TCM TiVo ALERT
For
November 23 – November
30
DAVID’S BEST BETS:
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (November 23, 10:00 am): Honestly, you
can't go wrong with any of the Alfred Hitchcock-directed films being shown on
November 23, but this is among my favorites. The premise is simple, but the
plot, acting and directing of the movie makes it a classic. Bruno Anthony
(Robert Walker) wants his father dead. While on a train, he meets a stranger -
tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) with a similar dilemma. Haines wants
to get rid of his wife so he can marry another woman. Anthony comes up with the
idea that these two "strangers on a train" will do each other's dirty
work and no one will suspect them. Haines brushes it aside, but when the
psychotic Anthony kills Haines' wife, he expects his "co-conspirator"
to respond in (not so) kind. The interaction between Walker and Granger, two
highly underrated actors, in this film is outstanding. Hitch did a fantastic
job - which he so often did - building tension and drama, and making a hell of
a good movie.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS (November 26, 12:00 am): How do you take a
400-page classic book and turn it into a great film? I don't know, but I
imagine those working on the 1946 film adaption of Great Expectations,
led by the skilled direction of David Lean, who co-wrote the screenplay, worked
very hard to accomplish that goal. And what's more incredible is Lean - known
for lengthy but excellent movies like Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor
Zhivago and The Bridge on the River Kwai - did it in
under two hours. The film is blessed with an outstanding cast, including John
Mills, Alec Guinness, Martita Hunt, Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson, and the
screenplay is an excellent adaption of Charles Dickens' wonderful book. It's a
delightful, entertaining film about a young orphan, Pip, who is taken to London
at the expense of a mysterious benefactor who believes him to be a man with
"great expectations." It's one of those movies that you enjoy
watching from the beginning and leaves you with a smile of enjoyment and
satisfaction when it's over.
ED’S BEST BETS:
BRIGHTON ROCK (November 27, 6:00 pm): From the Boulting
Brothers comes this excellent adaptation (by Terence Rattigan) of Graham
Greene’s novel about a gang of lowlife hoods in Brighton, England and their
teenaged leader, Pinkie Brown. It’s a sequel of sorts to Greene’s novel, This
Gun for Sale (published in the U.S as This Gun for Hire and
made into a film in 1941 starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake). It’s also the
breakthrough role for young Richard Attenborough as Pinkie. It was the most
popular film in England when released in 1947, but didn’t do that much business
here under the title Young Scarface. It also scored an incredible
100% on the Rotten Tomatoes website, if you’re looking for any further reason
to watch. Oh, by the way, it has one of the best – and most cynical – endings
of any film.
TOUCHEZ
PAS AU GRISBI (November 30,
11:15 pm): Translated
as Do Not Touch the Loot, this is a wonderful film by Jacques
Becker starring the great Jean Gabin (Max) and Rene Dary (Riton) as two old
gangsters that have squirreled away 50-million francs in gold bars, enough to
support them in retirement. Unfortunately, Riton’s girl friend has not only
grown tired of him, she now has a new squeeze, the boss of a rival gang, to
whom she spills the beans. The gang kidnaps Riton and Max learns that in order
to get him back, he’s going to have to part with the gold bars. It’s a film
that never lets up once it gets going, and takes the audience along for a
wonderful ride through the prism of Max’s point of view, as he is bound by loyalty
to save his partner. Worth seeing again and again.
WE DISAGREE ON . . .
LORD OF THE FLIES (November 27, 8:00
am):
ED: A+. One of the hardest things for a filmmaker
is to translate a classic novel to the screen. There are those who say it can’t
be done, and perhaps in a sense they are right, for the imagination of the
reader has already run the film, assembled the cast and designed themise en
scene. Then there is the problem of the author. With some it’s difficult
enough, but others, such as Henry James, concentrate so much on the inner life
of their characters that a filmic representation is all but impossible. The
only things that can be given are the bare bones of the story with the rest to
be hopefully filled in by a screenwriter. Sometimes, as with The
Heiress, it gets by. But with The Bostonians, it becomes a
borefest. William Golding is also another tough nut to crack because his
narrative is too well woven and laid out for a director to attempt an
interpretation. But Peter Brooks does a nice job of capturing the essence of
Golding’s novel by casting non-professional actors as the children marooned on
the island. This, plus the use of grainy, black and white film, gives the film
a Godard-like type of feeling, for instead of attempting an interpretation of
the material, Brooks let’s the children themselves interpret the material
simply by acting out their dilemma on the island. Reading the novel, it’s
almost as if Golding had a movie version in mind while writing. Brooks is
astute enough to realize that and let the children interpret it themselves,
giving it both a sense of reality and surrealism, especially during the scenes
where the two factions meet. Could he have done better with a solid script and
professional actors? Watch the 1990 color version and you’ll get the answer: He
couldn’t.
DAVID: C+. As I mentioned with Great Expectations,
adapting a classic book to the silver screen isn’t easy. How many times have
you read a book, loved it and then gone to see how it was mangled as a film?
This 1963 film of William Golding's book about English school kids on a
deserted island and its reflection on the dark side of humanity is fine, but
certainly not outstanding. There are many scenes that just end as if someone
editing the film decided to take scissors to the film. There's a risk in using
amateur actors, particularly children, in movies. The leads are pretty good,
but the supporting cast is terrible. They don't seem to know the few lines they
have, and their delivery is awful. Also, problems with the sound on the movie
locations forced the voices to be dubbed thus making portions of the film's
audio out of sync with the video. The film is only 92 minutes long yet there
are some scenes that come across as simply wasting time. While it's too late to
change it, this is a movie that really should have been in color and not
black-and-white.
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