markfp2

I seem to recall that,years ago, I read an arcticle about how there were many handicapped people, including, those who were blind, working in defense plants during WWII and surprisingly their accident rate was a fraction of that of workers without handicaps. I don't know if this short was based on one real person or was more of a "composite" salute to all of those workers. Either way it was a very interesting short.

I haven't seen this DVD yet, so I looked up its review on the Home Theatre Forum website. Now these folks are very critical when it comes to quality and there wasn't a mention of the problems you had so I tend to believe you just got a bad copy. It happens. When one or two hundred thousand DVDs are being manufactured the odds are that a least a few will be defective. It even happens to Warners who have very high quality control standards. If you return it to where you purchased it, I'll bet your replacement copy will be perfect. Keep us posted. Message was edited by: markfp2

I know what you mean.I'd love to get "A Taste of Honey", but it seems to have vanished in the United States. It is available in Britain, but unless you have a multi-region player that won't help you. "Sadie Thompson" is a Columbia film so there may be hope that it will get released one of these days. I have a rather nice copy of "In Which We Serve", but the company that put it out is out of business. I'm not sure, but the film may have fallen into public domain. As for "Two Women" the only DVD I"ve seen is awful and is released by public domain specialist Madacy. TCM ran a beautiful subtitled version of it in September, so keep an eye open as they may show it again. As for the others, some, like "El Cid" seem to be tied up with rights problems and the others is anyone's guess.

Great thought. I love it.

TCM isn't forcing you to do anything. They actually have very little say in where a cable company places them. I'll bet Cablevison doesn't pay them an extra penny when they go to digital either. Almost all cable companies are trying to switch folks over to digital so they can charge more and won't have to have duplicate programming on analog channels. In 2009 when all TV must go digital that's all that cable will be offering. Oh, and don't think I'm a fan of cable as I'm not. I switched to DirecTV five or six years ago and would never go back.I just don't want to see you blame TCM for something they can't really control.

Janus Films is a film distribution company. It was form in 1956, by two New York City theatre owners who saw the need to have an outlet for new foreign films and classics. Janus had a great deal to do with the introduction of films by directors such as Bergman, Truffalt, and Fellini in the United States. It also became "the source" for classic American and British films. Janus films are shown theatrically, on TV, and are available on DVD. Janus has always held the standard for obtaining only "the best of the best".

When you've been around these forums for a while, and if you pay attention to what people ask for, you'll notice that a lot of films requested do eventually show up. For example, there has been a many requests for Paramount films made prior to 1948. These are controlled by Universal and TCM has to lease them. More and more of them have started to show up on TCM's schedule, such as the long requested "Island of Lost Souls" which aired last month. It's been discussed here before, how getting films for TV isn't like going to the corner video store and picking a few titles. There's lots of wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes. Many times deals must be struck several years in advance of showing a film.Of course, there are lots of films that, for one reason or another, just can't be had. TCM can't show every film requested, but you can be sure that they do pay attention to requests.The best thing to do is, make your requests, be patient and hope for the best.

"The Cat & The Canary" would be a great film to see, however it's not in the TCM library. Being a pre-1948 Paramount, it's own by Universal and TCM would have to lease it from them. Since they've been showing more films from Universal, lately, it's very possible they may get this film sometime. Of course, TCM is at the mercy of Universal as to whether they can get it at all and if they can get it, how long they can lease it for and when they can show it.

Well, I've been talking about "Face of Fire" for years and thought I was the only person left on Earth who remembered it. If I can ever find it, I'll get some broken glass and get in touch with you. Oh by the way, welcome to the boards.

Ding-Dong! The bell is ringing . You're thinking of the 1959 Allied Artists release "FACE of FIRE". An almost never seen little film starring James Whitmore, Cameron Mitchell and Royal Dano. It was based on a story by Stephen Crane and was filmed entirely in Sweden. I remember it to this day. I first saw it in '59 as a second feature to some big film I've since forgotten. In the '70s, it was in a TV movie package from a now long gone independent distributor. That's the last I've heard of it. I'm surprised it hasn't fallen into public domain.

It does get confusing. As I understand it, Ted Turner bought MGM, mainly to get control of the film library which included the pre-86 MGM, pre-48 Warner Bros and RKO films. The newer MGM films were not included. He sold off the studio and just kept the library. At some point, Time-Warner bought out Turner so the channel as well as the library are now parts of the T-W conglomerate. As for TCM using the films, I believe they now have to pay for the films like any other channel would, although I suspect it's more of a "on paper" thing rather taking money from one pocket and putting it in another. That's how big companies work. As for movies running on TCM in other countries, no doubt, if T-W can lease them to stations in those countries, for more than they can get from TCM, they will. That's only good business. If they didn't do that then the company's stockholders (most of whom couldn't care less about the movies) could sue it. So hopefully, that explains at least some of it. Message was edited by: markfp2

A lot of folks get confused by the term "digitally remastered". They think it means the film has been restored. The term only means that it's been transfered to some form of digital storage, like one of the digital video tape formats or DVD. So if somebody has an old beatup 16mm print or a fourth generation VHS dub of a movie and it gets put on DVD then it has been digitaly remastered. Of course, doing so doesn't do a damn thing to improve the quality of original film or tape. If a DVD package uses the term, technically it's correct, but I find it somewhat deceptive when it's in big bold letters, which to the less informed means "restored". From past experience, I've found that usually the larger the letters the crappier the quality.

Gerb, According the discs "Shrinking Man" is 1.78:1 and the rest are 1.33:1. Being it was the 1950s, they were still shooting a lot of films in full frame and then masking them down in the theatre so I don't think we've got a case of "pan & scan" here. Anyway, I thrilled to have them.

For those of you, like me, who grew up on 1950s sci-fi movies here's a set you'll want. Universal has just put out THE CLASSIC SCI-FI ULTIMATE COLLECTION. It contains five films TARANTULA, THE MOLE PEOPLE, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, THE MONOLITH MONSTERS and MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS. It sells for $19.95 and , at least for now, is only available from Best Buy. It's a bare bones set. The only extras are trailers for the films, but that's just fine with me. Now, please pass the popcorn and don't call me for about seven and a half hours.

According to the cast & credit list on the TCM movie database her name is Joan McCracken. Haven't seen it in years, so I can't picture her, but I trust the database.

Heidiguun: You made an interesting observation. As much as I enjoy "Shane", and have seen it dozens of times, I've never liked the ending, and I could never put my finger on why. It certainly gives me something to think about.

I've seen "Titanic" several times and I do enjoy it for what it is. However, when it comes to a choice, I've got to go with "A Night To Remember". It's so much closer to Walter Lord's definitive book, of the same name, there's no comparison. If you prefer the newer film go for it. As for me the "real" Titanic film will always be "A Night To Remember".

I think this plot or variations on it have been used a number of times, but, off hand, the only one I can think of is the 1951 John Wayne film "Operation Pacific".

Regarding "I" formerly known as "PAX". They do run a lot of old films, especially at night, but the difference is that these films are all in public domain. That means the copyrights have expired on them. If a film is PD anybody with a beatup old film print or a third of fourth generation tape can show it without paying a penny in royalties. The quality of the films are usually awful. I really think that a lot of them shown on "I" were really mastered from VHS. There are a lot of PD films shown on TCM, but they usually stick to the ones that they can get a good quality copy.

Well, I guess I'll stand corrected. I've been getting Total Choice Premium for a number of years so maybe they did move it and I hadn't noticed. I do know that except for local channels and a couple of restricted area channels like Turner South, DirecTV has the same packages nationwide. Having been watching FMC over the years, I'm not sure I'd pay the increase just for that channel. As I said in my previous post, if you've watched it for a couple of years, you've seen about all the classics they choose to show. I'd be really surprised if they tried to for that with TCM. Time-Warner has the clout to package it with their other channels when they negotiate their deal with DirecTV. Of course, if it ever did end up as a premium channel, I'd subscribe in the wink of an eye.

FMC is not a premium channel on DirecTV. It's part of two of their three programming packages. Total Choice Plus and Total Choice Premium. It isn't in the Total Choice package which is the cheapest one. If you switched over in April, they most likely gave you the extra channels on the "Plus" package as a sample for the first six months. I believe you can upgrade for about $5.00 a month and get 30 additional channels including FMC. As for FMC, after you have it a year or so, you'll find most of the classic titles are repeated over and over. It's a shame that with the hundreds of early Fox films they have in their vault they don't show more of them. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy FMC, but it sure doen't come close to TCM.

I've never seen it, but somehow I have a feeling, since it was made in 1948, that it won't be as violent, steamy and sexy and you might think. Although the uncut Italian version might be. Might be worth a showing on TCM if they could get the original version. If you want to see the edited and dubbed U.S. version released in 1951 you can buy it on DVD from Sinister Cinema (sinistercinema.com) a small company the specializes in films you won't find elsewhere. Don't expect a beautiful remastered restored film. Most of their movies are transfers from 16mm prints, so they may have flaws. Some of their stuff is very nice, and some so-so, but I've been buying from them for years and have never got real trash.

I always find it interesting how some films, even from major companies, just seem to vanish. I last saw "Counterpoint" in the 1970s when the tv station I work at had it in a Universal movie package. I've never heard of it since. I always enjoyed the film, and while it certainly isn't Charlton Heston's best film, it should be of interest to his fans and fans of war films.

Sounds like the 1957 film "The Tin Star". Henry Fonda starred as an aging bounty hunter who taught a young sheriff, played by Anthony Perkins, how to deal with a bunch of outlaws threatening his town. Haven't seen it in years. It's a Paramount so perhaps TCM could show it sometime.

I have to agree with Kyle. I don't think the alternate endings exist anymore unless they're buried in the vaults at Columbia (which I doubt). I have many collector friends and I don't know anybody who has seen a different ending. TCM ran a 123 minute version? I use to collect 16mm film and I'd swear my print ran 129 minutes. I'll have to check with the guy I sold it to and, if he still has it, I'll time it to be sure that my memory isn't playing tricks on me. I've never watched it on TCM, but did catch the ending once and that's the same. I have heard of a 132 minute version, but have never seen it either.