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TompaDompa from Sweden Since: Jan, 2012
#351: Feb 3rd 2016 at 9:14:02 AM

The Lord of the Rings has five intermissions... kind of. Then again, it is eleven hours long.

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#352: Feb 3rd 2016 at 9:21:33 AM

[up][up]It's a matter of the right terminology. IE a movie has to have a certain length (a little bit over an hour). If it doesn't reach it, it is either a short or a feature in my eyes. The usual running time for a movie is 90 minutes. Meaning a movie which is three hours long has the length of two movies and is therefore a two-parter in my eyes, not a movie. And if it is even longer, it becomes a very high budgeted series at one point. That doesn't mean that I can't enjoy said series, but it is not a movie any longer.

edited 3rd Feb '16 9:22:33 AM by Swanpride

jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#353: Feb 3rd 2016 at 9:36:35 AM

[up]Your terminology is not right. Three hour movies have been around since Cabiria and Intolerance 100 years ago. Those were not series. And one imagines they had intermissions to allow moviegoers to use the restroom and eat whatever moviegoers ate for snacks during World War I.

There's an old story about some movie dude who was asked "How long is a good movie?" and he shot back with "How long is a movie good?" I can't agree that three-hour films are inherently too long. Any movie that isn't good is automatically too long—as I said upthread Going My Way is 2 hours and 10 minutes long and by the end I was praying for a blackout to force me to do something else. And nowadays most of us are watching movies like this on our computers and devices at home so we can stop the movie whenever we want.

A movie may hold up over a three-hour run time and it may not. I thought Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films earned every minute of their three-hour run times. His King Kong on the other hand did not; there were good things about that movie but it could have been cut an hour shorter and been better off.

(Trivia: AMPAS defines a feature as a minimum of 40 minutes long, although no film less than an hour long has ever been nominated for Best Picture.)

edited 3rd Feb '16 9:38:32 AM by jamespolk

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#354: Feb 3rd 2016 at 9:49:03 AM

And none of those movies were shown without intermission as far as I know.

jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#355: Feb 3rd 2016 at 6:38:34 PM

[up]None of those movies had an intermission. Intermissions are just about extinct. I'm looking around and it seems that the last film given wide release with a built-in intermission was Gods and Generals 13 years ago, and before that the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet in 1996. Nowadays if you want to see a three-hour movie you are going to have to make some strategic decisions, and it's been that way for a generation.

Intermissions not only were common for epics back in the day but were built into the narrative. There is a big reveal in Doctor Zhivago that comes right at the intermission break.


I just watched Made for Each Other with Carole Lombard and James Stewart—man, I hate hate hate hate hate it that this wiki titles the article about James Stewart as "Jimmy Stewart"—anyway, I'm not gonna make a work page for that movie, because my goodness, I've never seen a movie fall apart more in the last 20 minutes. The maddening thing is that most of it is a pretty good movie. It's a deconstruction of Fourth-Date Marriage and Happily Ever After in which Stewart and Lombard get married after knowing each other for a day, and then their relationship goes through a lot of difficulties, like Stewart's Jerkass of a boss and his nagging shrew of a mother who won't stop picking on Lombard. It's a pretty good flick. Then the last 20 minutes chucks that out the window for some cheapjack melodrama involving their baby getting sick and a desperate race to get some vitally needed medicine. Comes completely out of nowhere, and the wheels fly right off the bus.

One thing I did find interesting is that it averts Sleeping Single, which was relatively rare in a film made in 1939. Sort of averts it, anyway—Stewart and Lombard aren't shown in a bed together but they definitely only have one, and they also have only one bed in their stateroom on a cruise ship.


Watched Bulldog Drummond, and I will make a work page for that. Based off a novel series. Made in 1929 and one of the very few decent films made during the early talkie era, which was mostly a bunch of garbage. And Ronald Colman is a relatively rare example of a star from the silent film days who didn't miss a beat when transitioning to talkies. One of the things that made the early talkies so terrible was that most of the actors were reading off dialogue like they were animatronic mannequins, but Colman is just as natural in Bulldog Drummond as he is in any of the other films he made over the next 30 years.

edited 3rd Feb '16 7:10:28 PM by jamespolk

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#356: Feb 4th 2016 at 2:12:07 AM

[up]I have yet to see a movie over a certain length which doesn't have a totally annoying interruption in the middle so that people can go to the loo.

In a way, the planned intermissions are better. Because they at least are not that abrupt.

edited 4th Feb '16 2:12:52 AM by Swanpride

jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#357: Feb 4th 2016 at 10:29:08 PM

I just watched a film I had never even heard of before, and which I enjoyed immensely.

Five Star Final, starring Edward G. Robinson right after he made Little Caesar and Boris Karloff right before he made Frankenstein, is a movie about a sleazy tabloid newspaper that ruins the lives of two innocent people in order to sell more copies. It felt amazingly contemporary. God knows that gross sleazy tabloid journalism is still with us today. I'm gonna make a Creator page for Robinson soon, maybe tomorrow.

TCM's 31 Days of Oscar for Feb. 5 is chock full of great movies for almost 24 hours, frankly, so I'll just mention the prime-time schedule. There's an Ernst Lubitsch double feature with The Love Parade and The Smiling Lieutenant, and after that comes...

...one of the best romantic comedies ever made...

...possibly the Trope Maker for Romantic Comedy as a genre, actually...

...possibly the best film Frank Capra ever made...

...and one of only three films to sweep all the major Oscars (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay)...

It Happened One Night. And it deserved all those awards.


On Feb. 6 TCM is running mostly movies that miss our cutoff. But they are running Rebel Without a Cause, which I've never seen, but hey, if one is curious about James Dean...

edited 4th Feb '16 10:33:09 PM by jamespolk

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#358: Feb 5th 2016 at 4:24:27 AM

How come we don't have a page for Edward G. Robinson? Christ.

Rebel Without A Cause, here on the boards, is probably most famous for inspiring that infamous line from The Room - you know the one...

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#359: Feb 5th 2016 at 12:20:52 PM

[up]"Your awful movie is tearing me apart"? tongue

It Happened One Night is just perfect. One of the best of the 30s. I want to say "the one that beats them all", but there are so many good films from that era, it's hard to say which one deserves the title.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
Robbery Since: Jul, 2012
#360: Feb 6th 2016 at 3:52:34 PM

It should be pointed out that, at least as far as I know, it has never cost any more to go see a three-hour movie than it has to go see a 90 minute movie. Back in the day, going to see a movie was your whole evening, or afternoon. They wanted them to get their money's worth. Trust me, though,I am entirely sensitive to the notion that a movie should only be as long as it needs to be; I've seen way to many "classic" 2 1/2 to 3 hour epics that really could have benefited from a trim.

It's funny, though, that early movie makers were afraid that they wouldn't be able to get audiences to stay in their seats for a whole 30 minutes...

edited 6th Feb '16 3:54:25 PM by Robbery

jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#361: Feb 6th 2016 at 4:47:49 PM

Yep, it doesn't get better than It Happened One Night. I think my favorite scene is the one with the starving woman on the bus. Really lends some weight to the film.

You know, we've already talked about how Oscar whiffed a lot in the early days, but they were more willing to recognize comedies and musicals. Just imagine a Romantic Comedy on the lines of It Happened One Night even getting nominated for all of the five major Oscars nowadays. Never happen.


Highlights for TCM's 31 Days of Oscar for Feb. 7 include North by Northwest and A Star Is Born. I confess that I have a limited tolerance for Judy Garland in films that are not called The Wizard of Oz.

Feb. 8 includes a movie that misses our cutoff and in fact is symbolic along with Bonnie and Clyde of one era ending and another beginning—The Graduate. The 1935 edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream that is among other things the screen debut of Olivia de Havilland runs at 7 am Eastern.

edited 6th Feb '16 5:01:03 PM by jamespolk

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#362: Feb 6th 2016 at 5:13:47 PM

How many romantic comedies are even of the caliber of It Happened One Night these days?

At least in The Wizard Of Oz you have Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Margaret Hamilton to carry the damn thing as well. (It's not like I don't have my problems with it that are apparent if you read the book...)

Will TCM be showing The Oscar as part of the festivities?

edited 6th Feb '16 5:16:35 PM by Aldo930

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#363: Feb 6th 2016 at 5:38:18 PM

I've never seen Judy's A Star Is Born, but rather the Janet Gaynor and Frederic March one. I thought it was really good.

Ah, probably the silliest Hitchcock, North by Northwest. I completely forget the convoluted plot, but I do love the crop duster scene.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
Robbery Since: Jul, 2012
#364: Feb 6th 2016 at 7:14:45 PM

Didn't the Oscar's originally hand out two best picture awards, one for a popular film and one for a more experimental or artsy film?

TompaDompa from Sweden Since: Jan, 2012
#365: Feb 7th 2016 at 12:31:48 AM

Sort of. The first (and only the first) Academy Awards had "Outstanding Picture", which Wings won, and "Unique and Artistic Production", which Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won.

edited 7th Feb '16 12:32:45 AM by TompaDompa

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.
jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#366: Feb 7th 2016 at 2:00:04 PM

[up][up][up][up]Hardly any romcoms are as good as It Happened One Night! But I think the point stands that the Comedy Ghetto was less rigidly enforced back in the day as it is now.

[up]Sunrise is a goddamn masterpiece, by the way. The three films nominated for that Unique and Artistic Production award that was never given again are Sunrise, The Crowd, and Chang. All three of them are better than Wings. And 7th Heaven, which was competing against Wings, is also better.

Wings has some pretty impressive flight sequences, some partial nudity from Clara Bow, and Gary Cooper in one of his first movie parts. And that's about it.

edited 7th Feb '16 3:38:09 PM by jamespolk

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#367: Feb 7th 2016 at 3:16:48 PM

It also has El Brendel, regularly dubbed one of the unfunniest comedians who ever lived...

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#368: Feb 7th 2016 at 3:39:21 PM

[up]And Jobyna Ralston, best known as Harold Lloyd's love interest for most of Lloyd's great silent films.

Wings isn't a terrible movie by any means but of the six films that were nominated for the two redundant Best Picture awards that year, I think I'd rate it sixth.

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#369: Feb 7th 2016 at 3:45:07 PM

It doesn't seem TCM is showing The Oscar this year, on its 50th anniversary. Which is a shame, but at least I have the film on VHS.

The Oscar fits into the time span of this thread, so I can say it is one of the most gloriously awful films ever made; a So-Bad-It's-Good classic on every level, and one that anyone who is planning to watch the Oscars ought to watch.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#370: Feb 9th 2016 at 12:02:56 PM

Hey, you guys remember when I was talking about the horribleness of the studios? Well, I found an article about it that I found really fascinating/depressing about Harry Cohn breaking up an affair between Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Jr. http://www.vanityfair.com/style/1999/03/sammy-davis-kim-novak-dating

Really depressing.

On a higher note, does any one have a favourite character actor or any favourite character actor scene? I really like Walter Connolly as the exasperated dad/boss/friend in It Happened One Night, Libeled Lady, Twentieth Century. I'm just fascinated by the way those actors were used (or you could say, poorly used). This one guy called Charles Lane is like in every Paramount picture (or is it Columbia? I always confuse the two) made. 90% of the time he plays an angry lawyer (ie. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Ball of Fire) or some guy who works for the big guys in It's a Wonderful Life as an employee of Mr. Potter or in Twentieth Century as the competing theater manager. The only time I've seen these actors used because the director like them so much, not because they were just on the lot, is Preston Sturges.

edited 9th Feb '16 8:18:57 PM by LongTallShorty64

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
#371: Feb 9th 2016 at 2:08:35 PM

The best movie TCM is running today has unfortunately already ran, Ball of Fire.

A Clockwork Orange does not make our cutoff and in fact is exactly the kind of movie that classic Hollywood could not have made, but goddammit, everyone needs to see A Clockwork Orange. Airing at 0130 Eastern.

At 0945 Eastern on Feb. 10 they are running The Broadway Melody, which won the second Best Picture award. It isn't very good, but none of the early talkies were very good. They pretty much all sucked eggs, actually. Oscar would have been better served by honoring one of the late silents like Street Angel or The Docks of New York or The Wind or Show People or The Iron Mask, classics all.

Running shortly after The Broadway Melody at 1145 Eastern is Our Dancing Daughters, which is OK, and is mainly interesting for showing how pretty young, fresh-faced Joan Crawford was.


Feb. 11 has a lot of good movies. The Life of Émile Zola is one of the better Best Picture winners of the 1930s. It airs at 0830 and it is followed by both versions of The Letter. The 1940 version has Bette Davis at her most evil but the 1929 version is better for not having that cheating The Hays Code ending. The two Letter movies are followed by one of the worst Best Picture winners of the decade, The Great Ziegfeld, although William Powell is great as always. Then there's She Done Him Wrong, Gold Diggers of 1933, Top Hat—pretty spectacular lineup on the 11th.


Characters actors—Thomas Mitchell springs to mind. Hit it out of the park every time. And I think he qualifies as a true character actor because offhand I can't think of him ever playing a lead. There's Claude Rains but he played lead once in a while.

edited 9th Feb '16 2:14:10 PM by jamespolk

Robbery Since: Jul, 2012
#372: Feb 10th 2016 at 4:55:31 PM

Just saw It Happened One Night for the first time yesterday. Damn....that's really good.

I kept expecting the back-and-forth to be more balanced, though. Mostly, it's Gable showing Colbert what's what (with her getting some of her own back during the hitch-hiking bit). It didn't bother me any (it WAS the 30's, after all), I just noticed it is all.

LongTallShorty64 Frumpy and grumpy Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
Frumpy and grumpy
#373: Feb 10th 2016 at 5:03:13 PM

Huh, you're right about it being sort of unbalanced, especially when you compare it to other Screwball Comedy's of the 30s. I love this movie, but it always pisses me off when Gable takes her coin purse. THAT'S NOT YOURS TO TAKE, GABLE. Stop bossing her around even though she's irresponsible.

edited 10th Feb '16 5:04:27 PM by LongTallShorty64

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."
Robbery Since: Jul, 2012
#374: Feb 10th 2016 at 8:59:08 PM

Later, she did give all his money to the kid on the bus, so I guess that made them even grin

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#375: Feb 10th 2016 at 9:53:51 PM

This title reminds me of this movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Happened_in_Broad_Daylight

specifically the first version of it. Most likely not well-known in the US, being a foreign movie and all, but I can only recommend the movie. Very atmospheric, plus, Heinz Rühmann in one of his more serious roles. Unlike many of his other movies (he did a ton of them, but mostly the kind of "let's pretend the world is great" movies which were popular during and directly after the war) this one holds up exceptionally well. The movie is also the reason Gerd Fröbe was later cast as Goldfinger. Honestly, I can only recommend it. Nobody makes movies like this nowadays anymore. And none of the numerous remakes came ever close to capturing the feeling of the first take.


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