TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[elle]

And then there's Michael Callan and I don't think I've ever seen him this young and this good looking. OMG, I had no idea he could dance! I'm talking Gene Kelly kind of dancing. And it's actually him, not a double

For everyone's enjoyment - Tribute to Michael Callan  (A crush since the first time I saw Cat Ballou)

[Rinaldo]

And then there's Michael Callan and I don't think I've ever seen him this young and this good looking. OMG, I had no idea he could dance! I'm talking Gene Kelly kind of dancing. And it's actually him, not a double

He was one of the original stars (Riff) of West Side Story, after all. I'm glad to learn that there's a movie showing at least some of that.

Just noticed that the next movie is Ride the Wild Surf. I saw that on tv when I was a teenager and always liked it. Fabian, Yvonne Craig and Barbara Eden. Can't wait,

I caught bits of this, and must admit I kinda wish I'd seen more. Don't forget Tab Hunter and Shelley Fabares! Barbara Eden was a brunette in this too, which I don't think I've otherwise seen. The inspirational "You mean... I shouldn't give up on myself so fast??" dialogue, played completely straight (or as much so as the actors' skills would allow), was memorable indeed.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Rinaldo

[prican58]

I  had forgotten Shelly Fabares and Tab were in it and Peter Brown looked so out of place as a blond. Frankly, they all seemed pretty old to be 20 somethings digging the surfing scene. But really, I remember loving it back in the day. The movie wasn't that good and I think Barbara Eden did the best out of all of them. I actually think she was a better actress than her career would lead one to believe. I think she was pretty as a brunette.

 

I am still dumbfounded by Michael Callan! As many said on youtube, he was born just a little too late because Hollywood was changing and I guess song and dance men didn't have much place in 60's cinema....unless their names were Gene and Fred. And even then.

[Sharpie66]

Fosse was another one who was just born a few years too late for the Golden Era of musicals, even though he managed to get featured roles in a few. I love seeing the clip of the alley dance with Tommy Rall, but don't have the patience to watch the rest of My Sister Eileen.

[Rinaldo]

I'd say that Fosse was born in time. He, Tommy Rall, and Bobby Van all got to be the dancing juveniles in several musical films, separately and in various combinations. Van and Rall might have liked to continue with that, but Fossee was already transitioning out of performing into stage directing-choreography by the late 1950s.

[Padma]

I'd say that Fosse was born in time. He, Tommy Rall, and Bobby Van all got to be the dancing juveniles in several musical films, separately and in various combinations. Van and Rall might have liked to continue with that, but Fossee was already transitioning out of performing into stage directing-choreography by the late 1950s.

Another Michael Callan fan here who didn't realize how wasted talent was in the sitcoms of the 60s and  70s.  Still around at 80 and acting (a low budget film called The Still Life) in 2006.  I remember Fosse and Van and (maybe Gower Champion?) dancing in Kiss Me Kate, but I have to agree he (and we) were lucky he wasn't born earlier when musicals like "All That Jazz" would never have been made.                                                                

[elle]

Another Michael Callan fan here who didn't realize how wasted talent was in the sitcoms of the 60s and  70s.  Still around at 80 and acting (a low budget film called The Still Life) in 2006.  I remember Fosse and Van and (maybe Gower Champion?) dancing in Kiss Me Kate, but I have to agree he (and we) were lucky he wasn't born earlier when musicals like "All That Jazz" would never have been made.                                                                

Tommy Rall as Bill Calhoun / 'Lucentio' is your third man with

Bobby Van as 'Gremio'

Bob Fosse as 'Hortensio'

with

Carol Haney as Specialty dancer

Jeanne Coyne as Specialty dancer

and, of course

Ann Miller as Lois Lane / 'Bianca'

 

Of course my most favorite, in a cast of favorites, are Keenan Wynn as Lippy and James Whitmore as Slug.  I adore them singing and dancing "Brush Up Your Shakespeare".

[Rinaldo]

Tommy Rall is still alive at 86.* Someone really needs to write his biography while he's around to help. He did some actual ballet before going into the movies, then as the dancer-boy roles were drying up at MGM, he turned to the stage, in musicals (sometimes with no dancing element) and opera (important tenor roles in Tosca, Carmen, Our Lady's Juggler). What has his later life been like, I wonder?

 

(*Irrelevant to the movie, but I have to mention that the original Lilli in KISS ME, KATE onstage, Patricia Morison, will turn 101 later this month. And she still occasionally sings onstage at gala events. With the passing of Joan Roberts and Celeste Holm, I feel like she's the last survivor of that generation of stage people.)

Edited March 8, 2016 by Rinaldo

[Inquisitionist]

For everyone's enjoyment - Tribute to Michael Callan  (A crush since the first time I saw Cat Ballou)

 

Such a talented cutie!  Cat Ballou was the source of my crush as well.  ;-)

[bmoore4026]

Well, tonight on TCM, we have a movie starring Joan Fontaine followed by a movie starring Olivia de Havilland.  Awkwarrrrrrd

[ratgirlagogo]

For International Women's Day?  Sometimes sisterhood can be too powerful.:)

[elle]

Such a talented cutie!  Cat Ballou was the source of my crush as well.  ;-)

Tom Nardini (Jackson) was pretty crush-worthy too. ;0)

 

Well, tonight on TCM, we have a movie starring Joan Fontaine followed by a movie starring Olivia de Havilland.  Awkwarrrrrrd

For International Women's Day?  Sometimes sisterhood can be too powerful.:)

The other common thread between those movies is that they were both based on novels by Daphne du Maurier.

 

Based on the schedule, an Abbott and Costello treat up next, I don't believe TCM did anything special for the day.

Edited March 9, 2016 by elle

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I don't believe TCM did anything special for the day.

Oh, I don't either.  It was a joke.

[prican58]

elle, I love Who Done It? and haven't seen it in ages. I am going to see it on the Watch TCM and I cannot wait. Well, yes I will wait but I am looking forward to it. Next to The Time of Their Lives, it's their best. Love Mary Wicks and Lou in this. 

[elle]

Oh, I don't either.  It was a joke.

Which went over my head :0)

 

I would not have been surprised to see TCM set up something to have noted the day.  They used to have Irish themed movies for St. Patrick's day, which it doesn't seem to be the case every year.

 

I love Who Done It? and haven't seen it in ages. I am going to see it on the Watch TCM and I cannot wait.

Before I go into my usual lament of losing TCM, what is Watch TCM?

[Julia]

Ooooh, watch TCM is a web app which allows you to watch a bunch of movies from their library every month. I have no idea why they haven't marketed it as a stand-alone, like HBO Go.

 

FYI, it appears to be Joan Crawford suffering nobly day, with Mildred Pierce and Humoresque.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Julia

[Rinaldo]

Watch TCM is also a page on the TCM website, with some of the movies they've shown recently, available to watch online (usually for a month after airing).

 

Tonight is another Disney night on TCM. Leonard Maltin's host segments this time were filmed at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. The theme is nautical, or nature in general.

 

8:00 -- Sea Scouts, a Donald-and-nephews short, and Whalers, with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy.

8:30 -- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (A-list cast for this, James Mason and Kirk Douglas), and

10:45 -- the story of its making, "Operation Undersea," an episode of Disneyland.

11:45 -- Merbabies, one of the Silly Symphonies.

12:00 -- Secrets of Life, one of the "True-Life Adventures."

1:19 -- Four Minute Fever, a short about competition for the four-minute mile. I'm not sure how this fits in, but I imagine that it's rarely seen; it's not in any of the DVD anthologies I'm aware of.

1:30 -- Nikki, Wild Dog of the North

[Julia]

Watch TCM is also a page on the TCM website, with some of the movies they've shown recently, available to watch online (usually for a month after airing).

 

Unfortunately, as near as I can tell, you have to have TCM available on your satellite or cable service to log in to see the movies. I suspect they could make a fair amount of money if they allowed subscriptions, like HBO and CBS do.

8:30 -- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (A-list cast for this, James Mason and Kirk Douglas), and

 

Kirk Douglas is at his most beautiful in this (/shallow).

[mariah23]

 

Unfortunately, as near as I can tell, you have to have TCM available on your satellite or cable service to log in to see the movies. I suspect they could make a fair amount of money if they allowed subscriptions, like HBO and CBS do.

 

Kirk Douglas is at his most beautiful in this (/shallow).

He also has great chemistry with a seal.

More for TCM Remembers: Richard Davalos, Aron in East of Eden, has died at the age of 85.

[prican58]

Torch Song is on. Wow! Late '40's Joan in all her heavy handed glory.

 

What's even more entertaining is this....

 

[elle]

 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (A-list cast for this, James Mason and Kirk Douglas)

There is an often missed reference to that movie and Kirk Douglas in Finding Nemo.  It is when the shape making school of fish make a ship and sing a lyric of "A Whale of a Tale"

 

 

 

 

Torch Song is on. Wow! Late '40's Joan in all her heavy handed glory.

What's even more entertaining is this....

I had a significant number of "old film" introductions from the skits of Carol Burnett and cast, but probably none more so than the later movies of Joan Crawford.  So ripe for spoofing!  It was years later that I saw Joan in her prime (20s/30s )films that I could see what a real beautiful women she had been as well as a better actress than what comes across in the later films.

 

Thanks for the explanations about Watch TCM.  I will have to check it out!

[roseha]

Not everyone gets Watch TCM unfortunately. Time Warner cable in New York doesn't provide it, and gives no explanation.

[Julia]

Not everyone gets Watch TCM unfortunately. Time Warner cable in New York doesn't provide it, and gives no explanation.

TWC was briefly part of Time Warner, I believe, and it ended badly.

[Milburn Stone]

Leonard Maltin's host segments this time were filmed at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. The theme is nautical, or nature in general.

 

On a tangent, the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco is a must for anyone interested in film, Disney film, or both. When I visited it, I realized something I hadn't before. The proper way to read the name of the museum is not The Walt Disney "Family Museum." It's "The Walt Disney Family" Museum. (I.e., it's not a museum whose primary mission is being fun for the whole family. It's a museum founded and funded by The Walt Disney Family.)

Edited March 10, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[Charlie Baker]

Yep, I've groused here frequently about Time Warner Cable not offering Watch TCM.  They have somewhat increased the number of titles they'll offer on demand.  Which is something.  But not enough.

Yeah, I should be grateful I have TCM on my TV.  And I am.

But still...

[monakane]

There is an often missed reference to that movie and Kirk Douglas in Finding Nemo.  It is when the shape making school of fish make a ship and sing a lyric of "A Whale of a Tale"

 

 

I had a significant number of "old film" introductions from the skits of Carol Burnett and cast, but probably none more so than the later movies of Joan Crawford.  So ripe for spoofing!  It was years later that I saw Joan in her prime (20s/30s )films that I could see what a real beautiful women she had been as well as a better actress than what comes across in the later films.

 

Thanks for the explanations about Watch TCM.  I will have to check it out!

 

I loved younger Joan in the 1930s.  It's interesting that I always felt that Joan was a better actress than Bette in the 1930s.  I find Bette too theatrical.  Joan was more natural in front of the camera.  As they matured, that flipped and Bette became the better actress and Joan got campy.

[Wiendish Fitch]

I loved younger Joan in the 1930s.  It's interesting that I always felt that Joan was a better actress than Bette in the 1930s.  I find Bette too theatrical.  Joan was more natural in front of the camera.  As they matured, that flipped and Bette became the better actress and Joan got campy.

 

I find that Joan Crawford is one of those actresses I like in spite of myself (I love The Women and Mildred Pierce). If you want to see really, really young Joan in action, I highly recommend 1927's The Unknown, with Lon Chaney. Joan's so delicately pretty you might not recognize her, and it's just a damned fine horror flick; effectively suspenseful and creepy, and one of the best silent films for people who hate silent films. 

Edited March 11, 2016 by Wiendish Fitch

[Rinaldo]

It's not as early as The Unknown, but one early film (1932) in which I think Joan Crawford really shines is Grand Hotel. Even among heavy hitters like Garbo, Wallace Beery, and two Barrymores, she's magnetic and individual (and unaffectedly sexy) as the young stenographer Flämmchen. 

 

What I see happening in her later career is a very understandable dilemma that happens to many actors, both stage and screen: if they're successful, they can't help becoming aware of what it is that their audience loves about them. Once aware, how successfully can you avoid "imitating" those qualities rather than letting them arise naturally from your work, as you used to? (It applies to individual roles, too: once an admirer has told you how much they love that facial expression at the start of Act II, will you still be able to let it be the result of your work, rather than going for the expression itself?) It's a hard balance to keep, and though some manage to stay fresh throughout their careers, many others don't -- they end up doing an "impression" of themselves.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

If you want to see really, really young Joan in action, I highly recommend 1927's The Unknown, with Lon Chaney. Joan's so delicately pretty you might not recognize her, and it's just a damned fine horror flick; effectively suspenseful and creepy, and one of the best silent films for people who hate silent films.

Big, big favorite of mine.  Of all the compellingly twisted films Lon Chaney and Tod Browning did together, this one may be the one that is the most out there .  And yet it works so well on a psychological level that all these bizarre situations and decisions make perfect sense, in the context of the story.  And oh yes, Joan is breathtakingly beautiful. Well worth 

losing a limb (or two) for.

Edited March 12, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[voiceover]

I chime in, late, on the love for Gidget Goes Hawaiian (though I b'lieve I am the only one who loves the *movie*, and not just the beautiful boys).  Saw it on TV as a kid, and loved Deborah Walley's Gidget because I had already seen her in The Mothers-in-Law (and, speaking of: why is that never in reruns??).

 

Excuse me in case anyone's answered this -- I couldn't find it -- but who's the new "Essentials" co-host for 2016? or is that over? *pouts*

[mariah23]

Robert Osborne had the flu and there also was a scheduling conflict so The Essentials should start in April and the movies in March will have an intro and outro when they repeat later in the year.

[Milburn Stone]

Robert Osborne had the flu and there also was a scheduling conflict so The Essentials should start in April and the movies in March will have an intro and outro when they repeat later in the year.

 

mariah, since you seem to have a connection to TCM info, do you know a contact address to which I can report a technical issue? (Frequent skip-framing on their movies, as seen on DirecTV and with no other channel.) I left an inquiry on their Facebook page but that's like leaving an inquiry in a black hole. Thanks.

[mariah23]

I think you can find it at tcm.com. I just found out about the information on TCM message boards, someone else had the inside information.

[Milburn Stone]

Thanks, mariah. You know, I looked on tcm.com before (it was the first place I looked), but couldn't find any contact-us link. This time I did! (It's pretty subtle.) Anyway, just sent in my skip-framing issue using their online form. If I hear an answer, I'll pass it along.

[Rinaldo]

My DVR surprised me with Toys in the Attic recently (I'd told it I wanted Gene Tierney movies), and I'm half an hour into it (never saw it before).

 

I know people say this about many movies these days, but watching this one, I really found myself thinking, "They'd never make this movie these days." A stage play that's mostly a quiet character piece about the nuances among adult siblings, among whom the biggest star is a popular singer doing a low-key performance against type... where's the commercial hook? I dare say the money men in the front office were concerned even then. I'd love to know the story of how the casting was done: Geraldine Page needs no explanation, but how did Wendy Hiller, a British actress who rarely filmed in the US, get into it? and whose idea was Dean Martin?

[Milburn Stone]

Aside from all that, Rinaldo, I'm curious whether you thought it was a good movie. "A movie they'd never make these days" is not always synonymous with "a movie worth seeing." Haven't seen it myself.

[HelenBaby]

Aside from all that, Rinaldo, I'm curious whether you thought it was a good movie. "A movie they'd never make these days" is not always synonymous with "a movie worth seeing." Haven't seen it myself.

You didn't ask me but if you like Tennessee Williams, I think you'd like it. It was very reminiscent of his work, at least to me.

And while I don't know how Hiller got involved, Martin was appearing in some dramatic fare at that point in his career. It was a small window but I can see why he was cast.

[elle]

My DVR surprised me with Toys in the Attic recently (I'd told it I wanted Gene Tierney movies), and I'm half an hour into it (never saw it before).

 

I know people say this about many movies these days, but watching this one, I really found myself thinking, "They'd never make this movie these days." A stage play that's mostly a quiet character piece about the nuances among adult siblings, among whom the biggest star is a popular singer doing a low-key performance against type... where's the commercial hook? I dare say the money men in the front office were concerned even then. I'd love to know the story of how the casting was done: Geraldine Page needs no explanation, but how did Wendy Hiller, a British actress who rarely filmed in the US, get into it? and whose idea was Dean Martin?

Good DVR!

 

I am responding to both this post and Milburn Stone's post about this movie never being made these days.  No, not as it was  originally made, more faithful to the play like pacing, I would agree.  I disagree in that the topic is not something that would be too shocking these days, instead it would be given a more horror treatment something like the more current "Crimson Peak".  (Disclaimer - I have not seen either movie, I have read plot synopses)

[voiceover]

Watched the last 10 minutes of Tootsie...remembering how for YEARS I didn't know (because I couldn't *hear*, because I was laughing my ass off) that Dabney Colman said,  "I knew there was a reason she didn't like me!" during the Big Reveal.  God, that scene still makes me laugh out loud.  All the way through it.

And even though I still wish Teri Garr had nabbed Best Supporting (just as I think Jessica Lange should've got Best Actress for Frances) -- if only for the "I don't take this shit from friends...only from lovers!" -- I still enjoy Lange in the role.  It wasn't until the film started popping up on pay cable last year that I caught Lange's very last line to Dustin Hoffman (re: the yellow Halston dress): "What are YOU going to do with it?" -- sweet!

[Bastet]

I was so tickled to come across Tootsie last night just as it was starting; it had been so long since I'd seen it, I'd forgotten a few people were in it.  What a terrific cast.

[Rinaldo]

Aside from all that, Rinaldo, I'm curious whether you thought it was a good movie. "A movie they'd never make these days" is not always synonymous with "a movie worth seeing." 

Not always, not even often, perhap! No, I meant exactly what I said, that this was a big-screen, big-release movie on "small" subject matter (the nuances of expectations and dependencies among three siblings), the sort of play adaptation that eventually disappeared from the slates of projects the studios felt that they ought to do. (The plays that get adapted recently, Doubt or Proof or August: Osage County, are not of this type; they feature "important" subject matter or lend themselves to big production and all-star casting.)

I am responding to both this post and Milburn Stone's post about this movie never being made these days.  No, not as it was  originally made, more faithful to the play like pacing, I would agree.  I disagree in that the topic is not something that would be too shocking these days

The topic is not at all what I was talking about; I can't imagine what would ever be shocking about it -- more likely the mainstream audience would simply find it boring because "nothing happens." (I had to look up Crimson Peak; I see there's an incestuous element there, but in Toys in the Attic, such an element amounts to no more than an implication. One sister is excessively eager to keep her brother around, and when her obsession is pointed out to her, she's shocked at the accusation, having convinced herself that breaking up his marriage is objectively desirable. The final fadeout is her collapsing in tears, both her siblings having left her.)

 

Anyway, I finished the movie. Yes, it's sort of Lillian Hellman working Tennessee Williams-land. I'm glad to have seen it, to check off the boxes, but it's no forgotten masterpiece. The details are interesting: a late Tierney performance, Hiller playing Southern American, Dean Martin doing okay with his melodramatic requirements (Ben M tells us Dean was concerned that he would look ridiculous, but really he doesn't), Yvette Milieux once again being wispily lovely and young and apparently slightly mentally challenged, and so on.

 

One element I unequivocally liked: George Duning's music. I know heavy orchestral underscoring is out of fashion now, but this is a fine example of it. I've belatedly become aware of how many big pictures of this period he was entrusted with: like Picnic, Bell Book and Candle, and this. The main title sequence is an impressive tone poem all on its own.

[Milburn Stone]

One element I unequivocally liked: George Duning's music. I know heavy orchestral underscoring is out of fashion now, but this is a fine example of it. I've belatedly become aware of how many big pictures of this period he was entrusted with: like Picnic, Bell Book and Candle, and this. The main title sequence is an impressive tone poem all on its own.

 

I've got the lead sheet version of "Toys in the Attic" in an Edwin H. Morris fake book, and it is a quality tune. In fact, in the fake book, it's got lyrics--don't know whether the song is sung over the main titles in the movie, but it's a song, with song structure, in the fake book. It would take me a while to put my hands on it right now or I'd do so and tell you who the lyricist was. Maybe in the next couple of days.

[Rinaldo]

It's never sung in the movie. But it was common practice, if producers thought their movie's music had any chance commercially, to order a set of lyrics for it so that it could be sung (I suppose that was seen as the only way to get it performed on the radio). A classic example was Laura (if lyrics couldn't have been created for it, the music would have been discarded -- that's how sure the studio was that it was too far-out for public acceptance), and I can think of several Henry Mancini examples. His music for Wait Until Dark and Two for the Road is entirely instrumental, but both themes were published as songs, with lyrics.

 

In the case of Toys in the Attic, the various lyrics sites (which indicate that its big recording was by Jack Jones) identify the authors of the lyrics as George David Weiss and Joe Sherman.

[Milburn Stone]

In the case of Toys in the Attic, the various lyrics sites (which indicate that its big recording was by Jack Jones) identify the authors of the lyrics as George David Weiss and Joe Sherman.

 

Thanks for saving me from ripping my house apart. :)

[Inquisitionist]

And even though I still wish Teri Garr had nabbed Best Supporting (just as I think Jessica Lange should've got Best Actress for Frances) -- if only for the "I don't take this shit from friends...only from lovers!" -- I still enjoy Lange in the role.

 

Agree re Teri Garr -- she was terrific!  But not re Lange.  I thought she played basically the same character in Frances as she did in Tootsie and I wasn't that impressed with either performance.

[Wiendish Fitch]

I much prefer Sandy to Julie, to be honest. Sandy was so funny and lovably neurotic, and Julie was kind of a drip to me. I definitely think Lange's Oscar for Tootsie was a consolation prize for losing Best Actress to Meryl Streep. 

 

Still adore Tootsie, though, one of my all-time favorite comedies.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

My DVR surprised me with Toys in the Attic recently

 

I know people say this about many movies these days, but watching this one, I really found myself thinking, "They'd never make this movie these days."

  I only saw it for the first time about ten years ago and the FIRST thing I thought is that this HAS to have been a favorite movie of Virginia C. Andrews, who later wrote the hugely successful and scandalous Flowers in the Attic books. The lushly romantic presentation of brother-sister incest  has kept the books  permanently disturbing (and popular!)  and I'm sure Andrews' use of the word Attic and associating it with incest is not an accident.  

[elle]

 

No, I meant exactly what I said, that this was a big-screen, big-release movie on "small" subject matter (the nuances of expectations and dependencies among three siblings), the sort of play adaptation that eventually disappeared from the slates of projects the studios felt that they ought to do.

I understood that from your post, but like those studios latched on to the more "sensational" part of the movie and commented on that.  More to your point, when was the last time Long Day's Journey into Night, a slow study if ever there was one, got the BIG SCREEN treatment?  According to wiki, not since 1962.  While there have been film adaptations since then most have been seen on the small screen.  The one made in 1996 by a Canadian director, had the same cast which previously performed the play at Canada's Stratford Festival; Wellington essentially filmed the stage production without significant changes.  It was shown in the US as part of the PBS (TV) Great Performances.

 

Rant warning or Why I Miss TCM:  The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming, a movie I love and have committed to memory, was on a "movie channel" recently.  My happiness at finding soon turned to dismay.  We are all used to having scenes cut for time/commercials, but when did it become a common practice to cut *in the middle of scene, in the middle of a speech*?!  I was so disgusted.

[Rinaldo]

when was the last time Long Day's Journey into Night, a slow study if ever there was one, got the BIG SCREEN treatment?  According to wiki, not since 1962.  

Good point, but with a modern play like that, and so long-winded and "interior" in nature, I wouldn't expect it to happen more than once, and it's rather amazing we got it that once. To the best of my recollection, it wouldn't have happened but for the insistence of Sidney Lumet; any studio knows it's not destined to make money. Lumet even took the unique step of not using or crediting a screenwriter; they used the play intact and unaltered. Mostly this sort of play has become the province of television, as you say, and that not very often. (The video version I want to see is the recent British one with David Suchet and Laurie Metcalf. Last I looked there was  a nationality-based barrier for online viewing.)

 

It's maybe even more amazing, maybe, that we have two versions of The Iceman Cometh, and both available on DVD. The first was on TV (Play of the Week) derived in part from a stage production, and gives us Jason Robards as Hickey and young Robert Redford in the juvenile role. The second was shown (with two intermissions!) as part of the short-lived American Film Theater series, and has wonderful performances by Robert Ryan, Frederic March (the last for both of them), Bradford Dillman, and young Jeff Bridges. Lee Marvin is Hickey, maybe not quite right, but he's not the first to not quite scale its heights, and he gives it an honest try.

[Inquisitionist]

Rant warning or Why I Miss TCM:  The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming, a movie I love and have committed to memory, was on a "movie channel" recently.  My happiness at finding soon turned to dismay.  We are all used to having scenes cut for time/commercials, but when did it become a common practice to cut *in the middle of scene, in the middle of a speech*?!  I was so disgusted.

 

Oh my gosh, I remember seeing that in a movie theater when I was 10, one of the very few times my whole family went out to see a movie together.  We laughed so hard.  When I saw it on TV a few years ago, I thought it held up pretty well.   "Ee-mare-gen-cee.  Everybody to get from street."  Hee.