Battle of Algiers – next up

The Battle of Algiers


The creative guys just finished tweaking this remarkable film – The Battle of Algiers, and today it goes to the encoding geeks. They will run the first encoding passes today – and let the computers crunch over the weekend. We hope to have the movie up for our users by Monday or Tuesday next week. I put a link to search Battle of Algiers on the pic and the title… but it will return empty, until it gets added to the media library and database… just a few more days.

So why is this film so cool? Well…. it is perhaps the best war movie ever made… and no doubt inspired Speilberg when he put together Saving Private Ryan, another great war themed film. In the movie – the French colonialists are pitted against the local Islamic Algerians, seeking independence from French rule. The conflict lasted a long time… mid to late 50s thru the early sixties… and the French Foreign legion was just coming off a defeat in Vietnam (and we know how that worked out for the Yanks, who tried their hand at liberation during the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations. Anyway – there are no heros in this film – the French are brutal, and are skilled at torture… meanwhile the Islamic “freedom fighters”… are terrorists – who regret that innocent children (and their own people) are killed in suicide bomber attacks (oh.. I forgot, these are now called homicide bombers… sorry ’bout that). In any event – no one wins, and humanity loses its heart. It is very realistic movie – though no archive news footage was used in the creation… a remarkable piece of film editing and direction – and the B&W cinematography is stark and stunning. Likeelevision got a terrific print of the film to work with as source… and it even looks better after our creative guys did some digital post tweaks. You really need to watch this movie – as it will shed a lot of light on your understanding of the current problems facing Israel – and the daunting task ahead for colalition troops and political operatives in Iraq. What is a political operative? Just curious.

Another interesting trivia tidbit – In the last British Film Institute poll (2002, they provide the poll every 10 years… it is really a great poll)… antiwar activist Tim Robbins – the actor, director… and now imfamous “hollywood type” dissenter- put Battle of Algiers as his favorite movie of all time! (after watching the film, you will gain an insight as to why he is so outspoken on the war)… but it sheds no light on why he married Susan Sarandon or why he was so good in the Shawshank Redemption (the second best prison movie).

In any event – this is a remarkable film, and offers a clear non-biased view of the horrors of war. And you betcha – it is very timely.. or as we say here at LikeTelevision… everything old is new again! And you will probably get a better understanding of the French were bitterly opposed to the Iraqi liberation (… ummm besides all the secret money deals with Saddam). oooops… my bias is showing. But hey – I never claimed to be a journalist, I am just a faceless 3-D animation in LikeTelevision’s control room. What do I know? To be honest, I am really thankful I don’t have to make these decisions.

Hillary Scales Everest -50 years ago

Hillary Scales Everest – May 29, 1953

Everyone ones knows the Sir Edmond Hillary was the first to scale Mt. Everest…. but is that really true. Maybe the first was his guide, and I bet you don’t even know his name. Click the link and find out… plus you can watch some newsreels from the event. And while many folks believe that Hillary said the line – (when asked why he climbed it)… BECAUSE IT’s THERE… it was actually a different climber… who gave the summit the good old English try, equipped with canvas tents for protection. These early guys were either totally gutsy – or out of their minds, or perhaps – had no idea what they were in for. Now that we have Goretex… it sure makes it seem easy. Oh yeah… who said that line… why it was George Leigh Mallory, of course. Recently – they found his frozen body on a difficult route to the summit. One final cool tidbit… thanks to recent GPS navigation and some fancy abacus crunching – it was determined that Everest was about 7.3 feet taller than previously accepted measurements of elevation. (29,035.3 feet vs. 29,028 feet).

In closing… think Robert Goulet, (from the Sound of Music)… singing Climb Every Mountain. Sorry… that was cruel… hope you can get that tune outta of your head. hee hee hee…

Rules of The Game

Rules of the Game

Check this new movie out – one of the funniest foreign films ever made, Jean Renoir’s Rules of the Game is a biting satire on French aristocrats, human relationships, and the fickle nature of love. In case you were wondering, Jean Renoir is related to the impressionist genius, Auguste Renoir – who in my opinion is every bit as talented as Monet or Manet. As they say, the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree… so if you’ve never seen a Renoir movie, you’re in for a treat. Check out Rules of the Game for a great comedy, and if you’re in the mood for a slick anti-war classic, check out La Grande Illusion.

But don’t take my word for it – the critics at The British Film Institute voted Jean Renoir as a top ten director of all time (voted #4, ahead of Akira Kurosawa and Stanley Kubrick). The director’s poll lists Rules of the game in their top ten all time as well. This is a great film – enjoy it!

Happy Birthday Vincent Price

Vincent Price was born today, May 27th in 1911 in St. Louis, Mo. He was THE MAN, the go-to guy for many of the best horror during his long and storied career as an actor. Egghead on Batman, a ton of Edgar Allen Poe movies, and the Omega Man, in last man on Earth. If you wanna see Uncle Vinny as a deranged Shakespearean actor, who murders his critics – Check out Theater of Blood (preview) or as suave millionaire, in William Castle’s landmark – House on Haunted Hill (preview). He died on October 25, 1993 of lung cancer.

New One Step Beyond – Mask

One Step Beyond -Mask


Here’s another episode from one of the best Sci-Fi tv shows ever produced – One Step Beyond. This episode, titled The Mask tells the story of a U.S. soldier who is found wandering in the Egyptian desert after his plane is shot down in World War II. Starring Wesley Lau, best known as Lt. Andy Anderson, nice guy cop from Perry Mason (not to be confused with the cantankerous Lt. Tragg, played by Frank Collins)… as the bewildered soldier, Wollenski.

This is one of the best OSBs from the second season… Mummy’s, hieroglyphics, pharoahs, and Wollenski even “talks like an Egyptian”…. ready to download or stream, with a plethora of pix ii the image library. Check it out.

One Step Beyond – The Mask

Next Week – Renoir’s Rules of The Game

After a week of tweaking, the creative guys just forwarded next week’s offering -Jean Renoir’s Rules of the Game, to the encoding geeks. Today the film will be digitized and captured from the Betacam SP tape of the cleaned up film. Over the weekend, the computers will be crunching – and providing the streaming output files, which will be uploaded on Tuesday. (Hey – we got hamburgers to grill on Monday, though this is a French movie, Memorial Day is a holiday in the states, you know).

The film is in French with English subtitles, and unfortunately – some of the text is tough to read, as the subtitled text is plain white, with no drop shadow or black outline – which makes it difficult to read if the film has a white area at the bottom part of the screen during certain scenes.
But as they say in Korea – where crisis and opportunity are the same word (like that yin yang symbol thing)…. perhaps we should use this opportunity to polish up on our French. Oui, Oui. N’est pas?

Abbott & Costello Download

Africa Screams

Africa Screams starring the great comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello is now available for download. Plus – we also added some funny outtakes from the original that are a hoot. To fully understand this film, you really need to see Africa Speaks, which was released in 1935 as a documentary about Africa. In truth, Africa Speaks is a Schlockumentary, where all kinds of stuff is staged for the camera, and today’s skeptical audiences will have no trouble seeing sections that are clearly fake. Plus the racial overtones will make you shudder in disgust. Africa Speaks is a very weird film, and also available for download. The scene with the locusts is especially cool, and you’ll wonder why they kept filming as a Masai warrior is attacked by a lion… or maybe this is fake… hmmmm. Anyway – Africa Screams is clearly poking fun at Africa Speaks, which in its day was a blockbuster hit! No kidding. Also of note – Max Baer, father of Jethro Bodine (Max Baer, Jr.) on the Beverly Hillbillies… plays a thug, along with his brother, Buddy Baer. Did you know Jethro’s dad was also a former heavyweight champ? In 1934, he defeated Primo Carnera for the title. His career as a boxer was almost sidetracked in 1930, when he killed his rival and subsequently lost 4 of his next 6 fights. Buddy Baer was also a heavyweight contenter – and in 1942, he actually knocked Joe Louis out of the ring in the first round, before the fight in the match.

Download speed increase

LikeTelevision offers a ton of media available for download or streaming. We are often asked – How can I make this go faster? Well, let’s first look at download speed. There are many slick software packages that can greatly increase download speed. Just go to download.com (part of CNET) and search for download software and you will see what I mean. Our favorite is called Download Accelerator from speedbit.com – which comes in a free version, with some banner rotation (hmmm… probably some spyware… grrrr).. and a premium version with more features and no banner ads or begs to purchase. The software works like a champ and delivers speed as promised – my download speed was about 1 1/2 – 2 times faster. You can set up what kind of files you want to launch the softfare as you browse, which can be cool – you get to our MPG files… and download accelerator pops up and asks you where you want to save it. It can also be a pain, if you are unfamiliar with setting the open with options in Windows. Of course – all this is tweakable and you can always set the open with feature after the fact. Just go slow and read a little bit in the help section if you get confused. The Download Accelerator software is available at http://www.download.com (just search for download accelerator) or go to http://www.speedbit.com for details, download or purchase. And if you’re curious, we don’t get any kick back… we just like the software – IT WORKS! Finally- the ability to schedule downloads while you are sleeping….zzzzzz… is a very useful tool, especially when you want to download a movie that is 1 1/2 gigs. Or try another application – the point is, download software utilitiess can really juice the speed. If you have one you like, provide the info in the comment box below.

For streaming – try adjusting your MTU settings in your registry. This is not for the faint of heart – as messing with the registry can cause a meltdown. There are lots of software apps that do this tweaks for you… but it isn’t really rocket science either, just be careful. To learn how – go to http://www.google.com and search for edit mtu settings regedit. Here’s a linky!

Another neat site for tweaks – is PC Pitstop. This site is an online application that helps tweak your system and tests for all kinds of problems -and even provides fixes on the fly.

New One Step Beyond – Riddle

One Step Beyond – The Riddle

Classic Sci-Fi TV fans – REJOICE. Here’s another funky episode of One Step Beyond. This one is a classic – The Riddle, from the first season in 1959. Enjoy yourselves… and don’t get too scared. And in case you were wondering… yes it is ready to download, MPEG-1s are ready, plus a bunch of cool high rez pix too!


One Step Beyond – The Riddle

Jimmy Stewart’s Birthday

Happy Birthday Jimmy Stewart

In the tiny hamlet of Indiana, Pennsylvania – Jimmy Stewart, american icon of film was born on May 20, 1908. (he died on July 2, 1997 in Los Angeles, CA of a pulmonary blood clot). He is best known for his roles as the proverbial nice guy, and was known for his ability to say “aw shucks” – AND mean it! In 1932 – he graduated from Princeton University where he studied architecture. LikeTelevision has a bunch of great short clips on Jimmy, including this classic about Lake Baringo- from the Johnny Carson Show. And who could forget his memorial poem for his dog, Red. You’ll also find a slick caricature of Jimmy in Tex Avery’s wonderful cartoon – Hollywood Steps Out. If you are looking for a cool full length movie with Jimmy Stewart, that you probably have never seen – check out, Made For Each Other where he stars as a struggling lawyer (a nice guy would struggle as a lawyer – hahaha) with Carole Lombard. There’s a great scene with Charles Coburn, his deaf boss – who comes over for dinner. Lombard needles Jimmy to ask for a raise… but the dinner goes terribly wrong.

We miss you Jimmy – it’s good to know nice guys don’t always finish last. Happy Birthday!