The Great Recasting Update [IMPORTANT for participants]

PLEASE READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVE SIGNED UP FOR THE GREAT RECASTING BLOGATHON.


Before I get into the update, I want to make a very quick announcement/apology. You might be aware of the fact that I missed the movie review I was supposed to post last Sunday. I apologize for missing it. I also want to announce that the SMR will not return this Sunday, either, but the following Sunday after what will be by then a month long hiatus. I don't want to spam you with posts in the following days, and I don't want to make conflicts with the Fri-Sat blogathon. Also, within this next week I'm going to be making some dramatic changes to the interface of this blog. Lucy's birthday celebration will also begin at the beginning of August...So SMR won't be back for another two weeks.

That being said, I'll get on with the update for the blogathon. Nat, who I'm co-hosting with, did a similar post on her blog so I'm crossing my fingers that between both of our posts you will be aware of which day to post on.

As I said: this is a two day blogathon and we have split the list of thirty-four participants between the both of us. I'm hosting Friday, the 27th, and Nat is taking Saturday, the 28th. We have assigned each participant a date. If this date doesn't work for you, let us know as soon as possible so we can fix it. (Bear in mind conflicts can also be fixed with scheduling). Comments on this post or Nat's are greatly appreciated to let us know if your date will work. If not, we'll be assuming your assigned date works for you! :)

FRIDAY, JULY 27: HOSTED BY FRANKLY, MY DEAR 

Film-Classics (David) recasts Winds of War
Carole and Co. recasts Housesitter 
Who Can Turn the World Off with Her Smile? recasts The Dark Shadows
Imortal Ephemera recasts Wall Street
Lasso the Movies recasts Chinatown
Waitin' on a Sunny Day recasts Calendar Girls 
Reel Classics
Perfect Number 6 recasts There's Something About Mary
Wide Screen World recasts Pulp Fiction 
Journeys in Classic Film recasts Sixteen Candles
Shades of Black and White recasts Splash 
Let's Misbehave recasts Rocky
Bette's Classic Movie Blog
Critical Retro recasts The English Patient 
The Great Katharine Hepburn recasts Harry Potter
A Mythical Monkey Writes About the Movies recasts Ocean's Eleven

SATURDAY, JULY 28: HOSTED BY IN THE MOOD

 Marlene Dietrich, The Last Goddess
The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World
I Luv Cinema
The Hollywood Revue
Film-Classics (Bailey and Dan)
A Person in the Dark
Film Flare
(L)Azzy Blog
Best of the Past
No More Popcorn 

The Great Movie Project
Cinematic Katzenjammer
Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob 

Eternity of a Dream 

Defiant Success

Those that are being hosted by me can start leaving their links on this post or my own entry when it comes up on Friday. The same applies to those being hosed by Nat, except you should leave links on HER blog. If this is confusing to you in anyway please let us know.

Okay, that's it. Once again: all comments with a thumbs up are helpful because we know if you saw this post or not. If you have any questions, complaints, need to switch the date, ANYTHING, please comment now. Or forever hold your peace. 

All of that being said, Nat and I are super super excited and we hope everything's going to work out fantastic! :D

Happy Birthday, Natalie! [5 Things I Love]

Today's the birthday of one of my all time favorite people, Natalie Wood, and so today I share with you five completely random things I love about her. 

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Happy birthday, Natalie!

"She was very smart. She read a book a week and had a wicked sense of humor. She was just adorable — one of the few movie stars I’ve met who was really worthy of that title.

“She lived a very simple life. You know who her friends were? My favorite picture was taken when I brought a new camera over to her house. At the house that day were Laurence Olivier and Elia Kazan. So I have a photo of Olivier, me, Natalie and Kazan. You look at that picture and the tragedy is you would never think she’d be the first to die.

“To go to a New Year’s party at her house was amazing. It was the kind of thing where Cary Grant came over at 12:30. She was the hub, she was the nexus. She was a child star and everybody loved her.”

- A director who worked with Natalie [x]

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#5: She's better than you may think

I've heard Natalie been described as "fluffy", "a cute actress," and "kept around for her looks," but I hardly think so. Her doe eyes and petite figure shouldn't fool you, because Natalie Wood could be a real powerhouse of an actress. Though she did do glossy movies like Sex and the Single Girl (1964), she hardly enjoyed making them and preferred the more melodramatic works she did with directors like Nick Ray and Elia Kazan. I also feel that directors like this could coax the best performances out of her, in movies like Splendor in the Grass (1961). Her work in West Side Story (1961) is overshadowed by other elements of the famous musical but is still fabulous, and she's also incredible in movies like This Property is Condemned (1966) and Love With the Proper Stranger (1963). It's super unfortunate that she's remembered rather for her drowning than her performances.

[via; from the bathtub scene in Splendor in the Grass - I like Sophia Loren a lot, and I have yet to see Two Women, but I do really wish Natalie had won this year. She never won. Not fair.]

#4: Natalie, the child star

This is kind of an extension of #5. The movies Natalie made as a kid were not always very good, save a few exceptions. (If you're interested, you can read a spoiler review I did of the way too soapy No Sad Songs For Me, in which Natalie plays Margaret Sullivan's daughter, here. Oh, and you can also read a post about the much better Miracle on 34th Street here.) But for a young girl, her performances were most always brilliant. Natalie was never a child star in the likes of Shirley Temple or Margaret O'Brien,  more of an actress working constantly in films who happened to be a child. She was pushed into the movies by her aggressive stage mother (who apparently used to snap butterflies into two so Natalie would cry on cue). But as a child actress, Natalie was naturally sharp and her performances were excellent for her age. There were always a certain maturity to her performances and because of this she always steered clear from the sappy, sticky sweet range Shirley Temple frequently wandered into. I'm always blown away by her work in her first movie, Tomorrow is Forever (1946), where she plays an Austrian refugee child and her co-stars are the likes of Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles. She was only eight and Orson said, "She was so good she scared me." And as a child, she worked with some of the top stars of the 40s. Besides the latter mentioned, she shared the screen with: Barbara Stanwyck, Irene Dunne, and Bette Davis.

[via]

#3: Candid camera

Well, not always 'candid', but all the while, I felt the need to mention that photos of Natalie were always incredible. Natalie was obviously gorgeous with her dark, Russian beauty; however, even the most beautiful of people don't always photograph well, but Natalie was utterly photogenic. I've never come across a photo of her where she didn't look amazing. Photos of Natalie were taken mostly in the 1960s, so they all contain a fun, retro spin on them. I can't really explain it, but the photos of her are always the prettiest, candid or posed. Anyways, here are six good examples:

#2: Natalie as a mom

This is a part of Natalie that I think has been less discussed. When I was reading her biography, however, I really got the image that she was a good mom. She had two daughters, Natasha (b. 1970) and Courtney (b. 1974). They were seven and eleven, respectively, when she died - which is of course, terrible. However, in the time she did have with them I'm sure she must have been a wonderful mother. When she had them, she slowed down her career and wouldn't accept a film unless she knew her husband, Robert Wagner, could stay with the children while she was working - or vice versa. She loved to take them on trips on the boat and let them bring friends along. I think Natalie was very much deprived of a childhood, and her mother was just terrible (whilst reading her bio, I wanted to slap her mother... several times..). A real heartbreaking story is the day before she left for Catalina, Natasha begged her not to go because she had a feeling something might happen to her mom. Natalie was tempted to, but others convinced her not to spoil Natasha and to go, so she landed up taking the trip - and she drowned that weekend. Isn't that so sad? Ugh.

#1: The other side to Natalie

This one is hard to describe, but I suppose it's just a quality in Natalie that makes me love her - that I can't explain. When you watch her on screen, you don't want anything bad to happen to her. When you read about her life, it's completely intriguing and oftentimes sad - but there's never a dull moment. From getting to know her, what I have extracted from her personality is that she had a lust for life and an excitement for living, which I think it makes it all the more terrible her life was cut so dreadfully short. I think there were two sides to Natalie: this glamorous movie star named "Natalie Wood", and this fun, playful lady who went by her childhood name of "Natasha" and cooked great Spanish eggs and loved to time spend with her children and read plenty of books and listened to Bob Dylan and watched Vivien Leigh movies. I guess this fine line between the two sides to her are the reason I love her; and I feel almost as if I get the best of both worlds by loving Natalie.

    

    

    

[via]

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So that's all! However, considering it's Natalie's birthday, I'd like to plug this little clip I stumbled upon on Youtube a year ago and it nearly knocked me over. It's Natalie, in the late 70s, being interviewed by Lucille Ball and her son. I KNOW. I ALMOST DIED. Anyways, it's a lot fun to watch, so I'm leavin gi there. Try to get some Natalie in your day today! :)

One full year of blogging

Deborah can't believe it's been year.

So, believe it or not, today marks one whole year from the day I opened up my blog - and wrote my first post!

Part of me can't believe it's been a full year already, and another part feels like I've been doing this forever. :) A lot has happened since then.

For one, I think I've gotten a little better at blogging and discovering how the interface works. For this post, I was scrolling through my earliest blogs and shaking my head because it seemed as if I barely understood anything about how blogging works. (Also, I had like zilch followers so it made my nearly daily posts all together stupider, but hey, I did have a blogging addiction.) For another, blogging has done something fabulous: it's encouraged me to branch out and check out lots of new actors. My favorite list has changed so much in the past year. Some things have been constant, and will always be (*cough cough* Lucy), but I've also discovered a lot of other fabulous people. Remember my Greer Garson epiphany? My wake up call to Deborah Kerr? And most recently, Julie Perfect Andrews? I kind of wonder if this would have happened if I didn't have this blog. Writing posts and reading other blogs have made me want to check out new people, and my followers are absolutely fantastic with recommendations and such.

Perhaps the best thing about blogging is discussing classic film with people who understand how you feel about it, and by this I mean you, followers! I'm almost ten followers away from reaching 100, which is a long way from when nobody followed me. I have also especially made great blogging pals like Bette and Natalie and we've collaborated on things and discussed movies and it's incredible to know that there are actually people my age who love old movies like I do. And there are so many awesome blogs on here to read, just look at my blogroll.

And I have gained extremely faithful commenters and silent readers as well, and it's all really fabulous. I've gotten some tag awards, I did a survey and now I'm actually doing a blogathon (a year ago I would've been like what???) and it's all so much fun.

So now I'll take the time to say it: thanks so much for following me, it really does mean a lot to me that you actually take interest in my blogs and enjoy my writing, it really does. It's incredible that you take time to leave me a comment with your opinion or encouragement, it just makes me happy that someone takes the time to do that. I love blogging, I know I'm not around as much as I used to be lately, but I do love it to bits and pieces and I especially love that you guys are there to listen to me. Yep.

Well, that's about it, I know this post was kind of short but I did want to mark this milestone on here. Here's to some more follows and many more years of blogging and all of that, okay? I'm going to be sticking around for a while, so I hope you will too.

Favorite Filmmakers | George Cukor

The series continues with Kate Hepburn's favorite and the so called 'director to the women stars', George Cukor! You can read the previous installment of this series here. 

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GEORGE CUKOR (1899 - 1983)

George Cukor was a pretty wonderful director - even if he was against casting Lucy in Born Yesterday (and okay, fine, the movie was awesome and Judy Holliday was fantastic, but isn't everything made better with a dash of Lucy?). So, I present to you six favorite Cukor films, discounting the movies he worked on but was not properly credited for (like Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz).

THE WOMEN | 1939 | Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Paulette Goddard

You can actually read my review of this movie here. I actually didn't like this movie as much as I thought I would, but then you should know that I was expecting this to be a five star film. I thought some things were over the top about it, and it dragged a little too long, but over all I had to include this movie on this list because it's the prime example of why Cukor was THE premiere women's director. I have to give this movie credit for having an incredible, all star female cast (perhaps the best to date; but then there is Stage Door...) in a era which people consider male dominated. (Besides that list up there, you also have the supporting talents of Marjorie Main, Ruth Hussey, the fabulous child actress Virginia Weildler - the kid sister in The Philadelphia Story - and appearances by Hedda Hopper & Butterfly McQueen). So how can I not include this film on the list??!! You can read more about the fabulous performances in this movie (primarily Roz) in my review. It is a pretty good movie and fits well in with the year of 1939.

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY | 1940 | Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart

Okay, so really, what can I say about this movie that hasn't been said already? I can't really think of anything, except this is really cinema at some of its best, and if you haven't seen it yet you've really been depriving yourself. This is the cinematic masterpiece that conjoined the talents of three of my all-time favorite people (and three of the most fabulous actors in Hollywood): Kate, Cary, and Jimmy. This is the movie that won Jimmy Stewart the Oscar. This is the movie that won Kate the hearts of audiences - this was the film that she made after years of being called "box office poison", swearing to come back with a hit and she did. THIS. I can't imagine that you wouldn't know the plot, but basically C.K Dexter Haven (aka Cary), Tracy Lord (Kate)'s ex-husband, and a tabloid reporter (Jimmy) and his photographer (Ruth Hussey) show up for Tracy's second marriage, trouble ensues. Real trouble. Also, Virginia Weildler again! I'm sorry, but am I the only who who finds her kind of fabulous? I realize now I've seen her in all sorts of films. Anyways, if you haven't seen this one yet pull yourself out from underneath your rock and go see it. Now. 

A WOMAN'S FACE | 1941 | Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas

I have actually experienced three versions of this movie: the film in question, the original 1938 Swedish movie with Ingrid Bergman, and a radio program with Bette Davis. Out of all three, I have to admit to liking this one best, even though Ingrid is like my second favorite actress and I love her to bits and pieces. But this movie really clicked in all the right places for me, and tied up the loose ends that the Swedish version didn't, and Joan was actually pretty fabulous in the role. This movie is basically about a young woman named Anna Holm who was burned in a fire that killed her parents, and now her pretty face is left with an ugly scar, and she has turned herself against the world. Melvyn Douglas is the plastic surgeon that gives her another chance at life, but Conrad Veidt has other plans for Anna that would restore her to her life of crime. This 1941 American version also takes place in Sweden. It was on Youtube, but unfortunately it got deleted, but if you do happen to come across it, I highly recommend you watch it, you'd be surprised; it's kind of the black sheep on my list. 

GASLIGHT | 1944 | Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Angela Lansbury

Okay, so The Philadelphia Story and this movie are pretty much battling it out for my favorite film on the list. The other day, Bette asked me what my favorite Ingrid performance was and it basically came down to this and Notorious. This whole movie is just about near perfect, okay? I love EVERYTHING about it and am trying to get my friend to watch it just so I can see it again (she kind of loves Isabella Rossellini - long story - because of me, and I'm easing her into Ingrid now). So Ingrid plays Paula Alquist, basically forced to move into the house her aunt was killed in by her new husband, played by Charles Boyer. But he's keeping a secret, and in order to cover up this lie of his, he goes to all sorts of measures that result in Paula beginning to go insane. Angela Lansbury plays the sassy maid who flirts brazenly with Charles Boyer's character, and she doesn't make matters any better. Ingrid won her first Oscar for this, and it's so well deserved! Really, I just adore everything about her performance in here, no one could play a beautiful-lady-who-was-in-love-but-is-now-losing-everything-and-might-be-going-mad better than her. Some people say she was a little "over the top" in this, but I could never agree and positively beg to differ. She's just fabulous in this, okay? I love it all, the darting eyes and the classic Ingrid screaming, just perfect. Oh, and Charles Boyer and Angela Lansbury were pretty darn good, too. Also, doesn't this film have just one of the best, best endings ever? "Are you suggest this is a knife, my husband? Have you gone mad? Shall we try it and see?"

ADAM'S RIB | 1949 | Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday

I've mentioned this before, but anyways, I'll say it again: it's pretty much either this or Woman of the Year for favorite Kate & Spence movie for me; and I've seen them all! Basically, Judy Holliday shoots her cheating, chauvinistic husband when she catches him with his mistress. He didn't die, but she's sent to court. Kate and Spence play Adam and Amanda Bonner, husband-and-wife-lawyers who are perfectly happy until Amanda defends  Judy's character and Adam her husband. Obviously, things aren't so smooth after that. I don't know if I've ever said this, but I have this real fascination with court scenes in movies, I always enjoy them as long as they're played well - I love the drama and I love it when there are clever lawyers involved. This is probably one of the best examples of that type of a movie. The acting is, of course, top notch.We would all expect Kate and Spence to be amazing. Judy Holliday, despite going on to win an Oscar, is pretty underrated and I can't understand why because she's a great actress and I always enjoy her performances. Anyways, bottom line is, this is a pretty fantastic movie. 

BORN YESTERDAY | 1950 | Judy Holliday, William Holden, Broderick Crawford

So I've done a review of this movie, too. Broderick Crawford hires bookish William Holden to teach his apparently "dumb blond" lover, Judy Holliday, to be smart. All sorts of hilarious outcomes occur when Billie (Judy) proves to be a little too smart, and learns what a real scumbag her tycoon lover is, and starts to fall for William Holden. This was the movie that won Judy the Oscar, and as I mentioned back up there, I don't understand why she isn't appreciated enough because she really is a great actress. So, so, so funny in this. Everything about the character was spot on and just right and I couldn't keep laughing, plenty of hilarious scenes mostly involving Judy. Just a really great performance, to be put simply. She was so great that I can even forgive Lucy not being cast, because at least this came out of it. William Holden is also pretty cute in this nerdy character that was a step or two away from what he usually does, and Broderick Crawford played the indignant tycoon fantastically. He and Judy have great rapport, especially in a scene where the play a game of gin.

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Once more, I trimmed that list and left out other really great movies like My Fair Lady (1964), The Actress (1953),  Holiday (1938), and Pat and Mike (1952). Oh, and if you're wondering about Camille (1936), I haven't seen it yet, and no, it's not because I have some kind of a Garbo boycott going on. I just want to read the book first, and it's only to-be-read list, right after I get through a collection of three James Cain novels. (All of the great film noirs I've already seen on screen, but so much fun to read in print!)

But anyways, Cukor did all sorts of great movies, didn't he? I mean there are other films, too - ones he wasn't credited for, so I had to leave them out.

Okay as usual, please, bloggers, check out the blogathon I'm co-hosting. I'm going to keep advertising this all the way up onto the blogathon, it's never too late to join in! And remember, you don't have to think of a film right now - I still haven't!!!

Sunday Movie Review: "Torn Curtain" (1966)

TORN CURTAIN (1966): Cast, plot details 

An American scientist (Paul Newman) publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin and then figuring out a plan to escape back to the West. He is joined by his fiancé (Julie Andrews). [from IMdb - with doctoring by me]

• Paul Newman as Michael Armstrong
• Julie Andrews as Sarah Sherman

THE VERDICT: ★★★★

Though it's not the all-time best Hitchcock film, it's still an entertaining movie with plenty of suspense and it would definitely be worth a watch

This is actually a movie that is a lot less beloved than Hitchcock's other works. Critics weren't too hot about it back in 1966 and fans have forgotten it. And when you compare it to movies like Notorious and North By Northwest, sure, it doesn't come out looking like an incredible film. But if you didn't compare this movie to the other, really fantastic, amazing movies Hitchcock did, you'd actually find that this is a pretty good movie all the while. Anyways, I really did enjoy it and I wouldn't not recommend it.

The plot takes place during the Cold War and is basically about the dangers of going beyond the Iron Curtain. The occurrences while Paul and Julie's characters are there are pretty entertaining and suspenseful, as well as their escape from behind the Curtain. The scene that kept me the most on the edge of my seat, in that typical Hitchcock way, is one in which Paul Newman and & the wife of a farmer, who doesn't speak any English, silently murder a nosy communist.

I really do like Paul Newman, I haven't seen enough of his movies as I would like to - and I'm working on that - but what performances of his I have seen I have enjoyed. This was one of those great performances, he milked the suspense pretty well in this and you were rooting for his character all along. 

Almost two weeks ago, I did a post about The Sound of Music (1965), where I was discussing how I'd forgotten how incredible Julie Andrews is and how I really needed to watch some more of her movies. Well, anyone who has been reading this blog for a few months or so will know that I fall into obsessions with actresses very quickly, and I begin watching marathons of their films until I've seen like 50% of their filmography. No joke. And then my favorites list gets all topsy turvsy - and well, the bottom line is, if you were expecting I'd fall into a obsessions with Julie Andrews from reading that bit in my post, you were right.

I couldn't help it okay. She's so fabulous. She's just really, really fabulous. So much so that I even plan to try Mary Poppins again. Just for her. Because I adore her.

She wasn't in this movie nearly as much as I would have liked her to be, it's really Paul's movie, but anyways, with the screen time she did have she was rather good as Paul's girlfriend torn between sticking with him and pretty much sacrificing herself, or returning to safety beyond the Curtain. The chemistry between her and Paul wasn't, for example, Cary-and-Ingrid-in-Notorious amazing, but it was still pretty good and that was fine considering that for a great deal of the film they're a bit cold to each other. I saw some reviews calling their chemistry (as well as Julie's acting) "wooden", I seriously don't think it was that terrible. In my opinion, that's an exaggeration. For the most part they worked well together, and besides, they were so beautiful together that to the eye they make a good couple. I mean, two pairs of gorgeous blue eyes in color?

Though this isn't the best Hitchcock movie I've seen, people would appreciate this movie a lot more if they just took it for what it is and not compare to the other works of Hitchcock's. Then perhaps, the plot would seem more suspenseful and Paul and Julie's chemistry more palpable. As for me, I can't say that I didn't like it, for that would be a lie, because I really enjoyed it.

PHOTOS & TRIVIA

• Hitchcock originally wanted Cary Grant & Eva Marie Saint for the lead roles, but the studio wanted the more popular, younger, and bankable Paul Newman & Julie Andrews.
• Apparently, this was one of Hitchcock's most unhappiest directing jobs.
• Marked the end of the companionship of Bernard Hermann's musical scores and Hitchcock films.

A MOVIE TIDBIT

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Just so you know, guys, I've also updated my favorite actors & actresses pages!

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Per usual - CALLING ALL BLOGGERS! Have you signed up for me and Natalie's [or Natalie and I's??] blogathon yet? You can do so now! And, as usual, thanks to those of you who have already gotten on board :) It's going to be a ton of fun!