HarryLong

>> Buster Keaton is not funny << How distressing; I've been entirely wrong for 40 years... Oh, wait! This was posted on April 1. Ya got me!

Yes, with the amazing Paul Scofield. I set my alarm so I could trundle sleepily downstairs & hit the Record button but I haven't had a chance to wacth it yet. I will, though; I've been wanting to see this for ages.

>>I DVR-ed the MB films they showed last night. I see very distinct changes from the Paramount offerings to the MGM offerings. >>The MGM films, at least in AT THE CIRCUS, emphasize music as much as comedy. Also, the production values are much better at MGM. The boys are not carrying the films as much, because the productions are saturated with other actors the studio is trying to promote. Yeah, apparently Irving Thalberg thought the reason DUCK SOUP failed at the box-office was because "the boys" weren't sympathetic enough in the Paramount films (which didn't stop the preceding four from being popular...), so he instituted the idea of the Marxes always helping out young lovers for the MGM entries & added bif production numbers (the Paramount films usually had some musical interludes but the most lavish is that Going-to-war segment in DUCK SOUP & in typical Marx/Paramount fashion it just sort of dwindles away into a series of black-out sketches rather the building to a big finale the way a musical routine should). DUCK SOUP certainly looks lavish enough, even though there is a certain amount of re-use of standing sets, but at MGM everything had to be larger than life & Thalberg sure poured the money into the Chico/Harpo music numbers in OPERA and RACES.

I recall this showing up on various Late Show screenings (remember them?) on independent TV stations (remember them?) at least into the early 1980s. Let me be sure I understand: Universal has no record of even producing the film?

Possibly his drinking made him unreliable? (Gloria Talbot told in an interview of getting a contact high from the fumes when she did a plane cockpit scene with him & Lon Chaney, Jr for THE CYCLOPS.) Or when all the male stars returned from the war, he was simply less in demand...

>>I kept thinking about the fact that Ginger was one of Hollywood's top Republicans (along with John Wayne, Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan).<< Certainly she was later (I seem to recall she was a very friendly witness for HUAC). But I wonder what her views were in 1930? I alway remember that Gregory LaCava (who dirtected her in STAGE DOOR) once said that the only way to get her to cry onscreen was to tell her that her house was on fire.

>>The care of these films goes to the dogs once they fall into the public domain! I heard there isn't even a decent print of Detour available (if this statement is false, point me in the right direction PLEASE) Unfortunately true. No company wants to sink a pile of money into restoring a PD film & then having it simply copied by the Dollar Store providers who can legally do so because the film doesn't fall under copyright. Such is the fate of DETOUR and RED HOUSE and countless others. I was in a discussion on another message board with the guy who runs Milestone, asking him if they might consider doing a resto on the silent THE BAT, as they'd done the same for the 1931 remake & that is essentially what he told me. I've even seen budget discs that don't even try to hide the watermark burned in by whoever initially released the title. I have, btw, dollar store discs of Max Fleischer's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS and the SUPERMAN cartoons that were probably created in just that way given how good they look.(I'm not immune to the lure of a collection of all the Fleischer SUPERMANs on one disc for a buck - but I never expected them to look so good.) And if that copy of THE LOST WORLD looks good, I'd almost bet it's a port of the David Shepard resto that Image released some time back. The best copy I've seen - and it ain't all that great - of DETOUR is the one TCM shows from time to time. Copy it next time it's on.

>>"The Black Pirate" (1926) starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was not only a blockbuster but the only total color film of the silent era. This would make a great Silent Sunday Night movie. Unfortunately I've never seen a color print of this. I think only the b&w version exists, right? >>In this day of young people liking pirate movies, maybe this is a great way of getting them interested in silent movies. I'm not sure they'd get past the extremely long opening titles setting up the film. I remember hwen this was screened in my film history class back in 1971 or so, the prof actually blurted out, "Is this a movie or a book!?"

>>audreyforever wrote: Ah, The Kiss Before the Mirror , I would love to see that one turn up.Believe it or not, it did play last year...I think as part of the Nancy Carroll birthday tribute. Yeah, too bad they only showed it once. There's a slew of James Whale titles in the Big U catalogue that ought to be trotted out.

>>Why would a person not use the films of Leni Riefenstahl to introduce Americans to classic German films? I could think of a few reasons...

>>I got the silent version of "The Lost World" ... for $1.00 (duh). Wow. How bad a copy was it?

>>He was 72 in ?Spook Busters?. That would explain why his participation in the fight scene is a tad... um... unenthusiastic. And speaking of Middleton & Flash... I wish TCM had continued programming serials on Saturday morning. They only showed a few, darnit.

>>I always thought he looked like Captain Marvel I'm pretty sure I've read that Captain Marvel's look was based on MacMurray.

>>I agree mr6666 Kurosawa is considered one of the best filmmakers of all time. It was his 100th birthday I think doing an retrospective of his career was extremely fitting & I applaud TCM for this. And really it was only one day a week (and only one of these days was 24/7). I agree with both of you. This would have been Kurosawa's 100th birthday & he is one of the major directors of cinema. The salute was appropriate & still left 6 days a week for other programming... or does TCM have to show only what YOU want to see all day every day? My least favorite genre is the Western & it seems whenever TCM does its Western month it's two 24-hour slots of programming a week. (If only they's devote that kind of coverage to horror films in October!) But I understand that there is an audience for them & I just watch DVDs or do other things when they're on.

>>My only caution buying from the "bargain bin" is when you find early films or public domain titles, you often get really awful quality, almost as if it was duped from a VHS tape. Yes, that can be a hazard, but there's also a lot of "brand name" releases in those dump-bins when a label closes out titles that aren't selling, or is on the verge of relasing an upgrade, etc. My last splurge at Big Lots yeilded some of the Val Lewton double-features, some Busby Berkeley films, a special edition of HELLRAISER, a Garbo silents set & lots of other nifty stuff.

>>One thing that makes the Marx Brothers? material so good is that it was usually tested out before audiences on stage. The routines were perfected and the silliest gags were then used in their movies. I don't think that was the case until after their move to MGM... and only for the first two movies there.

In HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE, he looks so scrumptious you want to eat him with a spoon. Thanks for this thread; I thought I was the only one who thought Fred was downright delectable.

>>TOMORROW IS FOREVER...it almost never airs on cable...this may be a premiere for it, at least on TCM. Actually TCM has shown it several times. And I forget every time to record it. Maybe this'll be the charm...

I have heard a rumor - well, actually abit more substantial than a rumor but far from a confirmed fact - the LOST SOULS is being on & restored. It will not be coming from Universal, however.

>.Oh my goodness! My first issue was #94 in 1972! My first was #8 in... oh, never mind!

I find the idea of a Charles Middleton: Star of the Month perversely amusing. But TCM might do something along the lines of what they do in August & do a month of character actors, giving each a day or a half-day.

>>THE CAT CREEPS (1930) Helen Twelvetrees, Neil Hamilton, Jean Hersholt I believe this film is considered lost. >>Or even THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD would be nice Oh, you?re just a glutton for punishment, aren?t you?

That's some June schedule....

>>When one understands that Paul Wegener much like Lars Hanson, did not speak a single solitary word of English, when this film was made that is pretty remarkable. Michael Powell worked as an assistant on this film & in his memoirs has some very unflattering things to say about Wegener's performance (I've always found Wegener less impressive than his admirers do) and about the male lead.

>>I really liked Robert Isreal's score too. The use of the Swan Lake theme at the beginning reminded me of the early '30s Universal horror films like DRACULA and THE MUMMY, both of which use that theme over the opening titles. The orchestration of the "Swan Lake" theme sounded distinctly like the one Heinz Roemheld created for Universal back in the silent days as an all-purpose "mysterioso" theme & which was later used under the credits of DRACULA, THE MUMMY, SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM and at least one other film (I think). And it sounded to me as if Israel also used some of Roemheld's orchestrations of classical pieces that were created for the Ulmer BLACK CAT. As such I'm very interested indeed in reading that PM from Mr. Israel.