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movieghoul (213)
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RIP Margot Kidder (not at all OT!)
Hitchcock MIA in TCM series
sad times
OMG! Geriatric TV commercial channels the shower scene
Hitchcock's spoilers in the trailer
which TZ episode would you like to enter?
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swanstep and ecarle:
Please do not correspond further with movieghoul. These are his adult children. He is blogging during a busy worktime, and he will get himself fired.
Thank you.
Saw MPR Wednesday night at a reglular theater, which was about 75% empty. Also a shame to see how it got trouced by Aquaman in the weekend BO, but I guess that's to be expected when a film aimed at young children opens the weekend before Xmas, when parents are too busy to drop everything and go. WIll be interesting to see how it does the week following.
I don't recall the details but Merrick stuck to his guns for a long time, and Fox eventually gave him a large settlement to open the film in New York.
Yes, Lockin did come to that tragic end.
Well I've seen it and I think both the good and the bad reviews had valid points. On the good side, it's a great nostalgia trip, for one thing, just seeing those expansive opening credits (remember when movies used to have them?) with the orchestral sweep and if you listen closely, you can pick out bars from the earlier songs. And the comfort of knowing that you're going to get a new version of every scene you remember from the original, and if you're patient, two beloved nonagenarians will turn up as deus ex machinas.
But on the bad side, the songs just don't compete with the original, and eventually there's a "paint by numbers" feel to the whole thing, plus a need to overdo some of the production numbers. For example, the number that stands in for "super....docious" plays well enough and gives Miranda the chance to do a tongue twisting rap, but no one's going to be able to leave the theater humming or singing it, it's just too complex. And while no one would claim that Ed Wynn was abetter actor than Meryl Streep, I much preferred his version of the dotty ceiling dwelling relative.
SO a pleasant enough couple of hours, but the original's reputation is safe.
Streisand won the Oscar in April, 1969 and I'm fairly sure that not only was she cast in DOlly but that most of the filming was complete. The studio had to sit on the film while negotiating a yearend release with David Merrick, the producer of the stage show. Merrick's contract when he sold the film rights stipulated that no movie version could be shown in the same city where the stage version was still playing, meaning that they couldn't book the film into a New York theater. In fact, Dolly was the first stage to screen where the movie opened while the Broadway run continued, since the assumption was that the release of the movie would hurt the BO for the show, but with the savvy casting of Ethel Merman, the show ran through most of 1970 very successfully. It also helped that Danny Lockin who was so great as Barnaby in the film joined the Boradway cast.
CHanning was unfortunately one of those stage stars who couldn't adapt well to films, always playing to the second balcony instead of the camera. Her scenes in THoroughly Modern Millie were difficult to watch. Ginger ROgers and Betty Grable followed CHanning on Broadway and were certainly age appropriate but considered too ancient for a big budget film.
Didn't know about Maclaine, but I wonder if Debbie Reynolds was considered? Still iin her 30s but could probably play older convincingly. SHe had a big hit with Unsinkable Molly Brown, and I seem to recall she had worked before with director Gene Kelly.
I agree the editing in Peck's head makes Mirage special. Best is a long shot of two men in a country setting where they're so far from the camera you can barely see them - a shot that's repeated several times. It's something Peck sort of remembers but doesn't remember very clearly. Then when Peck sees two men standing and talking in Central Park, the enigmatic shot reappears with a remarkable forward tracking movement so we can see the two men in Peck's memory clearly.
I agree the editing in Peck's head makes Mirage special. Best is a long shot of two men in a country setting where they're so far from the camera you can barely see them - a shot that's repeated several times. It's something Peck sort of remembers but doesn't remember very clearly. Then when Peck sees two men standing and talking in Central Park, the enigmatic shot reappears with a remarkable forward tracking movement so we can see the two men in Peck's memory clearly.
Always happy to see Hugh Grant come up a winner, but for Paddington 2? Is it possible some of the voters got confused with Richard E who won the NYFCC award for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
And, by the way, ROma was not snubbed for BP, the Globe rules (for some strange reason) only allow English language films to be BP noms.
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