AndyM108

*What was the first "modern" (meaning post - 1950) R&B song with "Soul" in the title?* Could it be Eddie Floyd's "Tortured Soul"? See, this is what I love about TCM: I learn something every day. And what I learned today is that "Tortured Soul" is probably the correct answer to my question. What I'd *thought* was the answer was one of my all-time favorite songs, Larry Williams' "My Baby's Got Soul," which came out in 1959 as the B-side to his mini-hit "Every Day I Wonder". But the Chess label # for "My Baby's Got Soul" was 1736, while the label number for "Tortured Soul" was 1552, meaning that it likely came out around 1955 or 1956, before Williams went over to Specialty Records and recorded his biggest hits, "Short Fat Fanny" and "Bony Maronie". So give yourself a Gold Star to put on top of your crown. You are *DA MAN* of R&B on TCM. Now your next assignment is to find "Tortured Soul" on YouTube so that we can all listen to it.

I could have listed "I'll Try Something New" in my Miracles set, since that was a huge favorite of mine. For the Marvelettes, I have a big preference for their earlier works. "When You're Young and in Love" is the exception, because I'll always associate it with a rather magical woman I was with at the time of the song's release. She's long gone, but the song remains. I've heard Mary Wells' "When I'm Gone", and it can't hold a candle to Brenda's. But then very few singers could match Brenda Holloway at her peak. You're right about "Sadie". I have the single but I've gotten so used to hearing it on YouTube I'd forgotten they were on Atlantic at the time. My personal favorites, beyond Motown, were the great screamers: Lorraine Ellison's "Stay With Me", which a local DC DJ once played for half an hour straight without interruption; Carolyn Franklin's "It's True I'm Gonna Miss You"; and the Queen Bee of the screamers, the incomparable Linda Jones ("Hypnotized" and her definitive version of "For Your Precious Love"). When she collapsed onstage at the Apollo and died of "the sugar" shortly thereafter, to me it was more demoralizing (by far) than the death of John Lennon. And of the male groups, IMO nobody could top The Impressions at their best. Too many great songs to list, but one stands out that I'll never forget because of the context: On the early morning of the final leg of the 1965 Selma-Montgomery march, when the caravans of cars were streaming into downtown to join the march, the radio station didn't air a single commercial. Instead, it played an endless loop of but two songs: The Impressions' "People Get Ready", and Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come". Talk about the perfect match of mood and music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yYOWQj2Wdo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO2_077ixs

Arturo may be crowned the resident Motown expert, but I crown myself the resident r&b expert. Then maybe you can answer the question I posed below. *What was the first "modern" (meaning post - 1950) R&B song with "Soul" in the title?* IOW covers of "Heart and Soul" or "Body and Soul" don't count. I'll even give you a hint: It was on the Chess label, and it predates Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music" by more than half a decade.

Since Arturo seems to be the resident R&B expert, maybe I should have re-directed my earlier question to him: *What was the first "modern" (meaning post - 1950) R&B song with "Soul" in the title? It's one of the great forgotten songs of the 50's, even though the singer had several hits, including the "A" side here.* My favorite Motown groups were always The Miracles and The Marvelettes. My favorite songs were the Miracles' "You Can Depend on Me", "Who's Loving You", "Way Over There", and "I Need a Change"; and the Marvelettes' "Goddess of Love", "Forever", "Locking Up My Heart", "Strange I Know", and "When You're Young and in Love". But my all-time favorite Motown songs were Brenda Holloway's "When I'm Gone", and The Spinners' "Sadie". I had a GF who used to pantomime Brenda on "When I'm Gone" right down to the last finger point, and it's hard to me to keep a dry eye I when I hear "Sadie" and think of all the real life "Sadies" I've known.

I hope its the original. Its been YEARS since I seen GOLD RUSH on TCM. Its good to see Chaplin on TCM. They play The Gold Rush a lot on TCM, usually at least once a year. Unfortunately it's always the worthless 1942 version.

When I saw Ride The High Country on the schedule as a programmer choice I thought the same. A good film for sure, but really being overplayed on TCM. I would like to think that anyone doing the guest programming would try to think a little out of the box. We all have favorite films that are very popular and well known by the general public. I would want to promote something lesser known or appreciated, share that film that I thought was special and deserving of a viewing. OTOH I appreciated that the two most overplayed movies that Pelecanos chose last night were relegated to the bottom of the schedule when only the DVRs and DVD recorders were likely to have been awake. Whereas the first three films that get played here a lot less frequently got placed in the first three slots of the evening. I've seen The Outfit before, but the last time it played on TCM was back in 2010 at 4:00 AM. It was nice to see a classic mob movie like that in prime time for a change.

Also, seems the guest programmers frequently pick the same movies that are already being shown over and over and over. Same for The Essentials. I've always wondered how much of this "sameness" is the guest programmer's fault, and how much of it is due to the constraints imposed by the prime time schedule. I'm not talking about R-rated films so much as I am about films that might be considered too obscure for prime time viewers, who presumably are more "mainstream" oriented than a lot of us true TCM junkies whose favorite films usually show up around 2:00 AM.

Random question on early soul music: What was the first "modern" (meaning post - 1950) R&B song with "Soul" in the title? It's one of the great forgotten songs of the 50's, even though the singer had several hits, including the "A" side here.

Again, they often show more than one silent and / or foreign movie between midnight Sunday night and 6:00 AM Monday. If you haven't noticed this by now, you probably just haven't been paying it much attention, and understandably so given the late hour. For some of us, this is the best time slot of the week, because unlike prime time, it's seldom movies that have been shown 100 times already.

Sunday nights are when TCM shows at least one silent film and at least one foreign film. They've been doing this for years.

I should start a thread about Josef Stalin. If it gets purged, that could be viewed in the "what goes around, comes around" vein. Or, as Uncle Joe once put it.... *NO THREAD - - - NO PROBLEM*

More than any movie I can think of off the top of my head, Go Naked In The World might have benefited by having a woman direct it, or at least edit the screenplay. Maybe Valerie Solanas.

Everyone should bracket their DVR times, just in case it IS the original. One consolation is that since it begins at 10:45 and not in the middle of the night, we can just wait to see Bob's or Ben's introduction before hitting the "Record" button. Presumably they'll tell us which version we're going to get, so at least those of us with DVD recorders won't have to waste a disk if that 1942 monstrosity is the one they're showing.

Chuck Tabesh told me about a year ago that TCM has been trying to get the original version which you can see beautifully restored with full orchestral score on the Criterion DVD and Blu -ray releases. The problem has been that so far the Chaplin Estate seems to be only interested in running the Bastardized '42 re-issue on television anywhere. I sure hope I'm wrong, because it's not THE GOLD RUSH. They have to come to their senses regarding this matter. I mean the Chaplin Heir's. What they are doing makes no sense and obscures the real film that Chaplin made. Same with several of his other movies. Hell, given Chaplin's overinflated sense of his latterday comic genius (which had pretty much died once he left the silent realm), it wouldn't surprise me if his heirs are only reflecting his final wishes. To call the 1942 version "New Coke" would be an insult to that unfortunate beverage, but Chaplin obviously thought it really was an "enhancement".

Is it the original 1925 version or Chaplin's 1942 re-edit with his voice-over narration and music added? I am hoping for the original 1925 version. On the TCM Full Schedule for 03/21/11, the running time is given as 89 minutes, which sounds like the original 1925 version. However, the start time on the schedule is 10:45 PM Eastern with the next movie scheduled to start at 12:15 AM Eastern ---- which would allow only 1 minute for the host's commentary before and after THE GOLD RUSH. The running time of the 1942 re-edit is 72 minutes. On the one hand, we've been burned before with this film. Previous guides have promised the "real" (1925) version, only to deliver the bogus "enhanced" 1942 version, which is to the 1925 original what an outhouse is to a penthouse. Chaplin remains one of our great comic geniuses, but this is one of the many times that his insufferable ego got in the way of his artistic integrity. OTOH there's this ray of hope: The relatively recent Criterion DVD has both versions included. I figure the worst thing that can happen is that I've blown 25 cents on a DVD that I'll have to use for target practice when I take up skeet shooting. But we should all be crossing our fingers and praying that *THIS TIME* TCM won't be like Lucy and yank away our silent "football".

I think Jane Greer was Star of the Month a few years ago. Alas, no such luck. She's never even had a SUTS day. Unfortunately the SOTM is usually restricted to the most obvious choices, with few exceptions.

Yeah, but he came by it naturally, which is kind of cheating. Borgnine had to work at being such a loathsome character.

Father is happy because the hooker his son was dating is gone. Creepy, well yeah - when her ex clients crawls out from the woodwork. *Of course* the father is happy, since he got rid of his son's love. That's what he'd been trying to do ever since the scene at their anniversary party! He all but ordered a hit on her, regardless of that last scene where he "agreed" to their marriage in spite of the fact that he still considered her to be a ****. The only things the father cared about were maintaining the veneer of social respectability that masked his pathetic family situation, and to keep controlling his grown son's life. He never once saw Guilietta as anything more than a hooker, and never once attempted to listen to his son's POV. What's creepy is that the son didn't then kill that loathsome SOB on sight, but instead walked away with him arm in arm, as if Guilietta's death were now "in the past", even though the body was still warm. If this isn't the most misogynistic ending I've ever seen, I don't think I'd want to see the first place winner.

Talk about a bummer of an experience. That ending of Go Naked In The World has to be one of the most thoroughly disgusting finishes to a movie I've ever seen. Less than ten minutes after seeing his one true love (Gina Lollabrigida) driven to suicide by his maniacal control freak father (Ernest Borgnine), we see the two of them (Borgnine and his son, Anthony Franciosa) walking arm in arm along the beach as if they were two buddies at a Normandy invasion reunion. And that's the end of the movie! I guess a "happy ending" might have been a bit too much to ask for, given Borgnine's obsessions, not to mention the sick obsessions of the production code at the time - - - "bad women" have to meet disgrace or death or both. But brother, if that had been me in Franciosa's shoes, that old man of mine would've been feeding the sharks 10 seconds after I laid my eyes on him, if I hadn't already done him in about half a dozen times already. (Gotta hand it to Borgnine, though: He's one of the great cinematic Type A creepolas who ever graced the screen, and fortunately like Robert Ryan and Richard Widmark, his off-screen persona was a lot better than his screen characters!

There is a tradition in filmmaking that, to add to a prestige production, framing music is supplied, including an overture, intermission, and exit music. You will notice this in Gone With the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, and other epics. I believe this came from an effort to emulate theater, opera, and ballet, where there are overtures and incidental music. So sit back and enjoy it, after all, the music for Grand Prix is by Maurice Jarre, and one of his best. I appreciate the reasoning, but I appreciate even more the existence of the fast forward button on my remote.

Here's the most melodic national anthem in the world, along with the best looking group of national anthem singers I've yet to see.

Are there are other first time viewers of Grand Prix who were wondering WTH that stupid "Overture" was all about? I felt like Homer Simpson sitting down to watch Paint Your Wagon without realizing that it was a bleeping MUSICAL. Seriously, I can see an interlude in the middle of a long movie, given the exigencies of a theater filled with full bladders, but what is the bloody POINT of cluttering up the first 4 minutes and 34 seconds of a film with the cinematic equivalent of an elevator ride to the top of Mt. Everest? Is this one of these things I should blame on some union, or is it just one of those phenomena that defies any rational explanation?

Please have an Alain Delon day this summer!!!!!! That's as good a first time suggestion as I've seen in a long time. Don't quit while you're ahead.

I'm Stevie Wonder, and I'm at a rock concert. WHAT'S going to impress ME the most? An *ELEVEN* year old blind boy who can play "Fingertips"?

Two days after we reset the clocks, we here in Detroit get ANOTHER six inches of snow, and arctic temperatures! And in the former swampland known as Washington, D.C., it's 12:25 pm and the temperature is 27 degrees Fahrenheit.