The VCR / DVR / Streaming Alert Thread

[Mister Tee]

Hardly priority, but a heads-up for those who'd like to honest-vote in future screenplay years: TCM tonight at 8PM EDT is showing Khartoum, an original screenplay nominee in 1966.

I saw the film in a theatre back then, and have approximately zero recollection of it. It's in that Sweeping Historical Epic genre for which I have little love, but it's directed by the estimable Basil Dearden, so maybe it's a decent specimen.

[The Original BJ]

The Sniper is available on Netflix.

[Mister Tee]

Two not-often-showns on TCM this week:

Tuesday night, 11:45 PM ET is Hester Street, with its Carol Kane best actress nomination.

Thursday early evening, 6:15 PM, is 1952's The Sniper, which people might want to track down, since it figures in the screenplay race for that year.

[ksrymy]

Joan Fontaine's elusive The Constant Nymph airs tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. ET/ 8:00 a.m. PT.

[flipp525]

Wow, that really is one of the rare nominees I've been looking for. Thanks for the heads-up.

[mlrg]

I assume most of us keep an eye on TCM, particularly during this pre-Oscar month when they stick to only nominated films. For those still making inroads into the early nominee lists, a lot of rarely screened stuff has been turning up.

And, for me, one film that has been elusive over the past half-century has finally reared its head: The Mark, source of 1961's best actor-nominated performance by Stuart Whitman, will be shown this Friday at 1PM EST. I know, some have mentioned it's been available for sale in various places, but for those of us who don't care to spend $20 or more for a film we may not even like, this is a great opportunity.

It's also available around the web.

[Mister Tee]

I assume most of us keep an eye on TCM, particularly during this pre-Oscar month when they stick to only nominated films. For those still making inroads into the early nominee lists, a lot of rarely screened stuff has been turning up.

And, for me, one film that has been elusive over the past half-century has finally reared its head: The Mark, source of 1961's best actor-nominated performance by Stuart Whitman, will be shown this Friday at 1PM EST. I know, some have mentioned it's been available for sale in various places, but for those of us who don't care to spend $20 or more for a film we may not even like, this is a great opportunity.

[The Original BJ]

The Story of Film is also available in its entirety on Netflix Instant.

[FilmFan720]

Oh, and, I know it's quite late to mention, but has anyone been watching The Story of Film series TCM has been running the past few months? The narrator/filmmaker can be opinionated at times, but he's opened my eyes to a good bit of film history of which I was unaware.

Do you mean, for instance, the tributes done by Shirley Jones for Burt Lancaster and John Waters for Vincent Price?

No Greg, it is a 16-hour documentary series on the history of cinema that has been running every Tuesday since September.

Tee, I have been loving the series. It is really one of the most comprehensive histories of cinema that I have encountered, but I love that it is also more than just names and dates...especially in the early years, when Cousins really gets into how editing and camerawork developed through films. As the series has gone on I have become less and less enchanted with it, but it is still required viewing.

[Greg]

Oh, and, I know it's quite late to mention, but has anyone been watching The Story of Film series TCM has been running the past few months? The narrator/filmmaker can be opinionated at times, but he's opened my eyes to a good bit of film history of which I was unaware.

Do you mean, for instance, the tributes done by Shirley Jones for Burt Lancaster and John Waters for Vincent Price?

[Mister Tee]

This thread's been kind of quiet lately, but a few things coming up today/tomorrow on TCM worth noting.

Tonight at 8PM they're shoiwng Mr. 880 -- a totally minor effort, but one not often shown, and featuring of course Edmund Gwenn's "other" nominated performance.

Tomorrow night, in salute to the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, they're showing several documentaries from the era. I'm most interested in seeing Crisis, which is about the White House response to the integration effort in the South (that is, the true-life version of what we saw in The Butler). But if you haven't seen it, I recommend Primary, which covers the Kennedy/Humphrey faceoff in the Wisconsin primary in early 1960. It's worth seeing of course simply for a view of JFK pre-deification, but also because, while the director is Robert Drew, listed as also working on the film are Ricky Leacock, Albert Maysles and D.A. Pennebaker -- in documentary terms, that's like finding home movies of a 1992 sandlot game with Jeter, ARod and Garciaparra ranging around the infield.

Oh, and, I know it's quite late to mention, but has anyone been watching The Story of Film series TCM has been running the past few months? The narrator/filmmaker can be opinionated at times, but he's opened my eyes to a good bit of film history of which I was unaware. TCM has also, in conjuction with the series, been running a ton of films that are otherwise hard to track down.

[dws1982]

The disappointing thing about Journey to Italy airing last night is that it didn't air at all--Viaggio in Italia did. Which is to say, the version that dubs Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders--whose dialogue comprises the vast majority of the film--into Italian. Sure, the English version dubs the supporting characters--played by Italian speaking actors--into English, but they have very little dialogue anyway. A major disappointment, because the version I saw--the English language version, Journey to Italy--is easily one of the top ten or so movies of all time. Plus the English language version has an additional scene not in the Italian version.

Of course, this brings up the issue of what is the "correct" language for many of these Rossellini films. Most of Rossellini's films were shot with a scratch track and then dubbed later, and in many cases (especially later in his career), he never stayed around to oversee anything on post-production.

So you have something like Europa '51, which has Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, and a few other actors speaking English, while the entire supporting cast--which actually has a fair amount of dialogue--spoke Italian. The English dubbing for those characters is quite bad indeed. Obviously having Bergman and Knox dubbed into Italian wouldn't be ideal, but certainly if/when Criterion puts that Bergman/Rossellini box set together, they need to give options to which version should be included. Fear was actually shot twice--once in English, once in German. (Not sure which version TCM showed--probably English.) Stromboli has an English version with Bergman's voice, and an Italian version where she's dubbed. Dramatically speaking, English makes more sense since one of the issues the heroine faces is that she can't communicate with the locals--something that's lost if she's speaking fluent Italian. Again, the Italian version here is shorter than the English version, although it's a slightly different assembly in general. (The miracle is more explicitly religious in the Italian version.)

[Big Magilla]

Robinson Crusoe has been available on DVD for years. It was released under that title, not "The Adventures of..." for anyone who's interested.

[dws1982]

All on TCM:

March 2, 7:00 AM (EST): The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Bunuel's 1954 version)

Plenty of warning on this one: March 15, TCM shows Roberto Rossellini's Stromboli, Europa '51, Journey to Italy, and Fear. These air back-to-back, starting at 8:00 PM. The first two have shown up on TCM in recent years, but I don't recall Journey to Italy ever showing up before, and I know Fear hasn't. Those two air at 12:00 midnight and 1:45 AM, respectively.

[Precious Doll]

It's been available through Warners Archive's for sometime now.