HarryLong

Even in silent days the posters were in color. Some of them were quite lavish lithographs.

I think the eating metal and drinking oil is a false memory but otherwise it's MISSILE TO THE MOON. It was remade as CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON, but I can't recall if there were any rock-men (who kinda looked like Gumby) in that.

>>Obviously the Edgar Rice Burrough state doesn't care about their classic properties Maybe the copyrights have expired & they haven't any control over them. Then again, those Amicus adaptations back in the 1970s were pretty ghastly. Maybe they've never cared.

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE is available on the Criterion label.

>>there doesn't seem to anything but abysmal public domain copies out there There was one version released on the Allied Artists label (that's the studio that produced it) - it was a bit pricey so I never bought it; can't say what the quality is.

Never heard of the label. If you order it, let us know the quakity of the DVD (the film is pretty bad as I recall).

Given the deluxe treatment TCM gave the "Cult Horrors" collection (each film with its own disc - splendid packaging), I hope Universal licenses all its future horror titles to TCM.

>>I can see Criterion or Kino releasing it You're getting very warm. >>Island of Lost Souls comes with the Vampire Bat too.. Yeah, I really need another copy of VAMPIRE BAT...

And speaking of under-rated - though he's not completely ignored by TCM programmers - Chester Morris doesn't get the respect he deserves.

I'd like to see more of LaPlante, too; I'm mostly familiar with her silent films (CAT AND THE CANARY and THE LAST WARNING, natch). But she didn't stick around at Universal for very long after the coming of sound. Right after KING OF JAZZ she went to Warner Bros (I think) & then made a few films for them in England before retiring (TCM has shown at least one: THE CHURCH MOUSE), though she did do a few more film & TV appearances after a 10 year hiatus.

infinite1 >>Just because the classic Universal Horrors are available on DVD or have been shown on other channels is no reason to omit them from TCM. My point was that there are a lot of worthy films that hardly get shown & my preference would be for these to be aired rather than ones that are nigh-impossible to avoid. Much as I love BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, I scarcely need TCM to show it when there are already 2 DVDs of it on my shelf.I can watch it anytime I like. Meanwhile, the following Whale films are not on DVD & haven't shown up on TV in years: Port of Seven Seas (1938) Sinners in Paradise (1938) The Road Back (1937) One More River (1934) By Candlelight (1933) The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933) The Impatient Maiden (1932) Journey's End (1930 -- Not owned by Universal, admittedly, but I'd love to see a good, clean copy of it nonetheless.)

I'd never even heard of the Talmadge version! And checking IMDb, I see it was directed by Fred Niblo, so I'd really like to see it Does it still exist?

>>I don't like making all that murder and mayhem seem like such fun. While part of the brilliance of the film is the way it veers wildly in mood, I don't think any of the murders are treated as being fun. They're quite horrific.

Don't worry. They'll find something to show.

>>The only good movie in the series was the first one.....<< Saw that one when it was released to theaters & hated it. Caught up with teh second one years later on TV & thought there were a few good ideas in it, so I watched the other 3 as they showed up on TV. Hated them. Lasted maybe 30 minutes into the Tim Burton remake (the only Burton film I've disliked, too). Don't much care if they do another or not - won't be watching it...

I'm hoping the dateline on that "press release" is a tip-off... along with Burton's statement that he only wants to work with Depp & Carter for the rest of his life.

"Fish" I think I get, but "shot" ...???

>>As for the Universal horror films like Frankenstein and Dracula, I'd be surprised if those are included. In the last ten years or so they've been shown on TCM, AMC, Chiller, Cinemax and other channels. It's obvious that Universal has found it can make tons of money by leasing them for short periods and then putting them up for bid again. Even if the major horror titles aren't available, perhaps some of the lesser, rarely shown ones will be and TCM will show them for Halloween. If you can't get hold of the classic Universal horror films on DVD (aside from a dwindling number of titles), you're doing something wrong. But there are a slew of Universal films from the 1930s and 1940s that are just never show anywhere. Like the non-horror James Whale titles, the Deanna Durbin films, those fun Crime Club flicks...

>>I will say that the copy of BLUEBEARD that aired the other day was about as clean a copy as I have seen. It looked to me to be the same version AllDay sold some years back. Not only is it cleaner but the Erdody score is less obnoxiously loud than it is in every other version I've seen. The only drawback is that the puppet show near the beginning is lacking many of the close-ups of the performers operating the puppets (which is which the music cuts off so abruptly at the end of the opera). Edited by: HarryLong on Apr 6, 2010 4:09 PM Edited by: HarryLong on Apr 6, 2010 4:10 PM

>>Their are how many "CUTS" of Close Encounters of the Third Kind !?!? I've lost track... I wish Spielberg had left it alone after the first rejiggering that shows Dreyfuss going into the spaceship (which footage has, I think, been removed from later "editions").

>>To show my nerdy side, back when this movie came out, I knew who Ray Harryhausen was!! What does that make me? I still do.

Valentine Dyall (I'd settle for Howard Keel)

>>I'm pretty sure that the version that UCLA Film & Television Archive restored was in 35mm. I could be mistaken about this, but I recall Z Channel showed the UCLA restored version and it was not letterboxed, when I recorded it. That was in the late 1980s though, so anything is possible. I believe UCLA restored both the 35 mm & the 65mm versions. Both are, in any case, included on the Milestone DVD. And like another poster noted, it would be nice if the 1926 BAT would be shown - if onloy because it would have to be a better copy than all those crappy PD prints that are out there.

>>"The Hurt Locker" ballet The things I miss by avoiding the Oscar telecast...

So... are we ever going to get to read Robert Israel's comments about his score for THE MAGICIAN?