MovieChat Forums > Frances (1983) Discussion > Paramount Perfection?? Right!

Paramount Perfection?? Right!

posted 14 years ago by RickDVD
4 replies | jump to latest

When you look at the IMDB top 250, there aren't too many Paramount titles listed. Take away the two Godfather's from the top ten and Paramount is a rather ordinary studio. In fact, sub-standard, in most cases like their DVD releases.

Most of their DVD releases are half-hearted, it seems. Almost as if they are waiting to release special editions, like they did with Titanic. Look at some of the Godfather discs. Either bare-bones DVD's or not at all, it seems.

So, when it's said in the film, it seems it's more of an in-joke, more than anything else. After all, how many times do you need to film a person falling down in the mud? That was only being done as revenge and was just one on the many things that befell Frances Farmer on her way to the bottom.

"It's so hard having a good time. Even smiling makes my face ache." Dr. Frank-N-Furter

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] brefane 10 years ago

Any studio that released Vertigo, Trouble in Paradise, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Airplane, Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, Sunset Boulevard, Hud, Nashville, The Elephant Man, Saturday Night Fever, Uptight, Double Indemnity, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Mandingo, Roman Holiday, Alfie, Medium Cool, Rear Window, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Harold and Maude, Ordinary People, Lady Sings the Blues, True Grit, A Place in the Sun, Lady in a Cage, Death Wish, Stalag 17... could hardly be called ordinary.

[–] henrimaine 10 years ago

I'm surprised there are people who actually know which movie-studio made which movie. I never cared about that stuff. Should I? I know about directors, actors, etc, but not about studios.

[–] Jes' Sayin' (6543) 4 years ago

If you want to get into it, it's pretty interesting actually because each studio had its own style in the 30s-50s period:

Studio Nickname An Essential Film Dominant Notes
Paramount The Sophisticate Trouble in Paradise Directors European sensibility, more suggestive, "sex as theft"
MGM The Supreme Grand Hotel Producers Most profitable, best at developing stars, "mom and apple pie"
Warner Bros. The Slicker Casablanca Writers Urban, gangsters, rebels, leftwing point of view
Fox The Rube The Mark of Zorro Zanuck Emphasis on rural, middle America country tales
RKO The New Yorker Swing Time Cohn Big city, east coast point of view, ultra-sophisticated with jokes you miss on first viewing
Universal The Old Monster Frankenstein Laemmle Very old techniques, many monster films, Lon Chaney, Karloff, Lugosi
Columbia (none given) It's a Wonderful Life Capra Fluidity in everything, the best screwball comedies
Goldwyn The Artist The Best Years of Our Lives Goldwyn Only mogul who thought of himself as an artist and the films as art
Selznick The Producer Gone With the Wind Selznick In the MGM tradition