TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
October
8–October 14
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
JULIET
OF THE SPIRITS (October 12, 3:30 a.m.): I'm
recommending a double shot of legendary Italian director Federico
Fellini as my Best Bets for the week. Fellini was blessed to have the
incredibly talented Giulietta Masina as his leading lady in several
of his films, including this 1965 gem. It was easy for Fellini to
cast her as she was his wife. In this film, Masina plays Juliet, a
housewife who spends her time daydreaming while her husband cheats on
her. It just so happens that her neighbor, Suzy (Sandra Milo) is so
sexually liberated that she has male sex partners roaming her home.
The transformation of Juliet as she becomes more self-aware and
leaves her husband along with Masina's convincing performance takes a
film that could fall flat on its face and make it a classic.
LA
STRADA (October
13, 4:15 a.m.): This is one of Fellini's best, and along
with 8 1/2, probably
his best known film. La
Strada is about a
strongman (Anthony Quinn) who purchases a young woman (Giulietta
Masina) from her mother after the the woman's sister, who was the
strongman's assistant, dies. The movie tells of their life together
with Quinn's character, Zampano, prone to anger and Masin's
character, Gelsomina, naive but plucky and hopeful (similar
to the role she played in Nights
of Cabiria three
years later). During their journey, they meet Il Matto (a
wonderful performance by Richard Basehart), a clown. The three join a
traveling circus, and things take a turn for the worse. While the
story is compelling, it's secondary to the performances and the
film's underlying theme of the fragile human psyche and ego of
simple people who on the surface seem to live simple lives. As with
many Fellini films, much is open to interpretation as he wants
moviegoers to think about what they see and experience, and perhaps
help them understand their own lives a bit better.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
THE
GHOST OF YOTSUYA (October 9, 4:15 am): This is one of
the great ghost stories on film. In fact, the story goers back to a
kabuki play from 1825. Though it’s been filmed many times over the
years, this may be the best version. The reason I say “may” is
simply because I haven’t seen many of the other versions. But take
it from me when I say that this version is terrific. The film follows
the evil doings of a wandering samurai named Iemon. He schemes and
murders to marry his wife, and when he tires of her, he arranges for
a suitor to visit. Finding them together, he kills them both and is
free to remarry a wealthy heiress. Everything is fine until Iemon’s
wedding night, when the vengeful ghosts of the wife and suitor appear
and trick him into killing his new wife and her parents. And that’s
just the beginning in a film noted for its stylized use of violence
and color in emphasizing that violence. The film’s director, Nobuo
Nakagawa, was known for being a master of the supernatural, and those
who like this offering should look forward to his more
disturbing Jigoku (1960, aka The Sinners of
Hell), which has already been aired by TCM and should repeat in
the future.
SHADOW
OF A DOUBT (October 12, 8:00 pm): One of the things
that made Alfred Hitchcock the master of suspense was his attention
to the finer points of human nature. And this movie is an insightful
essay on what happens when evil comes to a place where no one would
expect it; when it is right there sitting next to you at the dinner
table. Teresa Wright is Charlie, an extremely happy young girl in the
happy and charming town of Santa Rosa, California, a picture-postcard
kind of place. She is elated when her Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten)
comes to pay a visit, for she is especially devoted to him, with the
two sharing almost a sort of telepathic relationship. But what she
doesn’t know is that her beloved Uncle Charlie is on the lam, being
suspected by the police as the “Merry Widow Murderer,”
responsible for bumping off a number of rich widows back east. The
fun in the film is her gradual realization that not all is well with
Uncle Charlie and her growing suspicion that he’s not what he
appears to be. Hitchcock is at his best in exploring their
relationship as it develops and starts to change. But what really
makes the film so effective is Hitchcock’s emphasis on what Hannah
Arendt called “the banality of evil.” To look at Uncle Charlie or
talk with him, one wouldn’t notice anything especially unusual. He
is nondescript in almost every way, his only talent being in his
ability to poison so many women. That a child completely undoes him
only adds another dimension of irony to the picture. It was one of
Hitchcock’s favorites and it is a film that I don’t believe gets
the credit it should when compared to his thrillers of the ‘50s and
‘60s.
WE
DISAGREE ON . . . BYE BYE BIRDIE (October 8, 10:00 pm)
ED:
B. Bye Bye Birdie is a strange movie for
me. It began as a Broadway musical satirizing the rock and roll
business, with the main character being based on Elvis Presley.
However, by the time it’s made into a movie, the satirical fangs
are removed in favor of a sitcom type of approach, which almost kills
the film. But the original writing is strong enough to survive the
redecoration, and the film retains many of its slings and arrows. Add
in the strong performances from the original Broadway cast and the
strength of newcomer Ann-Margret, and this turns into quite a
pleasant way to pass the time while indulging in a nostalgia for a
craze that, back then, I didn’t fully understand. It wasn’t until
a year later (and the Beatles) that I began to appreciate rock and
roll. Bye Bye Birdie was also treated cruelly by the
fates, as it was released four months before the Kennedy
assassination, which shifted the mood of the country from one of
hopeful optimism to a cynical pessimism that made films such as this
obsolete, and replaced years later by such false pieces of nostalgia
as Grease and its ilk.
DAVID:
C. This film isn't awful, but it's corny and silly. I
wasn't around but I'm fairly certain it was considered corny and
silly when it came out in 1963. Conrad Birdie, an obvious Elvis
knock-off, is drafted into the Army. As a gimmick, before reporting
for duty, Birdie is to kiss a female fan goodbye. We're suppose to
buy that a 22-year-old smoking-hot Ann-Margret is an innocent Midwest
16-year-old Birdie fan. At least she was old enough you don't feel
really creepy about enjoying the view. Paul Lynde as Ann-Margret's
father is a bright spot as the same over-the-top yet strangely
amusing character he played in numerous films from the era. Dick Van
Dyke as a research chemist/frustrated songwriter who tries to get
Birdie to sing his song on The Ed Sullivan Show is
awful. Even if he was great, the character is so one-dimensional that
it doesn't matter. I just put more effort into explaining the plot
than the movie's screenwriters put into developing the script. It's
like watching a very dated sitcom with a forgettable soundtrack.
Actually the most popular songs in a supposed rock-and-roll film are
the show-tune-y "Put on a Happy Face" and the
attempted-comedic "Kids." It's a harmless film, but not
really worth anyone's time to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment