cmovieviewer

Dangerous Crossing (1953) is a modest but entertaining noir/suspense film starring Jeanne Crain and Michael Rennie. The Fox Film Noir DVD also has an interesting 9-minute Behind The Scenes featurette. If you are going through a bit of Robert Osborne withdrawal as I am, you will enjoy seeing a somewhat younger Robert who is featured in the BTS explaining how the studio system could inexpensively make the film by re-using sets and costumes from other productions (some nice examples are shown). Eddie Muller also briefly appears discussing some of the noir aspects of the story. The film runs a brisk 75 minutes and together with the BTS is very enjoyable.

Finally got back to watching my Ends of the Earth recording, and I enjoyed the film very much, thanks for the pointer. Love the semi-documentary approach. It looks as if the producers put a great deal of care into showing the details of the smuggling techniques and the various locations around the world. Must admit I am a Dick Powell fan and this was a good one!

Thanks for your reply Gerald. Are you referring to the Criterion partnership that was announced recently? (Thanks to Barton_Keyes for posting this info.) I am also interested in seeing how this develops. Sounds like perhaps it will be similar to the Warner Archive streaming service which opens up their library to on-demand viewing. I must admit that I do have concerns if this will reduce the showing of Criterion titles on TCM, which I do enjoy. Hopefully they will continue to allow TCM to show the occasional Criterion film. I have also read here that TCM is currently supported as a pay add-on channel for the Sling TV streaming service, so TCM seems to be dipping their toes in the water of direct streaming.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/26/technology/charter-time-warner-cable-bright-house-cable-deal.html?_r=0 How does this relate to Turner Classic Movies, you may ask. Not to bore everyone, but Time Warner Cable is probably the largest cable company that so far has not supported the WatchTCM service. Now that this deal has been approved, those of us who are TWC customers may finally have hope for gaining access to TCM movies streaming over WatchTCM once Charter and Time Warner Cable are merged. (For those that may be unaware, Time Warner Cable was separated from the company that runs Turner Classic Movies a while back, so they are independent from each other. It did seem strange that TWC as a former partner of TCM did not support TCM streaming.)

I found this lovely photo of a young Mary Astor on the interweb: I sure didn't see anyone that looked like this in The Scarecrow.

One film I saw recently on TCM that may qualify for this topic is Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It (if you are not looking for an exact match with a clinical definition). I was also reading on the message boards that the Diane Keaton film Looking for Mr. Goodbar is scheduled on TCM in July. Haven't seen it yet but it may qualify as well. Surprised the message board auto-censors that term, since it would seem that just mentioning it shouldn't offend anyone.

Thanks Hibi and Lawrence for your replies! The Wiki page for The Scarecrow (1920) also says that Mary is uncredited in the film. I have my doubts too, but I couldn't see TCM including it in the tribute if Mary wasn't in there somewhere. ???

The first film shown for TCM’s tribute to Mary this week was the Buster Keaton short The Scarecrow, which is supposed to be Mary’s film debut. After watching the short, I see only two female characters in the film - the farmer’s daughter, played by Sybil Seely, and an “old woman” sitting on the porch when a pie is set out to cool. Here’s a picture: Does anyone know if this is Mary, or am I missing something? If so, she must be heavily made up (and padded), since she was only 14 years old at the time! Not exactly a glamorous debut!

If you are a fan of The West Wing television series, then Allison Janney conducting a press briefing at the White House is the ultimate example of life imitating art: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2016/04/29/allison-janney-west-wing-white-house-press-briefing-cj-cregg/83706046/

Spence, I think that is referring to a new DVD catalog that TCM is mailing out on a monthly basis (I've received 3 of them so far). I'm assuming that since I'm a subscriber to the Now Playing guide, they may be using the same address information to ship the catalogs to. If you've purchased something in the past from the TCM Shop, that may qualify you as well, but just guessing. The catalogs are really quite extensive, with full pages devoted to DVDs for specific stars and movie genres and various specials they are running. They also have some tie-ins with specific themes/stars that are appearing on TCM that month. Given the supposed budget cuts I'm a little surprised that TCM can produce such a catalog, but if it makes additional sales then I guess it can pay for itself.

Another fine program from TCM. Sophia's son did a nice job with the interview and I really like the way they add the movie clips and photographs afterwards to provide a reference for what is mentioned. It is a somewhat bittersweet reminder that Robert Osborne was not present at last year's film festival (I'm assuming he would have done the interview had he been there, but perhaps not), and now he is missing his 2nd in a row.

Thanks both of you for posting this info. Coincidentally, I see that TCM has a MoMA double feature on May 22, with To the Last Man (1933) and Of Stars and Men (1961) currently scheduled. In the Now Playing guide the first film was originally listed as Wild Girl (1932), so there apparently has been a change in the plans...

I also enjoyed the 1947 western Wyoming Kid (aka Cheyenne) starring Jane Wyman that was shown on TCM back in September. The film is credited as being more 'adult' than your standard western, and is a great deal of fun along with some great b&w cinematography and able direction by Raoul Walsh. May I also say that I think Jane is especially lovely in this one and she does well with the comedic elements of the story.

Awesome, thanks for posting! I think that's what's known as a night and day difference with what is currently being shown. To be fair, TCM is to be commended for upgrading the quality of the movies they show over time, so perhaps FC will eventually follow suit.

As we discussed a while back (I think it was when the web schedule was not retrieving the director/star information properly), they have missed an opportunity to add a 2nd banner at the top of the listing which would describe what the daytime theme is, similar to what is done in the banner for the "What's On Tonight" section. Yes, the daytime theme is available in the Now Playing guide, but it would be nice to have it on the web page as well. This would also help compensate for the removal of the voiceovers after the end of each movie that described what was coming up.

While we're on this topic, may I add how great it is to see someone as enthusiastic about the films as is Richard Kind. He is obviously a big fan of TCM and was completely forthcoming with his answers to Robert's questions and had clearly thought a lot about the films he selected prior to the interview.

I saw the introduction to Frenchman's Creek this evening, and all Ben said was something to the effect that the evening's movies were 'carefully selected' by Robert himself. There was no explanation of anything else. Although I can't say the specific date, I know this has happened before with Bob's picks, because I had the same reaction then as I had tonight - when this happens I wish Ben could offer some background as to why Robert has chosen the films to be shown. This is the very question that Robert is always sure to ask the guest programmers prior to every film they select. Instead Ben just proceeds along as if this is just another movie among the 10s/100s/1000s that he has introduced before. In addition to why Robert picked the film, I would also be interested in if there is any common theme/thread that connects the multiple movies that Robert has selected (any common actors, directors, writers, etc.) or were they just picked separately. Also, do any of the movies have a special significance to Robert's past or a special feeling/interpretation that he has about the movie. Without this type of information, the selections could just as easily have been picked by another anonymous TCM programmer.

Robert did make an appearance in a feature on the CBS News Sunday Morning show on Oscars Sunday and he looked fine (thanks to HelenBaby2 for posting the notice of this program). Of course this feature was prerecorded, so not sure how long ago this video was actually shot.

Thanks for the identification! In my defense, the Now Playing guide has the movie The Sid Saga (1985) following Bon Voyage instead of The Decline of Western Civilization Part III and Over the Edge. Serves me right for not looking at the online schedule. (Looks like we will still be able to catch The Sid Saga documentary on May 21, assuming the schedule doesn't change again.)

I'm stumped as well. From the look of the image and the hair styles and clothing, I'm assuming it's a film from the '70s or '80s. I looked through the program guide for March and didn't see any such 'recent' movies that seem to match. Perhaps I'm missing it or possibly the schedule was changed after the video was made? The actress looks a little like Molly Ringwald but I don't think it's her and I don't recognize the actor either. Hope someone else can help.

Here's a link to the 2014 'Final Cut' blu-ray version of 1973 Wicker Man that discusses how the 94-minute run time was arrived at in this edition. http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Wicker-Man-Blu-ray/39569/ It's a real bummer that so many of the anticipated rare titles are being removed from the TCM schedule (the recent W. C. Menzies titles Trick for Trick and Wharf Angel come to mind).

Not sure I understand the disappointment you have with TCM. I do agree that Flash is a disaster, however to use WatchTCM I thought you had to have a cable subscription, so it's really just an adjunct service so far. (Can you use WatchTCM if you pay for TCM with Sling?) I'm in the minority I guess because I have TCM through Time Warner and they are holding out forever in refusing to support WatchTCM, so I can't try it out. What I've seen on these boards leads me to believe the picture quality is not very good, which would probably be a deal-breaker for me anyway. MovieCollectorOH is possibly referring to the near extinction of support for Flash on mobile platforms, however on PCs we can't seem to get rid of it as there are still many sites that won't change until they absolutely have to. I do think the long game is for TCM to ultimately have their own streaming service through Roku / Apple / Amazon that we could all subscribe to à la carte. (HBO has this type of service, for example.) As more people drop cable due to ever-increasing fees, I would think the backup plan would be to have your own subscription service ready to go. There does seem to be a no-win future - people don't like expensive cable packages, but when you price out some basic package together with a few options it's still expensive.

LHF, The current Wikipedia page supports your statement that the movie has become public domain. To quote the relevant section: - In 1945 Capra and Riskin sold all rights in Meet John Doe to Sherman S. Krellberg's Goodwill Pictures, a New York distributor. While in Goodwill’s possession the original camera negative deteriorated due to poor storage and was eventually destroyed. Copyright in the film was not renewed and it fell into the public domain in 1969. - The Library of Congress created a fresh preservation negative in the 1970s by combining Goodwill’s surviving 35mmm prints with the Warner Bros. studio print. - Poor quality copies of Meet John Doe have proliferated on home video for years, sourced from inferior quality prints, while the restored LoC print remains in storage. In 2001 Ken Barns' Laureate Presentations undertook a digital restoration of the best available European print. This was released on DVD by Sanctuary in the UK and by VCI in the US. To date these are the best quality commercially available releases. Perhaps what TCM is showing is some incarnation of a Library of Congress print. Normally LoC would put their restoration stamp before/after the film, but due to the rights issues perhaps this is an exception. Regardless, for those who want to watch the film the TCM version is now greatly superior to anything else.

Thanks for pointing this out and for posting the nice clip. I missed it today so I'll have to wait for the next showing - seems like TCM usually has it on during the year-end holidays so maybe I can catch it then.

Perhaps you already know this, but I thought I should mention that you can use AirPlay on the iPad to 'share' the iPad screen on the TV if you have an AppleTV device (either 3rd or 4th generation version). I realize this is probably not an optimal solution for you. I think many of us are hoping that TCM will produce an app for the 4th gen AppleTV that has similar capabilities to the iPad/iPhone app and allow direct streaming from TCM to the AppleTV without using AirPlay.