EricJ
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Posts posted by EricJ
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On 1/24/2018 at 8:21 PM, Gershwin fan said:
The shorts are owned by Columbia who leases them to other channels. TCM does air the earlier non-columbia owned, Ted Healy and the Three Stooges shorts like Beer & Pretzels from time to time though.
Yep--There's your answer, all wrapped up with a nice big red bow: They're not only Columbia, but Columbia AIN'T LETTIN' EM GO.
Most of the Ted Healys, and their variety appearance in "Swing Parade", fell into public domain--along with "Disorder in the Court", "Sing a Song of Six Pants", and those four Shemp shorts--and that's about all most can hope for without buying the disks.
(And say, there's an idea--How about buying disks, instead of asking "When will TCM show them?" Or are certain posters trying to artificially show us how much they're TCM's Greatest Pals, or use the site as extension of their momentary inner thoughts?)
5 hours ago, Janet0312 said:We Want Our Mummy is mutilated down to a five minute slot. It kills me to even think that one of their best shorts has suffered this horror. But... ta dah! I just ordered the box set that CaveGirl mentioned. It will be here on Sunday and I will be in Stooge Heaven.
When they went to Crackle, Columbia tried selling five-minute "Minisodes" of their key properties--Basically the "Short attention span" Readers-Digest condensations of Stooges, Jeannie, Seinfeld, Fantasy Island, etc. Those were designed for Those Hip Young People On the Web, don't know how those actually got into TV syndication.
And if it's the officially Columbia-licensed chronological 20-disk set, indeed, you will.
Growing up, we got all our shorts on TV randomly, which meant local stations and kiddie matinees mostly showed the cheaper later Shemp shorts (where the plots were more slapstick and moronic with no Curly to carry the visual gags)--But taking the arc of shorts chronologically, I could see even Shemp had his own distinct style of humor. Joe Besser, OTOH, you knew they were shutting down soon.
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19 minutes ago, Stephan55 said:
Still nothing to get all worked up about as it was only a hollywood movie. Was told that the British effort A Night To Remember (1958) was a less flawed depiction of the actual event.
Was also told that the band did play for awhile, while the boats were being lowered, before the lights went. Probably an effort to keep the people still on board from panicking so much.I remember reading one account saying that the band played it after the captain's lifeboat announcement, to keep the passengers from panicking, as they exited the ballroom. At the end of which, there was a "great clutter of instruments" as the band headed for the exit too.
Still, I'll go with James Cameron's theory that they were playing it on deck, if it'll shout down the cliche'd old rich-bashing "Down with the ship" jokes from the last hundred years.
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43 minutes ago, CaveGirl said:
I was using "catch me if you can" though as wording that possibly the real Jack used in his only note to Mishter Lusk. The one about him taking someone's "kidne" that he "fried" and ate.
Y'know, I think we might be just a little TOO "jaunty" in our posting (like, Nipkow/spense level, if you, cough-ahem, know what I mean
) when every conversational joke has to be explained, followed by the other posters saying "....OHHHhhhh!"
We're glad you know things others don't, but that's also the problem with the other two named examples.
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2 hours ago, CaveGirl said:
Dear Boss...oops, I mean Mishter Eric!
Thanks, Eric and catch me when you can!(Preferably with a butterfly net...
)
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1 hour ago, jakeem said:
My favorite is "From Hell," the 2001 Johnny Depp-Heather Graham thriller based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Directed by twin brothers Albert and Allen Hughes, the film featured Sir Ian Holm as a sinister medical figure.
Which laughed at the same real-life "Royal theory" as used in arguably the best one, the Christopher Plummer/James Mason Holmes-vs.-Ripper Murder By Decree (1979)
...and then proceeded to use the exact same clues, and slap on an even more unbelievable screenwriter-ending.
(But then, in From Hell's case, that might have been the fault of the original source comic...Alan Moore, again, stomping on more British Sacred Cows because he woke up pi**y that morning.)
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3 hours ago, Sepiatone said:
2. Actually, POPEYE was just one of the MANY characters in the strip THIMBLE THEATER, that focused mainly on the Oyl family. But, it'll pass.
Although Robin Williams was doing a perfect 30's-Fleischer Jack Mercer imitation, most of the characters in Jules Pfeiffer's script were straight out of the comic strip, who rarely appeared in the cartoons.
With Bill Irwin making a few appearances as Ham Gravy, and Richard Libertini as Geezil, among others.
3. SLAYTON, I don't think The '40 Victor Mature movie, nor the '66 Raquel Welch flick had anything to DO with the B.C. comic strip.
No kiddin'? Seeing as the BC comic strip didn't start until the late 50's, that's a fair assessment to make about the '40 movie...
It's not like Slayton was making a funny, 'r anything.(Although we did eventually get animated B.C.:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAOz__o4KRg )
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18 hours ago, darkblue said:
I once took part in an impromptu séance with half a dozen friends gathered together, just hanging.
Cut up pieces of paper with all the letters and arranged them in a circle on a big coffee table. Placed an upturned drinking glass in the middle of the circle. Everyone placed their fingers on the top (bottom of the upturned) glass. One if the girls did the vocalizing, attempting to contact a spirit.
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18 hours ago, spence said:
WOW, no takers on this site, huh???
Um............NO.
Maybe we, y'know, just don't want to talk about it?
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And for the sake of tender viewers, let's NOT mention that 00's live-CGI hybrid Garfield, where they had to hire Bill Murray to replace the late Lorenzo Music as Garfield's iconic voice, just as Music was the only one who could replace Murray's voice in the 80's Real Ghostbusters cartoon.
It was fate.
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3 minutes ago, Mozart1791 said:
Are you not aware of the TCM lineup for today, Sunday 21 January 2018, 21st Century, Third Millennium? That is all the context that is needed today.
Ah, and Negulescu is the director, I see. Clears it up. That'll teach me for not looking up my IMDb.
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First, I wish they did a real life "Peanuts" instead of the 3D film that simply rehash old story lines.
After John Hughes' "Dennis the Menace", Hughes--who had a tendency to make the same movie over and over until something else became a hit--was at one point thinking of doing a live-action Peanuts, thinking "How hard could it be?" Fortunately, Charles Schulz was still alive to answer. (Unlike the posthumous Schulz-free CGI movie we eventually got.)
Which brings us to that Jimmy Fallon parody of the most psychotic bad decision CW ever made in trying to bring back Archie:
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2 hours ago, Mozart1791 said:
... is beyond any doubt the worst telling of that tragic story!!!
What can you say in favor of a ludicrous farce that is so deceitful and downright fallacious that it actually expects the viewer to be gullible enough to believe that the T's passengers--terrified beyond words at the prospect of a sure death in freezing waters--had the patience and presence of mind to stop, control their panic, and sing together a rendition of NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE that would have done the Mormon Tabernacle Choir proud???!!!
That, and a more coherent Titanic '52 thread already on the board (leading me to believe they aired it at some recent point), is the ONLY part of the post with which I was able to tell what the holy grade-A-US-inspected Sam Scratch you were talking about. Title especially included.
Between Mozart and Cavegirl, we've gotten an influx of "jolly" female posters nudging us with in-references, but let's not lose sight of Our Friend, Mr. Context...He's here to help!Always wondered, what exactly is tat and how does one trade it in for the other?
Tat? Oh, that's making lace. And two small birds are a pair of t**s, as everyone knows.
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4 hours ago, Dargo said:
Hmmmm...interesting here Eric, but I was always under the impression that in those Swinging London days of the Mods vs Rockers 1960s, it was the Mods who rode scooters and were more into the music, clothing style and hairstyles of the Beatles, than it was the Rockers who rode motorcycles and preferred listening to older Rock & Roll music and were still slicking back their hair as was stylish in the 1950s.
(...and as per how I recall The Who's Quadophenia film depicted the era
True, but the documentary still depicts the leather-jacketed Rockers as listening to the "primitive" beat of "Can't Buy Me Love".
After all, the Beatles just weren't Cliff Richards...
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21 hours ago, Sepiatone said:
"Mondo" as I recall, and probably thanks to that movie became the BIG "Catchword" in entertainment in the '60's.
Mondo Cane was the big, big thing even without its validating Oscar nomination, just on shock value, and yes, it was the coin-of-the-realm "catchword" on anything you could slap together and call "shocking!" (Until the 70's, where, if you wanted to sell cheap forbidden thrills, you just slapped "Emanuelle" on the title.)
Those lovable bottom-feeders at Amazon Prime dug up a few Mondos a month or two ago--Managed to catch "Mondo Balordo", which, apart from getting the day-dub from Karloff, didn't...seem to have a clue what it was Mondo-ing. (Cane was supposed to be "Primitive practices around the world", so, on reputation, the idea for everyone else was to stick some nude natives in the first ten minutes, and wing it after that if they wanted to keep the money-title.)
Another shock-doc Prime dug up was Primitive London (1965), which, despite predating Cane, was billed as a "mondo" movie with strippers on the poster (who barely get ten minutes in the movie), as it's still a plotless conservative docu-satire look at "shocking" society in pre-swinging 1965 London--Best remembered for documentary interviews with the Mods vs. the Rockers (the Beatles are used on the soundtrack as an example of the "decadent" music the Rockers listen to), and other things that must have seemed shocking in '65, like teen idols, swinger key parties, and...gasp...nasty political themed standup comics making fun of Harold Wilson!
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2 hours ago, CaveGirl said:While living in the city of Arkham in New England while I attended Miskatonic University,
....Yyyyyeah. It's fun to pretend, isn't it?
Ringu basically set the tone for 00's Japanese horror, in that it's basically the exact same mentality that made 70's demon thrillers so popular in the days of Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby:
An "abandoned" urban culture, after a traumatic social shakeup (Watergate for us, the economic Recession for them) covering up its frustration over social blight and national malaise with hip cynical sophistication and dismissal of tradition and religion, but unable to escape the "demons", NPI, that lurk at the back of their own cultural upbringing.Just as Catholics make the best horror films because deep down they believe all this stuff, where you can't escape the devil in a new real-estate fixer-upper, Japan makes better ghost stories in a country where they culturally believe spirits can still actually be personally PO'ed at you no matter how many cellphones you own.
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37 minutes ago, CaveGirl said:
Any movies involving seances you would suggest?
The one in "The Changeling" (1980) was considered the best one, until the spoiler-alert one from "The Others" (2001) redeemed a lame twist-ending.
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2 hours ago, shutoo said:
Carry On Regardless (1961)--First time I've seen this installment of the 'Carry On' series. The gang all work for Sidney James' employment agency, Helping Hands..they promote themselves as willing to do any odd jobs. This sets up a great premise that allows a lot of leeway for the comedy, and it is more like a series of skits than a one plot film. Kenneth Williams gets the funniest bits as a chimpanzee walker and an interpreter for a squabbling couple.
And a bit part for Stanley Unwin, speaking characteristically incomprehensible legalese.
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Despite Flash Gordon, and a few episodes of The Avengers and The Prisoner, I still remember Wyngarde mostly from a Monty Python reference:
As two housewives are reading their newspaper horoscope predicting a day filled with surprise celebrities, "'In the evening, Peter Wyngarde will declare his undying love for you'....EWWW!!"
QuotePeter Wyngarde, who graced so many movies and television shows, has died. His performances on a 1970s British detective series are said to have inspired the Austin Powers films.
As Jason King, the flamboyant detective in the television series that inspired Austin Powers
I will admit, I did not know that.
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2 hours ago, jamesjazzguitar said:
I just got back from my daily hike and I came up with an idea that might work.
For each category (award) each voting member is given 15 ranking points. They can select up to 7 nominees, assigning up to 5 points (best rank) to any one (but again, only maximum total of 15), and of course the minimum is 1.
Unfortunately, that's EXACTLY the new system that's been put in place since 2008: Voters select multiple nominees for their final vote, and votes are given points by ranking.
And it's backfired, in that if nobody can quite agree on what's the #1 Best Picture, there's usually a consensus about what the runner-up #2 Picture is, and that often receives more votes. And consequently, more points, which is how the #2 Picture often pulls ahead of the main favorite.
(See, I knew there had to be something wrong with The Artist beating Hugo and The King's Speech beating Toy Story 3!)
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1 hour ago, Sepiatone said:
Yeah. A lot of the "hated" movies others mention are on my "favorites" list also.
As I do in music, I too, also tend to dislike some movies that it seems everybody else just LOVES. At least those in my "circle". The ones that quickly race to the forefront are:
THE GOONIES, and DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN.
I am the voice in the wilderness who continues trying to tell an 80's-mythologizing smitten generation of under-30 kids with DVD players, that, oh, dear gods, did we loathe The Goonies when it came out.
Desperately baffled some people into thinking Susan Seidelman was some kind of "quirky postmodern directorial voice" at the time, but thankfully Rosanne and "She-Devil" put a stop to those delusions for good and all. Seidelman was last seen directing episodes of the PBS "Electric Company" remake, and it shows.
QuoteAs for "classics", everyone here already should know(and are tired of reading) how much I hate BRINGING UP BABY
Bringing Up Baby is okay, as Depression-era screwball-heiresses go, but the "wacky rich" characters of "My Man Godfrey" need to be committed to longterm psychiatric institutions with no possibility of parole.
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4 hours ago, NickAndNora34 said:
It might be worth it to try giving Monsters Inc a try. It is one of my favorite Pixar films.
That, and "D**n, we almost had Best Picture with Inside Out!" has already been noted in another thread.
QuoteAlso, you jogged my memory. The entire Cars trilogy deserves to be on this thread. One of Disney's biggest cash grabs (besides the Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars franchises), and has annoyed the you-know-what out of me ever since the 2nd film came out. I'm trying my utmost to be diplomatic here.
So....the "entire trilogy" except for the first one, then?
Oh, the ground's been so radioactive after Cars 2, there's just no hope for rational discussion on the series anymore. It's time to declare some amnesty, bury bodies, accept that the guilty parties have been punished, and move on.
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48 minutes ago, Arsan404 said:
It is show.Singing the Best Song nominees, displaying the Costume Designs, clips showing the editing in a movie, all were part of the entertainment. Theme from Shaft, for example, is a rousing number, one of the best in Oscar history; and I'm glad I caught Pharrell Williams and the Happy number because I love that song. It is along show, but a good host doing a good job makes it feel less draggy.
For example, the second year Jon Stewart hosted, the vibe was "I hate the Oscars, let's make this quick, like pulling a Band-Aid"--Pretty much EVERY single form of entertainment was cut to efficiency-expert speed the awards along, and the result was like watching a graduation line at some other school where your kids didn't attend. And when they tried to passive-aggressively parody "Famous clips montages" with a parody salute to "Binoculars in film", there was a pause afterwards before the laugh, as if the audience was thinking "What? Show some more of that!"
The secret to a good Oscar show vs. a bad one--hosts included--is to forget that a TV camera's even there. We're just voyeuring an awards banquet with a better-than-average entertainment budget, and if the folks in the expensive seats aren't entertained, nobody is...They're the first audience, and they get the impact before we do.
Now, as for variety/musical numbers, I'll be glad I caught Cirque du Soleil's '02 "Great Moments in Special Effects". That is my sole defense-rests argument in favor of Oscar entertainment, no matter how many whiners bring up that Debbie Allen "Dance tribute to Saving Private Ryan" chestnut: Good Oscar-entertainment numbers or montages MAKE you want to look up every single movie, that's why they show them.
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22 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:
Oldman should consider playing Alfred Hitchcock in a film--with a few tweaks to the makeup and hair and a slight change to his accent, he'd be perfect.
Especially if they make a better movie than the wretched mess that put Anthony Hopkins in "Hitchcock" (2012).
Music Box (1989) Greeted with mixed-to-negative reviews in the US when it was originally released, time has been kind to Music Box. What emerges all these years on is a strong, absorbing courtroom drama that is completely gripping. Jessica Lange and Armin Mueller-Stahl excel and the emotional impact (via the horrific tales in the courtroom and the ending) is undeniable.
It's good if you watch it by itself, but at the time, this was back when Joe Ezsterhas was still "the writer of Jagged Edge" (remember those days?), and he was pretty much running with that, even to the point that Music Box seems to be the exact same mystery--Consider if Jagged Edge had been retitled "Smith-Corona Typewriter".
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2 hours ago, CinemaInternational said:
Speaking of About Schmidt, Alexander Payne's next film Sideways had a very awkward nude scene too with a naked man, well into his 50s, running up to a car to the point that only his member could be seen....
Thank you for reminding me of Stellan Skarsgard's big "comic" moment from "Thor 2: the Dark World".
Although PG-13, what a proud, proud moment for Marvel comic-movie fans everywhere.
Growing up, we got all our shorts on TV randomly, which meant local stations and kiddie matinees mostly showed the cheaper later Shemp shorts (where the plots were more slapstick and moronic with no Curly to carry the visual gags)--But taking the arc of shorts chronologically, I could see even Shemp had his own distinct style of humor. Joe Besser, OTOH, you knew they were shutting down soon.
) when every conversational joke has to be explained, followed by the other posters saying "....OHHHhhhh!"
)
OSCAR INSANITY!
in General Discussions
Posted
Exactly--Why do they blame the voters for not having anything worth voting for?
That's like blaming the waiter when the restaurant runs out of food.