Trapped By Television (1936) MARY ASTOR

[@ibamINV]

Great film - excellent cast and I loved the snappy dialogue. A real find.

[@sammath26]

Watching this take on the invention of television when the general public hadn't a clue about TV, on my IPad, is a real kick. Also I had the honor of teaching a relative of Farnsworth Physics.

[@Pattwon]

Hello, thank you! Any movie that brings joyful tears to my eyes, Is a hit.

[@-kirkemignone6802]

Delightful and fun movie! Loved every minute of it . Good script and great acting. 🙏🙏🙏

[@james5460]

I can't believe they thought at first that Mary Astor had a bad voice. She has a perfect voice for motion pictures. Incidentally, they had TV at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and the cameras didn't look all too different than the ones in this film.

[@keithharvey6354]

She had a nice voice.

[@jerrygundecker743]

ENJOYED this story. Thnx.

[@kathyjohnsen165]

Very entertaining movie about invention of television. The four main characters were excellent.👍👍👍👍

[@sheristewart3940]

Oh! That was lovely! Mary Astor and Nat Pendleton; such fun!

[@ddkoda]

What a wonderful Horatio Alger type of story! For a good while things seemed pretty hopeless but justice and good prevailed with the crooks getting their just desserts and the inventor as well as his financial backers receiving their reward also. Talk of a workable television system was all the rage at the time even with a motion picture company incorporating the word television in its title.

[@YaamiNagvanshi_JayGopal]

Simply swell! Such a fantastic, delightful one too...perfect treat for a holiday or for comfort in a sense when one has fallen a bit ill :-)

[@DateTwoRelate]

Nat Pendelton working with Lyle Talbot? Now, this is a film to enjoy!

[@marybranicki2859]

A very delightful movie....... Always loved Mary Astor and Lyle Talbot Thank you for posting

[@1990pommie]

in bermondsey, london 1953 my father assembled a 9 in b/w tv from parts he gathered had no case just the tubes and valves exposed was the . only tv on the street of about 100 houses. dad was self a taught Londoner. he had served 6.5yrs in the REME 39 to war end in territorials at first, then ended up in the REME unit attached to the queens guards.

[@sharonmaclennan890]

Talent is often right where you are.

[@randomhuman8928]

@@sharonmaclennan890 cool dad

[@maevawong6711]

if he lived in Los Angeles I could have sold him the tubes. The store I worked for had a TV tube test machine. boy was that a racket. Must have been fun to have a dad so clever and interesting, Mine just read big fat books at worp speed, good memories.

[@evanstj5]

Did you watch the coronation ?

[@johnkean6852]

Really your father was an extremely talented unsung hero. It's the equivalent today of work that Elon Musk is revered for although he never invented anything (electric cars are sooo 19th Century.) Even for your father simply to assemble a working television that long ago is equivalent to someone building a time machine today. You should feel so proud of him: what a clever man. I wish l was half as much. _You really were seeing into the future._ 👍🔆⭐

[@MrTwenty20video]

I would pay $40.00 to watch it on the big screen. Thank you. Liked everything about it.

[@yodservant]

Very entertaining flick... fun to watch thank you for uploading 👍🎉

[@rax816]

Pretty good film - some top actors, witty script,a bit of technological history and a clever denouement- recommended!

[@bobelschlager6906]

If u have the right kind of view of the world, this film is good! Some of these old films capture things in a way modern films don't. Some of the lines are pretty good too. Like the title on bill collector's office, toward the beginning of the movie: "if you got it, we'll get it."

[@rogerscottcathey]

That was great! What a gem!

[@shirleyfunte3063]

What great talent we have in the midwest for the arts and sports! Hooray to the class of 1965!

[@mscocotouche992]

A delightful movie truly enjoy it 🤗

[@williamsteriti454]

Thanks for the movie I grew up in these blk and wht movies love them

[@shirleyfunte3063]

Brian Douglas Smith my son your client really liked seeing these inventions that the movie industry had.

[@teepeewabbit]

Those fist fights were amazing !,,

[@JH-ug8jp]

I wonder what kind of world we would live in if tv had never gone mainstream.

[@armandoruiz4385]

Very nice movie. Television transmissions have been taking place by different broadcasting companies since 1931 in the US, England, Germany, France and Russia, there was some regular non-commercial programming available during the 30’s but television debuted when NBC sent its first experimental television signal from its first television tower on the top of the Empire State building on December 22, 1931 and in 1939, they introduced the first regular television broadcasts with the opening day ceremonies at the New York World's Fair. By the 1940's, Howdy Doody was broadcast, as well as other popular programs. By 1936 television technology had advanced quite a bit and although it was presented to the public in the N.Y. world's fair in 1939, a lot of people were aware of it and thousands of sets had already been sold in the U.S. 1939 was the year commercial TV was to kick off but due to WWII it could not happen until 1946. In N.Y. City there were already about 5,000 sets in 1945 and there was a special transmission that year to celebrate the end of the war.

[@jennagle5554]

Wow!

[@esmeephillips5888]

The British inventor John Baird, who had given the first demo of mechanical scanning in 1926, joined forces with Philo Farnsworth in the Thirties, buying rights to his image dissector which greatly improved the performance of CRTs. By 1941 Baird was displaying 1,000 line pictures in color or 3D. This specification was not achieved commercially until 50 years or more afterwards. Like Baird, Farnsworth began as a lone experimenter and was self-taught. His patents were so vital that David Sarnoff's RCA broke its golden rule and paid for them instead of plagiarizing them. Farnsworth became rich at age 34, but was never happy about the uses to which show business put his system.

[@crinolynneendymion8755]

Typically Ameri-centric masquerading as historical fact.

[@swmovan]

@@esmeephillips5888 I remember either reading, or watching, a video about Farnsworth's ordeal.

[@esmeephillips5888]

@@swmovan He is said to have watched commercial television in later years and exclaimed 'What have you done to my child?'

[@c.calliecoleman1531]

What a lovely movie. ❤

[@chapender6476]

Most enjoyable, thumbs up, thanks

[@billshute61]

Nat Pendleton always steals the show....

[@bostonblackie9503]

If television hadn't been closed down due to WWII there would not have been the golden age of radio.

[@lindarocco9974]

Thank you Pizza Flix for another fun movie liberating good technical people with some strong fists. We are standing on the threshold of a revolution in new technologies being released (that were deliberately withheld from mankind) within the next two years that will create a world for us, just like we saw on Star Trek. Thank you to the thousands of unsung military heroes who are taking back our planet after a 250 million year siege. Bravo! Hopefully, some of you know what I'm talking about. If not, turn off your TV's and take the deep dive into alternative news. Good Luck to us all. Yippie!

[@ritabradleynewportdogcare8148]

the new technology will make life VERY difficult for millions of people.

[@evanstj5]

Now we're trapped by social media!

[@lisastallingskeelor3328]

For real 😟

[@makjac46]

1936? Amazing. Good acting. thanks for the posting.

[@PizzaFLIX]

Production Date: April 4~21, 1936

[@sheristewart3940]

@@PizzaFLIX Thanks for that information ~ I love learning interesting facts surrounding the production of these movies.

[@martentrudeau6948]

Pure entertainment, thanks.

[@jamiconroy7841]

Loved it !! Thanks !!

[@wuggawuggaspritzelbo]

They had more than a clue; science magazines were full of it and regular tv broadcasting had already been introduced in France, Germany and England. The general public here had their first look at the 1932 Chicago World's Fair and by 1939 a new version using the modern CRT was displayed at the NY World's Fair.

[@enriquesanchez2001]

Loved it, thank you!

[@binyon7]

Really cool.

[@rayslavetochrist7311]

Loved it!!!

[@lanacampbell-moore6686]

Thank You😊

[@nickweech3487]

Hints of humour here and there. Sort of catches one by surprise...

[@shirleyfunte3063]

We are all good actors on stage. We did it all!

[@swmovan]

I don't understand all the low ratings/reviews at IMDB. This is a pretty decent movie. Maybe it didn't have enough sex, violence, or explosions, to score a better rating. This movie also makes you wonder how much of this kind of stuff actually happens in the business world.

[@JH-ug8jp]

A lot of films, new & old, have made me wonder.

[@laurakibben4147]

@swmovan Answer to how much of that stuff ... ALL OF IT. Look at how they now control us thru our phones that we thought were private 😏😉 My son took a picture of some solar flowers at my place week before last and was getting ads for said flowers for sale three days ago.

[@johnkean6852]

Great movie clumsy ending though but priceless TV thanx.

[@bobelschlager6906]

Ya, I thought the ending - well - i guess the word you used is one way to get at it.

[@dr.elizabethmartin7118]

Oh, if people only knew HOW they are trapped by television..............and all of our new gadgets........................it's life and death, you know - not just stupidity. cheers! .

[@alysononoahu8702]

We're not all sheep ya know!!!

[@sheristewart3940]

@@alysononoahu8702 Amen! I don't watch television because writers in their pursuit of authenticity take the Lord's name in vain too much! The LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain, the third commandment, Exodus 20:7, KJV, Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.

[@evanstj5]

@@sheristewart3940 Ay - men to that sister.

[@sheristewart3940]

@@evanstj5 BTW, ALL 10 commandments stand, even number four, Exodus 20:8-11. It's confirmed in Hebrews 4:8, "For if Jesus had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief [the Jews back in the Old Testament had hard hearts, rebelled, and profaned the Sabbath]."

[@SueEmmDee]

I love Nat Pendleton and the ending was great.

[@tomr3722]

my parents had the first tv on the block, the year i was born, 1947 the war stopped television development. things like radar and sonar were MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than tv.

[@esmeephillips5888]

The British were vulnerable to air raids from Europe. The government encouraged the BBC to launch a public service so that manufacturers of receivers could switch to producing radar sets if war broke out- as it did, three years after the BBC got going with electronic TV.

[@louisliu5638]

@@esmeephillips5888 There was an elite Radio College in Ontario that my uncle went to as a Canadian Navy officer, and then ran fuel to Britain even before the war started. He survived the war, and went on to repair radios and tv's as a career, and made huge coin leasing TV's in the fifties and sixties, which included repair!!! (He actually didn't think he'd survive the war, as running fuel was pretty sketchy to Norway, Italy, and Europe. Aviation gas was one run!!!

[@esmeephillips5888]

The debt chaser works for the 'Acme Collection Agency'. Hollywood often used Acme as a generic fictitious name for businesses, to prevent real ones whose names might inadvertently be used suing. For the same reason, to avoid copyright breaches, the name on the marquee for the film showing at a picture house was often 'Another Dawn'. Then Warners was stuck for a title and called its latest Errol Flynn vehicle 'Another Dawn', ruining the convention.

[@laurakibben4147]

Thats funny, have seen it twice...two women friends sharing a room and bed was okay but they kept even married couples in separate beds😂😂

[@heru-deshet359]

Hugo Gernsback would have been proud!

[@leelarson107]

The opening theme music is the same as was used in 'The 9th Guest' in 1934.

[@nedludd7622]

OK light entertainment, which begs the question of what heavy entertainment would be.

[@cynk956]

Nat Pendleton steals the scenes!

[@keithharvey7230]

He was the circus strong man The Marx brothers at the circus.

[@buzzbang7930]

Great movie.

[@shirleyfunte3063]

I did a stage skit with Mike Campbellof Marengo,Iowa and a fellow member of The Cedar Rapids Community Theatre group and alsoGreg Britcher of Cedar Rapid,Iowa. We all gave ouraxring talents from Prairie Highschool and Iowa Valley schools of Cedar Rapids,Iowa as we were all raised together we were on plays together from Kindergarten on up to our Senior High schools. We kept track of eachother all that time to even go rollerskating at Cemar Acres ln Marion,Iowa to Skate Country in Cefar Rapids. We were all great roller skaters and played "

[@roberta8918]

That was a good movie!

[@rubberdc]

I'm sure that's Joyce Compton , Miss Astor's colleague.

[@sheristewart3940]

I know she and Nat Pendleton made quite a comic pair of sweet nitwits. ;)

[@bigred997]

because of WWII, 10 years too soon. but so accurate for the future.

[@waderaney7]

Excellent ☺

[@buzzbang7930]

Wow Over 80years old this film. $200 in 1936 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $3,613.05 in 2018, a difference of $3,413.05 over 82 years. Now she's asking him for $2,000 in 1936 which is equivalent in purchasing power to about $36,130.48 in 2018, a difference of $34,130.48 over 82 years. Daaaammmnnn! that's a lot of $$$$. Would you invest say $35,000 into something today that you were not really sure of? Keep in mind the girl here dosen't care if it works or not, she's in it for some quick $$$$. Well, $200 is better than $0.0.

[@stephenwilliams944]

It will never catch on...…………..stick to the wireless

[@stache1954]

AMAZING.

[@gallagherrutledge8063]

What is this "television" of which they speak?

[@monjiaitaly]

I didn't even know they knew what a television was back then.

[@rax816]

Just think of it as an early version of KZbin...

[@mrdanforth3744]

It will revolutionize radio if they get it perfected.

[@mrdanforth3744]

When this picture was made they were 15 years from Milton Berle and Howdy Doody. They didn't know how lucky they were.

[@dr.elizabethmartin7118]

Yeah, Gallagher - I gave mine away to a sick-people's home in 2010. cheers

[@jonericus]

Cathode Ray Tube with a cork in it no less! Love it! The days when CRT was a good thing!!!

[@howlinhonky]

Physics class test 1972 or so - one of the items we had to define was "cathode ray" - I answered "comes from a cathode" - didn't get credit for the answer 😁😁😁

[@michaelwilliams1747]

Early T. V. !!. WHAT A Kick! How far back does T.V go?? Wonderful cast. And just this side of hockey science Fiction!!.

[@esmeephillips5888]

The first public showing was by JL Baird in 1926, but historians believe he had his system up and running some time earlier. He was involved in secret work for the UK government and was cagey about his inventions. TV developed almost in parallel with radio.

[@dabedwards]

What a delightful piece of nonsense! Mary Astor is always charming and elegant, and the script has many excellent gags, as well as implausibilities. Clearly few people had any idea of what TV really was or how it worked in 1936! Just some kind of magic seeing-machine....but as so often with new technology (e.g. mobile phones), dramatists were already working out how it could generate plot devices.

[@mmthomas3729]

Nope. That's exactly how television worked back then. They got the technology right. It was the way tv was broadcast in the 1940s.

[@sheristewart3940]

@@mmthomas3729 Yes, you are right. They didn't tape shows they were all live. I remember learning that the Honeymooners show starring Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Jayne Meadows was broadcast live during an interview Art Carney gave. A lot of improvisation occurred during these broadcasts when someone fluffed a line, etc.

[@esmeephillips5888]

When public television began in England, the BBC had to promise officially that it was one-way and they could not see into subscribers' homes. The Thirties were full of science paranoia.

[@sheristewart3940]

@@esmeephillips5888 that's hilarious!

[@alvarbilly]

@@esmeephillips5888 How ironic, they're not denying it today, they see and hear everything wherever there's a camera or mic and an internet connection. Only way to stop it is disconnect all power. What 84 years can do.

[@shirleyfunte3063]

I think these noir film makers were better than today s films. My son ho died on December 9,2021 actually finally viewd one with me and admitted those directors and writers made better scripts that made history more exxiting and really authentic sense. Or today s writers have little imagination.We need to het these fils into the Nrw World writers to see whete they went wrong Do you at Metro agree?

[@santinowilliams693]

I Came for Mary Astor the jury is still out on the rest👍

[@389383]

3 years later, has the jury returned a verdict?

[@ziblot1235]

Hitlers Germany already had TV.The 36 Olympics was televised to viewing parlors in Berlin. Nobody owned any receivers..

[@SonofCastille]

Saronov stole Farnsworths' invention!

[@esmeephillips5888]

Sarnoff.

[@evanstj5]

in 1936, the year the film was made, the BBC began regular high definition television broadcasts from studios in Alexandra Palace in north London. The first in the world, the system was of course black and white. It was analogue, VHF and the picture 405 lines, hardly high def by today's standards. But it was a technically robust system and lasted until 1985, when it was turned off. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXiYY3uZnLCUepY

[@sheristewart3940]

Thanks for the fascinating information to wit I'm always eager to learn.

[@evanstj5]

@cindykrista Thanque you my good man.

[@esmeephillips5888]

The first sets on sale in England cost as much as a small car. One old farmworker spent his life savings on a receiver, saying he had never been to London and would never have to, since now he could watch everything that went on there. Shortly afterwards the service closed down when the war broke out, and he died before it resumed.

[@sheristewart3940]

@@esmeephillips5888 oh, how terribly sad!

[@jamiconroy7841]

....best line.... "Sit down and decompose yourself"

[@bill-2018]

How uncouth! Striking a match on somebody's door.

[@jguerrero447]

Ugh! Television. It will be the end of us.

[@marybranicki2859]

bru beck ............ Not if you only watch GOOD OLD MOVIES .......like this......!!!

[@barbaracrickley6191]

Television, it will never catch on.

[@ginnylorenz5265]

@@marybranicki2859 Very true!!!!!

[@esmeephillips5888]

A British newspaper editor said 'Television? No good will come of it. The word is half Latin and half Greek.' A radio trade paper in the late 1920s wrote: 'Television in fact is merely a temporary fad; like the talkies and greyhound racing.' Three wrong prophecies in one sentence... good going.

[@Jhangchangbong]

고전찬미 감사합니다

[@LendallPitts]

The title describes a very large percentage of the world's population in 2019. (Personally I do not own one. Never have.)

[@JH-ug8jp]

You have my respect

[@MegaAugieDoggie]

They would need an atennaa and transmitter to do that

[@bubbajones5905]

Just a passing gimmick, It'll never compete with radio.

[@esmeephillips5888]

Magic lanterns and flick books are due a comeback.

[@goodmaro]

Cute, clichéed 2nd feature typical of its time, with typical plotting, production, and journeyman casting, type-cast. The sort of thing to keep the adults laughing and the kids excited so they'll be asleep during the main feature. Not long enough to cut up into a serial, but you can see ways they could've padded it out with more action scenes to make a serial of it. For instance, it could've been a little more centered on the Lyle Talbot character and started with the kidnapping of the engineers -- of which we were shown only one, like they brought us in on the middle of the story. If you want to a similar formula film that *was* serialized, see the 1932 Universal serial _The Lost Special_ : business in trouble due to gangster-style corruption inside, development that can save it, future lovers brought together by their business helping, fight scenes with ex-athletes, a pair of women working together "out of their place". But what the present movie had that that serial didn't was a buffo wrestling character who could bring laughs at any point; that sort of character was, however, a feature of many other films of that time. Best line: "Blood is thicker than water, so I knocked out my father."

[@MrMkayultra]

Wow

[@evanstj5]

It's hokum but actually quite a good script.

[@540Baseball]

Trapped by KZbin…

[@allenschmitz9644]

our first one was 1955, oh boy that was the only one we had up till 1968...RCA, yep 1936 it was still a dick tracy comic sci-fi 2 way wrist watch t.v.

[@rossmartenak5517]

So-called "Mary Astor" wasn't even her real name. Her birth name was Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke. So called "Lyle Florenz Talbot wasn't even his real name. His birth name was Lisle Henderson. So-called "Marc Lawrence" wasn't even his real name. His birth name was Max Goldsmith. So called "Henry Tenbrook" wasn't even his real name. His birth name was Henry Olaf Hansen. So called "Lillian Leighton" dropped her birth last name of Brown. Examples of Hollywood deceit & greed. Also examples of blatant disrespect for family heritage.

[@ritabradleynewportdogcare8148]

Why don't they tell the story of Farnsworth?

[@esmeephillips5888]

Good subject for a 'lone genius against big business' biopic, like 'Tucker' with Jeff Bridges.

[@esmeephillips5888]

Nat Pendleton at the beginning looks rather like Chico Marx, though slower-witted, and in fact he was in 'At the Circus' with the Brothers.

[@hankrogers8431]

Mary was not all that. Good movie, though.