TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Rinaldo]

7 hours ago, GussieK said:

I loved baby Christopher Walken. 

Another great panorama-of-NYC movie with a young Chris (that's how he's billed) Walken, just before the Annie Hall / Deer Hunter double whammy that finally catapulted him into fame, is Paul Mazursky's Next Stop, Greenwich Village from 1976. If TCM gets around to showing it, catch it. Mazursky has acknowledged that it comes from memories of his own early days as a struggling actor in the city: going on auditions, going to classes, working survival jobs, having romances that don't last, and hanging out with like-minded friends. 

The central character is played by Lenny Baker (who would die 6 years later at 37), his parents by Mike Kellin and Shelley Winters, and his girlfriend by Ellen Greene. His gang of pals includes Dori Brenner, Walken, Antonio Fargas, and Lois Smith. Lou Jacobi is on hand (running a deli, if memory serves), Jeff Goldblum gets a flashy cameo (he got several of those around this time), and there are brief uncredited glimpses of Bill Murray, Stuart Pankin, and Vincent Schiavelli. 

It's a real picture of the actors who were doing off-Broadway sorts of stuff right then, and atmosphere plus the final images (Baker, about to take off for his big break in Hollywood, finds himself looking back at his parents and his old neighborhood with affection) combine to make it one of my all-time favorite movies.

[EtheltoTillie]

7 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

Another great panorama-of-NYC movie with a young Chris (that's how he's billed) Walken, just before the Annie Hall / Deer Hunter double whammy that finally catapulted him into fame, is Paul Mazursky's Next Stop, Greenwich Village from 1976. If TCM gets around to showing it, catch it. Mazursky has acknowledged that it comes from memories of his own early days as a struggling actor in the city: going on auditions, going to classes, working survival jobs, having romances that don't last, and hanging out with like-minded friends. 

The central character is played by Lenny Baker (who would die 6 years later at 37), his parents by Mike Kellin and Shelley Winters, and his girlfriend by Ellen Greene. His gang of pals includes Dori Brenner, Walken, Antonio Fargas, and Lois Smith. Lou Jacobi is on hand (running a deli, if memory serves), Jeff Goldblum gets a flashy cameo (he got several of those around this time), and there are brief uncredited glimpses of Bill Murray, Stuart Pankin, and Vincent Schiavelli. 

It's a real picture of the actors who were doing off-Broadway sorts of stuff right then, and atmosphere plus the final images (Baker, about to take off for his big break in Hollywood, finds himself looking back at his parents and his old neighborhood with affection) combine to make it one of my all-time favorite movies.

Oh, that’s a real favorite of mine. Saw it when it came out and maybe once since. 

[Sharpie66]

My favorite early-ish Walken performance is in “Who Am I This Time?” directed by Jonathan Demme and co-starring Susan Sarandon, based on a Vonnegut short story. It was on PBS’s American Playhouse in 1982, and just might be my favorite film about amateur theatrics and small towns. It proves that Walken was a wonderful romantic lead, and it was a shame he didn’t get cast as such more often.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Sharpie66

[EtheltoTillie]

I caught the last half of HM Pulham Esq. today. It occurred to me that the story (based on a novel) was just a ripoff of The Age of Innocence. 

Edited November 24, 2019 by GussieK

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, Sharpie66 said:

My favorite early-ish Walken performance is in “Who Am I This Time?” directed by Jonathan Demme and co-starring Susan Sarandon, based on a Vonnegut short story. It was on PBS’s American Playhouse in 1982, and just might be my favorite film about amateur theatrics and small towns. It proves that Walken was a wonderful romantic lead, and it was a shame he didn’t get cast as such more often.

Thanks for the recommendation. I found it on YouTube and I’m watching now. Kind of a blurry pre-HD copy. 

[Simon Boccanegra]

On 11/19/2019 at 5:17 PM, Robert Lynch said:

I still wondered if River Phoenix would have made it had he not taken that drug cocktail. I think he would have been regulated to dad type roles late in his career, possibly in films or tv shows. Possibly a Stranger Thing guest spot as an old date of the main characters' mother or playing as the father to Jacob Tremblay in most of those coming of age films, including Good Boys. I am not saying anything negative about him, but judging how Hollywood has that age thing where the actor is too old to play young love interest or a very naive good person who does good, I would bet River would have had two options left at this point of his career. Or possibly grow to be a music producer. We may never know. It's hard to say.

He and Ethan Hawke made their debuts in the same film, Explorers, and they had a bit of a rivalry for the years they overlapped. It isn't hard for me to imagine Phoenix playing the kind of roles Hawke has played in his forties. Hawke is someone who has kept getting good, diverse offers past the point of youthful glamour. Some director may have emerged as Phoenix's equivalent to Richard Linklater for Hawke.  

My personal "best of River" choice is My Own Private Idaho. I came across his other 1991 film, Dogfight, several months ago and loved it. I remember a friend (she has since passed away) raving about it at the time it was in the local art-house theater, and I wish I had heeded her recommendation then. It's a film that has almost nothing surprising on the "big" level, but a lot of what happens along the way is surprising and touching.  

Edited November 25, 2019 by Simon Boccanegra

[ratgirlagogo]

13 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Paul Mazursky's Next Stop, Greenwich Village from 1976. If TCM gets around to showing it, catch it. Mazursky has acknowledged that it comes from memories of his own early days as a struggling actor in the city: going on auditions, going to classes, working survival jobs, having romances that don't last, and hanging out with like-minded friends. 

I can't even tell you how much I love this movie.  The mind-blower for me is the scene where the acting class is having the worst hell of a time trying to do Clifford Odets' Golden Boy - because of the poetic elevated language, maybe even more because the poetic elevated language is coming out of the mouths of working class ethnic characters.  They are embarrassed and uncomfortable and don't know how to make this real.

The director/teacher's response:

"Joking is what's doing you in. Joking is the American actor's disease. It's the American person's disease. Because what you're doing is you're keeping reality out so that it won't touch you. The worst kind of joking you can do is keep life out. Commenting, editorializing, joking - terrible! Don't do it. It's fatal."

This just made my whole head explode when I first saw it in the early 80's. Because it IS the American artist's and person's  disease and because as an American it's my problem too.  When I hear that the majority of younger Americans get their news from The Daily Show, Colbert, etc.  this runs through my head immediately.   That's just as big a problem as being addicted to Fox News. As an American I always instinctively feel that if you've mocked evil sufficiently well, that you're done.But this is wrong.    You're not, which is something we should allow ourselves to learn from art (and life).  Sorry for the politricks😔.

[Sharpie66]

I saw Dogfight a few years after its release and really loved it. River Phoenix is fantastic in it, as is Lily Taylor.

In my mind, it’s always lumped together with Fresh and Searching for Bobby Fischer, since I rented them all the same night in the mid-‘90s. 

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

In my mind, it’s always lumped together with Fresh and Searching for Bobby Fischer, since I rented them all the same night in the mid-‘90s. 

That was the LaserDisc era for me, and the local rental place offered a weekend special if you rented three.  So I also have movies that are linked together in groups of three in my memory from having a movie night rather than spreading them out over the weekend.

[Robert Lynch]

6 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

I saw Dogfight a few years after its release and really loved it. River Phoenix is fantastic in it, as is Lily Taylor.

In my mind, it’s always lumped together with Fresh and Searching for Bobby Fischer, since I rented them all the same night in the mid-‘90s. 

An HBO documentary on River Phoenix would be so ideal. Quotes, letters, anything. If HBO can do good documentaries, they should do one on River. Actors that worked for him, directors that directed him, etc. It would be amazing, though.

[ratgirlagogo]

Famously vitriolic film and theater critic John Simon has died at  94:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/25/arts/john-simon-dead.html

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/john-simon-dead-fiery-arts-critic-who-loved-lacerate-was-94-1257890

Edited to add:

A friend just sent me the link to the Dick Cavett Show where John Simon got into it with Erich Segal (whose Love Story he had panned) and Rita Moreno, until LIttle Richard flips the table and goes off on all of them:

I had NEVER seen this famous fight before, although I had read the essay Greil Marcus had written about it (which you can find in his book Mystery Train).  Just wow.  Simon comes on about 1:21:57.

Edited November 26, 2019 by ratgirlagogo

[Rinaldo]

It's customary on the death of a famous person to find something good to say about them.

[End of message.]

[LilWharveyGal]

23 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

A friend just sent me the link to the Dick Cavett Show where John Simon got into it with Erich Segal (whose Love Story he had panned) and Rita Moreno, until LIttle Richard flips the table and goes off on all of them:

Wow is right.  That was awkward and insane and now I've got to track down that essay.

3 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

It's customary on the death of a famous person to find something good to say about them.

[End of message.]

Thank you, Bette. 😉

[elle]

23 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

A friend just sent me the link to the Dick Cavett Show where John Simon got into it with Erich Segal (whose Love Story he had panned) and Rita Moreno, until LIttle Richard flips the table and goes off on all of them:

That felt to me as a civil discourse of dissenting opinions.  Little Richard's interjections made things interesting.  I had to laugh at his comment about not understanding some things that had been said because I felt the same way.  I now understand a little about auteur theory from watching this.

[EtheltoTillie]

John Simon sounds just like Mr. Vadas in The Shop Around the Corner!  Same accent and oily delivery. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Can you imagine a show like this on network television today?  Wow. 

[Rinaldo]

2 hours ago, GussieK said:

John Simon sounds just like Mr. Vadas in The Shop Around the Corner!

The movie character that was explicitly based on him was Kenneth Mars's musicologist "Hugh Simon" in What's Up, Doc? Director Peter Bogdanovich said in interviews he hoped nobody would ever take John Simon seriously again after that.

I could write off some of what he wrote as honest differences of opinion, or standards that didn't fit the situation, but after his post-theater rant "Homosexuals in the theater! I can't wait until AIDS gets them all!" (Cavett's wife Carrie Nye heard him say it, and he never denied it though he later tried to put it "in context"), I gave up on him.

[Robert Lynch]

Watching those early Joan Crawford films, it's weird how different she looked then. It wasn't until Our Dancing Daughters that Crawford seemed to make her eyes more prominent than they were earlier. And the 30s look with the makeup becoming more prominent and the 40s with the Max Factor look. The 50s is where she looked kind of mannish which is the hairdos that made her so severe looking. The 60s and early 70s were much softer to her appearance, even though you could tell she aged. It's weird that even though we noticed the stars of today changing their looks with plastic surgery and whatnot, Crawford seemed to change her appearance for over 40 years until her retirement. I know she hated aging and was a health nut, but it is so interesting to see how she could altered her appearance compare to people like Bette Davis and Clark Gable who were approaching their age as the decades went on.

[meowmommy]

18 minutes ago, Robert Lynch said:

Watching those early Joan Crawford films, it's weird how different she looked then.

I've always noticed how gorgeous she was until about 1940.  By the time she did Mildred Pierce, say, she was striking but not attractive, IMO.  Seeing early Joan and later Joan is like looking at two different actresses.  Bette Davis the same way to a degree.

I'm glad they didn't have plastic surgery available back then.  I hate what today's actresses have done to themselves.  And when they're done, they don't look younger; they look altered.  Give me Meryl Streep any day.

[Robert Lynch]

It is kind of like that with Jackie Cooper. He looked old as a kid then. I sometimes joke with mom that he was blessed with old man genes. I am not ageist, but it is funny how Jackie Cooper looked old in Superman, but he looked old even when he was a kid. I know around that period people aged fast and looked mid-late 30s when they were in their 20s or later teens. It is kind of like that with Olivia DeHaviland in the 30s when she was in her early 20s then. But then again my grandparents looked older as kids, too. I know the smoking and drinking was the in thing then, but I was always shocked as to how older they looked, even as kids. Even Silent kid actors! And today's young child actors should be lucky because these child actors from the Golden era of Hollywood worked like dogs. They would had wrinkles and bad skin, so thank goodness for skin care. 

Edited December 3, 2019 by Robert Lynch

[Rinaldo]

If Meryl Streep has really had no surgical assistance, then she must have fantastic genetic good fortune; most people 70 and over don't have such a firm jawline or such smooth skin on face and neck. I'm willing to believe that she's honest about this, but others have admitted to a little cosmetic help while remaining more modest in their goals. Such individuals aim to smooth things a little, while not disguising their age. Julie Andrews is a good example of that, and so was Angela Lansbury while she had her TV show (she's since allowed herself to age into grandmotherhood visually).

[Sharpie66]

When I met Julie Andrews back in 2000, my first thought after internally geeking out was how fabulous she looked and that her plastic surgeon must have been one of the best in Beverly Hills.

[Rinaldo]

18 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

When I met Julie Andrews back in 2000, my first thought after internally geeking out was how fabulous she looked and that her plastic surgeon must have been one of the best in Beverly Hills.

Not to over-dwell on such frivolous matters as appearance... but I guess I'm going to do exactly that. I do wonder, if Ms. Andrews has someone who can help her so subtly, why didn't she share his contact info with friends and contemporaries, some of whom seemed stretched to breaking point? Is it that she herself didn't ask for "the works," but just a diminishing of jowls and wattles? Or is her surgeon not in California, but far away -- perhaps in Switzerland (where she has lived at times)?

[elle]

18 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

When I met Julie Andrews back in 2000, my first thought after internally geeking out was how fabulous she looked and that her plastic surgeon must have been one of the best in Beverly Hills.

You met her? Do tell!  Was it at a TCM event?

[Sharpie66]

It was at BookExpo America, a booksellers convention that I went to three years in a row when it was in Chicago (I worked part-time at Waldenbooks, which was my “professional” credentials to get in). I had to pay the $100+ weekend fee, but the free books and other paraphernalia, many of which were signed by the authors, made it totally worth it! The first year, I came home with over 200 books, most of which I gave away to coworkers at both jobs. I got smarter with snagging free booty and didn’t overdo it in subsequent years. 
 

Ms. Andrews was signing one of her children’s books. She was in the upmost tier of authors who were not only signing in the signing area, but you had to get a ticket for her signing to get a spot in line. I had learned my first year to show up for the ticket dispersal line by 5:30 am, since they started handing them out at 7. As I was walking away from the ticket booth with tickets in hand, they announced that her tickets were all gone, and you could hear the groans of disappointment echoing around the room. 
 

She was everything I wanted in a celeb encounter—very nice, showed interest in me in a few words, listened patiently while I babbled how much of a fan I was/am, then politely waved me off while the next person in line stepped up. I will never forget it!

Edited to add a movie-related BEA story. In 2001, the Houghton-Mifflin booth was all Lord of the Rings movie tie-ins, including a tv showing the internet-exclusive trailer. My dial-in modem at home sucked so I hadn’t seen the trailer yet, and the official trailer was still months away, so I had no idea of what the trilogy was going to look like until I saw it at the booth. A bunch of us were transfixed and marveled that it looked like they might actually pull this off!

Edited December 5, 2019 by Sharpie66

[Terrafamilia]

I had been thinking about old movies that I hadn't seen in a long, long time and I wondered whether TCM had ever aired them or whether they were even available to them. These would include such films as The List of Adrian Messenger, Cold Turkey, and Smile (1975 comedy). Does anyone know the status of these and what movies might others have on their wish-lists that haven't been on TCM, at least not for a long time?

[elle]

Thank you go sharing your story, Sharpie66!  What a wonderful experience!  The BookExpo America sounds like an amazing time.

[ratgirlagogo]

10 hours ago, Terrafamilia said:

I had been thinking about old movies that I hadn't seen in a long, long time and I wondered whether TCM had ever aired them or whether they were even available to them. These would include such films as The List of Adrian Messenger, Cold Turkey, and Smile (1975 comedy). Does anyone know the status of these and what movies might others have on their wish-lists that haven't been on TCM, at least not for a long time?

All of these have been shown on TCM in the last few years.  Cold Turkey was on this summer.

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, ratgirlagogo said:

All of these have been shown on TCM in the last few years.

How does The List of Adrian Messenger hold up? The only time in my life I've seen it was as a 13-year old kid at the neighborhood movie theater. I knew the gimmick going in (that was probably the only reason my friends and I were there) but I think I was pretty bored by the actual movie, and not especially blown away by the actor-reveals at the end. But it could be that even though I knew who these stars were, I didn't have all that long a history with them, and someone who did would have been more gobsmacked.

Incidentally, in the movie's trivia section on imdb, I learned something I never knew. There's good reason to believe that Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster actually did not appear in the movie until the very end; their characters were portrayed by uncredited actors, and the two stars showed up only for the "reveal" sequence.

Something else I learned in that same trivia section, concerning another movie: Voice king Paul Frees dubbed most of Tony Curtis' Josephine voice in Some Like It Hot. I have a hard time fully accepting this, only because I'm very good at detecting voices, and Josephine sounded to me like Curtis in falsetto; but that could be because Frees was so darned good at his craft.

Edited December 6, 2019 by Milburn Stone

[mariah23]

A possibility for TCM Remembers: Robert Walker Jr. died Thursday at the age of 79.

[ruby24]

Has anyone seen the movie The Clock (1945)? I've been trying to see this one for a while, because I've heard it's a great, underrated Christmas movie. Does anyone agree? I was disappointed it's not playing on TCM this month.

[ratgirlagogo]

17 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Voice king Paul Frees dubbed most of Tony Curtis' Josephine voice in Some Like It Hot. I have a hard time fully accepting this, only because I'm very good at detecting voices, and Josephine sounded to me like Curtis in falsetto; but that could be because Frees was so darned good at his craft.

I have a hard time believing this one.  If they were going to do that, they'd be even more likely to have gotten June Foray or some other voice actress to dub Marilyn Monroe's voice, since her anxiety and panic attacks famously kept holding up production. Josephine sounds like Curtis to me as well.

Adrian Messenger is one of those movie mysteries that are fun when you watch them and later you can't really remember the plot.  I had not heard about the big stars being played by other actors in the earlier scenes but that I could believe.

[Rinaldo]

I certainly have no inside information on Some Like It Hot, but could this be one of those cases in which someone (Frees) was hired to stand by if needed, but in the end wasn't needed? I can imagine a producer thinking in advance that Curtis wouldn't be able to sustain a falsetto for so long, only to be pleasantly surprised.

I'm reminded of the persistent story that Andy Williams dubbed Lauren Bacall's singing in To Have and Have Not. It now seems to be established that, this being her first movie and nobody having checked on her singing before casting, they did have voice doubles (including Williams) lined up... but in the event, she was able to handle the singing herself. But the cross-gender dubbing makes a better anecdote, so it's what gets repeated.

[wilsie]

9 hours ago, ruby24 said:

Has anyone seen the movie The Clock (1945)? I've been trying to see this one for a while, because I've heard it's a great, underrated Christmas movie. Does anyone agree? I was disappointed it's not playing on TCM this month.

I've seen it several times and like it a lot.  I love Robert Walker and this was one of my favorite times for Judy Garland's movies.  

[DorianGray]

1 hour ago, wilsie said:

I've seen it several times and like it a lot.  I love Robert Walker and this was one of my favorite times for Judy Garland's movies.  

I like this one a lot also. But I don’t recall any particular Christmas elements in it at all. Nudge my memory if I’m wrong?

[Charlie Baker]

Last night's theme was Richard Burton before Elizabeth Taylor, and it included another unearthed TV drama, an adaptation of Wuthering Heights that aired only once in 1958, It starred Burton and Rosemary Harris, and was adapted by James Costigan. I didn't know about it in advance, and only caught about the latter third--it looked like a serviceable version, but a little strained to fit into 90 minutes of air time and of course doesn't touch the William Wyler classic.   I don't know if it will surface again on TCM or elsewhere, but here's hoping.  The two leads were quite good and generated some heat between them. Ms. Harris, who is still very much around, instigated the search for a copy of this, as per a New Yorker article.

[Rinaldo]

7 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

Last night's theme was Richard Burton before Elizabeth Taylor, and it included another unearthed TV drama, an adaptation of Wuthering Heights that aired only once in 1958, It starred Burton and Rosemary Harris, and was adapted by James Costigan. I didn't know about it in advance, and only caught about the latter third--it looked like a serviceable version, but a little strained to fit into 90 minutes of air time and of course doesn't touch the William Wyler classic. ...

I did see it from the beginning, and enjoyed it very much. Obviously it was constrained at times by being telecast live, on studio sets, but the cast was a joy to see -- not only Burton and Harris, who did indeed stir up considerable heat, but John Colicos, Denholm Elliott, Cathleen Nesbitt, and pre-Miracle Worker Patty Duke as young Cathy. There were so many live dramatic telecasts back then; I hope some more of them can be recovered. There was, for instance, a Twelfth Night with Maurice Evans as Malvolio and Ms. Harris as Viola...

Rosemary Harris deserves a paragraph to herself, so thoroughly trained and experience in classical acting disciplines and at the same time so spontaneous and magnetically beautiful. What a loss that she never got real acting opportunities in movies until she reached her grandmother years.

Of course the Wyler film deserves its classic status, but I love the book Wuthering Heights, and it's a very different story from what always gets filmed. (The Ralph Fiennes movie seems to be an exception, but by all reports an inept one.) Brontë's Catherine-Heathcliff story isn't a conventional romance; it's about two people who feel a kinship but in most mundane respects are ill-suited to each other. And her death comes barely halfway through; much happens with their children, who carry on the pattern of misguided pairings and frustrated hopes, with inheritance and revenge being major motifs throughout. But I don't suppose that a movie that did justice to all that would satisfy those who associate the title with swooning romance beyond the grave.

[elle]

20 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

7 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

Last night's theme was Richard Burton before Elizabeth Taylor, and it included another unearthed TV drama, an adaptation of Wuthering Heights that aired only once in 1958, It starred Burton and Rosemary Harris, and was adapted by James Costigan. I didn't know about it in advance, and only caught about the latter third--it looked like a serviceable version, but a little strained to fit into 90 minutes of air time and of course doesn't touch the William Wyler classic. ...

I did see it from the beginning, and enjoyed it very much. Obviously it was constrained at times by being telecast live, on studio sets, but the cast was a joy to see -- not only Burton and Harris, who did indeed stir up considerable heat, but John Colicos, Denholm Elliott, Cathleen Nesbitt, and pre-Miracle Worker Patty Duke as young Cathy. There were so many live dramatic telecasts back then; I hope some more of them can be recovered. There was, for instance, a Twelfth Night with Maurice Evans as Malvolio and Ms. Harris as Viola

Here is a New Yorker article on the finding of the tv version.

John Colicos will always be Baltar from the original Battlestar Galactica to me and a Klingon from Star Trek.  What role did he play here?

[Rinaldo]

24 minutes ago, elle said:

John Colicos will always be Baltar from the original Battlestar Galactica to me and a Klingon from Star Trek.  What role did he play here?

Being an avid reader of theatrical histories, I first knew John Colicos by name as one of the mainstays of the early years of the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival. Then I started recognizing him as a frequent guest star on TV dramas: Mission Impossible, Gunsmoke, Mannix, Harry O....

In this he played Hindley Earnshaw, Catherine's brother.

[elle]

17 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

Being an avid reader of theatrical histories, I first knew John Colicos by name as one of the mainstays of the early years of the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival. Then I started recognizing him as a frequent guest star on TV dramas: Mission Impossible, Gunsmoke, Mannix, Harry O....

In this he played Hindley Earnshaw, Catherine's brother.

Not a full on villain but it doesn't surprise me that was his role.  Now if he had been the traveler, that would have been different.  It is hard for me to think of a role were Colicos played a good, not even grayish character.

Hope TCM on Demand includes this in their line up.

(Keeping my opinion of Wuthering Heights to myself)

Edited December 8, 2019 by elle

[Bastet]

1 minute ago, elle said:

(Keeping my opinion of Wuthering Heights to myself)

I'll share mine: I hate it.  I hate the book (and I'm not one who automatically hates stories about shitty people doing shitty things; in fact, I like a good number of them), and I hate just about everything inspired by it other than the Kate Bush song.

[elle]

17 hours ago, Bastet said:

I'll share mine: I hate it.  I hate the book (and I'm not one who automatically hates stories about shitty people doing shitty things; in fact, I like a good number of them), and I hate just about everything inspired by it other than the Kate Bush song.

Well okay, I don't like it. I had to read both that and Tess d'Uberville in high school.  "WH" I didn't get all the fuss, I recognized the story of obsession even then.  "Tess" I absolutely loathed!  So many people doing stupid things.

Our English teacher treated us by having the class watch the Olivier/Oberon movie.  It made my classic movie fan-self so happy.  There is the moment were Cathy is attacked by the Lintons' dogs. In the book they are little dogs, In the movie they are great danes.  My classmates objected vocally that was not right, we had to pause the video for a moment for everyone to become quiet again.

Edited December 8, 2019 by elle
verbs are important

[Sharpie66]

3 hours ago, elle said:

Well okay, I don't like it. I had to read both that and Tess d'Uberville in high school.  "WH" I didn't get all the fuss, I recognized the story of obsession even then.  "Tess" I absolutely loathed!  So many people doing stupid things

Thank you for sharing my Tess hate!! I had to read that for my Victorian lit class in college, and what a bad impression it made on me. By book’s end, I had just had it with Tess. She’s up there with Scarlett O’Hara for lead female characters I am supposed to admire but just can’t stand.

[StatisticalOutlier]

TCM is showing Gone with the Wind next Friday at 6:00pm (MST), and then again at 12:00 noon on Saturday.  That's a LOT of GWTW.

And later on Saturday they're showing Criss Cross at 10:00pm and again the next morning at 8:00am.  

What gives?

ETA: And Repeat Performance (I'll say!) is on Saturday the 28th at 10:00pm and again the next morning at 8:00am.  Which is the same "timing" as Criss Cross. 

Wait--it's the same thing for Cash on Demand on Saturday the 21st.  Is this something I just haven't noticed before?  That they pick a movie and show it on Saturday night and again 8 hours later?

Edited December 9, 2019 by StatisticalOutlier
hit some damn button that made this thing post before it was complete.

[Charlie Baker]

Ben M's latest piece for CBS Sunday Morning is with Mel Brooks, focusing on Anne Bancroft.

Mel B and Ben M

[Milburn Stone]

9 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

And later on Saturday they're showing Criss Cross at 10:00pm and again the next morning at 8:00am.  

What gives?

Criss Cross is part of TCM's Noir Alley, which is always repeated on Sunday mornings after premiering on Saturday nights.

[StatisticalOutlier]

9 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Criss Cross is part of TCM's Noir Alley, which is always repeated on Sunday mornings after premiering on Saturday nights.

Thank you!  I can see Cash on Demand being part of Noir Alley, too--based solely on the title. 

Any idea why they do this?  Or why they're showing Gone with the Wind twice within 24 hours? 

[meowmommy]

3 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Or why they're showing Gone with the Wind twice within 24 hours? 

Maybe because this weekend is the 80th anniversary of the premiere?  I don't know.

(I won't be watching.  I literally wore out my copy of GWTW in junior high from reading it over and over and over.  By the time I got to see the movie, in college, I knew every line and every character so well that I hated the movie.)  

[ratgirlagogo]

On 12/9/2019 at 7:36 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Any idea why they do this? 

Not really.  But they do it a lot.  As with the replaying Pink Panther and A Shot In the Dark last night after showing both within the last few weeks.  They just do this.

I'm really enjoying the remakes program on Mondays.  Today I watched the 1949 French non-musical version of Gigi, which I had never seen before.  Directed by a woman (Jacqueline Audry),  and while it is obviously the same story this version is much less focused on Honore the old roue and more on Gigi and her "aunties"  and is thus a bit more bleak about what Gigi's prospects actually are.  As in the original story it's hard to believe Gigi is really going to have the marriage she dreams of with Gaston - but ends before we remind ourselves that whatever may come as a legal wife she'll be taken care of in a divorce with more than just a diamond necklace, thus satisfying the cynical practical aunties Inez and Alicia.

However I have to mention that the subtitling was AWFUL - pure white, in a film which mostly was completely white at the  bottom of the screen (white dresses/petticoats, white tablecloths, white curtains).  I had to keep pausing the recording to squint.  Plus the subtitles only covered about half the dialog, as in a Hong Kong or Bollywood film, forcing me to draw on my shitty high school French.

All this probably sounds like a pan, but I found this film fascinating, especially to fans of the musical ( or of Colette generally, like me).

[Rinaldo]

I've had that older Gigi sitting on the DVR for many months -- since the last time it came around. This sounds like a good spur to go ahead and watch it.

The whole "remake" scheduling theme is a great idea. They could dedicate one evening a week to such a pair, almost indefinitely. (Including paired treatments of the same historical or biographical premise, like Rose of Washington Square / Funny Girl.)