clore

> {quote:title=darkblue wrote:}{quote} > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I just don't understand why people need to talk to others this way. OP expressed an opinion about unnecessary letterboxing and this is the kind of response you think is appropriate? You can't just say you don't mind letterboxing without throwing in this kind of rudeness? > It's rather ironic considering that TCMfan23's first post here was filled with complaints about what he doesn't like about TCM. Nobody told him to go away. Apparently a case of "Don't do as I do, do as I say."

The letterboxing isn't quite as bad as in your second link. Nothing appears distorted, it's probably the 1.85 print as seen in theaters. Stevens would roll over if he saw that second link, he didn't care for Cinemascope-like ratios and only made ANNE FRANK that way because Zanuck insisted. The process was totally wrong for a film set in such a confined space.

It is letterboxed on TCM HD.

> {quote:title=JonnyGeetar wrote:}{quote} Oh! I like that cast! (Just this year I discovered Tuesday Weld.) That must be a pretty old teleflick though since Hackett's been dead since the early eighties. It was made in 1974. It was directed by John Badham who went on to do the Langella DRACULA as well as SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, BLUE THUNDER and WAR GAMES. He also ended up back doing TV and his HBO film THE JACK BULL is one of the best westerns that I've seen out of the last 20 years.

I watched the 1955 version a year or two ago (and re-watched a lot of it last night) and liked it too, but I rememer thinking- "gee, I feel really wrong about this, but I liked the Sharon Stone version better." If you want to see yet another remake, try to find a copy of REFLECTIONS OF MURDER, a TV-movie with Joan Hackett and Tuesday Weld.

It's titled "Bulls, Balls, Bicycles and Actors" as I recall.

Maybe William Wyler took it. Wyler and Bickford made two films spaced 30 years apart and Bickford was rather critical of the director in his autobiography. In short, he considered Wyler's methods more of a matter of being indecisive as opposed to being fastidious. He used harsher wording though.

You could be getting that script error message for a variety of reasons, it could be related to the use of a toolbar, Javascript, possibly another browser tab is causing the problem. Best to roam around the following and see what may apply to your situation. In my case it was a Norton toolbar causing the problem. I disabled it (but not the Norton program) and I've not had that problem in months. https://www.google.com/search?q=Ascriptonthispagemaybebusy%2Coritmayhavestopped+responding.&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

I was tipped off about Patterson a couple of years ago when the film played on TCM. Someone had startd a thread about the film on the IMDb and I chimed in, saying that it was a Phil Karlson film that had escaped me until then. I had put in something about it being a true story making it all the more enticing. Someone responded to me who had lived in Alabama, someone who had about ten years on me and thus lived through the Patterson years. He said he would get back to us after the movie aired and he did. His words on being a black teenager in Alabama and of Patterson's regime, well, they've stuck with me and spoiled my next attempt to watch the film. He provided some links to support his recollections, but the post has disappeared from the site (inactive threads do that after 30 days or so) and the following is the only one that I can faithfully attest to having been one of them: http://www.historyandtheheadlines.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/ContentPage.aspx?entryId=1614394&currentSection=1614237&productid=38 I believe there were either some links to NAACP or CORE pages, but I couldn't find them at this point and honestly, I don't want to further derail your thread. But, it is to me as much of a case of not being able to appreciate this film any more than I can MISSION TO MOSCOW. But I did grow up in some rough Brooklyn neighborhoods and there were a few places that we knew of where gambling and other vices were given "attention" and we knew the store owners who were in on numbers games and also paying off the cops. The drug dealers did the same, it was known all over which were the corners on which to buy pot, heroin or coke - they were not the same ones either. And you haven't seen anything until you've seen the underground gambling dens in Chinatown. I used to repair telephones and they had to let me in - through two sets of speakeasy doors that were about six inches thick, made of heavy steel. The precinct was right down the street, you can't tell me that they didn't know.

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}I don't judge anyone by their Wiki bio. Wiki is the new McCarthy. Gimme a break Fred, you quote Wiki more than anyone around here.

A whitewash of a man who was as morally bankrupt as those he prosecuted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Malcolm_Patterson

"Touch" was the brainchild of agent Henry Willson who also came up with the names Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter. The other name was "Jay" Connors and even Connors has been spelled as Conners on a couple of occasions.

Was there a rule that 50s war films had to have L.Q. Jones and Aldo Ray? They were both in BATTLE CRY, MEN IN WAR and THE NAKED AND THE DEAD.

> {quote:title=MissGoddess wrote:}{quote}So Brod lost the job of playing a man on crutches because he ended up on crutches? Very good, and certainly accurate. Knowing Brod, he was probably having a quart of scotch for breakfast that day.

Other than the all-too-common FIOS failure ruining the overnights last night,... Did your system go down also? I'm on Time-Warner cable and about 15 or 20 minutes into ESPIONAGE AGENT, the screen went blank and the cable box started to reboot. But it became stuck while doing so and I unplugged it for 30 seconds to attempt a reboot. It froze again and a call to TW service had their automated equipment attempt another reboot - to no avail. I gave up at that point and started to get ready for sleep but about 10 minutes away from the end of the film, the system came back on. But the sleeping pills kicked in and I didn't see the end of THE LOST SQUADRON. That was probably a blessing since I've seen it already and a second film with Robert Armstrong playing an annoying drunk was more than I could take in one night's viewing.

It must have confused Barbara Stanwyck. She was in the 1942 film THE GAY SISTERS with Byron Barr who was playing Gig Young. Then she's in the 1944 DOUBLE INDEMNITY with a guy named Byron Barr who in no way resembled the guy who changed his name to Gig Young. The rules on stage names are set by the Screen Actors Guild. Since the Byron Barr of the 1942 film was no longer using that name professionally, having twice been billed as Gig Young, I'm guessing that it opened the door for the second Byron Barr to use that name.

The main character in THE LAST TYCOON is a fictionalized version of Thalberg and there's also Robert Evans as Thalberg in MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES but that's hardly a major part of the film.

Blake did play Hoffa in a mini-series titled BLOOD FEUD. I thought that he was much better than Nicholson whose movie came about a decade later. I also very much liked the TV movie he made with Randy Quaid of OF MICE AND MEN. Blake made a fine George and while it wasn't up to the 1939 film, I did like it more than the Gary Sinese film. His appearances on Johnny Carson were legendary, especially when he started commenting on "the suits" who run the industry.

It just worked out that way that Tom Brown (his birth name) played TOM BROWN OF CULVER.

What you call "over emoting" I always saw as "intensity". I'm confused now as earlier you cited Blake as being one who "ALWAYS chewed the scenery." I wouldn't necessarily equate "intensity" with "scenery chewing" but hey, if you do then I'm glad to know for future reference. Cagney can be intense, but he's not swallowing props at the same time. However, I'm also confused as you've responded to yourself yet you are quoting my post. But for clarification, I'm not saying that Blake "over-emoted" throughout the film, but his bouts of paranoia / claustrophobia were a bit over-the-top. It may have been the dialogue that forced or caused that, it might have been better to just have him show his fear through his eyes and body language. However, one doesn't get to do much molding of a character when on a three-week shooting schedule. Otherwise, for most of the film he was rather controlled, and more chilling by being that way than by a lot of snarling and shouting. I really did like Marc Cavell as his sidekick Hank, too bad there wasn't more of his character.

> {quote:title=MissGoddess wrote:}{quote}I wanted to alert that an interesting western with Barbara Stanwyck, Glenn Ford and Edward G. Robinson is on Thursday, May 10 at 6:15 p.m. It also features one of my favorites, Brian Keith in a naughty role. The movie is *The Violent Men* and it's directed by Rudolph Mate. It feels in some respects like an Anthony Mann western. If I were a man on crutches, I would not want to be married to Barbara Stanwyck. Her track record isn't too good. Robinson is only in the film because Broderick Crawford fell off a horse early on in shooting and had to be replaced.

I watched it, I had no problem with it, I'm always one to enjoy hearing about the process of making films - whether it's in this era or the past. It's the kind of thing that probably serves both interests - TCM and the AFI. Which one "pressured" the other isn't important. It may serve one more than the other, but sometimes you have to do that in a relationship. It's one hour out of 720 in a month. It got two Cagney films onto the schedule tonight, so both coasts got a prime time look at one Cagney film or the other. The two featured tonight on the special were inspired by old films and they were there to inspire prospective filmmakers. The beat goes on.

Back in 1960, I saw this film on a triple-bill with THE RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND and BABY FACE NELSON. Seeing it again took me back, I remembered the concrete overcoat scene as soon as I saw the eventual victim. THE PURPLE GANG wasn't too bad a film, although the skimpy budget was quite obvious by all of the stock footage being used in montages. Blake's over-emoting was balanced by Barry Sullivan's minimalist (as usual) performance, the description of the latter not being used as a negative.

But are you all really taking issue with the OP being subtle rather than direct? Isn't there already too much blatancy in the world? Not really taking issue - I would not have brought it up if he hadn't mentioned that no one was discussing Curtis' performance. Maybe that could have been phrased a bit differently as in his kicking off the conversation with a rave and then soliciting opinion rather than complaining that no one was discussing what he had in mind. The only reason that I set up a separate thread about the print quality was because I was hoping to gain the attention of someone connected with TCM so they could make adjustments before the next airing. From my perspective, it's a matter of leading a horse to water when posting a thread. There's no harm in making the objective clear, it's less a matter of blatancy and more one of expediency.

Guess that's why it's still a work in progress schedule! One never knows. They're doing such things with computers these days that I've no doubt that the day will come when we could have a GONE WITH THE WIND featuring Gary Cooper and Bette Davis as Rhett and Scarlett. The idea of Eva Marie Saint in the Donna Reed role in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is a tantalizing thought.