Search found 19 matches

by Steven Bingen
August 18th, 2012, 3:03 pm
Forum: Film Noir and Crime
Topic: The Best Marlowe
Replies: 50
Views: 50530

Re: The Best Marlowe

Thanks for posting these! Makes me want to watch the whole movie again. Or maybe just these clips, again, right now. No, maybe the whole movie.
by Steven Bingen
August 3rd, 2012, 5:02 pm
Forum: Film Noir and Crime
Topic: The Best Marlowe
Replies: 50
Views: 50530

Re: The Best Marlowe

Hey, another Mitchum Cultist! Wow, great to know I'm among friends here. Thank you. Yes, the idea of updating THE BIG SLEEP and moving it to London pretty much does in Mitchum's remake, that I'll concede. But the movie, if you can get around this, is still...well OK. It plays the story straight, no ...
by Steven Bingen
July 31st, 2012, 2:44 pm
Forum: Film Noir and Crime
Topic: The Best Marlowe
Replies: 50
Views: 50530

Re: The Best Marlowe

Well, not that anyone, asked, but for me, the only Marlowe was Robert Mitchum. "Farewell My Lovely" is one of my favorite filsms. It amazes me that this film has been brought up only in passing here. Obviously it was made years after most of the films in the genre had run their course. But...
by Steven Bingen
July 22nd, 2012, 4:11 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

Dear Theresa (and anyone else regarding a potential TCM shindig). TCM has been really supportive of our efforts, we were the “book of the month” at one point and I feel like the good folk over there are my friends (and indeed, the friends of movie lovers everywhere). We’ve got a slide show prepared ...
by Steven Bingen
July 22nd, 2012, 3:06 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

This is for Gagman 66 Thank you for the compliment! “Big Parade” wasn’t one of the first films shot on the lot, it was one of the first films shot on the new Lot 2 BACKlot. Sorry about the confusion. “Quality Street” was another of the inaugural titles for that lot, and I found it kind of interestin...
by Steven Bingen
July 22nd, 2012, 2:55 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

RE: the archives. Well, therein lies a story. Many years ago, Warner Bros. as a donation-tax write-off gave much of their paperwork (up to 1967) to USC, where the collection is housed today as the “Warner Bros. Archive” This archive is open to students and researchers and is not associated with the ...
by Steven Bingen
July 22nd, 2012, 2:43 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

Hi Lynn, I wrote to CBS asking for a copy of the "60 minutes piece." They turned me down, but did sell me a written transcript, which I quoted from in the book. Really surprising that in Hollywood there was little nostalgia for what was going on, but out in the real world, even among hard-...
by Steven Bingen
July 21st, 2012, 10:30 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

Dear Moira, 1) It’s interesting you caught the implication in the Gibbons vs. Minnelli battle. Now, of course, an art director who wanted to keep his job could never refuse to do what his director ordered. I don’t think Gibbons objected to building the set that Minnelli wanted so much as he was surp...
by Steven Bingen
July 21st, 2012, 9:26 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

Dear Moraldo I’m answering your questions specifically here, but this ties into Christy’s and Moira’s questions about the MGM Research Library as well. Bear with me. Everything, every asset the studio had was apparently inventoried, I’ve heard too many people mention these lists, but I suspect that ...
by Steven Bingen
July 21st, 2012, 8:30 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

Hi Lynn All of the lots except for one and two were sold off in 1970-71. Lot Two was allegedly sold in 1972, but the sale actually didn’t go through, in spite of a “60 Minutes” piece called “Death of a Backlot” which poignantly said goodbye to the place on national television. Eventually the studio ...
by Steven Bingen
July 21st, 2012, 4:07 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

Dear Sue Ann, (your turn. Am I doing this right?) Most expensive set? It’s always hard to find solid and dependable numbers on anything. (Hollywood accounting indeed) But there are memos complaining about the "St Louis Street" on Lot 3 costing about $250,000, implying that it was the most ...
by Steven Bingen
July 21st, 2012, 3:44 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

Dear Moreldo Thank you so much for the kind words about the book. Where were you when we needed you? I don’t want to downplay the contributions of Irving Thalberg. And I think its important to note that he forced Mayer, and the studio to take risks and try things that they wouldn’t have done after T...
by Steven Bingen
July 21st, 2012, 3:12 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

Dear Movieman – That 1925 film is pretty intriguing isn’t it? It’s frustrating though that just as the camera starts to roll out onto the backlot they cut away! The studio employed about 5000 people and covered just under 180 acres in Culver City. For years they would buy up any properties that came...
by Steven Bingen
July 21st, 2012, 2:51 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

Thanks for having me over everyone; you’ve all been so nice. Lynn, here goes, as I can. 1)Number of backlots – surprisingly, a tricky question. There were seven separate properties in Culver City. But some were seldom used for filming. In the 1960’s they purchased a large ranch property in the San F...
by Steven Bingen
July 20th, 2012, 11:17 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd
Replies: 40
Views: 21552

Re: Welcome to Steven Bingen, July 20th-22nd

For Christy, About the commissary – I saw a blueprint for the place somewhere. It wasn’t really any larger than the current “Rita Hayworth dining Room” which is on the site now. Apparently it was very fast and emphasized volume and convenience over glamour, with long ranch style tables (usually) whe...