film lover 293
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Posts posted by film lover 293
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Stephan55--Your first concern is addressed in the "What I Learned on the TCM Cruise...", thread, post #19 and is quoted in post #15, paragraph 5 in both posts. As to your immediate problem, there is a forum you have to scroll All the way down the page to get to, "Problems With TCM". You may want to post there. Hope this helps.
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The 1966 version of "Madame X", starring Lana Turner.
"The Terror of Bar X' (1927)
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Please keep in mind also there are different Types of Classic movies:
Modern Classics--generally judged to be those made After 1970 and have stood the test of time (One Flew Over the Cuckoos' Nest, 1975, The Godfather, 1972) to name just two that immediately come to mind.
Camp Classics-- Easiest definition of "camp" is "failed seriousness". If you want more in-depth definitions and opinions, you can Google or Wikipedia the term--there are also Lots of books on the subject, maybe the most accessible and funny being "Bad Movies We Love" by two editors of Movieline magazine (admittedly, the book has been out over 20 years--but its' opinions are still funny. The author Joe Queenan has also published two or more books about "camp". For a more scholarly and focused (on the MGM musical) take on the subject, the book "Incongruous Entertainment" by Steven Cohan is good. So is Richard Barrios' "A Song in the Dark", a book on the transition to sound and the musical film, from 1927-1934; Not ALL of the musicals named qualify as "camp", but some certainly do (1929's The Singing Fool, for one example). How amusing you do/don't find these depends on your tolerance for stupidity, mistakes, dreadful casting decisions (Boris Karloff as a British accented Seneca chieftain in 1947's Unconquered, to name one), & numerous other factors. These "so bad they're good" classics can come from any year.
Finally about the years between 1960-1967--Films released during that time still had to deal with the Hays Code--it's my OPINION that films that dealt with the Production Code should be considered "classic--Yes the Code was weakening, but it had Been weakening since at Least 1953, when Otto Preminger released "The Moon Is Blue" WITHOUT a Code Seal of Approval, because the word "virgin" was used and the topic of virginity discussed.
In my OPINION, silent movies are also Classics, but there are others on this board who can argue that much more Authoritatively from a true scholar's viewpoint than I.
About the years 1968-1970--I'm not going to argue about three years.
BTW--Google any or ALL of this post.
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A very smart, very beautiful lady who didn't get credit for her brains. She outwitted the Nazi she was married to and escaped to America; during WWII, she and MGM composer George Antheil worked on a submarine detection system that was never patented by them. That eventually became the basis for cell phones. It's all in Stephen Michael Shearers' biography of Hedy Lamarr, or you can Google it. She was finally honored by a science foundation 3 years before she died. I believe she was posthumously named to the Inventor's Hall of Fame in 2014. She was much more brainy than her screen image.
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Not really:"The Scalphunters" (1968) is fondly remembered, at least by me. Burt Lancaster, Shelley
Winters, Ossie Davis and Telly Savalas in a funny Western that has to do with race relations. Very funny--would be So happy if TCM would show it.
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SELLERS, PETER
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WATCH ON THE RHINE
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SEPTEMBER AFFAIR
NEXT; RNTO AIUTCRN
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QUINTE, MIRJAM
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FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933)
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Jerry Lewis
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You're correct, starliteyes--Your thread.
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I saw seven films last week. "The Mouse That Roared" (1959) is a delight about The Duchy of Grand Fenwick declaring war on the United States, in order to lose and qualify for Foreign Aid. There's a great gag in the films opening titles, & film rolls from there. Peter Sellers is in three roles. "Slaughter Trail" ( 1951) has a soundtrack Leonard Maltin hates--but it sounds like The Sons of the Pioneers, with bad lyrics and an occasional zinger mixed in. Soundtrack aside, ST is a delightfully Stupid movie, where the Soldiers operatically fall & die before the arrow hits them, the conniving leading lady kisses a highwayman & leaves Very noticeable lipstick behind, and nobody comments, Andy Devine wails away with the soundtrack for a chorus (Thankfully, No More), one Indian has one arm painted, the other is not--A marvelously idiotic film, for fans of the silly.
"It! The Terror From Beyond Space" (1958) is a surprisingly enjoyable 1950's low budget sci-fi film. There are the expected howlers, (a frisbee for a planet? star?), but there is also a good script, OK acting, and a monster that isn't bad. Those who have seen "Alien" can play "cut and paste" with ideas--ITTFBS used at least two first.
"Love Crazy" (1941) is a Powell-Loy farce I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't seen it--a very funny film. "Norma Rae" (1979) was an Essential--Sally Field and the film are very good, as is the theme song "It Goes As It Goes; "Marie" (1985) was good, with an excellent performance from Sissy Spacek; wasn't her fault the script was predictable. "Quentin Durward" (1955) was a sillier than usual Robert Taylor costumer, with the witty Kay Kendall in support. A correction--Kendall very clearly says "rooms" ,not "runes", as I'd wondered in an earlier thread. I'd stayed up too late and was silly from trying to stay awake. But today I noticed--Kendall makes all the decisions in the story--Taylor spends the film chasing after her, & getting himself out of trouble.
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MovieCollectorOH--replying to your post of 4:55 p.m. today--Sorry to be late posting, but I didn't know the 1930 Good News was unavailable in complete form. Anyway, in the thread "Why the Golden Era", on bottom of page two or maybe page three by now, where you posted a 1929 number called "I've Got My Eye On You", after number finishes, click on bottom right corner to get "The Varsity Drag" from 1930's Good News. The number is Badly undermiked (is that a word?) and the dancing is louder than the leads' singing, but number is fun and energetically silly: when the three neon mascots appear, watch them.
Edit: One of the six choices will be a black and white "Varsity Drag" from the 1930 "Good News."
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DownGoesFrazier--There are degrees of dislikability. From where the characters have just two or three flaws, and you still find the film interesting to fascinating--to where all main characters except the one who disappears in films' first fifteen minutes are pond scum, and the viewer doesn't care what happens to ANY of them--and the viewer wants the film to END!
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FredCDobbs--You can have the Sybil Jason films: I'll watch The Nicholas Brothers in "Down Argentine Way" (1940), "Orchestra Wives" (1942), "Stormy Weather" (1943), & "The Pirate" (1948),
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"Detour" (1946) on Youtube--Good camerawork, OK heroine(?) who sings at nightclub film flashes back to in first five minutes--but the main male character (I sure can't call him a hero), is "dumber than dirt' (as a Y. comment called him). Every decision that HE makes--not Fate--gets him into his predicament(s). Everyone he chooses to associate with is a crook. Only other comments that is he spreads his pessimism like a virus (the flu, etc.), and at 68 minutes, the movie's Endless. I'm obviously missing something(s), as I don't see how this film rates being called a classic (except for camerawork). .
P.S.--I like film noir(s), and this is the first one I Hated!
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NipkowDisc--The frisbee I referred to is a planet or star in the opening shot(s) of the film. I referred to what "professional, paid for their opinions" film critics refer to ITTFBS as. If you read these boards it's obvious I Don't always agree with them! I guess I wasn't clear enough in My opinion--that for a low budget, 1958 sci-fi movie, I found it much better than its' reputation and a pleasant surprise to see. I said that Alien (1979) stole idea(s) from it. I was complimenting ITTFBS, not putting it down. The monster was well thought out and well executed, for the budget. Hope this is Clear I found ITTFBS a pleasant surprise.
BTW--I like the music from 2001, but that's about it. It's not a favorite.
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ITTFBS is obviously low budget 50's sci-fi, with all the howlers of a small budget--frisbees as stars, supposedly metal objects are paper--but the idea for the film, & the script (allowing for lapses) isn't bad. If you've seen "Alien" (1979), you can mentally cut and paste ideas from ITTFBS into Alien. ITTFBS is ranked as a camp classic, but the film is executed just well enough to keep it from being a total howler, with the extra kick of trying to "match the idea" to Alien. At 68 minutes long, ITTFBS is an enjoyable example of low-budget 50's sci-fi, that has the strengths & weaknesses of the genre. JMO.
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Add to those Ann-Margaret, Sir Sean Connery, Sir Ian McKellen, Faye Dunaway, Joanne Woodward, Barbra Streisand, Dustin Hoffman, Sidney Poitier & Robert Wagner--they all debuted in movies before 1970 (Woodward, Poitier, Connery & Wagner in the 1950's). Hope this helps.
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I read TCM's article on "I Am Cuba"; film sounds like a propaganda piece BUT it also sounds like a cinematic landmark in photography techniques. According to the article, Martin Scorsese & Francis Ford Coppola both wanted this film restored & shown. The New York Times 1995 review of it said" it suggests Eisenstein filtered through "La Dolce Vita" with an Afro-Cuban pulse." With the camerawork recommendations plus that bit of a rave review, let me be the next person to recommend this.
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Once again, Thanks to the Mods who cleared the "Game..." & "Off Topic" boards.
Edit: "jandy11" & 1107 yolandaspax were tonights' spammers
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FARMER, FRANCES
X Marks The Spot
in Films and Filmmakers
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Ollie TSB--I found "Terror (1927) while doing searches through TCM's database--I should have thought if the title would be available for you.
As for the 1966 "Madame X"--Production values (jewels. gowns, etc) are great, but Lanas' performance is Not one of her best--except her final scene, where she just Nails it.
Edit: "Brand X" (1970)--looked it up in the TCM database--sounds like an early version of Saturday Night Live skewering television. click" read full synopsis" to read one paragraph.