CaveGirl

OMG, my soul mate! I too like to see every film ever made, CF but I've had a really tough time with that task since one of my fave actors is Nikolay Cherkasov who played Ivan the Terrible in Sergei Eisenstein's films. Shoot, do you know how difficult it is to find many of Niky's Russian pictures in the TCM catalog or from Amazon? Pity me!

Okay. so at least that statement of mine got me one convert, Dargo Coburn! I'm sorry but talking over lines in a movie by anyone, is verboten in my white palace abode. That means no chatting during movies with Errol Flynn, Jean Arthur, Robert Benchley, Mamie Van Doren, Arthur Franz, Harpo or even John Agar. I like to find the humor in something myself, and not have it force fed to me. Why that is as anti-creative as when they took Mister Potato Head and instead of letting children use a real potato so they could put his nose, eyes, mouth and smoking apparatus in the configuration they wanted to look like maybe Eugene Pallette, they started making the kit with a plastic potato which had all the openings for the insert pieces already in place. Now what would be the fun of that I ask you? Everything creative has been removed from the activity. But nevertheless, though I had maybe only minor support here, I'm happy for those who enjoy MST. I just can't ever invite them to one of my film festivals since I always put up the sign "No Talking Aloud" even if we are showing an Eisenstein picture. I'm sure they are all devastated but that is how it has to be. Thanks to all who participated in my thread!

You are certainly very correct about the lesser played films, TB and I too would welcome more Dolores Del Rio anytime!

I would so much rather hear the comments of you and your buddies about any film, than the MST crew, Sepia! Have you thought of auditioning your group for such a show? P.S. I must protest though that you clean up your language here since the capitalized "ZZ"s are rather offensive to my delicate sensibilities and that of the other frails here. Get out the Palmolive and take your punishment like a man.

Actually my intention here was to see if anyone had read "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter, but your books will suffice. Thanks, Sepia!

Hey, Sepia, film scholar that you are, I was excited about starting to grade your paper and then was stopped in my tracks by this response of yours to Question #6: "6. The last "date" I ever took to a movie is the woman I'm married to now, and we both enjoyed the movie. However, if I were single and dating, the answer would likely depend on her bedroom predilictions, and her bra size." As I noted before, the men at the TCM Message Board are very broadminded and thank you for proving my point. Since I now have to leave the classroom, and due to your obvious qualifications I shall put you in charge of the class and the grading. Don't grade on the curve, unless you see dangerous ones ahead!

It's too bad TCM didn't schedule both the French version of "The Lower Depths", with the Akira Kurosawa version from 1957, also called "The Lower Depths" both adapted from the Maxim Gorky tale. Thanks for the Jean Gabin film update, TB!

Well, Miss Wonderly, the Titanic was a good ship too, but it went down also! Better to be the Titanic and go down than the Good Ship Lollipop and stay afloat in a sea of uniformity and mediocrity.

Your research is on the money, TB but for some reason I just don't have a problem with the rebroadcasting of many of these classics over and over as long as TCM also fills in the gaps with the many smaller or less famous or foreign pictures, which I must say they do. For example, last night they showed the Max Ophuls' film, "Le Plaisir" and then the Jean Gabin film, "Remorques" [aka "Stormy Waters"] which I doubt any other cable channel would be playing. Since I can't watch tv twenty-four hours a day, I am content that TCM show some films multiple times yearly, as long as they have at least two to four hours a day of things that I've never seen, which is always true. And I have seen so many movies, that it would be hard to continually surprise me, but TCM manages it monthly. I own the books on the complete catalog of films for majors like MGM. Warners, RKO, Universal, etc. and while perusing have seen names of films so obscure that they have never been written about, but then they will actually pop up on the TCM schedule which is why I will always be impressed with TCM's programming. But your point is well taken, just in terms of the knowledge of what films are shown the most so thanks!

Good choice, Nip what with great direction by Hawks, great cinematography by James Wong Howe and acting by the fine Harry Carey!

You are very broadminded, Miss Wonderly to your credit. So are many of the men here "broadminded", but with the emphasis on the first syllable more probably. Thanks for your response!

In spite of the many books which have been turned into films, there are always so many more that would prove worthy. In fact, it is my belief that some writers have an innate ability to conjure up just with words alone, a complete cinematic picture that hence would make the cinematographer's task an easy one. I was reminded of this ability the other day, while reading a post from Sans Fin here in the thread about "Lists". The writing of Sans Fin in that post was so beautifully worded and so illustrative that I could actually see the whole scene unfolding before my eyes as if it had been filmed, and in color too. It was a perfect depiction of an time and place, and worthy of filming. If you know a book that you think is similarly blessed with such fine evocations of the world, please share it! If you missed it, this is what Sans Fin wrote: Members 6,364 posts Posted 15 May 2016 - 02:46 PM "Spend the waning hours of a crisp fall day gathering decades-old driftwood and piling it for bonfire on the beach. Row out to a buoy and haul up the crab pot and leave bottle of vodka inside as exchange. Sit under perfectly clear sky with tub of ice-cold sour cream and bag of fresh dill. Poke end of crab leg into fire to toast it. Dip it in sour cream. Sprinkle dill. Nibble. Break off a bit more of the shell. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat as night passes by. In no language can I articulate why that it as near to heaven as I am likely to ever be."

Gee, really? There was a nun here who was introducing films that were condemned by the Catholic Church, eh? Boy, I sure wish I'd known about this. Thanks, DVDPhreak.

Five perfect choices, thanks, FL!

Uh oh, CF! Well as long as you don't start watching "Vertigo" and writing down the other car licenses while Scotty is trailing Madeleine like someone I know does, you may recover.

How often do you ask yourself “Am I watching too many movies?” Could it be that I’m a celluloid addict? Is it okay to base all life decisions on lessons learned from the MGM, Warners, RKO, Universal, Cinecitta or Gaumont studios? To answer these burning [like a strip of hot nitrate] questions, one need only take the quick and easy 21 step quiz below, that I created in my spare time, when I was not watching, discussing or reading about movies. Feel free to substitute the names of actors or films which are more in your wheelhouse or specialty, in perusing the questions. Also if you have additional questions which you think would add to the revised edition for 2017, please submit them here. Now, Number 2 Pencils up, answer all questions with a Yes or No, and begin! 1] When you read a glowing or crappy review of a new film, do you immediately make plans to see it? 2] If there is a video or dvd store you spot while driving somewhere else, do you make a beeline to check out its stock and always buy something? 3] Whenever you are trying to describe to the fuzz, a potential felon you spotted behaving like Jack Lambert or Ted de Corsia, do you use movie personage descriptions like “Well, Officer, he was as beady-eyed and shifty as Charles Middleton or Arthur Hunnicutt” or “She was as cheap looking a tart as Mary Beth Hughes or Veda Ann Borg and had brassy blonde locks.” 4] Have you ever challenged 20 or more people to a game of Trivial Pursuit:The Silver Screen Edition and won? 5] You find a thousand dollars on the Capri drive-in snack bar floor and instead of making your house payment you spend it on a poster from the original showing of the 1931 film of James Whale, “Frankenstein”? 6] You take a date to see the Bergman/Lynch Festival showing of “Persona” and “Eraserhead” and your date talks throughout the films. Later they say they found the films depressing. Do you tell them you never want to see them again in this lifetime? 7] Relatives drop in unexpectedly at your house while you are watching the newly discovered and digitally remastered Criterion edition of Lon Chaney’s “London After Midnight” and they ask you to change the channel to watch “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” reunion. Do you tell them to hit the bricks and never darken your door again or do allow this travesty? 8] You are at a revival showing of “The Buddy Holly Story” and they forgot to show it with the anamorphic lens which makes the people in the roller skating rink scene look 12 feet tall. Do you get up and angrily complain to the projectionist or just sit there like a bump on a log? 9] In a local newspaper there is an ad that a neighbor will be selling 100 of the finest films by Criterion for a buck apiece on the day you were to elope to Hazard, Kentucky with your beloved. Do you postpone the wedding to another day so you can be first in line at the garage sale? 10] There is a fire at your house. There’s time to either save your family photo album or your prized 8x10 autographed glossy photo collection of stars like Turhan Bey, Maria Montez, Alan Hale [both Senior AND Junior!], Whit Bissell and Franklin Pangborn. Do you go with the glossies or wimp out for sentimental reasons? 11] You’re travelling cross country and Monument Valley is way out of the way. You go anyway? 12] You take a film course and realize that your professor is a sham not being able to tell the difference between Doris Dowling and Gloria Holden or even Patricia Morison and Gale Sondergaard. You report them to the administration and stage a protest to deny them tenure. 13] You own the unreleased soundtrack with alternate takes for music for “Thunder Road” plus an autographed copy of the Robert Mitchum album with him singing calypso tunes. You were offered three-thousand smackeroos for it, which will pay for your long delayed dental crown. Do you take it? 14] You get a new puppy and your significant other wants to name him Rover, but you insist that his name should be Sidney Falco or at least Mrs. Danvers [in case he is transgender]. Do you win? 15] You’re on your deathbed. The attending nurse asks if you have any last words. You debate as to whether saying “Klaatu, barada nikto” or “Death is hard, but comedy is harder” would be more appropriate than saying “I’m sorry I was so whiny while dying”? 16] A trip to the grocery is not complete without buying some Little Debbie’s Snack Cakes since you think they support the John Ford Film Foundation which is rereleasing “The Searchers” in high-definition? 17] As a Hitchcock fan and purist, you refuse to see “Dial M for Murder” until you can see it in its original 3-D form? You feel the same way about “House of Wax”? 18] Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom” is you favorite film. You find it unforgivable that anyone not know that Karl Boehm’s real name is Karlheinz Bohm and that Anna Massey is Raymond’s daughter? 19] The students at Jim Stark’s Dawson High School in “RWAC” seem to have only one major course of study. If you know it was astronomy and not knife-play or chickie runs, say yes! 20] On the sixth viewing of Ed Wood’s “Plan 9 from Outer Space” you noticed that they used the same chairs for the indoor and outdoor scenes, that the tombstones are cardboard and they’ve used a shower curtain in the cockpit scene plus you’ve written a thesis on what constituted the previous eight plans from outer space that were abandoned. Give yourself two Yeses, if your answers were affirmative. 21] When invited to attend the Bud Cort Film Festival with all expenses paid at Radio City Music Hall, you only have to answer one question. Name his three most famous films. Did you say “Harold and Maude”, “MASH” and “Brewster McCloud”? Scoring: Count up your YES answers! 1-3 You might be normal as a human being with average movie yearnings. 4-6 A chronic film condition is progressing. Keep an eye on it for now. 7-9 Movies have now become a gateway drug. Institute rehab recovery plans asap! 10-12 As a seasoned movie buff you are past the point of no return. Take two Excedrin, call a shrink and sell your tv or monitor before it’s too late. 13-15 It’s now too late! 16-18 The darkness is overcoming you and noir hallucinations are beginning. You see Anne Shirley and you're not in Kansas or even Green Gables anymore. 19-22 It’s finally over and you may consider yourself a cinema junkie, a movie nutjob, a bonafide film fan and certifiable. Your only joy in life is watching the color sequence with the red blood in the sink, from “The Tingler” with Vincent Price but that is okay by you. Please post your scores here, unless you are being held in a strait jacket or similarly indisposed. Thank you for participating!

I'm sorry, Janet but being that I own the dvd of "Horrors of Spider Island" I must say it is anathema to talk over all the great scenes of dramatic intent that end usually in the girls removing major amounts of clothing. I'm sure if the MST crew got in front of the screen blocking such scenes of disrobing, that men here like Dargo Coburn, would be having a hissy fit. These films need no more additional dialogue or excising of scenes and it is like colorizing "Citizen Kane". Otherwise, I always love your posts!

Geez, Mr. 6666, have a heart! Did you have to go and put up that giant, digitally fine-tuned picture of that creepy little twerp, and here I just finished my breakfast, being that I like to sleep late and whose business is that anyway. Now I feel totally dyspeptic and out of sorts. Yikes, that chocolate donut seems to be coming back up now. Back in a bit!

Excuse me, dear darling Dargo! I never was implying that I wanted to compete with the asinine...I mean, cute little host of MST3000. Why, banish the thought! All I'm saying is that I don't need some sillyass helping me to find where the unintended humor is, in an awful B-movie. And being very hardline as I've said, anyone who talks over lines in any favorite Ed Wood film in my house preventing me from hearing the original line, is banned. And no amount of caterwauling about the good deeds perpetuated by the show, can change my mind. That would be tantamount to me, like someone trying to convince me of Mussolini's worth, by saying he got the trains to run on time. Of course, I think they've found that wasn't even true anyway. I bet a bundle if that cretin...I mean, pseudo-comedic commentator on MST3000, talked over any lines of Groucho's that you would be the first one on the firing squad!

You tell'em, Nip!

Thanks, TB! My favorite is the Maugham tale about Mr. Know-all.

I've never had the extreme pleasure to see a photo of our darling, Dargo. I assumed that he was the double of Groucho.

Yeah, but what about Murray the K, the fifth Beatle?

All well and good, Lawrence but I'm still for a drawn and quartering and a string that guy up Draconian necktie party.

Again, though you make brilliant points, as usual, Film Lover I'm afraid my antipathy towards MST3000 remains unabated. I'm sure you are all much nicer persons than I the curmudgeon, so are forgiving and can see good in many people. I, on the other hand, even when told Hitler was nice to children and dogs, still am not a fan. A woman friend of mine, by the way has a son who is friends with the host and she was in shock once when I said I hated the show thinking that it had old films, so of course I would enjoy it. I am deadly serious about my B-grade films being shown without additional comment by so-called comedians. Sorry I am such a Scrooge but ya know, someone has to be the bad guy occasionally. But I do appreciate your most astute comments in defense of the show.