MarianStarrett
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Posts posted by MarianStarrett
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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.
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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.
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Although I had not heard about Chuck Teitel prior to reading this, I have a lot of respect for what he did in terms of helping so many great movies find a wider audience in his home town by fighting the local censors. May he rest in peace.
Theater owner Chuck Teitel dies
World Playhouse owner challenged censorship
By VARIETY STAFF
Chuck Teitel, Chicago theater owner who challenged obscenity laws in the 1960s, died of heart failure April 4 in Laguna Woods, Calif. He was 93.
With his father Abe, he owned and operated the World Playhouse Theater (housed in the landmark Fine Arts Building) for 45 years, the first theater in the Midwest to play films such as "The Bicycle Thief," "Paisan" and "Open City," and introduce Chicago to Ingmar Bergman and other European filmmakers.
Teitel also owned and operated two other Chicago-area theaters, the Town and the Globe. He also ran independent film distribution company Teitel Film Corp.
Teitel fought and won the 1968 first amendment case Teitel Film Corp. v. Cusack, which freed Chicago theaters from the grip of the Chicago Censor Board that banned many foreign and domestic films.
Born in the Bronx, N.Y., he moved to Chicago at an early age and served in the Army Infantry during WWII in the Philippines and Japan.
While based in the San Francisco Bay area, he founded the Army newspaper The Golden Gate Guardian. In later years, he wrote feature articles for Variety, Los Angeles magazine, Golf Magazine, the Chicago Tribune and the Leisure World News. He also taught a writing class for seniors.
Teitel frequently guested on Studs Terkel's radio show, and hosted his own radio show after WWII out of Chicago's Blackstone Hotel with Mike Wallace.
He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Esther, two daughters; two grandchildren, a sister.
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Those are all terrific, all the more so for this being the first movie TCM ever played.
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> {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!
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> {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*.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Speaking of musicals, did anyone watch the 1929 *Show Boat* today? B-)
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I totally agree with you, redriver. It really isn't possible for me to think of more influential movies, although there are obviously some remarkable cinematic achievements that aren't included.
In many ways, *Star Wars* cuts both ways. It was envisioned in part as a homage to the old-fashioned Saturday matinee serials like *Flash Gordon*, although it also includes references to many classic movies, including *The Wizard of Oz*, *The Searchers* and *The Hidden Fortress*. Obviously nobody could have predicted what a huge financial success it would eventually become - in early 1977, Twentieth-Century Fox appeared more excited about *The Other Side of Midnight*, from what I have read.
It didn't really start the summer-blockbuster mentality in Hollywood - that honor would have to go to Spielberg's *Jaws* - but it certainly seems to have cemented it very, very firmly. So firmly, that 32 years after the first *Star Wars* movie, what did Paramount choose to open up the "summer" season? Well, a new *Star Trek*, of course.
(I say "summer" with quote marks because obviously the Hollywood summer seems to be starting earlier and earlier each year, it used to be Memorial Day weekend but now seems to be the first weekend in May).
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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.
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> {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.
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Way to go! B-)
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Just over an hour to go for the 1st movie!! B-)
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I agree with your assessment on *Star Wars*, mjryan.
And since nobody's yet posted the full content of the TCM list, I'll add that to the thread so hopefully it can help with the discussion:
*1. THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)*
The Hollywood blockbuster was born in 1915. During a time when it seemed as if Europe had the monopoly on the feature film, D.W. Griffith struck out to make an epic that would help define American cinema. All of the technical developments he had helped create came together to maximum effect, teaching future directors, from Sergei Eisenstein to David Lean to James Cameron, how to combine detailed narrative with the sweep of history. At the same time, The Birth of a Nation is one of the greatest outrages in film history. Part of a campaign against interracial marriage, the film introduced many of the destructive stereotypes of black men and women that were perpetuated by Hollywood for decades. Its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan triggered riots in some cities -- and helped the organization's membership campaigns as it revived in strength following the Leo Frank lynching. The protests put the then young NAACP on the map, while the film also inspired the early work of African-American filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux. Even today, The Birth of a Nation provides one of the most vivid examples of film's power to inflame and propagandize.
*2. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925)*
Spoofed, referenced and copied in dozens of films, the ?Odessa Steps? sequence from BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN may be the most influential scene in film history. Drawing on the montages in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, Sergei Eisenstein created mini-narratives, repeated shots of specific characters and groups, to humanize his story. His technique is so convincing most viewers think that the scene reflects an actual historical event (it's an amalgam of several attacks on the actual protesters). Filmmakers ever since have used the same tools to give personal meaning to epic scenes. And everybody from Woody Allen (Bananas) to Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) has borrowed details from it for their own films. Eisenstein?s greatest legacy was to demonstrate to future filmmakers how to use montage to promote an agenda. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels was so impressed by this Soviet film, that he encouraged using their techniques to terrible effect in anti-Semitic movies. The Germans also banned the film, as did censors in England, France and Spain. In capitalist Hollywood, film moguls showed it to employees to teach them how to edit, even though they would have fired anyone trying to mirror Eisenstein's revolutionary message.
*3. METROPOLIS (1927)*
Arguably the most influential science fiction film ever made, Metropolis has inspired everything from video games to rock videos to comic books. Its futuristic sets helped spread the popularity of art deco, while the gadget-filled lab of mad scientist Rotwang has become a sci-fi staple. Eugene Schufftan's special effects work set new standards for the craft. And Gottfried Huppertz' original music, with leitmotifs for key characters and themes, was one of the first modern motion picture scores. Beyond its technical and design influences, Metropolis virtually invented the genre of dystopian science fiction on screen: the creation of bleak visions of a future still afflicted with contemporary problems has become the heart of numerous films. The plot, created by director Fritz Lang and his screenwriter-wife Thea von Harbou, revolves around class struggle, anticipating decades of dangerous visions in the struggle to define humanity. The film's dehumanized laborers are the spiritual ancestors of the affectless astronauts in 2001: A Space Odyssey as much as the villainous, sexy Robot Maria would give birth to the runaway replicants in Blade Runner and the tragically human Cylons of Battlestar Galactica.
*4. 42ND STREET (1933)*
Although the form had helped launch the talkies, by 1933, musicals were box office poison. Too many numbers shot as if on stage, shoehorned into contrived plots had driven off audiences. Visionary producer Darryl F. Zanuck had the idea for a backstage story that would capture the effect of the Depression on hard-working chorus girls. And he was smart enough to put Busby Berkeley in charge of the dance routines. His dizzying geometric patterns and dazzling camera movements revitalized the genre and saved Warner Bros. from bankruptcy. 42nd Street?s success would lead to two decades of great movie musicals. It also became the yardstick against which all backstage musicals would be measured, providing plot elements for later films starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, Doris Day and even Twiggy (in The Boyfriend).
*5. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)*
When Clark Gable removed his shirt to reveal a bare chest, undershirt sales plummeted around the country, and bus travel rose in popularity. Such was the impact of this surprise hit. More important to director Frank Capra, the film nobody wanted to star in (after being turned down by several actresses, he had to offer Claudette Colbert twice her usual salary) established him as a major filmmaker and elevated Columbia Pictures from Poverty Row status to major film studio. When It Happened One Night became the first comedy to win a Best Picture Oscar? and the first film to sweep the five top awards, Hollywood started taking comedy more seriously. With its rapid banter and outrageous comic situations, It Happened One Night became the prototype for the screwball comedies that flourished through the '30s. And it made the road trip sexy, as When Harry Met Sally and The Sure Thing would prove again in later years. Its influence even reached the world of animation, where the fast-talking masher who comes on to Colbert and Gable's rapid delivery of one-liners while eating a carrot provided inspiration for Bugs Bunny.
*6. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)*
Without Snow White, there would be no Pixar. No Snow White, no anime, no Shrek, no Cartoon Network. It's as simple as that. "Disney's Folly" was the name most Hollywood insiders gave Walt Disney's dream of producing the U.S.' first animated feature. Of course, nobody in Hollywood could have realized what a perfectionist Disney was. With convincing human animation, creative character design for the seven dwarfs, Technicolor and the use of a multiplane camera to create the illusion of depth, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs didn't just look better than any previous Disney film. It looked better than most major studio productions. Little wonder it would become the U.S.' top grossing film until Gone With the Wind supplanted it two years later. But there was a price for success. For better or worse, Snow White set U.S. animation in pursuit of a more realistic look for decades to come. For Walt Disney, that meant a string of triumphs, as he personally produced 18 more animated features, including such classics as Dumbo and Bambi. For more surrealistic animators like Max Fleischer and Ub Iwerks, it meant adapting to the new style. Iwerks, who had created Mickey Mouse, eventually returned to Disney to work on integrating animation with live-action footage on Song of the South and other films.
*7. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)*
If one film epitomizes the Hollywood blockbuster, it's Gone With the Wind. Made in Hollywood's annus mirabilis, 1939, it remains the most popular film of a sterling crop. Not only has it sold more tickets than any other American made film, but with its box-office adjusted for inflation, it remains the highest-grossing film of all time. Something in the tale of the Southern belle fighting to save her beloved Tara has struck a chord for generations of audiences, from the U.S. of World War II to post-war Europe to Japan in the '80s. Scarlett O' Hara has inspired a legion fiery females caught in the sweep of history, like Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain and Kate Winslet in Titanic. Gone With the Wind is the definitive producer's film. David O. Selznick defied conventional wisdom to purchase the rights to Margaret Mitchell's novel, personally supervised every detail of the film and spearheaded three years of publicity to raise public interest to a fever pitch. He spent the rest of his life trying -- and failing -- to top it. And decades of Hollywood blockbusters have drawn on his work to create and sell romantic dreams writ large on the screen.
*8. STAGECOACH (1939)*
Stagecoach would not only herald the birth of an American icon, John Wayne, but also the revival of one of the Hollywood's greatest genres. 1939 was marked by a number of A-budget Westerns. But it was Stagecoach that coupled depth of character with hard-riding action to remind audiences that the winning of the West was more than just popcorn fodder. In the hands of a great director, it could reflect the dreams and conflicts behind the building of a nation. Director John Ford created a film that did just that, crafting a legendary tale of the battle to tame a frontier represented by both rampaging Apaches and Wayne's untamed Ringo Kid. And, along the way, he discovered his perfect location: the majestic Monument Valley. The failure of Raoul Walsh?s The Big Trail in 1930 had relegated its leading man, Wayne, and the Western genre to poverty row. Almost a decade later, Ford couldn't get a single major studio to finance Stagecoach, eventually turning to independent producer Walter Wanger, who didn't want to cast Wayne. The film's unexpected success influenced not just the rise of the Western, but filmmakers of every genre. While shooting Citizen Kane, Orson Welles screened Ford's classic over 40 times to learn how to put a film together. Ultimately, Stagecoach would set the mold for the Western genre, re-telling the American myth over and over again in the coming decades.
*9. CITIZEN KANE (1941)*
When Orson Welles arrived at RKO Pictures to make his first feature film, he crowed, "This is the biggest electric train set a boy ever had!" It could have been the battle cry for generations of enfants terribles. Welles' (nearly) total control of Citizen Kane paved the way for a director-centric cinema that has produced some of the screen's greatest achievements and worst excesses. Gregg Toland's deep-focus photography and the use of directional sound and overlapping dialogue made Citizen Kane the first film to let the audience see and hear as they did in the real world. And the fragmented story-telling -- with Charles Foster Kane's life presented as a mosaic of different viewpoints-- left viewers to put the pieces together like one of Susan Alexander Kane's giant jigsaw puzzles. It was a technique that would influence numerous other films, from Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part II to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Welles' playful eye brought together unconventional filmmaking techniques that would raise him to uncharted terrain as a director with a freedom he would never again enjoy.
*10. THE BICYCLE THIEF (1947)*
The movies returned to the streets, where they had begun in the pioneering works of the Lumieres and D.W. Griffith, with this 1949 masterpiece. Shot on real locations in Rome with a factory worker in the leading role, The Bicycle Thief was among several post-war Italian films that provided an alternative to Hollywood's big-budget studio productions. Although not the first Neorealist film -- that honor goes to Roberto Rossellini's Open City -- it is the most famous and most accessible of the movement, thanks largely to director Vittorio De Sica's skill at directing actors and his ability to create moving images that seem totally unplanned. If the director's cinema traces its roots to Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, then the impetus for the modern realistic film lies in De Sica's masterpiece. Beyond his influence on European directors like Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman, his work would inspire the rise of independent film in America, from unsung heroes like Ruth Orkin and Morris Engel in the '50s to Cassavetes in the ?60s.
*11. RASHOMON (1950)*
Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon added a new word to the dictionary, one that was used to describe any situation prompting conflicting interpretations. Kurosawa had trouble producing the film, given its unconventional narrative that depicted conflicting versions of the same two crimes. His studio was reluctant to fund the project and the Japanese government considered it too far outside the mainstream to represent their country at the Venice Film Festival. Yet, his groundbreaking film ultimately put Japanese cinema on the international map. Kurosawa's editing techniques (the film has twice as many shots as the average feature), gave it a sensual power that attracted audiences to the emotionally charged story. The director filmed directly into the sun for the first time in film history, a pioneering move that created dramatic lens flares. He also created beautiful outdoor images, shot by reflecting sunlight in a mirror borrowed from the costume department. Kurosawa transcended the challenges of a low-budget and censorship to create a new cinematic world that would inspire filmmakers like George Lucas and Martin Scorsese.
*12. THE SEARCHERS (1956)*
Almost 20 years after he revitalized the genre with Stagecoach, director John Ford pointed the Western in a new, revisionist direction. Although far from a total reevaluation of the winning of the West, The Searchers offers one of the screen's first attempts to depict the racism underlying U.S.-Native relations. Ford views the problem from both sides, showing how both John Wayne's obsessed Indian hunter Ethan Edwards and the equally obsessed Comanche chief, Scar, have been shaped by violent acts of the past. The conflict between these two victims of Manifest Destiny turns the film from Western into a revenge tragedy set against the impassive, timeless vistas of Monument Valley. One of the most influential of all Westerns, the film inspired David Lean's landscapes in Lawrence of Arabia, several shots in George Lucas' Star Wars films and the final shoot out in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Buddy Holly based one of his biggest hits on Wayne's catchphrase, "That'll be the day." And Wayne, who considered Ethan his best performance and The Searchers his best film, named a son after the character.
*13. BREATHLESS (1959)*
Drawing on B-crime thrillers to create a chic nihilism, critic-turned-filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard not only defined the French New Wave, but also used his theory of ?the cinema of reinvention? to change the look of film. With jarring quick cuts between scenes, jump cuts within them and long takes filled with dizzying camera movements, he made movies with a rough cinematic technique that was even reflected in his scripts. "Don't use the brakes," Jean-Paul Belmondo orders at one moment in Breathless. "Cars are made to go, not to stop!" By the end of the '60s, younger directors like Arthur Penn and Francis Ford Coppola were mining Godard's movies and imitating their distinctive style. And the film's anti-establishment attitude became a mainstay for a whole cinema of alienation in films like Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces.
*14. PSYCHO (1960)*
Following several big-budget, color productions like North by Northwest and Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock found inspiration in the low-budget black-and-white horror films of the day. Psycho ended up re-defining the genre, throwing the audience off-guard with major surprises, like killing off its biggest star, Janet Leigh, a third of the way into the movie. Hitch also pushed other boundaries: showing a flushing toilet on-screen (the first time in a Hollywood film), introducing the word "transvestite" to U.S. movie houses and, in the classic shower scene, making the audience think they had witnessed more violence than was actually shown on screen. But his perversity went way beyond that. By making viewers identify first with a petty crook, then with a cross-dressing serial killer, the master of suspense showed just how far a master director could go in making the medium -- and the audience -- his own. Before long, the filmmakers that Hitchcock had imitated started imitating him. The psycho killer became a horror film staple, leading to the slasher flicks that arrived with Halloween and Friday the 13th. The lasting influence of Psycho was also apparent in Wes Craven?s Scream trilogy, as the director opened each film with the murder of a ?name? actress in the first act.
*15. STAR WARS (1977)*
A long time ago, in a Hollywood far away, movies only made their money from ticket sales. With Star Wars, however, new markets opened up for merchandising-- not just of toys-- but novels, comics, television series and eventually video games. Adding to what would become known as the "Star Wars Expanded Universe" were a series of sequels and prequels more tightly connected than in other franchises. Over the course of 28 years, George Lucas created a six-part serial that has grown into the epic tragedy of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Star Wars did more than create expanded economic opportunities. At a time when science fiction was relegated mostly to low-budget productions, Lucas' created a multi-million dollar sci-fi epic based on the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials of his youth. The use of sophisticated special effects would have a lasting effect on future big-budget epics of all genres. His childhood obsessions helped a new generation of filmmakers, the movie nerds, dominate the screen. For Lucas, Star Wars was the chance to do his favorites right. His vision of a lived-in universe (he deliberately gave sets and props a used look) inspired later, more serious works like the Alien films and Blade Runner.
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Here is another from the California Chronicle. I had no idea about Robert Osborne's medical problem a while back, but it was nice of TCM to build him a duplicate studio in NYC so he could take it a little easier!
*Same Films, No Reruns - Tcm Host Osborne Introduces the Past*
April 13, 2009
By LOU LUMENICK
WHEN Robert Osborne introduced his first film on Turner Classic Movies 15 years ago this week, he had to be discouraged from telling everything he knew about "Gone With the Wind," which could literally fill a book.
"They told me, 'Look, you're going to have plenty of other opportunities to talk about this movie,' " said the affable Osborne, TCM's only prime-time host since the network's launch in 1994. And he sure did.
Osborne, who'll introduce "GWTW" for the 28th time tomorrow to mark his 15th anniversary, has appeared in an astounding 47,144 intros, outros, promos and other video appearances for TCM.
He conducts hourlong interviews with Academy Award winners and honorees. He also co-hosts "The Essentials," a film series in which he sits down with a different filmmaker each season - currently, actor Alec Baldwin.
Osborne, 76, has appeared on TCM every single day since its launch. To do it, the longtime New York resident logged more than 570 flights to and from Atlanta, where he tapes as many as 150 segments in a single week.
When a kidney problem grounded him for several months, the network built a duplicate set in New York to keep its iron man in action.
To celebrate the anniversary, TCM has invited three fans as guest programmers every night this week to help Osborne introduce the films of their choice.
They range from old favorites such as the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical "Swing Time" (1936) to "Those Lips, Those Eyes," a 1980 comedy with Frank Langella making its debut on the network.
"I love these movies and the whole process," says Osborne, who was briefly an actor before beginning a long run as a Broadway columnist for the Hollywood Reporter and, more recently, taking over as host of the red carpet at the Oscars. "It doesn't get old."
He figures he's introduced "The Philadelphia Story" more than any other movie in TCM's vast 10,000-title library - around 53 times, possibly more often than "Casablanca."
The station never repeats Osborne's intros, "so there are times whether you wonder if you can really do this title yet again," he says. "But there are so many different stories to tell about these movies, their stars and their directors."
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Great story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution! B-)
*Turner Classic Movies? motto: Don?t mess with success*
Network is able to grow using original formula of showing high-quality films
By KRISTI E. SWARTZ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, April 13, 2009
It was a simple plan 15 years ago: show classic films uncut and without any commercials.
And, with Ted Turner flicking a makeshift switch in Times Square to start rolling ?Gone with the Wind,? Turner Classic Movies got started.
Many of the other networks at Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System ? TBS, TNT, TruTV and Cartoon Network ? have gone through a major makeover recently. At TCM, executives just stuck with the original script of showing high-quality films and putting them in context for serious viewers ? but they have ad libbed here and there with the help of modern technology.
?The blessing of the network is the brand is crystal clear, and we can leverage it to keep building the business,? said Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks.
The classic movies were the core. From that, TCM created a Web site that includes a robust movie database and the ability for people to order rare titles on DVD. A new class at Emory University?s Center for Lifelong Learning, TCM Film School Essentials, looks at classic films and the art of filmmaking. The class is taught by filmmaker and DVD producer Bret Wood.
Koonin considers the brand to be like a cult ? comparable to Harley-Davidson or Jimmy Buffett?s Parrotheads. And the network is one of a kind in another way: There?s very little direct competition since AMC, formerly known as American Movie Classics, has changed its strategy to include original programming.
Turner Broadcasting agreed to form TCM in 1993. The network grew quickly mostly from licensing deals with Paramount and Warner Bros. But it was company founder Ted Turner?s 1986 purchase of MGM/UA Entertainment that helped provide the rich library for TCM, as well as for its sister networks.
One would think a network that shows classic movies wouldn?t cause a stir. But it?s happened a lot, said Charles Tabesh, TCM?s senior vice president of programming.
The network?s series ?Race and Hollywood,? which has focused on Hollywood?s portrayal of blacks, Asians ? and in May, Latinos ? has led to the occasional flurry of e-mails or discussion on the Web site?s message board.
?I don?t want to overstate the controversy because it?s never been horrible,? Tabesh said.
For TCM?s anniversary this week, the network tapped 15 fans to introduce their favorite movies. They spent time on the set taping last year with TCM host Robert Osborne.
?They are like groupies, ambassadors,? said Osborne, who was in Atlanta last week to tape introductions for May?s lineup for films.
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Just over 90 minutes to go! B-)
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> {quote:title=filmlover wrote:}{quote}
> For Those Lips, Those Eyes, the alcohol of choice will be 3.2 beer, which is mentioned near the beginning of the film.
Cheers! B-)
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Thank you, Edgecliff, I'll see if I can find that album. B-)
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> {quote:title=countessdelave wrote:}{quote}
> Tonight will be either a Planter's Punch or a Singapore Sling with "The Letter".??Tuesday is a Mint Julep with "GWTW".??Wednesday will be a Corpse Reviver with "Double Indemnity".??Thursday I'll have a Gimlet with "The Man Who Knew Too Much".??Friday could be a Green Fairy cocktail with "So Long at The Fair" or an after-dinner White Russian with "Silk Stockings".
>
Oh, I will definitely drink to that.
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CK,
Someone else already started a thread on this topic just a few hours ago:
http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?threadID=141923&tstart=0
As TCMWebAdmin reminded us earlier today (in regards to threads that were started yesterday), creating multiple threads on the exact same subject is a violation of the Code of Conduct.
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Peter, no matter where each of you are, I am sure TCM viewers everywhere will be cheering for you all.
To the Host and Staff of TCM: Happy 15th Anniversary
in General Discussions
Posted
Happy Anniversary to the TCM folks, and here's to the next 15. B-)