Swithin

*Cold Comfort Farm* (1995) Next: Casino in China

I used to go to many of those late '70s - early '80s horror flicks. I remember The Manitou, haven't seen it since it came out. Enjoyable as I recall. Am I remembering correctly that there's a scene in which Tony Curtis throws a typewriter at the creature, saying, "Take that, Manitou!"

Not such a wild guess, but not the one.

*The Loved One* is one of the brilliant, crazy films. In a film with many extraordinary performances by great and famous actors, including Jonathan Winters, the prize for uniqueness has to go to Ayllene Gibbons as Mrs. Joyboy, the mother of Rod Steiger's character. It's interesting to compare the grotesque eating scene in The Loved One, directed by Tony Richardson a few years after he made Tom Jones, with the sensual eating scene featuring Albert Finney and Joyce Redman in Tom Jones.

*Cleve Duncan*, who died on November 7, was not an actor, director, or film technician. He was the lead singer of the Penguins and as such was the lead tenor of "Earth Angel," the 1954 hit that was featured in many movies. The unmistakeable sound of the song transports us back to the era of early doo-****. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jznZQXaSYPo

Millicent Fritton/Clarence Fritton -- Alastair Sim in *The Belles of St. Trinians*

Colbert or Taylor, during the cocktail hour.

*Babbitt* ?

*Auntie Mame* (1958) has several scenes set around Christmas time.

With respect, SansFin, this board exists, presumably for our enjoyment, but also as a valuable tool for TCM to gauge the opinions of many of its viewers. Organizations encourage blogs not only for the pleasure of the posters; also for a valuable look into viewers' opinions -- positive and negative. Not to express our less than positive opinions, on those rare occasions when they may be called for, is not to live up to our responsibilities as bloggers. I sincerely hope that you haven't accepted anything in life that you thought you couldn't change, but actually might have changed for the better! You'll never know... So perhaps one can accept the reality that there should be both positive posts and (albeit many fewer) negative critiques on this board, without end (i.e. sans fin)! But with respect, of course.

SansFin wrote: "The rotation of movies receiving such treatment shows me that it is a carefully constructed strategy and one which we must accept as they are doing what is in the best interest of the channel." I agree with your comments that it is important to present criticism in an appropriate manner; however, your comments above would deprive anyone of any criticism of any corporate entity, because you think "we must accept..." etc. By those criteria, all that justified criticism of NBC for their poor coverage of the Olympic opening ceremony would have been silenced. And so, while I agree with part of your remarks, I strongly disagree with your "carefully constructed strategy... they know best" remarks. Good institutions suffer because such attitudes lead to lack of criticism which leads to complacency on the part of corporations/institutions.

I've already commented on the Oscar month schedule. It should have, could have been so much more inventive. But TCM does respond to requests and shows premieres, often. I'd been asking for the 1948 UK Ivan Barnett *The Fall of the House of Usher*, which is my favorite version of that story. I know it's an odd film, and I don't know if my request had anything to do with it, but TCM did screen it the week before Holloween. I was in London and so recorded it, but I'm so looking forward to watching it, after all these years! I've worked for a non-profit cultural institution in NYC for many decades. The institution does so much good, that people tend not to criticize it. That has led to complacency and lack of imagination, on occasion. So to those who say TCM gives us so much and does so much good (true) that we shouldn't criticize when we feel they're not doing their best, I say, we should express ourselves, both positively and negatively, on those rare occasions when the latter is warranted.

I was going to ask you what OT means, but I just looked it up: Off-topic. My degree is in Theology/History of Religions, and when I see OT, I automatically think "Old Testament."

*Navy Blues* (1941), which stars Ms Raye along with Ann Sheridan, Jack Oakie, and Jack Haley, is a very enjoyable film. I'd like to see it again.

This has relatively little to do with your question, but I knew *Victor Spinetti*, who was in a few of the Beatles films. He died a few months ago, lovely man. I even once had dinner with his mother Lily. Victor loved working with the Beatles and often talked about his experiences with them.

I hadn't gone into that thread, since I find the "hi I'm new here threads..." to be extremely corny and tedious and not necessary. (I know, I know, some of you probably think they're nice). I did go in when I saw that it had been locked, since I had hopes that the locking meant that the TCM Admin also couldn't bear the saccharine nature of such threads anymore. I was surprised to see what was really going on. I agree with you, Helenbaby, although I think of us as customers rather than guests, but we do need to respect the rules in any case.

Her sister, Maire O'Neill, was the original lead in J.M. Synge's play, The Playboy of the Western World, one of the great Irish plays.

Sara Allgood, one of the greats, was a classical Irish actress (plays by J.M. Synge) who made a great career as a character actress in films, perhaps most notably as the mother in How Green Was My Valley. One of my favorite bits of her work: the crazy "black bottom" dance sequence in Roxie Hart.

I'm a true classic film fan. I respect good acting and particularly the contributions of the character actors. But I find the star-worshipping that goes on here sometimes to be frankly creepy.

Walter Huston's rendition of "September Song" is truly lovely. Huston played Pieter Stuyvesant in the 1938 Broadway musical Knickerbocker Holiday, in which he introduced the Kurt Weill/Maxwell Anderson song. Regarding John Huston, I actually think he was an overrated director, particularly early in his career. I enjoy Maltese Falcon but don't think it's a great film. IMHO, Huston matured very well, making two of his best films very late in his career: Wise Blood and The Dead, the latter with a brilliant screenplay by his son Tony Huston. Of course The Dead's directorial style seems more John Ford than John Huston!

Neleta -- Steffi Duna in Anthony Adverse (1936)

Well I think it has become more scientific. Each network does its own work, so that they don't all declare the same state at the same time. But they seem to have got it right this year. And the guy at The Times -- Nate Silver -- seems to have picked every state correctly (pending the outcome in FL). It has become a science, and I believe in science.

Oh NO! I hadn't even noticed when I criticized the Oscar schedule, that NBNW was scheduled yet again! I had stopped complaining about that for a while, but placed as it is in the midst of a truly unimaginative month, I can't control myself!

TCM has shown a great deal of imagination on most occasions. But you have only to look at lists of all the films nominated for Oscars throughout Oscar's history to see that they could have programmed a far more imaginative series this year. I'm a programmer, I know that.

You are way off topic. I think this is one time the moderator might encourage that, since it has hijacked comments about the unimaginative programming for Oscar time.