CineSage_jr
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Posts posted by CineSage_jr
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It reminds me a little of a contemporary feature, a shipboard disaster flick starring Bob Stack, Woody Strode, and I think Dorothy Malone. There was an aging captain most of the crew thought past his prime. Airs occasionally on TCM. Title anyone?
You mean it was contempraneous with the making and release of THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (if you consider a six-year gap between the two films "the same time"); if it had just been made now, then it would be contemporary.
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Bob Dorian was an idiot, plain and simple. The man never met a name he couldn't mispronounce, regardless of how illustrious the name's owner might be.
As for his being "informative," he was fed the same studio-publicist fantasies clipped from old film pressbooks that are also the downfall of Osborne and Mankiewicz, who obviously don't vet the copy they're given to speak.
No, unless TCM decides to give its hosting duties to someone who's truly knowledgeable, such as a Peter Bogdonovich, viewers will continue to be ill-served by these pointless introductions and closing comments.
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Welles, by then a veteran director, had with director of photography Gregg Toland pioneered the use of deep focus on Welles' first film, 1941's "Citizen Kane." That meant more realism and fluidity for the camera, which could now present a foreground, middle ground and background. The apotheosis of this is reached in tracking shots that hold a film's realism for long periods.
Welles never intended to open TOUCH OF EVIL with that shot; by the time it came 'round to film the opening scenes, Welles was already so far behind schedule that the studio was threatening to replace him as director, or shut the film down. Rather than allow that to happen, Welles conceived of a way to meld the entire opening sequence of shots into one continuous tracking shot; as complex as that shot is, and even taking into account the danger of blown takes that would necessitate going back and shooting the whole thing from the beginning, use of the tracking shot allowed Welles to eliminate a score of camera set-ups and the lighting rigging each would've required, the equivalent of tearing several pages from the script and tossing them into the trash can.
By the end of that long, cold night in Venice, CA, Welles was back on schedule.
Still, any shot that has viewers saying to themselves or others, "what a great shot," is a bad shot, as it does, indeed, take the viewer out of the movie and paints a picture of a director more intent on proving what a great artiste and genius he is, than he is in telling his story.
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My wife says that I can watch "Born Yesterday" as many times as I want, just as long as I don't start talking like Broderick Crawford.
Seems to me that Judy Holliday impressions are the ones specifically calculated to drive listeners to distraction.
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How's this, bewitched, ol' pal: with the possible exception of Chevy Chase, Red Skelton was probably the un-funniest person who ever lived.
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It was what it was... I accept that.
Everything was what it was...and I defy you to prove otherwise.
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I have heard so many things as to why THE AFRICAN QUEEN has not been released I don't know which is true. The last I heard was that Paramount was working on the restoration. Paramount now owns the Republic library so I can't see what the problem is with THE QUIET MAN.
Paramount has done a restoration, but that in itself won't get them to release the film on DVD if there are legal-rights issues.
As for the studio owning Republic's library, that's a generalized statement that often means little when it comes to home video. Warner Bros. "owns" the RKO library, which gives them complete freedom as to theatrical and (in this case) home video releases, but they do not own the underlying intellectual rights; if someone -- including Warner Bros. -- wants to do a re-make of an RKO title, they have to buy those rights from RKO Pictures LLC., a corporate entity organized in 1989 for the sole purpose of managing those intellectual rights that were not transferred when A: RKO General and RKO Pictures sold their rights to Turner Broadcasting, while United Artists (which had acquired some rights to many RKO titles) was acquired by MGM. Warner's later purchase of the MGM holdings, and subsequent merger with Turner, finally returned all the rights (except intellectual) to a single rights-holder.
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He's liable to wake up to find himself on airplane flying over the Himalayas, with the jawbone of the only megatherium ever found in Asia in his lap.
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Paramount released this film on laser in the 1990s. For now I am holding on to my copy. If Paramount is not interested in releasing such classics from their library as THE QUIET MAN or THE AFRICAN QUEEN they certainly have no intention of releasing HOUDINI. This is a company who's only interest is releasing old TV series. They are hopeless.
You misunderstand Paramount's interest (or lack of it) in these three films. Unlike HOUDINI, which the studio owns outright, THE AFRICAN QUEEN and THE QUIET MAN were acquired by the studio. Paramount would love to release both (Borgart's Oscar-winning role, and one of Wayne's most beloved efforts) but it does not as yet own the films without legal encumbrances vis-a-vis DVD release. The legal wheels grind slowly in this sort of matter, and it's only a matter of time until they are finally available for release.
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A couple of years ago, The Fox Movie Channel ran it several times.I know because I recorded it.I haven't seen it listed since. Just checked FMC website and they don't have it listed. If Fox no longer has the rights, I'm surprised they showed it.
Fox is a funny studio, they keep a very tight grip on their older films, yet show few of them on their own channel. I'm pleased to see some Fox titles showing up on TCM, but from what the programmer said, these are small short-term deals. It would be great if TCM could strike a long-term arrangement with Fox and get the older, seldom seen films out of the vault. Oh well, one can dream.
You're confusing the 1940 Fox version with the '76 Russian film.
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Yes, it's Viertel, all right; he's just older than you're used to seeing him.
Here, take a look for yourself:
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Paramount keeps the negative to HOUDINI chained inside the Chinese water-torture cell left over from the film; if the footage can somehow manage an escape on its own, they'll release it on DVD.
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It's obvious that the stamp's painting was taken from a photograph in which Davis was holding her ubiquitous cigarette. The painter, at the behest of postal authorities, eliminated the offensive object and its foul cloud (and streaks of ash on Davis's clothing) in the interest of the stamp's remaining inoffensive to modern sensibilities.
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Frankie Laine.
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Only two are truly indispensible: TCM and MSNBC.
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It Happened One Night,
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
American Madness
Mr. Deeds goes to Town
and
You Can't take it with you.
All of these films are amazing and these films are only available in this box set.
Only AMERICAN MADNESS is available only as part of the set; the rest have been available for years as single discs.
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Lugosi's most pretigious film role is as a commissar in NINOTCHKA, with Garbo.
Karloff did more mainstream films than any of the other actors you mentioned, vast numbers during the silent era, and sound films including THE LOST PATROL, with Victor McLaglen, FIVE-STAR FINAL, with Edward G. Robinson, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, with Danny Kaye, and DeMille's UNCONQUERED, with Gary Cooper.
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The film is also known as THE EASY WAY.
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It sounds like one of the sub-plots in No?l Coward's IN WHICH WE SERVE (and, yes, there are submarines in the movie).
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Does the Cinerama Dome ever play movies in true Cinerama???
I wish I had a Cinerama theater near me...
Until the Dome was refurbished a few years ago (to very little effect), they never did, including the heyday of the three-panel process that began in 1952, and concluded with HOW THE WEST WAS WON in 1963. Since then a couple of films have taken advantage of that all-out-of-proportion screen, but it's a question of too little, too late.
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Considering that Henie was under contract to 20th Century-Fox and, at the peak of her career, the highest-paid woman in America, I seriously doubt that Sam Goldwyn would've spent the money it would have cost for her to double Loretta Young in an uncredited long-shot.
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I posted Frank Capra, jr's, obituaries on the 22nd:
http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?threadID=119871&tstart=30
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The Cinerama Dome, which is just down the street from my home, as got to be the worst film venue I have ever had the misfortune to visit.
Because of the radical curvature of the screen (quite useless for showing anything other than true three-panel Cinerama), there are only a handful of seats in the house (in the front of the balcony) where the picture is not appallingly distorted at one, or both ends of the frame.
Add to it that the dome's design and construction lend atrocious acoustics to even the best and most polished soundtrack, and it's clear that one has to be a well-moneyed masochist to inflict Dome on him'herself.
Moderator please read Metz posts
in Games and Trivia
Posted
Well, it's only right that at least one of the IDs should state the poster's I.Q.