daddysprimadonna Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 One of Mary Pickford's best-I can't believe that TCM is showing it in the afternoon! Good on ya,TCM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metsfan Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 It would be nice if they show "Daddy Long Legs". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddysprimadonna Posted June 29, 2006 Author Share Posted June 29, 2006 I don't think that it's been that long since TCM did show it,as I recently ( some months ago) bought the DVD based on seeing and enjoying it on TCM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarboManiac Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 Is that the one with all those kids? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddysprimadonna Posted June 29, 2006 Author Share Posted June 29, 2006 "Sparrows" or "Daddy Long Legs"? They both had a lot of kids in them Mary Pickford loved working with children,unlike,oh,WC Fields,LOL. I understand that he wouldn't have minded boiling them in oil! Message was edited by: uh, boiling them IN oil! daddysprimadonna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarboManiac Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 Well, I am not too fond of them myself! In fact that is why I turned it off. The film started out by a lake or river with a landlord or something and a gate. Oh, I can't really remember cause those kids were everywhere, and I just had to go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddysprimadonna Posted June 29, 2006 Author Share Posted June 29, 2006 I'm not overly fond of the little crumb-snatchers myself, but Mary Pickford is winsome enough to make me forgive their presence in her movies They're not in all her movies,and in spite of her present-day image,she was most decidedly NOT syrupy-sweet in her movies(except for "Pollyanna",which she herself considered too syrupy,so she made the director add a scene in which she sees a fly,and says to the fly, "Little fly,would you like to be in heaven?" She smooshes the fly,and says "Now you are!" LOL. In real life,she had quite an Irish,bawdy(but not crude) sense of humor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gagman66 Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 The Milestone DVD release of SPARROWS is a much more recent transfer from the Mary Pickford Foundation. For what ever reason, the only print TCM ever airs of this film is the much older Killiam Shows/Blackhawk films version, produced for Public Television clear back in 1970! To say the least, the Milestone print on the DVD, is much better quality! Additionally, The Killiam shows print has a William Perry Piano score that is Mono, and in need to re-mastering. The Milestone score is digitized, though it too is from an old recording, by Wurlitzer Theater Organ legend Gaylord Carter. In either case, I hope to see this film get the deluxe treatment when it comes to scoring one of these days! Apart from this, may I ask, why is TCM apparently not able to air the newer cleaner print of this movie? They are able to run most of the other Pickford Milestone DVD titles? MY BEST GIRL, for example, but there was also a Killiam Shows version of that movie too! Yet, TCM gives us the much sharper, and restored print of that film. Not the beat up old Killiam Shows transfer as they do with Sparrows? Granted Some major Pickford movies such as LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY, for example have yet to be issued by Milestone on DVD, and so TCM, must revert to the old Killiam prints in order to show those? Here again unfortunately, the Killiam Shows print of LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY (1925), TCM airs from time to time, is Black and White and it looks truly miserable! Yet my two decade plus old VHS Blackhawk Video copy, has the exact same Bill Perry piano score, but is multi-color tinted, and the print is markedly better pictorial quality, than what TCM runs now? Why is this? I used the old LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY tape, to make up a pretty good DVD-R version. Although, hopefully, Milestone will release a top flight print of this feature, taken from the Pickford archive with a full orchestral score before to long now? I have been waiting patiently for this to happen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrtbsh Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 gagman66 - It's a great question and I'm not sure how satisfactory my answer will be. We have to license these films from different distributors (we can't just take them and play them). When we licensed the Killiam version of "Sparrows" several years ago, that's what was available to us. Since we have a limited budget, we then have to decide if we're better of licensing a newer, better version of the same film that we already have, or licensing a different silent film. (For example, we recently licensed the Photoplay vesions of "The Cat and the Canary" and "La Terre," and we licensed several Valentino films that were television premieres, including "Beyond the Rocks" from Milestone). While we'd always like the best version available we sometimes have to make trade-offs like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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