Oscar winner for Best Music, Original Score. A Best Adapted Screenplay nom. Don't miss it. It's a delight. A LITTLE ROMANCE (1979), today at 6:00 PM on #TCM. #31daysofoscar #oscarwinner #Romance #Travel https://www.instagram.com/p/CqVWz5krbxq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

“Give me a name for chance and I am a fool.”

Mark Sandrich’s THE GAY DIVORCEE (1934) is coming up on #TCM featuring THE KING AND QUEEN OF CARIOCA! Too much fun! #31DaysOfOscar

@tcmparty live tweet schedule for the week beginning Monday, April 5, 2021. Look for us on Twitter…watch and tweet along…remember to add #TCMParty to your tweets so everyone can find them :) All times are Eastern.

Tuesday, April 6 — DOUBLE FEATURE

8:00 p.m.

THE 400 BLOWS (1959)

A 12-year-old boy turns to crime to escape family problems.

10:00 p.m.

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL (1994)

A young man's chance encounters with a beautiful woman are complicated by his close-knit group of family and friends.

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in CASABLANCA ('42) 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?

Some of these films I post are too special to me to review.  I love this one.  Nominated for 6 Oscars but lost most of them to Gigi.  WTF Academy?

Cat Ballou-1965

TCM’s 31 days of Oscar is a wonderful thing. I’ve been lucky enough to have TCM and ways to watch for years. With all this being I am still in a young Jane Fonda mood. 

When Jane was starting out as an actress, sometimes she was compared to her father, and oftentimes felt like she wasn’t enough. But her comic timing had always been on point. 

Cat Ballou from 1965 shows again Jane Fonda’s comic timing. This film is about a young school teacher who turns into an outlaw to avenge her father’s murder. Cat Ballou stars Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen & other westerns), John Marley (Jenny’s father in the film Love Story). Nat King Cole in his last starring role and Stubby Kaye perform songs throughout the film. Nat King Cole died shortly before the film was released. 

Cat Ballou almost had different stars in the lead roles and If they had not turned the roles down, I think this film would feel totally different, which kind of blows my mind when I stop and think about it. 

I’m sure I am not the only one who at first thought it was quite odd for Lee Marvin to star in a western comedy when we are so used to him starring in plain old westerns and war films. However, he was not the first person to be offered the role of Shellen. The role was first offered to Kirk Douglas who turned it down.  Lee Marvin took the role and made it his own which earned him his only Oscar nomination and win for 1966.  

The title role was first offered to Ann Margret, producers really wanted her in the role, but as we know now she turned it down. Jane Fonda read the script and didn’t really know what to think about it. But since she was under contract with the production company that had the rights to the film but she had no choice but to sign on for the title role. 

There are a lot of reasons why I enjoyed this film, way too many to list so I will go over just a few. Before I researched this film, I knew very little, I just knew the film was a comedy western in the genre of Mclintock! Some people may say that no other film could compare to my all-time favorite western comedy Mclintock! This is true, however Cat Ballou may have slight similarities given both films came out in the 60s. There is a good old cowboy fight sequence, which is still the fight sequence in Mclintock! is my all-time favorite but now this is a close second. Jane Fonda is Cat Ballou who is more or less playing the straight man to a bunch of men. Will I watch this film again if it is on and I have a chance to? The answer is obviously yes!

Some Like It Hot

Day One Schedule 🥳

Nominated for 4 Oscars, including a Best Supporting Actress nod for Patty McCormack, who I had the pleasure of meeting at #TCMFF. She's nothing like Rhoda. THE BAD SEED (1956), today at 5:45 PM on #TCM. #31daysofoscar #oscarnominee #thrillers https://www.instagram.com/p/CqS6Q0BAwD-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

When I introduced a slate of classic movies to my godson a few weeks back, I included Ford’s HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY not knowing what he’d think of it.

It was a smash hit. He loved it. We both cried with gusto.

It’s on #TCM tonight for #31DaysOfOscar

Sondra Locke and Alan Arkin in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968). Both actors were nominated for an Academy Award. Arkin for Best Actor and Locke for Best Supporting Actress.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in SWING TIME ('36) #

Casablanca (1942)

I will never forget the night my mom called me, I was probably 13 or 14, and told me I had to watch Casablanca.  It was during the time when you had to wait for television networks to air movies and you didn’t know when or if they would be showing it next.  No VHS.  No DVD.  No streaming.  It’s a wonder any of us survived.

I watched it back then, in the mid-80′s, and didn’t get it.  I watched it a time or two in between, and didn’t see what the fuss was about.

I watched it this year for my Oscar blog, and I liked it a lot better.  I got some of the jokes, I was comforted by the much-quoted dialog, and I was baffled by why these travelers and refugees all have such nice clothes.

Casablanca won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.  It also had 5 additional Oscar nominations including a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Claude Raines.  His is my favorite character in the film.  His duplicity is enchanting.  I really must insist that you watch this on TCM tomorrow night at 8 p.m.  I’ll call you to remind you.

The Picture of Dorian Gray-1945

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a story by Oscar Wilde. In 1945 it was adapted to film. A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his ugliness to all. This film stars George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, and Peter Lawford. 

Of course like any film adaptation, there are some major differences when seeing the story on the screen. Oscar Wilde’s depicted Dorian as a blonde hair, blue-eyed, highly emotional person. While direct Albert Lewin’s conception of Dorian was cold, icy, and distant. 

I have watched this film three times. Well, really one time. However, the two other times I was only able to make it through well like half of the film. Maybe it was because of the film’s pacing and or dialogue. Recently I watched this film in its entirety and thought it was pretty interesting. The story is pretty unique, some may say it is a story between good and evil. Imagine you can stay young forever, and your ugliness and awful things you have done will never be shown in your body or your face. But all the ugliness and the awful things can be seen in a portrait of yourself over time. I don’t want to give too much of this film away, but by the end of the film, everything changed in the most dramatic, almost horrific way.

@tcmparty live tweet schedule for the week beginning Monday, February 27, 2017. Look for us on Twitter…watch and tweet along…remember to add #TCMParty to your tweets so everyone can find them :) All times are Eastern.

Wednesday, March 1 @ 8:00 PM VACATION FROM MARRIAGE (1945) aka PERFECT STRANGERS After World War II service changes them, a married couple dread their postwar reunion.