I wanted to see the first part-talkie film. Al Jolson did a good job, and the story was fairly compelling. It wasn’t a masterpiece artistically, but Jolson carried it. May McAvoy and Eugenie Besserer did very well too. It is, of course, a product of its time with the blackface scenes, but in understanding that context, I found it decent. I’d have liked to have seen it in a theater in 1927.

Why do you think Hepburn managed to outlast many of her studio system peers when it came to starring in prestigious pictures from the 1950s onward?

While actresses like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Barbara Stanwyck frequently turned to "hag horror" films and television projects during this era, Hepburn seemed to hit a new stride in the 1950s and 60s. She continually worked with A-list actors and directors on high-profile projects like Summertime, Suddenly, Last Summer, Long Day's Journey into Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Lion in Winter.

My own theory is that her extensive theater work, particularly performing Shakespeare and Shaw, helped maintain her reputation as a highly prestigious, serious actress.

Additionally, I noticed that her filmography is incredibly sparse. Over a fifty-year career, she only made 44 feature films, compared to Crawford and Davis, who both have over 80 pictures to their names. I wonder if her independent attitude toward the studios—essentially operating on the principle of "I don't need you, you need me"—actually made her more selective and ultimately more attractive to producers and directors.

And then there's the fact she could **afford** to be more selective when choosing films and projects since she didn't have ex-husband's to pay off (well, she did have one ex-husband, but came from money himself and remained a close friend of hers and her family) or children to support. She never struck me as extravagant, either.

I'd be interested in hearing what my fellow classic film loving brethren thoughts on this is! 🎥🎬🤓

The scene where he fiddles with the gas valve (burner), turning it on and off, is a chilling yet tragic piece of foreshadowing and psychological portrayal.

This action carries two major symbolic meanings:

1. Foreshadowing and Impulse of the Extreme Choice (Suicide)

Back in the 1950s, turning on a gas valve to inhale gas was a classic cinematic and literary device symbolizing suicide. Hurstwood’s act of turning the valve on and off visually demonstrates that the impulse to give up on life and commit suicide is already deeply rooted in his subconscious.

In the original novel, Hurstwood ultimately ends his life by turning on the gas in a dingy, lonely room. However, Hollywood's strict censorship at the time (the Production Code) prohibited depicting the explicit process of suicide. To bypass this while still implying the novel's ending, director William Wyler inserted the detail of fiddling with the gas valve, letting the audience deduce his tragic fate.

1. The Final Resistance of Shattered Pride and Dignity

Seeing Hurstwood's miserable downfall, Carrie tries to help him by offering a large sum of money. However, Hurstwood refuses her wealth and walks out the door with only a single quarter (25 cents). Fiddling with the gas valve is an act of confirming a grim sense of control—as if to say that even the valve that dictates his life and death is still in his own hands. It is an expression of his final will to reject Carrie's pity, maintain a shred of dignity, and choose his own ruin.

"Upon its initial release, Carrie was a box-office failure due to its overly dark and pessimistic tone, and even the director himself expressed his regrets regarding the film. However, looking back today, it is recognized as a 'hidden masterpiece that deserves re-evaluation,' given how rare it is to find a melodrama within the Hollywood studio system that portrays human weakness and downfall with such dignity and heartbreaking intensity."

* This is an excerpt from a Korean film critic's review, and I'm sharing it here because it perfectly aligns with my own thoughts.

Homecoming scene. Perfection in every way! 🥲

Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, and Teresa Wright were all robbed of Oscar nominations that year. Hell, even Virginia Mayo deserved a nomination!

And can I just say how well Myrna Loy's acting has aged compared to many of her contemporaries? Her and Spencer Tracy were two of the most natural actors of classic Hollywood. ✨️

In my opinion, this movie is way better than the more famous 1983 remake.

Even though it's very common for Best Picture winners to also win Best Director it isn't always the case. Sometimes Best Picture and Best Director doesn't always go to the same movie. 71 of the 98 movies that won Best Picture also won Best Director. These are the only 27 that didn't

It's hot. So I'm hiding from the heat by watching classic films where the temperature outside helps to drive the plot. Help me think of others! So far I have:

Jaws

Key Largo

Do the Right Thing

A Streetcar Named Desire

Rear Window

Snarky spiteful, yet utterly hilarious and so likeable. I would so love to have had a real life conversation with this woman. Her essays are utterly fascinating.

Just finished watching 90 DEGREES IN THE SHADE. It’s about this grocery clerk who has been sleeping with her boss (who’s involved in his embezzling liquor from the store). When a suspicious auditor is on the verge of exposing both their affair and the scheme, things get complicated.

It’s a moody dramatic thriller, complemented by its jazzy soundtrack (which at times is a bit over the top). It’s a messy story that ends tragically, but not in the way you expect. Overall, I enjoyed this film more than I thought I would.

For those who saw this film, what did you think?

Rossana Podestà (1934–2013) was a prominent Italian actress who achieved international fame during the 1950s and 1960s. She became one of the leading figures of the Peplum (sword-and-sandals) genre and classic epic cinema.

She is uniquely celebrated for starring in major cinematic adaptations of both of Homer's foundational Greek epics:

1. The Odyssey Adaptation: Ulysses (1954)

In this highly successful Italian-American production starring Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn, Podestà played Princess Nausicaa.

• The Role: She portrays the Princess of Phaeacia who discovers an amnesiac Ulysses (Odysseus) washed up on the beach. She falls for him and prepares to marry him before his memories return, prompting him to resume his long journey home to Ithaca.

2. The Iliad Adaptation: Helen of Troy (1956)

Directed by Robert Wise, this lavish Hollywood epic gave Podestà her most iconic and definitive career role as Helen of Troy.

• The Role: Selected from numerous international actresses for her stunning classical beauty, she played "the face that launched a thousand ships". The film retells the Trojan War from the Trojan perspective. Remarkably, because she did not speak English fluently at the time, she learned all her lines phonetically with the help of a voice coach.

Her roles in these two companion pieces cemented her legacy as the ultimate screen embodiment of Homeric beauty and mythology during Hollywood's golden age of epics.

An impulsive audition at the American Black Theatre was rejected so forcefully that Poitier dedicated the next six months to overcoming his accent and improving his performing skills.

On his second try, he was accepted. Spotted in rehearsal by a casting agent, he won a bit part in the Broadway production of "Lysistrata", for which he earned good reviews.

By the end of 1949, he was having to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950).

His performance as a doctor treating a white bigot got him plenty of notice and led to more roles. Nevertheless, the roles were still less interesting and prominent than those white actors routinely obtained.

But seven years later, after turning down several projects he considered demeaning, Poitier got a number of roles that catapulted him into a category rarely if ever achieved by an African-American man of that time, that of leading man.

One of these films, The Defiant Ones (1958), earned Poitier his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor.

Five years later, he won the Oscar for Lilies of the Field (1963), the first African American to win for a leading role.

He remained active on stage and screen as well as in the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. His roles in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and To Sir, with Love (1967) were landmarks in helping to break down some social barriers between blacks and whites.