Turner Classic Movies

[Matt]

Praise be, it’s on the Watch TCM app if anyone missed it. Worth watching for the opening credits alone, which “dissolve” in the “rain.”

(I always wonder when I mention Watch TCM how many people here actually still have cable and can use this app. Must be in the single digits.)

Getting off the subject of The Rains Came, TCM is premiering three ‘70s classics in June: Bob Fosse’s Lenny, Pink Flamingos, and my pre-teen premium cable favorite The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh, an astrology-themed pro basketball comedy with a soundtrack by Philly Soul legend Thom Bell.

[colinr0380]

To briefly go back to The Rains Came (sorry Matt!), this was also part of that run of disaster movies from that era which also includes the Clark Gable starring San Francisco and the John Ford film The Hurricane, which pretty much set the template that the later 1970s disaster film cycle also stuck to, of a lot of fussin' and feudin' about petty love affairs and local politicking until some giant overwhelming event occurs to force everyone to have to respond to a singular threat (the new wrinkle in the best of the 70s cycle - i.e. most of the Irwin Allen productions - was adding a hyper-focused procedural sense of standalone scenes involving getting through a specific dangerous situation in detail to compliment the general emotional dramas going on). Maybe that was why The Rains Came won all the Academy Awards too, coming as it was in the wake of a lot of similar films that had prepared audiences for a big blockbuster disaster movie to be eligible for the top prizes.

(You can even see some of that influence of the disaster movie cycle on the 'burning of Atlanta' sequence that occurs in the middle of Gone With The Wind)

[Rayon Vert]

Never seen The Rains Came. Is there now any chance of a Fox product like that coming to BR some day?

[domino harvey]

Twilight Time released the lousy remake with Richard Burton on Blu, but the original is probably not high on the list of any label even if Disney starts licensing Fox titles more

[Matt]

Oh, hey, time for our quarterly panic about TCM’s imminent demise:

Top TCM Executives Out Amid Warner Bros. Networks Group Layoffs

[FrauBlucher]

It doesn't seem dire to me. An ex TCM exec is returning. Fingers crossed

[hanshotfirst1138]

This is the ONE thing I dearly miss about cable…

[FrauBlucher]

Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson have organized an emergency call to David Zaslav

[Fred Holywell]

Another celeb has joined the cause.

Ryan Reynolds is fighting to save TCM from being dismantled by Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

[FrauBlucher]

I still find it hard to believe that they are looking to end the channel. This CEO is supposedly a big fan and was even a panelist at the TCM Film Festival discussing film restoration.

[Drucker]

I still find it hard to believe that they are looking to end the channel. This CEO is supposedly a big fan and was even a panelist at the TCM Film Festival discussing film restoration.

The CEO is clearly a lying ghoul that has pretended to give a shit about a lot of other divisions within the company too.

[FrauBlucher]

Yeah, I know. I should always be skeptical when it comes to corporations

For me this is more troubling.... If they sell the library to Disney that will be the worst thing that can happen...pray this doesn't happen

edit: this could mean just music assets

[FrauBlucher]

Zaslav names Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy to oversee TCM

[FrauBlucher]

This commentary in Indiewire doesn't paint a pretty picture

[Johnny8204]

It doesn't seem dire to me. An ex TCM exec is returning. Fingers crossed

Almost 3/4ths of the people working at TCM just got layed off. For me this is devastating because it's basically the last channel I watch on Cable

[ando]

It doesn't seem dire to me. An ex TCM exec is returning. Fingers crossed

Almost 3/4ths of the people working at TCM just got layed off. For me this is devastating because it's basically the last channel I watch on Cable

Hear, hear.

But they really need to change the format - and, especially, broaden the content. Or at least redefine Americana.

[beamish14]

It doesn't seem dire to me. An ex TCM exec is returning. Fingers crossed

Almost 3/4ths of the people working at TCM just got layed off. For me this is devastating because it's basically the last channel I watch on Cable

Hear, hear.

But they really need to change the format - and, especially, broaden the content. Or at least redefine Americana.

I just wish they would put a moratorium on playing certain titles and broaden the scope of what’s screened. I think they show Mister Roberts at least three times a week on average. Virtually no non-English titles beyond the occasional Kurosawa or Rossellini, too

[FrauBlucher]

My tune has changed. I'm leaning to pessimism. Same here Johnny8204. I don't cut the cord because this is one channel amongst several others that I get on my cable that I watch all the time. One positive is there are a lot of Hollywood power players on the side of TCM

[Matt]

They used to play things no more than once a month. Of course, I never complain if it’s The Palm Beach Story (as it was earlier today).

[Fred Holywell]

Virtually no non-English titles beyond the occasional Kurosawa or Rossellini, too

Not much during the day or evening, but fortunately they're still showing TCM Imports late Sun/early Mon, and the variety of films continues to be good. Two from Jacques Demy ran last week, and tonight there's Partie de campagne and Il bidone. Hopefully, with Scorsese's input, new management won't consider taking the franchise off the schedule.

[Johnny8204]

Almost 3/4ths of the people working at TCM just got layed off. For me this is devastating because it's basically the last channel I watch on Cable

Hear, hear.

But they really need to change the format - and, especially, broaden the content. Or at least redefine Americana.

I just wish they would put a moratorium on playing certain titles and broaden the scope of what’s screened. I think they show Mister Roberts at least three times a week on average. Virtually no non-English titles beyond the occasional Kurosawa or Rossellini, too

Yeah I'm less concerned about the foreign titles because they always rotate them (though they did show White but not Red and Blue) for me it's the science fiction and horror titles that are stale. It's the same Hammer films, the same Vincent Price ones, it's always Forbidden Planet.

[yoloswegmaster]

Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Martin Scorsese to Guide Channel Programming

We have already begun working on ideas with Mike and Pam, both true film enthusiasts who share a passion and reverence for classic cinema that is the hallmark of the TCM community. This unique arrangement, initiated by David Zaslav, reflects his commitment to honoring the TCM legacy while also involving us on curation and programming. We are thrilled that longtime programmer Charlie Tabesh will be staying with TCM and gratified to know that the team is focused on preserving TCM’s mission of celebrating our rich movie history while at the same time ensuring that future generations of filmmakers and film lovers have TCM as a valuable resource

[beamish14]

I’m guessing that this will entail on-screen appearances from them and their friends, too, which is nice

[Ribs]

THR's piece timed to this news is considerably more exhaustive and filled with actual reporting in a way the other trades aren't - the long story short does remain that substantive cuts have been made and most of the staff still won't be coming back. Doesn't mean the channel can't run (the channel was literally designed to run with very little staff compared to every other network!) but not the amazing last minute all is well that some of the other outlets may be taking it as.

[FrauBlucher]

The first film John Huston directed after The Maltese Falcon was In This Our Life, which was on this afternoon. It was half over when I turned it on so I turned it off because I never seen it. Hoping to catch it in full. Maybe they'll replay it. Anyone have any thoughts about it?