TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
June
8–June 14
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
OUT
OF THE FOG (June 12, 10:45 am): This 1941 movie shows
how great John Garfield was as an actor. He plays Harold Goff, a
sadistic low-level mobster/thug, with such conviction. There is zero
to like about the character. He's ruthless, incredibly cruel and
preys on old fisherman for protection money when the only thing from
which they need protection is Goff. To top it off, he falls for the
daughter (Ida Lupino) of one of the fishermen he is terrorizing, and uses information he learns from her to do more evil.
Despite all that, you can't stop watching Garfield play this
character. It's not only one of his finest performances, but it's one
of film's best. Warner Brothers made their money on gritty film
noirs. This is among the best with a great ending.
THIRTEEN
WOMEN (June 13, 11:15 am): On loan to RKO from MGM,
Myrna Loy shines as a spiteful Eurasian who exacts revenge on her
former schoolmates, who ignored her in college because of her mixed
race. For being snubbed, she has the women kill themselves or each
other. Imagine if they did worse things. It's poorly edited with some
characters cut so Myrna only seeks revenge on 11 women, but she is so
hot on the screen, they could have called it 113 Women and
few would have counted. Despite some flaws, it's an entertaining and
quality picture, produced by David O. Selznick, and Myrna shows a lot
of promise as an actress. It's a sign of things to come in future
movies with better scripts and bigger budgets for this incredibly
talented and beautiful actress. In 1933, only a year after Thirteen
Women, she would shine in The Prize Fighter and the Lady,
and never look back. One note about Thirteen Women, one
of them was played by Peg Entwistle, who jumped to her death,
shortly before this film's release, from the H on the iconic
Hollywoodland sign (it's since dropped the "land" part). It
was a huge tabloid story at the time, and this film is her only
credited role.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
BLACK
ORPHEUS (June 8, 2:00 am): a beautifully lyrical
updating of the Orpheus and Eurydice legend set during Brazil’s
carnival as streetcar conductor Orfeo (Bruno Mello) meets, loses,
finds, and finally loses his Eurydice, country girl Mira (Marpessa
Dawn). Wonderfully acted, directed and scored, this is the ultimate
eye candy, with vivid images of Carnival drawing us in to the
proceedings, a testament to the power of film to entrance and
entertain. The soundtrack, with is mixture of samba and bossa nova,
was a bestselling album and it’s easy to understand why. This is a
film that cries out to be seen. It’s one of my Essentials.
NIGHT
NURSE (June 11, 6:00 am): What is it about Barbara
Stanwyck Pre-Codies that so intrigues me? She’s great as a nurse
who discovers that an alcoholic mother and her chauffeur lover are
starving her two children to death by for the inheritance. This is a
sordid, well-paced story directed by studio regular William Wellman
full of double entendre remarks and plenty of shots of Stanwyck and
co-star Joan Blondell running around in their underwear. Clark Gable
makes an impression as the evil chauffeur and his scenes with
Stanwyck retain their ability to shock even today.
WE
DISAGREE ON ... PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID (June
11, 2:30 am)
ED:
B. Few directors
made better Westerns than Sam Peckinpah. And he deserved far better
than what MGM did to him by taking a pair of scissors to the film and
ruining it. Sam has since been vindicated with the release of the
director’s cut on video, but I don’t think TCM is running this
version. Nevertheless, we can still see the themes that Peckinpah was
emphasizing, such as the loss of innocence, the coming of corruption,
which seems to have caught everyone in its sticky fibers, and what
becomes of myth once the truth has set in. I’m not expecting the
director’s cut, but I do so hope this version has the magnificent
scene in which Slim Pickens, mortally wounded, stumbles to a
riverside so that he can die peacefully. This is not only one of the
most beautiful scenes in a Western, but in film, period. James Coburn
gives one of his best performances as Pat Garrett and Kris
Kristofferson is not bad as the Kid. Add a decent score by Bob Dylan,
and the film, while no masterpiece, is certainly worth an evening on
the couch.
DAVID:
D+. Based on Ed's
argument, we must have watched different films with the same title
and the same actors in the same roles. He sees deep thoughtful
themes, one of cinema's most beautiful scenes and James Coburn giving
one of his best performances. I see a dull, lifeless, predictable
film with poor acting (particularly from Kris Kristofferson and Bob
Dylan) and a mediocre performance from Coburn, of whom I'm a huge
fan. And besides "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," the
soundtrack is painfully bad, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a
bigger fan than me of Dylan's music. I'm at a loss as to how you can
take a Western directed by Sam Peckinpah, starring Coburn with a
storyline about Pat Garrett as a lawman out to kill his former
friend, Billy the Kid, and make such a lousy, boring film. You would
think it's impossible, but this 1973 movie is proof it can be done.
It's supposed to be tragic and nostalgic – there are
constant references to the main characters being outlaws and the last
of a dying breed. Instead, we get an annoying film that had me
talking to it urging Garrett to please kill Billy so it would finally
end. The version TCM shows
isn't the director's cut or the theatrical release; It is a
"special edition" of the film that is nine minutes longer
than the theatrical release and seven minutes shorter than
Peckinpah's cut. No matter how it's cut, it's an awful movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment