Missed the whole festival myself. Guess I will be handing in my Preston Sturges Fan Club Membership ID Card to Bruce G this Sunday at the FF Brunch.
― The Stan-Reckoner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 24 April 2015 20:06 (nine years ago) link
ask him when they'll show The French They Are a Funny Race aka Carnets du Major Thompson.
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Friday, 24 April 2015 20:16 (nine years ago) link
Will do.
― The Stan-Reckoner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 April 2015 12:00 (nine years ago) link
I have your answer
― The Stan-Reckoner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 April 2015 17:36 (nine years ago) link
He showed it 1990, it is hard to get a hold of, it isn't very good.
― The Stan-Reckoner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 April 2015 18:35 (nine years ago) link
well i did know 2/3 of that
but thx
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 April 2015 02:30 (nine years ago) link
There's a little more, sort of: Yesterday he showed a restored film of a vaudeville act featuring one of Sturges' stock company. I think he showed more such stuff at TCMfest about a month ago. He also told the crowd that the first film ever shown at current FF location was Sullivan's Travels
― The Stan-Reckoner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 27 April 2015 10:54 (nine years ago) link
Finally saw Hail the Conquering Hero and good grief did I ever connect with it. Certainly would have given it a vote here. I guess I just assumed it was another schlocky WWII comedy, but train arrival scene is certainly next-level chaos choreography.
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 28 April 2015 11:22 (nine years ago) link
There Is Nothing Outside the Real: Preston Sturges on André Bazin (video)
http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/intransition/2015/07/29/there-nothing-outside-real-preston-sturges-andr-bazin
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 16 September 2015 18:28 (eight years ago) link
http://moviemorlocks.com/2015/09/26/preston-sturges-origin-story/#more-86954
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Friday, 2 October 2015 04:24 (eight years ago) link
Last night my wife and I watched a DVD of The Good Fairy, a film Sturges wrote, but it was directed by William Wyler so it didn't appear in this poll. Nevertheless, the script was pure Sturges, the pacing and acting was impeccable, and it had us both laughing aloud constantly. A real gem.
― Aimless, Sunday, 15 November 2015 19:47 (eight years ago) link
Margaret Sullavan was wonderfu.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 15 November 2015 19:53 (eight years ago) link
wonderful too
Was pretty disappointed by The Palm Beach Story. McCrea and Colbert not onscreen together nearly enough, and the whole train sequence is both unfunny and unpleasant. I realize that lots of people love it, but I really don't find it to be anywhere near the equal of The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels or Unfaithfully Yours (I still need to see the others).
― Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 18 November 2015 20:23 (eight years ago) link
^^Banned from The Ale & Quail Club--4 Life!
― Jesus Krist of Novoselic (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 18 November 2015 21:20 (eight years ago) link
Lol
― (Don't Go Blecch To) Reddville (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 November 2015 22:03 (eight years ago) link
McCrea plays peevish well (I still say "Convulse me" to students who insist a joke is hilarious).
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 November 2015 22:05 (eight years ago) link
Home movie footage shot by El Brendel on the set of Preston Sturges's BEAUTIFUL BLONDE FROM BASHFUL BEND (1949). Also seen are Sterling Holloway, Snub Pollard, Sturges (at 1'06" and 1'33" (on horseback)), Betty Grable, Hank Mann, Rudy Vallee, among others:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB_ld-Eh4JU&feature=youtu.be
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 17 January 2016 15:54 (eight years ago) link
Thanks!
― Bewlay Brothers & Sister Ray (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 January 2016 16:05 (eight years ago) link
not sure i was at that one tbh
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 17 January 2016 16:06 (eight years ago) link
Sure you were. You invited donna rouge then we had five people, too many for one team, so you two were one team and In Orbit, dmr and I were Mr. Atoz's Bookmobile - "A Star Trek reference," as the host said.
― Bewlay Brothers & Sister Ray (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 January 2016 16:25 (eight years ago) link
c'est vrai! i don't remember what bar that was (magnetic field?) but i remember correctly answering a question about coin collecting
― donna rouge, Monday, 18 January 2016 03:46 (eight years ago) link
Wasn't Magnetic Field, but I did that one once with JBR/L and In Orbit and we came in second. It was in the Slope more or less, near Grand Army Plaza, place was called Shelley's maybe, something starting with an S.
― Blackstar Linus Must Comp (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 January 2016 03:51 (eight years ago) link
Sharlene's
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 January 2016 04:00 (eight years ago) link
That's it I tell you! The Big S!
― Blackstar Linus Must Comp (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 January 2016 04:31 (eight years ago) link
Finally saw Miracle Of Morgan's Creek this week. I enjoyed it so much - it literally never stopped being funny.
― Todd Palin in snowmobile crash (I know it's serious) (stevie), Thursday, 7 April 2016 11:58 (eight years ago) link
Good morning, darling! You look like the last grave over near the willow. Are you worried about something?
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 2 January 2023 19:23 (one year ago) link
There's as fine a specimen of the sucker sapiens as I have ever seen.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 2 January 2023 19:40 (one year ago) link
Positively the same thread!
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 2 January 2023 19:41 (one year ago) link
Remember The Night (Capra written) is quite good, certainly atypically romantic for Sturges, features probably the best Barbara Stanwyck performance of them all? Getting more and more into her, if I can handle John Wayne and Mitchum being shitty republicans I can handle her being so, too. Sturges got very angry at the changes to his script and demanded to direct - the extras in the Indicator release make a good case for director Mitchell Leisen as an interesting auteur unfairly forgotten due to Sturges' and Wilder's sour grapes, punctuated by more than a bit of homophobia.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 10:43 (one year ago) link
All good, but Capra?
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 10:59 (one year ago) link
I don't know if it's her best, but whenever I watch a Stanwyck performance I often think THIS is the best one.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 11:00 (one year ago) link
Even Christmas in Connecticut?
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 11:07 (one year ago) link
Sturges, sorry, James
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 11:07 (one year ago) link
No worries. Actually she is good in Christmas in Connecticut. I can’t make up my mind about that one, can’t even ever remember the director’s name.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 11:09 (one year ago) link
Agree about Mitchell Leisen and Remember the Night. Another Sturges/Leisen film is playing as well at the Film Forum this month, Easy Living with Jean Arthur, can’t remember having seen it.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 11:12 (one year ago) link
As part of https://filmforum.org/series/written-directed-by-preston-sturges
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 11:17 (one year ago) link
Maybe I should go see some of the Written Bys, like The Good Fairy and Beggars of Life.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 11:20 (one year ago) link
Anyway, Remember the Night always feels like a real find, although I sometimes get it confused with that other skewed Xmas movie discovery that is even less frequently seen, Robert Siodmak’s Christmas Holiday with Gene Kelly and Deanna Durbin.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 11:27 (one year ago) link
So weird that everyone seems to be stumbling upon Remember the Night all of the sudden! I only just saw it last year and don't remember ever hearing anything about it before. Fantastic film, though. As is Easy Living (if for almost entirely different reasons).
― Beautiful Bean Footage Fetishist (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 12:28 (one year ago) link
I saw it years ago, enjoyed it but had only a vague, um, memory of it, then saw it on TCM last month as part of a Stanwyck Christmas double bill along with you-know-what.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 12:50 (one year ago) link
Getting more and more into her, if I can handle John Wayne and Mitchum being shitty republicans I can handle her being so, too.
This at least helps:
During filming of To Please a Lady, Stanwyck refused to leave her African-American maid Harriet Coray in a hotel only for African-American people and insisted that she share the same colored hotel as her. After much pressure from Stanwyck, Coray was allowed to stay in the best hotel in Indianapolis along with Stanwyck and the rest of the crew and cast.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 16:56 (one year ago) link
Ahem. Some pellicular pedantry if you will. Her maid spelled her first name with two t's, Harriett.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 17:14 (one year ago) link
Was she actually a "shitty" republican? I don't think it makes much sense to care about party affiliation in the 40s/50s; no shortage of shitty democrats back then too. To state the obvious, Alfred's story is one reason she might have been an R ("party of Lincoln" etc).
On the subject of Liesen, I watched Hold Back the Dawn recently and it's excellent. As with Remember/Sturges (which is wonderful, yes) it reflects poorly on Wilder that it was some kind of breaking point for him. I seem to remember thinking Midnight was slightly better than Easy Living, but I also can't quite separate them in my memory and they're both pretty delightful.
― rob, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 18:32 (one year ago) link
Midnight is much better than Easy Living, but I've a pretty strong anti-Arthur bias.
Stanwyck was pretty popular in Hollywood with cast and crew alike; her bio has dozens of anecdotes of her on-set kindnesses and her lack of ego (Sirk and Wilder have said she would sit by herself with the script, knowing everyone else's lines).
As for her politics, well:
She became an early member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA) after its founding in 1944. The mission of this group was to "combat ... subversive methods [used in the industry] to undermine and change the American way of life."[92][93] It opposed both communist and fascist influences in Hollywood. She publicly supported the investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and her husband Robert Taylor testified as a friendly witness.[
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 18:35 (one year ago) link
otoh here's Sirk (re-posted from the Stanwyck thread):
Unfortunately I couldn't give her any great parts in those days. I did see All I Desire again. And you know there is nothing, NOTHING the least bit phony about her ever. Because she isn't capable of it. That insignificant little part she did with me and she played it all right out of herself. And yet she is so discreet -- she gets every point, every nuance without hitting on anything too heavily. And there is such a tragic stillness about her at the same time. She never steps out of it and she never puts it on, this deep melancholy in her presence...
...But that was a rare thing. She impressed me all the time as someone -- what can I say? -- someone who had really been touched by life in some way. Because she had depth as a person. I wish I could have done a really great picture with her...
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 18:38 (one year ago) link
I read a biography a few decades ago that talked about Preston Sturges' mother being involved with Alesiter Crowley. Think it must have been a Preston Sturges one I read in Dublin. Just sticks in my mind from way back when think they were engaged or something.Think I need to watch a few of his films cos it's been a while.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 18:39 (one year ago) link
Ah right, I think I did at one point know about the HUAC-y stuff. Oh well, she's pretty handily one of my favorite actors of all time, so I choose not to care. Plus her career/filmography is an enduring political (feminist) force itself. Compared to your Waynes and Mitchums, it's hard to see Stanwyck-the-star as anything other than progressive on balance, imo. Way off topic now, but I saw her in Fuller's Forty Guns recently and that is such a blast plus and a sincerely remarkable role.
― rob, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 18:52 (one year ago) link
Need to watch that properly. Was just thinking that the relationship with the brother may mirror her relationship with her own brother.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 18:55 (one year ago) link
― The Gate of Angels Laundromat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 January 2023 16:06 (one year ago) link