Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.)

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Red Barry on TCM
Topic Started: Jan 4 2018, 01:54 PM (949 Views)
turan38
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
Turner Classics will be running a chapter of Red Barry each Saturday morning in March. If anyone on this forum doesn't already have the DVD.
Edited by turan38, Jan 4 2018, 01:54 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bert Greene
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
Interesting! I wonder what print they will utilize. Is there something better than what VCI has served up? I've watched the serial three times over the past 25 years, and each time I've seen it, I've grown to like it more and more. It's not perfect, but I just like it. This past year I picked up that IDW book that reprints the first half of the original comic-strip's run. Supposedly a second volume is eventually to come, completing it. Seems to be a pretty highly-regarded strip with the connoisseurs, and I enjoyed it, although I can't say it particularly knocked me out. The 'undercover agent' plotlines and endless gangster lingo sometimes wore a little thin with me. But I'm still anxious to read the rest of the strip, if that second volume ever comes out. It was getting better as it was going along.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Barcroft
Member Avatar
Charter Member
[ *  *  * ]
One of my favorite Universals..................
Barcroft
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
turan38
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
This was one of those serials the title of which stuck with me from childhood in the early 'fifties, although I remembered absolutely nothing about the serial itself. Having seen it several times in the last twenty years what struck me was two really annoying things. The serial was padded with boring vaudeville acts. The other thing: Seemingly in every chapter Red Barry's gun getting knocked out of his hand by a thug. You think after chapter three he would have learned!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
outerlimit
Member Avatar
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
I recall buying this serial on VHS years ago, when it was put out by (I think) Sony.I also seem to recollect that it lacked close-ups which seemed to me to be odd and unsatisfactory, especially as Buster Crabbe was the star.Because it was such a disappointment I never sought it on DVD.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
rodney
Member Avatar
Charter Member
[ *  *  * ]
The VCI print isn't all that hot; lots of digital scrubbing. Hopefully something better turns up on TCM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
JazzGuyy
Member Avatar
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
Sometimes the TCM prints are the VCI ones. Hope this time will be different. Will VCI ever stop overscrubbing their sources?
TANSTAAFL!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
rodney
Member Avatar
Charter Member
[ *  *  * ]
JazzGuyy
Jan 8 2018, 12:17 PM
Will VCI ever stop overscrubbing their sources?
Some stuff is definitely better than other stuff. The other night, I watched a Three Mesquiteers film (Outlaws of Cherokee Trail) and it was a nice 16mm transfer with probably no "work" done to it whatsoever.

Red Barry has not fared so well.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sgt King
Charter Member
[ *  *  * ]
Thanks for the serial heads up. Will definately catch it as I've never seen it.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
mort bakaprevski
Member Avatar
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
Many happy memories of RED BARRY. It was the afternoon of January 2, 1950, a holiday since New Year's day fell on Sunday, & I was channel surfing (all 7 seven of 'em). All of a sudden I stopped. It was a film & it obviously was something special.... it had a full orchestra providing background music (we had purchased our first TV about 3 months earlier & a full orchestral background was something rare, indeed).

I stayed thru until the words, superimposed over a dragon breathing fire, told me to return to this theatre next week & see Chapter 3 (Chapter 1 had evidently run the day before on Sunday & the remaining chapters all ran on succeeding Sundays). Much to my pleasure, Chapter 2 of RED BARRY was followed by Chapter 2 of both DON WINSLOW OF THE COAST GUARD & ACE DRUMMOND (which had the same dragon at the end of the chapter).

Natch, it was my first taste of Universal stock music of the 30's & I loved each & every theme. However, there were other aspects of the serial which also appealed to me. It was one of the few serials where major events occurred in chapters other than the first & the last: a primary good-guy dies; one of the bad guys turns out to be one of the other bad guys in disguise; another bad guy (girl) morphs into a good girl; etc.

At any rate, looking forward to re-seeing portions of a favorite of my yoot.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bert Greene
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
Wow. January 1950. Do we actually know at what date those older Universal/Film Classics serials were first made available in syndicated packages to tv? Were they aired in localities earlier than that, in 1949 or 1948 or such? Always fascinating to know when these things first appeared on television. For that matter, I wonder what serials were never made available in syndication. Were some of those later 1950s-vintage Republics and Columbias, for example, ever syndicated for television, considering how late-in-the-game they appeared? They were too 'new,' obviously, for inclusion with the familiar packages when they first appeared on the scene. We know all about the ersatz feature compilations of Republic and such, but what about those later serials themselves being made available?

I've always assumed the first serial to be broadcast on television was Mascot's "The Lost Jungle," as the various chapters aired in Sept/Oct 1939 on NBC's experimental (W2XBS?) channel in New York City. At least, according to the schedules. I twasn't there. I twasn't around in 1950, either.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
mort bakaprevski
Member Avatar
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
Can only speak for the L.A. market & yes, 1/1/50 was the first time those serials (minus BUCK ROGERS) were shown here.

A year & 1/2 later, a package of Republic serials was released, but they were abortions where 2 chapters were stapled together to fit into a half-hour format!
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
mort bakaprevski
Member Avatar
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
Oh yeah, don't know when the Mastcot, Weiss (& the one Van Beuren w/ Creighton Chaney) products were initially shown on TV out here, but I would guess sometime in 47 or 48.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
HAWKEYE
Member Avatar
Balcony Gang
[ *  * ]
I have always been, under the impression, that the three-disc set, of "Red Barry", released, by Hermitage Hill, which I purchased, back in 2009, was the best version available. Any other views, on this?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The Batman
Member Avatar
Charter Member
[ *  *  * ]

That's the one I have, Hawkeye, and there are no complaints. I miss those guys at Hermitage Hills.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create a free forum in seconds.
Learn More · Sign-up Now
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Continued Next Week · Next Topic »
Add Reply