AndyM108
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Posts posted by AndyM108
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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*
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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"?
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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.
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*, but it seems every movie she introduces has been played 1,000 times already.*
You could say that about almost every Essential choice at this point. They've run it into the ground. End it.
I'd rather that they simply expand the definition of "Essential" to go beyond the current crop, and put a strict limit on any "Essential" being shown more than *once* (not even twice) every five years in that "Essentials" time slot. That would free up a lot of time slots for new and more interesting choices.
The problem is that for the most part (there are a few exceptions) the TCM idea of "Essential" seems to be limited to the films that make the AFI Top 100 or Oscar winners lists, along with a scattering of other films by favored screen icons that stay well within the framework of mainstream acceptability. That may be what TCM feels is necessary to attract new viewers, but as you suggest, it quickly becomes to seem like an endless loop once you've been around for awhile.
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Do you also miss Rose McGowan?
I had to google the name in order to find out who Rose McGowan even was, and since I also discovered that she was co-hosting The Essentials before I began watching TCM on a regular basis, I guess the answer is "I can't miss what I never experienced." I've also never seen any of her movies.
It's been even longer (2006) since Molly Haskell co-hosted The Essentials, but she's made other appearances since then, and anyway, I've known about her writing for 40 years and always found her interesting.
All I want from a co-host on any TCM program is an engaging personality, a reasonable degree of articulateness, and a fair amount of knowledge of film history. Haskell and Baldwin are to me the best examples of that I've seen.
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It aired as scheduled, followed by ACROSS THE PACIFIC which just ended.
That's what it says on my program guide, too, but that's not what just finished showing on my TV screen. I just finished watching Bogart send Astor away a few minutes ago. Maybe it's just a Washington area or FIOS thing, but since I was torturing myself with a previously recorded Red Skelton movie during the 8:00 time slot, I have no idea what was actually showing here at that point. I only know that on my set The Maltese Falcon ran at 10:00. And since I didn't see the introduction, I wouldn't have seen any possible explanation for the switch.
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Drew Barrymore seems nice enough and I couldn't care less about her looks (to each his own), but it seems every movie she introduces has been played 1,000 times already. If she has any significant knowledge of films beyond the AFI Top 100, I've yet to see much evidence of it.
God, how I miss Molly Haskell and Alec Baldwin.
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Now Playing had *The Maltese Falcon* scheduled for 8:00 tonight. So does the online schedule, and so does the FIOS program guide.
So why am I seeing it now on my screen, at 11:33 PM? What movie actually ran at 8:00?
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It must be a 10 ounce loaf.
Judging by the picture and what I can see from other sources, apparently it's a 20 ounce loaf.
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OK, could you pick me up two loaves of bread for $1.99? That must be some bread.
I didn't believe it myself until I found it, but Dollar Tree is selling a loaf of Nature's Own Honey Wheat bread for 45 cents. I'd never heard of either the brand or the store, but here it is:
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Vertigo2,
If you EVER track down *Angi Vera* WITH SUBTITLES, *PLEASE* let me know. The entire movie is on YouTube here
but it's in Hungarian with no subtitles at all - - - triple ouch!
*Kapo* shows fairly regularly on TCM, in June of last year and I believe again just a few months ago. Don't miss it.
On the other hand I thought your remark dissing American taste seemed a little condescending in light of your comment that you just don't find most of the genres on the list compelling. Is different taste in genre appeal necessarily bad taste?
Of course not, and I should have emphasized my second point:
*2. All of this is strictly one person's opinion. As is my list below.*
We all have our reasons for preferring some genres over others, and while we might want to explain them, nobody should be compelled to justify their own. We like what we like, and I'd say that most of us like most of all the movies that "speak our language", if not our native tongue.
Oh, and BTW the next Hollywood movie I might have included in my top 10 would be one you might be familiar with, a relatively obscure film called *Vertigo.* Believe it or not, I just saw it for the first and second times last September, when TCM played it twice within 10 days. Totally mesmerizing from start to finish, and I can see why some people would even rank it #1 of all time.
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Wow, Andy! There are certainly many films I would cross the street to see twice - Psycho, Lawrence of Arabia, Tootsie, The Graduate, 2001, several of the Disney animated films, My Fair Lady, Saving Private Ryan, West Side Story, etc stand out for me immediately and many big special effects movies - Close Encounters, Avatar, The Rings Trilogy, Spiderman films et al may not be great with a capital G,but they sure are a lot of fun.
Two points:
1. There are other movies on that top 200 that I *did* enjoy once, and even a second time in a few cases (My Fair Lady). But most of that list represent genres I just don't find very compelling.
2. All of this is strictly one person's opinion. As is my list below.
But I am sincerely curious - what are YOUR favorite movies - top ten or so? - obviously not from this list.
My top 10 is really more like a top 100, but my #1 has been #1 for 35 years, and the rest would never fall out of my top 25. But the exact order of 2 through 10 varies according to my mood on any given day, and there are many others that could have been chosen instead.
All of these movies have one thing in common: They speak in a language that I identify with.
*1. Angi Vera (1979)* - A Hungarian drama set at the time of the Communist takeover. It centers on a young woman (Veronika Pap) who's faced with the impossible dilemma of maintaining her self-respect and having a future.
*2. Kapo (1959)* - Another drama about another young woman (Susan Strasberg) whose choice is even more stark: Disguise her Jewish identity and become a guard in a concentration camp, or be sent to a certain fate in a gas chamber.
*3. Pixote (1981)* - A Brazilian film about a young street urchin in the slums of Rio, as he tries to figure out life on the fly.
*4. Come and See (1985)* - A Russian movie about the horrific fate of an idealistic teenager who forms the Soviet resistance movement in World War 2, and learns the hard way that there's little glory in war.
*5. Bicycle Thieves (1948)* - De Sica's classic story about how one simple possession can mean all the difference between survival and desperation.
*6. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)* - At this point, probably my favorite Hollywood movie. Capra and Stewart at their absolute best, and to me that's saying quite a bit.
*7. Red Beard (1965)* - A close call first choice among a dozen Kurosawa / Mifune collaborations, about the gradual education of a young doctor at the hands of a great one.
*8. The Sheep Has Five Legs (1952)* - The horse-faced Fernandel plays the father of quintuplets, and then plays all five quintuplets while he's at it, all scheming in their own inimitable ways. Easily my favorite comedy.
*9. The Battle of Algiers (1966)* - I've probably seen this at least a dozen times, and it never wears thin. It can almost make me forget the sad state of post-revolutionary Algeria. The director, Gillo Pontecorvo, also directed my #2 film, *Kapo.*
10. *The Killers (1946)* - Along with *Out of the Past* (1947), one of the two perfect American film noirs. Ask me tomorrow and I'll probably switch the two around.
The closest any of that list of 200 would get to my top 100 would be *The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)*. It may or may not be a coincidence that 3 of the 4 Hollywood movies I've mentioned here have all been from that same year. But since IMO the classic Hollywood film reached its peak from 1946 to 1950, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
what was with those two Italian films last night ?
in General Discussions
Posted
Sunday nights are when TCM shows at least one silent film and at least one foreign film. They've been doing this for years.