And the best Black and White movie ever is:

[nycsteve]

That was not my line of thinking at all.

Theres another line of thinking ?

[Staun]

I didn't realize that's what you were referring to. They never cut that scene, as far as I know. In fact, they had to include that because she was an evil little brat. She had to get her comeuppance.


Sent it via Facebook DM. Thanks Jed.

My mistake Hal. Somehow I had the idea there was a flap about that scene and the studio was urged to come up with something else. Guess the silly spanking really was useless.

[Hal...]

My mistake Hal. Somehow I had the idea there was a flap about that scene and the studio was urged to come up with something else. Guess the silly spanking really was useless.

From my understanding and from all the examples I've seen, murder had to be done somewhat carefully according to the Hays Code, either limiting the number of murders shown onscreen and/or how murder is shown. Unless the victim was the antagonist, in which case all bets were off. For the longest time, a criminal either had to be killed or jailed, according to the Hays Code.

While a pre-code movie, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang kinda turned this on its ear as the "criminal" was actually wrongfully convicted. I wonder how the censors would have handled this movie post-code. I suspect very little would have changed.

[Staun]

From my understanding and from all the examples I've seen, murder had to be done somewhat carefully according to the Hays Code, either limiting the number of murders shown onscreen and/or how murder is shown. Unless the victim was the antagonist, in which case all bets were off. For the longest time, a criminal either had to be killed or jailed, according to the Hays Code.

While a pre-code movie, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang kinda turned this on its ear as the "criminal" was actually wrongfully convicted. I wonder how the censors would have handled this movie post-code. I suspect very little would have changed.

And then we have the Eastwood idea of things. A good guy doing bad things to catch the bad guys. An issue with the old ends justifying the means. Would the pre codes have a problem with this?

[Hal...]

And then we have the Eastwood idea of things. A good guy doing bad things to catch the bad guys. An issue with the old ends justifying the means. Would the pre codes have a problem with this?

I'm sure of it.

[ronmac]

But, Clean Harry wouldn't sell any tickets.

[Hal...]

Available to stream on TCM's app: To Be or Not to Be. A comedy that stars Carole Lombard, in her last movie, and Jack Benny. Leonard Maltin gave this 3½ stars (out of 4) and for about the first half of the movie I was beginning to wonder why. There are many examples of comedies that start off well but then either fizzle out or get too dramatic in the third act. This movie was just the opposite; the farther along it went, the better it got.

It also co-stars a very young Robert Stack as a pilot, as well as a few character actors, including Lionel Atwill (probably best known as the inspector in Son of Frankenstein or as De Rochefort in The Three Musketeers), Charles Halton (best known as the bank examiner in It's a Wonderful Life), and Sig Ruman (who I know best as "Sgt Schulz" in Stalag 17, but who also appeared in a few Marx Bros movies; he has a very distinctive laugh, which is how I recognized him).

I knew that Carole Lombard had some sort of relationship with Clark Gable but I didn't remember what. They were married in 1939. Her first husband, btw, was William Powell. Neither, however, was in her league.

I also knew that she died prematurely but didn't know how. From Wikipedia (edited):

When the U.S. entered World War II, Lombard traveled to her home state of Indiana for a war bond rally with her mother and Otto Winkler, Clark Gable's press agent. Lombard raised more than $2 million in defense bonds in a single evening. Her party had initially been scheduled to return to Los Angeles by train, but Lombard was eager to get home and wanted to travel by air. Her mother and Winkler were afraid of flying and insisted that the group follow their original travel plans. Lombard suggested that they flip a coin; they agreed, and Lombard won the toss.

In the early morning hours of January 16, 1942, Lombard, her mother and Winkler boarded a plane to return to California. After refueling in Las Vegas, they took off at 7:07 p.m. and crashed into Double Up Peak near the 8,300-foot level of Potosi Mountain, 32 miles southwest of the Las Vegas airport. All 22 aboard, including 15 soldiers, were killed instantly. Lombard was 33 years old. The cause of the crash was attributed to the flight crew's inability to properly navigate over the mountains surrounding Las Vegas. As a precaution against the possibility of enemy Japanese bomber aircraft coming into American airspace from the Pacific, safety beacons normally used to direct night flights had been turned off, leaving the pilot and crew without visual warnings of the mountains in their flight path.

Lombard's funeral was January 21 at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA. She was interred beside her mother under the name of Carole Lombard Gable. Despite remarrying twice following her death, Gable was interred beside her when he died in 1960.

At the time of her death, she had been scheduled to star in the film They All Kissed the Bride; when production started, she was replaced by Joan Crawford. Crawford donated all of her salary for the film to the Red Cross, which had helped extensively in the recovery of bodies from the air crash. Shortly after Lombard's death, Gable, who was inconsolable and devastated by her death, joined the Army Air Forces. Lombard had asked him to do that numerous times after the US entered World War II. In December 1943, the US Maritime Commission announced that a Liberty ship named after Carole Lombard would be launched. Gable attended the launch of the SS Carole Lombard [christened by Irene Dunne] on January 15, 1944, the two-year anniversary of Lombard's record-breaking war bond drive. The ship was involved in rescuing hundreds of survivors from sunken ships in the Pacific.

Apparently, she was paired with Fred MacMurray in a few screwball comedies during her career, including Swing High, Swing Low, which is still available to stream. Hands Across the Table was also available yesterday, and I considered watching it, but is gone now.

--------------------

Last night I watched The Great Race, with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Natalie Wood. Boy was that a waste of time.

[Hal...]

Forgot to mention that Hichcock's Mr and Mrs Smith is also still available to stream. It also stars Carole Lombard... and Robert Montgomery. I'm pretty sure I've seen it but for the life of me can't remember. I also thought I'd mentioned it before but after searching this thread can't find a reference to it.

[nycsteve]

Hal , " Last night I watched The Great Race, with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Natalie Wood. Boy was that a waste of time. "

Tastes differ. I totally disagree , I love The Great Race. Falk and Lemmon are hilarious. A Blake Edwards pic prior to The Pink Panther series. You have to like slapstick.

[Staun]

But, Clean Harry wouldn't sell any tickets.

Guess that’s why they stuck with the Dirty.

[Hal...]

Tastes differ.

Exactly.

A Blake Edwards pic prior to The Pink Panther series. You have to like slapstick.

You might want to look at Edward's filmography again. A Shot in the Dark and The Pink Panther were both made before The Great Race.

[nycsteve]

Exactly.


You might want to look at Edward's filmography again. A Shot in the Dark and The Pink Panther were both made before The Great Race.

So they were. But TGR is still very funny to me.

[Hal...]

I laughed twice during TGR. The first time was when Natalie Wood was in Arthur O'Connell's office and she yelled some suffragette slogan out the window and in response you hear a honk from one of those old bulb horns they used to have on cars. The second time was when she challenged Tony Curtis to a duel with swords and when she brought the sword up over her head, you hear his tent rip.

That was it.

I'm not a fan of broad comedy and I usually only like slapstick when its used by one of the greats like Keaton and Laurel & Hardy... and Chaplin at times. I find The Three Stooges very funny, too.

BTW, a couple of much better movies in the same vein that I saw on TV as a kid are Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and the "sequel" Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969), both written by Ken Annakin and Jack Davies. The latter stars Tony Curtis, Terry Thomas (reprising his role from the earlier movie), Peter Cook, and Dudley Moore.

Ken Annakin also directed and is probably best known for directing the Disney movie Swiss Family Robinson, as well as the war epic The Longest Day.

[ronmac]

^^ Something tells me that you're not a fan of "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World."

[Jerjo]

"Classic" broad comedy doesn't work well for me either. The one exception, and it took me a few viewings before it worked for me, is "Some Like it Hot".

[nycsteve]

^^ Something tells me that you're not a fan of "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World."

Dick Shaun is snot out the nose laughing funny in Mad World.

[ronmac]

Dick Shaun is snot out the nose laughing funny in Mad World.

Ethel Merman steals the show, IMO.

[Hal...]

^^ Something tells me that you're not a fan of "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World."

Meh. Some things are funny but I can take it or leave it. Plus it's too long.

"Classic" broad comedy doesn't work well for me either. The one exception, and it took me a few viewings before it worked for me, is "Some Like it Hot".

Not a fan.

Dick Shaun is snot out the nose laughing funny in Mad World.

He's the best part of the movie, for sure.

--------------------

Humor is very subjective. The four things that made me laugh harder than anything are:

The restaurant scene with Mr Creosote in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. In general, I dislike gross humor but this scene had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. Best line in the scene comes from Carol Cleveland when she and Graham Chapman are explaining to the maître d' why they have to leave:

CC: It's just that we have to go. I'm having rather a heavy period.
GC (embarrassed): ...aaannnd we have a train to catch.
CC: Oh, yes. Yes, of course. We have a train to catch. And I don't want to start bleeding all over the seats.

Graham Chapman's last line in The Undertaker Sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

From the first season of South Park, of all things, when Cartman sings "Kyle's Mom Is a Stupid Bitch".

From Eraserhead, when "grandma" tosses the salad.

But the things that can still make me laugh all these years later are:

Dr Strangelove, my favorite movie.
Laurel & Hardy's Oscar winning 3-reeler, The Music Box
Harvey
Monty Python's The Life of Brian
Blood Simple, the Coen Bros neo-noir movie. It's full of dramatic irony and irony makes me laugh.
The Waterboy, believe it or not.

Some other things that don't make me laugh anymore but that I'll still watch:

Buster Keaton's Seven Chances (<-- this is a brand new, beautiful print)
Screwball comedies from the '30s and '40s
Just about any comedy with Cary Grant
It's a Wonderful Life. Not really a comedy, I know, but it has a lot of humor in it.
What's Up Doc?. Peter Bogdanovich's homage to screwball comedies.
Young Frankenstein
Kentucky Fried Movie
Being There
The Blues Brothers
Airplane!
Caddyshack

[Hal...]

Ethel Merman steals the show, IMO.

I forgot about her. And I agree.

[Jerjo]

We watched "What's the Matter with Helen" on TCM the other night. Not a true horror film but interesting. My wife saw it in the theater and had a vague but fond memory of it. The bright red "blood" they used back then amuses me. We also watched the old Universal flick, The Mummy. Man, Boris Karloff was so freaking good.

[Hal...]

We watched "What's the Matter with Helen" on TCM the other night. Not a true horror film but interesting. My wife saw it in the theater and had a vague but fond memory of it. The bright red "blood" they used back then amuses me.

That's why I've always had such an issue with movies when they started showing blood. It just looks like red paint to me. I thought so even as a kid.

[Hal...]

Mr and Mrs Smith, the Hitchcock comedy from 1941, starring Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. "A quarrelsome couple discovers their marriage isn't legal." Available to stream on TCM until Nov 5th.

Apparently, I've never seen it because nothing was familiar. Can't recall if I ever laughed out loud – which isn't unusual for me – but I found it very amusing, nonetheless. I really, really enjoyed it.

The Shop Around the Corner, from 1940, starring Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart. I'd seen this before but after watching Mr and Mrs Smith, was in the mood for it. Both stars are great in it. Story has some humor but it's mostly a drama, I guess, even tho it's supposed to be a romance. The ending is quite sweet. Really enjoyed this, too.

--------------------

Reading up on Sullavan, I found out she married Henry Fonda in 1931. They separated 2 months later and divorced in 1933. Like Carole Lombard, she also had a sad, short life. Unlike her characters, she apparently was quite tempestuous. She also had a nervous breakdown in the '50s after her kids said they wanted to live with their father. She also suffered from congenital hearing loss that worsened as she aged. Her doctor believed that “there was so much misunderstanding of some of the things she did, the nervousness, the worry -- which were simply a result of her deafness. She suffered as do most who are hard of hearing who try to keep it a secret and make themselves nervous wrecks.” (Wikipedia)

Apparently, she never stopped loving her former husband, producer LeLand Hayward. According to actress Louise Brooks,"after he left her to marry Nancy Hawks in 1947, this terrifyingly self-willed woman shredded her career through the following twelve years with her struggle to repossess him. When Nancy divorced him there was a flaming period of hope in 1959. Then came the news of LeLand's decision to marry Pamela Churchill -- and she sank in to despair and death." (Wikipedia)

She died of an overdose in 1960, though the coroner ruled it accidental. She was only 50.

Incidentally, Fonda and she remained friends and their children were friends as well. Even tho they never had a relationship, Peter Fonda was in love with Bridget Hayward, Margaret's daughter. At 21, Bridget committed suicide 8 months after her mother's death and Peter later named his daughter in her honor.

[ronmac]

^^ Sheesh, how tragic.

[Hal...]

^^ Sheesh, how tragic.

Yep. I thought the Carole Lombard/Clark Gable story was even more so.


BTW, I noticed you changed your avatar, again. Is that a picture of you and Karen? It's kind of hard to see clearly. (fyi, I was laughing as I typed that)

[ronmac]

BTW, I noticed you changed your avatar, again. Is that a picture of you and Karen? It's kind of hard to see clearly. (fyi, I was laughing as I typed that)

Yes, that's her sneaking up behind me while I read your half-assed attempts at humor.