Bogie56

Well, there you go. As a kid of the 60's I loved that era. What with Connery's Bond. Zulu, the Great Escape and a zillion other films. And I thanked you know who that those stodgy, trashy, kitschy, ridiculous films of the 1950's were behind us.

So, were you aware that this was the 'classic' period of motion pictures when you saw Treasure in the theatres in 1948? Had they already arranged that is would end in 1960?

Well he actually stopped at 1965. I said prior to 1966. So, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is not a classic but Village of the Giants is. Don't you think it may have and something to do with the films he was deleting from his bigger guide and wished to add to this 'classic' guide?

According to Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide it is anything prior to 1966. He should know, shouldn't he? You don't think he did that just for marketing, do you?

A friend of mine told me a story about Robert Newton. Pinewood studios had forbidden him to bring alcohol onto the lot so he got around this by hanging long bits of string out his dressing room window and attaching bottles at the other end 'off the lot.'

Let's start at the beginning shall we? What is a classic movie?

thanks for your correction! Perhaps I should have observed the words of Homer Simpson "You tried your best but you failed miserably. The lesson is ... never try."

"You could have knocked me down with a feather. Grizzly, that's what it was. Grizzly. There's only one word for it. Grizzly. I told my poor old mother when I got home at night and that's what she said, 'how grizzly, Emily. Grizzly'." - Kathleen Harrison to tourists at the murder site in Night Must Fall (1937).

Wednesday, October 21/22 2:30 a.m. City Lights (1931). One of Chaplin’s finest. Some might say a silent classic from 1931. The spaghetti eating sequence had me in stitches.

Can I tempt anyone with some black pudding and haggis? Yum!

Just a trivia side note re, Casablanca. In the Peter Lorre biography, The Lost One his character is listed as 'Guillermo' Ugarte. His first name is never mentioned in the film.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) is just about as perfect as you can get in the film medium. I would put Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) right up there too. I've heard it all now. Likening these films to text messaging.

Here you go everyone. The 50th anniversary is here and a new restoration is about to hit theatres. Warning to epileptics: this trailer has those annoying fade to blacks every few seconds that unimaginative editors are in love with these days.

Tuesday, October 20 A good selection of popular American films made by women in the evening. Yet in Canada two of these (Sleepless in Seattle and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway) are being replaced by films made by men. 5 a.m. Home For the Holidays (1995). I haven’t seen this Jodie Foster film.

Guaranteed when Tom is SOTM, TCM will pick his two best films and won't play them.

Walter Pidgeon would have made a great Walt Disney. Plus he was already a Wally.

This bears repeating ... I like the part in the Forbes article where it says that the scandal obscured the overall truth of the controversy. I have yet to see the film but I wouldn't be surprised if the 'phoney' memos were plants so they could then reveal that and discredit the investigation. ​It's a very old trick that is hard to see through.

Thanks Jakeem, I'm more interested than ever to see the film. I like the part in the Forbes article where it says that the scandal obscured the overall truth of the controversy. It is akin to 'giving' the prosecution a planted phoney expert witness then exposing them when they are on the stand. There goes your case with the bathwater.

Don't mention that to my 92 year-old uncle. He can show me a thing or two. He even has his bird feeder wired so that if a squirrel climbs on top it gets a small electric shock!

I was watching CNN this morning and they did an interview with Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett about their new film, Truth (2015). During the interview they kept referring to the controversy surrounding the original 60 Minutes story on which the film is based. But not once during this interview which was approximately 7 minutes long did they mention what the 60 Minutes controversy was about. It left me wondering if that line of questioning was edited out of this CNN spot because the media is still responding to the heat they got from the story years ago. Even the trailer for the film is ambiguous in that regard. It's like going to the bother of making All the President's Men and being afraid to mention Watergate.

"Do you remember when he used to cut worms in half ..... with his teeth?" - Josephine Hull as Abby Brewster to Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster referring to his brother, Jonathan in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Monday, October 19 I can take the day off. Seen all of these. Jezebel (1938) at 6 p.m. is probably my favourite.

You are right, the best stuff is often on in the middle of the night and most people would have to record it. You should look into buying a used vhs machine on craig's list, or something. They are as cheap as $10. dvd recorders aren't much more. Most people are just tossing them out in the garbage. You might be able to pick up two or three for free by asking around.

Has anyone seen Those Lips, Those Eyes (1980)? I think it was on TCM a while back. I'm a fan of Frank Langella. He was great in Frost/Nixon (2008) among other things.

Emma Thompson is quite good in Saving Mr. Banks. I liked her as the Hilary character in Primary Colors (1998) too. But of those not already mentioned two of my absolute favourites are her supporting role in In the Name of the Father (1993) and the highly underrated Carrington (1995). Jonathan Pryce is brilliant in Carrington. On the flip side I thought Effie Gray (2014) which she also wrote was dreadful.