TV and Movies

[Oznell]

8:00 p.m. Eastern-- "Mahogany" --  Sudsy but extremely enjoyable rags to riches story of a young aspiring designer who climbs to fame and fortune and must make crucial life decisions about romance and priorities along the way.  Who could be better than Diana Ross and Billie Dee Williams as romantic, star-crossed lovers?

When Diana Ross made her film debut in "Lady Sings the Blues", the bio pic of Billie Holliday, critics went crazy.  Pauline Kael, the "New Yorker" critic especially, thought she was spectacular, as a new, dynamic kind of leading lady in films. There hasn't been anyone quite like her since. I highly recommend Kael's reviews of Ross. 

10:15 p.m. Eastern--  "Winter Kills"-- Complicated "paranoid thriller" with aspects of black comedy.  A young Jeff Bridges is the younger brother of a President of the United States who was killed years earlier. (The story has deliberate echoes of the Kennedy assassination.)  Jeff Bridges starts on a quest to find out about the crime, over the protestations of his father, played by John Huston.  Powerful interests seem to be preventing the truth from coming out, and Jeff's every move becomes fraught with danger.

I adore the paranoid thriller genre, and the Seventies seem chock full of them!  Other favorites--  "Three Days of the Condor" with Redford and Dunaway, "The Parallax View" with Warren Beatty, and "The Conversation" with Gene Hackman. 

[spiderw]

Oznell

You always mention such good movies and describe them so well I want to watch if I haven't seen them.  

I loved Lady Sings the Blues since I am a big Billie Holliday fan  and have many of her CD's.  I had my reservations about the movie but I have to say I was very impressed with Diana's Ross's portrayal of Holliday. It was such a tragic life for so talented a singer as Holliday and Ross did the job well.

I also want to respond to your Rat Pack post.  I too love all the members of that group especially Sinatra and Martin.  Their music is spectacular and my mother loved Dean's songs and through her I appreciated his voice and music also.  Of course I consider both men legends in the music field.  My favorite of Dean's is Sway .  Sinatra's torch songs are his best or as they were referred to , saloon songs.  

Enjoy your day!

[Oznell]

@spiderw, you're such a dear to give me credit for the Rat Pack post, but that wasn't me!  I'd like to take credit for it since I love them too, but can't.  Now I will have to hunt it up again.

Love to discover other "Lady Day" fans.  Love her music too.  Her version of "I'll Be Seeing You" is the most haunting, beautiful rendition I've ever heard.  In fact, her version of almost any song is irreplaceable.

[spiderw]

Sorry about that error on my part but I guess I gave you the credit for the Rat Pack post because you are such a movie buff and I thought it was your post!!!!  It wasn't of course, how embarrassing!

Billie Holliday was one of the best of the blues singers.  I love her dark songs, Gloomy Sunday, In My Solitude and others.  When she sings you do feel every word and her pain.  I am glad you are a fan too, she was one of a kind in the world of music.

[just bee]

@Oznell

The Conversation is a goodie.

@spiderw

I hear ya on Sway.  I'm listening to it right now.  It's featured prominently in one of my all-time favorite films: S*xy Beast.

ETA:

Oh -- and Billie Holiday.  I like your taste, you two.

[Oznell]

Yes, wasn't it, @just bee?  And Gene Hackman is so good in it.

[just bee]

---

@Oznell wrote:

Yes, wasn't it, @just bee?  And Gene Hackman is so good in it.

---

@Oznell

Francis Ford Coppola wrote and directed.

[culebra]

@just bee

I agree The Conversation is a goodie!

[lovescats]

I remember when the theater had Mahogany and Lady Sings the Blues as a double feature.

[Oznell]

Am watching "Winter Kills" now.  It is just as baffling, disjointed and darkly funny as I remember.

Love the very young, clean cut Jeff Bridges of this film.  Don't know why he has adopted his current "grizzled" look.  His father, actor Lloyd Bridges was appealing too;  ditto his actor brother Beau.