By Ed Garea
WHAT’S
NEWS
As
many doubtless know by now, Dish Network and TCM have buried the
hatchet - at least for now.
STAR
OF THE MONTH
As
the clock winds down on TCM’s Star of the Month, Robert Redford, we
have one complaint. We would have liked to see some of his
directorial efforts, such as his debut, Ordinary
People (1980), and the superb Quiz
Show (1994). Redford was a multi-faceted talent and his
directorial efforts should have been featured as well. It’s
something TCM should consider in the future for stars that have made
the jump to the director’s chair.
January
20: A triple-header beginning at 8:00 pm with the lifeless Out
of Africa (1985). With two pros such as Redford
and Meryl Streep, and the works of Isak Dinesen as a canvas, this
should be a slam-dunk. Instead it’s a dreary, overlong picture
postcard that has about as much depth as a landscape from Sears and
Roebuck. Redford gives one of his patented smug, distant
performances, and try as she might, Streep cannot breathe life into
this stillborn loser.
At
11:00 is the Redford-Barbra Streisand glossy, but shallow, nostalgia
piece, The Way We Were (1973),
followed at 1:15 am by the 1974 misfire, The
Great Gatsby. For some reason, there has never been a
successful adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, but this is
probably the best of a bad bunch.
January
27: We close out the month for Redford with four movies.
Beginning at 8:00 pm, it’s the fatuous The
Candidate (1972), followed at 10:00 pm by the superb All
the President’s Men (1976). At 12:30 am, it’s
the interesting espionage thriller Three
Days of the Condor from 1975. Think about the
plot too long, and the movie falls apart. But for all the nonsense,
it’s quite entertaining.
Finally, at 2:45 am, it’s the unjustly
overlooked actioner, Downhill
Racer (1969), with Redford as a world-class
Olympic skier whose desire for fame and victory hurts everyone around
him. Director Michael Ritchie, here in his movie debut, does the
smart thing by avoiding any hint of sentimentality or romanticizing
its egotistical hero in his quest for everlasting Olympic fame. Even
those who don’t care for skiing will be captured by both the look
and the pace of this film.
FRIDAY
NIGHT SPOTLIGHT
TCM
continues with its tribute to films written by Neil Simon.
January
16: The only decent film airing tonight is at 8:00 pm -
1977’s The Goodbye Girl.
The usual warm and hilarious mix Simon gives us in films such as
these is bolstered by two strong performances from leads Marsha Mason
and Richard Dreyfuss. Chapter
Two (1977) at 10:00 pm, and Only
When I Laugh (1981) at 12:15 am are more maudlin than
funny. Joan Hackett is the best thing about the latter.
January
23: This night is marked with three good films. First up at
8:00 pm is Lost In Yonkers,
from 1993. It’s a decent adaptation of his 1993 Pulitzer
Prize-winning play, and the direction from Martha Coolidge almost
makes us forget we are watching a filmed play. Watch it, though, for
the great performances from Mercedes Ruehl and Irene Worth, who
reprise their Broadway roles.
At
10:00 pm, it’s Biloxi
Blues (1988), based on Simon’s wartime
experiences; during which he never left Mississippi before the war
ended. Matthew Broderick is solid as Simon’s alter ego, Eugene
Jerome, but it’s Christopher Walken, as Sergeant Toomey, and Corey
Parker, as Arnold B. Epstein, who walk away with film.
Seems
Like Old Times (1980) at midnight is better
suited as a made-for-television movie. Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn
try to recapture the chemistry of their 1978 film, Foul
Play, but they come up a cropper, as does the film. Ah, but
the night’s not done for yet. Following at 2:00 is a comedy
classic, The Sunshine Boys (1975).
Based on the real life vaudeville legends Smith and Dale, George
Burns and Walter Matthau are retired comics Al Lewis (Burns) and
Willy Clark (Matthau) who are reunited by Willy’s nephew Ben
(Richard Benjamin) for a TV special. The only glitch is that Al and
Willy can’t stand to be in the same room together. It makes for a
funny premise and an even funnier movie. Jack Benny was originally
cast as Lewis, but when he fell ill to the pancreatic cancer that
would take his life, Burns stepped and did a fabulous job.
January
30: The spotlight on Neil Simon ends tonight on a high note.
At 8:00 pm, it’s The Heartbreak
Kid from 1972, starring Charles Grodin, Cybill
Shepherd and Jeanne Berlin. Grodin is Lenny, a man who just married
Lila (Berlin) and is already regretting it on their drive down to
Miami Beach for their honeymoon. She smears egg salad all over her
face while eating a sandwich in the car. She sings the same annoying
songs over and over. And perhaps worst of all, she has saved herself
for the wedding night. Once in Miami Beach, Lila is badly sunburned
and is confined to their hotel room. On the beach alone, Lenny meets
a blond Nordic goddess from Minnesota named Kelly. Lenny flops head
over heels in love, resolving that he must divorce Lila, and travel
to Minnesota to marry this divine creature. Elaine May does a
terrific job of directing, moving away from Simon’s script at times
to add touches of her own. The leads do a wonderful job, especially
Berlin, who happens to be May’s daughter.
Following
at 10:00 pm is The Prisoner of
Second Avenue (1974), starring Jack Lemmon as a
suddenly unemployed executive who has a nervous breakdown, and Anne
Bancroft as his understanding wife. Getting laughs out of a situation
such as this is hard slogging, but Simon, to his credit, manages to
pull it off. Lemmon and Bancroft have great chemistry together and
make the situation totally believable. Look for the young Sylvester
Stallone as a mugger Lemmon encounters in the park. It’s the film’s
funniest moment.
OUT
OF THE ORDINARY
January
18: A good double-header of Japanese director Koreyoshi
Kurahara begins at 2:15 am with The
Warped Ones (Kyonetsu no kisetsu,
1960).
Compared by critics to the Nicholas Ray’s JD classic Rebel Without a Cause and Godard’s New Wave classic Breathless, Kurahara’s film is much more nihilistic in outlook and execution. Akira (Tamio Kawachi) and his prostitute girlfriend Fumiko (Noriko Matsumoto) are arrested and sent to jail after being fingered by a reporter for fleecing tourists. Upon his release, Akira reconnects with Fumiko. They spot the reporter with his artist fiancée, run over the reporter with a stolen sports car and abduct the fiancée to a remote beach where Akira rapes her. Things will become much more complicated after this, and to go on will not only give away the plot, but take up another three pages. It is a stark, shocking movie, with the youths moving violently and speaking in grunts, screams, whistles and sound effects. Akira’s opening line to women is usually “Wanna get laid?” The film marked the new directions Japan’s filmmakers were exploring and stands as a seminal film in Japan’s New Wave.
Following
at 4:00 is Kurahara’s 1957 effort, I
Am Waiting (Ore Wa Matteru Ze).
This is as different from The Warped Ones as
night from day. It’s a crime drama about two lost souls. Joji
(Yujiro Ishihara) is a retired boxer. Saeko (Mie Kitahara) is a
cabaret singer who has lost her voice and is running away from her
gangster employer. They meet one night by the waterfront, where she
may have been thinking of suicide. What the viewer thinks may be a
romance turns instead into a noir with Joji looking for his brother,
who was on his way to Brazil to buy a farm, but has not been heard
from since. It’s a well-written, finely directed effort from
Nikkatsu whose crime dramas in the late ‘50s came to be known as
“Nikkatsu Noir.” It takes a few minutes to get going, but once it
does, the viewer will be hooked.
January
20: At 3:00 pm one of the seminal films from the ‘50s
airs: Elia Kazan’s A Face in the
Crowd. For those who somehow haven't viewed this one,
this is a good chance to see what you’ve been missing. This 1957
production did middling box office when released, and until TCM dug
it up in the last three years or so, was rarely, if ever, shown on
television. I remember seeing it for the first time back around 1962
or 63. Once a month, Channel 2’s The Late Show in New York City
would be pre-empted for what was called The Schaefer Award Theatre,
which showed critically-acclaimed films with limited commercial
interruption. For a 10-year old who only watched horror films, the
Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, and the antics of the Bowery
Boys, this was amazing, to say the least. First off, it starred Andy
Griffith as a bad guy. Sheriff Taylor! Will Stockdale!
Not only was he a heel, but also a totally despicable heel at that,
one that totally fooled the public until Patricia Neal pulled the
plug on him. It disappeared from sight sometime in the mid-60s, I
believe, and I didn’t see it again until Channel 9 aired it in
1980. By this time I was married and told my wife we have to watch
this together. Her reaction was the same as mine back in 1963. She
wondered where this film had been all that time, as did I. Given its
plot about a down and out hobo who rises to become America’s
unofficial “down home country” philosopher while enjoying a
career carefully crafted by Madison Avenue, it was ahead of its time
concerning the power of television to manipulate under the guise of
entertainment. It was Griffith’s film debut and his performance was
good enough to merit a Best Actor Award, yet he wasn’t even
nominated, partly because the film died at the box office and partly
because of Elia Kazan’s unwarranted reputation among Hollywood’s
elite. It’s one of the films I would show to a film class and one
everyone should not only see, but heed as well.
January
25: Speaking of seminal films, at the wee hour of 3:00 am
airs one of the greatest films ever made, in my opinion: Yasujiro
Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953).
As with other Ozu masterpieces, the film is built around a simple
premise: the visit of an elderly couple to their children in Tokyo.
But behind the premise is a poignant critique of the diminishing role
of the elderly in Japanese society and how the postwar
industrialization helped make it possible in a society that always
held the highest respect for its elders. Ozu was no fan of the
Western culture imposed upon Japan by America after World War II, and
there are several scenes that show how this influence is changing
Japanese society, and not for the better. For those who have not yet
seen it, it’s a must, to say the least.
January
26: It’s a rare treat for the cinephile as the evening is
being given over to the films of director Luis Bunuel. Bunuel was a
master of the sardonic, his films noted for their questioning of
society and its present values, which makes him a director to watch.
Begin at 8:00 pm with Belle de
Jour (1968). At 10:00 pm, it’s The
Discreet Charm of the
Bourgeoisie (1972), followed at midnight by my
favorite, Diary of a
Chambermaid (1964), a satire of fascism, Bunuel
Style, with the always sexy Jeanne Moreau. Rounding out the evening
are Viridiana (1961),
his critique of religious charity taken to extremes, which was banned
in Spain and Italy, and The
Exterminating Angel (1962), an exercise in
surrealism where the guests at a posh dinner party find themselves
unable to leave the drawing room after the meal.
January
31: A night of John Barrymore begins at 8:00 pm with Howard
Hawks’ screwball comedy, Twentieth
Century (1934). Barrymore is brilliant as a
theatrical director who tries to win back the star (Carole Lombard)
he created and then drove away. At 9:45,
it’s Counsellor-at-Law (1933),
with Barrymore as a successful lawyer who must come to terms with his
wife’s infidelity and his own dark past. At 11:15 pm, it’s one of
Barrymore’s best, Topaze (1933).
He’s an honest, yet naive French science teacher who loses his job
because he won’t pass the lazy son of an influential industrialist.
After inventing a dubious “health” drink called “Sparkling
Topaze,” he risks his integrity by marketing the product with a
crooked businessman. But with the help of the man’s mistress (Myrna
Loy), who falls for him, Barrymore has the last laugh. At 12:45 am,
it’s the rarely seen Svengali (1931).
Barrymore is a hypnotist whose spell makes his young charge, Trilby
(Marian Marsh), into a renowned singer. Both the popularity of the
George du Maurier novel on which it was based and the film itself,
helped popularize the word “Svengali,” defined as a person with
selfish or evil intentions who attempts to dominate another.
PSYCHOTRONICA
AND THE B-HIVE
January
16: Three suitably psychotronic films are on tap today,
beginning with the 1957 Columbia production, Hellcats
of the Navy, the only film co-starring Ronald Reagan
and wife Nancy Davis. Ronnie is a submarine commander who
inadvertently causes the death of a romantic rival under his command.
The object of his affection, naturally, is Davis, the future First
Lady. But don’t go looking for any hot loves scenes because there
aren’t any. No, all Ronnie and Nancy do is talk about why they
can’t have love scenes. Seems they broke their engagement when he
went to war. She thought he stopped caring while he wanted to be
noble and spare her the pain of receiving a telegram if he was killed
in battle. It’s as screwy as it sounds. As critic Michael Weldon
notes: “The awkward love scenes between Ron and Nancy are
chilling.” For us it means only one thing: entertainment!
Ron
and Nancy are followed at 3:15 pm by the celebrated antics of Allison
Hayes in Attack of the 50-Foot
Woman (1958), and at 6:30 by the Ray Harryhausen
f/x flick, 20 Million Miles to
Earth (1957). All three films are directed by
Nathan Juran. In fact, Juran directed all of the movies shown in the
morning and afternoon.
January
17: It’s more of the Carry On gang at 10:30 am in
1962’s Carry On Cruising,
where five incompetents replace the departed crew of an ocean liner.
January
21: We go from the sublime to the utterly ridiculous today.
At 6:00 am, it’s John Barrymore and Marian Marsh in The
Mad Genius, another take on the Svengali/Trilby
formula from 1931 with Barrymore as a club-footed puppeteer who makes
protégé Donald Woods the greatest dancer in the world, only to lose
him to fellow dancer Marsh. And then ... at 12:45 pm it the train
wreck classic Playmates (1941),
starring Barrymore as down-on-his-luck actor who is enlisted by
bandleader Kay Kyser to teach him the intricacies of Shakespeare.
Read our article in this amazing film here.
January
23: A day of Western begins with the classic
stinker, The Oklahoma Kid (1939),
with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart doing rotten imitations of
cowboys in the Old West. We can tell Bogie’s the bad guy, as he’s
all decked out in black, but the funniest thing about the picture is
Cagney’s hat: it looks as if it’s wearing him and makes him into
some sort of giant mushroom.
January
24: A night highlighted by the airing of the classic
Blaxploitation flick, Superfly (1972),
with Ron O’Neal as a cocaine dealer looking to pull off one more
big score so he can retire from crime. Recommended.
January
28: A few oldies but goodies are on tap today, with three
Lugosi classics to begin the day. At 6:00 am, it’s Bowery
at Midnight (1942), followed at 7:15 am by The
Corpse Vanishes, and at 8:30 am by Val Lewton’s
classic The Body Snatchers from
1945 co-starring Boris Karloff. Then, at 10:00 am, it’s another
Lewton classic, The Ghost
Ship (1943), followed at 11:15 am by Maurice
Tournier’s 1943 take of “The Monkey’s Paw,” Carnival
of Sinners, and the 1945 Ealing anthology, Dead
of Night.
January
29: As part of a memorial tribute to the late Rod Taylor,
TCM is screening two of his psychotronic classics, The
Time Machine (1960) at 8:00 pm, andThe
Birds (1962) at 10:00 pm.
January
31: At
the wee hour of 3:45 am, it’s the favorite children’s nightmare
written by Dr. Suess, The
5,000 Fingers of Dr. T,
from 1953, with Tommy Rettig as a young boy trying to escape the
clutches of his piano teacher (Hans Conreid) whose sinister plan is
to enslave 500 boys to play in unison on a giant piano.
No comments:
Post a Comment