Bill_McCrary
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Posts posted by Bill_McCrary
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So I have a question, was Andy Hardy's Private Secretary considered one of the worst "Andy Hardy" films? If so, did the other later AH movies do better in terms of entertainment?
I'm wondering - do you not have a copy of Leonard Maltin's book right beside where you watch from? I can't imagine being without one - and for TCM, it doesn't have to be the most recent. In fact, now that's it's split into two volumes you're probably better off to have, like, the 2002 one (and maybe 2003 was still one volume) or else be prepared to spend a lot of money for the "classic movies" one and still be missing a lot of the more modern films.
That would tell you (and I guess I agree with him around 80% but violently disagree the other times) which ones are "dogs."
I'm amazed to see it stated that a lot of people don't know about Andy Hardy. Out of that long list, something is shown most months, it seems; every couple of years they show (almost) the whole she-bang. Andy Hardy Comes Home is the really hard one to find most of the time (and with reason). The series was a major launching-pad for new members of the MGM stable - Lana Turner, Donna Reed, Esther Williams, Kathryn, etc. And Ann Rutherford might as well have been pictured right up there with the Hardy family.
It seems the people who don't like musicals (as opposed to stories with some songs) REALLY don't like musicals! Kathryn got even better (she was YOUNG!), but already she was really good, and some of us thrill at the sound of "classic music" in our "classic movies," even if her graduation number (the Mad Scene from Lucia) was cut to 3-4 minutes so as to overburden the audiences. When these were made (and a long time after), it was taken for granted most every program (like the graduation itself) would be treated to culture - singing, oration, etc. And then the youngsters would head out to a sock-hop or such to enjoy "real life," but at least they were exposed. In most locales, we're dropping the ball badly these days.
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I would love to see TCM copy AMC lead and scroll info at the bottom of the movie.
AAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!
I can just about forget sometimes when the "TCM" logo shows in the bottom right corner; BBC/America's is in the upper left, fairly small and never goes away (except for the commercials, of course!) - I can tune it out, but I wish I didn't have to.
Then, there is (occasionally) the DVS for those who want to hear commentary as the movie plays - but if you record it you don't get the real audio of the movie if you have a dish; on cable I think it is still possible to do it SAP style, with commentary on one track and regular (mono) on the other.
But PLEASE, no scrolls...... PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Do what people who go the opera or plays do - read up on the movie, either before or after. Keep your copy of Maltin handy to get an intro to it (when Rob I or Rob II or Ben are not around).
Now, if I can just get myself pried loose from the ceiling and back to earth (didn't you know my keyboard was on the ceiling?!)....
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the top billed performer is Fred Stone. Who is Fred Stone?
He was "big stuff" on Broadway in the early part of the century. Quite a coup to have gotten him for the silver screen, I imagine, at the time. Almost like getting George M Cohan to make a movie (but with better results, apparently, than GMC).
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Further thoughts:
So, we have pre-code mornings (and some evenings), we have horror evenings, mysteries, silents (sometimes an evening of a particular star, like Valentino), you-name-it; Friday was just another genre - dumb high-school-rock-n-roll movies. RnRHS was from a separate generation (literally, 23 years later than RATClock, 18 after the others), different musical style(s), and much closer to "Porky's" than "Blackboard Jungle," but so what!? And we'll be going to the beach in mid-winter next week. So what!? A LOT of us grew up with those movies (as is mentioned further down the thread at least once). Some will want to show their grandchildren what it was (or wasn't) like for them; others will watch something else. They may be the people who like everything except _____ (fill in the name of your favorite genre); do they (at least very often) blast your genre.
I'm not saying this because I "love" these movies (I would never have noticed their absence); but they are pleasant time-passers (on one level) for some, and real historical documents (on another - and important - level) for others. Those who are turned off will check back in after a few hours.
Speaking of which - what happened to Rob Zombie? No introductions, etc., for the Vincent Price minor epics this morning. Did he take his toys and go play somewhere else after they reversed his movies (was that last week or two weeks ago)? He would have made the night complete for some!!
Vent over :: out!
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The same held true for all the Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland movies - no authority figure to be seen.
I don't think Judge and Mrs Hardy thought that! Nor did Andy, who always came to find that Dad Knows Best, and usually had to go to him for a "man-to-man" talk - that's one thing those movies were famous for! And in the bit I saw the other day, the judge said, "No, this one is a father-son talk, not man-to-man."
Yes, the kids were off on their own a lot, but so were we when I was growing up - in summertime it might be most of the day, playing at each other's houses, vacant lot, all around the block, etc. No supervision to speak of, but we knew better than to do certain things because we'd been taught at home before we went out "on the world."
Now, as to the beach movies, well.... Not my group ('cause I really wasn't in a "group" anyway), but heard and saw plenty who got by with "murder" on their own at the beach - not that much different from stuff that happened at drive-in theatres and such. If kids are doing those things, they're certainly not going to pay attention (read: money) to beach movies where the kids are always chaperoned! People today seem to be so afraid to let kids be kids. The very idea of having a cell-phone "hot line" operating all day everyday, everywhere, every moment between parents and kids. That's micromanagement, and is as wrong-headed (in my opinion, of course) as it can be. How else will kids develop their own skills to deal with life?
Remember the name of this thread; I'm finally doing it (after holding back from SOOOOOOOO many times I've wanted to on other threads).
Happy New Year (early).
Bill
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Here is what I found on IMDB about "The Wall Street Mystery," just picking one at random. I got nowhere checking "Crabtree" there, but lo and behold, when I typed in the title ......
Donald Meek .... Dr. Crabtree / John Hamilton .... Insp. Carr
rest of cast listed alphabetically: Hobart Cavanaugh / Frances Dale ....
Runtime: 17 min
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Would you be interested in selling ....
Please PM the person with a question like that. It is legal for us to record for ourselves. It is not legal to sell what we record. Trading is not, strictly speaking, legal either, but.... You may wish to revise your original post.
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Don't Knock... started late because It's Trad, Dad was around 76 minutes instead of the 73 announced. In a 75 minute slot, something has to happen. Rock and Roll High School had to start a little late, too. My disc of the 3rd and 4th ones got messed up for various reasons. Got all of Don't Knock... but messed up on RARHS in several, very stupid ways. Oh, well......
Several places in the past day or so I saw reference to the schedule being changed. I printed mine out in October, and they're following it as far as I can tell.
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It's Trad, Dad was around 77 minutes instead of the 73 that was shown in the schedule, and they had scheduled a 75 minute slot. Rock and Roll High School had to start a little late, too, because of that.
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It's on my December schedule that I printed out back in October.
I hope you realize(d) that this is still Friday night on the TCM schedule. Saturday morning starts at 6 AM. There was a lot of discussion about that not too long ago.
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I was waiting for Fred to answer, but this got "buried" in newer stuff. That wasn't a zoom (as such), which is done with the camera in place and the lens elements adjusted to (apparently) "move" closer or further. It's called a "tracking shot" (or maybe a crane shot), since the camera itself moves toward or away from the subject.
There was (a least one) an earlier thread I just discovered (by searching "Young and Innocent") all about long tracking shots:
http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/click.jspa?searchID=72621&messageID=7783431
In that thread was a post:
Re: long tracking shots | Posted: 03/07/2006 8:17 EST in response to: mbug |
The long tracking shot in Young and Innocent directed by Hitchcock is very famous.
This shot is near the end of the movie, as we close in on the killer from above the crowd, and the set had to be built in such a way for the camera (on a crane) to be able to "swoop" in on the character unobstructed. I think it was the longest such shot till that time and broke new technical ground.
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Not a re: to anybody in particular, just a statement:
Most Fridays I am thankful for a little lull on TCM programming (at least until the "good" stuff - yikes! - "No, Mr. Bill! Please!" starts up later, after midnight), since I also spend time on my "other" station - BBC/America - collecting series.
Tonight, however, I'm having to run more than one machine (hard drive for series, regular for the "rock" movies) and pay special attention to timings, etc. It's called the "spirit of adventure." I may or may not wind up actually liking/loving the movies; but I wouldn't know, otherwise.
And there's a lot to be said for certain "truly awful" movies. I think I've seen them described in the past (not here) as either "drive-in" movies or "popcorn" movies. And they've been making those since the '20s and '30s, and really even since the days of the silents. "Classic horror" could mean something other than Frankenstein and his (its?) ilk!!!!! (Or is that "classic horrible?) Wish I knew how to get the smilies up, but imagine one anyway.
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Thanks for the info on Rocky, lzcutter. There were things there I had known but forgotten a lloonngg time ago.
Bill
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I thought myself she meant "man of few words..." I think she was saying Coop didn't talk much. Just my 2 cents.
No, I think she may really have MEANT "little" words, like "Yup/yep," "Nope," etc. They show exactly one of those scenes immediately afterwards. For those who may be younger, he was famous/infamous and widely caricatured for those "yep/nope" moments.
And Byron Janis is one of the giants of the classical piano, on a par with (at the time) Van Cliburn, except he didn't get the same press (or groupies). He had to drop away for awhile because of arthritis, but I understand he is/was performing again as of a couple of years ago.
Can anyone furnish any useful info on Maria's mother, known as "Rocky"?
Bill
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I've never seen Oliver Twist! I don't remember ever seeing it in the schedule.
It was shown Dec 19, 2005, for certain; I think it has been shown at least once since then. The 1948 version. Oliver has been shown many times (meaning it seems like 3-4 times in the past year).
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....one would also discern that just about everything I write here is similarly light-hearted, and meant to be taken in that vein, because, frankly, far too many people online take their Internet contributions oh-so-seriously....
I've been watching many, many of these threads for months now and never once would have seen any light-heartedness to the corrections and comments. I, too, have made a few corrections of people but completely without comment, just spelling them correctly when I post. It's much safer, as a rule. (And anything else I thought of saying, I simply decided not to - following my own advice, I hope.)
Bill
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...how many movies has he made?
Well, counting TV movies (and TV appearances), it well over 100! See the link below. If you're not a regular user of IMDB, you might become one soon, from this first time:
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The convertible is a Cadillac, and it's red.
Wedding Crashers?
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If I was wrong about RZ and his hosting skills, I apologize, however, his looks would definitely turn me off - long hair, scruffy beard, and torn T-shirts are not my idea of a host, except at a halloween costume party.
Well, that's basically what the whole thing is, underground-style. As horrified as I was prepared to be, what with the hundreds(?) of postings against him before he even appeared (and very few since then!), I found him to "fit the bill" just fine. Maybe it's just my growing up during (but NOT in contact with, particularly) the hippie days, but he doesn't weird me out at all; and I'm from conservative, small-town South Carolina! (And still weirded-out over our election results a lot more than over RZ, by a long shot)
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Aren't these little bits of between scene music now called "bumpers," or something like that?
Never heard that term used before - except in threads *bump*, where I never really have understood what that means. I was talking about between acts, not scenes, anyway.
And I finally edited "Paint My Wagon" last night and noticed that, indeed, they kept the "Intermission" card up the whole time and didn't change to "Entr'acte."
I haven't been to the movies since the mid-'90s ("Driving Miss Daisy" was one of the last two movies I saw), so I have no idea what goes on in movie theatres these days - too much was starting to happen there already back in those days - boom boxes, talking over the movie, etc.
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There are, indeed, other threads about the movie. Here's a link that includes some recent ones:
http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/search.jspa?threadID=&q=Chinesedevils&objID=&dateRange=last90days&userID=&numResults=15&rankBy=10001
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to BHF and JP - MGMWBRKO has been doing a fantastic job (and not part of his duties as an employee, but as a contribution) since about June, listing (almost all) the shorts. Check Genre "Shorts," then click on "Upcoming Shorts," which is always at or near the top. One of the most-viewed threads on the forums.
There are occasional errors and omissions, such as when a movie was not the length they expected it to be or when there's a change in the schedule, but I wish I had seen the thread a month before I did - would have gotten all the "Boy Friends" and "Todd/Pitts" shorts if I had, instead of missing several.
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Judging from his bellbottoms, was this from the 1970s?
1977 - 50th Anniversary of the Academy Awards. Dinah was doing the show as a special 50th tribute, and RO had just written his book about the Oscars.
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Many celebrities of the past "dabbled" in this
The occult - contacting the dead?
Mac users welcome?
in PROBLEMS with the Message Boards
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I try not to get personal in my posts to this site, but I see that people from So. Carolina do.
Nothing personal in it at all. It couldn't be; I don't know you at all. Your post spoke loudly and clearly enough for itself.
If you haven't been back since 1961 you ought to give us another try. I was in 5th grade then, and even the town where you were most likely stationed (near Shaw AFB) has pretty much awakened these days. But I'm sure you can find whatever you expect to, wherever you look - but none of the signs you mentioned. They disappeared by about the time I started high school. Charleston (I'm not from there, about 100 miles away) routinely is listed in the top 5 most courteous cities in the nation (or some similar title), and there's plenty of that hospitality to go around.
And, it's not just Mac users who have had their problems using this board. In fact, I earler tonight lost a post I'd worked on for 10 minutes, just as I was getting ready to post it. Things happen, sometimes; we move on.....