McNeil's Movie Korner

Email from McNeil, dated yesterday: "Guy Kibbee movie on TCM right now! There was a singer in the beginning who looked exactly like Bill Clinton." This has been another installment of "McNeil's Movie Korner."

For Your Happiness

Another frame from the "glowing violin" number. And because you never get enough Kibbee, a promotional still for the film: Guy Kibbee and Joan Blondell.

My Cause

Thanks to my efforts on behalf of Guy Kibbee, we have TRIPLED the number of people who "like" Guy Kibbee on facebook. That's right, now there are three. What's more, I just introduced several impressionable grad students to Guy Kibbee through a little movie called GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933. I think their minds were blown when dozens of women holding glow-in-the-dark violins started dancing sideways up a mirrored wall. I know mine was! Again!

A Handsome Couple

Everyone will be so excited to hear that while I was in the shower, the name and plot of that Guy Kibbee movie occurred to me: CITY STREETS (1931). And I checked imdb, and yes, it was Guy Kibbee. The old brain is still chugging away after all. Guy Kibbee is (spoiler alert) a gangster who bumps off another gangster and his stepdaughter Sylvia Sydney takes the rap because she refuses to squeal. (The cops catch her walking around with a "broken arm" but there's nothing wrong with her - she's using the sling to conceal the pistol she's supposed to ditch for Guy Kibbee.) At the end, Robert Osborne came out and explained that CITY STREETS was the first movie to use voiceover to indicate what a character was thinking. The studio was like, "WHAT? She's not moving her lips but we can hear what she's thinking? Nobody will get it!" And the director was like, "Trust me." But the main thing you will be thinking about as you watch CITY STREETS is that Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney are the best looking couple ever.

Jack Pendarvis Likes This

Hey, you know how you can "like" things on facebook? For example, over 117,000 people "like" Dentyne brand gum! They didn't mention that in THE SOCIAL NETWORK for some reason with an ominous Trent Reznor chord thrumming beneath a scene at Dentyne headquarters. Right now I am the ONLY person on facebook to "like" Guy Kibbee. If you "search" for "Guy Kibbee" it says "1 person likes this." This is something that needs to be fixed or maybe we shouldn't worry about it. I think I was watching a Guy Kibbee movie on TCM, and I want to say he had a moustache and was a little thinner than usual and played a creep. Well, come to think of it, maybe that wasn't even Guy Kibbee! But whoever he was he made me scamper to my computer to tell the world how much I "like" Guy Kibbee. It seemed important!

Cereal or Eggplant

I was just speaking with the person whose coworker resembles Guy Kibbee. The person said, "All I do every day is think about what I'm going to eat and how I could quit my job." "What are you going to eat tonight?" I said. "Eggplant parmigiana or a bowl of cereal," said the person.

My Qualifications

Okay! Just in case I do have the attention of Robert Osborne, as my demented speculations suggest, I am going to lay out very clearly all the reasons I should be a guest programmer on TCM. 1) My Cartoon Network project has gone belly up, so there is no conceivable conflict of interest within the Turner empire. 2) I watch TCM all the time, as evidenced - to give but one paltry example - by numerous "blog" references to Guy Kibbee. 3) I often write "literature" in which movies play a role. For example, one character in the title novella of my first book has a nightmare about Dean Martin. In real life, I once had a nightmare after watching the Martin film ADA on TCM... but my nightmare involved not Mr. Martin, but Wilfrid Hyde-White (pictured), who played the villain in the piece. Do you hear me? I actually have nightmares about Wilfrid Hyde White! See? Just the fact that I know who Wilfrid Hyde-White IS should get me a spot on TCM! 4) I have written about movies in a magazine. 5) I don't know if you are located in Los Angeles or New York, but you can set up a "shoot" on June 14th because I have most of that day free in New York... or the same goes for June 22nd in L.A. Great! So have your people call my people and we'll get this thing rolling!

The McNeil's Movie Korner That Never Was

Yesterday evening I happened to turn on the TV just as a movie called ANGELS OVER BROADWAY was beginning to air on TCM. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., was standing in the rain, playing a shady sort of a character... much shadier than the wholesome vagrant he played alongside fellow vagrant Guy Kibbee in UNION STATION, but a lot slicker. A real sharpie! And he was lamenting the fact that he couldn't find a dice game. "Come on rain, rain me a seven!" went his internal dialogue. Right away I thought, this is a Jeff McNeil kind of movie! Fit for McNeil's Movie Korner! Then Fairbanks sees an old blind man with a tin cup walking down the rainy street, and he says, inwardly, "Brother, you won't get a seven holding out a cup." And I picked up the phone and called Mr. McNeil, who was midway through his route for a major American delivery service. "I hope you've got ANGELS OVER BROADWAY on the DVR!" I said. Mr. McNeil reported that he did not. He had noticed the title, and had almost recorded it! But not having time to look up the cast and plot, he let it slide, to his everlasting remorse. I mean, you've got Rita Hayworth, and Thomas Mitchell as a failed, drunken playwright, and the always dependable John Qualen (pictured with uncharacteristic moustache). You know you're in for a good time when John Qualen's in the cast! Desperate little men are his specialty. He brings real pathos to the screwball world of HIS GIRL FRIDAY. Unless I'm nuts, he's in both THE SEARCHERS and SHANE. If not, he should have been! But what a career in any case. He gives me Qualenmania.

Troubleshooting Your Kibbee

I was checking my picture of Guy Kibbee the other day, and I noticed that it had vanished! In its place was a strange little icon with the word "image" underneath it. When I "clicked" on "image," my picture of Guy Kibbee came back, only - and this is the eerie part - it was slightly altered! Kibbee was looking at me funny! I am no "computing" expert, so I cannot explain this "computer" phenomenon. This is just a "heads up" in case you have similar trouble. As a back-up, here is the "web" site where I originally found my Kibbee. How do I expect my "blog"ites to phone in their Kibbee tips without a visual reference? (NOTE: "Blog"ites is special "blogging" slang for people who enjoy "blogs.")

Kibbee Redux

We received another message from a member of Hubcap City, who claims he saw Guy Kibbee eating a Cuban sandwich at the Publix grocery store. A caveat: Our informant cautions us that he only saw "Kibbee" after reading about him and seeing his picture on our "blog," so he is afraid it may be a case of "blog"fluenza (his coinage) - the undue influence of a "blog" on the human psyche.

Guy Kibbee Sighting

An anonymous "blog" buddy reminds us of the name of the old character actor (adept at playing both millionaire and vagrant) to whom we recently referred: Guy Kibbee. An evocative name, indeed. ("Indeed" is a word you can expect to see a lot more of at the "blog," given our recent shift of focus to the classier side of life.) This person has reason to think of Guy Kibbee often. He or she has a co-worker who looks exactly like Guy Kibbee. According to our anonymous friend, this co-worker, who is a very nice person, will be talking and talking while our friend accidentally "zones out," stunned by the uncanny resemblance. My, my. What a strange and wonderful world we live in, where people can walk around looking like Guy Kibbee. It really makes you think. Well, one thing is for sure: whenever all the college kids get on the "blogs" to search for "Guy Kibbee," we'll get plenty of "hits"!