clore
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Posts posted by clore
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>>I think this thread title wins the honor of year's most creative. LOL
Well thank you for that. First I have to thank the Academy for considering me worthy of just being nominated, I never expected to win so I really don't have a speech. However I have a few names I'd like to thank (pulls out eight pages of paper)...
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>>So RO said that in the intro or the wrap up? (about the color prints) That's interesting as I thought he taped those intros months in advance and would have no knowledge of the print they were showing
This was a film that at the time, there was no color print available, one of those Cinecolor releases for which no form of a color print was thought to exist any longer. Even the IMDb had it listed as such at the time. I'm fairly certain that it was THE CARIBOU TRAIL. I'm going back about four or five years here.
Since then, a color print did surface and when it aired, this time R.O. made the announcement that TCM was glad to be able to present it in its original form.
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>>clore, I don't have much to say about flatscreen prints, but I do like the fact that you used the word "phooey" in your thread title. Everytime I see it there, I laugh. It's a good word.
It's what I call a pacifier. It starts with the same sound of a certain four-letter word, which is not the kind of word I can say around my grandchildren.
"Sugar" is another one of the substitutes that I use under such conditions.
It's like Gabby Hayes saying "goldurn."
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I didn't know who it was, but it wasn't Arkoff and Nicholson.
Thomas Schatz was wrong is saying there were only a couple of dozen drive-in theaters immediately after the war. There were already 95 when the war started, and while gas rationing may have caused some of them to go out of business, there were 102 in the start of 1946 and 155 by the end of the year.
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>>Given that the version TCM showed is actually LB for the first few minutes, and the person who reported seeing a LB version on FMC, I'm wondering if perhaps sleep intervened, before full screen did?
The time that I caught part of it, I had missed the credits. It may have been ten minutes into the film when I turned it on and I saw part of it, dozed off and then woke up for the last half-hour or so.
This was about seven or eight years ago, and I won't claim to know whether Fox was using film, tape or digital servers at the time. Since TCM is now doing so, it may be that Fox hasn't made a digital transfer yet. If that's the case, TCM should have passed on the film and maybe asked if they had a letterboxed version of BELOVED INFIDEL.
Now I have seen an occasion where a Randolph Scott title was being aired in B&W but had been made in color. But Mr. Osborne came on to inform us that there were no longer any color prints. That way, no one could have complained that the credits indicated that the film was in color but the aired copy wasn't. But last night's film did refer to Cinemascope in the credits, and the credits were presented in that format.
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I can understand your frustration. It wouldn't have taken a crystal ball to figure out that IN HARM'S WAY and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY would air tomorrow. I'm still figuring on a Philip Ober day in the future just so that they can air the latter and NORTH BY NORTHWEST one more time and probably throw in ELMER GANTRY also.
What i wish would be considered are more fixed time periods for various types of films, similar to what they do for silents, imports and the Bowery Boys. There used to be a fixed slot for noir, I'd like to see that return, along with ones for more series films such as The Saint, Blondie, Pre-Codes, B westerns, Dr. Kildare, Disney films, not-on-video films or whatever could be put into a type and set in a given time period. A whole day of any of these would become boring and repetitious, but on a one-per-week diet it becomes something to look forward to.
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You really don't even have to list films by the character actors. But by following the trails of the likes of Tully Marshall, George Chandler or Regis Toomey, you're likely to uncover some long-buried titles for your other series of hidden films by studios.
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I can understand the reasons for thematic programming though. It gives them a way to promote what are basically a heck of a lot of the same films as a special event. On the other hand, breaking out some films that haven't been seen in years - such as those long-hidden RKO or Teddington Studios films - can also be considered a special event.
We have to remember that one of the problems with dealing with vintage product is that by-and-large, the core audience for this stuff is ebbing away. It's similar to when ABC canceled LAWRENCE WELK - the numbers showed that the audience was literally dying. Not that TCM has to play the numbers game, but they still have to find a way to make what is being aired not sound like more of the same old, same old.
While the studios didn't have these concerns when they made them, they still packaged stars and concepts a majority of the time. Thus Gable, Cooper, Bogart and the like kept repeating formulas. Cagney tried to get away from his image and while he won an Oscar for singing and dancing, it put a curse on his career and the posters for WHITE HEAT stressed that "Jimmy's back in action." Their way of saying that he was returning to what the audience expected.
it must be a difficult challenge for the marketing and programming people to have to face. They have to find new ways of combining the old ingredients so that it tastes somewhat different.
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>>Damn, clore, you just mentioned one of the themes I was going to use in my next Challenge schedule. : (
We can even throw in HOLLYWOOD ENDING in which Woody Allen played a director who goes blind in both eyes.
Then we can have a night of films featuring actors who lost a body part, such as John Wayne (lung), Jack Hawkins (voicebox), Herbert Marshall (leg) and James Stacy (arm and leg).
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I did like the way that they handled the ultimate theme of the Oscar-salute in 2010. Films were connected in pairs by one performer. Thus you would have 55 DAYS AT PEKING followed by SARATOGA TRUNK and the link was Flora Robson. The latter was followed by THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN and Jerry Austin was in both of them. DON JUAN was followed by THE WAY WE WERE and Viveca Lindfors was in both of them.
It tended to focus on the supporting players and it could skip decades or jump from one genre to another so there was a freshness to it all.
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One of the good things about doing what you are doing from a supporting player perspective is that these guys worked all over, often in the minor films which are the ones that get the least attention. A guy like Tully Marshall was all over the place in 1932, making appearances in 17 films for MGM, Universal, Warners, Columbia and UA. Most of them were not on the still-popular level of SCARFACE or GRAND HOTEL, in both of which he appeared.
And the guy was 68 years old at the time!
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I'm waiting for a one-eyed director theme, with films from John Ford, Raoul Walsh, Andre de Toth or films featuring actors Peter Falk, Sammy Davis and Jack Elam.
I don't mind the thematic stuff, but sometimes they're pushing it. The "dysfunctional family" one on Christmas night is rather misplaced but might have been fun on any other night. I am not going to spend the holiday with George and Martha.
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>>The first sentence of this paragraph bears out my point. It's not in high-demand. Therefore, it probably is cheaper to lease/easier to obtain.
Yes, but there are plenty of films out there that have an equal "not in-demand" status and still be available in a wide-screen transfer. What was it about this film that TCM so had to air it that they compromised their principles? Just to do an F. Scott Fitzgerald double-bill? They could have just run THREE COMRADES instead or even THE LAST TYCOON which has a highly promotable cast and to some degree, fits in with MOGULS AND MOVIE STARS theme.
My big wish would have been to see the Alan Ladd version of THE GREAT GATSBY, but I'm not holding my breath while waiting for that one to show up.
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>>It's cheaper for channels to lease the non-widescreen copy, and I am sure that's what is going on with TCM. Budget, budget, budget.
Well, I won't claim to know that it's cheaper, especially since there are already so many widesctreen movies that have been transferred in that format into digital for the home video market, that it would seem to be just as cost-efficient. Besides, if the budget was all that important when it comes to this issue, and if wide screen films did cost more, then why not just show everything in flat screen?
It's not as if TENDER IS THE NIGHT is so much an in-demand film that TCM should surrender its own well-promoted policy of presenting films in their original format. This is how the channel positions itself, so any viewer dissatisfaction is a result of that. HBO doesn't claim such a policy, so thus I would never think of contacting them when I see a flat print.
However, if TCM knows in advance that the film is not as originally presented, they could at least give us the standard "this film has been modified to fit your screen" message that other channels use. At least then we would know that they know and a thread such as this would be unnecessary.
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There was an actress who made about a dozen films there, never hit it big but she did end up marrying boss man Harry Cohn. That would be Joan Perry who was also married to Laurence Harvey for a spell.
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>>Just a note to let you know Fox told us that all they had was a pan&scan print.
Thank you for that. I'd peg it as around 2002/2003 that I saw some of it. I was home from work with bronchitis when it aired, and that's how I'm determining the time frame. I remember being in bed watching it, and I don't usually watch TV that way. Too easy to fall asleep and that's why I only saw part of it.
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I won't disagree on whether Cinemascope was necessary, but Fox was committed to it unfortunately. George Stevens fought like mad about doing DIARY OF ANNE FRANK in that format but he had to give in. However, I do believe that he was right as the wide screen gives the attic such a rather spatial dimension that it works against the film.
As for brevity in filmmaking, I'm a big believer in that. Not because I suffer from, or consider the audience to suffer from a poor attention span, but not everything needs a running time of two hours. If you're going to spend the time and money necessary to make a longer film, it helps to have the material there in the story in the first place.
On the other hand, I've seen some relatively short B movies from Monogram where there was still obvious padding. I don't need to see Charlie Chan going into the elevator, riding down, walking through the building lobby, down the steps and out to his car - all while inappropriate music is playing to make it seem dramatic. It's not as if there was any exposition going on, it was just Chan walking slowly. Just have him exit the office door and cut to him in the back seat of the vehicle.
i believe that was CHARLIE CHAN IN THE SECRET SERVICE.
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>>Cinemascope films are incompatible with television.
That may be so, that's why letterboxing is a compromise. I'd rather see YOJIMBO that way than not see it at all, or in a flat print. i bring that title up since you mentioned Kurosawa.
The only reason that I wanted to see tonight's film despite the negatives that I've heard is that I do believe that Henry King was a master with filling a wide screen. For some reason, I've only seen bits of this one through the years, so I looked forward to seeing it from start to finish, if only to put one more title on my King list.
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>>let me just say that every time they show a pan and scan version of a letterbox movie they are going against their will known slogan.
I'm getting the heebie jeebies just thinking about watching it in pan-and-scan.
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If that's the case, i hope that TCM got a 43% discount to account for the lost picture information. Then again, maybe someone was just elated over getting a color print since the monthly schedule lists it as b&w.
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It has aired on the Fox Movie Channel in wide screen. These things are preventable if someone would examine the print a few days before airtime. Saying that this is the way it came from the distributor may have worked the first few times it happened with other titles, it's now just an excuse for not having safeguards.
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There goes my plan to watch TENDER IS THE NIGHT.
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I have to admit that I saw the Wayne mention as a slur that was forced into the narrative courtesy of an inaccuracy. Contrary to what was claimes, during the war years, Wayne wasn't the primary face on screen fighting our enemies. That really didn't come until later, he was making more westerns than war dramas:
They Were Expendable (1945) .... Lt. (J.G.) 'Rusty' Ryan
Dakota (1945) .... John Devlin
Back to Bataan (1945) .... Col. Joseph Madden
Flame of Barbary Coast (1945) .... Duke Fergus
Tall in the Saddle (1944) .... Rocklin
The Fighting Seabees (1944) .... Lt. Cmdr. Wedge Donovan
In Old Oklahoma (1943) .... Daniel F. Somers
A Lady Takes a Chance (1943) .... Duke Hudkins
Reunion in France (1942) .... Pat Talbot
Pittsburgh (1942) .... Charles 'Pittsburgh' Markham / Charles Ellis
Flying Tigers (1942) .... Capt. Jim Gordon
In Old California (1942) .... Tom Craig
The Spoilers (1942) .... Roy Glennister
Reap the Wild Wind (1942) .... Captain Jack Stuart
Lady for a Night (1942) .... Jackson Morgan
If I had to venture a name off the top of my head, percentage-wise it was Errol Flynn who appeared to be fighting the war single-handedly (with some help from Humphrey Bogart).
Flynn:
San Antonio (1945) .... Clay Hardin
Objective, Burma! (1945) .... Capt. Nelson
Uncertain Glory (1944) .... Jean Picard/Emil DuPont
Northern Pursuit (1943) .... Corporal Steve Wagner
Edge of Darkness (1943) .... Gunnar Brogge
Gentleman Jim (1942) .... James J. Corbett
Desperate Journey (1942) .... Flight Lt. Terrence 'Terry' Forbes
Bogart:
Conflict (1945) .... Richard Mason
To Have and Have Not (1944) .... Harry 'Steve' Morgan
Passage to Marseille (1944) .... Jean Matrac
Sahara (1943/I) .... Sgt. Joe Gunn
Action in the North Atlantic (1943) .... Lt. Joe Rossi
Casablanca (1942) .... Rick Blaine
Across the Pacific (1942) .... Rick Leland
The Big Shot (1942) .... Joseph 'Duke' Berne
Bogie was even fighting the Nazis before the official start of the war in ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT.
Wayne was still a relative small-timer compared to those two who were superstars at a major studio while Wayne was working for various studios, with a good number for Republic and Universal. This is not to knock the guy, but it really wasn't until after the war that he became a superstar and noted as much for his war films as for his westerns.
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>>Usually Kay Francis films pop up in January around her birthday. But I could watch her every month. She's one of my favorites from the 30s. I would really like to see her last three films, made for Monogram.
TCM did air DIVORCE during that month-long tribute, it was of better quality than the usual Monogram fare.
I never really had much exposure to Kay Francis prior to the last decade. As with a lot of the films you have listed, many of these were rarely screened when I was starting to watch classics - and that started in 1957. Or else they were buried in the wee hours when I was going to school.
It was JEWEL ROBBERY that really knocked me out, one of my three favorite pre-Code films. When they had the tribute month, the films were running from 8pm until dawn and as I have no recording facilities, I watched most of them one after another.
Besides, I have to love someone who said of her treatment toward the end at Warners that she would sweep the floor if that was what they wanted to do, she was not about to break her contract. The woman was even good-spirited enough to allow a joke at her expense in LIVING ON VELVET when George Brent makes fun of her lisp.
Phooey - another flatscreen print
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>>Cue the music...someone please get this lunatic offstage...LOL
It would be my luck that as soon as I open my mouth, Eleanor Burkett (aka "Lady Kanye") would come up and say "Let the woman talk. Isn't that the classy thing to do."
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1754444/