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Casanova's Big Night 1954 Paramount. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Bob Hope Joan Fontaine Basil Rathbone Lon Chaney jr Raymond Burr, (Burr was ubiquitous in the 50's ) and Vincent Price is unbilled but appears for several minutes at the beginning of the film as Casanova.I am not a fan of Bob Hope I watched some of his films for a particular actor or actress in it,otherwise I pass.In this one he does his usual stuff as the ultimate coward with a string of one liners,a little better than usual.Fontaine looks terrific at 37,it dawns on me,she has a very similar voice like her sister Olivia De Havilland.Nice technicolor .Good effort.86 minutes .7/10

Mustang Country 1976 Universal.Directed by John C. Champion.Joel McCrea Nika Mina.Set in 1925 at the Montana -Canadian border.A former rancher & rodeo star is trying to capture an elusive, extremely hard to get mustang stallion.Great cinematography,filmed entirely in Banff Alberta in Canada, full of wild life and great scenery. McCrea was retired for several years but the screenplay enticed him to do it and to make it is definitive last film. A great ending to a remarquable career of a very generous actor. 80 minutes 8/10

Ride Beyond Vengeance 1966 Columbia .Directed by Bernard McEveety.Chuck Connors Gloria Grahame Michael Rennie Kathryn Hayes Joan Blondell Gary Merrill Claude Akins , many others first screen credit for Bill Bixby. Underrated western, Connors is very good as the lead. Filmed in 1965 in 5 different states.This is the only film done in the 60' by Gloria Grahame,beautiful at 43,not a big part but a fair one.The bar- room fight between Akins & Connors is quite amazing ,one of the best ever filmed. I pity the saloon owners. Who pays for the repairs ? Released in early 1966,produced by Mark Goodson &Bill Todman (Price is Right producers)-they produced a few films. 96 minutes 7.5 /10

A Bell for Adano 1945 20th Century Fox. Directed by Henry King .John Hodiak Gene Tierney William Bendix Richard Conte. Made in California,filmed just before the war was over,there is no battles in this film,it is the administrative duties of the American Army in a small Italian village ravaged by the war.Hodiak is the star of this film, despite Tierney's top billing as a blonde Italian girl with hardly any accent at all, a total miscasted role and not that important in the film..Conte has a small role delivering his lines.Hodiak's favorite film. 103 minutes.7/10 because of Hodiak.

Daisy Miller 1974 Paramount.Directed by Peter Bogdanovitch.Cybil Shepherd Barry Brown Eileen Brennan Cloris Leachman. Bogdanovitch was a little bit ahead of his time for a victorian era film set in Italy with Shepherd as an ingenue causing negative gossip in a very prude society. Shepherd has a very fast delivery and it is annoying. Merchant Ivory had just started victorian era films but mainly 5 years later and they did them much better.They would have not cast Cybil in the leading role but she was involved with Bogdanovitch for 3 years so it was a vanity project. Story by Henry James, Merchant Ivory would do several of his stories in the early 80's.Brennan is excellent.Shot in Italy nice cinematography. 91 minutes 6.75/10

El Paso 1949 Paramount Directed by Lester R. Foster. John Payne Sterling Hayden Gail Russell Henry Hull. Set in 1865 Payne is an ex Confederate soldier leaving Charleston to establish his law practice in El Paso,going there to hopefully rejoin his former flame .The city is almost lawless with a highly corrupted judge,sheriff etc.Hayden is the heavy and Russell is wasted (!).Exteriors filmed in New Mexico,very nice cinematography. Presented in Cinecolor.103 minutes 7/10

The Saturday Night at the Movies from TVO Ontario was also available to Quebec residents also,I watched it for many years and I was living in Montreal,I do not know about the rest of Canada,I guess it depended on the cable provider. TFO the now French equivalent has 2 or 3 uncut & no ads foreign movies every single night,it is amazing.It is with subtitles always in original print and from all eras.

A remake of the very good Panama Flo with the beautiful Helen Twelvetrees and Charles Bickford this was a good 1932 precode.

Yes Saturday nights at the Movies on TV Ontario was my favorite tv show for many years.Animated by Elwy Yost he was an outstanding movie historian i would call him. even if he was not in title For many years I watched the show the length was 4-5 hours with 2-3 movies.Yost made multiples interviews in Hollywood etc with actors,producers,writers and directors like Robert Wise,R Fleischer etc.It was a condensed TCM many years before TCM existed,he formed my fascination for classic films,my then girlfriend -for many years-nicknamed him 'my buddy'.Imo he was a better presenterand interviewer than Robert Osborne whom I always liked but was a couple of notches below Yost.Several years ago I suggested to TCM on one of these boards or something to try to licensed the hundreds of interviews Yost made.He was unique and the best I have ever seen on tv.

I know Kevin Costner is not apparently a great actor. He had an impressive run between 1987 -92.In 92 he did The Bodyguard and I knew that one was going to be bad,He did Revenge in 91 which was terrible with Anthony Quinn but the films in that period were extremely successful and enjoyable. After No Way Out in 87 I even said to my friend then 'he reminds me of Gary Cooper',he was older than me by 12 years a great movie buff and agreed to the analogy.After 1992 , Costner was in freefall with bad films,ego problems and he should have fired his agent-I do not know if he did in retrospect. I am sure posters here will burn me at the stake for the analogy but in these 5 years Costner was a real star and not a fabricated actor like Tom Hanks whom I always had a problem with .Hollywood also tried to make Tom Cruise 'an Oscar actor worthy 'by pairing him with D Hoffman and P.Newman but it did not worked. with the Academy thank god.. I have seen all Cooper's sound films and many silents so I like him very much. But I will quote a line by King Vidor -(who liked Gary Cooper very much by the way)- 'He got a reputation as a great actor just by thinking hard about the next line.' so I think Costner in that period was very similar to Cooper.

I was pleasantly surprised it was very good and the best acting I have seen by Pickford.

Yes I do the same,it has a lot of good info,except it is now out of control when you have a 1000 names (no exagerationhere) for the animation.....

Hotel Sahara 1951 UK Tower Films dist by UA Directed by Ken Annakin .Yvonne De Carlo Peter Ustinov. Average comedy about an hotel located in the Sahara during the Second War. Every country in the conflict invades the hotel one after another.De Carlo is stunning in many sexy outfits,the colors must have been great ,the problem is the producer choose to shoot the film in black & white ... to save money i guess,T he real draw and asset of this movie is De Carlo and they filmed her in b&w ! They surely lost money with this b&w film,a bad decision imo.The poster was in color... 96 minutes 6/10

The Blue Veil RKO 1951. Directed by Curtis Bernhardt.Jane Wyman Charles Laughton Joan Blondell Agnes Moorehead Nathalie Wood (at 13) Everett Sloane.Classic tearjerker and a good one. Favorite film of Jane Wyman ,she and Blondell earned Oscar nominations for best and supporting actress. 113 minutes 7/10

The Frozen Ghost 1945 Universal Directed by Harold Young Lon Chaney jr Evelyn Ankers Tala Birell. Chaney more or less reprised his role of Larry Talbot in the Wolf Man.He is not Talbot but it is just the same as a character full of guilt and remorse.He is a mentalist and one of his patient dies,of course guilt etc.So he quits the job and ends up of all places ... at the Wax Museum of Mme Monet (Birell). Interesting to know: nothing is frozen in this film and there is no ghost... Excellent print 61 minutes. 6/10

They should do a Robert Osborne virtual hologram like they did for Elvis.It would cure the problem and Robert would do all the intros in this virtual manner,TCM should check into it,they might save a lot of nmoney...

I remember very well when they premiered them all. Not much happened since then I think.

Beyond Mombasa 1956 UK Columbia directed by George Marshall. Cornel Wilde Donna Reed Leo Genn Christopher Lee Ron Randell.Aventure yarn set in Africa. Wilde's brother died as he just discovered an important goldmine-could be uranium also. They aged Genn by 25 years hard to recognize with a white mustache and a big white haired wig. I was surprised to see Ron Randell not dressed as a Roman soldier...Nice Technicolor, most of the outdoors filming was shot in Kenya, some studio works in England. We have seen this before. 90 minutes . 6.75/10

I liked them both .LadyJ is ok as you say it.I watched it for Cecile De France. Le Retour du Hero I liked a lot more,I liked the ending,It has many funny moments. DuJardin is good in anything it seems..

And there is so many good ones,I just watched one last month on Chaplin done in France of all places-Chaplin was English -after all,more than 2 hours... all new stuff...there is so many,on the American or British side alone,a weekly spotlight was something I suggested 2 years ago.I think we have a better chance of getting a hologram video of Robert Osborne doing the intros i guess...

Never Say Goodbye 1956 Universal Rock Hudson Cornell Borchers George Sanders Directed by Jerry Hopper ( Douglas Sirk is not credited but he is all over this film) . Period tearjerker in the Sirk tradition,I watched this film for Sanders. A young Shelley Fabares is the daughter in conflict with the mother.Clint Easrwood has two lines at the beginning of the film,there is also a small role for David Janssen. 96 minutes 6/10

The Secret of Convict Lake 1951 20th Century Fox Directed by Michael Gordon. Glenn Ford Gene Tierney Zachary Scott Ethel Barrymore Ann Dvorak Good cast based on an incident in 1871, convicts escaped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California,there is a lot of snow in this film.The name of Convict Lake is based on the incidents .The film itself is fiction based on what happened.film is ok,worth watching for the cast.83 minutes 7/10

you chose the favorites instead of general discussions.

The Frozen Ghost 1945 There are no ghosts here and no one is frozen Title choice remains unclear.

The Frozen Dead 1966 UKGold Star Productions distribution : Warner Seven Arts directed by Herbert Leder Dana Andrews with Edward Fox in a very supportive role. Another mad scientist movie.Andrews is a former Nazi scientist doing head transplants(another one !) He kept the bodies of former nazis in frozen crypts to eventually revived them,he learns there is more than 1500 around while he thought there was only 12 (the ones he had in frozen state)He is part of a nazi conspiracy to mark the 20 years after the war. .Unbelievable story with another incredible ending,cheaply done. The film was made in color.But in the USA for the theatres it was only in black& white.Andrews's German accent is funny but at least he tried.The movie was shown once on TCM... A long 95 minutes 5.5/10 AND DO NOT FORGET 'BEWARE THE ICY STARE'