clore

I'm sure hoping that we get the longer version this time as we did in late September. If I recall properly, Robert Osborne even mentioned that it was the longer version, even though the title card read "Curse" rather than "Night." I know that TCM has shown it on other occasions, but the last screening was the first time in 25 years that I actually sat down through all of it. What did strike me was that Andrews remained somewhat the skeptic even after a house cat turned into a panther and pounced upon him, or having the footprints following him.

*Although much shorter, doesn't Curse contain at least some dialogue -- the Karswell with his mother scene -- that is not in Night?* I saw the longer version only a month ago and the scene was there. I hadn't recalled seeing it before, but then, I haven't seen the film in 25 years. Back then, I worked for Columbia Pictures Television and had put together a bunch of packages for syndication. DEMON was in my horror package and I had made inquiries about the longer version but was told that we only had the 82 minute cut in our vault. Yet there was a VHS released of the longer cut.

Wow - I don't believe it. I spoke online with TimeWarner Cable about the reception problem with TCM. They asked if it was a problem with both of my cable boxes and I told them yes, as well as on a neighbor's set, so it's at their end, not mine. They promised to pass it along right away and thanked me for my informing them. I went out for a couple of hours but when I turned the box on, no more problem!

There's also 1933's THE MIND READER with Warren William doing an act on the carny circuit. In 1935's THE CLAIRVOYANT, Claude Rains finds that his "act" has become a reality, something that also happens to Edward G. Robinson in THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES.

I remember it as being more of a costume film than the more horrific Hammer remake titled THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH. Check your PMs for some more info on it.

>>Two favorite Helen Walker roles: In Murder He Says and in the rarely seen but haunting The Man in Half Moon Street. Whatever did happen to that film? I remember that when I was an adolescent, THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET would play frequently on Channel 5 in NYC, and always on a weekday afternoon. I did get to see it on a "sick day" but that was back in 1966. Even when Channel 13 was running loads of 30s and 40s Paramount films in the 80s, this one never showed up again.

*I recorded Burn Witch Burn the last time it was on -- April 21, I believe. Good print, hadn't seen the film in yonks. But I regret not thinking to record it in HD.* I watched it on that occasion, I had not seen it since I saw it on a double bill with PREMATURE BURIAL way back when. I had forgotten just how good a film this one is, so I do want to get a copy of it tomorrow night. Now if only TCM could come up with a print of THE UNEARTHLY STRANGER...

I intend on recording it - but only if my issue with TimeWarner is solved. I'm getting constant audio drop-outs and video freezing for the last two days on both of my boxes. I'll probably end up getting the DVD, but I did want to record BURN, WITCH BURN tomorrow also.

There are two versions of the 1958 film released here as CURSE OF THE DEMON and in the UK as NIGHT OF THE DEMON. The American cut is 82 minutes, some 13 minutes shorter than the UK version. TCM had it listed last month as 82 minutes as part of Peggy Cummins night on September 28, and while the title card read "Curse" what we got was the longer print. The film is scheduled tomorrow, but once again listed as 82 minutes. It starts at 1230am and the schedule lists a short at 158am, so that would seem to indicate the shorter version. But hey,it's easy to sacrifice a short and give us the longer print. Any chance that the TCMProgrammer can chime in on this? Thank you in advance.

>*If simply being SEEN on television counts, then Grant is disqualified from the avoidance list. He sat at Hitchcock's elbow during a televised tribute to Hitch's career.* I remember waking up to the news that Grant had died. Coincidentally, about twelve hours later, he could be seen in a TV special titled "All-Star Party For Clint Eastwood" in which he was shown making some remarks about the honoree. CBS preceded the program with a voice-over noting that it had been taped at an earlier date and expressed condolences to the Grant family. In the early 50s, Cary Grant also appeared unannounced on a program titled "Dave and Charley" that was hosted by the team of Cliff Arquette (aka Charley Weaver) and Dave Willock - he did this simply because he found the pair amusing.

I really was looking forward to seeing this again for the first time in about 30 years. But as of yesterday, TimeWarner Cable of NYC went "full digital" as they have promised for months. What was promoted as the latest technology has resulted in audio drop outs and freeze frames on any channel that I've watched and the kicker is that I've had digital cable for about a decade now. Oh well, one more reason to look forward to pulling the plug on them at the end of the year, maybe even sooner since there's no sense in trying to stockpile recordings since they will be unwatchable.

>"Blacksploitation" was very big in the early '70's. I wonder if TCM ever did a profile on them? Probably in a February? I believe they did back about seven years ago. But it was part of celebrating Black History Month which now gets the shaft (no pun intended) since the Oscar telecast moved to February and thus we get "31 Days of Oscar." And I don't mean Oscar Micheaux.

>Last nite appropriately at midnite I enjoyed F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu with a score composed by Hammer Studios' great John Bernard. Actually, it's James Bernard. But the rest of your post comes down to "Why doesn't TCM play what I want to see 24/7?" It doesn't work that way. Goodness, you want the UK version of INVADERS FROM MARS, get the DVD. I got it a few years ago for about six dollars, both versions are there.

Re the Bogart/Baer/Walcott photo... I remember reading in Richard Gehman's bio of Bogart (my almost 50-year-old copy is buried in storage) that Bogie used the pic or one from that session, for a trade ad spoof. So, I went searching online and found this: Wednesday Evening, December 14, 1955. Hollywood's "New Faces Draws Retort From Bogart HOLLYWOOD (UP)--Hollywood- Ites nearly swallowed their coffee cups tihis morning when they saw movtetown's funniest gag in years --a poke at Hollywood's ".new faces" campaign by that salty character, Humphrey Bogart. Several studios recently launched a spirited drive for the press, public and theaters to cooperate in the "building of new stars." But Bogie counterattacked with an equally spirited defense of the old ones. In the movie trade paper appeared a photograph of Bogart, Max Baer and Jersey Joe Walcott, three un-young workers in the boxing expose picture, "The Harder They Fall." The'caption read: "Nails Bogart, Spike Baer and Tack Walcott--the oldest permanent new faces now available." Bogart is wearing a Marlon Brando-type torn sweatshirt and the others Tony Curtis-type how ties. Today the perpetrator of this spoof explained why he declared war on the "new faces" search. "New faces?" he snorted. "Why don't they lift the old faces? "The studios are full 01 hot air. Every couple of years studio heads say this. If they're going to make new stars, why haven't they made them by now? Brando and Jimmy Dean weren't made stars by studios. Studios can't make stars. After Miss Monroe left Fox they made some 'new star' as a substitute, but her name escapes me. "Every time I had a fight with Jack Warner when I was und-er contract to him he'd say, 'Why, I'll make two new Bogarts.' http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/28153665/

I recorded it last May when it aired at 915am on a Saturday morning. Look at it this way - you posted this at 2am Eastern Time Fri/Sat, so you can obviously manage to stay awake until the wee hours. On the west coast, tomorrow's airing is at 930pm. Be happy, there have been times and there will be another in December when this film aired at 3-4am Eastern time.

Sometimes the ads were regional. Back in early 1967, the Coca-Cola people launched Fresca with the ad campaign citing "it's a blizzard." Just as the campaign started, NYC was hit with its worst snowstorm in years. So, they quickly got on the air a commercial with a spokesperson apologizing, saying that they didn't mean it and asked us not to hold it against the soda and to get some from the store as soon as the streets were cleared.

For example, Mountain Dew had been around for a few decades, but we didn't get it in NYC until the mid-60s.

I don't recall a "Triple Cola" but it may have been a regional thing. In NYC we had Coke, Pepsi and Big Giant Cola. The latter came in a 16-ounce bottle long before the others made the move.

>Too funny! (BTW, Joan would be outraged)..................... As long as she can get a Pepsi with her Big Mac, she won't mind. Daughter Vida might have a few things to say though.

>Are you assuming he DOESN'T pronounce it with a hard "G"? As >in "Gizmo"? To spare making an **** of myself, I opt to presume.

Separated at birth?

To TheGizWiz (and we won't even get into the implications of that user name): You did a fine job, I'd love to see you get a regular gig hosting movie spoofs. By the way, that line about Walter Brennan's false teeth in SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF was probably inspired by a running gag about Brennan's character in RED RIVER. He lost his teeth to a fellow player in a card game and has to borrow them every time he wants to eat.

*TomJH said:* *Here's another photo of Dan showing his family one of his scripts. They seem to be having a pretty good laugh over it and I don't recall Dan appearing in that many comedies.* Maybe it's the script for THE SWINDLERS (aka WHITE TIE AND TAILS), a film that I've been trying to locate for years. Here's a thought to ponder - Dan Duryea as Dagwood Bumstead. Here's the NY Times review: Movie Review White Tie and Tails (1946) THE SCREEN By BOSLEY CROWTHER Published: November 8, 1946 You might say that Universal and its current fair-haired boy, Dan Duryea, are displaying the-atrical pretensions which are slightly out of their class in "White Tie and Tails," their little cut-up which came to Loew's State yesterday. For the quality of writing and direction expedient for a comedy of this sort is more in the line of John van Druten than of the journeymen hired to do this job. And the subtlety and suavity of performance required in the principal role might better be supplied by Robert Montgomery than by Mr. Duryea, who is more adept at muggs. For this is one of those trifles about a butler and a quality dame, who meet under false pretenses and fall madly, hopelessly in love. It is one of those featherweight fables in which social levels are confused and which needs the most blithe and brittle writing and playing to be made to look like much. It is one of those quasi-classy chitchats which should bristle with witty lines and which should flow from the mouths of saucy actors like champagne over plums. Unfortunately, Bertram Millhauser hasn't written it quite that classily and Charles T. Barton has not directed as though he were confident that it would go. A look of professional bewilderment is apparent in the services of both. Obviously they had the feeling that they were out of their groove. And Mr. Duryea, although he moves with assurance and speaks his lines airily, has not yet got quite the oil and polish for upstairs high comedy. Ella Raines certainly doesn't show much as the quality lady he loves and William Bendix, though thoroughly competent as a tough mugg with whom they tangle, needs more help. He, like the rest of the characters whom the author has scattered about, is all dressed for action in "White Tie and Tails" but has little to do. On the stage at Loew's State are Henny Youngman, Sara Ann McCabe, Stan Fisher, Ruth and Billy Ambrose and Louis Basil and his orchestra.

>In May of 2012, McCrea was Star of the Month and TCM aired 42 films in his honor. Oh, I know about McCrea, but the other poster (mrroberts) was inquiring about a Dan Duryea tribute. Thanks anyway.

I can't recall him getting a SUTS or even a b-day salute, but that doesn't mean it never happened. Funny about TOO LATE FOR TEARS is that at first one thinks that Duryea is doing a reprise of his character from THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW - some of his dialogue and the barging in is quite similar. But Scott turns the tables on him, giving her best performance ever and I say that as one who was never quite impressed by her. She shines here, the film belongs to her.