HarryLong
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Posts posted by HarryLong
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That's some June schedule....
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>>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.
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>>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.
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>>When Dryer was making this movie he accidentally exposed some of the film. When viewing the rushes, he thought that the damaged section gave a cloudy, dream-like quality that was missing in the movie, so he purposely exposed all of the film.
I think the story goes that whgen viewing rushes it was discovered the camera had a light leak & Dryer liked the effect & using overexposue & (I think) shooting through veils duplicated the look for the rest of the film. The doctor's death was rewritten to "drowning" in flour to carry through the horror of whiteness theme the film was developing (& because Dryer chanced on a terrific location). Despite the onscreen credit, the film is not based on any one story in THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY but rather on an ongoing theme in that anthology of the tenuous division between reality & supernatural or waking & dreams. Dryer wanted to position his film on the threshold between the two & the film's look (& lack of any logical plot) is intended to evoke that.
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Doesn't the professor also make a comment later that no matter how much of it he drinks he doesn't get intoxicated?
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>>I think the real Harvey would qualify, since he doesn?t exist.
Well, the audience is shown doors opening, indicating Harvey's movement through the doctor's waiting room (in the play, at any rate - not so sure about the movie). Harvey definitely exists; he's just not visible to everyone.
Edited by: HarryLong on Mar 16, 2010 1:25 PM
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They rarely (if ever) screen silent or non-English language productions on The Essentials, though there are quite a few titles in each of those categories that ought to be considered "essential"... I wonder if it has something to do with not screening movies that have to be "read" during Prime Time?
And given Osborne's often condescending intros to horror films when he does have to present them, I suspect there's no horror film he considers essential.
But, really, a program called The Essentials is bound to be primarily a colection of the usual suspects, so busting on it for being too predictable is a bit odd. These are the films that are acknowledged by a great number of people to be the best ones ever made, so they're bound to be familiar, even overly familiar. My only problem with the program is when the Essential is, say, CASABLANCA & it's also on the schedule 3 other times that month. This doesn't seem to be the case so much lately, however.
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>>There was no shortage on VHS was there?
Yeah, but those came out, what? 15-20 years ago? The materials were in better shape then.
And the technical requirements for VHS are more forgiving than DVD (and let's not even talk Blu-Ray...)
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MURDERS IN THE ZOO is probably the only near-great film in the set (aside from the comic stylings of Charles Ruggles), true, but I think the surprisingly nasty (for its time) THE MAD GHOUL has its good points and I'm very fond of THE MYSTERY OF DR RX, though I'm aware that this is probably a minority opinion.
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>>it would be a clear admission that they had missed the boat while the star was alive.
Which they sure as hell did with Rains.
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>>Many people think this series should be about the 100 films that are on the AFI list of top 100 films.
And at one a week, you'd go through all of those in two years & have to run them all over again. As it is I sometimes think THE ESSENTIALS too often runs titles that are already over-exposed on the TCM schedule.
Oh, and btw, MOUSE was very big at the time it was released, even if it's somewhat neglected these days.
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Look on the bright side... I understand Ben Lyons is looking for a gig...
I think Alec is OK (though I personally preferred Carrie Fisher who wasn't afraid to co0ntradicts Osborne; her "Oh, please; just because a film is old doesn't make it a classic" was priceless).
But I cannot fathom avoiding a two hour movie just because of a few minute intro segment.
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>>Screenings of Charlie Chan films have drawn objections before. In 2003, the Fox Movie Channel reached a compromise to show some of the films after it also agreed to broadcast a panel discussion on racial issues to accompany the movies.
Interestingly I was reminded of this tsummis in ateapot a few weeks ago when I started watching the titles in the Sony box of Toho titles. In MOTHRA there's an island full of brown-skinned natives portrayed by Orientals. If memory serves the same is true of KING KONG MEETS GODZILLA.
So where's the uproar over Japanese in brownface portraying the members of another culture?
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>>The head of one of TCM's young assistants is going to be on the chopping block if we keep this up.<<
Yeah, it's not like Osborne actually writes his own intros...
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Is it me or did they get the swastika reversed?
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I did - about a week or so ago. I haven't had a chance yet to watch any of the films but the packaging is quite impressive. None of these double-sided discs with 2 films on each side crap like Universal has been so fond of, but a single disc for each film on little hinged holders in atri-fold case.
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Oh dear no... NIGHTLIFE OF THE GODS is positively dreadful. I wish it could become a lost film again.
THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD ain't all that great either.
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Possibly we can be grateful for that. It's pretty awful, aside from Rula Lenska.
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MONSTER ON THE GIRL also deserves a DVD release. It's very under-rated.
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>>Menzies?s hand seems evident in almost every frame of ?Alice in Wonderland,? yet his only credit on the film is as the co-author, with Joseph L. Mankiewicz, of the screenplay. In those days credits were not union mandated<<
Additionally the term Production Designer didn't even come into use until it was given to Menzies on GONE WITH THE WIND. Prior to that, any Art Director whose influence stretched beyond set design to the extent of determining camera angles & framing would be given a co-director credit (such as the one given Irving Pichel & Lansing Holden for the 1935 SHE).
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Actually TCM has shown it at least once... During their W.C. Fields tribute a few years back.
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>>I checked on Tracy's early movies and he had made a couple of films by 1932 so it's hard to think he was an extra, but the guy could have been his twin.<<
All of Tracy's 1933 features are at Fox, so it seems unlikely he hopped back to WB for an uncredited bit of extra work.
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ROCKY HORROR and PARADISE would be a great double bill. Oddly, when I saw PARADISE in the theater it was paired with (are you sitting down?) ZARDOZ...
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I should have DVDRed it. Somehow missed it was on. I have a copy, supposedly from LD to DVD, but it doesn't look as sharp as other things I've seen copied from LDs.
As to the quality of the elements, etc., I'm only reporting what I've read.
Given how good the recent TCM collection of Paramount/Universals looks, maybe TCM should take on all of Universals horrors...
UNIVERSAL GRAVEYARD
in General Discussions
Posted
>>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?