Crawdaddy's "Random Thoughts" about Home Video, Film & TV (3 Viewers)

[Robert Crawford]

There are days in which I simply hate HDMI with its handshaking issues. First thing this morning I turn on my main HT and I get nothing, but a color mosaic appearing on my LG OLED screen. I then started to switch formats from DirecTV, Oppo 203, AppleTV and Roku with the same results. Bad thoughts started entering my pea brain like needing a new display when the clouds started to clear and I started to think about HT-101 troubleshooting. I first unplug the HDMI cables and no improvement. Next, I switch out the cables to some new premium HDMI cables from Monoprice and the problem was solved. After a while I decided to switch back to my old premium HDMI cables that I replaced and guess what? No issues what-so-ever therefore, I decided to watch "The Greatest Showman" again in 4K/UHD and it looked beautiful. Anyway, I don't know what happened over night between my LG OLED and those HDMI cables, but it's cleared up now. By the way, that problem I had with HDMI cables that were directly connected from my Oppo to the OLED and same with the HDMI that feeds from my Yamaha receiver to the OLED.

 

[Robert Crawford]

William Holden and Nancy Olson made a good screen couple. An average film "Force of Arms" is, but I enjoy watching those two together in any film.

 

[Matt Hough]

There are days in which I simply hate HDMI with its handshaking issues. First thing this morning I turn on my main HT and I get nothing, but a color mosaic appearing on my LG OLED screen.

I had a similar thing happen about a month ago. My OLED has performed flawlessly for a year and a half and one afternoon, I fire it up, and I get an image with positive and negative polarities reversed. The weirdest thing I've ever seen. I switched to another HDMI input and got the same thing. I started thinking I was going to have to request a service call and I just shut everything down, waited five minutes, started everything up again, and it was normal again. What a ghastly experience!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yesterday, I watched The Big Clock (1948) in HD on iTunes. A great cast with some witty dialogue always makes this film noir/comedic film very entertainment for me. I guess this was a "couples" film with director John Farrow directing his wife Maureen O'Sullivan along with Charles Laughton/Elsa Lanchester, Ray Milland, George Macready, Rita Johnson and really creepy Harry Morgan. The rest of the cast includes several fine character actors. Just a treat of a film with Elsa being very funny in her quirky role.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's been a rough weekend here in Michigan with some snow and lots of freezing rain and just plain rain. My beloved Yankees are playing the Tigers in Detroit, but only Friday's game will be played this weekend due to the bad weather. So I decided to watch "The Pride of the Yankees" (1942) starring Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth playing himself along with Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan and Dan Duryea. An excellent film which I bought on HD from iTunes a while back. I'm happy with the video presentation, but I would still buy a Blu-ray of it if ever released by somebody.

 

[Robert Crawford]

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/04/film_noir_double_feature_jersey_retro.html

 

[Robert Crawford]

Noir Alley viewing of "Mystery Street" (1950) crime/film noir film starring Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Marshall Thompson and a personal favorite Elsa Lanchester. A very well written film that could be somewhat slow at times. However, Eddie Muller was right, this film was kind of bold in its subject matter and police forensics. Screenplay by Sydney Boehm and Richard Brooks then directed by John Sturges with John Alton as cinematographer doesn't get much better than that.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I was surfing through the Filmstruck/Criterion channel this morning and came across "Home From the Hill" (1960) a film that I've watched at least 20 times in my lifetime. It's one of those movies that used to play a lot on NYC channels back in the day. This film had a cast of actors among my all-time favorites like Robert Mitchum and Eleanor Parker. George Peppard and George Hamilton had breakout roles in this film. Also, in the cast was Everett Sloane, Ray Teal and Luana Patten.

It was great watching it again, but this melodrama directed by Vincente Minnelli needs to be released on Blu-ray. Please, Warner lets get that done.

 

[SeanSKA]

I was surfing through the Filmstruck/Criterion channel this morning and came across "Home From the Hill" (1960) a film that I've watched at least 20 times in my lifetime. It's one of those movies that used to play a lot on NYC channels back in the day. This film had a cast of actors among my all-time favorites like Robert Mitchum and Eleanor Parker. George Peppard and George Hamilton had breakout roles in this film. Also, in the cast was Everett Sloane, Ray Teal and Luana Patten.

It was great watching it again, but this melodrama directed by Vincente Minnelli needs to be released on Blu-ray. Please, Warner lets get that done.

I watched this on DVD a few years back, and really liked it. Minnelli is a master of the wide-screen, so I'm thinking that those old TV pan-and-scan showings must have been a mess.... . I'd probably prefer "Some Came Running" on blu-ray first, though

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched this on DVD a few years back, and really liked it. Minnelli is a master of the wide-screen, so I'm thinking that those old TV pan-and-scan showings must have been a mess.... . I'd probably prefer "Some Came Running" on blu-ray first, though

So would I because it's a better film. As to my past TV viewings in my youth, I didn't know any better back then.

 

[SeanSKA]

So would I because it's a better film. As to my past TV viewings in my youth, I didn't know any better back then.

When I was a young film buff catching these films on TV in the 1970s, I didn't know much better either until Film Comment Magazine had an article about films shown on television, and they discussed panning and scanning, and gave photographic examples (I remember they showed widescreen and pan-and-scan images from "The Graduate" and "East of Eden" side by side), and that fuled my obsession with seeing these films as they were seen originally in the theaters, which only came to fruition in the late 1980s with first laser disc, then DVD, and now blu-ray.

 

[Worth]

When I was a young film buff catching these films on TV in the 1970s, I didn't know much better either until Film Comment Magazine had an article about films shown on television, and they discussed panning and scanning, and gave photographic examples (I remember they showed widescreen and pan-and-scan images from "The Graduate" and "East of Eden" side by side), and that fuled my obsession with seeing these films as they were seen originally in the theaters, which only came to fruition in the late 1980s with first laser disc, then DVD, and now blu-ray.

Personally, I'd put it at late-90s, with DVDs viewed on a 16:9 set. Letterboxing was certainly better than pan & scan, but watching a 'scope film on a 4:3 NTSC set was still a horrible compromise.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Riveting programming on Hulu. I've watched four of the ten episodes since Monday. Anybody read the book?

 

[Robert Crawford]

I sat down and watched the DVD of "Matewan" (1987), a film that I considered one of the least appreciative films from the 1980's. The film written and directed by John Sayles depicted the "Coal Wars" that took place in Matewan, West Virginia back in 1920/1921, when the miner owners try to prevent the coal workers from unionizing. The wonderful cast included Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, David Strathairn, Bob Gunton and Kevin Tighe among other actors that Sayle favored to use in his films. The film was beautifully shot by Haskell Wexler. This fine film deserved better in the home video era. I had to import this DVD from Canada to finally see it again in its OAR. I wish Criterion or some other boutique disc producer releases this title on Blu-ray. I highly recommend this film to anyone that has never viewed this film.

 

[bujaki]

Most of John Sayles' films are underappreciated; this one ranks among his best.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Riveting programming on Hulu.

I'm through 8 of the 10 episodes. I should finish the last two between now and Saturday. A fantastic series!

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched the HBO documentary on "Andre the Giant". Another fine HBO documentary on the late wrestler of WWE fame.

https://www.hbo.com/content/hboweb/en/documentaries/andre-the-giant/andre-the-giant-synopsis.html

 

[Robert Crawford]

Scarface (1983) revisited 35 years later by cast.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...k-scarface-35th-anniversary-article-1.3944757

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm finished with "The Looming Tower" now I'm watching the reboot of "Lost in Space".

I received my Blu-rays of "Down 3 Dark Streets" and "Five Steps to Danger" on Friday from ClassicFlix so I'll watch the former tomorrow in place of the Noir Alley showing of "Cry Danger". I'll still listen to Eddie's before and after comments, but I just watched my BD of it not too long ago.

 

[Robert Crawford]

IMO, this latest Noir Alley had some of Eddie Muller best comments about a film. He gave us a historical lesson about the film that some probably didn't know about. Plus, he gave a good tribute to the two actresses in "Cry Danger" Rhonda Fleming and Jean Porter. As some of you already know, I like both actresses, but the latter was an actress that didn't become a star, but she was a personal favorite of mine with her bubbly on-screen personality.