VCR Alert
-
- Graduate
- Posts: 142
- Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:24 pm
- Location: New York, NY
- Sonic Youth
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8008
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 8:35 pm
- Location: USA
How funny! The same day I caught this on tv (and it's the second time I've seen the film on TCM, so how rare can it be?) I had also watched Pickup on South Street earlier. Man, what a great political thriller that is. You don't even realize a political thriller is what it is until it finally asserts itself as one, sneakily. In any event, I inadvertantly had a Thelma Ritter double feature that evening, and I realized just how ingratiating she is. When I keep watching a movie as dull and formulaic as The Mating Season just to get to the next Thelma Ritter scene, I know she's got something. Had Gloria Grahame allowed us to watch her grow old in the movies, I'd like to imagine she'd become Thelma Ritter.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
Thanks for that, flipp. On Tuesday, Feb 20, is I Want You (1951), a Mark Robson film I've long wanted to see, about the effects of the Korean War on small American town, starring Dana Andrews, Dorothy McGuire and Farley Granger.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
-
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19377
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
I watched and recorded The Mating Season last night. I had an old copy taken from a long ago TV showing that was pretty bad. Thank God for digital!
Flipp, the reason you can't find it in video stores is it was never released on video in any format. Universal, which owns the rights to Mitchell Leisen's films, apparently doesn't think very much of him.
Death Takes a Holiday was released as an "extra" on the crappy Meet Joe Black remake, Remember the Night was available on VHS some time ago and To Each His Own was in limited release at the end of the VHS era and Arise, My Love and Hold Back the Dawn were never released.
Alibi, The Bachelor Party and One Night of Love were all once available on VHS, and Merrily We Live was recently shown on TCM.
Flipp, the reason you can't find it in video stores is it was never released on video in any format. Universal, which owns the rights to Mitchell Leisen's films, apparently doesn't think very much of him.
Death Takes a Holiday was released as an "extra" on the crappy Meet Joe Black remake, Remember the Night was available on VHS some time ago and To Each His Own was in limited release at the end of the VHS era and Arise, My Love and Hold Back the Dawn were never released.
Alibi, The Bachelor Party and One Night of Love were all once available on VHS, and Merrily We Live was recently shown on TCM.
-
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8675
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
Delighted to hear about Bachelor Party. I saw it in the 70s, and have always wondered if I'd get another chance at it. (Every once in a while I'll see the title in a TV guide and get excited -- only to see it's that Tom Hanks dreck)
Alibi is a creaker, mainly notable for a rather baroque set design. One Night of Love is one you need to plow through for Oscar completeness' sake.
The Mating Season is indeed one of Ritter's stronger nominations (some of them -- With a Song in My Heart and Birdman -- are harder to justify), but it's also pretty much category fraud: she's as much a lead as Tierney in the film.
Is it fairly widely held that Pickup on South Street is the one for which she should have won?
Alibi is a creaker, mainly notable for a rather baroque set design. One Night of Love is one you need to plow through for Oscar completeness' sake.
The Mating Season is indeed one of Ritter's stronger nominations (some of them -- With a Song in My Heart and Birdman -- are harder to justify), but it's also pretty much category fraud: she's as much a lead as Tierney in the film.
Is it fairly widely held that Pickup on South Street is the one for which she should have won?
-
- Emeritus
- Posts: 3650
- Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 3:57 pm
- Location: Illinois
Hurry up and tune into Turner Classic Movies (TCM) 31 Days of Oscar tonight at 9:30 (in five minutes!) to catch 1951's The Mating Season to see the second of Thelma Ritter's six supporting actress nominations. It's a film that's rarely shown on television and is difficult to track down in video stores. Ritter unfortunately never won despite, at one point, being nominated four years in a row! Can you imagine the public outcry if that happened today? Off the top of my head, the closest actress I can think of who was nominated three times in a row in the same category without winning was Glenn Close (Best Supporting Actress '83, '84, '85) although I'm sure there are others.
Edited By flipp525 on 1170303866
Edited By flipp525 on 1170303866
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
I'm so angry that I missed this as it's one of those hard-to-locate and rarely-shown on television Best Actress contenders. Has anyone seen this in the fall/winter TCM schedule?
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell