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A favorite fun movie, one of Myrna Loy’s most enjoyable performances, is on tonight, Monday: The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer pairs her with Cary Grant, and gives her Shirley Temple as a titular kid sister.

Also, Penn and Teller are guest programming this evening. Among their choices is Orson Welles’s bizarre masterpiece, F for Fake. Seriously, don’t miss this hoaxy documentary about hoaxes.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, is another installment in the Race and Hollywood series.

Wednesday, 9.30am Central, is the pre-code original version of When Ladies Meet, supposed to be something of a classic. I’ve only seen the blandish remake with Joan Crawford, Robert (“I’m Acting as Bad as I Can”) Taylor, Greer Garson, and the wonderful Spring Byington, so I’m extreeemly interested to see this pre-code version. Molly Haskell devoted quite a bit of text to it in From Reverence to Rape, which is one of the best books about movies ever written by anyone anywhere.

And then beginning Wednesday there will be 24 hours devoted to the great Bette Davis, including one of her greatest performances–in Little Foxes–and one of my favorites, the behind-the-scenes bitchfest of Old Acquaintance. Bette and Miriam Hopkins hated each other–Bette slept with Miriam’s husband, and got an Oscar for Jezebel, a role Hopkins had originated on stage and had expected to do on screen. So as two “bestest friends” with repressed animosity and jealousy, the chemistry was absolutely perfect. Too polished to be campy, but the catty sparks make it a camp classic nonetheless.

The Bette Davis marathon will be followed by another installment in the Race in Hollywood series, bringing us into the 60s and 70s with the great In the Heat of the Night and, of course, *Shaft *and Superfly. I just love TCM.

Friday evening, before the 5-day Memorial Day Weekend War Movie Marathon, there will be four John Ford movies in a row, including the breathtakingly beautiful Eugene O’Neill adaptation–O’Neill’s personal favorite of all the adaptions of his work–the rarely seen The Long Voyage Home. John Ford at sea, in his post-Sunrise/Murnau period. With cinematography by Gregg Toland, who was hired by Orson Welles to shoot Citizen Kane based on his work with Ford. (Orson Welles, on his favorite directors: “I prefer the old masters: John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.”)

An eclectic mix of Ford titles this friday: after The Long Voyage Home, we get Rio Grande, the final chapter in Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy. Then we get The Quiet Man, and finally Donovan’s Reef.

There are some great movies being shown this weekend, movies that just happen to be war movies, as part of the Memorial Day marathon:

Sands of Iwo Jima
Sgt. York
A Farewell to Arms
The Red Badge of Courage
From Here to Eternity
They Were Expendable (one of John Ford’s greatest portraits of glory in defeat)
Objective Burma
Hearts of the World (DWGriffiths and the Gish sisters)
Cry Havoc (a surprisingly brutal story of WWII nurses, made during the war)
Bridge on the River Kwai

–all in time for, on Tuesday May 30, an all day Howard Hawks marathon followed by another installment in the Race in Hollywood series. Sheesh. Why does anybody ever watch any other channel?

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So this thread is not about Lost then?

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I’m watching The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer right now and it’s hilarious. Didn’t they have a habit of pairing Grant up with much younger leading ladies? Did this movie poke fun at that convention or was the younger leading ladies something that came later in his career?

Marc

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It’s always been standard practice in Hollywood to let the men age gracefully but keep trading in their female costars for younger models. Cary Grant was not unique in that way, by any stretch. Still, I think you’re right; I think Bachelor/Bobbysoxer consciously trades on that cliche. Note that while he’s pursued by a teenager, his real match is a mature lady judge. And no one is more surprised than he is.

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Davis and Hopkins did two movies together? I’m watching The Old Maid now, and Osborne talked about their personal issues. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t know from watching this movie.

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IIRC, he was very concerned about it when making Charade with Audrey Hepburn, and insisted that it should be her persuing him, rather than the other way around. He didn’t want to look like a cradle-robber.
(That’s my favorite Hepburn movie, incidentally).

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One of the few to realize how ridiculous it could look was Jimmy Stewart, whose last romantic lead was in Bell Book and Candle at age 50 across from Kim Novak (age 25) for whom he threw over Janice Rule (age 27).

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I saw the first half hour or so and in quick succession lost the thread, the point, and all interest. Either this was an early (and very pretentious and mannered) exercise in metacontent, or else Welles’ calling it a documentary was the biggest fake of the evening.

I’m tempted to agree with Kibo when he wrote recently, “My current theory is that the original title was F For Fuck You
Audience, Gimme My Money And Color Me Gone!”

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It’s kind of a study in pretension; you have to let Welles dictate the terms or you don’t stand to get much out of it. If you let it be what it is, instead of what you’d normally expect a “documentary” to be, it’s a pretty amazing little piece of work. It’s maybe his most unconventional work, and all rules/bets are off.

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Hmm. The entire reference to the movie from the piece you quote is–

And from the same “piece”–

Insightful commentary. Not a review or analysis of the movie, but a throwaway line in an entirely unrelated discussion. But whatever. All opinions are equal.

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lissener: James “Kibo” Parry is a comedian. He’s better known on Usenet than the Web, and I’m surprised to see him referenced on the SDMB. As you so ably prove, his sense of humor isn’t for everyone.

Your words, not mine.

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Penn [del]and Teller[/del] had some interesting things to say about the movies they chose, especially F for Fake and Freaks. And the regrettable inclusion of The Sunshine Boys at least led to some interesting insights on the nature of showbiz partners.

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His second pairing with Novak, although at least Hitchcock lent their pairing an appropriate surrealism.

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The Old Maid and Old Acquaintance make me wish Davis and Hopkins had done more movies. They may have hated each other’s guts, but they worked so well together.

My favorite part of Old Acquaintance is when Bette’s ever-patient Kit gets sick and tired of Miriam’s character’s self-centered blatherings and gives her a good shaking.