Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[SolidBlu]

do you think major dundee will sell out fast? thinking of getting this when philadelphia and leave her to heaven pre-orders are up

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by SolidBlu

do you think major dundee will sell out fast? thinking of getting this when philadelphia and leave her to heaven pre-orders are up

You're safe.

[DMRI2006]

Does anyone know that for the $100 worth of TT product you have to spend in order to get a copy of the Keith Gordon signed CHRISTINE, will buying one of the remaining regular (non signed) CHRISTINE's that go back up for sale count towards that? Or can you only buy 1 or the other?

[RogelioT]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

Does anyone know that for the $100 worth of TT product you have to spend in order to get a copy of the Keith Gordon signed CHRISTINE, will buying one of the remaining regular (non signed) CHRISTINE's that go back up for sale count towards that? Or can you only buy 1 or the other?

Sombody asked TT on their facebook page:
"If I am including an unsigned copy of Christine in the same sale for $100 or over will you still receive the free signed copy as well? It's a little bit of a grey area because it says 1 copy per customer. I don't want to get post checkout only to find I get 0 copies because the sale wasn't valid only to be left with nothing again"
TT replied"The answer is yes, ..., but you might limit your chances of getting Christine by trying to obtain both signed, and unsigned copies--the whole promotion is likely to be over in a matter of minutes, if last Friday was any indication..."

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by RogelioT

Sombody asked TT on their facebook page:
"If I am including an unsigned copy of Christine in the same sale for $100 or over will you still receive the free signed copy as well? It's a little bit of a grey area because it says 1 copy per customer. I don't want to get post checkout only to find I get 0 copies because the sale wasn't valid only to be left with nothing again"
TT replied"The answer is yes, ..., but you might limit your chances of getting Christine by trying to obtain both signed, and unsigned copies--the whole promotion is likely to be over in a matter of minutes, if last Friday was any indication..."

Thanks

[NoirFan]

So the site will be down from 4 to 4:08, the copies will sell out from 4:09 to 4:15, and then people who couldn't log in and/or get one of the extra copies will complain from 4:16 to 2014.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

So the site will be down from 4 to 4:08, the copies will sell out from 4:09 to 4:15, and then people who couldn't log in and/or get one of the extra copies will complain from 4:16 to 2014.

I'd just telescope your timeline a bit NoirFan. I doubt there will be even a 5 minute window for purchasing Christine via either the remaining allotment of standalone Blu-rays or the combined TT product with free autographed edition. I suspect these represent different streams of customer interest and will most likely be running lickety-split in parallel. My advice would be make up your mind before 4:00 pm which one you're going after and just bear down on that.

And what gives you any confidence that all the complaining will end in 2014? The continual revival of the Fright Night and NOTLD '90 threads are proof that these are likely infinite loops of whingeing and woe.

[AndersonVision]

Does anyone have more up-to-date cart numbers? There was a pretty nice breakdown a few pages back, but leading into the 8th...are there newer numbers?

[ROclockCK]

...this MIA Fox 'Scope movie from '57 popped into mind over the weekend:





Interesting that it had a score by Hugo Friedhofer, and was never available (legally) on DVD. Although I'm familiar with the famous (infamous?) stills of Sophia Loren soaking wet, I've never actually seen this movie...it's like it totally vanished a couple of decades ago.

Anyone ever seen Boy on a Dolphin? Or know what happened to it? Strikes me a 1st class cheesefest possibly worthy of a TT showcase...

[Aclea]

I wouldn't be surprised if that and Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef turned up somewhere down the line. There is a decent Spanish DVD from Fox in Spain in widescreen. My thoughts:

Before Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep, Sophia Loren was the screen's most infamous model for wet T-shirts in Boy on a Dolphin, with her assets almost worthy of star billing of their own and providing more than enough justification for shooting this treasure hunting yarn in CinemaScope. Drafted in after shooting had started when Cary Grant dropped out of the picture, Alan Ladd's archaeologist is the nominal star, but he spends much of the film sidelined as Loren's poor Greek sponge diver (you can just see the casting department thinking to themselves "Italy, Greece, it's all the Mediterranean, right?") discovers a 2000-year old statue on the ocean bed and pitches in with Clifton Webb's amoral millionaire to sneak it away before the Greek authorities can get their hands on it. Ladd's there to act as her and the film's conscience. Constantly reminding her of all the treasures stolen from her homeland that should belong to the people rather than the rich few while she, not unreasonably, counters that the majority don't care about statues if they don't have enough money to live while constantly steering him in the wrong direction and playing him for a fool. This friction is naturally intended to lead them into each other's arms, but Ladd doesn't do passion and there's about as much spark between him and Loren as you'd get from a box of matches retrieved from the seabed. It doesn't help that Loren's resolutely one-note in her American screen debut, spending most of the picture veering between loud and angry and loud and surly, with some of her dialogue in the first couple of reels difficult to make out until she starts to settle own a bit.

The real sparks come whenever Clifton Webb is allowed to show off his patented brand of patronising snobbery and cold indifference to such trivial matters as emotions or ethics - when reminded of the Greek laws against smuggling antiquities out of the country, he blithely boasts that he's the reason for the law - but the script runs out of acid one-liners for him around the halfway point. There's not much drama in the climax either, especially after Ladd and Jorge Mistral have locked horns over the size of their knives (with Ladd claiming "sometimes the smaller the knife the bigger the man" without a hint of irony) only for all the main characters to passively wait around for the authorities to sort it all out. Nor are the underwater scenes as wondrous as they could be, rather obviously and unadventurously shot in a fairly cramped studio tank. The film fares better on dry land, with Milton Krasner's CinemaScope photography making the most of the odd bit of spectacular scenery even if the DeLuxe color hasn't aged as well as might be hoped. Yet it's a pleasant undemanding easygoing summer holiday kind of movie for all that: nothing much to set the pulse racing after Sophia's T-shirt dries out but the kind of film that can wash over you pleasantly enough without boring.

[Aclea]

Well, he does have a prominent supporting role, but he doesn't have any dialogue and he's a bit stiff.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Aclea

I wouldn't be surprised if that and Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef turned up somewhere down the line. There is a decent Spanish DVD from Fox in Spain in widescreen. My thoughts:

[Show spoiler]Before Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep, Sophia Loren was the screen's most infamous model for wet T-shirts in Boy on a Dolphin, with her assets almost worthy of star billing of their own and providing more than enough justification for shooting this treasure hunting yarn in CinemaScope. Drafted in after shooting had started when Cary Grant dropped out of the picture, Alan Ladd's archaeologist is the nominal star, but he spends much of the film sidelined as Loren's poor Greek sponge diver (you can just see the casting department thinking to themselves "Italy, Greece, it's all the Mediterranean, right?") discovers a 2000-year old statue on the ocean bed and pitches in with Clifton Webb's amoral millionaire to sneak it away before the Greek authorities can get their hands on it. Ladd's there to act as her and the film's conscience. Constantly reminding her of all the treasures stolen from her homeland that should belong to the people rather than the rich few while she, not unreasonably, counters that the majority don't care about statues if they don't have enough money to live while constantly steering him in the wrong direction and playing him for a fool. This friction is naturally intended to lead them into each other's arms, but Ladd doesn't do passion and there's about as much spark between him and Loren as you'd get from a box of matches retrieved from the seabed. It doesn't help that Loren's resolutely one-note in her American screen debut, spending most of the picture veering between loud and angry and loud and surly, with some of her dialogue in the first couple of reels difficult to make out until she starts to settle own a bit.

The real sparks come whenever Clifton Webb is allowed to show off his patented brand of patronising snobbery and cold indifference to such trivial matters as emotions or ethics - when reminded of the Greek laws against smuggling antiquities out of the country, he blithely boasts that he's the reason for the law - but the script runs out of acid one-liners for him around the halfway point. There's not much drama in the climax either, especially after Ladd and Jorge Mistral have locked horns over the size of their knives (with Ladd claiming "sometimes the smaller the knife the bigger the man" without a hint of irony) only for all the main characters to passively wait around for the authorities to sort it all out. Nor are the underwater scenes as wondrous as they could be, rather obviously and unadventurously shot in a fairly cramped studio tank. The film fares better on dry land, with Milton Krasner's CinemaScope photography making the most of the odd bit of spectacular scenery even if the DeLuxe color hasn't aged as well as might be hoped. Yet it's a pleasant undemanding easygoing summer holiday kind of movie for all that: nothing much to set the pulse racing after Sophia's T-shirt dries out but the kind of film that can wash over you pleasantly enough without boring.

Nifty summary Aclea...thanks! Way more than I knew about this obscure movie.

BTW, what's the score like? I've never heard it in its entirety, just sampled via clips such as this:

BOAD

Since TT has been showing Hugo Friedhofer some serious lovin' via this collection, it got me wondering...

[Aclea]

Very nice indeed - and one I missed when Intrada did their very limited edition CD, so I'd be grateful for a BD with an isolated score. Friedhofer's pretty much the forgotten man among the golden age composers and even though it's not one of his very best it's still a cut above many of his contemporaries.

On a completely irrelevant side note after that prolog clip, I learned to swim in Poros when I was a kid. There's not that much else to do there...

[gosabres1984]

When will Philadelphia be available for pre order?

[gpn]

Originally Posted by ROclockCK

Anyone ever seen Boy on a Dolphin? Or know what happened to it? Strikes me a 1st class cheesefest possibly worthy of a TT showcase...

I saw "Boy on a Dolphin" on TCM not too long ago. It was a decent enough film and would make a nice addition to the TT library. The image of Sophia in her wet shirt is emblazoned on my brain from all the years of watching Siskel & Ebert.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Very nice indeed - and one I missed when Intrada did their very limited edition CD, so I'd be grateful for a BD with an isolated score. Friedhofer's pretty much the forgotten man among the golden age composers and even though it's not one of his very best it's still a cut above many of his contemporaries.

Absolutely agree. In fact, Friedhofer has been one of my happiest surprises with TT's output. Before these Blu-rays and DVDs, I doubt I could have named even 2 or 3 of his scores...and yet he's now a name I welcome in a snap. During the 50s in particular, I think he was simply overshadowed by the showier practitioners of the scoring craft: Herrmann, Newman, North, Tiomkin, Waxman, Rosza, and Bernstein. Friedfhofer was more restrained and understated, but no less evocative...just more likely to be spare in his cues. Mr. 'Wall-to-Wall' he certainly was not.

Originally Posted by Aclea

On a completely irrelevant side note after that prolog clip, I learned to swim in Poros when I was a kid. There's not that much else to do there...

Geeez, some folks just can't seem to post without forcing others to relive their miserable, tragically deprived childhood.

Seriously, what a great place to learn to swim! FWIW, I had Lake Huron.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by gpn

I saw "Boy on a Dolphin" on TCM not too long ago. It was a decent enough film and would make a nice addition to the TT library. The image of Sophia in her wet shirt is emblazoned on my brain from all the years of watching Siskel & Ebert.

Okay, then there's two reasons for going high def.

This thing sounds more and more like a 50s 'Scope version of The Deep...

[dsman71]

I got my shipping notice for the Fury and Christine today

[SymbioticFunction]

http://www.avmaniacs.com/forums/show...50289&page=17&

Hmmm, not very impressed. Judging from that highlighted and rather ill-advised facebook comment, TT now just come across as a bunch of dicks with total contempt for their own customers. I will be purchasing The Blob & The Driver but reading something like that makes it difficult to wholeheartedly support the company.

[bluknight1]

Originally Posted by ROclockCK

Okay, then there's two reasons for going high def.

This thing sounds more and more like a 50s 'Scope version of The Deep...

Boy on a Dolphin also was nominated for the Oscar for Best Score. It has a gorgeous soundtrack by Hugo Friedhofer and is a prime candidate for a Twilight Time release.