Vautrin

Live by the Christ parallel, die by the Christ parallel. If people are going to stick to that idea, they are liable to be criticized by showing that Klaatu differs from Christ as much as he is similar to Him. No Joseph or Mary, no flight into Jupiter, etc. And not to take it too seriously, but Klaatu looks to be older than 33. I think either Ben or his guest pointed out that that line was added so it wouldn't appear that Klaatu had the power of life and death that belonged solely to God and not some alien in a shiny spacesuit.

Yes, if Jesus had Gort around he'd (Jesus) still be alive today. I enjoy seeing the Christ parallels that some people have put forth, but I don't take them too seriously. Klaatu didn't change water into wine or bring back another person from the dead. And as he says, his own resurrection is temporary where Christ's is permanent. I just see him as a man from another planet with much useful knowledge, a concern for others, and a sly sense of humor.

Or the more things change....One reheated dish of Cold War paranoia. Even though he's only a character in a movie, it's hard not to admire Klaatu.

Getting back to the movie, I love the scene where the radio interviewer is moving down the rope line asking people questions about the man from outer space. When he reaches Klaatu he says it's a bad idea to substitute fear for reason. Boy it that microphone quickly moved away.

All in good fun. Nothing wrong with folks voting. Do it early and often.

It's really the other way around. Going to the local polling place on election day is slumming.

True. Though when it comes to my definition of noir most of what I would include doesn't have much to do with life experience, it's more akin to slumming.

Planet annihilation is pretty depressing, but in a certain way it's a mass phenomenon that people can't do a lot about. It's not as individually terrifying as having a couple of hit men out to kill you at any cost. I think it's just that I have a different definition of noir than you do, which is okay both ways.

I think I get the gist. Noir is not a genre or a certain set of plot elements but a visual style. I would disagree with that, though not completely. While some of the scenes in TDTESS are noirish, I still see it as a sci-fi film. Another thing that's interesting is that the old style Noir Alley type movies deal with the dark side of human nature while sci-fi films often deal with non-human aliens, though the human reaction to the aliens is also part of sci-fi films.

Please sit down, Mr. Klaatu. I have several thousands questions I want to ask you. The first is, can you do anything about my hair?

Plus getting a lot of gray hairs. Yep, being engaged to a Cartwright was pretty much a death sentence. If I recall it correctly though, Joe married a woman but she was killed shortly thereafter. Ladies, you've been warned.

While TDTESS has some noir visuals I still think of it as a sci-fi film. I didn't watch it last night as the FMC has been showing it a number of times over the last month or so. My favorite line is when Jaffe asks Klaatu how he knows his theories will work. Well I find they work well enough to get me from one planet to another or something along that line.

That could be, though on the other hand Gunsmoke took a while to convert to color in 1966. Yes, Bonanza always dealt with other issues than mere gun fights. From what I recall, the Cartwrights were kind of tough hombres at the beginning of the series but they mellowed over the years.

For whatever reason Naked City flew below my radar. Or around it. I had heard of it of course, but that's about all. I would like to see it, especially as it's a show I've haven't seen. Yes a lot of those actors you mention show up on many of the TV shows of that time. It's fun to see them as young actors just starting out. I just saw Shatner doing a commercial for CPAP machines. Anyone have a bunch of oily rags? The hour long episodes of Gunsmoke do have a lot of additional elements that have little to do with two fisted action, but I still like them. Doc is always a kick. Except for Kitty he couldn't get along with anyone. Some are also on the pessimistic side, where Matt doesn't come to the rescue every time. Insp has been playing The Virginian for a number of years. They have so many commercials that you're no longer truly watching a 90 minute show.

That's the first one that popped into my mind and off hand I can't think of any others. I never saw the TV show on the first go around and I don't think it was syndicated very much. There are eight million stories in the naked city and 85% of them should have been clothed.

Not Zelda Fitzgerald? His girlfriend's name was likely more common than Zelda. He said he went with a bunch of his buddies and after he got his they all chickened out. Lesson learned. The tattoo certainly stood the test of time.

I had never seen this one before. Sure it was your typical police procedural, but nicely done for the most part. And the newbie college educated guy teamed with the shoe leather veteran officer is not original either, but it was fun to see the two of them bouncing wisecracks off one another. Naturally they were on their way to becoming pals before the end of the picture. From what I could gather, the woman was killed by her first husband because she was a scam artist who took advantage of people. I never realized that was Patricia Berry, either by her looks or her voice. She was in scads of TV shows during the 1950s and 1960s. I did recognize Jack Lord, who had a few brief scenes as one of the cops. Even back then it was easy to recognize his helmet hair. Book 'em. My dad got a tattoo in New York during the war. It had his girlfriend's name on it with an arrow going through the background. Well, he found out his beloved was "stepping out" on him and ended that relationship though he kept the tattoo.

No problem. Sometimes I will read parts of a thread and come back to reply much later. I wish the "old" AMC was still on.

Yes, but you didn't mention Macys and Gimbels and that makes all the difference.

Did Macys used to celebrate Gimbels? Of course not. TCM is a business. You don't expect them to brag about a former competitor. I remember TBS used to show studio era movies on the weekends and late in the evening on weekdays. Of course they had commercials.

Maybe that's why Cobb left the series before it ended. "Damn it, I'm sick and tired of picking up that gd Drury every other episode. If he was a method actor I wouldn't have minded, but he thinks he's just playing things naturally." Personally I don't go with the vertigo theory. Drury wore the same pants and vest for so long they became slick and he couldn't stay on a horse or a bar stool.

I don't know if there was any connection in the case of The Virginian, but it is certainly noticeable in setting the mood in certain scenes. Even funnier in that it's transferred to a bunch of cowpokes riding around in Wyoming.

A lonely semi-psycho big city cop has to be sent upstate to try to calm his violent tendencies (IRL at that time he likely would have been given some sort of medal). There he runs into a temp-psycho seeking to kill his daughter's killer with his big old shotgun. Despite that premise, things turn out fairly well. The big city cop, with the help of a blind woman, learns to chill out and relax and the daddy is brought to his senses after the death of the killer. I liked the rural locale of the second half of the picture and Ida's house was a nice cozy place, gemutlichkeit galore. Granted the ending was kind of corny, but that's okay. It also struck me that at least some of the local yokels on their hunt for the killer were just as dangerous as any big city crook. I've noticed while watching certain episodes of The Virginian that the music bears a striking resemblance to some parts of the Vertigo soundtrack. Weird.

That's for sure. Route 66 was just one of many. I doubt it took very long for the experienced TV viewer to figure out where things were headed about 90% of the time.

I agree it was on the depressing side, even though we're about 99.9% sure that Buz will regain his sight, you feel sorry for all the residents who won't. It was Barbara Barrie who played the woman who fell in love with Buz. Hard not to fell a little sorry for her too. I just saw Barbara on an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show where she tried to sell Murray a piano and maybe more.