I like more and more how it is coming along. Better now without nerdy former host Robert Osborne is TCM. They are running mega-tons of great old movies (most of which you never heard of). I firmly think it is getting better to watch. AMC used to be good like this but that went way down in quality about 16 years ago.
But still not available on line. Bummer!
Maybe.
I disagree. I liked Robert Osborne.
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I contacted TCM the other day. They showed Spitfire (aka The First Of The Few) (1942), and it was much better than the made-on-demand DV copy I have. I wanted to buy the Janus Films version from them, which is the version they showed. So I went to their online store, only to find that the version of Spitfire they sell is the same sub-par Reel Vault version I already have.
I watched that too the other day. First I ever heard of the film. Great 40’s movie about early airplane travel.
Moderator Action
Since this is about the enjoyment of movies, let’s move it to Cafe Society (from MPSIMS).
I’m a huge aviation fanatic, and I think the Spitfire is the most beautiful airplane ever made. (Though my first choice to own and fly if I could afford a warbird would be an F4U Corsair.) Great film about the development of an iconic airplane. I can’t remember the first time I saw it, and I’ve had the DVD for a very long time. Incidentally, ‘the Few’ referenced Churchill’s speech in praise of the RAF. Much of the fighting was done by pilots flying Hurricanes. The last Hurricane off the line was named ‘The Last of the Many’. 
Love, love, love TCM, been watching for years. Check out the weekly "film Noir’ on Sat.nights. Always a great flick.
I’ll second this - it’s called “Noir Alley” and never disappoints.
Robert Osborne pretty much made TCM into the the place that really knows about and tells you about movies, rather than just another channel that plays old stuff.
Every Saturday I look at the TCM schedule and pick what I’m going to TiVo for that week. Quite odd that they’re showing Holiday Inn and Christmas in Connecticut this week. I assume it’s some sort of Christmas in July theme.
This week, I’m recording They Died With Their Boots On and 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
I try to do something similar. Also scan the MGM channel.
I think TCM has gotten more adventuresome with its showing of more oddball, lesser known films. Still just a few but that’s better than none.
Last night they showed 3 campy sci-fi type movies. I was disappointed til I watched they were better than I thought. I am usually up to be convinced unless I have something saved from earlier.
A few weeks ago they showed an Andy Hardy marathon, I could’ve lived without that.
Great channel. For some reason Verizon doesn’t provide it in HD. Saturday morning they play Tarzan movies, other jungle flicks, and classic serials. They run mini-marathons of movies for a single actor. In the wee hours of the weekend they play old public service shorts explaining the dangers of sex, drugs and rock and roll. They have foreign films I won’t get to see anywhere else.
I watched a Popeye cartoon this morning. Crazy.
I’d never seen it before, either. There were some great shots of some of the Schneider Trophy racers, which drove massive technological leaps in between the World Wars. One item on my bucket list is to see the actual trophy in London.
There does seem to be a lingering debate about whether the Spitfire or the Hurricane deserves the lion’s share of the credit for winning the Battle of Britain. I lean toward the Spitfire.
A black and white one? I’ve seen them on TCM occasionally. I’ve actually got a couple of sets of classic Popeye in black and white on DVD.
I really enjoy the old cartoons and often-cheesy educational movies they sometimes play in between the features. I’m not a big fan of the Keystone Kops or Fatty Arbuckle; I don’t think falling down is funny in itself but that’s just me.
They’re playing a lot of obscure foreign films, as well as newer award-winning movies from the 1980s or sometimes even more recently.
Yes, b&w. Olive Oyls house was on fire.
I like James A. FitzPatrick’s Traveltalks that they show frequently. The first return on a quick search was Japan (1937).
When I see these films I think about the times, and what was happening in the world. I try to imagine how people lived, and the visitors in a time where travel was not as easy as it is today. I look at the architecture and wonder if it’s still there. I imagine when the fastest overseas communication was telegraph or the complicated procedure of overseas telephone (Calling the U.S. from Austria in the '80s was a bit of a process) instead of VOIP or a text message. Since I live in a seaside holiday place, I’d like to make a Traveltalks-style travelogue about it. (Gotta come up with two or three kilobucks though. Film and processing is expensive.)
I’ll leave you with Romantic Nevada (1943).
Are there any other cable channels that exclusively play old movies uncut and uninterrupted? I know Starz has some speciality channels but they don’t have hosts who briefly discuss the film before and after. Although I do have to give the Starz specialty channels credit for their sometimes subtle programming. For example, a few weeks back the Starz Western channel had Shane and Heavens Gate as its nightly double feature.