lzcutter
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Posts posted by lzcutter
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I can't imagine you've found it at all difficult. Sorry to have disillusiond you, but if you think about it, being disillusioned is a good thing.>>
While I did not find Molly Haskell an engaging co-host for "The Essentials", I do have to stand up for her book "From Reverance to Rape" that was published back in the 1970s.
The book is great and was quite revolutionary in its day. The thesis is basically the devolution of womens roles in film over the years.
I haven't read it since it was originally published but she did earn her chops for writing it.
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Kyle,
It should really not surprise us (though it always does) that JB had the Raymond Scott discs. It's one reason I want JB to visit us down here in the Southland as I think we would have a wonderful day of exploring old Hollywood and sharing stories.
Anyways, back to the song.
I have Footlight Parade tivo'd and cued up to that particular scene. The beginning of the piece in question is very similar to "The Whirling Dervish" (from our fave Garden of the Moon) it then seques (cross fades) into a more oriental sounding piece. But the beginning is sounds like every movie that takes place in Morroco, the Foreign Legion, etc.
Do you or JB know when "Whirling Dervish" was written or first recorded?
By the way the John Wayne early oater that Cagney and the Producers are watching, looks like an actual work print copy with the fade marks drawn in grease pencil. You can see the fade marks as the curtain is going down but the scene is not actually fading down.
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Fred,
If I remember correctly, Walter Lord's book "A Night to Remember" was the most thoroughly researched book on the disaster when it was published in the mid-1950s. He had gone back and done extensive interviews with the survivors and poured over documents about the building of the ship, the sailing and the inquests.
The book put to rest many of the urban myths and preconceived notions that people had carried with them since the disaster.
When Robert Ballard found the Titanic in the mid-1980s, another book was published that confirmed that Walter Lord had gotten the majority of the story right.
Lord's retelling of the sinking was taken from first hand accounts and it wasn't until Ballard found the ship that the pieces were put together as to how it actually had sunk. Lord and the survivors were unaware that the ship had broken in pieces on its way down to its watery grave.
But in the end, even Ballard said that Lord was 98% correct.
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> Do you know if there was a blue diamond aboard the
> Titanic?>>
I don't remember a blue diamond being mentioned in Lord's book but John Jacob Astor and his young wife were aboard and while he made sure she was safely away in a lifeboat, he went down with the ship along with all her jewelry and effects. Also Isidore Strauss and his wife (they started Macy's Department Store) were aboard and went down with the ship.
A copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was actually on board the Titanic. The book had 1,051 semi-precious stones set in 18-carat gold, 5,000 separate pieces of colored leathers, and 100 square feet of 22-carat gold leaf in the tooling. It went down with the ship.
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Since so many of the plot elements are so similar in all the Titanic films, I wonder if there was a famous book on which they are all based? Does anyone know?>>
Fred,
If you've not read A Night to Remember by Walter Lord, I highly recommend it. It is the basis for the film of the same name and many of the real people in Lord's book are portrayed (some quite correctly) in Cameron's "Titanic".
Famous people from the ship that Lord writes about in his book and are portrayed in Cameron's version include:
John Jacob Astor and his wife
Sir Cosmo Duff and Lady Duff Gordon
Thomas Andrews
Bruce Ismay
Col. Archibald Gracie
Jack Thayer
Benjamin Guggenheim
Isidor and Ida Strauss
"Molly" Brown
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SPTO,
I hope you folks in Canada are able to enjoy Carrie and RO this year.
Carrie, besides being Debbie's daughter, is a respected writer and script doctor here in tinseltown.
She is renowned here at least for her knowledge of classic films. She and her mother live in separate houses on the same property and have pajama parties (usually with Penny Marshall and friends) watching classic films.
Debbie will dish while they watch.
Or so they say.
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Kyle,
The Raymond Scott song is similar in nature but the piece from Footlight Parade is slightly different. The Scott song features horns and such and the piece in question is much lower and uses drums.
The piece in question reminds me of some of the incidental music from Casablanca.
Running out to my special dinner, will try to do more sleuthing when I return!
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Jack,
It appears that Ms. Haskell (despite the thread in the General Forum calling for her to be fired) has finished her stint as Essentials Co-Host.
Carrie Fisher will be the Essentials Co-Host for 2007 beginning, I think, in March.
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Kyle,
In my alternate universe, Sam came over as part of Josephine Baker's musical troupe when she left the States. She was adored by the French and played a night club in Paris with regularity.
Rick, running guns to Spain, would come to Paris when he needed a break from the action.
He became acquainted with Sam one evening while taking in Ms. Baker's show. Sometime later, Ms. Baker needed help for a problem that she could not take to the authorities and asked Sam who might be able to help her. Sam remembered Rick. Rick came through and helped solve Ms. Baker's problem without involving the authorities.
When Ms. Baker's contract at the night club was not renewed and she was thinking of going back to the States as Hollywood was interested in her, Sam decided to stay in Paris.
When Rick discovered Sam working in a cheap music hall in Paris he hired him away and the rest, they say, is history.
The question I always wonder about is:
Will Sam be happy working for Ferrari or would he tag along with Rick and Louis Renault?
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Weapon,
While I don't necessarily agree that every film has to only have positive things said about it, you'll be glad to know that Molly Haskell will not be returning as the Essentials co-host in March.
Carrie Fisher will be co-hosting the show with RO.
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Are you thinking of the "Shanghai Lil" number?
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writing all the backstory and internal dialogue for tertiary characters in classic films. One of my first would be "Sam" in Casablanca. And I ask that with some sincerity. How and why are "Sam" and "Rick" joined so closely as they are? >>
Kyle,
I like to think, given the era, that in the backstory, that when Rick climbs into the bottle after Ilsa leaves him high and dry in Paris, that it is Sam who takes care of him and helps him get his act together enough to travel to Casablanca and end up owning a gin joint.
While Rick was crawling into the bottle, Sam kept them both alive with his talent as a piano player and singer.
That's how I explain it to myself, anyways.
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There is a western, I want to say it's Audie Murphy, that was shot in some of the most interesting rock formations I've ever seen. It was a mountain of boulders. I don't think I've ever seen it in any other western. I wish I could remember .>>
It could be the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine where everything from Gunga Din to Randolph Scott westerns were shot.
Or the other possibility is the Garden of the Gods area in Chatsworth where the famed Iverson Movie Ranch was located.
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My memory tells me that the article centered on her performing in a "little" stage show in the Santa Barbara area. I don't think it was related to her appearance at the Egyptian Theater for a film festival.>>
Kyle,
That's it, she was performing in Santa Maria! The article talked about her and the songs she would be singing as well as her career and her move to the Central Coast and the church she is involved with!
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Ayres,
I'm a fan of "24" (my dad got me hooked on the show last season). I'm looking forward to the two part premiere this weekend.
I don't find "24" to be an overly violent show. Yes, people get shot and killed but it never seems gratuitous to me. The show is very good about building suspense and tension.
I can weigh in better on the article after the first part of the premiere tomorrow night. I suspect that reading the scene makes it sound much more violent and in some ways gratuitous than the way it may play visually in context with the rest of the script.
I'll come back on Monday and let you know my reaction!
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Bela sure did the short end of the stick, professionally. I imagine his agent was an idiot?>>
Bela's drug habit probably played a significant role in his career choices as well.
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Larry,
There was an article last summer in the LA Times about Ms. Russell. I believe she was appearing at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood for a film festival sponsored by the American Cinemateque.
I remember the photo because she was wearing a shade of orange lipstick and I think both Kyle and Filmlover commented on the pic. I think Filmlover went to the Film Festival but I can't remember if he saw Ms. Russell.
She looked great in the photo (lipstick notwithstanding) and the article made it sound like she was doing very well health wise. I believe she moved from Palm Springs to a small community on the Central Coast and is involved in with a church there.
Kyle, Filmlover does this sound right or is my memory hazy?
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*****Blushing******
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Moira,
It's a new Western but "Silverado" is beautifully shot on location in New Mexico.
Also, "Heaven's Gate" shot on location in Wyoming and Montana is beautifully shot as well.
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Thanks guys,
I hope we can all take it to heart.
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embody the spirit of TCM: nostalgia for a kinder, gentler era... That's what TCM means to me... >>
Otterhere,
I think we will find that TCM means different things to different people. While you have a nostalgia for that kinder, gentler era there will be those that look at that era and remember it as oppressive, segregated and filled with hard times.
TCM takes into account that movies mean different things to all of us.
They are out there helping to preserve films, talking with other studios and distributors to work out deals so that they can bring us films from all eras, working to bring us 24/7 a plethora of films that we request and many that we aren't aware of but will watch because TCM is airing them.
They seem to appreciate much more than we do sometimes that films from all eras are important because film has the power to show us as we were and how we have changed as a culture and as a society. Film has the power to show us prejudice that we might otherwise turn a blind eye to, social matters that required and still require our attention.
Film is an escape to another place and time but it can also open our eyes to the less kind, less gentle nature of us as a people. One reason movies evolved into more realism after WW2 was because the audiences wanted movies that were more grounded in real life and less escapist fare. Escapist fare was still produced but so were more realistic movies.
TCM makes a valiant effort each month to bring us films from all decades. Each month the majority of films are from the 1940s and 1950s with the 1930s and the 1960s coming next and a smattering of silent films and post-1970 films rounding out the schedule.
And we reward all that each month by complaining about the schedule because they dare to show seven or eight post-1970s films that some people detest and some people enjoy.
In the end, perhaps the fault is not with TCM but with ourselves for not respecting that each one of us appreciates the different decades of film for different reasons and that while we may not like a particular film being shown that someone else in the group will be filled with joy at the chance to enjoy it.
Message was edited by:
lzcutter because articles really do help make a sentence more understandable.
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but I believe TCM's "mission statement," as it were, should be emphasizing pre-1960 film
Actually, they do have one and it has been printed a few times.
lzcutter, do you happen to have it and can you paste it here? >>
Thanks to the Wayback Machine:
From the TCM Home Page, December 1997:
Turner Classic Movies, a 24-hour cable network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., presents the greatest motion pictures of all time, from the 1920s through the 1980s, commercial-free and without interruption. Visit the TCM Home Page.
Their mission statement has never included just pre-1960 films.
This may be an instance of that pesky memory and perception coming into play.
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On the one hand, people whinge about individual consumption and people not caring about each other, and looking at the Norman Rockwell image as the halcyon days.>>
Fedya,
It seems to be a very American trait to look back at our past, especially with how different our lives are now vs then, and yearn for that simpler time when life seemed so much better.
The reality is that those halcyon days were filled with just as much strive, hard times, segregation and oppression as they were filled with love, caring and looking out for one another. Were we to actually live in those times, we likely wouldn't find them so rosy.
But we tend to overlook the negative aspects of that in our yearning for the way it used to be.
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Happy Birthday, Anne
From one Capricorn to another!
What Movie or Movies are You Still Waiting for a DVD Release?
in Hot Topics
Posted
ShearerChic,
Is WBHV still searching the international archives in hopes of finding the missing scenes from "The Sea Wolf"? I haven't heard that they have been successful but I sometimes missing breaking news like that.
Also, isn't Strawberry Blonde slated to be released on DVD this year?