AndyM108
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Posts posted by AndyM108
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Well, if you don't mind commercials, and the general lack of letterboxing, there are also Antenna TV, the Sundance Channel, and Cosi.
I'd rather fly one way to Pyongyang, seated between a amphetamine-laced infant and a drunken stockbroker on a cellphone, than watch a movie interrupted by commercials.
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I don't have a major problem with TCM showing 21st century movies as long as they were shown related to a film series like The Story of Film and as long as this type of film series is limited to once or twice a year.
I also don't care how 'classic' is defined as it relates to what TCM shows. I just would like TCM to devote around 80% of their programming to American studio era movies. That leaves around 20% for 'out of the box' programming.
That's about what TCM is doing now, and it seems like the perfect proportion. With 80% of the schedule devoted to the era whose movies are shown almost nowhere else on television*, TCM preserves its "brand" among Studio Era viewers, without repeating itself to the point of becoming an endless loop of movies we've all seen a hundred times.
*outside the occasional PBS Saturday night screening, chosen from an extremely narrow list of overexposed chestnuts, plus a tiny handful of FOX classics that remain exclusively on the FMC
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Heflin was SOTM in September of 2002, but hasn't had even a SUTS day since then. He's had a few truly memorable roles, but one that stands out for its sheer risibility* is when he played a commie hunting FBI agent in Robert Walker's last movie, My Son John. It's truly a jaw-dropping film
*Caused by the script, not by any bad acting on Heflin's part. The over-the-top acting performances were by Dean Jagger, Helen Hayes, and Walker himself, along with a typically goofy priest part played by (who else) Frank McHugh.
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My favorite moment in any baseball movie was in the tearjerker Bang The Drum Slowly, when a batter hit a popup in one stadium, and it came down to earth and was caught in another stadium *225 miles away!* The two stadiums were Shea Stadium in Queens and RFK Stadium in Washington, and I can't remember in which one the ball was hit and in which one the ball was caught, but the background in the two shots showed Shea Stadium signage in one of them and RFK signage in the other. Apparently the film used four different stadiums for location shots, for whatever reason that couldn't possibly have made much sense, since one of them was a minor league park, and anyway, The "New York Mammoths" were a fictional team all the way. It could have just as easily been shot on a studio location without destroying its non-authenticity any more than it was already by the absurd plot and the impossibly non-athletic actors.
Baseball movies in general are pretty lame, especially the older ones, but there are two magnificent exceptions: The relatively recent Eight Men Out, which is about Buck Weaver and the 1919 Black Sox scandal; and the classic potboiler from 1934, Death on the Diamond. The former movie wins points for its relatively accurate depiction of history, while the latter wins my personal Oscar for its sheer outrageousness.
To elaborate a bit on the "outrageousness", *THREE* players are murdered within a short period of time: One by a sniper while he's rounding third base; one by the placer of a mysterious phone call just as he's about to throw the first pitch and gets called into the clubhouse to receive this "important" message; and the third by a poisoned hot dog in the clubhouse feed line.
And yet, with the killer still at loose, in none of these instances is the game cancelled, or even delayed by more than a minute or two! Dead body on the field? Scrape him off and let's get on with it! We've got a train to catch!
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*Some of that pushback may wax a tad sarcastic at times, but I haven't seen it get very personal, let alone anything remotely approaching "hateful".*
You don't see all the PMS and neither do I. But I have seen
some sent to me.
Jake in the Heartland
That's right; I haven't seen those PMS. But I thought the title of this thread referred to the "Vitriol, Hate, Meanness, and Spite on TCM *Forums,* " not private messages.
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All I've been seeing is a bit of pushback against certain people who seem to think that God died and left them with the right to dictate TCM's programming according to their own proprietary ideas of what constitutes "classic" cinema. Some of that pushback may wax a tad sarcastic at times, but I haven't seen it get very personal, let alone anything remotely approaching "hateful". At worst it's a bit reminiscent of the debates in the British House of Commons, without the noise in the background.
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TCM, live sports, and the PBS NewsHour. What else is there on non-premium TV if you try to have a life beyond it?
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Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but I do find the same complaints being raised over and over and over again to be more than a bit tiresome, especially since the substance of these complaints has been addressed nearly as many times in great detail by Rey and others.
As for what to do about these repetitious complaints, I suppose the best strategy is simply to ignore them. But when it comes to respect, I also find that many of the complaints are accompanied by such a strong dose of self-entitlement that it borders on disrespect for both TCM's programmers and the people who don't agree with the complainers' ideas of what sort of movies TCM should be presenting. It was in that context that I found amusement in those three crying babies, which IMO I found to be directed at the overall tone of those complainers rather than at any one person.
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I sympathize with the TCM Web Admin in trying to keep the forums civil, but I have to say I thought your three crying babies were a perfectly appropriate response to the neverending whining about the TCM programming. As you say, it's the same complaints over and over and over, although from a practical POV the best strategy would probably be just to ignore all their whining and deny them the attention they crave. We all have our opinions about the programming, but these whiners seem to think that their opinions are the only ones worth considering.
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I'd seen College Coach and the last three already, and I caught Gridiron Flash for the first time today. None of the plots were particularly exciting, but I still loved several things about them, beginning with the introduction of the All-American team of 1936 at the start of The Big Game. It was fascinating to see close-ups of players I'd heard of but seldom seen in "person", so to speak. The first player shown was Jay Berwanger, the first Heisman Trophy winner, who played at the University of Chicago. Just three years later, the team had gotten so bad that the school disbanded varsity football, and used the basement of the football stadium to help develop the atomic bomb.
The other thing that grabbed me is the casual way that the idea of using ringers was so easily dealt with in several of the movies - - - College Coach, Gridiron Flash and Trouble Along The Way among them. And of course Pat O'Brien's continual jumping from one school to another in search of bigger and bigger contracts presages the Nick Sabans and Rick Patinos of today. All in all the atmosphere portrayed and even the primitive uniforms (including a helmetless Eddie Quillan) more than make up for the potboiler plots.
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The Letter
Which version, the Jeanne Eagels or the Bette Davis? Since both are outstanding, I could see selecting either one.
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All I really remember about Twinkee - - - and correct me if I'm wrong - - - is that she began her brief time on these boards by claiming to be insulted because someone made a comment about her name, and didn't seem to want to let the matter drop. I didn't realize she was banned, or left the boards in a snit, or whatever. In fact until now, I hadn't even realized she wasn't still around, and for all I know, she may still be.
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When I was growing up, I always associated Kirk Douglas with a bunch of overhyped costume dramas that would bore me to death after 10 minutes. But once I got hooked onto TCM and started getting exposed to his less costumy side, in films like Out of the Past, I Walk Alone, The Bad and the Beautiful, Ace in the Hole, and Young Man With a Horn, my entire perspective of his acting talents did a 180. So Happy Birthday to yet another actor who made me come back for a second look, thanks to TCM.
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I'll give Shakespeare a pass, but other than that I much prefer movies that are set in the present, at least for movies that pretend to represent public events rather than purely private lives. This especially goes for those godawful "costume dramas" that Hollywood so loved to spit out from the 30's through the early 60's, set in the royal courts of Europe or in ancient Rome or Greece, which are interesting mainly as anthropological peeks into the mindsets of the marketers of the time.
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It's interesting that 1939 is often cited as the vintage year of classic Hollywood cinema. Yet none of my choices are from that year. And I see that many other posters' choices do not come from '39 either.
For some of us, the films of 1939 are best represented by the path to the left in this classic National Lampoon cover, whereas the infinitely more enjoyable films of 1950 follow the path to the right.
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I could mention almost any name, and SOMEONE would say that the person should be SOTM........Ned Sparks for SOTM.
Well, to some of us Mr. "New York would see its first triple funeral" would be a big improvement over Mickey Rooney or Esther Williams.
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*Rey and james have posted a total of 7491 comments on this Forum. So far you're up to 15. You love "old movies" so much, where have you been posting for the last 19 years? On the Mickey Rooney channel?*
AndyM, I like watching old movies. I don't have to post 7000 comments about them. Until recently, I didn't have anything to say on this forum.
So were you asleep in 2010 when TCM showed 25 films by that furriner Akira Kurosawa? Or were you in the shock and trauma ward of your local hospital without access to a computer?
So, go back to watching your subtitled French film and don't worry about how many posts I have, prick
Okay, now I get it. What you want is for TCM to contact you privately before deciding on their monthly schedule, and let you veto any movie you don't like. Sort of like a Senatorial courtesy veto for cabinet appointments from a Senator's home state. Sounds like a plan to me.
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*Powell was SOTM once, back in October of 2000, and hasn't been a SUTS honoree at any time. Hayward clearly deserves a tribute, but so do many other overlooked actors, and trying to rank them in order of "deserving" is a purely subjective exercise. You want Hayward at the top of the list, I want George Sanders, others have proposed Richard Widmark or even Eleanor Powell. We all want whom we want, and everyone has their reasons.*
But my reasons are better reasons than anyone else's reasons.
I suggest we settle this with a Walt Kelly thinking contest. I'm thinking of all the popcorn what's already been popped and the popcorn that's popping right now. POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP- POP-POP-POP-POP.....
Your move.
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It sounds like fxreyman and jamesjazzguitar really enjoy watching these newer films and really take a stand against anyone that complains about Mark Cousin's jacked up movie picks. I'm not sure why they are even on TCM's message board and not on one of the other movie channel's boards like IFC or Sundance talking about newer movies that they enjoy.
Rey and james have posted a total of 7491 comments on this Forum. So far you're up to 15. You love "old movies" so much, where have you been posting for the last 19 years? On the Mickey Rooney channel?
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*"Classic" Hollywood Top 10, meaning *pre-1970,* in chronological order* These are impossible to rank in the same order of preference for more than about 15 minutes. So color me fickle.
The Penalty (Lon Chaney)
Greed (the four hour version)
The Crowd
Bombshell
The Killers (Lancaster / Gardner version)
It's A Wonderful Life
Out of the Past
Nightmare Alley
A Star Is Born (Garland version)
Vertigo
*Top 10 overall, no restrictions, in rough order of preference, subject to change except for the one on top*
*Angi Vera* (far and away my favorite movie ever)
Pixote
Come and See
The Bad Sleep Well
The Battle of Algiers
The Killers
Scars of Womanhood
Kapo
The Sheep Has Five Legs (Fernandel) / Bombshell (tie for best comedy)
Germany: Year Zero
The problem is that once you get past a certain level, it's almost impossible to rank movies. Not that it's not fun.
EDIT: Of course if it's Desert Island Movies, I could watch Bombshell, The Sheep Has Five Legs, and Libeled Lady in an endless loop.
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Has Dick Powell ever been SOTM before? If so, there are those such as Susan Hayward who have never been SOTM who deserve it more.
Powell was SOTM once, back in October of 2000, and hasn't been a SUTS honoree at any time. Hayward clearly deserves a tribute, but so do many other overlooked actors, and trying to rank them in order of "deserving" is a purely subjective exercise. You want Hayward at the top of the list, I want George Sanders, others have proposed Richard Widmark or even Eleanor Powell. We all want whom we want, and everyone has their reasons.
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The 1959 version of Anna Lucasta is one of the seriously overlooked and underrated movies in the entire TCM repertory. Don't miss it for any reason.
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There have been other stars whose predominant roles shifted gradually over the years. Bogart went from being an almost Pure Thug archetype in the 30's to varying degrees of subtlety and sympathy after that. And many other actors and actresses displayed versatility throughout their careers. But you're right, Powell pretty much stands alone as an actor who went from playing one type of role almost exclusively in the first half of his career, to playing almost diametrically opposite roles in his later years. Part of me wants to think it was nothing but an act of willpower and insight on Powell's part, but another part of me realizes that the dramatic change in his physical appearance made such a role shift possible. His face went from cherubic to grizzled without batting an eyelash, and by the time it was over it looked as if he'd been born to play all those shadowy roles.
2002-2006 films AREN'T classic movies!!!!!
in General Discussions
Posted
What makes you think that a drunken stockbroker would need anyone else on the other end of the connection in order to keep on talking?