MovieChat Forums > Psycho (1960) Discussion > TCM remembers 2023, classy as ever

TCM remembers 2023, classy as ever

posted 6 months ago by swanstep (2653)
5 replies | jump to latest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-OggxFtRLE

Merry Xmas and a Happy 2024 to all!

I have to respond short style as ecarle, but...YES. I saw the 2023 TCM memorial earlier and hoped you would put it here, swanstep.

Cindy Williams speech from American Graffiti brought back the sweet pain of seeing that movie young...as did Suzanne Somers famous debut as the unattainable one. My favorite movie of a great year.

And the memorial leads off with the great Alan Arkin. Thoughts of my fave of 1967...Wait Until Dark.

Others...Richard Roundtree. Shaft and his theme song brings back 1971...also from 1971...Barry Newman as Kowalski in Vanishing Point..my friends and I watch that movie once a year and have driven the route together.

As always some people I didnt even know had died. Michael Lerner for one. From Barton Fink.

The inclusion of Matthew Perry carries its own special sting. His tortured road to death seemed inevitable and it came. But he sure was funny.

As always more inclusive than the Oscar ones and puts those to shame in focus and emotion.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2024 too!

Other holidays where applicable!

[–] liscarkat (17106) 6 months ago

The acrobat flopping around on a rope throughout the entire thing was irrelevant and distracting. The clips of each person should have been a few seconds longer. It's not as if TCM is confined to a strict time limit.

[–] roger1 (2698) 6 months ago

Well, they had to do something.

They have most of these TCM Memorials on Youtube...the first one was in 1995...and different "frame sequences" were selected. I rather liked the one that kept cutting to a guy having a drink in a bar all alone.

As for time limit, maybe yes, maybe no...giving each "great" a minute or so might seem more focussed, but I kind of like the way that their faces just float by for a second or two.

By the way:

Psycho director Alfred Hitchcock died in 1980, years before Turner Classic Movies was on the air. Psycho actor Anthony Perkins died in 1992, just missing the start of these things. Martin Balsam died in 1996 and SHOULD have been findable in one of these clips packages "TCM Remembers" , but YouTube doesn't have one for 1996 -- just a TCM "list of deaths in 1996," including Balsam.

Vera Miles is still alive.

Ah, though, ... Janet Leigh passed in 2004, she IS in the 2004 TCM memorial on YouTube and she shows up ALMOST at the end...one star from the end, only Marlon Brando outbilled her. And yes, she gets very moving music as we watch her drive at night on that highway with all those headlights behind her and -- the classic status of Psycho in Janet Leigh's life is there.

Now I gotta go check out what year John Gavin died...

[–] roger1 (2698) 6 months ago

Haven't check on John Gavin's death date yet...but...

..I went back to YouTube in search of the OSCAR In Memoriams and I found a really great one that illustrates how -- year by year and show by show ...the Oscar ceremony ruined what once was: an emotionally rewarding experience.

It was the 2001 show, "In Memoriams" for movie people who died in 2000.

These were the days when they just showed quick clips, with a good song or instrumental to evode emotion and - and THIS is important -- kept a microphone going to pick up the applause of the audience when certain faces appear. The effect was like a curtain call after a stage play -- the applause grew louder and louder and LOUDER as they reached the final names and the biggest star to have died. (Or sometimes two.)

The issue with these "applause" cues is that some of the lesser known actors of today, or forgotten actors of the 20s and 30s, got no applause or little applause and then suddenly someone KNOWN or BELOVED (certainly mostly a CURRENT person KNOWN to the audience PERSONALLY) would get huge applause -- at the expense of the others? Naw. Just being honored for their greatness...and for being known.

"Along the way" in this 2000 tribute, for instance, Richard Farnsworth appeared on screen and the applause was HUGE all of a sudden. Well, he'd been a beloved old Western type actor for years, and a beloved STUNT MAN for decades --and the applause was personal.

Then came the end: two at the end, both noteable in their own way.

First: Alec Guinness, who got quick shots that included River Kwai and Star Wars and he sure DID get big applause.

Next: the final star of the memoriam: Walter Matthau.

And the room EXPLODED. Applause AND cheers AND whistles -- not for a long time but so sudden and heartfelt and massive that you'd figure Walter Matthau was...Cary Grant? Humphrey Bogart?

CONT

[–] roger1 (2698) 6 months ago

I think Matthau's deal was like Richard Farnsworth's deal. EVERYBODY knew him, and liked him (despite a sometimes angry persona on set with some other actors), and he'd worked his way up to stardom from the supporting ranks. Also, he had served long and loyally on Oscar broadcasts as a funny co-host and presenter, with his great timing.

Presenting the 1971 Best Actress award to Jane Fonda, Matthau quipped, "this award is supposed to be given by last year's Best Actor winner"(the audience laughed, it had been refusenik George C. Scott), but due to circumstances beyond our control..." (Scott himself got massive cheers and applause at the end of the 1999 In Memoriams the year before Matthau's.)

And Matthau AND Jack Lemmon presented the Best Adapted Screenplay award for 1997 in 1998 to LA Confidential -- a mere two years before THIS ceremony with Matthau dead, he had been alive. His pal Lemmon died just one year later in 2001.

I was a Matthau fan myself, and I remember being surprised THEN (in 2001) by the explosion of applause for him at the end of the In Memoriam(his first clip: tuxedo, top hat and tails in Hello Dolly) and seeing it NOW was equally emotional.

But then I sampled some other later, Oscar in memoriams and could see the damage done. Along the way, they cut the sound -- no more applause cues (an issue of equality, I suppose, and a wrong choice). In one of them, Yo Yo Ma played his cello and they cut to HIM as much as to THEM(the fallen movie people.) The beginning of the end.

I came across one Oscar in memoriam -- I don't know which year, I'll try to find it again -- that was basically an insult to everybody. No on-stage performer, simply scored to Stevie Wonder's "Always." The problem wasn't the song, it was the PACE of the song -- very FAST, and they kept cutting to each fallen movie person with a quick PHOTO -- as fast as they could -- you barely had time to read the names. It felt like 50 names in 20 seconds. Just an insult.

And then I went back and looked at the Matthau one again and felt good about the way it used to be. So sue me.

PS. One of them -- 2000 for 1999 passings -- found Madeleine Kahn getting Matthau's massive cheer; I guess they like people who made us laugh.

PPS. I checked out the Oscar In Memoriam for 2004 passings and Janet Leigh came in early in the clips -- the start of the shower scene scream -- and got strong applause -- but not like they saved for Matthau at the end of his night.