TCM muffs it again (1/5/14)
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — George Reeves
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(January 05, 2014 11:48 AM)
TCM decided apparently to honor George Reeves on the occasion of his 100th birthday today by showing four of his 40s films, three from his days as a Warner Bros. contract player.
It was nice seeing the young, pre-Superman George, especially when he ap5b4peared in films co-starring actors who would later become semi-regular villains on
Adventures of Superman
John Eldredge, Ben Welden, Pierre Watkin, Rick Vallin and of course one of his future full-time co-stars, the great John Hamilton.
The films shown were, in order,
Father is a Prince, Always a Bride, Tear Gas Squad
(all 1940) and
Jungle Jim
(1948).
Yet never once did TCM's off-camera announcer, or Ben Mankiewicz in his intros to the final two films, even mention that the occasion for running this quartet was Reeves's 100th birthday. You'd think someone would have stated this fact, especially since there was no other reason for them to run all four films in a row.
On past performance TCM's staff writers are a rather inept bunch who make a lot of mistakes and don't seem to know much about their subject, but you'd think something this obvious would at least be acknowledged somewhere along the way.
Also, TCM might have broadcast one or two other films with George. I'm not suggesting major pictures like
Gone With the Wind
or
From Here to Eternity
, where Reeves was a bit lost in the shuffle. But TCM could have run better showcases for him, such as
The Blue Gardenia
(1953) or, certainly,
So Proudly We Hail
(1943), his best leading role, either substituting these for films they did show or running them as well.
Tear Gas Squad
in particular, 2000an abysmal film with an idiotic story, an obnoxious and unbearable Dennis Morgan and a small part for George (who spoiler alert gets killed in it), would have been well dispensed with, even with the presence of both John Hamilton and, very briefly, Ben Welden.
Anyway, some way to honor a man's centenary without mentioning it! -
JimB-4 — 12 years ago(January 06, 2014 03:34 AM)
I was behind TCM doing a birthday tribute to Reeves, as I reached out to my contacts there to do so. The films they showed were the only ones TCM currently licenses that had Reeves in major roles. Yes, they could have run From Here to Eternity, but his is not a big part in that film, with only one major dialog scene. The other bigger films with him are not currently licensed to TCM.
I was disappointed that Ben Mankiewicz did not mention the centenary, but those intros and outros are recorded months in advance, and are written in such a way as to not be tied to a specific date, in case schedules have to shift. I agree it would have been nice. -
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(January 06, 2014 10:19 AM)
When I saw your IMDb moniker, JimB-4, I suspected who you might be, even before reading your post. (As this is a forum dedicated to George Reeves, I won't blow your secret identity in public!) Assuming I'm correct, allow me to say you do very good work.
I wondered about the licensing matter, and if true it's regrettable that TCM no longer has the rights to a film such as
So Proudly We Hail
, which they have run in the past. As you'll have seen in my post, I would not have considered
FHTE
or
GWTW
suitable tributes given Reeves's limited roles in them.
All this said, I still wonder whether these were the best they could do. Even in a poor B like
Tear Gas Squad
, Reeves's role was not a "major" one. TCM has run
The Blue Gardenia
in the past, though there may now be a licensing issue there too, but they have the rights to films such as
Rancho Notorious
, where he had a supporting but fairly important role. If nothing else, getting away from his Warner B's would have broken the monotony.
This aside, I'm well aware that broadcast schedules are decided months ahead, as well as the fact that TCM sometimes cancels individual pictures or entire broadcast days in order to show substitute films, for tributes to actors who have died or other reasons. But this isn't a concern that would have arisen yesterday.
When TCM cancels a film or films, they may be rescheduled for a later date but any introductions (by an off-camera announcer or an on-air host) are scrapped and never used, and revised intros are used instead. So had they decided to change their broadcast schedule Sunday, anything specific to George Reeves's birthday would simply never have been run, ever. Updated intros would have been made, and when the originally scheduled films eventually turned up, new intros would have been made anyway as a matter of course. Ben Mankiewicz's taped introductions (and post-film commentaries) might have been scrapped to accommodate some last-minute schedule change, but it's not as if they would have been used at some later time and, consequently, been out-of-date.
So there was absolutely no reason for him not to have mentioned the centenary. In fact, he dwelt relatively little on Reeves in any form, with most of his comments pertaining to other people in the films. -
Tullyboy — 10 years ago(February 02, 2016 08:47 PM)
Geez, hobknob . . . I've read a few of your posts and you're a bit much. For the most part, you seem to really get off on slamming TCM, and Mankiewicz in particular. You always post several paragraphs of fairly boring comments, criticizing film choices, whatever host is introducing the film and throwing in your personal, political criticism of Ben Mankiewicz because of his involvement with The Young Turks. He's not my favorite host but he comes from a legendary
Hollywood Film family and he does a decent job. Perhaps he'll grow into the role, though filling Robert Osbourne's shoes is rather tough he's been around since the launch of TCM.
As to the choice of films TCM selected to showcase George Reeves he was an actor of average, modest talent at best so I don't believe there is ultimately that much difference between his various performances. Anyone interested in his bio can quickly see that it's his centenary how many really care?
I hope you're sending
your running TCM critique on to them. Perhaps they'll factor in your comments when considering what improvements they can make . . . -
whosit — 11 years ago(July 17, 2014 11:28 PM)
On behalf of George's fans I humbly give a "Super Thanks" to Jim for having arranged the airing!
I keep checking the various online book sellers and have yet to see a certain tome. This extended waiting has caused the edge of my seat wear off, now my pants no longer fit correctly.