By Ed Garea
At
this point, we’re midway through TCM’s annual salute to the
Oscars, to which the month of February is devoted, along with the
first three days in March. We received some good feedback on our
special format for this festival, so we’ll continue with what
obviously works.
But
before we go any further, let us remind readers that the Academy
Awards will air February 22, which brings us to our subject. Over the
years, many special Oscars and related awards, such as the Irving G.
Thalberg Award and the Jean Hersholdt Award, have been handed out to
deserving recipients.
But
there is one person long overdue for an honorary award. This person
has done more for the movies – and the Academy –
than anyone else in the last 20+ years. It’s high time this person
is honored for his unique contributions to the craft of film and our
enjoyment of it.
That
person is none other than Robert Osborne.
Osborne
has been the host for Turner Classic Movies ever since the channel
went on the air back in 1994. During this time, he’s been a
frequent and welcome guest in our living rooms, introducing classic
movies, hosting TCM shows about movies, and reaching out to the
public about movies with fan fests, cruises and bus tours. He is the
face of TCM, and, unfortunately, we’re not going to have his robust
presence around forever. At a time when television stations were
eschewing old films for infomercials, TCM has carried the banner for
cinephiles in America and abroad. TCM has become the place where
movies are the only theme of the day. Whereas other movie channels
such as AMC, Sundance, and IFC have deteriorated into catch-alls for
recent movies and television reruns, TCM not only has remained
faithful to its mission, but it’s also become part of the popular
filmgoer consciousness. It’s a place where the film lover can enjoy
the spectrum of movies, from Citizen Kane to The
400 Blows to even Plan 9 From Outer Space. TCM
doesn’t attempt to dictate film culture as much as celebrate it,
and that is largely due to the leadership of Osborne.
So
listen up Hollywood. If you wish to bestow an honorary Oscar on
anyone, it should be Robert Osborne.
February
16: Our
choice for the day airs at 8:00 pm, the 1959 sex comedy from
Universal, Pillow
Talk.
The plot is relatively simple: Rock Hudson is pursuing Doris Day.
However, there is a very clever twist –
they begin feuding with each other over sharing a party line. They
later meet in real life and are attracted to each other, but do not
realize who the other really is. The chemistry between Rock and Doris
is great, as is the support from Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter, Nick
Adams, Allen Jenkins, and Marcel Dalio. WON:
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay –
Written
Directly for the Screen (Russell
Rouse (story), Clarence
Greene (story), Stanley
Shipiro (s/p),
& Maurice
Richlin (s/p).
NOMINATED: Best Actress (Doris
Day),
Best Supporting Actress (Thelma
Ritter),
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color (Richard
H. Riedel, Russell A. Gausmam, & Ruby R. Levitt),
& Best Music, Original Score, Comedy or Drama (Frank
DeVol),
1960.
February
17: Even though we’ve seen it at least a gazillion times,
our choice is Psycho (midnight).
Need we say more? NOMINATED: Best Actress (Janet
Leigh), Best Director (Alfred Hitchcock),
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White (Joseph
Hurley, Robert Clatworthy, & George Milo), 1961.
February
18: Billy Wilder directed and wrote many a classic for the
screen, but none better than The
Apartment, which airs at 8:00 pm. It’s a witty,
cynical story of a corporate climber (Jack Lemmon) who loans his
apartment key to various executives for their extramarital trysts.
His scheme backfires, however, when he falls for his boss’s latest
girlfriend (Shirley MacLaine). WON: Best Picture, Best
Director (Billy Wilder), Best
Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen
(Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond),
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White (Alexandre
Trauner, Edward G. Boyle), Best Film Editing (Daniel
Mandell).NOMINATED: Best Actor (Jack Lemmon),
Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Best Supporting
Actor (Jack Kruschen), Best Cinematography,
Black and White (Joseph LaShelle), Best Sound
(Gordon Sawyer), 1961.
February
19: We’re
going with a rather offbeat choice for this day, A
Hard Day’s Night,
which airs at 3:30 am. Until this film, rock ‘n’ roll films all
followed the same template and were totally predictable. Director
Richard Lester drew on his background directing television
commercials, and combined with the influence on the French New Wave,
gave the public a totally different take on the rock ‘n ’roll
film. All the boys had to do was to be themselves, as the plot was
paper-thin. Lester and the boys tried to strike gold again with a
sequel of sorts, Help! However,
placing the Beatles in a film where they really could not play
themselves proved a detriment, as did the tired Bond spoof
plot. NOMINATED:
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay –
Written Directly for the Screen (Alun
Owen),
Best music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment (George
Martin),
1965.
February
20: Today’s recommendation is a film from the early days
of sound, in the days before film crews became familiar with the new
technology and just what it could do other than provide spoken
dialogue. The Big House,
from MGM in 1930, airs at 8:30 am and can be said to be the
granddaddy of all prison pictures. It wasn’t so much that the cast
spoke, no, it was what they said and how they said it. That’s what
makes The Big House such a remarkable film. Credit
should go to screenwriter Frances Marion, who toured San Quentin
interviewing inmates with notebook in hand and ears wide
open. WON: Best Writing, Achievement (Frances
Marion), Best Sound, Recording (Douglas
Shearer). NOMINATED: Best Picture, Best
Actor (Wallace Beery), 1930.
February
21: At their height no one made comedies like Laurel and
Hardy. Way Out West (1937),
which airs at 12:45 pm, is one of their best. Stan and Ollie are sent
to deliver the deed to a gold mine to the daughter of the prospector
who worked the mine, but Stan inadvertently spills their mission to
bad guy James Findlayson, who steers them to the wrong woman. Now
they have to get it back to the right person, and they do so in
hilarious style. The film moves along, without being waylaid by a
useless romantic subplot, and we get to see Stan and Ollie do a
classic soft shoe. NOMINATED: Best Music, Score (Marvin
Hatley), 1938.
February
22: The great thing about TCM is that even during a month
when Oscar is being saluted, we viewers can go from the sublime to
the ridiculous as long as it’s nominated for an Academy Award. So,
in keeping with this philosophy, we recommend the 1971 laff
riot, When Dinosaurs Ruled the
Earth, which airs at 7:30 am. It’s Hammer’s silly
sequel to its silly One Million Years, B.C., with
Playmate Victoria Vetri taking over as head cavewoman from Raquel
Welch. The film is a feast for the eyes, for besides the gorgeous
Vetri, there’s the excellent stop-motion animation of Jim Danforth
and Roger Dicken. The dialogue, or what passes for it in the movie,
is limited to 27 words, which is 26 words too many. NOMINATED:
Best Effects, Special Visual Effects (Jim Danforth, Roger
Dicken), 1972.
February
23: 1939 was a banner year for movies, to say the least. And
one film from that year that is often overlooked is Of
Mice and Men, which will be shown at 12:15 pm. It was
a breakout film for its two leads, Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney,
Jr. Chaney, in what is the best performance of his life, is the
tragic Lennie, with Meredith as George, who looks out for him as they
drift from job to job. The film also spurred a classic animated scene
from cartoon director Tex Avery, who would kid the film by placing a
Lenny type character in his cartoons, usually asking Bugs Bunny,
“Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?” NOMINATED:
Best Picture, Best Sound, Recording (Elmer Raguse),
Best Music, Scoring (Aaron Copland), Best Music,
Original Score (Aaron Copland), 1940.
February
24: Again we are recommending a film not usually thought of
as Academy award material. But 7
Faces of Dr. Lao, which airs at 8:30 am, is a
delightful fantasy starring Tony Randall as a Chinese magician who
uses his magical powers and leaves a Depression-era Western town
better off than it was when he arrived. Randall is magnificent in the
part, with wonderful make-up by William Tuttle and special effects
wizardry by Jim Danforth. It’s a film the entire family can enjoy,
and since it’s in color, the kids will have no objections to
watching. WON (Honorary Award): Outstanding Make-Up
Achievement (William Tuttle), NOMINATED: Best Effects, Special
Visual Effects (Jim Danforth), 1965.
February
25: Again, in searching for the unusual, we have come up
with another underrated gem. It’s Once
Upon a Honeymoon, which is scheduled for noon. Ginger
Rogers is delightful as a social-climbing ex-burlesque queen who
thinks she’s hit the mother lode when she marries Baron Von Luber
(Walter Slezak). What she doesn’t know is that the Baron is a Nazi
bigwig. It’s up to radio commentator Cary Grant to rescue Ginger
from her predicament and help her escape from Europe. The film
contains an interesting, and much criticized sequence, where Grant
and Rogers are mistaken for Jews and briefly interned in a
concentration camp, and there are some dull stretches, but overall,
it’s a fascinating time capsule of the depth to which the Nazis
were perceived in the early days of the war. NOMINATED: Best
Sound, Recording (Stephen Dunn), 1943.
February
26: One the best political thrillers to emerge in the ‘60s
was directed by Greek exile Costa-Gavras. The movie, Z,
which is showing at 11:00 am, differs right at the start with its
unusual version of the standard disclaimer about a resemblance to
real people or events being coincidental. Costa-Gavras tells us right
from the get-go that this movie's resemblances are on purpose. Based
on the novel of the same name from Greek writer Vasilis Vasilikos,
it’s the thinly disguised story of the 1963 assassination of
Grigors Lambrakis, an antiwar and liberal member of the Greek
parliament. He was also a physician and a highly popular athlete in
addition to being a politician. Lambrakis was murdered in the same
manner as his character in the film, known as The Deputy, and played
by Yves Montand: he was bludgeoned in the head by two extremists and
died from bran injuries a few days later. Over half a million people
came to his funeral, and reaction from his death led to the
resignation of the prime minister and the beginnings of a progressive
political movement that would remain influential for years to come.
The repercussions would eventually lead to a military coup in 1967
that ushered in a repressive regime. Costa-Gavras released Z
in 1969, and the ruling cabal promptly banned the film. It’s a
rather talky film, but entertaining nonetheless, and one certainly
worth catching. WON: Best Foreign Language Film
(Algeria), Best Film Editing (Francoise Bonnot). NOMINATED:
Best Picture (Jacques Perrin, Ahmed Rachedi),
Best Director (Costa-Gavras), Best Writing,
Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Jorge
Semprun, Costa-Garvas), 1970.
February
27: Speaking
of politics, we return this day to a film made during the prehistoric
days of talkies, when the microphone –
and the acting – was static. But don’t let that hold you back,
especially when the film is Disraeli (airing
at 8:45 am), and its star is the great George Arliss. In this remake
of his 1921 silent take on the subject, Arliss is marvelous to watch,
and the addition of sound makes him even more appealing as the famous
English prime minister, who in this film uses all his skills to
prevent Russia from dominating British India, which he accomplishes
by blocking the efforts of a well-placed female spy and secretly
purchasing control over the Suez Canal. And if that wasn’t enough,
Disraeli still finds time to play matchmaker to Charles – Lord
Deeford (Anthony Bushell) and Lady Clarissa Pevensey (Joan Bennett).
The great prime minister was a secret yenta. While the film itself
should be taken with a grain of salt, it is noteworthy as a showcase
for the many talents of George Arliss, who had played Disraeli on
stage as well as film. No matter what he’s in, Arliss is always
worth watching. WON: Best
Actor (George
Arliss). NOMINATED: Best
Picture, Best Writing, Achievement (Julien
Josephson),
1930.
February
28: On this last day of the month we bring attention to a
film that was not only a 180-degree turn for its star, Robert
Montgomery, but was also a breakout role of sorts for his starlet
co-star. The film is 1937’s Night
Must Fall (playing at 7:15 am). It’s the story
of a young woman who slowly comes to the realization that the brutal
killer stalking the countryside is none other than the genial
handyman her curmudgeonly aunt had recently hired. Montgomery is
terrific as the killer, Danny, who charms his way into the household
of Mrs. Bramson (Dame May Whitty) by playing on her vanity.
Montgomery sought the role against the wishers of his boss, Louis B.
Mayer, who believed that playing a psycho killer would do his career
irreparable harm. But Montgomery was tired of playing the debonair
and witty leading man and was looking for roles that would provide
more challenge. The film was also a breakout for costar Rosalind
Russell, who until this point has been cast as the ditzy,
empty-headed socialite, usually taking roles that Myrna Loy had
turned down. Russell was an intelligent actress, and here gets a
chance to play off that intelligence. It’s a fascinating change of
pace for the co-stars and we are the beneficiaries. NOMINATED:
Best Actor (Robert Montgomery), Best Supporting
Actress (Dame May Whitty), 1938.
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