TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[StatisticalOutlier]

6 hours ago, Bastet said:

Ernst Lubitsch at the helm and Greta Garbo at the tip top of her game make it a must-see

Don't forget the hat!

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 12/4/2023 at 8:02 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

All I Desire is an early Douglas Sirk movie in black and white. What a waste of Barbara Stanwyk.

Good lord that movie stunk.  It was refreshing to hear Ben M. say Sirk was disappointed in it--he wanted it to be shot in color and he wanted to end like the book did, i.e. not a happy ending. 

I loved that the two of them reunited and went into the house to wait for their children to get back...from the high school graduation ceremony for one of them.  I'm not big on ceremonies but even I thought they should have scurried on over there to at least make a showing.  He'd already bowed out of giving the commencement address because of the drama surrounding his wife shooting her side piece.

P-U.  (Is that how you spell it??) 

[EtheltoTillie]

3 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Good lord that movie stunk.  It was refreshing to hear Ben M. say Sirk was disappointed in it--he wanted it to be shot in color and he wanted to end like the book did, i.e. not a happy ending. 

I loved that the two of them reunited and went into the house to wait for their children to get back...from the high school graduation ceremony for one of them.  I'm not big on ceremonies but even I thought they should have scurried on over there to at least make a showing.  He'd already bowed out of giving the commencement address because of the drama surrounding his wife shooting her side piece.

P-U.  (Is that how you spell it??) 

Well I’m glad at least that someone else watched it. 

[mariah23]

So it’s that time year again who do you think will be in 2023’s TCM Remembers or who will be the final one?

Also I’m glad they haven’t released it yet because they would have to add in Ryan O’Neal who died today.

[Charlie Baker]

I was just reading about him in Barbra Streisand's book.   RIP.

[EtheltoTillie]

Holiday is on tonight at 10 PM eastern. That is all. 

[Tom Holmberg]

R.I.P., Ryan O'Neal

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ryan-oneal-dead-love-story-paper-moon-1235730468

I didn't think he was that old. He always seemed younger than his actual age.

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Tom Holmberg

[chessiegal]

I watch Leave It To Beaver reruns on fetv most weekdays. I was so surprised one day to see a young Ryan O'Neal on "Wally Goes Steady" that aired in 1961.

[EtheltoTillie]

Andre Braugher died this week. I know he’s mostly famous as a TV actor, but he was also in the movie Glory. 

[Charlie Baker]

Vulture's film critic's interesting take on Ryan O'Neal

Looking Glass Prince

[voiceover]

[Formerly “TCM and”] Fathom Event’s classics-onscreen list showed up today.  Blazing Saddles is scheduled for September, and I have just lost my mind.

Buying tix for me & Nephew de Voiceover.  Can’t wait for him to watch Cleavon Little put a gun to his own head, Madeline Khan sing “Tired”,  and Gene Wilder deliver one of cinema’s greatest codas (“Little bastard shot me in the ass!”).

[Rinaldo]

Coming on Thursday 12/21 at 10 am ET: The Rocking Horse Winner.

I'm taking a risk recommending this, as I've never yet had the chance to see it myself. But reports I've read (including a one-paragraph capsule from Pauline Kael, with undiluted praise such as she rarely gave) single it out as an exceptional achievement. It wasn't commercially successful in initial release, not being a "fun time" such as was expected from the participants.

It's a 1949 B&W adaptation of a DH Lawrence story (we read it in 8th grade, and I remember its distinctive ominous atmosphere, though not the details), starring John Howard Davies (a year after he played Oliver Twist on film) in the central role, and Valerie Hobson, reportedly giving the performance of her life as his mother. I'll definitely be watching.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Rinaldo

[EtheltoTillie]

d

13 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Coming on Thursday 12/21 at 10 am ET: The Rocking Horse Winner.

I'm taking a risk recommending this, as I've never yet had the chance to see it myself. But reports I've read (including a one-paragraph capsule from Pauline Kael, with undiluted praise such as she rarely gave) single it out as an exceptional achievement. It wasn't commercially successful in initial release, not being a "fun time" such as was expected from the participants.

It's a 1949 B&W adaptation of a DH Lawrence story (we read it in 8th grade, and I remember its distinctive ominous atmosphere, though not the details), starring John Howard Davies (a year after he played Oliver Twist on film) in the central role, and Valerie Hobson, reportedly giving the performance of her life as his mother. I'll definitely be watching.

I just read a summary of the story, and it is quite ominous.  It seems a bit like a Twilight Zone episode.  But I will give it a try. 

[mariah23]

TCM Remembers is up.  Beautiful as usual.

Again the Oscars should just play this instead of doing their own.

https://youtu.be/i-OggxFtRLE?si=KLFp5vZJsunug0uH

[WendyCR72]

Never thought a Tom Petty song would be used for TCM Remembers, but it worked beautifully here. No idea who covered it, but I liked it.

And it seems TCM used its current artistic style while meshing the earlier style of more lines of dialogue, etc., and together it really was terrific.

Another beautiful tribute - but so many "big" names left us this year! (And those who were not as well known still got the respect due to them.)

[WendyCR72]

To add an addendum from my other post, apparently, from what I have read, Christina Perri was the singer that covered "Learning To Fly".

[SomeTameGazelle]

I was watching bits of The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady in which Gordon MacRae plays Tony Pastor. I know there is also a brief appearance by a Tony Pastor in the flashbacks with Rusty's grandmother in Cover Girl as well and that Tony Pastor was a real person with a theatre in 19th century New York. I have to admit that I spent a certain amount of time assuming that either Pat O'Grady must have been Tony Pastor's wife in real life or else she would wind up marrying her dance partner instead. I had forgotten how fast and loose even some of the more overtly allegedly biographical movies can be. 

Apparently at one point the title of the movie was intended to be A Night at Tony Pastor's. It was in pre-production for several years so perhaps the plot changed over time until nothing biographical remained. Although I would have thought that they might as well change the name of the Tony Pastor character if they were dropping it from the title under the circumstances.

[EtheltoTillie]

I'm glad posting is back up.  I have a few watch recommendations saved.

I've been catching up with more obscure or lesser known Christmas films this year:

There a Christmas noir:  Cash on Demand, a British noir (1961).  Stars Peter Cushing.  A retelling of Scrooge in a way.  Peter Cushing plays a bank manager who is held hostage in the office as a con man tries to get him to release money from the vault.  The office Bob Cratchit saves the day.

Cover Up:  An insurance investigator looks into a suicide.  Confusing plot but interesting curiosity.

The Cheaters:  Wow!  Crazy comedy plot where a rich family who is really poor tries to scam an inheritance out of Ona Munson, otherwise known as Belle Watling, from Gone with the Wind!  Great character actors, including Joseph Schildkraut (the villainous Mr. Vadas from The Shop Around the Corner), Eugene Pallette and Billie Burke.  Despite plot holes this was a lot of fun.

In the same vein, I highly recommend It Happened on Fifth Avenue.  Poor people squat in a rich man's mansion every winter.  I love this movie. 

Fitzwilly, with Dick Van Dyke and Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) and John McGiver.  Also young Sam Waterston.  I'd never seen it and had no idea what it was.  It's essentially Ocean's Eleven set in a NYC mansion.  Van Dyke/Fitzwilly is the butler/head thief.  Good NYC scenery.  The real mansion shown is right in my neighborhood and is now a boys' yeshiva.  The Christmas angle is that the last robbery takes place at Gimbels on Christmas Eve.  Do any of you remember Gimbels?  I do.  It was across the street from Macy's.  Macy's is still there and Gimbels is not.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[chessiegal]

16 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Do any of you remember Gimbels? 

I do! I grew up west of Philadelphia. My mother would take us on the train to Gimbels to buy a new dress for Christmas and Easter. And we had lunch at the Automat. Mom gave me change to buy the food. I loved putting in coins to get my food. Happy memories.

[Charlie Baker]

I have to get in my annual plug for Remember the Night, a wonderful, strange hybrid of Christmas, screwball rom com, and dash of noir, with a terrific pair of leads, Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, far from Double Indemnity.

And Holiday Affair, a charming, warm little romance with Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum. 

Gimbels was around when I first came to NYC and I went to the E 86th street store, which at the time, unacclimated to the city, I found less intimidating than heading to Herald Square. 🙂

[EtheltoTillie]

I agree with those choices.  Good recommendations. 
The uptown Gimbels was a latecomer upstart.  It was so odd when they built a department store up there.  

[Miss Anne Thrope]

Also a fan of Remember the Night.  (Holiday Affair looks to be on again today/tomorrow, so may check it out again.)  And also remember Gimbels -- though we shopped at a Gimbels (in Bridgeport, CT), not the Gimbels.  

[Charlie Baker]

Ben with Albert Brooks and Rob Reiner on CBS Sunday Morning.

[voiceover]

16 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

I have to get in my annual plug for Remember the Night, a wonderful, strange hybrid of Christmas, screwball rom com, and dash of noir, with a terrific pair of leads, Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray

IIRC, this was my first Stanwyck film where I was all, “Wow! she’s cooler than I thought!” 

But not a fan of the noir part, which I’ve tried to improve upon by fan-fictioning a 

Spoiler

happy ending where they reunite and marry and she starts a program where desperate women are diverted into good-paying jobs & away from a life of crime

in my head.

And sometimes I just turn it off when they get home after the dance.

Edited December 24, 2023 by voiceover

[EtheltoTillie]

I decided to rewatch Remember the Night today.  Stanwyck was truly drop-dead gorgeous in this movie.  She was always attractive, but this was something else again. 

[Rinaldo]

I'm not as crazy about Remember the Night as some others are, but one lovely thing about it is the nightclub scene early in the movie. Watching the singer there gives us a chance to see for a change, not just hear, Martha Mears, who provided singing voices for so many onscreen ladies. 

 

Edited December 25, 2023 by Rinaldo

[Milburn Stone]

On 12/25/2023 at 8:44 AM, Rinaldo said:

Watching the singer there gives us a chance to see for a change, not just hear, Martha Mears, who provided singing voices for so many onscreen ladies. 

I've always been CRAZY about her singing of "Palsy Walsy" in They Got Me Covered. Crazy in a good way. And when I was a kid, her voice on the 78, singing "Who" in The Male Animal, stirred feelings in a very young male animal.

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

I've always been CRAZY about her singing of "Palsy Walsy" in They Got Me Covered. Crazy in a good way. And when I was a kid, her voice on the 78, singing "Who" in The Male Animal, stirred feelings in a very young male animal.

I do not know this song "Who," and I cannot seem to find a recording of it on YouTube or the like.  Do you have a link?

[graybrown bird]

"Who" is a Jerome Kern standard.  Here is Judy Garland singing it:

 

[EtheltoTillie]

Thanks!  I know that song.  I just didn't know the name. 

[mariah23]

Would you believe that we already have someone for 2024 TCM Remembers?!

RIP Tom Wilkinson 

https://deadline.com/2023/12/tom-wilkinson-dies-two-time-oscar-nominated-actor-was-75-obituary-1235683717/

[mariah23]

I’m back for another addition to 2024 TCM Remembers.

RIP Glynis Johns who just celebrated her 100th birthday in October:

https://deadline.com/2024/01/glynis-johns-dead-1235695310/

[Charlie Baker]

With all the justifiable fretting over the future of TCM in the Warner Discovery era, it looks like a solid January for the channel.  Star of the month Robert Mitchum, a salute to Columbia Pictures' 100th anniversary, and The Power of Film, a documentary series built around the philosophical film professor Howard Suber.

Tonight, two superlative comedies: Moonstruck and The Apartment.

Today's birthdays: Diane Keaton is 78 and Robert Duvall is 93.

[BlackberryJam]

38 minutes ago, Charlie Baker said:

Robert Duvall is 93.

Boo Radley and Tom Hagen. Two characters I’ve always loved.

[Rinaldo]

11 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

Boo Radley and Tom Hagen. Two characters I’ve always loved.

And an unexpectedly fun Dr. Watson.

[MissAlmond]

A nice tribute from NPR on TCM Remembers.  

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/06/1223080158/tcm-remembers-in-memoriam-montage

[voiceover]

Recommending Bardelys the Magnificent, tonight’s Silent Sundays feature.

John Gilbert in his best role ever; some mind-blowing stunt work; a rowboat scene that is sexual suggestion at its finest; Eleanor Boardman as the haughty love interest who’s no pushover.  Love this movie!

[EtheltoTillie]

Also Cluny Brown is on tonight. Love that movie. Never come between a girl and her plumbing. 

Edited January 7 by EtheltoTillie

[Bastet]

7 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

A nice tribute from NPR on TCM Remembers.  

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/06/1223080158/tcm-remembers-in-memoriam-montage

That piece includes a link to this 2011 article in which the producer of that year's package and a TCM executive briefly discussed how they're made.  I love that it's on the minds of producers all year long.  And that Aisha Harris (author of the NPR piece) took note of the value of what that old interview confirms is a deliberate choice -- using songs that are not readily familiar to the audience.

[Charlie Baker]

A Variety article on TCM's plans for 2024. It's somewhat press-release-ish, but promising. One tries to be optimistic.

Turner Classic Movies Celebrates 30th Anniversary

[SomeTameGazelle]

TCM introduced Baby Boom today by mentioning that they were showing Nancy Meyers movies, so when I saw they had the Spencer Tracy version of Father of the Bride in my guide I assumed it was an error in the guide. But then they started showing the Spencer Tracy version. I think this must be a Canada issue -- the TCM online schedule also indicates the 1991 version. I don't have any particular need to see either version, but I thought it interesting to note.

I was also looking at my PVR to see what it plans to record for me and I see that at long last When the Boys Meet the Girls is coming around (6am on Jan 22) and I will finally have my chance to compare it to Girl Crazy.

[Tom Holmberg]

I liked that they showed a Zatoichi (the blind masseur swordsman gambler) movie Friday night.  It was like a throwback to TCM Underground.

 

[Miss Anne Thrope]

19 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

TCM introduced Baby Boom today by mentioning that they were showing Nancy Meyers movies, so when I saw they had the Spencer Tracy version of Father of the Bride in my guide I assumed it was an error in the guide. But then they started showing the Spencer Tracy version. I think this must be a Canada issue -- the TCM online schedule also indicates the 1991 version. I don't have any particular need to see either version, but I thought it interesting to note.

 

We (Connecticut) definitely got the Steve Martin Father of the Bride last night, so maybe a  permission-type thing with international markets is in play.  I thought they were doing a Diane Keaton featurette.  (Ms Meyers makes me twitchy, so had I known, I'd have flipped through even faster!)

[SomeTameGazelle]

2 hours ago, Miss Anne Thrope said:

We (Connecticut) definitely got the Steve Martin Father of the Bride last night, so maybe a  permission-type thing with international markets is in play. 

Thanks. I used to know where they kept the Canadian schedule (there was a pdf somewhere on tcm.com) but if it's still there I couldn't track it down. 

[EtheltoTillie]

This may be all you want to watch of When the Boys Meet the GIrls.  Includes Liberace!

 

Well, also Satchmo. 

 

 

Edited January 17 by EtheltoTillie

[mariah23]

9 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

This may be all you want to watch of When the Boys Meet the GIrls.  Includes Liberace!

 

Well, also Satchmo. 

 

 

I was going to suggest Duel in the Sun for the We Hate Movies podcast listener’s request month, but after seeing this I might change my mind.

[Rinaldo]

Oh, I think anyone curious about the evolution of popular music in the 1960s needs to see When the Boys Meet the Girls. You get the big Gershwin songs from Girl Crazy, of which this is the third movie version (and which would eventually become the source for Crazy for You), done in what then seemed appropriate style -- loungey easy-listening -- and then the current acts doing their thing (Herman's Hermits even do "Bidin' My Time"), and then some unclassifiable performers like Liberace. And though it's weird and a mess, it's far from horrific, I find that it goes down easily if one is ready for it. And after all this adaptation, the core of it is still there: it's the Eastern city slicker vs. the Nevada postmistress.

And Harve Presnell provides a chance to ponder the challenges of a show-biz career. Here's a good-looking baritone of classical quality and the start of a successful career in that vein (you can still buy a Carmina Burana with him as one of the soloists), hand-picked to star on Broadway in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. The movie of that show led to a Western, then this oddball musical, and a featured moment in Paint My Wagon... and then that was about it for him on the screen. Decades of stage work (lots of Daddy Warbuckses), and then his unexpected re-emergence as an authoritative older bald character actor in Fargo. And that gave him another decade or so of film and TV work.

Edited January 17 by Rinaldo

[Milburn Stone]

12 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Oh, I think anyone curious about the evolution of popular music in the 1960s needs to see When the Boys Meet the Girls...

I watched the trailer (thanks, @EtheltoTillie), and I'm not gonna look it up on the IMDB 'cause that would be cheating, but this has all the earmarks of a Joe Pasternak production. Am I right?

 

[EtheltoTillie]

I appreciate @Rinaldo 's take.  Maybe I will watch, because I do love all the music. 

[EtheltoTillie]

9 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

I watched the trailer (thanks, @EtheltoTillie), and I'm not gonna look it up on the IMDB 'cause that would be cheating, but this has all the earmarks of a Joe Pasternak production. Am I right?

 

Seems not to be.  I "cheated" and looked it up on IMDB and Wikipedia. 

Anyway, it seems to be trying to capitalize on the popularity of Pasternak's Where the Boys Are (guilty pleasure of mine!), what with the title and the appearance of Connie Francis, but apparently not a Pasternak product.