Just checking the TCM schedule for this month and discovered the Sterile Cuckoo is playing on Sunday Jan 27/08. I made a number of requests for this movie and maybe they listened to me! It's being shown letterbox which is great and I will be ready to record it on my DVD recorder. Too bad it's not on DVD yet but this is great news nonetheless because it never plays on TV.
shareAre you sure it's letterbox format? I checked the TCM schedule and it looks like the movies being broadcast before and after are letterbox, but not The Sterile Cuckoo:
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2:30 PM Pajama Party (1964)
A Martian teenager sent to prepare for an invasion falls in love with an Earth girl. Cast: Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Elsa Lanchester. Dir: Don Weis. C-82 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format
4:00 PM Sterile Cuckoo, The (1969)
An innocent college boy gets mixed up with a needy, neurotic young woman. Cast: Liza Minnelli, Wendell Burton, Tim McIntire. Dir: Alan J. Pakula. C-106 mins, TV-PG, CC
6:00 PM 2010 (1984)
In this sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a U.S.-Soviet crew investigates a mysterious monolith orbiting Jupiter. Cast: Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Keir Dullea. Dir: Peter Hyams. C-116 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format
You may be right I was so excited I did not check. Man I hope it's in letterbox but I still will record it.
shareIt was P&S. I don't normally record panned movies but I'll record this one also. It isn't available on DVD and was a beautiful film. I would watch each TCM rebroadcast - TCM has a habit of eventually broadcasting a film in its correct aspect ratio without warning.
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Terry Wallace
It will also be repeated on Tuesday, 5 February 2008.
shareTurns out it wasn't letterboxed. I'd never seen this and I was knocked out by Liza Minnelli's performance. She deserved the raves & Oscar nom she got for this. My parents saw it when it first came out and they were highly impressed with Minnelli. They also liked the soundtrack and bought it so I know the music pretty well. It's really a shame Minnelli didn't get the kind of roles she deserved in her film career. As I remember it the 1970s weren't the best time for actresses.
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Good point, the 70's were a pretty bad time for film actresses. I remember one year (I think it was 1975), Ellen Burstyn was so pissed at the lack of quality film roles, she called for a boycott of the Academy Awards. Liza made what, like three films the whole decade? We had Oscar winners like Louise Fletcher and nominees like Carol Kane and Ann-Margret. Not the best decade for women in films.
"the best that you can do is fall in love"
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I just saw the movie on TMC.
It's my first time seeing Liza acting. She played a very good crazy girl. I just wanted to slap her, though. Haha
Very nice film.
Just an FYI: the version on TCM was slightly edited. When Pookie jumps into bed at the chilly motel, they took out the word 'ass'. And a small scene was missing once Pookie joined Jerry at his dorm for Easter vacation. Pookie makes lunch for them both and then quietly asks Jerry if it's ok to speak. He answers yes, say whatever you want. She responds with a comical shriek, and then looks to Jerry for his response. But he just smiles sourly at her, indicating that he's growing tired of her. This scene is included in the VHS version, I don't know why TCM showed an edited, pan-and-scan print.
shareYou're absolutely right - those edits were present and its puzzling and irritating. After all, TCM advertises its films as being "uncut" - they must have used a print already altered for broadcast TV.
shareI recorded it despite it being fullscreen. I am happy to have a copy but disappointed it had some edits like previous posters have mentioned. Hopefully TCM can show it "uncut" and widescreen in the future. I don't know if this will ever be released on DVD but I am keeping my fingers crossed. It's a great movie and it holds up well after all these years.
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Look what somebody posted on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtf4TBle-X8
That's not Wendell Burton's voice. And isn't this trailer a bit of a spoiler?
Fascinating stuff! Have always wanted to see this trailer, and it just proves that today's coming attractions don't have the monopoly on giving away the plot!
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Pookie and Jerry are out on Jerry's dorm balcony shooting at crows with a rifle during the summer holidays when all the other students were away, and I think Pookie cuts her foot or shoots her foot, because I remember blood. Anyway, it was all rather disturbing.
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Well, that's interesting. Having never read the novel, I haven't a clue then, unless I saw a version before it was officially released?? I swear I remember that scene, and I even remember talking about how disturbing it was with my best friend at the time.
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Hi-- to answer your question, I cut-and-pasted a posting from another thread on this board. The quoted excerpt is from John Nichol's novel:
-Elsewhere it is implied that the titular poem was in the script, but was removed, no doubt leaving many to wonder at the meaning and relevance of a "sterile cuckoo." This is especially sad, because the short poem would have fit well if recited during the alienation-of-affection scenes in Jerry's dorm during Spring Break:
"Without looking up she began to read. Her voice was flat, emotionless.
Oh, Hi-ho in the Lavender Woods
A Sterile Cuckoo is crying;
Oh Hi-ho in the Lavender Snow
A Sterile Cuckoo is dying.
Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
In the real dark night of her soul it's
always three o'clock in the morning.
(F. S. Fitz-P. Adams)"
Hardly a title expected to pack 'em in in the first place, Pakula quipped that the only thing worse than "The Sterile Cuckoo" was the title under which the movie was released in Europe: "Pookie."
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Re. Feb 5/08 showing of The Sterile Cuckoo
I went to the TCM bulletin boards and found out this information re. the next showing of the movie:
Re: The Sterile Cuckoo: Did an Edited Version of This Film Air Sunday?
Posted: Jan 29, 2008 4:18 PM in response to: sweetsmellofsuc... Reply
Paramount supplied us with the ABC-Television edited version. It will be replaced before our February 5th airing. The new master is 107:13. Unfortunately they do not have a Letterbox master.
Sorry for the inconvience!
Paramount does not have a letterbox master! Can another one be made? I'm not a film expert, maybe one of you can comment on this fact. If the DVD ever comes out I hope it's not fullscreen. The long shots of the countryside of upstate NY scream for a widescreen presentation. I will record the movie again since it's longer and more complete.
Thank you for this info! Unfortunately, "The Sterile Cuckoo" is a Paramount picture--and Paramount is THE WORST in preserving their older films. Their library cries out for reorganization, and their vaults must be filled with rotting outtakes and cut scenes that may never see the light of the day out of pure Hollywood laziness. Most of the time, their classic DVD releases don't even come supplied with the original trailer. If youtube can find them, why can't Paramount? I do hope this next showing of "Cuckoo" will include the one major scene I noticed missing, and I hope everyone who loved it before will watch it again.
shareYeah Paramount is terrible re. extras etc. My favorite TV show is TAXI and they stopped at the 3rd season in releasing. None of the box sets have any extras at all and all the Paramount movies I own are all bare bones too. What kind of studio doesn't have a letterbox master of their own movie?!
share<<What kind of studio doesn't have a letterbox master of their own movie?! >>
That may be what's holding up a DVD. You can't really release a pan-and-scan on the DVD market.
Really, it was a successful movie, with a hit song and an Oscar-nominated debut performance by an actor who remains very well known today. There are a lot of DVDs out now for movies with one-tenth of that going for them.