path40a Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 Unless I missed it, we don't have a topic open on this subject. I wanted to know if anyone else watched these and their thoughts. Since they came on past my bedtime Sunday night , I didn't have a chance to watch what I TIVO'ed until last night (and was glad that I was also "taping" The River else I would have missed the last two features ... it ran about 15 minutes over). I especially enjoyed the Wizard of Oz (1910), realizing that the story is so much different from the 1939 classic. In fact, since I haven't read any of Frank Baum's stories, I don't know which version is more faithful to his work. Doesn't really matter, I like(d) both! The other feature I found fascinating was (believe it or not) the making of the electric light bulb ... but then, I was an engineer by trade. It is AMAZING to see how manual the process was at that time, hard to believe that they could keep up with the demand given how long it took to make one bulb! TG for technology advances! link - http://turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Article/0,,84023|84024|84026,00.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayresorchids Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 Isn't that lion in the 1910 "Wizard of Oz" ADORABLE? I want that costume for next Halloween! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombi6422 Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 The 1939 is not very faithful at all to the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harlowkeatongirl Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 I haven't read any Frank Baum books either, but I think it'd be a cool idea for someone to make a movie from one of his other "Oz" books, because he has a series of them, I think. I loved the experimental sound film from 1894. Amazing. And to think it took so many years after to perfect. I was chuckling at the two dudes dancing with each other though. Today it's normal, but back then? I guess their wives were at home... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljenson71 Posted November 11, 2004 Share Posted November 11, 2004 I thought DW Griffith's "The Country Doctor" was absolutely fascinating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviejoe79 Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 I also caught some of the show. It was fascinating. Although I was bored with "The Country Doctor" - and had a hard time paying attention to it. The ones that I liked the most were the "commercials" - I loved the one about Edison's recording machine, to make secretaries lives easier. That thing looked so complicated! I'd rather write fast. It took the office boy like ten minutes just to shave the wax off the cylinder so it could be used to record more. And the one about the hand soap was great - using a triple screen with two scenes of different people using the product on either side of the middle screen of two men cleaning off a giant hand - I thought that was clever. I also like "The Wizard of Oz" and was surprised at how different it was - especially when the scarecrow and mule go with her in the tornado to Oz - that is definitely different. In fact, in the beginning I thought the mule was the lion! It was different but very enjoyable - too bad they couldn't have that as a special feature on the DVD of MGM's "Oz" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeanddaisy666 Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 Fascinating is a good word. And amazingly commendable of TCM to show these gems. Where else would an average viewer get to see these historical documentations of the magic that was early film? Never mind that the cynic in me said, while watching people on a 1906 streetcorner attempt to keep their hats on while a wind blew mightily, why didn't they just give up wearing hats??? Thank you tcmprogrammer. I don't know who or how someone gets this stuff on the air, considering you also run 'Tootsie', but I commend you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 I agree with Stoneyburke--these films are fascinating. Unfortunately, I came in just after the beginning of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears film. Could some observant person please tell me when and who made this gem? Did anyone else find the sequence with the teddy bears seen through the keyhole to be the highlight of this story? I was shocked by the ending of that particular story, how about you? Thanks in advance for any info and opinion that you might share with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeanddaisy666 Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 1907 is the date on the 'Teddy Bear' film, moira. I didn't watch that one, I taped it for later viewing, but I did hear Robert Osborne say that the ending was very surprising. Care to share? I just looked up the windy day film, and it is from 1903. 1903!!!!!!!!! It was apparently filmed at the base of the Flatiron building in New York. Amazing. To think that someone had the foresight to film people in a documentary style in 1903 AND that the film survived, it surVIVED, until now. Now, when everything and everyone is disposable, and you're only as good as your last idea, and everything is so '15 minutes', to quote the vernacular. TCMprogrammer, can you come here for a minute or so, and give the backstory on these gems? I'm in awe, PUHleeze tell me you have more like these planned! This is more than worth my subsciption to the worthless Cablevision, to be privy to these absolute nuggets. I'd have to drive into NY City and find a museum that had these films and showed them in order to see stuff like this. Never mind that I can't get to the Film Forum for their Film Noir series. Aaaack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 Thanks for the info, Stoney. I'd rather not reveal the surprising ending to the film until you've had a chance to view it yourself--I also wouldn't want to spoil it for others who may have taped it for a later viewing. Believe me, that teddy bear sequence through the keyhole is even more of a technological marvel now that I know it was filmed in 1907! I loved the way that the people on the street beneath the Flatiron building struggled to maintain their hats and balance. Interestingly, the children on the street seemed to be the few people who looked directly into the camera, which must have been a somewhat unusual sight in 1903--ah, dear New Yorkers, always adopting that slightly blas? attitude about everything under the sun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spadeneal Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 I loved "Skyscraper Symphony." It IS better without the sound. Don't get me wrong - the music was fine for about 45 seconds, but then the composer seemed to lose interest and just frittered away the rest of the picture. As I compose myself, I know what a bear it is to write out fast, repetitive patterns for page after page, even on a computer, but sheesh! I couldn't determine whether the composer ran into a deadline or simply got lazy. About the Selig Polyscope Wizard of Oz, it was amazing for me just to see a Selig film on TCM! That has got to be a first. About the music, it weasn't so bad, but an acquaintance (at Hungry Tiger Press) has issued a 2-CD set of every recording relating to the musical of The Wizard of Oz, including the relevant piano rolls and music box discs. I know he wouldn't have charged much to synch it if there had been some blurb for his CD in return. Couldn't we have had that for the sound? I loved all the very short Kinteoscope films. I would be perfectly happy to see an hour long program of nothing but that, such as the French have done for the Lumiere films. I was also very interested in the Rin-Tin-Tin feature, not only for its canine star, but as a silent Warner Brothers feature. Its visual style and theme (a misunderstood mutt from the wrong side of the tracks saving the characters from themselves and combatting an evil no one else is aware of) fits in exactly with what we would expect to see from the studio in later days. Anyone notice that the few seconds of the worm metamophosing into a butterfly in the Brewster Color Test reel was done a year earlier than the jungle sequence in "The King of Jazz," now Universally (ahem!) regarded as the first animated sequence in color? I'm surprised no one here has mentioned "Gus Visser and his Talking Duck." Likewise the Bernard Shaw "Greeting" - what a weirdo! spadeneal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrtbsh Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 I'm very happy a lot of people are enjoying this series. I agree - I think it's great. I can't really take any of the credit for it. The films were part of a program put together by the National Film Preservation Foundation. I'm sure you could find more information by going to their website, but we've had a very good relationship with them for a couple of years. Scott Simmon and Annette Melville were the people primarily responsible for selecting the films. They've released them on dvd and we agreed to license them for air because we think these are real hidden treasures. (I like "Tootsie" also, though.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeanddaisy666 Posted November 16, 2004 Share Posted November 16, 2004 Thanks, tcmprogrammer. Oh, 'Tootsie' was okay, once. It's just not re-watchable for the third or thirtieth time as, say, 'The Thin Man' series is! I posed a question on Info Please, when you have a chance. I'd love to see you all run 'Remember WENN'...can you pry it from AMC's unappreciative corporate hands, please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickdimeo Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 I found a new great character actor in CLASH OF THE WOLVES, Heinie Conklin. This guy was hilarious. I gotta check out more of his stuff, I guess he's probably Chester's brother. On the flip side I thought Charlie Bowers was incredibly lame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickdimeo Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 Just did some research and found out that Heinie Conklin, actually is Chester Conklin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
path40a Posted November 18, 2004 Author Share Posted November 18, 2004 Hey nick, do you think the scene in "100 Years ... 100 Movies" with Rin Tin Tin in it is from Clash of the Wolves? I noticed a definite similarity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeedan1927 Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 No, nick, you were right the first time. Charles "Heinie" Conklin is Chester Conklin's brother. I have it on good authority -- from Heinie's son. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickdimeo Posted November 19, 2004 Share Posted November 19, 2004 Thanks, coffedan! Chalk up another mistake for IMDB. It's funny that you mention the Rin Tin Tin clip Path. I thought the same thing when I saw the short today (right before Citizen Kane). I think it is from that movie but I suppose Rin Tin Tin got more close-ups than his human stars in all his movies, so who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
path40a Posted November 23, 2004 Author Share Posted November 23, 2004 After watching the last installment in this series, just a few more comments. I really enjoyed seeing Eddie Cantor and President Coolidge (wish I'd seen this in time to answer coffeedan's trivia;- ) Both clips gave you a feel for the men. Inklings was cute, but the Westinghouse factory scene was really something to see. What a huge factory and how well the men dressed for working there! The location shots from Greed were also worth viewing. But, the highlight of this past Sunday night's show had to be the complete Ernst Lubitsch film they showed called Lady Windemere's Fan (1925) starring Ronald Colman. I love both men and it was great to see this silent, thanks TCM! It was also "heartbreaking" to know that Lubitsch's earliest Academy Award recognized film The Patriot (1928), for which they showed the trailer, is lost forever. It was interesting to see clips of Emil Jannings and Lewis Stone in that one, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slappy3500 Posted November 23, 2004 Share Posted November 23, 2004 Hey Nick I agree. Ol' Charlie Bowers is so lame his crutches have termites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeedan1927 Posted November 27, 2004 Share Posted November 27, 2004 The biggest surprise for me this past Sunday was seeing Joseph Jefferson III in RIP VAN WINKLE. I remember thinking that this actor was born when Andrew Jackson was president, and he's still capable of entertaining us in his most famous stage role 175 years later! How exciting! What a modern miracle! I also thought I'd share this story of another of Jefferson's lasting legacies: When his friend and fellow actor George Holland died, Jefferson took it on himself to handle the funeral arrangements for Holland's bereaved family. He visited church after church in New York, but none of them wanted anything to do with actors. He had just made his penultimate church visit when a pastor told him, "There is a little church around the corner that might get the job done." "Then God bless the little church around the corner," Jefferson replied. That church, the Church of the Transfiguration, not only gave Holland a funeral, but buried him as a member of their parish. By that time, Jefferson's quest on Holland's behalf had attracted national attention, and ever since then, the Church of the Transfiguration has also been known as The Little Church Around The Corner -- and it has never closed its doors to any members of the acting profession. Jefferson's selfless act was later memorialized in one of the church's stained glass windows. It shows Jefferson in his Rip Van Winkle costume, his arm around a shrouded George Holland, escorting his friend into the presence of Jesus Christ. I think Jefferson and Holland are the only actors to be honored in this fashion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brackenhe Posted November 27, 2004 Share Posted November 27, 2004 Coffeedan1927--what a touching story--"He ain't heavy, he's my brother" totally applies here. I think I'm going to cry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classicsfan1119 Posted November 27, 2004 Share Posted November 27, 2004 Coffeedan...what a beautiful story, and what a wonderful time to share it with us! You never cease to amaze me. Thanks a bunch for being such a special friend to us on these boards. You are truly appreciated! :)ML Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeedan1927 Posted March 28, 2005 Share Posted March 28, 2005 Thought I'd resurrect this thread to announce that the original 4-disc set of TREASURES FROM AMERICAN FILM ARCHIVES, long out of print, will be re-released on May 10. The MORE TREASURES collection created such a big demand for the first collection that Image Entertainment is releasing an Encore Edition with updated liner notes. And it's loaded with goodies like: HELL'S HINGES (1916), William S. Hart's seminal Western THE TOLL OF THE SEA (1922), the earliest surviving all-Technicolor feature and the film debut of Anna May Wong THE LONEDALE OPERATOR (1909), an early D.W. Griffith production for Biograph, starring Blanche Sweet THE CHICHAHCOS (1924), a Klondike gold rush adventure filmed entirely in Alaska, newly restored from a recently discovered 35mm print (the source on the first edition was a 16mm reduction print) THE BATTLE OF SAN PIETRO (1945), John Huston's famous combat documentary SNOW WHITE (1916), the first film adaptation of the fairy tale, starring Marguerite Clark BLACKSMITHING SCENE (1893), the first publicly-exhibited film, and several other Edison short films And there's many more, 50 films in all, spanning almost a century, from 1893 to 1985. The price has been reduced as well, from the original list of $99.95 to $69.95, though many online merchants will probably sell it cheaper. And all proceeds from the sale of the set will go toward film preservation. More information, plus a complete list of the contents, is available at www.filmpreservation.org. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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