clore

When you throw in all of the CGI enhancements, it really does look as if one day we will not need flash-and-blood actors anymore. It will be as that Al Pacino movie SIMONE predicted, our biggest stars will be computer generated. I'm sure that right now, someone is feeding every frame of John Wayne into a computer, along with every word he ever uttered on film. We'll end up with computer generated movies featuring stars from the golden age.

That last James Bond film was made for that generation, certainly not for mine. I recall Bond films with lush scenery beautifully filmed, thrilling stunts that set the standard for the industry... This one was just another cookie-cutter, blue-tinted, kitchen-blender edited mess that may just have ended my interest in the franchise. Even the worst previous Bond films had something going for them in terms of technical execution, THE QUANTUM OF SOLACE will remain the only film in the series that I didn't watch more than once.

Go look up "Easter Eggs" in films. That's another gimmick designed to sell DVDs. And as a sales device, Easter Eggs on DVDs were preceded by Easter Eggs in video game cartridges. That brings us back to films today being designed for the video game generation.

Call me crazy but I don't think his character is a "ghost" at all. He's a narrator. That's all folks. Yes, and usually in a film the narrator is the protagonist of the unfoldiong drama. Also we can usually count on the narrator ending up alive in the final reel. What makes Wilder's film different from most is that his narrator doesn't make it to the end. This must have thrown the audience off somewhat as usually if watching Dick Powell or Robert Mitchum in a noir, or Randolph Scott in a western (and such did happen prior to Wilder's film), and they hear him narrating, they see him alive at the end. Every time that I've seen SUNSET BOULEVARD, I'm reminded of something that I read many years ago by someone who saw the film upon release. She thought that despite seeing the body in the pool at the beginning, that somehow - as in a Flash Gordon serial perhaps - that the end would reveal that our hero was indeed alive. It's a macabre touch to add to a film and I've read numerous critical appraisals of Wilder's career that point to his deceased narrator as being totally unique in cinema and one more indication of his genius. Even when AMERICAN BEAUTY came out, some critics did remember Wilder using the same device almost 50 years earlier, but I guess few have seen THE SEVENTH CROSS to note that Zinnemann was there first.

I saw one of those BIG VALLEY episodes on The American Life cable channel a couple of years ago. It was a variation on SO LONG AT THE FAIR in having Victoria and Audra register at a hotel and then the next day Audra is missing and no one believes Victoria that her daughter was ever present. Except for Sheriff Lew Ayres. The resolution was just as in the earlier film, only the name of the illness was changed.

Some good choices there. However, it still does seem rather slight relative to all of the other supernatural or fantastic stuff on screen. I've never seen BEFORE DAWN and there are enough other welcome cast members for me to tolerate Stu Erwin. All three user reviews on the IMDb are quite enthusiastic so i'm going to have to catch up to this one. Thanks for the mention.

I thought William Holden's narration was just perfect, and it never seemed odd to me. You may already know this, but while Wilder gets the credit for narration by a corpse, he was beaten to that accomplishment by Fred Zinnemann's THE SEVENTH CROSS. The only other film to feature such narration that comes to mind is AMERICAN BEAUTY.

If I had my way, Lew Ayres would have been Ashley Wilkes in GONE WITH THE WIND. A most unusual actor who had a penchant for sensitive types and was obviously one in real life also given his conscientious objector status. Yet he still managed to distinguish himself during the war serving on the front lines as a medic and a chaplain's aid. It's unfortunate that his triumph in JOHNNY BELINDA really didn't lead to more and better parts, but perhaps because he tasted fame early, Ayres was circumspect about it and preferred his humanitarian endeavors to the pursuit of stardom. He was always a welcome sight to my eyes.

If you put "Buster Keaton" in the search box in the upper right corner, use the "site" option and click the search button, the upcoming schedule results will reveal 40 matches. I imagine that others are usiing a variation of that to discern the Nick Ray and horror titles. I doubt that the list of horror titles is actually complete, it's too encompassing a genre for one to anticipate every necessary search factor. But if you put in Lugosi, Karloff, Cushing and so on, plus some obvious titles from past schedules, you can probably come up with most of it. Here for example are the results for Peter Cushing: http://www.tcm.com/search/index.html?text=peter%20cushing&type=schedule&start=1&npp=8

I've always thought that it was just that they are making films for the video game generation. They need constant movement, rapid fire editing and as many explosions as possible to get them to go into a theater. Otherwise it's like watching "one of mom and dad's old movies where everybody just talks."

Btw...for some reason which I can't quite explain, it reminded me a bit of *Under Fire*, another "modern war" film I really liked. I'll take that as a recommendation and try to catch up with UNDER FIRE. For some reason I missed that one.

It started out like KELLY'S HEROES with a bunch of oddballs seeking a fortune but it turned into a human interest story of how they become involved with the lives of some Iraqis. I was surprised at the detour that it took and about how it took a hard stance against our Gulf War policy of leaving the rebels at the mercy of Saddam.

I rather like TORN CURTAIN, although it does have a few problems. It's mostly the casting - Newman is a fine actor but he's not convincing here and has no chemistry with Julie Andrews. Had Hitchcock reunited Julie Andrews with James Garner, I think the result there would be preferable. Newman is fine in the scenes without Andrews, I just can't accept them as a couple for some reason. Lila Kedrova is also way over the top, I squirm at her section of the film. But the killing of a particular character, the bus chase and the theater scene (shot on the old *Phantom of the Opera* set) are prime Hitchcock. One more thing - I have the Bernard Herrmann score that was jettisoned on a record album. That would have helped enormously and also have maintained a better connection with the Hitchcock films that preceded it.

Paul Newman already had made one boxoffice disaster with Sophia Loren, the awful LADY L. There was no way that the two would be paired again.

Spielberg had such clout that he was able to get CBS to air "E.T." intact - and that meant the use of the phrase "**** breath" was heard on national TV on Thanksgiving night. He later got NBC to run SCHINDLER'S LIST without cuts. I worked for Columbia Pictures TV in the 80s and saw the contracts - Preminger's deal with the studio mandated that if ANATOMY OF A MURDER was to air on TV, it was to be unedited. It went to syndication in the mid-60s rather than to a network for that reason.

You're absolutely right redriver, I wasn't trying to say that these were all good movies. But with names such as Heston, Newman, Brando, Roz Russell attached to them, they should at least be in circulation. 5 CARD STUD is another good example - even in 1968 I considered it lackluster and only someone who never saw a movie before wasn't going to figure out the "surprise" ending. But if we're only going to keep the "good" Mitchum movies, that's really only about a dozen of them. Even Mitch called himself "the bad film champion." But for the purposes of star-themed programming, maybe someone out there wants to see Brando in one of his Universal movies rather than one of the more obvious titles that get played constantly. Perhaps someone would like to see Newman and Woodward in WINNING or in SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION. And I'm not picking on TCM here, most of these titles haven't been seen anywhere since the days in the late 80s when AMC showed just about every Universal movie made. When was the last time that you saw something with Jeff Chandler that opened with the Universal logo? THE TATTERED DRESS is too good to keep in the vault.

It's funny how HBO has only shown AVATAR in a letterboxed print (probably a Cameron contractual demand), but if you watch HBO's original programming, it's all widescreen.

I'm avoiding the Encore channels but only because I'm paying enough extra for premium channels that I barely watch. A year ago my system put FMC on a premium tier and the only way that I could get it was to also take the Encore channels. Well, I'm not about to be forced to take anything I don't want and pay a premium for it. If Encore wasn't a pan-and-scan channel, it might have been different, but I can't see paying extra for a channel that is going to frustrate me.

Raft as Walter Neff? Sorry, I can't see that at all. I don't either, I don't see him as being able to handle the dialogue. Raft had his specialty, but being glib wasn't one of them. I can't see Raft as a salesman able to sell his product without a gun in his hand. Dick Powell wanted the part but couldn't get the studio honchos to see that he wasn't just an aging juvenile in musicals and comedies. He certainly would have been better than Raft, but I still go along with Fred MacMurray as being perfect for the part. Fortunately for Powell, he got to prove himself with MURDER, MY SWEET that same year and never looked back.

Believe me, I love performing. For a while in my youth I was a singer in a band and still do some of that on occasion as a fill-in for a band that consists of some friends. They had the gig and I was present as a guest and was once asked to step up as the lead singer had a cold. From then on, whenever they appeared, I'd be asked to do a few. I love karaoke bars also, being in front of a crowd is invigorating. You could say that I'm an applause junkie. The trick is in knowing what you can get away with. I'm not about to hit Frankie Valli notes anymore, I know that so i don't even try. But i can do a mean Jim Morrison or Mick Jagger

Never heard of P.J. Just take a look someday at the Universal titles of the 50s and 60s that haven't seen the light of a projector in decades. Yes, the Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Cary Grant ones get played, but when was the last time that you saw WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT FEELING GOOD, ROSIE, COUNTERPOINT, SECRET WAR OF HARRY FRIGG, MIRAGE, THE WAR LORD, THE NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY, A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG or A MAN COULD GET KILLED. All of these had top stars in them and should have some value still today, but the suits at Universal don't seem to think of them as potentially lucrative. I recall seeing MADIGAN on TCM once about five or six years ago, but I haven't since. In some ways I was lucky to be working part time as a theater usher in the late 60s. I got to see a lot of stuff that is rarely revived these days.

Thanks for the compliment Dargo. I've got over 500 books here on movies and TV in my crowded apartment - and those are just the ones relative to the entertainment industry. Then there are all the novels and bios and books on thoroughbred racing. Man does not live by movies alone. I've also spent 30 years doing TV station research and programming, have given hundreds of presentations to clients and potential clients. If they ever come acallin' for me, I'd give it my best shot. I just don't have any marquee value.

Raft wanted Rick Blaine, but by then Hal Wallis had had enough of Raft's refusals. Wallis sent a note to Jack Warner saying "he hasn't made a picture around here since I was a small boy" and thus preserved the role for the intended. This was Bogie's reward for HIGH SIERRA, THE MALTESE FALCON and ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT, all of which Raft had turned down.

Years ago I had some publicity shots from the film that had Raft and Robinson, Jr. in them. One had Raft showing Jr. the coin trick. I wondr how Raft felt, he he was in a Billy Wilder film when years earlier he was offered the male lead in DOUBLE INDEMNITY which also would have given him billing over Edward G. Robinson. That was something that Raft didn't get when he and Robinson appeared in MANPOWER and A BULLET FOR JOEY.

That was Edward G. Robinson, Jr. flipping that coin. Doesn't Raft also take a dig at Cagney by getting ready to push a grapefruit into someone's face?