lzcutter

Perhaps you should read the Code of Conduct first: http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/ann.jspa?annID=16 As well as the message board etiquette faq: http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/ann.jspa?annID=17 Message was edited by: lzcutter

Lafitte, Those buttons haven't worked in quite some time. [x] at the beginning of the word you want to bold [/x] at the end of the title or word. Replace the x with a b in both places. For italics replace the x with an i in both places. For underlining, replace the x with an u in both places.

Lafitte, The restaurant that you are referencing was actually on the famed Sunset Strip just west of Doheny. I used to work for an educational filmmaker in the building at Doheny and Sunset and Friday evenings we would hit the restaurant for a drink. Saw Big John Milius in there a couple of times. In the early 1990s, it was sold, torn down and became a Porsche dealership. I think of the restaurant every time I drive by that block.

CineMaven, I love All About Eve. I even don't find George Sanders characterization of Addison de Witt to be all that oily. He's just being a critic (and a great performance it is) of the time. Ben M brought up in his outro yesterday that it was Anne Baxter who insisted on being in the Best Actress category instead of the Best Supp. Actress. Which, if true, is too bad because she likely would have won as Best Supporting. That look when she is talking to Karen in the bathroom as Karen says "and if there is anything I can do to help" as she is leaving is very chilling. The spider revealing herself. You'll have to forgive me for my love of Mason in Star is Born. I think it is an amazing performance and I will be always be an advocate for him. Having grown up on the truncated version, seeing the restored version shortly after it was released years ago, the audience's reaction to Mason's performance has stayed with me all these years. As much as I love Swanson as Norma Desmond, I think her performance hit a little too close to home for Oscar voters that year. Would Bette have won if the vote hadn't been split? As Ben M said yesterday, "Well thanks for that, Anne."

Hey Mark, Thanks for reminding me about that post from TCMProgrammr regarding the Universal owned Paramount features as well as the earlier Universal films. I am confident that TCM will prevail as they seem to be on a roll where this is concerned. Keeping my fingers crossed that one of these days we will be able to see Five Graves to Cairo on TCM.

It may be the TV version from the late 1970s starring Richard Jordan. He had just come off Captains and Kings and was very popular. Anthony Perkins played his nemesis.

Gwtw, Thanks for the kind words. There is a wonderful story that Arthur Laurents tells in his autobiography, Original Story about inviting Gary Merrill to a party that Laurents and, I think, Farley Granger were giving. Merrill rsvp'd saying he'd be bringing "Betty". Well Laurents and Granger thought that Merrill was referring to a young starlet. They were stunned when Merrill arrived with Bette Davis on his arm. I really enjoy All About Eve, perhaps because Bette plays the role of Margo with such relish and such insecurity. Her scenes about questioning Bill's love for her are tinged with sadness because you feel bad that Margo, this queen of Broadway, is such an insecure creature. I think that's one reason the scene in the car while she and Karen are waiting for Lloyd to return is so good because for once Margo lets down her act and is completely herself. It's a stellar performance by Davis. As for Star is Born I love the restoration that Ron Haver spearheaded over twenty five years ago. James Mason's performance suffered badly from the cuts that Cukor was forced to make after the film was originally released. Even with the stills that are used to cover the film footage that could not be found, you get the power of Mason's performance and why Esther loved him so much. It's a pity the film was cut after release because Mason should have been a real contender for the Oscar that year instead of just a nominee. "This is Mrs. Norman Maine." Indeed.

Dominick, TCM has no control over how the studios take care of their film libraries or what films the studios release from their libraries. All TCM can do is request films. There are many different networks that rent films from the studios. The Pay movie channels, the History Channel, Lifetime, Oxygen, AMC, Chiller, etc. All those channels are vying for films and sometimes other channels make better deals or have a better working relationship such as AMC and Universal. The good news is that it seems that TCM's persistence is paying off. TCM got Sony to the table and we still aren't sure how they scored the Disney live action features we have been enjoying but we are enjoying them. They got Paramount to agree, according to posts, to a long-term contract for the post-1949 Film library. So, TCM is trying. But some studios have clueless Home Video divisions and some, like Warner Bros, are the top of the pyramid and understand how important it is to make these classic films available. But the bottom line is that classic film fans are very niche market. Show your support and buy classic films on DVD when you can. The clueless Home Video divisions have to be convinced that there is a market for these films on DVD and that burden, rightly or wrongly, falls to us to convince them.

Bronxie, Glad to hear that MotherBronx is doing so well. That will one mighty nifty throw blanket when she is done no doubt. The Scalphunters, now there's a western I haven't thought about in quite awhile. 1968 release, directed by Sidney Pollack. Sidney would return to the west again in the early 1970s with Jeremiah Johnson starring Robert Redford.

Robin, The quick answer is that TCM has to rent/lease all the films they show. They do however have agreements with: Warner Brothers for mainly the pre-1949 WBros library, the entire RKO library and the pre-1986 MGM library (the old Ted Turner library). They also have an agreement with WBros for the post-1949 film library but for some reason we see fewer of those films. They also have agreements with/for: United Artists (after 1950) Samuel Goldwyn (all) Sony for the Columbia Film Library Paramount for the post-1949 Paramount Film Library Walt Disney (Live Action only) They are able to occasionally get films from Fox but because Fox has its own Movie Channel (Fox Movie Channel-FMC) they are not always able to get a large number of Fox films. Though in December we enjoyed many of John Ford's films at Fox as the boxed set was promoted on TCM. They are able to get films from Universal but not to the degree of some of the other studios. We are not sure why.

Peter, Congratulations! Another terrific schedule! If I recall correctly you have participated in every challenge since this began. In fact, I think you are the only one that lay claim to that, aren't you. Anyways, there is less than one week left. So put your creativity to work folks and join us!

Izcutter- Thanks for the information. I am so glad you posted this! My sister works in Hollywood, and she said she knows one of the women who did some of the interviewing for TCM. I will call and find out more from her this weekend.>> Jack, That would be terrific if you could let me know what you find out. There's not much info available via the web on the TAP so I am grateful for any info that I can get.

Well, as the 31 Days of Oscar are coming to a close, what a way to head slowly out the door than with this wonderful Academy Award winning film that we have been clamoring about for years. Fox finally saw the light, gave in to TCM's constant asking, you fill in the blank, the reason matters not. All that matters is that we got a rare opportunity to see this film on TCM. Incredible performances by all involved. Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Celeste Holm and George Saunders. Wish there had been more of Thelma Ritter but that's the only complaint I have about this one. Wonderfully witty script and direction by Joe Mankiewicz. A wonderful, early appearance by Marilyn Monroe and the ending is just perfect with Eve not getting nearly as long a run as Queen of the Great White Way as Margo did before the snake appears in the grass. Thanks TCM Programmr for getting this one. If you missed it, there is an Encore performance next month. Be sure and catch it as the popular Fox movies don't get the rotation that other films do usually due to rental agreement restraints.

I believe the piece was extracted from the "Stardust" documentary that premiered on TCM in 2006. I know James Woods was all over that documentary.>> Kyle, I'll have to watch the Davis doc again. The thing that threw me on this particular Word of Mouth was the blue curtain behind Woods. Blue seems to the predominate background color in the 31 Days promos this year. I thought some of the other promos of previous winners and nominees had the same blue curtain backdrop so that led me to believe that perhaps this Word of Mouth was shot and edited recently for the Oscar promos. If so, perhaps there will be more new Word of Mouths in our future? If not, I apologize in advance for any confusion.

Last night after Marathon Man, there was a wonderful Word of Mouth peice with James Woods talking about one of his favorite women, Bette Davis. Woods had worked with Davis back in the 1970s on the TV-Movie The Disappearance of Aimee about the disappearance of Aimee Semple MacPherson (Faye Dunaway). He loved the opportunity of working with Bette and became a good friend of hers. Was I the only one who enjoyed it?

." Responding to complaints from viewers and movie critics that, by editing R-rated movies, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has been tampering with their artistic integrity, the channel has decided to take those films off the air entirely. It said Tuesday that its edited versions of Deer Hunter, The (1978), Raging Bull (1980), Midnight Cowboy (1969) and Network will no longer be broadcast after Jan. 1. In an interview with today's (Wednesday) New York Post, Tom Karsch, TCM's general manager, conceded, "What we're doing is taking the heat off of ourselves by not showing these movies. If someone wants an R-rated product, there are plenty of pay services out there for them to get it" Source IMDB 14 OCT 1998. It is not only artistic integrity involved here, many don't want to see TCM go the way of other networks by pushing the envelope a little too, far>> Jake, You must be a relatively new viewer to TCM. I say this because of the movies cited from the IMDB source you supplied, Raging Bull and Network both played in February as part of 31 Days of Oscar and Midnight Cowboy and Deer Hunter have both been aired since 1998 as well. I think both may have aired within the last three years actually.

Patful, Good point. The other is cost in starting a second channel here in the States. Somewhere back in the archives is a very good post about this very matter from CSJ where he points out the problems involved. One of the big stumbling blocks is the fact that classic film fans are a very niche market. In an interview that David Shepard did at the SSO in January, if I remember the post correctly he said that some classic film DVDs rarely sell more than a couple thousand copies which is truly sad when you consider it. TCM has 75 million viewers from what we have been reading in the press the last year. If there were two channels, it would probably cut into the current TCM's viewership because as much as we love classic films we can't watch two channels at once, So, if both channels had fewer viewers than TCM has now, it could lead to budget cuts and such as Time-Warner tried to make both channels more profitable which would only upset us as that could lead to more re-airings of films and fewer premieres. In theory it is a good idea but I think in practice it would take quite awhile to happen. I'll try to find that post from CSJ in the archives and post the link.

SSoS, I'm wiith you on it scaring me the first time I saw it. That was back in 1976 and when Larry Olivier opened his bag of tools I immediately recognized them as dental instruments (I had a very bad fear of dentists back then). By the time the scene was over I was in a fetal position in the theater seat. If they had included the Parallax View last night I would have been in 1970s thriller heaven! But as it was, it was a wonderful night of programming on TCM. Thanks, TCMProgrammr!

One of my favorite films from the 1970s, directed by the great John Schlesinger and starring Dustin Hoffman, Larry Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane and Mathe Keller. A paranoid thriller about a graduate student unwittingly caught up in a conspiracy that involves diamonds, Nazis and the government. Olivier's portrayl of Dr. Szell is very menacing and has a very pivotal scene in the film. Roy Scheider plays Hoffman's older brother in a role that is quite a departure from Chief Brody. If you haven't seen this film, I recommend it highly. To say too much at this point is to give away the plot and its better to watch it without the give aways. Come back later so we can talk about it. "Is it safe?"

Kim, The Black Pirate with Doug, Sr is awesome. I saw a print of it with a 2-Stripe Technicolor sequences about 15+ years ago. I don't think anyone enjoyed making movies as much as Doug, Sr. One thing I recommend is never watch Captain Blood and the Sea Hawk back to back. Warners used much of the battle sequences from Captain Blood in the Sea Hawk and it kind of takes you out of the latter picture when you realize that as you are watching. The Black Pirate was originally released in 2-Stripe Technicolor but Fairbanks also released black and white prints of the film due to projection problems with the color prints. I'm not sure if the 2-Stripe version still exists in its entirety. Perhaps CSJ will visit this thread and let us know.

Terry, I'd wager that it was either a rights issue or an available print issue. Considering some of the films TCM has run in the past from the same era, it makes no sense for it to be a "standards and practises" issue. I hope TCMProgrammr chimes in soon and gives the definitive scoop.

Terry, I'd wager that it was either a rights issue or an available print issue. Considering some of the films TCM has run in the past from the same era, it makes no sense for it to be a "standards and practises" issue. I hope TCMProgrammr chimes in soon and gives the definitivel scoop.

If she did indeed own the rights, then WHY did she allow it to be remade into a musical?>> She did own the rights and used that as leverage to star in the picture as well. But she may have ultimately sold the rights to MGM once she had the contract she was bargaining for. She had borrowed the money (I think from Howard Hughes) to buy the film rights from the play's author, Phillip Barry. Which would be another reason to sell the rights to pay back the money she had borrowed.

But it also meant his leaving Shinbone soon enough so he was never in danger of having the desperadoes come after him as they would Tom. >> MissG, Thanks so much for saying that. I hadn't realized until I after I posted that we were saying much the same thing. I should have finished reading the thread before responding to Frankie but well, how can a girl keep silent in that situation. Major props as well (trying to get my youth on to be able to talk to the whippersnappers that are in the General Discussion forum these days) for your entire post. Great reading and I've got your back! Message was edited by: lzcutter

No offense, but how about a moratorium on inane topics and threads?