Cinéma Inhabituel for January 16-31

A Guide to the Interesting and Unusual on TCM

By Ed Garea

As we wind down the month and prepare for the annual Oscar deluge in February, we begin the column with a word from our own Jonathon Saia. He has launched an exciting new series of articles called The Auteurs. Each article will feature a film from a selected director and examine why it meets the standard of an Auteur. Jon is a superb student of film history and his series promises to both inform and entertain. We think you’ll like it as much as we do and will look forward to each new installment.

The Auteurs: A Tour Through American Cinema with Jonathon Saia

Auteur, French for “author,” is a term and later a movement coined to define a filmmaker whose work is so singular that the work is undeniably their own. 

For my new column, “The Auteurs,” I will be writing about 20 filmmakers – some legends, some under-appreciated – who have laid their views, values, and personal lives bare on screen for the world. As a student of cinema history, I have specifically chosen directors whose work with whom I am mostly unfamiliar in order to further educate myself in the process. 

In choosing which film from these prolific, iconic, and varied filmmakers’ ouevres to profile, I will mainly focus on projects that the directors have also written, produced, edited and/or shot themselves to fully claim them as its author. When at all possible, they will also be the star of the film. I have focused on American films made within and around the Hollywood Studio System because it is the world I know best; therefore, can give the uniqueness and splendor of the films a better context.

I hope this inspires you to take your own journey through cinema history. I look forward to discussing these films and their makers with you throughout the year

Enjoy!

Erich von Stroheim and Foolish Wives (1922) (Already posted. Read it here.)

John Cassavetes and Husbands (1970) (Already posted. Read it here.)

Charles Chaplin and Limelight (1952)

Maya Deren and Meshes in the Afternoon (1943)

Oscar Michaeux and The Symbol of the Unconquered: A Story of the Ku Klux Klan (1920)

Jack Smith and Flaming Creatures (1963)

Elaine May and A New Leaf (1971)

Herschel Gordon Lewis and Two Thousand Maniacs (1964)

Orson Welles and The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Melvin van Peebles and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Shirley Clarke and Portrait of Jason (1967)

Buster Keaton and Three Ages (1923)

Andy Warhol and Lonesome Cowboys (1968)

Doris Wishman and Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965)

Jerry Lewis and The Family Jewels (1965)

Barbara Hammer and Nitrate Kisses (1992)

Spencer Williams and The Blood of Jesus (1941)

D.W. Griffith and Orphans of the Storm (1921)

Kenneth Anger and Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)

Lois Weber and Too Wise Wives (1921)

AGNES VARDA

January 31: A double feature from the noted New Wave director kicks off at 2:30 am with the justly celebrated Cleo From 5 to 7. Corinne Marchand stars as a singer who is nervously awaiting the results of a cancer test, and the movie documents a nerve-racking two hours in the singer’s life as she waits for the results and the characters she meets. And yet, at the end, we are still left with a sense that the story has not been fully resolved. It is a brilliant study of a woman’s real life dilemma with no need for artificial drama. Watch for cameos by Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, Eddie Constantine and Sami Frey. 

Following at 4:15 am, the crap really hits the fan when married young carpenter Jean-Claude Drouot proposes making his mistress a part of the family in her 1966 Le Bonheur (Happiness). Francois (Drouot) is a carpenter living in a suburban village. He is happily married to lovely Therese (Claire Drouot), and they have two well-behaved young children. When Francois meets Emilie (Marie-France Boyer) and begins an affair with her, he finds that his happiness increases. “Happiness works by addition,” he tells Emilie. Therese can’t help but notice his newly-found joyfulness, and during a family country outing one afternoon, she questions him about it. He tells her all about Emilie and their affair, assuring Therese that the relationship is no threat to their family and that he has found more than enough happiness to satisfy everyone. While Therese appears to accept the situation, things are not what they seem on the surface, and the family's seemingly perfect existence becomes increasingly threatened. 

YASUJIRO OZU 

January 23: Beginning at 3:00 am comes two excellent family comedies from the celebrated director. First up is Equinox Flower (Higanbana), from 1958, a lovely film starring Shin Saburi as a businessman who excels at giving everyone else family advice, but when his own daughter (Ineko Arima) rejects his plans to arrange a marriage for her, he is totally at a loss. This forces him to examine his seemingly perfect life and he comes to see just how committed he is in his own life to traditional ways in a society that is changing. Built along one of Ozu’s favorite themes, the changing Japanese cultural landscape as the country modernizes, Ozu focuses on the effect it has on the adjustments a family must make between generations.

Compare its outlook with Ozu’s earlier film Early Summer (Bakushu), from 1951, which airs immediately afterward at 5:15 am. Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is a secretary. She’s single and livers happily with her mother and father. But she’s approaching 30, which sets off alarm bells in her family, as tradition dictates that women marry young. Her family feels that her independent spirit needs to be modulated by a husband. Noriko sees the fact that she works, has female friends with whom she is close, and has no need to rush into marriage as completely normal, but her married older brother (Chishu Ryu) sees it differently, as an impudence. When her boss suggests his 40-year old bachelor friend as a suitable husband, all the members of her family press her to accept. But Noriko is determined to follow her own course of action, without seeking their advice, and to their ultimate chagrin. As with all Ozu films, a simple scenario at first is actually way deeper than assumed and there are no easy choices in life. It’s a shame TCM is airing these classics at such a late hour, which means we’ll have to get out the recorders. These two films are far and above the other fare the stations providing that night and should rightly be viewed in prime time instead of being relegated to the late night ghetto.

ERMANNO OLMI

January 21: Talented Italian director Ermanno Olmi, who gave us the terrific and insightful Il Posto in 1961, gives us a 1978 film that many consider his masterpiece, The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L'albero degli zoccoli). This 1978 film will be shown at 2:15 am. Originally a three-part series made for television, it’s a perfect example of Olmi’s “slice of life" filmmaking. It focuses on a year in the lives of four peasant families sharecropping in Lombardy, a rural region in northern Italy, at the end of the 19th century. 

It was a subject Olmi knew well, based on stories his grandmother told him. For the director, a Catholic, a Marxist, and a peasant, the story was close to his heart and to his own history – a devastating look at a feudal system which forced peasants to beg for what should have been theirs by right. He knew the region and the people intimately, and the title itself refers to a peasant family that has a child so clever that they decide to send him to school instead of making him work the farm. This requires a great sacrifice, as the boy has to wake up very early and walk several miles to get to the school. One day his shoes break when returning home, but the family cannot afford to buy another pair. His father solves matters by chopping down a tree and fashioning a pair of clogs for his son so he can go to school. The consequences of this action will later have a heavy impact on the family. Don’t let the running time of a little over three hours deter you. With Olmi the devil in is the details and the film is a virtual immersion into the lives of those who got the short end of the stick. The film won the Palme d'Or as best film at the Cannes Film Festival, being one of the few winners to be selected unanimously by a festival jury.

OVERLOOKED CLASSICS

JANUARY 16: At 4:45 am TCM is airing King Vidor's 1934 utopian drama, Our Daily Bread. New Yorkers Mary and John Sims (Karen Morley and Tom Keene) are hard hit by the Depression. Out of work, the couple gets some badly needed help when Mary’s Uncle Anthony (Lloyd Ingraham) gives them a tract of fallow land to farm. They hit a rut when they realize they cannot farm it alone. 

When Chris Larsen (John Qualen), a dispossessed farmer from Minnesota, breaks down outside the Sims’s farm with a flat tire, John suggests to him that, in exchange for his farming expertise, he and his family live on his land and share in the farm's output. After Chris accepts, John realizes he can expand this offer to other destitute families and to his surprise he has many takers. Working together as a collective, the men till and plant the land, while the women tend to domestic chores, such as making homes out of hand-built shacks. But trouble comes when they realize that, because no mortgage payments have been made, the county sheriff is about to auction off the farm. At the auction, the group unites to intimidate any potential buyers, with the result that the sheriff is forced to sell the farm for $1.85 to a member of the collective. As the film continues other troubles arise, such as a severe drought, and nearly ruin not only the farm, but Mary and John’s marriage. Though the acting is nothing to write home about, and the reviews were mixed, the film remains as an interesting piece of Americana made outside the studio system.

PRE-CODE

January 17: Eleven Men and a Girl (1930), a college football comedy with Joe E. Brown and Joan Bennett at 3:15 pm.

January 18: Lionel Barrymore and Miriam Hopkins in the 1933 drama The Stranger’s Return (6:00 am). Paul Muni and Aline MacMahon in 1933’s The World Changes (7:45 am). Jean Muir and Donald Woods star in As the Earth Turns, from 1934 (9:30 am). Barbara Stanwyck is a mail order bride in William Wellman’s The Purchase Price (1932), with George Brent and Lyle Talbot (1:00 pm)

January 19: A Joel McCrea mini-marathon begins at 7:45 am with 1931’s Kept Husbands (w/Dorothy MacKaill). Following in order are The Sport Parade (1932, w/Marian Marsh. Read our essay on it here.) at 9:15 am; Rockabye (1932, w/Constance Bennett) at 10:30 am; Born to Love (1932, w/Constance Bennett) at 11:45 am); Bed of Roses (1933, w/Constance Bennett) at 1:15 pm; Chance at Heaven (1933, w/ Ginger Rogers) at 2:30 pm; and Gambling Lady (1934, w/Barbara Stanwyck) at 4:00 pm.

January 20: Young American Leslie Howard goes back to London in the time of the American Revolution and meets his ancestors in Berkeley Square (1933, 6:15 am).

January 22: Four films featuring prostitutes are on the bill. Dorothy MacKaill discovers that you can run but you can’t hide in William Wellman’s 1931 drama Safe in Hell (6:00 am). Helen Twelvetrees commits murder to protect her daughter’s honor in Millie (1931, 7:30 am). Garbo talks in the original Anna Christie, from 1930 with Marie Dressler (9:00 am); and Walter Huston is a missionary who tries to reform Joan Crawford in Rain (1932, 10:45 am).

January 24: Jewel thieves Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall find their relationship threatened when he turns on the charm to their newest victim, Kay Francis, in Ernst Lubitsch’s delightful 1932 comedy, Trouble in Paradise, at 11:00 pm). 

At 4:15 am. Jimmy Cagney, Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler headline Busby Berkeley’s Footlight Parade (1933).

PSYCHOTRONICA AND THE B HIVE

As always, there’s a good selection of psychotronic films. 

January 17: For those who like a little murder mystery with their baseball there’s MGM’s 1934 Death on the Diamond, which is airing at 10:15 am. Here’s the plot: “Pop” Clark (David Landau) owns and manages the St. Louis Cardinals. Things have not been going well on the playing field in recent years for the Cardinals, and if the Cards fail to win the pennant, Pop will be forced to sell the team to greedy business rival Henry Ainsley (John Hyams). His hopes rest with rookie pitcher Larry Kelly (Robert Young). Larry is befriended by wealthy Joseph Karnes (C. Henry Gordon), but he is later warned by sportswriter Jimmie Downey (Paul Kelly) to avoid Karnes, as notorious gambler. Though the Cards are given only odds of 20-1 to win the pennant, they get off to a strong start and are firmly entrenched in second place. This is not good for Karnes, who has bet $1 million against the Cardinals, and he tries to buy Larry off with a $10,000 bribe. But Larry informs Jimmie and Pop of Karnes’ dirty doings and the bribe is made public. Just as Pop thinks the team has turned the corner, someone begins murdering the players. A race is on to find the identity of the killer before he wipes out the Cardinals’ chances for the pennant. Can our hero Larry romance Pop's daughter, Frances (Madge Evans), win enough games, and still have time to stop a murderer before he strikes more than three times? Tune in and find out.

Move ahead to 4:30 am and it’s Jack Benny as an angel sent to destroy Earth with a blast from his trumpet in The Horn Blows at Midnight, from 1945. Benny is a trumpet player in a band who falls asleep and dreams that he's an archangel sent to earth to blow his horn at midnight, signaling the end of the world. Benny misses his cue, and spends the rest of the film trying to evade a pair of fallen angels who are out to stop him. Not nearly the turkey Benny made it out to be on his television show, it’s an entertaining screwball comedy with an excellent cast, good writing and top direction from Raoul Walsh.

January 19: Chester Morris and Lucille Ball are among the survivors of a jungle plane crash who realize their repaired airplane can only carry five passengers in 1939’s Five Came Back (1:00 am).

January 20: Farmer Max von Sydow finds himself framed for murder and railroaded into the nut house by his ambitious sister Liv Ullmann and her doctor husband, Per Oscarsson in Laslo Benedek's 1971 drama The Night Visitor, at 2:00 am. Immediately following at 4:00 am, watch Richard Burton embarrass himself in the execrable 1977 sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic.

January 25: Once Elvis hit it big in movies, rock stars were in demand. Roy Orbison is a Confederate spy who gives guitar lessons to the governor’s daughter and later robs a Union train before he learns the war is over in 1957’s The Fastest Guitar Alive, airing at 1:30 pm. Roy’s gimmick is a shotgun guitar that he uses to get out of scrapes.

At 6:15 pm it’s cowboys vs. dinosaurs in Ray Harryhausen’s The Valley of Gwangi (1969).

January 26: At 8:00 pm, children marooned on an island must create their own society in Lord of the Flies (1963). At 11:45 Ray Milland and his family flee the aftermath of a nuclear war in Panic in the Year Zero (1962). At 1:30 am comes the 1970 environmental holocaust film No Blade of Grass. And at 3:30 am, Jenny Agutter and Lucien John are two children lost in the Australian Outback in Walkabout (1971).

January 27: Nature strikes back, beginning at 2:30 am with a giant boar on the loose in Australia in Razorback (1984). Following at 4:15 am, John Huston and Shelley Winters are threatened by a giant octopus in the Godawful Tentacles (1977). With Henry Fonda in a mercifully brief appearance.

January 29: Warner Baxter is a master criminal who suffers amnesia as a result of a blow to the head and is reborn is as noted criminal psychologist in Columbia’s The Crime Doctor from 1943. It went on to spawn an entertaining series and can be seen at 12:30 pm.

January 30: Scheduled at 8:00 pm the one and only King Kong makes an appearance. The 1933 film has been imitated many times but never topped for adventure or realism.

SILENTS PLEASE

January 28: Young Edna Purviance, from the French countryside is set to marry her sweetheart, Carl Miller, but a misunderstanding causes her to move to Paris, where she becomes the mistress of wealthy Adolphe Menjou in Charlie Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris, which airs at Midnight. It was Chaplin’s first attempt at a serious dramatic feature, and though the critics loved it, it didn’t click with audiences and fared miserably at the box office. Chaplin reedited it, but waited until 1977 before reissuing it with a new musical score.

TRAIN WRECK THEATER

January 16: Tune in at the early hour of 6 am to catch Ronnie Reagan in the stirring 1938 social justice piece, Girls on Probation. For those who would rather be doing anything else, you can read about it here.