lzcutter Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Dear TCMProgrammer, Know you are busy but many of us would like the problem of inaccurate running times on the movies you are showing addressed. As you show movies 24/7, many of us have to record our faves to watch at another time. However, the inaccurate running times are causing many of us not to get the entire movie. The endings are cut off because the movie runs longer than the scheduled time for cable and satellight viewers. We would appreciate this being fixed quickly as we love TCM and want to watch the movies but nothing is worse than watching a movie and discovering you don't have the ending. Please help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pktrekgirl Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Thank you very much! I appreciate you writing this, lzcutter! I love TCM - I really do. It's a wonderful station and they do a great job! But I have to admit that I was kinda frustrated after the past couple of days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyweekes70 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 I just wrote this in the Silent Film genre forums but it also seems to apply here. Last night, The Red Lily was scheduled to run an hour-and-a-half, the article on the website said the runtime was 70 and the film turned out to be 81 minutes. Go figure. The Clairvoyant, on next, started at 1:43 (my time) and was scheduled to run 73 minutes (the US runtime). Since the film was the original GB version, which runs 80 minutes, that's how long it ran. Then Osborne comes on and says something about how impressive it was to see so much was packed into an hour-and-ten minutes! Someone didn't check the facts or his script!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrtbsh Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 This was my fault. I trusted an inaccurate source and should have been more certain of the runtime before the schedule was finalized. I apologize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted March 27, 2006 Author Share Posted March 27, 2006 TCMProgrammer, Thanks for the speedy response. I only posted this because I didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle so to speak as part of the TCMProgrammer Rocks thread. I appreciate you addressing this concern so quickly and hope we move on. On another note, was Benji really filmed in wide screen? I always thought it was "flat". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomagain77 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 I taped The Clairvoyant and missed the ending because of the scheduling mess-up. Oh well, hope it plays again sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pktrekgirl Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 As I posted in the other thread, thanks so much for the explanation. I think we all understand - everyone, after all, makes mistakes. I know I certainly do! However, would it be possible to reschedule these sometime in the next few months? I'd love to seem them all in one piece. Thanks tons for the response! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyweekes70 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 I also offer thanks for a speedy response and for scheduling The Clairvoyant and that fantastic restoration/rescoring of The Red Lily. Unfortunately, it appears more than a few people missed the ending of them. I guess I was lucky to stay up. Maybe re-run for both? We all makes mistakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaltyDog Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Is it just me, or does this happen many times when a silent movie first appears on the TCM schedule? For example, I remember the same thing happening with some Harold Lloyd films when they first appeared on TCM. I'm guessing that the source of the error is that wherever you are getting the running time from is making the assumption that automatically the print's running time is at 24 fps, whereas, there is quite a bit of variation that whomever is doing the restoration could do....it would make sense to verify the running time with whomever is actually preparing the restoration. Anyway, I am another one who recorded "The Red Lily" on my DVR without the ending. I hope that the film is run again soon. It's partly my own fault because as I said this has happened before and I should added some extra time at the end but I neglected to do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted March 28, 2006 Author Share Posted March 28, 2006 Saltydog, I think one of hte problems with the running times on silent films especially, is that often a title will have two or three different running times attributed to it. Often what happened here in the states was that the films were re-cut for various reasons and often those prints became the ones that circulated the most and those running times got adapted in databases. However, in the last twenty years or so prints have been found overseas or in end of the line destinations. These prints were often of the original cut so to speak and many of those prints are closer to the original running time. As TCM has to rent the majority of the silents it shows, they are at the mercy of the info and the print they receive and sometimes, the info and the print times don't match up. Just a guess on my part but I thought it might be valid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yanceycravat Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 Count me among the folks who missed pieces of both screenings! Very disappointed but hope they'll rerun both real soon. Yancey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katyscar11ett Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 TCM programmer - how incredibly nice to get an honest apology instead of a lame excuse. Thank you. I was so happy that I was watching and waiting for The Clairvoyant, since I adore Claude Rains, because I would have been heartbroken if I'd set my recorder and missed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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