A Turner Classic Movies thread, Opinions and reminders wanted

A real shame about the K. Gordon Murray documentary no show, but I'm very curious about TCM's showing of SANTA CLAUS. I'm really hoping that TCM will be showing a widecreen print of this 2.35:1 movie. The only widescreen release I ever heard of was in Mexico years ago, and I've tried to track it down for years.

This site has the official word on why there's a hold up on the K. Gordon doc.

Too late to mention, but watched THE LAST VOYAGE and QUICKSAND over the past couple of days thanks to TCM. Always heard about them but never got a chance to see them - and both closed-captioned as well!

Next weekend's TCM Underground block continues the holiday theme with Black Christmas and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

BTW, today's early a.m showing of Santa Claus wasn't widescreen.

This post has been edited by Doran Gaston on Dec 11 2010, 08:22 PM

Starting at 6 AM on December 16, TCM is showing all 16 Andy Hardy movies in reverse order - staring with ANDY HARDY COMES HOME (1958).

I don't think SANTA CLAUSE was shot in widescreen. Maybe I should have another look at my fullscreen DVD, but it did not feel cropped.

This post has been edited by Marshall Crist on Dec 15 2010, 12:18 AM

According to the IMDB's "technical specs" page for the movie, it was:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053241/technical

Re: SANTA CLAUS-- There's a border that goes around the opening credits. In the 1.33:1 print (at least the one on the version streaming on Netflix, and the MST3K version seems to use the same source print; I didn't see the TCM broadcast), it's trimmed off on the left side and completely missing on the right. I can't say a lot seems to be missing, though. Perhaps 1.66:1 was intended?

Good lord, I can't believe I was paying such close attention.

I saw this as a matinee when I was a kid--not sure how old. God, the machine with lips really stayed with me. But I remembered nothing else about it at all, not even Satan's little helper.

That "parade of nations" thing at the beginning was truly deadly. I thought it would never end.

And the lip machine still freaked me out a little.

This post has been edited by Jim Donahue on Dec 15 2010, 11:40 AM

"That "parade of nations" thing at the beginning was truly deadly. I thought it would never end."

Right? It's the like the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, with no torch lighting. Was any kid of any age ever entertained by that? You fast-forward through it and you're at the half-hour mark.

"And the lip machine still freaked me out a little. "

"The Pleasure Mouth!"

Rene Cardona should have been fed some chocolate ice cream for not cutting that sequence down a little bit.

Santa Claus - Movie Review - Cinemassacre.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2XTC73NRZ8

Last night's showing of MEET JOHN DOE was presented in faux widescreen, with top and bottom chopped off and some up-and-down scanning (to my eye, at least).

Ugh. Who's awful idea was that? The print itself was soft, and this was flat-out unwatchable.

Please, TCM--I understand why you occasionally have to show pan-and-scan prints of some widescreen films, but this is ridiculous.

I'm guessing that was a mistake. My cyber-friend who works at TCM says it is policy to always screen films in OAR, if available.

VERY much enjoying the marathon of Laurel & Hardy shorts running on TCM right now (from January 11 - January 12)! All forty of their talkies, which is great in itself, but all of them closed captioned as well (many of these have never been captioned before as far as I know). Was a bit worried about that option, as last week's Little rascals marathon was also listed as captioned but aired without (even those shorts that had the little "Closed Captioned" announcement before the shorts were, alas, without captioning).

Only oddball thing is that with the exception of two shorts, they are showing them in reverse order (kinda like when they aired all the Andy Hardy movies a few weeks back).

It may be a little late at this point, but Mark Evanier has recommendations for which of the Laurel and Hardy films TCM is showing are must-sees and which ones are more for completists:

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2011_01_10.html#020049

Regarding MEET JOHN DOE, that's a really egregious error for a station like TCM. This movie came out in 1941 - it clearly should have been Academy Ratio, ie. fullscreen. Unfortunately, MEET JOHN DOE is in the public domain, so it sounds like TCM got suckered again by some huckster who was shopping it around.

Watched the Laurel & Hardy marathon and was wondering what others thought of the shorts shown. This is the first time I've really had a chance to watch them in a grouping of this sort and I was pleasantly surprised how well they played after all these years (oddly enough, I wasn't much of a fan as a kid, but I rather enjoyed them now ... maybe a sign of my age ... heh).

Also, if anyone happened to record the last two shorts, Come Clean and Any Old Port!, drop me a line. I was wanting to get these all due to them being closed-captioned for the first time, but accidentally erased these two. Thanks.

Not-on-DVD alert: Peter Lorre in THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS is on Friday.

Harry Hurwitz's THE PROJECTIONIST (70) debuted last night and as usual I forgot to flag it here. I can only assume it'll re-air soon; it's a fun film (though sad around the edges) with a fantastic amount of "golden age" footage (FLASH GORDON, CASABLANCA, THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS) threaded into it. Chuck McCann stars as lonely projectionist dreaming up a fictive romance with a woman who catches ihis eye (Ina Balin) and a superheroic vengeance against his boss (Rodney Dangerfield, bossy and amusing in his film debut). Also great footage of Times Square circa 1968, packed with theaters (one premiering STAR!) and porn shops. McCann works at the Midtown--was that a real place?

I recorded this, but won't get a chance to watch it for a couple of weeks. I'm surprised anyone has seen this. Was it even on VHS?

Yeah and it is on DVD as well.