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JamesJazGuitar

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Posts posted by JamesJazGuitar

  1.  

    Fedya, note that I revised what I posted and instead think it might be more a lack of immagination that causes guess programmers to select the same movies. I also added they they might not watch TCM as much as us nuts here do and thus they wouldn't know that a great movie like A Face in The Crowd is shown as often as it is.

     

    I didn't see where I wanted 'obscure' movies but just movies that TCM hasn't really played 1 or 2 times in the last 6 months or so.

     

     

  2.  

    Yes it is common for people to have the 'before I was born' POV. I use to have that to but then I started to play guitar. At first like most guys I play the songs of my era. But as I got more into guitar and found I liked playing jazz I got into the jazz greats and than jazz history. Then I found out that most of the jazz standards I was playing came from those 'old movies' and thus I started to check those out.

     

    I do see this with young musicians I know. For example, many of them love The Beatles, Stones and other rock groups that were at their peak way before they were born. But those that don't play music are not as interested in hearing 'old' stuff.

     

     

  3. I agree that Vickers was very good in The Big Sleep but it didn't lead to better roles for her. I have a wonderful Vickers promo still on my wall of fame. Most casual movie fans can guess who everyone on that wall is but I have yet to meet someone that says 'that is Martha Vickers'!

     

    Typically a studio will sell the rights for an actor that does pan out to another studio. I assume Moran was under contract. I wonder if they tried to sell the rights and there were no takers?

     

    I have seen her in the Davis movie made the year before and she did a fine job there. I sure that wasn't an easy movie for a very young gal to make since Davis and Hopkins really hated each other and thus there had to be a lot of tension on the set.

  4. Tom, there is no way we really know why Moran didn't become a bigger star. Yea, what occured during To Have and Have Not was a set back but that shouldn't kill a career. So maybe Moran just lacked the ability. i.e. she just wasn't that good of an actress or she just wasn't interesting enough.

     

    Take someone else from the next Bogie Bacall movie, The Big Sleep. Dorothy Malone. She had a very small part but she made a very big impact. It would still take a few years before she made it big but she got there.

  5. My guess is that when most people say they don't like classic movies (or just about anything), they have never really experienced what they say they don't like.

     

    I don't know how many times I have had someone tell me they don't like fish. Then I find out they had fish once as a kid! In order to say one doesn't like something they first have to spend a fair amount of time experiencing it.

  6. Most of us here also love many of the same movies but we are also aware that TCM shows those movies very often and thus those are boring, vanilla, choices.

     

    So maybe it isn't lack of knowledge related to classic movies but lack of knowledge related to TCM programming. Of course it could just be because these guess lack imagination.

     

    I think someone like you (as well as others here) would come up with 4 choice that were more interesting than what many of the guess programmers come up with. NOT better movies per se (since the classic, classics are some of the greatest movies) but more interesting and less seen ones.

     

    Edited by: jamesjazzguitar on Jul 20, 2012 8:28 PM

  7. I'm not so sure all guest programmers really love classic movies when they pick the same basic movies time after time.

     

    To me this is an indication they have limited knowledge of classic movies; thus they pick the classic movie standards so to speak. I only point this out because when one comes to my house it very clear I love classic movies. A guess will say 'hey I love them to' but once we get talking it is clear they are aware of only movies like Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, It's A Wonderful Life and a few others. If they were a guess programmer they would pick these 'standards'.

     

    I do see the point of telling a guest programmer; Hey, that is a sound choice but we already showed that movie last month, (or plan to show it next month), do you have another favorite?

     

    Edited by: jamesjazzguitar on Jul 20, 2012 8:15 PM

  8. Storm Warning is the 50s movie I believe you mean. As for Ginger Rogers; Well I really like her 30s work, and not just the stuff with Fred. She was cute and funny and great at the wise crack.

     

    But I really don't enjoy what she did after that. Yea, maybe I'm shallow, but around 1942 or so I just don't like how she looks. i.e. her look no longer gets my heart raising. Maybe it was her hair style or the fact she put on a few pounds? But most of her 'it' factor is missing in my view. Plus I just don't find her 40s comedies that funny. Of course most 40s comedies don't compare to the ones made in the 30s but even the dramas she made, lack something or appear to forced.

     

    Edited by: jamesjazzguitar on Jul 20, 2012 7:01 PM

  9. Yes, Tom just a slight change of circumstances can have a major impact on the future. My understanding is that the original screenplay had most of the sexual tension between the Moran character and Bogie. Instead once they saw the rushes between Bogie and Bacall, scenes where changed. Thus Moran's character is only used a prop to increase the sexual tension between B & B. e.g. when Bogie carries Moran out after she faints. Bogie is checking her out and Bacall says 'trying to guess her weight'. Bogie returns with 'she is heavier than you think'. That banter shows the Bacall has a thing for Bogie. So instead of a Moran trying to flirt with Bogie instead she plays the loyal wife of the Frenchman.

     

     

  10. Mayo was Bogie's second wife and they meet while making this picture. The picture reflects how Mayo was! Marked Women is a very good Bette Davis picture with fine support from Bogie in, at the time, was an unusual non gangster role as a DA.

     

    This was the movie that made me interested in Bette Davis. I was already a fan of the Warner guys (Bogie, Cagney, Flynn), but after this one I become a big fan of Davis and explored my softer side in movies like Now Voyager etc...

     

    Edited by: jamesjazzguitar on Jul 19, 2012 5:16 PM

  11. I kind of disagree as it relates to starting a new threat when there has been at least 25 of them all related to the same complaint. I read the initial post and it was written in such a way I couldn't understand it. First I believed 70 - 80 meant they wanted to see movies from those years, but than others implied it meant movies 70 - 80 years old which would be from 30 - 50 or so.

     

    Also one could make a similar point in a positive manner; e.g. I would like to see more pre-code and silent movies etc... But hey we all have are own style.

  12.  

    Funny you used the term 'more on the money'. Casting Marjorie Main as Juliet would be wouldn't of generated 'more of the money' for MGM than Shear. MGM did not cast the film to be true to how the play was presented hundred of years ago since that would be folly as it relates to why a studio produces pictures.

     

     

  13. I don't think the age of the cast impacts the quality of the movie as much as you do.

     

    You mentioned some replacement actors (e.g. Turner), and to me a movie with her at that time when she was so inexperienced and in my view not a good actor, would of been worst.

     

    So yea it would be been better if the actors in the movie were a lot younger but I don't know if in the 30s MGM could of gotten actors that were teens or in their early 20s to play those parts that were good enough actors to pull it off. Plus if they did those actors would NOT of had the box office draw of the actors MGM did cast. Remember the primary goal for a studio to make a movie is too make money. This version from MGM loss over a million dollars even with those stars.

  14. I guess a lot of people have 6 fingers on their hands since the range they mention includes 6 years!

     

    Man this is a hard one. I would go with 33 - 37 so I get the end of pre-code and man of the great 30s comedies, Thin Man, and other movies from that period. Hey, if I'm on an island I want more comedy than noir.

  15. I watched all of the Leslie Howard movies on July 17th and I really enjoyed them. I had seen Romeo and A Free Soul before but not in a while and it was good to see them again. I even stayed up late (at least I'm on the west coast so it wasn't too late), to see the last 2.

     

     

    I agree with all your comments but what I also found interesting was that they showed the MGM movies and than the Warner Bro ones, Outbound and Captured, both with Douglas Fairbanks. Two studios couldn't be more different in the 30s than MGM and Warner. Howard was able to 'fit' within each studio's 'vibe' equally well and as noted made his character believable. Just goes to show how great of an actor he was.

     

    As for A Free Soul, this is the type of plot that could only be 'true' to the story as a pre-code movie (or if it was made today). I do admit I notice that white gown. I kind of felt like a peeping tom (not that I would know how one of them feels of course!), so hearing others saw what I saw reduce some of my guilt. :)

     

    Yes, Leslie Howard clearly deserved being SOTM and we still have two more weeks to go. Next week we have two movies he was nominated for best actor for and the week after his WWII movies as well as one of his best The Scarlet Pimpernel.

  16. Johnbabe, I really do believe that when one spoofs someone that is really great (at the top in their profession), that it is an honor and not done to disrespect that person.

     

    For example, say I was to spoof a rock band. If I spoof the Beatles than I'm honoring them as being one of the best rock bands. If I spoof the Monkey's than I'm just being mean!

  17.  

    Based on all of the material I have read 'noir' refers to the nature of the film's characters and the story in general (over all mood if you will), and thus a film noir can be a color film.

     

    For example, Leave Her to Heaven is considered a film noir by many sources (e.g. listed in the book Film Noir (Ward Silver). Of course I have had others tell me 'noir' is defined more by the lighting, use of props (e.g. Venetian blinds, ceiling fans), camera angles, then character development, plot or mood, and that a color film can not be a noir by definition. Thus we are back to what is 'true' noir or not and this is when I start to check out. For those interested in this debate the gangster noir thread under genres has volumes about this.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  18. I see your point, but if they no longer accept and read scripts for potential movies than one could say they are retired. i.e. that they will NOT be accepting any more roles, regardless of the conditions. So if one's agent sends out notices to those in the industry saying 'please do not send us any more scripts for review' that is meaningful. It tells the industry to not waste their time.

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