mrroberts

Mark, I notice that your "main man" seems to change on a daily basis . December 15th is the TCM stand out day for me. Once again a whole Thursday night of my "main man" William Powell, but as a bonus, a Thursday morning mini fest of one of my "main gals", Lee Remick. Actually they missed her birthday (Dec 14) by one day but its the thought that counts. Hard to believe, its over 20 years since she passed Also on the 15th, one of my all time favorites featuring another "main man" , *Witness For The Prosecution* starring Charles Laughton, and a not too shabby supporting cast

You mean you never got sick or had a bad weather day? You lucky kid, for me it seemed like I always was well and had nice sunny days Monday - Friday, but on the weekends there was horrible weather or I got some sort of flu bug or the measles, or whatever. Never got the breaks.

Joseph N Welch , who did an excellent job playing the judge in *Anatomy Of A Murder*. He did a few tv appearances but that was his only film. He died only one year after the movie was made.

Highway Patrol was on for 4 years starting in the fall of 1955. I don't know what day or time slot the show was first broadcast. It was a popular syndicated show (reruns) in the 60's which is when I first saw it. In the Philly area one of the 3 major stations (3, 6, or 10) had it on Saturdays in the morning or early afternoon. In those good old days the only stations we could get were 3, 6, and 10. Until one day my dad got a converter box and antenna and we could watch uhf channels 17, 29, and 48. One of those independents may have also aired HP at times.

Unlike Dragnet, which told you it was based on the Los Angeles police department, Highway Patrol used the California Highway Patrol as a model but avoided any direct reference to the state, so by being generic the show could represent any state police force. The closest that any actor in the series came to being a costar to Crawford was William Boyett who later would be the precinct sergeant in Adam 12 . Quite a few future stars made appearances on Highway Patrol including Clint Eastwood, Robert Conrad, Dyan Cannon, and perhaps the most startling , Joe Flynn (Capt Binghamton on McHale's Navy) as a ruthless thug who holds a old couple hostage in their house. And yes I love the cars (modeled after each years CHP cars) , especially the D 500 Dodge sedans .

, Harry Morgan as Sheriff Slade in *The Flim Flam Man* Edited by: mrroberts on Dec 8, 2011 4:42 PM

Another one of those great character actors who always brought a little something special to his roles, he didn't overact his parts but still you can always remember him being in a movie. I took a little look at his IMDb movie bio, very impressive, do I see a worthy candidate for a day in August? His last major movie appearance was in *The Shootist* as the local sheriff who wanted the Duke to leave town and die somewhere else. One of my favorite Harry Morgan characters was the town sheriff in *The Flim Flam Man* with George C Scott. Harry played a lot of cops, judges, mayors, etc in the movies.

*Holiday Affair* , isn't that the one where Janet Leigh kills Robert Mitchum and throws his body off the "train" to make it look like an accident?

Doesn't look like there are any film noir pictures on the horizon at TCM or FMC, guess its the time of the year, no Christmas themed noirs made.

From what I have read part of the deal that former Browns owner Art Modell made with the city of Cleveland and the NFL was to give up his rights to the team name , colors, etc when Modell took his business to Baltimore. So essentially the Baltimore Ravens are a "new" franchise and the recreated Cleveland Browns inherited all of the previous Browns history and imagery. No such arraignment was made when the Colts left Baltimore to move to Indianapolis (which was years before the Browns deal). Cleveland didn't have an NFL team for 3 years while Baltimore waited 13 years before getting its new franchise. By the way its now over 15 years that Los Angeles doesn't have an NFL team. -- Edited by: mrroberts on Dec 6, 2011 3:25 PM

I was looking through several entries for DeForest Kelley last night and several sites claim he almost got the lead part in *This Gun For Hire* in 1941 (the role went to Alan Ladd). Kelley was only 20/21 at the time and he had just moved out to Hollywood to try acting. He then went into the service during the war years. What if Kelley had gotten the movie part and done reasonably well in the role? He might have gone on to big things from there, look at what happened to Alan Ladd. And what about Ladd, if he didn't get that part his career may never had gotten off the ground.

Since Kelley wasn't a big star (excluding the Star Trek series and films) it would seem entirely possible that he may have been an extra on a number of movie or tv shoots and doesn't show up in the credits. I looked at the IMDb for the movie's cast and actor Jim Davis is credited as "gunman at Boot Hill". Looking at images of Davis he does bare a resemblance to Kelley. Maybe thats who you are seeing .

William Powell -- 10, James Cagney -- 9, James Stewart -- 8, Ronald Reagan -- 3 Edited by: mrroberts on Dec 6, 2011 1:18 AM

Tobias, George

George Tobias

A Deanna Durbin movie that I really want to see again is *It Started With Eve* which costarred Charles Laughton and Robert Cummings. Been a long time since I saw that one but I remember it as being very good (I am a big Laughton fan). I know they made at least one other picture together but I am sure I never saw it.

That may be more impractical than you think. A movie you may want to see, even one that was just recently broadcast, may not be shown again on TCM for many months , even years. The only thing I can say is every month or so do a search for the title, if it is on the schedule in the next month or two it will say so. Then set up the email reminder function. I read that the reminder service doesn't work for some people sometimes so I always mark a calendar as a back up. The few times that I have asked for an email it has always worked for me.

John Williams was in *Witness For The Prosecution* with Ian Wolfe

Look him up on Wiki, under his real name Valia Valentinoff. As Paul Valentine he was also in the Edward G Robinson film *House Of Strangers* playing the youngest brother. Eddie called him "dumbhead" .

Another Powell fan , glad to read that. Welcome to the boards mswright2928, hope you join in whenever possible. Some of the posters get a little out of hand, don't let that bother you. -- Sherlock Holmes was Powell's first movie -- I hope you are getting the full set of 6 Thin Man films because there's also a Nick and Nora dvd that bios William Powell and Myrna Loy. It costs more then the 4 movie set (the first 4 Thin Man movies) but I think that getting the last 2 films and the bonus bio dvd are worth the price. I printed out the IMDb page of all of Powell's films and am checking them off one by one, hope to see as many as possible. TCM is just about the only outlet for us to enjoy these old classics, I hope that its around for a long time, and keeps the format as pure as possible.

*Thunder Road*

Laugh-In was very period oriented, so look at it like a history lesson. I watched it when new, I was a little young so some stuff was over my head, but now I get it. It was, still is, a very funny show. You can see a lot of celebrities of the time doing cameos on the show . I do remember Alan Sues on the Twilight Zone episode and on occasion you see him in small roles on tv shows and even movies.

I notice that Paramount got the U.S. rights to release the Hitchcock film *Jamaica Inn* , starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara. *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* , done at RKO, isn't getting released until the end of this year. Paramount must be trying to profit from the public anticipation of the new movie (RKO's Hunchback). Edited by: mrroberts on Dec 3, 2011 11:15 PM

Guess I'll have to do a frame by frame analysis of my DVD of The Caine Mutiny to see if Lt Keefer is wearing a ring.

Tonight is "Rhonda" night.