re: YouTube Pick Of The Day

LINK

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One rainy day in the early 1950s, a very young Martin Scorsese was watching a butchered version of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp on his black-and-white TV. Colonel Blimp, which deals with a lifelong friendship between Clive Candy, a British soldier sporting an upper lip of almost unbelievable stiffness, and his top-hole German counterpart, Theodore Kretschmar-Schuldorff, first saw the light of day in 1943. This was not the best time to be releasing a film with a sympathetic German character.

The film Scorsese saw was not the film Michael Powell had shot, nor the film his collaborator Emeric Pressburger had written. (For years, the pair worked under the name "The Archers", a partnership that produced such immortal films as The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus.) Blimp originally ran at 163 minutes; the version Scorsese saw had been hacked down to 90. With scenes presented out of order, huge chunks of plot missing, and no possibility of marvelling at its radiant Technicolor cinematography, Scorsese was nonetheless beguiled. Eleven or 12 at the time, he could not have known that in 1943 a lot of Brits would have found the film unusual, if not downright strange, and Candy a bit priggish, blustery, annoying. He could not have known that Winston Churchill despised the film and ensured its failure at the box office. None of this mattered.

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The celebrated dueling scene

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"The story transcends the culture which produced it," the director explains in an amused tone, pointing out that British films were part of every American's childhood back in the 50s. "It is very elegantly made. It would be great if audiences could experience the film the way it was made, the way the camera moves, the way it was supposed to be seen. But for me the most important thing is the humanity of the film, the relationship between the characters. The whole story has an eloquent sadness to it."

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Martin Scorsese and Michael Powell



And so this post will qualify for the thread, here is the Youtube version

Intruder In The Dust

In 1940s Mississippi, a proud and defiant black man is accused of murder, and a teenage boy, his lawyer father, and a gossipy spinster try to protect him from lynching.



Well made social problem film (and yes, the storyline bears a suspicious resemblance to the later To Kill A Mockingbird). But IMHO this is most notable for the fact that it was shot on location in Oxford, giving us priceless views of places like The Square as they were in 1949.









The world premiere in Oxford:







William Faulkner with director Clarence Brown (center):




BONUS: A short film showing Faulkner in Oxford, chatting with locals. Originally aired on the TV series Omnibus in 1952.

Noir fans take note:

The Killers

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The Killers is a 1956 student film by the Soviet and Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky and his fellow students Marika Beiku and Aleksandr Gordon. It is based on the short story "The Killers" by Ernest Hemingway, written in 1927. It was Tarkovsky's first film, produced when he was a student at the State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK).

Students were required to work on films in groups of two or threes due to a lack of equipment at the film school VGIK. Andrei Tarkovsky and Aleksandr Gordon asked Marika Beiku to work with them. The idea for adapting Ernest Hemingway's short story was Tarkovsky's. All roles were played by students of the VGIK, and the camera and lighting was handled by fellow students Alfredo Álvarez and Aleksandr Rybin.

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Pretty damn impressive student film. Little camera movement, but the lighting is excellent, as are the sets and pacing. If the film has a flaw it's the student casting, specifically the killers themselves, who are just too young -- they come across more as decadent Rope types rather than hardened mob hitmen.

Tarkovsky himself appears as the whistling customer.









Essay on the film

For WWII fans (and who didn't love WWII?):




Combat was an hour-long drama series that ran on ABC from 1962-7. It's sort of the original Band of Brothers. Created by screenwriter and war film specialist Robert Pirosh (Oscar winner for Battleground), Combat follows an infantry squad after D-Day as they go through France. Top-notch writing and innovative production, including frequent use of handheld cameras to simulate actual battle footage, give it a grittiness seldom seen in network TV before or since. The late, great Vic Morrow stars as the tough, no-nonsense Sergeant Saunders.




A few notable episodes:

The Glory Among Men -- One of my favorite episodes. The most hated member of the squad is wounded and trapped out in the open. But the Germans don't finish him off -- instead they leave him alive, hoping to draw out the Americans to rescue him. Should the squad risk their lives for someone they despise?

Anatomy of a Patrol -- Trying to get a wounded pilot and valuable reconnaissance film back to HQ, Saunders must match wits with a German sergeant every bit as shrewd as he is. The sergeant is played by a very young James Caan, who speaks some rather impressive German.

The Bridge At Chalons -- The squad must guard a surly demolitions expert while he blows a key bridge. The guest star is no less than the great Lee Marvin.

Hills Are For Heroes -- Essentially a movie, a 2 part episode directed by Vic Morrow. The title is a reference to the film Robert Pirosh wrote which served as sort of a run-through for Combat -- Hell Is For Heroes.

Survival -- Directed by Robert Altman, and another of my favorites. Wounded in a fire and separated from the squad, Saunders wanders through enemy territory in a daze. Virtually half the footage has no dialogue, and Altman employs some unorthodox camera angles (shooting into the sun) previously unheard of in TV.

A special treat for all the Combat fans on the board -- that is, apparently, me:

"Reaction Shot Theater"

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Combat fans on the board

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I've been banned (until yesterday) or would have posted more . I've been following the thread and watching as well.

P.S.
M/TV board poster, Bosceaux, told Chicken not to reinstate me because I don't like any movie which is not in Black & White. #1 That's not true. #2 frick you Bosceaux--- though now that I think of it you probably won't read this because there's nothing in here about The Big Bang Theory or That's So Raven or whatever the frick it is that you watch. #3 Glad to be back, Kafka. This thread is money. #4 Just realized I won the snob award for the 2nd time without even posting for the last couple of months.


P.S.S
Where' Superior Pariah?

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GFY I should have won it

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Hells yeah,
I'm just finishing up McQueen's Le Mans right now

b&w;dw