WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Past chats with our guests.
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knitwit45
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by knitwit45 »

Thank YOU, Mrs. O!!!!
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by moira finnie »

Whoa! You interviewed Laraine Day?! Please, please, what did she say about Lew Ayres? Lionel Barrymore? Ned Pendleton?? Leo Durocher????

Seriously, I love her, and hope that she talked about The Locket, Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent and whether or not she thought that MGM was the best place for her.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

BTW, I am completely in agreement about Wikipedia. NOT a source of reliable info. Just last weekend when we hosted a visit from Steve Taravella about his new bio of Mary Wickes, he mentioned how inaccuracies about the actress are still being repeated after first appearing there long ago. (So I guess studio biographies from the old days aren't the only source of flawed facts).
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Sue Sue Applegate
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by Sue Sue Applegate »

Sue Sue just wants to chime in on sources. College students should have been warned about using Wikipedia as a reliable source in any documented research paper, and most all reputable college professors in academics refuse to allow it as a source, unless the essay concerns the unreliability of Wikipedia. :lol:

.Orgs, .Govs, and some .Nets are allowable, but no .Coms as final addresses in URLs. Whether documenting using MLA(ModernLanguage Association) or APA (American Psychological Associaton) formatting, Wikipedia is a big no-no.
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by OrcoDev »

Alexa,

I should mention if you want to contact me you can do it through email: [email protected] or look for Kevin Greenberg on the Oasis facebook page. Thanks :)
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Mrs. Osborne
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by Mrs. Osborne »

Moirafinnie-

thank you thank you thank you about wikipedia, and I meant to clarify that WHEN I see that one of our writers has used it, I
circle it and delete it. It WOULD make us look sloppy and lazy IF we did depend on it.

Check out the Michael Curtiz entry that has him at an early Olympics with Jim Thorpe....WRONG!

As to Laraine Day yes!
I wanted to ask "what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" meaning being a devout Morman stuck in sin city Hollywood. She loved Lew Ayres and there again is a Word of Mouth just waiting to be made - I asked about his declaring himself a Conscientious Objector (think I spelled that right) and she said it was like a bomb had been dropped. All of a sudden he was just gone.

She did talk about The Locket - you and Jeff, our mutual friend and I love that movie. Leo we didn't get to since her current husband was in the room. She said that George Sanders (she said Saunders) kept sticking his hand up her skirt in the plane in Foreign Correspondent. She hated LB Mayer and Robert Mitchum. And I remember her saying something about teaching Cary Grant how to tie a Windsor knot for Mr. Lucky. You would not have recognized her though: she was heavier, but that VOICE, she still had that wonderful VOICE.
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Mrs. Osborne
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by Mrs. Osborne »

Good afternoon Masha

I think that you are going to be thrilled with the titles in the months to come that we have programmed to support The Story of Film:
Egyptian, Iranian, Italian, French, Cuban, Japanese, Swedish, Indian....

Yes it can be more difficult to research sometimes. When we celebrated - dare I say Bollywood, it was easy since there are great books about that. The same is true for Japanese pictures. When we spotlighted Mexican films that was a bit tougher.
You keep digging and sometimes hit paydirt with a website dedicated to a director or a cinematographer. AND You Tube is a great resource to watch interviews with foreign directors and participants in other film industries.

I have to tell you we get a lot of flak sometimes when we show foreign pictures from some viewers. As odd as it is, some say we want English only!!!! Maybe they don't like subtitles.

Thanks - an interesting question.
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Mrs. Osborne wrote:
I have to tell you we get a lot of flak sometimes when we show foreign pictures from some viewers. As odd as it is, some say we want English only!!!! Maybe they don't like subtitles.

Thanks - an interesting question.

Here an interesting thought - personally, I love Subtitles on all Foreign Films - I love Foreign Films as long they have Subtitles on them - I know many TCM Viewers - personally do not like them; but for viewers that are handicapped like me - got to have Subtitles in English for us to enjoy the films more than ever. I wished TCM add Subtitles/Closed Captioned to all FOREIGN FILMS and that's should be in order for the rest of the handicapped to enjoy them entirely.

I'm deaf/hard of hearing and knowing you are close to programming - I wished you inform them my request so that I can enjoy TCM more than ever.

And, thanks for taking the time to do this - I really appreciate it very much!
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Mrs. Osborne
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by Mrs. Osborne »

Rita-
I find that I like watching new movies on my tv with closed captioning since the audio mixing is not always great and it really helps.
We provide closed captioning on many titles and our goal is to put the captions on all titles. It takes time and money.
But yes, I will pass that info along.

Thanks so much.
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Mrs. Osborne
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by Mrs. Osborne »

Masha-

Yes!
The Insect Woman and The House is Black and I am Cuba should be wonderful also. I am delighted we are showing Daisies!
I dread the message boards the day after that airs.

Vera Kholodnaya sounds intriguing and I must research. Please tell me where to start.
Two actors who we have highlighted recently are Ivan Mozzhukhin and Ruan Lingyu and they are both fascinating. Please research them if you have time. He told Hollywood that he wouldn't get a nose job for them, and her funeral attracted hundreds of thousands of mourners. It is always a challenge to find reliable research on foreign actors and then find a reliable pronunciation of their names!! I have sometimes called Embassies to get pronunciations.

We do the best we can and I am proud that TCM brings these movies to viewers. If we are wrong, viewers and sometimes people connected with a picture tell us and we correct the mistake and mention it in the script. I have suggested movies and our programming department will take note and show the movies if they can. Though neither of the following are foreign or vauable, they are seldom shown: I suggested THE LAST OF SHEILA and low and behold, they showed it. My next guilty pleasure is the musical version of LOST HORIZON. Maybe one day on our Underground franchise it will appear.

Thank you. I might need to call on you!
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by feaito »

Dear Alexa,

What a joy to have you here. I am a 46 year old Chilean Classic Movie Buff and TCM-USA ardent admirer -and specifically an admirer of the research work professionals like you do in the top classic movie channel of the world- and I have some questions for you: Do you know if there's is an upcoming project for the TCM LATIN division of TCM-USA to have a similar programming or line-ups as TCM USA? As far as I know TCM LATIN has never shown Silents and the schedule has a huge component of TV series from the 70s and/or 80s; nothing remotely comparable to TCM USA superb schedule. In fact, we classic film buffs watched much more classics in the old TNT LATIN (and also a couple of Silents) than in the current TCM LATIN.

I am also keen on many of the films, directors and actors you mention. William Wyler is my favorite director and "Dodsworth" is in my top five list. Is there anything about that particular movie that you have been able to find that's not in the general knowledge and you'd like to share with us? ;)

I am also a huge fan of the early talkies and especially of the alternate talking versions in other languages of movies in English. We've seen the alternate versions of Anna Christie, Dracula and some of the Laurel & Hardy shorts, but there are many other films of Ramon Novarro, Gilbert Roland (Men of the North) the Mac Donald-Chevalier team at Paramount and MGM that haven't seen the light. Some of them might be lost forever, because I have read that American studios like MGM or Paramount did not keep prints of these features in storage in the USA. I would appreciate any feedback on this.

For many decades to be able to see "The Constant Nymph" (1943) or "Night Flight" (1933), was almost impossible save for the -very poor- bootleg prints that were circulating among collectors. Do you know if there's any chance of seeing Crawford's long overdue "Letty Lynton" (1932) and Shearer's "The Trial of Mary Dugan" (1929) -which I bet has not being shown as well for similar reasons related to the ABEND decision- in the near future?

Thank your for your time and answers.
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by moira finnie »

Alexa, when you attend the TCM Film Festival, do you try to provide research material for the planned discussions with individuals such as Ann Blyth or Kim Novak? So much of that looks seamless and spontaneous (no doubt due in part to RO's abilities as an interviewer and excellent editing). Isn't it difficult under those circumstances to shape your research? Do you help with the background research on this event or any of the others that TCM has launched, such as the cruise and the NYC tour?

Also, once the programming for the Summer Under the Stars is outlined, do you have much time to plan the comments about each performer's films?

I love the fact that you are another John Cromwell fan. While some of my favorite films are his work from the early '30s, it has always saddened me that Cromwell apparently dismissed many of his directorial efforts as trifling, even though he made such evergreen films as Caged, Since You Went Away, and Prisoner of Zenda. Has he ever been spotlighted for an entire month on TCM? Wouldn't it be great if James Cromwell could sit down with Robert Osborne to discuss his father's life and career--not to mention the work of his mother, Kay Johnson, and his own accomplishments as an actor?
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Re: WELCOME TO THE SILVER SCREEN OASIS, ALEXA FOREMAN!

Post by feaito »

Dear Alexa, In fact, I think that the 1941 remake of "The Trial of Mary Dugan" starring Laraine Day has never been shown on TCM either due to the same reason than the 1929 Shearer original and Letty Lynton. Is that correct?
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