lzcutter
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Posts posted by lzcutter
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> TCM has to appeal to the youts (My Cousin Vinny, okay not a classic) of today,
It's actually somewhat a myth that the only people who watch TCM are over 55.
There are people from all age groups posting here at TCM City, even teens and young adults.
So it's only logical that they would watch the channel as well.
The general manager of the channel, Jeff Gregor, told the audience at the *Meet the Staff* panel during the latest Film Festival that 66% of their audience is in the 18-49 demographic.
The TCM Film Festival is a great microcosm of the TCM audience, people of all ages and all colors coming together to celebrate film and their favorite channel. TCM is not just the bastion of AARP members.
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> Let's define classic, shall we?
You've been here long enough over the years to know that everyone has a definition of what is classic and that not everyone will agree on subject.
Films are very personal to people. The reasons they love or hate films is very personal.
What you consider garbage many consider classic. Does that make them wrong and you right? From your posts, you certainly seem to think that your opinion should override everyone else.
Who decides what films are classic and which are not? As has been pointed out here, many of the classic studio era films that TCM shows are not classics. Does that mean they shouldn't be shown? Should TCM only subscribe to the AFI's top 100 classic films of all time? Should they only show films from the studio era that fit some narrow definition of classic films?
Thankfully, whether we like or not, TCM does not subscribe to such a narrow view point.
To TCM, all films are important.
They can be bonafide classics like *Gone With the Wind* and *Casablanca* or low budget noirs, b films, cult films, z grade serials, beach party films, poverty row fillers, silents, foreign films and even modern films from the 1960s forward.
I much prefer TCM's approach to showing a variety of films vs an insular only show films I deem classic type of thinking.
But, that's just me and your mileage may vary.
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> As long as I can still see MOSTLY pre-50's B&W movies, I'll be happy. And yes, there are good movies made after that, or course, but they are not what I like to watch and they certainly are not what TCM was created to present.
As Kyle has pointed out, when TCM debuted back in 1994 their mission statement was: bringing you classic motion pictures from the 1920s to the 1980s.
In 2009 when they celebrated their 15th anniversary on the air, they amended that mission statement to include movies from the 1990s.
From the very beginning the channel was not devoted to only showing studio-era films. As early schedules (found through researching the archives here or through the Internet Archive) show, post-1960s films (including films from the 1970s and the 1980s) were part of the schedule.
Sometimes it's easy to confuse what posters want the channel to be with what the channel actually is.
This subject has been debated on these message boards from the day these boards were created back in 2002 (and was probably debated in the prior forum but the archives only go back to 2002) and will probably be debated for another ten or twenty years from now.
One thing's for sure, no matter what, there will always be disagreement about it.
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Filmlover,
I do like your Broadway to Hollywood idea. I'd throw in *The Music Man* (film projected at the Egyptian perhaps with Shirley Jones-third time could be the charm) and *How to Succeed in Business* especially if they could get Barry Morse and/or Matthew Weiner and Jon Hamm to talk about the film.
It's the *Mad Men* mid-century modern lover in me.
I would also love to hear Jon Hamm introduce a Bill Holden film. I like to think he is a big Holden fan, especially since there is a lot of Holden in Hamm's characterization of Don Draper.
I also love cinecrazy's idea of the Academy having an 85th birthday celebration (with lots of Club TCM presentations) at the Festival next year as well!
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King,
I don't know it for a fact but I think the majority of actual film projection took place at the Egyptian. This year's schedule actually made note of which were digitally projected and which were film projected.
That's one reason MrC and I opted for *Young Frankenstein* that Friday night, it was a 35mm print.
I don't think either of us had seen it projected as film since back in the day. The black and white photography was just beautiful.
We loved it!
I loved the digital restoration of Wings right down to the gold tint used in the aviation action scenes. 20,000 Leagues and Snow White looked terrific as well.
The film purist in me prefers old-fashioned film projection ( *How the West Was Won* was another great film experience) but I get the feeling that Grauman's (the main theater at least) has retired their film projectors.
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> I actually saw something that looked like an emu sprint across the street from one of our local delis. It looked like Goldie Hawn.
Oh Barb,
You have no idea how much you have missed around these parts!
I just did a spit take!
Thanks for the laugh at the end of an irritating week!
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I would recommend reading Furious Love. It's a terrific (and heartbreaking) chronicle of two people very much in love who lost sight of that love.
But, until the end, Elizabeth loved Richard Burton and kept his love letters by her bedside, including the note that arrived just days after his untimely death.
He was hoping they could reconcile one last time.
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> However, it appears that TCM has something built into their channel that prevents DVD recording of some films, from what I have read in these boards.
Infinite1,
If you go back into the archives, there are the occasional thread about someone having trouble recording certain films.
They come here thinking the culprit is TCM (or the studios providing the digital prints to TCM) when, in fact, almost every time it is the original poster's cable/satellite company and changes they have made to their settings.
Most of those cases are resolved after they contact their cable/satellite providers.
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> The Essentials went down the toilet after the original host died.
For the record, Rob Reiner was the original host of *The Essentials* and he is still very much alive. I believe you are thinking of Sydney Pollack who was the second host of the series.
> TCM needs to show more silent films and 30's films. They need to show more Garbo and Valentino films on Silent Sundays.
Garbo does not suffer from lack of love by TCM. She has been Star of the Month three times and her films are in regular rotation on the channel.
> TCM needs to show Hal Roach shorts more often.
TCM has to rent the films it shows and the rights holders of the Roach films certainly appear to be very stringent in their dealings with TCM. I'm sure TCM would love to be able to show more Hal Roach more often but, as was the case in the winter of 2011 when TCM last did a Hal Roach festival, many of those films were made available for limited re-airing and some were only allowed to be aired that month.
A similar situation with the Roach rights holder came into play a few years ago when April was devoted to silent comedians and silent films.
As is often the case, the rights holders have the final word not TCM.
> TCM needs to show more Universal Horror stuff like Frankenstein , Dracula , the Mummy , etc They need to make it a tradition to show those film every October.
They would probably love to show the Universal Horror Classics every October. But the reality of the situation is those films are very popular, especially in October, and TCM must compete with other channels when bidding for the rentals/leasing of those films.
Many of the Universal Horror classics have been playing on the channel the last few months.
TCM is not the only channel that airs classic movies. The Encore channels, Retroplex and its sister channel, the lesser HBO and Showtime channels, the Fox Movie Channel and others all show classic films as part of their line-up. With the exception of the Fox Movie Channel that only shows Fox films, they are competing with TCM for the rental/lease rights to classic era films.
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> After seeing The Thief of Bagdad (1924) on the big screen this year, more Douglas Fairbanks, please
King,
How cool would it be to have both Doug's version of *Robin Hood* and Errol's *The Adventures of Robin Hood* at the festival?
Just not at the same screening time!
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Roy,
Hello! Can you believe I don't think I've seen *Hangman's Knot* ? I know, given how much I love Randolph (cue chorus) Scott and Lee Marvin.
Now I have a film to look forward to!
Thanks!
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> Have you ever thought of taking pictures for a "side by side" comparison?
TikiSoo,
Here's two sites that do just that:
The first belongs to John Bengston, the author of books on the film locations of Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton. He also researches Hollywood and has an article on the locations used in this year's Oscar winner, *The Artist*:
http://silentlocations.wordpress.com/
The second site is:
http://dearoldhollywood.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
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> Yes, I thought he mentioned Los Feliz in the film, but wasnt sure.......
In the film, the Dietrichson house is located in Los Feliz. In real life, the house is located in the Hollywood hills.
Dietrichson House, 6301 Quebec Drive, Hollywood Hills
Here's an article from the LA Times a few years back:
http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-brunken17-2009oct17,0,6259333.story
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TCM's *31 Days of Oscar* microsite has been nominated for a Webby. You can vote to help them win:
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Just a quick reminder that John Bengston's stint at the Silver Screen Oasis begins tomorrow, Tuesday, April 24th.
Please consider this your invitation to join us between April 24th-April 28th at the Silver Screen Oasis for this exciting special event and welcome John to our classic film discussion group.
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Just a quick reminder that John Bengston's stint at the Silver Screen Oasis begins tomorrow, Tuesday, April 24th.
Please consider this your invitation to join us between April 24th-April 28th at the Silver Screen Oasis for this exciting special event and welcome John to our classic film discussion group.
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For me it's easier to talk about Helm's acting career than his music career.
From the time I was in junior high, Levon Helm with Ronnie Hawkins, with the Band and on his own have been part of the musical tapestry of my life.
His voice was immediately recognizable and the southern/western tinged story songs he wrote (and co-wrote with Robbie Robertson) at a time when rock 'n roll was going in a very different direction, still stand the test of time.
The camera always liked Robbie Robertson best but the microphone loved Levon Helm's voice and so did I.
Here's a nice article/interview from EW:
http://music-mix.ew.com/2012/04/23/levon-helm-obituary-interview/
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Chief,
That's a great idea! I would love to hear James Cromwell talking about his father!
Another good addition would be Becca Wilson talking about her father, blacklisted screenwriter, Michael Wilson. Michael Wilson wrote such films as *Lawrence of Arabia*, *The Bridge on the River Kwai*, *Friendly Persuasion* and *Planet of the Apes*.
I would also love to see a salute Michael Curtiz with films such as *Noah's Ark* (1928), *The Mystery of the Wax Museum* (1933) and, of course, *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1938).
I would also love to see Steve Bingen and his co-authors do a Club TCM presentation on their book, *MGM-Hollywood's Greatest Backlot*.
Would love to see the Academy do presentation on their latest acquistion, the photo collection they received from Bison Archives. Would love it if Marc Wanamaker, the owner of Bison, could do co-presentation.
Would also love to see a Club TCM presentation on *Los Angeles as Backlot* - a look at City of Angels landmarks and other locales that appear in films.
With *The Artist* winning an Oscar and using many Los Angeles sites for filming, this presentation could be broken into two presentations:
Silents to WWII featuring author John Bengston,
And Post-War to the 1970s.
Edited by: lzcutter
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> Considine left acting for phtography around age 30 or so, didn't he?
Ginnyfan,
Yes, and he is quite accomplished at it.
Shortly after appearing in *Patton* he realized that he could make a living with his photography skills.
He still dabbles in film and tv projects from time to time but, like Stollery, realized that he didn't have the necessary drive it takes to be A-list actor.
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Not all child actors want to continue with their careers as they begin to get older.
I saw David Stollery ( *Spin and Marty* ) in a panel discussion with Tim Considine last year.
Stollery had made his film debut in 1949 in *A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court* and enjoyed working in films.
But as he got older and into his teen age years, after the run of *Spin and Marty*, he started to realize that he didn't have the drive necessary to make the transition to being an adult actor full-time.
He opted out, going to college and became a very successful car designer (including the 1978 Toyota Celica). He doesn't regret the decision.
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Last Saturday evening during the *18th Birthday Salute*, Ben M not only told the audience how joining TCM was a life changing event for him, but as the party wound down and festival goers had mostly left to get in line for the evening line-up of movies, those of us who were hanging around were lucky enough to hear Ben M talking about his dog.
Kudos to all those sharp-eyed TCM viewers who noticed the puppy's water bowl on Ben M's new set.
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> why did so many lifeboats move off only half filled--when they could have taken men and women alike
Part of the reason was because many of the passengers believed the ship was unsinkable and didn't believe the danger was eminent. Many believed they were safer on the ship than in a lifeboat on the cold, dark North Atlantic ocean.
It was only as the danger became obvious and that the ship was in serious trouble that passengers began to take the call to get in the lifeboats was taken seriously.
By then, too many lifeboats had been sent out only partially filled.
BRONXGIRL'S MOTHER, HENRY FONDA'S HIRSUTENESS, ETC.
in Films and Filmmakers
Posted
Hey Barb,
Don't mean to change the subject- I like Gary plenty and I think in various movies you can see how much Bette loved him, it's written all over her face- but it is Ann-Magrock's birthday today: