lzcutter

And still no ACE IN THE HOLE from Paramount (the people who thought it imperative to release The Ray Milland Western COPPER CANYON on DVD (I wonder if they ever sold any).>> CineSage, Ace in the Hole was tied up with rights or legal trouble for years. Is it Paramount inepitude in not realizing how many people have waited for years for this film? or Is it still in legal limbo?

will post tomorrow. It took most of today (Friday) to complete, but doing the thing was a lot of fun!>> Rusty, I am looking forward to seeing your schedule! Yes, it is a lot of work and takes a couple of passes to make sure the times all line up!

If everyone will take a look at the films that were chosen by those that have entered the TCM Challenge and the June schedule,>> Allie, How do you access the new June schedule? From the schedule page you can only see through May.

Rusty, It looks like Pandro Berman (RKO's answer to Irving Thalberg in a way), got fed up with working for RKO in the late 1930s. Unlike the other studios, MGM (L. Mayer), WBros (J. Warner), Fox (D. Zanuck), Paramount (A. Zukor), Universal (Any Lasky), and even Columbia (H. Cohn), RKO did not have a strong personality at the helm and it is said that Berman got tired of the infighting and politics. So, in 1940 he jumped ship to MGM. He had an eye for talent and a talent for pairing stars together that others thought wouldn't work. He also had a way with dealing with the various insecurites and egos of the stars and the directors. Though Thalberg is the name most people know as a "producers" producer, Pan Berman was cut from the same cut of cloth and had a much longer and more illustrious career than Thalberg. Thalberg just had the advantage of dying young at the top of his game and so his reputation was frozen in time. Interesting to ponder if Thalberg would be as remembered today for his business acumen had he lived a long life.

I just picked up and watched "Avanti" with Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. I had never seen this and I believe Lemmon won best actor for it. >> I think Lemmon might have been nominated for Avanti but he won for "Save the Tiger".

It's great that TCM is showing "El Cid". For many years the rights kept it from being shown or availble. Am looking forward to watching "the Cid". It's been too long.

What tcm ough to do is hire a different crew. Hey, Mr. Osborne: ARE YOU READING THIS??? >> Leo, I have a question for you based upon responses from you. Why do you think Robert Osborne is in control of the Programming of TCM? Also, I agree with Allie, I think you should take the TCM Program Challenge. Would love to see your week of films!

You mentioned your "RKO studios" reference material? I am interested in the history of RKO. Do you have a recommendation vis-a-vis "RKO studios" reference book(s)?>> Rusty, Richard Jewell's "The RKO Story" is a good history of the studio. I recommend it highly. As for Gore Vidal, in recent years he has been rather vocal about being snubbed for his contribution to Ben-Hur.

lol, sorry, lz, beat you to the Stepen Boyd joke already. lol. >> By Jove, you did. Must remember not to act like Gore Vidal.

The silent version of "The Iron Mask". A fitting tribute to the end of the silent era for many reasons. Most of all, it wasn't fun making movies any more, it was becoming a business. The Sound Era: "A Star is Born". Watching the restored version, you feel Judy Garland's pain at the end of the movie. "Liberty Valance". Vera Miles. You know she knows she made the wrong choice. And Jimmy Stewart knows too. "To Kill a Mockingbird". What more needs to be said. From the moment in the bedroom when Miss Jean Louise realizes who saved them till the end narration of "And he would be there in the morning when Jem waked up" never has the back lot of Universal seemed so universal.

Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum are gone. I don't know who of todays crop of actores would fit the bill without screwing it up.>> Perhaps Kevin Spacey if you could keep the ego in check and get him to do world weary instead of thinking he needs to be a leading man. David Straithern could do it but he is not big box office. George Clooney might be able to pull it off if approached from the character angle.

Someone older than me who was alive when the film came out said that it was a flop because the lady who played Dolly on Broadway was what was expected, and she wasn't what the public got, so it fell. >> If I remember correctly, I think it was a combination of: A) By all most all accounts, Babs was miscast. Too young by at least 20 years. Wasn't Carol Channing. Who by then was too old but she was Dolly due to Broadway, the talk shows and variety shows of the day. C) Gene Kelly's direction. Critics compared this to his earlier work and this came up wanting in almost every instance. Creative differences with Babs, with the Studio and the era were all cited. Age being what it is I may be remembering this wrong, but I think it was also a long time between developement and premiere and by then Fox was in a down cycle and this was another nail in the coffin after the amazing recovery of the Studio with "Sound of Music" following the "Cleopatra" debacle. Unfortunately for "Dolly" there was no rainmaking film to cover "Dolly's" losses.

path40a - Are you submitting a schedule? I hope so. I've been looking forward to seeing what interesting choices you'd program for a week.>> Path, I'm with Kyle on this one. Seems so wrong for you not to participate. Here's hoping Mongo and Larry participate too. Though Larry may be too busy saving Canada right now. Would love to see Fred and Stoneyburke and Cornstarkel's programming ideas as well.

There's a prize???? Must remember not to act like Gore Vidal or Stephen Boyd!

What do you mean by "sole acting shot?" >> Perhaps Spence meant Oscar or Golden Globe nomination? Were the GGlobes around back then? If so, did anyone notice? Did anyone care? I know the GGs weren't telecast back then because when I was a kid, the only award show for movies that was telecast was the Oscars. One of the things that made it so special. I think some of the magic of the Oscars has been lost with the GGs and the SAG awards and People's Choice awards. Use to be if you were going to see the royalty of Hollywood events televised, it was the Oscars and the early AFI tribute dinners and everyone dressed for the occasion.

Oscar Levant in anything. His one liners are priceless.

Rusty, Sam Fuller was definitely a character and a hellova guy. Richard Schickel restored Fuller's masterpiece, "The Big Red One", starring Lee Marvin (in one of his last, great roles) and Mark Hamill. The only guy I knew who smoked a bigger stogie was Sam Z. Arkoff. He had an old convertible caddie and would tool around LA smoking the stogie and waving at folks. Both Fuller and Arkoff were great gentlemen and true Hollywood characters. Will have to keep my eye out for the doc!

We definitely share an appreciation of the Richard Schickel documentaries. One of the best ways to spend 60 min on TCM, agreed?>> Kyle, On the Schickel documentary "Men Who Made the Movies" and choosing Raoul Walsh, I thought it would be great to show "SOB" with its send up to John Barrymore's corpse and then follow the screening with Raoul Walsh's interview about what actually happened with the corpse. I figure y'all caught that reference.

Since all these flicks were done 30 to 40 years ago how about doing them justice and doing them right a second time? >> Im4movies, The big problem is that we have changed so much as a society that the musicals that should be remade would flop because the majority of the audience won't suspend their disbelief long enough to allow some one to break into song. I think that change started with the death of the American musical on Broadway and the replacement with Rock Operas and Sir Andy. If you watch "Broadway, the Golden Age" a great documentary about Broadway in in the 50s-60s, you start realize why old fashioned musicals and dramas fell out of favor. I highly recomend this documentary by Rick McKay.

Matt, It's a good idea for a theme. The only down side I can see is that the movies are all about suspending disbelief. I, for one, have never seen Pretty Woman because of the very reason you cite. But when I was younger, I loved Breakfast at Tiffany's (Mickey Rooney, notwithstanding). So, do you, as you grow older become more jaded or when you are younger and exposed to classic movies give them more of pass?

Rusty, I love "Boy Meets Girl" with Pat and Jimmy. Some great rapid fire lines in that one. As for Pan Berman and Kate, who went to MGM first. It may have been Berman. I'll have to check my RKO book when I get home! Thanks for the compliments by the way. Would love to cut together the intro shots montage, it would be great fun, especially with the right piece of music. Guess we'll have to start making a list of great intro shots of men and women. For some reason, I remember the mens' shots better. Those slow dollies in for effect is probably the reason.

Izzy, those aren?t very good excuses. I?ve dubbed home video to digital and digital to home video and to 1-inch and 3/4-inch at no cost except for the tape.>> Fred, You're just kidding with me, right? As an old broadcast news guy, I know you know about broadcast quality and the migration to digital for the coming high def world we will be in living in. Most networks and studios are migrating their libraries to high def and believe me, it does cost $$$ and does require reformatting and not just using the older tape masters. As for the film copies of older films, of course, films don't disappear while they are being restored but common practise among the studios is to shelf a title until the restoration is done. I believe George Feltenstein explained during one of his interviews a few years back that WBros prefers to shelf a title while a film undergoes restoration lest people see the old version and mistake it for the restored version and wonder why it looks so bad.

Other early musicals TCM has aired (ages ago) include They Learned About Women (1930), Street Girl (1929), Broadway Babies (1929) and a host of others.>> Prometheus, There may be other factors that keep those films off the schedule such as: Those films may not yet be on digital format that TCM can use for broadcast. I believe that TCM used to broadcast from Betacam masters but they have since gone to a digital server based system. It costs some major $$$ to reformat films from Betacam to a Digibeta or other digital master. Another factor may be that those films are slated for preservation and restoration and have been removed from being screened until the work is done.

These schedules are unbelievably good. I'm quite serious when I say I plan to steal some of the ideas. What I especially appreciate is the way everyone thought through the themes and the restrictions on the movies that are available. What I don't like is that it gives more fuel to the people who already think I should be replaced. >> TCMProgrammer, I will be the first one to tell them that scheduling a week is not easy and it takes more than just a couple of hours. Planning an entire month is even harder and time consuming. I would imagine it's made even more difficult because of the films that are in restoration or the films that aren't on a digital format that you can broadcast. Luckily, for us at least, that wasn't part of the challenge I agree with Path, I would like to see some of the more vocal critics take a stab at the challenge as I am curious and interested to see their ideas. Plus, it might give them an idea of how tough it is to schedule given the restrictions of the library. As for using the ideas we've come up with, use away!!!!

Path and filmlover, Rather than change the rules at this late date for the current challenge, why don't we just have a new challenge next month that incorporates filmlover's idea? Makes it easier for everyone!