lzcutter

CK, Wings is finally coming to TCM next month as part of the 31 Days of Oscar celebration. Given that the film is owned by Paramount, it may only be for one screening. According to the schedule, it is set to only run on February 4th. It should be the restored version.

I always thought that Pre-Code films were those films made between 1930 and 1934. In 1930, the code was drawn up and but not enforced. In 1934, when Joseph Breen took over, the code was strictly enforced. From Wikipedia: The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), which later became the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), adopted the code in 1930, began effectively enforcing it in 1934, and abandoned it in 1967 in favor of the subsequent MPAA film rating system. The Production Code spelled out what was morally acceptable and morally unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the U.S.A.

As for birthdays...mine's is January 18th. Maybe there's another Capricorn on board?>> CM, Check out Mongo's Birthday thread in General Discussions. He retired the thread this year but he would make a point of saying Happy Birthday to message board posters on their big day. There are a few Caps still posting here, including moi. Mine's two days before yours. This is supposed to be an incredible year for Caps astrologically speaking.

Di, Sorry to hear about your cold. But if you are right in the diagnosis, you will have five to seven days of varying misery. To help get you through that, what genre of films do you like? That will help us give you suggestions. As for the recent spate of unfootnoted posts, perhaps they are young and do not realize the need to at least acknowledge where they getting the info that they are cutting and pasting here. Either way, they should know that if you are citing other websites or other information sources in a post, etiquette (and more) requires that you cite your sources so that those who want to follow up for more information know where to go. (Just in case they are reading)......

Konway, RV may be referring to the Pacific Film Archives in northern California. Try this link and let us know what you find: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmcollection

The music in the trailers from the film Dragonheart and the composer was Randy Edelman. Also, the Tibet trailer used some music from Beyond Rangoon which was composed by Hans Zimmer. Hope this helps!

Kenneth, It is a series of four, hour long documentaries that are airing over the next four weeks. The first episode, Sitcoms, was broadcast last night here in Los Angeles on KCET. It was a look at the pioneers of the sitcom such as Lucy, Jackie Gleason, Dick Van Dyke and Andy Griffith. Other episodes will center around Late Night, Game Shows and Variety Shows, I believe. If it is successful enough, the producers hope to do another series that would include other favorite genres such as the Westerns, doctor shows and police shows. Last night's episode was interesting and the interviews included Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara Eden, Jim Nabors, Joyce Randolph and Andy Griffith.

Konway, Part of your post is missing. Do you have an inadvertent indentation in your sentences? That can cause the post not to appear. Would love to help but need to know what info you are looking for.

IIRC, saying the "n-word" was against the Production Code rules anyway, and Selznick had already gotten an exception so that Rhett could say "damn" at the end.>> Selznick had to pay a $5,000 "fine" to be able to have Rhett Butler say damn. They talk about it in the documentary that is part of the boxed set that came out in 2004 or 2005.

One of the guys in the promo talks about his feelings upon first watching Gone with the Wind and how the characters made him feel. But he goes on to say that upon subsequent viewings he came to have a better appreciation of McDaniels and her character. I don't remember his exact words but I was left with the impression that once he got older he came to appreciate the performances and the film on a level he hadn't been able to do when he was younger.

Hey lz, why "lord help us next month for the 31 Days of Oscar"??? Will there be some crying over that?>> Oh yeah. Every year, Februrary marks the beginning of TCM is going to the dogs threads. And every year, long time posters remind us all that February is the 31 Days of Oscar which highlight films from all decades that have been nominated or won Oscars. So, when Men In Black, Lord of the Rings and other contemporary films are on the schedule next month, just remember, come March 3rd, TCM will return to its regular programming.

But just know there WILL be a hue & cry every time this beloved TCM shows a newer film.>> Lord help us next month for the 31 Days of Oscar. One thing is for sure, this is the eternal argument on this board. People have been arguing about this since the early days of the board and will, no doubt, be arguing about it in the future. The bottom line is TCM is playing movies of all decades which it has done since it first went on the air in 1994. We just had a wonderful month of pre-codes, Irene Dunn and William Wellman films. In November we had a great month of film series. This month Jimmy Cagney is the Star of the Month. So the idea that the classic era films are getting short shrift for newer films doesn't hold up under scrutiny of the schedules.

The sound reels were lost and since it was made on a shoestring to begin with, the producers had to put together a narration track. I believe the sound effects and music reels weren't lost but the dialogue reels were.

Chip, The month of November seemed to be dedicated to movie series/serials and December seemed to be dedicated more towards pre-codes. During the summer, it might have seemed to be more weighted towards westerns and war films but since then seemed to have much more variety. Perhaps Kyle can fire up the Wayback machine and give us a better idea?

Denzel Washington Tom Hanks Meryl Streep George Clooney Matt Damon Mark Wahlberg Hugh Laurie Emma Thompson Alan Rickman Charlize Theron Will Smith Cate Blanchett Phillip Seymour Hoffman Johnny Depp Brad Pitt Kevin Spacey

Shasta, I would recommend The Big Parade (also directed by Vidor), The Wind and most of all, The Black Pirate, Robin Hood, Thief of Baghdad and The Three Musketeers with Doug Fairbanks, Sr. I don't think anyone enjoyed making silents as much as Doug, sr. The Iron Mask is a wonderful, rueful sequel and end to Doug, Sr's days in front of the camera.

Jorge, Since the latest software update a few weeks ago did away with the preview function, there is now a short delay between the time you hit the post message button and the message actually posting to the board. This allows time to edit the message if you so desire. If not, the delay still occurs before it actually is posted to the board. Hope this helps!

Chris, You bring up many excellent points. Another factor is start up costs for a cable network. It is not cheap to start a cable channel and with the quickly evolving technology (and the advent of high definition) it all adds up to major bucks very quickly. Warners is the one studio that understands the value of their film library (in no small part to Roger Mayer and George Feltenstein who have been preservationists for many years). Luckily, they have the corporate Time-Warner to help fund the channel. Other studios are generally less knowledgeable and less interested in their film libraries. While NBC-Universal is owned by General Electric I wouldn't bet the bank on seeing GE bank roll a cable station for showing films in the Universal Film Library. Likewise, Fox has its own Classic Movie Channel and seems downright clueless as to how to run it when compared with TCM. So, I agree that TCM may be the only station that serves this small band of movie lovers that we are a part of.

Lots of info including lyrics can be found in this thread: http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?threadID=119533&start=0&tstart=15

I think those that complain about programming don't actually watch.>> Patful, You are not alone.

They can't show b movies. Its beneath the "dignity of the station whose reputation that has been built over the years"....... an old movie is an old movie. Think of TCM this way: if there is only one channel showing old movies than look at how many old movies we can't get to see. How about universal/paramount? Janus & other foreign pix. English movies. You know how many hollywood stars made pix in england?>> Magnavoice, Are you by chance a new viewer of TCM? The reason I ask is because TCM has shown a thousands of "b" films from all genres since it went on the air. In fact, 'b' films make up the bulk of TCM's daily broadcasts. We have had salutes to 'b' dramas, science fiction, beach party movies, musicals, comedies, every genre imaginable. In addition, there is now TCM Underground for cult films as well. Films from the Janus Collection were spotlighted last year with a month long salute. As for other foreign films, there is TCM Imports every Sunday night/Monday morning. English movies? TCM has done a salute to Ealing Studios and often shows films from Rank and other English studios. Three of the films from this year's Lost and Found series came from England. As for Paramount and Universal film libraries. There isn't a blacklist by TCM against those studios. Just last year TCM was finally able to get a contract for long term leases from Paramount for their post-1949 film library. According to posts from TCMProgrammr, the negotiations on that contract took a long time. Paramount sold the bulk of its pre-1949 film library to MCA-Universal back in the early 1960s. Paramount was smart enough to hang on to its silent film library but the folks in Paramount Home Video are fairly clueless about what to do with that library. Universal is now owned by NBC-GE and is more interested in selling box sets of its classic television shows than it is leasing or marketing its classic film library. As for the Hammer films, they rarely show up on television so there may be rights issues involved.

The link will take you to Dave Kehr's website and the article he wrote where he talks about the problems with modern day color film stock and the unstability of digital technology as well as mentions that there is a large advisory board that recommends and choices the films for preservation each year. http://davekehr.com/?p=274 Also here is an article by Michael Cieply that talks about the problems of modern films and the pitfalls of digital preservation: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/business/media/23steal.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Why Close Encounters or Back to the Future ?>> Because even modern films are endangered due to fading film stock and other problems. The National Registry tries to help preserve films from all the eras so that future generations will be able to enjoy them.

I think snippets of the film remain, not the entire film. Rick McKay in his Broadway the Golden Age found some brief scenes of Taylor on film but even he said in the commentary that not much of her film work in its entirety survives.

Again I am let down, Izcutter had claimed that both the new score by Caliendo, and the older Photo-play Productions score by John Lanchbery would both be included with THE IRON HORSE?>> Jeffrey, I was going by information that I was reading and getting from those closer to in the know than I. That the Lanchbery score is not part of the Iron Horse disc, saddens me as I was looking forward to both versions. Likewise with Four Sons after listening to you wax poetic about the Vintage track, I was hoping that Fox would offer both. It may have come down to rights issues over the scores, I don't know. As for picture quality, the vault fire back in the mid to late 1930s that destroyed most of Fox's silents and early talky negatives and fine grains has made it hard for Fox to always find negatives in good shape. But I hope you enjoy the Silent set. It is a monumental undertaking by Fox and the critical reviews have been very favorable which will hopefully, combined with good sales, convince Fox to open more of their vault and offer more of their silents on DVD. I'm sorry that you feel mislead by my posts. That was never my intention.