Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

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GaryC
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:56 pm
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#101 Post by GaryC » Fri Dec 20, 2013 2:40 pm

STEVEM13 wrote: Great to see BBC2 showing 'The Informer' on Sat 11th Jan. I think this could be another premiere but not sure.
It isn't. On its original UK release it was one of the most censored films in the BBFC's history, that they didn't simply ban outright - all references to the IRA and the Irish Troubles were removed. This version has been shown on the BBC before, but I understand an uncut version was released on VHS in 1998. It's an Oscar-winner for Victor McLaglen as Best Actor and John Ford as Best Director, nominated for Best Picture.

Seconding the comment above that the films being shown on TV this Christmas are less interesting than last year's. At least I would have less to record - I recorded lots last year but lost them when my digibox decided it was too full and started deleting things. I have weekend-morning films from this year that I haven't watched yet. The major old film I will be recording is the 50s War and Peace, which I haven't seen before and isn't on DVD in the UK. I'll be at my parents' when it's on, and I doubt they'd want to watch it, especially given that it's three and a quarter hours long!

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#102 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Dec 21, 2013 9:13 am

It is a strangely horror-themed (or gothic-themed) Christmas. I wonder if perhaps the only reason that the BBC are showing the classic Hammer films (Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Abominable Snowman) for the first time in years is because they are also premiering two of the new Hammer Film productions over Christmas - Wake Wood tonight at 1.00 a.m. and The Resident on New Year's Day at 11.40 p.m.

Although BBC2 is also throwing in Witchfinder General, Shadow of the Vampire (after The Reisdent), the 2011 The Awakening (in a double bill with The Spiral Staircase). And if you want to push the 'gothic' theme further they're also screening the 2011 Jane Eye and the Hitchcock Rebecca again! Not to mention the dancing brooms in Fantasia!

I think that I'm most interested in the couple of new dramas: Mark Gatiss adaptation of MR James' The Tractate Middoth on Christmas Day at 9.30 p.m., followed by an hour long profile of author; and The Thirteenth Tale with Olivia Coleman and Vanessa Redgrave on 30th December at 9.30 p.m.

So strangely dark and creepy! Especially if we throw in BBC1 premiering the killer crocodile film Rogue, Film4 screening Rare Exports and The Troll Hunter, and ITV4 tucking away three horror film premieres in their late night spot (the 2004 Madhouse tonight, Shark Zone on Monday and, last but not least on Sunday 22nd December, the Uwe Boll 'masterpiece' House of the Dead which is utterly terrible but worth a watch to see the way that Boll sticks every member of the cast onto a turntable and spins the camera around them during the action scenes and to see Jürgen Prochnow a heck of a way from his Das Boot heyday, although playing another grizzled ship captain. The final indignity is that he gets named Captain Kirk!)

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antnield
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#103 Post by antnield » Sat Dec 21, 2013 9:29 am

BBC4 are screening three of Leo Dickinson's Everest documentaries at the end of the month:

Everest by Canoe (aka Dudh Kosi, 1976) Saturday 28th, 10.00pm
Everest without Oxygen (aka Everest Unmasked, 1978) Sunday 29th, 10.45pm
Everest by Balloon (aka Ballooning Over Everest, 1991) Monday 30th, 9.50pm

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antnield
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#104 Post by antnield » Sat Dec 21, 2013 4:20 pm

Also, a rare outing for the Deanna Durbin noir, Lady on a Train. It's screening on the Yesterday channel a couple of times next week, beginning Monday the 23rd at 8pm.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#105 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Jan 03, 2014 10:34 pm

The Horror Channel is showing one of Steven Spielberg's early TV movies, Something Evil, made the year after Duel and starring Darren McGavin, Sandy Dennis and Ralph Bellamy over the next month (Wednesday 22nd Jan at 4.00 p.m., Thursday 23rd Jan at 11.00 a.m. and Sunday 26th Jan at 12.00 noon)

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Roger Ryan
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#106 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Jan 06, 2014 2:54 pm

colinr0380 wrote:The Horror Channel is showing one of Steven Spielberg's early TV movies, Something Evil, made the year after Duel and starring Darren McGavin, Sandy Dennis and Ralph Bellamy over the next month (Wednesday 22nd Jan at 4.00 p.m., Thursday 23rd Jan at 11.00 a.m. and Sunday 26th Jan at 12.00 noon)
Don't expect much! This is a substantial comedown after DUEL with Spielberg going through the (then) standard made-for-TV-movie paces while waiting for his theatrical career to get off the ground.

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#107 Post by GaryC » Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:55 pm

STEVEM13 wrote:Sun 5th Jan 2014:
6.10am Odette with Anna Neagle. 1950.

Sat 11th Jan 2014:
6.30am The Informer. 1935 (an early RKO film)
7.55am I Married a Witch with Fredric March. 1942.

Sun 12th Jan 2014:
6.40am A Woman's Secret with Maureen O'Hara. 1949.
Someone at the BBC must be a Nick Ray fan: A Woman's Secret must be at least the fourth of his films to be shown since they started their weekend-morning old film slot a year ago.

Odette was interesting, and a fair attempt to get the reality of her situation (including torture with a red-hot poker and what I took to be implied rape) and still get past the BBFC uncut with an A certificate, which was the highest rating back in 1950 - which it did do. A little mystery though. The BBFC pass quotes a running time of 124:41 and the Monthly Film Bulletin gives the same footage count (11,222) and a running time of 123 minutes. However, the Optimum DVD runs 112:27, and that was more or less the running time of the BBC's copy, which seemed to have been originally a 35mm print. Even with PAL speed-up that's a discrepancy of about seven minutes. So I'm wondering what was in that - maybe a music play-out, though that would be a particularly long one if that was the case.

Anyway, setting the digibox for tomorrow's two, neither of which I've seen before.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#108 Post by STEVEM13 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:29 pm

Next weekend BBC2 are showing just the one film next Saturday and on the Sunday they are showing a more modern film from 2008:

Saturday 18th Jan:
6.45am Sodom and Gomorah. 1962 with Stewart Granger.

Sunday 19th Jan:
6.45am Blessed. 2008 with James Nesbit.

I hope BBC2 return to showing older films the following week. I've noticed they have shown a few modern films so far this month in these early Sat morning slots. They can't have ran out of RKO films to show surely? If they have why don't they start showing them again :)

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#109 Post by GaryC » Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:22 am

STEVEM13 wrote:Next weekend BBC2 are showing just the one film next Saturday and on the Sunday they are showing a more modern film from 2008:

Saturday 18th Jan:
6.45am Sodom and Gomorah. 1962 with Stewart Granger.

Sunday 19th Jan:
6.45am Blessed. 2008 with James Nesbit.

I hope BBC2 return to showing older films the following week. I've noticed they have shown a few modern films so far this month in these early Sat morning slots. They can't have ran out of RKO films to show surely? If they have why don't they start showing them again :)
The following weekend is unlikely due to the Australian Open tennis singles finals. And I very much doubt they have run out of RKO films, far from it.

Sodom and Gomorrah appears to be the full-length version, though it apparently has had a history of being edited for TV. It was passed by the BBFC with a X certificate in 1962, which is missing from the BBFC database for some reason but the film is reviewed in the December 1962 Monthly Film Bulletin, which gives a running time of 153 minutes. (The BBFC only lists a cinema pass with cuts (no running time quoted) for a AA certificate in 1970 and a 1988 VHS pass of a much shortened version (111 minutes or 115 without the PAL speed-up). For details of the variant versions of this and other Robert Aldrich films, see here from Brad Stevens, who does post here - it's an updated (to 2000) version of an article I first read in Movie Collector magazine.

Also, I very much suspect that BBC2 showed a cut version of The Informer this morning. I stopwatched it at 84:10, which is between the running time the BBFC approved in 1935 (83:49) and the uncut copy they passed on VHS in 1998 (91:29 - which as it matches the full running time of 91 minutes was probably a NTSC-to-PAL standards conversion). I hadn't seen the film before, so if anyone can comment further, please do so.

Jonathan S
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#110 Post by Jonathan S » Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:28 pm

GaryC wrote:Also, I very much suspect that BBC2 showed a cut version of The Informer this morning. I stopwatched it at 84:10, which is between the running time the BBFC approved in 1935 (83:49) and the uncut copy they passed on VHS in 1998 (91:29 - which as it matches the full running time of 91 minutes was probably a NTSC-to-PAL standards conversion). I hadn't seen the film before, so if anyone can comment further, please do so.
My R1 Warner DVD is 91:28 so, even assuming the BBC copy has PAL speed-up (some of their RKO titles don't), a few minutes must be missing.

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#111 Post by GaryC » Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:21 am

Jonathan S wrote:
GaryC wrote:Also, I very much suspect that BBC2 showed a cut version of The Informer this morning. I stopwatched it at 84:10, which is between the running time the BBFC approved in 1935 (83:49) and the uncut copy they passed on VHS in 1998 (91:29 - which as it matches the full running time of 91 minutes was probably a NTSC-to-PAL standards conversion). I hadn't seen the film before, so if anyone can comment further, please do so.
My R1 Warner DVD is 91:28 so, even assuming the BBC copy has PAL speed-up (some of their RKO titles don't), a few minutes must be missing.
In that case, if no speed-up was present, it may well have been the UK cinema release version, give or take about thirty seconds. The source may have been a 16mm print. You could certainly tell the difference between that and I Married a Witch, which was clearly from a 35mm print originally.

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#112 Post by GaryC » Sun Jan 12, 2014 1:01 pm

Forgot to add, Odette (shown last weekend) actually has a Gestapo officer say, "We have ways and means of making you talk." Is this film the origin of that particular war-movie cliche, does anyone know?

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antnield
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#113 Post by antnield » Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:04 pm

Me and Me Dad, Katrine Boorman's documentary on her father John, is screening this Sunday on BBC4. (Point Blank follows.)

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#114 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jan 14, 2014 2:14 pm

Nice to see Film4 showing Seven Samurai on Thursday 23rd January from 11.10 p.m. (I don't think it has been shown on television since it was on BBC2 in December 1998), although the most interesting film of the week has to be the even rarer screening of Robert Zemeckis' first feature film I Wanna Hold Your Hand (featuring a Carrie-era Nancy Allen!), again on Film4 on Monday 20th January at 4.55 p.m.!

According to this BBC press release, the Storyville season on BBC4 is going to be showing The Big Melt on Sunday 26th January.

Numero Trois
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#115 Post by Numero Trois » Tue Jan 14, 2014 3:14 pm

colinr0380 wrote: has to be the even rarer screening of Robert Zemeckis' first feature film I Wanna Hold Your Hand
What's even rarer than that is the mentioning of that director's name on this board. :wink:

Jonathan S
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#116 Post by Jonathan S » Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:55 am

STEVEM13 wrote:Sunday 19th Jan:
6.45am Blessed. 2008 with James Nesbit.
For some reason, this has been dropped by BBC2 and replaced with the 1957 Allan Dwan western The Restless Breed.

The following weekend, the provisional early morning films are Borzage's The Spanish Main and Charles Crichton's Hue and Cry, both of which have been shown relatively recently (the latter was certainly shown last summer).

STEVEM13
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#117 Post by STEVEM13 » Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:49 pm

Jonathan S wrote:
STEVEM13 wrote:Sunday 19th Jan:
6.45am Blessed. 2008 with James Nesbit.
For some reason, this has been dropped by BBC2 and replaced with the 1957 Allan Dwan western The Restless Breed.

The following weekend, the provisional early morning films are Borzage's The Spanish Main and Charles Crichton's Hue and Cry, both of which have been shown relatively recently (the latter was certainly shown last summer).
Yes the movie 'Blessed' has been dropped. Perhaps this is because BBC2 wanted to reserve this film for a more suitable later time slot with it being a fairly recent picture.

Indeed next weekend's BBC2 schedule has been confirmed as:

Sat 25th Jan:
6.45am The Spanish Main with Maureen O'Hara. 1945.

Sun 26th Jan:
6.00am Hue and Cry with Alistair Sim. 1947.

I believe in few weeks from now starting from 7th February, BBC2 will be screening daily Winter Olympics coverage starting from 7am every morning so I doubt we will see any early morning films for a couple of weeks during the tournament, although you never know we may be treated to a 6am shorter length RKO film fingers crossed.

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#118 Post by GaryC » Sat Jan 18, 2014 2:47 am

STEVEM13 wrote:
Yes the movie 'Blessed' has been dropped. Perhaps this is because BBC2 wanted to reserve this film for a more suitable later time slot with it being a fairly recent picture.

Indeed next weekend's BBC2 schedule has been confirmed as:

Sat 25th Jan:
6.45am The Spanish Main with Maureen O'Hara. 1945.

Sun 26th Jan:
6.00am Hue and Cry with Alistair Sim. 1947.
Obviously getting those in before BBC2 shows the Australian Open tennis singles finals, which usually start around 8-8.30 UK time. (The women's final may just be on the red button though.)

I didn't see Hue and Cry last summer and while I'm sure I've seen it it's not in many years if I have. Pretty sure I've not seen The Spanish Main before. I'm busy with review-watching this weekend so Sodom and Gomorrah is going in the digibox.
Last edited by GaryC on Fri Jan 24, 2014 2:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#119 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Jan 23, 2014 8:35 pm

Not particularly exciting to us Criterion collectors but it was great to see during one of the advert breaks for Seven Samurai, currently playing on Film4, that mention is made of an upcoming Kurosawa season on the channel from 6th February. Sanjuro, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress and Ikiru. Sanjuro, Yojimbo and Throne of Blood haven't been shown on UK TV since 1998-99. The Hidden Fortress would have been the same until it was shown on Film4 over this most recent Christmas period.

And I can't remember Ikiru having ever been shown on UK television at all, though my records only go back to 1993. Does anyone know if it had been shown previous to that, or will this be its premiere?

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#120 Post by GaryC » Fri Jan 24, 2014 2:31 am

colinr0380 wrote:And I can't remember Ikiru having ever been shown on UK television at all, though my records only go back to 1993. Does anyone know if it had been shown previous to that, or will this be its premiere?
The BFI database lists a showing on 20 November 1985, though it doesn't say which channel it was on. Channel 4 would be the most likely guess. I don't remember it, but I was at University at the time.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#121 Post by Jonathan S » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:51 am

There have been at least two UK TV showings of Ikiru. I recorded the 1985 broadcast from Channel 4. But there was also a transmission in the autumn of 1974 during an amazing Friday night BBC2 season called something like "Masterworks of Film" which I remember vividly because it was the first Kurosawa I saw, at the age of 13. (It also introduced me to Clair, Eisenstein, Sternberg, Lang, Feyder and several other directors.)

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Sloper
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#122 Post by Sloper » Fri Jan 24, 2014 7:06 am

There must have been one in the early 2000s as well (presumably on 4), because that's when I first saw it. Obviously I don't have the VHS anymore, so I can't check.

I remember recording Yojimbo (along with about eight other films) off tv on Christmas Day in the late 90s. Those were the good old days!

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TMDaines
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#123 Post by TMDaines » Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:31 am

It seems that some of the classic Hollywood films shown on BBC are being put on iPlayer. We've had a few over the last few weeks.
Sun 5th Jan 2014:
6.10am Odette with Anna Neagle. 1950.

Sat 11th Jan 2014:
6.30am The Informer. 1935 (an early RKO film)
7.55am I Married a Witch with Fredric March. 1942.
All three turned up on iPlayer; the latter two were downloadable also.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#124 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:56 pm

Sloper wrote:There must have been one in the early 2000s as well (presumably on 4), because that's when I first saw it. Obviously I don't have the VHS anymore, so I can't check.
Was it on Film4 in the early 2000s? I know that there were a few Japanese films on during its subscription years, but I personally don't count Film4 until the point I was able to get the channel - April 2008! [-(
Sloper wrote:I remember recording Yojimbo (along with about eight other films) off tv on Christmas Day in the late 90s. Those were the good old days!
It was a great time! From that period I particularly remember 22nd December 1999, when BBC2 was showing Stray Dog at the exact same time that Channel 4 was showing Dersu Uzala. I had to flick channels a few times because I couldn't believe my eyes! Kurosawa might have not gotten many showings in the last decade or so, but I'll particularly remember 1994-2000 being full of his films!

This has gotten me curious: do any of you know if The Bad Sleep Well, High and Low, Scandal, The Idiot or I Live In Fear have ever been shown on television?

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#125 Post by GaryC » Fri Jan 24, 2014 4:01 pm

I remember a Channel 4 showing of The Bad Sleep Well on Channel 4. I was at University at the time, so it would have been mid-80s. If I'm not mistaken, they had a Kurosawa season - maybe it was 1985, along with that Ikiru showing.

ETA: 16 July 1986, as per the BFI database.

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