coffeedan1927

Make your VCR happy by taping these two Hitchcock thrillers tonight: 2:00 am, ROPE (1948) -- Hitchcock's first Technicolor film, and the first starring James Stewart, who made a real sea-change in his movie career at this time. Hitchcock attempted to make this movie in one continuous take, with some clever close-ups to hide the breaks between reels. A technical success, critics were (and are) divided on its artistic success. The story concerns two students (John Dall and Farley Granger) who murder a fellow student as a thrill and then throw a dinner party with the corpse still hidden in the room. Does the whole thing work? You be the judge. 3:30 am, MURDER (1930) -- Hitch's second talking film, and his first and only "whodunit." Herbert Marshall is sitting on the jury during a murder trial, and is the only member to hold out for conviction based on the evidence. He is bullied into voting for conviction anyway, but sets out to find the real murderer before the judge can pass sentence. Although the film drew some fire for its "trick" ending, it is notable for the way it balances theatrical and cinematic conventions (check out the final scene of the picture). Also worth noting is that the leading lady, Norah Baring, is still alive today at the age of 90!

Set your VCRs tonight to catch HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948) at 4:15 am. This is an absorbing police procedural about the tracking of a Los Angeles cop killer, based on a true story. Richard Basehart gives a strong performance as the killer, but it's the behind-the-scenes look at how the police discover and apply clues and evidence that really makes the film work. A young Jack Webb plays a forensic chemist in the film, and it inspired him to create the radio (and later TV) series Dragnet the following year. He used two notable elements from the film: the term "dragnet" and the opening disclaimer: "The names have been changed to protect the innocent." LA Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn was the technical adviser on the film, and worked in the same capacity for many years on Dragnet.

Set your VCRs tonight to catch HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948) at 4:15 am. This is an absorbing police procedural about the tracking of a Los Angeles cop killer, based on a true story. Richard Basehart gives a strong performance as the killer, but it's the behind-the-scenes look at how the police discover and apply clues and evidence that really makes the film work. A young Jack Webb plays a forensic chemist in the film, and it inspired him to create the radio (and later TV) series Dragnet the following year. He used two notable elements from the film: the term "dragnet" and the opening disclaimer: "The names have been changed to protect the innocent." LA Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn was the technical adviser on the film, and worked in the same capacity for many years on Dragnet.

I've got to get in a good word for a great movie coming up at 10:30 am today -- the 1931 version of THE MALTESE FALCON, scheduled under its re-release title DANGEROUS FEMALE. The chief attraction here is the pre-code script, which in several places shows what the 1941 remake only tells. The cast is interesting, too. Chief among thema are Ricardo Cortez, whose smiling SOB persona was perfect for Sam Spade; wisecracking Una Merkel as Effie Perrine, Sam's secretary; Bebe Daniels as Brigid O'Shaughnessy, who looks DAMNED GOOD in a negligee; Thelma Todd in a surprisingly good performance as Iva Archer; Dudley Digges as a decidedly different Kaspar Gutman; and a brooding Dwight Frye as his gunsel, Wilmer. This version has its strengths and weaknesses, but is a prime example of how a good script can carry a picture, and definitely worth your attention.

This exchange reminds me of an old Jewish saying: "If one man calls you an ****, pay him no mind. If two men call you an ****, get a saddle."

Before IT STARTED WITH EVE (1941), Deanna Durbin and Robert Cummings also starred in THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP (1939) and SPRING PARADE (1940). Can you provide any more details?

Well, as I said elsewhere, I recently jumped on an offer to get a free DVD player with a purchase of 10 DVDs from Critic's Choice Video & DVD. I had bought CITIZEN KANE on DVD a few months ago in anticipation of the event, and the 10 I just got are: 42ND STREET THE GREAT ZIEGFELD SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940 THE MALTESE FALCON THE BIG SLEEP MISTER ROBERTS BEN-HUR (1959) NORTH BY NORTHWEST THE MUSIC MAN One thing I forgot to mention earlier (ML's going to love this): I checked the mail this morning, and I just got THE JOLSON STORY and JOLSON SINGS AGAIN from Columbia House! Now I'm really going to be unbearable . . .

Ask yourself this question: Would you like THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, THE WIZARD OF OZ, GONE WITH THE WIND, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, etc. just as much if they were filmed in black and white?

Guess again, leo -- TCM will be showing a whole evening of Abbott & Costello movies on July 23!

Mutiny, the Marx Brothers made a short silent film called HUMOR RISK around 1920. It was shot by an independent New York company, and unfortunately no prints survive. By himself, Harpo Marx also had a small role in a 1925 Richard Dix picture, TOO MANY KISSES.

Thanks so much for jumping in, tcmprogrammer! (Could that be you, Charlie T.? If so, we've talked before.) I'm primarily a fan of silents, early talkies, and pre-code pictures, but I also like to be surprised, so I sample everything you've got in the TCM mix. Heck, I even liked the Bollywood festival you did last year! TCM is truly one-stop shopping for the classic movie fan. Just keep on doing what you're doing, because if TCM ever went down the tubes, I'd dump my cable and throw out my TV set, because it's practically all I watch now. Your efforts to keep TCM great are much appreciated!

In the case of UP THE RIVER (not only Spencer Tracy's first film, but Humphrey Bogart's second film), it's available only in a very choppy print. I saw it at the Emery Theatre here in Cincinnati a number of years ago, and I later taped it off FMC, back in the days when it was still available as part of the standard Time Warner cable package (we have to pay an extra $34 a month for it now). In both cases, the film was so tattered the continuity was hard to follow, especially in the closing reels. Maybe the powers that be think it's too hard for a modern audience to follow. They may be right . . .

It's a 1927 two-strip Technicolor short entitled THE FLAG. The main plot involves George Washington (Francis X. Bushman) entreating Betsy Ross (Enid Bennett) to design a new flag for the emerging American nation. But there's also a subplot where Washington paroles a young British officer who has crossed enemy lines to visit his wife. In doing so, Washington expresses his hope that the Americans and the British will someday be united in a common cause, and that is where the film dissolves to the battlefields of the first World War, where the American, British, and French flags are marching side by side. In the past, this short has often had its own slot in the schedule, but I've seen it screened more recently as a "From the Vaults" segment airing right before Silent Sunday Nights. However, it is firmly scheduled to be shown again on TCM on July 3 at 5:15 am.

It's interesting that you bring up THE CAT'S PAW. When I was watching HAROLD LLOYD: THE THIRD GENIUS on Tuesday, there was no mention at all of this film, either in commentary or film clips. The chronology just jumped from MOVIE CRAZY to THE MILKY WAY with nothing in between. Now, I'm aware that the reputation of THE CAT'S PAW has suffered in recent years. I think it was Richard Schickel who described it in his book on Harold Lloyd as "a dog, the worst picture Harold Lloyd ever made." So when TCM showed the film for the first time two years ago, I was prepared to suffer through it simply because it was Harold Lloyd. I didn't have to. In fact, I found THE CAT'S PAW an utterly charming and captivating film. What's more, I like it better each time I watch it. But at the same time, I can see why Lloyd's talking films were less successful than his silent films. When you put them in historical content, the sunny optimism of Lloyd's films seems curiously out of place in the cynical '30s. It was a different time, yet Lloyd made no real changes in his filmmaking methods up to the time he made MOVIE CRAZY in 1932. Sound tended to slow the pace of comedy as well, and most comedians had trouble adapting. Age might have had something to do with it. too. Lloyd was 36 when he made his first talkie, WELCOME DANGER, in 1929 -- a time when 35 was considered middle-aged. Now consider that Lloyd was 42 when THE MILKY WAY was completed, and he was playing the same basic wide-eyed innocent that he had been playing for 15 years, and -- well, you get the picture. It's also interesting to note that, while the critics praised his talking pictures, each one was less profitable than the last. Lloyd was retaining his old audience, but he wasn't winning any new fans, and therein lay the problem. But, ironically, it's the sunny optimism and can-do spirit that make his films fresh and appealing today.

Get well, ML! Hope you're feeling better soon! Miss you on the trivia boards! JOLSON LIVES! Coffee Dan

Nick and I commented on this over in the Silent Films folder. The short answer is that the distributor probably sent them the wrong movie. For the long answer, go to the Silent Films folder in the Genre Forums.

It wasn't a bait and switch, Nick. What probably happened is the distributor sent them the wrong movie. That's probably why there were no "Tonight on TCM" announcements or Robert Osborne intro -- everything was set up for CHAMPAGNE, and they didn't have it. When that happens -- particularly at an automated station -- a lot of times the only option is to pull all relevant interstitials and just keep on going the best you can with what you've got. I've seen this problem both as a college film programmer and when I worked at a TV station. When a station cites "technical difficulties" as the reason for not presenting a program, nine times out of ten it's due to a wrong delivery or a tape lost in transit. And when you consider the tight schedules that distributors and stations run on these days, it's surprising that it doesn't happen more often.

I like the scene in ANCHORS AWEIGH where sailor Gene Kelly calls up a girl for a date, and he's caressing the mouthpiece of the phone while he's sweet-talking her . . great stuff!

No, this is a phenomenon of the digital age. I learned this little bit about radio and TV digital processing while I was working in radio. If you were receiving an analog TV signal, and it went out, the screen would go black. But digital signals are the rule today, and the signal is programmed to save a few minutes of information just in case it goes out, to fill any blank space. What you see when the picture freezes is the last bit of information saved at the time the signal went out. However, more audio than video can be saved in the same space, which is why you'll sometimes hear the sound continue for a time while the picture is frozen.

I turned 46 last December, and my mother swears my love of old movies must be pre-natal. When she was pregnant with me, she would do the laundry and fold and iron while she was watched the One O'Clock Movie on TV. She loved watching Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, and Ronald Colman most of all. After I was born, she would set up my playpen in front of the TV, and we would watch the One O'Clock Movies together. Even today, while I'm watching a classic film I think I haven't seen before, certain scenes and bits of dialogue will seem oddly familiar. It's a weird experience, and I figure it's due to all those old movies I unconsciously absorbed in my early childhood. I was also a literary prodigy of sorts, and I did my first high school term paper on the coming of sound in the movies when I was 15, using mostly primary and secondary sources, since there were no books on it at the time. I got to be so knowledgable on the topic I even gave special lectures in my university days! I still think the late silent/early talkie period is the most fascinating part of film history, and I'm still collecting material on it today.

Next . . . let's try connecting Shirley Temple with Colin Farrell!

Okay, let's see . . . Lyda Roberti was in TORCH SINGER with Claudette Colbert, who was in WITHOUT RESERVATIONS with John Wayne, who was in TRUE GRIT with Dennis Hopper, who was in RUMBLE FISH with Matt Dillon, who was in DEUCES WILD with Frankie Muniz. And I almost did that without looking at the IMDb!

Mongo, TCM started showing a Bowery Boys movie (and a few of the East Side Kids movies, too) every Monday morning at 6 am, and it's going to continue on a fairly consistent basis through the month of May, at least.

I think you're referring to the 1937 film A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS, where Fred Astaire dances in a funhouse with George Burns and Gracie Allen.

Me too! And they won't stop airing it until the YFCC ends on March 31!