Film_Fatale

Sounds like a fun movie! B-)

> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote} > I like the camera going up along the side of a building and it shows the "gangster" icon intro better. I believe that would be the old prime time intro - which IIRC they'd been using continuously since the channel was launched, up until they replaced it with the current one.

I agree with Angie, Jeff, terrific photos! B-)

Robert Taylor :x

Oscar Homolka

Carol Reed's *The Man Between*, starring James Mason, which is playing TODAY - Saturday, Jan. 24 at 10:15pm ET, is a TCM Premiere (and also not currently available on DVD). http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=82550 *The Man Between* (1953) The cold war proved such a hot setting for Carol Reed's brilliant continental thriller The Third Man (1949) that he made a return visit to the territory in The Man Between (1953). Instead of a Vienna carved up by the Allies, this film takes us to Berlin of the early fifties, a city divided into West and Soviet-controlled East Berlin with checkpoints and security stations. Our introduction to this post-World War II Berlin is much like that of our heroine, Susanne (Claire Bloom), a decisive young British woman who flies to Germany to visit her brother, Martin (Geoffrey Toone), and his German wife, Bettina (Hildegarde Neff). Susanne is whisked from the international modernity of the airport to the quaint beauty of old Berlin, a tourist vision of Bavarian charm that Susanne finds enchanting. It's Bettina's way of showing this impressionable young woman the best of her home before taking her to the reality of the rest of the war-ravaged city. From the opening scenes, Reed establishes a tension: strangers ominously eye their movements through the airport and a young boy on a bicycle, an otherwise unobtrusive figure of innocence playing in the streets, tails their taxi and makes lazy figure-eights outside their home, a lone building jutting out of the rubble and ruins of their sector of the city. Bettina is nervous and agitated and a night on the town does nothing to ease her disposition; she slips out for a surreptitious meeting that only jangles her nerves more. Susanne finally sees the mystery man on a day trip to East Berlin. As they settle in for tea at a caf?, the figure (guided by the boy on a bicycle, keeping up his dogged surveillance) steps into the room and over to their table like an old friend. James Mason is the smoothly shady and romantically sinister Ivo Kern, an acquaintance - and surely much more - of Bettina. Susanne is instantly fascinated and an odd kind of courtship begins between the impressionable but headstrong young woman and the older man with an ulterior motive, one that inevitably draws her into the political intrigue of citizens fleeing the East for the West and the espionage by agents no better than mercenary thugs attempting to staunch the flow. "He's not the government and neither am I," the weary skeptic Ivo confesses to Bettina after she's snatched from the streets of West Berlin by an East German agent. "He's just a gangster trying to get what he can." Mason had starred in Reed's Odd Man Out (1947), playing an Irish nationalist in one of Reed's greatest critical triumphs, but was no stranger to taking on German characters. He played Field Marshall Erwin Rommel twice on screen and plays shady East Berlin agent Ivo Kern with a dancing lilt that is more intriguing than convincing. Claire Bloom was a pretty and talented young stage actress relatively new to the screen (her breakthrough role in Chaplin's Limelight (1952, was yet to be seen) when Reed cast her as the impressionable romantic lead, and Hildegarde Neff was a veteran of the stage and screen with a career that straddled Germany and Hollywood. The rest of the film was cast locally on location where possible. Shooting on location in Berlin, Reed makes evocative use of the city. The despair of the defeated nation is felt in every bombed-out cityscape and chilly street scene, and the bustle of West Berlin's downtown is shown in sharp contrast to the shuffling citizens and empty public spaces of East Berlin. Reed was unable to shoot in the Eastern sectors but found effective stand-ins on the western side close to the border, which he dressed up with banners of Stalin and actors in East German uniforms. An escape from East German agents and the border cops takes Susanne and Ivo into a construction site at night, where the skeleton frame lit by stark spotlights creates a shadowy web of light and shadow through which they duck and scurry. Reed also gave the film distinctive character by working memorable Berlin landmarks into The Man Between. A night on the town takes them to the Resi Restaurant, where a system of telephones at every table invites patrons to call one another across the room. It becomes an effective way for black market operators and agents to make connections. Unfortunately, Reed is hampered by an uneven script. The wit and wile of Graham Greene filled The Third Man with vivid characters and dramatic turns. For The Man Between, based on the novel Susanne in Berlin by Lothar Schuler (a nom de plume for Walter Ebert), Reed and producer Alexander Korda turned to Hollywood veteran Harry Kurnitz, a screenwriter of such light fare as The Inspector General (1949) and a couple of Thin Man sequels. Reed found the collaboration trying at best. He was unable to work on the script directly with the writer (as he had with Greene) and, constrained by time and budget and actors' schedules, was forced to begin production with a first draft he found unsatisfactory. Kurnitz rewrote as the production traveled to Berlin for the location shooting. Budget cuts only made the tensions greater while Reed insisted on shooting all the location footage himself. According to Reed biographer Nicholas Wapshott, Reed was "haggard, harassed and tired" by the time his stars, James Mason and Claire Bloom, arrived for their scenes. Upon returning to Britain for the studio scenes, Kurnitz made himself unavailable and Reed turned to Graham Greene and a young British playwright named Janet Green for advice. They were forthright in their criticism of Kurnitz's script ("The whole business of spying by means of one bicycle ridden by a boy seems to be too childish and fantastic," wrote Greene in a note to Reed) and Reed finally hired a script doctor to rewrite what he could salvage. The Man Between was inevitably compared to The Third Man and it suffered in the comparison, due in large part to the convoluted plotting and pedestrian dialogue. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther complained: "If this is nothing like the picture that The Third Man or Odd Man Out was, it occasionally gives a vain illusion of being as formidable as either of those films." Reed himself was sanguine about the production. "It wasn't a particularly good story, but I liked the atmosphere of Berlin after the war, and I wanted to work again with James Mason." Nevertheless, Reed creates a vivid backdrop for The Man Between and a rich atmosphere of cold war intrigue with his location shooting and stark visual style. It makes for a unique snapshot of Berlin rebuilding from the devastation of World War II, a look at the city before the blockade and The Wall (the defining symbol of the Iron Curtain) where the population is caught between the political gamesmanship between East and West. Producer: Carol Reed Director: Carol Reed Screenplay: Harry Kurnitz; Walter Ebert (story); Eric Linklater (uncredited) Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson Art Direction: Andre Andrejew Music: John Addison Film Editing: A.S. Bates Cast: James Mason (Ivo Kern), Claire Bloom (Susanne Mallison), Hildegarde Neff (Bettina Mallison), Geoffrey Toone (Martin Mallison), Aribert Waescher (Halendar), Ernst Schroeder (Olaf Kastner), Dieter Krause (Horst), Hilde Sessak (Lizzi), Karl John (Inspector Kleiber), Ljuba Welitsch (opera singer, Salome). BW-100m. by Sean Axmaker

Don't forget tonight, at 8pm ET/5pm PT: *Seven Brides For Seven Brothers* (1954) When their older brother marries, six lumberjacks decide it's time to go courting for themselves. Cast: Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall Dir: Stanley Donen C-102 mins, TV-G

Coming up next Thursday, Jan. 22, as part of the "NY vs. LA" series: *Sunset Boulevard* (1950) A failed screenwriter falls into a mercenary romance with a faded silent-film star. Cast: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson Dir: Billy Wilder BW-110 mins, TV-PG

That's the spirit, Chris!!

I _love_ that Curtis & Leigh photo! :x

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote} > With wide-screen films, we are seeing less, not more. I don't know what TV you have. On my HDTV, with widescreen movies I see more, not less.

> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote} > As regards SOUNDER, or any other film shot in standard Academy Ratio and then cropped to widescreen dimensions, that's what the director and cinematographer wanted. You weren't meant to see all the extraneous stuff you're now pining for; whether it was cropped out during principal photography, or during post-production, is truly irrelevant: you're not going to get them, and you don't need to see them. I'd agree with that.

> {quote:title=joefilmone wrote:}{quote} > That is a good point FF but when someone decides to remake a classic film the expectations are high that they will at least match the original. I don't think there's any way on Earth that anyone can match the impact of a movie that's gained a large following over several decades, no matter how good it is. As far as modern-day popcorn entertainment, the remake is about on par with *I Am Legend*. That doesn't make it a particularly great movie, but it's no *Highlander 2*, either.

> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote} > Have ideas for movies that should be shown, the Challenge is a great way to promote that. Well said, Lynn. It's great that TCM's VP for programming is actually following the thread and may, when it is possible, incorporate some of those ideas into future TCM schedules.

Don't forget to watch *Pocketful of Miracles* tonight at 1:30amET/10:30pmPT *Pocketful of Miracles* (1961) A good-hearted gangster turns an old apple seller into a society matron so she can impress her daughter. Cast: Glenn Ford, Bette Davis, Hope Lange, Arthur O'Connell Dir: Frank Capra C-137 mins, TV-G TRAILER: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?o_cid=mediaroomlink&cid=75097

I'm watching "Sounder" right now, and half the picture is missing. 1/4 at the top and 1/4 at the bottom are just gone, missing from the film. We're all watching half a film, Just the middle horizontal portion. But we're missing a full 1/2 of the image. It doesn't matter if it was matted down in the camera, in the printer, or in the projector. I want to see the top and the bottom of what is in front of the camera, but it's not there, it's just not there. There isn't any image missing. The movie is letterboxed. For it to fill your TV screen, they would have to use a pan-and-scan version. Original Aspect Ratio of *Sounder*: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=90934&category=Theatrical%20Aspect%20Ratio

Oh, my! :0 It feels weird to be looking at those photos when it's so darn cold!

Has anyone seen this gangster movie? TCM is showing it tonight at 10pm ET: *The Earl Of Chicago* (1939) A Chicago gangster inherits a British title. Cast: Robert Montgomery, Edward Arnold, Reginald Owen, Edmund Gwenn Dir: Victor Saville BW-87 mins, TV-PG TRAILER: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?o_cid=mediaroomlink&cid=104274

LOL Good point, Minya!

Gail Russell was in *The Uninvited* with _Ray Milland._

> {quote:title=gagman66 wrote:}{quote} > Mongo, > > Hope these don't offend anyone? I had been flirting with posting them for awhile now. Based on that last thread, I see nothing different here. I will remove them though if they are considered to be to Racy? > Jeff, those look harmless enough, I doubt anyone here's going to be offended.

Awesome poster, Kyle!! Thanks for sharing B-)

On the primetime schedule for January 25 are two 80s westerns - *Silverado* and *Barbarosa* (guess they weren't able to get the rights to *Young Guns* ). How many of you enjoyed these 2 westerns when they came out in the 80s? For me, *Silverado* was a big favourite... B-)

Thanks to kimpunkrock for adding so many awesome videos to the site!! B-)

David Manners was in *A Bill of Divorcement* with _Billie Burke._