MyFavoriteFilms
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THE UNFORGIVEN is shown regularly on the Encore Western channel. And every now and then it screens on TCM, usually during a Saturday afternoon with Ben and the male-oriented flicks he introduces.
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Realize that a backlot and a standing set on a soundstage are two different things. But the idea to reuse them is essentially similar.
When I was listening to Robert Wagner's audio commentary recently, he mentioned doing a scene for WHAT PRICE GLORY on the 'Bernadette Street.' He said that is what it came to be called, having been originally built for SONG OF BERNADETTE. Seven years later, Fox was still using this street as part of its backlot.
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THE LONE HAND (interesting title) has been airing on the Encore Western channel. Joel is teamed with Barbara Hale and Alex Nicol in this Universal oater.
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Sounds economically prohibitive. One thing I have to say about our library is that they have just as many documentaries and nonfiction titles as they do classic Hollywood stuff.
And they have a good arrangement with other libraries in the county, so I can usually request and receive titles that are in 'the county system' but not at my local branch.
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Maybe there's a consumer advocate group you can contact.
Mentioning it to other consumers on a message board like this is a good idea. If they are scamming customers, then people need to know about it.
And what a shame you did not get to see STORM CENTER. It looks like a great film and I was just doing research about it yesterday. Now I know where not to purchase it.
Thanks, and I hope you somehow get your money back.
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Seven great Lancaster titles today from the 50s and 60s.
They don't seem to show his late 40s stuff very often. However, THE KILLERS is scheduled as part of Ava's SOTM tribute. I'd like to see BRUTE FORCE pop up on the schedule again. Or how about SORRY WRONG NUMBER.
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Speaking of trains:
The train station in THE STORY OF THREE LOVES where Ethel Barrymore is seen on the platform looks very much like the one MGM used in ANNA KARENINA with Garbo. And that was probably reused at the end of YOUNG TOM EDISON when Mickey Rooney goes away.
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One thing worth mentioning, since it has not been stated in this thread yet, is that a lot of classic film sets and costumes were reused on television in the 50s and 60s.
In 1957, Desilu acquired RKO, which happened to be the studio where Lucy and Desi first worked together. In the hour-long episodes of the The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour you can see a lot of the old RKO items. The episode with Tallulalh playing a next-door neighbor is a good example of this, especially with the set they use for her home.
In the 60s, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet moved over to the Culver City studio for its last season. They did a painstaking job to preserve everything from the old location and duplicate the main set as closely as possible (and incidentally, the Nelsons' TV home was a replica of sorts based on their actual home). But there are new sets used in the last season, like Dave and June's apartment as well as Rick and Kris' home. These were reused sets that probably appeared in old movies.
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> I think the ornate indoor stairway that was in The Magnificent Ambersons was used later in the apartment house scenes in The Cat People.
That would make sense, since they were both produced at RKO around the same time. The AMBERSONS set was very costly. And since AMBERSONS did not turn a profit, they would have to cut corners on future productions to save money. Plus, isn't a grand looking set worth reusing? I think so.
Incidentally, I have spotted "lost" footage from AMBERSONS in another RKO production. So not only are we reusing sets and costumes, we are reusing actual film footage.
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> In *Mildred Pierce* (1945), I noticed that the set of Mildred's Restaurant is the same as the set where Rosalind Russell and Jack Carson hook up in *Roughly Speaking* (also 1945). Way to go, Warner Bros.!! Great recycling! -- Mary
That doesn't surprise me. They were both made in 1944/1945. So they probably went from one production to the next.
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> The elaborate sets for Cecil B. Demille's 1923 *Cleopatra* were found buried in dunes 170 mi. from LA, and are now recognized as an archaeological site. That's reuse, in a way...
That is a different sort of reuse. I would love to walk around that set. I am sure it's exciting to see all that. Imagine what it was like for the person who rediscovered it in the sand.
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> Parts of the Paris Opera set from Lon Chaney's version of *Phantom* still stand on the Universal lot and is said to be haunted.
That sounds really interesting. I am sure people who work at Universal have stories to tell!
On another note, I was watching a clip of Alison Arngrim (Nellie Oleson) on TVLand a year or so ago. According to Arngrim, a lot of the furniture in Little House on the Prairie was reused. When NBC cancelled the show, Michael Landon blew up the town in the last episode. Arngrim claims that Landon dynamited everything, because he did not want anything from the sets to be reused in a future television production. In his next series, Highway to Heaven, there is no standing set. He and Victor French just travel from town to town.
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> What about movie props as well, how often was Robbie the Robot reused for different movies. If anyone thinks it no big deal then how would it feel if C3PO or R2D2 were reused for movies outside of "Star Wars"?
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I have a feeling Robbie was very expensive, so he necessitated use in several pictures to recover the investment. And he probably became a sort of cult figure in movies for awhile, and they could use pictures of him to sell a new movie in advertising.
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Sounds like they were trying to get their money's worth on that dress. I wonder if a designer is re-eligible for an Oscar with recycled costumes on a later production...? Of course, not every gown in a new motion picture is a reused item.
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It's fun to find out which stars share your birthday! Jane Wyatt and George Hamilton share mine in August.
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Thanks...as you see, I didn't have any for November 1st.
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How did I miss Grace Kelly?!
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Flora Robson plays Queen Elizabeth in both FIRE OVER ENGLAND and THE SEA HAWK.
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Raymond Massey plays the sixteenth president in both ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS and HOW THE WEST WAS WON.
Also, Brian Donlevy plays McGinty in Preston Sturges' THE GREAT MCGINTY and THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK. He stars in the first one and does a cameo in the second film, but he is still doing the same character.
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It's fun to spot the reused/redressed sets. In the case of the Senate floor set, it would seem that studios shared sets.
I wish there was a way to verify this.
And we do know that many of the clothes were reused. Nothing was thrown out. That's how Debbie Reynolds was able to buy so many of them for her museum.
I am sure that most of the sets have long been dismantled, though I would not be surprised if pieces of furniture are still being reused at the Culver City studio and at Universal.
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Yes, DESIGN FOR LIVING, stretching back to the early 30s for that one. I am sure there are others. He did more than just dramas...and you can probably say that his role in INHERIT THE WIND is a cagey spoof on religious folk.
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Anyone notice when a mansion set is reused in a studio's other films? Or when a courtroom set appears in another production?
There are a few repeated sets that really stand out to me, probably because of their expense and the fact that they cannot easily be redressed.
For instance, the elaborate staircase set in MGM's YOLANDA AND THIEF is reused for Gene Kelly's swashbuckling in THE THREE MUSKETEERS. It's a gorgeous set and I don't mind seeing it again.
Also, the Senate floor set used in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (a Columbia film) is used by MGM for that scene in BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST when Greer Garson's character goes to Congress. These films were in production around the same time. Plus, it looks like it is reused a few years later for HEAVENLY DAYS, an RKO film in which Fibber McGee and Molly visit the nation's capitol.
What have you noticed?
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> Bernie Schwartz got the name Anthony (Tony) for his new name Anthony Curtis from ANTHONY ADVERSE.
It was his favorite story. He was buried with a copy of the book, among other things that had special significance to him.
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*N O V E M B E R*
1
2 Burt Lancaster, Alice Brady
3
4 Will Rogers, Martin Balsam, Gig Young
5 Joel McCrea, Vivien Leigh, Roy Rogers, Natalie Schafer
6 Francis Lederer
7
8 June Havoc
9 Marie Dressler, Dorothy Dandridge, Mabel Normand, Hedy Lamarr, Edna Oliver
10 Claude Rains, Richard Burton, Josephine Hutchinson
11 Robert Ryan, Bobs Watson, Roland Young, Pat O'Brien, Clifton Webb, Susan Kohner
12 Kim Hunter
13
14 Veronica Lake, Dick Powell, Louise Brooks, Rosemary DeCamp
15 Lewis Stone
16 Burgess Meredith, Royal Dano
17 Rock Hudson, Sara Haden, Mischa Auer
18
19 Gene Tierney
20 Evelyn Keyes
21 Eleanor Powell, Steve Brodie
22 Geraldine Page, Hoagy Carmichael, Elizabeth Patterson
23 Harpo Marx, Boris Karloff, Sybil Jason
24 Howard Duff, Geraldine Fitzgerald
25 Ricardo Montalban
26
27
28 Gloria Grahame
29 Rod LaRocque, Genevieve Tobin
30 Virginia Mayo
"HALLELUJAH...I 'VE SEEN THE LIGHT !!" Movie conversion stories
in General Discussions
Posted
I don't know if anyone else mentioned it but Sturges drew inspiration from the real-life headline grabbing story of the Dionne quintuplets who were born in Canada in the 1930s. They appeared in several very successful Fox films, such as FIVE OF A KIND.