TCM will run a tribute to Rod Taylor on Thursday, January 29, 2015, beginning at 8:00 PM EST. Here's their schedule, fi
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Big G-2 — 11 years ago(January 09, 2015 08:56 PM)
It is ashamed that they won't include DARK OF THE SUN, a movie which I have yet to see, a movie which reunites him with Yvette Mimieux, and for which Leonard Maltin wrote in his movie guide as "One of Taylor's best pictures".
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hobnob53 — 11 years ago(January 10, 2015 12:03 PM)
I agree with you about
Dark of the Sun
, Big-G. The five films they're running have actually been shown quite a lot in just the past few weeks (
The Time Machine
and
Sunday in New York
in this past week alone). I'd have liked them to show a couple of other ones just to play something different.
36 Hours
also, for example. But I guess
The Time Machine
is too seminal a picture of Rod's to omit.
Anyway, I can highly recommend
Dark of the Sun
. Be warned it's very brutal and depressing, not a happy-ending kind of film. But it is a very good adventure drama. It's available from Warner Archives along with several other Taylor films from the 60s (
Chuka, The Liquidator
, etc.). -
Big G-2 — 11 years ago(January 10, 2015 04:37 PM)
Didn't know that about DARK OF THE SUN. Sounds like a Tarantino type of film, and of course, it was Tarantino who ended up giving Rod his final movie appearance (when he could have easily gotten Albert Finney for the role of Winston Churchill, but it was either Rod Taylor or nothing!).
Thank goodness DARK OF THE SUN
is
available on Warner Archives. -
hobnob53 — 11 years ago(January 10, 2015 12:07 PM)
I think they should have chosen a couple of different Taylor films because they've shown most of the five they picked a lot in recent weeks.
But while Rod is of course great in
The VIPs
it isn't a starring vehicle for him, with most of the screen time taken up by Burton and that other Taylor. I think TCM is right to show only films where Rod is the unquestioned star. -
clore_2 — 11 years ago(January 27, 2015 10:34 PM)
Not to hijack the thread, but there's a film on earlier that day titled
The Mystery of Mr. X (1934)
that I highly recommend. There's a series of murders of policemen and it's blamed on jewel thief Robert Montgomery. He has to stay one step ahead in order to find the killer. This one is going on a disc that day at 815am. Check it out, you won't be disappointed. They don't air this one too often.
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me -
pouncemo — 11 years ago(January 28, 2015 01:53 AM)
Thanks Hobnob, I'll be watching knowing that other fans are watching too.
I watched "Sunday In New York" the other day and I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that he is gone. You look at those young, vibrant, gorgeous people and it doesn't seem possible that they were but mere mortals. -
hobnob53 — 11 years ago(January 28, 2015 04:04 PM)
I know what you mean, pouncemo. Many of us have been watching these movies from the 60s for so long that it comes as a shock when we stop to realize how old everyone is now if they're even still with us.
Not a Rod Taylor film, but the other week I watched a bit of
The Odd Couple
(1968), and when Jack Lemmon walks into a strip club early in the film, it suddenly struck me that the beautiful young girls up on the stage are all about 70 now. And I was very much alive, a teenager, then!
Many of Rod's early leading ladies are still very much alive too, even if (appallingly!) in their 70s and 80s.
Anyway, things start tomorrow night at 8 PM EST: Thursday, January 29, 2015. Too bad TCM didn't give RT a full 24 hours, so they could have included other films they show less often, including
36 Hours, Dark of the Sun, Ask Any Girl, Fate is the Hunter, World Without End, The V.I.P.s
and several others. -
clore_2 — 11 years ago(January 28, 2015 07:06 PM)
I'd like to see a good print of
Darker Than Amber
, I have a lousy grey-market one that almost unwatchable.
Today I got a copy of one that I've never seen -
Colossus and the Amazon Queen
, a spoof of peplum sagas. Unfortunately it's pan-and-scan, but I've never known this one to air on TV in NYC, so I'm stuck with what I can get.
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me -
hobnob53 — 11 years ago(January 28, 2015 10:12 PM)
Never saw either one, clore. I'm a bit surprised that
Darker Than Amber
isn't on DVD (I checked last week); in the bio of Rod the film sounds intriguing if a failure.
CATAQ
was one he did solely in order to get a trip to Italy to pursue his affair with Anita Ekbergwho just died on Rod's birthday. Not sure the movie was worth it, even for the opportunity for a paid trip to bed Anita. -
clore_2 — 11 years ago(January 28, 2015 10:55 PM)
Let's see, a free trip, a movie role and Anita - that would have worked for me in 1961. Of course, I was only ten, so she might not have found the experience fulfilling.
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me -
Big G-2 — 11 years ago(January 29, 2015 07:42 AM)
Too bad TCM didn't give RT a full 24 hours, so they could have included other films they show less often, including 36 Hours, Dark of the Sun, Ask Any Girl, Fate is the Hunter, World Without End, The V.I.P.s and several others.
I was curious about that as well. Even here in the West Coast, some of the movies will be playing well past 11:00 pm, including the one I want to see the most YOUNG CASSIDY. But with our modern day recording devices, it won't be a problem (and I think TCM knows that!). -
hobnob53 — 11 years ago(January 29, 2015 09:36 AM)
The other thing, which I believe I alluded to someplace above, is that as it happens TCM had run some of these films namely,
The Time Machine, The Birds
and
Sunday in New York
two or three times in the past six or eight weeks. Granted the importance to Rod's career of the first two, especially
TTM
, nonetheless you'd think they'd have sprung for a couple of different titles not recently shown.
Sunday in New York
is an okay romantic comedy and something different from Rod's action roles, but it's not
that
great and since it's been on very recently could easily have been jettisoned in favor of, say,
Hotel
, which also has romance and drama.
I guess he wasn't quite a big enough star to warrant a full 24, but on the other hand how many major stars covered by TCM's programming are left nowadays? Maybe they need to devote more time to the dwindling number of older movie stars as they pass away.
For the record, here is the list of movies TCM is preempting tonight (1/29/15) in order to run its tribute to Rod:
I Want to Live
(1958);
The Hoodlum Priest
(1961);
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
(1956);
Nora Prentiss
(1947);
The Ceremony
(1963). Crime dramas all, and an interesting mix.
But let's just say I wish they were still on the schedule meaning, that there were no need to preempt them in order to present a posthumous remembrance of Rod Taylor. -
clore_2 — 11 years ago(January 29, 2015 09:58 AM)
They can hold off on
Nora Prentiss
until they upgrade the print. It looks like a dupe of a 16mm print, Alpha Home Video quality.
I was looking forward to
The Ceremony
though as that one has escaped me all these years and the cast has me really curious.
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me