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Post by topbilled on May 7, 2023 20:09:18 GMT
That was a really fun one - great choice Topbilled.
Thanks. I think Kay Francis did a great job, I don't see how Ruth Chatterton could've topped this performance.
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Post by topbilled on May 7, 2023 20:14:02 GMT
THE HOUSE ON 56TH STREET was very profitable for Warner Brothers.
The film made back three times what it cost the studio to produce it.
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Post by Fading Fast on May 7, 2023 20:14:36 GMT
That was a really fun one - great choice Topbilled.
Thanks. I think Kay Francis did a great job, I don't see how Ruth Chatterton could've topped this performance.
She did, one of Francis' best. As I'm sure you have, if you've ever seen screen test for the same role, it's amazing how different actors interpret a role. Chatterton would have done an impressive job in this role too, but it would have been different.
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Post by Andrea Doria on May 7, 2023 20:15:02 GMT
Wow! I was too enthralled to make comments. A very fast and fascinating movie, the mother taking the blame for the daughter's murder reminded me of Mildred Pierce.
Thanks a lot Topbilled!
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Post by Fading Fast on May 7, 2023 20:16:45 GMT
Wow! I was too enthralled to make comments. A very fast and fascinating movie, the mother taking the blame for the daughter's murder reminded me of Mildred Pierce.
Thanks a lot Topbilled! I agree. This one ripped along. It was hard to take it in for the first time and comment and read comments. I know I missed a bunch.
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Post by topbilled on May 7, 2023 20:20:06 GMT
Wow! I was too enthralled to make comments. A very fast and fascinating movie, the mother taking the blame for the daughter's murder reminded me of Mildred Pierce.
Thanks a lot Topbilled! You're welcome. I caught things this time that I had missed last time...like I didn't realize she was using cards in the dressing room scene at the beginning of the movie.
Also there's a quick shot of the house being boarded over after Monte has died, which I missed before.
Like you said, Andrea, it's a fast moving film...but filled with fascinating twists and turns...and excellent performances.
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Post by Andrea Doria on May 7, 2023 23:56:51 GMT
After we were talking about Margaret Lindsay the other day, I searched on YouTube and found her on something called, "Personal Maid's Secret." She plays a young housewife who hires a maid who had formerly worked for a high society family. The maid manages to push Margaret into doing everything the way the posh folk do, as the couple moves up with the "right" people. It was a bit boring, but it had Margaret in the lead for a change and I had plenty of time to admire her.
(We missed you Galacticgirrl and Ando!)
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Post by Fading Fast on May 8, 2023 4:47:02 GMT
After we were talking about Margaret Lindsay the other day, I searched on YouTube and found her on something called, "Personal Maid's Secret." She plays a young housewife who hires a maid who had formerly worked for a high society family. The maid manages to push Margaret into doing everything the way the posh folk do, as the couple moves up with the "right" people. It was a bit boring, but it had Margaret in the lead for a change and I had plenty of time to admire her.
(We missed you Galacticgirrl and Ando!) I've seen that one and you summed it up well: a bit boring here and there but a wonderful Margaret Lindsay fandom movie.
I believe I mentioned it earlier, but "The Law in Her Own Hands" is a pretty good B movie with Lindsay in a staring role.
A few more Lindsay movies where she has a pretty good sized role, but not necessarily the lead, are "The Dragon Murder Case," "The Case of the Curious Bride" (comments here: "The Case of the Curious Bride" , Lindsay's a bit flat in this one) and "Private Detective 62" (comments here: "Private Detective 62" , Lindsay and William Powell have a romance!).
Not that I was crushing on pretty Lindsay or anything.
And agreed, we miss Galacticgirrl and Ando.
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Post by Fading Fast on May 8, 2023 6:42:41 GMT
The House on 56th Street from 1933 with Kay Francis, Gene Raymond, Richard Cortez, Margaret Lindsay and John Halliday
The 1930s produced several uber-sacrificing-mother melodramas with The House on 56th Street being a lesser-known entry in the subgenre. It's a good one, though, especially if you enjoy plots full of symbolic coincidences and weepy moments.
Kay Francis, never looking younger, but still sporting helmet hair, plays an early 1900s music hall star with a wealthy, older society boyfriend, played by John Halliday. Then a younger wealthy society gentleman, played by Gene Raymond, comes courting.
Raymond offers marriage and position; whereas, with Halliday she's a kept woman. Halliday has no interest in matching Raymond's offer, so off with her young man to their new mansion on 56th Street goes Francis.
Life is good, a daughter is born and then a dying Halliday shows up regretting he let Francis go. In a forced-as-heck scene, Halliday attempts suicide, Francis tries to stop him, the gun fires, yada, yada, yada, off to jail for murder goes Francis.
While in prison and after Raymond is killed in WWI, Raymond's family whitewashes Francis out of her daughter's history by saying her mother died. One assumes Raymond's money was involved in helping Francis, though, as she practically has a suite at the prison.
Francis eventually is released from jail, looking the same except for some gray hair. With a little stake left to her by Raymond's mother, she starts a new phase of her life as a card sharp, yup! She teams up with a fellow sharp, played by Richard Cortez.
After the two have a successful run fleecing wealthy cruise ship passengers, Cortez makes a deal with the owner of a speakeasy to run the gambling concession, which turns out to be housed in Francis' old 56th Street mansion.
Francis, the chief dealer at the speakeasy, in what was once her happy home, has one more big surprise coming when her now-married society daughter, whom she has never revealed herself to so as not to embarrass her child, shows up at her table one night.
Pretty Margaret Lindsay, with her perfect diction and lovely rounded voice, plays the unaware daughter with a gambling addiction threatening her marriage. From here, the movie is a few more coincidences, another dead body and an only-in-pre-code-Hollywood resolution.
Raymond, Halliday and Cortez are all good as the men in Francis' life. Also, the sheer scope of the story and the number of coincidences that are chewed through in sixty-eight minutes are breathtaking.
The House on 56th Street is pure melodrama, but if you go with it, it's a fun romp. Francis, a 1930s Hollywood curio, does her best playing a woman whose life has a Candide arc. Plus, she gets to wear several elaborate outfits and to sacrifice like heck for her daughter.
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Post by topbilled on May 8, 2023 13:17:20 GMT
Good review Fading Fast.
I was going to wait to work on my notes for this particular film, but reading what you've said has inspired me to go ahead and write my review now.
I will post it in the Neglected Films section tomorrow.
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Post by Andrea Doria on May 8, 2023 13:19:33 GMT
Love reading those great reviews after the movie. They bring it all together and always point out some things I missed.
They kept up that, "same except for some gray hair," for decades. One of the funniest was in, "Giant," where Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor became grandparents with a tiny touch of gray and the jawlines of teenagers.
Thanks for the Margaret Lindsay pointers. I may go on a binge!
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Post by Fading Fast on May 8, 2023 13:39:04 GMT
Good review Fading Fast.
I was going to wait to work on my notes for this particular film, but reading what you've said has inspired me to go ahead and write my review now.
I will post it in the Neglected Films section tomorrow. Thank you. Insomnia gave me the time to write and edit it. So out of lemons...
I'm happy to move mine to the Neglected Film section if you would prefer it there - your call, I'm good either way.
I'm looking forward to your comments.
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Post by topbilled on May 8, 2023 13:42:13 GMT
Good review Fading Fast.
I was going to wait to work on my notes for this particular film, but reading what you've said has inspired me to go ahead and write my review now.
I will post it in the Neglected Films section tomorrow. Thank you. Insomnia gave me the time to write and edit it. So out of lemons...
I'm happy to move mine to the Neglected Film section if you would prefer it there - your call, I'm good either way.
I'm looking forward to your comments. It's good that you posted yours here...but you can post it both places.
I just finished revising mine and decided which photos to include with it. I will post mine in the WB thread in the Neglected films section tomorrow.
One thing I love about this movie is how she is sort of playing two women in one.
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Post by Fading Fast on May 8, 2023 13:42:28 GMT
Love reading those great reviews after the movie. They bring it all together and always point out some things I missed.They kept up that, "same except for some gray hair," for decades. One of the funniest was in, "Giant," where Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor became grandparents with a tiny touch of gray and the jawlines of teenagers.
Thanks for the Margaret Lindsay pointers. I may go on a binge! Thank you.
And yes, the "aging" in "Giant" is particularly egregious. Wouldn't it be nice to age that way. Now in my 50s, I've got the salt-and-pepper hair, but also the jawline of man in his fifties to go with it. If you do watch any of the Lindsay movies, a binge would be fun, please let us know your thoughts.
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Post by Fading Fast on May 8, 2023 13:45:14 GMT
Thank you. Insomnia gave me the time to write and edit it. So out of lemons...
I'm happy to move mine to the Neglected Film section if you would prefer it there - your call, I'm good either way.
I'm looking forward to your comments. It's good that you posted yours here...but you can post it both places.
I just finished revising mine and decided which photos to include with it. I will post mine in the WB thread in the Neglected films section tomorrow.
One thing I love about this movie is how she is sort of playing two women in one.
Very much so. I tried to imply that in my review when I put the exclamation point around her becoming a card sharp and noting her "Candide" like life. It was a heck of a journey.
There are not a ton of pics to choose from out there for this movie.
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