Program This Film Series

On 2 Jan 2006 12:05:05 -0800, "Feuillade" <Feuillade.TakeThisOut@aol.com> wrote:

>Feuillade wrote:
>> Okay. You get a phone call from Bruce Goldstein at the Film Forum.
>>
>> "I've run out of ideas!" he tells you. "There's nothing left to do.
>> I'm seriously contemplating yet another pre-code series -- help me!
>> Please!"
>>
>> You tell him to calm down. You've got a great idea for a series for
>> the Film Forum.
>>
>> It's called "From Flop to Masterpiece."
>>
>> The series consists of films that flopped either critically or at the
>> box office at the time of their original release -- only to be
>> considered masterpieces years -- sometimes decades -- later.
>>
>> They can be either silent or sound films. Up to the present day if you
>> feel like you can get away with it.
>>
>> So what would you show?
>>
>> Tom Moran
>
>I guess I should point out that this is only what Bill Bennett would
>call a "thought experiment." I do not seriously believe that Bruce
>Goldstein is running out of ideas.
>
>But that caveat having been made...
>
>I would show:
>
>Intolerance
>Greed
>The General
>Metropolis
>Duck Soup
>Fury
>The Magnificent Ambersons
>Detour
>Monsieur Verdoux
>The Lady From Shanghai
>Heaven's Gate
>Star 80
>
>At the very least.
>
>Tom Moran

I hardly think "Star 80", "Heaven's Gate" or "Detour" would be
considered masterpieces...by anybody,...at any time.

--John A.
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

Beat the Devil, The Rules of the Game, It's a Wonderful Life, The
Wizard of Oz, The Sweet Smell of Success, This is Spinal Tap. (Not all
flops, but all at least underperformed relative to cost and
expectations.)
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

John A. wrote:
> On 2 Jan 2006 12:05:05 -0800, "Feuillade" <Feuillade.RemoveThis@aol.com> wrote:
>
> >Feuillade wrote:
> >> Okay. You get a phone call from Bruce Goldstein at the Film Forum.
> >>
> >> "I've run out of ideas!" he tells you. "There's nothing left to do.
> >> I'm seriously contemplating yet another pre-code series -- help me!
> >> Please!"
> >>
> >> You tell him to calm down. You've got a great idea for a series for
> >> the Film Forum.
> >>
> >> It's called "From Flop to Masterpiece."
> >>
> >> The series consists of films that flopped either critically or at the
> >> box office at the time of their original release -- only to be
> >> considered masterpieces years -- sometimes decades -- later.
> >>
> >> They can be either silent or sound films. Up to the present day if you
> >> feel like you can get away with it.
> >>
> >> So what would you show?
> >>
> >> Tom Moran
> >
> >I guess I should point out that this is only what Bill Bennett would
> >call a "thought experiment." I do not seriously believe that Bruce
> >Goldstein is running out of ideas.
> >
> >But that caveat having been made...
> >
> >I would show:
> >
> >Intolerance
> >Greed
> >The General
> >Metropolis
> >Duck Soup
> >Fury
> >The Magnificent Ambersons
> >Detour
> >Monsieur Verdoux
> >The Lady From Shanghai
> >Heaven's Gate
> >Star 80
> >
> >At the very least.
> >
> >Tom Moran
>
> I hardly think "Star 80", "Heaven's Gate" or "Detour" would be
> considered masterpieces...by anybody,...at any time.

You'd be surprised.

"Detour" is considered a classic film noir.

And "Heaven's Gate" and "Star 80," while still controversial, are
picking up adherents. Especially the former.

Tom Moran
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

mikegebert DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:

> Beat the Devil, The Rules of the Game, It's a Wonderful Life, The
> Wizard of Oz, The Sweet Smell of Success, This is Spinal Tap. (Not all
> flops, but all at least underperformed relative to cost and
> expectations.)

Rules of the Game absolutely. I should have thought of that one
myself.

The Wizard of Oz wasn't a flop, it was just a really expensive film
that took a long time to break even.

And I thought This is Spinal Tap was a hit. Maybe I'm wrong?

Tom Moran
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

And I should point out another one whose title escaped me while I was
writing out my original list:

Unfaithfully Yours.

Tom Moran
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

>The Wizard of Oz wasn't a flop, it was just a really expensive film
>that took a long time to break even.

The Wizard of Oz, like Peter Jackson's King Kong seems to be becoming,
was a flop not in the sense that people stayed away in droves, but that
it underperformed relative to expectations (which had been set by the
huge success of Snow White). TV made it an audience favorite, but that
wasn't how MGM's accounting dept. looked at it circa 1942, I'm pretty
sure. I expect that eventually it went into the black theatrically,
given reissues at inflated prices in the 60s and 70s, but basically, at
the time it was a relative flop, if not a disastrous, Parnell-type one.

Incidentally, that suggests two other then-sorta-flops/reissue-hits:
Bambi and Fantasia.

>And I thought This is Spinal Tap was a hit. Maybe I'm wrong?

No, not a flop, but a very modest success that has far more of a
reputation and stature now than it did when it came out.
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

Feuillade wrote:
> And I should point out another one whose title escaped me while I was
> writing out my original list:
>
> Unfaithfully Yours.
>
> Tom Moran


Another Sturges that did just OK at the time and wasn't particularly
well-received (as opposed to big popular/critical hits like Miracle of
Morgan's Creek or The Lady Eve):

The Palm Beach Story

Also . . . .

Old Ironsides (OK, not a masterpiece but a lot of fun.)
Sunrise
Trouble in Paradise
Bringing Up Baby (though I don't like it)
It's a Wonderful Life
Singin' in the Rain
Peeping Tom

Shawn Stone
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

KISS ME DEADLY
FORCE OF EVIL
WILD RIVER
BIGGER THAN LIFE
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Feuillade wrote:
> Okay. You get a phone call from Bruce Goldstein at the Film Forum.
>
> "I've run out of ideas!" he tells you. "There's nothing left to do.
> I'm seriously contemplating yet another pre-code series -- help me!
> Please!"
>
> You tell him to calm down. You've got a great idea for a series for
> the Film Forum.

I would tell him to stop sending his shills out onto the internet to do
his own programming and to get a bigger screen and perhaps aerosol
spray... better yet, perhaps an incendiary.

Your most obediant servant,
Oliver Haddo
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

In article <1136232305.341793.57560 DeleteThis @g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
Feuillade <Feuillade DeleteThis @aol.com> wrote:
>Feuillade wrote:
>> Okay. You get a phone call from Bruce Goldstein at the Film Forum.
>>
>> "I've run out of ideas!" he tells you. "There's nothing left to do.
>> I'm seriously contemplating yet another pre-code series -- help me!
>> Please!"
>>
>> You tell him to calm down. You've got a great idea for a series for
>> the Film Forum.
>>
>> It's called "From Flop to Masterpiece."
>>
>> The series consists of films that flopped either critically or at the
>> box office at the time of their original release -- only to be
>> considered masterpieces years -- sometimes decades -- later.
>>
>> They can be either silent or sound films. Up to the present day if you
>> feel like you can get away with it.
>>
>> So what would you show?
>>
>> Tom Moran
>
>I guess I should point out that this is only what Bill Bennett would
>call a "thought experiment." I do not seriously believe that Bruce
>Goldstein is running out of ideas.
>
>But that caveat having been made...
>
>I would show:
>
>Intolerance
>Greed
>The General
>Metropolis
>Duck Soup
>Fury
>The Magnificent Ambersons
>Detour
>Monsieur Verdoux
>The Lady From Shanghai
>Heaven's Gate
>Star 80
>
>At the very least.

That's a fantastic list. And I have versions of all of them.
My first Monsieur Verdoux was from the first set of commercial
VHS tapes ever released - remember Magnetic Video? Others I've
recorded, and other I've bought.

And I have three copies of Heaven's Gate. The first on RCA CED -
P&S, then the WS LD, and then the DVD. The colors are far better
on the LD IMO than on the DVD. Of the three films extant [that I
know of] on the Johnson County Wars - HG is the clear winner,
the mini-series with Tom Bereneger isn't too bad, but the Bill
Bixby version - The Invasion of Johnson County - is one that I put
firmly in the 'must miss' category.

HG is one of my all-time favorits.

Bill
--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

Night of the Hunter, Touch of Evil.

Bill Coleman

================

<mikegebert RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1136238534.629165.66160@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Beat the Devil, The Rules of the Game, It's a Wonderful Life, The
> Wizard of Oz, The Sweet Smell of Success, This is Spinal Tap. (Not all
> flops, but all at least underperformed relative to cost and
> expectations.)
>
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

Bill Coleman wrote:

> Touch of Evil.

Just about any Welles picture you care to name, except The Stranger.

Vertigo
Seconds
Barry Lyndon
Once Upon A Time In America

Brian
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series 

Oliver Haddo wrote:

> I would tell him to stop sending his shills out onto the internet to do
> his own programming and to get a bigger screen and perhaps aerosol
> spray... better yet, perhaps an incendiary.

Only if you're planning to use both of them on yourself. :)

Tom Moran
 >> Stay informed about: Program This Film Series