AndyM108
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Posts posted by AndyM108
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TCM shows about 350 "old movies" a month. I'm not a fan of The World of Film series, either, but compared to the endless screenings of Esther Williams/Shirley Temple and Rooney/Hope/Crosby/Presley, its annoyance factor is a blip on the radar screen. At least it's only being shown once, and it's also brought along with it a couple of dozen great films that otherwise never would have been shown- - - -but then you probably don't like those, either.
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One of my favorites is the 24 year old Elizabeth Taylor playing Dennis Hopper's (20 yrs old) mother in GIANT(1956)
That's always been my favorite howler as well. Liz aged well before her time, but not THAT quickly.
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I'll third it. It's especially nice to see a movie like this shown in prime time instead of being relegated to 4 o'clock in the morning..
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I'd just assumed that Powell and Loy were made for each other all along, and anyway, since there was no way that Tracy and Loy could ever have matched up, that leaves only one possible set of pairings. Remaining single at the conclusion of a Hollywood movie in 1936 simply wasn't an option, and as we all know, *arson* has always been illegal.
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My powers of intimidation obviously must be increasing, as that Google Chrome problem I mentioned has now been (after nearly 24 hours) fixed.
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Stacked up thread titles are annoying, but here's what I'm getting when I try to reach the Forums on Google Chrome. This has been going on since yesterday, although I can access all the other TCM pages. (I'm now on Firefox.)
*HTTP Status 500 -*
*type Exception report*
*message*
*description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.*
*exception*
*java.lang.RuntimeException: A concrete instance of ThemeManager has not been set. To set a concrete instance of ThemeManager, use ThemeManagerFactory.setThemeManager(ThemeManager ThemeManager) or use the Jive Property 'ThemeManager.className'.*
* com.jivesoftware.base.theme.ThemeManagerFactory.getInstance(ThemeManagerFactory.java:75)*
* com.jivesoftware.forum.action.LocaleInterceptor.intercept(LocaleInterceptor.java:44)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:190)*
* com.jivesoftware.forum.action.ForumsInterceptor.intercept(ForumsInterceptor.java:181)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:190)*
* com.jivesoftware.base.action.interceptor.AuthInterceptor.intercept(AuthInterceptor.java:46)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:190)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:31)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:190)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:31)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:190)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:31)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:190)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.ExceptionMappingInterceptor.intercept(ExceptionMappingInterceptor.java:186)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:190)*
* com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionProxy.execute(DefaultActionProxy.java:116)*
* com.opensymphony.webwork.dispatcher.DispatcherUtils.serviceAction(DispatcherUtils.java:225)*
* com.opensymphony.webwork.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher.doFilter(FilterDispatcher.java:202)*
* com.jivesoftware.base.action.util.JiveFilterDispatcher.doFilter(JiveFilterDispatcher.java:68)*
* com.opensymphony.module.sitemesh.filter.PageFilter.parsePage(PageFilter.java:119)*
* com.opensymphony.module.sitemesh.filter.PageFilter.doFilter(PageFilter.java:55)*
* com.jivesoftware.base.theme.ThemeFilter.doFilter(ThemeFilter.java:51)*
* com.jivesoftware.base.util.webwork.JiveActionContextCleanUp.doFilter(JiveActionContextCleanUp.java:41)*
* com.jivesoftware.base.PresenceFilter.doFilter(PresenceFilter.java:105)*
* com.jivesoftware.base.util.MaintenanceFilter.doFilter(MaintenanceFilter.java:88)*
* com.jivesoftware.forum.upgrade.UpgradeFilter.doFilter(UpgradeFilter.java:56)*
* com.turner.forums.sso.ffms.ContentFilter.doFilter(ContentFilter.java:75)*
* com.turner.forums.web.CacheHeaderFilter.doFilter(CacheHeaderFilter.java:26)*
*note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/6.0.35 logs.*
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I can't say that I liked all of Powell's movies equally. But of the 30-odd of those I've seen, the only one where I *didn't* like his performance was in The Girl Who Had Everything, and even there it was more the script to blame than Powell. How could anyone *not* love Powell and Myrna Loy in any of the 14 movies they made together as the most perfectly matched screen couple ever?
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When I looked at the title of this thread on the General Discussions page, I thought it said "*THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS is based on a Fred C Dobbs true story*", which made me wonder what ol' Fred was doing to get himself in that big steaming mess of trouble.
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I think they must have hired the same firm that designed the Obamacare website to do the upgrade.
My first thought was that it's getting more like yahoo mail, which now sends pop-ups about every 30 seconds when you're composing a letter, demanding to know whether you still want to stay on the page or not.
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I'm not sure who was saying "Damn good actress," but it was a man's voice.
That was when Alec Baldwin was co-hosting, and I always thought that's who it was. But I thought he was saying "Damn good *actors* ", not "actress".
And whatever it was, I don't miss it a bit, since it was being repeated to a level of Chinese water torture, even more than some of those mini-bios they now run many times a day. It was getting to be as maddening as those GEICO commercials that run a dozen times in a row during a ballgame.
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It DOES seem rather odd that we "commemorate" a day when this country lost it's president so tragically, but also a brother, father, husband, son and friend was taken suddenly and tragically. It would be more fitting if we celebrated the day they were BORN. Add Martin Luther King to that list.
King's BIRTHDAY is a national holiday. The actual date that King was assassinated is barely remembered outside of major landmark anniversaries, even though most of us who were sentient on April 4, 1968 remember exactly where we were and what we were doing at the moment we heard the news, just as surely as we remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard about the Kennedy assassination.
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I have forgotten the specifics, but in One Way Passage, he was trying to avoid arrest because he knew he was going to get the death penalty. I'm not sure if it's ever specified in the film what he was supposed to have done.
It never was specified, and in any case Powell plays his role with such grace and acceptance that whatever crime he committed in the past is relegated strictly to the background. His attempts to avoid capture are depicted as more of a raffish cat-and-mouse game than the actions of a dangerous criminal.
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I don't recall Powell ever playing a murderous villain, but I wanted to murder him myself for his role as Elizabeth Taylor's unctuous stuffed shirt father in The Girl Who Had Everything. That one was just a stinkeroo all around, but Powell gave off the worst odor.
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I may be the only person alive whose favorite Orson Welles movie is Tomorrow Is Forever, but I'm glad you were thinking of me when you chose it to make a trailer of. I am impressed beyond words that anyone could mimic the style of those 1940's trailers as believably as that.
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I'm not saying Kennedy doesn't deserve any place in history. I'm saying that the whole Kennedy era should be relegated from supposedly being a part of our current culture to a place in history.
Tell you what: You get TCM to stop showing any more Elvis Presley or Bob Hope movies until 2063, and I'll used my pull to keep them from repeating last night's JFK documentaries until then.
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I think mar be the bad films irritate us and that keeps us from sleeping. And the good films relax us and that allows us to drift off to sleep.
It's the exact opposite with me. Any time I see the title credits for one of those excruciating MGM Parades with George Murphy, I'm out like a light. In fact I'm just waking up from one of them right now.
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Like many classic films, it defies easy categorization - it's listed as a comedy, because it's not Birdman of Alcatraz, I guess, but I would say it was more a procedural with some comic elements and a compelling love story also in the mix.
If it was a comedy, it was more along the line of You Can't Take It With You in its celebration of "characters", though in this case it was only Gwenn who fell into that category. I think your description of it as "a procedural with some comic elements and a compelling love story" pretty much nails it. One of the main redeeming factors, aside from Gwenn, was that it was based on a true story. It was an enjoyable 90 minutes, but nowhere near the level of most of Burt's other movies.
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Fox should just turn over ALL of its old classic films to TCM. The Fox channel isn't worth the extra cost, since it shows so few old films and and I don't care for the newer Fox films.
*Or maybe Fox could test the waters by just turning over all their noirs.
Thieves' Highway, Laura, I Wake Up Screaming, etc., etc.*Andy:
Careful what.you wish for.....they may test the waters, but with Osbornes tastes. If some of the Bobs Picks are any indication, Fox may loan TCM only their musicals starring Alice Faye, Betty Grable and Vivian Blaine, and then only those set in the 1890s.
I'd then cue in the Alfred Newman theme to I Wake Up Screaming, cuz that's what I'd be doing at that point.
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Fox should just turn over ALL of its old classic films to TCM. The Fox channel isn't worth the extra cost, since it shows so few old films and and I don't care for the newer Fox films.
Or maybe Fox could test the waters by just turning over all their noirs.
Thieves' Highway, Laura, I Wake Up Screaming, etc., etc. -
To me the demarcation line between "old" and "new" movies is about 1967, the year of Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate. And while I'm sure there are just as many first rate movies since then as before then, I'm glad that TCM concentrates mostly on the "older" movies for the simple reason that no other channel does, or ever will.
OTOH I'm glad that TCM doesn't pay attention to those who would impose an arbitrary "nothing after (insert year)" rule on what it shows. There have been hundreds of post-1967 films I've seen on TCM in the past four years that I never could have seen commercial free on any other non-premium channel.
Just to take one random year, here's what I've seen on TCM from 1973 alone since September of 2009:
Sweet Jesus, Preacher Man
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me
Five on the Black Hand Side
Badlands
Sisters
Touki-Bouki
Katharine Hepburn on Dick Cavett (two long interviews)
Scenes From a Marriage
Zanjeer
The Sting
Serpico
Magnum Force
The Way We Were
Shaft in Africa
Mean Streets
Theatre of Blood
The Outfit
Enter The Dragon
Obviously some of these movies are better than others, but then you can say that about any other year going back to the 19th century. I fail to see how the above list diminishes TCM's mission in any way.
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Scott could never get THAT much recognition as long as Lauren Bacall existed. They were too similar.
A bit similar in looks, hairstyles and sultriness, perhaps. But each had one key advantage.
Bacall seldom if ever played any real femme fatale, whereas that type of role was Scott's ace in the hole. Young Man With a Horn was the only exception to that generalization about Bacall that I can think of. Other than that, Bacall in noirs was always sultry but sympathetic, and overall Scott appeared in far more memorable noirs than "Baby".
OTOH nearly all of Scott's memorable performances were in that one genre- - - film noir- - - whereas Bacall was far more versatile. Throw in the Bogart factor and it's not hard to see why Bacall is still recognized by large segments of the public, while Scott is known and loved mostly by film noir buffs.
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Opinions are going to vary on any film, I suppose. But refusing to even view a film based on something you've read or heard annoys me.
What about refusing to watch any movie with subtitles, no matter what the genre? You might as well admit that you can't read, or don't want to read out of some weird sort of principle.
And then there are those who refuse to watch any movie in black & white, or "old" movies in general, or "movies made after 1980" or whatever date they pick out of a hat. What can you even say to people like that?
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It's hard to remember every unpredictable ending, but one outstanding and surprising denouement was in a movie that just ran on TCM a little over a month ago, Susan Strasberg's Scream of Fear.
A few others: William Powell and Hedy Lamarr's Crossroads; Jean Harlow's Bombshell for easily the best comic ending (when she discovers that the whole Franchot Tone family was hired by Lee Tracy); obviously Witness For The Prosecution; Richard Widmark's and Richard Basehart's Time Limit; Raymond Massey's and Peter Lorre's Hotel Berlin; The Lady Vanishes; and perhaps the most surprising "happy" ending ever, the Hitchcock silent version of The Lodger.
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The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a Scott SOTM tribute, especially if they might get her to appear in person, and also if TCM could get the rights to nearly all of her 22 feature films. I can't think of an actress whose main body of work is so heavily concentrated in the noir genre, and for that reason alone she'd make a terrific choice.
When, when, WHEN
in General Discussions
Posted
At least that's only a month. This one went on 3 months......
The Story of Film has consisted of exactly 24 hours of programming, if you count repeats. That's the equivalent of one *DAY* of Oscar month, which is almost nothing *BUT* repeats. I don't know about you, but for me it's a lot easier to avoid 24 hours than it is to avoid 31 days.