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Movie by the Year Classic Television Vault is video-on-demand channel available on Roku streaming devices. Classic tv shows, cartoons and tv movies with new titles added weekly!

Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Max Fleischer and directed by Dave Fleis...
03/02/2025

Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Max Fleischer and directed by Dave Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. Released to cinemas in the United States on December 22, 1939, by Paramount Pictures, the story is a very loose adaptation of Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel of the same name, specifically only the first part of four, which tells the story of Lilliput and Blefuscu, and centers around an explorer who helps a small kingdom who declared war after an argument over a wedding song. The film was Fleischer Studios' first feature-length animated film, as well as the second animated feature film produced by an American studio after Walt Disney Productions' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as Paramount had commissioned the feature in response to the success of that film. The sequences for the film were directed by Seymour Kneitel, Willard Bowsky, Tom Palmer, Grim Natwick, William Henning, Roland Crandall, Thomas Johnson, Robert Leffingwell, Frank Kelling, Winfield Hoskins, and Orestes Calpini.

All of the songs were written by Leo Robin and composed by Ralph Rainger with the exception of "It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day", which was written by Sammy Timberg, Al Neiburg and Winston Sharples.

The Gulliver's Travels score by Victor Young was nominated for a Best Original Score Academy Award while the song "Faithful/Forever" was nominated for Best Original Song, but both of them lost out to The Wizard of Oz with the film winning the latter category for the song "Over the Rainbow". "It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day" and "All's Well" later became standard themes used for Fleischer and Famous Studios cartoon scores, while "I Hear a Dream" was quite popular as well.

Max Fleischer had envisioned a feature as early as 1934, but Paramount vetoed the idea based largely on their interests in maintaining financial solvency following their series of bankruptcy reorganizations. However, after the success of Walt Disney Productions' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Paramount wanted to duplicate the Disney success and ordered a feature for a 1939 Christmas release, which would be Paramount's very first animated feature. When the story was first written in New York, Popeye the Sailor had originally been cast as Gulliver. This was scrapped, however, and the story was restructured once the West Coast team of Cal Howard, Tedd Pierce, and Edmond Seward came aboard (although Popeye would later be cast as a Gulliver-like character in an abridged version of the story called "Popeye's Travels", made for the 1960s Popeye the Sailor television show).

One of the major challenges for Fleischer Studios was the 18-month delivery envelope, coming at a time when Fleischer Studios was relocating to Miami, Florida. While Snow White was in production for 18 months, it had been in development for just as long, allowing for a total of three years to reach the screen. To meet this deadline, the Fleischer staff was greatly expanded to some 800 employees. Animation training classes were set up with Miami art schools as a conduit for additional workers. Experienced lead animators were lured from Hollywood studios, including Nelson Demorest, Joe D'Igalo, and former Fleischer Animators Grim Natwick, Al Eugster, and Shamus Culhane, who returned after working for the Walt Disney Studios.

Several West Coast techniques were introduced in order to provide better animation and greater personality in the characters. Some animators adapted while others did not. Pencil tests were unheard of in New York but were soon embraced as a tool for improving production methods. While the majority of the characters were animated through conventional animation techniques, rotoscoping was used to animate Gulliver, Glory, and David. Sam Parker, the voice of Gulliver, also modeled for the live-action reference.

The rushed schedule seemed to take precedence over quality, and overtime was the order of the day. Even with the rush, deadlines were compromised with Paramount considering canceling the film. Relations with the Technicolor lab were strained due to these constant delays largely associated with the remote location of Miami.

Fleischer Studios delivered Gulliver for Paramount's planned Christmas release schedule, opening in New York on December 20, 1939, going into general release two days later. Considering the potential demonstrated in the two Popeye specials, Gulliver's Travels lacked the built-in brand recognition of those shorts. This much-anticipated feature produced by Max Fleischer was still met with by an eager public and started out well, breaking box-office records in spite of the inevitable comparisons to Snow White.

Like Snow White before it, Gulliver was a success at the box-office, earning $3.27 million in the United States during its original run, even as it was limited to fifty theaters during the 1939 Christmas season. This box-office success prompted a second feature to be ordered for a Christmas 1941 release, Mr. Bug Goes to Town. Following its domestic run, Gulliver's Travels went into foreign release starting in February 1940, in spite of some European markets interrupted by the onset of World War II.

The Last Man on Earth is a 1964 post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film based on the 1954 novel I Am Legend by Rich...
01/02/2025

The Last Man on Earth is a 1964 post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film based on the 1954 novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. The film was produced by Robert L. Lippert and directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, and stars Vincent Price and Franca Bettoia. The screenplay was written in part by Matheson, but he was dissatisfied with the result and chose to be credited as "Logan Swanson". William Leicester, Furio M. Monetti, and Ubaldo Ragona finished the script.

The Last Man on Earth was filmed in Rome, with scenes being completed at Esposizione Universale Roma. It was released in the United States by American International Pictures.

Producer Anthony Hinds purchased the rights to Matheson's novel for Hammer Film Productions. Matheson wrote a script, and Hammer announced in 1958 that they would make it. However, British censors would not allow the film to be produced, so Hinds resold the script to American producer Robert L. Lippert.

Lippert had wanted to make a "last man on Earth"-type film for a while. In the late 1950s, Charles Marquis Warren and Robert Stabler optioned a novel by science fiction writer George R. Stewart called Earth Abides. Harry Spalding, who worked for Lippert, said the release of The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) killed off plans for that project. Spalding then read Matheson's novel and suggested Lippert film that book instead. The project was announced in August 1962.

Lippert originally told Matheson that Fritz Lang would direct the film, and Matheson thought that would be "wonderful". Eventually, however, Sidney Salkow was chosen to direct. Matheson made the follow-up comment: "Well, there's a bit of a drop."

To save money, the film was shot in Italy with a predominantly Italian cast and crew. The climax was shot in San Pio X alla Balduina, a real Catholic church in Rome.

The Honor of the Press is a 1932 American Pre-Code crime film directed by B. Reeves Eason and starring Edward J. Nugent,...
27/01/2025

The Honor of the Press is a 1932 American Pre-Code crime film directed by B. Reeves Eason and starring Edward J. Nugent, Rita La Roy and Dorothy Gulliver. It was produced as a second feature for release by Mayfair Pictures. The film's sets were designed by the art director Paul Palmentola.

Corrupt Roger Bradley buys a newspaper in order to promote his own shady dealings and denigrate the work of the city's police commissioner. A cub reporter on the paper discovers that Bradley and one of the other reporters are both involved in major crime.

Movies by the Year is our new Roku channel, rebranded and relaunched, formerly known as Classic Television Vault. Check ...
22/01/2025

Movies by the Year is our new Roku channel, rebranded and relaunched, formerly known as Classic Television Vault. Check us out on Roku here, https://channelstore.roku.com/details/c0123e0c8667f30a0f89ab224bf05ccb/movies-by-the-year.

We'll be featuring info on a different movie in our catalog everyday here on this page.

Roku provides the simplest way to stream entertainment to your TV. On your terms. With thousands of available channels to choose from.

10/12/2024

I just wanted to provide a quick update. This Roku channel will be ceasing operation before the end of the year. However, you'll continue to find classic movies and cartoons on our sister channel Classic Movie Vault, also found on Roku. And we'll soon be launching a new Roku channel, Southern Fried Movies and TV, which will be featuring classic movies and TV shows celebrating Southern, Western, Country and Rural life here in the USA.

The Last of the Mohicans, later retitled Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, is a 1957 historical drama television ser...
10/03/2024

The Last of the Mohicans, later retitled Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, is a 1957 historical drama television series made for syndication by ITC Entertainment and Normandie Productions. It ran for one season of 39 half-hour monochrome episodes.

Loosely based on the 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, the series was released under several different names, including Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans.

The series was set in New York's Hudson Valley in the 1750s but was filmed in Canada. The end credits state that the series was filmed in Canada with the cooperation of The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The series had a more realistic view of America than most series of the times. The settlers were rough and dressed in old but suitable clothes for the long hard winters in the small settlements of the new frontier. The Native Americans were more realistically portrayed too, as an intelligent people with good and bad individuals among them. Fights in the film needed more than just the odd blow as the opponents hit hard at each other, and torture was used in a number of episodes. Weapons used were normally single shot rifles and tomahawks (which often ended up in someone's back). Furs were often a motive of crime as they were the currency of the northern settlements.

Now on Classic Television Vault. Retro Video Vault, featuring classic educational and informational videos from the past...
08/02/2024

Now on Classic Television Vault. Retro Video Vault, featuring classic educational and informational videos from the past! Check it out now on our Roku channel.

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