By Ed Garea
STAR
OF THE MONTH
As
you know, there is no Star of the Month for August as TCM runs its
annual “Summer Under the Stars” program, with each day totally
devoted to the films of a different star. The problem is, except for
a few new entries, we get the same old actors in the same old films.
We will devote this month to a focus on actors and films we do not
ordinarily see.
STAR
OF THE FORTNIGHT
Our
featured star this issue is Jeanne Moreau, who makes her
debut with “Summer Under the Stars” with a day of her films
on August 8. Moreau is one of my favorite actors, and one
reason I love her is that she’s not conventionally good looking.
I’m not saying she’s ugly, far from it, but she doesn’t look as
if she were stamped out of the same Hollywood mold. Face it, given a
choice of Moreau, Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, and Maureen O’Hara,
the vast majority would choose one of the later three. Not me, I’d
take Moreau hands down, for she has more sex appeal than the others,
besides the beauty. Moreau is sensual, and this sensuality permeates
her performances down to her marrow. Her big, brown eyes headline a
voluptuous face, which can turn from pouty to sensuous to questioning
in a few seconds, and back again. I can’t see Loren, Bardot or
O’Hara enticing two men as Moreau did in Jules and Jim.
And in the wonderful, but rather conventional, film The
Train (which is not scheduled this day) she gives a
smoldering performance in a limited role opposite Burt Lancaster.
Louis
Malle, who cast her in his Hitchcock-esque Elevator
to the Gallows (10:15 pm), enlarged the minor
role of her character in the Noel Calef novel of the same name. He
cast her after seeing her on the Paris stage in a production of
Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” He would later
claim to have discovered her, but the fact of the matter was that
Moreau had about 20 films already to her credit, including a small
role in Jacques Becker’s 1954 classic Touchez Pas au
Grisbi (“Do Not Touch the Loot”). What Malle did
accomplish was to make Moreau an international star, a feat cemented
later that year with the release of Malle’s The
Lovers (2:00 am), another Moreau Must See.
The
day is a nice mixture of her well-known films along with those not
well known, or even screened, on television. TCM begins the day in a
disingenuous manner at 6:00 am by showing The
400 Blows. Moreau has only a cameo in the film as a
woman walking her dog.
Other
films to watch for include Malle’s brilliant, but never released in
the U.S., The Fire Within,
from 1963 (10:00 am), Jacques Demy’s film about compulsive
gamblers, Bay of the Angels,
also from 1963, at noon, and Orson Welles’ quirky adaptation of
Franz Kafka’s quirky novel, The
Trial (1963, a busy year for Moreau) at 8:00 pm.
There are also the TCM “standards”: The
Yellow Rolls Royce (2:00 pm), Jules
and Jim (midnight), and Diary
of a Chambermaid (3:45 am).
OUT
OF THE ORDINARY
August
1: The day is dedicated to Jane Fonda, and
airing at the wee hour of 4:15 am, is a dull piece of agitprop
from Jean-Luc Godard, Tout Va
Bien (All is Well) from 1972. Starring
Fonda and Yves Montand (another 24-carat phony activist), it’s
about an American radio correspondent and New Wave filmmaker who are
trapped in the offices of a sausage factory when the workers stage a
wildcat strike. And that’s as close to any action as this film
gets. The rest of the film is nothing more than talk, talk, and more
talk. Yak, yak, yak. All would be forgiven if there were at least one
compelling character in the damn thing, but compelling characters
disappeared from Godard’s films at roughly the same time as
then-wife Anna Karina left. All we have left is a bunch of rich
people spouting revolutionary diatribes. There is nothing more
ludicrous than watching rich people trying to sympathize with the
plight of the working-class, all to the merry jingle of the cash
register, as witness the opening scenes. Does Godard have tongue
firmly planted-in-cheek? Is he just putting us on? Who knows? At any
rate, a film such as this should not commit the crime of dullness and
this is just what it does. Watching (or trying to watch) it is a
great cure for insomnia.
August
9: It’s William Powell’s day, and the last film of the
marathon, again, at the ungodly hour of 4:45 am, is a nice little
Pre-Codie from Warner’s, High
Pressure (1932), with Powell as a promoter with a
golden touch. His cause in this movie is selling artificial rubber.
Evelyn Brent is along for the ride as Francine, without whom Powell’s
Gar Evans cannot function. It’s a nice little film, about 75
minutes, and, in the end, Powell’s character turns out to be
honest. Record it.
August
12: Alexis Smith takes the film rains, and there are two
seldom seen goodies she co-stars in this day. First up at 8:00 pm
is Gentleman Jim,
starring Errol Flynn as 19th century boxing champion
Jim Corbett. Directed by Raoul Walsh, it’s a lighthearted look at
the fight game in a bygone era with Flynn delivering one of his most
engaging performances. Of course, any similarities between Flynn’s
Corbett and the real-life Corbett are pure coincidence, but that
shouldn’t deter the fun. Smith has a supporting role as the woman
Corbett courts.
At
midnight, TCM is airing The
Constant Nymph (1943),
a romance about a young Belgian girl, Tessa Sanger (Joan Fontaine),
madly in love with self-absorbed composer Lewis Dodd (Charles Boyer).
He marries socialite Florence Creighton (Alexis Smith) without
realizing the depth of his feelings for Tessa. Directed by Edmund
Goudling, who had a good touch with this type of material, watch for
Peter Lorre in a rare, non-threatening part as Fritz Bercovy, a
friend of the Sanger family.
August
13: It’s Cary Grant Day, and at 8:00 pm, TCM is showing
his rarely screened Pre-Code drama from 1932, Hot
Saturday. Nancy Carroll is Ruth, a normal, fun-loving
girl in small town Maryland who works at the local bank. On weekends,
she likes to enjoy herself at the Willow Springs dance hall, and
that’s where she meets Romer (Grant), a wealthy city gentleman. He
invites Ruth and her friends to a late night summer party at his
lakeside home, and although he is a gentleman throughout, the
gossips’ tongues begin to wag when he is seen driving Ruth home the
next morning. Word travels fast and mean. Ruth is fired from her job
and becomes a pariah in her town. Even her mother (Jane Darwell) is
more concerned with the family’s reputation than her daughter’s
emotional health. Ruth is faced with a dilemma: should she marry
childhood friend Randolph Scott, or follow her heart to be with
Grant? Tune in and find out.
August
14: Charlie Chapin has the spotlight, and the day, with the
exception of three films and a couple of documentaries, is devoted to
his silent films. As there is always some Chaplin film one either
hasn’t seen before or doesn’t remember seeing, it’s always good
to check over the day’s lineup.
August
15: Faye
Dunaway, and the only reason I’m mentioning this at all is because
one of my favorite noirs, Chinatown,
is airing at midnight.
PSYCHOTRONICA
August
3: It’s
Walter Pidgeon in the sturdy 1956 sci-fi flick, Forbidden
Planet (12:30
am). Pidgeon is in fine form as the last survivor, along with
daughter Altaira (Anne Francis), of an expedition sent to the planet
Altira IV 20 years ago. Leslie Nielsen commands the relief crew sent
to find out what happened to the original group, and what they
discover is mind-boggling and a wonder of special effects. This is
clearly Pidgeon’s movie and he hams it up with verve, as his only
real competition is Robby the Robot and the animated Id Monster. For
those who have seen it, you know what I mean, and for those that
haven’t -- what are you waiting for?
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