Steven Spielberg now has to shoot promos for TCM in exchange for David Zaslav not shutting the network down

Spielberg lovesxTCM. Nobody twisted his arm.

David Zaslav was literally on the verge of shutting the network down

And Scorsese’s picks are WOW

Other than Red Dust, totally obscure

I'll have to check those out.

If it means less air and audio time by car salesman delivery style bro Ben for us to have to be lousy-joked and lectured through, great.

Spielberg picking meet me in St. Louis makes sense.

He told Barbra that Yentl was the best movie since Citizen Kane.

Scorsese would also have selected "Meet Me in St. Louis" is Spielberg hadn't.

I've heard him speak about how much he appreciates it, his early impressions of it as a child, it and why it has stood the test of time.

It's such a solid film and a visual love letter from Minnelli to Judy. Total comfort food.

[quote]I've heard him speak about how much he appreciates it, his early impressions of it as a child, it and why it has stood the test of time.

I wonder how he feels about Tootie - if he thinks she's the most annoying creature that ever showed up the screen, than he *is* a DLer, though I don't believe he's expressed any love for DL spirit animal Rhoda Penmark in The Bad Seed

[quote]He told Barbra that Yentl was the best movie since Citizen Kane.

He was going to tell Lucy the same thing about Mame, but Gary talked him out of it.

[quote]than he *is* a DLer,

Oh, dear.

R5

I love Ben and his terrible jokes.

R9 interestingly Spielberg has never made an “evil child” movie, I don’t think the concept is in his vocabulary

I’d go on the TCM cruise just to see Ben in his swimsuit 🩱. Jubba hubba!

[quote]I love Ben and his terrible jokes.

Mostly, I prefer the TCM hosts that can tell you something new or interesting about the film, but I think Ben does a good job of yucking it up with guest co-hosts (though Tom Hanks was surprisingly odd and sort of off in his own little word) or talking about middlebrow films like old Vincent Price movies without making fun of the schlocky nature of the movie

If it closes down - who cares? The oldies will be rented to streaming networks.

I mean it’s really not needed anymore with the Criterion Channel available. Filmstruck was even better before AT&T destroyed it.

^this topic was discussed at length on another thread, but even though you can pretty much stream any old movie from a number of sources, there's something special about sitting down & watching a movie - maybe one you've seen a million times - while a knowledgeable host/film scholar tells you something about the movie, actors, the circumstances in which it was created, how it was received at the time, etc. that' very entertaining & just can't be replaced solely by streaming.

I love TCM. May Spielberg, Scorcese and their successors keep it alive. I watch it on the app, and don't want to buy another channel.

If you have TCM you're probably paying an extra 50 dollars a month just for the privilege. Consider how many movies you could rent with 50 dollars that you HAVEN'T already seen 100 times on TCM.

I'm antsy about this because my 80-year-old cousin (once-removed!) is one of those elderlies who is on the wrong side of the tech divide. This would affect people like her the most, and pretty badly, I think. She's crippled with rheumatoid arthritis and her days that used to be spent puttering around the yard or baking are now spent in a recliner.

I know she likes those movies, but she doesn't have any way to stream them since she doesn't have internet at all. I try to help her, but I am a few states away, though I come up to visit as often as I can, which is about four times a year. Last time I visited her, in July, she had a Kid 'n Play movie on! She's impoverished but I am sure her cable bill costs a fortune, as they're squeezing every last dime out of the silent generation before they croak and cable goes under. I think it's time for her to get internet, just for her TV, but I am afraid the transition will be traumatizing for her.

Any others in the same boat?

Meet Me In St Louis is my favorite movie of all time. I put that on my Princeton application. Didn’t get in.

A number of directors are big fans of Meet Me in St. Louis.

I remember reading a John Carpenter interview years ago in which he mentioned that the nighttime Halloween segment in the movie inspired him when he made Halloween.

TCM shows many films I seem to watch once every year or two year after year, including "Meet Me in St, Louis".

Others include all the standards like

Casablanca

The Maltese Falcon

Mildred Pierce

Laura

All About Eve

Sunset Boulevard among many others.

I'd been watching these films since I was a child. I hope young people get a chance to give films like these a try. I forget that growing up in the late 60s and 70s we had all the local channels take over the programming after primetime and overnight, and the local UHF stations showing old Hollywood films probably because they were dirt cheap. It was a free education in 40s years of classic Hollywood kids don't really have today because they can more easily choose from 500 cable channels.