Turner Classic Movies

[Napier]

TCM showed this, last night at 2AM on Underground. Has anyone else ever seen this? It's utterly bizarre, yet intriguing.

[Cold Bishop]

No, but I've seen its trailer, which is amazing. Remember the trailer opening the local Grindhouse Film Festival a few years back, and the crowd went justifiably apeshit (it helps that the whole thing started about a half-hour late).

Brian-Trenchard Smith is very interesting, however. As far as Capital-C Cult films of the 1980s go, Turkey Shoot should be up there with Eating Raoul, Toxic Avenger and Repo Man. The Siege of Firebase Gloria is one of my favorite Vietnam films, precisely in the way it manages to be a good old-fashioned war film without trivializing the conflict. The Quest and Dead-End Drive-In are both premium cable favorites that I keep trying to revisit. And then there's a little obscurity called BMX Bandits...

[Napier]

If you play guitar....this will make you want to be a stunt man. Very cool movie. The soundtrack is excellent. I hope it's available on vinyl, at the very least. I'd actually go so far as to say...It merits a CC release.

[domino harvey]

Rudimentary search reveals the soundtrack is up for sale at all the usual haunts and in CD format from the "band" themselves. And Code Red put this out on DVD a couple years ago, for those curious (ie this should probably go in the Code Red thread... at least, I think we have one?)

[Fred Holywell]

Right now, TCM is showing a much improved print of "The Black Book" aka "Reign of Terror", Anthony Mann's French Revolution film noir photographed by the masterful John Alton. Looks worlds away from the terrible public domain print they were running not too long ago.

[Cold Bishop]

Sony Print. Uncut, unlike the VCI. It is really nice. It'll probably end up on DVD-R.

[knives]

Tomorrow at 8 PST they're giving a rare showing of Nick Ray's last solo feature We Can't Go Home Again.

[Matt]

Robert Osborne is returning to hosting December 1. I saw a promo he did announcing his return last night and he looks really good.

[Feego]

Yes, I've seen that promo as well, and he actually looks and sounds better than he has in quite a while. I look forward to his return.

What's been interesting for the past several weeks watching various people sit in for him is seeing how many actors (who are used to being in front of the camera) are terribly awkward and uncomfortable introducing the films, while several critics (who are usually in front of a computer screen) are very relaxed and clear.

[knives]

I noticed that too. I could barely stand last week's Eva Marie disaster.

[Napier]

Robert's a national treasure.

[Professor Wagstaff]

I noticed that too. I could barely stand last week's Eva Marie disaster.

Was she worse than Lorraine Bracco? I quite liked David Edelstein's intros.

[knives]

I was going to mention Edelstein who really was the absolute best of the bunch and I hope comes around more often on the channel. I don't think I saw any of Bracco's intros.

[Feego]

Bracco was unwatchable. I think she and Peter Travers tie for the worst of the hosts I saw. Illeana Douglas and Winona Ryder also seemed very ill at ease. I agree with the praise for Edelstein. Michael Philips was also good. Others may not agree, but I also liked Chris Isaak with his typical low-key manner.

[PillowRock]

The one or two times that I saw Douglas, I didn't think she came off badly. Maybe a function of how well she knew and / or liked a particular movie (and the cast and crew she would be mentioning), perhaps?

[Fred Holywell]

Was she worse than Lorraine Bracco?

No one's been worse than Lorraine Bracco.

[Feego]

TCM's annual memorial tribute. Love that Liz Taylor fake-out.

[Luke M]

Did anyone catch Fear & Desire? It was the first time ever on television.

[Napier]

Did anyone catch Fear & Desire? It was the first time ever on television.

Yes, I watched it last night and it didn't impress me very much. The Eastman restoration guy told Robert O that Kubrick didn't like it either, and that is why it wasn't shown while he was alive.

[Zumpano]

I only DVR'd a few of the films, but a lot of the Eastman prints they showed last night were really good. Especially in HD.

[willoneill]

I watched Fear and Desire last night. The video quality of the print was really good, and the film had some interesting aspects, but the dialogue was atrocious.

[knives]

I think the bad way to describe it is as a poorly thought out Twilight Zone episode. The directing and acting is fine enough and Kubrick is already throwing around his favorite things, but the script is just a hideous little booger.

[Roger Ryan]

I think the bad way to describe it is as a poorly thought out Twilight Zone episode. The directing and acting is fine enough and Kubrick is already throwing around his favorite things, but the script is just a hideous little booger.

Yes, the mind-bogglingly bad script feels like something Rod Serling might have dictated in his sleep after a three-day bender. I think you're being too generous by saying that the directing and acting is fine. Kubrick the cinematographer will occasionally deliver a strikingly-composed shot (in line with his great eye as a still photographer for LOOK magazine), but Kubrick the director/editor seems incapable of putting two shots together that make any sense. As for the performances, well...the most polite way to say it is that they are uncontrolled. Mazursky, especially, is so far over-the-top that he unhinges every scene he's in.

Still, it's that script that is truly inexplicable. Why are these soldiers so obsessively worried about their flimsy make-shift raft being spotted on the beach and, yet, not once comment that their killing of three enemy soldiers at the nearby outpost might reveal their presence? It's hard to believe that screenwriter Howard Sackler would go on to win a Pulitzer for his writing. It's equally hard to imagine that Kubrick could do something as good as THE KILLING just two films later or go on to create bonafide masterpieces within a few more years.

The real value of FEAR AND DESIRE is to demonstrate how remarkably quick Kubrick progressed beyond it.

[Mooney]

Tristana directed by Luis Bunuel is airing next Tuesday, at 5:00 AM Central Time. I haven't seen this myself so I'm terribly excited about this.

Tristana doesn't have a proper DVD release in the States and Criterion should pick it up.

[knives]

Criterion owns it outright if I remember correctly.

Also Bunuel's version of Robinson Crusoe is playing at five PST today.