Change Your Image
john-4950
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Sunshine (1973)
"SUNSHINE" The Movie: Screened in a "Film" Cinema... Here in Australia
This posting is to console those longing to see this movie again in their homes as they did in the 1970's, on their TV's.
Here in Australia I had the good fortune to be working in the 1970's in the Motion Picture business, here in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in a Melbourne Based One-Off Cinema, that at that time was having great difficulty getting 35mm Motion Picture Film product available to us to screen to the Cinema-Paying-public. It was arranged that a Feature Film version of a Movie titled "SUNSHINE" would be struck and made available in 35mm Color Film Stock to the theater where I was working (I was a Cinema Projectionist at the time). The Manager was a real "Showman" from the Old School - so to speak. He chose all the music to be played prior to the show and after the show, and he had a real talent for the most appropriate tunes to accompany the Four Sessions a day Screening Policy which we had at the theater at that time.
During the numerous weeks that the film played in the Cinema, I was in awe of the Music score provided in the film by the Vocalist John Denver (who is no longer with us). I was instructed from the very First Session of "SUNSHINE" to the Final session which finished some Two to Three months later, to keep the Cinema Auditorium Lights off - until the audience had time to compose themselves, because "most" members of the audience were in tears from the drama they had just shared in.
Here we are at the tail-end of January in early 2017, and I had thought surely by now that this film ( which was made in 1973 ) as a Documentary Drama Feature Film based on an actual person's life story would surely have been released either on DVD or BLU-RAY by now, but all to no avail. Then earlier today, I started investigating the history of this movie "SUNSHINE" and thanks to the invention of the Computer, and the resources of Wikipedia and IMDb...etc...
Evidently in America, the Motion Picture as I know it on 35mm Color Film Stock which played in our Cinema, was not the experience in USA. The reason for this is that the film was a DOCU-DRAMA Made for Television by CBS Television and originally aired on Television on CBS as an Episode of the "CBS Friday Night Movie" so that is when you in USA would have last seen it. Years later in the 1980's, we here in Australia got to see it screen on Television once during a weekday Matinée, and from that time until now I cannot ever remember it being screened ever again.
If you are like me IMDb reader and you have seen this film of the movie "SUNSHINE" (1973) You would no doubt LOVE the CBS organization to release the film on BLU-RAY or at the very least on DVD ... I think it may be possible if enough of us write to CBS ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION COMPANY pleading that they make this marvelous film available once again but this time on BLU-RAY or DVD... Here is Hoping and Praying... I am already prepared for the teary ending dear reader, how about You ?
Broadway Gondolier (1935)
Beware of all the above NEGATIVE Reviews here !!!
I saw this film in 1959 on late night Television at age 14. It left a very favorable and lasting impression with me. I only discovered today day via the Internet, the actual title was "BROADWAY GONDOLIER". I can remember seeing Dick Powell as a gondolier, singing pleasant music and what did I know of the movies at the age of 14 years? Virtually zero at that age! I remember my laughing a lot through this film, if you folks reading this posting have recently seen this very enjoyable Musical Comedy entertainment count yourselves very lucky indeed. As far as I am concerned, I indeed envy your good fortune. It is currently Un-Available on DVD, I suspect it has never been released to Home-Video. We are lucky that the Warner Brothers made such a generally enjoyable entertainment for us at the time of the "Mid-Point of the Great Depression" in 1935. I am sure audiences were wanting to escape their financial woes during the time of this film's release, and that Movie Stars in general would have been living the "High-Life" in comparison to the average person in the street. Irrespective whether Dick Powell was pleading for stronger movie roles, only passing time and film Historians have revealed these facts to us... I have been wanting to get a copy of this film, and I am hoping the Warner Archive will release it on DVD before much longer. I disagree with all the "Negative" reviews posted here on IMDb about this film and many other films. Going to the Movies is like taking a ride in a car, you either want to be on the journey or you do not. A lot of present day audiences are prejudiced against seeing "Black-and-White" movies and many have told me so. Dear reader, if you get the opportunity to view this Black-and-White Film, you need to realize one finer point of movie production in the 1930's and through to the 1950's... And that is that Black-and-White films were made on Nitrate Film Stock using Fine-Grain Silver-Salts to produce real intense Blacks and many Shades of Grey through to Zero-Silver-Salts giving Dazzling White Light from the Carbon-Arc Projector-Lamp-Houses on the Cinema Screens of that time. And unless you are seeing an original 35mm Black-and-White "Original" Nitrate Print struck from the original Camera Negative being projected from a Carbon-Arc Lamp-House, you will usually be seeing the Movie from an Old-16mm-Print (from a Television Station ) using Low-Contrast copies, and you are not seeing the film that audiences were viewing at the time of the Original Release, even during the Great Depression. Later in my life, I was employed as Cinema Projectionist ( for over 30 years ) and I recall my mentor revealing to me that in his youth, he was employed as a junior to soak the Nitrate 35mm Movie prints in a bath tub, and his job was to recover the SILVER-SALTS from the Film-Stock, and the Film Exchanges recovered the actual SILVER from the prints, bringing in a great deal of money as a consequence. This was revealed to me by a Chief Projectionist who had worked in Cinemas and Overseas in the Armed Services as Projectionist during World War 2. Dear reader, I hope you are now, a little better informed, that you are not seeing "Black-and-White" films these days ( in the year 2017 ) as they were Originally presented to audiences during the Golden Years of Cinema in the 1930's and the 1940's, but you are seeing a mere facsimile of what was Originally presented during those Golden years. And back then, and in my time in Cinemas, we took care and were proud of the way we presented each and every motion picture to the Cinema-going public, I am proud to claim to you dear reader I was a "Show-Man"...Please to all fellow reviewers, please no more nasty comments... and to you dear reader, Thank You...
W.C. Fields and Me (1976)
Ex-Cinema Projectionist = Loved Screening this Movie in Season
I was at a favorite Second-Hand goods store last week, and upon finding a copy of the book "W.C. Fields & Me" By Carlotta Monti with Cy Rice, I snapped up the hard-cover copy, there and then. When this film was in it's Original release in Melbourne, Australia at the cinema I worked at as Projectionist, I had the pleasure to screen this Movie Two Sessions a Day - for it's Original run - and Loved Screening each and every session including it's accompanying suitable Musical score that plays in the background as the film UN-spools. I have been hoping against hope, that One day I can get my own Blu-Ray or DVD Copy of "W.C. Fields & Me", as I believe Rod Steiger did an excellent recreation of the character of Fields. Dear reader, to get a better knowledge of the Life that W.C.Fields had led up to the point where the Film begins from, I would recommend Movie Fans get their hands on some of the Biographical Books detailing the earlier life of Fields, from say his earliest Teenage years through to where the film takes up from, I assure you will get far-more from this Movie, if you make that effort. The stunning Valerie Perrine who features in the film as Carlotta Monti, tends to bring balance to the film as it rolls along to a memorable ending, at least it is memorable for me, in more ways than one, I cannot tell you more, as that would spoil the film for you, and I love this film too much to do that. Here is hoping Universal will release this "soon" with the Best Quality available, to all fans of this forgotten Gem of a Movie. There is only one more Movie Starring W.C. Fields I need to complete my W.C. Fields Movie Collection, and that is the Film with W.C. Fields and Zasu Pitts of "Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" 1934,( but not the 1940s Faye Bainter Version ) Both movies = Comedy and Tear-Jerker all in one movie, Highly recommended to all W.C. Fields aficionados...If any fans can help me with this I could love you forever...