Fedya

Based on the trailer that TCM showed several times, I was hoping for something delightfully awful. Instead, I found it kind of blah, in that I found it kind of hard to care about any of these people.

> Jane Russell in 3D.

Speaking of *Burn Witch Burn*, the trailer that TCM has been running for it makes it look like one of those hilariously bad movies that's unintentionally funny. Is that actually the case? Because if it is, that makes me more want to see it. (I haven't seen it before.)

They're deliberately doing it to p*** off the people who whine and shriek every time a movie made after 1960 is aired. And if the TCM Programmer is reading this thread, I'd like to thank him for programming these films and getting the whiners' knickers in a twist.

> Finally, a question. Is Nightmare Alley the first major "A" Hollywood production to address the issue of fake spiritualism? I know there were a few "B" mysteries (ie. Miracles for Sale and Charlie Chan at Treasure Island) but those films all fell into the category of "light" entertainment. What about Barbara Stanwyck in *The Miracle Woman* (dir. Frank Capra, 1931)?

Possibly the first since the introduction of the Production Code. Barbara Stanwyck's gangster boyfriend in the pre-Code *Night Nurse*, for example, gets away with several crimes, including the larceny of dozens of quarts of milk(!).

I'm disappointed. I thought this thread was going to be about [that film|http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091396/] with [the Rod Stewart song|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCAJqv0nrbA]

The death has been announced of magician [John Calvert|http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2013/09/john-calvert-dies-at-102.html], at the age of 102. Calvert was first and foremost a magician, but he played the Falcon in several of the films in the series in the late 1940s/early 1950s, as well as serving as a technical advisor for the illusions performed by Jack Palance in *The Silver Chalice*. (Calvert told the story of how he offered condolences to Paul Newman because *The Silver Chalice* bombed, only for Newman to remind him of this a couple of years later, after *Somebody Up There Likes Me* made Newman a star.) Calvert continued to perform magic into his late 90s, and was the subject of a documentary produced by his son, called *John Calvert: His Magic and Adventures*. Those adventures included piloting a plane with the crew of his magic show, and surviving a crash of that plane; as well as taking his yacht across the Pacific to perform in Southeast Asia. He escaped pirates there, and met his wife.

> I think they now limit the number of game show appearances one can make to 3, though not that there's probably any way for the producers of these shows to verify the number of these appearances. Nowadays they do no such thing. Or, at least, it's up to the individual producers, since there aren't large blocks of network daytime game shows. I believe Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune (both produced by Sony) want contestants not to have been on anything else for the past year. But I've got an acquaintance on a game-show board who was on GSN's The Chase earlier this year and is going to be on the syndie show Let's Ask America in the not too distant future: he posted just the other day that he got a contestant package which includes branded cards to write answers on, among other things. Of course, the current trend isn't to have contestant coordinators, but casting. Especially the daft prime-time network shows want contestants with obnoxious back stories; normal people need not apply.

> Not many films where a hit is put on a horse I'm reminded of Alfred Hitchcock's *Marnie*, in which Tippi Hedren screams hysterically for somebody to shoot her horse after she fails to negotiate a fence. One of the funnier scenes in a great comedy. :-)

When I saw this movie, I wanted the Ethel Waters character to smack the Juliie Harris character into the next county. Or, as I posted here some years back, this movie answers the question, "What sort of movie would you get if Woody Allen played the part of a 12-year-old girl?" Sorry, but I hate hate hate this movie.

> I will say I think it is untoward to vote any film as the worst ever made without having a true contribution from at least a thousand TCM contributors. I vote for *Dondi*.

> What ever happened to the r in the word War in modern British English? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents And when you say "modern British English", do you mean [Received Pronunciation|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation] or [Estuary English|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary_English]? Somehow I have a feeling it's the former, since the latter came about after 1960 and you don't acknowledge any movies made after 1960.

> How can you be afraid of the "dreaded ignore function?" You just got here! Somehow I have a feeling the OP didn't just get here. So many new posters with almost the exact same complaint. "OMG! They're showing so many of these horrible silent films!" (Yes, I know that in this thread, the OP's complaint is that they're not airing a particular filmmaker's silents.) There's something odd going on.

On the other hand, if it's the 98-minute version, you'll also get to see the interesting *The Case Against the 20% Federal Admissions Tax on Motion Picture Theaters* in the remaining time.

*The Man Who Knew Too Much* is no more a criticism of fundamentalist religion than *Foreign Correspondent* is a criticism of the dupes who join "peace" organizations.

> I'm doing all I can to look young, but if I want to look like I'm in my late teens, I better REALLY get on the stick. I'm doing my facial isometrics as I am posting. If you're not careful, you're going to wind up with a face like Mr. Sardonicus. :-)

> Yeah, exactly. Influenced by postwar Italian Neo-Realism and not by '30s German Expressionism? That would a major misstatement, alright. Since noir is a French word, I'd think there was a French influence on the genre. ;-) More seriously, I think of *Le jour se l?ve* (aka *Daybreak*, and remade by Hollywood as *The Long Night* several years later) was one of the earliest noirs.

> I, too, found that a tad odd. I believe Cousins was referring to cinematographer Karl Brown (who is not credited with working on *Greed* on imdb). I would have guessed Karl Struss, although he didn't work on *Greed* either.

Harpo Marx discovered gravity in *The Story of Mankind*. :-)

> Also, since I first saw it years ago, I haven't been able to take a shower without the bathroom door locked, and sometimes with a char in front of it. You and the other posters put off taking showers because of *Psycho* need to watch it in a double-bill with *Les diaboliques*. ;-)

> Also, since I first saw it years ago, I haven't been able to take a shower without the bathroom door locked, and sometimes with a char in front of it. You and the other posters put off taking showers because of *Psycho* need to watch it in a double-bill with *Les diaboliques*. ;-)

Which print was this? I know the Hitchcock silents were restored by the BFI and given new scores, but I presume last night's airing wasn't that print?

> I was watching the movie and at the end of the movie Ben M. refers to this movie being a take off on the Battle of Verdooon. He pronounced it like that when it's supposed to be the Battle of Verdun. I would assume most people would know that even if they aren't history majors. I would assume most people would know its pronounced with a nasal vowel, being French. Sorry, but if you're going to complain about Mankiewicz getting it wrong, then you ought to get it right yourself.

Nothing can top [this headline|http://brooklynmutt.com/post/321924126/headless-body-found-in-topless-bar-classic-ny]