Tikisoo
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Posts posted by Tikisoo
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>At least with My Favorite Wife, she was on a desert island, and she only had Randolph Scott, give the girl some pity. There was no insuation, smarmy wink wink or otherwise, of what Grant did for those seven years.
Dunne was safer than Grant would have been on a deserted island with Randolph Scott! Makes you wonder if there was some kind of inside joke going on there. (or wasn't Hollywood aware of Scott's homosexuality?)
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>There aren't a lot of details that I still remember from the Rob Reiner years.
Nor much memorable from the Bogdanovich years either. Both PB & Reiner are full of personality & opinions, but I don't think hosting The Essentials allows much. Just goes to show what a bull Baldwin is, and I mean that in a good way.
I wish the Essentials gave us more than 2 minutes of discussion before or after the film. People seem to enjoy hearing true discussion of film presented by "experts", or even fans.
Anyone see the photo of Drew & Osborne? She looks teeny next to him-is she? Or is RO a large man? I always pictured him kind of small in stature and Drew as a tall super model type.
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What I don't understand is why the "digital channels" are considered a "higher tier"? When I set up my new digital TV, I instantly received all the HD channels free.
The minute I discontinued my cable subscription and set up an antenna, I received all the "local" channels (about 40) which are the only HD channels anyway. I can't think of ONE cable channel (at least the few that I watched) that was broadcast in HD.
Almost 10 days without cable and I'm not missing it at all. I'm sure catching up on DVDs.
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I recorded it for TikiKid, thinking she'd like it. A lot of the creative shots that dazzled me went unnoticed by her, like the sky, wind, back rounds of rooms. I thought all that added to the "nightmare-like" quality.
TikiKid absolutely was disturbed by the dismembered fingers, head and gory type violence (whoda thought?)
MrTiki was disturbed by the nudity-he said it was one shade away from "kiddie porn".
I wasn't bothered by any of that...it was just a nighmareish fantasy to me & I liked it. Hey Soo!
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>what else has Zsa Zsa REALLY done that makes her such a "legend" ?
Nothing really. Both ZsaZsa and her sister Eva were minor actresses and mostly known for their exotic looks, accents and offbeat personas.
Just goes to show how interested the public is with outrageous beauties.
And I think it gets even more shameful when "celebrities" have public altercations as an old lady as opposed to a spoiled brat kid!
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Thanks for this thread, Max!
I was sent over to look at your "Invisible Woman" poster that opened a Pandora's Box of d/l.
The higher res images make EXCELLENT DVD covers for whatever I've recorded from TCM, and the lower res make fantastic refrigerator magnets.
The key is to bring them to a real photo finisher @ .35?/print, not print them yourself.
You uncannily seem to choose the very films I'm interested in!
Thank you for taking the time...I certainly appreciate it.
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I was just in Best Buy yesterday and saw two 3D TVs set up for comparison. I took a look at both....meh. It sort of looks like a "pop-up book" effect-flat images standing on different planes. I think viewing 3D movies might be tiring after awhile.
>My personal recommendation are Sony players.
Sonys are good quality workhorses reasonably priced. My Sony VCR is 15 y/o and still works, although I don't use it. My 10 y/o DVD player cost around $130 but is getting crotchety. I am looking forward to replacing it with a BR soon & join your world FL-I think we have the same brand-loyal set-up.
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Whew! Let's hope my DVR recorded it ok. Happy to send you a copy of it Dargo if you PM me your addy.
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Thanks for that great explanation, Jonas. This was actually a topic of discussion among my RL friends last evening.
I was told the purpose of BluRay is not really to "cook" or alter the image as much as to present the density of pixel quality my big TV can handle.
I also noticed in filmlover's comparative photos the whites aren't whiter and the blacks aren't blacker, as I see in high definition - a look I really dislike.
The contrast in FL photos actually seem to be less contrast-y in hues, enriching the colors - kind of reminding me of the look of Robin Hood (which always seems to be just a tad bit sepia) or a late 40's Fox musical.
It's going to be interesting viewing a BR when I've seen the actual 35mm projection... like 2001 A Space Odyssy!
I've kept the last paragraph of your post so I remember to set up my TV when I get the BR player.
Thanks!
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I'm not completely sold on BluRay disks yet, but when my 15 year old Sony DVD player craps out (soon), I'll be replacing it with a Sony BluRay player. The library now carries BR DVDs, so I'll watch them & let you know what I think.
Somehow, the sharpness of "seeing the wallpaper patterns" seems weird because that's not how your eyes "see". Film is so much lovelier than digital because it "sees" like your eyes "see"- backrounds are out of focus. I also find colors often look "cooked in PhotoShop" in a BR image, not unlike HD (yuk). What will happen to subtle colors orchestrated by the art director in films like *Black Narcissus?* Will they pop out like *Pleasantville?*
Hopefully, those uprezzing classic films bear all this in mind and don't make them look like cartoons. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy BR disks, but won't bother to actually spend more for one, nor replace my DVD collection.
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Well, I did it-cut my cable off. I called the 31st to cancel and the gal on the phone understood completely, she said a lot of people are discontinuing their cable. She said it would be cut the 8th. Woo-hoo free for a week.
Then I get a desperate call from a salesperson who also seemed to understand the issue. She confirmed the ESPN stronghold and said it was exactly like the MSG issue last year. MSG was dropped by TWcable rather than have their customers held hostage by one channel.
re:http://www.rolloverorgettough.com/
After speaking with her awhile, she offered me a "special rate" of cable for a year at $44/month to stay. While tempting, I just decided to get rid of it altogether. The truck was here immediately & cut the cord.
MrTiki has the big premium cable package and my DVR is now set up over there on TCM for choice movies.
If they can offer $44/month as a "special" rate, why can't they just lower the regular rate of $70/month for everyone? Even something in between like $55/month would be better than losing customers altogether.
I know it was a joke SansFin, but not everyone follows those "older rules". I certainly don't in my small business. Maybe that's why I can't afford cable.
At least my customers leave me smiling & happy, and that's way more rewarding than living a virtual life.
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>We have been told that ESPN makes it a requirement that it be carried on all levels of service. A cable company must include it in even their lowest tier if they wish to have any of the other channels owned or controlled by Disney/Hearst.
Wow, thanks for clarifying that! It makes my cutting the cord decision even easier-I do NOT patronize Disney in any way, mostly in honor of Walt himself. He'd be spinning in his grave if he knew what his company became. Does Disney own Sesame St or Dr Suess yet?
Reading these comments about Gates/MS, Disney/ESPN, only 1 cable company per city, etc it sure seems like these big businesses operate right on the fringe of the law, requiring court battles & decisions about their business practices.
And if they are deemed "legal" the heelots strong arm consumers into doing what's beneficial for the company, not the customer. This creates a workforce that are distant, disillusioned and disgusted instead of proud of their company.
What ever happened to "providing a service" or "free enterprise" or "honest competition"?
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>How did this particular interest begin for you, and how has it developed since then?
As a kid my interest in movies began by watching them on TV, either Saturday or after school weekdays. By high school age, I was skipping classes to catch screenings of pre-codes & silents at the Eastman House. I quickly learned the value of "real film viewed with an audience" experience.
Cable has exposed me to many more movies, but finding local classic screenings has become my "niche" interest.
>If you were to think of your interest in films as a ?career? at what stage would you be at?
Not to harp too much on the grammar issue, but I "be at" the mature stage where I can really pick & choose my "roles".
>How did you go about seeking information and rounding out your film knowledge, and what did you do with that information once you had it?
Attending screenings and discussing/listening to others has helped the most in rounding out my film knowledge, but I also very much enjoy reading books about classic Hollywood.
It's plain to see I am passing this love to other members of my family. They look forward to their own "private screenings" of my recommendations and even attend classic Film Festivals with me.
>How long have you considered yourself a film-buff? Do you think this interest will continue to further develop in the future?
I've only considered myself a film buff recently, when I realized most people don't even know names like Zasu Pitts or Thelma Todd. People within my circle of friends & family look to me as the authority, while I look to my film collector friends.
>Can you think of a time when your interest in film was at an ?all time high?? (Or is it currently at an all time high?)
I think my interest is always piqued by discovering something great, whether a new film or old one. "Discovering something great" happens less frequently as time goes on.
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This thread has a life outside the 'net and is discussed often with friends & family.
I was discussing the "chart" posted by Dobbsey (re http://forums.tcm.com/thread.jspa?threadID=163485&tstart=0) of 2009 cable subscriber fees per station.
While the bulk of channels cost under 50? with a sprinkling of 8 channels just under $1, Fox Sports is over $2 & ESPN over $4.00, a big chasm between "most" and "a few". (I realize that's old info, but the principle is the same today)
If _I_ were a cable company, and my customers were dropping like flies because of the price increases, I would change my "tiers" to reflect the subscription costs of the networks.
I'd throw ESPN & Fox Sports off the "mainstream" cable tier and bump it onto a "premium" tier as a "sports package" alongside HBO, Showtime & On Demand. I'm sure those who want it would pay for it, no problem.
That way, households could choose the least expensive "local" tier, or the next "100 mainstream" tier or the "premium" tier.
It makes perfect sense to me.
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Thanks for all the info on this film...set to record it too.
I have an oddball film poster collection and the above poster is in it. Love Jack Webb, the pose, the stark contrast, etc. The bongo player image is what sold it to me though.
Glad it's a decent movie too. We don't see enough of Jack Webb outside of Dragnet. Noticed next month Pete Kelly's Blues will be broadcast on TCM. Love that one!
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I'm glad for all your comments-I haven't watched it yet, but recorded it for future viewing.
I love Polanski's artistic directing style also and when I read Maltin's synopsis thought it DVD worthy. Like other fave directors like Kubrick & Cassavetes, it's not always the story that I enjoy, but the telling of the story. Not a lot of directors stand out above their films.
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>As for the Palance flick that closes out the day, I'd try to get it if you could.
The day turned out to be a big problem...I couldn't change disks because away at work (damn work!) So all I got was the 2 pre-codes early in the day. After returning home got Women's Prison and chose the Polanski film (Maltin gives it 4 stars) overnight.
Upon your recommendations, I watched the Palance film & loved it. I thought he did a great job in his dual roles and man that gal was gorgeous. It was a fun film, although incredibly unrealistic, even for the times. (MrTiki is a prison guard, hence his love for the genre-they're almost comedies to him)
And of COURSE I fell asleep in the last 2 minutes!
Would anyone like to tell me what happened? I saw the part where the detective calls the brother & wife in on an anonymous tip. I know they must've been caught, but how?Also, the images of San Quentin were great. Anyone know if the 3 story multiblock cel was real or a set?
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>It's not as time-consuming as one might think (I do it all the time)...if you do it a certain way,
Heh, I should have clarified: I meant it's time consuming to sit down & actually LOOK THROUGH a tape to see if there's anything you want to actually save to DVD.
Of course commercial VHS tapes only contain one movie. I have several tapes of TV news spots, home videos of parties, etc...painful to watch.
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>I also could not face the daunting prospect, so I gave up on recording all of my VHS tapes on to my DVDs.
Easy. You can hook up your DVD recorder directly to your VHS machine. It's time consuming to sit there & edit it all in/out, but it's do-able.
When shopping for a DVD recorder recently, I spotted a VHS/DVD all-in-one unit at Best Blow for $175. If you have a LOT of good quality VHS tapes, it's totally worth buying just for the simplicity.
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>Universal Studios cut almost 20 minutes from MotRM" because of violent sequences in the film.
I just watched my recording last night (seen it screened before!) and wondered if the interjected snippets of the "real" chimpanzee to the "man in gorilla suit" was supposed to represent the ape **** the girl? Or do I just have a filthy mind?
>His classic training and central European good looks aside, they probably saw him as a one dimensional comodity. Lugosi's breadth and depth as an actor was never fully utilized by any studio
Well said sepiatone. I find Lugosi very charming, key to his performance as Dracula. I would have loved to have seen him in romantic leading parts. Seems we all really recognise & enjoy his intense style of acting, he doesn't come across as hammy like Laughton or Barrymore. He's just captivating.
In one of our screenings of a Lugosi film, they included an early short interview with Lugosi at his home. He certainly was a handsome, elegant man. I feel sorry that his talent went unrecognised by the moguls and he received such shoddy treatment as second billing & typecast roles.
I am most saddened that an entire generation will only think of him as a drug addict from that Burton film.
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Thanks for the cool info, Thelma! I'm Hungarian and just LOVE knowing there are so many Hungarians involved in classic film. My grandmother claimed to be a distant relative to B?la and she certainly resembled him as she aged.
Although I don't speak it, my understanding of the "S" is often pronounced like "ts" as in "Tse tse" fly. I also remember calling aunties "Szit-szee" is that correct? Our name was common Szerba (homogenized by Kevin Sorbo & my boss George Sherba)
My Nana (Terakish) had Alzheimers late in life and I came to live & care for her. I often heard her through the walls talking Hungarian in her sleep -very spooky-like The Haunting! And when she went into the nursing home she'd terrorize bedridden clients by standing in their doorway, making a threatening face & clawing the air like B?la as Dracula!
I certainly have inherited the macabre & artistic personality of my heritage.
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Lombard's death was a terrible shock, but people die in accidents all the time. Some cutie I just recently saw in a pre-code had died before she was 30 in a car accident. James Dean. Awful.
Substance abuse death is a tragedy mostly because if you catch them, you may be able to help them before it's too late.
What about Harlow dying from a fully preventable condition at 29 (?)
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Glad I'm not the lone voice willing to drop my cable XRay. Maybe together, we'll be sending them a clear message.
I've been an Earthlink customer for over 15 years & love them. When financial times first hit hard, I downgraded from high speed to dialup and even THAT works fine for me! But you're not SAVING anything "bundling", and I'd venture to guess that's why you've hearing horror stories about Earthlink - why not just buy your services directly?
>How would you contact them if they cancel your account when you lose both telephone service and e-mail access?
Bingo! Re my FIOS experience mentioned a page earlier.
>I have downloaded several films from itunes but the quality of the picture isn't anywhere close to dvds.
And this is why I won't bother to upgrade my internet connection to supplement my "movie fix". Maybe I'm uninformed, but when I've watched movies d/l off the 'net with friends, it's been substandard (to ME) I'm trying to break the subscription addiction (no Netflix) and I don't want to combine my computer with my TV anyway.
>They have the technology to allow those who want it to get whatever channels they want, rather than bundling them. But they don't have to, so they don't.
Really? Then WHY does every cable "service"
charge exactly the same $70 for the same channels? Do they have some unwritten agreement not to undercut each other? I'm sure that's really "the cost of business" to subscribe to those channels, or one company would charge $25 for cable subscription and grab 99% of the market.
Many "channels" are chains, like Discovery which is a package of Disc/AnPl/Hist/FitTV/etc. So even the channels "bundle" giving the cable companies a "buy one, get one free" mentality.
Seeya Cable Heelots!
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OK Mark (and anyone else who knows these films) I need help weeding through "prison" day. I certainly can't record the entire day.
NUMBERED MEN (1930)
PERSONAL PROPERTY (1937)
I'll put these on 1 disk as a "double feature" love pre-code & Harlow
EACH DAWN I DIE (1939)
I'll need this to complete my "gangster" set
MILLIONAIRES IN PRISON (1940)
GET-AWAY, THE (1941)
INSIDE THE WALLS OF FOLSOM PRISON (1951)
These three I am totally unsure about. Are any really worth watching or more importantly, keeping?
WOMEN'S PRISON (1955)
A definite "keeper" for my women's prison set.
Think I'm going to skip House of Numbers-it sounds kind of goofy. But I also think I better snag up The Invisible Man for my "classic horror" set.
REPULSION (1965)
Roman Polanski....worth recording or just boring?
Yes, I am unsubscribing to cable Feb 1st. I cannot justify (I'm self employed!) spending $70/month for ONE TV station, which is all I watch. I'll be recording the occasional choice TCM film from a neighboring house to supplement DVD watching. So this kind of thread will be very important in my near future.
Charter Cable Has Removed TCM from Basic Lineup
in General Discussions
Posted
> I had to make two returns in recent months, based on poor construction which revealed itself over less than a year. How that contrasts with my old LL Bean chamois shirt, which I got as a Christmas gift 40 years ago!
Haha I have one of those shirts too Swithin - stolen from a bf 30+ years ago! It's funny the quality goes down while the prices stay high. And I have real UGGs bought in Australia in '84, but won't wear them anymore since everyone else does. (vintage ones are a lot nicer)
Yeah and I love technology too (Ima former Mac tech) but just don't feel the need for constantly upgrading or staying connected.
Only 40 years ago 50% of US clothing was manufactured in the US. All of you with HBO should see the documentary "Schmatta" (rags) to learn more about it. I'm off to NC and will see no fewer than 3 factory tours, one - my beloved Thorlo sock mills.
You'd be surprised how easy it is to forge your own path. I've never been in a Wal*Mart and never missed it. I find real shetland wool sweaters at thrift stores or estate sales for under $5. Dial-up works just fine for wiling away my time here, email and the basic stuff I need to do. Never missed YouTube nonsense even one minute.
My one weakness was TV, my biggest pleasure. I could easily watch 4 movies in a row, mostly during my 8 hour workday. I once took a lunch break from Cinefest and while home...WATCHED A MOVIE.
No one could BELIEVE I'd give up my cable, and frankly only could because MrTiki can afford it. I set up my DVR at his house next door and record 2-3 movies a week on TCM. The library has all those Fox musicals TCM can't get, MST3K & even BluRay.
My funny story:
Last night I was over there and my first thought was, "What's on TCM?" The last 30 minutes of In Cold Blood went into North By Northwest.
It's surprisingly easy to downgrade, life is great & I miss nothing.