NewYorkGuy

It's nearing it's end in the eastern time zone. For some reason it's been stretched horizontally to fit today's flat screen TVs. Oops.

I don't understand why a 20th Century Fox film like A Hatful of Rain can't be shown in full letterbox format. But I've noticed this with a few other Fox movies on the Fox movie channel like Bernadette and A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed -- oddly broadcast in pan and scan. These are not movies that have any great financial benefit to the rights holder any more. Yet we do get to see full letterbox on Fox films like Planet of the Apes, a film arguably with much broader appeal for purchase still today. It's a puzzle.

I didn't know "Devil's Playground," a ridiculous title for a movie about Navy submarine crew members. She played a deliciously bad woman, and anything with Richard Dix is a must-see for me.

The Last Picture Show is the one movie I remember going to with just my dad. And although we'd both by that point seen women's breasts in a couple of movies, yeah, it was a new experience for both of us when the guy got out of the pool. And then the girl, top and bottom visible. Interesting that TCM blew up the image the other night when the guy got out so we didn't see below his waist, but not the girl. We'll assume that's because it was still in prime time... But so much for the uncut part of "uncut and commercial free" (and, yeah, that can be a double entendre).

Sigh. This morning's Saturday morning programming opened with "Blackboard Jumble" from 1957. The opening credits and end title were in Cinemascope but the cartoon itself was shown as I've titled this topic, in pan and scan. There's a Tom & Jerry cartoon I've seen on TCM shown the same way. I don't know about others, but I consider things like this at odds with TCM's "uncut" advertising. The question is, Why? It was an MGM cartoon so I'd think there wouldn't be rights issues.

My pet peeve on closing credits: Lists of "production babies" -- births by apparently anyone who took a phone call connected with the film.

It's quite a film. But I'm surprised/shocked it aired in early evening right before prime time rather than, say, in TCM Underground. And I'm not going to be surprised if it wasn't supposed to be shown when the listing seems confused between The Cremator (1969; Czech) and The Cremators (1972). The latter is more in keeping with the sci-fi films that preceded it earlier yesterday. In other words, I think somebody screwed up.

Lit, as in how many watts they're using to light their faces. It's the HDTV equivalent of smearing Vaseline on the camera lens. I love Carol. I'm old enough to have seen all seasons of her variety show. But this is TCM. If she and Illeana are doing eight minutes of intro/outro, I'd think most of the time would be about the movie. That's all -- so please don't others here put words in my mouth.

This is a pet peeve, when a guest star is there to talk about movies and seems to have done little homework and knows next to nothing about the movie other than having watched it and liked it. I've expected a little more from Carol -- we're getting more comments about her TV show and own film appearances than context about the films. The latter's all falling on Illeana, but thank goodness she knows her stuff. And while I'm whining ( ? ), the funniest thing about the intros and outros so far is the way Carol and Illeana have been lit.

I don't see any other threads on SOTM Leslie Howard, so I'll just chime in here to say I'm a bit surprised the comedy "Stand-in" wasn't programmed as part of this month's series. It's a great send-up of Hollywood and has the always charming Joan Blondell as Howard's leading lady. That, plus the wickedest contemporary Shirley Temple parody ever seen on film. TCM has shown this film every 2-3 years, so I'd have thought it would be easily available to slot in along with the various Howard films preceding or following the prime time movies.

I have searched the Internet for "Emil" and my understanding is that it hasn't aired on TV since the 60s, including the Disney Channel. I'm happy to stand corrected if someone else knows differently.

There's one Disney film that seems to be "lost" that I think would have little DVD market value but would be a perfect treat for something like the summer Funday Night at the Movies: Emil & The Detectives. Does anyone here know why that movie has been inaccessible for the past 50 odd years?

"Here Comes the Navy" was on TCM just a year or two ago, maybe even more recently. I taped it -- and it's fun.