lzcutter

Kjk, Looking forward to hearing more about your thoughts on Pappy Ford now that you have discovered him!

Fred, The lady in question on the remake of "Wonderful Life" was Marlo Thomas. It was a TV movie back in the 1970s and I believe it co-starred Wayne Rogers.

Totallee, George Gershwin wrote the music and published "An American in Paris- A Tone Poem for Orchestra in 1928. Years later when MGM bought the rights to make the movie, that included using Ira to write any necessary lyrics. Message was edited by: lzcutter

Scarlett, I wouldn't recommend the masking tape you are using on your disks till you can label them. The adhesive backing of masking tape can be detrimental to the disc. You are better off using a yellow sticky than masking tape. I don't think there is a way to take the old labels off without creating a big mess. They never peel off completely with just one tug. It would likely leave little pieces of glue and label behind. If you want to make labels that will last and don't mind spending the extra $$, Verbatim makes a DVD+R and DVD-R that comes with a white printable label already attached. But you have to have a printer that will print straight on the disc. Your best bet for now is to label with a black sharpie and save the beautiful artwork for the cases.

If TCM shows the roadshow version (which I believe they have shown before), there will be an intermission. They will play the overture music during the intermission, if my memory serves correctly.

Pktrek, Years ago when Ron Haver was still alive and programming films for the Los Angeles County Art Museum (so this had to be the mid-80s), he did a tribute to 1939 and called it the golden year of films (or something similar). He programmed every film made in 1939 that was available. It was an awesome series and really showed on a weekly basis, how many films we now consider classics or essentials all carry the 1939 copyright date. I'm sure there were some duds but I would be hard pressed to remember which ones because the overwhelming majority were so good.

Pktrek, I would also second some of following films that filmlover and kyle recommended: The Big Heat The Conversations Inherit the Wind My Darling Clementine A Place in the Sun The Bad and the Beautiful The Music Man Robin and Marian Sweet Smell of Success Scarface -1932 The Westerner - 1940 All The King's Men - 1949 Both their lists contain films not highlighted here that are some of my favorites. Lastly, Night of the Hunter and for recent films LA Confidential. Message was edited by: lzcutter

Welles left for Brazil to film the Carnivale down in Rio for a story idea he was working on. Unfortunately, he left for Brazil before completing the editing on "Ambersons". He had turned in his cut and maybe thought that RKO would just go, okay, and release it. It previewed badly and Welles wasn't around to fight for the film. He was on talk shows throughout the 70s and early 80s telling the hosts (and everyone tuning in) how much the film meant to him, how hard he had worked on it and painting everyone but himself as the bad guy. So the myth of Ambersons grew and became part of the Welles mythology of Good Orson vs Bad Hollywood. Robert Wise went on to recut Ambersons as best he could hoping to achieve a balance between what Welles had envisioned and what RKO wanted. Welles abandoned the idea of the movie based upon the Carnivale down in Rio and went on to more movie ideas. But the fact remains that if Ambersons had meant so much to Welles he never should have left before the film was ready to ship. No filmmaker is invincible and every good filmmaker has their horror stories of the suits trying to take control of the picture. It is as true today as it was when Thalberg stepped in to recut "Greed" and fire Von Stroheim. Welles should have known the risk he was taking by leaving early. But ego is a powerful thing. And Welles film biography, especially in his later years, is strewn with films started and then abandoned by Welles, often for lack of money. But Orson, talented as he was, was difficult to bankroll. It's as if he reached a point where he became bored and moved on to the next project leaving the previous one unfinished. In the end, Welles outlived the suits and got to spin the myth his way, the footage has been lost for decades and Robert Wise went on to direct. The only loser, "The Magnificent Ambersons".

P73, Here are some suggestions by genre: The Iron Horse Stagecoach Fort Apache She Wore A Yellow River Red River The Searchers Rio Bravo The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence Ride the High Country Footlight Parade 42nd Street Singin' in the Rain The Band Wagon Meet Me in St. Louis Alexander's Ragtime Band The Pirate Any film from 1939 The Rains Came The Petrified Forest The Best Years of our Lives Since You Went Away Mr Roberts The Apartment From Here to Eternity On the Twentieth Century The Thin Man My Girl Friday Holiday Born Yesterday The Fortune Cookie Tributes to filmmaking: Hearts of the West Nickelodeon SOB And Starring Pancho Villa as HImself Documentaries about Filmmaking: Hollywood: A Celebration of American Silent Film The Men Who Made the Movies Books: The Parade's Gone By by Kevin Brownlow Hope that helps!

Pktrek, I have been passionate about movies for over thirty five years now. I love movies from all decades. Here are some of the not so "classics" I have enjoyed (in no particular order and trying not to repeat those already listed): Footlight Parade (James Cagney, Joan Blondell) The Winning of Barbara Worth (early Gary Cooper) Wagonmaster (Ward Bond and Ben Johnson) The Rains Came (Tyrone Power and Myrna Loy) Mystery of the Flying Fish (Doug Fairbanks, Sr) Hearts of the West (Jeff Bridges and Blythe Danner in a tribute to early filmmaking) Nickelodeon (Bogdanovich tribute to early filmmaking) SOB (Blake Edwards best tribute to filmmaking and actors) Ace in the Hole (Kirk Douglas in an incredibly cynical Billy Wilder film- hard to find) Wait Until the Shine Shines, Nellie (David Wayne) Steamboat 'Round the Bend (Will Rogers) And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (Antonio Banderas) An Unmarried Woman Harry and Tonto Ride the High Country (Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott) Junior Bonner (Steve McQueen) Love Me or Leave Me (Doris Day and James Cagney) The Strawberry Blonde (James Cagney and Olivia DeHaviland) The Petrified Forest (Bogie and Bette Davis and Leslie Howard) Four Daughters (John Garfield) Dead End (Joel McCrea and Sylvia Sidney) Fury (Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney) Hope that helps! Message was edited by: lzcutter

ExtraGirl, One of the problems with getting films from Paramount is convincing the folks in charge there that they actually own the films. Paramount does not preserve and restore its studio library as well as some of the others in town. Also, they may be slower than others to upgrade their older holdings to current digital formats as well.

Spence, There's a thread, maybe in Hot Topics, that discusses the Osborne star and one of the posters attended the program. Definitely worth a read!

Edgecliff, While it's doubtful footage will turn up I have learned to never say never because it turns up in the darnedest places. Their other option may be to find production stills and the audio tracks of the cut scenes and reproduce the cut scenes that way. I know there are those that don't like this approach, consider it more of a "stillie" than a movie but if no footage can be found it is a way to show what Welles intended. Many people believe that the original cut of "Ambersons" is a better film than "Kane". I, for one, am looking forward to "Ambersons" being released.

Steve Martin has been discovered by a new generation, mainly the young crowd that made his "Cheaper by the Dozen" a box office winner. According to an article in the LATimes, Amy Pasquale at Sony wanted the sexual humor in Panther toned down so that it would have appeal to the family audience. Seems to have worked if last weekends box office is any indication. I think the family audience is starved for good movies they can all see together.

I think part of the problem is that people don't realize that the default button is set to movie database instead of site. If you type in a film title, change the default setting to site, then hit search it will let you know if and when the film is going to be shown in the next three months. But most people don't know to change the default setting to site.

Scarlett, The Clooney rumor is just that, a rumor.

Was wondering if it would be possible to have a "sticky" on the forums regarding the info on what films (not film titles) are in the TCM library and what studios own what. We have the info and would be glad to send it to you. Many of us feel if it was a "sticky" at least on the General Discussion board (though if it could be on each of the main forum boards that would be great), it would help people better understand the often confusing film studio libraries. Lynn in Sherman Oaks

One misperception needs to be corrected: TCM did not purchase the Paramount titles mentioned outright -- they leased the broadcast rights. And I'm wondering if they got the rights to any other Paramount silents besides WINGS . . . >> Coffeedan, The cynic in me would say that "Wings" is the only silent that Paramount thinks it has in its library. I know folks think I'm joking when I say there are people here that are more knowledgeable of what films Paramount owns than some of the people working at Paramount but I'm actually quite serious. Think I will post on the tech board and see if the web guy/gal will post the library holdings as a sticky.

Wasn't Ray Milland spotlighted in last year's Summer Under the Stars?

Phil Brown, probably best known as Uncle Owen in the original Star Wars movie has passed away at 89. He was living at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills at the time.

Mongo and others, The coroner ruled today that Chris Penn's death was accidental. He had an enlarged heart and was taking some pretty heavy duty prescription drugs as well. A full report is pending.

Thanks, Johnny for clearing that up. "Rocky" should have been the tip-off to me that the films in question weren't original MGM releases. I still say that coffeedan's info should be a sticky attached to every forum.

So I still have a few questions. If WB controls TCM, then how come TCM doesn't control films made by Warner Brothers (Clockwork Orange, Blazing Saddles etc.)>> Remember, Warner Brothers owns their own films post 1949. There was some debate here last year about the relationship between Warners own library and TCM and, as I recall, it was figured out that Warners would rent films in their own library to TCM to run. I believe you are correct regarding the distribution of films in the TCM library being done by Warner Brothers so there is likely an agreement to that affect somewhere. I am hoping that coffeedan or bollywood chimes in here and corrects any info that I might be mistaken about. It does get very confusing. < I am not sure the "they" is that retained man things that you referring to in the above question. Warners? TCM? or MGM?

I'm 99% sure that Paramount did not sell "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" as part of the recent deal with TCM. "Butch Cassidy" was/is a 20th Century Fox film if memory serves me correctly and according to the DVD I have, it has a Fox label,logo, etc on it. No mention of Paramount. So, unless I am missing something (and surely someone wll let me know if I am), Fox still owns "Butch Cassidy".

Filmgenius- As you know, Ted Turner acquired a number of film libraries in his ownership of MGM. This is from a post by CoffeeDan from about five months ago -hope he doesn't mind me posting it here- it really ought to be a sticky on all the forums: The Turner library holdings consist of the pre-1986 MGM library, the pre-1949 Warner Brothers library, and the entire RKO library. Universal controls its own films, plus the pre-1949 Paramount talkies. Paramount controls its own films from 1949 to the present, and all of its silent features. Update: According to a press release posted in another thread-Paramount just made a deal to sell "Wings" (1927) as well as 98 titles (mainly from the 1960s) to TCM. (The list includes Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but I think that is a typo as Butch Cassidy is a 20th Century Fox property). Warner Brothers controls its own films from 1949 to the present, plus some independently produced films. 20th Century Fox controls its own films, plus the libraries of its pre-1935 corporate elements, the Fox Film Corporation and 20th Century Pictures, Inc. The newly-created corporate entity Sony/MGM probably controls both the entire Columbia/Tristar library and the MGM library from 1986 to the present. United Artists is a bit difficult to determine, because they distributed independent films in addition to producing their own films. I'm guessing that they have the rights to the latter, and not the former. Before merging with MGM in 1979, they controlled the pre-1949 Warners Brothers library. End of Coffeedan's post- everything that follows is my opinion so if it's incorrect, the fault lies with me and not Coffeedan. This means that any film that TCM wants to show that is NOT in the original TCM library or as part of the new Paramount deal, has to be rented or leased either from the studio that owns the property or from the company that handles it for the studio in question. This involves $$$ and contracts for how many times it can be screened and for how long (in terms of weeks, months or years) have to be worked out. Also the film being rented or leased has to be in a digital format that TCM can air and that probably provides a stumbling block when dealing with studios that don't keep their libraries up to date technically speaking. <> When Ted merged with Time-Warner-AOL back in the go-go 90s, the TCM library came under the control of Warner Brothers. For the record, the films you cited "Oz" and "Singin in the Rain" are originally MGM properties not Warners. Warners now controls them because Warner controls the TCM library. Clear as mud???? The diversification of studios libraries (with the exception of Fox) is one of the things that ties up many films coming to DVD. Warners understands the value of their library and works more than any other studio to preserve and restore what they control and bring them to DVD. It's a big library that they control and preservation and restoration is a time consuming and expensive process so that also has a say in what films get chosen every year to go to DVD. If Warner Bros is the top of the pyramid, then next is probably Disney who, of course, owns their own films and also understands the value of their library. Next would be Fox with the number of musicals and name films that they have restored and brought to disc. Sony is getting much better at it and Universal seems to think that all they have of value are their horror films. That leaves Paramount bringing up the rear. Considering they have divested most of their sound film library, the crime is that they care so little for the silents they control. There are more people on this board who know more about what Paramount has in their library and in their vaults than the people who work at Paramount Home Entertainment. Lynn in Sherman Oaks