TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Milburn Stone]

From an Associated Press article today:

Quote

AT&T on Monday named former NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt as the chairman of WarnerMedia’s entertainment and streaming businesses. He will run HBO and Turner cable networks TNT, TBS and truTV. HBO and Turner were previously run separately. HBO’s longtime chief, Richard Plepler, resigned last week , as did Turner’s president, David Levy.

So, on the one hand, good news (I suppose) that TCM isn't even mentioned! Maybe AT&T doesn't know it exists. On the other hand, I wonder what's in store for TCM with the departure of Turner's president.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Milburn Stone

[Rinaldo]

On 3/6/2019 at 4:24 PM, Milburn Stone said:

Watched the first half-hour or so of Night Train to Munich, which I must have DVR'ed from TCM recently. It's for sure the earliest Carol Reed film I've seen (1940), and based on the portion I saw, I'd say it gives Donen's Charade a run for its money in one respect: namely, the accolade Charade always receives that it's "the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made." I'm not sure NTtM is great, but if you'd told me it was minor Hitchcock, I'd believe you. I think Reed had to have been highly influenced by him. 

I've now finished watching the movie (thanks for the tip!) and the Hitchcock derivation is certainly unmistakable. Even more specifically, it reuses elements of The Lady Vanishes: English people in peril aboard a train taking them though dangerous territory; undercover agents aboard; same screenwriters; same Margaret Lockwood; and the same pair of eccentric ultra-English gents aboard the train -- not just the same actors, the same character names!* An online bio of Reed even says that at the time, it was advertised as a sequel to The Lady Vanishes -- erroneously, but tellingly. I'd call it a minor piece of work by comparison (either there's some muddled storytelling in the first half, or my attention wavered), but once we get everyone on that train, and then into a car chase and finally to a sky tram to Switzerland, the suspense does take hold.

(*I looked up that pair in Wikipedia, and am glad I did, it's such an odd circumstance. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne played Caldicott and Charters first in The Lady Vanishes, and repeated the roles 2 years later in Night Train to Munich, in which they're not just just comic cameos but highly important elements of the story, joining the principals in their escape. In Crook's Tour, they're the leading characters, in a "mistaken for spies so must become spiels for real" sort of plot (it's included as an extra on the Lady Vanishes DVD). And they're back to support in Millions Like Us. Having refused roles in another picture as too small for the stars they'd become, they were legally prevented from using the character names any more, but the two actors appeared together as similar characters in eight other films (of which I've seen Dead of Night and Passport to Pimlico) and on the radio. The characters were even given a mid-80s TV series, played by other actors.)

[Calvada]

TCM has scheduled their tribute to Stanley Donen for Monday, March 18.  It begins with his episode of Private Screenings (bonus! with Robert Osborne), and the films that will be shown are Singin' in the Rain, On the Town, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Royal Wedding, and It's Always Fair Weather.  

[ratgirlagogo]

2 hours ago, Calvada said:

the films that will be shown are Singin' in the Rain, On the Town, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Royal Wedding, and It's Always Fair Weather.  

I understand why these were chosen (obviously they are classics) but I don't feel like sitting through any of them again, not even Singin' In The Rain.  Why not Charade or Two For the Road?  Personally I'd love if they'd have shown Movie Movie and even more, the rarely shown Staircase, which I've never seen.

[Milburn Stone]

20 minutes ago, ratgirlagogo said:

I understand why these were chosen (obviously they are classics) but I don't feel like sitting through any of them again, not even Singin' In The Rain.  Why not Charade or Two For the Road?  Personally I'd love if they'd have shown Movie Movie and even more, the rarely shown Staircase, which I've never seen.

Wanna know a Donen-involved movie that you don't want to see? Living in a Big Way (1947), starring Gene Kelly, with choreography (and no doubt direction of musical numbers) by Kelly and Donen. The numbers aren't the problem. It's never shown, because it never should be shown. An essay could be written on why. But--I know this sounds like hyperbole--it may be the worst movie I've ever seen. Not just the worst movie involving major talents I've ever seen; the worst movie I've ever seen.

[ratgirlagogo]

6 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

Wanna know a Donen-involved movie that you don't want to see? Living in a Big Way (1947), starring Gene Kelly, with choreography (and no doubt direction of musical numbers) by Kelly and Donen. The numbers aren't the problem. It's never shown, because it never should be shown. An essay could be written on why. But--I know this sounds like hyperbole--it may be the worst movie I've ever seen. Not just the worst movie involving major talents I've ever seen; the worst movie I've ever seen.

DAMN YOU!  YOU ARE A SADIST!!!!!!  Of course you knew that a review like this guarantees that I will do anything it takes to see this film.

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, ratgirlagogo said:

I understand why these were chosen (obviously they are classics) but I don't feel like sitting through any of them again, not even Singin' In The Rain.  Why not Charade or Two For the Road?  Personally I'd love if they'd have shown Movie Movie and even more, the rarely shown Staircase, which I've never seen.

I'm with you on Charade and Two for the Road (and you can throw in Bedazzled), but as to the last two you cite... in this sort of retrospective, the director (or whoever) deserves to be represented by his best work. And Movie Movie, though I love it (I bought the Blu-Ray, and I don't own that many), is uneven (in ways that aren't all his fault, but still there it is). And Staircase is just a horrible mistake in every way; if @Milburn Stone saw it, it might well establish a new standard for the worst movie he's ever seen.

How about splitting the difference? Keep two musicals (give the hook to Seven Brides and On the Town for their various sins) and add two nonmusicals, Charade and Two for the Road.

Edited March 9, 2019 by Rinaldo

[ratgirlagogo]

7 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

And Staircase is just a horrible mistake in every way; if @Milburn Stone saw it, it might well establish a new standard for the worst movie he's ever seen.

Honestly now it just seems like the two of you are double-teaming me. 🙂

[fairffaxx]

I've seen Living In A Big Way twice on TCM, within the last couple of years.  It's not good, but not the worst I've ever seen.  Marie McDonald is interesting.

[Milburn Stone]

Loved The Heiress. (Turns out all the good Copland music is in the suite that's been recorded by Leonard Slatkin. There was a lot of other music in the film that was either Copland interpolating mid-nineteenth-century popular music or doing his own pastiche of it, but not particularly interesting in either case. I love his new work in it, though.) Such great writing, direction, and acting from everyone in the cast. I think it disappears from On Demand at the end of tomorrow (at least on xfinity) so if you want to catch it, make a point of it.

[Sharpie66]

I’m trying to clean off my DVR. Dad came up to visit for the day, and I first thought that he might like Green Book, which we got OnDemand (he really liked it), then in reviewing my DVR options, I saw that I had The Caine Mutiny, which I have never watched before. I asked Dad if he’d be interested, and since he hadn’t seen it in decades, he agreed. 

I liked it, but I have to say that the whole naive ensign storyline, especially the romance, was just way too cliched. It fit with other movies of its time, but if they ever remade it, that would be the first thing to go. It’s not helped by the fact that both actors are not good actors at all. 

But, the events on the ship and the trial after are fantastic. Bogart is just amazing, and both Fred MacMurray and Van Johnson are excellent. A very young Lee Marvin is just the icing on the cake.

[voiceover]

On 3/9/2019 at 11:38 AM, Calvada said:

TCM has scheduled their tribute to Stanley Donen for Monday, March 18.  It begins with his episode of Private Screenings (bonus! with Robert Osborne)

A bonus indeed. 

I would love & adore it if they'd run Robert's film intros on the am/early pm schedule.  I don't know if it's timing or a rights issue, but fer crissakes, they show plenty of those early-day THs with long-dead performers.  

[zillabreeze]

On 3/9/2019 at 4:13 PM, ratgirlagogo said:

Not just the worst movie involving major talents I've ever seen; the worst movie I've ever seen.

I beg to differ.  I recorded Midnight Cowboy because it had 4 stars, and I adore Dustin Hoffman.  What an f-ing yawnfest that was.  

I bet my honey Robert Osborne wouldn't have led me to waste those 2 hours.

[ratgirlagogo]

17 hours ago, zillabreeze said:

On 3/9/2019 at 5:13 PM, ratgirlagogo said:

Not just the worst movie involving major talents I've ever seen; the worst movie I've ever seen.

I beg to differ.  I recorded Midnight Cowboy because it had 4 stars, and I adore Dustin Hoffman.  What an f-ing yawnfest that was.  

I bet my honey Robert Osborne wouldn't have led me to waste those 2 hours.

 The quote you attribute to me was written by Milburn Stone.  

Midnight Cowboy is a character study of a place and time - the kind of hapless dreamers that would gravitate towards New York in the late sixties as opposed to Los Angeles.   At the time it was shocking that an X-rated (it would be a soft-R today) film would win an Oscar - really another example of how Oscars are awarded for some kind of perceived social relevance and breaking of  boundaries as much as for quality.  I like the film myself without really loving it.

ETA: I do love the soundtrack.  Harry Nilsson singing Fred Neal!

Edited March 12, 2019 by ratgirlagogo

[Lois Sandborne]

I ended up working from home yesterday, so I was treated to a lovely line-up of 30s musical comedy fluff, including Joan in Dancing Lady, good old Marion Davies in The Floradora Girl, and one I hadn't seen before, Bette Davis and William Powell in Fashions of 1934.  I know and love how dramatic dramas are, but there is just something about a fuzzy, fizzy song and dance show that will always get my attention, no matter how terrible it might be.  I can see why Bette ended up shying away from these kinds of glamour girl roles though. She looked vaguely uncomfortable throughout.

On 3/11/2019 at 12:20 AM, voiceover said:

I would love & adore it if they'd run Robert's film intros on the am/early pm schedule.

I'd bet anything a Robert Osborne intro for Dancing Lady exists; that would've been a treat to see.

[Charlie Baker]

Also in that line-up yesterday were the quite awful Down to Their Last Yacht which prompts a what-were-they-thinking response and Sally, which allowed stage star Marilyn Miller to preserve one of her vehicles--a standard issue musical comedy of the time (late 1920s).  Despite the outdated conventions and early sound filming you could see why Ms. Miller was a star, and you got young Joe E. Brown still getting some laughs with old gags and executing some wild acrobatic slapstick and comic dancing with Ms. Miller.  The score's standard was Kern and DeSylva's "Look for the Silver Lining" though I understand the movie did not include nearly all the stage songs. 

[voiceover]

On 3/11/2019 at 10:11 PM, ratgirlagogo said:

  I do love the soundtrack.  Harry Nilsson singing Fred Neal!

"...Skippin' over the ocean like a stone."   Love that song.

[Rinaldo]

On 3/12/2019 at 1:11 AM, ratgirlagogo said:

Midnight Cowboy is a character study of a place and time - the kind of hapless dreamers that would gravitate towards New York in the late sixties as opposed to Los Angeles.   At the time it was shocking that an X-rated (it would be a soft-R today) film would win an Oscar - really another example of how Oscars are awarded for some kind of perceived social relevance and breaking of boundaries as much as for quality.  I like the film myself without really loving it.

There's a little more to it than that, I think -- probably a combination of a lot of little things. I remember when it came out (right when I was graduating from college, and with the ending of my student deferment, facing the possibility of the draft and maybe Vietnam). I was impressed by a number of striking features: a grittier and (if you want to put it that way) more "real" picture of New York than we were used to seeing in Hollywood product; a frank depiction of junkies and people in the sex trade (including some indications of that trade in action, just offscreen -- new and provocative then); Dustin Hoffman, previously known only from The Graduate, revealing himself as a character actor who suddenly seemed capable of anything; a brand-new face as the other lead, Jon Voight, equally promising; and some colorful figures in support; and, yes, Harry Nilsson! 

I think that all that new and exciting stuff adds up to more than "perceived social relevance" (I generally didn't worry about such things), though maybe "breaking of boundaries" comes a little closer. Probably though, it's the sort of thing that tends not to be visible a half century later, when the trajectory of those acting careers has run its course, and the grit and sex is nothing new. I guess I'm not disagreeing, as much as filling out the picture a bit from my own memories.

[Milburn Stone]

18 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

There's a little more to it than that, I think -- probably a combination of a lot of little things. I remember when it came out (right when I was graduating from college, and with the ending of my student deferment, facing the possibility of the draft and maybe Vietnam). I was impressed by a number of striking features: a grittier and (if you want to put it that way) more "real" picture of New York than we were used to seeing in Hollywood product; a frank depiction of junkies and people in the sex trade (including some indications of that trade in action, just offscreen -- new and provocative then); Dustin Hoffman, previously known only from The Graduate, revealing himself as a character actor who suddenly seemed capable of anything; a brand-new face as the other lead, Jon Voight, equally promising; and some colorful figures in support; and, yes, Harry Nilsson! 

I think that all that new and exciting stuff adds up to more than "perceived social relevance" (I generally didn't worry about such things), though maybe "breaking of boundaries" comes a little closer. Probably though, it's the sort of thing that tends not to be visible a half century later, when the trajectory of those acting careers has run its course, and the grit and sex is nothing new. I guess I'm not disagreeing, as much as filling out the picture a bit from my own memories.

Your memories jibe with mine. In particular, Hoffman's performance was a revelation and absolutely iconic. After that movie, you couldn't be crossing a street with a car coming perilously close without at least thinking to yourself, in your own version of a working class New York accent, "I'm walkin' here!"

Time is a big factor, as you say; I see an analog in music. To pick one example out of thousands, you have to know your music history really well in order to vicariously experience Beethoven's symphonies as shocking. You don't need that background to appreciate them as great, but you do need it to appreciate them as revolutionary. For that, you have to know that nobody wrote music like that before.

Edited March 16, 2019 by Milburn Stone

[Suzn]

On 3/16/2019 at 7:10 AM, Milburn Stone said:

Your memories jibe with mine. In particular, Hoffman's performance was a revelation and absolutely iconic. After that movie, you couldn't be crossing a street with a car coming perilously close without at least thinking to yourself, in your own version of a working class New York accent, "I'm walkin' here!"

Time is a big factor, as you say; I see an analog in music. To pick one example out of thousands, you have to know your music history really well in order to vicariously experience Beethoven's symphonies as shocking. You don't need that background to appreciate them as great, but you do need it to appreciate them as revolutionary. For that, you have to know that nobody wrote music like that before.

I'm agreeing with this comment and the one to which it replied.  Midnight Cowboy  when newly released was not like anything before it, in my experience.  It was utterly compelling. Yes, Dustin Hoffman was a revelation!  The impact of it 15 greatly diluted by decades of movies that followed, but I think for those of us who saw it at the time, it remains memorable.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Suzn

[One Tough Cookie]

On 2/10/2019 at 11:50 AM, Audpaud said:

Love TCM, especially NOIR ALLEY.  It's not back 'til March 9th. 😞

You are my people.  That genre has been  my favorite for years.  My all time favorite is Born To Kill, Claire Trevor ad Laurence  Tierny.  I have a huge collection of Noirs.

However, my all time favorite movie by far, hands down All About Eve.  That movie is the very essence of quality movie making. {small voice I also have a HUGE crush on George Sanders, but that's a whole 'nuther post.)

I'm so happy Eddie Meuller is back fo my Saturday nite treats.

Edited March 23, 2019 by One Tough Cookie

[Suzn]

2 hours ago, One Tough Cookie said:

However, my all time favorite movie by far, hands down All About Eve.  That movie is the very essence of quality movie making. {small voice I also have a HUGE crush on George Sanders, but that's a whole 'nuthe post.

I love that movie - it's in my top five.  My favorite scene is the wordless look between Bette Davis and Thelma Ritter when there is the acknowledgement that Eve is not quite what she seems to be.  Those women could pack more meaning in a raised eyebrow than most could with a page of script.  I got to see it on the big screen a few years ago when TCM presented it.

[Charlie Baker]

News item!

Criterion Channel Launches in April

[MissAlmond]

On 3/9/2019 at 12:38 PM, Calvada said:

It begins with his episode of Private Screenings (bonus! with Robert Osborne

I have no idea what happened with my local TV listings.  The online guide listed "Private Screenings," however Jezebel was actually on, but my DVR listing claims it recorded Private Screenings.   I don't see Private Screenings on the TCM app to watch later, so I guess it's a lost cause.  Damnit!  

On 3/10/2019 at 6:29 PM, Milburn Stone said:

Loved The Heiress.

I love this movie too!  When Olivia de Havilland's voice changed, you knew she was over it.  

Edited March 24, 2019 by MissAlmond

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 3/18/2019 at 3:24 PM, Suzn said:

Midnight Cowboy  when newly released was not like anything before it, in my experience.  It was utterly compelling. Yes, Dustin Hoffman was a revelation!  The impact of it are greatly diluted by decades of movies that followed, but I think for those of us who saw it at the time, it remains memorable.

It certainly did to my grandparents, who went to it thinking it was a western.

I've seen it a few times, but probably not again because it's just too dang sad.  But yeah, "I'm walkin' here" in definitely in my repertoire. 

[NowVoyager]

Looks like it's Anita Ekberg night on TCM. I'm in bed with a cold, sipping on a NyQuil-tini, so I faded in & out watching "Back From Eternity." Never heard of it before. A precursor to the tv shows "Gilligan's Island" & more so "Lost." Excellent cast--- Robert Ryan, Rod Steiger, Gene Barry, Fred Clark & of course Anita Ekberg--- whew-whew!!! She was some beauty! 2 stars, script was a bit lacking. Just wondering if anyone else watched it?

Mostly, I was amused at the old-timey portrayal of the flight crew & their expected duties at the time. (Funny, I'm sick now because I sat next to a lady full of cooties on a flight for 3 hours. Wish I had her contact info, so I could say 'thanks a lot.')

[Milburn Stone]

3 hours ago, NowVoyager said:

Looks like it's Anita Ekberg night on TCM...whew-whew!!! She was some beauty!

Hope you feel better soon, @NowVoyager.

I share your admiration for Anita Ekberg. For me, her finest three minutes on film is the main title sequence of Frank Tashlin's Hollywood or Bust.

https://youtu.be/6Vl8KH1-DYY?t=83

[ratgirlagogo]

21 hours ago, NowVoyager said:

faded in & out watching "Back From Eternity."

If you enjoyed that you might want to check out the original version of it, Five Came Back, which also shows regularly on TCM.   It's unusual that a director will remake his own film, but that's what happened here.  John Farrow directed both films - Five Came Back in 1939 and Back From Eternity in 1956.

[Rinaldo]

I recorded Some Came Running when it was on last week, because I remember it being a big deal when I was young, though it's not much talked about now. But I haven't gotten around to watching it yet, and I wonder if anyone here has opinions for or against it.

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

I recorded Some Came Running when it was on last week, because I remember it being a big deal when I was young, though it's not much talked about now. But I haven't gotten around to watching it yet, and I wonder if anyone here has opinions for or against it.

I think it's good. So many good performances, from Sinatra, MacLaine, Martin, Hyer, and Kennedy (among others). A consistent mood and tone of doom set by Minnelli. (It's like a film noir, if films noir came in Metrocolor and CinemaScope.) Good score by Elmer Bernstein. The only thing that has bothered me over the years is that it seems like the story is meant to take place right after the war, and yet nothing about the milieu, from the moment Sinatra gets off the bus in the first scene, feels remotely like anything but 1958. It was many years before I even realized it wasn't supposed to be 1958.

[ratgirlagogo]

20 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I recorded Some Came Running when it was on last week, because I remember it being a big deal when I was young, though it's not much talked about now. But I haven't gotten around to watching it yet, and I wonder if anyone here has opinions for or against it.

I think it's well worth seeing, once anyway. It's sure a time capsule of post-war attitudes -the ambitious small town boy who's been in the war and seen the world, and comes back home -where worlds collide, I guess.   I remember feeling kind of taken aback when I first saw it (a LONG time ago) by the ugly sexual/sexist attitudes - the contrast between the classy educated Martha Hyer with her work studio (the kind you marry)  and the painfully naive prole Shirley MacLaine with her pathetic little bunny rabbit handbag  (the kind you fuck).   This for me was the first movie where I saw that Dean Martin could actually act.  He's one of the best things in it -  I was so shocked by the casually brutal way he describes the Shirley MacLaine character - "I got nothing against her, but even SHE knows she's a pig!"  Emphasis on casual.  Even saying things like these he's not unkind, probably less unkind than the Sinatra character.

Woof.  This film stirred up strong feelings and reactions for me when I first saw it, more than I feel like subjecting y'all to on this board.  Certainly will be curious about your take on it.

Edited March 26, 2019 by ratgirlagogo

[Milburn Stone]

5 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

Woof.  This film stirred up strong feelings and reactions for me when I first saw it, more than I feel like subjecting y'all to on this board.  Certainly will be curious about your take on it.

Thank you, @ratgirlagogo. Your post stirred up strong feelings in me, all around the Shirley MacLaine character.

The casual cruelty she suffers from Martin (and Sinatra for most of the film) has always made her an incredibly powerful object of empathy for me. (Not at all dissimilarly, so is MacLaine's Fran Kubelik in The Apartment.) And I think this is the way the film means us to feel. Minnelli wants us to see the humanity in her; he doesn't want us to share Martin's assessment of her, he wants us to see the tragic unfairness in how the world of privilege (to use an anachronistic term) distinguishes the Ginnies of the world from the Gwens of the world. And how hard it is to fight that. MacLaine rips the audience's heart out in this film, as she's meant to. The film raises consciousness about our unthinking feelings about characters like Ginnie, and changes them, at the same time it concludes tragically (and not necessarily wrongly) that the wide world's feelings may be ever thus. The film also raises the question, "Is the fact that someone loves you reason enough for you to love them?" and to its credit, it doesn't answer the question; it leaves you feeling, "Yeah, I'm not sure, but maybe!" It really gets at some of the deepest human issues in life.

Edited March 26, 2019 by Milburn Stone

[One Tough Cookie]

Saw The Women {or least half of it} for the umpteeth time last night and thought Crawford was a beautiful woman and it was a sin that she aged herself later in life in n attempt to keep that beauty   Sad.. Just goes to show how unfair women were/are treated by Hollywood.

[Calvada]

On 3/23/2019 at 9:47 AM, MissAlmond said:

I have no idea what happened with my local TV listings.  The online guide listed "Private Screenings," however Jezebel was actually on, but my DVR listing claims it recorded Private Screenings.   I don't see Private Screenings on the TCM app to watch later, so I guess it's a lost cause.  Damnit!  

I love this movie too!  When Olivia de Havilland's voice changed, you knew she was over it.  

My DVR recorded for three hours - Jezebel followed by the Private Screenings episode.  I was confused too, since I didn't watch PS live, but then I realized my recording was 3 hours long.  I have no idea why this happened.  It's never happened before.  

[chitowngirl]

Auntie Mame is on!

[StrictTime]

The Year of Living Dangerously is on. Who knew a movie about the civil war in Indonesia could be so sexy?

[Charlie Baker]

Adieu, Agnes Varda.

Influential New Wave Filmmaker

[freddi]

On 3/9/2019 at 5:33 AM, Rinaldo said:

I've now finished watching the movie (thanks for the tip!) and the Hitchcock derivation is certainly unmistakable. 

I also watched, thanks to this tip, and thoroughly enjoyed it after the muddled opening.  Great train suspense!  And found this beautiful poster:

[ruby24]

I just watched the 1949 Secret Garden for the first time- it was great!

I was really surprised. I don't know why I hadn't seen it yet. I'm someone who LOVES the 1993 one by Agniezka Holland- I think it's highly underrated and absolutely gorgeous, magical and perfect. Nothing can top it, imo (the score alone is incredible).

But this was much better than I expected. Really liked it. 

[ruby24]

Just watched Desk Set. It was cute, but kinda lower-tier Tracy-Hepburn, imo. It seems to be one of the most well-regarded ones, so I was expecting a little more from it, but it isn't nearly as good as Adam's Rib or Pat and Mike or Woman of the Year, I don't think.

Edited April 1, 2019 by ruby24

[Tom Holmberg]

20 hours ago, ruby24 said:

but it isn't nearly as good as Adam's Rib or Pat and Mike or Woman of the Year, I don't think.

As a librarian I (along with most in our profession) have a warm spot for this movie. Plus it has Sue Randall.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Tom Holmberg

[Milburn Stone]

20 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

As a librarian I (along with most in our profession) have a warm spot for this movie. Plus it has Sue Randall.

I also like its use of CinemaScope.

And also how it conjures up a world in which people knew stuff.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Milburn Stone

[Tom Holmberg]

6 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

And also how it conjures up a world in which people knew stuff.

Curfew must not ring tonight!

[Rinaldo]

So our star for April Is Greta Garbo. Very fortuitous, because just this afternoon I was reading about her in Dan Callahan's The Art of American Screen Acting, 1912-1960 (there's a second volume taking us up to the present). He writes about 20 stars of that period, one chapter to each, and of course one of them must be Garbo. Callahan is one of the few movie writers to write specifically and insightfully about acting (which he has studied himself), and his provides the gift that one hopes for from good criticism: he enables me to see and understand more. Just today, reading about her early silent pictures, I reflected that I was unlikely to see them soon. And here I am watching The Temptress right now!

[Tom Holmberg]

17 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

And also how it conjures up a world in which people knew stuff.

And every year the plot that librarians will lose their jobs to computers becomes, regrettably, more realistic.

[Milburn Stone]

5 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

And every year the plot that librarians will lose their jobs to computers becomes, regrettably, more realistic.

[tangent] Tom, re the above, and since you're a librarian, have you read Nicholson Baker's Double Fold? In this terrific non-fiction book, he bemoans the loss of archived paper, and card catalogs, as a loss for human civilization being self-inflicted by library managements. The subtitle of the book: Libraries and the Assault on Paper.

Maybe I should have PM'ed you this, but I thought others might be interested.

[Tom Holmberg]

21 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

Tom, re the above, and since you're a librarian, have you read Nicholson Baker's Double Fold? In this terrific non-fiction book, he bemoans the loss of archived paper, and card catalogs, as a loss for human civilization being self-inflicted by library managements.

Yes, I read that, and it's true.  Library managements want to turn libraries into community centers, at the same time "vigorously" weeding collections.  Why libraries can't do both-be a community center and retain strong collections-never gets explained. 

[harrie]

On 4/1/2019 at 2:30 PM, Tom Holmberg said:

As a librarian I (along with most in our profession) have a warm spot for this movie. Plus it has Sue Randall.

And Joan Blondell.  I'll watch her in just about anything.

Edited April 3, 2019 by harrie

[voiceover]

Loving the Garbo week. Interesting that they've altered "Star of the Month" to be crammed into a few days, instead of featured weekly.  Last month Freddie March's films were the latter; wonder if this is the new TCM.

Mata Hari is one of my faves, although -- @ratgirlagogo should prolly sit down for this -- Ramon Novarro is the weakest link here.  I've always thought it would've served that pairing best as a *silent film.  

I do love how -- after he admits his war wounds have left him blind -- Garbo grabs his hand & presses it to her face, crying, "But here are your eyes!"  Such a splendid combination of humor, strength, and suppressed grief.  A trademark of the women she played.

[Charlie Baker]

I believe the last time Elizabeth Taylor was Star of the Month they also concentrated the selections over a few consecutive days instead of weekly,  That was sometime back. It'll be interesting to see what happens next month.