TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
February
1–February 7
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
ALL
QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (February
1, 12:45 am): TCM shows this film regularly and we are very
lucky that it does. This is the greatest anti-war war movie ever
made, and that includes Charles Chaplin's The
Great Dictator, which is
a brilliant piece of cinema. The message of All
Quiet on the Western Front is
as strong today as it was when it was released in 1930. Beautifully
filmed and flawlessly directed by Lewis Milestone, it's about a group
of German youths who sign up to fight in World War I after being
whipped into a frenzy by a teacher. The boys learn firsthand the
horrors of war. What's amazing about this film is it's about Germans
fighting and killing Allied soldiers and we have sympathy for every
one of them. And it pulls no punches showing the senseless deaths of
young men in battle. The final scene is one of the most
tragically beautiful you'll ever see in cinema. This
timeless and important film comes with my highest recommendation.
CAPTAINS
COURAGEOUS (February 6, 6:00 am): This 1937 film had
the potential to be a complete disaster. Spencer Tracy, with a
Portuguese accent, saves Freddie Bartholomew, a spoiled rich boy who,
after being rescued, is stuck on a fishing schooner. The potential
obstacles are buying Tracy's accent and hoping Bartholomew gives the
performance of his life. Amazingly, both occur in this fantastic
film. Tracy won the Oscar for Best Actor, and would win it again the
following year for Boys Town. Captains
Courageous also features the always-excellent Lionel
Barrymore as the ship's captain and solid performances from a cast
that includes John Carradine, Melvyn Douglas and a young Mickey
Rooney. It's a great coming-of-age film, adapted from English
novelist Rudyard Kipling's 1897 book of the same name. The sappy
ending doesn't take away from the overall enjoyment of the movie.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
THE
PUBLIC ENEMY (February 2, 11:45 pm): It’s the
picture that catapulted Jimmy Cagney to stardom, a no holds barred
look at the life of a criminal from youth to his premature demise,
directed in a stark manner by William A. Wellman, King of the
Pre-Code directors. Although Warner Bros., the studio that made the
film, tries to coat it with a veneer of “social injustice and
economic conditions” leading to crime, the picture is violent from
start to finish. And it’s such gorgeous violence at that. Cagney is
a virtual dervish of bad intentions, knocking off anyone in his way,
and even ending a relationship by smacking his dame in the face with
a grapefruit. The film was a huge influence on Martin Scorsese when
he made Goodfellas, and we can see why, as it’s the
first gangster film to use popular music in its soundtrack. This rave
is not directed at cinephiles, who have all seen this one, but at
those for whom the movie experience is relatively new. Watch it,
you’ll love it.
THE
400 BLOWS (February 6, 12:00 pm): Again this is a
rave directed at those for whom serious move viewing is a somewhat
new experience. Francois Truffaut’s autobiographical film about a
young man (Jean-Pierre Leaud), left entirely to his own devices at
home by his neglectful parents, who turns to a life of petty crime.
The film becomes a tribute to the resilience and spirit of the young
man in spite of his clueless parents and equally clueless teachers,
all of who are too eager to absolve themselves of him rather than
deal with his problems. Much as been said and written about this
remarkable film, which was Truffaut’s directorial debut. Don’t
let its art house reputation deter you from this most interesting
film.
WE
DISAGREE ON . . . WINGS (February 1, 10:00 pm)
ED:
A. Many cinephiles hate this movie, not so much
because it won Best Picture, but for what film didn’t win: Sunrise.
Yes, the Academy chose Wings as Best Picture
over Sunrise, a film now seen as one the all-time
classics of the cinema. But let’s take the historical content out
of it and praise it for what it was.Wings is a great
example of the blockbuster epic, with special effects that were
unmatched in its day. It’s the ultimate Buddy War Film, with
Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen as Our Heroes, rivals
who bond in training and war, proceeding to sail through the skies of
Europe without letting such things like plot get in the way – a
fact we really don’t notice until we think it over well after the
film ends. Clara Bow, who came on like a house afire thanks
to It, is the love object of Rogers, and she’s not bad
in this. Gary Cooper also shines, as the sardonic young cadet who
comes on the scene and just as quickly disappears in an air battle.
The real credit for this film, though, has to go to the director,
William A. Wellman. Not only are the airborne fight sequences top
notch – and which will still blow viewers away even in
these CGI infested times – but he also brings a verve to
the quieter scenes, such as the establishing shot of lovers Jack
and Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston), who are introduced on a swing in a
garden with the camera perched on the swing between them, giving the
illusion of the world flying around them. Wellman displays his knack
for craftsmanship throughout the film, knowing how to use the camera
to capture a person’s face and body and tell us what he or she is
thinking or feeling. Any director could simply film a dogfight, but
Wellman does with cameras placed in such a way as to capture the
human drama that takes place inside the formidable machines of war.
That’s way I grade this film as high as I do. It’s not so much
the story as it is in how it’s told.
DAVID:
B-. I wholeheartedly agree with Ed's assessment of
the aerial sequences, particularly the dogfights, of Wings.
To this day, they are impressive, exciting and can leave a viewer on
the edge of his/her seat. The problem with this film is nearly
everything shot on the ground. That part of the film is largely
directionless with a minimal plot. To be perfectly honest, the ground
scenes are really boring. To make matters worse, the version shown is
144 minutes long so viewers are watching a lot of dull acting with a
very dull storyline. The notable exception is the powerful trench
cave-in scene that shows hundreds of dead soldiers. There is no doubt
this 1927 epic is groundbreaking and the aerial scenes are
breathtaking at times. I recommend anyone who hasn't seen the film to
view it. But you also have to realize you're going to get some bad
with the good. The main characters, played by Charles "Buddy"
Rogers and Richard Arlen, spend far too much time vying for the
affection of Jobyna Ralston, who loves Arlen. Clara Bow, "The It
Girl," is somewhat wasted in this film as literally the girl
next door to Rogers. Kudos to director William A. Wellman for working
in a gratuitous scene of a scantily-clad Bow. I would rate this film
higher if attention was paid to developing a compelling story, it was
30 minutes shorter and the awful attempts at comic relief from El
Brendel were left on the cutting-room floor.
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