Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts

Friday, December 13, 2013

2013 TCM Remembers

"We live and we die
Like fireworks"

UPDATE: 12/17/2013:  TCM has edited the original clip to include five new images: Jean Kent, Audrey Totter, Tom Laughlin, Joan Fontaine and Peter O'Toole (whos images now end the video.)  I'm astonished at how quickly they did this and how they were able to squeeze these five extra folks in without removing anyone else and all the while working within the strict framework of the the existing video and it's music.

 At first I thought maybe they'd shave .25 or .5 second off some of the images here and there to make up the time necessary to add 5 new video images.  But there are so many images that take place with musical cues.  For example Harry Carey Jr. looks up as the song lyrics talk about catching God's eye...or Matt Mattox swing his ax which hits the ground to the beat of the song.  Any clip-shortening would affect those match-ups.

 So how did they do it?  Here's what was removed to add the new folks:

  • Jean Kent appears before Roger Ebert, the image of Ebert was shortened to fit her in
  • Audrey Totter appears where there was an image of a room in the theater with overlayed cursive writing on the pillar/wall.
  • Tom Laughlin appears between Hal Needham and Jonathan Winters.  A clip related to Needham of a Pontiac Trans Am making a jump in Smokey and the Bandit was removed to add Laughlin
  • Joan Fontaine was added before Esther Williams, a still image of Esther Williams was removed to make some time for this clip
  • Peter O'Toole comes at the end, to squeeze him in video producers had to:
    • Some of the later clips (after the musical tie-in with the firework displaying on the screen) I believe were shortened in the area between Ed Lauter and Kim Hamilton (that's 5 clips) in order to make some room for O'Toole.
    • The cut to the TCM Remembers graphic at the end is shortened...in the old version you saw most of the word 'Remembers' drawn out while in the new clip you see just of the word drawn out.
    • The final clip of the single seat in the theater was shorted to add the blowing out of the match

[end of update]
It’s that time of year again, when Turner Classic Movies releases it’s video memorial production ‘TCM Remembers’ showcasing a list of film folks who've passed away during the past year. This year, like previous years, it’s a beautiful piece running around four and a half minutes long.

 The song used in the piece is “In the Embers” by Sleeping At Last (an ‘Indie Rock musical project’.)  Quite a touching song, great lyrics relating to life and death.  Simple music, just piano and a single voice.

As usual, there are still pictures and/or short video clips of each person featured. And as usual, these are broken up with small breaks (where I’m usually muttering ‘oh my word’ as my mind tries to catch up from the overwhelming string of images it just saw.)

 If you haven't seen it yet...here's the YouTube clip.
Some nice things about this year's clip:
  • Similar to the 2012 TCM Remembers video, this year’s theme is also theater-related and the images are of a shuttered theater or (as I prefer) a theater in the midst of renovation. 
  • As usual, the producers get seemingly the perfect clip for each of these folk (where a clip is shown.) The expressions/gaze of the person is spot-on. (Great examples are Annette Funicello and Eileen Brennan.) 
  • I like the video effect of playing the video onto a paint-peeled wall 
  • Love the tracking shot going through the series of open doorways...that shot is almost worth the price of admission 
  • Some of the transitions are fabulous, for example with Ruth Prawer Jhubvala we see someone walking through a field of flowers...cut to Julie Harris lying in a field of flowers and one in her hand. Speaking of transitions... 
  • So nice they put Virginia Gibson and Matt Mattox together with clips from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 
  • The dissolve on Jonathan Winters’ face on the glass door 
  • I really cannot believe how quickly there were able to add Eleanor Parker into this. 
  • Final shot of Peter O'Toole blowing out the match in an early scene from Lawrence of Arabia

Here’s the complete list of people from the clip in the order they appear:

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Sunday, November 18, 2012

'tis the Season...My Favorite Christmas Films

My Favorite Classic Christmas Films
(in no particular order)


Cary Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young

The Bishop's Wife
With a cast that includes Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven, how can you miss?  Grant plays an angel sent down in a request to a prayer from Niven who plays an Episcopal bishop who's struggling with the financing for a new cathedral.  While on earth the angel (Dudley played by Grant) falls in love with the bishop's wife played by the lovely Loretta Young.  This isn't creepy at all and is more of an admiration than anything.

 The supporting cast is great with Monty Woolley as professor Wutheridge and great character actor James Gleason as cab driver Sylvester.

 Magic moments:

  • When only two or three boys show up for choir practice, but Dudley (miraculously) gets all the boys to show up...the singing is marvelous (by the Robert Mitchell Boy Choir)
  • Ice skating scene
  • At the end when Niven delivers his Christmas sermon (which was written by Dudley) about the true meaning of Christmas


Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood

Miracle on 34th Street
If I had to recommend just one classic Christmas film, this would be the one.  The cast includes Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle.  (If you want to see Edmund Gwenn in something exactly opposite of this role, check out Hitchcock's 'Foreign Correspondent'.)  The story is wonderful: a man who calls himself Kris Kringle and works as a department store Santa and is eventually put on trial to determine if he is indeed Santa Claus.

 Also great supporting performances here by character actor Porter Hall who plays the beleaguered department store psychologist.

 Magic moments:

  • When Santa speaks Dutch to the little girl (look for Thelma Ritter's first film appearance)
  • When the mail carriers deliver the mail addressed to Santa in the courtroom


The Smith Family

Meet Me in St. Louis
While not technically a movie about Christmas, the climax of the film happens around the Christmas season and one of the most beloved Christmas songs is from this film.  This is a period piece that takes place at the turn of the century in St. Louis and follows a well-to-do family whose teen daughters Esther and Rose (played by Judy Garland and Lucille Bremer) struggle with 'boy problems' and the entire family struggles with the central conflict of the film when Father decides to move the family to New York.

 What makes this a great film to me is primarily the musical numbers (did I mention this is a musical?) And the performance of Margaret O'Brien as little sister Tootie who steals absolutely every scene she's in.

 Other standout performances: Mary Astor as Mother and Harry Davenport as Grandpa (Dr. Meade from Gone With the Wind.)

 Magic moments:

  • When Grandpa takes Esther to the dance
  • Esther sings The Trolley Song
  • Esther sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
  • The family is distraught after the announcement about New York, one by one they return to the parlor as Mother plays the piano and sings with Father
  • Tootie in everything!


"No man is a failure who has friends."

It's a Wonderful Life
Perhaps the best known classic Christmas film...and why not?! It's story is powerful: how does one life affect the lives of others?  It's hard to know unless you can go back and see what would happen if that person never existed...and that's just what happens to George Bailey in part of the film.  What I love about this film is the constant setbacks George has in his life, and how he deals with them.  He's always dreamed about getting out of town and seeing the world, but it just doesn't happen that way.

 A great cast here: James Stewart, Donna Reid and Lionel Barrymore.  Special mention for Gloria Grahame as Violet Bick...the 'good-time' girl of the town.

 Magic moments:

  • The swimming pool under the basketball court
  • The 'phone kiss' scene with Stewart and Reid
  • All George Bailey's friends coming to the house to help him at the end of the film
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Sunday, September 9, 2012

Liebster Award




I've been blessed to be awarded the Liebster Award by two of my classic film Twitter friends--Paula Guthat of Paula's Cinema Club (who also hosts the amazing #TCMParty tweet-along parties) and Kellee Pratt of Outspoken and Freckled (what a great descriptive blog name...Kellee's just an all-around great friend on Twitter.)

 Here's how all of this works:

  • Describe eleven things about yourself
  • Answer the eleven questions proposed by your nominator
  • Choose eleven people to nominate for a Liebster Award
  • Give these new folks eleven questions to answer
First, eleven things about me:

  1. I've never broken a bone.
  2. I carry around a key chain lanyard to help me remember my mom. You know that line in the movie 'Sleepless in Seattle' where the kid says he's afraid that he's starting to forget his mom? Same thing...so I carry it as a token to remind myself to think about her.  (She passed away on 7/12/1997 from non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.)
  3. I've been married twice in my life, the first time was when I was in college.
  4. I have a long list of places I want to visit in the world, a lot of them are in southeast Asia.
  5. Favorite professional sport is ice hockey.
  6. In high school and college I was about a 2.0 GPA (right in the meaty part of the curve...not showin' off, not fallin' behind.)
  7. Too frequently quote from movies and TV shows (really bad with Seinfeld, see above.)
  8. No tatoos.
  9. I like to be early everywhere I go. Movie theater? 30 minutes before film. Airport? at least an hour before the flight.
  10. I love walking in snow at night (wish we had more snow around here.)
  11. I'm an emotional person and cry easily at a variety of things: poetry, movies, song lyrics, NPR StoryCorp, etc.



Next, answering the eleven questions proposed to me:

 First from Paula-


  1. What is your guilty movie pleasure? Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby or Napoleon Dynamite.
  2. What mediocre classic-era film would you like to see remade?  Not that Captains Courageous is mediocre, but that would be a fun adventure film to see remade.
  3. Are there are any modern actors you think could have held their own in the classic era?  Maybe Natalie Portman...she has a certain elegance.
  4. What movie(s) do you always, without fail, stop to watch if you happen upon it/them while flipping channels?  Lawrence of Arabia, West Side Story, Stalag 17.
  5. Which actor’s or director’s work do you like in spite of yourself?  Russ Meyer, haha! Just kidding.
  6. Who would play you in the movie of your life story (classic or modern)?  Maybe Gary Cooper.
  7. Mac or PC?  PC, but I own an iPhone and iPad.
  8. What’s your (astrological, not traffic!) sign?  Cancer
  9. What five people (living or dead) connected with film (modern or classic) would you invite to dinner?  Martin Scorsese, Marilyn Monroe, Bill Murray, Jean Arthur, Judy Holliday
  10. Favorite movie snack.  Ferrera Pan Atomic Fireballs
  11. Craziest G/PG-rated thing that ever happened to you at a movie theater.  Nothing really odd...when watching Rear Window at our local art-house theater, the technology used to project the film broke with about 15 minutes of the movie to go.  The theater had to apologize and give everyone a free pass to a future show...torture!



 Next from Kellee-


  1. What is your earliest classic film memory?  Most likely watching The Wizard of Oz.
  2. Who are your top favorite directors (modern or classic)?  Martin Scorsese, Frank Capra
  3. How has your love of movies (classic or modern) influenced other areas of your life?  I've got a more diverse vocabulary...trying to use 'swell' and other such phrases in regular conversation.  Also I think trying to live more simply...a lot of movies water down real life to the essentials...the unnecessary details fall away because, well...they're unnecessary.
  4. What film/s (classic or modern) do you think has the best music score?  West Side Story, Amadeus, Moonstruck, Out of Africa, Raiders of the Lost Ark, On the Waterfront, 2001: A Space Odyssey
  5. Who are your favorite character actors (modern or classic) and why? Walter Brennan (I am watching Bad Day at Black Rock right now.)  That voice and his mannerisms are just the best.  Thelma Ritter..."like a couple of taxis coming together on Broadway."  Eugene Pallette..."Quit havin' kittens."  The supporting cast of His Girl Friday.
  6. Which films have made the most impact from a fashion perspective in your opinion and/or are simply your favorite/s from a fashion/style/design perspective (modern or classic)?  (Being a dude, I kind of struggled with this answer.) Well, anything with Cary Grant...he can wear a suit like no other.  In addition to that, I would lean on period pieces like Amadeus, Sense & Sensibility and the like. 
  7. Who are your favorite villains (modern or classic)?  Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men was absolutely evil (and delightful!)  And who can resist James Cagney in White Heat?!
  8. If you were in a classic film, who would play you, your best pal and your significant other?  Me=Gary Cooper, pal=Walter Brennan, girl=Jean Arthur.
  9. If you could choose any television show (modern or classic), which show would you do a remake of and feel free to add who would star (modern or classic/dead or alive) in it.  Bob Newhart show with Will Farrell as Bob and Tina Fey as Emily.
  10. What's your favorite sassy/snarky come-back line from any film?  Probably Mammy from Gone With The Wind "What gentlemen says and what they thinks is two different things, and I ain't noticed Mr. Ashley askin' for to marry you."  The look that Mammy gives Scarlett is absolutely great!
  11. Who are your favorite comedy actors?  The Marx Brothers, Bill Murray

Other award nominees TBA (I gotta get to bed!)



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