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Another vague film id request. Minnie?

Shirl

Shirl

European
R.I.P.
Here goes then.
This film has been bugging me for years. All I can remember is a scene and a sort of 'feeling'.
The film is pretty old maybe 50's but could be 40's. I was certain that Shelley Winters was the star as a girl in her late teens/early twenties but I've gone through her IMBD and can't find anything likely.
I think it's black and white. There is a scene where I think the girl (possibly Shelley Winters but maybe not) is either playing or watching a game of tennis. It's a very tense moment in the film. She also has a younger sister. There's a boyfriend around and I think he is trying to murder her, the girl not the sister. She's portrayed as being a bit easy as the americans call it.
That's about it but I know that I've seen it a couple of times a long time ago and I really enjoyed it.
 
Shirl said:
Here goes then.
This film has been bugging me for years. All I can remember is a scene and a sort of 'feeling'.
The film is pretty old maybe 50's but could be 40's. I was certain that Shelley Winters was the star as a girl in her late teens/early twenties but I've gone through her IMBD and can't find anything likely.
I think it's black and white. There is a scene where I think the girl (possibly Shelley Winters but maybe not) is either playing or watching a game of tennis. It's a very tense moment in the film. She also has a younger sister. There's a boyfriend around and I think he is trying to murder her, the girl not the sister. She's portrayed as being a bit easy as the americans call it.
That's about it but I know that I've seen it a couple of times a long time ago and I really enjoyed it.
Click to expand...

You're not thinking of now Voyager with Bette Davis are you ?

Sounds like it could be mistaken for what you're thinking.
 
Shirl said:
Here goes then.
This film has been bugging me for years. All I can remember is a scene and a sort of 'feeling'.
The film is pretty old maybe 50's but could be 40's. I was certain that Shelley Winters was the star as a girl in her late teens/early twenties but I've gone through her IMBD and can't find anything likely.
I think it's black and white. There is a scene where I think the girl (possibly Shelley Winters but maybe not) is either playing or watching a game of tennis. It's a very tense moment in the film. She also has a younger sister. There's a boyfriend around and I think he is trying to murder her, the girl not the sister. She's portrayed as being a bit easy as the americans call it.
That's about it but I know that I've seen it a couple of times a long time ago and I really enjoyed it.
Click to expand...

Sounds like Hitchcock's Stranger's on a Train from 1951 which is about a tennis pro with an unfaithful wife and the murderer who offers to kill her. The female lead has a younger sister (Pat Hitchcock, Hitch's daughter) who is a similar type to Shelley Winters. There is a suspenseful tennis match.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangers_on_a_Train_(film)
 
Reno said:
Sounds like Hitchcock's Stranger's on a Train from 1951 which is about a tennis pro with an unfaithful wife and the murderer who offers to kill her. The female lead (Ruth Roman) has a younger sister (Pat Hitchcock, Hitch's daughter) who is a similar type to Shelley Winters. There is a suspenseful tennis match.
Click to expand...
I knew that I should have said it's not Strangers on a Train. That's one of my favourite films :D
My memory of the film does remind me a bit of Strangers on a Train but I think that must just be the tennis connection and the story line of the film reminds me of something that Patricia Highsmith might have written. If only I could remember what the storyline is. :facepalm:
 
Sounds familiar, but in the middle of cooking, so will have to get back to it, unless someone gets there first
 
When I was looking at Shelley Winter's IMBD I came across a film called Small Town Girl. I was sure that was it but that film is a musical comedy. The title sounded a bit right for the film I'm thinking of though.
 
Shirl said:
I don't think anyone's going to get there anytime soon :D
Click to expand...

If your description is as off as last time, you're probably right :D

and you can't even remember whether it's black or white :facepalm::D

Now, is it set during the period the film was made, or is it decades earlier? :hmm:
 
Well Shelley Winters was born in 1920 (1922 according to some) apparently, but actresses then were often plastered in make-up so hard to tell their real age, so that probably doesn't help narrow the decade down if she was playing someone much younger or older than herself iyswim, so if she looked like a teenager at the time, then could be as early as late 30s, but then as IMDB doesn't list her first film until 1943....:hmm:

as you can see, I'm getting absolutely nowhere at the moment :D
 
Minnie_the_Minx said:
Well Shelley Winters was born in 1920 (1922 according to some) apparently, but actresses then were often plastered in make-up so hard to tell their real age, so that probably doesn't help narrow the decade down if she was playing someone much younger or older than herself iyswim, so if she looked like a teenager at the time, then could be as early as late 30s, but then as IMDB doesn't list her first film until 1943....:hmm:

as you can see, I'm getting absolutely nowhere at the moment :D
Click to expand...
Keep trying Minnie, keep trying ;)
 
Was she the main cast member (assuming it was Shelley Winters)?

It would probably rule out some of the earlier 40s stuff as she was a bit bit part or uncredited then
 
...or put the word "tennis" in the keyword or plot search in IMDB and look through the films from the 40s and 50s of that period because tennis doesn't feature in that many films.
 
kittyP said:
You're not thinking of now Voyager with Bette Davis are you ?

Sounds like it could be mistaken for what you're thinking.
Click to expand...

Is this about no then?

There is a scene in Now Voyager where Bette Davis is playing tennis in the sanatorium with her loves daughter.
They are working out who each other are.
Her love sees it happening from afar.
 
Reno said:
...or put the word "tennis" in the keyword or plot search in IMDB and look through the films from the 40s and 50s of that period because tennis doesn't feature in that many films.
Click to expand...

Yeah, strangers on a train keeps popping up, but for all we know, Shirl could be getting tennis mixed up with cricket :D

oh, as it's probably an American film, baseball or American football
 
Are you sure the sisters weren't nuns? :hmm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_to_the_Stable

The next morning, after Sisters Margaret and Scholastica accidentally drive a stake through Bob's water line while building a shrine mistaking it as a sign. Bob visits the real estate agent and arranges to buy the witch-hazel plant in order to keep it out of the nuns' hands. Sister Margaret, meanwhile, discovers Bob's guests playing doubles tennis and arranges a wager for $500 if Sister Scholastica can help Al beat the other couple. Although Sister Scholastica is a former tennis champion, she loses the match.
Click to expand...
 
Are you sure the sisters weren't mother and daughter?

Boy (Gordon) meets girl (Florence), sharing an interest in tennis. But Florence has a supremely ambitious mother who intends to push her ahead regardless (she barely knows her own husband exists). Florence's tennis career rapidly advances, thanks to mother's manipulation and a promotion-minded coach; building toward the inevitable conflict between the fulfilment of Mother's dreams...and daughter's.
Click to expand...
 
Any of these. I did 30s up to 60s, just in case you got your decades mixed up ;)

  • Waterloo Bridge (1931) - no on-screen tennis action, but Bette Davis's character is heard thwacking balls with another person (Frederick Kerr) off-screen while characters played by Douglass Montgomery (with racquet in hand), Mae Clarke, and Enid Bennett sit courtside sipping lemonade (50 minutes into the drama)
  • A Lost Lady (1934) - contains a short sequence about 20 minutes into the film with Barbara Stanwyck playing tennis (hitting a couple of forehands, though it appears the balls are going to go WAY long) with Lyle Talbot
  • A Woman Rebels (1936) - brief scene of a couple of points played between Doris Dudley's character and her young beau Jerry (the actor for which is uncredited).
  • Stella Dallas (1937) - has a scene or two with Barbara Stanwyck's "daughter" playing tennis with the "in crowd" at the country club where she later embarrasses her.
  • The Rains Came (1939) - within ten minutes of the beginning of this one, George Brent goes to a tea party where tennis is being played in the background, in British India no less.
  • Flight Command (1940) - a little more than an hour into the story, Robert Taylor's and Ruth Hussey's characters are briefly shown playing tennis in a montage which conveys their growing relationship.
  • Now, Voyager (1942) - includes a scene with Bette Davis hitting balls with Paul Henreid's "daughter " before they're interrupted by Claude Rains.
  • Stand By For Action (1942) - features a scene within the first five minutes of Robert Taylor playing tennis with a Commander (Theodore von Eltz, uncredited). He plays one point with a forehand approach shot followed by an overhead smash, then serves the last point at 40-love to win the match, again with an overhead at the net.
  • The Emperor Waltz (1948) - an hour into this Billy Wilder musical (!), there is a scene featuring Joan Fontaine playing tennis with a wooden racquet (on some sort of dirt surface) on the grounds of the Emperor's palace in the Austrian Alps.
  • Quartet (1948) - brief tennis scene at Wimbledon, with Basil Radford's character discussing his son (a player) with James Robertson Justice's character (in the days when the winner would jump over the net to greet his opponent vs. fall to his knees or onto his back), within the first 10 minutes of the first story.
  • Come to the Stable (1949) - Celeste Holm plays a French nun/former tennis player that (with her mixed doubles partner) must win a match/bet to raise money ($500) for her hospital. The match occurs near the end of the film - the tennis action is fast and the scoring is accurate; a marathon point decides it.
  • The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) - Fred (Astaire) & Ginger (Rogers) in their first Technicolor, and their last, film together after 10 years apart, playing tennis on a grass court no less
  • Task Force (1949) - about an hour into the film, as the attack on Pearl Harbor (by the Japanese during World War II) is underway, three ladies (including Jane Wyatt's character) with tennis racquets in hand are taking to the court to play when one is strafed by an enemy fighter
  • Bedtime for Bonzo (1951) - at the end of the picture, before Ronald Reagan's character and his bride drive away, there are tennis courts in the background with two persons hitting and/or retrieving balls
  • Hard, Fast, and Beautiful (1951) - Directed by Ida Lupino and starring (Academy Award winner) Claire Trevor, Sally Forrest, and Carleton Young; one of the only true tennis movies
  • Strangers on a Train (1951) - a very good Alfred Hitchcock film which includes some pretty good tennis action (with tension) involving Farley Granger's playboy character. The director seemed to have an affinity for tennis, including a tennis racquet in an earlier film, Lifeboat (1944); it is retrieved from the sinking ship and used by John Hodiak to break a floating baby's bottle.
  • Pat and Mike (1952) - A Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy romantic comedy that includes a lot of footage of the actress playing various sports and a funny tennis match with (e.g.) the net getting higher, her racquet getting smaller, etc.
  • Mr Hulot's Holiday (1953) - wacky French film about the title character (played by actor Jacques Tati) taking a vacation and inadvertently disrupting everyone else's good time. Includes a scene where Hulot, using an unusual method of serving (as if his racquet were a fly swatter, beats several opponents before they lose the ball.
  • Dial M for Murder (1954) - another good Hitchcock which shows no tennis, but Ray Milland's character was an ex-tennis player
  • Tea and Sympathy (1956) - John Kerr's "sister boy" character plays a couple of points in a match, wooden racquets and white balls, even though he serves from the deuce court at 40-30;-)
  • Gigi (1958) - Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan play tennis at the beach, she falls down laughing, he climbs over the net
  • I'm All Right Jack (1959) - begins with a scene at a nudist colony where (in the far background) naked women are playing doubles, switches to a closer scene where a fully dressed man (lead character Ian Carmichael) is asked by the women to return their ball; embarrassed, he does. The film closes with a similar scene at the same colony, where Carmichael is now a participant (i.e. also nude), and being asked by the ladies to join their game; still embarrassed, he is chased away by them, into the 'sunset'
  • School for Scoundrels (1960) - the tennis matches (not played on grass!) in this British comedy are integral to the main character's transformation from doormat to "Charles Atlas". Lots of points played and accurately tallied, though the "house rules" in the initial contest are hard to fathom; the balls vary between superball bouncy and dead, and the net has no center strap.
Click to expand...
 
Reno said:
She's on the case. :D
Click to expand...

I just know it's not going to be Shelley Winters is it (hence the reason for sticking up list of other actresses born in the 20s)

Right, so as blonde was very in then, what other stars looked like Shelley Winters

(The actress will probably turn out to be brunette)
 
While we're on it I've got a bloody tricky one that has been bothering me for ages. I believe we may have been on psychedelics at the time, so I will try to remember the key features:

Horror, probably 70s, colour. Churches are involved, and death. There's an evil possession spirit thing going on characterised by a distinctive hand gesture performed by the possessed character. Touch tip of thumb to tip of little finger, then to ring finger, middle index, repeat creepily. That's about all I can remember.

Also there's a film which I think is fairly well known. Another horror (or murder thing)... Group of friends meet in a park to discuss weekend away. strange anarchist terrorist (sort of situationist) group is mentioned, which brutally muders groups of wealthy hedonists on weekends away (which is what these are). Brutal mudering commences. One murderer iirc.

Reno?
 
Cid said:
While we're on it I've got a bloody tricky one that has been bothering me for ages. I believe we may have been on psychedelics at the time, so I will try to remember the key features:

Horror, probably 70s, colour. Churches are involved, and death. There's an evil possession spirit thing going on characterised by a distinctive hand gesture performed by the possessed character. Touch tip of thumb to tip of little finger, then to ring finger, middle index, repeat creepily. That's about all I can remember.

Also there's a film which I think is fairly well known. Another horror (or murder thing)... Group of friends meet in a park to discuss weekend away. strange anarchist terrorist (sort of situationist) group is mentioned, which brutally muders groups of wealthy hedonists on weekends away (which is what these are). Brutal mudering commences. One murderer iirc.

Reno?
Click to expand...

Is the wealthy hedonists a load of rich American kids on holiday in South America (or maybe the Caribbean)?
 
Minnie_the_Minx said:
Is the wealthy hedonists a load of rich American kids on holiday in South America (or maybe the Caribbean)?
Click to expand...


Nah, stately home I think... It's not traditional whiney American teen type horror. Not sure whether it's English though.

It has a dystopian edge to it, also I believe various drugs are involved in the killing.
 
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