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What to Watch on TCM this Weekend

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:36:43 +0000

If you're into classic stop-motion cheese (I am), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is a must on Saturday for the terrific Ray Harryhausen effects, but of course check your brain at the door. And then don't miss Take the Money and Run, the hilarious 1969 Woody Allen mockumentary. (I love it when he plays cello in a marching band. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.)

On Saturday, it's got to be The Maltese Falcon. ("If you lose a son, you can always get another, but there's only one Maltese Falcon.") In the wee small hours Monday morning, try All of Me, a sweet-natured Steve Martin-Lily Tomlin fling with some of the finest physical comedy ever committed to celluloid.

Enjoy!

What to Watch on TCM this Weekend originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 16:36:43.

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Tom Snyder Interviews Alfred Hitchcock - 1973

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:28:43 +0000

I love the stuff you can find on YouTube, like this excellent Tom Snyder interview with Alfred Hitchcock, way back in the '70s.

Love him or hate him, Snyder was a great interviewer, and this was probably one of the last times Hitch allowed himself to be interviewed at length on TV.

I love Hitchcock's lugubrious voice, his measured pace, and the way you can never tell whether he means something or he's putting you on -- like being afraid of getting a ticket from a police officer.

Fun, and insightful.

Tom Snyder Interviews Alfred Hitchcock - 1973 originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 17:28:43.

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Millions for Marilyn Fail to Materialize - Crypt Goes Unsold

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:46:02 +0000

I've always wondered whether people buy things in the heat of an auction that they later come to regret. That may be the case with the attempts to sell the crypt directly above Marilyn Monroe's in a Hollywood mausoleum - the eBay auction has failed for a second time.

Even though several bidders pre-qualified, and even though some guy in Japan bid $4.6 million the first time and then reneged because oif "paying problems," the widow whose husband currently occupies the crypt will not be evicting him just yet.

I just have to think that in this economy, even people with millions to spend are thinking twice about buying something they can't enjoy until they're dead.

Image of Monroe in a Miami art exhibit/by Gustavo Caballero, Getty Images

Millions for Marilyn Fail to Materialize - Crypt Goes Unsold originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 12:46:02.

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Spacey Does Classic Movie Impersonations

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Kevin Spacey is a great actor, and I knew he did a fantastic Christopher Walken impersonation, but I didn't realize the incredible range of his classic actor impersonations.

Hat tip to Cinematical for reposting this great 2000 clip from Inside the Actor's Studio, where Spacey whips through a bewildeirng array of impersonations in a matter of minutes. His Katharine Hepburn and Marlon Brando takes will make you laugh out loud. He's got the voices and the mannerisms down pat, not to mention quicksilver timing.

Watch the whole thing, and then watch this old Saturday Night Live clip for dessert. His Walken is wunderbar -- be sure to stay tuned for his Walter Matthau. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

Spacey at a London news conference last month for 'The Men Who Stare at Goats,' by Ian Gavan/ Getty Images

Spacey Does Classic Movie Impersonations originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 11:02:00.

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What to Watch on TCM this Weekend

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:59:45 +0000

Turner Classic Movies kicks off the Halloween weekend with psychological thrillers, as it winds up its "A Night at the Movies" series for October. Go with bad husband Louis Jourdan in Gaslight and Hitchcock's Psycho (it's getting really dated, but still fun for Anthony Perkins alone).

On Saturday, take The Haunting, a pretty good haunted-house outing with Claire Bloom, and Cat People, the Val Lewton noir thriller about people with a pedigree. (They should have shown this as a double feature with the 1982 remake starring Natassia Kinski. Good movie.)

On Sunday, I'd pick a frothy, light-hearted little Jack Lemmon number, How to Murder Your Wife. Despite dated attitudes about women, it's fun. And for my sci-fi fix, the fantastic Forbidden Planet.

Enjoy!

What to Watch on TCM this Weekend originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 10:59:45.

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John Huston's Irish Manor on the Market

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:16:59 +0000

If you have about $6 million burning a hole in your pocket, there's a glorious Irish manor going for a song.

Storied St. Clearan's, more than 300 years old, served Irish nobility, and later became home to fabled classic movie director John Huston and his fourth wife.

Part of the estate of the late Merv Griffin, the graceful, 11-bedroom mansion is going for less than Griffin spent on renovations alone when he used it as a vacation getaway and as a five-star hotel. History, Hollywood glamour and luxury. It's a steal.

Looks a touch drafty.

St. Clerans Manor, courtesy tripadvisor.com

John Huston's Irish Manor on the Market originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 20:16:59.

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The Apartment Back on Broadway

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:17:59 +0000

Remakes from Hollywood, revivals on Broadway. I guess movies and plays are just so expensive that relying on old standbys is easier than trying something risky, bold and new.

This time it's Promises, Promises on Broadway, a revival of the old musical based on Billy Wilder's bittersweet classic movie, The Apartment. (It won Best Picture in 1960, the last of the old black-and-white movies to do it.)

The play is set for a March opening in New York. At least there will be a great cast - dimunitive diva Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked) and Sean Hayes of Will and Grace fame.

Chenoweth accepts her Emmy for 'Pushing Daisies,' by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The Apartment Back on Broadway originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 13:17:59.

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Control Your Marilyn Monroe Neuron

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:37:24 +0000

Okay, first there was the Marilyn Monroe gene, but that only worked on fruit flies. Now, there's the Marilyn Monroe neuron, which proves you can actually control a computer with your brain.

Actually, it doesn't have to be Marilyn. It can be any well-known image, like Michael Jackson or President Obama. Apparently, science can now identify individual neurons we use to recognize famous people (like Marilyn), hook us up to a computer, and tell us to think about the right image, which then appears. Because we thought about it. Cool. Creepy. Amazing.

Okay, the science is a little more complex than I've just described, but the durability of Monroe as an iconic image - and a subject for scientific research into human behavior - continues to astound.

Oh heck, just watch Seven Year Itch again.

Control Your Marilyn Monroe Neuron originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 15:37:24.

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What to Watch on TCM this Weekend

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:36:49 +0000

The "Night at the Movies - Thrillers" series ticks on Friday the 23rd, this time featuring gothic chillers on Turner Classic Movies. I never pass up the excellent Night of the Hunter, with a menacing performance by Robert Mitchum as a murderous preacher. Later that night watch for Rebecca, Hitchcock's entry into the gothic romance/ghost story genre. Both are timeless classics, but Night of the Hunter packs the bigger punch.

On Saturday, I'm up for the 1975 sci-fi cheese-fest The Land That Time Forgot (which spawned the even more cheesy TV series and this year's wretched remake with Will Ferrell). Even better on Saturday is the truly terrifying 1982 haunted house classic, Poltergeist, a lovely choice for Halloween.

Sunday there's more great choices, with Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind, the excellent adaptation of the stage play about the Scopes "monkey" trial; and Nosferatu, a silent film film from the German expressionist era, and one of the earliest, most influential vampire movies.

A still from Nosferatu

What to Watch on TCM this Weekend originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 15:36:49.

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Farewell to Dr. No

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:21:26 +0000

Joseph Wiseman, the stage and screen actor who so memorably played the villain in the very first James Bond movie, has died in Manhattan at age 91 after a long stage career.

As the BBC reports, the slender, elegant actor really wanted to be remembered for his stage roles, not as the original Bond bad guy. But it is the joy and curse of movies that their reach is global -- and Wiseman, as a well-cast villain at the start of a durable movie franchise, will always be remembered as Dr. No. The world loves a good villain!

Wiseman in a publicity still from the movie

Farewell to Dr. No originally appeared on About.com Classic Movies on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 11:21:26.

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