MarianStarrett

"Two hours to go? I wish that Torchy Blane would just hurry up!"

"Fiddle-dee-dee!"

> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote} > What Ethan hates and despises is mixing of the races, particularly sexually. He firmly belives that whites belong in their world, and Indians in theirs. THE SEARCHERS is, then, a story about miscegenation, a term little understood in what we like to think of as our modern multi-cultural society. It was, however, immediately understood by audiences in 1956, and it probably made them quite uncomfortable and controbuted to the film's so-so critical and boxoffice reception during its initial release. Yes, that's it, exactly. Let's not forget that interracial marriages were still forbidden in parts of the U.S. in the 60s. And as far as *The Searchers* goes, there are those who question why there weren't any scenes where Debbie would explain why she was a willing sexual partner of Chief Scar for all of those years. Some have even suggested that that would have made John Ford uncomfortable. (I believe it is mentioned in one of the supplements that WHV added to the home video edition). Also, there is the scene where Laurie Jorgensen refers to Debbie as "The leavings a Comanche buck sold time and again to the highest bidder, with savage brats of her own?" (when talking to Martin).

But... but... it is so much better when everyone gets along!

> {quote:title=Raidou wrote:}{quote} > Yeah, in fact I would be fine with digital copies of the movies, I mean its the movie that's important, as nice as a boxset can look Oh, I'm not talking about how the packaging looks, I just meant that they'd offer all the movies in a bundle, at a lower price per disc than if you buy them separately.

New article about the Warner Archive titles over at cnet.com: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10213915-1.html (I do agree with the writer, it might be a win-win situation for Warner to offer the titles through Amazon.com as well) Warner Archive DVDs: A hands-on evaluation by John P. Falcone Recently, Warner announced its new DVD-on-demand program. Dubbed "Warner Archive," it's a Web site that allows the company to market more obscure titles from its back catalog. Consumers choose the specific titles they want, and Warner manufactures them as needed and mails them directly to the consumer in under a week. At least two of the debut movies caught my eye, so I decided to give it a try. My test movies were "Countdown" and "The D.I." The former is a 1968 movie with James Caan as an astronaut scrambling to beat a Soviet space mission to the moon. In addition to a pre-"Godfather" pairing of Caan and costar Robert Duvall, it's of interest to me as an early Robert Altman film (years before his better known 70s hits "M.A.S.H." and "Nashville"). "The D.I.," meanwhile, is a 1957 flick directed by and starring Jack Webb as a tough-as-nails Marine drill instructor. This one is a gift for my father, who's been searching for this old favorite for years. Both movies arrived in a padded envelope less then a week after my order. They're packaged in standard DVD keepcases, and I appreciated the lack of cellophane and other redundant packing materials. The front and back covers are obviously based on a template, but they are customized with photos, blurbs, cast lists--it certainly has a budget feel, but it's a step-up from some of the truly no-frills custom DVDs I've ordered in the past. The disc itself also has a professional looking label. According to The Digital Bits, "the discs will be burned rather than pressed which raises obvious concerns over longevity, although a proprietary burn technology is being used that Warners feels is much more reliable than what one can do at home on one's own computer." Indeed, the case includes the warning "This disc is expected to play back in DVD video 'play only' devices, and may not play back in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives." That said, we had no trouble playing it in several Blu-ray players, Windows PC DVD drives, or Xbox 360s. Only some PS3 models balked: the original 60GB PlayStation 3 didn't recognize the disc, but newer 40GB and 80GB models did. Menus are bare-bones. A scene selection menu is absent, but the movies are auto-chaptered at 10-minute intervals, so it's easy enough to jump to key scenes. Extras are also basically nonexistent, though "Countdown" does include the original theatrical trailer (though it's nonanamorphic wide-screen). As for the quality of the movies themselves: I'd say it's strictly in the "good enough" territory. Both films are in their original wide-screen aspect ratio ("Countdown" is anamorphic 2.35:1, "The D.I." is anamorphic 1.85:1). The colors on "Countdown" had the somewhat dull, faded look of many films of the late 60s, and there was occasional grit and scratches. ("The D.I." is black and white.) But the prints were good overall, and nothing will detract from your enjoyment of the film. Remember, none of these films are popular enough to warrant the cost of a full-scale frame-by-frame restoration. The victory here isn't that it's a pristine, videophile-friendly print of the movie--it's that you can see these movies at all. Unless you're stumbling across them on Turner Classic Movies or finding a worn VHS copy at a yard sale, these on-demand DVDs and digital downloads (see below) are the only way to see these movies. That said, my biggest issues with the Warner Archive program remain price and availability. On the pricing front, I'd like to see the movies cost closer to the $8-15 range, rather than the default $20; a "buy 2, get 1 free" sale might be one way to achieve this, for instance. The larger problem is that the Warner Archive site is the only place where these movies are surfaced. And so far, Googling the titles doesn't even help you find the Warner site. What Warner should do is partner with Amazon. Amazon already supports third-party vendors and on-demand book publishers, so this wouldn't be a stretch. They'd show up as available on Amazon and the Amazon-owned Internet Movie Database site, both of which would make them much easier to find via Google and other search engines. Interestingly, the Warner Archive titles are also available as digital downloads via a partnership with CinemaNow. I didn't bother investing in those versions because the FAQ made them look to be overcomplicated, DRM PC files. The preference here, again, would be partnering with larger digital distributors--Netflix or Amazon Video On Demand. And that's pretty much my bottom line. I love the fact that these more obscure movies and TV shows are becoming available on DVD and digitally, and I hope that other studios follow Warner's lead. I'd just like the movies to be easier to find, available via more distributors (digitally or otherwise), and for them to be more affordable.

> {quote:title=musicalnovelty wrote:}{quote} > Perhaps tcmprogrammer can answer this for us. I would hope so, too, especially now that I have all the other movies in the series. tcmprogrammr, you're our only hope!

Hey, what's the internet for? I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the old movie series never get a regular release, but hopefully they could eventually become available through the Warner Archives store. It would be nice if they could offer them as a boxset, too.

> {quote:title=Raidou wrote:}{quote} > Are any of the Torchy Blane movies available on DVD? None of them are available, at least so far. I had previously recorded *Smart Blonde* and *Torchy Plays with Dynamite*, so now I'm just recording all the other ones. (That still leaves out *Fly-Away Baby*, the 2nd in the series)

*Remember the Night* is a _terrific_ movie, especially around the holidays, and I feel very lucky to have watched it when TCM has been able to show it.

Kyle, The French and Belgian posters for *Gone with the Wind* are absolutely gorgeous. Can't wait to see what you'll post on your day as guest programmer! B-)

It's going to be a very exciting schedule, I'm sure, as TCM previously announced that it would dedicate the month to pay tribute to the movies of 1939.

> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote} > MarianStarret wrote: > << He's also possibly the most racist character John Wayne's played. And so are some of the other characters in The Searchers. >> > > You're using today's standards in defining the culture of mid 19th century America. > What CineSage jr is referring to is called "Honor killing" which was a common practice back then. > These were the days of "shotgun weddings", duels, settling family feuds on ones own, etc. > No, hamradio, I was definitely not referring _exclusively_ to that "honor killing" that you mention. There are many ways in which Ford shows us how very prejudiced Ethan Edwards is, and how prejudiced other of the Caucasian characters are, and I think that's one of the main points he was trying to make. We're really going off on a tangent here, and I hope that if you want to continue that aspect of the discussion, we could do it in one of the threads dedicated to this movie. Thanks!

Happy Anniversary to the TCM folks, and here's to the next 15. B-)

I haven't seen a lot of her movies, but I am going to be recording most of the "Torchy Blane" series on TCM today (they're showing 8 of the 9 movies in the series). I hope there'll be at least a few GF fans around who'll enjoy the daytime schedule for today.

I don't recall hearing about Seguso before, but he was obviously a very talented artist. And I do like the look of remote sadness he managed to capture in his rendition of Vivian Leigh as Scarlet O'Hara. It's a very haunting look.

Those are all terrific, all the more so for this being the first movie TCM ever played.

> {quote:title=moirafinnie6 wrote:}{quote} > Do you hear that distant quiet roar? > > It's the wave of joy that is building among many TCM viewers for each one of our own as, one by one, the Fan Programmers step into the arena and prove their movielovin' mettle. Metaphorically at least, Theresa, Lani and Peter all deserve to be drawn through the TCM City streets on the back of a golden chariot with rose petals strewn in your path for your splendid kick-off of this stellar week. I don't know that anybody could have said it better. I'm truly in awe of all the guest programmers from the first day, and I'm thrilled that there are still 12 more waiting for us through the rest of the week. I can't think of a better way for TCM to celebrate this 15th anniversary, and it's been a real pleasure to watch so far!

> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote} > Ethan Edwards is decidedly not a hero. Neither is he a villain. He is, in fact, a man who's not much of anything, neither full Confederate nor Yankee, honest man nor criminal, white man nor Indian, and that's the whole point of the character as relates to a story about a man who wants to find his niece -- first to return her to "civilization," and then to kill her. He's also possibly the most racist character John Wayne's played. And so are some of the other characters in *The Searchers*.

As has been discussed many times before, MCA/Universal acquired the overwhelming majority of pre-1949 Paramount talkies. The more knowledgeable folks here have also pointed out that there are a few exceptions, such as *The Miracle of Morgan's Creek*, a movie that wasn't included in the deal because at the time, they didn't think that movie could ever be played in television (which was pretty much the only ancillary market at that time). Also in the other discussions, a new deal between TCM and Universal has been mentioned, that will allow TCM to start showing more of the movies in Universal's library, including the Paramount titles they control, in about a year or two.

I can totally understand why *The Graduate* didn't make a list that could only include 15 movies, and I agree if the list included 20 movies, it probably would have been included. Of the movies of the late 60's that "changed the industry", *The Graduate* is by far my personal favorite. I adore all the visual imagery and metaphors that abound, like the one mentioned in the article of Benjamin being in a metaphorical conveyor belt at that point in his life (and maybe for the rest of it? We don't really know). The other two, *Easy Rider* and *Bonnie and Clyde*, are movies that I admire a lot, and were definitely very, very influential, but I don't particularly enjoy watching them. Thinking about what they represented is actually more fun.

I take it you knew from the beginning that this movie started out as a silent, but a last-minute decision meant the inclusion of a few sound sequences? You probably also saw the message TCM included at the beginning of the movie about the sound elements that had been lost. There is a thread about this movie that goes into much greater detail, in the Silents forum: http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?threadID=141859&tstart=0

Speaking of musicals, did anyone watch the 1929 *Show Boat* today? B-)

Just wanted to thank TCM for the very nice Howard Keel movies they put on the schedule for today, being Keel's birthday. I especially enjoyed the remake of *Rose Marie*, which doesn't get shown very often, if memory serves. It's almost a shame that Keel and Stanley Donen share the same birthday, since it probably would have been impossible for TCM to give both a birthday tribute.

> {quote:title=redriver wrote:}{quote} > That duel scene is unforgettable. Tense and exciting. The high point of the movie for me. It's a good thing Connors didn't have his rapid fire rifle! It's definitely one of the best and most memorable duels I've ever seen. And yet, amazingly, Wyler almost manages to top it with the final duel between Maj. Terrill and Rufus Hannassey. Not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but it just seems the perfect way to end the movie. It speaks volumes about all those feuds in the Old West that seemed to go on for generations. It is eloquent, elegant, and elegiac. One more thing I'll say for this movie - it definitely cries out for a little restoration and a hi-def release at some point in the future. I don't know how many westerns were filmed in Technirama, but this might just be the best one.