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Being forewarned is being forearmed. Maybe, by reading this, some might think twice before buying tickets. Maybe this will result in lower ticket sales, and lower attendance. Maybe THAT will cause TCM to investigate WHY ticket sales are sluggish, and take steps to avoid this problem in the future. Or maybe TopBilled is right, and STEAK will go back to 10 cents a pound! Sepiatone

Didn't finance ask, "Who would want to screw around with Frankie and Annette up on screen"? I'm sure the answer would be...ANY RED BLOODED AMERICAN 16-17 YEAR OLD BOY!!! Anyway, MY understanding was that "Diana" was penned by Anka in tribute to a BABYSITTER he had when he was a kid. I always crack up when I think of the line, "You're so OLD". Cripes, the old bat must have been around 14-15 years of age! It all brings up a memory of a MAD MAGAZINE drawing of Anka sitting on a piano stool banging on a CASH REGISTER instead of a piano! Sepiatone

One factor to consider, slayton, is that many musicians and composers usually avoid weighing in on such distinctions. Most do what they do to the best of their abilities, and let the chips fall where they may. Three examples I can cite: 1. When once asked, at the age of 80, celebrated classical guitarist ANDRE SEGOVIA answered the question, "How does it feel to be the world's greatest guitarist?" with, "You should ask HIM. I'm still LEARNING!" 2. JOHANESS BRAHMS was the guest of honor at a dinner party hosted by a wealthy Baron who at best could be described as a "Brahms freak". At one point, he poured the maestro a glass of wine while telling him, "This is the BEST wine in my cellar. I like to think of it as my "Brahms" of wines!" Brahms took a sip, made a sour face and said, "Perhaps you'd better bring up your BEETHOVEN!" 3. While a guest on "The Late, Late Show" with Craig Ferguson, Craig made referrence to MORGAN FREEMAN that Freeman was perhaps the "Greatest Actor in America". Freeman motioned to Ferguson to come closer and said, "Let me tell you a secret....there's NO SUCH THING" Sepiatone

There's a few ways to look at the ending of *Shane* . One is that he feels who he is and what he's been will keep following him anywhere he goes, and it's best for all if he leaves. Or, the love/lust tension between him and the sodbuster's wife is too keen and he likes the farmer too much to risk staying and disturbing that. Or, he feels the kid, who grew to idolize him, needed a better influence to grow up with than a migratory gunfighter. Sepiatone

Why NOT complain here as well? This helps the REST of us avoid getting hoodwinked. Too bad you went through that, marxphan. They could have at least offered a second showing that would honor those tickets. Sepiatone

So the Georgina Spelvin movie WASN'T a remake? Dang! All kidding aside, it IS a good movie, and I'll try to catch it. Sepiatone

Romance? Speaking of which... To emphasize what James was going on about concerning differing "public" releases, the movie TCM showed a few nights ago, "A LITTLE Romance", had the opening scenes of the French kid watching old American movies in some theater. Some of the movies were dubbed, and this movie had the movies being shown subtitled. You may have noticed that some of the dialogue was changed from what we knew to be familiar. That is, if you can make ANY sense of what I just wrote! Sepiatone

I don't know if that's his name, but he WAS a familiar face around the '50's and '60's in movies and television. He was one of the "traveling salesmen" in the quirky opening of *The Music Man* . He also played BETTY WHITE'S husband in her early '50's sitcom, and was WARD CLEAVER in the pilot of *Leave It To Beaver* before replaced by HUGH BEUMONT. Sepiatone

What I find to be cute, mm, is that you keep making referrence to RECORD SALES. I've never SEEN any Bernard Herrmann recordings. I've seen recordings of his MUSIC recorded and conducted by other people, though. I have no info on their level of sales, however. Record sales DON'T, however, reflect the QUALITY of the music, anymore that ticket sales reflect the quality of any movie. *The Fantastic Four* led the box office returns on one particular weekend, but does this mean, to you, that this movie was BETTER than, say, *Argo* or *Lincoln* ? No, it doesn't. Look, we all here agree that Herrmann was a fantastic composer. What we're in disagreement on is that he was the GREATEST. Herrmann himself would take you to task on that. If you're basing things on proficiency, then HARRY WARREN would top the list as that he composed music for far more movies than Herrmann and Goldsnith combined, many of the songs from those movies became HITS over the years( At Last, I Only Have Eyes For You, to name only a couple), and the record sales for just THOSE TWO SONGS leave any Herrmann record sales stats in the dust! Sepiatone

I just sent you my e-mail address again, Dothery. Try it once more. Sepiatone

"Perfect" ending IS subjective. The only thing we'll accomplish here is a list of favorites. So far, a couple of my favorites have already been mentioned. To that I'd like to add: *Miracle on 34th Street* . Not only was the house in little Natale's picture found, but when they spot the all too familiar looking cane leaning in the corner, well, it DOES give everyone pause, doesn't it? Sepiatone

Hey! If SPENCER TRACY, JOHN GARFIELD, MARLON BRANDO, HEDY LAMARR, ELI WALLACH and WALLACE BEERY can play Mexicans, why NOT ANN SHERIDAN?? Sepiatone

You MEANT to say you were showing the "real" version, didn't you? Like those college kids, I, too, first saw *Reefer Madness* while in the grips of said madness. But have seen it several times since. Even still have the old VHS around here. Cracks me up everytime I see it. Funniest unintentional comedy? You BETCHA! But the message was spot on. Smoking that evil stuff can lead to tragedy. Look what happened to that one poor guy in the film...reduced to "starring" in all those "Pete Smith" shorts! Awful. Just AWFUL. :_| Sepiatone

OK, to be more specific. How many here were concieved in backseats at drive-in theaters that were showing a "Frankie and Annette" beach movie? Sepiatone

I hope you realize, James, that I was in full agreement with you when I brought up that example. In fact, I brought it up in an attempt to augment your point! It's generally a figure of speech when someone calls them the "real" versions. The original public release CAN differ from what was originally intended by the director. But, if the director wasn't also the WRITER of the story, he has little to say about such things. Even said writer doesn't, as the movies being made were the property of the studio. You also have to assume the editor figures in somewhere. But in the case of Chaplin's movie, since it WAS Chaplin's movie, and HE did the reworking for the '42 version, all anyone can complain about is that they prefer the ORIGINAL release. After all, it was likely the one they fell in love with, and even the one who concieved the whole thing making subtle changes is seen as messing with sacrelidge. Sepiatone

My two favorite film scores are for: 1. *Amadeus* , music by Wolfgang Mozart 2. *Immortal Beloved* , music by Ludwig Von Beethoven Herrmann was good, but c'MON! Seriously, mm123 could have done worse in his choice, but it IS correct to point out it's basically personal opinion. A fitting tribute, however, was that when MARTIN SCORCESE did his remake of *Cape Fear* , he chose to use Herrmann's original score. Sepiatone

I can add an example of sort of the same thing. Years ago, on the late show( pre-cable, and therefore pre-TCM) I saw a movie called *The Big Carnival* . Starred Kirk Douglas and Jan Sterling. Even the movie's INTRODUCTION had it titled so. Most of you might know it as *Ace In The Hole* . Still, the title sequence said otherwise. So, WHO did the doctoring? The local TV station? Did a good job of it if they did! It didn't affect, however, how good of a movie it is. Sepiatone

By the way, Miles, Anderson DID play Lincoln a few times. Oddly enough, so did ROYAL DANO! Sepiatone

Look a little deeper, Fly. Filmlover listed Goldsmith. Sepiatone

I saw what I THOUGHT might have been doctored movies. I'm still struggling to reconcile whether or not they WERE doctored, or my MEMORY was wonky. Sepiatone

Lest we forget: Leonard Bernstein Elmer Bernstein Randy Newman David Raskin Henry Mancini Neil Hefti David Amram As I stated earlier, Herrmann had a distinctive style that was oft repeated in many scores. The novice might walk away thinking Herrmann was a "one trick pony". His earlier( pre-'50's) work was much better, in my opinion. As to who was the "best" does remain a personal opinion. As for me, the jury is still out. Sepiatone

As TCM stands for "Turner Classic Movies", I imagine it would be inclusive to most of the 100 or so years spectrum of movie making. And that includes silents as well. There ARE many people, in this forum as well, that like silent films. I'm limited in my appreciation, and can only enjoy certain ones. As far as Chaplin goes, I much prefer BUSTER KEATON and HAROLD LLOYD. But it's hard NOT to take kindly to Chaplin's *The Kid* . I STILL find it hard to believe that adorable little tyke grew up to be Uncle Fester! Like all OTHER television channels, we all have to endure the showing of fare we don't particularily like, and just be patient and wait for what we DO. Sepiatone

Doing a small bit of research, I could only find 29 movies in Lynn's filmography. James is right about pushing it. It would be pushing it HARD. If he's done more "secondary" work, it would hardly make him a "star", so therefore a SOTM nod wouldn't be fitting. Sepiatone

His name's John Anderson, isn't it? Seems I recall him in several *Twighlight Zone* episodes. Sepiatone

Not a Chaplin liker, I take it? Sepiatone