Big_Bopper Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Mask of Diijon is one of the greatest low budget movies and one of my favorites. Unfortunately the only print available is in such bad shape. Image put it out, then it was reissued by FATW (films around the world) in a watered down print. The logo PRC is missing off it and that tells you plenty. Its about a show biz magician's realization that fakery is a dead end. He decides to become a real man who is not dependent on mere trickery. He reaches the pinnacle of his life by foiling an armed robbery in a diner using hypnosis. Things go wrong for him because he believed people were out to get him and it was only his perception. He acted on thoughts in his mind when he should have pushed negative assumptions aside & rise above them. I too have been victim of negative assumptions here on this board and in my life. When you find out you were wrong you feel really small & pitiful. A man in order to evolve needs to rise above negativity. cast it aside & plod on. If it gets you and throws you - you can become very ill. A real man needs to keep all his challenges in perspective and face them with a clear head. Its only a movie but in my opinion its an important movie with alot to say about life. ignore it at your own peril. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 I have seen this guy Tony in Mask of Diijon He was cast in a good part as a prosecuting attorney in IMPACT in 1949 & as it was produced by Harry M. Popkin I believe it was entirely due to his performance in Mask of Diijon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Lew Landers greatest film is THE RAVEN in 1935. But he has made several other good films such as ARSON SQUAD at PRC in 1945 here he is Frank Albertson is the star of Arson Squad The dialog is so witty in Arson Squad that it stood out from its low budget status. Albertson is one of the greats of hollywood. Grace Albertson might be his wife. Robert Armstrong plays the head of the Arson Squad who must partner up with Albertson to break up the gang. (sorry but I could not post a pic) Lew Landers was on a roll at PRC and these two is like throwing gasoline on a fire! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 There are no photos, no posters no nothing about this great movie ARSON SQUAD. its as if it had never been made. I have never seen anything like this happen to such a great movie. Arson Squad 1945 66 min Storyline Tom Mitchell (frank Albertson) is an insurance investigator and Fire Capt. Joe Dugan (Robert Armstrong) is chief of the police department's arson troubleshooters. Tom and Joe team up to solve a particularly vicious series of deliberate fires. A man has been killed in one conflagration, so the villains have a murder rap hanging over them. There are NO reviews on imdb NONE ZERO I may be the only man to own this movie on tcm board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Landers made another film in which a nuke bomb was worked into the plot Shadow of Terror 60 min - Storyline One redeeming factor about PRC was their ability to be topical and responsive to "late breaking news" and "this just in" situations, whether it applied or not. Easy to do when making films in seven days or less and the time from start-of-production to release of film was often less than a month. An example is in this film when they were able to add just-released US government shots of the Atomic bomb test in New Mexico to this film after it was finished. Never mind that the word Atomic Bomb was never used in this film. This one finds Richard Fraser being thrown from a train, after his papers are stolen, on which he was bound for Washington to present the government his own secret bomb formula. He is found by rancher Grace Gillern and nursed back to help but is suffering from amnesia. Cy Kendall and his henchies trace him to the ranch and drop by since a vital part of his formula was missing from the papers they had stolen. Release Date: 5 October 1945 (USA) Also Known As: La voluntad se impone Company CreditsProduction Co: PRC Technical SpecsRuntime: 60 min Perhaps the best Lew Landers film ever. 11 May 2008 | Really a good surprise. Product from PRC company. This story about an amnesic fellow, thrown from a train by killers and rescued by an old timer and his daughter in the middle of the desert, is not absorbing but keep you focused on this little flick.When you learn that the killers are after the poor guy because he is in possession of a big secret, the secret of the Atomic Bomb, you realize that you are in front of an unusual movie. And keep in mind that this one was shot in early 1945, when the WW2 was not finished yet.It's not a gangster movie, rather a spy one, but a good actioner, well paced.The ending let you puzzled, and gives also a weird taste in the mouth. Especially now, when you discover the picture many years after the end of the war. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Funny thing is I lived the SHADOW OF TERROR. I was poisoned by milk shipped to new york in a secret treasonous govt op. The cows who created the milk grazed on land down wind from atom blasts. the op was 1947-63. anyone born in those years in new york was poisoned. 10 million people were exposed. Look at men today. on tv / they look ill to me. they look mutated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burt Wilson Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I always saw MASK OF DIIJON as a Bela Lugosi vehicle; not that Erich Von Stroheim did a poor job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 Another great Lew Landers picture at PRC This movie has been vandalized. I have 3 versions & none is in good shape. Its almost a badge of glory when a film is vandalized. Then you know it hit home. A great cast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 TCM has shown a block of Lew Landers films. They were chosen by the committee that is in charge of what images slips thru the tv. These Lew Landers films were deemed worthy of his image by this committee. Therefore they must be garbage. THEN this same block of films was shown again. So nobody can say TCM is guilty of blacklisting Lew Landers on the channel. But TCM has never shown his best films: ARSON SQUAD, CRIME INC., SHADOW OF TERROR and MASK OF DIIJON. TCM has not shown them & they easily could because the committee has not cleared them. & they have not been cleared because TCM does not like the stories - & so TCM committee chose to show inferior Landers pix so it could not be accused of blacklisting the man. this info was removed last night right here. by mods. The truth cannot be allowed to stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 in order to get top quality complete films tcm & robert osborne became lackeys of the academy. they had to adopt academy values and not rub them the wrong way. whatever films the academy deems off limits, tcm must also take this pov. whatever people the academy deems unworthy of being praised, tcm must ignore these people. If you have been watching tcm you undoubtedly have learned this is true. tcm has been partner in a filthy perverted incestuous o.rgy with the academy. the greats of movies need to be recognized as greats instead of ignored and buried. I hate the academy. it is mgm. a man that cannot read cannot have an academy. that is foul fact no. 1. once you go from there you are in the wrong direction. I have been to the academy and have seen films by them. I lived in L.A. 5 years. Only one tv station has ever been forced off the air. That is KHJ ch. 9 in L.A. They were forced off the air because they showed movies that were being buried namely: THE CARETAKER and THE ICEMAN COMETH. seen them on tcm? The Caretaker has been buried in USA by janus films. no tv, no vhs no dvd nada, zilch, zippo, After I saw it on ch. 9 I knew immediately it was a great movie. The stage play was a great success & efforts were made to gather enough money to have it filmed using the same cast. Iceman Cometh is also great in much the same way. They tell the stories of bums. Iceman Cometh was on an obscure channel called Trio now out of business. The academy was a prime mover to get ch. 9 off the air. Bastardized movies. TCM has shown at least 3 I can name: Kamaradschaft, Foolish Wives, Joyless Street. There are more slip my mind this moment. Oh yes THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS. I saw the Polanski cut in L..A.. in 1978 at the Nuart theater. Called DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES. 124 min. I timed it. The money man destroyed the Polanski version because he stole the affection of Sharon Tate. Martin Ransohoff He retitled, reedited and redubbed Dance of The Vampires. Its an outright mess. Yet TCM was content to show it many times. There are high quality versions of these movies - edited as the authors intended. TCM has chosen to ignore those & by showing bastardized versions, tcm is trying to escape the accusation of blacklisting them. THE LIST GOES ON & ON & ON.......................... of the multitude of titles & people discarded by TCM to placate the academy. you had to be there. I am talking about the greatest movies ever made. The greatest names in the business. TCM trashes these to suck up to the academy. I don't know about you but if the channel is being ruined I mean run in this way then a GIGANTIC insult is being imposed upon subscribers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Honey, I can't feel my legs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MovieMadness Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 The Committee is much larger and it involves more than just TCM. Lew Landers is only the tip of the iceberg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 the committee does not exist according to our dear overlords. you know that and I know that but does the committee know that? Stroheim's next picture THE DEVIL'S PASSKEY was destroyed. deliberately burnt. One of the most sought after films. Did not cost 1,000,000$.................. TCM has never shown Blind Husbands to my knowledge. WHY? Because baby Peggy was more important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 CRIME INC. had to do with studios short changing unons while paying punk money to mafia operatives. its a fact. they were caught and jailed for extortion. AMONG THE LIVING a great movie not shown by TCM albert dekker as a psycho with an evil twin. sorta like mr. hyde with a bad side. "lift your skirt a little higher..... yeah a little higher .... ok now come over here.... if you do the right thing you can have the part........" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 the louis b. mayer foundation library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MovieMadness Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 The secret files you don't know about has all this information already, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MovieMadness Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest on Oscar night? lol Even the Committee has to laugh at this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 KAMARADSCHAFT - an attempt to show how trapped miners can be saved by the combined efforts of germany & France. the print tcm chose (Or rather committee approved) was so bad imagewise and had footage that was not in the film and the framing was so bad. Everything you could do to ruin it was done. This story formed the basis for the Harry M. Popkin film THE WELL which has not been cleared by the committee for consumption by you good people. In THE WELL there is race hatred going wild in a town when a girl is discovered trapped in a well. The town puts aside its squabble long enough to band together & save the girl's life. TCM/academy/Committee believe GW Pabst was a jew hater. So now you got a justification. I'm a jew. And I do not find that in his films. You cannot convince me. All this so called censorship / banning to protect who or what? I have made a point of acquiring every movie. Some very hard to get. To Find Out. SECRETS OF A SOUL the so called jew hater movie. The murnau stiftung chose to restore the movie. Except they decided to remove certain info in the film. I am going to list the stuff the murnau restorers left out: There are a lot of important elements the restorers chose to omit from the movie. There are letters that are opened & are supposed to appear on screen for the audience to read. Gone. A man pulls up on a bike delivering a telegram. Gone. All references to the name of the man Martin Fellman are omitted. When he comes home after leaving his key,he sits down in front of the idol. It disappears leaving only a baby image. Gone. His wife see a dog & litter of puppies, She says: "I wish I had a child." Gone. The Murnau people made the movie incoherent by this censorship. Its a disgrace. They had no right to do these changes to the movie as they are not part of the creative process. The name Martin Fellman tells you what? It tells you his psychosis caused him to become impotent. To remove the name is ridiculous. TCM has not shown Secrets of a Soul. There is nothing in this movie that is bad. its all total bull$h!t. the murnau people just did the very worst thing. They destroyed their credibility as restorers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 another Pabst classic DIARY OF A LOST GIRL since kino is selling all these jew hater movies then the academy should shut them down ala khj ch. 9, right? TCM has not shown it to my knowledge. A funny thing happened - true story - I tried to get the book thru university inter library loan. As my wife was an employee. She brought the application to the dept. & I was watching. The woman in charge got very angry at my wife. I went up there & said "what is the problem?" the woman in charge started backpedaling fast. started to want to disappear. she took the application and did not come back. I was unable to get a copy of the book. the request was blocked. This is the stuff you find when a big lie goes round and takes on a life of its own. Trying to turn pre nazi artists into nazi artists. its ridiculous and stupid but TCM follows this into 21st century absurdity. the films the man need to be recognized as great artists making great art. without the judgments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 you got one old movie channel in the entire country. Controlled by a committee which by their actions resemble a Central Committee of the Communist Party. All information must go thru it in order to be placed in the minds of tv viewers IN USA. I do not accept this situation. I pay $100 a month to get tcm. I cannot allow my money to be used in this way. Its shameful. Its exactly what we accused other countries and condemned them for. We became the monster we hated. If you can't lick em join em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Fritz Lang - was forced to leave germany to remain alive. He ended up here. He was asked to make a movie. He took a long time to decide. MGM happened. He made FURY. it was hated by mayer. Well that is a great start! Metropolis & Dr. Mabuse pt. 1 were restored - However I have problems with missing footage in both. When you restore a movie the No. 1 priority is to replace the images as the author intended. You cannot begin making judgments. Once you do that you slide down the slope into a garbage dumpster. Metropolis was filmed in two versions. German negative & Export negative. I own a great copy of the German version. & the "complete" version is entirely the export negative except one reel. This woman was covered up in the complete version. In the other german version she is naked. Lang wanted this to answer the question: "Who wants to volunteer to entertain Freder today?" This title was deliberately misplaced & appears AFTER the girl volunteers. This woman stepped forward, bowed & turned around as a gesture stating she wanted the job. What was Lang's intent? He was trying to convey that all the women in the picture are hookers who get paid money if they get chosen. By misplacing the title & obscuring the volunteer, the restorers made a judgment against Lang's intent. Trying to cover up the hooker scenario the scene was made for. NEXT - When Maria first appears with a bunch of kids She says to the kids: "Look These are your brothers." Then she says to Freder and all the people there: "Look these are YOUR brothers." only one of these titles is in the complete film. WHY? Because she is laying a guilt trip on the people there for not taking an interest in these kids. There is another incident in which censorship was used. I will tell you that later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MovieFanLaura Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 By my count TCM has shown at least 40 Lew Landers films in recent years, including my personal favorites, CRASHING HOLLYWOOD, DOUBLE DANGER, and FLIGHT TO GLORY. Anyone interested in his work should watch for these titles to return in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Those titles were made by Landers. But they suck. That is the block of films TCM committee used to avoid the accusation of blacklisting the man. I saw them & it was boresville. There are movies and there are Movies. Why did he have so many good pictures at PRC? Because he was free from big studio interference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Those titles were made by Landers. But they suck. That is the block of films TCM committee used to avoid the accusation of blacklisting the man. I saw them & it was boresville. There are movies and there are Movies. Why did he have so many good pictures at PRC? Because he was free from big studio interference. Who owns the rights to the Landers movies that TCM isn't showing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Restoration corruption 101 Metropolis - Tower of Babel sequence. it is preachy semi religious. But a point was trying to be made that by creating Metropolis the powers lost touch with the workers & communication was lost. At the end on screen amidst the destruction of the Tower it says: GROSS IST DIE ______ UND JHR SCHOPFER (a word was above the screen ceiling) UND GROSS IST DER MENSCH This is the english language version of complete Metropolis. Why is this in German? Here is a translation of the words from the Australian version in english. GREAT IS THE WORLD AND ITS CREATOR AND GREAT IS MAN The Murnau Stiftung could have used the scene in English for the english language version and did not do so. Why? Because by doing so Might cause problems with existing religious establishments. So Lang's intent was set aside. This is what I mean by judgments. You can't have it both ways. The movie already had a checkered past. What is the point of covering up the girl & misplacing the title? BTW one of the girls (hookers) was seen later on when the car pulls up next to another car at Yoshiwara. She is in the car and altho cut it appears she exposes her breast. See when the hookers are not servicing Freder in the garden, they are busy peddling themselves in Yoshiwara. ONE more thing. I was wrong. The scene of the kids & Maria saying look these are your brothers. was corrected in the Complete Metropolis. It was the Australian Metropolis where the title was deleted. I am man enough to admit I was wrong when I'm wrong. Dr. MABUSE pt. 1 Murnau Stiftung again decided to ignore Lang's intent. There is a scene where a new gambling club opens. A man pops up out of the center of a circular table and talks to the gamblers. He tells them if police raid here is what is going to happen. Then a woman comes down from the ceiling semi naked. It is shown in long shot. Then it is shown closer. Then it is shown in long shot as she disappears. The 2nd shot of the naked woman is missing. The Murnau people destroyed the point of the scene by doing this. Lang intended to show that nudity was ok with police & gambling was not. Which is absurd. So I have pointed out 3 movies in which Murnau restorers were out of line. BUT there is another! VAMPYR. I think everybody knows this by now but I'll repeat it. Cuts were demanded by authorities when the film was released. Murnau stiftung had the cut footage & left it out as an extra. Thereby ruining the movie and ruining Dreyers intent. The scenes are the staking of the vampire in the graveyard by the hero. And the death by suffocation of the doctor who assisted the vampire to get blood. Its mind boggling that they did this. I dont think a single fan of this movie is ok with this activity. There were rumors TCM showed Vampyr with the footage intact. But the TCM version is the same. VAMPYR was shown in this country as Castle of Doom severley cut and narrated. That is a whole other tragedy. Our studios treated films like crap disrespecting authors left and right and cutting them at will with no thought of consideration. I call this motto "If you can't make a great film you can at least destroy a great film." This motto needs to be placed next to the Hollywood sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Bopper Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Who owns the rights to the Landers movies that TCM isn't showing? Glad you asked that. TCM can show any PRC picture it wants. WB has gigantic clout - they can show ANY movie ever made if they choose. I don't know if TCM has shown THE RAVEN. But I have not seen it on TCM. Its funny that Landers and Ulmer both made great Karloff / Lugosi pix and both ended up at PRC. Its can almost be considered a punishment being sent down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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