EricJ

O-kayyy.....To ACTUALLY try and answer the question: ? The first two (the Movie and Great Muppet Caper) are owned by Disney, the third and fourth (Manhattan and Space) are owned by Sony, and the post-Jim Hensons (Christmas and Treasure Island) were after Disney bought them back again. Labyrinth continues to be one of Sony's house darlings, while The Dark Crystal may be back with Disney again...It's all confusing. Not sure which of those applies to TCM, but Sony Columbia films have been turning up more lately where the "unwanted" films turn up, so if any of them have or do show up, you're probably more like to see Space and Manhattan than the others. And at least "Muppets Take Manhattan" was one of the "real" Muppet movies, unlike the bitter in-house Beatles-breakup that "Muppets From Space" ultimately turned into.

Not to mention that the pre-Code outcry over Edgar Ullmer's "The Black Cat" pretty much finished off Universal Horror's popularity with the public, and made the supernatural a box-office-taboo word at the studio. Most of Universal's, quote, "horror" output without the Laemmles after that was generic "Old Dark House" thrillers--with comic elements added, for Scooby-Doo value--with Bela Lugosi reduced to playing just generic red-herring sinister butlers and gardeners. The "Vs." monster-mashups were only after Universal was reduced to showing the Classic monsters to matinee revivals, and discovering that they had B-movie value with kid and teen audiences. At which point it became a B-movie industry at the studio, with budgets and production value to match, until the Jack Arnold "Universal International" days of the Creature From the Black Lagoon. Although, of course, we've already had the thread that explained why FMtWM feels so disjointed and that there's a lot more Wolf Man than Frankenstein in the finished product--After the studio cut out the major subplot continuing Lugosi's talking Ygor-stein Creature from the end of "Ghost of Frankenstein". It's a nice idea for a monster-mashup, and good points for intent, but like certain Warner DC Comics mashups, you wish for a do-over that had all its ideas worked out before they went in.

Roger Ebert reportedly owned one of the two prop (SPOILERS) rescued from the fire, and...can't remember, was it Steven Spielberg who owned the other? It's the one Movie That Millennials Fear (with "The Seventh Seal" coming in second, followed by "Forrest Gump" and your choice of Oscar-winning documentary), because nobody ever seems to academically rhapsodize about anything except Welles' "revolutionary" use of editing ("Merry Christmas, master Kane..." "...'And a Happy New Year'"), the B/W cinematography in the opera house, or the fact that Welles put ceilings on his sets. Which unfortunately puts them in the mind that that's "all" that Grownups ever talk about when they pick a Great Film, so just stick with Big Lebowski, Office Space, and Princess Bride. But what folks never get around to mentioning is just how good Orson is at digging the snarky irony out of Herman Mankewicz's script, and making Charles take as much of the stinging social-criticism barbs in later life as his younger self dished out. You CANNOT watch the iconic scene of Candidate Kane's hypocritical speech next to his 200-ft. poster ("My opposition has launched a series of attacks on me"), and not think of Trump parallels.

Streisand was funny as a Brooklyn Jewish Girl in the 60's and 70's of "Funny Girl" and "Hello Dolly", because she had enough humor to play herself as realistically New Yawk and comically over the top for late-60's/early-70's comedy and Broadway. By the time she did "Funny Lady" in '74--which was also about the now career-established Fanny Brice turning into a ruthless self-promoting businesswoman with an entertainment empire--art was starting to imitate life, and we were on our way to the rampaging Barbara-Zilla of the South Park episode. (The one we got in "Yentl", which would have been a better movie musical if anyone else had been allowed to sing in it.) And while I don't absolutely loathe Katherine Hepburn in BAB as much as other posters--or at least to the murderous degree I hate the "wacky" family in "My Man Godfrey"--her complete lack of any motivation for WHY she's such a looney will test your ultimate patience for 30's Screwball Comedy.

You do know that the song has absolutely nothing to do with sex or the Bangkok trade, don't you? ? (Hint: It's sung by an int'l chess champion in the Abba musical, and the queens he uses would not excite you.) When?--I wasn't aware she was sick. Although I remember a BBC series analyzing Shakespeare, that paralleled the weak "God shall defend his king!" inaction of Shakespeare's Richard II with Margaret Thatcher's stay-the-course belief that loyal England would rally to her side during the Vote of No Confidence that drove her out. (How Meryl Streep handled it, I haven't got around to renting.)

I'll admit I tried to watch it, along with "Monsignor", as part of a series on "lost" John Williams scores. (Er, the Oscar-nominated song was good, but...) But after the sustained insufferable cutesiness, which was excessive even by early-80's rom-com standards, I gave up after ten or fifteen minutes. English issues aside, Pavarotti LOOKS like he should be a better actor than he is. From what I saw, if they wanted to show a "cute" gag showing Pavarotti's hinder, at that point, it wouldn't surprise me. ?

The goal of most awards is to give awards to EACH OTHER--Simply because nobody else outside the industry knows what work merits one as intimately as those inside the industry. They don't televise your office's Employee of the Month winner, but if you work there, it's nice to have. The Golden Globes, for example, was started as a way for press columnists to show their loyalty to the studio-system publicists, which is why nobody cared about them until we couldn't think of our own nominations anymore and got onto our big fantasy-baseball "Oscar buzz" kick. The Tonys could be considered "marketing", since the whole point of televising the musical excerpts is to give people outside of NY a peek at what they could come to town to get, but once Neil Patrick Harris opens his audience-schmoozing mouth, it's back to the private industry get-together again.

(I'm old enough to remember the NBC Conan O'Brien episode where they premiered Triumph, where he was meant in context of an actual joke. That was a long time ago, and I'm pretty sure nobody else today does, least of all R. Smigel.) Michael York and Pia Zadora, which I always found a bit odd. Brian Froud on the disk commentary mentioned showing Dark Crystal to kids, and often heard the reaction of "Cool, what is this, it's not CGI?" I'm assuming the stop-motion of Ray Harryhausen, Lotte Reiniger and, ahem, Henry Selick's Halloween movie are disqualified, as we're talking about puppets with real-time movement. (Also, I remember being trapped in a theater watching Lotte's shadow-puppet animation "Baron Munchhausen" movie with an audience when the winter heat went out, and...I'd rather not relive those memories, thank you.) Oh, well--Moving right along:

...What would Nurse Chapel think?? ?

If I'm ever in court, can I get out of it by charming their better natures with a big "Aww..." feel-good speech directly to the jury about why it was the right thing to do, like at the end of all those 80's comedies? (...Can't I even bring in some sick kids, like at the end of "Patch Adams"?)

I'm not sure whether I want to dig up the YouTube conspiracy theorist who complained that now that we have Oz on pristine 4K restored Blu-ray, we can now SEE, in crystal clarity, that the "hanging" Munchkin was actually the same African crowned crane who was strutting about and flapping its wings near the house during the Tin Man's song: It would be disappointing to say that technology had permanently robbed us of a favorite old urban-chestnut, so, never say die, the theorist was trying to float the theory that Warner had altered the scene with CGI for the Blu-ray, to try and bury the suicide evidence once and for all! (And what were his compelling arguments?: A) "They can do that now!", and B ) "The old shot was totally different!--It always looked like one on my fuzzy old VHS, years before!")

Pretty much even the most basic Trek fan knows that Spock once had the very violent hots for T'Pring, back when he was feeling his Vulcan-ritual oats. Can't say I blame him, but she just as asexually turned out to be a politically manipulative schemer. As he told the better Vulcan man who won, "You may often find that having a thing is not as pleasing after all as wanting it...It is not logical, but true."

The "Triplets of Belleville" theme was also a lively defense of the Best Song number: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w6IAXW3qe8 Oh, and I DID already mention Cirque du Soleil's '02 salute to great moments in Best Visual Effects, right?

I'm going to have to agree with Tiki on this one: Anyone who abuses the Text Color and Capitals feature usually ends up attacked by a Wookelar.

As was Pilobolus on Ellen DeGeneres's '07 hosting: (Which I always put second to Cirque du Soleil's '02 appearance as evidence-for-the-defense toward Why to Leave the Entertainment Numbers IN.)

I'm curious about looking up some of the old "70's Mainstream TV Tries to Do Watergate" miniseries based on all the hit post-jail autobio bestsellers (yes, I'm THAT desperate for good old-fashioned Old Skool 70's TV that Hulu won't show), back when few people literally understood what the heck had been going on, and it took "All the President's Men" to FAQ-101 it to them--No one even remembers the TV miniseries of The Final Days, except for 70's SNL doing a hilarious Dan Aykroyd parody of the book's excesses. Sadly, no "Will" on YouTube, except for isolated clips of Robert Conrad, although you can find "Blind Ambition" in some back corners if you look. As for Nip, Lawrence, you're catching on: It's not that he posts recommendations for anyone else, he just.........posts. And Fire Maidens is much better downed with the obvious chaser:

I don't know, seeing Dean's sudden bursts of Method Acting in his films--Filmstruck's Twitter page has had fun comparing Dean's "You're tearing me apaaart!" in Rebel to with Tommy Wiseau's from "The Room"--puts one in mind of what happened to Marlon Brando ten or twenty years after "Stell-laaa!" Except that Dean didn't quite seem to be as ambitious to play against his own real-life brooding-delinquent-who-stumbled-into-acting personality, and probably wouldn't have played Shakespeare's Marc Anthony quite as well. Monroe was aware that she didn't like glamorous concocted studio images--always sardonically joking about "her"--and she was curious to break out into more challenging projects to play against her image but didn't quite know how to do it, especially if her Acting Institute coach wasn't around. Even when all her other smitten directors were starting to give her less glamorous and more sympathetic parts like "The Misfits", just to see her natural offscreen personality emerge in casual clothes. Watching Fox's restored "Something's Got to Give", she's still not quite on the beam for playing a fast-paced dialogue comedy, compared to trouper Doris Day in "Move Over, Darling"--Doris could move on to 60's comedy and TV sitcom, but Marilyn in "Let's Make Love" looks like she feels she still "has" to do breathy-earnestness and suggestive musical numbers.

Y'know, it WOULD be just like Pope Francis the Hippie to decide he's going to finally dissolve the Vatican and make it a democratic collective... (And I'm a Protestant who means that as a compliment. )

Of course, if there WAS a thread about Edgar Allen Poe, mention would have to be made of Jeffrey "Re-Animator" Combs doing some of the most dead-on biographic portrayals of Edgar's troubled Maryland absinthe-drinking ne'er-do-well days--Most notably in a Showtime "Masters of Horror" episode as well as onstage:

According to the story (at least on the "Electric Boogaloo" documentary), Menahem Golan--yes, it's an 80's Cannon picture--went in saying "Get me those Monster guys! We need to get them all together for one of those Monster pictures!" He was surprised when they got Price, Lee, and Cushing together, and associates later suspected Golan didn't realize that Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre were dead, and that's why they hadn't been seen in many films lately.

As they also mention in the docu-feature, Henry Daniell was clearly no Basil Rathbone at the dueling sword, which explains why most of Sea Hawk's final duel has a high degree of cutaways, long shots, silhouettes, and stunt doubles with their back to the camera. But if Brenda Marshall was clearly no Olivia de Havilland, Flora Robson's Elizabeth I was no Bette Davis, and I mean that in the good way.

Okay, so I got a year off...Nitpicker. Would it save the last six paragraphs if I just used the Edit button?? ? Numbers corrected, the point still stands: Boy, did every showoff THINK they knew what an Oscar film was "supposed" to be, other than just the darn best and most competently made in its genre the studios could produce that year. Black Panther isn't a great Marvel movie, but at least it's no "Thor: Ragnarok", and if you had to put one commercial movie up this year to show the industry and posterity how to make one, you could do a lot worse. (We still have Globies keeping an "Oscar watch" on Lady Gaga's movie and the Mamma Mia sequel.) Although it does relate to jakeem's "A Beautiful Mind" comment, as '02 was the year the Academy, wowed at the last minute by a late December Oscar-run release, thought that the "Heartfelt, visionary, mindbending" ABM "should" have been the Oscar front-runner, and that Fellowship of the Ring was "too commercial". When the craze cooled and they regretted it almost immediately later, the whole discussion turned to "Oh well, it's a trilogy, let's give the award to ALL THREE, two years from now..."

Finally got around to The Sea Hawk, and as their featurette critics point out, Flynn seems to be playing it with a game wink to his audience of "Do you believe this either? " They also point out the story was clearly skewed as a pre-war Britain-vs-Germany metaphor, with Spain "out to conquer the world" (and never once mentioning Elizabeth's parentage), and Flora Robson's Elizabeth I finally coming around to Flynn's idea that maybe Spain can't be appeased and might be building an Armada to attack, after all. Still, hadn't seen too many vintage studio-water-tank privateer epics, and was struck by just how much a game, jolly Flynn pre-influenced the style of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies--A good transitional for those trying to get their kids into watching B/W.

The issue is, why NOT Black Panther for Best Picture? What's the embarrassing stigma that requires "apologizing" for it as a mass-market commercial movie? (Aside from it being overpraised and not really the best Marvel, but then "Up" was never exactly the best Pixar movie either.) Whether it was ABC's cheap Disney plug or not, has the Academy, complaining that they've "typecast" themselves into dreary Sundance indies and wanting to get out of it, feel that it's too "embarrassing" to go back and put a Marvel movie in as one of the year's "best" commercial films? (I put "best" in quotations, for obvious reasons.) I remember the Oscar betting pools in '04: Oh, you just TRY and tell someone back then that "LOTR: Return of the King" was the far-and-away front runner for Picture...And watch everyone turn into snooty backhanded-cynical Oscar pundits saying "Oh, the Academy hates fantasy films! It's too commercial for the mature voters, and it'll be seen as too escapist!...It only got nominated for its half-billion box office! They've given the award to Clint Eastwood too many times, and Sean Penn is Oscar gold, your smart money is on Mystic River!" Oh, did I wait dearly for that Tuesday morning, and all the rich payback I knew even from the start I was going to reap. Never was it more truly earned. ? Was Return of the King the best movie of '03?--YMMV. Was it the best of the original Peter Jackson LOTR films?--I wouldn't put it first, since that would still be Fellowship, but then, the other half of the pundits were saying "Yes, even if the Academy does regret giving '02's award to 'A Beautiful Mind' instead of 'Fellowship of the Ring', they're probably going to make a symbolic gesture of giving an award to all three..." (Which is why nobody minded when Chicago beat Two Towers...Well, almost nobody.) Do I, however, object to the idea that a big-budget fantasy film was ushered into the Best Picture pantheon?--Not. A. Bit. I've always seen BP as some cross-section representation of every great movie Hollywood can make, from musicals like Sound of Music, to war pictures like Platoon, to comedies like Annie Hall, to even horror movies like Sixth Sense making the nomination cut. (Few others truly deserved to.) If superhero movies, especially Marvel ones, have now been a part of American movie culture for ten years, why wouldn't the best one show up for a nomination at least once? I've often thought that if Toy Story 3 had just broken out and given Pixar a notch in film history with the Oscar in '10 like its supporters wanted it to--before "The King's Speech" made its usual last-minute Miramax grab--history might be very different today.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2018 They won't have to say it, THAT'S the movie they're trying to push for the Oscar the whole evening. And don't think they won't try to get the second one, too, and get the third out of its own category lock.