TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
August
15–August 22
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
THREE
DAYS OF THE CONDOR (August 15, 10:00 pm): One of the
better government conspiracy/cover-up films that were extremely
popular and usually quite good during the mid-1970s. This 1975 movie
is about a CIA researcher (Robert Redford) who reads books,
newspapers and magazines looking for anything out of the ordinary
that could be a coded plot against the government. He works in what
appears to be a small office in New York City, but it is actually a
CIA operation. Redford's character, whose code name is Condor,
returns from lunch one day to find all of his co-workers
assassinated. The suspense picks up quickly as Condor learns to elude
those trying to kill him and that he can't trust anyone, including
fellow CIA agents. Condor abducts Faye Dunaway (he could have done a
hell of lot worse), uses her apartment as a hideout, and of course,
she comes around to believing his story. The acting is strong, the
storyline is intriguing and the ending is outstanding. These films
typically leave viewers skeptical, wondering if something like this
could happen. I'm up in the air about it myself, but it doesn't
detract from this very interesting and compelling movie.
PICKUP
ON SOUTH STREET (August 20, 10:00 pm): An excellent
spy film noir, this 1953 movie stars Richard Widmark as Skip McCoy, a
New York City pickpocket, who lifts a wallet from Candy (Jean Peters)
on the subway. It turns out the wallet, which belongs to her
ex-boyfriend - and unbeknownst to McCoy and Candy contains stolen
top-secret government information. Candy's ex turns out to be a
Communist spy. McCoy is more interested in making a big score than
turning the top-secret information over to the government. Widmark is
great as a pickpocket who always seems to be at least one step ahead
of those who will kill for the information he has hidden. It's a
solid Cold War noir with lots of suspense, action and excellent
dialogue.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
TROUBLE
IN PARADISE (August 16, 11:30 am): Ernst Lubitsch was
best known for what was called “the Lubitsch touch,” a style of
sophisticated comedy unmatched by anyone else. And this film
represents Lubitsch at his best. Jewel thieves Herbert Marshall and
Miriam Hopkins fall in love in one of the most riotous scenes of
one-upmanship in the movies, but now find their newly minted
relationship threatened when Herbert turns on the charm to their
newest victim, rich Paris widow Kay Francis. Their mastery of their
characters is helped along with a witty script full of sparkling
dialogue, clever plotting, great sexual gamesmanship, and brilliant
visuals. Critic Dwight MacDonald described the film “as close to
perfection as anything I have ever seen in the movies.” All I can
say is to watch for yourselves.
DOCTOR
X (August 21, 1:30 am): This early exercise in horror
from Warner Brothers and director Michael Curtiz is worth watching
for more than its curiosity value as a film made in the early
two-strip Technicolor process. It’s an interesting exercise in
Grand Guginol - and where else would Warner Brothers stage a horror
film but right in the city. Lee Tracy is a wise-cracking reporter hot
on the trail of the “half-moon murders.” The trail leads him to
the mysterious Doctor Xavier (Lionel Atwill), the head of a medical
academy located on Manhattan’s lower East Side. When Atwill moves
his staff to his Long Island country estate for an elaborate
reenactment of the murder, Tracy suddenly shifts from mere observer
to actor when the killer threatens Atwill’s lovely daughter, Joanne
(Fay Wray), with whom Tracy has fallen in love. I have often thought
the comic element was introduced to keep the critics at bay, for this
film has something for everyone: cannibalism, rape, dismemberment,
and even necrophilia. The two-strip Technicolor process, added to the
sets by Anton Groh and the makeup from Max Factor, heightens the
eeriness already present, and once we hear the words “synthetic
flesh,” they’ll remain with us always.
WE
DISAGREE ON ... BONNIE AND CLYDE (August 15, 3:30 pm)
ED:
B-..When I first saw
this film back when it was released in 1967 (truth be told, we snuck
into the theater to see it), I was astounded. But over the years as I
became steeped in both film history and theory and also history in
general, my esteem for this film has diminished. The only connection
this film has to real events was that - yes, there were two people
named Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, and they were outlaws. However,
they looked nothing like Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. To describe
them as homely is generous. The real Bonnie and Clyde were also far
more interesting than the duo portraying them on the screen. Let’s
fact it, the film was heavily influenced by both the French New Wave
and Madison Avenue and remains today as a triumph of style over
substance.
DAVID: A+. 1967 was a landmark year in entertainment.
Music dramatically changed with the rise of psychedelic rock albums
such as The Beatles' landmark record Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band as well as the Jimi Hendrix
Experience's Are You Experienced and Axis:
Bold as Love; The Doors' self-titled debut album and Strange
Days; Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow;
Love's Forever Changes; Cream's Disraeli Gears,
to name a few. The experimentation and groundbreaking work that came
out that year was certainly not limited to music. Movie-goers noticed
changes in cinema with bolder, more daring films released that year
including The Graduate, In the Heat of the
Night, The Born Losers, In Cold Blood, Belle
de Jour, Blowup, Closely Watched Trains (the
last two came out in very late 1966), and Bonnie and Clyde.
Is Bonnie and Clyde heavily stylized, influenced by
the French New Wave and guilty of showing a story that is lacking in
facts? Definitely. But that does nothing to diminish its importance
in cinema or not make it among the two or three most important films
to emerge from that magical year. Warren Beatty (Clyde) and Faye
Dunaway (Bonnie) anchor a very strong cast. Along with director
Arthur Penn (who finally agreed to do the film after turning it down
a number of times), the actors push the envelope when it comes to
blending sex and violence into the storyline with incredible
cinematography from Burnett Guffey (who won an Oscar for his work on
the movie). The ability of all involved to move from comedy to
violence with what looks like great ease is something rarely seen in
film. The final iconic scene when Bonnie and Clyde know they've been
ambushed and are doomed with Beatty and Dunaway staring at each other
just before they are shot hundreds of times stays with the viewer
long after the movie ends.
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