LsDoorMat

I liked this film too, although it has been awhile since I watched it. I have to say, though, the values it tries to put forth are somewhat goofy. There is Cedric Hardwicke as the cleric who convinces Flynn to take the blame for a death in the operating room that is the fault of a distracted doctor who came in late because he was trying to rescue his portfolio. How focused is that distracted doctor going to be now that he has the collapse of Flynn's career on his conscience? If you listen to Hardwicke's words like you are reading a court transcript, they are like so many fortune cookie sayings stitched together into some kind of psycho-babble. Plus Hardwicke's cleric seems to enjoy putting people together in the same room who have no idea of the importance each other plays in their lives and then exposing the situation, usually with explosive results. And Flynn injects himself with the fever disease AND the serum so he can somehow atone for...what exactly??? He is the guy who allowed himself to be unjustly accused and fired for something he didn't do, lost the girl he loved - Phyllis - to maintain the ruse, and he thinks he's anything but a prince of a guy? Anyway, just my two cents.

Well here's the trailer for "No Leave No Love". There are some imdb reviewers who have seen it. They tell a humorous story of Van Johnson appearing on the set the first day of shooting and saying that the film was going to be a stinker so the cast should just have fun with it.

Yes there are Christmas decorations strung across the street. But I don't think another mention is made of Christmas during the entire film.

Well, Christmas is also supposed to be a time of thanksgiving and reflection as well as giving. So maybe TCM is saying we should all be thankful to not be falsely accused of a crime, have a broken leg, be living across the alley from a murderer yet nobody believes us, be married to a ne'er do well who apparently wants to kill us for our insurance money, etc. Just guessing.

Quite a few surprises here TB. If you had just asked me the generic question "How well do you know the MGM films of the 40s?" I would have rolled my eyes and said I've seen 'em all. Apparently not so. Some by design -From 1940 I've never seen "Man From Dakota" , "Wyoming" or "Twenty Mule Team" - I'm not crazy about westerns. But I'd never even heard of Dulcy, nor had I heard of Florian. How interesting it has never been on TCM. Is it lost? Apparently it was circulating on TV at one time, because some imdb reviewers remember it. i'd also never heard of "The Hidden Eye", the follow up to "Eyes in the Night", the detective picture starring Edward Arnold as a blind detective, now in the public domain. I had no idea there was a follow up! I will say that I tend to give wide berth to WWII era films because there is always somehow a tie in to WWII, which eventually becomes tiresome. I want to stand up at the midpoint of most war era films and scream " I get it already! The Nazis are EEEEVIL!!!!" But it is reflective of the times and how seriously the war impacted folks. I will say one WWII era MGM film did surprise me. "The War Against Mrs. Hadley" was very well done with a good story and well acted by its cast. I wasn't expecting much since the director was Harold S. Bucquet, who is probably best known for the Doctor Kildare series and his other entries are usually simplistic and overly sentimental. Made early during WWII, I was expecting lots of flag waving, speechifying, and pat answers and situations. Instead this movie took on the war from a different tack and was quite human and realistic. It looked at the war from the vantage point of a very rigid society matron in Washington D.C. - a WASP upper class Republican to be exact, Fay Bainter as Mrs. Hadley, and how the war turns her well ordered world upside down. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and I'd say it certainly deserved that. TB, have you ever seen the documentary about MGM made during the Turner era - "When the Lion Roars"? Basically, it says from 1946 it was downhill for MGM from that point forward. Their material was simply too sentimental and sweet for the post war years and the studio had a hard time figuring out which direction to take. It even postulates that perhaps it was curtains for MGM from the death of the boy genius, Irving Thalberg, back in 1936, and from that point they were merely skating on his leftover ideas. An interesting watch if you've never seen it.

Absolutely worth it. It's a Republic picture that TCM got the rights to about 9 or 10 years ago. I still have a DVD copy I burned with Robert O introducing the only time it ever played before. I still haven't figured out why Olive Films, which seems to have the rights to the entire Republic catalog, has not released this one yet.

I had the same experience. I was looking at a lost title - "Jazz Cinderella". It starred Myrna Loy and Jason Robards Sr. and was made in 1930 by Chesterfield Motion Pictures. I clicked on Chesterfield Motion Pictures to see what other pictures they had made - so many of these defunct studios had their product wind up on Alpha DVD. I got the same paywall billboard for IMDB PRO that you got. I am not paying to find out what product defunct Chesterfield Pictures made in the 30s. I don't know who would.

Yep, I remember that one. There are pieces of it on youtube, but not the whole thing. And then there is this dubious looking offering: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Blind-Tender-Scoundrel-Slim/dp/B000WB3CBQ/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=A2EVSFPNW5ZAK58MEF3P You have to buy a stinker of a DVD (seems that way looking at the description) in order to get "Love at First Sight". Its manufacturer is listed as "EastWest Studios". Indeed. If I had 15 bucks to blow I'd take a chance on that one. Maybe I'd have a good recording. But then maybe it is just somebody with a video camera pointed at their TV. You never know.

What the purchase of Fox by Disney would mean for TCM was the first thing I thought of too. I'd hate to see those classic Fox films go away, and I'm glad I've got just about everything in their classic catalogue that Fox put on disc in my library. But maybe Disney really won't care about these films since it seems they really have their eye on all of the Marvel and Star Wars stuff, which I could really care less about. I'm talking about Star Wars in its recent "big explosions without a soul" form, not the 1977 and 1980 classic Star Wars films.

I'm a boomer and I never even heard of "A Year Without a Santa Claus". I had to go look it up to see when it came out. Oh, and I was 30 when Christmas Vacation came out, but it isn't Christmas at my house until we've watched it.

Before you could list reviews by prolific authors, "loved it", "hated it", and you could move to any page of ten reviews you wished for a given title. Now some people are saying they can go through all the reviews - 20 at a time. Others say they do not see that scroll button. Individual reviewers cannot look at all of their reviews. We can look at the last 200, that's it. We can't sort by highest voted, chronological, or alphabetic. Why would anybody review a big budget modern film if it that review is just going to get buried by the first few fan boys who posted, and their analysis usually tells you nothing? To me it is much more than cosmetic.

I think they gave users NO warning before making our reviews impossible to access exactly because they figured we were going to do what I'm going to do - make a copy of the reviews to a safe place and then delete my review from imdb. It will just be harder now because of what they did. I hope Bezos and his cronies have fun writing all of the reviews that those of us in the 1000+ club intend to delete. I may post some in the worthwhile "I Just Watched" thread on the TCM boards, making it clear I did not just watch them, and then either find another place for all of them OR maybe even start my own blogspot.

I always hoped they'd give us all of the private screenings Robert did in one evening, but I don't think ten hours is enough time. Not for all of them. There is also the problem that somebody might tune in during the middle and somehow believe Robert is still alive.

Tell me about it. I was trying to by a DVD the other day, and the Kino Blu, the Kino DVD, an alpha DVD, and some unnamed source that was probably a bootleg outfit all had reviews on the same page. It was a mess figuring out what review applied to what, although at least they will usually say "Blu Ray" if that is what the customer bought. I've even seen VHS tapes dumped into the same review page. And what Ammy may not realize is that I often decide to buy or stream a film from their site based on imdb reviews that until yesterday I could sort by various methods. Now I am stuck with a few top rated reviews that may just be fan boys, making it completely invalid.

I don't know what happened to Amazon reviews, but ten years ago most Amazon product reviews were pretty artful. Now half of them are about shipping - "Came well protected and packaged- 5 stars" "The discs were scratched - 1 star". You have to LOOK at the reviews to make sure that 3 star review didn't come from packaging! I think that much of this poor writing comes from people so addicted to their phones that they abbreviate everything.

They already have ruined it. First the message boards and now this. Bezos just wants to sell movie tickets to Star Wars XXIII versus Pacific Rim Versus the XMen Meet Shrek XVII. He could care less about all of the free labor that went into these movie reviews that made the site special. Whoever OK'd this project to mess up the review presentation should be fired.

These commenters are far more eloquent than I on the subject: https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/update-to-user-reviews?topic-reply-list[settings][filter_by]=all Bottom line - If you contribute to imdb you might want to read this and join in on the tirade.

I'm OK with the new hosts. I think Tiffany has improved dramatically and has a good delivery. Eddie Muller certainly knows his stuff on Noir Alley. Alec Baldwin, always my favorite co-host of The Essentials when RO was alive, is doing a great job there. Ben has a style that is very different from RO. I can't say that it is as good as RO, and he certainly has his own style of delivery, but he is holding his own. But maybe it is unfair to even compare Ben to RO. He was originally hired to handle the weekends and was probably instructed to use an informal and humorous style. Remember that went on for eight years before RO's sudden illness in 2011 abruptly shoved him into the primetime spotlight which had an entirely different ambience than what he had been doing. RO just had such a unique background - a middle class guy from small town Washington who winds up a friend to just about all of the golden age stars and was an avid film historian to boot. That's just not going to happen again. P.S.- Just one negative. David Letterman's beard! Yikes! It looks like a whisk broom and is very distracting. Is there no gentle way of bringing this up?

James Cagney and Barbara Stanwyck only worked together once in 1956's "These Wilder Years". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8WLbhA_hzA

English speaking films with the biggest U.S. Box office released from 2000 through 2009. 2000 1. How The Grinch Stole Christmas 260.04M 2. Cast Away 233.63M 3. Mission Impossible II 215.41M 4. Gladiator 187.71M 5. What Women Want 182.81M 2001 1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 317.58M 2. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of Rings 315.54M 3. Monsters Inc. 289.92M 4. Shrek 267.67M 5. Rush Hour 2 226.16M 2002 1. Spider Man 403.71M 2. Lord of the Rings: Two Towers 342.55M 3. Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones 310.68M 4. Harry Potter & Chamber of Secrets 261.99M 5. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 241.44M 2003 1. Finding Nemo 380.84M 2. Lord of the Rings: Rtn of the King 377.85M 3. Pirates of the Caribbean:Curse of Black Pearl 305.41M 4. Matrix Reloaded 281.49M 5. Bruce Almighty 242.83M 2004 1. Shrek Two 436.47M 2. Spider Man 2 373.59M 3. Meet the Fockers 279.26M 4. The Incredibles 261.44M 5. Harry Potter & Prisoner of Azkaban 249.36M 2005 1. Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith 380.26M 2. Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe 291.71M 3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 290.01M 4. War of the Worlds 234.28M 5. King Kong 218.08M 2006 1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 423.32M 2. Night at the Museum 250.86M 3. Cars 244.08M 4. X Men: The Last Stand 234.36M 5. The Da Vinci Code 217.54M 2007 1. Spider Man 3 336.53M 2. Shrek 3 320.71M 3. Transformers 319.07M 4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 309.42M 5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 292.00M 2008 1. The Dark Knight 534.86M 2. Iron Man 318.41M 3. Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 317.10M 4. Hancock 227.95M 5. Wall-E 223.81M 2009 1. Avatar 760.51M 2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 402.11M 3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 301.96M 4. Twilight Saga: New Moon 296.62M 5. Up 293.00M ----------------------------------------------------- English speaking films released from 2000 through 2009 with the highest IMDB ranking per year. Each must have > 50000 votes. U.S. Box office numbers were included just for comparison. 2000 1. Gladiator 8.5 187.71M 2. Memento 8.5 25.54M 3. Requiem for A Dream 8.3 ???? 4. Snatch 8.3 30.3M 5. Dancer in the Dark 8.0 4.19M 2001 1. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings 8.8 315.54M 2. A Beautiful Mind 8.2 170.74M 3. Donnie Darko 8.1 ??? 4. Monsters Inc. 8.1 289.92M 5. Mulholland Drive 8.0 ??? 2002 1. Lord of the Rings: Two Towers 8.7 342.55M 2. The Pianist 8.5 32.57M 3. Catch Me if You Can 8.1 164.62M 4. Bowling for Columbine 8.0 21.24M 5. The Bourne Identity 7.9 121.66M 2003 1. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King 8.9 377.85M 2. Kill Bill: Volume 1 8.1 70.10M 3. Finding Nemo 8.1 380.84M 4. Pirates ofthe Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl 8.0 305.41M 5. Mystic River 8.0 90.14M 2004 1. Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind 8.3 34.40M 2. Million Dollar Baby 8.1 100.49M 3. Hotel Rwanda 8.1 23.47M 4. The Incredibles 8.0 261.44M 5. Shaun of the Dead 8.0 13.54M 2005 1. Batman Begins 8.3 206.85M 2. V For Vendetta 8.2 70.51M 3. Sin City 8.0 74.1M 4. Cinderella Man 8.0 61.65M 5. Serenity 7.9 25.51M 2006 1. The Prestige 8.5 53.09M 2. The Departed 8.5 132.38M 3. Casino Royale 8.0 167.45M 4. Pursuit of Happiness 8.0 163.57M 5. Blood Diamond 8.0 57.37M 2007 1. Into the Wild 8.1 18.35M 2. There will be Blood 8.1 40.22M 3. No Country for Old Men 8.1 74.28M 4. Bourne Ultimatum 8.1 227.47M 5. Ratatouille 8.0 206.45M 2008 1. The Dark Knight 9.0 534.86M 2. Wall-E 8.4 223.81M 3. Gran Torino 8.2 148.10M 4. Slumdog Millionaire 8.0 141.32M 5. Iron Man 7.9 318.41M 2009 1. Inglourious Basterds 8.3 120.54M 2. Up 8.3 293.00M 3. Hachi: Dog's Tale 8.1 ??? 4. Mary and Max 8.1 ??? (Australian) 5. Star Trek 8.0 257.73M Items of note: 1. The Dark Knight made the most money and was highest rated IMDB film for 2008 yet was not even nominated for Best Picture that year. 2. Pixar films did well in both critical acclaim and box office. 3. LOTRing films did well in both critical acclaim and box office. 4. This is the first decade in which the endless recycling of material is obvious, yet it is rewarded in sales. 5. Avatar made the most money of any film released in U.S. Box office terms for the decade, and even has a 7.8 IMDB rating, but seems almost completely forgotten just eight years later.

I go down the list of top rated films until I have five English speaking films, but I include the other films with > 2000 votes that are foreign language films too. I changed strategies because there are just so many foreign films in the top contenders. In 1955 the top five films are foreign ones. It is obvious from this list that the Japanese and European film industries recovered rather quickly after WWII. 1950 1. Sunset Boulevard 8.5 2. All About Eve 8.3 Rashomon 8.3 Young & The Damned 8.3 Orpheus 8.1 3. Harvey 8.0 4. In a Lonely Place 8.0 5. Night and the City 8.0 1951 Early Summer 8.3 1. Ace in the Hole 8.2 2. The Browning Version 8.2 3. A Christmas Carol 8.1 Awaara 8.1 4. Strangers on a Train 8.0 5. A Streetcar Named Desire 8.0 1952 1. Singin in the Rain 8.3 Ikiru 8.3 Umberto D. 8.2 The Life of Oharu 8.2 2. Limelight 8.1 3. High Noon 8.0 4. The Quiet Man 7.9 5. Bad & The Beautiful 7.9 1953 Wages of Fear 8.2 Tokyo Story 8.2 Ugetsu 8.2 Welcome Mr. Marshall 8.2 1. Roman Holiday 8.1 2. The Big Heat 8.0 I Vitelloni 8.0 3. Stalag 17 8.0 Earrings of Madame De 8.0 El 7.9 4. Pickup on S. Street 7.8 5. Shane 7.7 1954 Seven Samurai 8.7 1. Rear Window 8.5 Sansho The Bailiff 8.4 2. On the Waterfront 8.2 3. Dial M For Murder 8.2 4. The Caine Mutiny 7.9 5. A Star is Born 7.8 1955 Pather Panchali 8.4 Rififi 8.2 Ordet 8.2 Diabolique 8.1 Shree 420 8.1 1. East of Eden 8.0 2. Night of the Hunter 8.0 Criminal Life of Archibald de la Cruz 3. The Court Jester 7.9 The Unknown Soldier 7.9 Smiles of a Summer Night 7.9 4. Rebel Without a Cause 7.8 5. The Ladykillers 7.8 1956 A Man Escaped 8.2 Aparajito 8.2 The Burmese Harp 8.1 1. The Searchers 8.0 2. The Killing 8.0 Street of Shame 8.0 3.10 Commandments 7.9 4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers 7.8 Bob Le Flambeur 7.8 Samurai II Duel at Ganryu 7.8 5. Forbidden Planet 7.7 1957 1. 12 Angry Men 8.9 Pyaasa 8.5 2. Witness For the Prosecution 8.4 3. Paths of Glory 8.4 The Cranes are Flying 8.3 Tokyo Boshoko 8.3 4. Bridge over the River Kwai 8.2 The Seventh Seal 8.2 Wild Strawberries 8.2 Nights of Cabiria 8.2 5. Face in the Crowd 8.2 1958 1. Vertigo 8.4 2. Touch of Evil 8.1 3. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 8.1 Hidden Fortress 8.1 The Music Room 8.1 4. Auntie Mame 8.0 Elevator to the Gallows 8.0 Big Deal on Madonna St 8.0 Equinox Flower 8.0 5.The Big Country 7.9 1959 Human Condition 1- No Greater Love 8.6 Human Condition 2 - Road to Eternity 8.6 1. North By Northwest 8.4 The Great War 8.4 2. Some Like It Hot 8.3 World of Apu 8.3 3. Ben-Hur 8.1 4. Anatomy of a Murder 8.1 The 400 Blows 8.1 Ballad of a Soldier 8.1 5. Rio Bravo 8.0 The following shows the top films by US Box Office. This shows what 50s films people of the past thought were the best. However, some films had multiple runs over multiplebyears, such as the Disney films Cinderella and Peter Pan, making it hard to gauge how popular they were in the year of their release. U.S. Box Office 1950 1. Cinderella 85M (over multiple releases in multiple decades) 2. All About Eve 8.4M 3. Annie Get Your Gun 8M 4 .Destination Moon 5M 5. Sunset Boulevard 5M 1951 1. Quo Vadis 24.29M 2. Streetcar named Desire 8M 3. Strangers on a Train 7.63M 4. American in Paris 4.5M 5. Ace in the Hole 3.97M 1952 1. This is Cinerama 41.6M 2. Greatest Show on Earth 36M 3. Snows of Kilimanjaro 18M 4. Moulin Rouge 11.8M 5. The Quiet Man 10.55M 1953 1. Peter Pan 87.4M 2. The Robe 36M 3. From Here to Eternity 30.5M 4. House of Wax 23.75M 5. Shane 20M 1954 1. Rear Window 36.76M 2. White Christmas 30M 3. 20K Leagues Under the Sea 28.2M 4. Demetrius & The Gladiators 26M 5. Caine Mutiny 21.75M 1955 1. Lady and the Tramp 93.6M 2. Cinerama Holiday 26.6M 3. Mister Roberts 21.2M 4. Galapagos 18.57M 5. Battle Cry 17.44M 1956 1. The Ten Commandments 93.74M 2 Around the World in 80 Days 42M 3. Giant 35M 4. Seven Wonders of the World 32.1M 5. The King and I 21.3M 1957 1. Bridge over the River Kwai 44.91M 2. Sayonara 26.3M 3. Peyton Place 25.6M 4. Old Yeller 21.91M 5. Gunfight at OK Corral 11.75M 1958 1. Auntie Mame 23.3M 2. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 17.57M 3. Gigi 13.21M 4. Separate Tables 7.4M 5. Hercules 5M 1959 1. Ben Hur 74.7M 2. Sleeping Beauty 51.6M 3. Some Like it Hot 25M 4. Operation Petticoat 23.3M 5. Pillow Talk 18.75M

I don't know what you folks are talking about, but back to the original question, why is Fredric March forgotten? I'd say because he did so much work for Paramount, especially from 1929 into the mid 1930s, when he was playing leading men. He also did work for Universal in the 1940s. Since Universal owns, not only their own films but Paramount's pre 1949 talking picture catalog, and Universal has done practically nothing with either, nobody has seen him in leading roles that much. He played supporting roles in later films that get more play when he was older, but the spotlight was not on him that much by the 1950s. It is odd he is so forgotten. He won Best Actor Oscars in 1931 and in 1946, and if you've ever seen him parody John Barrymore in Royal Family of Broadway, for which he was up for a Best Actor Oscar but lost, you would also be impressed. He was hardly the lead in this last film, but if there had best supporting role Oscars in 1930 I am sure he would have won. His mimicry of Barrymore's movements and ways were uncanny. It's just a shame that hardly anybody alive has probably ever seen it.

I'm pulling this straight off of IMDB's list when I do an advanced search of everything released in a given year, with more than 1000 votes, in order of the highest rating. Most of the time if the scores are equal, I see the most votes first. There are times when that is not the case. I can only wonder if they calculate the score out to more decimal places than they are showing in those particular cases. I've been experimenting, and I'm probably going to have to raise that floor of minimum votes in the 50's list. By the time I get to the 2010's it needs to be 100K votes as a floor. Also, in 1949 I ran into a few TV programs, so I'll have to start specifying feature films and TV movies and leave out TV programs. In 1949, for example, the Lone Ranger TV show turned up in my query! So I am now at the point where the attack of the small screens becomes a problem.

This first set is done by top IMDB ratings for films with more than 1000 votes. If I think the box office numbers are reliable, I'll do that list later. This list is international, so there are not just American films included. 1940 1. The Great Dictator 8.5 2. Rebecca 8.2 3. The Grapes of Wrath 8.1 4. Shop Around the Corner 8.1 5. The Philadelphia Story 8.0 1941 1. Citizen Kane 8.4 2. The Little Foxes 8.2 3. The Maltese Falcon 8.1 4. Sullivan's Travels 8.1 5. The Lady Eve 8.0 1942 1. Casablanca 8.5 2. To Be or Not To Be 8.2 3. Now Voyager 8.0 4. Random Harvest 8.0 5. Magnificent Ambersons 7.9 1943 1. Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 8.2 2. The Ox-Bow Incident 8.1 3. Shadow of a Doubt 8.0 4. Day of Wrath 8.0 5. The More the Merrier 7.9 1944 1. Double Indemnity 8.3 2. Laura 8.1 3. Arsenic & Old Lace 8.0 4. To Have and Have Not 8.0 5. Gaslight 7.9 1945 1. Children of Paradise 8.3 2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 8.1 3. Brief Encounter 8.1 4. Rome Open City 8.1 5. Mildred Pierce 8.0 1946 1. It's A Wonderful Life 8.6 2. Best Years of Our Lives 8.1 3. Stairway to Heaven 8.1 4.The Big Sleep 8.0 5. Notorious 8.0 1947 1. Out of the Past 8.1 2. Black Narcissus 8.0 3. Monsieur Verdoux 8.0 4. Miracle on 34th St. 7.9 5. Ghost & Mrs. Muir 7.9 1948 1. Bicycle Thieves 8.3 2. Treasure of the Sierra Madre 8.3 3. The Red Shoes 8.3 4. I Remember Mama 8.2 5. Rope 8.0 1949 1. Late Spring 8.3 2. The Third Man 8.2 3. White Heat 8.2 4. The Heiress 8.2 5. Kind Hearts & Coronets 8.1