clore

>>clore, too bad you didn't save the Umberto's phone. In the days of eBay, you'd have done a nice bit of business. Unfortunately it was a pay phone and we had to turn those in since the money was in the box. When they called it in for being out of order, the complaint was "phone all shot up." True story. it was fun working Little Italy then. Once i had to fix a phone on a block closed off to pedestrians as they were shooting THE GODFATHER. I was standing there watching them shoot the scene where Brando falls into the street in front of the fruit stand. Once the take was done, I was allowed out of the social club where i was fixing the phone. The phone had a paper taped to it saying "don't discuss business on this phone." I was one of the few repairmen allowed in Little Italy at the time as they swore by my hair and coloring that I was a paisan. They feared lines being tapped and few times I was tipped nicely to check for such things on the premises. But I was always honest and told them that there could be taps in the central office and that I had no way of knowing that. Anyway, I digress. Once I exited the club, I walked right up to Coppola and congratulated him on winning the Oscar two nights earlier - it was for co-writing PATTON. We talked a few minutes, which astounded me as here he was with this big-budget movie and all of its responsibilities and he's talking with me about DEMENTIA 13 and YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW. Not long after, I got to watch Sophia Loren shooting a scene for LADY LIBERTY and also Richard Widmark in an episode of his short-lived MADIGAN series.

And SOLE SURVIVOR must be the most "unremembered" TV movie in terms of title. People can recall it down to the tiniest detail, but they forget the title.

Warren William does it for me. He's like the best of John Barrymore, William Powell and George Sanders rolled into one. Even as a slimeball he is utterly charming. His wardrobe is impeccable and his diction as well. His off-screen life is interesting also as he was an inventor who held several patents. One short that I've seen on TCM showed his handiwork in designing his clothes closet, which really looked like a room and had a rotating array of suits available for any occasion. I'd just about kill for that collection. I search the TCM schedule each month to find any titles that I'm missing and I'd pay full price for a box set - and I don't pay retail for anything.

>>Good job again, TCMprogrammr, especially for snagging Fox's The Left Hand of God Also the Fox film DEADLINE USA which the Fox Movie Channel hardly ever airs. It's also his return to the studio where he started out twenty years earlier, only to return to Broadway and his big break.

>>You seem to confirm that Charles Higham's reputation as an accurate biographer is somewhat suspect. How reputable was Higham's work in his "earlier" and later periods? I've read some of his earlier reviews and "The Celluloid Muse" and from there Higham strikes me a a guy who loves films and filmmakers. The good thing about "Muse" is that the format is more one of an oral history dissertation by each director. So, when reading the one on Jacques Tourneur, he's not asked about whether Merle Oberon slept with Robert Ryan. Lewis Milestone mentions having Errol Flynn as a guest in his home and that his manners were impeccable. He's not asked whether Flynn was peddling government secrets or bedding starlets. I've only read his Flynn bio, I didn't purchase it and as I recall, I didn't even finish it because there were so many claims about his speculation on Flynn's activities. Besides which, even if one is to quote FBI documents, who is to say that what is contained there in those documents is accurate? For all I know, the FBI could have a file on me because years ago I fixed telephones in Little Italy and had to enter the premises of known mob members. Does this mean I was consorting with them? Of course not, but there were places that i visited multiple times, such as Umberto's Clam House where Joey Gallo was killed. The spray of bullets damaged the phone on the wall and I had to replace it and that was not my first time there nor the last. But as much as Higham may love film, I gather that he also loves selling books and if his publisher insists on digging up dirt, I'm sure that Higham complied. I wouldn't have, but that's why I've never gotten a book contract.

Provine's singing "He Shouldn't-A, Hadn't-A, Oughtn't-A Swang on Me!" in THE GREAT RACE is about all that I can tolerate of that film. I realize it's a live-action cartoon, but I just found it overdone for the most part, even for that type. I adored her on THE ROARING 20s and watched it weekly. She did deserve more opportunities, but she was content with putting her career aside not long after she married director Robert Day.

>>I too find myself questioning the whole book when I come across one too many inexcusable errors. I have a bio of Gary Cooper - well, several of them - but one of them in referring to NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE cited co-stars Robert Preston and Preston as being real-life brothers. As if that wasn't bad enough, it went on to claim that this was the first time that real-life brothers were cast in the same film. Guess the author never saw GRAND HOTEL, RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS or THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER. Now that I think of it, I probably don't have the book anymore. I may have chucked it after that. I know that I didn't finish it.

>>You might also want to check out Richard Schickel's companion book to his series of documentaries, The Men Who Made the Movies. Yes, another very good book. I found a copy of it minus the jacket a few years ago in a thrift shop. Cost me only 50 cents! Another good one is "The Celluloid Muse: Hollywood Directors Speak" which is a lot like the Bogdanovich collection of interviews. Don't let Charles Higham's co-authorship deter you, it's from his earlier period.

Let me give a third approval for "Who the Devil Made it?" In fact, my copy is six feet away from me right now as I used it for some info on Lang after watching his Ida Lupino film the other day. The Schatz book really impressed me as he does his research well. As i could recall, there was only one minor error that i found within the text, minor enough that I've forgotten it. Too often I'll find some blatant mistakes - erroneous credits or citing the wrong year of release - and as that stuff is too readily verifiable, it makes me question just how much of the tome could be in error. It's probably just me though, I've spent too many years in the TV industry as a researcher/marketer and know only too well that one disputable "fact" can undermine a whole presentation.

I think that you might like "The Genius of the System" by Thomas Schatz. From Publishers Weekly In this original, monumental survey of Hollywood's film studios during their most glorious period, Schatz, professor at the University of Texas and author of Hollywood Genres , in contrast with the directorial theories of Andrew Sarris and other film historians, describes the creative give-and-take, the symbiotic accord between creators and front offices, in which the styles of writers, directors and stars fused with studio management structures, production operations, talent pools, narrative traditions and market strategies. Analytically and with anecdote examining the financial as well as creative workings of MGM, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal and RKO in the era of Thalberg, Selznick, Zanuck and Hitchcock, Schatz demonstrates that at the heart of each studio's house style were the star-genre formulations (Bette Davis melodramas, Humphrey Bogart thrillers, Boris Karloff horror films, Gene Kelly musicals) that nowadays, as they are recirculated and rediscovered by young viewers, are all that remain of the great studios and of the vigorous, dynamic men and women who sustained them. Photos.

>>...but unfortunately he was the very personification of what was wrong with the Our Gang shorts made by MGM after Hal Roach stopped producing them in 1938. TCM aired one of them recently. It was "Little Miss Pinkerton" which committed the incredible poor judgment to include the kids witnessing the murder of an elderly friend.

>>I'm almost certain that TCM has shown Who's Minding the Store?, but I don't remember when. Never mind that one, it's WHO'S MINDING THE MINT? that I want to see again. It's been over 40 years now.

>>Denny Miller was billed as "Scott Miller" when he played Tarzan. I particularly liked him when he played the beleaguered Air Force sergent-husband of Juliet Prowse in the short-lived 1960s sitcome Mona McCluksey. He was most definitely Denny Miller in the Tarzan film, Scott Miller on WAGON TRAIN and used Denny "Scott" Miller on some other TV appearances such as a BEN CASEY episode. It was quite confusing for my sister who thought he was a dreamboat. She never missed an episode of MONA MCCLUSKEY which aired right before Dean Martin's show on Thursday. He was back to Denny by then. I thought he was quite good in an episode of THE FUGITIVE as a character with more than a few things in common with Lennie Small from OF MICE AND MEN.

As it is, I find that there is enough retrofitting of titles to fit the patina of being called "film noir." It's gotten to the point that any black-and-white drama in which a character walks down a street or passes an alley is called noir. I can dig an overall "crime time" channel that could incorporate noir, but such a channel (such as the Sleuth Channel) would have to depend on a mix of TV shows lest the duplication cause viewer ennui in the long run.

I watched TRUE GRIT and afterward I heard that BABY FACE was coming up as one of the next three films. But when I heard that THE GREEN BERETS was the next one to air, I went to bed.

My ability to appreciate Red Skelton was ruined early. My mother watched his CBS show and I would cringe during his monologues. He kept interrupting his jokes with "You're gonna love this" or else he would wreck the punchline by laughing through it and after it. I'd sooner floss with barbed wire than watch his "solo" films. I can take him in THREE LITTLE WORDS or as a sidekick, but otherwise I find him torturous.

Friday, September 4, 11am Eastern THE CAPE TOWN AFFAIR This may be of interest as it's a remake of PICK UP ON SOUTH STREET. CRY OF THE CITY gets another airing on August 31 at 10am. LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN on September 8 at 11am.

>>...whereas with the latter I was quite obviously saying the equivalent of "We can probably expect...," It would have been presumptuous of me to think that.

TCM has aired this before - it's hard not to forget the rather insensitive title card that referred to Tony Gaudio going home to make one of "his **** dinners."

The title may be inappropriate, but the film is quite good. Barry Kelley does a good job of stealing the film. Speaking of Glenn Ford day, I'm kissing off watching IT STARTED WITH A KISS. This is a simply awful print lacking color and focus. I'll come back to the schedule when the B&W stuff like FRAMED and CONVICTED appear. The latter is a decent remake of Hawks' THE CRIMINAL CODE while the former is a good-enough noir that also has the unsung Barry Sullivan in the cast.

Did you notice that in UNDERCOVER MAN, no one actually went undercover?

>>I am laughing! Don't be sorry, I love getting the giggles in the middle of the night. Did I really write that? Yeah, I really did. Brain blips abounding... He's looking great these days, very distinguished. I'm glad that you took it in good spirits. It's a bit disconcerting now to see Mr. Osborne in the old promos and then see the newer, more svelte Bob in the intros.

Can't you even be bothered to note that it's Ridley and not brother Tony Scott who confirmed the film? Maybe you should practice some real writing for a change and not just copying-and-pasting.

>>He would look better, IMHO, if we wore a button down shirt or a shirt with a higher collar... First I tried a button down shirt, then one with a higher collar. Robert looked just the same to me. I looked a lot better though. Sorry, couldn't resist.

>>MISTER Mayer - when appropriating a monicker such as you have, you should be prepared and equipped to back up any and all statements with insurmountable and irrefutable primary source materials!! I don't see that Mr Mayer using the phrase "by all accounts" is any more presumptuous than CineSage using the phrase "you just know..." You'll find that a bit further back in the thread.