markfp2
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Posts posted by markfp2
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> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote} The line, "some specialists in film libraries consider its list of titles to be geriatric" should have us all up in arms.
I don't think that comment was meant as a slam at anybody. It was merely pointing out that, with the exception of maybe the James Bond films and a few others, the MGM film library tends to skew towards an older audience, not the younger , free-spending, crowd that sponsors lust for.
As a result, whoever buys it won't be able to demand the big bucks they can for newer films. That makes the film library worth less. Still, I wouldn't start shedding any tears just yet. In the right hands, there's still a ton of money to be made off them.
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TUNES OF GLORY is another outstanding film that is highly unlikely to be seen on any channel but TCM. Even the BBC America channel has stopped showing classic British films. Thank you, TCM.
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> {quote:title=kriegerg69 wrote:}{quote} > In regards to someone's comment that TCM uses digital tapes for broadcasting....I heard years ago that most stations broadcast off of hard-drives, similar to how hard-drives are in computers, with the video information stored digitally.
Well, what I was referring to was that the films are still usually distributed on digital tape as opposed to say DVD. Those recordings are then usually loaded into a server for airing. So you are correct that when it comes to the actual airing of a film it's unlikely that it would be coming directly from a tape.
Although, I do know of smaller local stations that still run everything from tape. I think it would be highly unlikely for TCM or any cable network to still being doing so.
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Every live show did not have a kinescope made. More often than not those that did were made as a reference copy for the sponsors or producers and not with the intention being shown on the air.
Much as the film studios purged themselves of most of their silent films in the 1940's, to save storage costs, the TV industry did the same thing with kinescopes after the advent of video tape. In both cases, nobody seem to care about the historical aspects of what they were destroying.
Most kinescopes that do still exist are pretty much in archives like the Museum of Broadcasting and UCLA or in the hands of private collectors. I would think that, with some exceptions, they would most likely be in the public domain.
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> {quote:title=PrinceSaliano wrote:}{quote}> Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide ends with 1960.
A new updated edition is coming out in the spring and I think we'll see that change to 1970. Just from a practical standpoint, his other Movie Guide has about reach it's maximum size and in order to keep updating it with new films each year, he has to move older titles to the Classic Movie Guide to make room. I believe his choice of 1960 was more of an arbitrary cutoff point then a statement on the age of classics.
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> {quote:title=DougieB wrote:}{quote} I bought Dogpatch in a way that I never bought, say, Brigadoon on film.
Dougie, that's a very interesting point that never struck me before. BRIGADOON is one of my favorite musicals, but I've always been bothered by it being shot on a sound stage and not on location. However, I've never even given a thought about the same thing with LI'L ABNER. Maybe it's because it was originally a comic strip and that's they way I saw it everyday and the movie stayed true to that look.
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If you happen to get The Fox Movie Channel on your cable system, GOODBYE CHARLIE usually gets shown at least a couple of times a year.
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Welcome to the boards. First, let me say that I don't think there is any such thing as an "instant" classic. It's just an advertising catch phrase. I think to be a classic, a film really does have to stand the test of time. but I don't believe there's a automatic "carved in stone" number. Age is just one of a number of factors and in my opinion might just be the least important.
I pointed out once before that when I started getting interested in classic films, in the late 1950's, most of the films from the 1940's, that we consider classics today, were already considered classics then and many were barely ten years old. Did younger age make films like "WHITE HEAT or THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE or RED RIVER any less of a classic then they are today? I think not.
Many people say that films started to go downhill in the 1970s, and in general I might agree with that, but still, while there may be fewer of them, there are certainly some films from every decade that are worthy of being called a classic.
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> {quote:title=PrinceSaliano wrote:}{quote} ...Alistair Sims' A CHRISTMAS CAROL is a classic, sorely missed on TCM.
It's kind of strange about that film. For years it was syndicated to local TV stations as part of a package of holiday films. The one I use to work for must have run 12 or 13 years in a row. The last couple of years it hasn't been available. I don't even recall seeing it scheduled on any station or cable network last year let alone TCM. As far as I've seen so far, nobody has it scheduled this year either. It just seems to have vanished.
There was talk at one time that it might have fallen into public domain, but that doesn't seem right either, because the only version on the market is the "official" restored one from VCI. If it was PD everybody and their uncle would be selling it or showing it.
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> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote} I would just like to add that at this time of the year, TCM is not the only channel vying for the chance to run classic holiday movies.
Hi Lynn,
You're so right about that. It always amazes me that channels that otherwise wouldn't even think running 60 year-old black & white movies, the rest of the year, will be right there fighting to get them for Christmas. The same holds true for Halloween and the Universal horror classics.
I seem to remember reading that NBC's deal for IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE was either 20 or 25 years with them having first dibs on renewing it. I'm afraid I don't recall what year they first showed it.
From everything I've heard, it's become a real moneymaker for NBC. Since it costs them far less then normal network shows and with plenty of sponsors who love buying into family friendly programing, they sell out all the commercial time. It would really surprise me if they ever let it go.
As I tell people, if they want to see it commercial-free, sometime in their lifetime, they might be better to buy the DVD.
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> {quote:title=Ascotrudgeracer wrote:}{quote} Some love, some say it's lousy.
Oh Yes! I'm one of the people who love it. I think sometimes folks who didn't grow up reading "LI'L ABNER in the funny papers each day, just don't understand it and can't appreciate it. You are correct that "Jubilation T. Cornpone" is the showstopper. Now ya did it. I'm not going to get that song out of my head for days.
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Too bad I don't live in Jersey. While I've seen it a number of times, I'd love to see a restored Technicolor print on the big screen.
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I recorded it a couple of years ago, but I can't recall from what channel. I think it might have been Cinemax of Encore Mystery. Perhaps, with TCM's new arrangement with Universal it will turn up on here sometime.
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Disney did release SONG OF THE SOUTH on laser disc some years back in Japan, but never here so anybody selling it are most likely making bootleg copies from that.
I never tell people what to buy or not to buy, but I'd say use caution when buying from bootleggers, especially if it involves giving your credit card number and they don't have anything other than a web address.
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Welcome to the boards. As has been discussed here many times, TCM doesn't own any films so they have to lease every one from various studios. That means that sometimes, as in the case of many classic Christmas films, they have to bid against other networks for the rights to those films. Unfortunately, that also means that sometimes they get outbid by commercial networks with deeper pockets.
For example, TCM did show WHITE CHRISTMAS a couple of years ago, but it was a one year only deal. Since then other channels have been showing it. As for IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, NBC bought exclusive rights to it for something like 20 or 25 years so that's the only place you'll see it for years to come.
Getting rights to films is a very expensive and complicated business and while we all like to think that TCM has every film ever made sitting on a shelf somewhere it's not that easy.
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It always amazes me that people have recurring problems with TCM on Time-Warner Cable. You'd think that since both are divisions of the same parent company, they'd want it to look and sound perfect.
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Welcome to the boards. As Fred pointed out if it was TCM's problem, it would affect all of us and it doesn't. Besides being at your cable company's end, it could be a problem with your cable box, a connection on the pole in front of your house, a bad cable or several other things.
Call your cable company and request a service call. I know, they'll try and tell you it's TCM's fault, but cable companies are known for, shall we say, not exactly being totally honest with the facts. Stick to your guns and demand one. If you still have those bad recordings, show them to the service guy, it will help him pin down the problem.
As for DVDs. while sometimes you can have a bad disc, since you get the problem when your recorder is off, it's not your recorder or disk. TCM doesn't run programming on DVD, it's on one of the broadcast quality digital tape formats. Good luck.
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Earlier this year I switched to FF and that helped overall, but it is smaller on it. I've been checking IE, now and then, and while it was smaller, it's normal now. Just for the heck of it I checked Google Chrome which came with my computer, but I don't use, and it's so small that you can't read it.
As a certain Siamese king once said "is a puzzlement."
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Welcome to the boards.I don't know about THE NIGHT DIGGER specifically, but as a fan of all the great British films that TCM shows, I've noticed that in general they don't get as many runs as other films and if they are repeated the showings are further apart. I think it just comes down to how many showings, within the length of their contract, TCM was able to make a deal for.
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The 1960s were a great time for Czech films in the United States. This was when the "art theater" movement was in it's prime and just about every city of a decent size (especially if it was a college town) had at least one theater that specialized in foreign films.
I was at the stage of my life where I was just getting interested in non-American films and I especially liked Czech and other Eastern European films. My favorites were THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET and CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS.
Unfortunately, in years to follow, as the movie industry changed and local downtown theaters gave way to multiplexes at the mall, films like those had to step aside for huge Hollywood blockbusters, There became fewer and fewer venues to see foreign films and for the most part that market dried up. Today, thanks to companies like The Criterion Collection and Kino, classics from that era are available to us on DVD.
Edited by: markfp2 on Nov 15, 2009 7:30 PM
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As far as I'm concerned, the real MGM that we all knew and loved has been dead for a long time. I'd love to see Time-Warner buy the film library, and merge it back with the older MGM films that are now under the control of Warner Bros. Warner is the best in the business when it comes to marketing older films.
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> {quote:title=redriver wrote:}{quote} The movie engages in some offensive propaganda, insulting my intelligence as well as the Japanese nation.
Well of course it does. Almost all war films of that era did. Insult and ridicule your enemy and make your side look superior, that's what propaganda is all about. Hollywood was just as much a propaganda machine as the film industries in Germany and Japan were. Right or wrong, that's just the way it was back then. I doubt that anybody was very concerned about what people 65 years in the future would think about it.
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Well, the most common reason is simply that it is in public domain and nobody wants to put money into a film that they can't hold the rights to.
Still, as PD films go, there are some nice DVDs out there. I've got a beautiful copy that was released in 2002 by Front Row Entertainment, a Canadian company now out of business. If you can find one of those you won't be disappointed.
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> {quote:title=BelleLeGrand1 wrote:}{quote} So, I suspect there will be a price increase on the horizon anyway.
It surprised me that they didn't raise it after the last postage increase so if it goes up again we'll probably see an increase in the future.
I have nothing against any of your ideas, I just think that with the economy as bad as it is TCM would want to keep subscription rate increases as few and as low as possible rather than risk losing subscribers who, after all, can get the program schedules online for free. I don't know how many subscribers there are, but with even the largest magazines going in the tank, I doubt it's a moneymaker for TCM and the best they can hope for is to break even.
The List of Adrian Messenger
in Film Noir--Gangster
Posted
> {quote:title=stjohnrv wrote:}{quote} Have you ordered from Amazon UK before and if so any customs probs? and how long on average would you say for order to delivery?
I went multi-region a couple of years ago and never regretted it. As for amazon.uk, I've ordered at least ten times without a problem. I'd say they're just as reliable as their U.S. counterpart.
I've found delivery time excellent. My orders have always been sent via Royal Airmail (the British Post Office). For me, the quickest has been five days and the longest ten. That's faster than orders from a lot of outfits right here in this country. I live on the east coast so I guess it might be a little longer elsewhere.
Here's a couple of things to keep in mind. If you have a user name and password for amazon in the U.S., that will work with the UK site so you won't have to register again.
Customs. Don't worry about it. It comes right to your mailbox without any customs fee.
Prices are listed in British pounds, not dollars, so you'll need to add approximately 65% to that to figure out the price in dollars. Don't let that scare you off, there are so many great films in the five to ten pound range that you'll still find many bargains.
Like amazon here, they offer free shipping, but that's only in the UK. You can choose standard shipping, which is usually by airmail or pay addition for express delivery by companies like Fed-Ex.
All in all,it's pretty painless.