tcm alert thread (Jun '23 - tcm alert: dead)

Lizabeth Scott Birthday Salute

Oh yeah, they're showing old Dick Cavett shows now.

Friday the 15th, 6:45 p.m. - "The Big Shave" (1967). In a bright white bathroom, a young man lathers his face and shaves. Once finished, he shaves himself again. And again. Each time he nicks his face, drawing blood. He gradually shaves himself to death. C-6 mins.

Also, "La Jetée" earlier that afternoon. All short films that day.

I have to start watching more TCM.

Big Shave is student film from Scorcese, no?

Yup.

Bunuel's Viridiana is showing on the 26th.

Woody Allen appears on The Dick Cavett Show in an interview that originally aired October 20, 1971.

(aka Woodman w/ hippie hair)

My sched sez La Jetee is Friday 7:30 pm. Unmissable.

Drools.

i've had the jingle for 'one reel wonders' going thru my head all day for some reason.

AWESOME!!!!!!!

Tomorrow, Thursday, Robert Mitchum- interview with Dick Cavett, Night of the Hunter, Out of the Past, Thunder Road.

E, Monty and John Ireland comparin' guns in Red River is all the queer Hawks bone I need.

I (predictably) forgot Gentlemen Prefer Blondes about ten minutes after I saw it.

http://www.road-dog-productions.com/weblog/ferrara_ms45.jpg

'Twentieth Century', 'Bringing Up Baby', 'His Girl Friday', and 'Ball of Fire' are first rate comedies.

'To Have and Have Not' has some great moments as does 'The Big Sleep'.

Also, W.C. in The Bank Dick tomw morning.

I also think I am about the only person on the planet who liked the new 2006 "Black Dahlia" - I liked it b/c it was done in an old fashioned genre and I could forgive the choppy nature and hasty tie up of loose ends at the end, simply for the fact that it was much like many of the '30s & '40s films that followed the same formula; but alas, back then folks were far more forgiving of putting a nice tidy end on everything. Plus it got HUGE bonus points with me cuz of the very good LA locale scenes and gritty feel. I was born 40 years too late!

Hitchcock did a brilliant riff for Cavett on a laxative commercial.

Haven't finished the Hitch interview, and I taped the Lon Chaney double feature last night.

um, oops. caught the third man last night at any rate.

http://tcmunderground.com/

Next month (on the 2nd) they'll be adding a Dick Cavett w/Ingmar Bergman to the rotation.

I assume all these are in the Cavett DVDS.

Tom'w morning at 4:45, The Old Dark House, maybe James Whale's best film aside from Bride of Frankenstein.

Sirk's Tarnished Angels (his gloss on Faulkner's Pylon) Sat at 2:15pm.

Sunday night at 10:15, Living It Up, probably the best Martin & Lewis movie I've seen -- Jerry thinks he's dying of radiation poisoning after wandering onto a nuclear test site (only in a '50s comedy)...

Anyway, Jailhouse Rock (which I have never seen) tonight at 6.

Masque of the Red Death looks like the best thing they're showing on Halloween.

Haven't seen this since high school but I remember liking its hysterical campness as being oddly faithful to Poe's style.

Didn't see Hitch. :(

It helps if you are (or were) Catholic perhaps, it has an aura of REAL transgressive Evil, as much as Rosemary's Baby or Night of the Demon maybe.

Whenever Masque usta screen in NY in all its widescreen glory, it always had Japanese (I think) titles running at the side of the print.

Speaking of Poe, I notice that I aciidentally taped a short adaptation of The Tell-Tale Heart last night -- directed by Jules Dassin! Does TCM include the shorts sched in its program guide? They never seem to be on the website.

I would have put this on a Joseph Losey thread, but I couldn't find one.

Joe, Duck Soup is easily their best film, cuz McCarey unleashed them in a cinematic way. Oh man, if you thought Animal Crackers was stagey and slow, have a few drinks before The Cocoanuts (also a Broadway hit for them) -- the camera hardly moves cuz the sound cameras were so huge, and it was directed by a guy who didn't speak English. Fast-forwarding to the Bros' gags is fine there... In the MGM films, the Marx plot utterly stops every 10 minutes so the romantic leads can take over -- deadly in its own glossy way.

I think Price is hilarious (intentionally so) in House of Usher, tonight after Masque. Might try to stay up for Phibes (never seen!) if I don't go to an Almodovar film at BAM.

Also, did anyone catch the de facto Roky Erickson Film Festival last Friday? "I Walked With a Zombie" and "Creature With the Atom Brain."

Preceded by the stirring elephantine musical 1776 (Howard da Silva as Ben Franklin, classic)... which I saw at Radio City Music Hall when it premiered.

x-post

Bogdanovich's REVISED Directed by John Ford tonight.

(ken, buying the Sturges box?)

The Caddy Thursday night at 8 ET, Living It Up (my favorite) on Sunday morning.

(xpost)

Devil With Hitler, The (1942)

If he wants to keep control of Hell, Satan has to get Hitler to perform a good deed. Cast: Alan Mowbray, Bobby Watson, George E. Stone. Dir: Gordon Douglas.

Saturday, a bill of special-effects Oscar winners beginning with 2001.

Battle Of Algiers tonight! That is (no matter what your ILXOR Clock says): still May 27, if you're Pacific, since will be 11 PM; May 28, if you're Central like me, since will be 1 AM (note to self).Acerbic commentary by Michael Atkinson on TCM site.

oh man

That one guy that quit's favorite movie is on right now.

Yours, Mine And Ours? Really?

Oh sorry, Eric, his favorite movie is playing on IFC, not TCM.

Eh, I wish it were Yours, Mine And Ours.

You and me both, bro.

oh no, I've missed the first week of pre-Sronewall gay stuff!

http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=159623

No wait, I saw a couple minutes of Queen Christina.

I have to confess I've been watching the Tom Kenny hosted Funday Night At The Movies with my daughters- tonight is Sounder. Although so far the only one that held their interest was The Wizard of Oz.

This week on TCM Imports:The Exterminating Angel, and (early warning) Simon of The Desert will be shown early in the morning on July 13th.

5 Fatty Arbuckle films late Sunday night!

...and then The Exterminating Angel!

Big Friday coming up. RANDOLPH SCOOOOOOOOOOOTT!

8:00pm Seven Men From Now (1956) buy now
A former sheriff hunts down the seven men who killed his wife.
Cast: Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin. Dir: Budd Boetticher. C-78 mins, TV-PG

9:30pm Decision at Sundown (1957)
A gunman seeks revenge on the man he believes stole his wife.
Cast: Randolph Scott, John Carroll, Karen Steele. Dir: Budd Boetticher. C-77 mins, TV-PG

11:00pm Comanche Station (1960)
After saving a woman kidnapped by Indians, a cowboy has to fight to get her back to civilization.
Cast: Randolph Scott, Nancy Gates, Claude Akins. Dir: Budd Boetticher. C-73 mins, TV-PG

12:30am Budd Boetticher "A Man Can Do That " (2005)
Documentary that explores the life and career of action/adventure director Budd Boetticher.
C-86 mins, TV-14

2:00am Desperadoes, The (1943) buy now
When someone robs the town bank before he can, a bandit joins forces with the sheriff to catch the real crooks.

Cast: Randolph Scott, Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor. Dir: Charles Vidor. C-87 mins, TV-PG

It's happening RIGHT NOW!

wait what dude its thursday

aghh i have like six movies taped off TCM i need to watch

Shit, I didn't mean to lie.

I've seen that first one before, but it's primo. This second one is pretty sweet stuff, too.

Seven Men from Now is the best of those, I think.

My taping interaction with DirecTV somehow fucked up several months ago, which considering how many unwatched DVDs I return to the library is a good thing.

Coming Monday, SPIELBERG ON SPIELBERG.

http://www.tcm.com/2007/spielberg/index.jsp

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/article/8886/spielberg-on-spielberg

yeah, Richard Schickel I don't expect much from.

Have I ever even heard of Something Evil?

I have an unwatchable DVD-R copy of it on my desk that I haven't managed to make work in any player I've tried. :(

Late Sun/early Mon., depending on where you live: A Nous La Liberte, dir. Rene Claire, an early sound movie, with score by George Auric, including "stylized sounds of real world, such as wooden-clog-wearing prisoners marching in step," a satire of "progress," and he ended up suing Chaplin over Modern Times! Plus influencing other directors whom he didn't sue, apparently. Really interesting article by Jay Carr, linked from tcm.com

Todd Oldham is guest programmer this Wednesday. Among his picks: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and The Last Picture Show.

And remember, Simon of The Desert is on early Saturday morning, and Greed (in a 239-minute cut) is Sunday's silent movie.

SPIELBERG ON SPIELBERG tonight.

Sometimes their segues are pretty funny... The Philadelphia Story leads into Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! tonight.

SPIELBERG ON SPIELBERG tonight.

-- Dr Morbius, Monday, July 9, 2007 6:49 PM

kill me

there's a waiting list.

My vehicle Forbidden Planet opens Doctor Night tomw, followed by the George C Scott/Paddy Chayefsky The Hospital.

Man o man is The Hospital unwatchable.

haha, quel surprise from you!

(hasn't The King of Comedy come up on yr queue yet?)

i only watch law & order reruns on this channel. should look out for some other stuff, i guess.

no, they don't show dreary cop melodrama TV -- or any TV -- on TCM.

Oh shit, have it confused with Hallmark. Need new brane. I have to check out for TCM. I think I have that but never looked at what they have to offer.

Seriously, how can you defend that Arthur Hiller shit?

But it's written by your boy Paddy!

Diana Rigg and George C. Scott are great.

easy there, I haven't seen the film in 20+ years. But Hiller did direct perhaps the funniest non-Woody/Mel Brooks/Waters film of the '70s, The In-Laws.

Didn't I mention something about how I actually more disliked than liked Network the last time I watched it?

George C. Scott is ... committed in that performance, I'll give him that.

I remember Barnard Hughes being great...

(admittedly re The In-Laws one might want to give the lion's share there to Andrew Bergman & Falk & Arkin... uh, Hiller directed a Natl Lampoon film at age 83? starring Jon Bon Jovi?)

He was also the mulletted head of the Academy through most of the nineties.

leonine, that mane -- he shoulda run MGM

I did enjoy his inflections announcing crappy candidates every Oscar nominee morning. More worth getting up to watch than the actual nominations, anyway.

OK, just kidding, I was pretty much a slave to the idea of Oscar-nominated as quality in those days.

He used to pronounce Susan Sarandon's name "SARAN-dun."

who hasn't? OK, OK, I'm sure you were pronouncing it the right way in kindergarten.

I'm pretty sure Tim Robbins always got it right.

Sunday night/Monday morning-The Passion of Joan of Arc and Cruel Story of Youth back-to-back.

Jimmy Stewart stuff tonight and then a few Bob Mitchum's- I think I'm gonna try to watch The Big Steal again.

A late warning, but today is Vincent Price day @ TCM.

today Doris Day

tomorrow Alan Ladd (lol, theyre including Citizen Kane)

Our Man in Havana late tonight

Gotta see that! I read Greene's 21 Stories, Collected Essays, and Brighton Rock this winter and spring.

It's not even out on DVD. I don't think it was ever on video!

also, Sat & Sun are Spencer Tracy & Errol Flynn days.

wow, if u slog thru Becket today, they follow it with 4 of the greatest films of the '60s, Ride the Hi Country-Cherbourg-Jetee-Pt Blank. I feel like I'm guest programmer.

Wow.

totally nicks some stuff off my netflix queue. v. happy i saw this...

And then, a couple hours later, a double bill of The Wind and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Which is like as though I were guest-programming I suspect, though I'd probably go with Female Trouble against Gertrud.

A few hours ago, some friends of mine were scolding me for having never watched La Jetee. Well, guess what playing right now?

Eric, why you skip over Henri Langlois doc?

Why did you stop short of it?

I was listing from memory, yr lucky I came up with those four.

Is Rob Zombie still doing the cult movies thing?

Don't suppose some kind person with TCM and a DVD recorder would care to press record for me the next time "The Password is Courage" comes on?

I'll gladly send you a blank and postage costs!

And yes, I'm aware it's regarded as a dud film, but anyways...

This week on TCM Imports: Pabst's Westfront 1918. It will be preceded by Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg.

Ha, I just came here to say how come nobody told me about the Lubitsch and the Pabst.

Pabst Threepenny Opera out on DVD today, no?

It came out last week.

Yeah, I must have been reading last week's papers.

Perhaps due to a recycling snafu.

Looks like there are some good noirs throughout the AM tomorrow, including Railroaded!.

In the early PM too.

Four Films by William Castle 2-nite: Homicidal, Strait-Jacket, 13 Ghosts, and The Tingler.

I finally started reading the Lee Server Robert Mitchum bio and Castle seems to show up in there for some reason.

5 Tod Browning films tonite ... followed by the Monkees' Head (also scary).

Is Lionel Barrymore in one of them?

at least one!

followed by the Monkees' Head (also scary).

-- Dr Morbius, Friday, October 19, 2007 8:18 PM (1 hour ago)

:D :D :D :D

"The Porpoise Song" or whatever it's called is pretty good.

mrs brown you've got a lovely daughter is on after head.

I wish I could find the "no one vs. noone" thread where Alba posted a giant picture of Peter Noone with the caption "And in his eyes you see nothing."

oh, Head is ... something, I like the music. Just imagine what all those 14-year-old girls in '68 thought of it.

"fanny and alexander" 2am monday

Such riches the past few days. The Jazz Singer, Die! Die! My Darling, The Brain That Wouldn't Die.

Peter Tork: "Nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humor."

he must be quoting somebody, yeah?

I did wake up in time to watch. It remains interesting but is any of it sposed to be funny? Aside from Davy Jones choosing Sonny Liston to bloody him in the boxing ring. (I first saw 20+ years ago on a twinbill w/ Skidoo.)

I don't think it's supposed to be funny like the show was funny, but there are funny moments. The repartee between the boys and the greasy spoon waitress is pretty great.

yeah, he's like a drag Rose Marie (who I know was on the sitcom a few times).

I think Nicholson thinks he wrote an incisive McLuhanesque media critique.

Probably, but I'll take that over Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern thinking they really had America's number.

A slew of Louis Malle tonight and tomorrow... The Fire Within late tonight is a fab way to be sent to bed in magnificent bummerdom.

zazie in the metro!!!

Zazie is pretty bad, no? Love the book.

I'm DVRing the next three.

I never knew a Louis Malle film was involved in the case in which Potter Stewart made his famous "I know it when I see it" comment.

That being Les Amants. I haven't watched anything yet, but Black Moon looks like it has some interesting talents involved- Joe Dallesandro AND Sven Nykvist.

4 Roger Cormans tonight, leading off with A Bucket of Blood. Anthony Perkins fest tomorrow night, incl Disney's The Black Hole and Welles' The Trial (which I seem to like way more than most ppl).

I kinda like The Trial.

the best Anthony Perkins performance too. Love the interrogation scene at the beginning.

Karloff Karlooff Karloff! tonight.

This Guest Programmer thing for ALL NOVEMBER looks wildly variable. This week, Alfred Molina, Donald Trump (Kane, lol), Gore Vidal.

If you crave more of Donald Trump: Film Critic there's an Errol Morris interview of him talking about Kane somewhere on Morris' website.

We have 6 days to guess why Chris Elliott programmed On Golden Pond.

Who knew that Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald movies were an inspiration to genuine opera stars?

Finally saw an actual Ed Wood movie (Bride of the Monster) this morning. Fun and stupid.

the contest winner seems to have the best lineup of all?

the Renee Fleming films are about, you know, composers

The Train and The Battle of Algiers on Saturday evening; Sunday night has a diverse '60s lineup of What's Up, Tiger Lily?, Closely Watched Trains, Point Blank and Blow-Up.

the Sunday night programmer is some Food Network host

Alton Brown! He's super cool and smart.

I though you didn't use your kitchen?

anyone see Matt Groening last night? Nice that Dan Castellaneta took "DOH!" from Laurel & Hardy's great foil James Finlayson!

http://www.wayoutwest.org/finlayson/fin3.jpg

I'd also never heard MG acknowlege that Homer Simpson was named after the Day of the Locust character.

If I had been online anytime yesterday, I'd have alerted on Thelma Schoonmaker's programming night. Led off with a very odd UK wartime murder mystery Green for Danger, with Alastair Sim as a sort of bumbling yet semi-competent Scotland Yard inspector.

T.S. said she and Scorsese are now doing a history of Britfilm doc.

Did anyone see why Chris Elliott picked On Golden Pond? I can't access the online vid.

Harvey Fierstein goes w/ Bette Davis then The Women tonight.

I DVRed Green for Danger and also meant to put out a Thelma Schoonmaker alert but didn't do it.

William Wellman fest tnite -- besides Cagney's signature role, maybe I'll finally catch Wild Boys of the Road.

In Germany that first film you mention is called Grapefruit ins Gesicht.

j/k

hehe

Top of the world, Morbius.

attack of the crap people/the killer shrews/the green slime on right now (2-6 am)

they're showing the real suburbia (the spheeris punk rock one) next friday at 2 am. i'm excited, i haven't seen it in years.

haha. CRAB people. but it was a corman film...

Thanks for the heads up on suburbia.

Tonight brings Notorious on The Essentials

Who's Bob's opposite number on The Essentials these days- still the star of the upcoming Cougar Club, Carrie Fisher?

Yup, Leia's still hangin' in there.

Early monday morning TCM is showing the nineteen thirty one film of "The Maltese Falcon" with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade. Should be worth a look just out of curiousity.

I've seen that. Alison Skipworth is great in the Greenstreet part!

January's Star of the Month: Mr. James FUCKIN' Cagney

give my regards to broadway

^that's like, his worst musical

in high school, i used to smoke weed on george m. cohan blvd, and felt compelled to watch yankee doodle dandy and seven little foys. jon, elmo, and i were all, also, in 'george m.: the musical' ca. 1995.

Are they showing One, Two, Three, Morbius?

Sam Spade
For a second, I read that as they were showing Queen of Spades and I got real excited.

Someone should've mentioned Ford's The Iron Horse was on last night. Rent it!

I had my early versions of Maltese Falcon mixed up -- the one w/ a female Gutman is Satan Met a Lady.

Yeah, someone should have mentioned that Ford, otherwise we're going to have to pays hundreds of dollars for that boxed set.

Kim's will have the individual titles as rentable. :)

Did no one tell us it's Irene Dunne Month? (Eric, bevare)

Tonight: Preminger's sublime Bonjour Tristesse (D Kerr RIP), and the punky Suburbia in the cult spot.

Pabst's Kameradschaft is this week's feature on TCM Imports. (Sunday night/Monday morning)

Tonight: Preminger's sublime Bonjour Tristesse (D Kerr RIP), and the punky Suburbia in the cult spot.

you're forgetting something

this is not a list-everything-on-TCM thread

old travel films > D Kerr

Not TCM but Sundance is doing an Antonioni fest right now. I turned it on and The Passenger was on, to be followed immediately by L'Eclisse, and L'Aventura at 5:45 (following som eother stuff). West coast times.

old travel films

Is that a ref to To Catch a Thief?

The best thing about those locs is Grace speeding along the road where she'd plummet 30 years later...

The elusive Theodora Goes Wild is showing tonight at ten as part of the Irene Dunne festival.

Is that a ref to To Catch a Thief?

the whole night was location-oriented, but there actually were some brief old travel clips prior to it

I'm reading an excellent novel by David Dodge, author of To Catch A Thief, called The Last Match, which also takes place partly in the Riviera, among other exotic locales. I'll bet the book of TCaT is better than the movie.

Why dint you bitches tell me Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was going to be on?

Was it, like, any good?

tomorrow night's theme: THE FUTURE SUCKS! Things to Come, Rollerball, Terminator etc.

THE FUTURE SUCKS

http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/040526/040526_dayaftertomorrow_hmed_9a.hmedium.jpg

Cagneyfest starts tonight.

I actually stayed up all last night through rollerball/terminator/THE WARRIORS. it was worth it.

I don't get how The Warriors is futuristic. It's set in Never Never Land!

I only saw a Ralph Richardson scene in Rollerball! Who knew?

i prefer this tough guy - http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=184980

Skidoo in the cult spot tonight. You'll be horrified.

Tonight is Redford night?

morbs has me convinced I need to saddle up for 3 days of condoring

Hm. Apparently the Ovation Channel has something called Destination Arthouse on Saturday where they show Janus Films. Tonight will be Ikiru. Lots of commercials but...

Langlois doc followed by La Jetée in the Sunday/Monday wee hours.

Minnelli's The Clock tonight

Rollerball again tonight, after Death Race 2000.

Didn't see either. Breaking weekend silence to say: Val Lewton doc presented by Scorsese and directed by Ken Jones is on Monday at 8, "Followed by a Ten-Film Marathon."

Encore at midnight.

i had never seen death race before. never will again, either.

I DVRed The Woman In White a while back during their salute to Eleanor Parker and I am finally peeping it out. I didn't know Robert Burks got his start as a special effects photographer.

There's a familiar-looking UK character actor that I couldn't place for a while, but I just figured it out- he played some kind of Alien Alderman on Star Trek TOS.

John Abbott. Not quite as long a resume as Mr. Atoz, Ian Wolfe, but still kept pretty busy.

Lewton doc should be good. Apparently he wrote pornography.

They should get Robert Osborne and Carrie Fisher to read some of it.

some idiot TV reviewer said it was porn; apparently just pulp. Nice to see Kiyoshi Kurosawa testifying!

Cagney musicals tom'w night include at least two better than the Cohan one: Footlight Parade and Love Me Or Leave Me.

Barbarella in cult slot tonight.

On Monday night, Charles Burnett films led by Killer of Sheep.

very excited for that ^

Sam Fuller's Park Row on Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST.

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=17262

the red shoes on the 22nd

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=87881

http://originalalamo.blogspot.com/2008/01/heavy-metal-director-t-shirts.html

Oscar month again. Effects winners incl Forbidden Planet tomw morning.

Chayefsky 1-2 of Network, The Hospital tonight.

Anything to be alerted about this weekend?

Perhaps it's finally time to catch up with The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

A pretty dull weekend slate. I haven't seen Voyage Of The Damned in 31 years...

I think I saw Faye Dunaway's cheekbones in the photo over there. Was that movie promoted with one of those disaster movie posters with a Hollywood Squares grid featuring all the stars at the bottom?

Well---does Apocalypse Now count? 1:15 AM EST

Don't know what to watch during this "Days Of Oscar" thing. If only that one guy where here to guide us.

haha. where=were

Tonight, psychiatry films incl The President's Analyst.

Celebrating Rex Harrison's centennial tom'w with 5 films, leading off w/ The Rake's Progress.

i taped night nurse last night, excited to watch it

I wonder how the censorship doc was (old)?

I watched the 2nd half of that -- not bad. Gable was a real badass. I'm fascinated by pre-Code Hollywood, the racier the better. (xpost)

The Essentials with Robert Osborne and Rose McGowan?!

It's Leslie Banks night!

This Sunday night (the 6th) TCM explores marital turmoil with a double feature of Sunrise and Contempt

Bette Davis all day tomorrow, for her 100th birthday.

They showing the Italian one with Joseph Cotten, Alfredo Sordi and Silvano Mangano?

nope, not even The Whales of August, I don't think

4 Richard Harris films tomw night, incl Peckinpah's Major Dundee with Heston.

extended version?

Alberto Sordi.

http://www.vh1.com/sitewide/promoimages/artists/s/simon_paul/vspot/you_can_call_me_all_v3/320x240.jpg

xp: Their site says 136m for Dundee, which is the length of the restored version.

This Jeopardy! host's programming picks tonight include The Professionals and Lonely Are the Brave

Lonely Are the Brave

woo!

http://www.cookandjones.co.uk/images/Prof1.jpg

Little Big Man on soon. Thomas Berger's novels seem to have been going out of print recently based on my anecdotal evidence. Later Don't Knock The Rock and Go, Johnny, Go!.

It's Hedy Lamarr night!

they showed killer of sheep a few days back. i guess it's a little late to mention that.

HEDLEY

xpost

I love her for her science.

Blacula & sequel tnite. Hitchcocks scattered all day/night tomorrow.

Sunday they kick off their Sinatra Month with a '65 TV special and films including this award-winning short (which drew some insinuations that Frank was A COMMIE):

Short Film: HOUSE I LIVE IN, THE (1945)

Singer Frank Sinatra explains the importance of racial tolerance to a group of tough kids. Cast: Frank Sinatra, Teddy Infuhr, Merrill Rodin. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. BW-10 mins, TV-G

http://www.tcm.com/2008/sinatra/index.jsp

didn't he win a special Oscar for it?

six of em did:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037792/awards

I'm pretty sure the songwriter(s) were blacklisted?

ooooh, the lyricist was Abe Meeropol, who adopted the Rosenbergs' kids.

Just noticed the blog, Movie Morlocks, for the first time. How long has it been there: two weeks, two months, two years?

Friday!

Cold war post-nuclear paranoia flicks:
Five (1951)
The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959, wish it was 1932)
On the Beach (1959)

Supposedly the second one is very loosely based on one of my favorite books, M.P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud.

those are followed by Reefer Madness, Marihuana and Cocaine Fiends.

Friday night, that'd be.

Faye Dunaway tonight, incl the departed Mr Pollack's Three Days of the Condor

Leslie Caron tonight. One film, The L-Shaped Room includes origin of The Queen Is Dead opening sample.

Father Goose seems like it should be awful, but Cary is pretty funny.

Tomorrow night, the not-on-dvd James Donat "The Count of Monte Cristo"

Skidoo! tonight/tomorrow morning on the cult show.

Lee Marvin & Jack Palance in Monte Walsh tom'w night.

all day & night w/ same star every day in August.

Friday: Michael Caine
Saturday: Chaplin

Marie Dressler Day! didnt see that coming

Kim Novak today... I HIGHLY recommend taping Robert Aldrich's nutso The Legend of Lylah Clare at 1:30 a.m. ET.

Cukor's Bhowani Junction on tomorrow night 7pm CST. Never seen it, not on DVD, VHS now pricey, Cukor divine, etc.

Also, Borzage's brutal but gorgeous A Man's Castle on Sunday the 31st at 10:30pm CST. I'm hoping they have a decent print to work from since I've had a hideous bootleg for years.

Second the love for The Legend of Lylah Clare. After Kiss Me Deadly I'd say it's his best.

LAUREL & HARDY for Saturday.

Yeah, Man's Castle is super.

Oh yeah, if I had been paying attention I would have recorded that Aldrich movie. I saw it a few years ago at the Film Forum.

Their on-demand channel (& I assume TCM proper) has / had a pretty good Val Lewton documentary (w/ ponderous / hilarious narration by Scorscese) this month.

I saw that a few months ago. Hilarious??

thanks for the Borzage update, Kev.

I saw that a few months ago. Hilarious??

Yeah, that wasn't the right word -- his prose & praise got a little too laughably purple @ times for my taste.

I taped Outcast of the Islands last night. Still unavailable on DVD!

yeah Man's castle had originally been scheduled in June..can't wait!

Stan & Ollie in blackface this morning :o

have they entirely stopped showing trashy movies on friday nights?

oh wait they're coming back next month NEVER MIND

yeah, it's hard to find, like, Greg Peck cult movies

Better get these in before the shutdown:

Thursday September 4 - Jewel Robbery and then immediately after Tay Garnett's One Way Passage. Both left me a bit underwhelmed but both are spoken of highly so proceed accordingly.

Sunday September 7 - Harriet Craig, one of Joan Crawford's very best. About a woman who loves her house more than any human being including her husband played appropriately by the actor with the wussiest name in all of classical Hollywood, Wendell Corey. The ending is NOT sad! Much better and more coherent than Dorothy Arzner's 1936 pass at the story, Craig's Wife.

12 Friday
11:00pm CST
Secrets (1933)
A New England society girl braves the West to help her husband build his fortune. Cast: Mary Pickford, Leslie Howard, C. Aubrey Smith. Dir: Frank Borzage. BW-90 mins

Never seen it. Anyone?

not me

Morbs, if you are still on your Fritz Lang jag, try to catch Teh Blue Gardenia Sunday morning at 8.

18 Thursday
4:30 PM Terror In A Texas Town (1958) - Joseph H. Lewis' wacky whaler western

And then on Friday, there are three country music pix I've been meaning to catch:

19 Friday
11:00 AM The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967)
When the Civil War ends, Confederate spies have to return the fortune they just stole. Cast: Roy Orbison, Sammy Jackson, Maggie Pierce. Dir: Michael Moore. C-87 mins, TV-PG
12:30 PM Hootenanny Hoot! (1963)
Television producers discover country/western music at a small-town college. Cast: Peter Breck, Ruta Lee, Johnny Cash. Dir: Gene Nelson. BW-92 mins, TV-G
2:15 PM Your Cheatin' Heart (1964)
Legendary country-western singer Hank Williams uses alcohol to deal with the pressures of fame. Cast: George Hamilton, Susan Oliver, Red Buttons. Dir: Gene Nelson. BW-99 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

hey hey hey...i don't know if this has been discussed...

but can someone explain to me why ROSE MCGOWAN is now working at TCM and introducing movies?

i mean i was all jazzed about watching Night of the Hunter when...she was on there conspicuously throwing out "big words" like "laconic" and getting impressed with herself and it ruined the first half hour of the movie for me

NOTHING could ruin any single minute of what David Ehrenstein calls "the greatest movie ever filmed on American soil."

I thought she was just a celeb guest. Not sure she has a permanent job there.

no i think she does! i've heard that she introduces other movies on the weekend but i hope it's an inaccurate rumor

I think her only gig there is cohost of "The Essentials," taking over for Carrie Fisher...?

Yeah that's what I thought too.

Eh. it's fine with me. Just show DOWNSTAIRS (1932) again please, TCM!!!!!!!!

Bunch of early, rare musicals on tomorrow morning starting at 5am CST:

Street Girl (1929) - dig: "A girl from the wrong part of town finds a new life managing a jazz band."
Rio Rita (1929)
Dixiana (1931)
Girl Crazy (1932) - music by The Gershwins

Latter three with Wheeler and Woolsey.

i have a W&W t shirt, but lots of their stuff is pretty dire.

Yes, this is true. But I'd love to see/hear some Gershwin standards in their (ok still butchered but...) original context.

Missed Devil's Doorway. Did anyone catch it?

And does ANYONE have the Fox Movie Channel? No one seems to know it even exists.

On NYC Time Warner Cable, Fox Movie Channel is free on channel 257, but nobody knows about it. It mostly sucks though.

yes, they're heavy on the last decade.

Dassin's Naked City & Brute Force tom'w night (TCM).

In Sunday night's silent slot, Headin' Home starring Babe Ruth!

4 Jacques Tati films tonight.

lol George Hamilton triple bill. Followed in wee hrs by The Apple and Roller Boogie.

Paul Newman all day and night Sunday.

I worship The Apple. In the wee hours so Robert Osbourne (sp?) won't have to introduce it. Still, I pray TCM won't slip into AMC trash programming.

Monday the 13th, Syncopation (1942): A young trumpeter rises through the jazz world and finds love. Cast: Jackie Cooper, Adolphe Menjou, Bonita Granville. Dir: William Dieterle

4 Jacques Tati films tonight.

GAHHH

oh wait i don't have time to watch tv anymore anyway lol

They're all on disc too

Re "trash programming": Late Fridays are for cult stuff. Even for stuff cults won't touch (like Wicked Wicked).

I've always wanted to see that but keep missing it. I'm too lazy to check: is the ENTIRE film in split screen?

Yep. It's not very good at all, but the best jokes are made via the contradictions between what you see on one side and the other. The two songs that Tiffany Bolling sings are gaspingly awful.

May be coming on again soon?

can anyone recommend Jodie Foster in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane? late tonight

I saw it a thousand years but I never forgot the twist ending. Go for it.

I liked it. Would watch again.

curious to see how you take it.
paedo vibe throughout; martin sheen on a roll; Foster body double nip shot

I just watched it recently. it's got a very play-like feel and lotsa lol 70s aesthetics but I always dug the suburban gothic vibe it purveys. acting is pretty good, especially sheen fueling his thankless paedo role with fearless creepiness.

when I was a kid it fueled my childhood fantasies of living by myself. if you remember what it was like being the weirdo smart kid you will prolly identify w/ foster's character.

factoid: body double is foster's older sister

Did anyone here see on Wednesday - or at any time before - Gregory La Cava's (My Man Godfrey) STAGE DOOR ?

Jesus what a cast - 1937's Katherine Hepburn (un-annoying), Ginger Rogers (astonishing, savage, career-best dramatic performance hands down), pre-stardom Lucile Ball, Adolphe Menjou, Eve Arden and a v. adolescent (14 yrs old) Ann Miller! Almost all women cast, everything "The Women" purports to be but actually entertaining, and line after line of witty, merciless, non-stop zings.

Quite a find...!

I was gonna catch that, but there are already so many movies on my TiVo that something had to give.

sure, Stage Door > The Women

that Jodie movie is kinda badly directed and written, but she makes it work.

I watch Stage Door every few months (Hepburn's scene in Menjou's office is one of her very best). The only mystery is why Andrea Leeds' total drip of a performance got the only Oscar nod.

Dated tragic-character sympathy factor, expected to be long-lasting tragedienne enthusiasm, otherwise I don't understand why

Alfred: Oscar's taste has always blown.

Stage Door is lovely. But The Women (1939) has been pushing and pulling me ever since Chicago Channel 32 showed it many, many, many years ago (although now that I think of it, I saw Stage Door almsot as early).

Things Stage Door lacks:

1. Joan Crawford
2. The world-historic fashion show
3. The greatest costume design of all-time (beach outfit with hand)
4. The second greatest (Sylvia's "Seeing Eye" top)
5. A line as great as "Oh the publicity! La publicité!"
6. Crystal's bathtub
7. No men (yes, yes, they're "there" but it makes a difference)
8. As bald an exploration into "the class feeling you run into nowadays"
9. The talk between Miriam and Mary in Reno
10. Joan Crawford

20 Monday
5:00 AM Kongo (1932)

A crippled madman seeks revenge on the daughter of the man who betrayed him. Cast: Walter Huston, Lupe Velez, Conrad Nagel.

I thought I had this on tape but I can't find it. I hear it's still pretty brutal to watch.

Sorry, Kevin, but I'm with Pauline Kael on The Women (who would no doubt apply the same criticism to the "Sex and the City" movie).

Also: I was struck by how unfunny it is.

Roz is HILARIOUS in it! In the lunch scene at Mary's, check out her eyes after Nancy asks "Well, Sylvia, feeling better?"

23 Thursday
7:30 AM My Name Is Julia Ross (1945)

Dir: Joseph H. Lewis

tom'w eve:

6:30 PM Cop Hater (Berke, 1958) - BW-75 mins. - From an Evan Hunter/Ed McBain novel, this B-film stars Robert Loggia as a detective at the fictional 87th Precinct looking into several killings of police officers without any obvious connection. The rest of the cast seems mostly unknown (to me anyway), with the exceptions of a young Jerry Orbach and Vincent Gardenia. United Artists is the credited distributor, putting MGM in control of the rights. It’s not on DVD.

http://filmjournal.net/clydefro/2008/10/17/the-tcm-ten-1018-1024/

I think that's based on the first of the bazillion 87th Precinct movies.

Oh, yeah. Looking forward to Cop hater.

I pointed this out on the Zappa thread: The World's Greatest Sinner and 200 Motels late night on Friday.

Damn! 'World's Greatest Sinner' doesn't seem to be showing in the UK, and Psychotronic Video and those good folks at Norton records have only been telling me to see it for twenty years!

It's definitely in a class by itself although it fascinates me most as a film in a forever unfinished state (at least in the version I own).

Thanx for that link, Morbs, although it'll probably just add to my pile of unseen films.

OK, Cop Hater wasn't bad. A couple clinker lines/deliveries; otherwise a decent piece of neo-noir.

28 Tuesday
11:15 AM Boeing Boeing (1965)
A playboy uses airline schedules to maintain "exclusive" relationships with three flight attendants at the same time. Cast: Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Thelma Ritter. Dir: John Rich (who???). C-103 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

That is widely regarded as one of Lewis's "straightest" roles.

I want to get a DVR for birthday/xmas, just for time-shifting TCM content. I want to watch The Spiral Staircase, but I ain't getting up at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning.

you know you could probably get a vcr for $3 nowadays

hahaha, I have a cheap VCR, but taped stuff looks so bad.

Yeah, get TiVo, definitely.

So what do people think of the ending of The World's Greatest Sinner? On its IMDb page, "God strikes him dead."

Or "down." Something like that.

the film sucks

and then god struck him dead

I should have recorded it off of TCM since I saw that their print was gorgeous (how???). My version ends with Carey writing in a bedroom lit by a Kiss Me Deadly-style Great Whasit. So yeah, God or some similar sort of ineffable phenomenon gets him in the end.

Oooh boy is this a kooky one!

I've never even heard of this one but it sounds like a great victory movie:

6 Thursday

3:30 PM First a Girl (1935)
An out-of-work actress passes herself off as a female impersonator and becomes a star. Cast: Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, Anna Lee. Dir: Victor Saville. BW-92 mins

My version ends with Carey writing in a bedroom

That should be "writhing." I'm only correcting it because I don't want some poor soul to search for a version with Carey writing.

The Trip & Psych-Out late tnite

Miracle of Morgan's Creek on Sunday morning

man i miss having cable every time this thread comes up

ARGH why is Rose McGowan still co-hosting and introducing films on the weekends here?? wtf, please

Van Johnson x 5 tnite

Meet Me in St Lois late Christmas Eve

It still annoys me that they don't move to NY.

robert osborne is looking tired lately. slurring his words, big bags around his eyes. i think they're working him too hard.

cluny brown rules btw.

i'd never known about 'in the good old summertime' until this afternoon, what an abomination, and here i thought tom hanks was the first dope to think of remaking 'shop around the corner'. it may be worse than grace kelly, bing crosby and frank sinatra in 'high society'. margaret sullavan, sigh. one day they will show 'the good fairy'.

oh, it wasn't that bad. van johnson's pretty obviously doing a jimmy stewart impression though.

meet me in st. louis on next! sweet.

DVR-ing meet me in st. louis because i have to get up at 8 tomorrow, def. watching it before dinner

and yeah, cluny brown was awesome

>It still annoys me that they don't move to NY.

'there's no place like home' michael white

how about the movie new to TCM - "the cheaters" did you watch, and what did you think? It's on again at 2aPST xmas day

It still annoys me that they don't move to NY.

I'm confused. What exactly would this achieve?

I conked out at the start of cluny brown; thank god for Tivo.
Rewatching The Shop on the Corner for the zillionth time reminded me how much I adore lubitsch.

what's that Jennifer Jones entrance line in Cluny Brown? something like "Where's the action"

all-SCREWBALL New Years Day!

and Ron Howard night tonight. :/

Excited for both equally, obv.

Are they showing Eat My Dust?

i'd never seen grand theft auto, it was sort of adorable.

(and eat my dust also belongs on the road movie thread...)

maybe I'll finally see Theodora Goes Wild!

tivoing the whole day basically.

wow, 3 Oscar Micheaux features on Friday morning (2 of em silent).

Ride the Wild Surf on right, Now.

Rewatching The Shop on the Corner for the zillionth time reminded me how much I adore lubitsch.

^^^

A John Waters fave on Sunday:

4 Sunday
1:00 PM CST Susan Slade (1961)
A pregnant teen allows her mother to pass the baby off as her own. Cast: Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Dorothy McGuire. Dir: Delmer Daves.

Has anyone seen this?

Is this the Sarah Palin story?

6 Graham Greene adaps all night! Brighton Rock almost excuses Richard Attenborough's directorial career.

Susan Slade wasn't so hot. But I'm such a genre freak that I enjoyed its particular variation on (instantiation of?) an ancient story. And there was a downright shocking shot towards the end that I waaaay did not anticipate in its graphicness. Did anyone catch it?

Two rare (are there any other kind?) Borzage films tomorrow: Big City (1937) and No Greater Glory (1934). But I'm too busy with my BRAND NEW MURNAU, BORZAGE, AND FOX BOX SET!!! so someone else please take these in and report. Thanx!

KJB I may fly into Austin in March to steal yr set.

You can fly in (and if you do, lemme know!) but ain't comin' near my set! :)

"Picnic" is on now and in case u forgot, tis hilarious

OH?

The number one movie on my must-see list is on tomorrow morning (Thursday the 15th) @ 6:15am CST:

Downstairs (1932)
An evil chauffeur seduces and blackmails his way through high society. Cast: John Gilbert, Virginia Bruce, Paul Lukas. Dir: Monta Bell. BW-78 mins, TV-G

I've been dying to see it for quite some time. Someone pretty please record it in case one of my helper bees misses it. Thanx!!!!

Fuck, missed tivoing borzage; I will try downstairs

You rock! And I have a copy of No Greater Glory if anyone wants one.

well it's a tivo; I don't even HAVE a working vcr these days; so I'm not sure I can be helpful.

It's kewl. I should be okay. I literally have a three-person backup plan. It's nuts, I know, but I don't want to miss this fucker again.

This reminds me of the episode of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" where she was having marital problems and called her dad for advice and the old man told he was watching some Claudette Colbert movie that he had seen before but had been interrupted watching and, if he didn't get to finish watching it this time, might not live to see it again.

^I am becoming Victor (k*l*an)

late tnite: Terror of Tiny Town, The Unholy Three, Freaks

Ricardo Montalban Day tom'w

R. Osborne interviewing Ernest Borgnine for an hour > Jimmy Carter on TDS

Ernie spilled details on his brief marriages to Ethel Merman AND Katy Jurado!

Gotta see that one

Merman marriage doomed by popularity of "McHale's Navy"

Oh yeah, I think I saw that here

This John Cromwell marathon tonight seems promising.

Albert Brooks' acidic Modern Romance tomw night (btwn Annie Hall & The Apartment)

"You've heard of a no-win situation, haven't you?"

Also, Foleying footstpes.

good lookin' out; that's something I've wanted to see for awhile.

has funniest epilogue crawl of all time

nuclear war threat movies tonight -- anyone seen this one, by the usually comic Boulting Bros?

Seven Days to Noon (1950) A scientist threatens to detonate a nuclear warhead if the nation will not halt arms research. Cast: Barry Jones, Andre Morell, Hugh Cross. Dir: John Boulting, Roy Boulting. BW-97 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

also, Alec Baldwin becomes new co-host of The Essentials next month. Hopefully as his Departed character.

does anybody get the TCM magazine? Worth the investment?

I only get it when the Film Forum has then lying on the floor near the pay phones (a month in advance). Look at it to check the schedule, not all that often.

4 Japanese masterworks tnite, leading off w/ Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp

Thanks for the tip! I really need to check the lineup on tcm more often.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j278/oilyrags/rr33.jpg

Fact Checking Cuz to TCM!

Reagan succeeding FDR mighta worked, or rlly not been much diff from Truman

Also, what's up with running all Hitchcocks today, except for "Close Encounters" and "Three Faces of Eve"?

Now that Oscar month is over TCM can get back to programming some good movies (a silent prayer for future generations enduring Slumdork on TCM in 2070). Check out Joan Crawford in the second (and much better film staring her titled) Possessed early this morning although, tee-hee, it gave her another nomination for Best Actress which she damn well deserved. Apart from Rain, it's her best performance (her crazed laughter in a supper club scene is her perhaps her finest moment).

Another great thing about Possessed is it's yet another film to pull out when maniacs try to tell you that classical Hollywood was nothing but flowers. It's a really heavy, miserable outing. In fact, Webster's invented the word "unpleasant" just to account for Possessed. Crawford plays a woman obsessed with a man who does not return her attentions. In the first scene, she intones to him "'I love you' is such an inadequate way of saying 'I love you,'" setting off the damn near goth tone. Miss work for it.

Then a few hours later is The Fighting Seabees by Edward Ludwig, one of the few reportedly worthy directors Sarris left out of The American Cinema. I've never seen it or anything by Ludwig. Anyone?

Kev, you know she made TWO films titled Possessed? (I assume this is '47)

i am stumped on Ludwig, but i bet I've seen some of his silent comedy shorts.

From the above:

Check out Joan Crawford in the second (and much better film staring her titled)

d'oh!

Feh. Daisy Kenyon's her best.

One of her (and Otto's) best but not her best (still Female on the Beach in my book).

Then a few hours later is The Fighting Seabees by Edward Ludwig, one of the few reportedly worthy directors Sarris left out of The American Cinema. I've never seen it or anything by Ludwig. Anyone?

It's OK. Straight-up Republic Pictures war melodrama and one of the very few where John Wayne dies.

Fave Ludwig is The Black Scorpion. Track it down

first of the Reagan Wednesdays tonight; fair warning

Where's the rest of them?

ah, the tcm premiere of 'the good fairy'. god i love margaret sullavan.

the Patrick McGoohan 'jazz Othello' is late tnite

5:30 AM Summer of '63 (1963)
Teens on the make spread syphilis among their friends. Cast: Michael Bell narrates. C-21 mins,

The Archers' Tales of Hoffmann at 8am ET.

Sun night: maybe Sellers' 2 funniest films, followed by 2 great Chaplins and the German 1943 Munchausen

late Sun: Garbo in The Mysterious Lady, then Pagnol's Marius

Diner late tonight after two shittier Barry Levinson films

Dreyer's The Parson's Widow late tnite; early Capra films tom'w daytime.

Did anyone happen to record the part-talkie Show Boat from last month? Come on....

dassin, truffaut, antonioni today/tonight

nice!

All films with "Night" in the title in English, French or Italian?

The King of Comedy in about an hour.

You get extra credit.

Commando is on AMC RIGHT now. Rae Dawn Chong -vs- Dan Hedaya

Vincente Minnelli today

My friend Millie (Miss TCM herself) just got interviewed: http://vice.typepad.com/vice_magazine/2009/07/working-girl.html

wow she has a great job. and sounds very cool.

oh man that sounds awesome. I still have a dream about opening a movie theater in Williamsburg and programming it like a freeform college radio station.

More realistically I'd like to program for VH1 classics or WRXP or something.

would gladly offer "guest programming" services at said hypothetical wburg movie theater

yeah, I was thinking have a liquor license and let Toddp do shows there and be all ocularis/galapagos with the DIY shit but also show Bachelor Party or whatever. Or a double feature of Repulsion and Belle du Jour.

dog movie marathon!

Harold Lloyd all day and night today! Judy Garland tomorrow.

Been reading a lot about Judy in various Johnny Mercer bios.

Gloria Grahame today, In a Lonely Place in primetime.

Sterling Hayden today (incl Zero Hour, the direct inspiration for Airplane!).

Angela Lansbury tomorrow.

the conversation was on last night

Thanks, I'll fire up my time machine.

i mean, its on right now last night

Ida Lupino today, Sinatra tom'w

I thought they did effing Sinatra already.

Out of the Fog had such a great supporting cast.

Sinatra was in a few of the other Stars of the Day's movies.

Peter Sellers today

Is Wuthering Heights good?

Ulmer movie at 1:30 = I can't stay up that late.

wuthering heights is great but then i find merle oberon fascinating.

You wouldn't be the only one.

Phil Karlson triple bill tonight (I liked The Phenix City Story), followed by a blaxploitation twinbill of Willie Dynamite & Sugar Hill.

2 by Renoir overnight: La Bete Humaine & The Southerner

4 Goldie Hawns tonight (I've only seen Foul Play).

HOBO MOVIES tomorrow night!

Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
Girls of the Road (1940)

jeez, it's WHEELER & WOOLSEY night!

(not the 4 I'd have picked tho)

Did you catch Girls of the Road?

no, only one of those 5 I don't know

wuthering heights is great but then i find merle oberon fascinating.

I was so mad when Alec Baldwin recommended Wuthering Heights on The Essentials but then went on to say how Oberon sucked in this movie. Not cool, Donaghy.

Murnau's Nosferatu in 90 mins.

Missed the documentary about Johnny Mercer last night.

Putney Swope & Greasers Palace in the cult spot tonight

I asked my black friend about Putney Swope a few months ago and he said, "It's the most racist piece of shit - the only time I've ever walked out of a movie."

eternal lols at "my black friend"

did he see it in 1968?

I'm sure thereabouts.

So his memory of it wouldn't be good, I know, and he's older and different now. I didn't want to go into it with him, though.

I'll clarify, even though you might not be there, Morbs.

I don't think it was 1968, because he'd have been about 20, and that doesn't place him in NYC or in or near Chicago, where he might've seen the movie. So it was probably 7-10 years later.

I asked him about it because I had bought it for a dollar and my friend and I had seen it recently, a couple months before, probably, and I saw it stacked with my videos and wondered what he thought. We've talked about the merits and flaws and social/racial implications of the Bill Cosby Show, Steppin Fetchit, Amos & Andy, Fresh Prince of Bellair, rap music, gansta rap, Everybody Hates Chris, even, uncharacteristically for him, since he brought it up, Song of the South - if it was a popular cultural thing at one time and it featured blacks, we had probably talked about it. Because who else am I going to go to to have a discussion about this stuff without someone going, lol u racist or something. And the Putney Swope comment was the only time he had ever said anything like that. For instance, he has several dvds of Amos & Andy and likes them quite a lot.

When my friend and I had watched it, we enjoyed it a lot, and thought it was unusually edited - that there were a lot of nontrivial decisions made about most aspects of the craft of the movie. We didn't like that Downy dubbed Swope's voice over. We figured that the movie, besides indicting the advertising industry, was also satirizing the exploitation of "black is beautiful" and black militancy, and that the movie had no heroes besides nihilism personified, or some kind of catholic, ultra-moral being teaching people a lesson. And the ads - they seemed to inhabit that space of how white people see black people, how black people see themselves, and how they really are - and inhabit it in a way that makes you deliberately uncomfortable - it reminded me of some of the material black comedians have done. But we were confused after the movie was over, too, and uncertain about it.

I still don't know if I agree about it being incredibly racist.

Greaser's Palace is a really odd film -- in some ways it's a bit like a Jodorowsky movie -- it seems like there was this period in the 70s where a lot of films featured long scenes or at least a lot of scenes of people walking around somewhat aimlessly.

Huh. I got that one for a dollar, too, but I'm pretty sure I got rid of it before watching it.

(I had to gis the cover.)

it's actually pretty rare. i don't think it has been released widely on dvd.

well, as rare as a mass-produced vhs videotape can be.

My cable company is now listing Turner Classic Movies HD in their coming soon section. I may never leave the house again!

I saw Swope in '78 on a twinbill w/ Animal House.

(probably '79, actually -- and that was a fairly wide re-release pairing)

Wow! That's a really interesting/unusual (from my vantage point) juxtaposition. Putney Swope is a really packed movie that I've only seen once, but want to have a copy of so I can watch it multiple times.

it's Claudia Cardinale night.

Redd, the Johnny Mercer doc reruns tom'w at 6pm, followed by films w/ Mercer songs.

WTF?

12:00 AM Miss Mend (1926)

Three reporters fight off a capitalist attempt to release deadly bacteria in the USSR. Cast: Boris Banet, Vladimir Fogel, Natalya Glan. Dir: Fyodor Otsep. BW-250 mins, TV-PG

And don't worry if you miss it. Flicker Alley is releasing it on DVD on the 15th

i recorded this and am super excited to watch it!

for those with Minnelli/Tracy blind spots, Father Of The Bride (1950)
and Father's Little Dividend (1951) late tonight.

Silent Ben-Hur tomw at midnight.

both versions of King of Kings tonight