Watching the classics on-line - When all else fails

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Johnny Guitar
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Post by Johnny Guitar »

That blog is a great find, thanks anonymous!
Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

Yeah, it is kind of cool, but the premise that these films are unknown is untrue.

His review of The Conqueror refers to it as a "lost masterpiece". It is neither lost - having been out on DVD for some time - nor a classic - it's badly miscast and infamous as the film whose location shooting on the Nevada bomb testing site caused the cancer and eventual deaths of John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Pedro Armandariz, director Dick Powell and others.
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Post by anonymous1980 »

Here's a real cool blog I found.

Lots of good stuff in there including Baby Doll.
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Post by anonymous1980 »

Amazon.com is offering free downloads of a bunch of classic movies on-line for a limited time only.
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Post by flipp525 »

FilmFan720 wrote:Google Video also has another hard-to-find classic...Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

Wow. That was very powerful. The dolls representing Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter were incredibly scary, though -- dirty faces with creepy smiles. The wittling away of the Karen doll was very effective in mirroring the singer's descent into anorexia.




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anonymous1980
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Post by anonymous1980 »

Here's another Youtube channel of interest: Maid Marian.

This channel contains some rare prints of silent films.
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Post by FilmFan720 »

Google Video also has another hard-to-find classic...Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story



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Johnny Guitar
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Post by Johnny Guitar »

There's also UbuWeb, which has mostly avant-garde films and ephemera, some probably not even worth watching in this format (like the Ernie Gehr stuff), but some quite worth it; as well as a majority of non-cinematic material (MP3s, transcripts, etc.).

What else? Well, for starters, there is Africa Addio (Jacopetti & Prosperi, '64) on GoogleVideo. (Another kind of, um, "classic.")

Also worth checking out on YouTube is Multiple Sidosis, a film I just found out about only very recently, which is on the US National Film Registry. It's a 9-minute amateur film from 1970, a lot of fun to watch, and apparently when it was shown to professional editors they were amazed that this guy was able to do all the perfectly timed in-camera editing effects that he did. (YouTube of course has a ton of clips & trailers, I'm sure everyone know--here is one for a cult film I've wanted to see for a year or two now, doesn't it look bizarrely riveting? Does anyone else have hidden trailer gems on YT?)

And archive.org, as you mentioned, has all sorts of cool shit--like this, produced by "Mario Fava" (a site typo, it's Bava himself). Consult Tim Lucas' new book as to the extent the maestro exerted control over the film.
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Post by anonymous1980 »

If you can't afford to blind-buy the DVD or you don't get TCM or you don't have Netflix or all the rental places in your area doesn't carry it, you should search on-line.

You guys wouldn't BELIEVE the number of classic films available for viewing on-line. Some of these are public domain (copyright expired) and I'm willing to bet some do still have their copyright but the studios are too busy freaking out over their latest, popular properties like episodes of their hit TV shows or the latest summer blockbusters, getting these films off youtube and other similar sites are the low on their list of priorities.

Here are some helpful sites for those of you who lack access, funds or even time to watch these gems:

Movies Found Online

Atarumyth's Youtube Page

Silent Film Democracy (Youtube Page)

Ziegfield Girl (Youtube Page)

The Internet Archive

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