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| Watching Any Good Serials? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,331 Views) | |
| The Batman | Apr 17 2009, 07:12 PM Post #1396 |
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Thanks alot, Smiley. I thought I had finally purged those two from my memory. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
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| AndyFish | Apr 18 2009, 01:28 PM Post #1397 |
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Movie Watcha Foist Class
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NOT good by any means but more BIZARRE than almost anything I've ever seen; THE LOST CITY starring Wm "Drunk as a Skunk during Filming" Boyd whose dialogue delivery rivals Christian Bale's take on Batman for un-intelligible communication. Before I get further into this, does a good copy of this exist anywhere? I have the Alpha version and it's pretty weak. Better source material might make the racism easier to stomach (although I DOUBT IT)! |
| www.andytfish.com | |
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| KanSmiley | Apr 18 2009, 03:44 PM Post #1398 |
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Charter Member
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Aw, come on Bats you know I'd do anything for my pals north of the border.
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http://www.saturday-matinee-memories.com/ intoxicated, adj.: When you feel sophisticated without being able to pronounce it. | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Apr 18 2009, 06:00 PM Post #1399 |
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Mouth Breather
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C'mon, Bat. It's awful and you want a better copy? Gee whiz, that fools me to bits. Everybody who loves serials knows The Lost City is the real deal. Dumb? Sure. Dated? You bet. But mean-spirited? I don't really think so. Movies with outmoded attitudes like this one and The Birth of a Nation are easy to throw rocks at, but really dangerous movies aren't so easily identified. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| Laughing Gravy | Apr 18 2009, 06:04 PM Post #1400 |
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I think The Lost City is one of the best serials of the 1930s, top five easily. The VCI edition is far superior to the public domain offerings. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer | Apr 18 2009, 06:38 PM Post #1401 |
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Sapient Balconeer
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I liked The Lost City, but top 5 of the 30s? I'll have to get back to you on that. I gotta do some checkin', but I think I've seen better with the 30 or so serials I've seen the last 2 years, but I gotta double check the years on some of them. I know Flash Gordon and Drums Of Fu Manchu I like better than TLC. Undersea Kingdom was 30s, wasn't it? Ah hell, let me check, I'll be back tomorrow. I'm a slow checker. And a hunt-and-pecker on the keyboard. |
| It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong." | |
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| Pa Stark | Apr 18 2009, 07:24 PM Post #1402 |
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Charter Member
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panzer the great & terrible
Way to go Paul. Films with badly out of date ideas don't scare me, it is the self appointed guardians who have taken it upon themselves to protect us that scare the stuffing out of me. Both the right and the left are equally guilty. Every year a library group publishes a list of which books receive the most challenges to be removed from the shelves. I believe the titles that are on the top of the list every year are CATCHER IN THE RYE and HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Many years ago a small movie theater in San Francisco that specialized in old movies played THE BIRTH OF A NATION, and some of the usual radical fanatics went in and trashed the theater and destroyed the screen. The theater closed down and never reopened. A few years before a local TV show titled THE WORST OF HOLLYWOOD played B movies that really creaked. One night they played a WWII film titled SAMURAI where An American family adopted a young Japanese orphan. When he became an adult, he joined a fanatical Japanese group, murdered his parents, and became a terrorist. The host of the show made a disclaimer, told the audience not to get upset over the film, and just accept it as a product of the times. A while later I talked with the show's producer and he told me he received several angry letters, all from white liberal college professors. |
| Honest and Lovable Pa Stark | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Apr 19 2009, 07:57 AM Post #1403 |
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Mouth Breather
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I don't care what they call themselves, people who advocate censorship aren't really liberals or conservatives, they're just crazies. You want a really dangerous movie, try Meet John Doe, which nobody has ever thought of banning. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| Laughing Gravy | Apr 19 2009, 08:25 AM Post #1404 |
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What the hell... The Best Serials of the 1930s (that I've seen, anyway)... The Galloping Ghost (Mascot, 1931) Pirate Treasure (Universal, 1934) The Phantom Empire (Mascot, 1935) The Miracle Rider (Mascot, 1935) Tailspin Tommy in the Great Air Mystery (Universal, 1935) The Lost City (Regal, 1935) Darkest Africa (Republic, 1936) Flash Gordon (Universal, 1936) Undersea Kingdom (Republic, 1936) Ace Drummond (Universal, 1936) Jungle Jim (Universal, 1936) Zorro Rides Again (Republic, 1937) Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (Universal, 1938) Dick Tracy Returns (Republic, 1938) The Spider's Web (Columbia, 1938) Flying G-Men (Columbia, 1939) Daredevils of the Red Circle (Republic, 1939) Dick Tracy's G-Men (Republic, 1939) That's 18 titles, and I've bolded the top five. So there ya are. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Apr 19 2009, 08:36 AM Post #1405 |
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Mouth Breather
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I'll have to put Pirate Treasure in the rotation -- didn't know anybody rated it that high. I'm surprised, Mr. G, you don't have Zorro Rides Again in your top five. Didn't it used to be one of your favorites? |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| Laughing Gravy | Apr 19 2009, 08:47 AM Post #1406 |
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I love all 18 of these serials, but since I painted myself into a corner by listing The Lost City as Top Five, I had to pluck half-a-dozen-minus-one from the list, and Z didn't make the cut (hey, a funny!) so... *shrugs* Alas, I don't believe there are any good copies of Pirate's Treasure out there... It's a great one. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer | Apr 19 2009, 11:13 AM Post #1407 |
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Sapient Balconeer
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I prefer Undersea Kingdom and Ace Drummond over The Lost City. Drums Of Fu Manchu didn't make the grade? WOW! |
| It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong." | |
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| Zodiac | Apr 19 2009, 11:33 AM Post #1408 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I just started watching The Clutching Hand for the first time. it seems to have all the classic "serial" elements - the music, the action and the characters. Good? I give it an OK- but to me, it is the classic serial - I am too young- but not young by any stretch of the imagination- to have seen serials at the movies when I was a kid- Saturday matinee was a Horror or Adventure A flic, a two reeler, maybe a cartoon- All this for a quarter All kids relegated to the kids section with the "old" lady Matron in her white cafeteria uniform trying to keep the animals in their cages. Ah memories! |
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| Frank Hale | Apr 19 2009, 01:26 PM Post #1409 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I think Fu Manchu dates from 1940, Stony. I happen to be watching Lost City right now myself (Treeline version, which is passable.) After 3 chapters I’ve found it surpassingly dull, but perhaps things will improve. I don’t believe I’d ever actually seen Stage Boyd before. The poor guy must have been at the end of his tether since he died that year. And I hadn’t realized Billy Bletcher was so small. I agree with all of you on the censorship issues. But in this case it’s especially bewildering that so many people over the years have wanted to waste the time to be offended by anything so silly, or to debate its deeper societal implications with Mr. Krellberg’s supposed relative for 50 Squadron thread pages. (Still think it was Stan.) |
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| Laughing Gravy | Apr 19 2009, 02:23 PM Post #1410 |
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Stan! There's a name from the past. I first saw The Lost City in the Treeline print and thought it was very good. I watched the VCI release and it became a top favorite. Drums of Fu Manchu? What he said. Billy Bletcher's colossal voice and diminutive stature made him a sight gag in a few Hal Roach shorts. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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6:53 AM Jul 11