Comments from Bill Huelbig

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Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 11, 2008 at 7:23 am

This is exactly what I was afraid of. And I feel responsible.

Dear Webmasters: Since you quickly granted Howard’s request to remove Vito’s post, I’d like to ask you for a favor too – to do and say whatever you can to settle this problem very soon.

We can’t lose Vito!

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 10, 2008 at 4:11 pm

Howard: sure there are movie blogs, all over the place, but none of them had any reviews of that particular movie, including the one you gave a link to. I’m sure today there are reviews everywhere, but before today there were none and Vito’s was the first I’d seen, at 10 AM this morning. It was a true Cinema Treasures exclusive, a scoop if you will, and didn’t deserve to be erased.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 10, 2008 at 2:27 pm

It’s funny – the kind of personal posts LuisV describes clutter up the Ridgewood page, too many to even deal with. And yet this morning, an actual movie business professional posts the very first opinion I’ve been able to find on the Internet (and believe me, I’ve been looking) of an eagerly awaited major motion picture – albeit a negative opinion – and in a matter of minutes it’s wiped off the page like it never existed.

Howard, you don’t happen to be an executive at 20th Century-Fox, do you? :)

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 10, 2008 at 11:56 am

But there are always exceptions, right? I gave the reason up above as to why Vito posted what he did on this page. As far as I’m concerned, guys like Vito and REndres are HUMAN cinema treasures, and anything they have to say is something I’d want to hear.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 10, 2008 at 11:34 am

To cite the worst example of what Jeff is referring to, the page for the Ridgewood Theater in Queens has literally hundreds of off-topic posts, many of them nothing to do with movies at all. I don’t think any of them have ever been deleted.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 10, 2008 at 11:02 am

Oh wait … to make sure my post about the new “Cleopatra” doesn’t get deleted, I hope it plays at the Ziegfeld.

Sorry … couldn’t resist :)

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 10, 2008 at 10:59 am

I hear Soderbergh’s next project will be a remake of “Cleopatra”! I guess he’s been bitten by the extremely-long-movie bug.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 10, 2008 at 9:07 am

In fairness to Vito, I started all this by posting this here last month:

I hope “The Day the Earth Stood Still ” is the Christmas attraction at the Ziegfeld. Maybe I’ll find out tomorrow.

posted by Bill Huelbig on Nov 19, 2008 at 7:43am

… which is why Vito posted his opinion of the movie on this page.

Vito: After I see the movie on Friday at Lincoln Square, I’ll post my opinion of it there and we’ll see if I agree with you :)

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 10, 2008 at 8:47 am

Vito: if you e-mail me at the above address I’ll let you know what happened. Sorry about all this non-Ziegfeld stuff.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Dec 10, 2008 at 8:10 am

Was it something I said that caused the last few posts to be removed? That never happened to me before on CT and I feel bad about it. Please let me know what I did so I won’t do it again.

Thanks.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Radio City Music Hall on Dec 9, 2008 at 8:55 am

This past Sunday, my 79-year-old mom saw her first Radio City Christmas show since the one that accompanied MGM’s “Kim” in 1950-51. She loved every minute of it. What a great holiday tradition – long may it continue!

I haven’t seen one since 1970 myself (with “A Boy Named Charlie Brown”). Maybe I should go too.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Roxy Theatre on Dec 9, 2008 at 7:18 am

After listening to the commentary and watching the documentary, it seems like more future filmmakers were inspired to enter the business after seeing “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” than from any other movie since “Citizen Kane”.

The Blu-Ray image is so beautiful, I’d say it hasn’t looked that good since it played the Roxy (without actually having seen it at the Roxy, unfortunately).

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Roxy Theatre on Dec 8, 2008 at 7:05 pm

I just finished watching “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” on Blu-Ray, and am listening to the audio commentary right now. It may have been a low-budget swashbuckler, but it’s still one of the most wonderful movies ever made. Everything about it is memorable, most especially Ray Harryhausen’s visual effects and Bernard Herrmann’s music. It’s been dearly loved and remembered for 50 years now, long after many expensive A-pictures of its time (like “Rally Round the Flag Boys”) have been almost completely forgotten.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Remembering Cinerama (Part 14: Montreal) on Dec 5, 2008 at 11:42 am

The Montreal hype entries certainly outdo most of the ones they came up with in the United States. They really “got” Cinerama up there! My favorite: “Thanks to Cinerama you have three eyes and seven ears”.

Funny how “2001” played in Montreal for only 24 weeks (“only” – a relative term), while it played in Toronto for more than two years.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Criterion Theatre on Dec 5, 2008 at 11:33 am

I don’t care how many Oscars the 1997 Cameron version won or how much money it made: “A Night to Remember” is the best-ever cinematic telling of the story of the Titanic. Even James Cameron knows this is true. Thanks for the ad, Warren – a very distinctive one, too, befitting the movie.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Route 3 Drive-In on Dec 4, 2008 at 8:18 pm

“You’ll Gasp – You’ll Wince – You’ll Shudder” – what a great sleazy ad!

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Notice it’s playing only in drive-ins, where any kid in a passing car could see the gasp-inducing shock scenes if they pass at the right time :)

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Queen Anne Theatre on Dec 4, 2008 at 7:53 pm

Gerald, I think you’re right. At least that’s the only film with that title I could find on the Internet Movie Database. As for “Birth of Triplets”, that didn’t show up on there at all!

The “Never on Sunday” ad in “61 also has an Adult tag (… "PLEASE! Don’t Bring Children!”)

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Queen Anne Theatre on Dec 4, 2008 at 7:35 pm

I’d say they were being exploitative. The Adults Only tag sure looks enticing and probably lured many people into the theater, especially back in 1961. I’m surprised the ad for “La Dolce Vita” at the Bellevue didn’t use it also.

Talking about exploitative: check out this one for “Birth of Triplets” in 1969:

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“You’ll Gasp – You’ll Wince – You’ll Shudder”. I can’t tell ya how much I miss movie ads like this.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Queen Anne Theatre on Dec 4, 2008 at 4:55 pm

Even back in 1961, the Queen Anne showed Adults Only fare:

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Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Cinema 304 on Dec 4, 2008 at 4:29 pm

Was this theater known as UA Cinema in 1967? If so, here are two ads for it:

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Notice how two live productions of “Half a Sixpence” were playing in the same area at the same time. Fans of the play and movie “The Boys in the Band” will recognize Kenneth Nelson in the Paper Mill ad – he played Michael in “Boys” and had the biggest role.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Bergenfield Cinema 5 on Dec 4, 2008 at 4:04 pm

1967: an exciting announcement for Palace Theater patrons:

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Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Queen Anne Theatre on Dec 4, 2008 at 3:36 pm

I finally saw the side wall of the Queen Anne today, after all these years.

When it was still an art house in 1969, two days before Apollo XI landed on the moon, the Queen Anne was showing this Oscar-winning class act. I don’t think I agree with what it says in the small print on the bottom, though:

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Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Paradise Theatre on Dec 3, 2008 at 9:00 am

WOW! It sure didn’t look like that when I saw Rodney Dangerfield in “Easy Money” there in 1983. The fourplexing looked like a lot of sheetrock put up inside the shell of the theater, covering up the glorious interior which I’m seeing for the first time in this photo.

What were they thinking back then? Anyway, we should just be grateful that the theater has been restored. If they ever show movies again, I’m there.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Digital Projection Not Always Perfect on Dec 3, 2008 at 8:42 am

Correction: that “Goldfinger” show was in April of this year, 2008. Time is going by so fast …

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Digital Projection Not Always Perfect on Dec 3, 2008 at 8:09 am

When the Ziegfeld in NY showed “Goldfinger” in digital last year, I sat in the front row and was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked. I was expecting to see pixelation all over the place, and there was none. Since Justin had a problem, I guess it depends on the theater and the equipment.