Generations of Americans know the comedy of The Three Stooges from the regular airing of their escapades on television since 1958. A slapstick team, they were beloved for their physicality and the distinct characters of the three active stooges appearing in the skit. A working comedy team from 1922 until 1970, six stooges performed over […]
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Backlot Chapter Outing: Field of Dreams
The Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter “team” enjoyed playing together at our Father’s Day outing to see the 30th Anniversary TCM Big Screen Classics presentation of Field of Dreams. After the film and our team picture, we went for snacks and movie chat. There was group consensus around the film being about dreams and wish fulfillment […]
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Locked-Room Murder: The Mandarin Mystery (1936)
A blonde beauty arrives from China to the port in New York City having arranged to sell a one-of-a-king Chinese postage stamp to a well-known collector. Before disembarking she encounters mystery writer Ellery Queen who, smitten with her, makes her business his business. As Queen woos Miss Josephine Temple, he digs into her plans to […]
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Backlot Chapter Outing: Steel Magnolias
The Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter enjoyed its outing to see the 30th Anniversary TCM Big Screen Classics presentation of Steel Magnolias today. We met up for snacks and movie talk before the film, where we discovered all but one of us had seen the movie before. Nice to have a new classic discovery for a […]
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Tidbits: Steel Magnolias (1989)
Most fans of Steel Magnolias (1989) likely cannot imagine anyone else in the iconic principal roles in the film: in order of billing Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Darryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis and Julia Roberts. Among these six women, four are Oscar winners: Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis and Julia Roberts and one […]
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The Enduring Character of Nancy Drew: Nancy Drew… Reporter (1939)
Nancy Drew, the fictional heroine of The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, first appeared in 1930. For 73 years, until the series ended in 2003, Nancy solved mysteries as a teenage high school graduate living in the town of River Heights with her father, attorney Carson Drew and their housekeeper. Over 70 million copies of The […]
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Tidbits: True Grit
On April 7, 1970, the legendary actor John Wayne won his first and only Academy Award, for his performance in director Henry Hathway’s Western True Grit. Wayne appeared in nearly 250 movies in his career, with this being his only Oscar win. Wayne earned the Oscar for playing Rooster Cogburn, despite an abundance of conflict […]
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A Masterwork on Empathy – To Kill a Mockingbird
Posting this in honor of Harper Lee’s birthday today (April 28, 1926–February 19, 2016). “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” Gregory Peck speaks these lines as Atticus Finch to Mary Badham as his daughter Scout […]
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A Story of Lust and Desire: Carnival Story (1954)
Carnival Story (1954) starring Anne Baxter and Steve Cochran tells the story of Grayson’s, an American traveling circus performing in Munich, Germany. Baxter plays Willi, a local girl down on her luck who arrives on the midway hungry and with only the clothes on her back. Desperate, she picks the pocket of carnival barker Joe, […]
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Ben-Hur: An Epic Movie Worth Its Epic Reputation
Special Guest Blog By Caroline Lappetito, Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter Member Ben-Hur! From the opening credits you are smacked right between the eyes and you know you are going to see something very, very special. The booming, soaring musical score, the iconic Sistine Chapel painting of Michelangelo’s God creating Man upon which the credits roll, […]
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