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Bogie56

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Posts posted by Bogie56

  1. Someone help me on this--I think Public Broadcasting System aired this in 1973?  Anyway, it was a documentary of an unreleased film of I, Claudius (1937?) starring Charles Laughton & Merle Oberon(?)--anyway, filming was stopped because female lead was in a disastrous car accident which almost killed her.  As I recall, she had successful surgery and was able to continue film career.  But I Claudius (1938?) was never finished--and the few scenes from the documentary looked like the makings of a fascinating film.  What was the title of this???  TCM, is programming this (someone will remember the title) a future possibility ?

    The Epic That Never Was (1965) narrated by Dirk Bogarde.  I caught it in England.  And it may have been an interesting film too.  It certainly would have helped Emlyn William's career who had the showcase role of Caligula.

     

    I have the box set of Derek Jacobi's I, Caligula which is magnificent.  One of John Hurt's finest performances.  And Brian Blessed's too if you don't count Flash Gordon which is often quoted in England I must say. 

    • Like 1
  2. It's nice to hear something positive about Keifer Sutherland. He's a really good actor & I like his work. He just looks like a spoiled punk, a "type" we want to dislike.

     

    He was probably about 16 at the time and already working in the business and 'rooming' at a house with a few friends of mine.  I never asked him about his father as I didn't know what their relationship was like.  I believe he was primarily raised by his mother, Shirley Douglas.

    Interestingly, Kiefer just shot a Canuck western with his father.  I heard it had financial hiccups so I don't know when we will see it.  I heard too that Kiefer was trying to keep the project alive personally.  It's called Forsaken.

     

    And that reminds me, Forsaken co-stars Michael Wincott.  I went to school with Michael and his brother Jeff.  in fact I first met them when I was shooting a horror movie in Super 8mm in a field and Michael and Jeff rode up on their bicycles and spent a few hours watching the proceedings.  If I had known that they wanted to be actors I would have enlisted them right then and there!

  3. I learned many years ago that the EASIEST way to get into the Hollywood movie busines is to use your own money to sponsor a film's budget by putting up some of your own money to make it. Then you are considered to be one of the "co-producers". Also, an independent  "co-producer" calls all his rich friends begging them

    to invest in the film in the form of loans, to be paid back for a percentage of the gross income the film makes in the theaters.

    Yes, it is often referred to as the way to make a small fortune in the film business.  First you start out with a big fortune ...

    • Like 1
  4. I don't know if I'd want to see them on TCM. Perhaps on TCT (Turner Classic Television).

     

    The golden age of the TV movie -- roughly 1969-74 -- was the descendant of the Studio One/Playhouse 90 era, and produced a few gems before devolving into true confessions and disease of the week weepies.

     

    A few of my favorites:

     

    Sole Survivor -- A fantasy-thriller based loosely on the discovery of the wreckage of the WWII bomber Lady Be Good in the Libyan desert (which also inspired a Twilight Zone). The final shot is a classic that can stand up to any Hollywood feature.

     

    In Broad Daylight -- essentially a lost Columbo episode in which a blind actor (Richard Boone) plots his wife's murder. Boone made a private eye movie called Goodnight My Love that is very highly regarded, but I've never seen it.

     

    Tribes -- generation gap conflict between Marine Sgt Darren McGavin and hippie draftee Jan-Michal Vincent. Much better than it sounds -- the script won an Emmy.

     

    Evil Roy Slade -- actually two pilots edited together, for a series to have starred John Astin as the old West's meanest outlaw. Very funny script by Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson, with a priceless performance by Dick Shawn as a combination of Roy Rogers and Paladin.

    I remember these well, Richard.  Sole Survivor with Bill Shatner and Vince Edwards.  I ripped off the story to make a Super 8mm war movie!  I remember seeing Goodnight, My Love as well which costarred Michael Dunn.

     

    I don't think we are offered Turner Classic TV in Canada.  We're deprived.  So it would be a once in a while thing on TCM, or nothing for us.

  5. Irwin Allen's Fire! (1977)

     

    A question, Bogie56--are mini-series up for nomination also??

    I don't think I've ever seen this one.

     

    The thing about the old tv movies is that they often had great casts.  

     

    I just looked up your Fire! suggestion and see that it has Ernest Borgnine, Vera Miles, Donna Mills, Erik Estrada, Patty Duke, Alex Cord, Lloyd Nolan, Neville Brand, Ty Hardin and one of my favourites Gene Evans.

  6. Irwin Allen's Fire! (1977)

     

    A question, Bogie56--are mini-series up for nomination also??

    Sure, why not!

     

    QBVII (1974) had an amazing cast: Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara (together again), Anthony Hopkins, Dan O'Herlihy, Robert Stephens, Milo O'Shea and what I thought was some of their best ever work - Anthony Quayle and Leslie Caron.

     

    I'd love to see that mini-series again some time.

    • Like 2
  7. Old tv movies seem to have gone the way of the dodo.  At least they are almost as hard to find.  They used to be a big event on television in the seventies.

    You have to search out the older Leonard Maltin guides if you would like to find reference to them.

     

    I realize that the distribution rights to many of the best TVM's belong to the big networks.  So this may be a pipe dream.  But if you were to pick from past tv movies which ones would you like to see on TCM uncut and commercial free?  Once in a while that is.

     

    I'll start with The Execution of Private Slovik, a 1974 NBC TVM directed by Lamont Johnson featuring a fine performance by Martin Sheen.

    • Like 3
  8. Lydecker

    Skimpole

    Lonesome Polecat

     

    Hats off to all three who accepted this challenge.  It's like intricate puzzle work combined with a vast knowledge of film.  

    I have a great deal of difficulty in selecting one of the three.

     

    But if push comes to shove may I choose Lydecker.  Working Slavko Vorkapich into the challenge was probably what swung it for me.

  9. Kiefer Sutherland used to room with a friend of mine before he became a name.

    I remember coming to work one day and found him sleeping on the floor.

    I thought he was a great kid then.  No special airs.  I used to play Space Invaders with him in the arcade during our breaks.

  10. Ig-nore...?

     

    What means this? This ig-nore??

    This is a question for the Moderators really.  I thought people were supposed to try and ignore topics and people that they disagreed with?  I have heard that advice given.

     

    I certainly stay away from a great many threads myself and don't venture into them because I don't feel I will have anything positive to add.

     

    But time and again in the past week or so I have seen a couple of members join into a discussion in a thread demanding from the outset that it be shut down.

     

    In the last instance their comments were removed by the moderator.  But that wasn't enough.  Back they came and yes the moderator shut down the thread.

     

    Shouldn't they be advised to ignore rather than to keep trying sway discussion their way, or no way?  

     

    This really is a question for the Moderators, not for general discussion as I suspect the same old same old will happen - someone who doesn't like to ignore will come stomping into this discussion too.

     

    I tried to PM the Moderator but his or her mailbox may be full so I am bringing this question to their attention here.

     

    Thank you.

    • Like 3
  11. I just went to see The Voice of the Moon (1990) Federico Fellini's last film which I just at TIFF, the Toronto Cinematheque.

     

    It was just dreadful.  No wonder it was never released in North America.  Very much a bad 8 1/2 with all of the same themes and types of set pieces.  Hundreds of crazy extras and lots and lots of bit actors with something to say before we are wisked to the next bit.  It is a Fellini dream without the story anchor that 8 1/2 had.  Very draining to watch.

     

    The afternoon's saving grace was that Roberto Benigni introduced the film and he was in top form.  And I must say that he has hardly changed one bit in 25 years.  (Damn him)

    He talks enthusiastically a mile a minute.  And while I once suspected that his mangled English Oscar speech was a routine I discovered that he really does talk like that.  He even had an interpreter beside him for the words that eluded him.

     

    One anecdote was great.  He related that every word in a Fellini film is replaced in post sync.  So, while on other films sets there is a buzz of activity and then dead silence when the director yells action it is the exact opposite on a Fellini film.

     

    There is dead silence and when action comes, Benigni and others are supposed to act while Fellini yells instructions non-stop.  And the cinematographer yells.  And the grip yells and so does everyone else.  He says it is complete chaos and bedlam when the cameras are rolling.

     

    Benigni also mentioned that a Toronto University has given him a doctorate.  So he is now Dr. Benigni.  The audience loved that.

    • Like 1
  12. I still have a few of those 8 mms in a closet somewhere. It was a riot trying to sync the record with the film.

    Once I got a dual 8 with a vary-speed dial it made things a lot easier.

     

    But it was those 8mm's with discs that taught me how to put a rough soundtrack on my movies.  I actually had a film that I made when I was 13 screened on several tv stations for a few years.  The Vengeance of Frankenstein.  It had the Frankenstein monster, Dracula and the Wolfman in it and a lot of Villagers who met gruesome ends.

  13. Thank You Swithin for explaining your feelings about this and this last post of yours was excellent. Quality over Quantity is what's important. 

    And could we get anyone to admit that throwing parties for the number of postings is certainly sending the wrong signals as to the value of that statistic?

    And I mean the above as a clinical question.

    • Like 1
  14. My sentiments exactly.  I joined the boards in 2011 (and browsed the threads before then), and in that time I never saw that post counts were an issue until more recently.  The problem is not post counts, it's disruptive people.  But we other members seem to be not allowed to express our frustrations without getting our posts removed and threads shut down, so now darkblue is trying this.  Good luck, darkblue... 

     

    My apologies if my post gets this thread locked up.  I haven't mentioned names, so I hope the mods have the decency to let us continue the conversation.  What a shame that continual disruptions like these have to take up so much of our time here.

    Well said.   People are becoming increasingly frustrated.   I only wish I could say more.

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