Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#51 Post by GaryC » Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:30 am

According to Radio Times, The Gay Diplomat wasn't a premiere, but the BFI's database doesn't list a previous TV transmission. I'm struggling to remember any time that any of the five main channels* showed a film that was eighty-two years old, though Channel 4's 1993 showings of The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance certainly came close.

It was also the first film I've seen that was directed by Richard Boleslawski, and his work was the best of it (he liked his dissolves), even spinning the camera upside-down during the opening battle scene. The film was quite pacy, coming in at just over an hour. Unfortunately it was saddled with Ivan Lebedeff as the lead (though third-billed), handsome but wooden and hampered further by a strong accent. It wasn't very Pre-Codey, but I suspected that given that the BBFC back in 1931 passed it U without cuts. (The listing on their database has "synchronised" in brackets after the title - there's a sign of the times.)

BBC2 are showing Tim this afternoon, in HD which is interesting as there isn't a Blu-ray in the UK, USA or Australia. I've only seen it before once, on VHS about twenty years ago. That's a favourite of a few people I know of both sexes who fancied the pants off Mel Gibson back in the day.

*By which I mean BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5, which were free-to-air before the analogue switch-off. Film Four showed D.W. Griffith's Orphans of the Storm as a tie-in to Mark Cousins's Story of Film series and have shown it a few times since. It's on again tomorrow night, in the early hours of Monday morning.

Jonathan S
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#52 Post by Jonathan S » Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:59 am

I certainly can't recall the last time I heard a BBC continuity announcer use the term "early talkie"!

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#53 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Jun 15, 2013 6:21 am

GaryC wrote:According to Radio Times, The Gay Diplomat wasn't a premiere, but the BFI's database doesn't list a previous TV transmission. I'm struggling to remember any time that any of the five main channels* showed a film that was eighty-two years old, though Channel 4's 1993 showings of The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance certainly came close.
BBC2 did actually premiere Anthony Asquith's 1929 A Cottage In Dartmoor during their "Summer of British Film" season back in 2007 (one of the few highlights of a season, along with The Pumpkin Eater, The Leather Boys and The Whisperers, that mostly consisted of repeats of the old guard of Carry On films, Alfie/The Italian Job, a couple of Hammer films and a ropey, battered pan and scan copy of The Long Duel), but yes that is the last pre-30s film I remember any of the 'big five' major channels showing in years (and before that I would have to go back to the last Channel 4 silent presentation back in 2000 of Douglas Fairbanks Snr's The Iron Mask!

I also wouldn't put too much faith in the Radio Times' 'premiere' symbols. They're good as a general guide and more often than not they are correct but I regularly find that they miss noting that films are getting their first screening (for example I think Takashi Miike's Gozu got premiered on Film4 last week without that being noted) and sometimes even put their little 'P' symbol next to films that have been shown a few times already!

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#54 Post by GaryC » Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:15 am

This coming Saturday morning, BBC2 are showing another Pre-Code, The Half-Naked Truth from 1932. Though I don't suspect it'll be as risqué as all that, given that the BBFC passed it uncut for a U certificate back then.

Also on Saturday is a western, Best of the Badmen, from 1951.

Sunday morning changes from black and white Academy Ratio to colour and Scope with Every Day's a Holiday from 1964. It was directed by James Hill, which may make it of interest to anyone who watched the BFI Flipside release of Lunch Hour, and it was photographed by Nicolas Roeg.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#55 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jul 09, 2013 4:04 pm

The Half-Naked Truth is also directed by Gregory La Cava, later of My Man Godfrey and She Married Her Boss fame!

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#56 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jul 24, 2013 2:28 pm

My Neighbours The Yamadas is getting a low-key premiere on the Film4 channel at 11.00 a.m. on Thursday 1st August (and Ocean Waves is repeated at the same time on Friday morning)

Plus Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins is showing on Film4 Wednesday 31st July at 9.00 p.m.

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Paul Moran
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#57 Post by Paul Moran » Wed Jul 24, 2013 5:41 pm

GaryC wrote:Sunday morning changes from black and white Academy Ratio to colour and Scope with Every Day's a Holiday from 1964. It was directed by James Hill, which may make it of interest to anyone who watched the BFI Flipside release of Lunch Hour, and it was photographed by Nicolas Roeg.
I set my HDD/DVD recorder, just in case, but it was 1.78:1, like a (perhaps the) previous broadcast in Sept 2009.

aewb
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#58 Post by aewb » Sun Sep 08, 2013 3:56 am

Stromboli is the early film on BBC2 next sunday.

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#59 Post by GaryC » Sun Sep 08, 2013 4:26 am

The early film this morning was They Live by Night, last shown as one of the BBC's 100 films in their Century of Cinema - and it still had that season's logo at the beginning. That was eighteen years ago - where did the time go? I can't remember why I didn't see it back then (like a few others then, I may have recorded on a VHS tape and never got round to watching it) but I've just made up for that omission. The continuity announcer said that it was a rare chance to see it - I guess so, as it's not on DVD in the UK, even though this is one of the more well-known films the BBC has been showing in these early-weekend-morning slots.

Last week, they reshowed a film they had shown in this slot earlier this year - The Little Minister - for reasons I don't know.

Next Saturday morning is an Oscar-winner, The Westerner.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#60 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Sep 12, 2013 6:05 pm

The first part of BBC4's series presented by Neil Brand, Sounds of Cinema: The Music That Made The Movies, was an interesting introduction to the history of film composing, taking in many of the usual suspects including Bernard Herrmann's career. However one aspect that Brand did not seem to mention during his section on Max Steiner and his score for King Kong was that no mention at all was made of The Most Dangerous Game (or The Hounds of Zaroff as it was retitled in the UK), the film which prototyped out almost every element that Kong elaborated on later, including a score by Steiner that similarly complements the beats of the action, especially during the hunting sequences.

I wonder if the programme had to be streamlined down into just focusing on Kong and that meant any mention of The Most Dangerous Game had to be left out (although even a casual mention would have sufficed to let the audience know of its existence!), but it does make some of the comments made about how innovative the score to King Kong was seem rather strange if we consider there is a key companion film with much of the same cast and crew that was important in prototyping a lot of that very similar material out.

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#61 Post by GaryC » Sat Sep 21, 2013 4:52 am

There was another Pre-Code this morning, The Lost Squadron from 1932. Not the most distinguished directorially (George Archainbaud, who seems to have had a prolific career starting in the silent era, but worked for television from 1953 onwards) but entertaining and a brisk hour and a quarter, with some good flying sequences and Erich von Stroheim amusingly OTT as a megalomaniac film director. I don't remember it being on before, but the BFI lists several previous screenings, the latest in 1999. It doesn't appear on the BBFC database, so may well not have had a UK cinema release. Nothing too much in the way of Pre-Code material other than some drunkenness and one airman giving another the finger.

This was released in the USA March 1932, according to the IMDB shot in November 1931, and I understand that the US industry standardised Academy Ratio at 1.37:1 in June 1932. I say this because the BBC showed the film in 4:3 as you would expect, but it looked like it was a 1.19:1 film. It did look cropped at the top of the frame to me in many shots, most obviously in one of the front of house man at the movie premiere: the top half of his head was missing. Can anyone confirm this?

While I'm here, is there any film that people would like BBC2 to show in this weekend morning slot? It would have to be something that the BBC already have the rights to, which would include most (all?) of the RKO catalogue. You never know, someone from the Beeb might be reading this thread... For me, I've been on a Eugene O'Neill kick this year, what with Strange Interlude at the National Theatre a couple of months back and The Long Voyage Home on BBC2 earlier this year, so I wouldn't mind a chance to see the 1947 film of Mourning Becomes Electra, a RKO production. It's three hours long though, and some versions are cut to two and a half - I don't know which version the BBC holds. The version released in British cinemas in 1948 was the shorter one.

Jonathan S
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#62 Post by Jonathan S » Sat Sep 21, 2013 7:36 am

I think the most likely explanation for the cropping - and softness - of The Lost Squadron is that it's taken from an old and badly printed 16mm copy. At any rate, I can confirm from direct comparison it looks just the same as it did when the BBC screened it in the 1980s & '90s.

There are quite a few RKO titles I have on VHS from earlier transmissions that I'd be happy to upgrade - from the 1930s, Cukor's Our Betters, the first three Hildegarde Withers films with the incomparable Edna May Oliver, plus 1940s noirs such as Crack-Up and They Won't Believe Me (which has one of the greatest noir endings, if nothing else). Nocturne is showing tomorrow morning at 6:05am!

That said, I'm finding the BBC's transfers often have so much DNR and contrast boosting that the digital broadcasts don't usually improve on my VHS copies - and, in some cases, where the earlier transmissions used undoctored film prints, my tape copies look sharper! The BBC's Hildegarde Withers transfers might be preferable to those in the recent Warner Archive set, which I haven't seen but has been criticised for poor quality on some titles.

I don't recall any UK TV transmission of Mourning Becomes Electra in the thirty-odd years I've been monitoring the terrestrial channels.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#63 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Sep 24, 2013 1:53 pm

According to the Radio Times, Borderline, starring Fred MacMurray, Claire Trevor and Raymond Burr, is getting is UK television premiere on BBC2 Sunday 29th September at 6.00 a.m., only 63 years after it was made!

Though if you can't wait, the full film is on YouTube.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Jonathan S
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#64 Post by Jonathan S » Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:07 am

Yes, the 1950 Borderline seems to be a PD favourite on DVD but I don't recall a previous broadcast here. Amusingly, a few days ago some TV listing sites were advertising it as the avant-garde silent with Paul Robeson!

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#65 Post by GaryC » Sat Sep 28, 2013 6:00 am

Jonathan S wrote:I think the most likely explanation for the cropping - and softness - of The Lost Squadron is that it's taken from an old and badly printed 16mm copy. At any rate, I can confirm from direct comparison it looks just the same as it did when the BBC screened it in the 1980s & '90s.
That was noticeable with this morning's two. From This Day Forward looked like it was originally a 35mm print, complete with cue dots at reel changes. (I never heard anyone call them "cigarette burns" before Fight Club and I wonder if that term was made up for that film.) A Damsel in Distress (which I've recorded but haven't watched yet) looked like a rather soft 16mm copy. I've no idea what Borderline will look like tomorrow morning, given that it's a UK TV premiere.

Next Saturday morning's pair are another George Raft movie, Johnny Angel, and San Demetrio London.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#66 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Oct 08, 2013 2:53 pm

On Thursday 17th October at 12.40 a.m. Channel 4 is going to be showing a premiere of the 1935 adaptation (the first sound version, after a 1927 silent) of the much-filmed (there was another version released this year) novel Devdas.

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antnield
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#67 Post by antnield » Thu Oct 10, 2013 5:50 am

Mikio Naruse(!) is coming to UK TV next week. Late Chrysanthemums (Bangiku) is screening on Film4 at 11am on Thursday October 17th.

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#68 Post by GaryC » Thu Oct 17, 2013 3:21 am

antnield wrote:Mikio Naruse(!) is coming to UK TV next week. Late Chrysanthemums (Bangiku) is screening on Film4 at 11am on Thursday October 17th.
As per Radio Times, it's showing in HD too. I've set the digibox to record it, as I haven't seen a Naruse film before. That said, the digibox is rapidly filling up, as I have an increasing recorded-off-TV kevyip along with the DVD and Blu-ray kevyip.

Film Four is showing another Naruse, Floating Clouds, also in HD, in the same timeslot on Thursday 24th.

There's another UK TV premiere in Channel 4's Centenary of Indian Cinema, Sant Tukaram (1936), showing on the 24th at 12.50am. According to Radio Times it has a 12 certificate but I can't find it on the BBFC database.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#69 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Oct 17, 2013 12:45 pm

As with Devdas it looks as if the tale of "Saint" Tukaram has been filmed multiple times - imdb lists two 1920s silent versions, a 1931 silent and two 1960s versions.

This is the 1936 version, clips of which turned up during episode 6 of Mark Cousins' The Story of Film: An Odyssey. I've not seen the film before but in that section of the series it was placed in the illustrious company of Paper Flowers, Pather Panchali, Devi and Mother India!

The most recent RKO Film on BBC2, Great Day, actually looked in very good quality. Shame about the film though, a rather stagey piece about a quaint rural small town's Women's Institute excitedly preparing for a visit by Eleanor Roosevelt.

There are some wonderfully fruity lines (including one lady who declares everyone as "Darling!" every other word!), especially those at the beginning from the woman telling the excited congregation about the visit:
At this time tomorrow you will receive a visit from one of the most dynamic personalities in public life today. She is also one of the most charming people I have ever met and I know you will all like her tremendously. Her name... is Eleanor Roosevelt

...You will have read all about her in your daily papers. I expect you have read her own column. Well, she's like that...a natural, human person, and she has come over here to see things for herself. She wants to learn what British women are doing in wartime...

...I'm not going make any suggestions about what you should show her but I do know that she wants to see things as they are. She is not coming as the First Lady of America but as one of yourselves: a woman, with a husband and a family and a home of her own...
The visit itself is really just the catalyst for a number of subplots amongst the WI and a strange turn into unconvincing family dramas involving feisty, free spirited or practical women fighting to get out from under the thumb of head in the clouds, reliving past glories, recklessly spending fathers, employers or husbands. Though I could see this getting a modern day remake with Hillary Clinton as the arriving dignitary!
GaryC wrote:Film Four is showing another Naruse, Floating Clouds, also in HD, in the same timeslot on Thursday 24th.
I wouldn't be surprised then if When A Woman Ascends The Stairs, the third film from that BFI Naruse set, turns up next Thursday.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#70 Post by STEVEM13 » Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:17 pm

Hi, just to let everyone know there are some more rare RKO classics being shown on BBC2 this weekend:

Sat 26th October:
7.35am Carnival Boat. 1932.
8.35am The Fallen Sparrow. 1943.

Sun 27th October:
6.00am The Pengiun Pool Murder. 1932.

And they are also showing the classic Hitchcock film 'The 39 Steps' at 7.05am.

The three films above I don't think have been shown before. It's so great to see these wonderful films being shown every weekend on BBC2. I wonder if they have the rights to all of the RKO back catalogue?

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#71 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Oct 21, 2013 6:59 pm

This is a very early advance notice but The Horror Channel is going to be showing Mulholland Drive on Saturday 9th November at 10.35 p.m. I think this might be the film's first UK television screening?

...also Twisted Nerve on Friday 15th November
...and All The Boys Love Mandy Lane on Saturday 16th November
...and, ahem, Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks on Thursday 14th November

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#72 Post by GaryC » Tue Oct 22, 2013 1:35 pm

STEVEM13 wrote:Hi, just to let everyone know there are some more rare RKO classics being shown on BBC2 this weekend:

Sat 26th October:
7.35am Carnival Boat. 1932.
8.35am The Fallen Sparrow. 1943.

Sun 27th October:
6.00am The Pengiun Pool Murder. 1932.

And they are also showing the classic Hitchcock film 'The 39 Steps' at 7.05am.

The three films above I don't think have been shown before. It's so great to see these wonderful films being shown every weekend on BBC2. I wonder if they have the rights to all of the RKO back catalogue?
Carnival Boat is a UK TV premiere, but the others aren't.

When RKO went bust in the 1950s, the BBC was one of a number of broadcasters who bought a lot of 35mm and 16mm films in return for perpetual TV rights for the life of the prints. Of course they'd have all been transferred to Digibeta (I think) a while back: as far as I know, the BBC hasn't broadcast films or anything else from actual film prints for over twenty years. I don't know if they have the rights to ALL the RKO back catalogue. There were six films which RKO released which turned up in Merian C. Cooper's estate as he had the rights. They were released by TCM in the USA as a DVD-R boxset a few years back. One of those was A Man to Remember (1938) whose only surviving print turned up in a Dutch archive, and that print (and the DVD-R) has Dutch subtitles. I'm pretty certain the BBC doesn't have the rights to that one!

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#73 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Oct 22, 2013 7:28 pm

Apparently Carnival Boat is a very early Ginger Rogers (a while before being partnered up with Fred Astaire) movie.

Also next week:

Channel 4's Indian film season is continuing with the premiere of Celluloid Man on Thursday 31st October at 12.55 a.m. , a documentary about PK Nair who has preserved many Indian films (according to the write up in the Radio Times: "it's thanks to him that the country's first feature, Dadasaheb Phalke's silent film Raja Harischandra (1913) has survived. But apart from the 8,000 films produced by Bollywood, Parallel Cinema and India's numerous regional industries, Nair has also amassed 4,000 foreign films and clips from 34 classics are shown")

On Halloween Film4 are screening Häxan at 1.10 a.m., in a double bill following Antichrist! And on Friday 1st November at 10.45 p.m. Film4 are showing Race With The Devil, which I don't think has been on television for a few years. Here's the Alex Cox Moviedrome introduction from back in 1994!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Thu Oct 24, 2013 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#74 Post by GaryC » Wed Oct 23, 2013 1:15 pm

colinr0380 wrote:Apparently Carnival Boat is a very early Ginger Rogers (a while before being partnered up with Fred Astaire) movie.
Following my comments re The Lost Squadron above, I suspect this will be 1.19:1 and likely cropped into 1.33:1 as well.

THe Penguin Pool Murder was released in December 1932, so may have an OAR of 1.37:1.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#75 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Oct 26, 2013 5:44 am

I was very glad (and strangely comforted) to see the Magnificent Ambersons staircase being pressed into service again in another RKO production with this morning's screening of The Fallen Sparrow!

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