CineSage_jr
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Posts posted by CineSage_jr
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> {quote:title=BlondeCrazy wrote:}{quote}
> This is an excellent film, but I was disappointed when i saw a screening of this a few months back. People in the audience kept giggling at some of the scenes, even the famous final line! How the ending could be considered funny by anyone is completely beyond me.
Muni's final line packs a tremendous ironic wallop -- there's an immense amount of truth in James Allen's being made into a criminal-by-necessity by the very justice system that exists nominally to reform criminals (Muni's vanishing into the darkness was, according to director Mervyn LeRoy in his autobiography, Take One, a serendipitous accident when the key light on the soundstage blew out). It's a common dramatic irony, seen to equally great -- and closely related -- effect in THE GODFATHER, as Michael Corleone becomes the very thing he, and his father, had tried so hard to keep him from becoming: a ruthless criminal.
Simple truths, shorn of the sort of silly bells and whistles that characterize many modern films, may be beyond the ability of contemporary audiences to absorb, at least with ease (and modern audiences want everything easy; they apparently don't want to be a part of the story-telling process, as moviegoers in earlier days were. T'is a pity, one that's a harbinger of the death of cinema, and drama in general).
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You mean UNION PACIFIC not "Wells Fargo."
PS: You also mean THE CRUSADES, not "Crusaders."
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> {quote:title=Ascotrudgeracer wrote:}{quote}
> Used to talk to Hollywood oldtimers every chance I got. A studio worker and I got to chatting about "Rear Window" one night and he worked on the set. Claimed the whole thing was built in a hole. When I looked at the movie the other day, I think he was right.
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> Anyone got anything on this?
The roofs of Paramount's soundstages (and, indeed, virtually every soundstage at every studio) are about seventy feet high. When a set is as extensive vertically as REAR WINDOW's was, it may be necessary to excavate below the stage's floor in order to build the set according to the art director's specifications (some stages have removeable floors; most do not. Many of Paramount's stages have storage facilities beneath them, making this kind of adaptation difficult, if not impossible). Remember that one of a soundstage's chief functions is the controlled lighting, meaning that the top 25-30 feet of the stage's height is reserved for light-rigging, so a set can't be more than 35-40 feet high if built from ground level.
If memory serves me correctly, Universal had to excavate below ground level in order to build Project Wildfire's central core in THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN.
Dut to the set's immensity, the Bond film, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE's volcano-crater rocket-launching base was built free-standing, i.e. out in the open, and not inside a sound stage. This was possible because it was only intended for action scenes requiring no recording of dialogue, so sound-proofing was not an issue. REAR WINDOW, on the other hand, was a dialogue-heavy film, so the set had to built on a stage, and the only way to do that was dig, baby, dig.
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First Vince, the ShamWow Guy, nearly has his tongue bitten off by a prostitute (and then beats her up to teach her a lesson), and now this.
Next thing you know, all those late-night Cockney guys will turn up dead at a Manchester United match.
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The ocean liner hit an iceberg. Captain Huxley went down with his ship (what deserved for telling Gregory Peck there was no room for Jews at his hotel).
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How about
MOON OVER MIAMI
MOON OVER PARADOR
MOONFLEET
THE MOONRAKER
RACING WITH THE MOON
MOONSTRUCK
SHOOT THE MOON
THE MOON IS DOWN
BLOOD ON THE MOON
and
RETIK, THE MOON-MENACE
MOON ZERO-TWO
MOON 44
???
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> {quote:title=clore wrote:}{quote}
> >>To my ear, it sounds like longtime MGM director George Sidney. If so, it's really impossible to know whom he's talking about without some context, but if I had to venture a suspicion, I'd say he was referring to Ann-Margret.
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> He must be referring to her performance in *The Swinger* then.
I was thinking of VIVA, LAS VEGAS!, but either way.
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Interestingly, David Niven and Raymond Massey (who played antagonists, of a sort, in Powell & Pressburger's A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH) died on the same day (July 29, 1983), though Massey was 13 1/2 years older).
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> {quote:title=clore wrote:}{quote}
> I'm still trying to figure if that's a real celeb who says "Damn good actress!" in the "Word of Mouth" shorts. It sounds a bit like Martin Landau.
To my ear, it sounds like longtime MGM director George Sidney. If so, it's really impossible to know whom he's talking about without some context, but if I had to venture a suspicion, I'd say he was referring to Ann-Margret.
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Apparently, Bvlgari (that's how they spell it, in the ancient Latin form, with no "u") have a room in their flagship Rome store devoted to Taylor and Richard Burton, concentrating on how they met during the production of CLEOPATRA in the early 1960s.
Still, for all the "bling" they may have on display, I have one piece of jewelry associated with Taylor and CLEO that they don't: Pompey's ring, the simple yet potent device dreamt up by writer-director Joe Mankiewicz to bind the whole massive epic (originally conceived as a pair of 3 1/4-hour films) together dramatically.
You think Signor Bvlgari might like to buy it?
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Oh, I can think of at least two other professions closely associated with acting, one of them quite old...
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THE LOST WEEKEND
THE KILLERS
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
THE DIVORCE OF LADY X
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Now that you mention it, Katharine Hepburn was born to have a bobble-head doll made of her. It'd be like Kate risen from the grave, right there in the room with you.
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I hate all that vile stuff you have to drink the night before a colonoscopy.
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO and the rest are just movies, fer crikey's sake.
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Vey well said.
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}
> This news is incredibly unbelievable. I hope he can be in peace now.
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> I pray that his funeral is not turned into a circus.
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> A loss.
He can be "at peace?"
What about all those little boys he used as popsicles over the years? How much peace do you think they'll ever find (you'd think that pedophile Roman Catholic priests had used up all the available stock)?
I was sick of him while he was alive; there's certainly nothing to mourn now that he's gone.
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> {quote:title=kingrat wrote:}{quote}
> Does anyone know of a good book which discusses the transition of many prominent directors (Lean, Stevens, Wyler, Mann, etc.) to the epic style? This would make a fascinating comparative study.
"Epic style?" Wyler made only one epic in BEN-HUR (and one near epic in THE BIG COUNTRY); Stevens made two (GIANT and THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, though the latter is, if anything, a kind of anti-epic in that it's almost totally a collection of small, even minuscule moments, rather than something conceived as a grand tapestry).
In the end, the subject matter and/or intent dictate the style -- such as it is -- and not the other way 'round. Just because a film may have some big moments -- big in size and scope -- doesn't automatically qualify the film as a whole as an "epic," nor does it necessarily confer on that film's director the mantle of a maker of epics.
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It's just the Ron Popeil Industrial Weed-Whacker, the one he could never get a patent for...
{...}
Message was edited by: TCMWebAdmin
Image stretching the page
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No, Fred, you're wrong. It's not Norma's story, not even close to it.
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In the final analysis, he did it to himself.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
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> {quote:title=AprilH wrote:}{quote}
> I didn't realize there was a longer version of MAD World. Interesting... It's my dad's favorite movie. It would be interesting to see if someone ever takes on the task of completely restoring it...
I'd pay good money to someone to burn the negative and every existing print of that wretched, wretched movie.
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What was said at Cohn's funeral was that everybody turned out to make sure the bastard was dead. I don't remember to whom it's attributed, but it's not Skelton, who had been under contract to MGM (Mayer being his boss), not Cohn's Columbia.
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This action will have three consequences:
1.) The production companies (and this will benefit the major studios most) will be able to advertise more films as "Nominated for Best Picture!", thereby wringing more boxoffice mileage out of what might be otherwise commercially disappointing movies (as compensation for expanding the field of Best Picture nominees to ten, the nine who leave the Oscar ceremonies empty-handed should be required to take out newspaper and TV ads declaring "Failed to win the Oscar for Best Picture!" That'd teach 'em). The above is why the Academy Board of Governors and President Sid Ganis caved in to the studios' demands that the field be expanded, and it's shameful.
2.) The trade papers and TV networks (all five of which are owned by, or sister companies of, major studios: NBCUniversal; Fox; ABC-Disney; the WB; Paramount-Viacom), will reap increased ad revenues from the produiction/distribution companies' promotion of their Best Picture nominees.
3.) The annual Oscar telecasts, already interminally tedious, will grow even longer. Make sure the toilet in your bathroom is in good working order.
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Not that any real, breathing human being has ever been named "Dylan Hunt."
DEAD REMOTE CONTROL! HELP!!!!!
in Information, Please!
Posted
> {quote:title=gagman66 wrote:}{quote}
> Mark,
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> The link worked! Thanks. I just found the recommended substitute remote control! Yikes, it is only $52.98! Why is it so darn expensive? I mean it's just a remote??? Might try to go with the universal ones first and see what happens? Or at least ask about them? I was expecting something more on the order of $18.00 to $20.00. Certainly not over $50.00! Sheesh! Oh by the way, it is also an additional $7.95 for shipping costs!
Always check eBay and Amazon first.
You may also check here:
http://www.remotes.com/?gclid=CJ6XkbDIspsCFRwDagodTAFVPA
http://www.partstore.com/Search/Category/SupercatsRemoteControls.aspx?sw=RemoteControls&s=google&gclid=COSMq7bIspsCFRwDagodTAFVPA
http://www.remotecentral.com/
http://www.replacementremotes.com/