The Criterion Channel

[Star Lord]

Originally Posted by b00gie

Anyone else get an email with a $25 voucher code yesterday as a "thank you for being a Charter Subscriber" on the 6th year anniversary of the channel?

Voucher expires on 31/10/25.

WOW I never check my spam mails and found I got the code on 8th April. My sub had ended just that week before! Thanks to your post.

[DaBargainHunta]

I've watched only six of the expiring picks:

• Ali (2001)
• I Like It Like That (1994)
• Moonstruck (1987)
• The Palm Beach Story (1942)
• Something Wild (1986)
• Thunder on the Hill (1951)

Not a bad movie in the bunch.

Since four of Fred MacMurray's movies are expiring, I might start with a Fred MacMurray Quadruple Feature over the weekend.

• The Gilded Lily (1935)
• Maid of Salem (1937)
• No Time for Love (1943)
• The Egg and I (1947)

Claudette Colbert is in all of them, and she has five other movies expiring as well, but that's probably too much of a rabbit hole to go down this late in the month.

• Torch Singer (1933)
• Imitation of Life (1934)
• I Met Him in Paris (1937)
• Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
• Skylark (1941)

[fdm]

I started to watch Maid Of Salem the other morning, but that was a bit too late in the day for me, so decided to wait another day or two and give it a shot earlier some evening.

Which was last night. But instead I felt more inclined towards watching Frankie And Johnny. It seemed vaguely familiar so I may have seen it near its original release, hard to tell since sometimes I barely remember something I saw a couple years ago, or a few days ago . Nice NYC atmosphere, good cast, a little taste of Rear Window here and there, decent enough script. Recommended.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by fdm

I started to watch Maid Of Salem the other morning, but that was a bit too late in the day for me, so decided to wait another day or two and give it a shot earlier some evening.

I watched this last night and would definitely encourage you to give it another try.

I still have one more to go, but Maid of Salem will probably end up being the best of the four Claudette Colbert-Fred MacMurray movies expiring this month.

[Cpt. Feeney]

Don't have a lot of time over the next few days so I'll have to pick from Maid of Salem, Vanilla Sky, which I've never seen, Falling in Love, which I remember being good, The Bad and the Beautiful, which I can't remember well at all, and maybe another watch of The Killing Fields (PQ is good, can confirm).

[fdm]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I watched this last night and would definitely encourage you to give it another try.

I still have one more to go, but Maid of Salem will probably end up being the best of the four Claudette Colbert-Fred MacMurray movies expiring this month.

Oh I will, just need to find a good time to watch it… those old Fred (with or without Claudette) movies are usually pretty good.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by Cpt. Feeney

Don't have a lot of time over the next few days so I'll have to pick from Maid of Salem, Vanilla Sky, which I've never seen, Falling in Love, which I remember being good, The Bad and the Beautiful, which I can't remember well at all, and maybe another watch of The Killing Fields (PQ is good, can confirm).

I just added Falling In Love to my list (apparently I was thinking Stanley & Iris for some reason, not one that I particularly cared for). See if it rings any bells for me…

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by Cpt. Feeney

Vanilla Sky, which I've never seen, Falling in Love, which I remember being good

Originally Posted by fdm

I just added Falling In Love to my list (apparently I was thinking Stanley & Iris for some reason, not one that I particularly cared for). See if it rings any bells for me…

Just a heads-up that Vanilla Sky is on a million other streaming services (of course, it depends on if you have any of them) and Falling in Love is on a couple. Always worth checking the JustWatch.com site or app when planning what to prioritize from the expiring picks on the Channel (and, of course, double-check the other services to make sure they're still there and/or good PQ/AQ - Prime, in particular, is notorious for using bad public domain transfers).

[fdm]

By the time I got back to the channel last night, I again wasn't really in the mood for Maid of Salem, got just about as far into it as last time. Probably will give it a go earlier in the day when the wife's still at work during the day.

But I did then proceed to watch Falling In Love. I almost immediately recognized it when I selected the movie and read its summary, and when I started it playing that confirmed it. Funny how nearly 41 years ago can sometimes be just a synapse or two away. I remembered the film pretty well considering and still enjoyed it, glad to be reminded of it. So yeah, recommended too. (Oh and PQ was quite decent.)

Speaking of 41 years, I've also managed to stay married that long as of yesterday. Good times.

[Cpt. Feeney]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

Just a heads-up that Vanilla Sky is on a million other streaming services

It's true, I have it available on a service a family member pays for and I never considered watching before. I guess I have a bias for Criterion. When a popular film shows up there I give it due consideration. Partly because I know there won't be ads, and I know they make the extra effort where they can with picture quality.

[sherlockjr]

Originally Posted by Cpt. Feeney

It's true, I have it available on a service a family member pays for and I never considered watching before. I guess I have a bias for Criterion. When a popular film shows up there I give it due consideration. Partly because I know there won't be ads, and I know they make the extra effort where they can with picture quality.

If you're going for pure picture quality the best is often on AppleTV+ if watching through an Apple device (i.e. AppleTV 4K box). AppleTV+ through an Apple device often streams at around 30-35mbps (at least for 4K) vs 10-15mbps from most other services. Less compression = better picture quality. Plus, unlike Criterion, AppleTV+ will have 4K streams of many films, while Criterion Channel remains HD/1080p only.

AppleTV+ has a pretty good selection of available (even arty) films but you will have to pay around $4 to stream many titles. On the other hand, no commercials and better picture quality. And while Apple has a good selection, they're sure not better than Criterion Channel's amazing choices. However, even at 30mbps, Apple's not going to beat a 4K disk with a data rate to your 4K display up to 100mbps and superior disk based lossless audio.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by fdm

Oh I will, just need to find a good time to watch it… those old Fred (with or without Claudette) movies are usually pretty good.

If I had to rank the four Colbert-MacMurray movies expiring from the Channel:

1. Maid of Salem
2. No Time for Love
3. The Egg and I
4. The Gilded Lily

[fdm]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

If I had to rank the four Colbert-MacMurray movies expiring from the Channel:

1. Maid of Salem
2. No Time for Love
3. The Egg and I
4. The Gilded Lily

Of the three Colbert films I watched this month, I'd give Maid of Salem the nod as well. Quite good.

From your list I've only seen The Egg and I otherwise. The other two I have on disc, so someday maybe...

Might try out one or more of these today/tomorrow (haven't really looked at them to see what they are, they're basically the over an hour long titles that I likely otherwise won't have access to after they go away):

I Like It Like That
The Plot Against Harry
Trash Humpers
Songs Of Earth
Tonsler Park
Shakedown
Cette maison
Cleaners

I might also try a rewatch of Dis-moi as it doesn't seem to have a disc to go with it so might be last chance to catch it again.

And/or maybe a short or two.

Reads as pretty ambitious as I finish typing this out… could just as easily be done for the month.

[DaBargainHunta]

I watched Bertrand Tavernier's It All Starts Today. Even though it's about a Kindergarten teacher, it plays almost like a tense thriller.

Tavernier has ten movies expiring this month, with only a couple of them also on Kanopy. I won't be able to get to anything else of his. But I'm not sure I want to right now anyway. As good as It All Starts Today is, I need to look for something lighter tonight. Tavernier doesn't seem like a director you can "binge" - I think I need to space out when I watch each of his movies - so hopefully they return to the Channel or pop up elsewhere.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by fdm

I Like It Like That

This is a major childhood favorite of mine, for whatever it's worth.

(Yes, I was a weird child!)

[fdm]

Regarding the films in my list above, which I did what I could with last night/this morning:

I Like It Like That was pretty entertaining, not sure why I never heard of it before. Also I was trying to place the lead actress (Luna) Lauren Vélez and realized that she was part of the Dexter series cast.

The Plot Against Harry I added to my watchlist should it re-appear some day, gave it a bit of a watch.

Trash Humpers, sampled like 15 seconds of it, wasn't even good VHS quality… easy pass.

Songs Of Earth was where I ended this month, beautiful, slow-paced documentary film, sorry you missed it.

Tonsler Park I also added to my watchlist should it re-appear some day, didn't sample it.

Shakedown I think I sampled it and was just not interested, already forgot about it.

Cette maison I also added to my watchlist should it re-appear some day, didn't sample it.

Cleaners was a bit too animated for my taste, couldn't get beyond the flickering photocopy hand-coloredness of it and then thinking it would go on like that for at least another hour… watched maybe 5 minutes of it.

So good enough for me.

[eightslicesofpie]

Strange Days is so good. Why the hell is this not on disc

[fdm]

Strange Days is a 20th Century Fox title, so now buried in the Disney vault. There's blu-rays from Germany and the UK if you are region-free.

--

From near the bottom of my channel's built-in watch list (which tells you how long it's been there), I watched Shockproof the other day. Entertaining enough film noir, directed by Douglas Sirk and originally written by Sam Fuller. Worth a watch. (Part of The Samuel Fuller Collection Eclipse dvd set it turns out, and also part of the Samuel Fuller At Columbia Indicator blu-ray set.) (I guess I really should dig out that Indicator set… , and prune that watch list a little bit.)

[Cpt. Feeney]

Originally Posted by sherlockjr

If you're going for pure picture quality the best is often on AppleTV+ if watching through an Apple device.

Sure, for new films. My concern is for older titles. Companies like Apple buy bulk lots of old movies from the studios, already transferred. My understanding is that the studios may claim that they are all HD but nobody there is sitting down to check the quality, and often they are older transfers, and when Apple upload them to their site, nobody there is sitting down to check the quality either. And paying extra dollar for that kind of low effort is galling.

[Star Lord]

The website sucks now, no titles get added to continue watching like before. Anyhoo, saw Ed Wood. Awesome film!