lzcutter

I often feel bad for TCM when the subject of AMC comes up. No matter what TCM does, work out great lease deals with other studios such as Paramount and Sony, provide us with quality documentaries, great promos, wonderful SOTM presentations and they broadcast the films uncut, commercial free and in the correct aspect ratio (except for the errant print every now and then) we still are sitting here waiting for the other shoe to drop and for them to turn into AMC. I bet the TCM employees rue the day that AMC turned to the dark side.

There was a documentary done in 1992 called Visions of Light that is about cinematography and has some wonderful interviews.

MaryJ, Sweeney Todd is considered a 2007 release. It opened around Christmas Day in limited release. It just went into wider release last week, I believe. It will be eligible for Oscar nominations. The Academy Award nominations will be announced next week.

Please, programmers, quit pandering to the Gen Xers or whatever your doing and be TRUE to your mission statement.>> But they are being true to their original mission statement: Turner Classic Movies, is a 24-hour cable network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. TCM presents the greatest motion pictures of all time from the ?20s through the ?80s, commercial-free and without interruption. (emphisis added). After they celebrated their 10th anniversary on the air in 2004, they updated the mission statement to include films from 1990s. They are not pandering to the younger crowd. They are doing what they have always done. Programming the channel to accomodate all of their viewers.

Spence, Since the preview function went away months ago, there is now short delay for your post to show up on the message board. This gives you time to re-read the message and edit it should you need to. Also, be aware that indentations can cause some posts to be cut off. It is just one of the quirks of the message board as of late. Hope this helps,

Otter, Are you talking about the Biographies that used to run on A&E and can now be seen on the Biography channel? The series currently running on PBS about the early days of television is broken into segments such as Late Night, Comedy, Variety, etc. Each hour long documentary talks about the influences and the stars of each genre. If this series is successful (I personally wish it was longer and more in-depth but finding underwriters these days is no easy feat) they hope to do another four next year for particular popular television genres such as the Western, Medical/Doctor and Police. As for the Brando documentary that TCM ran last May, I consider it a documentary. It talked about not only Brando's life but his influence on other actors, the influence of the times on him and took us on a journey of his life as seen through the eyes of friends, contemporaries and society.

Chris, Do you remember him as Hec Ramsey on the old NBC Mystery Movie series. The Sunday evening hub consisted of Banacek, Madigan (Richard Widmark but without Henry Fonda who had co-starred in the TV movie) and Cool Million with James Farentino. NBC also had one on Wednesdays evenings that consisted of McMillan and Wife, McCloud and Columbo). Hec Ramsey joined the Wednesday evening hub. Anyways, Boone played an older retired lawman, Hec Ramsey and some young whippersnapper, Richard Lenz, played the new lawman who was fascinated by the forensics of the job such as fingerprinting. It was produced by Jack Webb's Mark VII productions. It only lasted maybe one season but I carry the memory of it around in my head. Message was edited by: lzcutter because it wasn't on both hubs. Clarity, I need clarity.

Ralph, When it comes to talking about movies, everybody's opinion matters. Welcome aboard!

I believe Mick sat down back in the late 1990s and did a Private Screenings with Robert Osborne.

"Field of Dreams"--I do cry in anticipation of the climax, I don't even wait.>> Once James Earl Jones starts talking about baseball and what it means to us as a country color me crying.

Chilly, Part of the problem with Jeannie Crain films such as Margie is they were produced by 20th Century Fox. Because Fox has its own classic movie channel, FMC, it is less likely to rent/lease its films to TCM. I think we have seen some of David Lean's smaller films in the last year or so. There was a tribute to Lean at some point if I recall correctly. TCM does not own the Turner LIbrary. When Ted Turner merged with Time Warner in the 1990s, the film library he owned was part of that deal. The Turner library consisted of all RKO films, all pre-1949 Warner Bros films and all pre-1986 MGM films. When the merge occurred with Time-Warner, the Turner Library came under the care of Warner Bros. Home Video. TCM must rent/lease all the films that air on TCM. Some studios are more inclined to work with TCM on rental/lease deals than others.

Word came this afternoon that Maila Nurmi, better known to her legion of fans, as Vampira has passed away. She has no family so details are sketchy though friends are said to be trying to get her a spot at Hollywood Forever cemetery. Nurmi was 86. I suspect that FrankGrimes is heartbroken. Message was edited by: lzcutter

If there is an Oscar show this year...>> If there is no show, will Oscars still be awarded?

did you see Audrey Totter with some of the other "film noir" ladies chatting with Mr. Osborne in an hour-long show that TCM aired a couple of years ago? That was so very interesting. A bunch of the hard-hearted "dames" of my favorite old noir movies turned out to be nice little old ladies.>> Fred, I haven't seen that particular Private Screenings though I think I have it in my collection. I love your description of them btw!

Do you think Wellman may have lacked a core group of films or stars and was simply too broad-based a director to be "known for one thing"?>> BuffaloChuck, I think that is what happened to Wellman. He's similar to Michael Curtiz in that regard. He showed up, did his job well, made good films and went home. The auteur theorists never bothered with him because they were too busy canonizing Ford, Hitchcock, Hawks, Cukor, Capra and Minnelli. Guys like Wellman, Raoul Walsh, Allen Dwan and others would have to wait for a channel like TCM that has the abilities to show how their work progressed and evolved over the years. I give credit to Schickel when he originally put this series together that he included Raoul Walsh and Wellman in with the better known big guns of the era.

I'm only discouraged that TCM seems to be pushing the Jack Palance "let 'em rot and die" choice>> I have to give props to TCM for doing Private Screenings each year. We often forget that TCM is a business with a yearly budget. It would be easy for them to cut the budget for Private Screenings and use that money towards renting more films. Instead, the folks at TCM hold the line and each year a few stars get the chance to sit down and talk with Robert O about their lives and careers. I'm sure there are folks at TCM who wish the PS budget was bigger. But, if that were possible, where would you take the money from? Leasing fewer films that are "new to TCM"? Fewer promos for SOTMs? It would quickly become a Catch-22. In addition, there is the long running Turner Archive Project that has been interviewing men and women who worked during the classic studio era. A lot of those interviews make up the Word of Mouth promos and other promos on certain actors and filmmakers. In addition, Time-Warner (of which TCM and WBros are part of) is the one company that understands the need for preservation and restoration of films. They are the one company that understands the value of their film library and they are in a race against time to try and preserve as much of it as they can.

have a better idea, How about a jeopardy-like game show to test prospective guest host on their movie knowledge and the top say 10 or so winners could compete to see who is best on camera and chemistry with Robert, and actually try to get someone who is knowledgeable and good on camera,>> Kenneth, Last spring (summer?) TCM held an on-line contest and the winner would get to be a Guest Programmer for an evening. People had to submit audition tapes on-line and the voting took place on-line. The tempest that swirled around this was very loud and very vocal. As expected there were folks who were gracious and folks who were not in their criticism. TCM came under a great deal of criticism (much of it here on this board) for the way the contest was handled. After it was all over, I can't imagine TCM wanting to go down that road again any time in the near future. On the upside, there were a couple of participants who stuck around and have become daily posters to this message board.

Are you saying our Miss K was a...professional? Clearly, she employed young ladies to entertain the cowpokes. The show is surprisingly frank about that. But I don't think Kitty, herself, offered that particular amenity. She is, after all, "the marshall's woman.">> Red, Yes, in the beginning, Miss Kitty was a...professional. I remember watching the show on Saturday nights (the babysitter would let me stay up) and I had all sorts of questions about Miss Kitty which to her credit, she answered. Miss Kitty ultimately bought the Long Branch as I recall and made running the saloon her full time job but she still had the er, professional area, upstairs for a few years after. Finally, probably at CBS's behest, all storylines and references to what the girls actually did was dropped.

winners could compete to see who is best on camera and chemistry with Robert, and actually try to get someone who is knowledgeable and good on camera,>> Chris, I agree with you about Kyle. I, too, believe he would make a very good co-host with Robert O. But the problem is the format of The Essentials. In less than eight minutes you spar with Robert O over the movie chosen. This type of format does not lend itself to finding out much new information about the film, the stars or the filmmakers. I think Audrey Totter should sit down with Robert O for an hour long Private Screenings where she would have the time to truly talk about her career and her life. She can't do that in the format of the Essentials or as a Guest Programmer.

I am not sure what being in a bad movie or growing up on a commune has to do with hosting The Essentials. She grew up on the same commune in France that the Phoenix siblings did. Rob Reiner, Sidney Pollack and Peter Bogdanovich all made some bad films. Carrie Fisher starred in some bad movies (and played script doctor on a few in an effort to keep them from being dogs) and Molly Haskell certainly reviewed some bad movies. As for dating Marilyn Manson, haven't we all dated someone that we later regretted? As for being on the WB, again I don't see the big travesty. It's a small television network now called the CW. She was part of the cast of Charmed and also acts in movies. As for qualifications, it's The Essentials. In less than eight minutes, you have to spar with Robert O about whether the movie is qualified to be an Essential. It's not Private Screenings nor has she been named permanent Guest Host. She showed some real grace and chemistry with Robert O on the evening she was Guest Programmer and acquitted herself quite nicely. Her film picks that evening while not very maverick, they were well-chosen and she was able to talk about each choice very well. She wouldn't be sitting across from Robert O unless he believed she was up to the task and he believed she could bring something to the show. At least give her a chance before you write her off completely. She might surprise you.

I don't know about anyone else but the decision by Time Warner to go Blu Ray on all its videos in future is a crippling blow to my collection.. I cannot and will not replace my collection with all new DVD's just because they can perform this outrage> I didn't realize it upon first responding to your post but after reading CSJ's post, I realized that, perhaps, your library consists mainly of the HD-DVDs and that is why you are so up in arms. You might look around the web, LG makes a player that play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. In the meantime, those who have not yet made the leap and have libraries of standard def DVDs, can rest a little easier.

The BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc home player from Sony will play both standard DVD discs and the Blu-Ray discs. It will be awhile before the studios go with Blu-Ray for their classic libraries as it requires remastering. However, the Blu-Ray discs hold more information than the standard DVD discs and so there will likely be more extras available on box sets and stand alones in the future. In the meantime, no one has to throw out their current DVD library and start from scratch.

As for the Elvis movies today, it is the King's birthday and he would have been 73. TCM is just saying Happy Birthday, Elvis like it does with other stars on their natal day. On the other subject, this thread was started yesterday: http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?threadID=120851&tstart=0 After the last few months of movie series, pre-codes, William Wellman movies, John Ford at Fox films, Irene Dunne as SOTM and now Jimmy Cagney as SOTM, I am left wondering why people think TCM is moving away from showing studio era films. I all but filled up my TIVO again last month between all the pre-code films and the Wellman movies. For the record, TCM has always shown films from all decades. When it first began broadcasting in 1994, its mission statement was films from the 1920s to the 1980s. After it reached its tenth anniversary, it updated its mission statement to include film from the 1990s, so TCM showing modern films is not a new phenom but has been a staple of the programming since the beginning. TCM has always been about showing films from all the genres and all decades, not just the classic ones. The bulk of TCM programming is made up not of classic films but of films that appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds. In the past, we have had posters who have spent hours using the Wayback Machine to pour over previous years schedules and post the findings here. The outcome is always the same, the films from the 1930s - 1950s make up the bulk of the programming with the films from the 1980s and 1990s comprising the lowest number of films shown (February excluded because of the 31 Days of Oscar celebration). And still the debate wages on. I agree with the other posters, this debate won't be pretty. Message was edited by: lzcutter

read that when young John Wayne was learning his craft, he emulated Harry Carey.>> At the end of The Searchers when Wayne does not enter the house, he places his right hand on his left arm as an homage to Harry Carey, Sr.

Did you recognize the music from THE SEARCHERS?>> Redriver, The music cue is an old Civil War tune called "Lorena". It is a song about a man yearning to return home to the woman he loves. As for Rio Bravo, Hawks originally wanted Elvis Presley in the young gun role but Elvis got drafted so Ricky Nelson got the job.