clore

>>Drats, I missed RIFF RAFF, and I've never seen the O'Brien one. Never saw the Peter Lorre CRACK UP, either, so thank you for mentioning two more I need to seek out. While I don't expect the Lorre film to show up - I just don't see it as a Fox title that TCM is dying to show - I sure hope that O'Brien's RIFFRAFF does make it to the schedule. While I know that RKO films are no longer part of the "in-house" library, it certainly can't carry a high usage fee. After all, how many venues are competing for the rights to air the film? Maybe O'Brien will get a day in August and we can be pleasantly surprised. The Fox Movie Channel will be airing Donlevy's BORN RECKLESS tomorrow at 6am Eastern Time. He plays a former racing driver who becomes a cab driver in order to track down a protection racket.

>>I think for purposes of film festivals it is usually accepted that a premiere is one that hasn't been shown in any other film festival, or any other public venue. It will be interesting to see if this is merely the equivalent of an on-air flub, or if MoMA actually had reason to restore the film again. I don't recall reading if any additional footage was found, but it has been claimed that the film ran 158 minutes in its 70mm premiere. The one that I saw was just over two hours, as is the DVD. The original "Variety" review is of a 125 minute film, but it does cite the Grandeur process.

>>The TCM press release said it was a "premiere" and this raised a few questions. Maybe it's like the "TCM premieres" that we get now and then on the channel. Yeah, that's the ticket - it's a TCM Film Festival Premiere.

Actually, I responded to you as a fellow neutral observer. As it's heating up around here, I didn't want to appear to be taking sides. I should have been more clear about that.

It's probably a simple explanation. For example, when you watch certain silent films on TCM, you'll see credit given to Kevin Brownlow for having done the restoration. When you see VERTIGO or REAR WINDOW, there's the extra at the end that credits the team headed by Robert Harris that restored the films back in the 80s. It may just be required for MoMA to be credited with the restoration. As I said earlier, I've seen it and it looks great - they do deserve the accolades as we would not be seeing it at all without their efforts.

I saw the film at the Museum of Modern Art in the 80s. The TCM publicity does not claim it to be a recent restoration, and what I saw 25 years ago looked just fine, as does the DVD of the film that I own.

For anyone who has yet to watch a recording of this, see if you can spot where Edmund Lowe becomes Bernard Nedell. The former became ill about halfway trough filming his scenes, so another actor was hired to impersonate him.

>>I've heard good things about that 1947 noir, released originally by RKO, and only wish TCM could show it someday. Ironically, the Tracy RIFFRAFF is on tomorrow. As for the Pat O'Brien RIFFRAFF, it's an excellent thriller and perhaps the best film from the actor in his post-Warner period. Had it starred either Dick Powell or Robert Mitchum, the two primary RKO noir guys, it would probably be more well known and possibly scheduled more often.

This is an earlier film with the same title. Peter Lorre is top-billed, he's the head of a spy ring after an experimental airplane. The one with Pat O'Brien is a goodie, but unrelated, I haven't seen it since it aired on AMC about two decades ago. O'Brien also was in the noir RIFFRAFF in 1947 but it had nothing to do with the film of the same title that his buddy Spencer Tracy made a decade earlier.

What a great double-bill THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE and NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH would make. Besides the Jack La Rue connection, both concern a woman at the hands of a gang who begins to enjoy the wild side.

>>*and a tragic dark side* (Juanita Miller and Susan Kohner as a black maid and the light-skinned daughter who repudiates her). Freudian slip? Not a book that I'll be buying, this film has always struck me as unintentionally funny.

>>Other favorite Donlevy roles for me besides this are: ?The Hucksters? Forgive me for intruding, but Donlevy isn't in that film. There are two early ones of his that show up on the Fox Channel once in a while, usually at dawn. MIDNIGHT TAXI is one of them, a two-fisted good guy role, and BORN RECKLESS is the other. Both of them involve a taxi company and I get them confused, but each is worth catching. I keep looking for CRACK UP to air - it used to play constantly when I was a kid but it's been almost 50 years since I've seen it.

>>Has he ever had a SUTS or any kind of tribute on TCM? I can't recall, but if he hasn't maybe it would be a good thought. Yes, a whole month-long tribute back in July 2007 as I recall. But if they were to give him a day in August, I wouldn't mind. I've got about 25 of his westerns on tape or DVD, I tend to watch one a week.

I saw HEAVEN'S GATE the weekend that it opened in NYC. Granted it was almost 30 years ago, but I can swear that I recall that there were captions for the foreign dialogue that was spoken. That seemed to be missing last night. I mistakenly thought that the soundtrack would have been cleaned up somewhat for a director's cut. I barely made out what either Cotten or Hurt were saying at Oxford - I mean Cambridge and that was a problem with my first screening.

>>What ?Heaven?s Gate? needed was a Studio Head managing the entire production. Yes, but given that it didn't happen, what the film really could have used - especially on video - is closed-captioning. The soundtrack was even muddier than the cinematography. I had it cranked up and still had to wonder if I should schedule a hearing test. Mind you, I had one six months ago and passed with flying colors.

I see they have rarely-aired THE GUN RUNNERS paired with TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT. What a shame they couldn't go for a triple and air THE BREAKING POINT along with them. Or even today with the other Garfield films. Nice to see WHAT PRICE GLORY and THE BIG PARADE on the schedule though, I haven't seen either in over 30 years.

>>In an article, TCM's programmer said that since they don't sell commercials they don't subscribe to the ratings services so nobody counts how many viewers there are. Technically untrue. Nielsen does count the viewers - after all, someone has to be reporting that they are watching. Nielsen reports only ad supported cable stations, anything else is listed as "other."

I wish they could have gotten either Walter Huston in LAW AND ORDER or Randolph Scott in FRONTIER MARSHALL.

>>If I had to pick a substitute for Henry Fonda in Mister Roberts, William Holden would be my top choice. If Warner Brothers had their way, it would have been William Holden or Marlon Brando. At that point, although he had played the role on stage, Fonda had not been in a film for seven years and was hardly considered box-office material. In addition, he was about 20 years too old for the part. That matters less on stage where you don't get big-screen close-ups.

It looks like a month-long tribute to THE INVISIBLE MAN to me.

That's like Newman's "Street Scene" music that gets used to open so many Fox noirs such as THE DARK CORNER, KISS OF DEATH and CRY OF THE CITY as well as being fully orchestrated for the opening of HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE as entrance music.

I imagine a composer gets contracted to a studio and can either be loaned out, or moves when his contract expires. After all, Steiner started at RKO, didn't he? I'll have to check the film next time it airs, I do know that Columbia recycled a lot of music. I heard bits of *Gun Fury* turn up in later Scott westerns. The studio's 50's sci-fi films all seem to be using cues from the stock music library.

>>And it was in this thread? I'll check back and look at it. I'm not sure if it was in this thread, it may have been mentioned in passing in another thread. My son has a Play Station unit, thus he buys the newer technology. I'm perfectly satisfied with DVD for now and even standard tech for broadcasts. From what I've seen of Blu Ray, it's not worth it yet for me to upgrade, I've spent most of my life watching movies on TV, so just getting letterboxed films is a big plus already.

>>How long ago was that discussion? Probably over the summer. I watched it on Blu Ray on my son's set-up at that time - he hadn't even opened it yet. He asked me what I thought of it and I said that I was glad the viewing didn't cost me any money.

>>but I remember another poster and I agreed about the inferiority of the remake to the original (maybe it was cigarjoe?). I think that was you and I. I remember saying how I thought it was ridiculous that Fonda was riding a horse the day after his guts were shot out, or how the crippled Bale was running across rooftops like Batman. He was a farmer with deadly accuracy using his gun, but the more experienced outlaws were apparently near-sighted.