MarianStarrett
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Posts posted by MarianStarrett
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> {quote:title=casablancalover wrote:}{quote}
> I know this one, but I won't guess until I have the method down for posting a picture. I was helped along months ago, so I am rusty at it.
I'm sure you know where Fred's thread is with all the instructions. Or just add
" at the end.
And make sure the image you link to doesn't have the movie title in the address!
> {quote:title=sellyoulloyd wrote:}{quote}
> Good one, Marian! This pic is from *Touch of Evil*
Correct!
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Point taken.
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*The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence*, maybe?
(Am I supposed to post another photo?)
Message was edited by: MarianStarrett
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> {quote:title=coopsgirl wrote:}{quote}
> Jeff (gagman66) posted yesterday in the Silent section that Gary's silent from 1928, *The Shopworn Angel*, is not a lost film after all. It was screened at the Cinefest film festival this past February. This is awesome news!!!!
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> http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-festivals/cinefest-2009/
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That is indeed great news - but who controls the video rights?
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> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote}
> *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.*
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> The Production Code would likely have put the kibosh on that scene.
They could have just explained it "in code", just like so many other things were discreetly mentioned during all those years.
Have you seen those documentaries that are included in the WHV release of the movie? I'd love to hear your opinion about what all those folks had to say about the movie.
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> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote}
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> or the Robert Osborne forum:
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> http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/forum.jspa?forumID=398
But the Robert Osborne forum is archived, and people who post there are usually told to post elsewhere!
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> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote}
> Why would you want to pin her reasing down, anyway, not that there really was any reasoning involved? Debbie was raised as a Comanche, and Indian squaws were not noted for having much say as to how they lived their lives in that patriarchal society/
Well, as I said, "there are those" who would have liked to see something like that. It's not something I was really aware of until I saw the bonus documentaries on the disc. Personally, I think maybe it's just as well that Debbie remains a little mysterious, that not every single thing was spelled out.
And you're definitely right about her having gone from one patriarchal society to another; I'm not sure how clearly John Ford understood that, since Hollywood itself has also always been a very patriarchal establishment.
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That was an *excellent* intro, April!!
You looked quite charming, confident, and well-read, it's about as good an intro to *Gone with the Wind* as anyone could have ever done. Robert obviously was having a really good time, especially when he asked "Is there a little Scarlet O'Hara in you?"
Great dress & earrings, too.
Congrats on a magnificent job!
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Woot! Five more minutes! B-)
This is it, folks, the movie _that started it all_ 15 years ago...
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"Two hours to go? I wish that Torchy Blane would just hurry up!"
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"Fiddle-dee-dee!"
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> {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).
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But... but... it is so much better when everyone gets along!
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> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote}
> They only made six of these for the movie; only two are known to still exist...and I own one of them.
It's a great space suit. Do you ever wear it for Halloween or costume parties?
And more importantly... did you ever get to meet Kubrick?
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> {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.
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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.
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> {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!
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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.
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> {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)
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*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.
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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-)
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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.
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> {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. >>
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> 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!
Mirror, mirror, on the wall...
in General Discussions
Posted
Following closely behind the other Disney classics, *Sleeping Beauty* and *Pinocchio*, the 1937 *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* will become the 3rd animated classic to be re-issued since the Disney company started releasing its crown jewels in both disc formats. (It's scheduled for release in October).
Obviously, this one is of great historical importance, and was even chosen by TCM to be on its list of the 15 most influential movies of all time.
As it has become practice for Disney, the blu-ray release will apparently include a DVD of the movie as well, so it becomes easier for parents to "future-proof" their collection even if they don't have a blu-ray player yet.