Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

This forum is nearly identical to the previous forum. The difference? Discussions about comedy from the SOUND era.
Richard M Roberts
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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Richard M Roberts » Wed Oct 09, 2013 1:13 am

Johnson, You ain't seen enough Noah Beery, he was one of the great scene stealing villains of all time, whether he was winking at the audience as in ISLE OF LOST SHIPS (1929), or playing it deadly like he does in the silent BEAU GESTE. Then he could turn around and be heartbreaking in a sympathetic role like he is in the underrated LINDA (1929) with Warner Baxter and Helen Foster. I think my favorite role of Beery's is Laughing Red Slavens in CORNERED, a 1932 Tim McCoy Columbia western where he'S completely b.f. psycho and has this great showdown scene with McCoy. He's one of those guys who shows up to act and it's every man for himself when the cameras roll. I find him way more fascinating than Wallace, though both Beery Brothers were no slouchs in scene stealing, but Noah was way better liked in the Hollywood Community.

Maybe Frank McHugh just got tired of doing that damn laugh for over a decade. He and Allan Jenkins were part of Cagney and O'Brien's irish Mafia and only you think GOING MY WAY was a millstone, to McHugh and et all it was one of the biggest hits of the 1940's, topped only by THE BELLS OF ST MARY'S, and if his later work doesn't jibe with your commie-pinko values today Johnson, I doubt he'd lose sleep over it. There is some good television work in the 50's and 60's, and was just one of those familiar faces viewers remembered and were glad to see. He'd done enough great work to justify everyone remembering him now, more than anyone wanting to be critical around here. He wasn't underused or undervalued, he was damn busy.

Come to think of it, Bing Crosby got pretty sleepy-eyed after GOING MY WAY too, boy, that sure hurt his career and pocketbook.

See, after a couple of World Wars, Prohibition, and a Depression, folks in America kinda wanted to relax, and film and television of the late 40's and 50's kinda reflects that attitude. If it doesn't appeal to the tragically hip wannabe's and looks uncool these days, too damn bad. Funny, the older I get, the more I like entertainment without edge. By the time we got to the 60's and got the edge back, a lot of the talent and craft was gone. Now we just got edge........



RICHARD M ROBERTS

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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Richard M Roberts » Wed Oct 09, 2013 9:11 am

Joe Migliore wrote:Jim Roots wrote:
Were blows exchanged on that occasion?


The shrill faction of Nitrateville aren't afraid of getting punched; they're afraid of a contrary opinion, particularly if it's coming from someone who has put in the hours and done the heavy lifting. While I find that attitude baffling, (isn't that precisely the opinion that means something?), it's apparently terrifying to people who've decided there's nothing left to learn. People tend to prefer simplicity over complexity, and too many people will take bad data over no data every time.




Well Joe, it's the old adage, "if you let people think they're thinking, they love you, if you actually make them think, they'll kill you."

Let’s face it, there's a lot of sickness out there in our society now, and the Internet is where it really manifests. Movies and Television are just another drug of choice, designed to take people out of themselves and escape their lives, so if they come on to a newsgroup to talk about movies, do they really want to learn, or do they just want a place where they can dream their little dreams about dead movie stars and bitch about how whatever latest DVD release fails to exactly satisfy whatever screaming voice in their head they need to satisfy? When they have to hide behind monikers to even go public to talk about movies, what does that say about their own conceptions of reality or the fears they have of being found out? In a private correspondence I had with one of the Nitratevile Nameless Ones, the NNO admitted to me that he/she/it actually enjoyed being different people on different newsgroups, on one group the NNO was an African-American Male Adult, on another group they became a middle-aged educated white woman, so forth. I never had any idea who they actually were, except perhaps someone with serious issues about being themselves at the least, or potentially schizophrenic at the worst.

And they all seem to want to build their own little protective cocoons, where no thought that might disagree with what they’ve convinced themselves is right can ever penetrate. They left alt.movies.silent because they wanted a hallroom monitor to stop any spirited debate, now they flee moderated newsgroups for Facebook, where they can “unfriend” anyone who might disagree with them. Their little virtual worlds get narrower and narrower and if something contrary does get by their filters, it shakes their fragile universes like a comet hitting the Earth.

And it’s all just words fer’ cryin out loud! It truly amazes me how worked up some of these folk do get by honest language and some fun jostling. Is Jim Roots sitting behind his computer monitor shaking in his boots thinking Gary Johnson and I are taking brickbats to each other, especially as there are no smiley faces to indicate otherwise? Apparently so, as he seems to be convinced that I am a horrible out of control monster of sarcastic terror whom one couldn’t spend a pleasant hour face to face with and is happy to spread that rumor, even in “jest”, when the only actual personal contact between us was, by his own admission, an act of incredible generosity on my part. Whatever, that’s his problem.




Another thing that should be obvious, is that those of us who fixate on the comedies of the silent era probably have a healthy sense of humor in the first place.



Well, we hope so, but there are the Jim Neibaurs of the World don’t forget, which is why he makes a perfect Nitratevile “comedy expert”.


There are people on the other site who seem literally to have no sense of humor, and no metric for weighing the value of a statement made in jest.

I guess what I'm trying to say is "Slapsticon Rules!" It is our Woodstock.



I hope not, Woodstock only happened once.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Louie Despres » Wed Oct 09, 2013 11:34 am

Richard M Roberts wrote:
Let’s face it, there's a lot of sickness out there in our society now, and the Internet is where it really manifests.

RICHARD M ROBERTS


I should say so. I have been into scraps with a person who goes by the name of "Spiny Norman" over on the Nitrateville and I see he has taken another jab at me this morning all because I dare state I am not a fan of films from the 50's & 60's. I am also 99.9% sure that person is the one who sent me an anonymous and nasty email (through my photography website). I'm sure if Calvert or Gebert made people sign in with their real names, a lot of the trolls would disappear.

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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Gary Johnson » Wed Oct 09, 2013 12:21 pm

How did it get out that I am a card-carrying Red? That's suppose to be on the QT.
Are you trying to get HUAC after me?

I had a few more observations of Noah Beery that I was going to share but I've lost my train of thought after taking one too many brickbats off of my skull.

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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Jim Roots » Wed Oct 09, 2013 3:11 pm

Richard, you're the guy who declared we don't need smiley faces on this site because we can all figure out when our legs are being pulled. Yet you apparently believe I was dead serious in asking if you and Gary brawled.

I guess subtle wit is over the head of anybody who reveres Ham and Bud.

(Insert smiley face here.)

Jim
When you're surrounded by vultures, playing dead is not a good strategy.

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Richard M Roberts » Wed Oct 09, 2013 3:27 pm

Jim Roots wrote:Richard, you're the guy who declared we don't need smiley faces on this site because we can all figure out when our legs are being pulled. Yet you apparently believe I was dead serious in asking if you and Gary brawled.

I guess subtle wit is over the head of anybody who reveres Ham and Bud.

(Insert smiley face here.)

Jim


No, I said you said it in "jest" indicating that though meant to be funny, it wasn't particularly.

(not telling you where you can insert the smiley face)


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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Agnes McFadden » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:39 pm

Richard M Roberts wrote:
So many bonehead film buffs who don’t know better have this idea of “stardom” that only existed in the minds of those who read tinseltown screen mags and think everyone lived in Beverly Hills mansions until their careers “nosedived”, then they became drunken derelicts on skid row. The average lifespan of a “star” career is seven years, (basically a generation), then they either kept working as character actors or bit players or they got into another line of work. The number of actual tragic cases in Hollywood is probably no more than in any other Industry, and a lot of those would have been tragic whatever profession they chose. Even Joan Blondell had a good ten year run as a star, unfortunately most of it as a Warners slave, but she then segued into character parts and stage work and again, worked steadily until the day she died. Her financial ups and downturns appear to have been caused more by marital mistakes, but she survived, and she was the only actual “star” you mentioned. The rest you mentioned were always just working actors, none of them ever came close to starving, and all of them had long careers as working actors that lasted multiple decades, which put them ahead of the other 99.5 percent of the acting profession.



RICHARD M ROBERTS



How can a discussion of Joan Blondell's long career not cover her later years?
I loved her in the 60s on TV in "Here Come The Brides". Wasn't she Lottie the tavern owner and de facto chaperone of the "brides"?
She was a wonderful, strong character on a popular show. She was widely seen ( on the weekly TV show).
Certainly no "nosedive" there.
Agnes McFadden

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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Richard M Roberts » Fri Oct 11, 2013 9:40 am

Agnes McFadden wrote:
How can a discussion of Joan Blondell's long career not cover her later years?
I loved her in the 60s on TV in "Here Come The Brides". Wasn't she Lottie the tavern owner and de facto chaperone of the "brides"?
She was a wonderful, strong character on a popular show. She was widely seen ( on the weekly TV show).
Certainly no "nosedive" there.



Absolutely, one of the reasons 50’s and 60’s Television is pretty darn good is the mix of Hollywood Old Pros, Radio Old Pros, and the last decent generation of up and comings all working together. Why do you think PERRY MASON is still popular? Because you have a great ensemble cast made up of Old Radio and Movie pros, and every week you get the likes of Grant Withers, Fay Wray, Tom Conway, Bruce Bennett, Johnny Mack Brown, John Hoyt, El Brendel, Les Tremayne, William Shatner, Robert Redford, Werner Klemperer, Stu Erwin, etc.etc.etc.etc.etc. bumping off each other or being accused of bumping each other off. And the show’s produced by Gail Patrick!

You had directors working in Television like Mitchell Leisen, John Brahm, Sidney Lanfield, William Beaudine, Norman Z. McLeod, William A. Seiter, Ida Lupino, Paul Heinreid, George Waggoner, many more. You had a lot of folk who were once top stars and behind the scenes talent still grinding out a heck of a lot of quality work for the small screen and the only reason it may be undervalued today is because a lot of it is not seen or the Cineastes turn their noses up at it. Their loss, they miss a lot, and a good deal of it is exceptional work. You see actors like Boris Karloff stretch his talents playing classical dramatic parts or comedy rather than the lame horror films he was being offered in the 50’s (you can even see him do ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, something films never allowed him to do). You can’t just deny decades of an actors work because you might have some cockeyed idea that their “undervalued” (well, you can, but don’t expect us to take you seriously when you do).


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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Gary Johnson » Fri Oct 11, 2013 3:14 pm

Didn't Capra approach Karloff to appear in the screen version of ARSENIC & OLD LACE? I think he had some committments he couldn't get out of.

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Re: Nitrateville Correction Dept: Noah Beery Sr.

Postby Richard M Roberts » Fri Oct 11, 2013 4:29 pm

Gary Johnson wrote:Didn't Capra approach Karloff to appear in the screen version of ARSENIC & OLD LACE? I think he had some committments he couldn't get out of.



Lindsay and Crouse said Warners could with have Karloff or the rest of the Original Cast, for some reason Warners close the Original Cast.

Which is okay with me actually, i never had a problem with Raymond Massey in the Jonathan part, and it is nice to see Josephine Hull and Jean Adair doing the Sisters, as well as John Alexander as Teddy. Allan Joslyn got screwed out of Mortimer as well, but I like Cary Grant in the film too.


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