ChipHeartsMovies

*Midnight*

Take a look at the thread called *The List* --- it's a list of the 221 (!) movies that had their TCM premieres this year. It gives you a chance to vote for your favorites. The breadth of the list is really astonishing. If you only view TCM during prime time, I can see how you might think it can get samey-samey --- TCM tends to program mass-audience crowd-pleasers like *Casablanca* then. Get a DVR and check the schedule each month, there are always films in every month that TCM has never aired. My personal favorite blocks of programming last year were the Kay Francis month and the Asians in Cinema month. Kay Francis was an enormously popular actress in her day, and without TCM you would likely only be able to see her in one or two films on DVD --- and TCM showed nearly all of her work in a single month. And the Asian grouping brought in not only terrific Anna May Wong movies, but also gave a context to the Mr. Moto/Charlie Chan type films --- those are movies that I find interesting in context, although I wouldn't usually just pop in a DVD. Message was edited by: ChipHeartsMovies, who makes typos like anyone else.

I think the cut-off for *That's Entertainment* being in the 1950's reflects the release date and the desire to focus on the nostalgic aspect of the films. *TE* came out in 1974, *Gigi* in 1958 --- that's only 16 years earlier. Reflected against today's dates, this would mean a current "nostalgic" compilation would include movies as recent as 1993, which would include movies like *My Cousin Vinny, Scent of a Woman* and *Unforgiven* --- movies that don't feel like they're that old. I was 11 when I saw *That's Entertainment* for the first time. I loved old movies on TV (and had seen many of those included), but seeing the musical numbers on screen was amazing.

Rude to newcomers? On the contrary, people generally go out of their way to say welcome, provide information, explain why certain movies don't air, and answer the same questions over and over to first-timers. (For the 800th time, that song is by Joe Henry).

Eartha Kitt (Catwoman) died after they completed this year's tribute, on Christmas Day. Also missing is Ann Savage (star of *Detour*), who also just passed away. Maybe TCM next year would plan a way to incorporate those who pass away at the very end of the year --- silently showing them at the end, maybe.

I've been wondering the same thing. Feels like 15 postings a day from no more than five people. Everyone okay?

In approximate order, 1 being most excited. 1. *Craig's Wife* ('36) 2. *Pick-Up On South Street* ('53) 3. *Twentieth Century* ('34) 4. *The Matchmaker* ('58) 5. *Easy Living* ('37) 6. *Secrets* ('33) 7. *The File On Thelma Jordan* ('50) 8. *Skidoo* ('68) 9. *The Oscar* ('66) 10. *Things To Come* ('36) (Barely missed the list: *Daughter Of Shanghai* ('37) ).

Hi OldCowboy, and welcome to the TCM boards. *Christmas in Connecticut* is one of my favorite Christmas movies too (alongside *Meet Me in St. Louis* and *Miracle on 34th Street* , and yes, *It's a Wonderful Life* . They're my Top Four.). Please consider watching *Connecticut* in its original black and white glory. *Christmas in Connecticut* doesn't need to be tarted up --- it's perfect already.

When you name your lead characters Mytyl and Tyltyl you're in for trouble. (I know, it's based on a famous children's book, but when did that ever stop Hollywood?). *The Blue Bird* is a great example of a studio realizing that their biggest star was losing her lustre, and trying to shake things up, and failing. Hard to believe that anyone ever thought unborn children and dead grandparents would be a good idea for a Shirley Temple movie. *The Blue Bird* is the _only_ rotten (juvenile) Shirley Temple movie. Come over to my house and watch *Bright Eyes* (one of my favorites) instead!

Kyle, I'm gonna have to stick with Kay. As much as I love Carole Lombard, I'm on Team Kay Francis here. What an embarrassment of riches!

Scottman, I wish your Santa would talk to MY Santa. Borzage/Murnau? Well done!

Lynn, I couldn't agree more that the TCM Remembers compilation far exceeds the memorial montage in the Oscars production. Whoever the unsung editor at TCM is who puts these together really makes an artistic, beautiful tribute, and I think this year's is the best ever. The Oscars? Meh.

Hollywood has a long tradition of pairing much older male stars with very young women that continues to this day --- Michael Douglas married to Gwyneth Paltrow? ( *A Perfect Murder* ). I guess this seems more extreme because Bogart looked his age and Audrey was so particularly delicate.

Bing Crosby famously had bad relationships with his children.

You're welcome. I haven't seen this movie in years, I wish TCM would run it.

*The Incident* (1967), directed by Larry Peerce. Cast includes Beau Bridges, Ruby Dee, Thelma Ritter, Martin Sheen, Jack Gilford, Gary Merrill, Donna Mills, Jan Sterling, and Ed McMahon (!). Black & White, 107 min. IMDB: The passengers on a New York subway car are terrorized by two teenage delinquents. Although outnumbered, the teenagers take advantage of the passenger's passivity and unwillingness to act together. We watch how the different personalities of the passengers react to the situation.

There's also a 1987 version of *Twelfth Night* made in Australia starring Geoffrey Rush.

Kay Francis month was the best Star of the Month choice EVER. I literally watched all of them.

I got *Presenting Lily Mars* on DVD, the only Judy Garland DVD available I didn't have. I gave *Meet Me in St. Louis* to a friend who was going to visit family in St. Louis (and who has never seen the movie), *Umbrellas of Cherbourg* to a friend who lived in Paris (but has never seen the movie), *Breakfast at Tiffany's* to my nephew's girlfriend, and...uh...*I Am Legend* to an uncle whose tastes aren't quite in line with mine.

It's definitely that one, and you're in luck -- it frequently airs on TCM.

LOL

The ladies in pink are dancers in the Kay Thompson "Think Pink" number in *Funny Face* , one of my all-time favorite musical numbers. When Kay comes barrelling out of her office singing "Think pink on the long, long road ahead..." ... well, take a look at it yourself at Agreed, even by the high standards in promos at TCM this one is sterling. Sadly though, it reflects the one aspect of 31 Days of Oscar that I don't care for --- the more-than-usual programming of newer movies. GOOD newer movies, granted.

It can also be helpful if you have TCM on and are doing something where you can't see the screen (like working at your computer, cooking, etc.) --- it's easier to follow that way.

The Washington Post has this very astute -- and fun -- look at Eartha: By Wil Haygood Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 26, 2008; Page C01 In her fantastical life, Eartha Kitt came to like a great many things. Men, sex, bawdy songs. I personally know about the lemon sorbet, the mango sorbet and the strawberry sorbet. I found myself dining with Kitt -- who died of cancer at the age of 81 yesterday -- at the swanky Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan several years ago. I was working on a book about Sammy Davis Jr., once a romantic interest of Kitt's. Kitt's office suggested the Carlyle. Being on book leave, without a steady income and counting pennies, I gulped: The Carlyle wasn't the place for a penny-pincher. But I needed the interview, so I dared not back out of the chance to talk with her. Kitt had known Davis when both were very young and both were hanging out at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Arriving early on the day of our meeting, I was led to a table. There was fine sunlight, lovely wood and an attentive waiter. I looked at the prices on the menu and wanted to scram. Kitt was late -- first 10 minutes, then 20. She may have been born poor, but she traveled through life with the blood of a true diva. So, of course, she'd be late. But I fretted she might have forgotten, or changed her mind. Then I noticed heads swiveling toward the entrance -- and there stood Eartha Kitt, wearing a short, bone-white fur coat, white slacks and a canary yellow turban atop her head. She had a white poodle cupped in each arm. I gave a wave, and she strode over, the poodles twisting in her arms. "Let's order!" she demanded. She said she didn't care to remove her sunglasses because it was still early in the day. It was around 1:30 in the afternoon. A waiter came over and took the poodles away, delivering them to Kitt's suite upstairs. She had a gig going at the Carlyle, and most of the shows were sold out. The next 90 minutes were unforgettable. There were stories of men she had conquered (Sammy Davis Jr. among them), foreign lands she had traveled to, songs she had sung. I remember what she ordered because I held on to the receipt for years to show to people: salmon, asparagus, white wine, two glasses, which turned into three glasses. I wanted to cry every time I saw her motioning for the waiter: "Water, please, and bottled." But every other minute brought forth some delicious revelation, a tale of a child born in South Carolina to sharecropper parents and who forced the entertainment world to take notice of her. ad_icon Consider the era she thrived in -- and the competition she faced. Kitt came of age when a bevy of sepia beauties were just starting to strut their stuff from Broadway to Hollywood. It was the 1950s, and Madison Avenue may have ignored these women, but they were seen now and then in the pages of Life and Holiday magazines. Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Hazel Scott, Joe Lewis's wife, Marva, Sugar Ray Robinson's wife, Edna Mae, and Kitt were different from the darkly hued and heavy-set black women of 1940s Hollywood, women like Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Waters, Butterfly McQueen and Louise Beavers. Those women were known mostly for playing maid roles in cinema. This new group of beauties changed the way that America looked at the black woman. They went to parties hosted by Joe Louis in Chicago or Manhattan; they hung out at Sugar Ray's nightclub in Harlem, their images reflected in the long mirror behind the bar. They all came to admire themselves in some of those old Negro periodicals -- Sepia, Ebony and Brown. Their pictures hung in hair salons in black communities throughout America. They competed against one another for movie roles: Kitt got "Anna Lucasta" alongside Davis, among other roles. And she had to sweat her way through the "Anna" auditions. "The camera couldn't conceal the fact that Eartha was not a beautiful woman," Philip Yordan, the writer of "Anna" told me. But no one, absolutely no one, could have told Eartha Kitt she was not beautiful. She refused to be in the shadow of Horne or Dandridge. Kitt had a repertoire that ranged from nightclubs to Broadway to dramatic roles in movies and TV. Maybe it was because she was born poor, and maybe that birthright either scars you or propels you into other dimensions, but Kitt fought harder than Horne, Dandridge and Scott for recognition. She took risks, kept an edge about her, singing sexually suggestive songs and parading her body onstage in a way that some thought was too provocative. Her rendition of "Santa Baby," for instance, could be described as For Adults Only. She wore her political beliefs out in the open, too, and was on Richard Nixon's enemies list. She was ashamed of Davis when he supported Nixon and told him so to his face. I wrote furiously during our interview. I laughed -- loud -- when Kitt told me she had flipped Davis over her shoulder one day when he came to see her after one of her stage shows. Davis grimaced, but "I was just fooling around!" she said. Lunch finished, I tensed as I got ready to ask for the bill. But Kitt wanted dessert. She tried a scoop of the mango sorbet. She loved it, so much so that she now wanted a scoop of the lemon sorbet. I wanted to cry. Sorbet at the Carlyle is not cheap. She did not detect from my body movements that I was quite ready to go. "Let me try that strawberry sorbet, please," she said in that famously Kitt-enish voice. I smiled as my shoulders sagged. But there were more stories! About her and Orson Welles, her and Sidney Poitier, her and Sammy when he tried to take back the engagement ring he had given her. There was more laughter. Then the bill came: $138.06. It remains, to this day, the most expensive lunch I have ever paid for. But it was Eartha Kitt, in white fur, with poodles. It was worth every penny.

Ava, I should have said how much I, too, find those long Bible epics boring. TCM has been good about showing my Christmas favorites this year, like *Meet Me in St. Louis* and *Christmas in Connecticut* , but on Christmas Day I found myself reaching for the DVD of *Miracle on 34th Street* . Hope you all had a terrific Christmas.