lzcutter

> I was shocked when it came to me, epiphany style, Jacks, The same with me. My embarrassment comes from the fact that I've seen *LoA* numerous times prior to 2006, most of those on the big screen. But it didn't click with me until MrCutter and I were watching it on TCM back in 2006. They had a number of Ford westerns on that winter and we had been watching them so that probably helped!

Jacks, Your post stirred something in my memory and it took awhile to find it. But I wrote this in a thread back in 2006: Lest anyone think I'm crazy about David Lean, watch "LoA" again. Those wonderful wide shots of the deserts and the treks across them and even the battle scenes all have that Ford influence. http://forums.tcm.com/thread.jspa?threadID=78833&start=50&tstart=0 Am glad that others see it, too and I'm not crazy!

James, Yes, I read the editorial and I read John Horn's front page column about the film. The bulk of the editorial was about the merits of the film being the basis for its win. The editorial went on to point out the critical and laudatory response the film has received since its debut. The Times editors also pointed out that it was a difficult film to get produced. After recapping Ellen's joke, the editorial then went on to talk about how Hollywood shouldn't shy away from producing films with difficult subject matters. To me, the Times editors came squarely down on the side of the film winning on its merits (along with a shout-out for Hollywood to continue to produce films that aren't necessarily feel good stories for the entire film) and that gave less credence to Ellen's joke.

>They imply 12 Years won because of merit AND white guilt I read the editorial in yesterday's paper along with the front page column by John Horn about *12 Years* and read the editorial as endorsing the idea that *12 Years* won on its merits and that Hollywood shouldn't shy away from making films on difficult subject matters. Meanwhile, Horn wrote in his column that the film may have won because of both merit and white guilt. Either way, I would hate to see this thread take a turn into modern politics and become an argument over the merits of white guilt, Obama, the Oscars or political parties in Hollywood. Because that usually leads to a locked thread and Michael telling us all to cool it.

Glenn, Be sure that if you pop-ups, they aren't getting in the way. The link works fine for me on Chrome and Firefox. The tours appear to be all sold out but word on the street is that TCM will have an announcement either just prior to the Festival or at the FF regarding passes for the Tour. So, don't give up hope yet! But, do see if those pesky pop-ups are getting in your way. A couple of people had that problem and once they figured that out, were able to get to the page. See you in a little more than a month!

>How many times has he been SOTM? June is his first time being a SOTM. He was honored with a SUTS day back in August, 2006.

Via Chris Willman, Novak got a dose of celebrity in the age of the Internet when she appeared at the TCM Film Festival in April in Los Angeles. "A headline screeched, "What Has Happened to Kim Novak's Face?," accompanied by photos of her looking - not "unrecognizable" as the Internet said - but different from the way we remember her. The question mark was superfluous because Novak, who is disarmingly candid, would have explained what happened had anyone asked. She wanted a fresh look, but "I didn't want to do anything major." A doctor suggested fat injections to add fullness to her face." "That was absolutely crazy when I think about it now. You spend all your time trying to get rid of fat. I love the hollow kind of cheekbone look," Novak says. "So why did I do it? I trusted somebody doing what I thought they knew how to do best. I should have known better, but what do you do? We do some stupid things in our lives." She wasn't the first person and she won't be the last one to take a doctor's advice and end up with a different outcome than you anticipated.

TCM has unveiled their 20th anniversary video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSi2gGQoefQ

>And so, I still say IF a person is confident in their own skin, they'll not only likely continue doing the things they do best regardless of age, but will also continue to project a more appealing "face" to the world. Dargo, Whether we agree with Kim's choice or not, did she really deserve all the vitriol she received via social media in the last 48 hours? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/03/03/kim-novak-sparks-twitter-snark-fest-immediate-snark-backlash-after-oscars-appearance/ She has never been very confident in her own skin. Look back at her history at Columbia where Harry Cohn frequently referred to her as fat, had her put on a special diet, her teeth capped, her hair died blonde and her name changed. One of the reasons she left the biz was because she was ill-prepared to handle the cost of stardom. She is a cancer survivor and also survived a bad fall from horse back riding a few years ago. Who are we (even Donald Trump took to Twitter to take her to task) to sit in judgement of her looks or the reasons why she made the choices she made. She starred in some of the most beloved movies of the l950s and 1960s and rather than salute her for her role in that, we (the societal we) felt the need to remind her that all these years later, we are capable of acting as badly as Harry Cohn once did. Why should an appearance by Kim Novak or Liza Minnelli be any different than an appearance by Olivia deHavilland or Maureen O'Hara? The only difference is we deem them more beautiful and so we (again, the societal we) don't feel the need to judge them as harshly via social media.

>But I was still surprised Ellen made that joke right at the start. If a voter honestly felt a movie other than 12 Years was the best picture, implying they are racist isn't really funny Nor was her "joke" about Liza Minnelli. Guess Ellen wanted to show she could be as edgy as Seth MacFarlane. Unfortunately, with social media being what it is today, Liza and Kim Novak took a beating on Twitter, et al, because of their looks. And we wonder why so many older classic film stars prefer to stay out of the limelight and turn down requests for on-camera interviews. Not really all that surprising especially in light of what happened to Liza and Kim.

*12 Years a Slave* had been championed as a Best Picture candidate from the day the film debuted last year at one of the film festivals, Cannes or Telluride, I can't remember which one. As the months went by, it became the film to beat for Best Picture because the film offered that now-a-days too rare a combination of good script, good directing, good acting, good film making all coming together to creating a memorable, emotional film experience. Did the seriousness of the subject matter play a role? Yeah, it's possible but no one can say with validity how much. But if someone thinks that the reason the picture won Best Picture is because Hollywood doesn't want to be perceived as racist or Hollywood wanted to be politically correct, they are choosing to overlook all the other factors that played into the film being a top contender from early on: it's a memorable, emotional piece of film making that strikes a deep chord with audiences.

>This year, Eva is sitting down for a chat during the festival, so I am sure her remarks will be replayed either during August or during a month-long tribute to her. TB, Eva Marie Saint's *Live From the TCM Film Festival* interview was recorded during the 2013 Film Festival. The debut of that interview is later this month. I don't think TCM has announced yet who has been chosen for this year's interview during the FF. But from the guests announced, it should be someone interesting!

The Hollywood Reporter is on record as saying that the modern red carpet (which we will see this afternoon on the pre-show broadcasts and the official pre-show) is now 16,500 square feet of carpet.

>Well TCM showed the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie yesterday and it has a nude scene (one that features a school age teen character), and it was shown on the west coast before 8:00 PM. James, It may have been because the original rating for *Jean Brodie* was only an M for Mature audiences. Almost all R rated films on TCM are shown after prime time hours.

>Downtown is also home to some of the great old movie theaters of Los Angeles. Most are now closed, but one or two may be open to see inside (we're talking gorgeous, folks, back when the theaters were magnificent pieces of architecture!). Peter, On a side note, the Last Remaining Seats schedule has been released (though tix to the public don't go on sale until April 9th. The Los Angeles Theater, the Orpheum and the UA theater that is now part of the Ace Hotel are all participating!

>"Together"? Do they actually sit there together and watch the film along with us? No, it was meant figuratively. They film the wraparounds the same way they film the Robert O and Ben M intros/outros. Usually across 5 days of filming. As to your earlier point about supermarkets in the City of Angels, Ralphs was founded in 1873 and became a pioneer in self-service markets and checkout stands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1928, there were ten stores around Los Angeles with the most famous one being in Westwood. In the 1930s, the market included bakeries and creameries and in the 1940s they added delis and other in-store conveniences we still have today. By the 1950s, there were over 100 Ralph's around the Southland. Despite the larger supermarkets, small neighborhood markets, like the one Phyllis and Walter met in, were still very popular through the 1960s.

>But why do they use a carpet outside? Is it to protect & show off the gowns, especially those with trains? Or is it simply a glamorous Hollywood tradition? Calamity, While it is a glamorous tradition, it is one that has only been around since about 1961. But it does add glamour and helps make the event special. At least that was the idea before it became identified with "who are you are wearing". And, yes, they use it outdoors to help protect the gowns and keep them from the elements and the less than pristine walkway from the limo drop off to the interior of the Hollywood and Highland entry.

>Also, in the past I could search and find a movie and have TCM send me an email reminder. Is that feature still available? Where do I find? Becky, Welcome back! If you go to the TCM Database, (which you can do at the top of the page where there is a search window), you can type in a movie title. It will bring up the title. Be aware, if the film has a remake, the database will bring up the titles for all versions, so you have to be sure to click on the version you want. Click on it and it takes you to the main page for that film. If the film is coming up on the TCM schedule sometime in the next 90 days, you will be able to click on the word, Reminder, which will be to the right of the screening time and the words Only on TCM. >Finally I spent 15 minutes trying to find "The Stunt Man" with Steve Railsback in TCMdb. Good movie from 2006 IMHO. Couldn't find's it until I tried just the word "stunt". What's with that? Anyone else frustrated or is it my fat fingers? It's not your fat fingers, it's the way it was entered into the TCM database. Whoever, on TCM's end, entered the details for the film, entered it as *Stunt Man, The*. Because they put the "The" at the end of the title, if you enter "The Stunt Man", the database isn't able to bring it up. Hope that helps!

The TCM Film Tour of the City of the Angels has been announced and free passes are going fast! http://www.tcm.com/20/ A three hour tour that includes stops at Union Station and the Bradbury Building! Check it out and get your passes soon!

Both the Academy Awards red carpet as well as the Grammy's red carpet are made from recycled water bottles. The Red Carpet is not a short piece of carpet but a long 600 ft. walkway that begins at the limo drop off area at the corner of Hollywood and Highland, goes past the bleachers of fans and into the Hollywood and Highland complex, up the big staircase to the Dolby Theater. It gets walked on not only by the stars attending- their handlers, the press including between 75-100 photographers and almost 400 tv press personnel, the nominees, guest and those who have tickets to sit in the upper echelons of the balcony as well as the various broadcast hosts from a variety of networks that cover the Oscars pre-show event. The Dolby theater seats 3,300 people and the Oscars play to a full house. The carpet goes down on Friday and comes up Monday morning. Until Sunday, it is usually sheathed in plastic to avoid damage but work crews prepping for the arrivals walk all over the plastic sheathed carpet. In addition to being 600 feet long, the carpet is 33 feet wide, so it is no small piece of carpeting. Depending on the weather, the Oscars are not guaranteed a sunny day and in previous years, everyone on the red carpet has had to deal with rain. This year may be no different as a cold storm is expected in the City of Angels over the weekend. Also, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences does not own the red carpet. They, like other Awards organizations, rent the carpet each year. From a financial stand point, that makes sense considering they only need that red carpet once a year. They don't have to store it, (imagine the space needed and that space could be used to store artifacts in the Academy's collection), they don't have to have people on staff to deal with it. They call the Red Carpet rental company they do business with, tell them what they want and pay the bill for the work done. Here's some images to give an idea of the size:

According to the database, there are no encore performances scheduled in the next three months. I think this film, like *Heaven Can Wait* (the Tierney version), won't be in major rotation on the schedule the way some studio films are. I think there may be the occasional screening of it in the months ahead but probably not as much as posters here would like.

>But, I have noticed before a dog bed on the TCM set? Where's the doggie? The dog bed is on Ben's set. Ben is a dog lover and owner. When they revamped his set about two years ago, they included the dog bed because of that. The dog that Ben owned back then died the closing night of last year's Film Festival. From what I understand, Ben has healed from the loss and now has a new dog.

Filmlover might be able to help you, FredC. He's a big fan of the film.

>What do the little circled numbers mean on some of the blogs? Not sure what you mean... Are you referring to the TCM blog, Movie Morlocks? Posts on this message board or just blogs in general? Any chance you grab a screen cap of what you referring to? Edited by: lzcutter on Feb 25, 2014 5:22 PM

Robert Wise began as an editor at RKO. Mark Robson cut *Cat People* before becoming a director. Don Siegel began as a montage cutter ( *The Roaring Twenties* ) at Warners before becoming a director. John Sturges began his career as an editor before moving behind the camera. His credits at IMDB include an uncredited stint on *Gunga Din* though I don't know how factual that is. Anthony Harvey cut *Dr. Strangelove* before directing *The Lion in Winter*. Robert Parrish was an assistant editor on *Grapes on Wrath* and cut John Ford's WWII documentaries before directing *Cry Danger*.