Once Upon a Time, A Real Leading Man

Gregory  Peck  in  "To  Kill  A   Mockingbird"  is  my  leading  man  candidate.

Hollyweird is bringing us down;it just gets "dumb and dumber" (tm)...and its baby brother,TV,is getting on the dumb wagon too.                            Most everything you see on tv is only there to seperate commercials.                  Newton Minnow was right

...and movie popcorn is merely a vehicle for buttery-flavored goo,

I'm betting that is why they do not show movies on the Sepia Train,but they have a well lit reading car

Both Henry Fonda and Paul Newman, for me, had Grant's ability to play both heavy drama and lighter fare. I don't see anyone these days with the talent to play the many different roles and genres.

Who is He?
 
It was bucketing rain when the cab let me out near 54th and Lexington, and I hurried into El Morocco to escape the downpour. No piano player, and my gown wasn't back from the cleaners. Bother!

Hmmm-as long as I'm here, I should get my dinner, and perhaps Papa Perona still has some of that lovely bubbly he so likes to ply me with. I was certainly fit to be plied right about now...

The place was rather quiet, so I took a table in the back and ordered the fish. Oh, dear-I'm very wet. I stood, and whipped off my Travel Duster with a flourish, giving it a good shake before draping it carefully over a chair. Mustn't dampen the zebras!

Still thinking about my challenges for the evening, and working on the set list...I heard a laugh, and noticed a man in the shadows at a nearby table. He peeked over his napkin comically, then carefully lowered it into his lap. He was dressed in a very nice suit that fit him beautifully, a soft shirt and a striped tie, his brown brogues obviously bespoke. He was absurdly handsome.

"Are you done giving out free showers, then?" he asked with amusement.

"I'm so very sorry. I didn't see you there!"

"Well, that's understandable. I am rather innocuous, aren't I?"

This was so patently ridiculous that I burst into laughter. He favoured me with a winning smile, and invited me to join him at his larger table. I made a show of thinking about it, then stepped over and swirled into the opposite banquette.

"What are you having, Mr...?" I looked a question at him.

He smiled at me again, then raised his eyebrows.

"You don't know who I am? You don't recognize me?"

"Should I? I don't believe we've met, Sir. I am-"

At this point, Papa hurried up with a bottle of champagne and a crystal flute. He gave me a big grin and poured a long drink of very cold Taittinger, setting it by me with a flourish.

"How is the Signorina on this wet wet WET day?" he burbled, glancing at my new friend and winking. "But you are not singing tonight, no? So glad you could be with us! We are so happy to have such a lovely couple for dinner, but I could wish that you were sitting out front for the benefit of my publicity!"

My gentleman affected a hurt tone and spoke to Papa:

"See here, John Perona, I'm not used to being upstaged by lovely young women that I don't even know! Perhaps you could introduce us?"

I was just noticing the smell of bay rum, my favourite scent for a man. Things were getting more interesting by the moment. Perhaps he drove a Bentley?

Papa looked from one to the other of us, a slow smile spreading across his face.

"Yes, I see. The Signorina is a so busy lady, she doesn't know the famous people, no? She doesn't go to the movies? She works too much, yes?"

"Papa, whatever are you trying to say?"

Mister Cary Grant, may I present Signorina Anna LaTour. Signorina LaTour, this man is the great actor Mister Cary Grant. Now I leave you two alone."

He hurried off, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Only I'm not telling how it was written...

Jack Nicholson
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman. The film is an adaptation of the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The movie was the first to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, Screenplay) since It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991, by The Silence of the Lambs. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is frequently called one of the greatest films in the history of American cinema, as the film is ranked number 105 on Empire's "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time"[2] and number 8 on IMDb Top 250"
 
just one of his

Cary was and is the only one. Not all his movies are great, but he always is.

So  far  I  seem  to  be  the  only  one  considering  John  Belushi  &  Dan   Akroid
as  pop  culture  heroes  in  The  Blues  Brothers.....

My 2 cents' admission for today: Yes, of course Cary Grant...... and Humphrey Bogart, but let's not forget Robert Mitchum--pant, pant; Robert Taylor (Westward the Women); Joel McCrea (Foreign Correspondent, The Palm Beach Story); and another of my favorites: Don Ameche, so classy. And I would be remiss, if I neglected to mention the always graceful, Fred Astaire who in addition to his unmatched toe-tapping, had a pretty sweet voice, as well.

William Powell.....how could I not include him on my list.  The Thin Man....with classy and classic Myrna Loy.  Such a beauty. 

bringing up baby !

And,and,and:Boris Karlov-the Frankenstien monster! Lon Chaney-the Wolman! Bela - Draaaackula!And what about Laurel and Hardy?!?  And, who doesn't remember..."Slowly I turn,step by step..."&"NO!,WHO's on FIRST,WHAT's ON SECOND..." & the man of a thousand faces played the HunchBack of N.D.,  and, "Rosebud",and,and,and,                            and now we have Adam Sandler

Rather off topic,I am sitting almost directly south of the Oshkosh fly in,by about 125 miles,and seeing ancient War Birds going home....Our Forces were,and ARE, breath taking!   I can not describe to anyone that hasn't heard that radial engine sound,just what it is that is different,and inspiring.

RoadYacht:  Great  theme  for  the  show....so  many  young  people  have  absolutely  no  sense  of  history,  no  commitment  to  personal  sacrifice. 

Bert, really.   Do they think that Snoopy andThe Red Baron were Sesame street?

And Jimmy Stewart- Mister Smith Goes to Washington!  Did that not inspire?  And, if not that, how about J.Stewart flying across the Atlantic,against all odds,with only a housefly for companionship....and He, a REAL war hero besides.

Cary Grant is the standered to mesure all others against. But, to say that there are no curent working actors on the screen of high calaber is to egnore Johnny Depp,  Klive Owen, Ewen Mcgregor to name a few

RoadYacht:  Hope  we  get  another  "soft  topic"  next  weekend,  this  time  considering  women  as  protagonists......just  because  I  don't  understand  them,  that  doesn't  mean  I  don't  fully  appreciate  them...lol
Locally  we  get  an  annual  opportunity  to  tour  the  inside  of  a  WWII  bomber,  and  sometimes  other  aircraft  as  well.  The  $10  is  well  worth  the  investment.  Climbing  into  the  isolated  crowded  spaces,  seeing  how  flimsy  the  fuselage  was  {in  relationship  to  an  enemy  fighter's  cannons},  knowing   there  would  be  no  escape  if  the  fuel  in  the  wings  or  the  bombs  ignited.  I  have  a  friend  whose  dad  was  "Talegate  Charley"  in  a   Flying  Fortress....the  ball  turret  on  the  very  back   of  the  plane.  6:00  oclock  was  the  fighter's  favorite  attack  position....hard  to  imagine  watching  an  agile  fighter  line  up  behind  the  cumbersome  big  bomber.....only  at  the  very  end  of  the  war  did  friendly  fighter  pilots  have  planes  with  the  range  to  go  all  the  way  to  the  target.  Then  there  was  flak....

It is sad in that these days, one needs not to possess talent to become famous or even infamous.  Maybe that is how it has always been and I have grown just old enough to develop a healthy case of cynicism.

My favorite is Angela Landsbury's first movie with Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotten, Gaslight.

Bert, ever try to actually lift an aireoplane? Considering just that feat,as well as knowing where you actually are,above the clouds, and knowing someone is shooting at you...faster then the speed of sound today, are you kidding?  The draconian lawmakers think we can't be taught to talk on a phone while we drive, so; bad driver-pay the state           Not,go to talk and drive class.     Could a person actually do ALL the things SULLY did to land that plane?!? But we are WAY off topic here.  Lets just you and I take that minute to contemplate courage,and if by chance,we get to encourage some youngster to take the path that includes the welfare of more than the i-phone store.....maybe even just a fireman(or woman)....who knows? Maybe there is hope.   Movies,afterall,are stories for people that can't get those mind pictures from a book,and books are filled with stories of courage and sacrifice,and history.      But,then again,it is JMO

I'll take Jimmy Stewart.   Friends of mine always but always list Cary Grant as numbers 1,2, and 3 -- and of course he was handsome and funny and all things terrific, but I'll still take Jimmy Stewart as Best Leading Man.  I like him because he seemed to be an intelligent man, and as an actor he could wear many hats well.  And hey! he could dance (albeit a little) and with him I think it would be a wonderful life.  ...Oh and he aged well.  Hitch made a wise decision putting Jimmy Stewart into Grace Kelly's lovely arms in "Rear Window." --in which Stewart exhibited healthy adult kind of male lust while Kelly radiated radiance and together, they were hot hot hot -- if it hadn't been summertime in the film, they would have completely fogged over that rear window each time they kissed.  ...Is Jimmy Stewart too plain, too much a good guy? Too much the husband type to be our #1 Leading Man?  ...No, I don't think so. Because back then, back in the day of the great movies and big studios that made them, good guy leading men like James Stewart finished first.  How unusual!  How quaint!  How utterly delightful.

RoadYacht:  Good  plan,  recognizing  quiet  heroes  both  historic  and  all  around  us.  You  motivated  me  to  call  my  uncle,  he  taught  young  men  {mostly  teenagers}  to  fly  the  B-17,   knowing  full  well  that  1/3  of  them  would  never  be  coming  home.....thank  you  for  your  service,  Uncle  Art.

Dzrtldy,      Love your pix.    There was that great quote about all those fantastic dance steps of Astair, being done backwards,in high heels, no less.    :-)          By the by, the only videos we actually have in the Road Yacht,(for those rainy nights when we have run out of things to talk about)are the original Thin Man DVD box set.      And me being a Dr.Who fan.

Dzrtldy,      Love your pix.    There was that great quote about all those fantastic dance steps of Astair, being done backwards,in high heels, no less.    :-)          By the by, the only videos we actually have in the Road Yacht,(for those rainy nights when we have run out of things to talk about)are the original Thin Man DVD box set.      And me being a Dr.Who fan.

Whoa!  RoadYacht!  You're kidding, right:  "Movies ...are stories for people that can't get their mind pictures from a book..."  C'mon!  I can do both, get my mind pictures from a book, and enjoy the vision that the filmmakers put onto film.  They're not comparable, I don't think, and one no better than the other, I'm sure of that.  I challenge anyone to love movies as much as I, or to dive into her books and not surface for a very long time, book-lover that I am.
 
 
Surely, you don't dislike movies?  If you do, I'd be really curious to hear why. 
 
So....why?

I like Cary Grant ~ He's one of my favorites ~ although I am disapointed that this film series is not going to be playing one of MY faovirtes "In Name Only" with Carol Lombard. I like "Penny Seranade" but I think "In Name Only" has much more of a punch to it than "Penny Serande" does.... 
 
For me Cary Grant & William Powell are my dream gentlemen. They can carry a conversation, do a prat fall, look good in a tuxedo are comfortable in any situation and most importantly deliver the greatest one liners when needed ~ they really are/were a class unto themselves.... If I could find a guy like that in todays world, Well then "I would buy some Furniture & give the cat a name!"
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi korthal!  Ingrid Bergman, beautiful Swedish actress, was she who he tormented.  That's a truly scary movie.  To "gaslight" someone -- wow, you've got to be purely evil.  Great movie though.

PARK:
Scary for sure.
 
I think you're right, it was Ingrid Bergman that Boyer was trying to drive out of her mind.

Korthal ~ I like Gaslight also ~ have you ever seen the 1940 English version of it? With Dianna Wynyard?
 
Last nite I at the Pub I met this girl she's a movie fan clasics & 80's mostly. But she was telling me that in her house before her kids see any films that are based on books they have to read the book first. I thought that was great.  We also were giving one of the regulars a hard time because he admitted that he has never seen Ghostbusters (GASP, still NOT over the SHOCK of that) ~ I mean REALLY how has anyone over the age of 25 NOT seen that film?  
 
O.K. Rant over I promise.. heading to the Sepia Train's Club Car for a Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet with an orange slice....

cuukoo!  Nicholson, oh yes!  Shirley MacLaine's character to Nicholson's in Evening Star:  "Do you mind growing old?"  and Nicholson responds "Nope.  Because I'm so damn good at it."  It was his character's line, but it sounded so very Jack Nicholson, himself.  And I laughed so hard at/with his character in As Good As It Gets, with Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear.  Nicholson is wonderful, you're right.  A man for all seasons, and then some.  And he just so damn good at all of it.

Didn't mean to say I don't like movies; of course I like good movies. And just look at the ones listed by the EyErs here;all really great movies. And a lot of them in black and white...the color was imagined.

Ann Richards, the late governor of Texas, and a champion of feminism, said in her 1988 Keynote Address to the Democratic National Convention:
 
 
"Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did," she told the national audience. "She just did it backwards and in high heels."
 
 
(re: the Fred Astaire and high heels reference upthread)

RoadYatch ~ That's one reason WHy I love Bette Davis in "Jezebel" because of the opening ball scene were she does not wear white ~ Even though that film is shot in B&W you just know in that closing shot that you are seeing a RED DRESS in a sea of white ones dancing around... http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_s9HfUXwMFrM/RvXPM12u44I/AAAAAAAAANE/84G5EO1fXNI/s320/jezebel.jpg
in your minds eye you can see it being that Deep Ruby Red with the black lace detailing on it. If that film was shot in color I venture to say that it would not be as well remembered today.... Of course there as some films that HAD to be done in color, GWTW, Wizard of Oz, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade would not be as good if shot in B&W.
 
 
  

Roadyacht:  So glad I misunderstood.  The movies in black and white, the film noir genre  is especially great; it wouldn't work so well in color.  There's one movie with Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, a murder of course, and the cop (Andrews) falls in love with her painting.  Ah.  I cannot think of the name, all that comes to mind is Rebecca and that's so wrong.  It's one of the best in that genre............................."Laura" from 1944.  Wonderful film  Clifton Webb was great as Waldo Lydecker.  I wouldn't mind seeing "Laura" again.

RINGS:
Never saw the English version. I'll have to look for that.

I loaned out my AL, CB, JC version a few weeks ago.
 
I hope and better get it back soon.

Vincent Price was also great in Laura..Inspired casting on that part.. 
 
I jsut watched a James Mason film from 1945 this morning "They Were All Sisters" He was SO MEAN in it.. So not the James Mason Persona I am used to seeing. It was kind of refreshing...    

Korthal if you rent the DVD of the Byer/Bergman Gaslight it's actually a double sided DVD & the English version on one side of it & the MGM version on the other.. Just read the back of the case for the DVD special features & it should be listed as one of them.  

Where's DPR on this?
Modulate, brutha, modulate...

Loved Fred MacMurray, of all people, in Double Indemnity.  Hard to believe he was the same man as the father of his three sons..  Loved the coolness of Paul Henreid in Now Voyager.  And especially loved Fred Astaire in Broadway Musical of 1940 and his dance with Eleanor Powell to Begin the Beguine......about five minutes of tapping and dancing with only three (I think) edit cuts.  Fab!  They don't make movies like these anymore.  (Or men like these, either, she said saucily.) (I kid, I kid.)
 

We should all get to see the men of the EYE dancing and  traipsing, etc.
 
But the they'd want to see the ladies.

I loved Cary Grant and Rock Hudson. Loved them with Doris Day! Loved Rita Hayworth. Loved a movie called Backstreet with Rita Hayworth in it. Was thinking about Troy Donahue who could not act but loved him in Parrish.
My father told me that TV was the Idiot's Lantern and everyday, more and more, he is proved correct.

I swore I'd devote today to finishing a story that needs to get in the mail, but on reading the parallel offering our Host thoughtfully presents, I knew I had to pop in if only to say the article (in The NYTimes) JP chose is spot-on, in my book. A generation of females, me among them, grew up adoring Cary Grant. Whence, now, elegance, subtlety, style, elan, lingering looks, intelligence? Gone with the proverbial wind.

Seeing movies in that wonderful time, we very young girls thought making love was somehow connected with waves breaking on a shore, for always they cut to that when the scene became too, well, warm. Laugh if you will; we learned eventually.

Today's films, though, offer little-to-nothing of subtle sensuality, leave not a whit to the imagination. We are bashed over the head, in the face, in the mind with total revelation of all things physical and relentless noise. Precious few exceptions come to mind: "Out of Africa"; the film version of Graham Greene's excellent novel, "The End of the Affair".....

"Making love" is no longer: We're offered SEX, no nuances, no challenge to the imagination. Car-crash-movies abound: Apparently Hollywood believes today's audiences cannot tolerate silence, softness, subtlety. I'm overstating, of course: You can quickly prove me wrong with lists of fine films. I look forward to Meryl Streep's Jiulia Child, but she's among actors I'd watch read the 'phone book: Helen Mirren, Dame Judith Dench, Maggie Smith, Jack Nicholson usually, Sean Connery anytime, Robert Redford most times, the late Paul Newman, whose lovely bone structure enabled him to age with a face that belonged on a coin (I first saw him in "Sweet Bird of Youth" with Geraldine Page in New York when I was twenty, and thought I'd died and gone to heaven).

About silence: BBC radio announcers years ago not only wore formal attire to read the evening news, but if time remained when they'd finished the news BBC didn't fill it with noise...silence was all one heard. Something's to be said for that.

Paul Newman.  What a face.  And I still think of his bluest eyes when he stood in his dirty jeans, sweaty shirt, and said "Quick.  [My name's] Ben Quick."   Oh.  My.  No wonder the old-maid blonde daughter of the house fell in love with him fast and hard in real life, during the filming of The Long Hot Summer.  I bet it was...

FYI:  In case you're at all interested, I uploaded pictures of Paul, Cary, and Jimmy on my Eye-dentity.  They were right here, but alas now they're gone.

Great pics, Park4.  Cary Grant....what a class act.  And to think that he began his career as an acrobat.  He subsequently tumbled his way into the hearts of all women.

  Older, as I am, than Louis Calhern when he died, it should come as no surprise that not every body part functions smoothly all of the time.

That night, it was a stiff and uncomfortable back that sent me back downstairs so that only one of us would pay the price for restlessness.

Apart from my brothers and then, only two of them, there have been three persons I could call at 3:00AM. One of them having died, that left one who would say that he was awake anyway and one who actually would be. I called her.

At a summer camp for inner-city kids so disadvantaged, so deeply impoverished in terms of life's necessities especially safety, she has gotten, with shrewd inducement, a group of them to write about their lives.

Their first week is spent learning to get a fix on what they are being offered: Privacy, in a small room; respect and more of it as they drop street talk and tough posing; excellent food and a lot of it, excercise; fresh air; medical staff; used but clean clothing and shoes and the realization that a lot of time and expense have gone into making all of that available for who they are not who they wish to be seen as.

It is made clear that what they have seen; killings, beatings and drug use; what they have done; some of those things and what has been done to them, more of the same, are all known and do not matter.

To characterize what they do as writing is an act of kindness. They make words appear on paper without structure or any knowledge of grammar or, for the most part, spelling. Then, consider that where they come from, not talking or being seen as someone who would, is a survival skill.

When I was allowed to visit her computer it was with this not entirely subtle caution: "You know I love you a lot and trust you enough. Everything that you read here could get somebody in trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with D and that stands for dead! Copy nothing, forget every name and detail."

I got her to let someone else in by telling her that she would like him better and she does.

I can, with permission, tell you about one boy. He got out and everyone involved, gang bangers mostly, is either dead, by attrition, or worse. One paralyzed guy has been left in the care of people so indifferent that he gets help only when infected sores stink.

The gift of conviction and life behind bars is not one that his state chose to bestow.

That boy watched from hiding as his mother was dragged out and thrown down and down stairways until there weren't any more.

It was based on a false report that she had talked to somebody about something and he, hiding in overhead super structure had felt worried that after her first fall, she might give him away by staring up at him until he realized that her head was: "backwards to her body." 

He knew, at his young age, that he could not help and that they would have killed him first to get her to talk or later as a matter of housekeeping. "She never spoke or screamed."

He, recognized by a Hispanic policeman, was placed in a cab and sent to that man's home. From that day to this, he has existed in places always further from that place and that crime and a lot of what happened to him has been way outside of social services protocol but he is not dead.

He is, in fact, so not dead that he serves at the camp, as an example of what it looks like to survive and escape. He has spent years living with two fairly elderly couples in a rural setting, getting his education up to speed and... get this: learning the cello.

His story as knee-buckling and compelling as it is, barely edges into the top three but he is home and dry and never going back... safe, if that's what any of us is. 

Her coup de foudre was playing a short video of the boy accompanying himself on that mournful cello as he alternatively Leonard Cohened and actually sang his way through what it had felt like to be that boy. What I recall as part of the chorus:

"...you'll be most sad, shocked and cry too
when I say that my shadow means more than I do."

There was a long quiet pause during which I may or may not have cleared my throat or something and, surprised that she was still on the phone, heard her say: "I love doing that to you."

I excused myself for a moment to run upstairs as Guest, being Guest, was inquiring, via chat, about how he could help. Dancing around a bit, I took a moment to rack up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXXstOweChc

with an eye to returning her kick in the slats.

When I got back, she, a person, at one time, accustomed to summering in France, was blubbering as I had hoped. "I hate you, you bastard," she said by way of thanking me, "And I never want to speak to you again... until you come over for Last Morning."

The idea behind that being: that the campers won't know why, but they will sense that we respect them and they will be right.  

 

 

RoadYacht--We own that DVD set, too.  Somehow, I never tire of watching Mr. Charles enjoying his many shakers of martinis.  My kids were among the rare few who could answer that crossword puzzle hint:  "Nick and Nora's dog" 

Comic Cary at his best:  (And wasn't Priscilla Lane a doll?) 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6YzAfyIeAA
 

DZRTLDY:
 
Was that Shasta?

I  just  heard  the  distinct  splash  of  a  green  stuffed  olive  breaking  the  surface  of  a  premium  vodka  martini.....lol

Was that Stoli?
I'm there!

Korthal---Asta.  :~)
 
Bert---Make my blue cheese, and I'm in.

Dzrtldy:    So  flattering  that  you  impute  no  sinister  plot  to  me.....other  than  the  one  to  snag  one  of  your  alllegedly  world-class  martinis...the  lady  has  class.  Speaking  of  class,  has   anybody  thought  of  Humphrey  Bogart's  "Casablanca?"  Sure,  he  was  not  versatile  as  an  actor,  always  the  tough  guy  with  the  heart  of  gold.  But  what  personal  integrity  he  showed  us  all  in  this  classic  movie....giving  up  his   soul  mate,  because  it  simply  would  have  been  selfish,  and  not  the  right  thing  to  do.   

Ah, but there were two endings in mind.  I like to think Ilsa went with the alternate, and took the next flight back.  Victor would have demanded it.....had he realized her love for Rick.  The romantic in me.......

DZRTLDY:
SOO close!

They say close only counts in horseshoes, but I disagree.  Close ALWAYS counts at cocktail hour. 

Two  endings  in  mind???   OMG,  you  mean  all  of  these  years  I  have  been leaving  the  pretty  girl  at  the  airport,  only  to  find  out  that  it  didn't  have  to  end  that  way?  GRRRRR

Horseshoes and handgranaides.
 
Sorry!

lol  Yes!  Forgot that one! 

And Bert?  Never leave the girl at the airport.

Stoney - Wow. The lump in my throat and the tears in my eyes simply prevent me from saying any more.
La Marseillaise, opposite the German officers singing Die Wacht am Rhein, was quite the moving scene from "Casablanca". Bogart simply nodded...ah, Bogie - here's looking at you!

Asta the dog from the Thin Man series was the same dog named Mr. Smith in the Grant/Dunne film "The Awful Truth". "The Awful Truth" to me is one of the best Screwball comedies ~ It's just a bunch of actors running around blurting funny one liners & other little comedy bits, when Irene Dunn does the singing sequence I laugh every time...That film could never be made today & bring in any profit, because the many people jsut would not get it.. Which is a shame. 
 
Although I feel bad for poor Ralph Bellamy he seems to have lost every girl to Cary Grant in is career.. Dunne in the Awful Truth & than Russell in His Gal Friday.. One would have thought he'd have learned from the first time around...
  

Jsut wondering ~ What happens if you DO happen to leave the girl at the airport?....

Kindlee:  I  don't  care  that  some  of  my  favorite  movies  are  considered  to  be  "chick  flicks."  Casablanca  is  a  great  movie.  Same  with  "Scent  of  a  Woman,"  that  hits  close  to  home  as  well.  We  need  people  with  romance  that  makes  their  hearts  sing,  and  with  personal  integrity,  so  selfishness  does  not  set  in.
Dzrtldy:  You  are  correct,  for  years  I  left  the  girl  at  the  airport,  then  I  finally  figured  out  that  the  "solution"  was  a  false  choice.  People  need  to  take  risks,  and  risk  rejection,  or  they  haven't  really  lived.  This  is  your  life,  not  merely  a  dress  rehersal.

Rings90:  Leave  the  girl  at  the  airport,  and  you  spend  the  rest  of  your  life  regretting  the  decision. 

Bert ~ Somehow I have a feeling if you asked a few of the guys that I know if they would ever regret leaving me at the airport the answers would be a very loud NO!!!!
 
 
 
  

Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Robert Redford -- *Paul Newman* -- who actually played men his age and still looked great.  There aren't real actors in film now, they seem to be focused on celebrity.  Johnny Depp can do it, I suppose, but does he evoke the response of the above mentioned?  Think not.

Rings90:   Listen,  girl.....have  I   ever  marketed  the  idea  here  that  men  have  a  monopoly  on  the  marketplace  of  good  decision-making?   Might  just  be  that  they  would  be  the  ones  missing  out.....

Hee @ rings.  Here, too.  I always have too many bags.  I'm not big on heavy lifting, I'd rather dole it out to my heavy lifter.

Master Stoney:
I give you joy of your friends, your life, and your skill at spinning a tale that beats any fiction in whatever form. This is the sort of outburst that makes this site so rewarding to spend time perusing.
Again, my very deep gratitude. Your admirer,
Olivia

Stoney, somebody ought to tell that boy about  Plato's parable of the cave. I expect it will be useful to him later on if he wants to talk about shadows.  In the meantime, your contribution is useful to the rest of us in the extreme. Many thanks And Thanks Olivia for another great yarn- spin on, Missie, spin on.

Olivia,
My apologies for the delay.  I've been editing my newsletter all day.
Park4,
The Ann Richards quote is legendary but, if you look at an Astaire Rogers movie, you can see the statement is patently false.  The vast majority of Astaire's trickiest and most athletic moves were solos.  Nothing against Miss Rogers who was always wonderful, especially in Swing Time (1936).
Rings90,
I've never made any secret of the fact that James Mason is my favorite actor of all time.  If you're not accustomed to seeing him be mean, I offer you 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954).  At his subtle best, he knew how to convey a world of thought and feeling with barely any gesture at all.  Check his performance as Rommell in The Desert Fox (1951).
RoadYacht and Georgia,
The popular rivalry between yesteryear's movies and today's usually features a stacked deck.  People talk about how, today, we are focused on stardom and celebrity while ignoring the fact that talentless, wooden sticks like Robert Taylor, Farley Granger, Kay Francis, and Hedy Lamarr had careers (just my opinion of course but you can insert your own overrated classic star of choice here).  Within the confines of the studio system that held sway during the golden age, no one except Paul Muni was ever given the opportunity to transform himself into a nearly unrecognizable state to immerse himself into his character the way Daniel Day-Lewis does today.
But there is very little I can say on the subject that I didn't say better last year when Mr. Peterman ran the topic, "Sinatra's Siren".  I submit the link here:  http://www.petermanseye.com/curiosities/notables-gossip/252-sinatra-s-siren.
 
I still believe everything I wrote there wholeheartedly.

Clark Gable- the smile, the dimples...

james mason for 24 hrs. on tcm. north by northwest @9

DreadPirateRoberts:  You  are  unfashionably  late,  my  friend...lol    Nice  post,  you  are  the  first  person  I  can  remember  to  cite  "Rommel"  for  the  quality  of  acting  of  the  protagonist,  not  merely  because  it  documents  a  piece  of  military  history  from  the  perspective  of  the  opponent. 
Everybody Else:  Got  my  kid  safely  back  to  horse  camp,  one  week  left,  then  she  starts  getting  into  serious  preparation  for  school...which  I  keep  telling  her  is  not  another  way  of  justifying  shopping  for  more  clothes...lol    Got  my  jammies  on,  got  the  cat  out  and  the  dog  in,  and  my  friend  the  owl  is  serenading  as  usual.....wonder  if  he  would  tolerate  my  putting  on  him  a  pair  of  horn  rimmed  glasses?  He  would  really  look  smart  then....  The  little  guy  appears  to  be  asleep,  then  in  one  fell  swoop  he  departs,  and  returns  with  a  mouse  or  a  mole.  Good  night  all.

My husband proposed to me at the airport.

It's incredible how you find you really don't need movies, candlelight, flowers or music when there is true love in your heart. I'm glad we took the chance on each other back then (as young and as naive as we were) and that we have no regrets to haunt us now.

We very recently celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. As much time as has past, as much as we have been through together, I still can recall that kiss that said 'yes' on the tarmac...

I'm a hopeless romantic who is very thankful my leading man existed in real life not just in my dreams...and that he didn't forsake me at the airport...

DPR ~ will add those films to my Netflix ~ I always stayed away from Leagues cus I HATED reading it in H.S.  Which is very bad of me I know.. Nor am I big into miliatry pictures so Rommel never caught my interest either.... Now I will have to see them just so I can see Mason at some of his best. I don't mind him as an actor although at times he reminded me of Boyer in a way.
 
I Like Kay Francis who is the Women Scorned but also the detestable villian in the Grant film "In Name Only"  I have referenced above. I Love her pairing with Wm. Powell in "one way Passage" ( I know she's the wavishing kay wrancis she could not pronuonce an American sounding R to sve her life) another classic that brings tears of sadness to my eyes. Almost as much as Random Harvest does & I dare say I seem to have somehow developed Major Crush on Ronald Coleman wilst watching all these great old classic & romantic movies..
 
Bert have a nice evening & I still venture to say that the guys I know whole heartily would say No regrets about leaving me at a an airport..Which very much is their loss or it could be that I'm like Park4 & I just have WAY too much heavy baggage..  
  

*passed*
 

Cary coulda played Rick too...

Rings90,
 
You are quite right.  I read what is critically considered the best and most faithful English translation of Verne's original Leagues this Spring and I found it GODAWFUL.  But the movie is a masterpiece, one of those rare occasions of the movie being vastly superior to the book.
 
You are right that Mason and Boyer were similar types though Mason's crushed velvet voice has it all over his French predecessor.  But I can easily imagine Boyer in the Mason role from The Seventh Veil and Mason could easily have done Gaslight (though I like Anton Walbrook's 1940 performance much better than Boyer's).
 
When both men got older, though, they became more different.  Boyer became the aging roue (sp?) in the Maurice Chevalier vein.  Mason gaine a bit of weight and went into "older character man" territory.  In the 1982 TV version of Ivanhoe (vastly superior to the 1952 movie with the two Taylors), he is a wonderful Isaac of York.  You might also want to check out his difinite John Le Carre "gray man" in The Deadly Affair (1967).
 
When I played Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers (the production in which I met my wife) I did a fair amount of Mason channeling.  It wasn't on purpose (no actor should ever deliberately imitate another) but it was hard not to think of Mason when uttering such lines as "Jussac, arrest these men.  I will not stand for this continual brawling."

Olivia,
 
No he couldn't.  Completely the wrong type.  But would have been very good as Louis.

Ah, back at the posts...all really great, and the story about the kids;the outreach programs that pit the emotionaly destitute against survivable natural obstacles,imparting the power to survive the man made fears that define most portable prisons. Thank you.Now,back to the movies; sartorial splendor? Adolphe Menjou, and a certain Mr. Edward G.Robinson,and others too numerous to name...and how about Peter Lorre?

RoadYacht,
 
Thank you for mentioning one of my heroes, the late great Edward G. Robinson.  I recently watched The Cincinnati Kid for the first time in honor of the recent passing of Karl Malden.  Robinson stole the show from everyone including the star, Steve McQueen.
 
People are talking a lot about how handsome the great leading men were.  Clark Gable's cheeks and dimples, John Barrymore's great profile, William Powell's impeccability in a suit.  But Edward G. Robinson was a great star (he often played title characters like The Sea Wolf, The Last Gangster, and of course Little Caesar) yet, he was a short, dumpy, Jewish Romanian character actor from Brooklyn.
 
In addition to being a brilliant actor of the stage and screen, Robinson was a collector of fine art and occasionally narrated documentaries on the subject.  How sad that he died just a month before he could collect the Life Achievement Oscar that had been voted for him by the Academy.
 
Another brilliant actor and star of the cinema who was anything but handsome was the late great Charles Laughton.  My choice for the greatest actor of the 1930's (#2 is Robert Donat) described himself as having "a face like the behind of an elephant".  Yet, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), he gave the most romantic and heroic performance of the decade.  One year earlier, his pining for Vivien Leigh in St. Martin's Lane was a simpler, less grand romance that gives the lie to those who claim he was merely a ham.  He was the whole sandwich.

DPR, mentioned Hunchback in my 12:42 post, but I remembered him as the man of 1000 faces...could I be mixing my meta-whos?

AND SPEAKING OF PIRATES...it was a Holyweird movie that gave us the ARGHHH....was that a Wallace Beery?

I alwasy thought it was Lon Chaney was the man of 1,000 Faces but I could be wrong.

Rings, I also thought that. Somehow I mixed my genre  (a movie word if I ever heard one)

Indeed, Lon Chaney was the Man of a Thousand Faces and, indeed, he played Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), a beautifully tinted silent movie with Mary Philbin and Norman Kerry.  In my opinion, it holds up much better than Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera (1925) but I appear to be the only one who thinks so.
 
Charles Laughton did the first talking Hunchback 16 years after Chaney's version and it is one of those unusual cases of a remake being better than the original (and that's no slight to the earlier piece).
 
Wallace Beery was, in my opinion, a mediocre actor who occasionally played a part that was a good fit for his limited talents.  In Min and Bill (1930), he was a great foil for the Oscar-Winning Marie Dressler.  In Grand Hotel (1932), he was great as the villainous businessman.  But he approached every role like the lug he was and it only worked occasionally.  His Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934) was, for my money, quite poor.  Far better was the wonderful Robert Newton in the 1950 Disney version.  He is the one who not only said "arrrrrr" but also "shiver my timbers!"

DPRgggggg     that is the entry I needed.   The DisneyLong John Silver is the defining one in my clouded memory(I did live thru the 60's)(and the current joke of; did we do drugs in the 60's? Hell, we didn't care what the temperature was)and the HunchBack was,and still is,a living memory in my mind. No modern cgi movie could make such as that so real. But,I remain a ferverant Dr.Who fan.

Anthony Hopkin did a pretty good made-for-TV Hunchback in 1982 with Leslie Ann Down and Derek Jacobi in support.  There was a horrible Anthony Quinn version in 1957 with Gina Lollibrigida and, while the quality of the animation was truly beautiful, I did not like the 1997 Disney version voiced by Tom Hulce (though he might have made a very interesting Quasimodo in a live-action version).  In 2001 or so, Mandy Patinkan -- normally a great actor -- did a really putrid TV version with second rate make-up.  Fortunately, the villain was played by a deliciously hammy Richard Harris.  Meanwhile, Selma Hayak revealed herself to be the Hedy Lamarr of her day (just as beautiful and just as bad an actress).

By the way, speaking of great leading men:  Happy Birthday to Peter O'Toole who turned 77 today!

DPR- what of Talulah Bankhead?, and ohhhh, those other throaty ladies, who gave me chills as a youngster,loooong before I ever heard a ...moan...

OOOH, and the first time that Earthy Italian actress came out of the water...Sophia.    And Bridgette!   oh,wait,BARBARELLA!! (in spite of all about Fonda)...

There is way too much involved in this topic,Cary Grant?   Judy,Judy,Judy...gave way to     "Stellah"   We need another hook to this topic some weekend...

RoadYacht,
 
I like Bankhead as a personality and as a star more than as an actress.  Sophia Loren was never a favorite though she was shockingly good in her first major American film, Desire Under the Elms (1958).  Personal taste notwithstanding, though, it is not fair to refer to her as "the first Earthy Italian actress".  She is predated by Silvia Mangano who is, in turn, predated by Anna Magnani.
 
You have particularly good insight in saying "Judy, Judy, Judy" gave way to "Stellah!!!"  This is true and is, I believe, more to blame than anything else for the loss of urbane elegance in the movies.  After the Brandos, Clifts, and Deans of the world took over film (and three cheers for those highly skilled performers) the Grants and Nivens of the world fell out of fashion.  Carey Elwes, Pierce Brosnan, Hugh Grant, and George Clooney have very different careers from what they would have had if that kind of born-in-a-suit natural elegance were still in fashion today.