A Summer Place 1959
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Films of the 1950's
“As for you Troy Donahue, I know what you wanna do!”
If you are Familiar with the ‘Notebook this is a must see this is the godfather of period thwarted teenage love ,but when they made this when it was actually based in its time, the dawning of the golden age of Camelot in American which ended abruptly with bye bye birdy and the assignation of JFK in 1963..
After 2o years of absence Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan) comes back to Pine Island a Wealthy ,Exclusive Isolated community of the coast of Maine where he worked as a lifeguard as a teenager,Now A Millionaire he brings his family to the mansion belonging to the Hunters who’s servants quarters he used to sleep in . Now a Holiday House as the Hunters have lost their fortune Bart Hunter a chronic alcoholic ( Arthur Kennedy) is indignant at the prospect of having the former help Lord it over him, however when he arrives that is the very least of his troubles, and Old Flame between Ken and Barts Wife Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire) is rekindled and the Children of both Ken and Bart
Johnny (Troy Donahue) and Molly (Sandra Dee) fall madly in love, all Goes belly after Johnny and Molly spend the night washed overboard from a dingy alone on and island, when Molly’s Mother played Mercilessly by (Constance Ford) a morally bankrupt hypocrite , demands Molly have a Medical Examination by a doctor to see if her “Virginity” is in tact.After the examination Molly Runs away and Johnny threatens to kill Molly’s Mother because of whats shes made her daughter go through, its then revealed that Johnny’s Mother is Having an affair with Ken Molly’s dad.
The children are separated by the Lawyers the hatred for their family but Johnny and Molly Still Try to write to Each over despite that happens hoping upon hoping they will meet again someday.
This Film had Risque Dialogue and Subject matter for 1959 including infidelity, divorce and premarital sex , and you still feel for the who you consider to be the good people in this case the adulterous married lovers, and despise the morally superior and upper Middle Class for their greed and their selfishness .
The only things people will remember (if anything at all) about this film if the popular theme by Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind) and a little song from grease called ‘Look at me Im Sandra Dee” The Film may seem like a soap in all its 1959 CinemaScope glory , but it still has the desired affect,you do feel for Johnny and Molly and what terrible consequences brought the two together
and you hope against hope nothing will pull them asunder
Tags: Alcoholism, Based off Novel, Divorce, Forbidden Love, Infidelity, Lost Love, Love for Children, Love Triangle, Marriage, Max Steiner
Making Love 1982
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1980's
Before Brokeback mountain There was another Great Juggernaut of GLBT film that broke new ground for Gay Men In Cinema this was
‘Making Love made in 1982
Successful young L.A. doctor Zach (Michael Ontkean ‘Clara’s Heart) and his equally successful television-producer wife (Kate Jackson ”Larceny”) find their ’seemingly’ Perfect Marriage ripped open when Zach suddenly deals his long repressed Gay tendencies .Enter Bart (The Gorgeous Harry Hamlin’Clash of the Titans’), a regular mans man, man-whore drop dead gorgeous novelist,, who walks into Zach’s workplace one day and opens up a new window , and Zach falls in Love almost at first site .He cancels his dinner dat with his wife and share a couple of beers and tongue kisses with Bart. But the problem of the future arises nad while Zach wants to stay in Bert but burns seems to have a more world weary and distant about a commitment,
This may seem slighty soap operaish but even these days when this is shown on tv (Foxtel) its alwasy on at 2 oclock in the morning this was not made for tv this was the first major film to deal positively with love sex and relationships among men, it even had a disclaimer shown before it when it was first shown in the style of the psychedelic drug films of the 60’s,
and unlike today It almost totally the carers of those involved
which seems really sad , the performances are sound and it isn’t a melodrama like a Douglas Sirk film.
Like ‘Boys in the Band’ This should be seen for its Historic Value as a Major motion picture to show Gay man is normal People who live and Love, not as Stereotypes ,or swishy handbag holders and camp sexless comic relief,(like that guy in Mean Girls), its not an exploitation films. It Chronicles a real Live triangle and a relationship continues after love.
Tags: Divorce, Gay, Groundbreaking, Love Triangle, Of Gay Interest, Self Discovery
Mildred Pierce 1945
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1940's
Mink Clad Murder
Mommie Knows Best…..
In time middle of the night in a beach house on the upper side of town shots ring out, The Dead Man crys out……..Mildred!……and falls to the floor its seems an open and shut case,,,,but what really happened?
Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford Strange Cargo)a housewife spoils her daughters Especially the eldest while husband Bert looks over the fence for some afternoon delight while his buddy Wally Fay(Jack Carson’A Star is Born) trys to get is paddle in(In Vain) . They soon divorce, leaving Mildred to raise the girls on her own. Elder postwar class driven daughter (Biatch)Veda (Anne BlythThe Great Carouso) goads her mother about their lack of money and in response Mildred proposes opening a small restaurant. one thing leads to another,and she becomes incredibly successful and even love seems to be around the corner, but money soons starts to by love in the manner of clothes, education, and payoffs all of which leads to the beginning of the film in classic noir style .Also in the cast a wonderfull sardonic Eve Arden (Grease) is the wise cracking sidekick to joan crawford to give humor to this black film.
Its only that sort of mother loving that Joan Crawford can deliver…….
What Price a Mothers Love ?
Tags: Alcoholism, Based off Novel, Divorce, Gun, james m cain, Joan Crawford, Love for Children, Love Triangle, Marriage, Max Steiner, Mother Daughter Relationship, Murder, Noir, Rise and Fall, Self Made Woman, Self Sacrifice
Something’s Got to Give 1962
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1960's
'An Unfinished Life'
One of The Most Famous Unfinished films in Hollywood History Something’s Got to Give is the Last Marilyn Monroe appeared in.
A Remake of ‘My Favorite Wife’ it was directed by George Cukor and Starred Dean Martin Cyd Charisse its was one of only two films being shot by 20th Century Fox the other being Cleopatra (which was running massively Budget) The Story Involves a man who has recently remarried 5 years after his wife’s apparent death in a shipping accident, after returning from his honeymoon he soon learns his first wife(rescued from a desert island) is alive and well which creates one or more complications due to complications with Monroe Cukor, and the studio the production was halted shortly after Monroe would soon be dead.
Only a few years later it would be revived an renamed as Move Over Darling directed by Michael Gordon and would Star Doris Day, in the Marilyn role, and would give Day two New songs for her Future Live Shows.
Somethings Gotta Give was released on dvd in the most completed chronological form form in 1999 featuring Monroe’s famous nude scene (The first of a Major star at the time) its a glimpse of that might have been if completed,
Tags: Comedy, Divorce, George Cukor, Marilyn Monroe, Marriage, Presumed dead, screwball, Unfinished
The VIPS 1963
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1960's
Grand Hotel at the Airport boasts an allstar cast including Elizabeth Taylor Richard Burton (Whos afraid of Virginia Woolf) Rod Taylor (’The Time Machine’ Aussie Aussie Aussie!) Maggie Smith (Oh so Young) Orson Welles (Everything) Margaret Rutherford(Oscar thank you!) and Louis Jourdan (Gigi)
a bunch of varied High profile person are trapped at an airport with various things in their lives coming to a climax as a result including bankruptcy, Tax evasion , Lost of Property ,and Divorce/Elopement)
Love is found and lost but all is resolved,
Based on an actual event involving the time Vivian Leigh tried to do a runner on Laurence Olivier with Peter Finch perhaps around the same time Leigh was Slated to Film with Finch in 1954 in ” Elephant Walk” a film she started but to her erratic behavior due to her Bipolar Condition pulled out of. The Strange Irony about this of course is that Elizabeth Taylor Stepped in to Fill the Role.
Its melodrama without Douglas Sirk with many levels to follow, and Maggie Smith In one of Her first films roles after a Stage Career Almost Steals the Acting stripes from Taylor, but it holds your attention, watch it at least for Margaret Rutherford’s short lived Oscar Winning performance and the cute little scene she does with her real live husband , the film is a waiting room with more than just out of date magazines
Tags: Airport, Based off Play, Divorce, Elizabeth Taylor, Movie Star, Richard Burton, Taylor + Burton
The Women 1939
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1920's
Forget Meg Ryan and Eva Mendez this is the original and the BEST!,
To those of the Sex and the city generation who saw the remake and found it a crap copy , please see the original if ur eyes dont roll to the back of your head just because the films in black n white….plot was totally reworked sand thought
The Women follows the lives of a handful of wealthy Manhattan women, focusing in particular on Mary Haines (Norma Shearer), a cheerful, contented wife of Stephen and mother of Little Mary. After a bit of gossip flies around the salon these wealthy women visit, Mary’s friend and cousin Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell) learns from a manicurist that Mary’s husband has been having an affair with a predatory perfume counter girl named Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford). A notorious gossip, Sylvia delights in sharing the news with Mary’s other friends and they all show their true colours..
Tags: All Female Cast, Based off Play, Cowboy, Divorce, George Cukor, Joan Crawford, Marriage, New York, Perfume, ranch, Reno
The Misfits 1962
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1960's
Nothing can live unless something dies…
Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe ‘The Seven Year’) Itch is a very beautiful yet disturbed woman who has just got divorced. She meets to traveling stock workers , Guido(Eli Wallach , the only living cast member) and Gay(Clarke Gable ‘Gone with the Wind), who take her to Guido’s house in the country (the House where his wife had died)to relax and forget the difficulties of the past few weeks. Everything is fine at first, but soon the two men fall in love with Roslyn and start showing some bad aspects of their characters. Soon they meet another friend of Gay’s(Montgomery Clift , Interesting as Mr Gable was a big old Homophobe ), and the four of them go to hunt some wild horses (for Dog meat). This is when things just… explode! These guys are all misfits who cling to each over through their loneliness and their deep seeded troubles, although this is never spoken they are all chasing what seems to bt what remains the tail end of their life,
As Clarke Gable and Marilyn Drive off towards the morning star, knowing that in the real world they would both soon be dead within a matter on a month is quiet special and ironic to watch .
But its very special for Marilyn too as she honestly believed Gable to be her Birth Father, so it must have felt like a relief to hold his hand as they both drive off into what lies ahead.
Tags: Arthur Miller, Based off Novel, Death, Desert, Divorce, Marilyn Monroe, Melancholy, Reno
