TCM's inept staff does it again

Hi cwente! Happy New Year. (I'd say happy inauguration day, but.... )

Yes, apparently these guys never heard of things like, oh, say, IMDb.

What gets me is not so much the fact that they didn't know Walter Huston was dead, but that they went on to assert as fact that he was in his 70s in 1956. This indicates that they knew when he was born. How could they find that out and not simultaneously discover his date of death? Just plain bizarre.

As Kirk Douglas once sang, "Got a whale of a tale".

Speaking of which, wouldn't it have been fitting to have had James Whale direct Moby Dick? Or maybe that would have cut too close to the bone, seeing as he was gay. Or maybe using an expression containing the word "bone".... Aw, forget it.

It's not only what else they might be getting wrong on TCM, it's all the stuff they could say that they don't. Obviously, they only have a couple of minutes to talk about a movie, but they could vary what they say from showing to showing. Also, I'm sure you've heard them spend most of their closing time after a film plugging the network, saying "We show a lot of Joe Blow's films here on TCM. To see the next time one of them is playing, check out our not-always-reliable TCM guide, with films we're not showing such as Last Summer Won't Happen...." You get the picture. Or, perhaps not.

I know what you mean about Bob Osborne's enunciation, though I'm sure he must use a teleprompter. I think there are two problems. One is that, by his own admission, he is poor at pronouncing many names, particularly foreign words and titles. For instance, try as he might, he simply cannot pronounce the name of the female star of The Red Shoes, Moira Shearer. It always comes out "Mor-ee-yah Shurr". MOY-ruh. SHEER-er. Easy. There are many other such examples.

The second reason, sadly, is that Bob is nearing eighty and is obviously not in the very best of health. I suspect he's simply no longer quite up to the task of quickly and surely speaking all the lines he has in the time allotted. You remember his months-long, and still unexplained, absence from the channel last year, and the fact that Ben has been taking over many if not most of the nighttime chores -- hitherto Bob's exclusive turf -- as well. Clearly, TCM is preparing for the turnover in hosting duties at some point in the future. Bob's recent unsteadiness and speaking difficulties, plus his undeniable cutback in his schedule, makes it unhappily plain that he's no longer as good as he was and is easing out of the post. I say this with great sympathy and regret, as I like him, he's generally good, and he seems a likable and engaging person.

All that aside, they still need better staff!

I think that RO is not healthy or well. Remember his very long vacation? His slurring of words is typical of people with some kind of hardening of the arteries/brain stroke problem. In any case, I preferred Nick Clooney as the host.

Anytime they want to get rid of Ben, and his nepotistic appointment, I'm available!!

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"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??!!"

Maximus Decimus Meridius

Actually, Mankiewicz would not have been correct had he said that Walter Huston in his 60s was considered too old for the role, because that was not the case. John intended to make the film with his father all along, and was still looking to cast him when Walter died suddenly in 1950 at 66. His death put the project on the back burner for a while and of course compelled Huston to seek out a new lead. But Walter's death, not his age, is why he never made the film.

In any case, stating that Walter Huston was still alive and in his 70s when the film was made, when it is an easily ascertainable fact that he had died at 66 six years earlier, is just plain incompetence. This goes beyond simply making a mistake; you have to be making things up to believe this.

TCM is my favorite channel, taking the place once nobly occupied by the pre-1999 AMC, before as you so aptly say it "imploded" -- self-destructed was more like it -- with ads, cuts, etc.

Still, that doesn't put TCM beyond criticism. While I agree that Bob Osborne, at 83, may no longer be as up to the task as he once was (which is all too often visible on screen), that's a reason, not an excuse, for so many instances of glaringly bad misinformation. (And at 48 Ben Mankiewicz has no such excuse.) Besides, such things have been evident on TCM for many years; this isn't a recent phenomenon. But as I said elsewhere I think this problem has gotten worse and more frequent over time. Osborne and Mankiewicz share part of the responsibility, but the real problem appears to lie with the staff. I think a lot of people, a lot of new and better people, will have to step up.