Classic Movies-Related Articles from My Newsgroup Postings

This section is a repository of articles which originally appeared as newsgroup postings but which stand on their own as arguments or elucidations. Of the over 900 newsgroup postings I’ve made, these are the ones that represent the most thought, the greatest expenditure of time, and the most value to those readers who will see them months or years after they were written.

If you believe that I’ve omitted an article that you consider worthy of the label “classic,” please let me know. I may not have deliberately rejected its inclusion; rather, it may have fell victim to a selection process that found me rummaging through hundreds of postings, most of which ceased to be relevant once the original context had slipped away with the sands of time.

Where substantial alterations have been made to the original posts, this is noted at the bottom of the page containing the article. Alphabetic characters that have been added to words to correct spelling are denoted by boldfacing; where letters have been removed from a word to correct the spelling, there is no designation. Those wishing to see the original post may do so at Google Groups (Advanced Search). (This is the successor to DejaNews, which previously was linked here.) From their “Advanced Search” page, enter for the article name some key words from my title (Google Groups calls it “Subject”), my name (for better results, enter “Davi*p_hayes@*.*”), and a range of dates shortly before and after the date I’ve specified as the post date. DejaNews sometimes didn’t timestamp an article for a day or two, and when they did get an article the same day, they use Eastern Time, so an article posted by me (then residing in the Pacific Time Zone) from 9 p.m. to Midnight carried the next day’s date on DejaNews.

Google Groups offers comprehensive links to the other articles in a thread, so you may easily find the articles to which I was responding and those which would amplify or extend what was said by me. I trust you’ll notice that I’m detailing how you may go about finding out whether I’ve ever quoted another person’s post out of context!

(My suggestion that you enter as my name “davi*p_hayes@*.*” is based upon this excluding other persons with my name; this allows retrieval regardless of whether I was using an underscore before the “p”; this gives appropriate results no matter which internet service provider I had at the time.)

Articles

Also included herein: posts on the same subjects as the articles

Citizen Kane’s Borrowings: techniques attributed to “Citizen Kane” which appeared in earlier films

Re: Citizen Kane’s Borrowings: techniques attributed to “Citizen Kane” which appeared in earlier films

Re: Thoughts on Kane

Robert Wise and Magnificent Ambersons

Forgotten films that are predecessors of well-remembered films

Re: The Sting / earlier stories or films with same elements

Re: Forgotten films that are predecessors of well-remembered films

Disguised Remakes

Movies which were prototypes of “The Twilight Zone”

Re: Movies which were prototypes of “The Twilight Zone”

Was Jolson’s persona racist?

Impression of racism / “Puttin’ on Ritz” and “Bojangles of Harlem”

Re: Was Jolson’s persona racist?

Film History

Re: First American Talking Movie

Film firsts

Re: Film firsts / earliest human voice in feature film

Milestones of color in movies

The Culture

Re: DETECTIVE STORY (1951)
This deals with abortion as a plot element of a drama made prior to legalization of abortion

Re: Barbara Stanwyck / pre-Code material

Censorship and The Outlaw

Re: Hollywood Ten as Villains — Lardner son’s comments
This series goes into length about subversives in Hollywood

Re: Hollywood Ten as Villains — reply

Re: Hollywood Ten as Villains

Re: Hollywood Ten as Villains — was Berliner article wrong?

Re: Hollywood Ten as Villains — the O.J. analogy

Re: Hollywood Ten as Villains

Re: Hollywood Ten as Villains — does response regarding Berliner article have merit?

Hollywood Ten — instances of propaganda

Nudity on Broadcast Television

Re: Nudity in Film

Re: Please recommend films about drug addiction

Re: Do Classics Become Less Great When They Become Dated?

Movies which seem better in retrospect

Thea Von Harbou / How Could She Become Nazi?
This piece debunks commonplace notions about Nazism being in opposition to Communism

Specific Movies

1929 version of Show Boat

1929 Show Boat answers

Re: 1984
This discusses the rare 1956 film version of the George Orwell novel as well as the later film version.

“Deconstructing Harry” and “Annie Hall”: Woody Allen’s latest film used discarded idea from his 1977 release

Deconstructing Harry: What Characteristics of the real Woody Allen are presented?

Re: Deconstructing Harry

“Deconstructing Harry” and “Annie Hall”: black characters

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Re: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Once Upon a Time in America / its five versions

Re: Once Upon a Time in America / its five versions

Re: Once Upon a Time in America / connotations of character changes

Re: Once Upon a Time in America

Re: THE RAPTURE

Re: The Rapture (1991)

Re: Objectivist theme movies

Re: Objectivist theme

Re: Objectivist theme movies / Flight of the Phoenix

Re: Objectivist theme movies / Trading Places

Re: The Maltese Falcon

Re: El Zorro
This entails discussion of several movies, but all are related by depiction of the character of Zorro.

Re: MGM at it’s best and worst (“Waterloo Bridge,” “Scaramouche”)

Joshua Logan’s “Fanny” vs Pagnol’s
The 1961 film version of Fanny is compared and contrasted to the trilogy made of the same story in France during the 1930s

One more specific movie: The Fountainhead

Also included here: detailed information on Peter Ibbetson, in that this film is tied to The Fountainhead in discussion

Re: Gary Cooper movie info request. (Peter Ibbetson and The Fountainhead)

Re: Gary Cooper movie info request. (Peter Ibbetson and The Fountainhead) / intellectualism in films

Re: Gary Cooper movie info request. (Peter Ibbetson but not The Fountainhead)

Re: Gary Cooper movie info request. (The Fountainhead and not Peter Ibbetson)

Re: Gary Cooper (The Fountainhead) / alleged rape

Re: Gary Cooper (The Fountainhead) / King Vidor, Timothy McVeigh

Re: The Fountainhead — was Frank Lloyd Wright the model for the Gary Cooper character?

Re: The Fountainhead (influential work?)

Re: Ayn Rand’s essay on subversive films

Re: The Fountainhead

Laserdisc and DVD

Special features on laserdisc, DVD; Chapin supplements (Was: Chaplin lasers)

Re: Side break!!!! AND a solution to it in DVD

Warner Bros. cartoons on laserdisc — sorted

Warner Bros. cartoons NOT on laserdisc

Re: Columbia adding trailers (was: Columbia and Criterion)

Re: How is commentary recorded

Presentation of film: Technical issues, Preservation, Widescreen

Re: Are 1.85:1 films “pan ’n’ scanned”?

Re: DR. STRANGELOVE — LD ASPECT RATIO?

Re: The Sting -- original aspect ratio

Scope formats

Digital restoration of silent films

A Plea For Film Digitization (was: Digital restoration of silent films)
Detailed reasoning on why the preservation of vintage motion pictures should be done on digital media rather than on film stock

Re: A Plea For Film Digitization (was: Digital restoration of silent films)

Re: Speeding up film preservation (was “The Race to Save 100 Years”)

Re: AMC “Film Preservation Festival”?

Re: Saving Silents With Technology

Talents: Specific People Before and Behind the Camera

The roles an actor is proudest of (Re: F[r]edric March’s best films)
An actor's favorite role among his films may not be the one he regards as his best. A fresh characterization is more work than a lampoon.

Re: Julia Roberts’s success

Possible biopics (Re: Chaplin Biopic)

Re: Possible biopics (Re: Chaplin Biopic

Re: Lloyd Biopic (Was: Possible biopics)

“Chaplin” director Attenborough’s approach to biopics (was: Lloyd Biopic (Was: Possible biopics))
This goes into how deficiencies in the director’s Ghandi explain the problems in the same director’s feature film entitled Chaplin.