Bill_McCrary

I first have to say, I recorded the movie but haven't watched it yet. Next, many/most of us know about exploitation films like "Marihuana" and "Reefer Madness." I actually remember seeing (in 5th grade?) a movie about alcohol that sticks with (in?) me yet for one particular (and, later I knew, mostly b.s.) scene.... Saying that.... IF you grew up in the South (especially rural-ish) and are around 50 or over, and you don't think the police could and did do everything in their power (and beyond) to scare the be-jeezus out of speeding kids (or, name your crime); if you don't think that small-town cops even today (within a 50-mile radius of my slightly-larger-than-small-town-less-than-a-big-city-but-still-the-county-seat home) don't "target" young people and minorities (maybe I meant to say minority young people) -- then you have experienced an alternate reality to mine. Taking it to the level in some of these movies from the '30s and '40s (and early '50s) was probably close enough to experiences (and expectations) of much of the audience to keep them nearer the straight-and-narrow path! I live in one county seat and taught for 31 years in an adjoining county seat more rural than mine. In teaching American Government to mostly 10th graders for years (including the chapters on Civil Rights that some of my colleagues wouldn't touch), in a very-predominantly-minority school, I heard plenty of local tales (in the '80s and early '90s) that could have been from the era/setting of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and other similar movies. Life imitating art. I suspect that Fred, with his Louisiana and Texas days in mind, had as little trouble as I did with the concept, realizing that situations do get exaggerated, of course. I'm glad if you never got any real threats and never had friends tell you about theirs, but there is (and especially, was) another world out there. Bill

Riff-Raff (1933)?

i print out the TCM schedule 2-3 months ahead of time at the library.on tuesday, dec. 19, TCM was showing the little girl who lives down the lane at 10:15 pm, and the little princess a midnight. come tuesday, they showed out of order. i recorded little princess. and LGWLDTL is one of my wife's favorites. so, now i don't have a copy of that. so what is going on? I also print out ahead (converted to word and condensed to 10 legal pages!), but have learned to "watch out," especially if a star has died, for changes. What was neat (not!), was that at the end of "Bad Seed," the list for the next three movies still showed "Little Girl" coming up next! But Rob had announced "Princess," so the decision had been made some time in advance. My solution (except when I have to be recording BBC/America series, etc.) is to keep the hard drive running and edit to DVD later. Others on the threads speak of having two-three TiVos running to catch everything.... Or, if you have SuperVHS, run a good tape at 6 hr speed and then dub to DVD later. But - these things happen.

February is "31 Days of Oscar" (into March for three days), so don't look for anything that didn't win an Oscar for something.

I only appeared in a few films, but I was the writer of many movies. Giants of literature have called me "America's Greatest Poet." Who am I? Harold Pinter? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0056217/maindetails

Kidnapped?

None of these things are happening in SC with DirecTV, at least. What has been happening, for months, is 2-3 seconds (occasionally longer) of black, then back to normal. But it's not a TCM thing: It's happening with BBC/America and others, so it's a DirecTV thing. Not terrible, but certainly annoying, especially if it happens during a song!

I think I dated that girl after she grew up. Reading the thread from newest down (as usual), I thought at first people were already writing about "The Bad Seed!" Sorry, just had to........ But I really did.

Sam's Club sells the CD/DVD thin (square-ish) cases 100 for less than $13. I've been using them for years. Of course, you CAN get the taller ones, thin versions of regular DVD cases, paying more. It's hard to beat their price (maybe online, but I go when I need another hundred - like every third week!). If you don't have a card, either go with a friend who does, or get one - you could save enough in a year to justify it, even if you bought nothing else. DVD prices are ok, but watch for sales at Office Depot if you have one; I've been getting blanks for around 24-27 cents apiece the past several months. IF you want to use paper sleeves with plastic windows, Wally World has everybody else beat, hands-down (less than half what OD charges).

"STRANDED" with Kay Francis and George Brent?

One pair would be (though maybe not totally fitting your description) Walter Pidgeon and John Raitt. They both were in Judy Garland films. (Raitt was an extra in "Little Nelly Kelly.")

it's mid 70's, action/suspense...basic theme is an older couple driving a 72ish red chevrolet convertible towing an airstream travel trailer ... then, they are road-raged/tormented by 2 (maybe 3) black custom vans, Possibly "Stingray" from 1978. http://www.imdb.com/Plot?0078323 Here are some more to check out: http://www.imdb.com/Find?select=Plots&for=corvette

12/19 9:16am/6:16a - A Cinderella Named Elizabeth 1965-7m- MOD - Elizabeth Hartman(n?) - "A Patch of Blue"

I only remember his saying it once - maybe there have been other times - but RO ("our Robert") stated on air, saying people had been asking, that they show the credits every time the movie/print they are using has them. I am sure that some copies must have had them lopped off and it's all they have now, whereas in other cases they are shown. That's what he said that time, anyway.

I have to agree with you about that Jeanette MacDonald promo with the howling dogs. It really kind of creeped me out. That was probably the first one I saw (I posted on another thread at the time), and I was prepared to hate it - I was afraid the dogs were going to howl and drown her out or something. NO.......... It is one of the sweetest tributes I think I've ever seen, with her calming them, and with them whimpering ever so quietly. I LOVE it. And I've got all 5 (so far) on my hard drive. The photographer with the beauties (Lolita?) is a hoot.

I was one of those actors whose face was familiar, but not necessarily the name. I had a 10-year Broadway career before I made my first film. I was generally cast as the suave other man. My real claim to fame was in who I married. It was a brief marriage, and my famous and outspoken wife wasn't shy about saying she wanted me because of my face . . . and other things -- all of which things reminded her of someone else. Could it be Mike Todd, to whom Michael Wilding lost Liz?

And just a reminder, to those who may not have ever really thought about it, or who somehow got it wrong: The Twelve Days of Christmas are the 12 AFTER Christmas, till the Epiphany, on January 6th - not the 12 days leading up to Christmas! I've got one friend who refers to Epiphany as "Old Christmas," and he arranges his gifts such that he has something to open on each of those days, and not all on Christmas day. Maybe someone else would like to weigh in on England's "Boxing Days," which have nothing to do with pugilism....

I an hoping someone can tell me about the movie "The Desert Song" with Dennis Morgan & Irene Manning. Check your PMs for one from me. And if the source works out (or even if not), let me know!

We need your help on the following thread: Re: Title of old B&W movie aired summer '06 with Asian boy selling lechi nuts I'm pretty sure it's not 'Oil for the Lamps. . . On the "other thread" it was determined it was Loretta Young and Clark Gable's movie "Key to the City." racerT came up with That was from the 1950 movie "Key to the City" with Clark Gable,Loretta Young and Frank Morgan. The Chinese boy was selling the leechi nuts in the San Francisco police station to a cop played by James Gleason. It was Frank Morgan's final movie. He died soon after filming was completed.

> "You are Morgan Freeman, who played God in 'Bruce Almighty.'" Duh..... I'll learn to read one of these days!! Thanks, though.

I was fascinated by her from the first time I ever saw her. I must have been 11 or so about the time my town got cable (in the early '60s) and we got (all? mostly?) MGM movies every afternoon from a UHF (converted to cable, of course) station in Columbia, the state capital, 85 miles away. I still have lots of audio tapes from the tv from that period. It was later that I saw the (pre-code) Paramount things. One of those (if you've seen them, you'll know which) gave this young thing bad dreams (seemed like witches) for some time, in addition to all the glorious music (Rodgers and Hart, in this case). My mother says she always felt that Jeanette was making fun of ("our hero") Nelson, as if she knew he was/belonged on a lower rung. I, on the other hand, thought they "sparred" beautifully; not just in "Sweethearts," either. Seemed to me he knew exactly what was going on and was throwing it right back at her. Nelson took an awful lot of heat from some (serious-music) reviewers, both for his records and his live concerts. I have some clippings from Boston around 1950, complaining (this isn't quoting) that he seemed to be singing "at" the audience at times, not with real feeling, and that the audience (already the "blue-hairs," apparently) were falling at his feet no matter what he did. There were nice things said about accompanist Theodore Paxson's contributions, in a way more than Nelson's. Pity. The record reviewers (especially David Hall in "The Record Book") routinely claimed that his movie singing had killed his ability to sing "fine" music well - Mozart and Haydn, in particular; that he had for too long been singing "for the microphone" instead of in the right style(s). Hmph!!! I think his "Creation" disc (one that came in for sharp criticism) could have served a lot of other singers as an example of how to "send" those numbers. And I was nearly 25 by the time I heard those. Now, as to the Mozart, well.... take some, leave some. His later Columbia items (love songs in various languages, etc.) were certainly off the beaten path and bear study; no warhorses there, more power to him. Back to Jeanette: About the only criticism I have heard much (including not just reading but going back to something I remember an aunt saying in my teens) was that it just wasn't really big enough without a microphone. Nothing much about her feeling or style or anything; on her records (and broadcasts) those seem in most cases to be fine. A snobbish (college-professor-type) acquaintance of my late teens (I started as I just barely turned 17), was fond of referring to them as the "Iron Butterfly" and the "Singing Capon." Again, hmph!!!! But then once again..... Be very careful when judging Jeanette's voice on disc, in particular; she recorded for a good 5 years earlier than Nelson. By his time, things had become much more standardized (speeds, microphones, arrangements). Many of her earliest recordings (up to "Merry Widow," at least) were recorded slower than 78 RPM, and she sounds very different (and better) when they are played right (slower). (And, of course, that goes for all the singers who recorded before around 1935.) Even up to about 1937 (but not often after then), "78's" were often recorded at 76.6 rpm; earlier, many were at 75 rpm. If that doesn't sound like much difference - well, 75 is a semi-tone (one whole note) lower on the keyboard, with 76.6 in between (a 1/4 tone, more or less). Lawrence Tibbett is another who sounds closer to tenor than resounding baritone on many/most of his most famous records when not played right. If you've heard his "duet" record from "Cuban Love Song," they played the first (harmony) record fast on purpose, while he sang directly for the "main" voice - one of the very first "overdubs." He could sing high, but not THAT high routinely. The soundtracks are another matter, and usually more truthful in their own way. But it has been mentioned somewhere in the posts about how much the sound editors could do. It seems to me that some (several?) of Deanna Durbin's (and at least one of Grace Moore's) Decca 78's were made from (edited?) film, dubbed to disc. On a clean enough pressing, it's pretty obvious. 78's were usually direct-to-disc, with no chance to "improve" things from other takes; but NOT always! One last (soprano) comment, for now: I haven't double-checked the newest prints/DVDs of "The Great Waltz," but I was shocked (yes, shocked, I tell you!!!) when my mother and I saw "That's Entertainment" in the movies. By then I had played my TV-audiotape of the movie till I knew every part of it and spoke dialogue in advance (shades of "Rocky Horror! - but I didn't dress for it!!). When they played the "Vienna Woods" scene - well, something was wrong. It was still fine, but.... In the standard print, when Miliza Korjus does the roulades before the end -- Douglas Shearer (must have been) had edited takes to create "fantastic" series of note-cascades, lasting maybe 4 measures before the conclusion. In TE, the "real" take (no apparent editing) was used, same voice of course, but standard two-measure roulades. I haven't gotten over it yet, 30 years later. I "knew" from the beginning, probably, that I was hearing the impossible, but I was used to it. The truth was still pretty, but it hurt! With all the cleaned-up soundtracks we have now, sometimes the edits are clearer, too. And, too, Rhino/TCM CDs are good about showing all the dates when portions of tracks were created; fascinating.

I share a significant statistic with singer/actress Alanis Morissette and the late comedic actor George Burns. If you know what honor they share, you pretty much know who I am. So... what honor do the three of them share?

Update on my post from Wednesday night: 12/13 11:46pm/8:46p- September In The Rain 1937-6m-A (Note: this cartoon is usually cut for political incorrectness) 4 minutes, 36 seconds of it were shown tonight! Basically Jolson, and Fred and Ginger. I haven't gotten out my laserdisc yet to see what wasn't shown, but if the very beginning was an indication, then it's understandable....... Neat enough short, but "short" is operative here! : Turns out (checked my laserdisc) that is one of the shortest cartoons they made, at about 5:45, so only one part was edited - Fats Waller and (kinda hard to tell but I think) Louis Armstrong, right after Fred and Ginger, before the closing shots, a little over a minute. Strange - Jolson in blackface, Aunt Jemima, ok; Waller and Armstrong (but also some very "outrageous" backup singers!), not ok?! And, people, stay off MGMWBRKO's case: Where would we all have been since June without him? If you're (fairly) new to these boards, hold tight, sit still, take a breather - RELAX!!! and read all that has been going on in this (long in a short time) thread, before you start sounding off!

Who are you? CIA? FBI? KGB? Man, I cannot believe that you got that correct answer with so few hints! Well, it DID take me three-four days and one wrong guess; but it was the "favorite actress" part that did it. Saw your comments elsewhere on JB and went from there; only one from the late 'fifties (in IMDB) that made any sense - and none at all until I looked at Joan's movies. I relinquish my turn (once again). But one of these days......

I hope everyone recognized I was being "ironic" in my earlier post of a quote. Not my own thoughts on the matter, certainly.....