TCM TiVo ALERT
For
March
23–March 31
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
THE
BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (March
23, 12:00 am): There are few actors who had the presence of Burt
Lancaster – that
voice, the athletic build and his ability to become one with the
characters he
portrayed. In this 1962 film, he plays Robert Stroud, a murderer, who
from all accounts was not a nice guy. In the film, Stroud has a dark
side, but comes across overall as a decent person. While in solitary
confinement, Stroud adopts and trains a sparrow. After a while, he's
got an entire bird collection and inspires other inmates to get
birds. When some of the birds get sick, Stroud discovers ways to cure
them, and becomes an expert on bird diseases. The concept may sound
boring, but the screenplay is outstanding and the acting is
first-rate. Besides Lancaster, the cast includes Telly Savalas as a
fellow prisoner, Thelma Ritter in the performance of her career as
Stroud's mother, and Karl Malden as the warden at Leavenworth. Most
of the film – and the
book of which it is based – takes
place at Leavenworth. Stroud served some
time at Alcatraz, where he wasn't permitted to have birds
making the title catchy
but inaccurate.
AU
REVOIR, LES ENFANTS (March
31, 10:00 pm): What a fantastic film! It's directed by Louis Malle
and is largely autobiographical about his life at a Catholic boarding
school in occupied France in 1944 during World War II. Malle's
character becomes friends with another boy at the school, who is
actually Jewish and being hidden from the Nazis by the school's
headmaster, a priest. It's a very moving coming-of-age film that
stays with the viewer long after it ends.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
THE
PENALTY (March 29, 12:00 am): Lon Chaney is always
fascinating to watch and his performance in this film ranks with his
best. He plays Blizzard, an embittered, cunning and sadistic gangland
boss. His embitterment reaches back to when a negligent surgeon
amputated his legs after an accident suffered in childhood. Ethel
Grey Terry is a government agent whose task in to infiltrate Chaney’s
gang. The film becomes a bit melodramatic at times, but Chaney is
always worth the time, especially watching him performing stunts
without the use of his legs. If anyone ever perfected the art of
acting in the silents, it was Chaney.
ELEVATOR
TO THE GALLOWS (March 31, 4:30 am): Director Louis
Malle made many a fine film, but none better than this 1958 effort
about a woman and her ex-paratrooper lover who plot to kill her
husband in the “perfect crime.” It’s a dark, stylish noir
thriller that owes much to the influence of Hitchcock and Melville.
(In fact, Hitchcock himself greatly admired the film.) Of course,
things do go wrong, but they go so deliciously wrong as to keep us
totally enthralled. What really makes the film is the strong,
sensuous performance of star Jeanne Moreau. Malle later claimed to
have discovered her, but Moreau was already a star of the stage and a
veteran of B-movies before she met Malle. But this was the film that
made Moreau a star. Photographed by none other than Henri Decae, it
contains some breathtaking shots of Moreau and Paris at night. For
those who haven’t yet seen it, it’s a definite “Must See.”
And for those who have seen it, it still rates a revisit.
WE
DISAGREE ON . . . CAMELOT (March 27, 10:30 pm)
ED:
C. Camelot is perhaps the most overrated
musical ever made. The originals 1960 Broadway hit by Alan Jay Lerner
and Frederick Lowe was a cultural milestone of sorts, to be
associated forever with the youthful Kennedy Administration.
Unfortunately, the film version was made in 1967, when the aura
created by the Kennedy had given way to counter-cultural
rebelliousness. The move tries to walk a thin line between an
old-fashioned Hollywood musical and the themes of the ‘60s culture.
What we get is a big, lumbering, almost three-hour borefest. Richard
Harris as King Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere are
excellent, but Franco Nero as Lancelot is awful as a romantic lead
and a disaster as a singer. It also could have used a better director
than Joshua Logan, who seems to miss the finer points of what he was
trying to show us under all the costuming and lavish sets. At times
it descends into something worthy of Monty Python. It’s only for
Harris and Redgrave that I am giving it a “C.” They make the film
bearable.
DAVID:
D-. This is less a disagreement about Camelot and
more about who has a greater hatred of this piece of garbage movie. As someone who
typically doesn't like musicals, you better wow me to have a shot at
getting my approval. Camelot certainly wowed me. But
it was "Wow, this movie really sucks," "Wow, when will
this boring film end? What? It's three hours, wow," and "Wow,
I can't believe this film was released in 1967. That's the same year
that groundbreaking classic films such as The
Graduate, In Heat of the Night,
and Bonnie and Clyde came out." In typical
Hollywood style, it was also the same year that saw the release
of Doctor Doolittle, another classically bad movie. What
makes Camelot so awful? So as not to waste our
readers' time, I'll be as brief as possible. The movie is too long;
it's very dull and we're talking about King Arthur and sword fighting
and things that are supposed to provide action; the music was dated
in 1967 so imagine it today; everyone overacts; and most of the
actors can't sing. If I want to hear Richard Harris sing badly, I can
torture myself with "MacArthur Park." Like the cake in that
horrible song, someone left Camelot out in the rain
as the end product is all wet. I rarely recommend people avoid a film
as nearly all have something worthy to see. Camelot falls
into that tiny minority of movies with no redeeming value. It's a
dreadful film.
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