interesting plot point right there.

DVD poster

The Boys from Brazil had a lot of potential.  The story was just weird enough to border it on horror, but unfortunately the cheesiness of the 1970s and the bad acting all around, especially by Jeremy Black who plays the Hitler clones, didn’t help it any.  Plus is had Steve Guttenberg.  Remember him?  Laurence Olivier received his 10th and final Oscar nomination for this film, and while I say “Huzzah to Larry!” it feels like one of those films that he did later in his life because he needed the money to put his younger kids through school.  It also made me really sad to see him looking so gaunt and frail.  It’s like he dropped about 30 lbs between 1976 when he did Marathon Man, and 1978 when he did this film.  There was even a scene at the end when Lieberman and Mengele are having a fighting match and they’re rolling around on the ground trying to strangle one another, and Gregory Peck looked so much meatier than poor Larry.  I hope he used a stunt double.

I want to say that this movie probably would be better with today’s special effects, but then I’m not so sure the story would hold up today because it doesn’t involve vampires or robots.

Sadly, I’d give it a C- rating.

Gregory Peck and a pack of vicious dobermans

Reginald Owen as the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge.

(MGM) Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Terry Kilburn, Barry Mackay, Lynne Carver, Leo G. Carroll, Lionel Braham, Ann Rutherford, D’Arcy Corrigan, Ronald Sinclair. Directed by Edwin L. Marin

“God bless us, every one.” It’s a line that has become part of popular culture and has been that way for nearly two centuries now. It was common enough when Charles Dickens wrote it back in 1843 but these days it refers to the classic tale.

You know the details. Ebeneezer Scrooge (Owen) is a penurious money-lender whose grasping, greedy ways and hateful, aggressive attitude have made him the terror of London. He is visited on Christmas Eve by his jovial nephew Fred (Mackay) who invites him to dinner, which he does every year. As he does every year, Scrooge declines, expressing his disapproval to Fred’s betrothal to Bess (Carver), a poor woman who Fred nonetheless loves with all his heart.

Receiving his message better is Bob Cratchit (Gene Lockhart), his long-suffering clerk who suffers Scrooge’s rages stoically and tolerates his insults meekly. When he asks for Christmas Day off, Scrooge begrudgingly gives it, lambasting his employee to be at work all the earlier the next day. He reluctantly pays Cratchit his pitiful wages and the two depart. The fun-loving Cratchit has his top hat knocked off by a snowball thrown by some young boys which prompts an impromptu snowball fight. Eager to join in the fun, Cratchit lofts a snowball and knocks the hat off of…his boss. The hat unfortunately is crushed under the wheel of a coach. Scrooge sacks him on the spot and to add insult to injury, demands a shilling to compensate for the hat.

Cratchit walks away morosely but the sight of a swinging goose neck on the back of a shopper soon restores his good humor. He bustles from shop to shop, ordering the best meal he can afford. When he gets home, his good-hearted wife (Kathleen Lockhart, Gene’s real-life wife – and for those who love trivia, they were the parents of actress June Lockhart who appears in an uncredited role as Belinda Cratchit, one of their young children) and his beloved children are waiting. He loves them all – but perhaps the crippled Tiny Tim (Kilburn) the most.

The miserly Scrooge in the meantime arrives at his home, empty and silent as the grave. He goes inside to light a candle and is startled to see a face appear on his door knocker. It is the face of Marley (Carroll), his partner who passed away seven years previously that very night. He slams the door and heads up to his bedsit to warm himself by a meager fire. He hears a loud booming noise like a great door had been opened, then the unmistakable sound of chains being dragged across the floor and in walks Marley, bound and fettered.

At first Scrooge doesn’t believe in Marley and dismisses him as the results of indigestion. He summons the local bobbies to remove the intruder but they arrive to find the room empty. Angrily, Scrooge sends them on their way but is startled to see Marley still there. Now convinced of Marley’s validity, he listens to his message. Marley warns Scrooge that he will suffer a fate as sad as his own unless he changes and there was only one chance of that – but he would need to be visited by three spirits in order to do that – the Ghost of Christmas Past (Rutherford), the Ghost of Christmas Present (Braham) and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Corrigan). We all know what happens after that.

This version has been shown on television many, many times over the years and is something of a Christmas tradition for many. Despite the technical limitations of the era (the special effects are primitive by our standards and some of the sequences of the spirits flying over London look a bit silly today) the acting is as good as you’ll find in any of the many filmed versions of the story. Particularly good is Gene Lockhart as Cratchit and even if he looked a bit well-fed to be impoverished (although in truth most onscreen Cratchits have been on the chubby side) he manages to capture the unshakable faith and unstoppable cheerfulness that make up the core of the character. Mackay does Fred very well indeed, and is a bit less callow than most of the other actors who have played the role; in my book it’s a little bit closer to the way Dickens wrote him.

Kilburn in my estimation set the standard for all those who tackled the role of Tiny Tim thereafter. His look, his gentleness and his ability to project cheer and joy has essentially become the way we mostly characterize the role. In fact, his recitation of the line I quoted at the beginning of the review is most often seen when the line is needed in advertising or in features.

The drawback here is that the studio wanted this to be an uplifting family film, so nearly every unpleasant element has been eliminated, including the character of Scrooge’s fiancée and the death in childbirth of Fan, his sister. If it wasn’t for that, the movie would have gotten a higher rating as so many familiar elements are missing that it feels like the movie is truncated.

This is one of the most classic of Christmas stories and many of our current holiday traditions can trace its roots to the original Dickens novel. It has been made and remade literally dozens of times on television, in animated form and as live action movies for television and the movies including the latest version starring Jim Carey that was previously reviewed here. While the 1951 version is probably the best known – and the best – of all of the many versions, this one set the standard that almost all of them have derived from at least partially and it is certainly worth seeing for that reason alone. Turner Classic Movies shows it regularly here in the States, but it is easily available everywhere. Merry Christmas to all, and God bless us, every one.

WHY RENT THIS: Gene Lockhart and Barry Mackay are memorable in supporting roles, and Terry Kilburn was one of the best Tiny Tims ever. Veteran character actor Reginald Owen delivers his most memorable performance as Scrooge.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The filmmakers speed through the material, skipping over entire sections of the story to finish at an astonishing 69 minutes. Some of the material is sorely missed. The special effects are primitive and at times painful to watch by modern standards.

FAMILY VALUES: As with most movies from the era, it is no problem for modern family audiences.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: This was the first version of the classic Dickens tale to be made as a talkie and was meant to star Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge, but Barrymore was badly injured in a fall on another movie set and was unable to perform. He personally recommended Owen to replace him in the role.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: There are several short features, Judy Garland singing “Silent Night” in a film that was reportedly only played at an MGM Christmas party and an animated short called “Peace on Earth” that, ironically, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, the only filmed entertainment to be honored thus.

FINAL RATING: 8/10

TOMORROW: Avatar