TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[MissAlmond]

22 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Is there a link?

 

[Tom Holmberg]

TCM April 2025AT A GLANCE

Star of the Month - Red Skelton (Mondays)
TCM Spotlight - Pulp Fiction (Fridays)
Special Theme - Acts of Faith (Wednesdays)
Special Theme - Merchant Ivory (17, 24)

R.I.P. David Johansen

For fans of "Scrooged"

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/01/david-johansen-frontman-of-new-york-dolls-dies-aged-75

 

[Calvada]

Gene Hackman was one of those actors who made everything he was in better.  Like Jack Lemmon was. 

I'm curious to see which (and how many) of Hackman's films TCM picks for their tribute to him.  There are so many I'd love to see.  

Edited March 2 by Calvada

[voiceover]

Didn’t watch the Oscars but according to my Xfeed, they blew it more than usual with their In Memoriam segment.  Among the missing: Olivia Hussey, Tony Todd, Bernard Hill, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mitzi Gaynor (Dave Karger posted about her today), and Alain-freakin’-Delon.  Unbelievable.

TCM Remembers: still the undisputed champ.

Edited March 4 by voiceover

[Charlie Baker]

The geezer in me responded to this semi-rant in the Hollywood Reporter about the fate of classic movies on Netflix.  The writer does hasten to add that the films are out there on other sites.

Streaming = Cinema Illiteracy?

Another HR article details the TCM Classic Film Festival, including honoring Michelle Pfeiffer and showing The Fabulous Baker Boys, and giving George Stevens, Jr. the Robert Osborne Award.

TCM Classic Film Festival 2025

Would that I could get to one of these one of these years. Sigh.

 

[voiceover]

4 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

Would that I could get to one of these [TCM Classic Film Festival] one of these years. Sigh.

I try to keep my Life’s Regrets list a short one.  Not attending this while Robert Osborne was still alive is in my Top 5.

In a recurring dream, we run into each other outside the hotel elevator, where I clutch his lapel and weep all over him about how he changed my life for the better.

Robert got lucky there, I expect.*

eta: As in, “Lucky for him I just imagined this” 🤣

Edited March 7 by voiceover

[Sarah 103]

4 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

The geezer in me responded to this semi-rant in the Hollywood Reporter about the fate of classic movies on Netflix.  The writer does hasten to add that the films are out there on other sites.

Streaming = Cinema Illiteracy?

While I appreciate that cable and streaming allow the production/distribution of series and movies that never would have happened with network, I also deeply mourn the loss of a common shared cultural heritage. Not to sound too "Boy the way Glenn Miller played" but there was absolutely something lost when people were no longer watching the same shows or movies and the end of a common set of cultural references. Welcome Back Kotter could reference things from as far back as the 1930s confident that young viewers would have seen them on TV. That doesn't exist today, and I think it's kind of sad.  

[StatisticalOutlier]

2 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

Not to sound too "Boy the way Glenn Miller played" but there was absolutely something lost when people were no longer watching the same shows or movies and the end of a common set of cultural references.

And serendipity was icing on that cake.  All gone.

[Rinaldo]

Last weekend's noir, The Velvet Touch, is an intriguing movie -- maybe not 100% successful at what it attempts, but i'm glad I saw it. Partially financed by Rosalind Russell, in search of a vehicle that would keep her career moving in gratifying directions, it stars her, Claire Trevor, Leon Ames, and Leo Genn... and Sydney Greenstreet, who joins the story halfway through as the enigmatic police detective (Columbo-like, as Eddie Muller remarked). Russell plays a theater star who wants to move from her established stage persona and her old lover to new examples of both. Tragedy, essentially accidental, sends it all into new directions, and one of the characteristic features is the placing of a very long flashback sequence right near the start of it all. Another is the chance to see several scenes from Hedda Gabler, the star's new vehicle and a source of considerable suspense in the final minutes.

It perhaps gets a little overwrought, with everyone going on about "fate" as if they had been told what kind of movie they're in. But its 100 minutes move along smoothly enough to minimize such concerns. A distinctive little item.

[Charlie Baker]

Was just coming here to post on The Velvet Touch.   I second what @Rinaldoobserved.  I like how it is a zippy, somewhat overheated backstage melodrama that seems to  get more noir as it goes  along.  The leading ladies, Ms. Russell and Ms. Trevor, throw themselves into it, and Messrs. Ames and Greenstreet are stand-outs.  (The likes of Lex Barker and Martha Hyer have bit roles.) I was quite sure, like All About Eve using the Curran in San Francisco, a lot of it was shot in an actual theater (though I knew it wasn't in NYC), until Eddie's closing remarks. Eddie classifies the movie as unjustly neglected, and I agree.  On Watch TCM all month.

Glad to have Noir Alley back!  Gun Crazy coming up.

Edited March 12 by Charlie Baker

[Milburn Stone]

16 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

Messrs. Ames and Greenstreet are stand-outs

I can't think of a single performance by Leon Ames that wasn't everything it could possibly be.

[Fool to cry]

 

[Is Everyone Gone]

Last night I went to the BAM Streetcar Named Desire and today I decided to rewatch the Streetcar Named Desire film. It's amazing that despite the censorship, how well the cast and creatives captured the play. I feel like Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden were all amazing. 

The Blanche I saw last night played a very different Blanche: high-strung, annoying, loud, pushy. It worked very well, but I appreciated how sensitive and sweet Vivien Leigh made Blanche. She has such sad eyes in the movie. Marlon Brando was incredible. Such magnetism! And I thought Kim Hunter added a genuine kindness to a role that often elicits very little sympathy (I mean, she doesn't believe her own sister was raped).

[Sarah 103]

@Is Everyone Gone

Part of what made Vivien Leigh brilliant casting for Streetcar Named Desire  is that she was so closely associated with Scarlett O'Hara, the ultimate southern belle. It almost forces the viewer to compare the two characters and make an association. In my mind, Blanche is what happens when a descendant of someone like Scarlett is no longer able to keep their equivalent of Tara and what that does to her. 

I was rather young when I first saw the movie. It wasn't until I was older that I understood the references to a sensitive boy who wrote poetry was code for gay, because it isn't a movie based on a Tennessee Williams work without multiple of the following: Method Actor in a Lead Role, Old South vs. New South, Overbearing/Controlling Father Figure, Implied Homosexuality. 

6 hours ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Marlon Brando was incredible. Such magnetism!

It was a star making performance in terms of his film career. It was the movie that took his career to the next level. Also, are we okay with me taking a dip in the extremely shallow end of the pool? The costume department at Warner Brothers found the tightest t-shirt and muscle shirt Brando could fit into and I am not complaining. They are practically painted on and really show off his muscular arms and shoulders. 

[mariah23]

Can TCM PLEASE get the green light to air Looney Tunes cartoons?!!  They’ll treat them better!

[chessiegal]

2 minutes ago, mariah23 said:

Can TCM PLEASE get the green light to air Looney Tunes cartoons?!!  They’ll treat them better!

MeTV airs Looney Tunes. 6 -10 am Saturdays and 7 am weekdays.

[mariah23]

3 hours ago, chessiegal said:

MeTV airs Looney Tunes. 6 -10 am Saturdays and 7 am weekdays.

I can’t get MeTV.  Come on Hulu Live! I pay you enough!!

[Is Everyone Gone]

20 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

I was rather young when I first saw the movie. It wasn't until I was older that I understood the references to a sensitive boy who wrote poetry was code for gay, because it isn't a movie based on a Tennessee Williams work without multiple of the following: Method Actor in a Lead Role, Old South vs. New South, Overbearing/Controlling Father Figure, Implied Homosexuality. 

Tennessee Williams also had a sister who was mentally ill and eventually had to be institutionalized. A lot of his works deal with mentally ill siblings and the complex caretaking dynamic that occurs.

Fun fact: Tennessee Williams' first name was actually Tom, so in Glass Menagerie "Tom" is a stand-in for him. Again, that play deals with a mentally ill sister.

[StatisticalOutlier]

12 hours ago, mariah23 said:

Can TCM PLEASE get the green light to air Looney Tunes cartoons?!!  They’ll treat them better!

I'm not sure if you're aware, or if you care, but there's a feature-length Looney Tunes movie in theaters now:

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-day-the-earth-blew-up-a-looney-tunes-movie/critic-reviews/

You can find showtimes here:

https://www.tributemovies.com/showtimes/The-Day-the-Earth-Blew-Up-A-Looney-Tunes-Movie/183727/

[mariah23]

19 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I'm not sure if you're aware, or if you care, but there's a feature-length Looney Tunes movie in theaters now:

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-day-the-earth-blew-up-a-looney-tunes-movie/critic-reviews/

You can find showtimes here:

https://www.tributemovies.com/showtimes/The-Day-the-Earth-Blew-Up-A-Looney-Tunes-Movie/183727/

Thank you @StatisticalOutlier.  I saw it Friday afternoon.  Very good!

[StatisticalOutlier]

1 hour ago, mariah23 said:

I saw it Friday afternoon.  Very good!

Well then you were aware, and you do care.  😀  Better safe than sorry.

I linked to the Metacritic reviews because they were quite favorable.

[Tom Holmberg]

Gene Hackman Tribute - May 12th

- TCM PRIMETIME
MEMORIAL TRIBUTE: GENE HACKMAN
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
French Connection, The (1971)
Hoosiers (1986)
Mississippi Burning (1988)
Night Moves (1975)

[Fool to cry]

15 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I'm not sure if you're aware, or if you care, but there's a feature-length Looney Tunes movie in theaters now:

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-day-the-earth-blew-up-a-looney-tunes-movie/critic-reviews/

You can find showtimes here:

https://www.tributemovies.com/showtimes/The-Day-the-Earth-Blew-Up-A-Looney-Tunes-Movie/183727/

I like that it's the Bob Clampett version of Daffy. Chuck Jones' greedy Daffy is okay but I like when he's just crazy.

[voiceover]

On 3/16/2025 at 10:31 PM, Sarah 103 said:

Also, are we okay with me taking a dip in the extremely shallow end of the pool?

*waves*
I actually live there half the year.  Name’s “voiceover”; glad to meet you.

If you haven’t already seen it, may I recommend Meet Marlon Brando, the ‘66 Maysles Brothers’ documentary?  It’s about 30 minutes long, a meant-to-be promotional for his latest film.  Most of it’s set in a hotel room, featuring a handful of reporters doing the interviewing — until Brando takes over.

I’d been indifferent to him until my theory professor screened it during our Doc unit.  Then I became a rabid, slavering Tex Avery caricature.  That Stanley wardrobe was nice, but he never needed it.

[SomeTameGazelle]

I have been lying in wait for Vivacious Lady for ages and was delighted to see that not only is TCM showing it right now but my DVR picked it up. 

[voiceover]

This feels like a Charlie or Tom or Rinaldo post, but since they haven’t, I will:

Criterion Collection is having a 50% off sale for the next few hours.  I just bought Trouble in Paradise, and now I’ll be sitting next to my mailbox, drumming my fingers.  

[Charlie Baker]

After the showing of Gun Crazy and Eddie's closing comments, his tribute to leading lady Peggy Cummins made for Filmstruck was shown.  Worth a look as is the movie itself for anyone with an interest in noir who hasn't seen it.  On Watch TCM's stream of Noir Alley at about 1:35.

In case anyone has forgotten😉, I adore the star of the month, Barbara Stanwyck.  They have placed the somewhat unknown gem The Man with a Cloak on the schedule at 5:45 am ET tomorrow. It's a neat period mystery/melodrama with a fine cast and a beautiful production.  I've plugged it before and probably will again. 

[Fool to cry]

23 hours ago, voiceover said:

*waves*
I actually live there half the year.  Name’s “voiceover”; glad to meet you.

If you haven’t already seen it, may I recommend Meet Marlon Brando, the ‘66 Maysles Brothers’ documentary?  It’s about 30 minutes long, a meant-to-be promotional for his latest film.  Most of it’s set in a hotel room, featuring a handful of reporters doing the interviewing — until Brando takes over.

I’d been indifferent to him until my theory professor screened it during our Doc unit.  Then I became a rabid, slavering Tex Avery caricature.  That Stanley wardrobe was nice, but he never needed it.

Another great watch is the 2007 TCM Brando documentary where we see Ed Begley Jr. tells this funny story:

 

 

Edited March 19 by Fool to cry

[jah1986]

19 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

In case anyone has forgotten😉, I adore the star of the month, Barbara Stanwyck.  They have placed the somewhat unknown gem The Man with a Cloak on the schedule at 5:45 am ET tomorrow. It's a neat period mystery/melodrama with a fine cast and a beautiful production.  I've plugged it before and probably will again. 

I am loving the spotlight on Barbara Stanwyck this month. I first saw The Man with a Cloak about a month ago and just loved it. I had no idea what to expect, but I loved it and the ending got me.

Looking forward to No Man of Her Own

[SomeTameGazelle]

For some reason my guide is still listing Westworld with Yul Brynner until 10:30 pm but the movie is actually Death of a Salesman with Dustin Hoffman. John Malkovich looks so young!

Edited March 21 by SomeTameGazelle
Time

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

John Malkovich looks so young!

I know he's mostly familiar as a well-aged (apparently well-loved by viewers) eccentric type these days, but I have no difficulty remembering him as one of the exciting young actors of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. I had moved back to the Chicago area in 1980, and from then until my departure in 1982 I saw their productions often, and came to know that stunning ensemble (who were also the company's bosses) well, in one play after another.

What a group they were! Original members Malkovich, Jeff Perry, Gary Sinise, Laurie Metcalf, and Terry Kinney had by that time been joined by Joan Allen, Glenne Headly, John Mahoney, Gary Cole, and many more, in various combinations in different plays. They were nearly all in Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead, which Malkovich directed brilliantly and which featured Laurie Metcalf's mind-blowing 20-minute monologue that people are still talking about. (I'm one of 'em.) It immediately told me in 1980 that she was one of our finest actresses, and it's still true.

[EtheltoTillie]

Speaking of Yul Brenner, I’m watching the extremely silly western Catlow on Watch TCM. Also stars a fave, Richard Crenna, and Leonard Nimoy (in a nude scene). 

I also recommend Man With a Cloak. 

[EtheltoTillie]

here is some of that monologue. I’ve never seen the play so I googled around. This is from a tribute to Wilson. 
I like Metcalf, but she’s doing such awful scenery chewing in the last years of the Roseanne spinoff. 

[SomeTameGazelle]

10 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

here is some of that monologue. I’ve never seen the play so I googled around. This is from a tribute to Wilson. 
I like Metcalf, but she’s doing such awful scenery chewing in the last years of the Roseanne spinoff. 

Thank you for this. Very nice. (Although a weird bit of cognitive dissonance since my brain kept thinking of Lanford as the name of the town where Roseanne is set.)

[EtheltoTillie]

3 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Thank you for this. Very nice. (Although a weird bit of cognitive dissonance since my brain kept thinking of Lanford as the name of the town where Roseanne is set.)

I totally thought of that too!  

[chessiegal]

We were watching Angels in the Outfield last night and I immediately recognized Barbara Billingsley as the hat check girl. Checking IMDb, this is one of several uncredited roles Barbara played in the 1950s. I'd never seen her in anything outside of Leave It to Beaver.

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, chessiegal said:

We were watching Angels in the Outfield last night and I immediately recognized Barbara Billingsley as the hat check girl. Checking IMDb, this is one of several uncredited roles Barbara played in the 1950s. I'd never seen her in anything outside of Leave It to Beaver.

Don’t forget her legendary turn as a “jive”-speaking passenger in Airplane!

Edited March 23 by EtheltoTillie

[SomeTameGazelle]

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

We were watching Angels in the Outfield last night and I immediately recognized Barbara Billingsley as the hat check girl. Checking IMDb, this is one of several uncredited roles Barbara played in the 1950s. I'd never seen her in anything outside of Leave It to Beaver.

I always associate Angels in the Outfield with Jeff Richards who played brother Benjamin (not really a singer, not really a dancer, but handsome enough to appeal to Dorcas) in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and since I had read that he was originally a baseball player I had vaguely thought that this must be his first movie. However checking imdb I see that actually he had another earlier baseball movie, Kill the Umpire in 1950, plus appeared in a handful of non-baseball movies before that, including Johnny Belinda.

[mariah23]

Slightly off topic but WB is going to RAZE THE LOONEY TUNES BUILDING!!!!!!!!!

https://deadline.com/2025/03/warner-bros-tearing-down-looney-tunes-building-131-1236352601/

[Tom Holmberg]

APRIL PREMIERES
- FEATURE FILMS
Apr 4 - Vanity Fair (1932)
Apr 5 - The Betsy (1978)
Apr 6 - The New Klondike (1926)
Apr 10 - The Gentle Rain (1965)
Apr 15 - Road to Nashville (1967)
Apr 17 - The Life and Passion of Christ (1907)
Apr 17 - Slaves of New York (1989)
Apr 24 - The White Countess (2005)
Apr 27 - Film Geek (2023)
Apr 29 - A Shining Season (1979)

____________

Tonite (3/29) TCM premieres "Catch 22" (1970), not a great film but worth watching if you haven't seen it.

[MissAlmond]

1 hour ago, Tom Holmberg said:

Apr 5 - The Betsy (1978)

The Betsy????? Yeah, yeah, I know. Laurence Olivier (who I believe said he made this movie for money), Robert Duvall), Tommy Lee Jones, etc, etc. But really TCM? The Betsy? 

[mariah23]

1 hour ago, MissAlmond said:

The Betsy????? Yeah, yeah, I know. Laurence Olivier (who I believe said he made this movie for money), Robert Duvall), Tommy Lee Jones, etc, etc. But really TCM? The Betsy? 

Hey some fans are completists no matter how crappy the film is.

Edited 20 hours ago by mariah23

[Kimboweena]

Richard Chamberlain, star of 'The Thorn Birds' and 'Shogun,' dies at 90.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/richard-chamberlain-star-of-the-thorn-birds-and-shogun-dies-at-90/ar-AA1BWD8n?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=0805c7c7b8a24f608596c3cd984ea064&ei=25

[Fool to cry]

21 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

The Betsy????? Yeah, yeah, I know. Laurence Olivier (who I believe said he made this movie for money), Robert Duvall), Tommy Lee Jones, etc, etc. But really TCM? The Betsy? 

I didn't know Duvall and Jones were in a movie 11 years before Lonesome Dove.