The Silver Screen Oasis

Some Archive titles scheduled for release 7/7:

Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972) Brian DePalma directs Orson Welles
Green Mansions (1959)
The Hard Way (1943)
Juke Girl (1942)
The Man I Love (1947)
The Moon is Blue (1953)
Nora Prentiss (1947)
Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Europe (1978)

Lots of Al Jolson listed as "pre-orders" on the Warner Archive site. They don't yet appear as a "bundle". The titles include:

Big Boy (1930)
Go Into Your Dance (1935)
Say It With Songs (1929)
The Singing Fool (1928)
The Singing Kid (1936)
Wonder Bar (1934) (pretty interesting pre-code!)


Liz Taylor titles (again, not yet bundled):
Conspirator (1949)
Cynthia (1947)
Girl Who Had Everything (1953)
Love Is Better Than Ever (1951)

Some other titles on the pre-order page:
It's a Big Country (1951)
Story of Mankind (1957)
Weekend at the Waldorf (1945)

The Al Jolson's look interesting.

"The Story of Mankind" may be one of the worst things committed to film. I saw it because the Marx Brothers were in it. I wouldn't even recommend it for that.

Story of Mankind (1957) !!!

I am pre-ordering this one pronto!

I'll be able to screen-cap Aggie as Queen Elizabeth I, in color!

Thank you so much for the info!!

Just looking at the cast of Story of Mankind it sounds incredible...Dennis Hopper as Napoleon (!!!).

They really should have put Wonder Bar out with one of the Berkeley sets...it would have balanced out the crumminess of the 2nd volume.

myrnaloyisdope wrote:Just looking at the cast of Story of Mankind it sounds incredible...Dennis Hopper as Napoleon (!!!).

I would suggest: don't waste a cent on this film. I have a copy and I managed to watch it only once and with difficulty... It's probably one of the worst picture ever. Peter Lorre's Nero is beyond camp.....absolutely terrifying...

Is this based on the Henrik Willem van Loon book of the same name? Yipes! I didn't even know there was a movie of it. I was given this book when I was about 7 or 8, and I just loved it (especially van Loon's cute but amateurish illustrations). I read it a zillion times when I was a kid.

It's a funny thing, but what that book taught me is that the entire history of mankind revolved completely around Holland. Who would have thought? I'm sorry to hear that the movie is a stinker, but I'd love to see it anyway.

jdb1 wrote:Is this based on the Henrik Willem van Loon book of the same name?

Yes, it is sort of. But like Ronald Colman said at the time (he is among the cast of this giant-turkey): the story comes "from the jacket of the book by the same name by Hendrik van Loon."

Ok so I watched Story of Mankind last night, and yes it is actually that bad. It felt like it went on a long time, seemed really cheaply made...complete with lots of stock footage, and almost every seemed to be sleepwalking through there parts. Agnes Moorehead showed some energy but that's about it...though Vincent Price and Ronald Colman don't really have to try hard to be watchable.

I was hoping it would campy and ridiculous, but instead it was really self-important. The Groucho sequence was 4th rate...almost a parody of himself, and the Harpo bit was pretty crummy too...I don't even remember what Chico did.

The worst part it's not a trainwreck, but rather just a bad and boring film.

I should have known better.

myrnaloyisdope wrote:Ok so I watched Story of Mankind last night, and yes it is actually that bad. It felt like it went on a long time, seemed really cheaply made...complete with lots of stock footage, and almost every seemed to be sleepwalking through there parts. Agnes Moorehead showed some energy but that's about it...though Vincent Price and Ronald Colman don't really have to try hard to be watchable.

I was hoping it would campy and ridiculous, but instead it was really self-important. The Groucho sequence was 4th rate...almost a parody of himself, and the Harpo bit was pretty crummy too...I don't even remember what Chico did.

The worst part it's not a trainwreck, but rather just a bad and boring film.

I should have known better.

But isn't it better to have seen it and know for yourself? Now you can check it off the list and never watch it again. "Done". Oh, and you can warn others as you had been warned. And hopefully the others will ignore one more cautionary tale and learn for themselves.

Moira and others have spent the last years trying to ward me off of Little Nellie Kelly, but I haven't seen it -- so I must. Eventually, I'll catch it on TCM or maybe it'll be available on DVD and I'll purchase it, watch it once and store it with The Sin of Harold Diddlebock and Young Caruso.

The Story of Three Loves (1953) has been added into the pre-orders section. Aggie appears in the segment "The Jealous Lover."

I have pre-ordered mine!

Moira and others have spent the last years trying to ward me off of Little Nellie Kelly, but I haven't seen it -- so I must. Eventually, I'll catch it on TCM or maybe it'll be available on DVD and I'll purchase it, watch it once and store it with The Sin of Harold Diddlebock and Young Caruso.

Mr. Jack Burley/Moraldo: Little Nellie Kelley is being shown in August, on Judy Garland Day. 12:45 pm, Thursday,August 6.

knitwit45 wrote:

Moira and others have spent the last years trying to ward me off of Little Nellie Kelly, but I haven't seen it -- so I must. Eventually, I'll catch it on TCM or maybe it'll be available on DVD and I'll purchase it, watch it once and store it with The Sin of Harold Diddlebock and Young Caruso.

Mr. Jack Burley/Moraldo: Little Nellie Kelley is being shown in August, on Judy Garland Day. 12:45 pm, Thursday,August 6.

Gasp! Thanks Knitty! I hadn't looked to see who's getting their days in August yet. Is that 12:45 Eastern? I might have to take the day off work...

Not sure of the time. The link opens in an odd format, no info as to what time zone, and some titles are highlighted, but no info on that, either. Oh, well,at least you've got a heads-up on the date!!!!

happy viewing!