This is apparently in the public domain and available on the Internet Archive, which may be a better version than what you watched on the Tubes of You, although it is still only 47 minutes long.
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I canāt find it there, and I canāt get the link you posted to play.
But judging by the preview image, itās the same version.
https://archive.org/details/BillSpragueCollectionTHeKingOnMainStreet-KODASCOPE
Itās weird. If I try to post the bare URL, discourse is turning it into a video player without any way to follow the link.
I canāt get the video to play inline or at the archive page in Firefox, but I can watch a downloaded version just fine.
Also, the text on the archive page is something else:
I once had a really dumpy looking 8mm print of this that was actually wider than 8mm in some parts, which did notMo make for a happy viewing experience.My old dumpy print ran about 59 minutes. Though, this one has has a shorter running time, it looks almost LETTER PERFECT. . SO NO COMPLAINTS PLEASE as The Bill Sprague Collection is THANKFUL THAT WE HAVE THESE GREAT FILMS TO WATCH IN THE FIRST PLACE. Nobody , had better complain about the film or THE PERFECT music track , because Bill Sprague Collection does not complain about perfection , AND YOU SHOULD NOT BE COMPLAINING ABOUT PERFECTION EITHER. This Is "The King On Main Street " Directed by the Great director Monta Bell.
It looks to me like a transfer from VHS, which is not great in my opinion. If there are any prints available, surely it should be possible to scan them frame by frame and reassemble it into something much better. This assumes of course:
- There are prints available, and the owners are willing to loan or sell them for the purpose of preserving them digitally.
- The process of scanning the film reel can be done non-destructively, and the equipment is available for use by the archivists.
- Enough people care about this film in the first place to go to the trouble of doing the work to archive them properly.
Iād love to see more content like this preserved in the greatest quality possible. I guess I should be donating to the Internet Archive.
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eh, just use machine learning to upscale it to 4k, and youāll be fine.
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It doesnāt seem like weāre too far away from giving a machine learning system some general details about a movie and it will generate it from scratch. That could have some fascinating implications for copyright.
In an attempt to bring this back on topic: I think that
is underrated. Itās not Williamsā best movie, nor his best performance over all, but it worked for me in a way that neither Insomnia nor One Hour Photo did.
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Thanks for the link. It worked!
Sadly, it is indeed the same lousy version with the same lousy music.
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Billy Wilder films, IMNSHO, are highly overrated. His women are either screechy harridans who evoke no sympathy, or stupid-whores-with-hearts-of-gold who can only attain true happiness by having the leading man love and rescue her from herself. His men are usually mixed-up caricatures of masculinity whose libidos are out-of-control.
Sunset Boulevard, however, doesnāt even have the SWwaHoG. And William Holdenās character is just a loser. No happy ending there.
The one thing I can say about his films are that theyāre extremely well-shot.
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I went into āSeven Days in Mayā without any expectations. I only knew it was a political thriller with a lot of people I liked in front of and behind the camera.
The movie takes place in the then-near future of 1970. The president wants to enter into a strategic arms limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. This is a very divisive political issue ā something like the Iran nuclear deal. From the military, media and government a small circle of people have come together and have organized a very subtle coup. They feel so patriotic that they will destroy the country in order to save it.
Had I seen the movie in previous decades I would have thought it was a well-told story with good acting, but definitely a relic of Cold War paranoia. I had no idea it would be so relevant for today.
Who is behind this coup? Letās hear how a paleoconservative TV personality, played by Hugh Marlowe, introduces the person to a rally of the American Veterans Order:
āLadies and gentlemen, you have heard me on my nightly newscast. You know where I stand. Iām not a lover of communists, socialists or intellectual bleeding hearts. I happen to have only one interest ā and that is symbolized by the red, white and blue of our glorious flag! And now Iām going to give you the one man who not only speaks for that flag but fought for it with distinction, and now represents it with honor: four-star general, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor and two distinguished service crosses. A hero of war, a stalwart protector of the peace. Ladies and gentlemen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, General James Mattoon Scott!ā
Four-star general James Mattoon Scott is played by Burt Lancaster. Burt is pretty good in the role, but maybe a little too smooth. I think Robert Ryan, if he played the part with a big smile, would have been better.
Kirk Douglas is the Director of the Joint Staff. He is the first person who gets the idea that something surreptitious is going on within the Pentagon.
Most of the action centers around the President and his most trusted entourage. At first they have to decide if Kirk Douglasā suspicions are even real. Later in the movie ā when the danger is clear, and General Scott is as calm and cool as ever ā it begins to feel like āInvasion of the Body Snatchersā but with politics.
The story starts on Monday and ends at a press conference on Sunday. By Saturday afternoon the President and his circle confront the central question of the movie: How do you fight a crime before it occurs? Especially when half your country agrees with it.
The only thing that really dates this movie is all the white guys. Itās pretty-much all white and pretty-much all guys. There is really only one woman in the movie, Ava Gardner. She basically plays the same character she played in āThe Sun Also Rises," but appears to be sleepwalking.
The script is by Rod Serling. Itās a very tight script. There isnāt a wasted sentence, aside from that Ava Gardner scene.
The rabid enthusiasm of the American Veteransā Order is perhaps an allusion to the Business Plot of 1934. Senator McCarthy and General Walker are named. Curiously generals LeMay and MacArthur are not.
The President is played Fredrick March, and itās one of his best rolls. I canāt spoil the filmās abrupt ending ā politics has no resolution ā but Frederick March gets the last word, and this is what he says:
āThereās been abroad in this land in recent months, a whisper that we have somehow lost our greatness. That we do not have the strength to win ā without war ā the struggles for liberty throughout the world. This is slander. Because our country is strong. Strong enough to be a peacemaker. It is proud. Proud enough to be patient. The whisperers, and the detractors, the violent men are wrong. We will remain strong and proud, peaceful and patient. And we will see a day when on this earth all men will walk out of the long tunnels of tyranny into the bright sunshine of freedom.ā
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Ohh, thereāll always be stories about civil government vs the military.
āhave you heard of the called E-Comā¦ ECOMCON?ā, all hesitant, like Kirk Douglas was expecting to be called out as a crazy person, which is the only thing the hard right can fall back on when their shit gets called out. Asylums were useful prisons for fascists to put their enemies in back then.
Iām sure I got the line wrong, but the hesitation that Douglas used has stuck w/me.
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Too bad they didnāt let him do the film.
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His character. One Flew is something else.
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But to see KD as McMurphy woulda been something else. And Gene Wilder as Billy!
Towards the end of Sydney Lumetās film āSerpicoā the title character has been transferred to the narcotics division in Brooklyn. Heās sent there by the department hoping he will die ā either from the drug dealers or the police themselves.
Soon after he arrives he is confronted by one of his fellow detectives. First this detective aggressively checks to see if Serpico is wired. Then he gets in Serpicoās face, and with dead eyes tells him;
āLast week one dope dealer sent out three guys making pickups. $40,000 each. We let them collect it all, and then we hit them. $120,000 split four ways. Thatās serious money. And with that, you donāt f-ck around.ā
In āSerpicoā this detective is very distinctly intended to be a bad guy.
Ten years later Lumet revisited the subject of corrupt police offices in āPrince of the City.ā This time around he takes the position that dirty cops are honorable, necessary public servants. Things like the legal system and civil liberties make the world less safe. Lawyers ā theyāre the real problem.
There is an old saying that goes ānever talk to the police.ā This is because to the police there is no such thing as a "law-abiding citizen ā everybody is guilty of something, they just havenāt been caught yet. Daniel Ciello has apparently never heard this saying. Which is odd, because he is a Police detective. He agrees to help a DA investigation into police corruption.
Soon Ciello is wearing a wire. He proves to very good at gathering evidence. Soon he gets pulled into an ever-widening investigation that knows no boundaries. None of the dirtbags he knows are safe ā and he knows a lot of dirty people. The trouble is these dirtbags are people he trusts with his life.
In the scenes that follow, the air is filled with f-bombs and Italian names. It gets dangerously close to Scorsese territory. But unlike Scorseseās more luxurious violence, Lumetās violence is clean and direct.
Daniel Ciello is played by Treat Williams. I know the name but I donāt think Iāve ever seen him before. He really gets into the character. You would never guess heās actually a preppy from Massachusetts. His performance is about halfway between Robert Dinero and John Travolta.
The most fascinating character in the movie is Gus played by Jerry Orbach. Heās the nicest guy there but he can also bring the most intensity. I want to see a movie about him. He has one of the most amazing desk-flipping scenes in cinema history. But we never find out what happens to him.
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Today I saw āNights of Cabiriaā at the Film Forum. Total rip-off. Some parts were clearly filmed during the day.
If this movie had been made in Hollywood it would have starred Joan Blondel, and she would have been great. But there is no way this movie would ever have been made in Hollywood.
How can I describe it? It was simultaneously the most depressing and most uplifting movie I have ever seen.
The music and cinematography was exceptional.
Giulietta Masinaās performance cannot be adequately described.
Federico Fellini captured blandly crude details of reality so well that it doesnāt feel 60 years old.
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It was remade in Hollywood - as Bob Fosseās āSweet Charityā; but first it was done on Broadway with Gwen Verdon in the title role. Shirley MacLaine played Charity in the movie.
Exactly my point. Based on, but not the same thing.
Pretty damned close, though it was Simonized by Neil.
This. Overlooked and under-rated, āLife Stinksā is probably the closest thing to a dark film that Mr. Brooks has ever made. And Howard Morris as the Sailorā¦well, isnāt he just a nephew of Ernest T. Bass? Lesley Ann Warren as Molly is on-point as a foil to Mr. Bolt, played by Mr. Brooks.
I think of being homeless, worry about it at times. Itās a fairly remote possibility, but closer than Iād like it to be. But somehow this doesnāt exacerbate my insecurity, nor does it completely assuage it (the film is* a Hollywood production after all!). I donāt know how to describe the feeling it gives me; it has something to do with admiration for the characters, I can say that.
Addendum: Itās Molly. Iām close to the same mindset for different reasons that involve abandonment, but yeah. And I just plain really like Ms. Warren.
Also, you may remember Fumes (Teddy Wilson) from this bit (or from the other shows on which he appeared):
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A little while ago I saw āGet Carterā for the first time and didnāt really cate for it. How he time flies. I decided I should give it another chance and watch it again.
It didnāt seem so bad as I remembered. Dare I say I even maybe liked it a bit from time to time.
I noticed this time a cyclical kind of nature to the story. Carter goes to his home town for his brotherās funeral. While there he hunts down the people responsible for his brotherās murder and his niece/daughterās troubles in a cold, brutal way. And it appears at the base of it he is inadvertently the one responsible ā due to his cold, brutal ways.
However he never gets the moment of self realization that John Garfield has at the end of āForce of Evilā
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