useralx1172

The good news is that the other night TCM showed the 2000 restored version of Fritz Lang's famous movie. The bad news is that they once again listed the running time of the traditional, shorter version, 111 minutes instead of 121. They also started a few minutes late, so you probably lost the last 5-15 minutes of the movie depending on how paranoid you were. And really, how many people are up and watchign TV between 2am and 4am EST? Just think of all the hard work of people in Italy, Germany and Britain, who spent years combining surviving pieces of different negatives and positives to get us as close as possible to the original 124m length

Sure, mistakes due to bureaucracy, other administrative problems and simply human nature are unavoidable. But you see, there are mistakes and then there are mistakes. Some are minor screwups and pretty harmless. However, digging up an obscure gem and showing it at 4:30am doesn't do any good if the scheduling information is not right since few people will be watching it live. It will just serve to frustrate those who spent days on finding the movie, securing the rights and so on, not to mention those who wanted to see it. I think TCM may be better offer reallocating some resources to make sure that the schedule is as close to 100% right as possible. Another thing that comes to mind is that TCM sometimes shows more than one version of certain classic movies (like "Greed", "Touch of Evil" or "The Big Sleep"), which is great. There is some argument as to whether, say, the "overseas" version of "The Big Sleep" shown to the Armed Forces in 1945 is better than the final version which was released commercially a year later, but it's wonderful to have access to both version. Having said that, the schedule on the Web doesn't mention the version, which leaves one wondering which one will be broadcast. Sometimes the running times of the two versions (like in case of "Greed") are so different that they speak for themselves. But with "Touch of Evil" and "The Big Sleep" it's just a few minutes, if I remember correctly, so it's hard to tell. Do you think it would be possible to indicate which version will be shown? Thanks, Alex

While we have tcmprogrammer's attention, would it be possible to do something about the printable schedule on the Web site? Obviously, occasional screwups happens, but here is a little story that illustrates my frustrations. Last summer, TCM showed "Tarzan and His Mate" (1934), the first Tarzan sequel that was notorious at the time for its near-nudity and subsequent backlash. As it turns out, TCM had a wrong tape and aired the edited version, not the restored one as they had planned. They apologized and a couple of months later showed the whole thing, uncut. That was great except for the fact that the running time as published on the Web was still of the edited version, so when I got home two days later and hit the "Play" button, I had a movie without an ending on my hands. Two mistakes like that in a row are irritating, to say the least. Similarly, TCM showed a block of early one reel documentaries some time late last year which took considerably longer to air than promised in the schedule. That threw the timing off on a couple of other movies. Not a big deal if you are watching it in prime time, like the mistake with "Aliens"' running time the other day, but it can make a mess of your recording arrangements for overnight films. Anything that could be done to minimize these problems would be greatly appreciated!

I am 38. Interestingly enough, I was a much bigger fan of classic movies in my teens and early-mid twenties. Started with Max Linder and Charlie Chaplin when I was 10-12. It's not that I like classic movies any less now, it's just that I don't have the kind of energy that I had back then, I guess.

Well, he was a handsome young man and a popular singer, so it's only natural that he became a popular movie star. Having said that, Peter O'Toole's famous line "I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!" (in "My Favorite Year", 1982) apparently applies to most of Elvis' movie work.

I saw Judex about 10 years ago. As I recall, it was a fairly entertaining crime melodrama, complete with cliffhangers, disguises, chases and so on. A little simplistic in places (the big 'revelation' was blindingly obvious almost from the start), but you have to make allowances. Also, I thought it was a little slow at times, but that could be due to the fact that I saw the whole thing in one afternoon By the way, anybody know anything about the supposed sequel, "The New Mission of Judex" (1917)? Is it still around and, if so, can TCM get a copy? How about "Judex 34" (1934) and "Judex" (1963)? And while we are talking about Louis Feuillade, does TCM have any plans to show either "Les Vampires" or the Fantomas movies?

Personally, the appearance of newer movies on TCM doesn't bother me in and of itself. More than half the time I even agree that their presence may be called for, e.g. in the Hepburn case mentioned below. But on the other hand, I remember the time when AMC was more or less what TCM is now and I remember how their descent to their current deplorable level started. So it makes me slightly nervous whenever I see a "hip" movie from the last 10-20 years on Alex