dirac

http://www.usatoday....side22_ST_N.htm I'd be inclined to take that with a grain of salt. Or perhaps we don't see the character do much meaningful dancing.

I tuned in only for the last half hour and didn't want to make any harsh judgments from that, but yours doesn't surprise me, volcanohunter.

The parts are similar but the setting and purpose of the character are different, and the comic characterization of Crystal doesn't allow for the softer shadings of Flaemmchen. I did understand you were speaking of Crawford the actor and personality, but I still suggest that "armor plated harridan" doesn't apply to Crawford in 1939. Which is not to say that Crawford hadn't changed during those years when she moved fully from ingenue to mature star. Did she lose something? Sure, but she was still giving sensitive (for Crawford) performances as late as the Forties. I'm terribly sorry to have to keep disagreeing, miliosr, but MGM all-in-all was great for Crawford - she played a series of remarkable working girl roles, becoming one of the biggest female stars, and formed an important partnership with the greatest male star of the era. MGM had Adrian, who did much to create Crawford the glamor girl. She did make some clinkers toward the end of the Thirties but she bore some responsibility for that, choosing bad scripts and turning down a couple of good ones. She made "A Woman's Face" there, a very sensitive performance by Crawford standards.( Even by 1945 it doesn't really fit - Mildred Pierce not only has no armor, she's a big bowl of mush. Nothing hard about Mildred except her jawline.)

Grand Hotel isn't a great anything, but it still retains much of its glamor and entertainment value - the kind of star-studded glitz that only MGM could afford. I'd just as soon watch it as a lot of other Best Pictures. It has dated, though. Crawford is a beautiful saucy creature and her scenes with Wallace Beery are fine. Except for one bad patch when we see her in a tutu Garbo is wonderful and becoming a very canny performer, keeping her head just so much above J. Barrymore's in their big scene to dominate the frame, and they obviously enjoy playing together immensely. It's off topic but I don't think "armor-plated harridan" applies to her Crystal (Crystal has a lot in common with Flaemmchen). I do understand what you mean by armor-plated but I don't think it begins to apply until much later in her career.

Roland had a good voice for sound - masculine and expressive, pretty much the opposite of Gilbert, and a more macho presence than Novarro (no reference to private lives intended). That was nice of Roland. Garbo made a similar gesture once, after the death of F.W. Murnau under similar gay-scandal circumstances. Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, who had two great roles for Murnau with Sunrise, didn't show. She did. I don't think she acted for him, either, but I haven't checked that.

It's really funny listening to Crawford in some of her 30s vehicles because she'll be cruising along in the vernacular and suddenly she'll produce a "cahn't" out of nowhere. ('Singin' in the Rain,' -- again: "I CAHN'T stand 'im." Almost like that.) The junior Fairbanks has been a major crush of mine forever. Not the greatest star but so gorgeous! A lot of women agreed with me, I understand. Crawford and he were both pretty young at the time of their union and though it seems to have been a case of genuine young love neither one seems to have been ready for marriage, cheating on each other with energy. Fairbanks did say something to the effect that his wife's life began and ended at MGM's gates. The adultery he doesn't seem to have minded so much. He did admit to being upset about Crawford's liaison with Clark Gable, because he regarded Gable as a friend and apparently their favored setting for their illicit encounters was the trailer Fairbanks had bought for Crawford as a birthday present.

I liked "Unmaking of a Dancer" althought it's an odd book in some ways. I think we have a thread on it somewhere. Joan Brady has also written a very good novel unrelated to dance, "Theory of War." Currently reading "Woe to Live On" by Daniel Woodrell, about the Confederate bushwhackers. Excellent.

My neigbors also had a cat who was white and deaf, not uncommon apparently. I used to catsit when his owners were away. I would escort him outdoors for a little air, but he couldn't stay out long unattended not being able to hear anything. He was a doll and I used to talk to him a lot anyway.

It's sad how many stars went to pieces when their careers faded. I'm sure adjusting to a life of non-fame is especially difficult. Novarro will always have a place in movie history as Ben-Hur and for his very appealing performances in the silents. It's true that he came in with the other Latin lovers like Antonio Moreno but he was more individual and lasted longer. Thank you for telling us about the book, miliosr.

One of the unpleasant aspects of domestic cat owning is that they were bred to kill "pests" and so will do it solely "because it's there" as George Mallory would have said if he were a cat eyeing a particularly tempting bonne bouche.

Anthony Rolfe Johnson has died at age 69. Not the richest tenor in the world but a very musical one and most pleasing to this untutored ear. RIP. The Guardian I'll say. The discography is vast and if you were listening to period instrument recordings during a certain era he was just about unavoidable.

Quaritch has already sold the item, which is now in private hands, price presumably maximized. The matter hardly needs to be put to a vote as far as waiting and seeing is concerned. The physical existence of the poem and the pamphlet has been known for four years. Rosen's point was that undiscovered work by "Shelley" (wondering about the quotes? I don't think anyone is questioning that Shelley, possibly with Sis, wrote it) is of value regardless of its significance once we are in a position to assess that fully. "Hey, it might not be any good," is correct as far as it goes but beside the point and distinctly unhelpful, particularly coming from a powerful literary organ. From the article by Woudhuysen: Sounds worth a peek, I should say.

Any other views? Speak up, folks, pro or con.

Apparently the TLS took the position that they weren't going to fuss over a poem when no one knew if it was any good, a rather narrow view, I would say. It's Shelley's, and his sometime collaboration with Elizabeth (I think he wrote with her before) is surely of interest even if it's unlikely to be an undiscovered classic. Of course, we'll never know, etc.

My tomcat (well, ex-tomcat, but he refuses to accept the change in his, uh, condition, continuing to get into fights and chase girls) also sleeps at my feet on occasion, but he won't cuddle and often won't sleep on the bed. But he's always nearby. The other night he did what I'll call a Tschen-Fu and clambered atop the bookcase, spreading out comfortably across the top of the books and knocking several over in the process. In the morning he descended gracefully from case to desk to floor, knocking over more books and sundry items in the process and waking me up two hours early. Balanchine always praised the grace and jumping ability of our feline friends, but he never met Toby. Well, he is a book lover, after a fashion. Thanks for the clip, diane. We're allowing lots of latitude on this thread.

And so for now the pamphlet has for all intents and purposes vanished again, until its new owner has a change of heart or puts it up for sale (or someone finds another copy). The author of the original blog commentary linked to by Ray, Michael Rosen, made mention of a related imbroglio concerning unseen writings by Kafka. In this case it sounds as if these papers will see the light eventually, probably sooner rather than later. But it's an interesting example of a long-dead writer's work winding up as someone else's "property."

After reading up on Tudor a bit more, I returned to your comments in regards to his Romeo and Juliet, given that Tudor's version of RJ comes to just one act. What could generate a major investment of resources in a one act ballet? garybruce, greetings. rg is correct to say that reviving the complete ballet would be a challenge. We had a long discussion on the subject of the ballet awhile ago, which is here. Feel free to revive the old thread with any comments you may have!

She certainly sounds as if she would be a lively speaker if her writing is anything to go by. Thanks for the report. Did she say anything particularly memorable (or discussable )? Did you attend the rest of the conference?

Fair enough (and thank you for those links) but many museums and libraries also benefit through public support, via government grants and other means. Without public money in one form or another many of those institutions might not exist. I would suggest that's slightly beside the point, however. No one is questioning the right of owner of the physical copy of the pamphlet to his private enjoyment of same or to do with it as he wishes. The criticism is that in refusing to circulate the contents until he (presumably) gets the deal he wants that he's being less than public spirited.

Hi, Quiggin. Nice to hear from you. That's true, and of course before the age of print all poems were passed along in that way.

As far as I know the owner of the painting can do whatever he likes with it, including throwing it down an elevator shaft. The owner of this pamphlet can destroy it if he wishes. But in both cases each of them probably paid a goodly sum, so unless they're fruitcakes or really, really, really rich they'll take damn good care of them, so I'm not biting my nails over the prospect of destruction. Owners of priceless paintings do often lend them to museums for display, however. The pamphlet contains pieces of writing easily reproduced and circulated without any harm to the original item.

Alas, we live in impudent times. It's not at all nonsensical when it comes to newly discovered work by a canonical national author dead for nearly two hundred years. There is no reason why the pamphlet can't be shared in any number of ways and if the owner wants to make money out of it that's hardly impossible. I should think Shelley's work is already in the "public domain" although I'm not sure how that concept works in this situation and would be interested to hear more.

That's hilarious.

It's been a long time since I saw this, but my impression was closer to papeetepatrick's - I didn't take the movie seriously but thought it rather fun, although Garbo was wasted in this sort of thing. I must disagree respectfully about Adrian's costumes, which I do remember well. Over the top, but in a good way. He emphasized headdresses and hats that clung, hiding her hair and showing off that legendary face. The elaborate outfits of the early scenes make the stark simplicity of the courtoom scene all the more striking. In some of those scenes she is at her most beautiful, I think - William Daniels' work with her is indeed outstanding here. I remember no charisma or force of personality from Novarro, although he looks good (unfortunately, his type of good looks was going out of style) -at least nothing that could match Garbo's - and it's not surprising the success of this movie did little for him. The dance sequence was a bad mistake. A double would have saved toil and trouble.

Patrick, we'll have to agree to disagree. I do not always like Rivers' humor but there are male comedians who have gone further and nastier and I admit I don't understand your particular animus against her, but tastes differ. To blame women in show business for obtaining plastic surgery that doesn't turn out well or goes too far, in our culture of today, is truly to blame the victim, and that is most certainly not to my taste. One of the hallmarks of River's jokes since the beginning has been her lack of conventional prettiness and as she says more than once in the film, "Nobody wants to look at an old woman." That's partially her perception but it contains more than a grain of truth. It's too bad she didn't choose to age more naturally, particularly as it robbed her face of its mobility, which is very noticeable in the film's footage of a younger Rivers. Cloris Leachman did a sensational bawdy turn not too long ago on Comedy Central's Bob Saget roast, and she seemed to have struck a happy medium.