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TCM Genre movies schedule...

Greg Cox said:
It would take all of fifteen minutes to convert FORBIDDEN PLANET into a TREK script.
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Well, the thing with the entire crew going ga-ga over Altaira because they hadn't seen a woman in a year wouldn't have really worked in a Trek context, although the writers of "Mudd's Women" hadn't quite figured that out yet. Also, the deaths of core crew members would need to be dropped or changed to more peripheral characters, and the action sequence of the monster attacking the landed star cruiser would need to be changed radically. (I suppose they could've easily enough had the machine's power reach into orbit; that sort of thing certainly happened enough in TOS.) And they'd have to change the ending with Robby joining the crew and the captain marrying Altaira (at least in the script).
 
Christopher said:
Well, the thing with the entire crew going ga-ga over Altaira because they hadn't seen a woman in a year wouldn't have really worked in a Trek context, although the writers of "Mudd's Women" hadn't quite figured that out yet. Also, the deaths of core crew members would need to be dropped or changed to more peripheral characters, and the action sequence of the monster attacking the landed star cruiser would need to be changed radically. (I suppose they could've easily enough had the machine's power reach into orbit; that sort of thing certainly happened enough in TOS.) And they'd have to change the ending with Robby joining the crew and the captain marrying Altaira (at least in the script).
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And you'd have to find something for Spock to do. :)

But the basic plot is a textbook STAR TREK episode: starship crew checks in remote colony to find only two survivors: an enigmatic scientist who refuses to leave and his beautiful daughter who falls for the ship's captain. Meanwhile, a mysterious invisible forcing is wiping out the redshirts . . . until the captain figures out the planet's Big Secret in the nick of time.

You'd just need to make superficial changes,like not killing off any regulars and not marrying the captain off. (Altaira and Robby can conveniently disappear by next episode, just like any other TOS guest-stars.)
 
It is actually a bit surprising that Robby never showed up in TOS, given how many other shows he guest-starred in. I also realized a while back how odd it was that TOS never built any episodes around stock FX footage from sci-fi movies, which would've been right up their budget-conscious alley. (Like how The Twilight Zone often reused footage of Forbidden Planet's spaceship, or how the entire premise of The Time Tunnel was an excuse to recycle stock footage from historical epics.) Paramount didn't have many suitable films in its library, but I could see When Worlds Collide, Conquest of Space, or maybe Robinson Crusoe on Mars or even The War of the Worlds providing some usable footage.
 
TOS' creators wanted a distinctive technological voice, which would not be possible recycling the work of other productions--particularly productions using so-called "future tech" that was already outdated in appearance by the time of TOS' NBC run. There's no comparison between the Enterprise, the Klingon D-7, Tholian ships, Fesarius and the saucers and rockets from 50's movies. Roddenberry may have had his faults, but he was no Irwin Allen (for one example)--the latter being a guy who used easy to identify creations of other productions (Robby the Robot), and stock footage liberally in most of his TV productions.
 
Christopher said:
It is actually a bit surprising that Robby never showed up in TOS, given how many other shows he guest-starred in. I also realized a while back how odd it was that TOS never built any episodes around stock FX footage from sci-fi movies, which would've been right up their budget-conscious alley. (Like how The Twilight Zone often reused footage of Forbidden Planet's spaceship, or how the entire premise of The Time Tunnel was an excuse to recycle stock footage from historical epics.) Paramount didn't have many suitable films in its library, but I could see When Worlds Collide, Conquest of Space, or maybe Robinson Crusoe on Mars or even The War of the Worlds providing some usable footage.
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I had the same thought when I looked him up on Wikipedia, he was practically every other big show on during the '60s and '70s. He was on The Love Boat and Columbo, so he even did none genre stuff.
 
Well, I decided to go ahead and watch the Bo Derek Tarzan the Ape Man despite reading about how dire it was, and man, did it ever live down to its reputation. That was one of the most incompetently made movies I've ever seen. The script was terrible, and the pacing and editing were atrocious. Its idea of action scenes was extended, jerky slow motion and confusing montages, or else just skipping over the action and leaving it implied. As for Bo Derek, I knew she was famous mainly for her looks, but I didn't realize she was this bad an actress. Wow, she was awful. Even Richard Harris wasn't all that good, since his character was obnoxious and badly written, and he overacted the hell out of the whole thing. I guess the music wasn't bad, at least, considering that it was by the composer for Mork & Mindy (Perry Botkin Jr.).

But, man, was there a lot of nudity in this movie. Bo Derek spends literally the last 20 minutes of the film topless or nude, including throughout the end credits, as well as having a couple of earlier topless/nude scenes and several wet-cotton-shirt scenes. There were also a lot of topless African tribeswomen around, though they were treated as background scenery rather than the focus of attention that Mrs. Derek was. There's an element of implicit racism in that. Also, while the film is trying to be sexy, it often comes off rather creepy. Jane's first close encounter with Tarzan involves her feeling him up while he's hurt and unconscious, and the climax involves her being prepared for rape by an evil tribal leader, so there's not a lot of consent involved here. And there's a really disturbing moment earlier where Jane's father (Harris) says her mother was so fragile that "your conception" almost killed her. I really, really hope the scriptwriter meant "your birth" and used the wrong word, because the alternative is deeply disturbing.

Turns out this movie is a very, very, very loose remake of the 1932 Johnny Weissmuller film of the same title. It uses the same character names -- Jane Parker and her father James, instead of the novels' Jane and Archimedes Q. Porter, with John Philip Law playing Harry Holt, the character Neil Hamilton played in the original. And it has a similar "plot," if you can call it that, of the expedition climbing a plateau in search of the elephants' graveyard, but this film barely pays lip service to it. Still, it's close enough that they should've given Cyril Hume a story credit, but they didn't. Then again, his estate may have preferred not to have his name associated with this travesty.
 
I recorded Red Sonja too. I've seen this film before, but long enough ago that it was just vaguely familiar at points. I guess that TCM was doing a double-feature of bad movies with female leads, but despite having comparably poor critical reception, I didn't think Red Sonja was remotely near as bad as Tarzan the Ape Man. Sure, it doesn't have very good acting, the plot and the Macguffin are insubstantial, and the sexual politics are highly problematical, but I found it entertaining. I felt that the boy king played by Ernie Reyes Jr. and his servant played by Paul Smith were entertaining characters and I liked their developing relationship with Sonja and with each other. The romance between Sonja and Lord Not-Conan-for-Copyright-Purposes was predictable, but the way it played out was kind of fun. Sonja's gimmick is that she'll allow no man to touch her unless he beats her in a fair fight, so they have a really long fight until they're both too exhausted to continue, and that's rather funny. Some good stunt work there, too.

There's also some clever production design and visual effects -- a number of structures are built out of the petrified remains of giant animals, a neat matter-of-fact worldbuilding touch, and the villainess's castle wall is made of large stones carved with creepy faces. Aside from a clumsy and rushed start, the direction isn't bad; it's by Richard Fleischer (son of cartoonist Max Fleischer), who also directed such films as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Fantastic Voyage, and Soylent Green.
 
A shame the remake of RED SONJA with Rose McGowan fell through. I was actually chasing after the novelization rights to that one, but, alas, the movie died in development.
 
Greg Cox said:
A shame the remake of RED SONJA with Rose McGowan fell through. I was actually chasing after the novelization rights to that one, but, alas, the movie died in development.
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McGowan never struck me as a good physical match for the role, at 5'4" with a rather slight build, as I recall. I read that the director of the '85 movie had trouble finding an actress "Amazonian" enough for Sonja until he happened across some modeling photos of the 6'1" Brigitte Nielsen pretty late in the game.

But then, Hugh Jackman's 11 inches taller than Wolverine, and they made that work, sort of.
 
Dare I confess that I actually made an offer for the book rights based entirely on poster of McGowan as Red Sonja, which I figured would make a good book cover? Ordinarily I'd wait for the the script, but I wanted to get a preemptive jump on any other bidders . . . .

But, alas, the movie never happened.
 
Time for the December schedule. As with Halloween, I found an online article listing the upcoming Christmas movies on TCM to save myself some work:

http://www.countdownuntilchristmas.com/channel/tcm/

And I'll just list all the genre stuff that isn't in that link:

FRI 12/1
1:45 AM: Brigadoon ('54): Fantasy musical.

SAT 12/2
2:00 PM: Bell Book and Candle ('58)
8:00 PM: Bride of Frankenstein ('35)
11:15 PM: Mad Love ('35): Peter Lorre mad-doctor movie.

SUN 12/3
6:15 PM: The Mark of Zorro ('40): Not SF/fantasy per se, but Zorro is one of the proto-superheroes.

THU 12/7
6:30 PM: The Mummy ('32)

SUN 12/10
5:45 AM: A Visit to Santa ('63): Short film not covered in the link above.
6:00 PM: Harvey ('50)
8:00 PM: Close Encounters of the Third Kind ('77): Original edition, judging from the running time.
10:30 PM: It Came from Outer Space ('53): Smarter-than-usual alien-paranoia B-movie plotted by Ray Bradbury.

MON 12/11
2:15 PM: A Midsummer Night's Dream ('35)

WED 12/13
2:30 AM: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ('41): The lame one.

[Note: The span from 12/13 at 8:00 PM to 12/14 at 6:00 AM is not yet scheduled. It may or may not include genre content.]

THU 12/14
4:45 PM: Around the World in 80 Days ('56)

FRI 12/15
6:15 PM: Gay Purr-ee ('62): Animated musical co-written by Chuck Jones.

SUN 12/17
2:00 AM: The Twilight People ('73): Loosely based on The Island of Dr. Moreau. With Pam Grier.
3:45 AM: Island of Lost Souls ('33): Best-known adatpation of Dr. Moreau.

MON 12/18
8:00 PM: Doctor Dolittle ('67)

TUE 12/19
1:45 AM: Blithe Spirit ('45): Noel Coward ghost comedy.

WED 12/20
8:00 PM: Brave Little Tailor ('38): Mickey Mouse short.
8:15 PM: The Story of Robin Hood ('52): Disney's live-action version.
9:45 PM: The Sign of Zorro ('58): "Movie" pieced together from episodes of Disney's Zorro TV show with Guy Williams.

THU 12/21
2:15 AM: Pete's Dragon ('77): Unsuccessful melding of live action and animation, from Disney.
4:30 AM: Fuzzbucket ('86): Obscure live-action Disney TV movie about a boy whose imaginary friend turns out to be real.

SUN 12/24
2:15 AM: Xanadu ('80): Infamous musical flop with Olivia Newton-John as a Greek muse.
5:45 AM: A Visit to Santa short again.

TUE 12/26
2:30 AM: The Birds ('63)

WED 12/27
6:45 PM: Cat People ('42)

FRI 12/29
6:15 AM: The Beast with Five Fingers ('46): Disembodied-hand horror with Peter Lorre and Robert Alda.
10:30 AM: The Adventures of Robin Hood ('38)

SAT 12/30
3:15 AM: Night of the Living Dead ('68): Birth of the modern "zombie" movie, though the term is never actually used in the film.
9:15 AM: The Phantom Tollbooth ('70): Chuck Jones' live action/animated adaptation of the Norton Juster children's classic.

SUN 12/31
1:15 PM: The Time Machine ('60)
 
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You could probably add:
SUN 12/17
2:00 AM Twilight People (1973)
A diver is abducted by a mad scientist who wishes to experiment on him and turn him into one of his half human, half animal creations.
 
Thanks as usual for posting that.

You know, I was just talking up BRIGADOON to one of my nieces, who was interested in seeing it . . ...
 
January 2018 (good grief, how is it 2018?):

MON 1/1
10:15 AM: Doctor Dolittle ('67)

WED 1/3: A mix of classic and schlocky sci-fi, all pretty familiar by now.
6:00 AM: The Thing from Another World ('51)
7:30 AM: Them! ('54)
9:15 AM: The Giant Behemoth ('59): Redundantly titled British dinosaur movie.
10:45 AM: Godzilla ('54): First and greatest film in the franchise.
12:30 PM: Rodan ('58)
2:00 PM: Attack of the 50 Foot Woman ('58)
3:15 PM: Queen of Outer Space ('58)
4:45 PM: The Invisible Boy ('57): Dumb pseudo-spinoff of...
6:15 PM: Forbidden Planet ('56)
8:00 PM: The Boy With Green Hair ('48): Anti-war fantasy with Dean Stockwell as the title character.

THU 1/4
3:30 AM: Logan's Run ('75)
5:30 AM: La Jetee ('62): The photo-montage short film that inspired 12 Monkeys.

SAT 1/6
Midnight: The Most Dangerous Game ('32)
8:00 PM: 2001: A Space Odyssey ('68)

WED 1/10
4:30 PM: Westworld ('73)
6:15 PM: The Ultimate Warrior ('75): Post-apocalyptic Yul Brynner.

SUN 1/14
8:00 PM: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir ('47)

MON 1/15
10:45 AM: Cabin in the Sky ('43): All-black musical fantasy starring Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Lena Horne.

WED 1/17
1:30 PM: Angels in the Outfield ('51)

THU 1/18
4:30 AM: The Horn Blows at Midnight ('45)

SUN 1/21
4:00 AM: Exorcist II: The Heretic ('77): Infamously bad sequel.
2:00 PM: The Corsican Brothers ('41): Dumas adaptation that I count as borderline fantasy because of its "identical twin telepathy" angle.
4:00 PM: King Solomon's Mines ('50)

TUE 1/23
9:15 AM: Finian's Rainbow ('68): Leprechaun-in-America musical.

THU 1/25
6:15 PM: The Valley of Gwangi ('69): Cowboys and Harryhausen dinosaurs!

FRI 1/26-SAT 1/27:
11:45 PM: Panic in Year Zero ('62): Ray Milland's post-apocalyptic survivalist tract.
1:30 AM: No Blade of Grass ('70): British movie about the aftermath of a global famine. Has graphic violence and partial nudity, and reportedly includes actual footage of a woman giving birth.

SUN 1/28
4:15 AM: Tentacles ('77): Shelley Winters vs. a giant octopus.

TUE 1/30
8:00 PM: King Kong ('33)
 
Thanks again for your efforts. Having just written a leprechaun-in-America novel, I'm tempted to revisit Finian's Rainbow.
 
Pulling the up the entry on DirecTV, while listed as "Godzilla", the year and the cast listing having no mention of Raymond Burr imply this the the original Ishiro Honda cut of "Gojira". It's great it finally get some rightful airtime. El Rey really plays fair by presenting both versions during its Kaiju marathons.
 
Redfern said:
Pulling the up the entry on DirecTV, while listed as "Godzilla", the year and the cast listing having no mention of Raymond Burr imply this the the original Ishiro Honda cut of "Gojira".
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Yeah, that's my impression too. Of course, they're really just different spellings of the same title, using different romanization schemes, but it's generally preferred to use the more modern Gojira romanization to refer to the 1954 original, in order to differentiate it from other movies of the same title. The subtitled version TCM has shown before uses the "Gojira" spelling for the title but "Godzilla" in the dialogue subtitles. By convention, the former is the name of the movie and the latter is the name of the character.
 
I was simply curious which cut they were airing. Of course, I can watch either version whenever I wish. about the time the 2014 movie was released on DVD, Wal-Mart offered a case with both cuts and several DVD extras. It was essentially a near duplicate of a far more expensive "collector's edition", just without the fancier packaging. Though, funny enough, the "by-line" on the case's back has a misprint, stating "...the original 1964 edition..." Okay, just one digit off, but that could have meant the package contained "King Kong vs. Godzilla"! Thankfully, it contained the films what I wanted. But, oi! What a gaff!
 
The Japanese version is, of course, enormously better than the Raymond Burr Godzilla, King of the Monsters version. But what I find interesting about GKotM is that it almost functions as a parallel account of the same story, since it's largely just Raymond Burr and his translator standing around watching the events of Gojira from the sidelines, or having interactions with the backs of the movie characters' stand-ins' heads in between Gojira scenes. There's just one major plot point I can think of where the two films contradict each other, since KotM has Burr's Steve Martin talk Emiko Yamane into making the crucial decision that she makes on her own in the original. Otherwise, though, they could essentially be the same story told from two different POVs, and that's a rather fascinating way of doing it.

I guess you could say that the US version of King Kong vs. Godzilla does something vaguely similar, just bracketing the events of the film with "news reports" of said events, but it's much more crudely and tediously done.
 
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