LornaHansonForbes

I admit that once I figured out this thing was pretty bad, I didn't watch it closely, but I kept it on the television as I played internet chess, posted a few things here, did some light cleaning or something hell I don't know.... Anyway, as I recall it: Loy and Gable really do NOT have very many scenes AT ALL together, and again correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall there being any sort of music score whatsoever. Most of it was just scenes of old white guys having lengthy discussions about parliamentary procedure. Real hot stuff. Not a hint of Irish accent was attempted by even a single cast member. I swear even the Brits in the cast started sounding like they were from North Dakota. Did anyone stay around long enough for Gable's death scene at the end? It was about as close to a literal egg laying by a performer that I have ever seen in my life.

**** post? There was a **** post and I missed it? Damn.

Gable BOMBED in the final scene. Just ate it raw. WOOF!

Just went to Wikipedia and checked out a few facts about the film. It cost 1.5 million and made 1.5 million, although box office records for the time are somewhat spotty at best. It's included in the Medved book " the 50 worst films of all time and how they got to be that way." Joan Crawford was supposed to play the lead and Myrna Loy was supposed to be in "the last of mrs. Cheney", but at the last moment they switched roles because Crawford couldn't stand John Stahl and didn't want to do another costume picture. Moviegoers were so incensed by the movie that they inundated MGM with thousands of complaint letters. Director John stall played sad music to get Gable to deliver for his on screen death scene. Gable complained to Lombard about this and the next day Stahl I played the record " I'll be glad when you're dead you rascal you."

The weird thing is, for those of you who have seen the 1947 version of POSSESSED, it sounds exactly like the buzzing thatCrawford imagines in her head near the end of the movie, you know and she begins imagining that she killed her husband's first wife and the wife is haunting her? It sounds exactly like that buzz over and over and over again. God I hope I don't end up shooting Van Heflin ( which would be especially fruitless as he's been dead for about four decades.)

If Edna Mae Oliver can't save your movie, then your movie cannot be saved.

Yeah, it's pretty bad.

Note I am posting this using my phone so I don't know why it posted twice in the main forum. Moderator feel free to delete one of these threads.

I brought this up in the " I just watched " thread earlier this morning, but I'm sitting here now trying to watch "Parnell" and its bothering me more than ever. Does anyone else have this problem?: After the "whether you like it or not (and you better shut up and say you do because we don't care we're doing it anyway)" digital conversion, my picture has been pretty good, but on TCM ( and ONLY TCM) there is every 10 seconds a mid volume sound, much like a faint buzz saw going off. It occurs when I watch none of the other channels, although I admit I very very rarely ever watch any channel other than TCM, but it has not gone away on TCM and it's getting to the point where it's annoying me so badly it's affecting my viewing of the movies. The closest approximation of the sound I can give, is it sounds a little bit like the intercom buzzing sound you hear in old movies when somebody asks for their secretary to come in. Seriously every 10 seconds. Unceasingly. Only on TCM. I really ******** love having technology mandatorily shoved down my throat all the while being told how simple it is to install ( it wasn't ), how inexpensive it is (NOT. I've had to pay for TWOdigital boxes now because one would not work) and how much better everything will runz even though it seemed to me like everything was fine and damned dandy before. Disaster.

KINDA SPOILERS IN RE: SORRY WRONG NUMBER I can't help but feel as if STANWYCK only gives 1/3 of a great performance in SORRY, WRONG NUMBER- her scene at the end is bravura (of course), but I feel as if the real triumph in the movie is in her casting- the ending would not be such a shock with another star (of course, Barbara also does a delicate balance wherein she makes her character just unlikeable enough- but not so unlikeable- that it's obvious where things are going to end up.) but the film's script shows its roots in the fact that it's a 20 minute radio play fleshed out into something more- there are a lot of lethargic establishing shots or long camera pans (which in some cases, work really well ie- the scene where the camera leaves Stanwyck's bedroom and wanders down the steps of her townhouse and into the kitchen where we see the window through which the killer will gain entry. ) but basically, you can't deny that they packed this thing with some foam peanuts to make it come in at something over seventy minutes. combined with the fact that Stanwyck disappears for a good chunk of the last thirty minutes and that many of her early scenes are pretty routine stuff- and she's not very convincing in the scenes where she has to play a college aged Leona- and I can see how she didn't manage to finally win the Oscar for this, even though 1948 was a surprisingly weak year for Actresses in a Leading Role.

NOT A REAL TECHNICAL GENIUS HERE, BUT- One thing I can offer: Ever since THE FORCED DIGITAL CONVERSION THAT YOU WILL LIKE AND OBEY, my picture has been great- but that's about all I like. Your new remote (I know you needed another one to add to your collection of 5) that the CABLE COMPANY provides with your ALL-KNOWING AND INFALLIBLE DIGITAL BOX THAT YOU WILL NOT QUESTION takes dominance over your television and can control the volume. There have been a few times where I had the physical volume on my TV turned all the way up, but could barely hear it because the volume on the remote was down. combined with the fact that there's this stupid and distracting line at the top of the screen, a really annoying sound akin to a very feint buzzsaw that loops nonstop on the soundtrack to movies on TCM (and only TCM) and the fact that it cuts off subtitles, I'm less than thrilled with this WONDERFUL NEW INNOVATION AND FIX FOR SOMETHING THAT WASN'T BROKEN IN THE FIRST PLACE, NOW SHUT UP AND ENJOY OUR WONDERFUL INTUITIVE TECHNOLOGY YOU UNGRATEFUL LUDDITE!

SKAHL (SP?) is the guy who provides the audio commentary on the DVD releases of DRACULA.

the #1 problem with DETOUR is the thoroughly inferior performance of Tom Neal- who made far more headlines with his drunken antics (i think he almost kiilled Franchot Tone in a fight over a woman once) than he did with his acting. With a stronger male lead- someone who could play off the deliciously savage Ann Savage (which I like to think was pronounced "sah-vage") it would really be something to behold. in the end, the character he plays is such an petulant clueless idiot (as a result of Neal's sleepwalking performance) that any moral gravity DETOUR could achieve is severely undercut- especially as Neal completely flubs the whole "moral" speech at the end of the film (akin to the finishing soliliquies delivered by Garfield in POSTMAN or Macmurray in INDEMNITY, only minus any feeling, depth or inflection.) As you mention, it's not the grand noir tradition of society or fate lined up against the "Hero" that undoes him- it's his own stupidity. a far better title for DETOUR, courtesy of Neal's performance would be CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS IDIOT?! as it is, it's hard for me to dislike a little one hour film like DETOUR, and one that moves at such a steady clip...I like it because it's dirty and depraved and the fate of the thoroughly rotten female lead is one of the most satisfying comeuppances I can think of in films, but it's 100% Savage's film. ps- the director of DETOUR- Edgar G. Ulmer- is a minor cause celebre amongst film snobs as he directed the interesting, but nonetheless over-praised THE BLACK CAT for Universal in 1934 and was promptly fired by an executive for having an affair with his wife. since then, his narrative has become that of "a genius spurned by the studio system who wove indie gold out of no budgets" ... alas, most of his post-CAT films that I've seen do nothing to advance this narrative.

Not sure...but quite iften a radio adaptation of a film would air years after the film had first been released. The Stanwick / Lancaster radio version of SORRY WRONG NUMBER was done in 1950, two years after the film was released. So I imagine this broadcast of THE KILLERS came from the late 40's or early 1950s.

the transition of silent to sound would be a great Friday night spotlight topic. it could cover 1927-1936. 1928-29 are especially interesting years- if not for the quality of the films (which was actually overall kinda iffy to be honest) then for watching how they adapted to the the process of incorporating dialogue, movement, multiple conversations, scores, etc. as they struggled to master the technology and learned as they went. (i feel like early sound films are not aired as much on TCM as they could be. There are A LOT I haven't seen.)

i would ten thousand times prefer it if Sally had introduced SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT as an ESSENTIAL instead of NORMA RAE. PS- it's shown before on TCM as part of 31 DAYS OF OSCAR. PSS- No, I'm being serious.

I respect the hell out of anyone who loves either GRAND ILLUSION and/or RULES OF THE GAME, because I don't doubt the authenticity of that love for one minute, that said: I DON'T GET (or like) EITHER ONE OF THEM. "that said" that said... I adore THE SOUTHERNER, which Renoir directed in 1945 and am hard-pressed to think of a more accurate- or respectful- depiction of rural, agricultural life in all cinema. it is a great film and a masterful piece of direction. I guess being able to relate to something makes a big difference. (never been to war; haven't done much mingling with elite, but oh- I can totally distinguish what type of animal is responsible for whatever smell you are encountering on the highway.)

an example of a trivia paragraph (in this case one for LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN) on afi.com Note: On 22 May 1944, after Twentieth Century-Fox purchased the screen rights to Ben Ames Williams' novel, a HR news item speculated that the studio would cast Tallulah Bankhead and Ida Lupino in the film. An 18 Jan 1945 HR news item noted that Faye Marlowe had been "pencilled in for the role of the good sister," and on 6 Apr 1945, a studio press release announced that Thomas Mitchell would play "Glen Robie." Subsequent HR news items include Margo Woode and George Cleveland in the cast, but their appearance in the completed picture has not been confirmed. [..] http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=24478

Oh true enough, but I'm of the " Liberty Valance" school: sometimes it's more interesting to go with the printed legend. But it's really worth noting that those questionable facts on both websites are just copied and pasted in the trivia entries on the TCM database, which ( as a result of having the TCM name on it) give those erroneous copied facts an implied seal of authenticity. I do recommend the AFI database though, although it's only for certain films. At the end of every entry for their movies, there's usually a paragraph of various lengths with some really interesting trivia (true or not, i dunno. But then again, who does?)

TCM and this website do a lot of good things, but tcmdb and the biography information you can find on the movies and actors featured in them are not among those good things. Someone was supposed to be working on getting the information straight, but it doesn't seem to ever be happening. All this is information copied and pasted from IMDB and the AFI site, with some weak inaccurate reviews and a lot of incorrect facts. In the end you're much better off just looking up the film on Wikipedia, or IMDB, or the AFI database.

The BBC version of "Dracula" starring Louis Jourdan is- with the possible exception of the Coppola version - the worst version I have ever seen of the story. Unwatchable.

here are Lancaster and Shelley Winters (in the Gardner role) in a 30-minute RADIO version of THE KILLERS directed by Robert Siodmak: (NOT BAD, BUT AN HOUR WOULD'VE BEEN BETTER.)

they nearly all did, often times it was a way for them to show their versatility by doing roles they maybe wouldn't've been given the chance to do on screen (like Powell with SHADOW OF A DOUBT.) usually they did manage to secure the primary leads for most of the big name broadcasts: if you do nothing else, tune in at the 48 minute mark on this and make sure you listen to Barbara's immediate post-broadcast curtain call and interview: