TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[EtheltoTillie]

Well, I got to watch the Jerry Lewis documentary just in time. They took it off before midnight eastern time. 
What can I say?  You get to see a fair amount of the actual clown film. It’s just jaw-droppingly awful. I can’t agree with your friend, @Milburn Stone.  Did you watch any of it yourself?  
Jerry’s comment near the end was incomprehensible. He said where’s  the comedy in walking 65 children into a truck.  He then says you could find it but he was unable to provide it. No, Jerry. No one could find it. 

Edited December 24, 2024 by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

The acting in the clown film was awful too. The worst may be when Jerry begs the Nazi lieutenant for mercy, saying he was terrified—in full “Hey, Lady” voice.

Edited December 24, 2024 by EtheltoTillie

[Charlie Baker]

On previous New Year's Eves TCM has run marathons of The Thin Man series, and the That's Entertainment films.  This year, all five hosts will be officiating together as each has chosen one film to show.  

New Year's Eve with the TCM Hosts

[Tom Holmberg]

I liked how, in the olden days, one of our local channels would run a marathon of Marx Bros. and W.C. Fields movies on NYE.  Now you rarely see Fields' movies.

For January:

Memorial Tribute - Terry Garr (9th)
Memorial Tribute - Kris Kristofferson (13th)

[mariah23]

I guess we already have the first person for 2025 TCM Remembers-Olivia Hussey passed away at age 73.

[Rinaldo]

I had a good time this month rummaging around on different services and channels and watching all the Christmas Carol versions I could find. One of the pleasures of the project was find that they could all coexist; almost all of them had virtues absent in another version. There are a number of excellent portrayals of Scrooge: Alistair Sim, George C. Scott, Patrick Stewart, Michael Caine are all very fine, and each finds different legitimate facets to stress. I do still think there's room for another film that puts a priority on bringing to life exactly what Dickens wrote; the book is short enough that the goal might be attainable. I don't think the departures are criminal or anything, but I have yet to see, for example, the weird SF-like Christmas Past of the novella.

On the whole, with due deference to many others, my heart remains with the 1984 George C. Scott telefilm, his Ebenezer being the most pleased with his own sarcastic wit (right out of the book -- Scrooge is constantly punning and one-upping in his interactions), and the cast of British eminences being top-tier. But others will have their own favorites. 

[Spartan Girl]

9 hours ago, mariah23 said:

I guess we already have the first person for 2025 TCM Remembers-Olivia Hussey passed away at age 73.

Zefirelli was a monster, but his Romeo and Juliet was beautiful and that’s all because of Olivia and Leonard. When I heard Olivia had cancer, I feared the worst, and once again, it sucks being right.

Edited December 28, 2024 by Spartan Girl

[EtheltoTillie]

11 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Zefirelli was a monster, but his Romeo and Juliet was beautiful and that’s all because of Olivia and Leonard. When I heard Olivia had cancer, I feared the worst, and once again, it sucks being right.

My husband and I saw this on our first date, in 1974. It was not first run. We also stayed for the midnight show of Pink Flamingoes, as I know I’ve posted before. 

Edited December 29, 2024 by EtheltoTillie

[Rinaldo]

11 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

his Romeo and Juliet was beautiful and that’s all because of Olivia and Leonard.

I do understand the sentiment (I fell for the movie on first run, and still love it), but I do think we have to give Zeffirelli his credit. The look and flow of it are his (OK, the music is Nino Rota's), and appealing as the stars are, they never made the same impression onscreen again.

[Fool to cry]

18 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I do understand the sentiment (I fell for the movie on first run, and still love it), but I do think we have to give Zeffirelli his credit. The look and flow of it are his (OK, the music is Nino Rota's), and appealing as the stars are, they never made the same impression onscreen again.

One thing about this movie and the Taming of the Shrew adaptation he made with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton the year before is they weren't these polished overlit movies made in a Hollywood studio. They were these earthy, on location productions that felt authentic to the time period.

[Sarah 103]

On 12/28/2024 at 8:01 AM, Spartan Girl said:

Zefirelli was a monster, but his Romeo and Juliet was beautiful and that’s all because of Olivia and Leonard. When I heard Olivia had cancer, I feared the worst, and once again, it sucks being right.

I realize I'm dating myself with this comment. In high school, we watched the Baz Luhrmann version, but my mother insisted I watch the Zefirelli version, and I am so glad she did. It is the better version. There were parts of the play that did not make sense until I saw his version. The young leads gave excellent performances. Also, it does an excellent job of showing what their world was like.

[Milburn Stone]

I'm torn between my blissful ignorance of Zeffirelli being "a monster" and wanting to know in what way he was.

This is not an invitation for information on the subject nor is it a plea to allow me to maintain my ignorance. Like I say, I'm torn.

[Milburn Stone]

19 hours ago, Fool to cry said:

One thing about this movie and the Taming of the Shrew adaptation he made with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

On the subject of Liz and Dick, TCM has screened The V.I.P.s at times, and I'm always surprised how much I like it. I remember as a youth reading reviews of it when it came out that said it was soap opera garbage but to me, finally seeing it as an adult, I thought the parts that were meant to be funny were funny and the parts that were meant to be serious were kind of moving. I wonder if the contemporary reviews were driven by righteous anger at Liz and Dick for their off-screen shenanigans during the making of Cleopatra.

FWIW, I can't imagine even people who hate The V.I.P.s not admiring Maggie Smith's performance in it.

[Rinaldo]

I'm addicted to comparing film (or video) versions of the Shakespeare plays, which I started reading at an early age. The Hamlets, for instance, all cast different light on what their makers found important, and I can jump around happily among half a dozen versions. There are an astonishing number of Midsummer Night's Dreams, all remarkably different from each other, and there's fun to be had in most of them (my own personal favorite, if pressed, is the Glyndebourne video of Benjamin Britten's opera, but that's just me). 40 years ago we had no films of Much Ado About Nothing; now we have two good ones.

With Romeo and Juliet it gets especially complicated, because there's so much more text in the play than any film wants to (or should?) retain. The Zeffirelli got to me at the ideal age, and I still like to revisit it, but I can see its faults (like the dead studio sound of some of the post-dubbing -- like many Italian films it largely gave up on getting the sound right on location, and had the actors rerecord their lines after the fact, not always perfectly synced, let alone given proper distance perspective). The old MGM version is pretty much DOA, but it is at least beautiful in terms of design and B&W cinematography, and John Barrymore's Mercutio gives us a wonderful glimpse of a previous generation's stage style. There's also a sumptuous 1954 version directed by Renato Castellani, with a vivid Romeo from Laurence Harvey, some British stalwarts in support, costume designs based on Renaissance painting, and lots of Italian locations (looking much cleaner than a decade later for F.Z.). Luhrmann's adaptation is well known enough not to need description from me. The BBC "Complete Shakespeare" version uses by far the most complete text, but for me never really comes to life. I also discovered a 2013 film that I somehow never heard about at the time, with Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet. Apparently the fact that the screenplay includes additional lines by Julian Fellowes provided some critics with an easy chance to take cheap shots at it, as if nobody had ever taken a new look at the over-familiar plays before. I found it effective and entertaining, and Fellowes's embellishments intelligently conceived.

[fairffaxx]

New Year's Eve Thin Man movies marathon today.  Now that it's over, I can publicly marvel that the bad guy in After The Thin Man was played by 

Spoiler

Jimmy Stewart!

Pretty well, too -- good mad scene!

[Charlie Baker]

I know I've posted here before that, since there are so many conventional versions of Christmas Carol, that it's a shame that Patrick Stewart's masterful one-man stage performance wasn't preserved on video or film.

The recent National Theatre Live presentation which I think played movie theaters--I saw it on PBS--of Romeo and Juliet was rather condensed and stylized, but pretty effective.  Jessie Buckley and Josh O'Connor were the leads, with the likes of Tamsin Grieg, Deborah Findlay, and Adrian Lester in the supporting cast.

I like the old Romeo and Juliet from MGM for the reason @Rinaldo refers to in Barrymore's performance.  It has the feel of a theatrical "package" production of the past, with stars too old for their roles and a staid, if lovely presentation.  And it usually works for me on that level.  I haven't seen it in a while though.  

[Tom Holmberg]

For those planning to go to the new Bob Dylan movie, TCM on New Years Day will be showing "Dont Look Back" (1967), D A Pennebaker's documentary on Dylan's 1965 British tour (just months before the Newport Festival).  The film is considered one of the top documentaries.

Edited December 31, 2024 by Tom Holmberg

[EtheltoTillie]

20 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

For those planning to go to the new Bob Dylan movie, TCM on New Years Day will be showing "Dont Look Back" (1967), D A Pennebaker's documentary on Dylan's 1965 British tour (just month's before the Newport Festival).  The film is considered one of the top documentaries.

That's a good one!

[Wiendish Fitch]

On 12/27/2024 at 11:55 PM, Rinaldo said:

On the whole, with due deference to many others, my heart remains with the 1984 George C. Scott telefilm, his Ebenezer being the most pleased with his own sarcastic wit (right out of the book -- Scrooge is constantly punning and one-upping in his interactions), and the cast of British eminences being top-tier. But others will have their own favorites. 

I adore that one. George C. Scott is one of my favorite Scrooges: sardonic, bitter, and he thankfully keeps the scenery chewing to a minimum. I also appreciate how, like Michael Caine and Alistair Sim, Scott wasn't a frail, bent little old man (I can't tell you how much I hate when Scrooge is portrayed that way). He's under the age of 60 (seriously, do the math, that's most likely how old Scrooge is) and physically imposing. The 1984 version also has my favorite:

Jacob Marley (Frank Findlay is over the top and theatrical, but in all the right ways)

Tiny Tim (Anthony Walters, believably frail but cute)

Ghost of Christmas Present (Edward Woodward, aka the original Equalizer!)

Bob Cratchit (David Warner plays a good guy for a change!).

 

To sum up, my Mt. Rushmore of Christmas Carols:

1984 telefilm

Muppets

Mickey

1951 version with Alistair Sim

Edited December 31, 2024 by Wiendish Fitch

[MissAlmond]

Another Christmas has passed and Terry Kilburn who played Tiny Tim in the 1938 A Christmas Carol is still with us at 98!  Reginald Owen's Scrooge didn't play. 😄

[EtheltoTillie]

Where is the love for Mr. Magoo!  He's near the top for me.  The music is by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill.

Edited December 31, 2024 by EtheltoTillie

[Rinaldo]

2 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Where is the love for Mr. Magoo!  He's near the top for me. 

For me too! I was going to mention him, but that message was getting self-indulgently long, and I tried to edit it down. But in my first draft I listed him alongside the other 4 actors I named. Mr. Magoo did a serious job there (and had a surprising amount of authentic Dickens dialogue to work with).

It doesn't spoil it, but I do have a genuine question about his version: why did they put Christmas Present first? I've never seen any background info that answers that.

[EtheltoTillie]

I always cry during the Mr. Magoo version.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Mr. Magoo is also a good one. Controversial opinion: "Winter was Warm" is every bit as good as "When Love is Gone" (I do love a "Scrooge getting his ass dumped" song!).

Did you know they sometimes put on Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol as a live play? Here is a montage from 2019. Gavin Lee's Magoo is a delight, and Sierra Boggess crushes it as Belle.

 

[Rinaldo]

43 minutes ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Controversial opinion: "Winter was Warm" is every bit as good as "When Love is Gone"

Apologies -- I know it can be disappointing to be told that one's favorite opinions aren't controversial after all 😉 , but I think you'd find that there are loads of people who love "Winter Was Warm," me among them. It (like the rest of Mr. Magoo's score) is the work of the same formidable team that did the score for Funny Girl, after all: Jule Styne and Bob Merrill. And it's received other recordings after the original one. Here's a lovely version by the great Victoria Clark:

 

[Wiendish Fitch]

Here's Jodi "Ariel" Benson's version:

 

[Spartan Girl]

21 minutes ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Here's Jodi "Ariel" Benson's version:

 

Jodi got to play Belle in another animated Christmas Carol with Tim Curry as Scrooge. Not a great version, but just thought I’d mention it lol.

[Rinaldo]

I've seen only short bits of it as yet, but I thought the 5-host New Year's Eve worked out rather well. Seeing our hosts spending time together, sharing their pleasure in movies that we generally don't get to see them talk about... (I know they all present all sorts, but Eddie and Jacqueline especially do have their special niches on the air), that was fun. Maybe I'm a pushover, but It did feel like a bit of a party to me.

[Charlie Baker]

What @Rinaldo said. I'll only add I wish I could dress like Eddie Muller. 😉

[EtheltoTillie]

I watched Repeat Performance for the first time. Spoilers ahead.

What a bittersweet ending. I kept hoping poor Richard Basehart would get a break. That husband was the worst. Everyone should have killed him as a group. Anyway it was a really clever movie as they came up with good twists showing how you couldn’t escape fate. 

[EtheltoTillie]

On 12/31/2024 at 4:33 PM, Wiendish Fitch said:

Mr. Magoo is also a good one. Controversial opinion: "Winter was Warm" is every bit as good as "When Love is Gone" (I do love a "Scrooge getting his ass dumped" song!).

Did you know they sometimes put on Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol as a live play? Here is a montage from 2019. Gavin Lee's Magoo is a delight, and Sierra Boggess crushes it as Belle.

 

Who's cutting onions in here?  Wow, the Lord's Bright Blessings . . .  This whole video

[Wiendish Fitch]

7 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I watched Repeat Performance for the first time. Spoilers ahead.

What a bittersweet ending. I kept hoping poor Richard Basehart would get a break. That husband was the worst. Everyone should have killed him as a group. Anyway it was a really clever movie as they came up with good twists showing how you couldn’t escape fate. 

Love Repeat Performance, I'm glad it's getting the recognition it deserves. Joan Leslie was never better, and I 100% agree that Barney was the worst. No joke, I've seen Repeat Performance 3 or 4 times, and each time I say aloud, "Hey, honey, if you don't want to kill him, mind if I take a shot at it??"*

*Pun ABSOLUTELY intended.

[EtheltoTillie]

Oh, I forgot to mention the group discussion of Repeat Performance.

SPOILER ALERT:
  It was revealed that in the source novel, the Richard Basehart character was transgender, or transsexual or whatever you would have called it in 1947, but he would go from Mary to William and back and forth.  And apparently the roles were reversed:  Awful husband Barney was the one who was reliving his life for the past year.  The gender/queer stuff would not have made it to the screen in 1947, but they managed to convey an undertone of it in the way William was scripted and acted. 

[Tom Holmberg]

On 12/31/2024 at 2:41 PM, Wiendish Fitch said:

To sum up, my Mt. Rushmore of Christmas Carols:

You left off "Scrooged"

[Wiendish Fitch]

I said it was my Mt. Rushmore of Christmas Carols.

Y'all have yours, I have mine.

Sorry, I should have been more clear.