"TCM PRESENTS" - New theatrical showings of "Giant," "How The West Was Won," etc.:

Turner Classic Movies' upcoming round of theatrical showings of classic films is a good one.
In January and February, theaters nationwide will be be showing these titles, typically limited to just a few showings over the course of a week:
"The Wizard of Oz"
"All About Eve"
"Funny Girl"
"How The West Was Won"
"Breakfast At Tiffany's"
"Giant"
I'm really looking forward to seeing "How The West Was Won" on the big screen. It's not the greatest movie ever made, but the BluRay looks absolutely spectacular, and this is a film that needs to be seen on the big screen.

 

We were at an AMC theatre in Mesa, AZ last week and we saw the marque for Wizard. Have they released the dates for HTWWW? I saw that when it first came out on a real cinema-scope theatre. The stampeding cattle was pretty spectacular (at least as a nine year old's point of view).

Any way, release dates?

 

I think the days and times vary somewhat from theater to theater. But my local Cinemark theater is showing "How The West Was Won" on Sunday, January 25, and on Wednesday, January 28. My guess is that all participating theaters will show the film at one time or another that same week.

 

I tried to do a search on this, but searching is an adventure here. Recently our local AMC had Wizard of OZ. They are hosted by Robert Osborne. There was a list with dates posted here that had the others being shown? Anyone?

 

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/search/22627518/?q=TCM+ROBERT+OSBORNE&t=post&o=date&c[node]=36

 

Fathom Events is the outfit distributing these closed circuit showings. Their web site is really wonky and confusing but this is it. I have attended a few opera showings.

http://www.fathomevents.com/event/met1415-the-merry-widow-encore

 

When the Wizard of Oz was first announced, there was a listed posted here that had the movies being shown and perhaps their air dates?

 

I can't find any info through Cinemark, AMC or Fathom Events.

 

It's not AMC, it's TCM (Turner Classic Movies).

Cinemark Theaters do a horrible job of promoting these one-night events. I have to go to the web site of my local Cinemark Theater and search for all shows on each upcoming Wednesday and Sunday, which are the two days this particular theater schedules the classic films. ("How The West Was Won" is playing at my local theater this Sunday at 2 p.m., and next Wednesday at both 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.) I don't think the chain or TCM have a comprehensive listing of all participating theaters...

You might also try searching the Fandango site, since they sell advance tickets for a lot of these TCM events.

 

HTWWW should be showing this Sunday at 2:00 pm at Cinemark.

 

Watching this at my local Cinemark right now. It's intermission. I tried telling the staff here there's something seriously wrong with the color projection. There's no red whatsoever. It looks like a black and white movie that has been tinted gold and green. It's just awful. The BluRay has a full color palette. What I am seeing here looks like garbage.

 

Funny you say that. I was debating whether to go see this at the Cinemark. I figured that without cinerama screen it wouldn't be that impressive on a "big screen". The Blu Ray has gotten such great reviews, i decided to pass on the theater version, and by the BR. Seems like I made the right choice.

 

What a disappointment. I have no idea how these digital projection systems work or if the terrible picture quality that I saw was similar to what people in other cities saw today, but I cannot believe how bad this film looked, given how fantastic the BluRay looks. Basically, the entire film looked like the sepia-tone Kansas scenes in the "The Wizard Of Oz." There wasn't a single bit of red anywhere in the film -- even Debbie Reynold's bright red outfits were all reproduced as greenish-brown. All skin tones, in all scenes, were yellow-brown. The aspect ratio was exactly right, and the detail was good -- but the color was so far off kilter that it was like watching the movie on an old, broken down RCA XL-100.

 

You know, I still enjoyed the movie. Seeing (and hearing) the buffalo stampede and the train robbery on the big screen was genuinely thrilling. But the only way I could get past the terrible color palette was to keep telling myself I was seeing some sort of alternate, sepia-tinted version. I love this movie enough I'll probably try to see it again Wednesday night, just in case they fixed it. (I'll know whether they did as soon as the opening credits begin. If it still looks like today's showing, I'll just bail.)

 

An update: Cinemark acknowledged they were given a terribly flawed version of "How The West Was Won" to exhibit, but they weren't aware of that until after Sunday's premiere showing, and they were unable to get a corrected version by the time of the final showings on Wednesday. The general manager of my local theater was kind enough to investigate the matter and reported that the problem seemed to be with the film -- well, the digital file -- that all 200 participating theaters were given, and not with his theater's projection system. (This is supported by complaints from other people who saw the film in Seattle and Chicago.) The manager said the film came to the chain "from Technicolor" -- not from a studio, which is what I would have assumed.

It's amazing to me that the supplier of a film that was to be shown in 200 theaters didn't do any sort of quality check. The color problem was really severe. The screen shots above, which I took in the theater with my iPhone, accurately represent the "color" that was seen in the theater. So even if they had some high school kid handling quality control, the problem should have been immediately obvious. To his credit, the manager of my local theater did recognize -- and acknowledge -- the problem right away, once he looked at the film. He simply wasn't able to fix it.

Mistakes like this happen, and Cinemark deserves credit for the way they handled it -- although one might question why they went ahead with all of Wednesday's showings knowing how defective this print was. I suspect a lot of their paying customers just thought the film was supposed to look like a sepia-toned, monochromatic western. At the showing I was at, I did hear people grumbling along the lines of, "Is there something wrong with the color?" and "Why is everybody's face green?" but no one raised hell.

I was planning to go see "Giant" next week, but I am really gun shy at this point...

 

Yikes that's terrible. I'm surprised. I just figured they projected a Blu Ray transfer at these things.

 

I think the theaters download massive digital files to a hard drive, and that's what they show.

One difference between the BluRay and this theatrical showing was the fact that the overture music and the entr' acte music played over a black screen -- just they did in the original theatrical showings -- rather than over a "title card" that says "Overture" or "Entr' Acte," which I believe is how those segments are shown on the BluRay.

(With regard to the home video title cards, I could be thinking of "The Alamo" director's cut presentation on laserdisc, which I recently transferred to DVD. When I did the transfer, I replaced the title cards with black screen...)

 

Am surprised at what the theater was given to project. The Dome in Hollywood every few years gets the original complete 3 projector road show Cinerama reels and runs it. I was amazed that it still survives. It looked/sounded pristine and takes 4 or 5 people in the booth(s) to run it. TCM has their version scheduled in the next few weeks, I think.

 

Wow that must have been cool to see

 

Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller returns to the big screen
A special event in cinemas nationwide
Sep 20 & 23 2015

Dracula Double Feature
Original 1931 English & Spanish Versions
A special event in cinemas nationwide
Oct 25 & 28 2015

Roman Holiday
With Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck
A special event in cinemas nationwide
Nov . 29 & Dec. 2

Miracle on 34th Street
A Cherished Holiday Family Tradition
A special event in cinemas nationwide

Dec. 20 & 23

 

Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder’s Classic Film Noir Returns to the Big Screen
A special event in cinemas nationwide

July 19 and 20th

 

My wife and I went to the recent TCM theater showing of "Rear Window" and we had a grand old time. Of course, "Rear Window" is so far more visually stunning to see on the big screen because of the vast view out that window!

 

Went with my wife and absolutely loved it. One of the great films ever in any genre.

We will definitely be seeing Psycho, Dracula, and Miracle on 34th Street.

 

Cool!