TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

The Private War of Major Benson is supposedly Heston's only comedy.

I'm sure this is stated exactly that way in multiple sources, but things are rarely that simple, right? He appears in or lends his voice to movies with considerable comedic content, but either he's the villain and not in on the fun (The Three Musketeers) or he's cast precisely to be used as the humorless foil to everything else (Wayne's World 2, Hercules).

[Wiendish Fitch]

9 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

I'm sure this is stated exactly that way in multiple sources, but things are rarely that simple, right? He appears in or lends his voice to movies with considerable comedic content, but either he's the villain and not in on the fun (The Three Musketeers) or he's cast precisely to be used as the humorless foil to everything else (Wayne's World 2, Hercules).

Oh, c’mon, Heston Biblically* intoning “You go, girl!” In Hercules is comedy gold for the ages.

 

*Yes, I realize that’s the incorrect use of that word, and, no, I don’t care.

[EtheltoTillie]

RIP Suzanne Somers.  Iconic role in  American Graffiti. 

[Milburn Stone]

On 10/12/2023 at 6:02 PM, Bastet said:

I was going to stage a small uprising right here in my office if Molly Haskell's From Reverence to Rape was not highly ranked, so I'm glad to see that at #14. 

This is so funny. I was prepared to be enraged if Rudy Behlmer's Memo from David O. Selznick had not made the cut. But luckily it did, coming in at #27. (Which isn't too bad out of 100, although I would have ranked it higher. His Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck also got an honorable mention.)

[Rinaldo]

My own author whom I was glad to see (twice, as it turns out) on the 100 List is Jeanine Basinger. She has given us a number of excellent books about various corners of Hollywood movies, and The Star Machine is one of them. Hollywood: The Oral History is another, and she was one of the facilitators of that.

[mariah23]

TCM Remembers Richard Roundtree aka Shaft who passed away this morning at age 81.

[Rinaldo]

His film credits are relatively few compared to his considerable achievements on TV, but still memorable ones: Matthew Perry has died at age 54.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Rinaldo

[chessiegal]

I will be so happy when Halloween is over. So tired of everything being spooky, creepy, and just Horror genre. Be gone!

[Wilbur Whateley]

On this week’s Noir Alley, Eddie Mueller was in an Oakland bar and said that it was going to be his “headquarters for the foreseeable future.” Does anyone know what’s up with this? It’s hard not to be paranoid considering the ongoing corporate shenanigans trying to ruin and/or destroy TCM. Have they gotten rid of the Noir alley set as a “cost-saving” measure?

[Mindthinkr]

I couldn’t find this thread earlier in the week. I watched I’ll Cry Tomorrow starring Susan Hayward. Her performance blew me away. What a shame she wasn’t given an Oscar for it. 

[Charlie Baker]

@Wilbur Whateley I believe EM was at the same location for last week's Noir Alley. I think his home base is in the Bay Area, so he could be there for some personal reason, or maybe they're building a new Noir Alley set. But it's more likely that set has been scrapped. Which would be a shame because it was great Alicia and Dave now use the same set that Ben has had to himself. This does smack of reducing studio expenses.  Who can say if they don't release the information?

The Noir Alley movie, Abandoned was a pretty well done little number, though it had dicey subject matter--trafficking in babies for illegal adoptions.  And Raymond Burr and Marjorie Rambeau among the very bad baddies. 

[Wilbur Whateley]

8 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

@Wilbur Whateley I believe EM was at the same location for last week's Noir Alley. I think his home base is in the Bay Area, so he could be there for some personal reason, or maybe they're building a new Noir Alley set. But it's more likely that set has been scrapped. Which would be a shame because it was great Alicia and Dave now use the same set that Ben has had to himself. This does smack of reducing studio expenses.  Who can say if they don't release the information?

Well they could do the intros/outros out of their houses, as in COVID days, and it would all be fine as long as they gave out the same quality of info . . . Except we all know that’s not going to be the end of it.  To maximize shareholder profit they are going to destroy the whole thing in stages. It’s a slow-motion car crash.

Edited November 6, 2023 by Wilbur Whateley
Correcting a mispelling

[EtheltoTillie]

Abandoned was pretty good.  The cinematography was amazing. 

[Tom Holmberg]

On 10/31/2023 at 11:40 AM, chessiegal said:

I will be so happy when Halloween is over. So tired of everything being spooky, creepy, and just Horror genre. Be gone!

They are still running some movies this week, a bunch on Weds. 11/8.  I'm recording "The Illustrated Man" because I haven't seen it since it first came out.  I wonder if it will be as bad as I remember.

[voiceover]

You have to get about halfway through Devil in a Blue Dress to hear it, but Don Cheadle’s Mouse has an all-time great opening line (“Want me t’ kill this sumbitch, Easy?”).  That scene, and Cheadle’s performance in it, hit me so profoundly that for years afterwards, variations on that character turned up in almost everything I wrote.

Edited November 9, 2023 by voiceover

[Crashcourse]

I loved Mouse's facial expressions:  You're surprised I shot him?  That's what I do!

[Tom Holmberg]

On 11/8/2023 at 8:59 AM, Tom Holmberg said:

They are still running some movies this week, a bunch on Weds. 11/8.  I'm recording "The Illustrated Man" because I haven't seen it since it first came out.  I wonder if it will be as bad as I remember.

I might have been worse than I remember!

[Milburn Stone]

On 11/5/2023 at 8:54 AM, Wilbur Whateley said:

On this week’s Noir Alley, Eddie Mueller was in an Oakland bar and said that it was going to be his “headquarters for the foreseeable future.” Does anyone know what’s up with this? It’s hard not to be paranoid considering the ongoing corporate shenanigans trying to ruin and/or destroy TCM. Have they gotten rid of the Noir alley set as a “cost-saving” measure?

I didn't mind this location. Might be time for a "refresh" in any case.

Half the time I thought the previous set was green-screened anyway.

On 11/5/2023 at 1:15 PM, Charlie Baker said:

Alicia and Dave now use the same set that Ben has had to himself. This does smack of reducing studio expenses. 

I just don't think it has to do with expense, since Alicia and Dave's sets looked like green-screen to me anyway.

And I don't mind them sharing a set with Ben. It subliminally elevates them to his level. In truth they are both better than Ben, so at least they have achieved parity!

[voiceover]

10 hours ago, Crashcourse said:

 

I loved Mouse's facial expressions:  You're surprised I shot him?  That's what I do!

 

“Easy, look — if you ain't want him killed, why'd you leave him with me?”

Hard to dispute 🤣

[EtheltoTillie]

I'd never seen The Landlord.  I highly recommend.  To say it is a quirky comedy/drama about racism from 1970 totally sells it short.  It's hard to watch the jump cut scenes, but it's cleverly done nonetheless.  It's Hal Ashby's first film as a director.  lee Grant got an Oscar nom, but others in the film deserved recognition as well, particularly Diana Sands and Louis Gossett Jr.  Young Bo Bridges was also good

 

I can't even continue to write this because of computer malfunctioning with this web site.  Watch the movie. 

[Crashcourse]

I remember hearing about The Landlord in the 70s, but I never watched it.  I recently watched it on TCM and I hated it.  I hated all of the racial stereotyping, and I thought the acting was cringeworthy from most of the cast, especially Beau Bridges and Lou Gossett.   

I did like Diana Sands though, and it was sad that she died only a few years after the movie was released.

[Rinaldo]

3 hours ago, Crashcourse said:

I did like Diana Sands though, and it was sad that she died only a few years after the movie was released.

Diana Sands was an extraordinary actress who deserves to be better remembered better than she probably will be ultimately, because of her early death and relatively few movie credits. She goes back to Raisin in the Sun of course, and in th 1960s was accumulating stage credits, notably in the original Broadway run (and subsequently in London) of The Owl and the Pussycat and as Joan of Arc in a Lincoln Center production of Shaw's play. (Not to belabor the obvious, but both roles were early examples of what came to be called color-blind casting, as the character in TO&tP wasn't racially specified in the script, and we know who St. Joan was.) I recall in the early 1970s, when one of the networks played 3 failed pilots as a "special event" (remember when they used to do that?), one of the items was The Diana Sands Show -- I seem to remember that John Amos played her husband and that it was a standard not-great-not-bad sitcom of its time, rather in the manner of The Bob Newhart Show with both spouses having successful careers. (IMDb doesn't seem to know about this one.) I know that the movie Claudine was planned for her, but I had forgotten that it actually filmed with her for a week before she was rushed to hospital, and it was she who asked them to give her role to Diahann Carroll.

[EtheltoTillie]

3 hours ago, Crashcourse said:

I remember hearing about The Landlord in the 70s, but I never watched it.  I recently watched it on TCM and I hated it.  I hated all of the racial stereotyping, and I thought the acting was cringeworthy from most of the cast, especially Beau Bridges and Lou Gossett.   

I did like Diana Sands though, and it was sad that she died only a few years after the movie was released.

I can absolutely see why you hated it.  It's still worth watching as an artifact of its time.  I didn't really like it exactly.  It's just really interesting. 

[Miss Anne Thrope]

I liked The Landlord too, and it appears to be growing on me (seen it 2x).  While it is dated and/or clunky at times, I think a lot of the satire is still relevant and bitterly funny. The luminous Diana Sands was largely the heart of the story and carried it well.   I've always had a soft spot for Beau Bridges so consider the source; but I thought he (and writer Bill Gunn and director Hal Ashby by extension) achieved a good balance  -- getting involved with his tenants rather than going with the original plan to evict everyone, but not getting excessively warm and fuzzy and retaining a good measure of the jerkiness that comes with being a rich, somewhat callous, white guy.  Pearl Bailey and Lee Grant were also wonderful, especially together, IMO --  as noted, I clearly enjoyed The Landlord a lot the second time around!

[Milburn Stone]

Haven't seen it since it came out, but I liked it.

[Milburn Stone]

I find I use Watch TCM to satisfy a particular predilection. I love the beginnings of movies. Those main titles that promise so much, with their graphics and musical underscoring. Those first scenes after the titles that establish the milieu of the story--the big city, the barren west, idyllic small town America, or what have you. Every movie is a 5-star movie up through that. Then the first lines of dialogue come in, and you know you've already seen the best the movie has to offer, and you move on. In the unusual circumstance that the movie continues to deliver, you know you're in the presence of a good one. But all the ones that die with those first lines of dialogue--you'll always have those first five minutes. I can spend an hour just watching one movie beginning after another.

[roseha]

I see people have been commenting on the new setting for the Noir Alley intros/outros.   I always watch "Ask Eddie" on Youtube, and in the latest installment he explained that it is indeed a cost cutting move by TCM.   However  Eddie will now be filming at a local bar that he is a fan of, whose owners have agreed to let him film there on their night off.

He does admit that he's at least happy about not having to travel to film the segments anymore!

[voiceover]

11 hours ago, roseha said:

it is indeed a cost cutting move by TCM

The new use of green screens had been mentioned here, which surprised me, because I hadn’t noticed.

Then I watched the Dave Karger intro (which they also ran as the outro, lmao) for Best Years of Our Lives, and saw the truth.  Christ, it was just…unspeakably awful.  The background desert in all the Road Runner cartoons is Picasso by comparison.  Can’t they just stand in front of the poster of the film they’re introducing?

Or, I dunno…the background desert from all the Road Runner cartoons?

[mariah23]

41 minutes ago, voiceover said:

The new use of green screens had been mentioned here, which surprised me, because I hadn’t noticed.

Then I watched the Dave Karger intro (which they also ran as the outro, lmao) for Best Years of Our Lives, and saw the truth.  Christ, it was just…unspeakably awful.  The background desert in all the Road Runner cartoons is Picasso by comparison.  Can’t they just stand in front of the poster of the film they’re introducing?

Or, I dunno…the background desert from all the Road Runner cartoons?

Since Coyote vs. ACME is in the news, why not?  
 

Also, TCM should get the rights to Looney Tunes to show on their channel!  I won’t give that idea up!

[Sarah 103]

4 hours ago, mariah23 said:

Since Coyote vs. ACME is in the news, why not?  
 

Also, TCM should get the rights to Looney Tunes to show on their channel!  I won’t give that idea up!

TCM is part of Warner Discovery. I think the old Looney Tunes cartoons are also part of Warner Discovery, so it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do. 

[MissAlmond]

5 hours ago, voiceover said:

Then I watched the Dave Karger intro (which they also ran as the outro, lmao)

I was so confused!

ION, someone posted TCM Remembers 2001 to YouTube.  I have never seen this one and thought perhaps others haven't either, so decided to post it here:

 

[Rinaldo]

Wednesday on TCM is apparently a mystery-thriller day, including two of the films of George M. Cohan's play Seven Keys to Baldpate (not actually good, but the 1929 one has its interest as an early talkie clumsily trying to bring a popular play to the screen, including Cohan's meta frame).

But at 8 pm ET we get a rare TCM showing of Man's Castle, in which Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young shack up, pre-Code style, in Shantytown. It's an exceptional performance by Young: unaffected, charming, "real," very touching.

[roseha]

Thanks so much @Rinaldo for the alert for Man's Castle.  I saw that film ages ago, it must have been in a revival house, and I still remember it vividly.  I am a big fan of Frank Borzage.

[EtheltoTillie]

I caught Man’s Castle on YouTube back in the summer when they had Loretta Young Day, and everyone was talking about it.  I imagine the TCM showing will be a better quality print. 

[Charlie Baker]

Last night as part of a spotlight presentation of movie stories that unfold at night (or something like that) and as something of a birthday tribute to Martin Scorsese, they showed Taxi Driver, and before it, After Hours, which I hadn't seen in years and always felt it was one of Scorsese's underappreciated films.  But checking out imdb--the user rating is fairly high and the metacritic review blurbs are quite positive.  It holds up as a black comedy nightmare--really feels like a bad dream.  Those 80s NYC Soho pre-gentrification streets give a lot of atmosphere.  It's on Watch TCM.

And it's a regular noir festival on the app, too.  Plus  Man's Castle. 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Charlie Baker

[voiceover]

What an unexpected early Christmas present!  Tonight’s Silent Sundays features my favorite of them all: The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg.

My TCM mutuals (looking around for @ratgirlagogo) already know that I dote on this Ernst Lubitsch jewel.  Here’s Jean Hersholt, before he was known for Honorary Oscars: sly and jovial and a much-needed father figure.  Here’s Norma Shearer, before she was a Serious Actress: bubbly and bold and a perfect first love to a Royal.

And in his best performance ever, Ramon Novarro in the title role.  His Prince Karl is by turns bashful, affectionate, and game in the movie’s early going.  He embraces his first time away from home by trying it all: beer drinking (natch), singing lustily with his new comrades-in-arms, falling for his hotel’s sweet barmaid.

But.  Reality intrudes.

I’ve quoted Andrew Sarris before, with his definition of “the Lubitsch Touch”.  He called it a counterpoint of sadness “during a film’s gayest moments”.  And that is where Novarro comes into his own as an actor.

Memorable, charming, devastating.  10/10, would recommend.

eta: Karl is the King’s nephew, not his son.  It’s on the first freaking narration card! who’s writing these intros???

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by voiceover

[Tom Holmberg]

We've discussed this movie once before, but those who haven't see it, "Slither" (1973) is on this afternoon (11/21). An off-beat crime comedy starring James Caan and Sally Kellerman, with a nice cast of characters. Something like a pre-Coen Brothers movie. It's a forgotten movie that shows up only rarely.

[Tom Holmberg]

On 11/21/2023 at 8:07 AM, Tom Holmberg said:

We've discussed this movie once before, but those who haven't see it, "Slither" (1973) is on this afternoon (11/21). An off-beat crime comedy starring James Caan and Sally Kellerman, with a nice cast of characters. Something like a pre-Coen Brothers movie. It's a forgotten movie that shows up only rarely.

W.D. Richter the writer is also the director of "Buckaroo Banzai" and writer of "Big Trouble in Little China" two other off-beat films.

[SomeTameGazelle]

Is it just me or is the audio in the broadcast of Smartest Girl in Town not synched up with the video?

[graybrown bird]

Not just you.  Very unusual for TCM!  Couldn't watch.

Edited November 26, 2023 by graybrown bird

[SomeTameGazelle]

3 hours ago, graybrown bird said:

Not just you.  Very unusual for TCM!  Couldn't watch.

I watched it in fits and starts. The dialogue amused me and the combination of Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, and Erik Rhodes naturally reminded me of Top Hat; and watching the wrong mouth for the voice was like an intense shot of that bit in Singin' In the Rain. I do not have any idea technically how this would have happened but I did notice that the video for the movie started before the timeslot for Traveltalks (about Jasper) had ended.  

[Charlie Baker]

Star of the month Gloria Grahame was born 100 years ago today.  Tonight's schedule has some of her heavy duty noirs,  and in the wee small hours,  one of her latter-day roles, in Joan Micklin Silver's Chilly Scenes of Winter, or Head over Heels.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 11/28/2023 at 10:58 AM, Charlie Baker said:

Star of the month Gloria Grahame was born 100 years ago today.  Tonight's schedule has some of her heavy duty noirs,  and in the wee small hours,  one of her latter-day roles, in Joan Micklin Silver's Chilly Scenes of Winter, or Head over Heels.

I watched both. Very interesting 

I am noticing that Watch TCM is not updating again. I hope this isn’t another harbinger of trouble at the network. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Looks like they went back to updating the app, but a bunch of stuff didn’t get included, including the interesting Buirski documentaries and the Gloria Grahame films. 

Edited December 1, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[Rinaldo]

Yeah, updating Watch TCM has been occasionally wonky for as long as I can remember. (And I can never predict what'll be included.)

[EtheltoTillie]

Ninotchka:  how had I never watched this before?  Garbo is a revelation; she's so funny and real when she falls in love.  The comic bits were great, especially the exchange with the Duchess about Punchy the Dog.  Just watch Garbo's face when she thinks Melvyn Douglas may be having a relationship with the Duchess.  I loved the three Russian doofuses.  Felix Bressart is always a fave of mine, as the co-worker from The Shop Around the Corner.  Such a funny script co-written by Billy Wilder:  Funniest moment:  my husband happened to walk in and said "is that Bela Lugosi?"  What was he doing in this movie?  That was a cameo moment when the three doofs went to Constantinople and threw a rug out the window and complained that it couldn't fly.  Anyway, lots of fun. 

[SomeTameGazelle]

I have known for some time that Arsenic and Old Lace is one of the films that TCM doesn't have the rights to broadcast in Canada. This weekend I learned that apparently Bringing Up Baby is another. I don't know if there is any prospect of that changing anytime soon.

[voiceover]

20 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Ninotchka:  how had I never watched this before?  Garbo is a revelation

Oh I’m so glad you discovered & enjoyed this!  It’s my favorite Garbo film (she was a jewel of a comic actress & should have gotten more roles in that vein) and yet another reason to adore Ernst Lubitsch.

The drunk scene in her suite is priceless.  Her reaction to her own “execution” makes me laugh every time (a sentence that is weird if you haven’t seen the movie).  We were robbed of what might have been as she aged into character roles.

[EtheltoTillie]

All I Desire is an early Douglas Sirk movie in black and white. What a waste of Barbara Stanwyk. Both her estranged husband and her side love interest have no appeal whatsoever.  But watch it if you’re a completist. It’s mercifully short. It’s set in the gay nineties, for Pete’s sake. Melodrama galore, of course, but no redeeming characters and unbelievable plot twists. 

Edited December 5, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[Bastet]

On 12/3/2023 at 12:11 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

Ninotchka:  how had I never watched this before?

I have no idea!  Ernst Lubitsch at the helm and Greta Garbo at the tip top of her game make it a must-see, so I'm glad you finally did.