Month: November 2016

Super cool Steve McQueen as the legendary SF cop Bullitt (1968) calmly sets the ground rules with the much underrated in my opinion supporting actor and TV “The Man from U. N. C. L. E.” Robert Vaughn as Walter Chalmers, an ambitious politician who gets in the way of a police investigation: “You believe what you want. You work your side of the street, and I’ll work mine.” Catch the touching Oscar nominated performance of Mr. Vaughn (as society rich boy Chester Gwynn outcast by family snobs when he is disabled in the Korean War) in The Young Philadelphians (1959) and close friend screen icon Paul Newman comes to his rescue.  What a successful film career to collaborate with McQueen and Newman!

Today is the birthday of my favorite 1930’s scene stealing actress, Edna May Oliver, who as Aunt Betsey in director George Cukor’s David Copperfield (1935) firmly stood up to all the Dickensian bullies in defense of her nephew David (Freddie Bartholomew) and as the outspoken kindly Mohawk valley widow Mrs. Mc Klennar befriending newlyweds Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert in John Ford’s Drums Along the Mohawk (1939).

Remembering on 11/2/16 what would have been his 103th birthday-Great directors brought screen great Burt Lancaster to the ocean: Robert Siodmak directs Burt as the master of Caribbean in The Crimson Pirate (1952); Fred Zinnemann brings Burt to a juicy rendezvous with Deborah Kerr at the shores of the Pacific in From Here to Eternity; and in Atlantic City (1980) Louis Malle directs Burt as a supposedly aging “has been” Atlantic shore front gangster who reminiscing about his past says: “you should’ve seen the Atlantic ocean in those days….”

Happy 83th  Birthday on 11/3/16 to Ken Berry better known as Captain Wilton Parmenter! Truly one of the kindest men in the world who brought happiness on TV to all of us.

A TCM Imports perennial- The wonderful Nino Rota soundtrack adds a very special feeling to master director Fellini’s breakthrough masterpiece I Vitelloni (1953) about 5 young men from a small Italian village trying to find out what color their parachutes are.

On TCM 11/12/16 on TCM and shown at the 2016 TCMFF –Brief Encounter (1945) -Master Director David Lean captures the sparks of an unexpected romantic rendezvous at a railway station between married strangers Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. I love the seemingly routine railway station refreshment room scene at the beginning where the couple run into a talkative acquaintance of Celia who monopolizes the conversation – but catch the repeat of this same scene later in the action after we learn about the couple’s inner misery and the significance of this moment which certainly was not routine!