lzcutter
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Posts posted by lzcutter
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>Still, has the subject never arisen of Robert Osborne travelling to Paris to do a TCM interview with a friend with whom he apparently speaks every Sunday?
Tom,
There were reports last fall that an interview would take place but since then reports from various sources indicate that the plans didn't come together as anticipated.
I think the catch there is Olivia actually wanting to be interviewed about her career and her life. She's made a few overtures over the years but it seems when it comes time to actually do the interview, something gets in the way.
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"Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding."
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
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Tom,
There was hope that Olivia would be up for traveling from France to the City of Angels for this year's Film Festival. With TCM celebrating the 75th anniversary of *Gone With the Wind* with a screening, that added to the hope.
Olivia seemed to be leaning in that direction as well. But a few weeks ago, she released an announcement that she would be unable to attend.
According to an interview she did recently, the time difference between the two cities (not to mention the travel) is rough on her and she has a hard time adjusting to it. In the interview, she talked about how, when she returns to Paris, it takes months for her body to adjust to be backing on Paris time.
While disappointing for many, the festival fans seem to be taking the news well.
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Geraldddd,
My response to FredC about facts was in response to his post basically saying facts didn't matter about why there were no films from the 1990s shown on TCM in January 1995 (and that was because prior to 2004, TCM concentrated on films from the 1920s-1980s.
I wasn't commenting on anything but that so not sure where you got the impression that I don't care about the west coast viewers. Heck, I am a west coast viewer.
I am one of the people who doesn't want to see TCM affect a hard line deadline of no films past a certain date. I love movies from all decades and am glad that TCM plays silents, studio era and modern films (and my posts through the years have reflected that.)
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Emma,
You will have a great time at the Festival!
Here is a thread that should help answer some questions:
http://forums.tcm.com/thread.jspa?threadID=172504&tstart=0
As for your specific questions-
> if there are any tips that can be shared regarding entrance into screenings. For example, I would love to attend the screening and discussion with Margaret O'Brian....how difficult is it to get in ? would I have to wait in line hours before the screening ?
Part of the answer depends on the type of pass you have- if you have a Spotlight pass, once the theater is open for seating, Spotlight pass holders are the first admitted, followed by Essential pass holders, then Classic, then Matinee.
There are movies that run simultaneous all day and into the evening. There will be screenings at Graumans, three smaller theaters in the Chinese theater complex, the Egyptian and possibly the El Capitan.
There will also be interviews and panel discussions at the same time in Club TCM at the Roosevelt Hotel.
Making decisions about what movies to see when will be hard. And it is always difficult to gauge what movies will be the most popular.
In the four years I have attended with a Classic Pass, I have been successful at seeing the movies I stood in line for.
A good rule of thumb is to get in line at least 30 minutes early. If you think the screening is going to be very popular, I'd allow an hour.
There will be volunteer staff who will be passing out number cards. Once you have your number card, you can leave the line, go sit down, go the snack bar, bathroom, etc.
When you return, you get in line by your number card so essentially you don't loose your place in line. Just be sure to be in line before they start admitting people to the auditorium so that you enter with your number group.
Looking forward to seeing you in April!
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Joel McCrea had three sons, David, Peter and Jody. No illegitimate daughters that I know of.
Are you sure you aren't thinking of Clark Gable and Loretta Young and their daughter, Judy Lewis?
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>Didn't Maureen move to Idaho (or something like that) within the last couple of years? That would make it much easier to get to LA than going from Ireland.
Yes, Maureen is now living in Idaho with her grandson and his family.
And Idaho is much closer than Ireland to Hollywood, thankfully!
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It comes down to the rights holder. Up until now, the rights holder has either not been willing to lease the film for broadcast airings or the price asked for is beyond TCM's programming budget.
However, with the film coming to the TCM Film Festival in a few months, perhaps, this means that progress is being made to resolve that situation.
TCM has aired rock concerts before like *The Last Waltz* and other 1960s musicals, so there is not really a reason beyond the rights as to why they haven't been able to broadcast either *A Hard Day's Night", *Help!* or any of their other films.
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I think my brain saw Jerry Lewis and interview and shut down after that!
Would love for it to be Maureen O'Hara if she is up for it.
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Sorry, I realized after I wrote _this_ post originally that I confused a reply by obrienmundy for a post by Fred.
Edited by: lzcutter on Feb 5, 2014 2:00 PM
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>I don't need to read any statement from 20 years ago. Because I know what I saw on the air 20 years ago. And 15 years ago, and even 10 years ago.
So, I guess we shouldn't let facts get in the way of your argument, huh?
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Wolfie,
For some reason, I thought it had been announced that Jerry Lewis was getting the *Live from the TCM Film Festival* interview this year.
Did I dream that?
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>NONE from the 1990s, 2000s, or 2010s.
FredC,
That's because in the first ten years they were on the air, they focused on films made between 1920-1989.
Here is their original mission statement:
"Turner Classic Movies presents the greatest movies of all time, from the 1920s through the '80s-- featuring the silent screen, International pictures, as well as all of Hollywood's genres--commercial-free, uninterrupted, 24-hours a day."
They amended that statement when the network celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2004 to include movies from the 1990s (and they may update it this spring when the celebrate their 20th anniversary).
And for the record, studio era films were made well into the 1960s, so those films should not be part of the percentage for the modern films of the 1970s-2000s.
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April will mark the third time that Wayne has been SOTM. The first time was in Sept. 1998, then May 2007 (which he shared the honor with Katharine Hepburn as both were celebrating centennial birthdays) and now April 2014.
He was honored with a SUTS day in the inaugural monthly tribute in August 2003, August 2004, August 2005, August 2006, August 2009, and August 2012.
In the ten years that TCM has been doing SUTS, Wayne has been in over half of them for a total of six times.
He is one of TCM's most popular stars.
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>There was a film festival last year in April, yet they still managed to have a traditional SOTM for Laurence Olivier.
True, but there was no milestone anniversary celebration last year either. This year there is.
>And I'm sure they could have arranged the fan programmers week to leave one day open for SOTM. I've seen other months with several week-long events going on in which they still managed to have a traditional SOTM.
They could have but TCM traditionally celebrates events like Fan Programmers over successive nights so they may have preferred not to interrupt part of their anniversary celebration with a night off.
I understand that you are not happy with the schedule for John Wayne's SOTM and I hope you are able to enjoy as many films as you can.
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TCM is celebrating it's 20th anniversary in April this year and has 20 fan programmers sitting down with Robert O to introduce films. This happens the week before the Film Festival.
The Film Festival coverage begins on Wednesday, April 9th and goes through Sunday, April 13th with live reports, interviews and segments from Hollywood. The programming compliments the FF line up.
On the evening of April 14th, TCM turns 20 and celebrates this milestone with the same film line up as they debuted with in 1994 (and includes an encore presentation of Robert O's "Private Screening" interview).
So, with all of that going on in the first two weeks of the month, that may be why John Wayne's salute is being done the week of April 21st instead of throughout the entire month.
Between the anniversary celebration and the FF in the first two weeks, it doesn't leave many open days to schedule a traditional SOTM salute.
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Kari Bible, cemetery guide extraordinaire, posted this on Facebook this morning:
"Hello. I'm the tour guide at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and I will be giving tours on Wednesday, April 9th at 12pm and Monday, April 14th at 10am. The tour will feature a veritable line up of TCM stars including Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. & Jr., Marion Davies, Peter Lorre, Nelson Eddy, Cecil B. DeMille, John Huston, Hattie McDaniel, Jayne Mansfield, Vampira, Fay Wray, "Alfalfa" and many more!"
For complete details, log on to http://www.cemeterytour.com
She knows her history and FF patrons have raved about this tour.
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>What if we raise a collective shout and try to get TCM to work on getting it released? I'd definitely like to see it.
slayton,
Good news, TCM has been working with Bogdanovich to find a copy of the film. They teamed up on the project before the first Film Festival. Bogdanovich was hoping to find it so it could be screened there.
Last I heard, they were still trying to unearth it.
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Barb,
This guy was moping around here yesterday hoping you would come out and help him celebrate his birthday:
Hope all is well! We miss you around here!
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Olive Films has recently restored *The Quiet Man* and it is available in eye-popping high definition color on Bluray. Here is a review:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/58701/quiet-man/
They don't transfer from VHS. For most films on blu, they go back to the existing film elements, restore and preserve them by scanning frame by frame, making repairs, cleaning up the frame, fix the audio tracks, all before making a digital copy of the film that gets transferred to disc.
*The Quiet Man* has had bad copies made of it previously such as this release from 2002: http://www.amazon.com/The-Quiet-Man-Collectors-Edition/dp/B00006JMRD
There is a 2013 DVD remastered from the original negative available here:http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Man-60th-Anniversary-Special/dp/B009YX8MSG/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1391364448&sr=1-1&keywords=thequietman
Be aware, that the reviews on Amazon for this version are the same reviews as the 2002 version so there is mix up there and Amazon seems to be aware of it as they have noted that they are reviewing the situation.
Neither the DVD or the Blu comes with commentary but the Blu does have a short documentary put together by Leonard Maltin.
As for *Red River*, there is a Region B DVD and Blu available from England that does not have much in the way of bonus features and you would need an all region player to play it.
There is a rumor that Criterion is working on a version but no release date has been announced that I am aware of.
Hope that helps!
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>You are so young, your grandpa and grandma must have told you about those early days of old movies on the Late Show in the 1950s.
You are very sweet, FredC.
I don't have first hand knowledge of the Late Show in the 1950s but fell in love film, especially studio era films, in the mid-1960s thanks to the availability of them in the afternoon, evenings, nights and the Late Show.
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>However, in bigger cities, with populations over about 100,000 to 200,000 people, local independent stations began to start up and they continued the old-movie tradition. TBS started that way as a local independent station in Atlanta
FredC,
You had done such a good job of posting about the early history of TBS, I didn't see the need to repeat it in my post.
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TCM's Original Productions, with cooperation from the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, debuts a new documentary this evening on the history of the Academy Awards, *And the Oscar Goes To"
Should be some great clips to see!
Tonight (Saturday) at 8:00 pm EST/5:00 pm PST and at various times throughout the month.
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In the 1950s, 1960s, especially the early and mid-60s, as Fred pointed out, tv stations ran studio era films with more frequency than they did even in the 1970s and 1980s.
In those years, before the emergence of the afternoon talk show, local affiliates would run studio era films in the afternoons. These were usually the 90 minute to 2 hour time slots between the soaps and the nightly news.
They also ran studio era films on Saturdays often between 6:00 and 8:00 in the evenings.
NBC had *NBC Night at the Movies* a couple of times a week (as did ABC) and they showcased studio era films and films that were only a few years old like *The Birds*.
Then, of course, there was the *The Late Show* and *The Late, Late Show*. This was before the proliferation of late night talk shows and the networks and independent stations filled those hours with studio era films.
But, all of that began to change as television changed to meet the audience demand for more programming. Talk shows pioneered by Phil Donahue, Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin became very popular and stations opted to get rid of their afternoon movie showcase and broadcast the talk shows which brought in more audience, more ad revenue and more ratings.
Dick Cavett and Joey Bishop, among others, tried their hand at late night talk shows. By the mid-1970s, there were more options when Don Kirshner began producing concert like programming for late night weekend viewing which cut into and often eliminated *The Late Show* in many markets.
As television audiences clamored for more relevant programming (not unlike the post-war movie audience that had clamored for less escapism in their movies and more realism), the networks primetime showcases like NBC's *Night at the Movies* gave way to Made for Television movies, many of which were incredibly cutting edge for their day, and the celebrated miniseries like *Roots*, *Centennial*, *Shogun* and *The Winds of War* and many others.
Tom Snyder followed *The Tonight Show*, ABC's *Nightline* debuted during the Iran hostage crisis of the late 1970s, and networks began programming into the wee hours of the morning ending the reign of movies being run in *The Late Show* and *The Late, Late Show*.
As television became more and more a 24/7 business, especially after the debut of CNN, it became harder and harder to find studio era films on television.
AMC debuted in 1984 first as premium channel and didn't air 24 hours a day. It became a basic channel in 1987 and didn't begin broadcasting 24/7 until 1990.
TBS and TNT ran them and in the 1990s, TNT ran a series of documentaries hosted by modern stars that focused on studio era actors like James Cagney, Bette Davis, Jean Harlow, etc. That seemed to culminate with the debut of *When the Lion Roared*, the multi-part series dedicated to the almost Shakespearean history of MGM. But the main focus of both channels by the 1990s, was not studio era films but other programming.
That's one reason Ted Turner started TCM was to free up TBS and TNT to concentrate on programming with broader viewership.
In 1994, TCM debuted and gave AMC its first dose of competition.
So, in a way, Robert O was right, it was increasingly harder to find studio era films on television in the 1980s and 1990s compared to the 1950s-1970s.
tips for festival
in Questions and Concerns
Posted
>I have a Classic Pass so it looks like I am low man on the totem pole....
Emma,
No, you're not, trust me. I have had a Classic Pass each year of the Festival and have not had a problem getting a seat no matter the venue or the film (and I have seen some very popular titles).
Remember, there are films going on at the same time in all of the venues as well as events in Club TCM like interviews and panel discussions so not everyone is lined up for just one event.
The thing to do is to wait until the final schedule is released and we know which theater *Meet Me in St. Louis* will screen in and that will give you a better idea of things to come.