The VCR / DVR / Streaming Alert Thread

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Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

Don't waste your time and risk your sanity.

An American Dream is one of the worst movies ever made and pure torture to sit through. For all intents and purposes it pretty much ended the careers of all the actors connected with it, none of whom, including Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Eleanor Parker and Lloyd Nolan, ever really got a decent role again, certainly none approaching the luster of their previous work.

TV director, Robert Gist, whose only theatrical film it was, was briefly married to Agnes Moorehead, 24 years his senior in 1954. Maybe she took a leaf out of her Bewitched character's book and put on a hex on the film. It's bad, bad, bad and with no redeeming value whatsoever. The Oscar nominated song sucks, too.
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Post by Mister Tee »

Not sure this qualifies in terms of "You really want to see it", but, tomorrow at 4:15PM Eastern, TCM is showing the (never before uncovered by me) 1966 film version of Norman Mailer's An American Dream -- which, for those whose Oscar-completeness runs bone-deep, scored a nomination for best song.
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Post by Big Magilla »

The Moon Is Blue is on DVD - available from the Warner Archive in the U.S., it's a regular release in the U.K.
Reza
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Post by Reza »

Mike Kelly wrote:Although this is way in advance, TCM's September Schedule is up:
http://www.tcm.com/schedule/month/?cid=&oid=9/1/2010

There are quite a number of rarities that will be shown, including:

The Moon is Blue

Rare Vivien Leigh films (she's the star of the month)
Looking forward to finally catching up with Maggie McNamara's Oscar nominated turn.

Have seen all the Vivien Leigh films scheduled. Wish they would show The Deep Blue Sea sometime as it's the only film of hers I've never seen.
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Post by Mike Kelly »

Although this is way in advance, TCM's September Schedule is up:
http://www.tcm.com/schedule/month/?cid=&oid=9/1/2010

There are quite a number of rarities that will be shown, including:

The Moon is Blue
Secret Beyond the Door
Make Way for Tomorrow (I know this is out on Criterion DVD now)
The Prowler
Rare Vivien Leigh films (she's the star of the month)
Patterns
dws1982
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Post by dws1982 »

Oscar completists: Marc Robson's Trial, which got Arthur Kennedy the third of his five Oscar nominations (four of which were for Robson films) airs on TCM tomorrow at 2:30 PM. This doesn't turn up too often.
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Post by dws1982 »

The Rising of the Moon, one of John Ford's least known films, airs on TCM Sunday night at 10:00 PM Eastern. It's never been released on video, and I can't remember it ever showing on TV either.

Now if Gideon's Day and The Sun Shines Bright show up, I think that would give me access to all of Ford's work from 1939 on. Then I could work on getting my hands on some of his obscurities from the early/mid-30's.
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Post by Big Magilla »

The Sound Barrier (its original British title) has out on DVD in Region 2 for some time, but like most of David Lean's black and white films it is oddly missing on DVD in the U.S.

The film used to show up on TV quite a bit in the late 50s or early 60s. It's a good performance from Richardson but I guess Oscar had room for only one Brit that year so they nominated Alec Guinness for The Lavender Hill Mob while ignoring Richardson, Laurence Olivier in Carrie and Alastair Sim, who was apparently eligible that year as well, in A Christmas Carol.

The story is somewhat reminiscent of All My Sons albeit with a British stiff upper lip. Anyway, it did win an Oscar for Best Sound and was nominated for Best Screenplay (Terence Rattigan). Richardson and Lean won NBR awards and the film itself was named Best Foreign Film . It also won BAFTAs for Best British Film, Best Film from Any Source and Best British Actor. Nigel Patrick and Ann Todd were also nominated.

It's certainly worth seeing for anyone who hasn't done so.




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Mister Tee
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Post by Mister Tee »

In accord with my usual "if I haven't been able to track it down, it must be hard to find" philosophy...

Friday evening, TCM is showing Breaking the Sound Barrier (under the title The Sound Barrier), a David Lean film which won Ralph Richardson the NY Critics' best actor prize -- though he wasn't nominated for a corresponding Oscar, the only such case in, I believe, the first 40 years of the award. (There were more actresses omitted) It's the first screening of which I'm aware, so obviously I can't vouch for its quality.
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Post by Damien »

The now-infrequently shown Arise, My Love -- the 1940 winner for Best Origibal Story, and also nominated for Score, and B&W Cinematography and Art Direction AND a particular Damien favorite, is being shown on TCM Wednesday night, the 28th at 10pm eastern time. Highly recommended!
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

It's not a legal issue. Paramount, which held the rights to Republic films announced in March, 2006 (see Coming DVD thread) that it was releasing Letter From an Unknown Woman; The Dark Mirror; Secret Beyond the Door and Body and Soul (a reissue) on May 17, 2006.

There was a regime change and the new guy decided there wasn't any money to be gained by releasing old black and white movies. The Republic titles are now owned by Lionsgate. They don't seem to be any more interested in releasing these films than Paramount.
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Post by dws1982 »

Tonight at 10:15 Eastern Time, TCM airs Ophuls' Letter From an Unknown Woman.

For some reason (possibly legal), this has still never been released on DVD in the States. My fear is that it'll end up on one of those godawful burn-on-demand DVD-R's.
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Post by dws1982 »

Late Sunday night, early Monday morning at 2:00 AM, TCM airs Valerio Zurlini's rarely shown Family Diary.

By rarely shown, I mean this is only about the third time it has aired in the past decade. Zurlini's Violent Summer is one of the greatest movies ever made, so I'll be looking forward to this, which I've recorded before but never watched. As far as I know this isn't available on video anywhere either, so there aren't many chances to see this one.
Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

I could have sworn Moonrise was on DVD, but for some reason isn't - at least not yet, but cheer up, it's now just three weeks to Criterion's release of Make Way for Tomorrow.
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Post by Okri »

Damien wrote:Frank Borzage's beautiful -- and seldom shown -- Moonrise, a Sound nominee from 1948, is on TCM Wednesday the 3rd, 10:00pm EST.
Can someone DVR this for me? I love this movie.
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