A
Guide to the Rare and Unusual on TCM
By
Ed Garea
STAR
OF THE MONTH -- SHIRLEY TEMPLE
The
1940s were the career-changing decade for Shirley Temple. She was
growing up, no longer the cute little moppet of the ‘30s. As with
any child star, these are the most difficult years, for the actor
must undergo almost a total remake. Louis B. Mayer originally wanted
her for the role of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, but
producers Arthur Freed and Mervyn LeRoy thought her vocal talents
were inadequate. 20th Century Fox head Darryl Zanuck
gave Shirley the lead in The Blue Bird as a
consolation prize, but the film was a flop, not helped by the fact
that Shirley played an unsympathetic character. It’s generally
thought to be her last film for Fox, but that honor goes to Young
People, also in 1940, with Jack Haley and Charlotte Greenwood. It
employed the same basic plot as her ‘30s films, but Shirley was now
12 years old, and failed to recapture the magic of her earlier films.
She moved to MGM for Kathleen in 1941, another weak
vehicle that did nothing to help her career. It wasn’t until she
began working for David O. Selznick that she was able to transition
to adult roles. However, she could not overcome the audience’s
perception of her, and, as she wasn’t the greatest actress, her
star faded, suffering through a bad first marriage to John Agar. Her
last film was A Kiss For Corliss in 1949. After her
divorce from Agar, she married businessman Charles Black and never
looked back from there.
July
20: We begin with a Selznick double header: the weepy 1944
home-front film Since You Went
Away at 8:00 pm, followed by the romance I’ll
Be Seeing You (1944) at 11:15. They’re followed at
1:00 am by the weak romantic comedy Honeymoon (1947),
the obvious That Hagen Girl (1947)
with Ronnie Reagan, and the aforementioned Kathleen ending
the evening at 4:00 am.
July
27: Tonight’s highlight is The
Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer (1947) with Cary
Grant and Myrna Loy at 8:00 pm. After that, it’s straight downhill,
with the only highlight thereafter being A
Kiss For Corliss (1949), as it’s her last film.
FRIDAY
NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: SUMMER OF DARKNESS
TCM’s
Friday Night Spotlight, devoted to noirs, continues with
some interesting selections.
July
17: Three excellent films begin the night: Too
Late For Tears (1949) from producer Hunt
Stromberg at 8:00 pm, featuring a great performance by the one and
only Lizabeth Scott as the ultimate femme fatale. Stay tuned at 10:00
for The Strange Love of Martha
Ivers (1946), starring Barbara Stanwyck, Scott
and Kirk Douglas in his feature film debut. At 12:15 am, it’s the
underrated 99 River Street (1953)
from director Phil Karlson, starring John Payne as a cab driver who
gets involved with jewel thieves and must clear himself of the charge
of murdering his wife (Peggie Castle in a bravura performance).
July
24: Begin at 8:00 with the nail-biter The
Narrow Margin (1952) with Charles McGraw as a
hard-boiled cop assigned to escort gangster’s moll Marie Windsor
from Chicago to Los Angeles, where she’s due to appear as a witness
for the prosecution. It’s one wild train ride as gangsters out to
silence Windsor are also aboard. For those who haven’t yet seen
this gem, it’s a must.
At
9:30, it’s the cult classic His
Kind of Woman (1951) starring Robert Mitchum as a
professional gambler who’s paid $50,000 to travel to a Mexican
resort, where he’ll await further instructions. On the way, he
meets Jane Russell and the sparks fly. Once in Mexico, Mitchum learns
his role is provide his face to Raymond Burr, a gangster wanted by
U.S. authorities who figures his best way to get back into the
country is via plastic surgery – having his face altered into that
of Mitchum’s. (Burr’s character was based on that of Charles
“Lucky” Luciano.) Meanwhile Mitchum and Russell are heating
things up, even though she’s also having an affair with married
actor Vincent Price. Price is the reason to tune in, as it’s
obvious that he’s having a whale of a time as the hammy Mark
Cardigan. He’s outrageous, hysterical, and totally mesmerizing,
transforming an already dicey plot into a psychotronic classic.
The
other film worth tuning in to watch airs at the wee hour of 3:30 am –
director Louis Malle’s 1958 stylish thriller Elevator
to the Gallows. Jeanne Moreau and her lover, Maurice
Ronet, are plotting to rid themselves of her rich arms dealer
husband, Jean Wall. Ronet pulls off the perfect murder – until he
realizes he’s left a key piece of evidence behind. He goes back to
retrieve it, but as he’s ascending in the elevator, the
superintendent shuts off the building’s power for the weekend,
leaving Ronet trapped in the elevator. When Moreau doesn’t hear
from Ronet, insecurity and panic begin to set in, setting the stage
for the film’s most famous sequence. As she wanders the street
looking for Ronet, cinematographer Henri Decae is riding alongside in
a baby carriage, filming her with a hand-held camera. He tracks her
as she walks, lit only by battery-activated lamps and the light from
store windows along the Champs Elysees. It makes for one of the most
fascinating scenes in film and captures the mood perfectly.
July
31: A night of classics begins with Burt Lancaster and
Yvonne DeCarlo in Criss Cross (1949)
at 8:00. Brute Force (1947),
Jules Dassin’s extraordinary hard-bitten prison flick starring Burt
Lancaster and Hume Cronyn as a thoroughly despicable and sadistic
captain of the guards, follows at 9:45. At 1:00, it’s John Huston’s
heist classic, The Asphalt Jungle
(1950), and at 3:00, it’s Hitchcock’s
unsettling The Wrong Man (1956)
starring Henry Fonda in a nightmare of mistaken identity.
INGMAR
BERGMAN
July
27: OMG, an Ingmar Bergman film at an accessible time! The
Magician (1959), which will be shown at 2:45 pm,
is one of Bergman’s most thoughtful – and underrated – films.
In this film, Bergman is concentrating on the divide between
skepticism and faith, with a little black humor and horror thrown
into the mix. Bergman is simply reworking G.K. Chesterton’s 1913
play, Magic, about as illusionist who is confronted by a
scientist, a clergyman, and an aristocrat. (Bergman had directed the
play on the stage back in 1947.) Max Von Sydow plays a wandering
19th century illusionist working the provinces with a
company that includes his wife (Ingrid Thulin), who masquerades as a
man. To make ends meet, he uses the show to sell useless bottles of
potions to the audience. Traveling to his latest town, he and his
troupe are arrested by the local authorities and put to the test by
the local medical examiner and a councilman (Erland Jospehson)
fascinated by spiritualism. The film is an engrossing meditation
about the nature of art and the manipulation of illusionism.
LES
BLANK
July
28: Les Blank was one of those filmmakers who always seemed
to fall through the cracks. A documentarian is always doomed to the
obscure fringes of film, and Blank worked for almost 50 years in this
relative obscurity. His specialty was his portraits of American
traditional musicians and the culture surrounding them. He focused on
a variety of musical forms: blues, jazz, Appalachian folk, Cajun,
Creole, polka, Tex-Mex, and Hawaiian. For many of the subjects, his
documentaries are the only filmed documents of their life and work.
However, Blank wasn’t simply interested in the music alone – his
films concentrated on the culture surrounding the music itself. With
this interest in culture, Blank also filmed documentaries about
cuisine and its influence on both local culture and culture at large.
His 1980 film, Garlic Is As Good as
Ten Mothers (11:45 pm) is a highly interesting
documentary on the history and cultural influence of this popular
culinary ingredient. TCM is devoting the evening to a representative
selection of his 41 documentaries. Some may seem to be esoteric, but
none are dull.
ROBERT
OSBORNE’S PICKS
July
29: When Robert Osborne hosts an evening of his favorites we
know we’re always in for a treat. And this evening is no different.
Osborne has a eye for the different, the offbeat, and the unusual. He
begins at 8:00 pm with an excellent film from directors Michael
Powell and Emeric Pressburger than is often overlooked when compared
to their other films. I Know Where
I’m Going (1945) is about a headstrong young
woman, Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller), en route to one of Scotland’s
remote Hebrides islands to marry a rich industrialist she doesn’t
love. But fate takes a role when bad weather stands her on the nearby
island of Mull, and there she meets, and eventually falls in love
with, naval officer Torquil McNeil (Roger Livesay). The movie is
light on plot, but what makes it so engrossing is the romance that
develops between the lead characters and the film’s depiction of
the village, and its inhabitants, where Joan and Torqil are stranded.
It’s a quietly winning movie that concentrates on its characters
rather than simply moving the plot along, and, as usual with Powell
and Pressburger, gives the viewer much to think about during its
course.
Next
up at 10:00 is another wonderful film set in Britain, Separate Tables, based on the play by Terrence Rattigan, and
starring a wonderful cast, including Deborah Kerr, Wendy Hiller, Rita
Hayworth, David Niven, and Burt Lancaster. It’s a film, much in the
style of Grand Hotel, centered on the lives and problems
of a group of boarders at an English seaside resort. Wonderfully
written and acted, it’s an interesting character study of a group
of disparate guests and the hotel proprietor (Hiller) who deals
intelligently and sincerely with their problems. This is one I can
see again and again.
At
midnight, it Bonjour
Tristesse (1958) from director Otto Preminger,
featuring an extraordinary performance from Jean Seberg as Cecile, a
young woman whose attachment to her bachelor father, Raymond (David
Niven), causes her to manipulate his love life, with tragic
consequences. Deborah Kerr is outstanding as Niven’s doomed
mistress, Anne.
And
at 2:00, am, it’s a debut film by a young director who once showed
a lot of promise: Breathless (1960),
from Jean-Luc Godard. Read our essay on it here.
Whatever happened to Godard?
OVERLOOKED
GEMS
From
time to time we shall devote a few words to deserving films that seem
to have fallen through the cracks, as it were, into obscurity. We
have a couple of worthy contenders this issue.
July
18: On a night devoted to the theme of “The Campaign
Trail,” the most interesting of the films being shown airs at 12:15
am. It’s The Dark Horse from
Warner Brothers in 1932, starring Warren William, Bette Davis and Guy
Kibbee. The film is a wonderful, funny parody of the election
process. William is in fine form as Hal Blake, a campaign manager who
must make a silk purse out of dim bulb Zachary Hicks (Kibbee), a man
who Blake describes as follows: “He’s the dumbest human being I
ever saw. Every time he opens his mouth he subtracts from the sum
total of human knowledge.” William has the unenviable of getting
Hicks, a man who wears his stupidity like a medal, elected governor.
The young Davis acquits herself nicely as William’s assistant. It’s
she who suggests Blake to the party bosses. When they point out that
he’s in jail for non-payment of alimony, she simply retorts that
other great men such as Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, and Christopher
Columbus were also jailbirds. This is a snappy, sassy 73 minutes that
never fails to amuse, and gives us a good look into the politics of
the day. Some things never change.
July
22: Spencer Tracy had just jumped over to MGM, and The
Show-Off (1934), airing at 7:45 am, was his debut
film for the company. Tracy plays Aubrey Piper, bumbling braggart who
never knows when to stop. A small part of a big operation (railroad)
Piper keeps bragging, lying, exaggerating and inflating his station.
He just can’t stop, until finally the weight of his whoppers does
him in. Madge Evans is great as Amy, who mistakes Aubrey for a hero
during an excursion boat outing and marries him. It will never be
confused with a great film, but Tracy and Evans make it worth
catching.
July
27: John Gilbert was nowhere near the horrible actor popular
culture made him out to be. In The
Phantom of Paris (1931), airing at 6:00 am, we
can get a look at Gilbert at his best as escape artist Cheri-Bibi,
falsely accused of the murder of his love’s (Leila Hyams) father.
He escapes and goes into hiding, looking to prove his innocence,
eventually impersonating the real murderer in a bid to clear his
name. Lewis Stone does well as police inspector Costaud, and Jean
Hersholt shines as Gilbert’s faithful friend Herman.
GERMAN
NEW WAVE
Yes
Virginia, there is such a thing as the German New Wave, which denotes
a period lasting from the late ‘60s into the ‘80s. Personified by
such directors as Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner
Herzog, Margarethe von Trotta, Hans-Jurgen Syberberg, and Volker
Schlondorff, it worked with low budgets and was heavily influenced by
the French New Wave. On July 19 at 3:15 am, TCM is airing
Schlondorff’s 1966 school drama, Young
Torless. A faithful adaptation of Robert Musil’s
1906 novel, The Confusions of Young Torless, the film is
set in a pre-World War I boys school in Austro-Hungary where a
student’s petty theft triggers an escalating series of punishments
by his classmates while the title character casually stands by,
offering his observations. Think of Lindsay Andersen’s
1968 If without the inevitable student rebellion.
Look for psychotronic cult actress Barbara Steele, who plays Bozena,
a local prostitute.
ANA
TORRENT
On July
26 TCM is showing a double feature starring Spanish actress
Ana Torrent. Born Ana Torrent Bertran de Lis, she made her film debut
at the age of seven in The Spirit of
the Beehive (4:15 am), about a young girl who,
after seeing the classic Frankenstein in her village, goes out to
look for the monster. It’s an interesting look at the terrors of
childhood, juxtaposed against the bleak background of post-Civil War
Francoist Spain. Airing right before, at 2:15 am, is Cria
Cuevros, a 1976 tale with Ana as an orphan who is
struggling to adjust to live with her dictatorial aunt (Geraldine
Chaplin). Ana is still going strong today, going against the grain of
child stars whose careers hit the wall when they become adults.
MOVIE
CAMP
I
forgot to mention last month that TCM has remade its summer
series, The Essentials, Jr, as Movie Camp.
The TCM website states that, “Movie Camp was created to give
viewers a chance to find inspiration and fun in classic movies.”
Whereas The Essentials. Jr. had one wacky host in Bill
Hader, Movie Camp has two in William Joyce and
Brandon Oldenburg and a new animated opening created by the hosts. By
its very title, the previous show was aimed at a younger audience
than this incarnation, which seems to be aimed at teenagers and young
adults, along with us who are simply young at heart. I gave The
Essentials, Jr. an “A” for effort, but the idea of
showing black and white films and silents during the early hours of
the evening was a bad idea. As anyone with kids knows, it’s darned
near impossible to get them to watch black and white films, much less
a silent film. Yeah, good luck with that.
July
19: The hosts are committing the same error as their
predecessor with a Fritz Lang triple-header. Not only are all the
films in black and white, two of them are silent. Let’s hope
they’re aiming for an older audience this time. It begins
with Metropolis, a
1927 classic of the silent screen, which airs right after The
Numberlys, a 12-minute short from the hosts. It’s
about five friends in a world where there is no alphabet, only
numbers. They decide they want more from their black and white world
and set out to create each letter of the alphabet and bring color,
creativity, and jellybeans into their world. It sounds interesting
and I wish them the best of luck. The more people who can appreciate
film at an early age is something to be hoped for, especially today.
Following Metropolis,
the show is screening Fury (1936)
at 11:00 pm, and the silent classic Spione (Spies)
at 12:45 am.
July
26: Featured this evening is a double feature from Alexander
Korda, beginning with the wonderful The
Thief of Bagdad (1940) at 8:00, followed at 10:00
by the Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh adventure, That
Hamilton Woman (1941).
PSYCHOTRONICA
AND THE B HIVE
As
always, there’s a good selection in both the psychotronic and the
B-category.
July
16: At 3:30 pm, it’s the one and only Humphrey Bogart
starring in a film that would have crushed the dreams of lesser
actors. Thinking it over, there is nothing more improbable or
downright strange than the notion of Humphrey Bogart as a vampire.
And yet, there it is: The Return of
Dr. X from Warner’s in 1939. Now Bogart is not
your traditional vampire, with coffin, cape and fangs. No, he’s a
deceased killer brought back to life by a typical mad scientist of
the time, played by John Litel. To stay alive, Bogie needs blood –
not just any blood, but a rare blood type, and he’ll do anything to
obtain it. The film, also starring Wayne Morris and Dennis Morgan, is
framed more like a conventional mystery than an outright horror
flick. However, when Bogie’s not on the screen the film drags. He’s
clearly the show, pasty-faced with a white streak running down his
hair, ever so gently stroking a rabbit and speaking with a soft lisp.
He knows it’s a horrible film, but ever the pro, he tries to make
the best of it. Being that it’s his good friend, Vincent Sherman,
making his debut as a director, Bogie’s on his best behavior. How
bad a film is it? Bela Lugosi was offered the lead before Bogart and
he turned it down.
July
21: At 2:30 am it’s the film that almost derailed director
Michael Powell’s career, Peeping
Tom (1960). No one ever expected this from the
beloved director, and it almost scuttled his career. This is an
extremely uncompromising story of depravity, focusing on a serial
killer (Carl Boehm) who likes to film the terror on the faces of his
victims before doing them in. We learn later in the film that our
killer himself was exposed to similar terrors from his psychiatrist
father, who recorded his son’s reactions to fear. Despite the
sordid subject matter, Powell has made a sober, serious study of
sexual violence by using the audience as a voyeur, as the camera
positions us directly behind Mark, our killer, and his spectators,
making us in a sense his unwilling accomplices. This is an Essential
that will never be shown in that time slot, unless somehow Martin
Scorsese becomes Bob’s next co-host.
July
25: At 2:00 pm, it’s one of the classics of sci-fi and
also one of the most squeamish films ever made: The
Fly, from 1958. Al (later David) Hedison is a French
scientist whose experiment with teleportation goes horribly wrong,
transforming him into the title character. Vincent Price is along for
the ride as his brother, Francois. Watch for the extremely chilling
scene at the end.
BOMBA
TCM’s
Saturday tribute to Bomba the Jungle Boy is mercifully coming to an
end. On July 18, Killer
Leopard (1954) is airing. It's a moving story of
the jungle boy and his battle against a crazed big cat to help movie
star Beverly Garland locate her missing husband. It’s worth
watching for Garland. One of the great scream queens of B-moviedom,
she began her career in 1950 and was still finding her feet when she
made this classic.
On July
25, it’s Lord of the
Jungle (1955), the last of the series. By this
time, Johnny Sheffield, who played Bomba, was definitely long in the
tooth at the age of 24. But the film is deeper than the usual fare.
Seems a herd of rogue elephants is destroying entire villages.
Hunters led by Wayne Morris, Paul Picerni, and William Phipps want to
whack the entire herd of 100 elephants. Bomba opposes this idea,
suggesting that, because elephants are naturally docile, they are
being led astray, and they only need to kill the renegade leader,
Raju. While this is going on, Bomba somehow finds the time to advise
the niece of series regular Commissioner Barnes (Leonard Mudie) on
her problems with her fiancé back home. Perhaps Bomba was looking
forward to a career as a replacement for Dear Abby.
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