clore

That sounds more like some setting that's not quite right on your tv, and they don't "add" anything to upscale the image....the entire signal itself they transmit is upconverted to 1080. I may not have phrased it properly, but there's something that appears to happen in the upconversion process that adds the tint. This only happens on TCM, I've got 7 broadcast channels in dual form and goodness knows how many cable channels in both HD and SD. TCM is the only one affected in this way, not any of the six HBO channels or TMC or Reelz - you name it. On the matter of the gray bars, I've been through the manual for the TV and the DVD player forward and backward. The player is set at 16:9 and there is no setting to adjust the color of the bars on the TV either. This is the second player hooked up to the machine and both had the same issue. I've even checked reviews of the current player (an upscaling Panasonic), and while they did tip me off to settings not or poorly described in the manual, they didn't cover this particular issue. I'll live with it for the time being, I've got my eyes on a new set when I get the unspent portion of a attorney's large retainer fee back soon. I'll put this set in the bedroom which presently houses a 15 year-old glass tube set. Thanks for trying to help though.

I have an HD cable box, and I set it for 16:9 picture. When I'm watching some 1940 movie shot in 4:3, I get black bars on the side. That's fine. But if I'm watching a DVD of the same movie, I get gray bars on the side and it is annoying. Even with the 16:9 setting on the DVD player, I still get gray bars. There is no setting on the TV itself to alter that. That's a shame that you have to go through the menus to make simple picture size changes. I have to do that to change brightness or tint. Only on TCM HD does it seem that I have to change the tint. Whatever they add to the signal to upscale the image, it adds a green tint, sometimes a lot worse than others. It's easier just to change the channel to the TCM SD and watch it that way. Color films aren't affected like that, but black-and-white on TCM HD causes problems. Maybe if I got one of those protective screens, it would improve the reception.

He claimed that the signal was not letting him switch. Is that possible? That's BS. At the worst, he should have had the option of 4:3 or 16:9 on TCM HD. There would be even more options on TCM SD with usually a "panorama" and a couple of "zoom" settings. All it takes is to push the "picture size" button on the remote.

It's a shame Diane McBain didnt have much of a career as I thought she was very good in it. She was good. This was originally announced a few years earlier as a vehicle for Carroll Baker. But her WB film THE MIRACLE flopped and the studio lost interest in doing it with her.

Drago was the antagonist played by Dolph Lundgren in ROCKY IV.

Well, I suppose you folks can see the resemblance Lansing down there might have had to "The King of Cool", can't ya?! I thought that many years ago, when Lansing was doing 87TH PRECINCT on TV in 1961. Oddly enough, McQueen made his big splash in THE BLOB which was produced by Jack Harris. The producer then took his money from that film, and after sacking McQueen from a signed three-picture deal because he was so dfifficult, Harris cast Lansing in THE 4D MAN.

As it is now, SUSPICION spends nearly its entire running time heading in one direction, then it suddenly goes in a reverse direction at the last minute. I get frustrated every time I watch it. It is not necessarily a weak ending, just the wrong ending. For many years, I felt the same about the film. It bugged me, but then I began to think about it within the context of Hitchcock's career. 39 STEPS, SABOTEUR, TO CATCH A THIEF, THE WRONG MAN, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, FRENZY - in all of them, the protagonist is wrongfully accused of something and we see the unfolding of subsequent events through his eyes. With SUSPICION, try watching it and thinking of it as being of the same formula, only this time we're looking at it from the POV of the person doing the wrongful accusing.

My objection to KRAMER VS KRAMER is that except for a flash of nudity, it really wasn't much different than an issue-of-the-week TV movie. Sub Barry Bostwick for Dustin Hoffman and you've got ONCE UPON A FAMILY, a TV movie of the same era. But I share your regard about the Dick Foran films as they're a lot less in circulation than KRAMER. On the other hand, there are a lot of vintage films also that are in constant rotation on TCM and at this point, I'd rather see VIOLENT ROAD than 12 ANGRY MEN or REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.

Walt found out he was playing on the "wrong" team and Walt and Mickey wouldn't tolerate that! Walt found out when an underaged boy's mother came complaining. This was from Tommy Kirk himself in an interview with Richard Valley of "Scarlet Street" magazine.

The monthly schedule also has some erroneous info for ALICE which airs tonight. h2. [Alice (1990)|http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67017/Alice/] An unhappy wife turns to an acupuncturist for mystical solutions to her problems. *Dir*: [Gabriel Benattar|http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/729202%7C0/Gabriel-Benattar/] *Cast*: [Nadia Mourouzi|http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/1242165%7C0/Nadia-Mourouzi/] , [Alain Fromager|http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/945394%7C0/Alain-Fromager/] , [Martin Provost|http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/1332681%7C0/Martin-Provost/] . C-106 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

I liked "Dude" much better when he was "Pepi" in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. The primary failing of TOBACCO road was that it just wasn't entertaining, not for me anyway. OK, that's not always a priority, so the next goal should be to be informative. The only info I got out of it was that it wasn't entertaining.

Bill Macy was too old to play David O. Selznick (and looked nothing like him), but I loved it when his character said, "You want me for violation of the Mann Act? No, you must have me confused with my brother, Myron." Slight correction, Bill Macy played Myron, Tony Curtis played David O. Selznick.

> {quote:title=misswonderly wrote:}{quote}Well, sorry, everybody who liked this film, but I thought it just plain stunk. An online friend sent me a VHS of this about a decade ago when I commented that it was the only post-STAGECOACH Ford title that I hadn't seen. I watched about 30 minutes of it and turned it off. Last night I made it about 45 minutes in, but between this and GOD'S LITTLE ACRE, I spent enough time in the dirt to last a lifetime.

The lovely Gloria Winters from SKY KING

Anyways, I have always thought that Marie Dressler's part was based somewhat on Ethel Barrymore's life, especially her stage career when she was a young woman.You know the part in the film where Marie and Lionel are talking about how popular Carlotta was in her early stage career. They say things like, "oh yes they named battleships after me, and perfumes," when "you worn a new hat, it became the rage," etc. Funny that you should mention that as the other day I read that Carlotta Vance was based on Mrs. Patrick Campbell who was on TCM the other day in OUTCAST LADY and was also in ONE MORE RIVER. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Patrick_Campbell

Here's something I wrote almost 11 years ago as part of a review of Randolph Scott's career on the Western board at the IMDb: To write of *Ride the High Country* is almost superfluous in this forum, few westerns appear to be as cherished and admired. This is one even non-Peckinpah fans speak well of as it emphasizes character, not violence. From its nominal beginnings, with producer Richard Lyons sending a story to Scott, certain it would not even be read, to the actor's enthusiasm so brimming that he passed it along to Joel McCrea, one can only wonder if this was fate. The script prepared by N.B. Stone did not meet with the approval of Lyons, and he suggested Sam Peckinpah, with only one previous feature, to rewrite and direct. The businessman in Scott had to look at Sam's *Deadly Companions*, and surely he saw the similarities to the Boetticher films, especially *Ride Lonesome* and *Comanche Station* - Brian Keith's hero was not that much different than the ones Scott had portrayed. The question of billing was solved over lunch at the Brown Derby - a simple coin toss that Scott won. The concern was over which roles to play, and it took only one day of filming before the roles were swapped by mutual dissent, and immediate consent. The rest of the shoot went fine, according to McCrea, Peckinpah was "A very gifted writer...he was fine to work with. I hear he got tough later on, especially with crew, but with us he was fine, a real talent." The budget was $800,000, and the filming was on a 24 day schedule, which is easier to accomplish with vets of Scott and McCrea's caliber, but Peckinpah also had relatively new performers such as Mariette Hartley (her debut at age 22) and Ron Starr to contend with. Others such as Edgar Buchanan, R.G Armstrong, L.Q. Jones and John Anderson were around long enough, and Warren Oates, James Drury and John Davis Chandler had some, if not much seasoning by this time. The big problem came when the unit went back, and the post-production and editing were finished. Sol Siegel, who green-lighted the project was gone, and, as tends to happen in studio takeovers, the new administration had no good will towards a chancy project from the old administration. So, in the summer of 1962, *Ride the High Country* opened on the second half of double-bills, barely noticed by the public, but it received the kind of attention and reviews accorded to only the most prestigious productions: Time: "*Ride the High Country* has a rare honesty of script, performance and theme - that goodness is not a gift, but a quest." Newsweek: "In fact, everything about the picture has the ring of truth, from the unglamorized setting to the flavorful dialog and the natural acting." The domestic failure went on to win First Prize at the Venice Film Festival, and the Grand Prize at the Brussels Film Festival, beating out *8 1/2*. All over Europe, it became one of MGM's most financially successful releases, and its ending had to influence the closing scene between Bronson and Robards in Leone's Once Upon A Time in the West. And thus ended the cinema saga of one of Hollywood's top cowboys, the acclaim came late, but it came in greater number than many ever get to experience. That it came at all must surely have surprised a man who was the first to say "I'm no actor."

Why doesn't TCM show this ad nauseum (sic), as they do Boston ****? Why would anyone want something to be aired "ad nauseam" since it means to occur to the point of making one ill?

Still, "Dad" might enjoy being here. After all, we are such an amazing group of people. True, we can adopt him for Father's Day.

FYI - this poster got an answer in the Information Please forum. The film is THIS LOVE OF OURS which starred Merle Oberon and Claude Rains.

The theme was "Primrose Lane" and it was sung by Mike Minor of Petticoat Junction fame. Minor also just happened to be the son of Don Fedderson who was the producer of THE SMITH FAMILY (as well as MY THREE SONS and FAMILY AFFAIR). Speaking of a family affair, Minor was married to Linda Kaye Henning who just happened to be the daughter of Paul Henning who produced PETTICOAT JUNCTION and the other cornpone sitcoms on CBS at the time.

You're quite welcome, glad to be of some assistance. That was a big mistake on the part of Paramount and they should have had some concern as to Universal's willingness to purchase the library. Could part of it have been related to the fact the not long before, Universal had leased its horror films to the Screen Gems division of Columbia and the latter was reaping big bucks on the Shock Theater packages? But it was just a lease and the films reverted to Universal within the decade. Now we all suffer as Universal seems to be sitting on the bulk of the Paramount library as well as a hefty chunk of their own titles.

The discussion lost momentum when one person pointed out that it was obvious that the Egyptians, Maya and Hindi must have had shared information since their depictions of circles, squares and triangles are absolutely identical. I thought that it was the ancient space travelers who were responsible for that. Sometimes it may just be a matter of similar thoughts striking individuals. While there are cases of patent infringement, there are also cases where the earliest forms of what we use today - be it cars, phones, radio/TV - just happened to be in progress by inventors on the opposite sides of the world. I mentioned the other day on how when I saw DIRTY HARRY in 1971, I commented to a friend that Andrew Robinson reminded me of Liberace. Almost two decades later, there he was playing Liberace in a TV movie. Just a simliar thought process, that's all, I didn't sue. It was even more strange when the whole Amy Fisher thing was in the news and it was announced that there would likely be a TV movie soon following. I thought that either Drew Barrymore or Alyssa Milano would be good casting and both of them played the part, along with yet another actress in a third adaptation.

Are you asking me that question? Of course I've seen the whole film. No Fred, that was in the context of a person I'm describing who does exist on another message board. It was used to illustrate just how "uninformed" some people can be when talking about a subject on which they try to appear to be the authority. I'm sure that you know the type - when all else fails, they'll resort to "If you don't love XXXXXXX, then you don't love cinema."

Thank you sir, much appreciated. I have a thing for that woman in the third row center, the one who is shaking her head back and forth. Nice to see such enthusiasm.

If we see enough films in our lifetime, especially films of all decades, then we begin to notice the similarities and we can often spot the outright copies. I can agree with you there, but too often I've found people making leaps that strain credulity. Such as recently on another board, I saw someone claiming that Hitchcock's shower scene in PSYCHO was inspired by a scene with Anita Ekberg in the shower in SCREAMING MIMI. Then someone came along and said the "obvious influence" was LES DIBOLIQUES and still another came along to say that it was a shower scene in THE SEVENTH VICTIM that was the inspiration. To say that such things are similar is one thing, but unless one is doing a Mr. Spock mind meld, or the filmmakers in question have revealed it, we really don't know whether one thing was "inspired" by another. It's common on message boards for some to attempt to be the last word in all things related to cinema. I can think of one person on another site who had already ostracized many with his frequent "No, you are wrong, Joe Schmoe's best film is undoubtedly THE CORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT" remarks. But he outdid himself recently when in a discussion of projects that Hitchcock never brought to the screen, he proclaimed that "The ultimate Hitchcock never-made film is an adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Mary-Rose..." Apparently he's not only the expert on every film ever made, he's also able to gauge films that were never made. My introduction to this person was when he referenced a film that you mentioned earlier. In a discussion on Wellman's output before the Code, he cited Wellman's crowning achievement as being SAFE IN HELL. Now, as it's one opinion versus another, I would hardly challenge such a statement, but when one makes such a claim, following that with "it's an uncompromising look at the lives of hookers in New Orleans," then I have to wonder if you've ever even seen the film as only about ten minutes is set there.