The Two Emperors: BRANDO and Who???
(Editors Note: This is a rerun of our very first classicmoviechat.com published eight years ago, on April 4, 2011. What was written here still stands.)
Hello everybody. This is MISTER Joe Morella and — along with me, my pal Frank Segers (age before beauty in this billing).
Welcome to our Classic Movie Chat, and to your personal classic movie forum as well.
We have a lot to give. So get ready to enjoy yourself.
We will be featuring brand new chats five days each week. As a special bonus, each of our electronic conversations will be accompanied by a fascinating
photo or two, either a rarely seen vintage photograph from our personal collection or a photograph never before seen anywhere. (today’s is just rare)
It’s our goal to have our daily chats referred to as a great classic movie source, a friendly and congenial place where we can all get together often and share our enjoyment of the incomparable array of great films and the stars who made them classics.
As you can tell by our opening line (calling Norman Maine!), we are passionate movie buffs who enjoy nothing more than having fun with the lines and images
that jump forth from so many wonderful movies of, let’s say, a certain age.
So, fasten your seat belts … yeah, yeah, yeah .… and join us here as often as you can. We’ll be here five times a week, and we would love to hear from you.
Did you ever wonder what truly makes a movie a classic?
We think about that a lot, and have come up with a credo of our own. That is, if a movie is good, will it be good five years from now and even better 10 years
from now. A movie classic is impervious to time – it was good when it first came out and even better now.
So many times it pays to avoid rushing out to catch the latest new release. Our advice – consider waiting a while to let the cinematic wheat separate itself
from the chaff. It will be easier on your pocketbook and your eyeballs.
Another way to look at this is to ask yourself how many times you’ve seen a film you remember was so terrific when you first saw it — but is now a total snore.
Aren’t you amazed to find that was once so great is 10 years later a dated bore.
That’s not to say that such a film can’t have an incredible impact on the public when it first comes out, sometimes changing the ways movies are made and even
the movie business itself. Our favorite example of this is 1969’s “Easy Rider,” which is dated to the point of being un-watchable today. However, the movie’s
place in Hollywood history is secure as a groundbreaking film. But that hardly makes it a classic.
A classic is a movie you can see over and over and over again, always finding something new and interesting about it, always marveling at its ability to
“hook” you. Sure, the film may be a period piece but it is never dated. It lacks references caught in time. It has instead universal themes (passion,
greed, hubris) representing universal human emotions reflecting the universal human condition.
Sunset Boulevard”came out 60 years ago, but its representation of Hollywood ambition and delusion is as relevant today as it was then. (Frank’s favorite
line: desperately broke screenwriter William Holden calls for a loan to “a yes-man at Metro. To me, he said no.”)
There is just no question that it is so much easier to be a vintage film buff and film collector these days. But like a lot of you we are old enough to recall the days in the 40’s, 50’s and even the 60’s when it was difficult to view old films. Unless you lived in a big city, which sported a revival theater, you were out in the cold.
How did you get to see your favorite classic before it was released on video?
Let’s hear from you. And by the way, have you guessed the identity of that officious gent standing next to Marlon Brando (above photo) as Napoleon? He was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 — Haile Selassie.
Happy Anniversary, gentlemen. I appreciate your hard work and enjoy the results. Although I am definitely “of a certain age”, I came across your blog only relatively recently. It is fun to dip into your archives as time permits.
Became familiar with older movies first on “Million Dollar Movie” in the 60’s. Usually poor quality prints and lots of commercials, but each flick ran daily for a week, so if you liked it you could become familiar with it. The first time I saw good prints or restorations of “Citizen Kane”, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and others, was of course a revelation. It’s always amusing now to find out how many people recall that being home sick from school meant unending supplies of sitcom re-runs and “Afternoon Movie Matinee.”
I got to know foreign films on “Cinema 9”, Friday nights on Channel 9 in L.A., when I think it was an RKO-General station. Even at the time, I was painfully aware that I was a teenager sitting home on Friday nights. If friends and I went out to the movies, it was always Saturday matinees, or later, on Saturday nights.
May I now speak briefly, in hushed and reverent tones, of Ted Turner, Robert Osborne, and Turner Classic Movies. It is the ONLY reason I don’t cut the cable cord. I say hushed tones because of the constant nagging fear that corporate overlord ATT will screw-up this great and classy resource.
Do you ever find yourself wondering if you might spot someone you know in an old movie or documentary? Think of the crowd scenes in the opening credits of “North by Northwest.” A lot of New Yorkers might have recognized themselves coming down the stairs at Grand Central or emerging from a mid-town office building. But they might have had to to the see the movie a few times to catch something familiar.
I will keep this short. In 2014 I was sitting up all night with a sick dog, and fell asleep with TCM on.
I woke up in the middle of one of those hilariously dated but delightful James A. FitzPatrick “TravelTalks,” shot in the summer of 1939, as it turned out. If you ever want to know I’ll tell you the whole story, but suffice it to say, I became aware that I was watching my mother, in glorious Technicolor, at age 21, enjoying herself in the snow on Mt. Rainier with a group of young people. I suspect she was unaware who that the guy with the cameraman was. She certainly never mentioned it. But 75 years later her son got to see her, in the flower of youth, before her adulthood overtook her. Thank you, Turner Classic Movies.
And thank you, Joe and Frank.
HAPPY 8th ANNIVERSARY Joe & Frank…
You should both get a special Academy Award for your wonderful efforts, and above all dedication, in bringing back some of the happy memories that HOLLYWOOD once gave us.
And Frank’s favorite line: (“a yes-man at Metro. To me, he said no.”) is also one of mine too!
That was a good tribute from DAN, but you don’t have to just rely on over-priced TCM or any of those streaming services to visit your Classic Movies anymore…
Check out YouTube where you’ll find so many of them are FREE, no subscriptions and just a click away…
What’s more, there are plenty of movie documentaries and fan produced videos, with new content being uploaded every day.
Here’s Kirk Douglas’ personal favorite movie that he made -LONELY ARE THE BRAVE from 1962.
httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmBm-jT0VJY&t=4445s
Don’t just wait around to read about classic movies, start watching them without making HOLLYWOOD anymore richer than it already is!
So here’s looking at you Joe & Frank, thanks again for all those they never bother to COMMENT!
Happy Belated Anniversary gentlemen!
I have just come across your blog today and must congratulate you on all the love you have put into your project. As a London theatre blogger I know how much time and effort goes into these projects, and I salute you on a blog that is hard to put down!
May I wish you many more happy years of sharing your own special magic with your many readers!
Thank You Both.