I have much to write today of a deadline nature so there will be little if any posting here today. I'll make it up to you tomorrow or Monday with a very long Tale of My Childhood.
Turner Classic Movies is running A Thousand Clowns tomorrow morning. That's one of those movies you should see if you've never seen it. Later in the day, they also have a few more like that: The Caine Mutiny, The Defiant Ones, 12 Angry Men and The Lost Weekend.
Someone pointed out to me a mistake I made on the commentary track for the new Criterion release of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I said that the police calls, which were played in first-run theaters during intermission, were included on the Laserdisc release. Not true. The Criterion DVD/Blu-ray set is the first time they've been available on home video.
I hear the set is selling very well and I see it's getting raves from all the online professional reviewers. There are, of course, some complainers on Amazon, most of whom don't seem to get the fact that when you do a restored version of a movie, putting back footage that was lost and had to be found, the audio and video may not be perfect even after extensive correction and processing. I especially like the guy who complained that the package that holds the discs doesn't contain a Table of Contents. He might try looking at the flap that says "Disc Contents." I'm sure that if Criterion ever issues a Russ Meyer set, the same guy will complain on Amazon that the movies don't have any women with large breasts.
Okay, back to work on this, another good day to not be Chris Christie…