JonParker

It's not illegal to give pre-recorded, purchased movies away. It's illegal to give away or sell movies that you have recorded off the air. It's not a huge issue, and I doubt that the FBI would go around raiding senior centers to confiscate tapes that you donated, but it's absolutely illegal.

A lot of my pre-purchased movies have been re-released on DVD. Those I bought. The old tapes I gave away to co-workers or the Salvation Army. A few that have not been re-released I kept. Of my collection of stuff I taped off of TCM, I've been slowly dubbing the tapes to DVD. There are legal issues with selling them or even giving them away, so those I mostly toss out once they are dubbed. If you're going to buy a DVD recorder, don't bother with one of the combo VCR/DVD machines. Just get a regular DVD recorder and hook your old VCR to it.

I'm not even going to begin judging the Hepburn/Tracy relationship. Not for me to cast the first stone. But I will say it's all I can do to keep from crying when Tracy gives his monologue at the end of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." I can't keep my eyes off of Kate standing behind him crying real tears. It's heartbreaking.

Easy choice - Louise Brooks Ditto.

I watch movies in-flight on my laptop. I've noticed that when I'm watching a foreign or silent film, where being able to hear isn't crucial to following the plot, passengers next to me and behind me (I always get aisle seats) will end up watching the film.

"The Passion of Joan of Arc" is the single best film I have ever seen. I never had an absolute favorite until I saw it.

October looks like a fantastic month. I do think Zombie debuts then. I've wanted to see Skyscraper Souls for a while now. And Faster Pussycat? Wow! Also, "The Devil With Hitler" looks just bizarre.

My disappointment with modern-day, mainstream cinema is that '**** and explosions' have come to replace personality and aesthetics. But because a dumbed-downed audience creates a demand for 'T&E' (not much unlike the Colisseum audience of Ancient Rome demanded mindless, wholesale slaughter), who's to blame? Film professor Thomas Doherty* makes an argument that this was a natural evolution. In the 1950s the rise of television and the evolution of the teenage market led to films aiming more at a juvenile audience -- parents with children were more likely to stay home and watch TV for entertainment, so movies that teens were apt to see became more commonplace, even if they weren't the primary market. Note that there are plenty of exceptions, but we're talking general trends here. In fact, the indie market is booming right now. Actors like Depp do indie work because they want to, even though the money isn't even close to what they make on PotC. They alternate between working for the money and working for their art. Audiences have changed. The bulk of the movie going audience is now teens and young adults, so it's no surprise that the movies that are made cater to their tastes. Also, TV is better than ever and aimed more at adults. As people mature, they tend to move over to TV and away from going out to theaters. Just in the last few years, I see more good movies aimed at adults being made (I want to say "adult movies" without the obvious porn connotations). I think that's due to the rise of DVD and videotape allowing adults to watch films at home without having find babysitters. As Theodore Sturgeon famously said, "90 percent of everything is crap." That was true in the past, and it's true now. Ever spend a sick day watching old programmers on TCM? Also, I'm totally in favor of ****, although explosions do get boring after a while. *Teenagers and Teenpics: The Juvenilization of American Movies in the 1950s

Louise Brooks. Clara Bow isn't the prettiest, but she's the sexiest. I always had the hots for Priscilla Lane.

I think Fox still has the rights to most of them. I know "Call Her Savage" shows up on FMC once in a while, so it's possible the others do as well. I'd rather see more of them make it to DVD. I know "Down to the Sea in Ships," ""The Plastic Age" and "It" are on DVD. "Wings" is not, and it really needs to be. A lot of her films are lost, which is a real shame.

...and not at all as terrible in her talkies as she thought she was. The scene where she wrestles the dog in "Call Her Savage" would be memorable even if she couldn't act. Damn. That's what I watch pre-code for. I think one reason we don't see much Clara on TCM is because they don't have the rights. They have showed the "Discovering the It Girl" documentary, and I think they've showed "Down to the Sea in Ships" before.

Once again I forgot to record this. I guess I'll just have to buy the DVD. I keep seeing part of it, but never the whole thing. Carroll Baker -- whoa. Definitely a movie to heat you up on a cold night.

I'm not sure TCM is up for showing Fritz the Cat (or Heavy Metal either), but Yellow Submarine would be great.

Don't forget "Ghost World" (2001). One of my all time favorite films.

What about "The Crow" (1994)? I really love that one. Cheesy, but great.

I love all those movies, but what I'd really rather see is more obscure stuff that I don't already have on DVD. I'm really looking forward to Rob Zombie's show.

Sid's death is very sad news indeed. He was totally brilliant, if disturbed. Pink Floyd's heyday may have come under Waters's direction, but for me they never equaled the Barrett period. Perhaps when I get home this evening I'll try listening to "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" while watching the 1925 silent "Wizard of Oz."

This is a really excellent movie. I Netflixed it, and went out and bought the Criterion DVD the next day.

Both Flash and Aquaman in their pre-hero days were guests on WB's Smallville a couple of years ago. I think there had been some talk of an early Flash series, but apparently nothing came of it.

Number one for me has to be "Passion of Joan of Arc." Nothing else like it before or since. I'm not sure I could do a top ten list of silent films. Murnau alone would take up at least three spots, and then three each for Keaton and Chaplin, two or three for Griffith -- there we are at 10 and I haven't even gotten to Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, King Vidor, Joseph Sturnberg yada yada yada. But "Passion" is number one. Possibly the best move ever made.

Murnau would have had a much longer career.

Hey, he challenged me to prove he lied, so I did so.

Matt, I'll give you credit. You're an expert in right wing talking points. But this is all beside the point. In the first 90 seconds of the first debate, Kerry said "I believe America is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and we are leading strong alliances. I'll never give a veto to any country over our security. But I also know how to lead those alliances." Now how you get from that to "It reminds me of Kerry saying he thought we should get the UN's persmission before we do anything" is impossible without the willingness to flat out lie, which is what you charged me with proving. As far as I'm concerned, I did prove it. I'll grant that Kerry was politically tone-deaf with some of his statements, but he never even came close to saying what you said he did. I'm done with this. If you have anything else to say to me about this, take it to PM.

I am not foaming at the mouth, nor am I ranting. Kerry is politically tone deaf when it comes to some of his statements, but he never said or suggest that we "would need the UN's permission" as you dishonestly claimed. He very clearly said the exact opposite. And you were the one who went off on a tangent about the truth and justice bit, so you're the one responsible for the turn that this thread has taken. A lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, frankly.

It's an interesting movie -- definitely precode. The gay relationship between Wilmer and Guttman is a lot more obvious, as is Spade's womanizing. It's not a bad film for an early precode, although Ricardo Cortez drives me batty with all his smirking. It's worth catching though.