lzcutter

GWTWbooklover, What might work better than the pop ups and streaming info on the lower third of the screen would be for TCM to devote a half hour each week-end for a segment hosted by RO or BM where they could talk about the trivia and little known facts of the movies they are screening that week. Those would probably be worth recording because the info would be valuable and not likely to be included in any box sets.

Even if it were unscripted, wouldn't a producer stop her and have her say it again, just so she wouldn't look stupid? I know I would have!>> Overeasy, What likely happened is that no one caught the slip when Ms. Janis was recording the voice over. It is very likely the script had the phrase worded properly and she misspoke in the reading. She may have only done one take of the paragraph that included the line or she may have done several and due to audio problems, the one used was by far the best. But given how much voice over she had to read (and it could have been lengthier and that was cut for time), it is unlikely they would have caught it when she was recording. Perhaps it was a busy day and Ms. Cooper only had x amount of time to record the voice over before rushing off to catch a plane, another appointment or her life in general. Perhaps there were audio problems that delayed the recording so they were pressed for time when the tape finally started rolling. Any number of things could have occurred to keep the session from going smoothly and adding to the misspeaking the line. By the time the mistake was caught in the editing room, she was likely not available to come to the studio and re-record the line or it was too expensive to try to fix in the mix. So, everyone decided to live with it as is and probably figured that the majority of people would know that Ms. Cooper was not slamming her dad and make the leap to what she was trying to say.

PK, Jessie Martin is wonderful, the sets are great and the actor who plays Martin's love interest is also great.

Anne, Barney and Movieman, Thank you so much. I'm glad you guys enjoyed it as I had alot of fun writing it. I have heard that another department is planning a big New Years Eve bash and I look forward to hearing the report on that one. We in the Film Restoration Department are partied out this year and hopefully will be spending New Years Eve with those professional vaudevillians, the Marx Brothers, in our screening room. But, you never know who will walk through the door so I should probably knock on wood. Where the heck is Charlie McCarthy when you need him?

Dear Dean Finnie, We hope you had a wonderful Holiday. We in the Film Restoration Department are deeply chagrined that our Holiday party resulted in such mayhem that the local authorities had to be called. With that said, we would like for you to hear our side of the story. Originally, we had a very small gathering planned. Our bookkeeper, one Mrs. Dubois, wanted us to be able to pay for our own party this year instead of relying on the kindness of strangers and regular donors. As you hopefully recall, Professor Darrin McGavin, of the Leisure Arts Department, and one of his top students, Jarhfive/Rusty, had designed a lamp in the shape of a woman?s leg. It turned out to be quite a seller. Professor Cary Grant ordered a couple dozen to give as Christmas gifts. Once word circulated around about the artistry involved in the making of the leg, well, sales went through the roof. Professor McGavin and Rusty had to call in the cavalry, so to speak, and Matthelm and JonParker were able to help in the production of the lamps. We had faculty, staff and a few students lined up on the last day so buyers could pay for and pick up their lamps. We had no idea so much money would be made. Mrs. Dubois and her assistant, MrsL, were busy taking the money and writing receipts. Every time they could catch a break, they would hand the extra cash off so that the cash box would not be over-flowing. Unfortunately, they handed the cash off to Professors William Powell and Myrna Loy. They, in turn, had Professor Thomas Mitchell help them in counting the cash. Well we got so busy that no one noticed that the trio had left the building. At the end of the day, we were all exhausted from all that packing,taping and writing Fragile (that's Italian, you know) on the boxes, when what to our wonderous eyes should appear but the three professors with enough alcohol to drown eight large reindeer (or so we thought). Professor Mitchell and Matthelm set up the bar. Music Professors Dean Martin and Sinatra argued over who should be the bartender. Luckily, that was solved when one of our more creative staff members, Kyle (did you know he was from Hollywood?), stepped forward and took charge of the bar. Not only is he from Hollywood but he is quite an accomplished bartender! Well, Professor Grant returned bringing [/b]Professor Katherine Hepburn[/b] and James ?Call me Jimmy? Stewart with him. While Professor Grant was quite taken with Ms. Hepburn, she seemed to only have eyes for Mr. Stewart. Mr. Stewart kept trying to introduce everyone to his friend, Harvey. Harvey, for the record, is a large pooka. Luckily this crowd did not seem to care. By the time I turned around, the conference room was filled with so many people it looked like George Bailey?s living room on Christmas Eve. I still am not sure where they all came from. I promise you we did not advertise that we were having a Holiday party but everyone on campus seemed to know and be in attendance. We were wondering what we should do for food, especially with all that liquor flowing, when through the door came the Dolly Sisters, and saints be praised, Chef Felix. ?Cuddles? sent the Dolly Sisters over to the piano to sing with Sinatra and Martin, grabbed the Head of Home Economics, Marjorie Main, and disappeared. It was only a short time later they appeared with trays and trays of food. The party was in full swing. Our favorite journalism professor, Larryvecchio, came in and regaled everyone with stories of his recent trip to Russia. The downside to that was hearing the stories of a couple of staff members, Sig Rumann and Alexander Granach who got very teary-eyed and began reminiscing about some woman named Ninotchka. Somewhere along the way, Professor Hepburn and Mr. Stewart made good their escape (leaving Harvey behind to charm the Dean of Psychology). No one saw them leave and no one is owning up to where they were going. Well, the wine kept flowing, Kyle kept serving and ?Cuddles? kept the food coming. Professor Barbara Stanwyck was overheard at one point complaining about Professor Fred McMurray being obsessed with her. Needless to say, Miss Theresa Harris (who insisted upon being called Chico) replied that perhaps it was Prof. Stanwyck who was obsessed with men and not Professor McMurray?s fault. That caused those gathered around the piano to start singing ?St. Louis Blues?. Another reveler was heard to say ?Do it again, I like it? only to be silenced by one of the best students in our department, filmlover, who growled ?You?ve got the wrong movie?. Well, everyone was having a swell time. Those professional vaudevillians, the Marx Brothers were everywhere. Groucho was talking to one of our most beneficial donors, Margaret Dumont, Harpo was chasing the female wait staff and brother Chico was trying to push Professor Sinatra off the piano. Drama teacher Humphrey Bogart finally snarled at him to back off. Mrs. Bogart, the lovely Lauren, found comfortable seating on top of the piano and encouraged the carolers to keep singing. Professors Garland, Martin and Sinatra were singing a wonderful version of ?Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas? when the Drama Dean Emeritus, Spencer Tracey, came in looking for Professor Hepburn. A hush fell over the room as we all have the utmost respect for Dean Tracey but none of us knew where Professor Hepburn was. Emeritus Dean Tracey stormed off, muttering that Professor Hepburn was the love of his life and he would find her. It was about that time that we began to hear laughter from the indoor pool. We have long complained about having the Film Preservation Dept. so near the indoor pool and all that water, but I digress. Professor Hepburn and James ?Call me Jimmy? Stewart seemed to be having a very good time swimming in the pool. Some of the female faculty became concerned that neither Professor Grant nor Emeritus Dean Tracey would view this in a favorable light and left the party to try and coax Professor Hepburn out of the pool. If our troubles had ended there, all would have been right with the world but, unfortunately, our luck was not to hold. Handyman Walter Brennan came in and kept asking all the guests if they had ever been bit by a dead bee. This perplexed most of our partygoers. However, Mrs. Bogart, the lovely Lauren, knew the answer. Professor Grant's brother, Teddy, kept rushing up the stairs yelling "Charge" and then blowing his bugle. It caused quite a commotion. About that time, Harpo Marx was chasing a half dozen female staff members, someone stepped on Asta?s tail and he let out the worst howl, which caused Professors Powell and Loy to drop their martinis and come running, Professor Bette Davis declared ?what a dump? because we had failed to decorate to her taste and Professor Mickey Rooney kept trying to convince everyone that we could put on a show using the old barn and some props. Professor Grant went ballistic when his two aunts from Brooklyn suggested serving their elderberry wine as a nightcap. I vaguely remember hearing a group singing Russian folksongs in one corner, in another Victor Frankenstein and his monster were dancing to ?Puttin? on the Ritz? only to be told by Clark Gable and his dancers that they had the lyrics wrong. Tempers flared. I?m not sure what happened next I suspect that old busybody Miss Gulch (She really needs to get some sort of life) may have something to do with it but the next thing any of us knew the police sirens were wailing and Bert the Cop was threatening to take us all to jail unless we came to our senses. The party began to break up and everyone began to find their way towards the door. ?Cuddles? said he might be back for the Valentine?s Day party if the Dolly Sisters weren?t in Europe, Sinatra and Martin kept talking about playing Las Vegas together, Professor Grant was threatening to do bodily harm to James ?Call me Jimmy? Stewart and never saw Professor Hepburn smiling radiantly and leaving with Dean Tracey. As Professor Bogart and Mrs. Bogart, the lovely Lauren, were leaving, Bert the cop stopped them. Overlooking the damage done to the conference room and all the happy revelers passed out on the furniture, Bert was heard to ask ?What caused all this?? ?The stuff dreams are made of? Professor Bogart replied before slipping into the holiday night with his lovely wife. The last we saw, they were hurrying to catch up with Dean Tracey and Ms. Hepburn. So that, Dean Finnie, is our story, meager though it may be. Any damages to the furniture or the conference room (we have heard tales of a food fight, a singing contest between the free French and Germans that may have gotten out of hand, a brawl or two between Wrestling Coach Victor MacLaglen and everyone else and a shouting match between between Ross Penell and Flint Cohill), we will gladly try to cover with more sales of the lovely ?leg? lamp. Also, one of our students, JackBurley has had some wonderful ideas for marketing the films we are restoring and those funds may be enough to cover damages for this year?s party and still have enough in the kitty to cover next year?s party as well. Thank you for your understanding. Respectively, The Film Restoration Department staff Message was edited by: lzcutter because articles come in handy and proofing is never easy

Edgecliff, We've been talking about that Dinah show with RO and the Women Who Took Oscar Home here: http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?threadID=93534&tstart=15 Enjoy!

Delores, Here's a picture of John Burke today: http://tinyurl.com/spwkr

Jdb, I was thinking all day of how to describe commercial bumpers and fnally gave up and went to wikipedia: "In broadcasting, a commercial bumper or break bumper (often shortened to bump) is a brief (usually ten to fifteen seconds) transition announcement, placed between a pause in the program and its commercial break (and also the other way around). The host, the program announcer, or a continuity announcer will state the title (if any) of the presentation, the name of the program, and the broadcast or cable network, though not necessarily in that order. Bumper music, often a recurring signature or theme music segment, is nearly always featured. Bumpers can vary from simple text to short films." Bump also refers to bumping up a thread on message boards like these.

Actually, I think the thread is supposed to be... "Underground on TCM, is it as depraved as it looks from the snippets?">> Otterhere, I don't think it's depraved. I have enjoyed a varied menu of "ElectraGlide in Blue", "West of Zanzibar", "The Unholy Three" and Vincent Price movies. Many of them are cult films and won't be to everyone's liking but many of them are important films or beginning films for filmmakers that went on to have more mainstream careers. As for Rob Zombie, I agree with Bill Mc., despite all the handwringing over Rob Zombie coming to TCM, I find him to be very respectful of the films he is showing and very knowledgeable about film in general. What's that old adage: Don't judge a book by its cover. I think that probably applies to TCM Underground and Rob Zombie as the host.

Did Raygun do it? - I can't imagine them having the taste to create something like it, >> Anne, Raygun did do the promo. They have it as coming soon on their website. BTW, their website has had a slight makeover and makes finding the past TCM stuff a tad easier. http://www.raygun.com/

Otterhere, I can understand your reluctance for TCM to get into showing more TV shows. However, I would love to have them show this episode of the Dinah show because it would be great to have Robert Osborne talking about what it was like to sit down with the ladies and what went on when they cut away to commercials. While I don't want them showing old reruns of "Adam-12", I don't have a problem with them showing the Cavett episodes with the classic film stars and directors nor an episode like this. In 2007, they will be showing "The Men Who Made the Movies: William Wellman" which Richard Schickel produced originally in the 1970s and was shown on PBS. It's a great interview with a director who doesn't get much recognition these days but was influential in his day. I applaud TCM for running the "Men/Movies" series and the Cavett episodes. They are wonderful.

Anne, Sorry for being obtuse. I love this film. It is one of my guilty pleasures. I call it a guilty pleasure because there are parts of this film that don't work very well and that likely has to do with Josh Logan being on medication. However, the things that do work and I have always loved are Lee Marvin, Harve Presnell (it is a crime that film adaptions of Broadway musicals were on the wan as his career was ramping up because he should have been big), the male chorus, the young man, Horton Fenty (he is wonderful in this film), I doubt that Jean Seberg has ever looked as beautiful as in this film and the cinematography of William Fraker gives this film a burnished look that is beautiful. Haywood Holbrook (at least I think that is the character's name) with his flat hat looks remarkably like the Head Elf in the "Rudolph" classic from my childhood. Lee Marvin singing "Wanderin' Star" is one of the reasons that I bought the soundtrack album almost immediately after seeing the film. I know all the songs by heart and I know why the Mariah Inn in Mojave is called the Mariah because of this movie. I would put the male chorus of this film right up there with the chorus singers from Oliver! for sheer enjoyment and professionalism. I just wish the movie's style wasn't quite so broad. When Josh Logan is going for emotion and drama, the story works very well. It's the over the top comedic parts that jar the film for me. I agree with Mark, it's a great way to destroy a set you know you have to get rid of. Message was edited by: lzcutter because verb tense will mess you up every time.

Any chance we could get them for the New Year?

I saw this on its initial Roadshow release when I was much younger. It has always been one of my guilty pleasures. Despite how wonderful Lee Marvin is, how great Harve Presnell looks and sounds and the great chorus that backs them up, the cinematography by William Fraker is exceptional. I believe the script was by Paddy Chayefsky (!!!). I understand that it was much different from the original Broadway play and that there was NO choreographer (!!). I know it was shot up in Oregon and the weather was a constant problem. My question is was Josh Logan on major medication when he directed this? I ask because the style is all over the place from wildly absurd to close intimate moments. I have always had a hard time reconciling the way "They Call the Wind Maria" and "Wanderin' Star" were shot with some of the other action and musical numbers. Anyone know about this troubled production?

Jack, If TCM could show it I would think that DVRs and VHS players all across the country would be recording it. I know mine would.

Actually, Turner no longer owns the library and TCM has to rent/lease the films it shows. In the last year or so, TCM has been negoitating with the various studios to show more films from Paramount, Universal, 20th and Sony/Columbia/Tri-Star. The Turner library is now under the control and care of Warner Brothers. So, it is possible that "My Cousin Rachel" could appear on TCM in the future.

For anyone interested in RO when he was young and just published, here is a clip from him on Dinah Shore's old talk show. The other guests include Shelly Winters, Olivia DeHaviland and Shirley Jones. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkb_xpWuBvo If you look to the right, you will see other clips available for viewing from the same show. Enjoy!

Brad, If you want to see Grant and Hepburn at their best together, take a look at "Holiday". It's wonderful and also stars Lew Ayers. Grant and Hepburn are delightful in this film which was made a few years before "Philadelphia Story" Wasn't Sylvia Scarlett one of the films that got Hepburn labeled "box office poison" in the mid-30s?

Mongo, I suspect that many of us are going to wake up on Jan. 1st and realize not only how much we enjoy this thread but how much we are going to miss it. This thread has helped me in every one of the TCM Challenges that I have participated in. Thank you for all the hard work that you have put into this thread an the previous Thread One. It really must have been a labor of love. So glad you are staying around and I look forward to more fascinating facts in your "In the Spotlight" thread. Message was edited by: lzcutter because into the spotlight is different from in the spotlight

Cinemabuff, I will be 'shocked, shocked I tell you', if the Oscars don't have a tribute to Robert Altman.

Jack, Sorry to keep this focused on Ward Bond but he co-starred in an amazing number of films over the years that have ended up on best films of all times. If you look at the lists, it seems like 95% of all films feature Ward Bond. In reality, that number is probably lower but when you are reading the list it seems like every other film features Ward Bond. Go figure.

Grandma, It's not a lost film. It's sitting in the vaults of Disney Studios until the studio can figure out a way to market the film without running afoul of political correctness, charges of racism and the fact that the film was made in a very different era. It has been released to the European market and sometimes those DVDs show up on Ebay but you have to be sure that your DVD player is compatible with the disc because Europe is a different region than US dvd players.

Filmlover, We were both at the Arclight on Saturday. Mr Cutter and I were there for "The Good Shepard"!

China, Unfortunately, March 3rd is the last day of the 31 Days of Oscar celebration that TCM does every year.

Anne, In a way, Potter did receive his punishment. Had George not been born, Bedford Falls would have been Pottersville and Potter would have been a far wealthier man. But George Bailey did decide to live and because George had such wonderful friends, Potter was stymied in his attempts to railroad George. Potter was in ill health, had few friends and ultimately, was not somebody that anybody would want to help. Contrasted to George Bailey, Potter did get his comeuppance. The Bailey Building and Loan remained in business, probably did very well and Bailey continued to be a thorn in Potter's side. To see Potter get his comeuppance after the end scene in the Bailey living room would have likely felt very anti-climatic. The audience would make the leap that Potter would at least get his hand severly slapped or worse, so Capra likely felt no need to show it. Also, the dark themes of the film probably kept the "code officials" from focusing too much on Potter. After all, George Bailey tries to commit suicide, his brother Harry is killed when still a small boy, the local druggist is a drug addict that kills his customers because of his addiction, Vi becomes a prostitute, Uncle Billy becomes an alcoholic, all that would likely keep the "code officials" busy for days without thinking of Potter.