clore

Sounds a bit like *Ice Palace* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053936/

They certainly are responsible for the summer blockbuster mentality in that they were films with plenty of thrills and chills for the audience and a generally youthful target in mind. JAWS at least came from a blockbuster best-selling novel and there's a long history of film adaptations from current literature. But how many of those best-sellers promised to scare you? JAWS is an exceptionally well-made film and at times even more cerebral than given credit for, but like PSYCHO, it's one of those films that is perceived as being considerably more graphic than it is. However, yes they caused executives to be willing to throw more money and effects at the audience in the hopes of duplicating the success. The print media latched on to this and soon shows like ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT and now the public was being exposed to Top 10 Boxoffice lists and that in turn served as a guide for people gauging what to see in a theater. Why read a review anymore, just go see what everyone else is seeing and avoid the rest. And both STAR WARS and JAWS established their respective creators as the poster boys for continued success in the same vein. Spielberg was at least able to break away and make films for an adult audience such as THE COLOR PURPLE and SCHINDLER'S LIST. Lucas is stuck within the boundaries of STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES and is apparently content these days just modifying his oldies with new technology in order to squeeze a few more dollars out of the franchise. Not that sequelitis and repeated formulas are anything new to Hollywood.

Actually STAR WARS wasn't part of opening weekend madness. It opened in a handful of theaters in May 1977 with very little fanfare. Word of mouth spread and by mid-summer it was all over the place. JAWS had a broader opening, but it also followed the format of old in opening in select major area theaters and then later hitting the neighborhood theaters. According to the IMDb, it opened in 409 theaters. That was less than half the number of theaters that the same year's BREAKOUT premiered in and which initiated the saturation booking model.

I've been logging my viewings since January 1, 2008 and it indicates that I saw *Framed* in August, 2009. I know that I saw *711 Ocean Drive* on TCM, but it must have been before I started keeping track. I actually worked for Columbia for a couple of years in the mid-80s in what was the reactivated Screen Gems division. With the rise of independent TV stations in that same period, as well as cable stations, it was my job to do some creative packaging of the vintage product since at the time, just about anything with sprocket holes had increased value. The company was owned by Coca-Cola when I came in, but they decided that the film industry was too volatile and after the flops of *Ishtar* and *Leonard Part 6* (not to mention David Putnam), they decided to sell the company and to make the balance sheet look better, they decimated various departments including mine. They were basically a conservative company, used to being able to predict annual sales and after the public relations fiasco of New Coke along with the problems incurred at Columbia, it was too much for them. So, my contract was bought off and I got the remaining six months pay while also finding a new position within a couple of weeks. I should also mention the Hugo Haas-directed films of the period, most of which were variations of the same plot line in which an aging man (Haas) would fall for the wrong kind of much younger woman (Beverly Michaels, Cleo Moore) who is only too glad to take him for a ride. Titles include *Pickup* *Strange Fascination* *One Girl's Confession* *Bait* Haas wrote most of these also and he must have been some businessman as he was doing a very similar series for release by 20th-Fox at the time. I've seen *The Sniper* and like that one very much - Edward Dmytryk was one of those who was a lot more interesting to me on small budgets rather than the epic stuff he would do later. *Five Against the House* does have Brian Keith in its favor, but the leads all appear to be on the wrong side of age 30 (Kerwin Matthews had been a college teacher prior to making the film) and it's not noir enough for me considering the director. The final third of the film is quite good, but I found getting there a chore.

While *Framed* isn't any great shakes, it holds a place in my heart for Janis Carter as the femme fatale leading Glenn Ford down the wong road. It's a 1947 film, will I get points taken off for being a few years early? *711 Ocean Drive* has noir regular Edmond O'Brien cast as a phone repairman with a plan to aid the bookies to whom he's deeply in debt. He turns out to be as shady as the worst of his new associates.

I had one of those Davy Crockett caps, it had a badge on it with a picture of Fess Parker. I took it off because the picture of him had him wearing a cap but his cap didn't have the photo badge on it. I had never even seen the show but I knew of it. I guess there was something else on at the same time that my parents preferred. The first two U.N.C.L.E. movies, TO TRAP A SPY and THE SPY WITH MY FACE were expanded from the TV episodes that aired in the first season. One primary difference is that the shows were originally aired in B&W while the "movies" were in color.

That's one Miss with a sweet demeanor.

I have no problem with Billy Joel as a musician. Not that I own any of his albums, but that was because he got enough exposure on the radio that I didn't need a home copy. I just think that the qualifications for appearing on the show should include something more than appearing in music videos.

I have no desire to see James Lipton interviewing Will Smith and asking him the secrets of his legendary acting career. For Lipton, that would be an upgrade. When I saw that he was featuring Billy Joel on his show a number of years ago, I gave up watching it.

> {quote:title=RayFaiola wrote:}{quote} > Actually, the LINEUP TV series was based on the really terrific Radio series. Wow, learn something new everyday. I've never seen a reference to a radio series of THE LINEUP before. When I saw the TV series, it was in reruns under the title SAN FRANCISCO BEAT. My sister and I used to sing the Rice-A-Roni song and substitute that title in the appropriate part of the commercial jingle. Hey - we were little kids then.

The way I usually get the schedule is to type into the search engine of the site database the categories that you see on the TCM Full Schedule - romance, epic, mystery, etc. Did you notice that if you do that, the December 24th airing of MARGIE shows up as a crime film? Someone brought that up on another message board.

> {quote:title=calvinnme wrote:}{quote}I made up a fake name on Facebook just so I could look up people that I know or have known without having to worry about them tracking me down. It has led to quite a few surprises. Amazing the personal info people leave out there for the world to see. I understand that prospective employers are eyeing Facebook pages as one more insight into candidates. In today's job market, I would suggest that anyone out there looking for a job make sure to use the site sccordingly. I've never used it, instant messaging was enough to drive me nuts as I had too many times with too many friends trying to chat with me at once.

I'd second that recommendation. I already have it on DVD, but I'd love for every noir fan to see it. I'm also a big fan of John Payne and loved that night earlier this year when they aired a bunch of his films on a Friday night.

I'll be the first to admit that I've been known to point out errors, but if I claim that "X" film was aired in pan-and-scan but is a widescreen film, that isn't conjecture. If one wants to claim that TCM doesn't show enough noir, that's an opinion and it can be debated by someone with a different perspective. But to claim something such as "TCM doesn't show many Joel McCrea movies because they know people like them" is quite illogical. I use that example as it's obvious from the posts that many here would like to see more of Joel McCrea. I'm one of them. A business of any sort won't last long if it does not provide its customers with some measure of satisfaction. An intentional business plan to deprive us of Joel McCrea doesn't make much sense, hence the reason must lie elsewhere. We can all offer possibilities of why, but I would expect such thoughts to be prefaced with "Perhaps the reason is that..." and not to be purely declarative leaving no room for doubt. I can name two dozen Joel McCrea movies that haven't aired or haven't lately. That's not proof that they haven't aired because they know that I would like to see them or that many would like to see them. If I made such a claim, then I would expect you or anyone else here to counter that. Citing fake moon landings and fixed sporting events as further proof or validity of one's initial claim of a TCM conspiracy to deprive the viewers out of malice, only serves to underscore the initial fallacy. "Everybody knows that" is not a valid defense. I'm currently hitting 43% winners at Aqueduct at an average win price of $13.63. That works out to my making just under two dollars *profit* for every dollar that I've wagered. If the contests are all fixed, then what do I care, I'm making money. The thing is that I would never wager if I thought they were pre-determined on a regular basis. A conspiracy that large could not exist for too long for the simple reason that it's damn near impossible for a secret to remain such when there are that many people involved. It would be too much greed to keep contained. There's an old saying that goes "You can't beat the races, but you can beat a race." I'll paraphrase that and say that you can't fix the races but you can fix a race. I'm sure it happens on a random basis, but there are too many hands to grease for it to be possible 100% of the time. That would apply to any sport - except wrestling which is really not a sport but an scripted entertainment. Everybody knows that.

> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}I guess the progression for Oz and the gang was radio show, movie, and TV seies. (then, records for Ricky) Yes - my mistake there. The movie preceded the TV show by a few months.

There were movies such as THE GOLDBERGS, OUR MISS BROOKS and HERE COME THE NELSONS that used a series for inspiration. Probably a case of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." The movie studios feeling the pinch of TV competition, tried putting the same characters on the big screen.

The series was the basis for the movie. The show started in 1954, the movie came out in 1958.

*The Adventures of Robin Hood* is the first one that comes to my mind also, but *Elizabeth and Essex* is right up there also. 20th-Fox had some winners also, *Western Union, The Black Swan* and *Blood and Sand* among them. I have a lot of reservations about *For Whom the Bell Tolls* but the color isn't one of them.

One of my favorite "B" movies of all time is Columbia's THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK with Evelyn Keyes and a cast of many familiar faces. For the most part it's shot on location, a big plus. Another NYC shoot was THE GLASS WALL with Vittorio Gassman and noir stalwart Gloria Grahame. Also recommended is THE MOB starring Broderick Crawford and with a set of characters in which just about no one is what they appear to be. Neville Brand, Charles Bronson and Ernest Borgnine can all be spotted in early roles.

> {quote:title=ValentineXavier wrote:}{quote}Unfortunately, TCM showed it in pan and scan, not its 1.85:1 original aspect ratio. Having much to watch, I deleted it. I'm hoping they show it again, but in wide screen. The edges of the screen that were missing - that's the unknown part that they were going toward. As soon as I saw that it was yet one more pan-and-scan print (how many does that make this month?), I turned it off and watched a DVD.

They've been promoting it on the TCM November Classic Movie News segment.

I'm not going to claim it as the best, but the duel in SCARMOUCHE is certainly one of my favorites. Stewart Granger and Mel Ferrer battling it out for what was the longest filmed duel to date in 1952. The duel in DIE ANOTHER DAY was just about the only thing that I found worth watching in that Bond film. Considering that they had been making the series for forty years at that point, it's a refreshing change in pace as it's the only time we saw Bond fencing.

Overall, Warren William strikes me as the end result of mixing the DNA of John Barrymore and William Powell. They did both play Philo Vance.

It will air December 18th at 8pm.

I wonder how many times Diana Fluck's name was misspelled in her lifetime. No wonder they changed it to Diana Dors.