Every once in a while, I have a bunch of disorganized, random stuff to tell you guys. (As opposed to every day when I have slightly organized random stuff to tell you guys about movies that I've watched.) I call it Show and Tell.I'm on Ask Mick LaSalle. Again.
OK, so I admit I was annoyed that the last time I was on Ask Mick LaSalle they edited out the part where I said the name of my blog. So I devised a question that I knew he'd want to answer (though I did genuinely also want to know what he had to say) and deliberately phrased my question so that they couldn't easily edit my plug out. So if you want to hear me shamelessly self-promoting myself, go here.
I don't know why but I sound like I'm tranquilizers. I think I was trying to talk slowly or deliberately and it just sounds like I'm on meds. Oh well!
Amazing flash movie tributes are...amazing
While searching around for hard to find DVDs online the other day, I stumbled onto Raven Maven's site. Maven has some DVDs for sale, and enticingly, some wonderful flash video tributes on Robert Donat and Alfred Hitchcock among others at her site. I have gotten used to the fairly pedestrian quality of these things on Youtube, so I'm blown away by one that is done by someone who really knows how to use graphics and animation effectively.
Old time radio and other audio treasures
You know you are obsessed with an actor when you start seeking out their radio performances. I've heard so many Cary Grant Lux Theater episodes that I'm probably going to have to buy some Lux toilet soap which everyone knows is the secret that keeps all the stars looking so young and beautiful. One of the things I love about the radio performances is that frequently movies were adapted to the format and the casting changed. This makes for interesting listening. Cary Grant playing opposite Irene Dunne in Theodora Goes Wild; Herbert Mashall reading the Gary Cooper part in Desire; Good-bye Mr. Chips, starring Laurence Olivier; and Brian Aherne and Bette Davis doing Jane Eyre.
Some actors went outside merely reinterpreting roles they'd played on screen. Warren William helped develop and star in the radio program Strange Wills and went so far to create his own radio production company Warren William Inc. Other actors made a few extra bucks by recording great literature for use on the radio, in a sort of pre-cursor to books on tape. Among these, Robert Donat reading Ode to a Nightingale stands out.
While not exactly radio, I also have a fond affection for sound galleries. Before you could just upload video willy nilly onto the internet, one of the best ways of getting some multi-media content online was to record snatches of dialog and put it in .wav files. (This was pre-MP3s, people). I spent many happy hours recording bits of my favorite Cary Grant dialog for the Shrine. Occasionally I run across an old-school site that still has sound clips in this way. I recently found this one that has the best bit s of Alan Rickman dialog ("The air is full of spices!") with everything from the ubiquitous Harry potter movies to the obscure Barchester Chronicles.
Gallery and Playlist Updates
The Herbert Marshall Gallery is twice as big as when I first posted it. Also my Herbert Marshall playlist on Youtube is off the chain! Or as off the chain as anything about Herbert Marshall can really get, anyway with 29 videos, many of which are links to entire films. My other playlists include Robert Donat, Warren William, Michael Redgrave, Rosano Brazzi, Franchot Tone, Brian Aherne and Ernst Lubitsch.
6 comments:
Wow. Thanks for the link to Cary and Irene in Theadora goes wild! It's one of my favorite movies, and I can't wait to listen.
I haven't quite ventured into looking for Ginger Rogers radio shows, but I foresee it in my near future.
By chance, one of the things my great-grandmother left me is a 33 RPM record of the original radio broadcast of "It Happened One Night", with Clark and Claudette. I can't wait to listen to that one too.
I didn't realize they made records out of the radio broadcasts, but that makes sense. That's really neat.
I love Cary in the radio version of Theodora Goes Wild. I wish he'd been in the film too. He and irene were so wonderful together.
You bring up Herbert Marshall. I watched him recently in "If You Could Only Cook" with Jean Arthur. I thought both performances, Marshall and Arthur, were really good but there was an utter lack of chemistry. Still worth watching though. Gosh, what a voice Mr. Marshall had!
BTW, I just heard you on Ask Mick. I didn't think you sounded weird and good question. Also, good job on getting your plug in :-)
[Puts fingers in her ears] la la la. Taped If You Could Only Cook, haven't watched it yet. La!
Thanks, April! I wish I had the technical savvy to do my own podcast. This typing thing is getting really old!
Jenny - I hope I didn't ruin "If You Could Only Cook". The truly exciting part was when the wicked witch sent the flying monkeys out to catch them. I thought it was supposed to be a romantic comedy?
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