What are you watching on WatchTCM?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by NickySee, Feb 24, 2021.

  1. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
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    Of course, the trouble with this On-Demand version of the Turner Classic Movies channel is that you have to be tied to a cable subscription or digital package to watch it. (As of this writing) there is no (legal) stand-alone app or website to view the library of movies temporarily available to stream at any time. However, for cinephiles with a cable subscription (or digital bundle) it doesn't get much better. The Criterion Channel certainly hasn't rotated as many classic films through their service, nor (do I believe) has American Movie Classics (their On-Demand service doesn't come close). Another boon is that TCM provides expiration dates for all streaming titles (something Netflix still doesn't do). And they stream everything that comes on the TCM schedule like...

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    So what have you watched, are exited to watch today or put on your watchlist for later viewing?​
     
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  2. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Expiring on Feb. 28

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    Enjoying the discussion with author, Kazuo Ishiguro, on the book and film.
     
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  3. eeglug

    eeglug Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, USA
    TCM On Demand is great, I love it (when it works).

    Not everything on their schedule appears as a selection on demand. The occasional film pops up which they don't appear to have the rights to stream on demand. One example was the movie The Lost Boundaries with Mel Ferrer, an interesting movie about race relations in the late 1940s. I watched most of it live but was surprised that it was not available on demand later. Also many of the filler shorts (some of which I find interesting) do not wind up on the on demand list.

    Criterion Channel has quite a lot of classic hollywood content, not all of which is easily found on their front page categories. I think it has the most old hollywood movies streaming besides TCM. Unfortunately you have to pour through their all movies list to find them. Also, Hbomax has a section dedicated to TCM movies complete with logo on the page but it tends to be a smattering of old war horse classics like Casablanca and North By Northwest and so on. Other interesting places for old hollywood movies are Peacocktv, FXM and Epix, although there's not a lot of content on these.

    Lastly I would point out that the Watch TCM website can be temperamental and just stop working altogether for no apparent reason. It just doesn't seem to be a robust streaming service like other competitors. You can see people complaining about this on the TCM message boards quite a bit. Often I am able to bring up the movie I want through my cable provider site (xfinity) and watch the movie that way.
     
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  4. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Like you say, they're occasional misses. And in almost many of those cases, like the Ferrer flick, you can find it here -



    or on any number of streaming sites. My chief thrill is the chance to watch a classic that I've heard lauded a million times but never seen - from the beginning. I can't program my leisure activities. Whatever hits me at the time usually ends up providing the most pleasure. :)

    When I had a particularly slow connection I had that problem. With my high speed service (though it has stalled a few times at the start-up) I'm rarely prevented from connecting. But, yeah, they are not up to par with services like Netflix on that score.
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2021
  5. eeglug

    eeglug Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, USA
    I don't think it's a slow connection problem. I have 45 Mbps download and I had an issue today. The site logged me out and wouldn't let me log in again - on multiple browsers/computers. It 'cured' itself 2 hours later. There's just a lot stability issues and they're intermittent enough that you think you're free and clear and then it happens again.

    But anyway you are right to celebrate a site that offers content that is otherwise difficult to get elsewhere.
     
  6. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Sorry to hear that. No problem here (today, anyway). Gotta be something with various carriers, then.

    I will say the search engine on the app/website is abysmal. Better to tag your faves to your watchlist or you'll have to scroll through dozens of titles to find the title wanted to watch a few days back. :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2021
  7. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
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    Slow burner, this one. The film is stunning visually - if you're into Victorian/Ewardian style decor (it seemed a funny mix of the two). The acting, of course, is stellar. It's a quintessential Merchant/Ivory film in the sense that everything is exceptionally well placed - poignantly so - even where emotion is deeply buried, suddenly erupted or expertly timed. Can't say I remember watching an Merchant/Ivory film was was full of joy. Guess living in the past (these characters don't simply visit it) brings a certain level of regret, inevitably.

    Next in the queue is almost the complete opposite (from what I know of it) - Ridley's Scott's Thelma & Louise, which I'll need to watch by 2/28 - another classic I've put off watching for years.
     
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  8. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
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    Thelma & Louise (1991, Ridley Scott) exp. 2/28

    On the slate tonight after the nightly news disasters. Beer's on ice. :cool:
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2021
  9. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
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    Diner (1982, Barry Levinson) exp. March 22nd.

     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2021
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  10. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    My heroes are no more neurotic than the audience. - Nicholas Ray

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    Rebel Without A Cause (1955, Nicholas Ray) exp. March 7

    To be honest, the Nick Ray doc is more intriguing to me than Rebel right now. It should be with the supplemental vids that TCM has grouped with Ray classic. Pretty rare, though.
     
  11. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    This is a good proper intro to the Ray classic -

     
  12. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Just finished T&L. I just couldn't watch it in one sitting. Watched a little bit over a week. Guess I wanted to stretch it out as long as possible. Hell of an ending. Nice streamer.
     
  13. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
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    Strange Cargo (1940, Frank Borzage) exp. March 3rd

    Next up. Crawford/Gable flick. One of their more unusual ones, apparently. But they were an unusual pairing to begin with (if you ask me).
     
  14. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    It's weird, bacause I watched it on Watch TCM a few days after it aired live (the same night as the other 1949 race films: "Pinky", "Intruder in the Dust" and "Home of the Brave'. I have noticed that films are on the Watch TCM sites for varying lengths as time, as long as a month and a little as a week. And I don't think "Home of the Brave" made it to Watch TCM at all- they probably didn't have the rights to play it on the site
     
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  15. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    :agree: Rights issue, no doubt. Lately I've noticed quite a few titles overlapping with The Criterion Channel, too.
     
  16. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    And if you have HBOMax, and go to their TCM hub on there, a lot of Criterion titles available to watch- especially foreign films and some Chaplins and early English Hitchcocks
     
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  17. Big Jimbo

    Big Jimbo Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY
    One of the few sad things about cutting the cord two months ago is there is no separate TCM app. OTOH the vast majority they show that I am interested in I have already recorded. But if it was available for say $5.99 a month I would probably get it. One of the few networks that hasn’t suffered network decay...yet.
     
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  18. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
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    Sweet Smell of Success (1957, Alexander Mackendrick) exp. March 17th

    Always found it ironic that a film about the sordid world of a losing hustler in service to a sadistic newspaper columnist would smell anything like success. It's another Criterion title (not currently streaming on their channel) featured on WatchTCM for a spell. The above doc on director, "Sandy" Mackendrick, is odd but intriguing.
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2021
  19. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Agreed. But that price point, considering the cost of maintaining an extensive library and industry competition, at this point is simply a fantasy. There are apps, of course, that feature classic film libraries but very few are extensive and most of the titles are in public domain (which isn’t a bad thing but then we enter quality of print territory).
     
  20. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    A film, which as you can probably guess, is one of my all time favorites...
    I especially love the location shots of 1950s New York, my hometown
     
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  21. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Didn't know Mackendrick was fired from the project. Do you know who they got to finish it? They're certainly not credited.
     
  22. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    I never even knew MacKendrick was fired . That's interestin
     
  23. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    It's discussed on the segment of the Mackendrick doc that I posted. Worth a once over.
     
  24. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
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  25. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY
    [​IMG]
    Big Leaguer (1953, Robert Aldrich) exp. April 4th

    This one never makes the list of Best Baseball Films of All Time but I've never watched it til today. It's about a winter training training camp for prospective Minor Leaguers. Don't see how you can go terribly wrong with Edward G. Robinson in the lead as Coach Lobert (a real-life persona) and director, Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen, The Longest Yard, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?), behind the camera. With regular baseball play still a month away it will do.
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2021
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