ginnyfan

I'm about a decade younger than you, but my brother is closer to your age. His tastes ran toward the folk movement and then he followed Donovan out of that into psychedelia. My sister was strictly a British invasion fan. I was stuck with the '70s and followed that earlier music as well as the 50s and early '60s a lot more than my own era. The early '60s pop music just doesn't seem to have had the fire, passion, or originality of the r&b and rockabilly that came before it or the Beatles and others who came after. That's probably why a lot of folk music was cracking the charts. As you said, the twist was huge along with a lot of what I'd call novelty records. Edited by: ginnyfan on May 19, 2012 7:58 PM

Charlotte Greenwood

Richardson-gravedigger--Tom Stevenson in THE WOLF MAN (1941)

FIRST HUNDRED YEARS, THE (1938)

Lupino was in THE LONE WOLF SPY HUNT (1939) with Virginia Weidler

ADVENTURE IN BALTIMORE (1949)

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}Much of the music, maybe most of it, and the cars, were from the 1950s, so it was a nostalgia film for the late 1950s too. > > "That'll Be the Day" was by Buddy Holly in 1957, and "Johnny B. Goode" was by Chuck Berry in 1959. "Only You (and You Alone)" by The Platters was from 1955. "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino was from 1955. What most of us remember as sixties' music didn't start until late 1963, except for the Beach Boys (1962). With Buddy dead, Elvis slowed by the Army, and Ricky Nelson turning to ballads, the early sixties were a pretty dead musical period. They couldn't really cruise to Gene Pitney's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, could tney?

You seem to be saying that what I, as a layman, would call a 4x3 frame always has more information than something wider. Since there is no fixed distance from camera to subject that has to be used at all times, I don't see how one can claim that we are seeing more or less with either ratio. It would have to depend on the intended composition of the frame by the filmmakers. I would contend that something shot with the intention of wide screen would be composed to provide the extra side to side information. Had they intended it for the traditional screen, they would have set up the shots differently and you still wouldn't have seen the additional half screen you are talking about. I think its a matter of personal preference, more of a half empty, half full kind of argument. But what do I know...?

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952)

It was only 11 years, but they were like two different dimensions. The hot rods and cruisin' and skinny ties were way in the rear view mirror by 1973.

Clever!

I agree with you on most points except for Dreyfuss. I find him really annoying when he's himself (why did anyone think he should sing on SNL back in the day, anyway?). As an actor, I can live with him. Ron Howard is always Ron Howard, an aw shucks kind of guy. And I always like Charles Martin Smith. I was in high school in the 1970s and was very nostalgic because I was growing up in a really sucky decade. Children of the '40s saved the world, children of the '50s gave birth to rock n roll, children of the '60s got the New Frontier, civil rights, the peace movement and campus turmoil, and, of course, the Beatles. My brother and sister were children of the '60s. I got Watergate, platform shoes (not personally, mind you), and K.C. and the Sunshine Band. BTW, I found the sequel to be a really interesting attempt at something, I just never figured out exactly what.

So I guess the question then becomes, did they already intend to crop when they shot the film? If so, I would think the only difference to those of us viewing it today might be a slight increase in the visual noise, so to speak, because it is actually a smaller image being "blown up" to wide screen. If the cropping was an editing decision, then we might have the problem the OP envisioned.

Potter-Kevin Nealon in HAPPY GILMORE (1996)

IMDB says it was shot 1.85:1.

DAISY CHAIN, THE (2008)

Miller, Elizabeth 'Lizzie'-Virginia Weidler in I'LL WAIT FOR YOU (1941)

DARK CITY (1950)

Marjorie Main was in BARNICLE BILL (1941) with...wait for it...Connie Gilchrist (see what I did there?)

ADVENTURE IN WASHINGTON (1941)

SILVER TRAILS (1948)

BIG BROADCAST OF 1936, THE (1935)

Burke, Billie (really!) Edited by: ginnyfan on May 19, 2012 8:02 PM

Burke, Billie

Davis was in THE DOCTOR AND THE GIRL (1949) with Charles Coburn