Glad to see PTA doing on-screen commentary at TCM. I love it when directors are interviewed there.
I’ve seen 3 of the 5. The 2 I haven’t seen are the British ones, Night Ambush and Victim. Will set my calendar for all.
'Short-fingered vulgarian" still makes me giddy. Thanks for the memories. I remember reading that 7 years ago.
"Puddin' fingers" is another one that recently gave me a chuckle.
The clueless philistine Ted Turner from a 1986 Los Angeles Times article.
“The last time I checked, I owned the films that we’re in the process of colorizing,” said Ted Turner. “I can do whatever I want with them, and if they’re going to be shown on television, they’re going to be in color.”
“All I’m trying to do is protect my investment in MGM,” said Turner, who earlier this year paid more than $1.2 billion for the studio’s 3,650-title library of movies. He has announced plans to color such seminal black-and-white films as “Casablanca,” “The Maltese Falcon” and the John Garfield-Lana Turner “The Postman Always Rings Twice.”
“I’m really shocked at the fuss,” he said. “I personally don’t think it makes that much difference in the end. I think editing these movies makes a hell of a lot more difference in how they look, especially when they’re chopped up by 20 or more minutes in order to fit into the time slots. Why aren’t people making a fuss about that?”
“Besides,” he said, “I like things in color. We see in color. Why didn’t they (the protesting film makers) make ‘The Sting’ in black- and-white if they’re so concerned about historical authenticity? I don’t see their point.”
In 1988, Jimmy Stewart made a plea in Congressional hearings, along with Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, film director Martin Scorsese, and many others, against Ted Turner's decision to 'colorize' classic black-and-white films, including It's a Wonderful Life. Stewart stated, "the coloring of black-and-white films is wrong. It's morally and artistically wrong and these profiteers should leave our film industry alone."
Everyone hated the idea so much that Congressional Hearings were held in 1987-88 which led to the National Film Preservation Act of 1988 which gave the principal Director or Screenwriter the right to prevent any "material alteration" of their films.
This was all before he married Jane Fonda. I'd like to think she ultimately had an influence on his taste.
All this meshugaas has me pining for TCM's halcyon days of Robert Osborne.
French Connection has one of the greatest car chase scenes in film history. Popeye Doyle was a great bad ass cop with serious anger issues.
"...makes Eraserhead seem like 'Ernest Saves Christmas'."
--Critic's Choice, Time Magazine
Amazing to think about all the changes she saw first hand in Hollywood since her youth. Side note, she was married to director Richard L. Bare who died in 2015 at the age of 101. Bare directed 7 Twilight Zone episodes including To Serve Man
Last year we lost Marsha Hunt at 104 (1917-2022) before that Norman Lloyd at 106 (1919-2021) & Olivia de Havilland at 104 (1916-2020)
Norman Lear is 101, Glynis Johns just turned 100 last Thursday, Mel Brooks is 97.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_centenarians_(actors,_filmmakers_and_entertainers)