Treasures from the Disney Vault, September 2019

It seems as though it hasn't been very long since the last installment of Treasures from the Disney Vault on TCM. That's probably because even though the installments come roughly once a quarter, the last one was at the end of June while the current on is at the beginning of September. Namely, Leonard Matlin will be around to host the movies again tonight.

The night starts of with what is technically an animated feature, Fun and Fancy Free at 8:00 PM, although it's really an anthology of two shorter stories and the second one, "Mickey and the Beanstalk" has some live-action mixed in courtesy of Edgar Bergen. It's also one of the lesser Disney animated movies.

Probably the best known movie of the night is The Love Bug, at about 9:39 PM after a one-reeler to kick off the 9:30 PM slot. Dean Jones winds up in possession of Herbie, a Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own. The two team up for some big road races. The movie was popular enough that it spawned a whole bunch of sequels.

After starting My Three Sons, Fred MacMurray pretty much gave up serious dramatic films and enjoyed the much lighter, lower-pressure stuff he did at Disney, such as The Happiest Millionaire, which is coming on at 11:45 PM. As for the rest of the night's films, I don't recall Snowball Express or The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, so I can't say much of anything about them.

Emil and the Detectives (1964)

Having studied German in high school and having a bunch of German relatives, I had read an edited (for the purpose of teaching language students) version of Erich Kästner's book Emil and the Detectives. I later learned that there were multiple movie adaptations of the book, and was always interested in seeing them if they showed up on TV. In the most recent installment of TCM's Treasures from the Disney Vault, they ran the 1964 version of Emil and the Detectives, so I DVRed it to watch.

Bryan Russell plays Emil Tischbein, a young boy traveling alone by bus from his home in Neustadt to visit his grandmother in Berlin. The first thing I noticed is that the movie updates the novel (written in the late 1920s so set in Weimar Germany) to the 1960s, which requires them to overlook the fact that Berlin was a divided city and the wall had gone up. But since the country is reunited it would be easy for today's kids to ignore that. Anyhow, on the bus a pickpocket named Grundeis (Heinz Schubert) sits next to Emil, and after Emil falls asleep, Grundeis robs him of DM 400 that Emil was taking to Grandma.

Emil wakes up just in time to see Grundeis getting off the bus, and gets off himself to give chase. Of course, he's unsuccessful, but during the chase he runs into (literally) Gustav (Roger Mobley). Gustav is a few years older than Emil, and is one of those kids playing at being an adult, by being a "detective", complete with business cards and a team of young boys who work for him at their "secret" headquarters, which is really the apartment of one of the co-workers. It's there that they learn the details of the case from Emil.

They set off to find they Grundeis, armed with the clue that he's to meet some other people at a hotel in the vicinity of where Grundeis picked Emil's pocket. Eventually they find the right hotel, and see but don't hear that Grundeis is talking to a "Baron" (Walter Slezak) and another criminal Müller (Peter Ehrlich). Their plan is to go to one of the bombed-out buildings that still hasn't been cleared up and rebuilt, since it's quite close to a bank. There the three can tunnel under and rob the bank's vault out of a substantial sum of money.

The detectives and Emil set off to find the guys, although there's also one other problem, which is that Emil didn't get off the bus at the main bus station where his grandmother went to pick up Emil. She went together with a granddaughter who is one of Emil's cousins, Pony (Cindy Cassell; called Pony Hütchen in the book because of the hat she wears). When one of the detectives has Emil write a cryptic note to tell Grandma he's OK, Pony intercepts it, follows the juvenile detective-courier, and finds the detectives staking out the ruined building they followed Grundeis to.

It's been ages since I read the book, so I don't remember exactly how much was changed from the plot of the book besides updating it in time; some of the IMDb reviews suggest there were a fair amount of changes. (I actually have a copy of the book in translation to Russian that I bought when I was studying in St. Petersburg ages ago, although I haven't read that in a long time either.) Whatever the changes were, they certainly work at least in the context of a Disney family movie. The movie was made in Germany with a lot of location shooting on the streets of (West) Berlin, which creates a really good atmosphere.

As for the story, this version is, I think, a pretty good entry in the genre of kids playing as adults. They're probably too precocious to be real, but having to deal with Pony (who more or less blackmails the guys by telling them she could let on what's really going on) is handled reasonably well. As I was watching, I was wondering why Grundeis would draw attention to himself by picking Emil's pocket, but even that plot hole is handled in the movie. There's danger, but also nothing that would be particularly frightening to kids. And while the criminals have to have some stupidity, certainly the Baron isn't cartoonish at all, while the other two aren't terribly bad.

Emil and the Detectives seems to be out of print on DVD, but it is currently streaming on Amazon if you can do the streaming thing. In any case, it's a movie I can certainly recommend for the family.

Treasures from the Disney Vault, June 2019

We've reached the point where it's time for the quarterly-or-so Treasures from the Disney Vault to show up on the TCM lineup. Tonight in prime time there are several live-action movies from the 1960s and 70s, as well as a few vintage cartoon shorts.

I have to admit I hadn't heard of The Moon Spinners, which kicks off the lineup at 8:00 PM before, although it sounds somewhat interesting. TCM's schedule page claims none of the night's movies are on DVD but Amazon has this one, so I'll probably DVR it since I think I have enough room.

I'm looking forward to Emil and the Detectives, overnight at 2:15 AM, as well. I think I've mentioned several times that my grandparents emigrated from Germany and I took German in high school, so the book by Erich Kästner is something we had to read as part of learning the language. This one doesn't seem to be in print on DVD, but does seem to be available on Amazon's streaming video.

I think I've briefly mentioned The North Avenue Irregulars (12:25 AM) before. That's because my memory of the movie has to do with being in line at a multiplex up in Albany where everybody else was in line for Ice Castles, while my parents were taking us to see The North Avenue Irregulars. Ice Castles is of course a laughable mess; I don't remember the Disney film at all. It does seem to be on DVD at Amazon.

Treasures from the Disney Vault, March 2019

We've reached the time once again when the roughly quarterly programming feature Treasures from the Disney Vault shows up on TCM. Leonard Maltin hosts as usual, and the films show up tonight in prime time. This time around, I'm not so certain is use the word "treasures", since I don't think I've heard of any of the night's selections. There are two cartoon shorts, although neither of them stars the more traditional Disney characters. Elmer Elephant (8:00 PM), not Dumbo, is the cartoon elephant, while Country Cousin (midnight) has mice not named Mickey or Minnie).

The whole night's theme is animal movies, with perhaps the most human-centered being The Wild Country at 12:15 AM. At least, that's as much as one can glean from the brief synopses, not having seen the movies. It's got Ron Howard from the period between Andy Griffith and Happy Days. I've heard of Benji, but not the particular Benji movie that will be airing at 3:30 AM.

If you want to see the whole schedule, TCM created a sub-domain that has its own style distinct from the rest of the pages for TCM programming articles.

Treasures from the Disney Vault, December 2018

Tonight brings another installment of the roughly quarterly series of Treasures from the Disney Vault to TCM. I don't know how much choice TCM gets in these selections, but at least this time out the movies seem to be well thought out thematically.

It's a sports theme, starting off with a a Goofy basketball short at 8:00 and perhaps the most well-known of the movies, The Absent-Minded Professor, which is also listed as being in the 8:00 slot, which I presume means that if you want to DVR them you're going to get both together.

Later in the night there's Kurt Russell taking steroids in The Strongest Man in the World at 2:00 AM. Well, not quite; it's "vitamins", but nowadays it would be considered a performance-enhancing drug by some people.

The last feature is Gus at 4:00 AM, about a field-goal kicking mule. Francis must have been unavailable since Disney didn't have his rights.

The one thing I notice is that there are none of the Herbie movies; I wonder if Disney thought those were too big to let out to a non-Disney channel. The other thing is that there are a couple of non-Disney shorts in between the features, notably Football Headliners, an RKO Sportscope that I think I've mentioned in the past about some of the big college football games of 1955. That comes on in between The Strongest Man in the World and Gus. There's another one about bowling just before The Strongest Man in the World that I think is a non-Disney, too.

Treasures from the Disney Vault, Autumn 2018

Roughly once every quarter, TCM has been running the Treasures from the Disney Vault series of stuff that Disney is letting TCM show. They actually have vintage shorts with the recognizable characters, but the better-known animated features have generally been off limits presumably because Disney wants to keep those for themselves.

Anyhow, there probably should have been another installment of Disney films in September, but that didn't happen. Instead, we get that tonight. This time around, the lineup seems to be mostly movies with a taste for the fantastic, with probably the best-known of them being The Black Hole at 12:15 AM. Second would probably be Bedknobs and Broomsticks just after 8:00 PM, which actually got a couple of airings many years back when TCM had greater access to Disney live-action movies than the current Treasures from the Disney Vault thing. I have vague memories of the promoting of The Cat From Outer Space which is in the 2:00 AM slot after a Pluto short.

Delaying Treasures from the Disney Vault by a month is probably just a one-time thing, as a look at the December schedule shows a night of Disney movies on December 18.

Treasures from the Disney Vault, June 2018

My how the time flies. We've reached another quarterly installment in TCM's Treasures from the Disney Vault series, in which TCM runs the crumbs that Disney deigns to let it run. (I have no idea how the on-again, off-again Disney/Fox deal will affect the series.) This quarter's entries air tonight, and look particularly dire to me.

The opening one-reeler A Trip Through the Walt Disney Studios, at 8:00 PM, sounds like it could be interesting, in the way that the 1925 MGM Studio Tour is. But after that it's a bunch of animal stuff that's so low-grade that I've basically never heard of any of the movies. There's a 1980s Benji movie in the 3:00 AM slot, although TCM's on-line schedule claims that there's a short airing first. Now, I've heard of Benji the dog, but I don't remember this movie at all.

Before that we've got a dog, and elder Walter Pidgeon, in Big Red (not the chewing gum, but another movie I'd never heard of) at 1:15 AM and The Legend of Lobo which as far as I know does not have a dog named Boo (or a dog named Beau) at 10:00 PM.

And they call these "treasures"?

Treasures from the Disney Vault, March 2018

Every three months on TCM, we get another installment of Treausres from the Disney Vault. The amusement park ride that was part of the original agreement was discontinued, and as I understand it there's no more TCM Cruise stopping at Disney's private island, but at least we still get some C-grade material from Disney, most of which I hadn't heard of before, much less seen. Anyhow, those Disney movies will be running tonight in prime time.

Looking at tonight's schedule, there doesn't seem to be any overriding theme that I can think of, except that none of the features seems to be set in the present day. There's the 19th century and earlier. Actually, no, I take that back; The Journey of Natty Gann is set in the Depression. The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (midnight tonight or late evening in more westerly time zones) has as its plot summary a family performing at the 1880 Democratic National Convention? Bizarre and with a Disney take on it, sounds positively awful.

There's some stuff from the British Isles further back which sounds more interesting. The Sword and the Rose (in the 8:00 to 10:00 slot) involves Britons in 15th century France, while Rob Roy (4:15 AM) is based on known material.

There's no Disneyland episode, although I don't know how much original stuff there was on Disneyland. By the time I was a kid in the late 1970s, the Wonderful World of Disney was running their old movies. The original idea for Treasures from the Disney Vault suggested we'd get the old nature documentaries too, and there are none of those this time around.

TCM has also screwed up the schedule by not listing the proper airing times for some of the shorts. I've complained about this a lot when they run blocks of two-reelers, but this time it's the same complaint I made a few month's back with the new Saturday morning lineup. It looks as though the night kicks off with a short The Golden Touch about King Midas, followed by The Sword and the Rose in that 8:00 to 10:00 slot, but both are listed as being on at 8:00 PM. Irritating.

Treasures from the Disney Vault, Spetmber 2017

It's time for another quarterly installment of Treasures from the Disney Vault on TCM. Even though as I understand it the TCM-sponsored ride at Disney is no longer running, the part of the agreement that allows for a limited number of Disney things to show up on TCM is still there. I have to admit to not being the biggest fan of Disney's output, but having some of the stuff on TCM is still a good thing.

I note that there's only one animated short on the lineup tonight, Lonesome Ghosts at 12:15 AM, which has Mickey Mouse as a ghost hunter. And there's no Disneyland/Wonderful World of Disney episode either, which makes me wonder whether we're going to be seeing fewer "treasures" and more just a few of the more tentpole-like live-action titles that Disney produced back in the golden days. Hell, I'm amazed we even got the third-level animated features once or twice.

But the tentpole titles this time around include Swiss Family Robinson at 8:00 PM, and Freaky Friday overnight at 2:30 AM, for what it's worth.

Treasures from the Disney Vault, June 2017

It seems to be once every three months that TCM runs another installment of Treasures from the Disney Vault. Not that we get the real treasures, of course; Disney wants to keep the animated features for itself. But at any rate, once every three months seems to be a good schedule since it's easy to put these in March, June, September, and December, and not run afoul of 31 Days of Oscar or Summer Under the Stars.

Tonight's lineup has two themes: Hayley Mills and horses. Unless, I suppose, you think Hayley Mills has something to do with a horse. Hayley Mills' best-known movie is probably The Parent Trap, which isn't on tonight's lineup. Instead we get a pair of small-town movies in Summer Magic (which I hadn't heard of) at 8:00 PM followed by Pollyanna at 10:00.

The rest of the lineup is horse-themed, with one traditional Disney cartoon short (in the sense of having Mickey Mouse and his friends) at 12:30 AM followed by a bunch of stuff I haven't heard of. Looks like a couple of TV episodes and a couple of lesser-known live action features.

The latest installment of Treasures from the Disney Vault

Tonight brings another round of Treasures from the Disney Vault to TCM. I have to admit that other than Treasure Island at 8:30 PM, I don't know much about any of tonight's movies. There's a couple of shorts kicking the night off as is often the case, a few other features, and a couple of episodes of the TV show that went under various names.

Walt's going to be showing people around Disneyland as it was not long before he died and was cryogenically preserved beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, at 11:45 PM. That sounds like the most interesting thing of the night to me.

Treasures From the Disney Vault, June 2016

Tonight sees the latest installment of Treasures From the Disney vault on TCM, the irregular programming block of stuff that Disney deigns to let air on one of the non-Disney channels.

Nights in the past have generally kicked off with a block of cartoon shorts, but it looks like tonight is kicking off at 8:00 with The Parent Trap, in which Hayley Mills plays a pair of twins who bring her divorced parents (Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith) back together.

There are two blocks of shorts, one at 10:15 PM and one at 12:45 AM; the second block includes Flowers and Trees, the first three-strip Technicolor cartoon. Disney had exclusive use of the three-strip process for animation for several years in the 30s. (I think the 10:15 block has the traditional Disney characters; Flowers and Trees doesn't.)

Perhaps the most interesting thing to air tonight might be the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty, at 11:00 PM. This is about the animation department in the late 80s and early 90s, which saw a renaissance for the company before they bought up Pixar and became what we have today. Who remembers the animated features released immediately before The Little Mermaid in the mid-to-late 80s? I had to look them up: The Brave Little Toaster and Oliver and Company?

The next installment of Treasures from the Disney Vault

Once again, tonight brings a night of "Treasures from the Disney Vault" to TCM. For anybody who hasn't seen it before, the highlight of the night should probably be 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, airing at 8:30, after a could of cartoon shorts. Much of the night deals with the sea, although I have to admit to not having heard of a lot of the other movies. Well, I've heard of The Man From Snowy River before, but TCM is showing the sequel, Return to Snowy River at 3:00 AM. There's also a variation on the Robinson Crusoe theme in Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN, concluding the night at 4:45 AM.

Disney Treasures, round 5

Or, I think it's the fifth round of Treasures from the Disney Vault on TCM tonight. I may have missed an installment and it's actually the sixth. But in any case, those of you who like the Disney programming on TCM are getting another night of it.

There's one change, however. In the past, the night has started off at 8:00 PM with three cartoon shorts, which just nicely fits into a half hour. (I think I've said it before, I remember growing up how those one-reeler cartoons fit perfectly three in a half hour with space left over for the commercials. Woody Woodpecker and the Pink Panther were done this way; I can't remember what Tom and Jerry and the Looney Tunes shorts did outside of the Looney Tunes shorts being in a longer show on Saturday mornings.) Anyhow, back to the Disney programming.

The night begins at 8:00 PM with So Dear to My Heart, a feature reminiscent of The Yearling in that a young boy (Bobby Driscoll) adopts a black lamb. He wants to show it at the county fair, but there are a lot of obstacles to doing so. However, with the help of some Disney animation, he vows to overcome those obstacles. Only after that, at 9:30 PM, do we get the first round of animated shorts.

The second half of the evening deals with a bunch of movies set up in the Arctic, starting at midnight with Never Cry Wolf. I seem to recall this one engendering a bit of controversy back when it was first released -- I was only 10 or 11 at the time. Apparently it contained a shot of one the scientist's buttocks. I've never actually seen the movie.

Another round of Treasures from the Disney Vault

The semi-regular feature Treasures from the Disney Vault is returning to TCM tonight for another night of programming.

Amazingly, this night has an animated feature, something I wouldn't have thought we'd see, since I always figured Disney would be incredibly protective of those. That having been said, it's one of the lesser animated movies, and in some ways it's not even necessarily a feature: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, at 8:30 PM. It only runs about 70 minutes, and it's an anthology, telling animated versions of two stories, The Wind in the Willows (well, only part of that book) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. As I understand it the two haves have been sold separately on various Disney compliations.

More interesting for me would be the three Three Little Pigs shorts that kick off the first half hour of programming. Three Little Pigs was apparently enough of a hit that Disney made two more shorts with the porcine characters. Indeed, it produced the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf". Three Little Wolves has the pigs in the "boy who cried wolf" story, while The Big Bad Wolf combines the pigs and Little Red Riding Hood.

Both of the Witch Mountain movies are also on, with the latter, Return From Witch Mountain at 5:00 AM, starring Bette Davis and Christopher Lee along with the kids. Because those are the first two actors I think of when I think "children's movie".

TCM and Disney

So news came over the wire yesterday that TCM will be partnering with Disney. TCM will apparently be providing mateiral for the "Great Movie Ride" at Disney's Hollywood Studios attraction in Orlando, while Disney will be letting TCM show some material from the archives in prime time blocks on TCM. The first o those blocks is scheduled for December 21.

I have a feeling that anybody looking for Disney's animated features to show up on TCM will likely be disappointed. Disney have always seemed to me to be exceedingly controlling of their material, especially the classic animation that shows up o nthe latest home video format for a brief time, only to go back into the vaults before the next advance in home video comes along. I find it difficult to believe that Disney are just going to let TCM run something like Snow What and the Seven Dwarfs or Cinderella uncut and commercial free.

Still, some of the animated shorts are going to be showing up; the article mentions a 1932 short called Santa's Workshop that's on the December 21 schedule. For the most part, though, it looks like lesser-known stuff that, like MGM's Traveltalks shorts that I love to talk about, is of historical interest even if it isn't the greatest material the studio produced. I just wonder how long it will be until people start complaining about the lack of the truly classic stuff in these blocks.