Open Thread Saturday

Ray Milland

Well, actually she played his mom in both films. I was going to toss that to you as a counter-trivia…

Ray Milland!

So accomplished and versatile. I even read his autobiography 15 years ago or so.

He played many different roles, mostly of quality until the last years of his life. It was so nice to see him return in a quality production, LOVE STORY af much later life junk.

EASY LIVING – Sophisticated Sturges via Mitchell Leisen.

THE UNINVITED – a masterpiece….and helped made so by Milland and co. A glossy ghost story.

PANIC IN YEAR ZERO – Far seeing survivalist film form the very early 60s about a family trying to survive after an atomic attack on Los Angeles. The light-comedy/romantic leafing man is gone, replaced by a kick-ass husband/father determined to keep his family alive.

Milland also made some incredibly bad (apparently pay check) films. "Frogs" is bad (enviornmental twattle about creatures striking back because of polluttion that ALGORE might have referenced in his film) but not nearly as bad as "The Thing with Two Heads" in which the bigoted Milland's head is tranfered onto Rosy Grier's body. That was all time stinker class (and a hoot to watch.)

OK – so you snuck in the shit.

There's always some 'movie buff' determined to revel in crap films that are 'so bad, they're good'. Clown crap.

Can you mention some GOOD Milland films you may be aware of or maybe have even seen?

Sorry to get pissy, but w/o fail someone always feels compelled to bring up the crap in an otherwise noteworthy performer's career.

Films from Ray Milland's peak years-

Dial M for Murder (1954) …. Tony Wendice
… aka Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (USA: complete title)
Let's Do It Again (1953) …. Gary Stuart
Jamaica Run (1953) …. Patrick Fairlie
The Thief (1952) …. Allan Fields
Something to Live For (1952) …. Alan Miller
Bugles in the Afternoon (1952) …. Kern Shafter
Rhubarb (1951) …. Eric Yeager
Night Into Morning (1951) …. Philip Ainley
Circle of Danger (1951) …. Clay Douglas
Close to My Heart (1951) …. Brad Sheridan
Copper Canyon (1950) …. Johnny Carter
A Life of Her Own (1950) …. Steve Harleigh
A Woman of Distinction (1950) …. Professor Alexander 'Alec' Stevenson
It Happens Every Spring (1949) …. Prof. Vernon K. Simpson aka King Kelly
Alias Nick Beal (1949) …. Nicholas 'Nick' Beal
… aka The Contact Man (UK)
Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948) …. Cameo
Sealed Verdict (1948) …. Maj. Robert Lawson
The Big Clock (1948) …. George Stroud
So Evil My Love (1948) …. Mark Bellis
Golden Earrings (1947) …. Col. Ralph Denistoun
The Trouble with Women (1947) …. Professor Gilbert Sedley
The Imperfect Lady (1947) …. Clive Loring
… aka Mrs. Loring's Secret (UK)
California (1946) …. Jonathan Trumbo
The Well-Groomed Bride (1946) …. Lt. Dudley Briggs
The Lost Weekend (1945) …. Don Birnam
Kitty (1945) …. Sir Hugh Marcy
Ministry of Fear (1944) …. Stephen Neale
… aka Graham Greene's Ministry of Fear (Australia)
Till We Meet Again (1944) …. John
… aka Tomorrow's Harvest
The Uninvited (1944) …. Roderick Fitzgerald
Lady in the Dark (1944) …. Charley Johnson
The Crystal Ball (1943) …. Brad Cavanaugh
Forever and a Day (1943) …. Lt. William 'Bill' Trimble
… aka The Changing World (USA: alternative title)
The Major and the Minor (1942) …. Major Philip Kirby
Are Husbands Necessary? (1942) …. George Cugat
Reap the Wild Wind (1942) …. Mr. Stephen 'Steve' Tolliver
… aka Cecil B. DeMille's Reap the Wild Wind (USA: complete title)
The Lady Has Plans (1942) …. Kenneth Clarence Harper
Skylark (1941) …. Tony Kenyon
I Wanted Wings (1941) …. Jeff Young
Arise, My Love (1940) …. Tom Martin
Untamed (1940) …. Dr. William Crawford
The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940) …. Dr. Timothy Sterling
Irene (1940) …. Donald 'Don' Marshall
French Without Tears (1940) …. Alan Howard
Everything Happens at Night (1939) …. Geoffrey Thompson
Beau Geste (1939) …. John Geste
Hotel Imperial (1939) …. Lieutenant Nemassy
Say It in French (1938) …. Richard Carrington, Jr.
Men with Wings (1938) …. Scott Barnes
Tropic Holiday (1938) …. Ken Warren
Her Jungle Love (1938) …. Bob Mitchell
Wise Girl (1937) …. John O'Halloran
Ebb Tide (1937) …. Robert Herrick
Easy Living (1937) …. John Ball Jr.
Wings Over Honolulu (1937) …. Lt. Samuel Gilchrist
Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937) …. Capt. Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond
… aka Bulldog Drummond's Escape (USA: review title)
The Jungle Princess (1936) …. Christopher Powell
Three Smart Girls (1936) …. Lord Michael Stuart
The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936) …. Bob Miller
The Return of Sophie Lang (1936) …. Jimmy Dawson
Next Time We Love (1936) …. Tommy Abbott
… aka Next Time We Live (UK)
The Glass Key (1935) …. Taylor Henry
Alias Mary Dow (1935) …. Peter Marshall
… aka Lost Identity
Four Hours to Kill! (1935) …. Carl Barrett
The Gilded Lily (1935) …. Charles Gray (Lord Granton)
One Hour Late (1934) (as Raymond Milland) …. Tony St. John
Menace (1934/I) (as Raymond Milland) …. Freddie Bastion
Charlie Chan in London (1934) (as Raymond Milland) …. Neil Howard
Many Happy Returns (1934) …. Ted Lambert
We're Not Dressing (1934) …. Prince Michael Stofani

For even more trivia, she played Bob Newhart's mom too, on the Bob Newhart Show…Makes for one unusual family!

Let's "mominate" for best screen mother of all time!

I gave you a thumb's up, just to foil the little liberal goons.

Actually, I think the formula by which they calculate "reputation" is about as valid as the one Obama's little liberal goons use to calculate jobs saved due to the spendulous package.

Don't lose any sleep over it.

I gave you a thumb's up, just to foil the little liberal goons.

Actually, I think the formula by which they calculate "reputation" is about as valid as the one Obama's little liberal goons use to calculate jobs saved due to the spendulous package. Last I checked, "CgntvDssnt" or whatever the heck he calls himself was up to a 98p. For pure trolling goodness.

Don't lose any sleep over it.

Dude, lighten up. If you make a film called, "The Thing with Two Heads", you're open for ridicule on the internet.

Ditto, "Her Jungle Love", and "The Jungle Princess". What was with the jungle-themed pictures back in the mid-to-late 30s?

Dude, lighten up. If you make a film called "The Thing with Two Heads", you're open for ridicule on the internet.

Ditt, "Her Jungle Love", and "The Jungle Princess". What was with the jungle-themed pictures back in the mid-to-late 30s? I don't think he was in "Jungle Fever", though. Maybe by that time he was a little long in the tooth.

The Thing with Two Heads was his greatest film!

well done!

A dear departed relative met Mr Milland many years back. Asking us which question we would like answered, did we ask about 'Dial M', or other classics?

No. We wanted to know ALL about 'Panic In the Year Zero'. We were dutifully told it was shot in one week, mostly with one take, and it was a paycheck.

Still loved it…

I disagree. You're open for ridicule from people who have nothing better to say and have made no contribution to film or legitimate film criticism. With so many other Milland films to discuss, it's only the 'golden turkey' mentality that will feel required to cite crap over quality.

Not all jungles take place in Africa. The two Milland films you mentioned were also Dorothy Lamour films – pure escapism with one being filmed in Technicolor.

You ask about jungle themed films of the era. These were exotica and escapism combined and were offered as a relief from the economic Depression that gripped the country and the world at the time. Additionally, it was a much larger world back then and many people had never traveled as people do today and many regions of the world were still unexplored….and that included the jungles of Africa and elsewhere.

That was the appeal…..also Dorothy Lamour wearing a sarong and little else.

Thanks.

Milland not only starred in the film, but directed it as well. 'Paycheck pic' or not, he did a fine job and turned out a film far in advance of it's time and budget.

PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! is a psychological primer for what a man might have to do when the law is gone and he is on his own.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056331/

Another wonderful ,but almost forgetten Milland film is "The Uninvited" (1944) with the beautiful Ruth Hussey and the troubled , but lovely Gail Russell. This is one of the best ghost stories ever made.

Besides "Lost Weekend," I also very much enjoy Milland's "Panic in Year Zero," (1962) about a family surviving the lawless chaos after a general nuclear attack. RM directed and starred.

The ending of "The Man With The X-Ray Eyes" has haunted me since I first saw it as a kid. I won't give it away, but it still gives me the heebie-jeebies. Seeing the portrait above, I knew exactly who it was just by his eyes (because by the time he made "X-Ray" he must have been well into his 50's) …

Was it Martha Scott? In "The Ten Commandments" and "Dallas", respectively?

Hey, it's raining here also.

Yes it was! Probably the Linda Gray portion was a dead giveaway, since I don't think she ever did much besides Sue Ellen. However, she played Heston's mom in Ben-Hur rather than Ten Commandments.

typo – dreams = drive

Actually, "The Uninvited" is very well remembered and was in high demand before it came out on video. It never entered the 'forgotten' status. Now, "ALIAS, NICK BEAL" is rumbling around in 'forgotten' territory.

Appreciate it, when I began posting here it was around 90, I am down to 55 now. Makes me not "join in" the debate here, because I will, at this rate, be in the negative soon, and don't wish for people to judge me by the points I have lost since beginning to post here.

I have to agree ! "The Man with the X-Ray Eyes was what clued me in !

thanks for the heads up; we will try to track it down…

Right. Those things would definitely leave a mark.

In the other film, she was cured of leprosy by an early appearance of Barack Obama (theologically, these are now known as "Obamophanies").

At least, that was the version I saw. I believe it was at a local NEA sponsored film festival…

I gave you a thumb's up, just to foil the little liberal goons.

Actually, I think the formula by which they calculate "reputation" is about as valid as the one Obama's little liberal goons use to calculate jobs saved due to the spendulous package. Last I checked, "CgntvDckhd" or whatever the heck he calls himself was up to a 98p. For pure trolling goodness.

Don't lose any sleep over it.

"The Lost Weekend"was set in NYC at the end of September. As college kids we were fond of having a VHS double feature of "Lost Weekend" and "The Thing with 2 Heads". Always with a cooler full of beer on hand.

"What brand of whiskey, Mr. Burnham?"

"YOU KNOW WHAT BRAND, THE CHEAPEST!"

Also great as John Geste in William Wellman's 1939 classic "Beau Geste." Not the star, but he held his own against a formidable cast: Gary Cooper, Robert Preston, Brian Donleavy, Broderick Crawford and an outlandishly young and radiant Susan Hayward.

Whiled away his Golden Years starring in depressing drek like "Frogs," "The Thing with Two Heads," and "The House in Nightmare Park," but he, like Vincent Price, always remained a gentleman about it.

I bet I pop in DIAL M FOR MURDER at least once a year. One of the most purely enjoyable thrillers ever made. Ray Milland is so charming as the homicidal former tennis pro Tony Wendice — so smooth, so ingenious, so funny — that you are practically rooting for him to succeed in his plot for murdering Grace Kelly!

Now THAT'S charming!

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