TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Collections

[HerrSchreck]

It's almost as if they needed to keep rotating the gangster ethnicities Eddie played.. Eyetalian, Greek, generic-- though apparently Eddie had played a Chinaman in East Meets West a couple yrs earlier (which preceded Little Caesar incidentally).

[BrianInAtlanta]

Love Is A Racket would be a good choice for a Lee Tracy boxset (I know, but I can dream, can't I?).

Before that, 'tho, I'd want the very necessary Warren William boxset. So many good ones (The Mind Reader, The Match King, Skycraper Souls and my favorite, Goodbye Again).

For anyone who feels out of the loop, here's some trailers:

The Hatchet Man - Love Is A Racket - Goodbye Again

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

If they do something for Warren William, they gotta include The Mouthpiece! Great programmer that fits nicely into Warner Bros. social injustice niche.

[HerrSchreck]

Hah! Ever since his name came up I've been meaning to post that very thing. I watched Strange Illusion today, by coincidence. William's oily character seemes more lovably lizardly with the addition of a few wrinkles and grey temples. I've always liked Warren William-- he's one of the few guys you can lay a ruler straight from the tip of his nose up to the widows peak of his hairline and nary a plotz of sunlight along the bottom edge. Fascinating.

[skweeker]

There's a Jean Harlow film that I've never seen about "her", I mean, a Hollywood star in the movies, with Powell may be. Is it good? is it pre-code? is it Bombshell? I'm not sured about the title.

Yes rohmerin it is 'Bombshell', but Powell is not in it. He was married to Harlow at the time though, that is, in "real life", as real as it got in Hollywood, anyhow.

[filmnoir1]

Nice to see so many accolades for the talent of Warren William being discussed here. I purchased all of his films from a collector through ioffer and they are extremely fascinating. It is clear that WB thought of him as leading man material in addition to his ability to function as the oily, smary, snarky, and efficient minister of capitalism, a' la his roles in Employees Entrance, The Mind Reader, Beauty and the Boss and Skyscraper of Souls. Here is hoping that WB will eventually give the man his due with a box set.

[royalton]

I have to second the acclaim for Warren William and specifically, Employees' Entrance. He was a delight in Gold Diggers and Skyscraper Souls, but he utterly stole the film, the theater, the block and parts of Soho tonight when Entrance screened at the Film Forum. How refreshing to see an antihero not subject to the typical Hays Code bottom line moralism.

[zone_resident]

Beaver on Volume 3

[HerrSchreck]

Another load of candy from WB. Woo-hah.

[Matt]

The commentary on Midnight Mary not terrible, but is still close to useless. Between capsule summaries of the background and filmography of every actor, no matter how small their part, you get stunning insights like "that's a great shot" and (referring to a scene using a rear projection background) "I wonder how they did that. Green screen you think?" Fortunately, a commentary can only be as long as its movie, and this movie is only 74 minutes long, yet they still manage to run out of things to say at several points.

The commentary on Wild Boys of the Road is much better, as it should be considering it's got the director's son and a man who wrote a biography of Wellman.

The Wellman installment of The Men Who Made the Movies is one of the best installments of a great series.

A clunky commentary aside, these Forbidden Hollywood sets keep getting better with each volume (remember the first only had a single trailer and a Robert Osborne intro). I hope they are selling well enough for Warner not to abandon them.

[HerrSchreck]

Especially since I heard the Universal set is not All That.

[Matt]

Especially since I heard the Universal set is not All That.

Films-wise or extras-wise? Because I'm completely unfamiliar with all of the films on the set and was hoping the set was worth a blind-buy.

[filmnoir1]

I finished watching the films in this box set which I had never seen before: Other Men's Women and Midnight Mary today. Both are good examples of the types of early 1930s films but the film Other Men's Women stands out as an exciting early performance by Cagney as well as displaying the brilliant way Wellman used the drama of rain in conjunction with shadows and arc lights to create moments of intense empathy and sheer poetry. Wellman does not get the credit he deserves, but he was clearly one of the true poets of cinema then and perhaps even today.
The extras, especially the early Merrie Melodies illustrate how WB was attempting to mirror the style, tone, and approach of Walt Disney to making animated shorts. Together with the films and all the other material this set is clearly one of the best released in 2009.

[HerrSchreck]

Especially since I heard the Universal set is not All That.

Films-wise or extras-wise? Because I'm completely unfamiliar with all of the films on the set and was hoping the set was worth a blind-buy.

Fillmswise. I'm going by another person's opinion, but since he's someone I have quite a bit of respect for and whose tastes (and love for precode films) intersect with my own, I repeated his take on this stuff. He says it just desn't have the impact and edge that the WB precodes have.

For what its worth.

[myrnaloyisdope]

Re-watched Heroes For Sale the other night, and my goodness it look fantastic, like it hasn't aged one bit.

I tried watching the documentary, but I got about 30 minutes in and lost interest, the narration is impossibly sappy, glosses over big chunks of his career (no mention of Beggars of Life for instance), and the only interesting parts were friends and colleagues reminiscing, but unfortunately their isn't enough of that. I'll give it another go when the mood strikes me.