Brief connections on the Fourth of July

Today's post will be brief, because it's a holiday and I don't feel like spending too much time writing.

I had another geek moment the other morning when I turned on The Feminine Touch about 20 minutes in. The movie is set at a college and when the dean of the college appeared, I immediately recognized him as Grant Mitchell. I've mentioned Grant Mitchell twice before, although I've also blogged about The Great Lie without mentioning that he shows up at the beginning of it. My persoal favorite Grant Mitchell appearance is probably in Dinner at Eight, in which he plays Billie Burke's cousin, who'd rather be watching the latest Greta Garbo movie; Mitchell is the man who gets stuck holding Marie Dressler's dog.

Yesterday was the birthday of George Sanders, and TCM honored him with a bunch of movies. One they didn't show, ut I've blogged about, is Village of the Damned. Another excellent movie with George Sanders in it is Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent. This ties in with the first half of my post: the original actor who showed up and made me realize just how many old movies I watch is Albert Bassermann, who appears in Foreign Correspondent as the diplomat whose kidnapping sparks the whole story. (And, I'm happy to say, Foreign Correspondent is available on DVD. However, I don't see myself blogging about it soon because I've blogged too much about Alfred Hitchcock.)