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Hal Erickson

Oh, I'm NOT going by the logo. I NEVER go by that logo. The TV distributor stuck the 20th CF trademark on the front of SUNNY SIDE UP and ME AND MY GAL, released respectively in 1929 and 1935! And how about the "Buy War Bonds" slug at the end of the 1940s reissue of 1935's CALL OF THE WILD? The confu...

Hal Erickson

I've got the 1979 FILMS OF... book, which confusingly lists both WAY DOWN EAST and IN OLD KENTUCKY as Fox, rather than 20th C-F releases , though they came out in late October and late November of 1935 respectively, by which time a few 20th C-F releases had taken place (the book also leaves out seve...

Hal Erickson

Details are murky, and contemporary accounts don't help. So I throw myself upon the group. What was the last released by Fox Films before its permanently became 20th Century-Fox? I think it's IN OLD KENTUCKY (1935), but some sources list this as a 20th Century-Fox release. Evidently the merged compa...

Hal Erickson

I tried this on Alt.Movies.Silent, but no one has responded.
So here goes:
Do ANY of George Walsh's vehicles for Fox (1916-1920) exist in any way, shape or form?

Hal Erickson

I'd sooner have more of Zeppo and less of Oscar Shaw.

Hal Erickson

I seriously doubt that many in the audience would have recognized Raymond Griffith with his scruffy mustache, five o'clock shadow, and the extra avirdupois. They were used to seeing him neatly trimmed, svelte, and wearing a top hat.[/quote] Griffith didn't receive screen credit either, despite his i...

Hal Erickson

And what was the opening number that Zeppo performed in? In the film it's "Lovely Florida", though sung in voiceover rather a choreographed number.[/quote] In the original theatrical program, the song is listed as "The Guests", performed by "Zeppo Marx, The Cocoanut Grove Girls and Boys." "Florida b...

Hal Erickson

Over two weeks now, and TCM is still okay. I just copied the ROAD pictures onto DVD. Maybe the squeaky wheel does get paid attention to.
I hope it lasts.

Hal Erickson

And speaking of Zeppo...I believe his role was severely diminished in the reissue. Didn't he have an opening scene with the bellboys before Groucho's entrance? (it might have actually been a short song, like his intros to Groucho in ANIMAL CRACKERS and DUCK SOUP).

Hal Erickson

There is one indistinct production shot of Edwards (from a frustrating distance) on p. 380 of Brownlow's THE PARADE'S GONE BY.

Hal Erickson

Actually, I watched the new STATE OF THE UNION last night.
Leading man was good looking, but the dialogue was banal and the handling of the crowd scenes was clumsy.
Funny cutaway to that old character actor playing "Harry Reid" stifling a yawn. Was that Billy Benedict?

Hal Erickson

In my efforts to compile a definitive (or close to it) list of existing Fox features from 1914 to 1935, I have a question about J. Gordon Edwards. For a long time, nothing of his was available. But in the last four decades, three of his Fox films have surfaced... DRAG HARLAN (1920) IF I WERE KING (1...

Hal Erickson

The 3 Stooges' comeback feature HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL was released to drive-ins on a double bill with THE LEGEND OF TOM DOOLEY in 1959. I remember this because my father reluctantly took myself and my siblings to the Stooges film, sat through it saying nothing, but when DOOLEY began he growled "I ...

Hal Erickson

Well, I experimented with TCM today just to see if the "ban" has been lifted. I don't seem to have any trouble recording on DVD now, but we'll give it time. For the record, I did send a testy letter to AT&T headquarters about a week ago. Doubt if that's the reason I can record on DVD again, but who ...

Hal Erickson

Starting today Dec 29, TCM is copy-protected. You can TiVo or DVR, but not make permanent DVDs. VHS still works. COMPLAIN COMPLAIN COMPLAIN to TCM. Starting NOW! And don't let them tell you that they're just protecting their own future DVD collections. You and I both know that there are hundreds of ...

Hal Erickson

Pardon me. It was Arthur Mayer, Griffith's co-author, who was the snide publicist. Griffith COULD have toned down Mayer's sarcasm though.

Hal Erickson

WK Everson and K Brownlow. Definitely. Arthur Knight was okay for his time but his memory doesn't match the reality (I'm still looking for those "flat cuts" in LITTLE CAESAR). Richard Griffith was too much the snide publicist, though THE MOVIES is still a great pioneering work (and I'm glad they rew...

Hal Erickson

Unless my memory is failing me, Bette actually visits the abortionist's office, but the studio inserts an idiotic closeup of a business sign indicating that he's a "psychiatrist". Compare that to the blatant references to abortion in such pre-code films as AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY and (especially) ANN VI...

Hal Erickson

As usual, William K. Everson made one of the most pointed comments about this curious film, noting that if Clara Bow had actually taken up streetwalking, it's hardly likely that her first two clients would be Walter Long and Bert Roach.

Hal Erickson

There are also the ones aimed at fans like the Blue Book of the Screen and Stars of the Silent Photoplay that are now online at Silent.movies.org: http://silent-movies.com/Profiles/ greta[/quote] The 1916 Theda Bara profile puts the lie to the standard story that she was being passed off as an exoti...

Hal Erickson

I've never seen THE BOY FROM STALINGRAD, a 1943 Columbia programmer about a group of courageous Soviet youngsters who fight to the death against the Nazi invaders. On the Radio.Info.com group, I recently posted the titles of several Screen Gems film packages (five in all, totalling 342 films) releas...

Hal Erickson

Pardon me. Tracy won his first Oscar in 1938. The typeset on the reshot titles of MARIE GALANTE have a late-1930s "look."

Hal Erickson

Same with 20th C-F's reissue of the 1934 Spencer Tracy starrer MARIE GALLANTE. when did that happen? I don't know, but it would have to be after the 20thCentury and Fox merger 1935. Probably after 1937, when Tracy won his first Oscar. The PD prints of this film have reshot opening titles. Give a lo...

Hal Erickson

"Cutting on action" refers to cutting to the next scene before the characters have left camera range in the prior scene.
The best comedies cut on the action. Look at the Laurel and Hardy films. There were seldom any "wasted" shots of empty sets.

Hal Erickson

GO INTO YOUR DANCE was obviously reissued to cash in on the success of Columbia's THE JOLSON STORY. Prior to his cameo in 1945's RHAPSODY IN BLUE, Jolson was considered washed up in the movies. No reason to reissue the film any earlier. BTW, Reshooting the opening titles was hardly unique to WB. Col...

Hal Erickson

With the exception of LITTLE IODINE, all of the Comet productions were seen on Milwaukee TV (an independent UHF station) in the 1960s. Presumably 16mm prints still exist.

Hal Erickson

Houdini had to talk in a stilted, overenunciated manner so that he could be heard in the last row of the theater. Actors had no idea how to "tone down" until talkies forced the issue. A lot of the silent actors whose stardom didn't carry over into talkies faded simply because their time had passed b...

Hal Erickson

On the other hand, 50 MILLION FRENCHMEN evidently previewed as a musical but all the songs were cut (even though in existing prints they spend forever leading up to a performance of "You Do Something To Me" that never happens). Outside of the WB-FN films, I always felt that Wheeler and Woolsey's HOL...

Hal Erickson

GOLD DUST GERTIE isn't a musical in its present form. Was it ever?

Hal Erickson

Here's Jon's list of lost 40s features . They're mostly from lesser studios, but there are a few Universal and Fox films in the updated and corrected list (the last message in the thread). It's rather hard to believe that they'd be completely lost, but they're certainly pretty obscure. -Harold A fe...

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Question about the Fox/20th Century merger

George Walsh

J. GORDON EDWARDS, LOST AND FOUND

TCM IS NOW COPY PROTECTED. STORM THE BARRICADES!

THE BOY FROM STALINGRAD (1943)--Some questions