lzcutter
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Posts posted by lzcutter
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Delores,
United Artists was a good company when it was run by Arthur Krim. In 1951, Krim and Robert Benjamin went to Pickford and Chaplin with a wild suggestion. Let them run UA for five years and if they were successful, they would buy UA.
Well, they were incredibly successful. UA became the first studio without a building. They offered money to independent producers in exchange for releasing the films. Because they only leased space from the Pickford/Chaplin lot, they did not have the high over-head maintenance costs that owning the lot would have encumbered on them. They turned out some good, even great films, over the years:
The African Queen, Moulin Rouge, Hard Day's Night,Help, Dr No and many other Bond films, Blake Edwards Pink Panther series and Leone's westerns starring Clint Eastwood.
They formed relationships with Billy Wilder, Hecht-Lancaster, Otto Preminger, the Mirisch Brothers, Harry Saltzman and Cubby Brocolli.
Mary Pickford was so happy that she sold the company to them for 1.5 million dollars.
UA produced a number of television shows and as the 1960s grew to a close they sold the company to Transamerica Insurance.
Krim and company stayed on running the business and producing some of the big hits of the 1970s: Rocky, Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and others.
In 1978, in a dispute over business, Arthur Krim, Robert Benjamin and four others quit UA and left to form their own company: Orion Pictures where they continued to produce some of the best films of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Without Krim and Company at the helm, UA quickly ran into financial trouble on Heaven's Gate and began its downward spiral.
Under Kirk Kirkorian it became a shell of its former self and due to its link with MGM during the late 1980s and 1990s, was often mixed in with MGM's financial woes.
In 2000, its lucrative franchises, Bond, Pink Panther and Rocky were sold to MGM leaving UA with very little to offer.
Will Cruise turn it around? Likely not (just my opinion). In its early days, UA was a good company that was responsible for some good, even great films. But by the mid-1940s, it was basically not producing any films.
I felt it important in this thread to honor the men who worked so hard to keep the UA name and brand alive for over 25 years when it needed it most.
On a side note, Arthur Krim's wife was one of the pioneering doctors in AIDS research.
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Voglesque,
There are many reasons for a film, especially older ones, not to be on DVD.
One as you mentioned is copyright. Often, the contracts are very intricate and the rights for North America vs America vs Europe vs Asia, can be very Catch-22. Often, a studio can release a film overseas but not here at home because of the wording in the original contracts. That's one of the reasons folks in Canada don't always get to see the same film on TCM that those of us here in America do.
Another problem is the transferring of the film to a digital format. This is often a time consuming and labor intensive job. Especially if the elements are not in good shape. Then there is the problem that the original elements or a good fine grain no longer exist so then a search must be done to find the best elements possible.
Another problem is that not every studio cares about their Film Library the way Warners Bros does. Some studios don't even know what studio era films they own anymore or have in their vaults. Corporate ownership and changes in ownership have caused some studios to sell off portions of their library.
Lastly, there is the problem that we the classic film lover are a niche market and not every studio sees the value in our $$$. They can make more money selling box sets of current and vintage television shows than they can selling classic films on DVDs.
Lastly, some libraries like Warners are huge. RKO films alone number almost 750 films and that doesn't include all the Warner Bros films from the silents on and the pre-1986 MGM films. It will take years to transfer all those films to a digital format. Each department has a budget so there is only so many films you can restore and transfer in a year. But they are making their way through it.
And then there is the upcoming HD format and who knows what other formats we will have the near future. Previous formats had a much longer shelf life but in the digital age formats change with much more haste.
It's sad any way you slice it but we should be thankful that Warners, Sony and Fox do take care of their libraries better than others.
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Klondike,
I had to laugh reading your post.
Here in Los Angeles, you would think we all live in mid century homes designed by Neutra or Eichler. Only in the movies can you from Downtown to the beach in Santa Monica in under 10 minutes. Cars and people being chased go through the tunnel and come out in a completely different area, suburb or sometimes even, a different city. Maybe it's a magical tunnel that we have all been missing all these years!!
Las Vegas is another city known for its cinematic geographic hiccups. Only in the movies is Downtown within 5 minutes of the Strip. You can go from Green Valley to Summerlin in a blink of an eye ( a car trip that will take at least a half hour, sometimes an hour and a half depending upon the time of day).
You can walk through the door of the International Hotel (now the Hilton) and be in Caesars Palace. (see Diamonds are Forever) and that's not the only movie that does that.
If only we could get around cities as quickly as they do in the movies. No one would ever be complaining about traffic again!
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Dimitrios,
There is a way. At the top of the thread on the left hand side of your screen there is a link:
Reply to this thread.
If you click on it, you will be responding to the original poster of the thread.
Many people do this to avoid the very issues you are trying to.
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Hollis,
If you ever get down to Austin, there is a cinema there that serves food and beer and a waitress brings it to you right there in the theater!
Here in Los Angeles at the Arclight Theaters in Hollywood have a theater that in the evening, you can buy a beer or glass of wine from their restaurant and take the drink in with you. You have to be over 21 and they are strict about enforcing that rule.
The original MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas had a theater in it that played classic MGM films and a cocktail waitress would bring you alcohol or a soda. I loved that theater and miss it very much.
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Peter,
Then I will continue to hold out hope that one of these days TCM will run "The Moonspinners".
I think Larry would be thrilled to see it on the schedule.
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By classic i mean the period rather than the quality, I Come to TCM to see old Movies. of course there are bad and great movies in all eras. There are obviously ,modern movies that I think and great and classic. My point is simply that I want old movies from TCM not modern ones which you can see very were else. >>
Mr Dash,
TCM's mission statement from day one of their website has been "showing films from the 1920s to the 1990s."
Hollywood Kyle fired up the Wayback Machine last year and found the original home page where that statement figured prominently.
Pre-1959 films make up the bulk of their programming. Some years the majority of films shown are from the 1930s, other years the bulk of films shown come from the 1940s and 1950s.
The Oscar Salute is not indicative of TCM's overall programming.
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Well doesn't it make it even worse when the quality of the movie isn't even a consideration, since it's all just an excuse for the merchandising? >>
But it isn't a recent phenom. It's been that way since the post war era. Disney's Davey Crockett series and especially the movie were built around the merchandising. Much of what appeared on the Wonderful World of Disney in the 1960s was to entice families to visit Disneyland.
Star Wars is probably the modern equivalent and showed Hollywood and film makers just how lucrative the licensing could be.
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It was the early 1960s in Las Vegas. I was either four or five. It was either my mom taking me to see Disney's Dumbo or my bio-dad taking me to see To Kill a Mockingbird.
I wouldn't remember much of Mockingbird until five years later when I was watching the Late Night Movie on KLAS and saw the movie again. It wasn't until I saw Scout dressed as a ham and Jem walking her home that I realized I had seen the movie when I was younger.
Dumbo I always remembered because of the scene with his mom rocking him in her trunk.
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Isn't Day-Lewis notoriously reclusive?>>
I considered Ben's list and my addition, a wish list.
It would probably take a miracle to get either Joan Didion or Day Lewis but it's fun to think it could happen.
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Anne,
I must agree wholeheartedly with Filmlover and Klondike on Black Adder. It is hysterical. I used to stay up late on Saturday night to watch it here in Los Angeles. One of the channels, late at night, ran them in succession. Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie long before he was House.
The final season was WWI and not the laugh a minute romp the others were but that season is incredibly poignant in its humor.
I think BBC America runs them from time to time.
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On a slightly different note-here is a list of people I would love to see as guest programmers: David Lynch, John Waters, Gore Vidal, Joan Didion, David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, Whoopi Goldberg, Pedro Almodovar, Bette Midler and Stephen Sondheim.>>
Ben,
Great list! I would love to see all of them (especially Didion) and would like to respectfully add Daniel Day Lewis.
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Jack,
The old MGM lot is now owned by Sony. The Thalberg building is still there though there have been rumors of it being renovated (not in a good way) on the inside. The wall around the lot and the Water Tower are still there. Now there is a boatload of satellite dishes as well.
The former back lot is now mostly housing developements with street names of famous MGM movies.
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MissPurvis,
I vaguely remember when Tippi is buying the love birds that it is the Friday leading into Labor Day weekend.
So, I guess that would make it late summer?
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It's weird-there were years when I don't remember shedding a tear and now I can cry at the drop of a hat. What's up with that? Is it a "symptom" of middle age?>>
Ben,
'Fraid so. The right commercial can make me tear up to.
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Garand,
Some of my fondest memories of film school are from Prof. Richard Jewell's classes. He taught American Film from the silents to 1950 and his Westerns genre class taught me to appreciate the westerns of others besides John Ford.
Before anyone asks, Drew Casper taught the American Film from 1950 to the then present day. Drew also taught a class on Hitchcock and one on musicals but I always preferred Rick Jewell's classes.
We also had Arthur Knight teaching the Introduction to Cinema class as well as what was referred to as Thursday Night at the Movies. Every Thursday evening, Arthur would screen a new about to be released film and have a major player from the film talk about the making of the film afterwards.
I'm still good friends with a handful of folks I went through film school with and we often still talk about those days and laugh.
The film history classes are much more memorable to me than the film making classes I took.
Go figure.
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Kyle,
Can you repost the picture? The link is broken in your original post!
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Can you clarify your question regarding "The Godfather"? >>
Mongo,
I could be wrong but I think she is referring to scene at the top of the movie where Don Vito and the undertaker talk. The undertaker's daughter honor has been impugned and the undertaker wants the young man responsible to pay.
Don Vito while not happy to be disturbed on his daughter's wedding day, basically says that he cannot refuse the undertaker's wish because it is his (the Godfather's) daughter's wedding day.
He says that he will take care of the undertaker's request but reminds the undertaker that should the occasion ever arise when the Don needs help, the undertaker cannot refuse.
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You'd hope maybe with the new Columbia deal, maybe TCM could finally show Two Rode Together, which they apparently couldn't get for the John Ford tribute last year. >>
Two Rode Together was leased to the Encore Western channel last fall. The contract may still be in affect, I'm not sure. But it's been run more than a few times on the EWestern channel this year.
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I suppose if they have 1,200 titles available on HD format right now, they could have at least another 1,200 ready by the end of the year.>>
It's possible but mastering for high def is expensive and given MGM's money woes that may preclude them from having all 4100 titles on high def by the end of the year.
Also, as you pointed out, most people likely would be looking for their famous pre-1986 films for this channel and those films aren't owned by MGM.
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Well, it'll be interesting to see what movies they are going to run on this channel seeing as they don't own the majority of MGM films.
MGM films prior to 1986 are controlled by Warner Bros.
The UA films that MGM released fall into a gray area with Sony having rights to certain UA titles.
There aren't enough films in the post-1986 film library to run 24/7 without encore viewings several times a month.
I'm guessing they are planning on showing their television shows and possibly new content?
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As far as I know, the videos that are posted on Youtube do not fall under the fair use doctrine.
They say at the outset when you post a video, do not post if you do not own the rights.
That means that you have to clearance or releases if you are posting anyone else's image other than your own.
If it's images of you and your friends, probably not a big deal.
If it's images owned by the studios, and you are posting without their consent, then they can send a cease and desist letter or email to Youtube and demand the video be taken down.
If it's images owned by the studios and includes famous faces that have estates looking after how that image is used, they can demand the video be taken down.
You can post a video on Youtube and say but I wasn't making money and the estate can still say, doesn't matter, you don't have permission to use or license to use that image.
I say all this because it is a problem with images not only in films but in still photographs as well.
There are some dead celebrities whose image you can not use without the estates permission no matter what.
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P.S. Lzcutter: what do you mean by a long link? >>
Anne,
When someone posts a link to books or dvds from Amazon or items for sale on ebay, they typically have very long links for us to click on. This link will take us to the Amazon or Ebay pages where we can find the item in question on sale.
Because the link is so long, it disrupts the margins when the message is posted to this board.
Typically, to the author of the message the link will appear normal when writing the message and not disruptive of the margins . But when it is posted, to keep it from wrapping around to the next line the link will appear across one line and that disrupts the margins.
By using tinyurl.com, that website turns the long link into a short link that won't disrupt the margins of the page for all of us but still works to take us to the Amazon or Ebay pages.
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I moderate a fan list and one participant said that she received a letter telling her that her film clip montages of this performer?s work had been removed for copyright reasons.>>
Ayres,
Sorry, it has taken me so long to respond. I have not been keeping up with the board this week.
Alot of it may have to do with certain actors and performers have passed on and their images are carefully cared for and monitored by their estates. Some estates take their job very seriously and require permission to use the likeness of their family member. Other estates are grant a little more latitude.
The estates of the very famous like Monroe, Dean, Sinatra, Presley, Bogart, Brando, Astaire, Kelly, Hepburn, etc are well known for demanding permission for use of the images.
They demand this because of the down side is that by being more tolerant they have often seen the images selling everything under the sun and as well as for more nefarious purposes.
Many estates decided that rather than see the image being used to promote everything from floor wax to dust busters and beyond, that they had to take control.
So, it has become a catch-22. While some folks only want to use the images to promote the good works of a star we all have to pay for the nefarious types that wanted to make a buck no matter what..
Becket
in General Discussions
Posted
Matt,
Thanks for suggesting Becket!
Despite the haggling over the price of beans, as many of us know these suggestions get read and often they find their way onto the schedule somewhere down the line.
I shake my head sometimes at the turns so many of these threads seem to take these days.