TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Rinaldo]

I'm watching The Magnificent Seven right now, another iconic title that I've never seen, though of course I knew about it and knew the famous Elmer Bernstein theme.

 

The thing that really struck me at the start is that Bernstein theme. Has any main-title music ever launched so confidently and unforgettably? Familiar as it's become, I got all stirred up. I really wonder if Bernstein, as he put the notes down on his score paper, said the equivalent of "Nailed it!" to himself. 

[Milburn Stone]

Anybody see the remake of M, with David Wayne as the serial child-murdering prevert, that TCM showed tonight? I only caught a bit of it somewhere in the middle, but saw the whole thing a couple of years ago at a film society screening. It's "interesting" rather than great, but what seems truly remarkable about it to me is that David Wayne would do it. And that his career survived it!

 

He'd already established himself as a likable character type in comedic roles on Broadway and in the movies; I haven't seen everything he ever did, but enough of it to know this was a departure for him, to say the least. And in the early fifties to boot, when audiences weren't always so willing to separate actors from the characters they played.

 

J.R. Jones, writing in the Chicago Reader on the occasion of the film society screening I attended, wrote: "...Three months after M was released, [director Joseph Losey] left the United States for Europe to escape being subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which wanted him to explain his past membership in the Communist Party...he never worked in America again. Three of his players on M—Howard Da Silva, Martin Gabel, and Luther Adler—were blacklisted, and M was greeted by right-wing picketers in Los Angeles that October. Everyone who lays a hand on the story seems to wind up running for his life."

 

Everybody but Wayne, that is. Obviously his career in light comedy picked up without missing a beat.

 

Did Ben (or whoever intro'd the film) remark upon this?

Edited January 2, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[voiceover]

The story I'd read (I think maybe in Garson Kanin's book?) was that he wanted to play it without makeup and was very disappointed that they wouldn't let him....There's also a story that he wanted Katharine Hepburn to play both Ivy and Beatrix.

Yes, that's from Kanin's Tracy & Hepburn; the first film "bio" I ever read, so naturally I was spoiled for anything else afterwards.  

 

He was a buddy, so of course there's editing & sugarcoating, but it's a delicious gossip nonetheless.  One of my favorite parts was Tracy's crack after Kanin needled him about the billing -- "She's a lady...'Ladies first'?"

To which Tracy replied, "This is a movie, chowderhead.  Not a lifeboat."

Edited January 2, 2016 by voiceover

[jjj]

I love the casting of the major and secondary roles in "Victor Victoria," which just finished airing.  Leslie Ann Warren's dancing and her conniving are riveting every time!  I think the first time I saw her floor show, I had the same expression on my face as the actors watching her -- so unexpected, and just jaw-dropping! 

[Charlie Baker]

I watched M out of curiosity, and it improved as it went along, I thought.  I knew about the blacklisting of the others, but somehow didn't know about Martin Gabel. (For a What's My Line fan like me, the opportunity to see him act (and he was a good actor) is rare.  I just thought that was because most of his work was in the theater. I guess that was where he could work.  He was also in Hitchcock's Marnie and in Tony Rome, with Sinatra, post blacklist.) He, Wayne, da SIlva, Adler all gave it their all. It was fun to spot William Schallert in a bit as one of the mental patient suspects. Robert Osborne did the intro and outro, and focused mostly on Losey's story, but also told how legal entanglements over rights kept the film unavailable for a long time. 

 

For something completely different: a hearty Yes! to jjj on Victor Victoria. My favorite:Graham Stark as the waiter--a great comic performance.

[Inquisitionist]

If any of you have not read Sturges' autobiography, you absolutely should.  There are a few good recent bios, but reading his own account of his own life is a trip.

 

I treated myself to a copy for Christmas and began reading it this morning.  Thanks for the recommendation!  It is delightful.  Can't remember the last time I laughed to myself so much while reading. 

[Rinaldo]

[M is] "interesting" rather than great, but what seems truly remarkable about it to me is that David Wayne would do it. And that his career survived it!

 

He'd already established himself as a likable character type in comedic roles on Broadway and in the movies; I haven't seen everything he ever did, but enough of it to know this was a departure for him, to say the least. And in the early fifties to boot, when audiences weren't always so willing to separate actors from the characters they played.

That is definitely interesting. I can imagine why David Wayne chose the film, though -- entirely out of my own imagination, and I may certainly be wrong about what went through his mind.

 

He became "typed" early on, it seems, likely due in part to his relatively short stature, mild manner, and particular look, in whimsical rather sexless oddball roles, and never the lead: the leprechaun in the original Finian's Rainbow, another Irishman in Portrait of Jennie, the "coded" quasi-gay bystander in Adam's Rib, and so on. To someone seeing a lifetime of playing the oddball "second man" ahead of him. the chance to play the undoubted central role in an ambitious drama must have looked pretty attractive.

 

The really surprising part is that, as you say, he went right back to those "typical" roles afterwards, and audiences didn't seem to hold his one indiscretion against him; everyone just pretended it hadn't happened, so to speak. 

 

He also apparently managed to play a wider range of roles on TV, on the many anthology drama series available in the 1950s and early 60s. And then in the 1970s he entered his beloved-old-grandpa phase, which served him well for the rest of his career.

[prican58]

Re Sinatra's "Golden Arm", I have never seen it but really want to. I am kind of afraid that I will compare it to a similar themed film A Hatfull of Rain from 1957 with Don Murray, Eva Marie Saint and Tony Franciosa. That film was filmed in Manhattan and felt really gritty and real to me and the above description of Golden Arm's back lot sets may color my feelings about it. Those 3 actors, along with Lloyd Nolan really do a great job.

 

TCM shows it every so often 

[Rinaldo]

I'm watching A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum right now, my first viewing of it (as far as I can recall) since its first release. What a mixed bag. Great comedians retained from the original production (Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford) and good new ones added (Phil Silvers, Michael Hordern), and Sondheim fan though I am, I actually think they weren't wrong omitting some of the songs that are awkwardly placed or overextended (but a couple of helpful ones were also jettisoned, like "Love, I Hear" and "Free"). And probably Richard Lester, just off the Beatles films etc., seemed the ideal director for a freewheeling Roman farce. 

 

But it came out damp and misshapen. The material isn't really so freewheeling -- it's as tightly constructed as any Feydeau concoction, and needs precision to be funny. The Lester quick cutting and disassembling of scenes into surrealistic individual shots kills the pace of most of the comedy and doesn't let us see how good the performers are. Some short scenes work well, but they don't go anywhere, so the plots don't intertwine satisfyingly and the ending doesn't click into place as it ought. A near miss, but still a miss.

[bluepiano]

I'm watching The Magnificent Seven right now, another iconic title that I've never seen, though of course I knew about it and knew the famous Elmer Bernstein theme. 

 

Another of Bernstein's most famous scores is the jazz influenced one he did for The Man with the Golden Gun. Now that's range.

 

 "...Three months after M was released, [director Joseph Losey] left the United States for Europe to escape being subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which wanted him to explain his past membership in the Communist Party...he never worked in America again.

 

Losey had such an interesting career. Even in his early days he showed that he was not interested in directing conventional Hollywood movies, so I suspect that even without the blacklist he would've wound up working in Europe, where the film aesthetic much more closely matched his own. Same with Jules Dassin, another blacklisted American director who really came into his own in Europe with Rififi, Never on Sunday, Tokpapi etc.

 

Did anyone else watch The Long Night, with Henry Fonda? An unusual movie, independently produced, blending melodrama and film noir, with a very gritty performance by Henry Fonda, Vincent Price as a suave but still menacing magician, and Ann Dvorak, great as always in support. Sad and haunting, and highly recommended.

Edited January 3, 2016 by bluepiano

[Padma]

Re Sinatra's "Golden Arm", I have never seen it but really want to. I am kind of afraid that I will compare it to a similar themed film A Hatfull of Rain from 1957 with Don Murray, Eva Marie Saint and Tony Franciosa. That film was filmed in Manhattan and felt really gritty and real to me and the above description of Golden Arm's back lot sets may color my feelings about it. Those 3 actors, along with Lloyd Nolan really do a great job.

 

TCM shows it every so often 

"Golden Arm" is still showing for TCM "On Demand". I watched an hour of it the other day and had to take a break. The sets didn't bother me so much, but Eleanor Parker's character did. I appreciated Osbourne's intro about how it was a breakthrough film in showing drug abuse (forbidden in films by the Hays code since the 30s), but the reasons Sinatra gets back on drugs right away seemed pretty pat. Still, good performance by him, at least. I plan to finish it but needed the break--the characters were getting too exasperating after an hour (just like addicts. :))

 

And I'm glad you mentioned "The Long Night", bluepiano. I saw that one was listed in "TCM On Demand" as well--I was intrigued by Fonda and Price being in it and that I'd never heard of it.  Good to know something about it now--sounds like a good one to catch while its still there..

Edited January 3, 2016 by Padma

[Rinaldo]

I'm watching The Magnificent Seven right now, another iconic title that I've never seen, though of course I knew about it and knew the famous Elmer Bernstein theme.

 

Another of Bernstein's most famous scores is the jazz influenced one he did for The Man with the Golden Gun. Now that's range.

Absolutely. And lots in between those extremes too.

 

And not to detract from Mr. Bernstein's stupendous achievement, but several of the great film composers exhibited similar range. (And the ones who didn't aren't less-great composers, just as an actor needn't have a huge character range to be a superb actor -- just want to be clear that I'm not assigning grades. :) )

 

Alex North, for instance. Beginning with the jazz-influenced Streetcar Named Desire, continuing with bright Copland-esque color for The Rainmaker (it seems on the verge of becoming a musical, which a decade later it did, albeit not with North), big non-hokey Ancient Epic sounds for Spartacus and Cleopatra, subtle dramatic underscoring for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the unfortunately discarded score for 2001, and a late-career venture into medieval fantasy with Dragonslayer. And the list leaves out the immortal song that came from a now-forgotten flick, "Unchained Melody." I guess it's obvious that I admire North immensely. (Along with many others, but I don't hear people mention his name much these days.)

Edited January 3, 2016 by Rinaldo

[ratgirlagogo]

 

a now-forgotten flick

Yes, "Unchained."  Shows on TCM of course but yes, unfortunately forgotten.  Even more unfortunate that the humane approach to incarceration Kenyon Scudder pioneered would be so completely jettisoned as time went by and the Reagan/Antonovich type of Republican (yes, there are Republicans who aren't crazed right-wingers) became more powerful in California.  Tragic really.

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/15/opinion/oe-janssen15

Edited January 3, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[bluepiano]

Re Sinatra's "Golden Arm", I have never seen it but really want to. I am kind of afraid that I will compare it to a similar themed film A Hatfull of Rain from 1957 with Don Murray, Eva Marie Saint and Tony Franciosa. That film was filmed in Manhattan and felt really gritty and real to me and the above description of Golden Arm's back lot sets may color my feelings about it. Those 3 actors, along with Lloyd Nolan really do a great job.

 

The two films are very different, so I don't think that will be an issue. Hatful, as I remember it, was about the devastating effect of drug addiction on a family, whereas Golden Arm is about the underside of urban Chicago, a specialty of Nelson Algren, who wrote the novel on which it's based. He also wrote A Walk on the Wild Side, which was made into a movie that was also very controversial because of its subject matter.

 

As a quote in the Wikipedia article about him puts it, "Algren articulated the world of drunks, pimps, prostitutes, freaks, drug addicts, prize fighters, corrupt politicians, and hoodlums".

Edited January 3, 2016 by bluepiano

[voiceover]

Ahhh, His Girl Friday.  My new favorite moment: at the lunch table, when Hildy strikes a match for her cigarette, then Walter grabs her hand and uses the match to light his own.

And of course: "I'm gonna hammer on your monkey skull 'til it rings like a Chinese gong!"

[Fraoch]

Thanks to the TCM app, yesterday I streamed "Funny Girl" and "A Star Is Born" (the Judy Garland version) while working -- such lush singing! I also loved having the chance to drool over Barbra Streisand's fabulous costumes (with amazing hats).

[Charlie Baker]

So tonight is the first of Fred MacMurray as Star of the Month.

 

But today they showed a number of movies featuring Lew Ayres.  I came in on Ice Follies of 1939,in which LA was the second male lead. James Stewart was the first, Joan Crawford the female star.  They were a couple of ice skaters who were in love but sort of went separate ways when she got discovered for movies and he wanted to start his own ice extravaganza. It was dull and unconvincing, despite the fact that the ice skating finale (without any of the leads on skates) was in color. Then Lew Ayres was the male lead opposite Lana Turner in These Glorious Girls, a light romantic drama focusing on upper class college girls looking down on poor down on her luck Lana.  It had a dark side with some of the supporting characters,which didn't particularly fit well with the rest of the movie, but overall not much memorable.  The last, short  movie I watched before I checked out was The Golden Fleecing. a modest screwball comedy romance which was absolutely the best of the three. It had a script by SJ Perelman, Lew Ayres was very well cast as the somewhat clueless but nevertheless heroic hero, with Lloyd Nolan doing a great tough guy act as his antagonist, and some great character types supporting, like Nat Pendleton.

 

Lew Ayres was very handsome, came across as very amiable, and was a more than competent actor.  He had prominent roles in a couple classics, All Quiet on the Western Front and Johnny Belinda, but I suppose came closest to sustained stardom in the Dr. Kildare movies.  He was a conscientious objector in WWII, serving as a medic, which presumably hurt his career.  A second string leading man in his prime, he did have a long life and career.

[3pwood]

Charlie Baker, I liked The Golden Fleecing too -- but you should have stuck around right afterward for The Unfaithful (1947).  Pretty standard melodrama soap opera, with decent writing & good performances by Ann Sheridan, Zachary Scott, & Lew Ayres -- but the best part was Eve Arden as a busybody "friend" who never stops talking.  I started watching because I admire Lew Ayres, only to find Eve Arden stealing the show (as she always does for me).

[Rinaldo]

As a 20-ish baby-boomer, I first saw the name Lew Ayres on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as Murray's father, whom Mary goes out with.

 

But undoubtedly I saw him many other times. In the years c. 1954-94, I see about 90 TV appearances for him, mostly guest shots. I admire people who keep working like that.

[Crisopera]

Lew Ayres gives a really terrific performance as the sad drunk brother of Katharine Hepburn in Holiday (1938).

[Bastet]

He's fantastic in Holiday (a film I love).  That was the first thing I saw him in, and I really took notice of him.  I wondered why I hadn't seen more of him, and suspected blacklisting.  It was sad to learn I was right, but a relief to also learn he'd managed to revive his career.  He had a small role in an episode of Cagney & Lacey when he was 80; it took me a while to recognize him (it was one of those "I know that guy; who is it?" experiences), but I was so excited when I did.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Bastet

[Charlie Baker]

Thanks for the reminders about Holiday--I like it a lot too--and Mr. A is excellent in it.

[Inquisitionist]

It doesn't appear that Lew Ayres was blacklisted per se.  According to Wikipedia:

His final film as Dr. Kildare, Born to Be Bad, was re-edited after he was drafted and controversially declared himself a conscientious objector in March 1942. This stance almost destroyed Ayres's reputation until it was revealed that he had served honorably as a non-combatant medic from 1942 to 1946. He returned to acting in the films Dark Mirror (with Olivia De Havilland) and The Unfaithful with Ann Sheridan. In 1948, his role in Johnny Belinda earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

 

The AA nomination suggests his reputation was back intact. 

[Rinaldo]

As does his steady work on TV starting in 1956.

[bluepiano]

For me, Mr. Ayres will always be Dr. Kildare. He was very appealing in those movies, his youthful idealism and enthusiasm playing nicely off the crusty Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie. (And not easy to hold your own against a scenery-chewer like Barrymore). Golden Fleecings was made in 1940, and according to IMDB he made three Dr. Kildare movies that year, so looks like he was taking a little break from the series.

 

His character in Fleecings was kind of a more naïve, nerdy variation on his Dr. Kildare, but TCM also showed No Escape, a film noir in which he was an alcoholic song writer, so that was a change of pace for him, as was Johnny Belinda. It's interesting how veteran Hollywood actors would get typecast for a certain kind of part, but occasionally get to break the mold and show some acting range. And Ayres, over the course of a six decade career, got to do a lot of different things.

 

Golden Fleecings and No Escape were both good examples of the kind of minor but diverting genre movies that old Hollywood could crank out so routinely. I'm sure they were each shot in about two weeks. The director and his crew really knew how to work fast and still get decent results, and likewise, the actors had to be prepared to come in and nail it without multiple takes. There was no room for arty pretension, but yet many of those second features are more artful and hold up better than some of "A" movies of their time.

Edited January 7, 2016 by bluepiano

[Padma]

I loved Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare (perfect pairing opposite Barrymore) and he was also so good as the vice-president in Advise and Consent. I'm not sure how I've missed his two biggest roles "All Quiet..." and "Johnny Belinda" but I do remember reading about the (very plausible) rumors at the time that Jane Wyman, in part, divorced Ronald Reagan because of her feelings for Ayres.

 

I enjoyed some of the info about him in that Wikipedia article--the part about being a conscientious objector (and donating all his pay in the service to the Red Cross), being turned down for the tv role of Dr. Kildare because he insisted that there be no commercials for cigarettes (seems appropriate, especially on a medical show!), and that he made documentaries about comparative religion ("Altars of the World"/ "Altars of the East"), particularly to draw attention to eastern religions.

 

I wish Ayres had been a bigger, more visible star on the talk show circuit, as he was not only a very good actor but also seems like an interesting person with some thought-provoking ideas and values that were a bit ahead of his time.

[Milburn Stone]

As does his steady work on TV starting in 1956.

 

I saw him in some Columbo or other not too long ago.

 

Lew Ayres somehow communicates, in whatever he's playing, that in real life he's a nice person who would be an asset in your life if you knew him. There are many stars with more charisma, but few that convey the sense of "decent, intelligent human being" the way he does.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[bluepiano]

Thanks to all for the info about how Lew Ayres served his country during WWII while still remaining true to his principles. I can't help contrast that with certain big Hollywood stars of the period with macho, tough guy images, who made plenty of war movies but did everything they could to make sure they never spent a day in uniform. Or even did any kind of alternate service that might have disrupted their career or put them at any risk. (As when Glen Miller died in a plane crash while in Europe entertaining the troops).

Edited January 8, 2016 by bluepiano

[Julia]

Thanks to all for the info about how Lew Ayres served his country during WWII while still remaining true to his principles. I can't help contrast that with certain big Hollywood stars of the period with macho, tough guy images, who made plenty of war movies but did everything they could to make sure they never spent a day in uniform. Or even did any kind of alternate service that might have disrupted their career or put them at any risk. (As when Glen Miller died in a plane crash while in Europe entertaining the troops).

Well, by all accounts one of the chickenhawks' wives voted with their feet on that one, so there's that.

[elle]

Pat Harrington, Jr.  Although best know for his TV roles, he was memorable as "the man" of the phone company in The President's Analyst.

[Charlie Baker]

Elvis Presley would have been 80 today, so TCM showed his movies during the day. I won't even delve into whatever archetype he represented or how his later life unfolded.  I'm not a huge fan, but once I saw the 1968 TV special, I "got" him and would direct anyone who wondered what the hubbub was about to see it.  Or maybe Jailhouse Rock.  His movies weren't monumental cinema art, but Jailhouse Rock does capture the rock and roll persona and the story could be transplanted into a contemporary world of music and the main character's circumstances and attitude of being in the music business for just how much money he can score would need no alteration. There's some snap to the dialogue, and some grit and steam surprising to see in a major studio release from the 1950s.  

 

There's some sad background connected to this movie. The leading lady Judy Tyler, who had been the female lead in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pipe Dream, died in a car accident just days after finishing the movie.  It was said Elvis couldn't watch the finished movie because of her untimely death.

[Bastet]

I'm not a huge fan, but once I saw the 1968 TV special, I "got" him and would direct anyone who wondered what the hubbub was about to see it.

 

I'm not a fan of his films, but am quite the fan of his music.  That 1968 concert special remains one of my favorite performances of all time; I have the DVD put out about ten years ago that compiled all existing footage from the tapings.

[WendyCR72]

Elvis Presley would have been 80 today

 

Just because I'm anal retentive and my dad was a fan...he would have been 81. His birthday was January 8, 1935.  :-)

[Charlie Baker]

You're absolutely right, WendyCR72. My mental computer hasn't rolled over yet. Oy. :-)

[Rinaldo]

My paternal grandmother was a big Elvis fan too. In her later years, his movies were the only she would go to see. For those interested in him, Sheila O'Malley's blog (she's a cousin of actors Mike and Kerry of the same name) contains many good entries on his film work, sometimes analyzing a particular scene in depth. (She's in general a champion of those whom she considers unjustly belittled as film actors.)

 

The old Paramount all-star Alice in Wonderland was shown recently. Did anybody watch it? I own the DVD but I wanted to see what remarks they'd make before and after. I'm mildly surprised to be reminded that it's the only Hollywood live-action theatrical film of Carroll's books (i.e., setting aside animation, TV films, British versions, and whatever Tim Burton thinks he's doing).

 

What do people think about this one? What are the favorite adaptations? I enjoy Cary Grant, W.C. Fields, and Gary Cooper in this version, and the design of it. Otherwise, I very much like the one made in 1972 with Ralph Richardson, Dudley Moore, et al. The designs look like Tenniel, it sticks to the first book, and many of the performances are fun. (I'll also admit to a sneaking fondness for the Disney cartoon, even though it really trashes the books and even misspells their author. But it has color and fantasy, and it was a part of my youth.)

[ratgirlagogo]

 

The old Paramount all-star Alice in Wonderland was shown recently. Did anybody watch it?

One of my very favorite films, a TV staple of my childhood,  and unavailable on home video for many, many years for reasons I still don't entirely understand.   There was a point in the 90s where most (pirate) video vendors would make a point of saying they did NOT have this film, Song of the South, or If I Had A Million - if you wanted to spend some money you could buy it from Japan.  I went through one bad vhs copy of it after another until I finally recorded it off TCM years ago - and then it was included as a special feature in the DVD of the Tim Burton version.  Truly gets across the surreal, frightening yet comic quality of the book and I love the all-star cameo aspect of it.

[Rinaldo]

it was included as a special feature in the DVD of the Tim Burton version.  

It's also available as a separate release, which is how I bought it.

 

One thing which our TCM hosts might have mentioned to set the record straight, especially as they had the script in hand, is the persistent legend that the film was originally 90 minutes long, was edited for TV in the 1950s to its present 77 minutes, and the "missing scenes" are now lost. (This is even stated in the Wikipedia article.) It seems now to be established that this is untrue: an author/researcher has determined that it was originally released at its present length, and nothing has been lost. 

 

I love the Alice books. One of my persistent fantasies is that they will someday be filmed as two movies, exactly as Carroll wrote them, with no scenes omitted and no songs or dialogue added. It'll never happen, of course.

[Julia]

I love the Alice books. One of my persistent fantasies is that they will someday be filmed as two movies, exactly as Carroll wrote them, with no scenes omitted and no songs or dialogue added. It'll never happen, of course.

If you're a purist, Cyril Ritchard's magnificent recording of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (which I grew up with on vinyl) is available as an mp3 now.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

the persistent legend that the film was originally 90 minutes long, was edited for TV in the 1950s to its present 77 minutes, and the "missing scenes" are now lost. (This is even stated in the Wikipedia article.) 

Exactly the kind of legend that develops legs when a movie remains out of print for so long.  FWIW the article on the film on the TCM site gives the length as 90 minutes, so maybe that's why the presenters were none the wiser.

Edited January 9, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[Rinaldo]

Well, but they didn't say anything about it, and they had the shooting script in their hands. (On the other hand, it's possible -- pure speculation, based on the inclusion of the scene in the tie-in book published at the time -- that the trial of the Knave of Hearts was intended for inclusion, perhaps actually shot but cut pre-release. If that's the case, they took care to paper it over in the editing with that transition to Alice running with the Red Queen that takes us into the Looking-Glass half of the movie.)

 

Sorry, I get caught up in this stuff. I also bought the 1950 British film with puppets (it was shown on TV a lot when I was 4), the dull BBC version directed by Jonathan Miller with no visual magic, and the relatively recent Through the Looking-Glass with Kate Beckinsale (it does a very faithful job with what it includes).

[Padma]

The old Paramount all-star Alice in Wonderland was shown recently. Did anybody watch it? I own the DVD but I wanted to see what remarks they'd make before and after. I'm mildly surprised to be reminded that it's the only Hollywood live-action theatrical film of Carroll's books (i.e., setting aside animation, TV films, British versions, and whatever Tim Burton thinks he's doing).

 

What do people think about this one? What are the favorite adaptations? I enjoy Cary Grant, W.C. Fields, and Gary Cooper in this version, and the design of it. Otherwise, I very much like the one made in 1972 with Ralph Richardson, Dudley Moore, et al. The designs look like Tenniel, it sticks to the first book, and many of the performances are fun. (I'll also admit to a sneaking fondness for the Disney cartoon, even though it really trashes the books and even misspells their author. But it has color and fantasy, and it was a part of my youth.)

I didn't see it when it aired, but after reading your post, was glad to find its still on TCM On Demand this week.  I was glad they'd left in Osbourne's interview with his guest author about the set designer William Cameron Menzies.  The screenplay was by Joseph Mankiewicz. but Menzies got his only co-writing credit for a fascinate reason--he put extensive illustrations into the scripts to improve how everyone would be vsualizing the film.  Osbourne held up the script--about 3" thick and weighing 7 lbs and showed some of the pages--dialogue on the bottom half of the page and an illustration above.  So interesting. 

 

I put aside expectations of fidelity to the original and enjoyed it, even though it combined some (not all) highlights from both "Wonderland" and "Looking Glass" and, as the guest pointed out, the ending where the Red Queen is strangling Alice was nothing that Carroll ever wrote.  Still,  that is always going to be ambitious material that will never equal the original. I liked this one, as kind of a near-stage version, it had some of the surrealism, some of the humor, some of the (mild) scariness of the original and many highlights. Osbourne said it was a commercial failure--only planned to run for one week at Christmas and still a critical and commercial failure, but I enjoyed it--including that being in black and white reminded you a little of the drawings and kept it simpler, less distracting than colors can be with that story. Great cast, too, kind of fun as it was so many of Paramount's big stars (and, per guest, they weren't happy that hardly any could be identified under the rubber faces).  Good costumes, though.  Maybe a more campy approach (like the Wizard of Oz) would have worked, but overall I liked it "as is".

[voiceover]

I have yet to see this year's TCM Remembers.  Anybody got a link?

[Bastet]

I can't find it on the TCM page easily anymore, but here it is on their YouTube channel

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRvDQvT5MuM

[Milburn Stone]

For some reason the shot of George Winslow really got to me. I suppose it could be an instantaneous response of "Hey, he's not old enough to die." But a lot of people aren't.

 

A general question about TCM. Has anyone noticed more lately that practically all the old films seem to have "skip frames" every few seconds? (That artifact that is best detected when subjects are moving in the frame--and they seem to jump ahead ever so slightly from where they should be in space? I hope that explains it.) Has TCM begun to do time compression on these films, creating that artifact? I sure never noticed this on TCM before, not with the frequency I'm noticing it now.

 

It's definitely nothing to do with my provider (DIrecTV). Because all the modern-day "interstitial" material on the channel (the promos, the bios, the "damn fine actress" stuff, the lead-ins, the outros, the host segments) looks fine. I'd chalk it up to TCM being at the mercy of the providers of the films, except that so many older films on TCM are exhibiting the problem. I think something's up.

Edited January 11, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[Rinaldo]

I haven't noticed anything of that kind. The only artifacts I've seen are in the newly shot introductory footage, where a few times I've seen a man's suit look grainy or shimmery for a moment. My working hypothesis is that it's a matter of our individual reception, somewhere in the chain of transmission. 

[voiceover]

Thank you for posting it, Bastet.

Of course, I felt my dad there in every frame, and wept all the way through it.  I'm still weeping.

[Julia]

Oh dear.

At the risk of being insufferably pedantic (although not more than usual, I guess), wasn't it Movita Castaneda?

[Milburn Stone]

Oh dear.

At the risk of being insufferably pedantic (although not more than usual, I guess), wasn't it Movita Castaneda?

 

Uh oh. That's a pretty bad mistake. (Not pedantic at all of you to notice it.)

 

Re the skip-framing artifact I keep seeing on older TCM movies--I suppose it could be some kind of product of the combination of TCM's transmission, DirecTV's retransmission, and my 8-year old Sony HD TV. Strangely, though, I don't see it in films shown on any other channel, and as I say, I also don't see it in TCM's non-film programming. A wild shot at a theory: So many of TCM's films are at the traditional (pre-digital) frame rate of 24 fps, and my digital TV is displaying at the modern-day frame rate of 30 fps? Could that be causing it? But that theory falls apart when I realize I didn't see this artifact until four or five months ago.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[Julia]

Having an unexpected day off, and really enjoying Kay Francis day.

[voiceover]

Alan Rickman! this upsets me terribly.  I adored & adore him, ever since the first time I saw Truly Madly Deeply as a British TV-movie (my ex-MIL & I cried all the way through it).