Table Talk!

Hume Crohn, Jessica Tandy, and Gregory Peck

Joel McCrea and Lili Damita

Lana Turner and Turhan Bey aka "The Turkish Delight"

Jack Oakie, Loretta Young, and Clark Gable

Peter Lorre and Sophia Loren

Nancy and Ronald Reagan with Jeanne and Dean Martin

Ronald Colman and Claudette Colbert

Troy Donahue (not Tab Hunter---thanks Silvia!) and Suzanne Pleshette

Tonight on TCM!

The Invisible Man (1933) A scientist's experiments with invisibility turn him into a madman. Dir: James Whale Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan.

Random Harvest (1942)

In 1918, "Smith," an amnesiac, shell-shocked officer, who has lived in a county asylum in Melbridge, England for many months, wanders into town for the first time and is surrounded by people celebrating the end of WWI. To escapes the noise he ducks into a tobacconist's shop but his hesitant speech alerts the owner that he is from the asylum. As she goes to call them, a kindly entertainer, who goes by the name Paula Ridgeway, advises he should leave. When she sees how overwhelmed he is she invites him to a pub and then her show where Smithy (her nickname for him) becomes ill and in need of care. Paula nurses him back to health but the asylum is on the look out for him and she is convinced he simply needs to live life to get better not stay at an asylum. She takes him to a small town in Devon where they stay at a local inn until both are employed- Paula as a typist and Smithy as a writer. Soon they are married, have a place of their own, and a newborn son. Smithy is called off to Liverpool by the Mercury paper for a possible permanent position. Worried for him to be out on his own but happy that Smithy has somewhat recovered even though he remembers nothing before the war, Paula lets him go to Liverpool on his own. After checking into his hotel, Smithy walks toward the Mercury office but is hit by a car and knocked unconscious. When he comes to, he has no memory of the past three years and recalls only his life as aristocrat Charles Rainier and his life up to being shell-shocked in the war.
Confused as to how he ended up in Liverpool three years after the war has ended and haunted by the latchkey he finds in his pocket, Charles returns home, where he finds that his father has died and his siblings are anticipating their inheritance. He also meets Kitty, the teenaged daughter of his sister's new husband. He resumes life as usual and instead of writing, puts his efforts into expanding the family fortune. By 1932, Charles has become known as "the industrial prince of England" for being such a successful businessman, but he still feels there is something missing in his life and he thinks it’s tied up in those three missing years.
Meanwhile, Charles has been loyally served for two years by his private secretary, Margaret Hanson, who is really Paula though Charles does not recognize her as Paula. Their son died in infancy and Paula has been anxiously waiting for Charles to regain some memory of her. When he informs her that he intends to marry Kitty, Paula struggles with the idea of telling him everything but is made to realize that Charles must discover his past on his own. She legally claims her husband dead so that Charles will not be breaking the law.
On the day that Kitty and Charles are selecting music for their wedding, one melody inexplicably reminds him of his past and he momentarily looks at Kitty as if she were a stranger. Realizing that she cannot compete with a ghost from his past, Kitty tells him that they cannot go through with the wedding. This leads Charles to research his past and Paula follows him to Liverpool and tries to lead him to the proper clues but nothing jars his memory.
Back at home Charles is elected to Parliament and confesses to Paula that from time to time he has had the feeling that he knew her in the past. He then proposes that they marry in a kind of "merger" in which she would help him in his political life and he can offer friendship. Paula agrees but after three years of marriage and despite Charles' affection and friendship, she yearns for the love she shared with Smithy and decides that she needs to get away from her life for a while. As Charles uneasily sees her off on the train, he receives word that there is labor unrest in his cableworks in Melbridge. He soon settles the dispute, and as he goes through the town, he surprises his assistant by going right to the tobacconist's shop even though he stated he had never been in Melbridge before. This stirs something in his memory and the next day, Paula, who had been staying at the old Devon inn, learns from the proprietress that a man has just been by asking for the former owner and inquiring about a nearby cottage. At the cottage, Charles's memories begin to flood back as his latchkey opens the front door. When Paula arrives and calls him "Smithy," he finally recognizes who she really is and the two happily embrace.

I loved both Colman and Greer in this film. Colman does such a fantastic job of eliciting sympathy from the viewer as Smithy and Garson is angelic as the patient and loving lost wife. I am not sure if Garson was really singing but her "She's Ma Daisy" number alone was well worth seeing the film. It's a bit frustrating in how long it takes Charles to discover Smithy again but well worth it when the final seen does come. When Garson whispers Smithy and he turns to her and recognizes her for the first time in years- it's a tear jerker. Literally. Och! That was sooooo well done. And to think, it may have been different is Garson had gotten her way.


Side note:
Thanks to Ms. Greer Garson

GREER: You know, Mervyn dear, I had some thoughts on how we might improve the ending.
MERVYN LeROY: No, Greer, we already have too much as it is. It'll be hard enough just getting it down to two hours.
GREER: I always thought it was odd that Ronnie should just walk up to that little cottage and open the front door. Isn't that breaking and entering?
LeROY: No one will care.
GREER: And would the key still work after all those years?
LeROY: The audience will love this ending, Greer.
GREER: Oh wait, I know. What if Ronnie knocks on the door and finds that the old vicar is living there?
LeROY: And then what?
GREER: Oh, I don't know. The vicar could recognize him and ask "How's the wife?"
LeROY: No, we can't get Ivan back at this late date.
GREER: I'm just trying to stretch the ending out a bit longer.
LeROY: Believe me, Greer, after you leave Miss Barnes at the inn and Ron has started to remember, the audience will be dying for a resolution.
GREER: Well then, what about this. When Ronnie opens the cottage door at the end, I could be standing there inside the house waiting for him.
LeROY: Enough already. Go have Sydney fix your hair.


Tonight on TCM!
To Have And Have Not (1944) A skipper-for-hire's romance with a beautiful drifter is complicated by his growing involvement with the French resistance.Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Moran Dir: Howard Hawks

Stars and Cars

Go on! Get your fine, Corinthian leather on!

Mary Carlisle

Ronald Colman

Katharine Hepburn

James Cagney

Joan Crawford

William Haines

Tonight on TCM! Oh Snap! Classic Christmas!

A Christmas Carol (1938) In this adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale, an elderly miser learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve.Cast: Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Terry Kilburn Dir: Edwin L. Marin

Silence is Golden: The White Sister (1923)

Angela Chiaromonte (Lillian Gish) and Captain Giovanni Severini (Ronald Colman) are deeply in love, but Angela's wealthy father, Prince Chiaromonte (Charles Lane), does not know this and arranges her marriage, without her knowledge, to the son of Count del Ferice (Roman Ibanez). However, the prince is killed as the result of an accident while riding to hounds.
While Angela grieves, her older half-sister, the Marchesa di Mola (Gail Kane), takes the opportunity to look through their late father's papers and secretly burns one of them. No will can be found, so not only does the entire estate go to the Marchesa, but because the prince's second marriage was not registered with the civil authorities, it is not considered legally valid, making Angela "nobody". With that, Count del Ferice dissolves the marriage contract between Angela and his son.
The Marchesa orders Angela to leave the palace that very day, revealing that she has always hated her step-sister for "whining" her way into their father's affection and more recently for taking Giovanni, the only man she ever loved. Madame Bernard (Juliette La Violette), Angela's companion and chaperon, offers her a place in her home.
Giovanni finally finds her there, but has some bad news. He has been appointed to command an expedition of engineers being sent to Africa and must leave the next morning. However, he promises they will be married the day he returns.
Unfortunately, his camp is attacked by Arabs, and Italian newspapers announce that all have been massacred. When Angela hears the news, she becomes catatonic. She is taken to the Santa Giovanna d'Aza hospital, which is run by nuns. After several days, the painter Durand (Alfredo Bertone), himself hopelessly in love with Angela, creates a portrait of Giovanni and brings it to the hospital, hoping it will help. Angela at first mistakes it for Giovanni, kissing it several times, but then comes to her senses. After a while, she informs Monsignor Seracinesca (J. Barney Sherry), an old family friend that she intends to become a nun, a white sister, in honor of Giovanni.
However, Giovanni is still alive. For two years, he languishes as a captive until the death of his sole comrade gives him the chance to overpower their guard and escape. On the ship back to Italy, he is ordered not to speak to anyone until he has seen the Minister of War. That same day, Angela takes her final vows in a solemn ceremony, dedicating her life to the Catholic Church.
Giovanni's older brother, Professor Ugo Severi (Gustavo Serena), breaks down after years of research trying to harness the power of Mount Vesuvius and is taken to the Santa Giovanna d'Aza hospital. Giovanni is given permission to visit him, and by chance, meets Angela. After their initial shock, he embraces and tries to kiss her. She responds at first, but then remembers her circumstances and runs to her room. Monsignor Saracinesca restrains Giovanni from following, explaining that Angela is now married to the church.
Giovanni refuses to accept that. He lures Angela by false pretenses to his brother's observatory. He tries to get her to sign a petition to the Pope requesting to be released from her vows, but she refuses. When Giovanni sees that all his pleadings are useless, he allows her to leave.
The Marchesa tries to persuade Monsignor Saracinesca that Angela has gone willingly to be with her lover. He does not believe her, but sets out for the observatory anyway. Meanwhile, Giovanni notices that his brother's invention indicates that Vesuvius is about to erupt. He rides to warn the townsfolk, passing Saracinesca on the way.
The Marchesa's carriage is wrecked when her horses bolt, startled by lightning. Fatally injured, she crawls and stumbles to an empty church, her only thought to confess her sins before dying. By chance, Angela seeks shelter there. Not recognizing her, the Marchesa confesses she burned the will out of hatred and asks if her sister will forgive her. After a visible struggle with her emotions, Angela says she does, before her sister passes away.
Vesuvius erupts, sending lava down its slopes and breaking a water reservoir. However, Giovanni has been in time. Most of the townspeople are saved. Giovanni though drowns helping a mother and her children. Afterward, Angela asks God to keep him safe until they can be reunited. -Wikipedia (and it's accurate!)

My poor DVR had a meltdown over the length of this film so the last few moments were not to be seen. Personally, I was done about forty minutes in. It was lovely to see Lillian Gish in action for the first time and to see a very young and dapper looking Ronald Colman, but I felt the length of the film far exceeded the plot. However, that's not to say there were not some truly beautiful, touching, and suspenseful parts of this film.
When Angela awakens from her comatose state to find the large portrait of Giovanni staring at her, I could not help tearing up as she kissed and touched the portrait as if to bring him back to her. When Angela is marrying herself to the church while Giovanni is anxiously pacing the ship that will bring him back to her- the scene is cleverly drawn out going back and forth between the church ritual and Giovanni being told he could not speak to anyone before reporting to the war office. The scene is full of suspense- you want so badly for him to get there on time and then suddenly Angela is a nun and Giovanni is debarking the ship. When they finally reunite by accident it's touching to see Giovanni rail at the church and the Monsignor for taking his love away.
The painter, Durand has her dubbed as "The White Sister" because she is above all earthly love, untouchable- Gish aptly plays the part as she possessed a very ethereal beauty and I was impressed with how much emotion she could carry in her eyes alone. I have read elsewhere that Gish also possessed very expressive fingers and I would concur. Though this is the only silent film I have seen her in, it was refreshing to see that she could express so much more with her eyes and simple finger movement than any of the other actors (especially of that era) who depended upon big, sweeping gestures and flailing themselves across the screen to prove a point.


Side note:

Helen Hayes played in the 1933 version of The White Sister with Clark Gable and Lewis Stone. She also happened to be Lillian Gish's lifetime friend. Gish was the godmother of Hayes' son James MacArthur and Hayes was the beneficiary to Gish's estate.





Tonight on TCM!
Emma (1932) A housekeeper faces unexpected snobbery when she marries her boss.
Cast: Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy Dir: Clarence Brown