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THE MORTAL STORM
i really want to see this film!!!!!!!!
pls. tell me its available
brm
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Say Bob,
If you're checking in, mind checking out MGM's Tennessee Johnson (1942) directed by William Dieterle? Also known as The Man on America's Conscience it was a fairly high profile picture from what I'm told. Any information you could get would be very helpful and much appreciated by me and others on another site I frequent.
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Posted: |
Aug 11, 2014 - 12:12 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Say Bob,
If you're checking in, mind checking out MGM's Tennessee Johnson (1942) directed by William Dieterle? Also known as The Man on America's Conscience it was a fairly high profile picture from what I'm told. Any information you could get would be very helpful and much appreciated by me and others on another site I frequent.
The 1942 historical drama TENNESSEE JOHNSON stars Van Heflin as President Andrew Johnson, the man who succeeded Abraham Lincoln in the White House.
The film was controversial in its day, because of its portrayal of Congressman Thaddeus Stevens (played by Lionel Barrymore in the film). At the end of the Civil War, Stevens, who had been a strong abolitionist, championed the rights of the newly freed slaves. His opposition to some of Johnson's Reconstruction policies led to his advancing articles of impeachment against Johnson.
Principal photography on the film took place from early June 1942 until 17 August 1942. Prior to the film's release, the U.S. Office of War Information raised concerns about how the film would affect U.S. war morale. Lowell Mellett, director of the OWI, told M-G-M head Louis B. Mayer that the film would be "injurious to national war morale and especially that of the country's Negro population." Mayer flew to Washington after trade union and other progressive organizations protested to the OWI that the film distorted the life of Thaddeus Stevens. MGM agreed to reshoot a major portion of the picture, softening up the script's anti-Stevens rhetoric and generally sidestepping "controversial" history.
Additional shooting did take place in early October 1942, although an article in the Los Angeles-based, African-American newspaper the California Eagle noted that director William Dieterle had written a defense of Johnson in Daily Variety and "Since $250,000 worth of reshooting will go forward under his supervision, there is little hope that an honest reflection of the historical facts will be rendered."
A written prologue to the film reads: "The Senate of the United States in 1868, sat as a High Court in judgment upon Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln as President. In the only great State trial in our history, President Johnson was charged with violation of a law which forbade him to dismiss a member of his Cabinet. In 1926, the Supreme Court pronounced this law unconstitutional--as Johnson had contended it was. The form of our medium compels certain dramatic liberties, but the principal facts of Johnson's own life are based on history. In the Spring of 1830--in a Tennessee Valley--our story begins."
TENNESSEE JOHNSON has never appeared on any video format.
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The 1942 historical drama TENNESSEE JOHNSON stars Van Heflin as President Andrew Johnson, the man who succeeded Abraham Lincoln in the White House.
Now that's service! Seriously, thanks Bob. That was wonderful info. I have passed it on giving you full credit of course, and many have already expressed their appreciation.
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Posted: |
Aug 12, 2014 - 12:33 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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. . . how about "Tap Roots" . . . ?
TAP ROOTS (1948) starred Van Heflin, Susan Hayward, Boris Karloff, and Julie London. The film begins with the following spoken foreword: "This is the story of a Mississippi family, a family whose pioneer men and women had carved their broad plantations out of the wilderness itself. By 1860, their pleasant valley had become almost a state within a state, its people very willing to risk their lives on any chance, rather than to acknowledge the authority of any conscience but their own. These were the famous Dabneys of Levington."
TAP ROOTS was adapted from the 1942 novel of the same name by James Street. It is very loosely based on the true life story of Newton Knight, a farm owner who attempted to secede Jones County from Mississippi. Filming of TAP ROOTS took place from 3 June 1947 until mid-August of that year. Universal shot portions of the film in the Great Smoky Mountains and the Blue Mountains near Asheville, NC. As there were no real white oak trees near Ashville which met the film's requirements, the Universal special effects department in California constructed an artificial one, which was then shipped to the North Carolina location. Further, in order to match location shots with those made on the Universal back lot, twenty barrels of North Carolina red clay were shipped back to the studio in California.
Frank Skinner scored TAP ROOTS. Universal borrowed actress-singer Julie London from Sol Lesser's company and Van Heflin from M-G-M for the film. During the film's production, London eloped to Las Vegas with Jack Webb, later known as the star-producer of the radio and television series “Dragnet.” The two were married until 1954. London later appeared on the NBC television series “Emergency,” which Webb produced from 1972 to 1977.
TAP ROOTS has never been released on video in the U.S. There is a French Region 2 DVD floating around, but it is not known if it is authorized.
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Sorry, Double Post
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I have not read the whole thread, so forgive me if it's already been mentioned…
THE GREY FOX (1982)
Fantastic film starring Richard Farnsworth as an aging outlaw in the dying days of "the old West." Anyone have any info on if/when/where/how/why it is or isn't coming to disc?
It wasn't so it is posted on the board. Thanks for mentioning it.
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UNE FEMME DOUCE (A Gentle Woman) was French director Robert Bresson’s ninth film, and his first in color. Bresson based his screenplay on the novella “A Gentle Creature” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The film looks back at the relationship between a young woman (Dominique Sanda) and her pawnbroker husband (Guy Frangin), after the woman has committed suicide. Sanda made her film debut in UNE FEMME DOUCE, and reportedly Bresson cast her after just hearing her voice over the phone.
The film was initially screened as a Paramount entry in the 1969 New York Film Festival. Although Paramount released the film in France in 1969, they decided not to release it in America. Ultimately, New Yorker Films acquired the U.S. distribution rights, and the picture finally opened in May 1971 to considerable critical acclaim.
The New York Times’ Roger Greenspun declared that his critique was to be taken as “a rave review” and claimed that the movie was one of Bresson’s “greater” films. The New Yorker’s Penelope Gilliatt also called UNE FEMME DOUCE one of “Bresson’s best films.” Most of the critical debate centered not on the specifics of the film, but on Bresson’s filmic style as shown over all of his films. As described by Greenspun, “His movies are austere, relatively static, acted frequently by amateurs whom the director has trained to suppress both facial and vocal expression, and concerned with man’s inward life—which they take pains to keep inward.” And while the reviewer for Time magazine felt that “UNE FEMME DOUCE will probably prove to be Bresson’s most accessible film,” the Washington Post’s Tom Shales warned that the majority of moviegoers would respond to the picture with “bewildered boredom.” Nevertheless, a solid majority of the critics welcomed the film, and agreed with Cue’s William Wolf that “Anyone seriously interested in the French directorial scene would do well to see this example of Bresson’s kind of filmmaking.”
UNE FEMME DOUCE was released on cassette by New Yorker Video in 1995. One source claims that a DVD release is being held up due to “legal reasons,” while another claims that the film was once released on DVD in Japan as part of a boxset that now goes for $1,200. I couldn’t verify either claim, but the fact remains that no DVD is readily available. For now, the film can be seen on YouTube (in two parts) with English subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQTxU5mug8s
For any film from this esteemed director to not be available on DVD is truly shameful so it's posted, thanks Bob.
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Posted: |
Aug 17, 2014 - 3:12 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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1968’s SEBASTIAN was originally planned as a reunion between the writer (Leo Marks) and the director (Michael Powell) of 1960’s PEEPING TOM. The story, about a British mathematician working on code decryption, was inspired by Marks's own wartime career as an ace code-breaker. However, the notoriety of PEEPING TOM (a tale about sexual murders) made it hard to get the new project off the ground. Powell, who had long teamed in films with Emeric Pressburger, became connected with American producer Herbert Brodkin during the making of the British-produced anthology TV series "Espionage" (1963-4), and hoped that Brodkin's interest would get SEBASTIAN made. When it finally was, both Powell and Marks were replaced. Powell had to be content with a co-producing credit, while Marks was credited solely with the story.
Herbert Brodkin produced some of the top television series of the 1950s and 1960s (“Studio One”; “The Defenders”). SEBASTIAN was directed by David Greene, only his second film after 1967’s THE SHUTTERED ROOM. He later directed 1973’s GODSPELL. And of course, Jerry Goldsmith scored the film, in his best John Dankworth/MODESTY BLAISE mode. SEBASTIAN was shot at Twickenham Studios, with location scenes done at Manchester University.
Paramount opened SEBASTIAN in New York on 24 January 1968, to generally mixed reviews. Variety’s “Murf” found director Greene’s work to be “outstanding”--“He demonstrates total versatility with the big-screen filmmaking tools, both traditional and contemporary.” “Murf” also admired the stars—“Dirk Bogade continues to impress as an actor of great range and depth, and Susannah York also scores in a performance which sets off her infectious charm and acting scope.” Nevertheless, “Murf” felt that because of a “flaw in the basic plotting,” “despite all the plus elements, the film wanders about in its unfolding.”
The New York Times’ Renata Adler also felt that the film was marred by “the sort of pressure that it puts on the audience to have a good time over almost nothing. The music, in particular, becomes hysterically jaunty when absolutely nothing is going on on the screen.” Even so, she felt that “this sort of British product . . . is so much better, funnier, and more articulate than its American equivalent.” But in the end, Adler found that the film tried to do too much: “If only people wouldn’t try to spoof everything at once, but concentrate on doing a thought-out funny thing or two.”
Saturday Review’s Arthur Knight found that SEBASTIAN “skitters uncertainly between its Big Theme—the technological marvels and mental prodigies that keep us ahead of the Russians (one assumes)—and its little theme: Will the aggressive Miss York ever get the aloof Mr. Bogarde into bed with her?” And while Time magazine found the film to be populated with “good actors,” it decided that “in the end SEBASTIAN is only a promising idea mishandled.”
SEBASTIAN was issued on a long-out-of-print VHS tape, but has never been released on DVD. It is available on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8tJZ-LICrk
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