clore
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Posts posted by clore
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When I go look at the user comments on the IMDb for some of Scott's 50s films, it seems he gets some criticism for having such young female co-stars. The thing is that we usually don't see him aggressively pursuing them, they are rarely more than just decorative.
He did stay in shape and thus could have a lengthy shirtless scene in 1952's CARSON CITY and not be embarrassed. James Stewart in REAR WINDOW should have kept his shirt on, ditto for Gable in MOGAMBO.
Bronson should never have gotten mixed up with the Cannon people. DEATH HUNT was perhaps his last decent film and that one was away from the Golan-Globus guys. But doing DEATH WISH films into his 70s was a poor idea and by then he seemed to have little enough breath for speaking. Never really one with a strong delivery, by this point he was capable of little more than a whisper. Neither he nor Burt Reynolds appeared to be interested in anythng other than the check, so whatever they had going for them in the 70s didn't carry on into the 80s except for the most dedicated fans.
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Free Daily Racing Form past performances can be found here:
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The most impressive thing about Scott, for me anyway, is that he did keep working. The guy already had more money than the U.S. Treasury, he wasn't making these four-week (at best) films for the need to put groceries on the table.
Making the decision to just make westerns from 1948 on, just goes to show that he just wanted to please his fans and not worry about pleasing critics or winning awards.
Gable was actually quite lucky, he had GWTW in his back pocket and the constant re-release of that film kept him propped up in the polls.
You know, I've hardly seen any Jane Withers films. Even the Fox Movie Channel barely aired them when I had them as part of my line-up. They went to premium status in July 2010 and I could not see paying for it as after a decade, I had seen most of what I wanted to see and wasn't crazy about paying for triple-plays of the likes of PORKY'S or REVENGE OF THE NERDS.
Connery was lucky. Other than Bond, he didn't have a hit film until THE ANDERSON TAPES and a lot of his subsequent output was marginal. But THE UNTOUCHABLES, for all of its faults, put him back in the public's embrace and got him an Oscar to boot.
I can remember when around 1971, Life Magazine had Eastwood on the cover with the blurb "The world's biggest movie star is - no kidding - Clint Eastwood." I think that the public knew that already, it was just that Life was almost embarrassed to admit it. I still have some of the reviews of the Leone films and most were not good. The public was way ahead of the critics there.
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Big Boy Williams going against type playing a bad guy was terrific and I always love the way he fired his revolver, like he was throwing the bullets out of it.
That's probably my biggest complaint about the film, but as you note, Williams did that often. So many in the cast of THE RETURN OF THE 7 do that little piece of action and for me, it makes it more of a comedy than anything else. I hereby suggest that all directors make a visit to the pistol range to observe how it's done.
Scott did have an incredible surge in popularity in the 50s. According to the Quigley poll, he ranked as follows:
1950 - 10th
1951 - 7th
1952 - 10th
1953 - 10th
Here's a man, already in his 50s, making B+ westerns, and showing up in the top 10 for the first time. Certainly his films weren't given the critical appreciation of those of Wayne or Stewart, and Cooper wasn't even in the top 10 in 1950 although he saw a comeback the next year.
It reminds me of what would happen to Charles Bronson some twenty years later at the same age.
The Quigley polls can be seen here:
http://www.quigleypublishing.com/MPalmanac/Top10/Top10_lists.html
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Also, there are many TV shows that have not been released on DVD, take BATMAN for example, yet that show is still in syndication. Are you saying that show has been digitally mastered or else it would have been taken out of syndication?
There's a rights issue behind not releasing BATMAN on home video. Fox can syndicate the series as that right was always in the initial contract. But homevid rights weren't and Fox and Warner Bros, who own the rights to the Batman character, have yet to come to some agreement.
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They aren't sold in stores as most of the titles in the Archive aren't in great demand. Regardless of what I may think of some Warren William films, most out there just aren't interested. Stores aren't going to give up space for a less in-demand title when they can stock 100s of copies of the latest blockbuster.
Thus, the Archive cuts out the middle man and sells direct to the customer online. However, even Warners isn't going to set aside tons of space for stuff that few want. Thus, they are made on-demand. Heck, this is why so many of the formerly commercially available titles ended up in Big Lots or drastically reduced via Amazon - they over-anticipated the demand. I've gotten what I think are some great films, at five bucks a pop, some even less.
I admit to being initially opposed to paying 20 dollars per title for Archive films, but now the sales are quite frequent and the ones that I've gotten in the last year have cost me ten dollars each, usually with free postage.
Get added on their mailing list and you'll get bulletins for the sales via email.
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Wow, I'm disappointed that you don't share my enthusiasm, but that's what makes these forums so interesting. For example, I'm not fond of the westerns that Scott made for Nat Holt at RKO, and I only have three of them because they came bundled so cheaply with two titles that I did want (WESTBOUND and CARSON CITY).
Yet some here seem to love those particular titles and I haven't even opened them. I've seen them, so it's not as if I have to see them again until I have to when I can no longer pay my cable bill.
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I partied a little too much in my youth (which lasted until 50 or so), so these days I have to justify it to myself, lest I fall into bad habits.
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Movie fans who just want to make a hunch bet could do worse than picking either "Went the Day Well" or "Daddy Long Legs."
The former does look particularly strong, but I am always concerned when a horse appears to have a lack of seasoning. However, that has been the trend of late, so one either deals with it or not. Other than his maiden win, "Went the Day Well" has just one Grade 3 race win to his credit. Generally I prefer to isolate those horses that have won a Grade 1 or 2 event. Meanwhile, "Gemologist" has won all five of his starts including both a Grade 1 and Grade 2 event. "Union Rags" has won a Grade 1 and two Grade 2 races with a very close finish in another Grade 1.
But I make no predictions until post positions, scratches and track condition are known. There is a saying around the track that mud is the great equalizer and it's quite true. Even at this distance, a speed horse can get loose on the lead and some come-from-behind horses don't like having dirt kicked in their faces.
It's also Cinco de Mayo on Saturday, so there's two reasons to party as far as I'm concerned.
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The storyline has me interested as it sounds like THE BARON OF ARIZONA, only with the Ponderosa being the target of swindlers.
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By coincidence, she just happens to be on the BONANZA episode that airs at 4pm Eastern today on TV LAND.
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I was so disappointed when I heard that new music. Even though I had not seen an episode in 50 years or more, I knew that music by heart.
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Around here there are a bunch whose primary concern is the guy who is coming tonight at 8pm Eastern.
Yay yay
It's Joel McCrea
Star of the Month
All this May
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Thanks so much for the info on Joe Sawyer, he's caught my eye at least eight times in the last month, and I may have to go dig out some more of his stuff, now that I'm a fan. Maybe I can find some Rin Tin Tin eps to watch. I love Rinty!
If you get AntennaTV in your area, you can see the show on Saturday mornings at 9am Eastern time. They run two episodes back-to-back.
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> {quote:title=casablancalover wrote:}{quote}Wow, 3500 post..
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Hey, thank you for noticing - I didn't spot that at all.
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Playing devil's advocate Fred, there is probably someone on the west coast wondering why MAN'S FAVORITE SPORT is airing while he's stuck in traffic on the freeway. At least he's getting to see STROMBOLI at 10:45pm, a more reasonable hour.
I've never seen the latter, and am debating whether to stay up or not as I no longer have any recording equipment. This drives me nuts on a Sunday where I have to start reading the intertitles and subtitles of silent and foreign films starting at midnight.
Here's where I have to admit that I need to catch up with modern technology, but it's an additional expense that I can't bear right now.
As for FLIPPER, it does stick out like a sore thumb as a kid's vehicle among a bunch of adult-oriented titles based on a fishy theme.
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> {quote:title=casablancalover wrote:}{quote}That's a question I've always wondered....
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> If I saw THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE
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> -2 times,
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> can I count it as 4?
I'll make it even more complicated, what if you watched THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and then this film:
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{font:Calibri}Who was the outlaw with the moustache and high staccato voice? I think he was the director in {font}{font:Calibri}*Singin in the Rain.*{font}
That was Douglas Fowley who was in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. He would later be the Doc Holliday to Hugh O'Brien's WYATT EARP.
This was a really good film. Maybe Roy Huggins was right to quit while he was ahead.
Maybe I was unclear - it's HANGMAN'S KNOT that Huggins directed, but another one that is a must see.
Sorry for the monster-sized font, the system is giving me grief tonight.
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Did I spell analog incorrectly? Just goes to show my inexperience in the matter. Now that you quoted it, it jumps out at me, so I'm going to fix my original reference, then type the word ten times and also use it in a sentence.
Just as Mrs. Rydell has us doing 50 years ago.
I'm not kidding, I will do that, I do that quite a few times a week when I discover I've misspelled a word or uncover one that I've not seen before.
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And Warner Archive may not be the only one that has a year long moratorium on new released titles being broadcast on TCM, they're just the one we know does that thank to a post a few months back by one of the TCM staffers.
I believe that when that statement was made, the reference was made to "remastered" Archive titles. Some films, such as STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR and BACKGROUND TO DANGER have gotten the restoration treatment, whereas a third title with Peter Lorre, THE VERDICT looks rather shabby in comparison. I have them all and can vouch for that.
EDITED TO ADD
I was wrong, it was "mastered" and not "remastered" that was referenced. Here's the text of the announcement:
*All Warner Archive mastered titles have a 1 year moritorium on them. This mean that TCM cannot access the new master of "Lafayette Escadrille" until November 2012. We'd love to be running then new master today, but WB controls their film library, not TCM. *
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LZ, I look at it this way. You're the Film Encyclopedia that I just consulted for some info for a paper. I'm obligated to indicate you as the source, you're the one obligated to indicate your source(s).
But it's nice to see we're all such honorable people.
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This is why I wish that someone on staff would chime in. It's been a long time since I worked at a broadcaster, I'm unaware of any incompatibility issues. But everything that we see on TCM, the films, promos, shorts, etc, is tagged with an ID number and all is pre-programmed so that A precedes B which airs before C...
I don't know if one system is friendly with another. It's analog and digital here being discussed, that's out of my field.
From my syndication days, I know of the inherent problems that came from things being moved to a tape format when film had been the standard. Columbia, my employer, was insistent on tape and it was only those prospects with the clout and the money who got films as film. But that overlap only lasted for a few years, eventually tape became the standard and the stations had to keep up with the change in technology - like it or not.
When Paramount was trying to get ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT off the ground, they had to make the satellite dishes available to most of the stations signing on for the show as back then, it was relatively new technology. Being that the show was day/date specific, that was the only way to make it available to all for airing that day. A station downloaded the show onto a broadcast tape format. The distributor didn't mind paying the freight for the dishes in the better economy of 1981 and for making it available to the station, they were able to license the show for more than just the standard one-year contract.
Similarly, now it's likely the distributors who are expected to carry the additional cost and burden of converting to a digital format. OK, with stuff that's out there on DVD or BluRay, it's an additional source of revenue to make up for the expenses. But that's a matter of demand prioritizing whether GONE WITH THE WIND is converted before some more obscure title starring James Craig which isn't likely to sell. You and I may want to see these lesser known films, but someone has to pay for it to meet the new industry standard of digital servers. It will take time, it's just a sorting out process right now I guess.
Edited by: clore on May 1, 2012 10:21 PM
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It makes my day to have made your day.
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I imagine that with everything stored in a digital format, TCM can save tons of money in the way that we were warned of years ago - the machines are taking over. It's also becoming an industry standard, so like it or not, I'm guessing that they have to keep up or fall behind.
It's akin to when stations went from film to tape for the films that they aired. There were a few holdouts who ran 16mm and even 35mm, but even when I worked at holdout WCBS in 1989, they were converting to tape and we had to get the suppliers to provide them in that format. TCM is now faced with a similar problem.
Most of what I'm saying on the subject is based on what I've read here from TCM staff as well as some of my own interpretation. I can only hope that someone from staff comes along and elaborates on the subject.
HELP IN GETTING CLINT WALKER DVD "NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY' RELEASED ON DVD
in Westerns
Posted
The release date is June 26, 2012.