By Ed Garea
STAR
OF THE MONTH
We
continue the month with Rock Hudson, but there’s not much meat left
on this bone, only a lot of fat and fluff.
June
19: Forget it. Beginning at 8:00 pm, it’s a mini-marathon
of his fluffiest ‘60s flicks: Pillow
Talk, Lover Come Back, Send Me No Flowers, Come September, and
Man’s Favorite Sport? If I had to choose one to
watch, I’d be stuck. The one that looks good from the outside
is Man’s Favorite Sport? It
has the distinction of being directed by Howard Hawks, who made some
of the best screwball comedies. But this one’s more leaden than a
boxful of sinkers, showing that Hawks had lost his comedic touch. It
begins with an annoying gag over a parking spot and never really
regains its balance. Oh well, at least Paula Prentiss is great to
look at; too bad her part is so lame. Watch all of the above and
you’ll realize why movies were practically dead during the early
‘60s.
June
26: Once Hudson shed his partnership-of-sorts with Doris
Day, the quality of his films appreciates as he branched out from
lame romantic comedies. Starting at 9:45 pm, there is a fine
triple-bill of Hudson, starting with 1968’s Ice
Station Zebra, a cold war thriller about a race to
recover information from a Russian spy satellite at the North Pole.
Though it opened to dreadful reviews and sparse box office, its
reputation has grown over the years. And it has a good supporting
cast in the persons of Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Patrick McGoohan,
and Tony Bill.
Following
at 12:30 am is the dark comedy, Pretty
Maids All in a Row from 1971. Rock plays a high
school football coach with an eye for the student body. When the
affair gets too hot and sticky, Rock dispatches the offender. Angie
Dickinson offers mature eye candy as a teacher, and Telly Savalas
(along with partner James Doohan) is the investigating detective.
Yes, Hudson in a psychotronic movie.
Finally,
at 2:15 am is Hudson’s underrated sci-fi feature, Seconds (1966).
Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) is a bored middle-aged banker from
Scarsdale who travels to Will Geer’s experimental corporate
plastic-surgery clinic and emerges as Tony Wilson, a painter who
lives in Malibu (now played by Hudson). What a makeover. But it’s
no good; he just as trapped in his new life as he was in his old
life. And then there’s the Faustian bargain to pay. It's directed
by John Frankenheimer, who gives us an intensely bleak mise-en-scene.
FRIDAY
NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: HERE BE PIRATES
June
20: It’s four in a row, beginning at 8:00 pm, by that
Pirate Master, Errol Flynn. Against
All Flags (1952), Captain
Blood (1935), The
Sea Hawk (1940), and The
Master of Ballantrae (1953). Finally, at 3:35 am,
it’s a tepid remake of Captain Blood from
Columbia, Fortunes of Captain
Blood (1950), with Louis Hayward as the
doctor-turned-pirate. Hayward deserved better.
June
27: We
begin at 8:00 with the finest, Treasure
Island (1934),
basting a wonderful performance by Wallace Beery as Long Jon Silver,
aided and abetted by actors such as Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone,
Otto Kruger, Nigel Bruce, and Jackie Cooper. It’s downhill from
here: The Boy and the
Pirates (1960,
from Bert I. Gordon; Captain
Kidd (1945)
with Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton, John
Carradine, Gilbert Roland, and John Qualen. With Laughton and that
fine cast around him, it should be better. Alas, it isn’t; in fact,
Laughton was better working with Abbott and Costello. Blackbeard
the Pirate (1952)
with Robert Newton and Linda Darnell also disappoints, as
does Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953)
with John Payne and Donna Reed. Last - and certainly least - is Paul
Henried’s flabby Last
of the Buccaneers,
from 1950.
A
NIGHT OF RENE CLAIR - June 18
Now
here’s a feast for the movie lover. TCM is running five films from
the master French director Rene Clair, beginning at 8:00 with Sous
les toits de Paris (Under the Roofs of Paris,
1930). Clair wrote and directed this romance of a street entertainer
(Albert Prejean) who falls head over heels for a gypsy beauty (Pola
Illry), only to later discover that she has other suitors, including
a criminal (Gaston Modot) and even his own best friend, Lewis (Edmond
T. Greville). As he was a little skittish about the coming of sound,
the film is told mainly in mime, using Victrola music and background
sounds to liven the noiseless world.
At
9:45, it’s Clair’s satirical masterpiece, A
nous la liberte (We at Liberty,
1931), the story of two ex-convicts, Louis (Raymond Cordy) who
escapes and found a successful manufacturing firm, and Emile (Henri
Marchand), who is left behind, and upon the completion of his
sentence, joins Louis at his business. The irony is that Louis, who
hated the regimentation of the prison, found a successful business
built upon regimentation. His workers toil at an assembly line, wear
numbers, and are watched by foremen. There’s no way the dreamy
Emile can fit in with this style of life, which causes Louis to
reassess his life. The result is both delightful and thought
provoking.
At
11:15, it’s Le million (1931),
the story of a lost lottery ticket and the mad race to recover it.
Following at 12:45 am is 1955’s The
Grand Maneuver, Clair’s first color film. Womanizing
Lt. Armand de la Verne (Gerard Philipe) is confident of his
woman-catching skills. So confident, in fact, that he wagers he can
win the heart of Marie-Louise Rivire (Michele Morgan). But what he
didn’t count on was the fact that he would fall in love with her.
The sub-plot contains an amusing love story between Armand’s friend
Felix (Yves Robert) and Lucie (Brigitte Bardot). The next year,
Bardot would star in Roger Vadim’s And God Created
Woman, which shot her to international superstardom.
Finally,
at 2:45 am, it’s a film from 1944, It
Happened Tomorrow,
starring Dick Powell as a reporter stuck in the obits department. He
complains to his co-workers and wishes he could see into the future,
so he could use this talent to become the paper’s top reporter. A
guardian angel grants him the wish, which, as usual, results in
unforeseen complications. This is material that, if handled well,
leads to wonderful twists and turns, and, if handled in a clumsy
manner, leads to 90 minutes or so of sheer boredom. Fortunately it’s
written by Clair and Dudley Nichols and deftly directed by Clair. The
ending has a great payoff, and if you haven’t yet seen this one, by
all means record it.
Krzysztof
Kieslowski’s Three Colors Trilogy - June 22
Beginning
at the ungodly hour of 2:00 am, TCM is running Kieslowski’s Three
Colors trilogy. Much as been written about the trilogy, not
the least of which was the titles of each film, based on the red,
white and blue of the French flag, representing the founding
principles of the French nation: liberty, equality, fraternity. But
each film is based, rather loosely, on one of the principles.
2:00
am -- Blue (1993): This
is the story of Julie (Juliette Binoche), a young woman who loses her
husband, an esteemed composer, and young daughter in a car accident.
The film’s theme is Liberte, which is shown in Julie’s
attempt to begin her life anew, free from commitment, belongings or
love. To accomplish this she intends to withdraw from the world and
live independently and anonymously in the Parisian metropolis. But
this attempt is constantly interrupted by intrusions from people in
her former and present life, each with his or her own needs. They
both heal Julie and bring her back in the land of everyday living.
3:45
am -- White (1994): Kieslowski
now shifts from tragedy to comedy in this tale of a hapless Polish
immigrant, Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski), whose wife, Dominique
(Julie Delpy), is divorcing him because he cannot perform sexually.
Reduced to playing a comb kazoo in the Paris Metro for coins, he
meets a fellow Pole who agrees to smuggle him back into Poland. Alas,
all does not go as planned and Karol winds up bloody and beaten in a
Polish field. But once in Poland, which is converting from communism
to capitalism, the formerly hapless Karol has transformed from sad
sack to rich and savvy businessman. But he still yearns for
Dominique, and now that he has achieved Egalite, he wants
to win her back, and more importantly, exact revenge.
5:30
am -- Red (1994): The
final film in the trilogy. Kieslowski retired after making this and
died two years later at the age of 56. And the theme of this film is
Fraternite. Valentine (Irene Jacob) is a young model living in
Geneva. One night she runs over a dog. She takes it to the vet who
treats it. She returns it to its owner, a retired judge (Jean-Louis
Trintignant), at his villa. But she is surprised when the judge is
ambivalent about the dog, telling her to keep it. She’s further
shocked when she discovers the judge’s hobby: electronically
eavesdropping on his neighbors, not for money or kicks, but to
satisfy his cynical view of humanity. Angered to the point of wanting
to turn him in, Valentine’s compassion comes to the fore, enabling
her to see the greater plight of the judge, a man leading a
fruitless, lovelorn life, and they form a touching friendship.
Gradually we learn the story of the judge and his lost love, which
strangely parallels that of Valentine, who communicates with her
absent lover, in England, by telephone. The distance places a strain
on their relationship. At the same time there is a young man about to
become a judge. He lives across the street from Valentine and also
has a strained relationship with his girlfriend, who sells weather
forecasts. Will they meet? Though they live near each other, they
manage to pass each other by almost every day.
Although
each story in the trilogy is different, the theme is that of people
and their choices - how they made them and the close connection each
choice engenders and how it was made or missed. Ideally, all three
films, given the late hour of their showing, should be recorded and
viewed at one’s pleasure, when the time and setting is just right.
PSYCHOTRONICA
AND THE B-HIVE
June
21: A double bill of Blaxploitation. First up at 2:00 am
is The Slams, a 1973
production from MGM starring Jim Brown as a convict who must escape
before the places where he hid his stolen loot are demolished. Of
course, he’s not the only one interested in his largesse. Following
at 3:45 am is Hell Up in Harlem,
Larry Cohen’s 1973 sequel to his Black Caesar.
Fred Williamson stars.
June
25: Three wild films to record, beginning at 9:45 am
with The Devil With Hitler,
a 1942 production from Hal Roach. It seems that the Devil (Alan
Mowbury) is in danger of losing his job, and the only way he can keep
it is to get Hitler to perform a good deed. Bobby Watson (who made a
short career for himself playing the dictator) is Hitler, while Joe
Devlin is Mussolini and George E. Stone is Suki Yaki. The humor is
broad and the film is only 44 minutes long. Most surprisingly, it
actually spawned a sequel: Nazty Nuisance.
Following
at 10:45 am is Val Lewton’s atmospheric chiller, The
Seventh Victim (1943),
a tale about a Satanic cult in Greenwich Village. And at 5:15 pm it’s
The Devil’s Bride (1968),
with Christopher Lee versus Satanic cult leader Charles Gray.
Starring
Lawrence Tierney - June 25
June
25 also gives us a night of psychotronic star Lawrence Tierney,
beginning at 8 pm with his breakout role in Dillinger (1945),
followed by Badman’s
Territory (1946) at 9:15; Born
to Kill (1947) at 11:00 pm, The
Hoodlum (1951) at 12:45 am, Step
By Step (1946) at 2:00 am, Back
To Bataan (1945) at 3:15 am, and San
Quentin (1946) at 5:00 am. Tierney was a favorite
actor of Quentin Tarantino, who featured him in Reservoir
Dogs. He even played the father of Elaine Benes on an episode
of Seinfeld.
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