Life takes a Detour

The  big  star  in  Poverty  Row  was  the  director's  1941  Lincoln  V-12  convertible.   There  are  lots  of  low  budget  movies  that  are  excellent,  many  appear  on  the  Independent  Film  Channel.   But  then  again,  if  you  just  want  campy  stuff,  there's  always  "Attack  of  the  Killer  Tomatoes."   

Got to agree with you Bert ....... I voted for the Invasion of The Body Snatchers above ... the Original ... The Re-Make was OK, but lacked sufficient Hoak Factor to make it really good ... and the Original had Dana Winter in it, with Kevin McCarthy ... She is the Best Looking German woman I have ever seen ...
 
I don't think Killer Tomatoes was ever meant to become a Cult Classic, but it did ... and even today, it is so stupid that it is actually Funny, without the Sturm und Drung of, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape, or the dragginess of, Sleeper(of course, Dalia Lahvi was interesting) ...  For the real B-Movie Buff, there is always, The Chicken Heart Tha Ate Cleaveland ...  It is a shame, but we may never again see a good old fashioned B-Movie, unless Woody Allen decides to do Fritz Lang, just one more time ...

 
Kindlee,

I was a little foggy and got behind. Did you happen to notice 20A on Friday the 13th?

Four letters: "Literary Schnauzer?"  A-S-T-A

Shortz must have heard about it thousands of times by now.

I love old movies...old black and white film noir...most movies made after the fifties just don't do it for me. I don't need to know the details, the sex and gory death and cuss words. I liked it better when you had to pay attention and learn and figure some things out, not be hit upside the head with everything like a blunt instrument.
I do like the occasional science fiction movie, and their interesting special effects when they're relevant, rather than just pyrotechnics because we can, but I think much of what we have now is a form of porn...

OLIVIA:  Awful late for you to up, especially onna Sunday, isn't it ???  We're Glad to see you tho' .......  I agree with you on the Movies made after the 50'5 ... One would think that the Movie Moguls should still know how to spell, Plotz ... and then remember that every decent Film had a Plot .......  The new ones are all Tits, Ass & Explosions ... and all the really Great Actors are long gone or not working anymore ... Have a Good Morning ...

Nice to know there are other fans of "Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes."   That movie was on the midnight circuit  of cult movies in Village during the '80's.  
 
When I was growing up Roger Corman films were on the marquee once a week at 80 St. Mark's a little movie theather that  offered a different B movie every Tuesday for  80 cents.  

I really like the original "Little Shop of Horrors."  I think that one may be my favoirite Roger Corman film.  He was also an actor with really small parts in movies like "Silence of the Lambs."  

Julia  Masi:   It  is  nice  to  know  that  I  have  you  in  my  corner,  a  woman  with  impeccable  tastes,  voting  for  "Attack  of  the  Killer Tomatoes."     Heck,  it's  nice  to  know  that  you  also  do  not  hesitate  to  spell  "tomatoes"  correctly,   unlike  the  former  Indiana  senator  and  vice  presidential  candidate.   We  ride  with  a  righteous  posse,   at  The  Eye.
 
I  took  the command  to  seek  out  great  "B  Movies"  to  mean  movies  of  a  certain  genre,  which  is  different  from  great  movies  made  on  a  shoestring  budget.    Probably  the  best  movie  that  ever  was  so  totally disrespected  at  the  box  office  was  "Windy  City,"  which  you  may  guess  I  love  in  large  part  because  it  was  filmed  in  the  old  neighborhood  in  the  city  where  I  was  born  &  lived  prior  to  university.  Despite  the  fact  that  the  leading  lady  was  the  wife  of  Steven  Spielberg,   and  the  fact  that  the  rest  of  the  cast  was  good,  the  movie  grossed  a  mere  $300,000.   I  have  a  VHS  copy  of  it  that  I  found  on  EBAY,  I  also  know  it  occasionally  appears  on  television.....again  without  any  fanfare.   I'll  stick  a  photo  of  the  promotional  poster  on  my  site.

I  forgot  to  mention  that  John  Shea  won  the  award  for  "best  actor"  in  1984  for  his  performance  in  Windy  City.

  
Bert,

When you say that John Shea, who has always seemed to me to be (over)acting into a mirror, "won the award for"...   You don't mean THE award, do you?



Sad to note in this morning's obits the passing of the lady who became famous, in the coffee shop, for two things: "They wouldn't tell you to 'spring ahead' or 'fall back' at 2:00AM if it didn't make any difference."

And for placing her answering machine in a plastic store bag and that bag inside another and another then, running it over with her car because her daughter had once been heard to say: "Pick up, Mom, I know you're there. I can hear the cat."

The daughter who posed that cruel lie, morose and sulky, on a Monday morning, having missed the Sunday evening fried chicken buffet at Red's Pizza down the street, staked her own claim to immortality: "I got gypted outta going to Redses."

The amusing subset of the English language spawned by that simple statement, "Marcia-n," suffered a blow when the coffee shop closed and, sadly, may not survive me.

 

Stoney:   John  Shea  only  won  the  best  actor  award  at  the  Montreal  Film  Festival.....sorry,  I  left  a  critical  detail  out.

Roger Corman was a master who mentored other masters.  Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Bogdonavitch were both among the young directors who worked under Corman's tutelage.  He worked with Karloff at the end of his career and Nicholson at the beginning of his.
 
While Corman's work is infamous for being fast, cheap, and slapped together and is enjoyed today mainly as a guilty pleasure, as a curio, or as an example of "one way you could make movies", this is only one side of his work.  I highly recommend checking out the eight Edgar Allan Poe adaptations he made with Vincent Price.  They began with 1960's House of Usher and culminated in their very best collaboration, The Tomb of Ligeia (1964).  These works were painterly, psychological, high-concept, and a bit more expensive than the standard Corman fare.
 
But the greatest B filmmaker of them all was an RKO producer named Val Lewton.  In the early 1940's, when the great Universal Studios horror classics had seen their day and were being followed by highly uninspired sequels (The Mummy's Hand anyone? Ugh!), Lewton was a second unit director at RKO who said that he could provide less money and more imagination to make better movies than Universal was churning out.  The limited budgets required Lewton and his directors to use their imaginations and find ways to inspire their audiences into using theirs.  The first result was Cat People (1942).
 
The string of Lewton classics (all available on TCM DVD) featured such titles as I Walked With a Zombie (based, oddly on Jane Eyre), The Seventh Victim, and The Ghost Ship.  But the real stroke of genius came when Lewton hired a down-and-out star whose career was in the doldrums and reviatlized it.  That star's name was Boris Karloff.
 
Karloff and Lewton did three movied together, starting with their best, The Body Snatcher (1945).  Based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson, the movie tells of a corrupt doctor who hires a grave robber to provide him with fresh cadavers on which to study.  Karloff plays the grave robber and mixes his performance with pathos, irony, elegance, and his signature creep factor.  His love-hate chemistry with Henry Daniell as the doctor is palpable.  It is, without a doubt, his finest hour on screen.
 
While Lewton and Karloff's next two collaborations, Isle of the Dead (1945) and Bedlam (1946), could not quite measure up to The Body Snatcher, they were perfectly respectable efforts filled with appropriate mood and atmosphere.  Somber without being murky, dark without being depressing, clever without being cocky, they were thoroughly satisfying chamber pieces that serve as terrific reminders of just how great the combination of talent, skill, and imagination can be, regardless of budget.

Dread Pirate Roberts:   There  you  go  again,  spouting  off  an  ad  lib  answer  worthy  of  a  Master  of  Arts  thesis.....how  are  we  mere  mortals  to  retain  any  self-esteem???   lol

Bert, while you are very kind, please be assured that my knowledge of cinema is merely transparent evidence of a wasted youth.

My sister and I went to see the Isle of the Dead when we were in our teens. It wwas showing at the rerun movies. I can still hear the water dropping o the coffin. We clung to each other as if we were on the Titanic. 

I don't have a favourite B movie. There are too many of them I like. Anything with Vincent Price (did you know that Jack Nicholson had his first film role in "The Raven"?) beats out any modern as far as I'm concerned. And the 1942 "Cat People" is an icon. I hated, hated, hated the remake. The Body Snatcher gave me nightmares for weeks after I saw it the first time (thank you, channel 19's "Creature Feture").
 
Then, of course, there's the original "The Thing".
 
It seems the less money they throw at a film the better the film is storywise.
 
I have Friday off (our university having traded us the Columbus Day Monday for a 4-day Thanksgiving weekend) and think I'm going to make some popcorn and sit down with some of those classic B movie videos.
 
And, for the record, I don't pick up hitch-hikers. Ever.

Bad movies, you say? Well, as a dedicated MST3K-er, I say "Bring It On!" In the right company, there is nothing better than a truly terrible film. My old roommate and I were banned by our friends from sitting next to each other when watching movies (in public), because we wouldn't be there 5 minutes before cracking each other up by making fun of whatever was going on. I think we both got dirty looks from his girlfriend (now wife) during the "Blair Witch" idiocy by mimicking a tour guide. "And now we're walking. On the left, you'll see nothing. And to your right . . . nothing."

I've never seen "Detour". My education is lacking in certain areas.

Michael ~ I LOVE MST3K and am upset that I can no longer see it except on the old VHS tapes a friend of mine still has of them.
 
I thought of you this weekend as I met 2 ladies from Nebraska at the Pub ~ They were CRAZY FUN Footballs fans.
 
 
 
 
 
 

There is the film noir of the week on line. There they give details of the movies and the stars(?). Did you know Andy Willams made a Bmovie? I love the old black and white movies, no blood and gore, you used your imagination. when my children where growing up we watched the Creasture Feathers. I made beignet and cocoa and got scared!!!!!!

Rings90: Beware the Husker Nation! They will polite you to death!

Most MST3K episodes are available on youtube, but only in 10 minute segments that you have to splice together.

I  am  positive  that  at  one  time  there  was  a  show  that  ONLY  screened  bad  movies.....Japanese  monster  eats  Tokyo  genre.   Then  the  moderator  sat  there,  and  two  voices  from  the  back,  represented  only  by  shadows,  made  smarty-pants  remarks.  Help  me  out  here,  maybe  it  was  DK's  "Creature  Feature."   DK:  Remember  the  "Cool  Ghoul?"
I  also  remember "Shock  Theatre."

The ur-B-movie is "Manos: The Hands of Fate." The only form in which it is now available is a DVD of its sardonic deconstruction on Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

Bert: I saw a recent article that ranked Tokyo as the most dangerous place to live, if you happen to live in a cheesy movie.

 I usually lurk and read but I really feel its important to point out that B movies has come to mean low budget but indeed were actually the ssecond movie of a double bill - like the B side of a record (Vinyl). As for favorites - The Hitchhiker directed by Ida Lupino is superbly creepy and well put together. Little Shop of Horrors, yep. Invasion of the Body Snatchers - definately. All great films. There is also a flim called Crimes of Passion with Raymond Burr and Barbara Stanwyck, but my all time favorite is THE BODY SNATCHER - Robert Wise directed, Val Lewton produced. . . anything by the Val Lewton team is trumps in my book.

Bert: I certainly do remember the "Cool Ghoul"! If it weren't for him, I'd have never discovered some of the wonderful gems of low-budget horror/thriller films. If I recall his show came on a bit later in the evening.
 
"Creature Feature" didn't have on screen commentary like MST-3000 but my siblings and I always provided our own commentary. Mom would let us watch the film and then she threw us outside (or down to the basement if it were raining) to play so we wouldn't be underfoot when she made Saturday dinner, unless our comments got so racous she turned off the TV and evicted us so she could get some peace and quiet.
 
Am I the only one here who watched "Dark Shadows" after school? All the episodes put together would make a couple of vampire B-movies. And then there was the Hammer films Dracula franchise with Christopher Lee (another gentleman with ha voice to die for).
 
Hmmm. Perhaps that's another reason why I'm reluctant to go see films at the cinema these days (besides the exhorbitant prices); I've yet ot find actors who have voices that compare favourably with Mr. Price and Mr. Lee.
 
Of course, there's always The Rocky Horror Picture Show (that has innumerable homages to just about every horror type B-movie ever made) that I used to go see at the Skywalk Cinema at midnight on Friday nights when I was still living in Milford. Is the Skywalk still operating, Bert?
 
Hmmm, some of those 2:30 a.m. drives back to Milford from downtown Cincinnati in my creaky 1964 Falcon could probably have been scenes out of a B-movie, especially the bit of Rte 50 between Mariemont's eastern border and the Newtown bridge...fog, glowing animal eyes on the side of the road, a single dim street light...yep, right out of a B-movie.

Michael:   Since  for  years  Japan  was  the   major  entity  cranking  out  "B"  movies,   then  it  follows  logically  that  the   most  important  city  would  also  be  the  one  placed  in  peril  by:
    a)  giant  sea  serpents;
    b)  alien  life  forms  emerging  from  aluminum  foil  pie  pan  "ships;"
    c)  mutant  humans  seeking  revenge  directed  against  their  scientist  creators;
    d)  all  of  the  above. 

No school! What a cozy topic to warm up to on a drizzly day.
Michael Powell's "Peepshow" is horrifying.(I hope I got both the director & the name of the movie correct)
There is a horror movie that I saw decades ago w/ Ted Bessell ( Marlo Thomas's boyfriend for life on "That Girl")- he played a cross dressing killer & he was terrifying. 
DK- I do love the original "Cat People" , but I also really like the remake- mainly because I adore Nastassja Kinski & she is ravishing & mesmerizing in it. I would watch her read a menu.
OLIVIA- While I do love modern movies you are correct- so much of the love scenes are porn. That's why I love European movies- the people LOOK like real people- not plastic & when they have a love scene- at least it seems real & not airbrushed porn.
GERI- When I
 was young my girlfriends & i would have sleepovers & watch the Saturday late night chillers, eat popcorn, & be very scared. I think about those days w/ much fondness.
I LOVE THE MOVIES!!!!!
 

DPR- Thanks for the mini film class- I loved it!

Stoney~ Nick and Nora, of both film and tv, might have been surprised, but I suspect Dashiell was pleased Shortz got it right.

I've always enjoyed those Mystery genre "B" movies. The quintessential detective Sherlock Holmes, the most honorable Charlie Chan, the foreign sleuth Mr. Moto, the debonair British rogue-turned-crusader 'the Saint', and The Thin Man series; those "who-done-it" crime-solving, putting an end to villany, second feature gems. They were filled with intrigue and suspense, while frequently laced with humor, wit, and quirkiness. I often thought they were much more fun than many of the bigger budget featured films.

If you ever find yourself on Oahu, be sure to have an awesome mai tai at The House Without a Key at the Halekulani Hotel, in Waikiki. Hawaiian music, beautiful sunsets, hula...be sure to put on your best Aloha attire and recall the days of the very first Charlie Chan mystery. (57 down on July 15th - I simply could not resist solving that clue and honing my detective skills in locating it once again!)

Today's "B" movies frequently uphold these immortal words spoken by the eloquent Charlie Chan: "Roll of dead man requires very little acting"

Ok how about Mothera!!!!I love how Japan survived alll of the distruction to live another day.

And then there was Ultraman with the terribly edited dubbing and all those wonderful "rubbersuit" monsters. I particularly remember one monster that started out as a child's chalk drawing on the side of a large concrete pipe. The drawing was hit by some beam from outer space and the monster turned 3-D and alive.

I don't remember the names of any of the movies...I do remember the darkened living room with only the errie flickering of the TV screen, sound almost inaudible, sneaking up and hiding behind the couch until somebody (sometimes my Dad, usually my Gramma) noticed I was there and let me sit on the couch with them. I remember Vincent Price's Voice and flying brains from outerspace, and holding a blanket over my eyes not wanting to watch but WANTING to watch, and vaguely the late night sign off and being carried to bed and tucked in safe. 

DAMSELFLY- OOOH- the late night sign off- I had totally forgotten until you reminded me- wouldn't the screen go all fuzzy?

The power mysteriously went off & my cell is not working- I think Ted Bessell is in my house!

bebe-there was an American flag and patriotic music, then a deep voiced man would announce "This concludes our broadcast day," followed by a signal tone and then white noise--which is the fancy name for the fuzz.

DancingKatz:    Cincinnati  just  finished  revamping  Fountain  Square,   with  the  fountain  itself  being  relocated.   There  are  various  construction  projects  contiguous  to  the  area,  and  the  skywalk  is  still  operating,  however  there  are  gaps.   It  dead-ends  before  going  over  to  the movie  theatre  that  I  am  sure  you  had  in  mind,  which  I  think  was  on  Race  Street.  I  can  no  longer  go  from  The  Federal  Building  or  Potter  Stuart  Federal  Courthouse  all  the  way  above  the  madness  to  get  skywalk  post  office  access,  let  alone  shopping.  But  lordy  lordy  we  DO  have  two  new  stadia,  Reds  &  Bengals,  heavily  subsidized  at  the  expense  of  public  schools,  which  we  then  blame  for  failing  our  kids.  There  is  a  stimulus money plan  to  build  highrise  condos  and  stores  between  the  stadia  and  3rd  street,  but  I'm  not  holding  my  breath.   Only  Xavier  University  continues  to  amaze  me,  constant  renovation  &  expansion,  and  in  a  tight  economy  they  are  starting  a  record-sized  freshman  class  with  an  average  GPA  of  3.5.  Keep  in  mind  tuition  (w/o  scholarship)  is  around  that  of  harvard.  Then  there  are  the  Musketeers,  who  soon  will  face  a  much-improved  Dayton...  I  fly  the  Xavier  battleflag  from  the  pole  in  front  of my home,  just  below  Old  Glory.   There  is  a  rumor  that  it  once  was  hoisted  atop  the  main  flagpole  at  the  University  of  Virginia....but  the  perpetrators  had  excellent  lawyers,  no  convictions  resulted.....lol
Milford  has  had a  nice  downtown  renovation,  brick  sidewalks,  trees,  plants.   Milford,  the  town  that  manages  to  be  located in  THREE  counties...

Love the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", along w/ "Cat People". And as far as "old" versus "modern", I try to ignore the distinction. If I like it, I like it, regardless of what year it was made in. "Forbidden Planet" is a great one, along with "THEM!". I remember seeing adverts for the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and thinking "Oh, Keanu Reeves must be the GORT..." I would have gone for THAT film. My father and I have always said that his first name should be pronounced "canoe", because he's so wooden... Sorry if there are any fans reading this, the digression was a bit unneccessary. Just following my train of thought, that's all.

Geri:   Andy  Williams  in  a  "B"  movie?   That's  like  discovering  that  your  kid  sister  is  a  hooker.....no  way!

I remember "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "The Thing" (later remade) from my childhood, when I was young enough to be frightened out of my wits!  Many of you are too young to remember them.  An observation -- most of the "B" movies in today's discussion are science fiction.  I"m not sure what that means!

BERT ~ ROTFLMAO  ~ Quite the analogy you've made...

There, There Toddy ....... Nothing is wasted if you remembered to bring the Cuisinart .......

What do you all think of a "Travel Writing" based composition class?

Nothing like a 'so bad it's great' B movie to turn your day around and kick the insanity of reality right where it hurts the most. 

How bad can things really be compared to goings on to be found in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "Night of the Living Dead" and all of the black and white versions of "Godzilla".

I do appreciate the efforts of Quentin Tarantino's various salutes to the genre, but I still prefer the black and white versions that leave so much more to the imagination.

I like roaming the channels and finding one of these gems in the middle of the night. The IFC channel is a rich source for such films.

And who could ever forget Steve McQueen's performance in "The Blob" , Ray Millan and Roosevelt Greer in "The Thing With Two Head" and of course Jack Nicholson's performances in "The Raven" and "Mars Attack".

We recently had an Edgar Allen Poe film fest at our well preserved/restored Egyptian Theatre (an Art Deco landmark in town) and it made me smile to see up to four generations of movie goers finding something in common to laugh about and appreciate.

Based on all the postings so far I'd have to say we've stumbled upon a wellspring of common ground here in the world of "B" movies.

Michael, I think the Travel Writing class sounds like a great idea.  Of course, it probably depends on the age level and demographic you're teaching.

As DPR isn't my neighbor, I await his appearances to learn of theater.music and film, both of which I love -- always, I learn, thank you so much DPR. You should write a book...

"If they asked me, I could write a book about the way you..."

Olivia, I agree: I like some things left to the imagination. Our Host is an example: He knows more than a little something about that. Don't hit me in the face with car crashes, blood, and violent sex.

Sex, certainly, but sensual, not violent. One of the finest recent examples of sensuality is in the fiolm adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, "The EWnd of the Affair." (Yes, it's in color.,) I'm a fool for anything set in England during WWII, so it's my cup of tea, but I think you'd like it, whether you read the gook or not. It's one of those rare times I'd say don't read the book first, in fact. Stars Ralph Fiennes, who can do no wrong. Similarly, The Reader, starring him, will break your heart. As he did in The English Patient.

Netflix is the best thing since sliced bread: You can find almost any film (except what's playing this minute, which I don't want) there.

Again, DPR, bless you for your words, if rare; always, I learn. And love it.

oooh, in the first sentence above, it's ALL of which, bot "both." Forgive me.

oh dear, it's The End of the Affair. Messrs Greene and Fiennes are angry....

Cyndy: 18-20 year old college students, most likely freshmen and sophomores.

Michael, I would think that age group would have traveled enough that they would enjoy the class and do well at it.

Michael- I'd love to take that class, as a soon-to-be college student. And you're right about terrible movies. The most recent one I've seen is the first Twilight movie. I decided I couldn't make fun of the series until I'd at least seen the movie. A friend and I nearly got kicked out of the room because of our jokes. But who could resist the line "Your scent is like a drug to me. It's like my own personal brand of heroin."

Bert I promise I lie not I will try to remember the name

Bert red faced and embarrised it was not Andy but Adam oops

Rings90:   2  many  lawyers,  terrible  economy,  so I  gotta  work  up  my  standup  comedy  act,  and YOU  are  guinea  pigs.....
 
Geri:   Every  time  I  put  a  Grey  Goose  vodka  martini  with  gourmet  stuffed  olives  up  as  my  alternate  profile  pix,  some  chick  helps  herself  as  though  happy  hour  arrived  early...lol

Velvet:   Thanks  for  all   the  parenting  encoragement  {not!}.  My  soon  to  be  16  year  old  daughter  savors  the  twilight  books,  movies,  spin-off  items......while  I keep  trying  to  gag  myself  with a  spoon.  Now  I'm  told  some  teenage  vampire  boy's  picture  will  be  plastered  all  over  her  room.

VELVET- Did it REALLY have that line? I can't think of a line past or present that could possibly top it...
The guy who plays the vampire seems about as sexy as dry toast.
 
BERT- When I was in fourth grade I was picked w/ some other kids to do a public promo for something- it was filmed in front of the fountain. I can't believe they moved it. Travesty...
MICHAEL_- Great idea!

Bebe:   Fountain  Square  still  looks  good......just  rearranged.   I have  a  picture  of  my parents  on  their  honeymoon  in  front  of  it,  circa  1923....quite  a  hoot,  a  big  adventure  all  the  way  from Chicago.
 
Velvet  is  quoting  accurately,   her  newsboy  cap  indicates  a  penchant  for  being  well-read....and  stylin.'

GEORGIA- 'The English Patient" is so beautiful, romantic, tragic, stunning, and swoon inducing. It's where I forever fell in love w/ Kristen Scott Thomas- she can do no wrong in my book.

GEORGIA:  Congressman Paul Broun is doing extremely well for us it appears ... Fighting the current administration and winning, so far, by blocking consideration of the New AntiGun Legislation ....... Good For Him, Good For Us !!!

Georgia:   You  are  high-tech,  Graham  Greene's  End  of  the  Affair  is  sensual  to  the  max,  and  charmingly  NOT  obscene.    One  of  my  peers   down  the  hall  says  I  seem  to  like  "chick  flicks."   What  blockhead  hasn't  figured  out  yet  is  WHAT  SANE  WOMAN  WANTS  TO  WATCH  "Pork  Chop  Hill"  or "Platoon?"   lol    So  he  sits  wondering  what  is  cramping  his  style,  and  damn  I'm  sure  not  going  to  tell him.....

There was a black & white horror flick -again starring a cross dressing killer- the chef at the restaurant would always quote the line,"Warren, oh Warren." I did see it one time & it was quite creepy.
 
Cross dressing killers freak me out, but I'm also drawn to them, like sage to dressing...

  
Kindlee,

Many years ago in, I think, the Sunday Trib, they approached that from the opposite direction and had me along, I shouldn't wonder, with others, doing some dusty digging for the Hammett Reader.

Great stories but no imagination could have come up with the stylish and adorable Myrna Loy as Nora.

Years later, when she played Mrs. Gilbreth across from Clifton Webb in "Cheaper By The Dozen," I remember thinking: "Hey, a little respect you old fart. That's Nora Charles you're bossing around."

velvet !  i agree on the "twilight" and also found myself in trouble with management, my daughter and friends.  50+ here and it was simply funny.  not so apparently to the "followers".  it's relative...

IVAN- This is a late birthday wish- I hope you got 72 kisses and one to wish upon...

Velvet / cuukkoo1 

I think Stephen King hit the nail on the head when he said "Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good. Meyer's secret is "writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It's exciting and it's thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because they're not overtly sexual."

But then, in the end.... if it gets more folks to enjoy reading; it's all good.

I usually find that the more advance over-the-top positive hype a movie publishes serves as a reverse barometer to its worth.

Bella Lugosi film fest tonight on the train. Receive a free Bloody Mary with your free popcorn.

IVAN - Sorry I missed your Birthday.  I hope it was a happy one.  I toast you my friend!

Bert:  my ability to spell the name of any vegetable before noon is purely accidental.
 
I love "Windy City"!  I became a big John Shea fan after that movie.      

If you don't know, "Twilight" is about a teenager (who isn't supposed to have a personality, so that girls can put themselves in her position easily) who goes to Washington state to live with her father and ends up falling in love with a "vegetarian" (doesn't eat humans) vampire, but can't decide if she likes the werewolf better. Appparently it ends with her getting dangerously pregnant at nineteen or something, carrying the baby full term, nearly dying while giving birth, and having to be turned into a vampire to survive.
Best thing since sliced bread.

I think I'll go with the Cliff Notes Version.  "30 Days of Night"....... now that was a vampire movie.

I loved the chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy...flirty, witty, and rich they were a great escape from reality - and they still are, when you watch them cavorting across the screen in those old movies. I can't remember the last time I had a martini, let alone as many as they always seemed to have, but, then again, I have no dead bodies piling up in my life like they did, either...thank goodness for that!
 
No one has mentioned comedic "B" movies. I prefer to come out a movie laughing or feeling happily warm and fuzzy...no tears, no fears...
A little low-budget Abbott and Costello anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M

Does anyone remember Hammer Films?  They were the really popular with the punk kids in the early 80's.  I'm sure the Twilight generation would love them.

For all the Powell & Loy fans on the forum, let me highly recommend a little known comedy of theirs called I Love You Again (1940) in which Powell suffers from amnesia and falls in love with Loy who, unbeknownst to him, is already married to him and trying to finalize their divorce.  So now, he must fix things up while trying to regain his memory.  Another great one is Libeled Lady (1936) which features both the Powell/Loy coupling and Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlowe as a second couple for good measure.
 
Dangkatz,
 
Sorry but The Raven is not Nicholson's first film performance.  His debut was in a 1958 movie called The Cry Baby Killer.  He proceeded to show up in five movies including the original Little Shop of Horrors (1960) before The Raven came his way.
 
And is it really accurate to refer to the 1982 Cat People as a "remake"?  Isn't it simply a different movie that happens to have the same title?  Remember, titles cannot be copyrighted.  There are two movies called Unforgiven, two movies called Moulin Rouge, two movies called Titanic, and -- for that matter -- two movies called The Raven.  But none of them are remakes of each other.

Julia  Masi:   OMG....you  remember  Windy  City?   Amazing,  you  may  join  me  on  the  endangered  species  list.   I  absolutely  positively  LOVE  that  movie,   in  part  because  the  near  North  side  of  Chicago  near  Lake  Michigan  still  calls  me  HOME.
 
Hammer?   MIKE  Hammer,  Private  Eye?   I  remember,  he  fancied  himself  as  quite  the  ladies  man,  always  fixed  whatever  was  wrong,  and  had  the  traditional  dorky  sidekick.

Velvet;, Thanks no one would tell me what happens in Twilight.  Sounds like a nice twist on an old genre.  I've never heard of a vampire that eats his victims. The possiblity of a werefolf baby would have scared me into celebacy.
 
Bert; Don't worry  too much about your daughter's vampjire phase.  I went through something smiliar when I was her age.  I wore a nurse's cape and high black boots everywhere and only dated extemely pale guys in bands.     

I can't believe that this discussion has ranged from Roger Corman to Nick and Nora Charles, by way of MST3K, and hasn't landed on Ed Wood.

Bert:  Hammer films were low budget English  gothic horror films.    The trailers for the Twilght movie and   True Blood sort of remind me of them.  The character's in the hammer movies were well dressed and the women had perfect make-up and hair. 

Bebe,
 
I think the Michael Powell movie you're thinking of was the highly controversial Peeping Tom (1960), a very interesting shocker that was more or less the British Psycho (it even came out in the same year, though it wasn't as successful).  Sadly, the heat Powell took for Peeping Tom did serious damage to his career from which, though he did do other movies afterwards, he never fully recovered.  His greatest achievement, in my opinion, was The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943).  I confess I've always found most of his other classics highly overrated.
 
Bert,
 
The "Hammer movies" to which people are referring are the British movies made by the Hammer Film Studio.  Hammer's heyday stretched from the 1950's through the 1970's and, while they did many films covering several genres, they are by far best known for horror movies.  Their visual palette was bright and garish and their aesthetic was (at least by the standards of the time) bloody and explicit.  Their Frankenstein, Dracula, and Mummy series made stars of the heretofore unknown Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.  Those two men also remained the very very closest of friends until Cushing's death in 1994.
 
I have a magnificent 2-disc edition of Hammer's Scars of Dracula (1970) which really isn't bad for the kind of movie it is.  Christopher Lee does a running commentary track that is absolutely priceless as he discusses not only what is taking place on the screen, but the backstory of his involvement with Hammer and his relationship with the studio.  The 2nd disc is an autobiography of Lee's life and career, narrated by the man himself, chock full of wonderful clips and excerpts from his films, both famous and obscure.  Really great stuff!

Julia,  DPR:   Well,  now  I  see  that  while  I  was  watching  Hawaii  5-0  you  guys  were  attending  classic  film  festivals.....albeit  bloody  gory  ones,  populated  by  Brits.

Julia:    Don't  tell  DPR,  but  when  I  wander  into  the  symphony,  as  they  play  the  William  Tell  Overture  I  irresistably  stand  up,  and  shout  "Hi,  Ho....Silver!"

DPR- Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was close! I have read that people were so disturbed by "Peeping Tom" that he really suffered. They thought he was a real pervert. That movie absolutely chilled me. PLEASE- keep commenting tonight- I am so enjoying your font of knowledge.
 
I'm sure that many of the Saturday late night chillers from my sleepovers were Hammer movies. JULIA is correct- all the women were impeccably coiffed & made up.
 
JULIA- I love the idea of you as a wild child in a nurse's cape! Did your boyfriends wear patchouli? I still love the faintest aroma of patchouli coming from a man- faint, NOT loud.

KINDLEE - You made me think & when I think of "B" movies I think of noir & horror. I just think of comedies as comedies. Maybe that's just me.

Bebe; I dated a professional fire-eater.  He usually smelled like lighter fluid.  One night he hads a show in the West Village.  His lighter fluid was rnncid so he asked me return it and get him another can. He told me to taste it first.  So I took the lighter fluid back to the hardware store, but it on the counter and told the clerk that it tasted stale.  Then I sat down on the floor and started smelling cans of lighter fluid.
 
The clerk flipped out and called  my father.  My dad was very laid back so he said "don't worry, its not some new high.  Its about a boy."  He paid the man for two cans of lighter fluid.  Then he looked at me and said "don't put that in your mouth it will stain your teeth."      
 

 

KSS- I do agree that the horror movies of my childhood were in B&W & they were definitely terrifying. I've never seen Cabinet of D. C. - I will add that to my list.
 
What is CGI?

What PeterLake and DPR said. Now that I've finally finished putting messages on yesterday TO SEVERAL IMPORTANT PEOPLE and made my way to the "world's today" (at the Eye, one never knows...I love that).

Oh, Myrna Loy, Clifton Webb, and DPR wasn't it Jeanne Craine together?
And PAM, Nick and Nora Charles, oh, yes! Chemistry gone to bed. Spencer Tracy anytime. I was touched by his and Katharine Hepburn's love, yet never threatening his marriage. Now there was chemistry. Miss Hepburn even stayed away from his funeral.

Anyone remember marvelous David Niven in The Moon Is Blue? Avant garde for its time, people thought, but so did they of "Tea and Sympathy," which I saw very young when it was almost forbidden (here; remember where I live), and re-watched recently, realizing again how tenderly Robert Anderson wrote, and wrote as he had to for the time. Corny today, but I'm sufficiently corny that still I cry when Deborah Kerr begins (only begins, mind you...) to unbutton her blouse, saying to John Kerr, "When you speak of this in years to come -- and you will -- be kind."

Years after the film, (I met and) heard Mr. Anderson speak at a writers' conference, and he said every time he visits his old school, he's asked yet again if it was biographical; it was definitely not. Another case of liking someone's work (I located his fiction, watched several tv films he wrote later), not wanting to dispel the "like," and finding him just as you wanted him to be. More, really....

BERT, we're turning out to be of the same mind on many things, so much so that I willingly squint to read your italics. I'm glad you set straight your colleague, and glad you share my feelings about The End of the Affair. (If ever they made a film of Greene's The Heart of the Matter, VERY different, I don't know of it; wasn't as fond of the book, but I read it years ago, a callow youth you'd say, were a I boy...what, since I'm not? I don't know....) A man of taste and passion, thou.

DPR< thanks for keeping us on track about who played what when. I'd pay to watch Jack Nicholson read the NYC 'phone book, so anything he's in... the one exception, and it wasn't his fault: When Witches of Eastwick was made (from John Updike's novel), I liked his work 'til things went awry.

I wasn't alone: In an interview years later, Mr. U said, in response to a question, "Sadly, the script let down Mr' Nicholson, a fine actor, especially near the end. My wife and I saw it at a weekday matinee, and when things fell apart she said,. 'John, is there any way we can get your name off this'? The women and Mr. NIcholson, all superb actors, let down by the script. It was a shame. Never saw it again, and we never spoke of it." He didn't write the screenplay; asked, he said, "It's not what I do; I'd do a bad job. I'll return to my corner and do what I DO do.""

IVAN, happy birthday again and again and again,m friend. And thanks for mentioning our Georgia politician; I appreciate your offering.

GEORGIA:  I still have Family in Savannah ... They have been Pro-Broun since he first appeared .......  Most of the ones still there are the, "Married In" variety, but a great buncha Folks, known as, "Kosher Krackers" .......

Kindlee - Abbott and Costello 'B' movies??? I always thought of them as oscar worthy classics. But since you mentioned comedy..... how's about all of the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby/Lana Turner "Road" movies?  

Georgia - You are spot on about the beauty of netflix..... tonight I'm going to watch ‘Arsenic and Old Lace' from netflix on my PC. It still makes me laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxoP_ggcaVM&feature=player_embedded

It's important to remember that, at the time the term "B movie" was coined (the time most of us are discussing here), color was expensive.  I do not share the view so popular among my fellow lovers of the classics that black-and-white movies are somehow inherently superior to color ones.  Far from it.  Look at the work of the aforementioned Michael Powell.  Do you imagine The Red Shoes or Black Narcissus would have half their power had they been filmed in black-and-white?  You might as well ask Vermeer to limit himself to charcoal drawings!
 
But we're talking about movies made on the cheap and, in Val Lewton's day, color was an extravagance that RKO could not afford.  Certainly not in its B unit.

The only reason I am admitting this humiliating fact is that I know none of you will mock me on this site- privately maybe. I have never seen the "Thin Man" movies w/ Myrna Loy & Robert Powell.
 
That will be rectified asap...

GEORGIA- I have heard the qoute "When you..." , but never knew where it came from. This too will be added to my sadly not complete list.
Thank you...

If you can clearly see the strings holding up the flying saucers........ it is a B movie

Bebe,
 
Don't worry.  NO ONE ELSE has ever seen The Thin Man movies with Myrna Loy and Robert Powell either.  No such movies have ever been made.  Robert Powell (most famous for playing the title role in Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth) has, to the best of my knowledge, never worked with Myrna Loy.  Now, if you were looking for some great collaborations between Myrna Loy and William Powell, then we'd be in business.  But you can do much better than the fun but overrated Thin Man series.

  
I can't be the only one who would have screeched to a halt for the hitchhiker silhouetted above. Can I?

DPR- Could I be any more clueless? Please don't answer that.
 
STONEY- That hitchhiker looks like she's running away from a soft core stewardess movie.

Robert Powell just called me. He said my new name is Ima Dork.
 
He's also sending me a volume of movie trivia...

Bebe,
 
Robert Powell also played Hannay in the 1978 remake of The 39 Steps, Captain Walker in Tommy, and did a Loncon stage musical (apparently never made it to Broadway) of Sherlock Holmes.

DPR- many thanks.
 
Didn't he also star w/ Sally Roberts in "Pretty Woman"? I also heard he was one of the models for the dwarf Sleepy in "Cinderella." Bwaaa,ha,haaaaaaaaa....
 
STONEY- "Escape From Stewardess Island."

he also played Tinker Bell in Peter Pan.........The Invisable Man, and the fish in A Fish Called Wanda.

Sally Roberts?  Wasn't she in All in the Family as Carl Reiner's wife?  Pat O'Brien was her father and Maureen Stapleton was her mother.  (Shudder!)

DPR- Your joke is so much better than my Sally Roberts.
 
I thought Rock Hudson played the father? Now I'm so confused...
 
Bwaaaaaaaaa, ha,haaaaaaaaaaaaa....