TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
February
1–February 7
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
BAD
DAY AT BLACK ROCK (February
2, 3:30 pm): This 1955 film combines the suspense
of an Alfred Hitchcock thriller with the action of a great
martial-arts movie done in a Western style. The cast is filled with
all-stars, led by Spencer Tracy playing a mysterious stranger with
the use of only one arm. Robert Ryan is the main bad guy, aided by
Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine, along with Dean Jagger as the town's
alcoholic sheriff and Walter Brennan as its undertaker. It's obvious
from the moment the stranger, John J. Macreedy (Tracy), gets off the
train in Black Rock that, well, it's going to be a bad day there.
Macreedy has a reason to be in town. That reason and his presence in
Black Rock results in a lot of havoc for the townsfolk. The best
scene is when Macreedy, using martial arts and only one hand, beats
up Coley Trimble (played by Borgnine in my favorite role of his in
cinema) in a bar fight. He only hits Trimble about five times and the
fight lasts for about two minutes, but it's incredibly effective. See
for yourself. A
smart story with excellent action and great acting.
IT
HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (February
5, 11:45 pm): An absolute classic, directed by Frank Capra,
about a runaway snobby socialite (Claudette Colbert) and a
reporter (Clark Gable). This movie really put the two actors on
the movie map even though they both already had about 20 credits to
their names. It's a wonderful screwball romantic comedy with great
chemistry between the pair. The story takes place over more than
one night despite the title. It's a wonderful film with two of
cinema's most famous scenes. The first has Colbert successfully
hitching a ride, after Gable fails, by lifting up her skirt and
showing her leg. The
other has the two of them sharing a room and Gable putting up a
blanket to separate them, calling it "the walls of Jericho,"
which ties in nicely at the end of the film. Released in 1934, it has
aged well.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
FORBIDDEN
PLANET (February 2, 1:45 pm): It’s one of the best
sci-fi films ever made, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest,
though it seems somewhat dated today. Leslie Nielsen leads a mission
to plant Altair 4 to find out the fate of an expedition that landed
there 20 years ago. What they discover is that one man (Walter
Pidgeon) and his daughter (Anne Francis) are left of the original
expedition. Pidgeon leads them on a fantastic tour of a lost
civilization that populated the planet years ago. Though way ahead of
Earth in technology, they were suddenly wiped out one night while on
the verge of their “greatest discovery.” Then when crewmembers
begin dying mysteriously, a search is conducted for their killer.
What they ultimately discover about the monster and the planet keeps
us in thrall. Don’t let the Shakespeare connection throw you off;
for sci-fi fans, it’s a must. And for those that aren’t so sure,
it’s still an intelligent movie nonetheless.
JOAN
OF PARIS (February 3, 1:45 am): This is a different
kind of war film, and one of the first to celebrate the Resistance in
France. Joan (Michele Morgan) is a waitress who accidentally gets
caught up in the pursuit of five RAF pilots, who are stranded in
France, and their Free French leader, Paul Lavallier (Paul Henried),
who must get them out of the country. It won’t be easy, because the
Gestapo, led by Herr Funk (Laird Cregar), is hot on their trail. As
events build, Funk gets Joan in a compromising position: if she
betrays the fliers, he’ll save Paul. But Joan betrays Funk and
leads everyone to safety, all the while knowing that she will die
because of her decision. It’s a film that boasts several excellent
performances. Cregar is magnificent as the Gestapo chief, oozing
villainy, and Morgan is wonderful as the doomed Joan. Look for Alan
Ladd in a bit part as “Baby,” one of the downed pilots.
WE
DISAGREE ON ... THE FORTUNE COOKIE (February 7, 12:15 pm)
ED:
B+. Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond have joined forces
once again to produce another comedy masterpiece. Walter Matthau is
right on target as an ambulance-chasing shyster who convinces his
cameraman brother-in-law Jack Lemmon to sue for damages after a
football player crashes into him and sends the unfortunate Lemmon to
the hospital. Lemmon is fine after his near-tragedy, but Matthau
convinces him to fake various injuries so he can sue everyone
concerned for negligence. Lemmon is not so sure about the plan, but
after he sees that this could lead him to get back with his ex-wife,
he goes whole hog for the scheme. However, what Lemmon did not
anticipate is that the Cleveland Brown (Ron Rich) who ran into
him feels absolutely lousy about what happened and is beginning
to find solace in the bottle. This, in turn, magnifies Lemmon’s
guilt. This was the first pairing of Matthau and Lemmon and the
chemistry between the two is fantastic. This was also Matthau’s
breakout role as a comic actor and won him the Best Supporting Actor
Oscar. I’ve often wondered – has Billy Wilder ever made a bad
movie?
DAVID:
A+. This is one of those films in which the only
disagreement between the two of us is the level to which we love this
movie. In Ed's case, The Fortune Cookie is a B+
movie. A very good grade, but it's an A+ to me. It's the first time
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon team up and it's their best. It's also
Billy Wilder's finest and most clever comedy. It's cynical, somewhat
dark while also hysterically funny. The plot is simple enough: Lemmon
is Harry Hinkle, a rather pathetic TV cameraman, who gets knocked
silly by a Cleveland Browns player during a game on the sidelines.
His brother-in-law is an unscrupulous attorney "Whiplash"
Willie Gingrich (Matthau) who convinces Harry to fake more serious
injuries to get a fat fraudulent settlement from an insurance
company. (Wilder apparently had a thing for insurance company fraud
as a plot.) Matthau steals the film as he takes the insurance scheme
further and further until poor naive Harry finally stands up for
himself. There are excellent performances by Ron Rich as Boom Boom
Jackson, the Browns player who accidentally runs into Harry, Judi
West as Harry's conniving ex-wife Sandy, and Cliff Osmond as the
insurance investigator who questions the severity of the injury. And
to answer Ed's question about a bad Billy Wilder film, you have to go
to his last one – the lifeless Buddy Buddy from
1981 that also stars Lemmon and Wilder. Most either didn't see it or
forget it, which is a good thing as it was one of the very few misses
in Wilder's career.
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