MovieChat Forums > It Happens Every Spring Discussion > NBC Saturday Nigh at the Movies

NBC Saturday Nigh at the Movies

posted 15 years ago by Bud_Brewster
9 replies | jump to latest

I saw this wonderful movie on “NBC Saturday Night at the Movies” in the 1960s. Many of the 20th Century Fox movies they showed during those first few seasons are still personal favorites of mine. Does anybody else have fond memories of this network series and the movies they presented each Saturday night?

If “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is a favorite of yours, click on the link below and say hello to folks who feel the same way you do. And am I the only one who noticed that the sound made by Ray Milland's crazy baseballs is the same as the sound that Gort's ray makes? Cool, eh?
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http://www.phpbber.com/phpbb/index.php?mforum=allscifi

[–] mdudnikov 14 years ago

That was a great series. NBC managed to acquire at that time a group of films that were a decade or so old, but until then not seen on television. Among them was A Place in the Sun with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift and Five Fingers, a brilliant spy movie based on a true story featuring James Mason.

[–] littleboze 11 years ago

I believe Bird Of Paradise (1951) with Jeff Chandler was an early Saturday Night at the Movies film as well. The movies I remember best were the 2 mentioned earlier, It Happens Every Spring and The Day The Earth Stood Still, but as a youngster I remember being mesmerized as the beautiful Polynesian girl sacrificed herself by jumping into the volcano in order to save her village.

[–] vpilutis 11 years ago

Every Saturday night like clock work well until I started dating anyway.
I missed part of TDTESS when my dad send me out for pizza, lost the part where the bot resurrected the alien.
Yes I can recall back that far.
Hows this the pizza place was on Knickerbocker Ave near Troutman St? (one block from the STARR Theatre, which sometimes had triple and quadruple features)
About a 4 1/2 block walk, in Brooklyn.
Of course they all were in black & white as many Americans didn't own color sets
and then who knew about letterbox as all post 1954 FOX films were in wide screen?
Anyone recall the first film they had?
Funny thing they only had the rights to "Demetrius and the Gladiators" not "The Robe" which aired as I think an Easter Special in 1967 on ABC I saw it in the base (army) rec rm still in B&W
SNATM was the first time first run films were on a TV network in primetime as almost all films were at first only sold to local stations. Don't forget later on they had Monday nights.
I used to hate it when they added extra footage to films like Earthquake in order to fill a 2 night time slot.
Worst yet that business in "Two Min Warning" with the art thief sub plot or
"The Night of the Following Day" with the extra footage of two cops in a office talking about the case.

There also was something called Schaefer Award Theatre. That started in the 1950s in place of the late movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Award_Theatre

See some stars here
http://www.vbphoto.biz/

[–] leader-7 11 years ago

Do you also remember the Late Late Show? (theme music: Syncopated Clock) when they showed movies for those of us who couldn't sleep?

And Million Dollar Movie -- in nyc it was WOR at 7:30 every evening for a week -- same film. Generally, a "B" picture -- I got to see all the Abbott and Costello films that way. Theme music for that was the music from... Gone With the Wind.

[–] vpilutis 11 years ago

Yes of course I do but the Syncopated Clock was also used on the Late show.
Not always a "B" film on MDM, one thing I hated they never had the opening credits.
Don't forget "the Big Preview" which only had a film once WITH the opening credits.

See some stars here
http://www.vbphoto.biz/

[–] mamacassfan 11 years ago

There were lots of beautiful, firey Susan Hayward films in those opening years:
The President's Lady
With a Song In My Heart
White Witch Doctor
I'd Climb the Highest Mountain
Demetrius and the Gladiators

My Mom and Dad named one of my sisters after her!

[–] stomaino 10 years ago

MDM featured the entire RKO Library, which Channel 9 owned.

Somehow they also had the Universal A&C films,

and some British films like The Crawling Eye & A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim.

And they ran them all week twice a say so we could watch them as much as we wanted to.

Sam Tomaino

[–] stomaino 10 years ago

I seem to recall that Channel 2 also used "Syncopated Clock" (by Leroy Anderson) for "The Early Show", their film show at 5 PM.

Sam Tomaino

[–] stomaino 10 years ago

I do remember this from "Saturday Night at the Movies" as well as many other movies. I still sometimes see a movie and say "That was a Saturday Night at the Movies" flick!

Sam Tomaino