clore
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Posts posted by clore
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I saw The Real West again somewhere in the early 90s - it aired on A&E. I think that if I were to compare his appearance to a film, it would be to THE NAKED EDGE which I saw once and can't bear to go through it again.
I haven't seen THE UNCONQUERED since the glory days of AMC, probably 20 years ago at least. I'm not a De Mille enthusiast, but that one was fun for me. I have it on tape, but as I have one remaining VCR, it only gets used under extreme emergencies, such as when the cable service went out and I was waiting for the repairman for four days.
When that happened, I did watch THE HANGING TREE which had yet to air on TCM and had not aired in years.
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I remember seeing Cooper just before his death, as the host of a special about "The Real West." He was looking pretty ghastly, and according to his bio, he had to shoot his scenes in very brief takes as he just wasn't up to it. He was committed to doing it though, feeling that it was important to dispel the kinds of "legends" that his own films helped to create.
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I have never come across a VHS or DVD of Cooper's THE SPOILERS, not even on the bootleg market. Maybe someone has a 16mm of it, but I used to travel in those circles and back then, no one had a copy.
Never saw it get a revival at any NYC theater or museum.
I have about 45 Cooper films on tape, a dozen on DVD, but that one is a Holy Grail for me in any form.
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By the time that Cooper did get around to the "thriller" genre, it was for Fritz Lang's CLOAK AND DAGGER. I'm a big fan of the director and the star, but this was not in the upper tier for either of them.
One Cooper film which TCM aired not too long ago was one that I haven't seen in ages titled GOOD SAM. I didn't recall it as being much, but it was worse than I remembered. Faux Capra at its worst, turning Coop into an absolute idiot and enough to make any fan squirm.
One that I've never seen is THE SPOILERS which would give us all a good chance to compare Cooper to Wayne as both appeared in the same role in adaptations of the Rex Beach novel.
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You bring up a good point, a lot of those Cooper goodies are MIA since Universal doesn't seem to want to make the best of the Paramount titles that they own. Thus, we're missing some of his best work. I recently saw SOULS AT SEA courtesy of a friend's Region 2 copy - I had not seen that one in over 30 years.
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I think a lot of it has to do with what has also caused Clark Gable to have declined in the minds of many. Both Cooper and Gable made a lot of films that were formerly called "romances." And both were doing it for a longer period than they should have, looking a bit seedy next to female co-stars dfecades younger. It was such that had Cary Grant gracefully retire even if he did hang on to his looks longer than Cooper or Gable.
Wayne's films were less concerned with him getting the woman in the end. Even a youngster can look at many a Wayne film today and see a man of action, and not a lot of what we called "yucky stuff" in my day.
Cooper was lucky to have gotten a HIGH NOON that saved him from that awful string of films that came before it. The later VERA CRUZ, MAN OF THE WEST and THE HANGING TREE were extremely fine westerns that were not appreciated so much when first released as they are now. Here in NYC, MAN OF THE WEST went straight to the neighborhood theaters, the first Cooper film in his starring career that did not get a Broadway opening.
All that notwithstanding, at 60 years old, I can say that Cooper was always my preference, though I liked Wayne. I saw HIGH NOON on TV on the day he died (it pre-empted the scheduled movie), and have seen it once a year at least since then. I wasn't even ten years old when I first saw it, but even then I knew I was watching something special. Only something that I read many years later by Peter Bogdanovich can summon my thoughts about how that film affected me. He wrote that it was the kind of film that so involved him, that he would forget the ending and be rooting for someone to come to Will Kane's assistance.
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I watch TCM 6 - 12 hours daily. If I'm not , I'm either DVRing the movies so I could watch later.
What's the other option of the "either" that you described? Does it possibly include working or going to school?
TCM should get rid of Essentials Jr. (it didn't work before. why try it again?) and Underground (unless they bring back the low budget 60s horror and 60s spaghetti westerns).
How do you know that Essentials Jr "didn't work before?" Did you take a survey? Did you read this somewhere?
Spaghetti westerns were featured on the Underground? When was this?
They're 5 - 10 minute talks bore me to death. When Fox Movie Channel had Tom Rothman , the man spoke for 30 minutes before and after a movie.
Yeah, heaven forbid that you might learn something, even if it is just film history or trivia. But you do exaggerate once again - Rothman did not speak for 30 minutes before and after ever. Besides, you could always change the channel, turn off the TV or maybe pick up a book.
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Wow, I just spot checked that print of CONVICT LAKE and it was much better than the fuzzy copy that I saw on the Fox Movie Channel in November 2009. The ending reminded me of another Glenn Ford movie, but I won't say which one and spoil it for those who haven't seen this one.
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There was another one on not too long ago, the Anthony Mann CIMARRON. Anyway, I turned it on not long after I woke up and saw it was surrounded by four sides of black bars on the HD channel. I double-checked that I was in the right picture mode and on the right channel, and both were as they should be.
I left the room after about five minutes to get a cup of coffee and sat at the PC with my back to the TV. I didn't turn around until the land rush scene and the image was as it should be, letterboxed from side-to-side on the HD channel.
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Exactly James. If the Underground takes up four hours, that's only 2.4% of the whole week. I can't expect TCM or any other channel to please me 24/7, sometimes I can't find anything at all worth watching out of the hundreds of channels that I do receive.
So, I've got about 500 movies on DVD, 2,000 on VHS, just over 500 books on the subjects of movies or TV and there are all sorts of things to do online.
I check out the Underground occasionally, I saw HAUSU already and thought it was skewed to a demo about one-third my age. But hey, I'm not the only audience member out there and it is worth a look anyway for someone who hasn't seen it. I might have checked out EMPIRE OF PASSION, but the Sandman came calling and when I woke up to a cat nibbling on my toes, Gwangi was in the circus nibbling on a dwarf.
The cat doesn't bite down luckily, but the dwarf wasn't so fortunate.
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}
> LOL, that's what you are doing with your post.
Not exactly - I gave the subject some thought before I posted.
Plus, I've yet to call anyone crazy for not agreeing with me.
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I can only assume that whoever makes the mistake goes by the incorrect information in the database, not realizing that movies before 1953 *cannot* in any way shape or form be filmed in widescreen.
There are a few exceptions, such as those made by Fox in the Grandeur process, such as 1930's THE BIG TRAIL from Raoul Walsh and starring John Wayne. Truly magnificent to see on a big screen as I did nearly 30 years ago, but the DVD which contains both the widescreen and normal-sized prints (it was shot by two different cinematographers) is a must.
For a while, the TCM monthly schedule was truly messed up, from April-June of last year. All films made prior to 1953 were listed as widescreen, and vice-versa for those made later.
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I enjoyed the Godzilla/Rodan/Mothra films. I'm not here to complain about those movies. I didn't think I'd enjoy them , but I did.
But you did complain about them before they aired.
http://forums.tcm.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8649632
You really have to think a bit more before posting. From your first post ever, it's as if you just wish to rant and don't really give much consideration beyond that part of it. Look at this first post in this thread, first you declare this:
TCM showed EMPIRE OF PASSION during the late hours of the night. The last 2 or 3 movies had nothing to do with Godzilla or Inoshiro Honda. WHY DID TCM show them then ?
And then later you write the following:
They ought to be showing early 30s stuff during those hours of the evening/morning.
So, what should they have aired last night between 2-6am - more Honda films or early 30s stuff? Early 30s movies have no connection to Godzilla or Honda, except for perhaps KING KONG which also has a monster wrecking a train.
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My least favorite situation is when they fit subtitled movies to an HD screen without taking into consideration that the subtitles are now outside of the viewable area. That's happened several times too.
Oh yeah. That happened during the most recent airing of ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS. So, I had to watch it on the SD channel. It's just Murphy's Law in application I guess. The channel that I watch most is the one with the most technical errors when it comes to the HD version of the service. Maybe it's the sample size, but I've never caught such an error even once on HBO or TMC.
I guess the other channels are hiring real technicians while TCM is just putting interns on the staff. Doesn't anybody at the channel (other than the intern) monitor what's going on? Doesn't somebody on the staff watch TCM HD at home?
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Yes, good point about the spaghetti westerns. Seeing those pieces of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY before they looped them for the restoration was most disconcerting.
Then again, it's a bit weird hearing the nearly four-decades-older Eastwood and Wallach is a mite disturbing also. The fake Van Cleef actually sounds more like what I'm used to than do the other two.
Nice to see the original RODAN but I'm going to miss the narration at the end, including "I wondered if I, a twentieth century man, could hope to die as well."
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That goes to show how much attention to such things outside the realm of mainstream cinema.
I do love the John Waters film SERIAL MOM though, but that is mainstream even if the lead character isn't.
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clore, may I commend you on the delicacy by which you conveyed that X-rated information.
Ever since I first gathered what the, well, if it's true, BIZZARE!!!!, culinary preference on Laughton's part was, I have had one question in mind which, until now, I have hestitated to ask. Pardon me if I seem indelicate to ask this but does the book indicate why he would do this? I mean, was this a sexual thing or a comment on what he thought of cooking, in general?
You're quite welcome, thank you for the condiment - I mean, compliment.
I have not read the book, only some reviews and excerpts. Personally, I doubt the story, it strikes me as something made up in order to top the things that have already been written about Laughton. There is that infamous "Confidential" story about how Robert Mitchum came to a Laughton costume party disguised as a hamburger for example.
You can only do so many chapters on this guy doing that guy and this gal doing that gal - it has to get shaken up a bit with some other gossip.
I understand such consumption went on in one of Warhol's films, I believe by Divine.
For some reason, I imagine the Bower's service station having a sign like this:
I'd be more likely to frequent this service station featured in a classic WB Technicolor short:
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I have seen De Sica's TWO WOMEN AND A MOTH which has yet to appear on DVD. Similar rights issue as when Leone made YOJIMBO as A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. The foreign rights are still in legal limbo and most of the world has yet to see Loren and Magnani as the singing duo who get kidnapped by the Mafia, causing Motha (slight name change there to pay homage to Chico Marx) to flap his wings and take on the Black Hand.
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Director Bruce Beresford and his wife Virginia attended our Rialto screening of NORTH TO THE KLONDIKE last year. He was filming PEACE, LOVE AND MISUNDERSTANDING in the area and he's a big Brod Crawford fan.
That must have been a thrill. I've been wanting to see KLONDIKE ever since I read about it years ago in Castle of Frankenstein. Richard Bojarski's bio of Chaney included a Pepsi ad to tie in with the film, and somehow the thought of Chaney and Crawford guzzling down soda pop after hours always amused me. Bojarski had quite a few Chaney films on 16mm, but not that one so not even he could fill in the gap for me.
But not as much as the idea of the two of them in a short titled KEEPING FIT which TCM did air about a year ago.
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In most of the films, the timing of the lip movements did not match the timing of the spoken words.
Oh Fred, my sarcasm failed. That's the fault of the dubbing, not the translation. Which isn't a problem with GOJIRA anyway since it has subtitles.
Even so, the dubbing has always been part of the charm of these things as well as the peplum sagas from Italy. Yes, I prefer my foreign films to be subtitled, but with the Japanese monster films, and the Italian strong man epics, reading captions would make them a lot less fun.
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I find those Japanese films boring. A bunch of them are on TCM tonight. The English translation is always bad. Poor editing.
How do you know that the translation is bad - do you speak Japanese?
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In the film MURDER BY DEATH, Truman Capote as Lionel Twain declares himself the best detective, claiming "I'm number one."
Peter Falk as Sam Diamond responds "To me, you look like number two, know what I mean?"
Falk is on the right path - know what I mean?
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> {quote:title=Bilgewasser wrote:}{quote}
> Apparently Power had the same quirk as Laughton. I guess both
> were human recycling machines. S*** in, s*** out.
I wonder where they went for lunch while filming WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION together.
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Charles Laughton. It’s here where Scotty gets into big, big trouble and controversy. This subject is simply repulsive to discuss.
Yes, but it probably serves as the reason why producers never cast Laughton in a western that featured lots of cattle and horses - you know the mess that they can make. He was known for chewing the scenery.
Why Wayne Over Cooper?
in General Discussions
Posted
I had read in one of the several Cooper bios around my apartment that DALLAS was "a disappointment" for Warners, and that as that film followed the unsuccessful BRIGHT LEAF that DISTANT DRUMS wasn't given much of a budget or recognizable names besides Cooper's. At least they gave him Technicolor, look at what WB did to Errol Flynn with MARA MARU and ROCKY MOUNTAIN.
YOU'RE IN THE NAVY NOW was unsuccessful under that title so it was taken back, retitled U.S.S. TEAKETTLE and it still sank.
HIGH NOON wasn't well served by being followed by SPRINGFIELD RIFLE, but supposedly it made some money. That one had a few too many subplots, and really isn't any better than the lower cost westerns that Randolph Scott was making for the same director, Andre De Toth.
BLOWING WILD and RETURN TO PARADISE didn't do much for him either, but soon he was back in the swing of things as GARDEN OF EVIL and VERA CRUZ were popular with the public, even if the critics didn't care for them.