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Turner Classic Movies appreciation thread

post #1 of 335
3/6/08 at 1:08am
Thread Starter 
More than a handful of terrific films are being shown this month.

Some of the ones that jumped out at me when I looked through the schedule:
March 7th - Night of the Iguana
March 10th - Lord Love a Duck
March 14th - Bunny Lake is Missing
March 18th - The Lady from Shanghai, Rope
March 19th - Night of the Hunter (Don't miss this if you haven't seen it before)
March 20th - Jezebel
March 25th - Suddenly, Last Summer
March 27th - The Spiral Staircase
March 30th - Notorious
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post #2 of 335
3/6/08 at 1:56am
Ha, I just typed up my March list today:

March 6
7:00 PM Treasure of the Sierra Madre

March 8
4:30 PM Vertigo
7:00 PM The Apartment
9:15 PM How To Succeed in Business without really trying

March 9
1:15 PM Paper Moon

March 10
2:15 PM Irma La Douce

March 14
1:15 am Night of the Lepus

March 15
12:15 AM A Night in Casablanca

March 16
3:15 PM Key Largo

March 18
9:00 PM What's New Pussycat?

March 19
3:30 PM Night of the Hunter

March 22
11:00 PM Father of the Bride

March 23
8:30 PM Mildred Pierce

March 26
8:45 PM The Most Dangerous Game

March 29
7:00 PM The Great Escape

March 30
11:15 AM Play it Again, Sam

March 31
9:15 PM Cooley High
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post #3 of 335
3/6/08 at 1:59am
This is my obligatory mention that you should all see "Bunny Lake is Missing" if you haven't already. Thank you, proceed.
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post #4 of 335
3/6/08 at 2:01am
I love this channel, I watched so many movies last month (thanks Patrick for the heads up).

This channel needs to start broadcasting in HD stat!
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post #5 of 335
3/6/08 at 2:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by McIrish View Post
I love this channel, I watched so many movies last month (thanks Patrick for the heads up).

This channel needs to start broadcasting in HD stat!
Just out of curiosity.... what resolution are most old films? Would they work (look vastly better) in HD? I know some of them are a square-ish aspect ratio.
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post #6 of 335
3/6/08 at 2:12am
If I had to pick only one cable channel, blah blah blah. I love it.
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post #7 of 335
3/6/08 at 2:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belethedheliel View Post
Just out of curiosity.... what resolution are most old films? Would they work (look vastly better) in HD? I know some of them are a square-ish aspect ratio.
B&W films would look amazing on HD, I'd wager.

They wouldn't fill the screen til the mid 50s. But think HD Star Trek.
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post #8 of 335
3/6/08 at 2:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belethedheliel View Post
Just out of curiosity.... what resolution are most old films? Would they work (look vastly better) in HD? I know some of them are a square-ish aspect ratio.
I'd like broadcast in HD more because my current tv is rear projection and while HD looks great, standard def looks awful. It's compounded by broadcasting in the original aspect ratios, zooming in the standard def looks so bad. I assume they can upscale.

I want to say I really do love that they do show letterbox, it just adds to the problem on my tv.
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post #9 of 335
3/6/08 at 12:24pm
I'm somewhat disappointed that TCM doesn't do this kind of run more often. But, with that being said, 31 days of OSCARS is by far the best month of television.
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post #10 of 335
3/6/08 at 12:27pm
I watched so much of that 31 Days of Oscar it wasn't funny.
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post #11 of 335
3/6/08 at 12:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by McIrish View Post
I'd like broadcast in HD more because my current tv is rear projection and while HD looks great, standard def looks awful. It's compounded by broadcasting in the original aspect ratios, zooming in the standard def looks so bad. I assume they can upscale.

I want to say I really do love that they do show letterbox, it just adds to the problem on my tv.
I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Turner goes all digital. When that happens, I'll have a bunch of movies to watch all over again.
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post #12 of 335
3/6/08 at 12:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Fordyce View Post
If I had to pick only one cable channel, blah blah blah. I love it.
I upgraded my cable package just so we could keep this channel. Honestly, without TCM I wouldn't bother subscribing for anything beyond antennea service.
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post #13 of 335
3/6/08 at 1:06pm
Can't wait to hear Robert Osborne's Night of the Lepus trivia.
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post #14 of 335
3/6/08 at 1:09pm
"er, uh...trick photography....uh, er...keep an eye out for Star Trek's DeForrest Kelley....he was in some westerns..."
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post #15 of 335
3/6/08 at 1:13pm
Bet you anything Ben Mankiewicz gets Lepus, not Osborne.
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post #16 of 335
3/6/08 at 1:13pm
Yeah, I would kill for TCM in HD. The closest thing you can get right now is HDNet Movies (which did have a Hitchcock marathon over New Years and I think recently had Lawrence of Arabia on in HD). I know I also managed to record Once Upon a Time in America off of it. I'd definitely be up for more of the TCM style classic films though.

It did weird me out that they were showing LOTR last month. It just seemed out of place.
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post #17 of 335
3/8/08 at 9:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
March 8
4:30 PM Vertigo
7:00 PM The Apartment
9:15 PM How To Succeed in Business without really trying
I would suggest adding Baby Face (which airs right after H2$) to this list. It's a funny pre-code film with Barbara Stanwyck as a woman who sleeps her way to the top of a large company. One of the guys she uses for her purposes is played by a young John Wayne.
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post #18 of 335
3/8/08 at 9:38pm
Lord Love A Duck is so incestuous it's almost uncomfortable. Which, of course, makes it hilarious.
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post #19 of 335
3/8/08 at 10:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belethedheliel View Post
Just out of curiosity.... what resolution are most old films? Would they work (look vastly better) in HD? I know some of them are a square-ish aspect ratio.
35mm film has been the standard almost from the beginning of theatrical presentation. If prints exist for new video masters to be made there are silent movies that will knock your eye out in HD.

The American aspect ratio up to the early 1950s was 1.37:1, eventually giving way to today's twin standards of 1.85:1 (or "flat") and 2.35:1 ("scope"). HD is 1.77:1, so no matter what you watch it's going to be cropped or boxed in some fashion.
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post #20 of 335
3/8/08 at 10:52pm
And now I missed the Apartment. Can this day get any worse?
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post #21 of 335
3/8/08 at 11:00pm
The Apartment might be my favorite movie ever.
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post #22 of 335
3/8/08 at 11:12pm
I too came into The Apartment mid-Lemmon. Having never seen it, I'll probably just Netflix it. The worst thing about the channel is when the power goes out, even for a second. There's a storm here right now so I wouldn't have chanced it anyway (it takes about 5 minutes for the cable box to get its shit together, even if it's just on and off). This happened to me whilst watching The Naked Prey, at the exact time they first get attacked by the natives. It ruined my weekend. Thank God for Criterion.
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post #23 of 335
3/9/08 at 12:12am
I miss TCM badly. The satellite service at the house has The Channel Formerly Known As AMC instead. Ugh.
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post #24 of 335
3/9/08 at 12:40am
My power went out 20 minutes before my recording of The Apartment was supposed to start. I, too, am pissed.
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post #25 of 335
3/9/08 at 1:55am
Yup. Had I watched the Apartment I would have been fucked over at least once. That's why I played it safe and stuck with Bee Movie, which was terrible.

Also, fuck AMC. AMC is fake TCM. I understand the commercials but at least put your films in widescreen. TBS and USA do this. Why can't they. IFC should also get some love, but alas, I haven't had it in 3 years. Missing it.
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post #26 of 335
3/9/08 at 3:00am
I missed The Apartment too. Bad day for us, eh?

Anyways, I love Turner Classic Movies. It's really the only channel I watch for movies. I use Comcast OnDemand for all other movies I watch, but since only so many of those are in the widescreen format, I usually pass on what choices I have.

Robert Osbourne is a great host as well.
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post #27 of 335
3/9/08 at 3:01am
The three best movie channels out there are IFC, TCM, and Fox Movie Channel. Those are, aside from Sundance, the only ones that regularly show shit in widescreen.
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post #28 of 335
3/9/08 at 3:03am
I used to really like AMC years and years ago. Now, it's horrible. It went from good quality to crap in record time.
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post #29 of 335
3/9/08 at 3:25am
Back when it was American Movie Classics, it was a nice supplement to TCM. TCM showed the prestige stuff, while AMC specialized in the genre B-flicks of yesteryear. Then they started premiering crap like Kickboxer III and became American Movie Channel, fullscreening everything, commercials every ten minutes, and it was never the same. Even the "letterboxed" presentations are the fullscreen versions with a black bar at the bottom with a running commentary of "trivia" that reads like some intern copy-and-pasted the IMDb page into a text prompter.
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post #30 of 335
3/9/08 at 3:26am
Forgot Fox Movie Channel. Another great one as well. Though, they literally have been showing Broken Arrow regularly for a few months straight now. It's on tonight. And probably next weekend too.

Ain't it cool?
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post #31 of 335
3/9/08 at 12:17pm
I missed The Apartment because I stupidly forgot it was on. At least I got to watch Treasure of the Sierra Madre for the first time Thursday.
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post #32 of 335
3/9/08 at 12:40pm
And TCM is absolutely wonderful around Halloween. Lots of old B&W horror classics while AMC pisses away the hours showing Halloween IV over and over again.
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post #33 of 335
3/9/08 at 4:08pm
And due to Daylight Savings, I missed Paper Moon.
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post #34 of 335
3/9/08 at 4:50pm
Watching Paper Moon anyway, despite missing the first hour. Love it. Noises Off aside, this is my first Peter Bogdanovich movie. I know I need to see The Last Picture Show, but are his other films this good?
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post #35 of 335
3/9/08 at 5:00pm
HUSTLE is a riot. Be a while before it hits TCM though.
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post #36 of 335
3/9/08 at 7:49pm
I wish I had TCM, I got it OnDemand though, so I guess it's better then nothing. Which reminds me, I need to check if they switched out any movies.
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post #37 of 335
3/9/08 at 8:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
Watching Paper Moon anyway, despite missing the first hour. Love it. Noises Off aside, this is my first Peter Bogdanovich movie. I know I need to see The Last Picture Show, but are his other films this good?
He's wildly inconsistent. I like What's Up, Doc?, and since you're aware of older films you'll probably appreciate the references to classic screwball comedies in that one. I remember Mask being very good but I haven't seen the new version with the Springsteen songs yet. Everyone overlooks Saint Jack, which is probably his most 'real' movie, without any dependence on pop culture.

Where he falls down is when he poses as the Guardian of Old Hollywood and tries to construct a ready-made Movie Classic. He just premiered a new edit of Nickelodeon- I hope he remembered to put the history back in.
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post #38 of 335
3/9/08 at 8:14pm
Thread Starter 
I'd say check out What's Up Doc?, Last Picture Show, & Targets first, if possible. Then see Mask and The Cat's Meow. I haven't seen Nickelodeon or Saint Jack.
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post #39 of 335
3/9/08 at 8:27pm
I love channels like TCM. I love the IFC and Sundance too, but TCM is just great.
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post #40 of 335
3/16/08 at 10:15am
Thread Starter 
Excellent line up today.

8:00 AM - Libeled Lady (1936)

10:00 AM -Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

12:00 PM -His Girl Friday (1940)

2:00 PM -Roman Holiday (1953)

4:15 PM -Key Largo (1948)

6:00 PM -Rear Window (1954)

8:00 PM -All About Eve (1950)

10:30 PM -Blue Gardenia, The (1953)

12:15 AM -Metropolis (1927)

2:30 AM -Titanic (1943)

4:00 AM -Terminator, The (1984)
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post #41 of 335
3/16/08 at 2:13pm
Aside from occasional episodes of a few TV shows, my DVR gets the most use recording stuff on TCM. It really helps out because the BEST movies usually come on around 3 or 4 in the morning. (Nashville, Absence of Malice, Freaks, The Devil Doll)
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post #42 of 335
3/20/08 at 9:22am
heh, I just noticed they've got Emma Mae and Penitentiary on the schedule. How can you not love TCM?
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post #43 of 335
3/20/08 at 9:43am
Watched Night of the Lepus at 1 am about a week ago. I love that you can still get that mixed in with a steady diet of great cinema. TCM > people.
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post #44 of 335
3/20/08 at 10:14am
TCM is one of the few channels I watch. Caught His Girl Friday on Sunday and loved it.
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post #45 of 335
3/20/08 at 10:53am
I saw this thread right before I went home (which has TCM) for Spring Break. When I got there, I flipped it on and was treated to Olivier's Hamlet followed by Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. Not bad, not bad at all.
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post #46 of 335
3/20/08 at 10:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Kimbell View Post
followed by Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. Not bad, not bad at all.
Crap, it was on last night? I missed it! Oh, well, I do have it in my Netflix queue, but that would have been a great catch to stumble upon last night.
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post #47 of 335
3/20/08 at 10:56am
No, this was last week.
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post #48 of 335
3/20/08 at 11:09am
Home sick yesterday - The Caine Mutiny, Mutiny on the Bounty, and Night of the Hunter. You stay classy, TCM.
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post #49 of 335
3/20/08 at 11:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Kimbell View Post
No, this was last week.
Ah well.

One of my favorite evenings in my Film Appreciation class in college was a "contrast and compare" marathon of Romeo and Juliet. We saw, in a three film class, the 1936 Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer version, the 1968 Zefferelli version (which is just so incredible), and West Side Story. Really a great class.
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post #50 of 335
3/20/08 at 11:11am
I had to keep reminding myself that Olivia Hussey was fifteen years old in that film.
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