TCM TiVo Alert for September 8-14

TCM TiVo ALERT

For

September 8–September 14

DAVID’S BEST BETS:

SHIP OF FOOLS (September 8, 2:00 am): Incredible acting performances highlight this compelling drama about a ship with all kinds of people heading for Nazi Germany in the early 1930s. The cinematography is wonderful and whoever cast this 1965 film did a brilliant job. The interaction between Oskar Werner as the ship's dying doctor and Simone Signoret as a drug-addicted Spanish countess on her way to a German prison, is touching and tragic. They were nominated for Best Lead Actor and Actress Oscars and the movie received a Best Picture nomination. It won two Oscars (including for Best Cinematography, Black and White) and was nominated for three more. Oscars certainly aren't the be-all and end-all when it comes to quality films, but the Academy got it right with this movie. In her last film, Vivien Leigh plays an aging divorced woman trying unsuccessfully to relive her youth. Also, great work by Michael Dunn for his "Greek chorus" performance as a philosophical dwarf (he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor). We know that when the ship docks in Germany that life for everyone aboard will change forever and almost certainly not for the better. The film captures that feeling of helplessness and/or ignorance that will follow the characters long after the movie fades to black.

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (September 10, 7:15 am): Of the numerous Hunchback films, including two animated versions, this is clearly the best. Charles Laughton is brilliant as Quasimodo, the hunchback bell-ringer at the Notre Dame cathedral, in this 1939 adaption of the classic book. The story is familiar yet Laughton is so exceptional that despite knowing what's going to happen, you can't help but enjoy a master at his craft. Laughton gave cinephiles many wonderful performances and this role ranks among his finest. Also of note is Maureen O'Hara's Esmeralda, the free-spirited gypsy who is loved by Quasimondo, and Cedric Hardwicke as the deliciously-evil Frollo. Quasimondo's rescue of Esmeralda from the gallows and screaming "sanctuary" as he protects her in the church is an iconic moment in cinematic history.

ED’S BEST BETS:

RIO BRAVO (Sept. 12, 1:30 am): Howard Hawks produced and directed this wonderful Western with John Wayne as a sheriff who must prevent a killer with wealthy family connection from escaping his jail. Wayne can only enlist a drunken Dean Martin, gimpy Walter Brennan and tenderfoot Ricky Nelson to help him. Oh yeah, he also has the beautiful Angie Dickinson on his side. Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman wrote the script. The French critics fell over themselves praising this when it came out, but never mind, it’s a classic anyway.

BOMBSHELL (Sept. 14, 10:30 am): A tour de force by star Jean Harlow in this no holds barred send-up of Hollywood stardom. Lee Tracy is the studio’s publicity agent who makes her life hell with his schemes and his meddling. Harlow’s character, Lola Burns, is modeled after Clara Bow, but it’s not too far removed from Harlow’s own life. Frank Morgan is superb as her father, the patriarch of her boorish family of entitled spongers. But Harlow is the reason to tune in. She shows a brilliant flair for comedy with rapid-fire delivery of lines and adds to the film’s bite. All in all, an insightful look at how both a studio and the star’s own relatives exploit and take advantage of her talent and stardom.

WE DISAGREE ON ... COOLEY HIGH (September 11, 8:00 pm)

ED: B. Cooley High has often been referred to, unfairly, as the “black American Graffiti.” It’s better than American Graffiti and represents a huge step forward in African-American cinema as it puts an end to the “Blaxploitation” era by showing that young African-Americans can indeed live normal lives and get up to the hijinx their white counterparts have been doing for decades. Both the cast, with standout performances from leads Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, and the direction by Michael Schultz are superb. Writer Eric Monte (who conceived The Jeffersons, and brought about Good Times with Michael Evans) has written a warm, funny tale of young kids enjoying life to its fullest until two of the group get mixed up with a pair of career criminals and are falsely arrested for stealing a Cadillac. It’s a bittersweet journey through the maze known as high school, and the cast pulled it off admirably.

DAVID: A. What I love and admire about Cooley High is its honesty in telling a funny, tragic and poignant story about two close friends – Preach (Glynn Turman) and Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) – enjoying life as seniors at Edwin G. Cooley Vocational High School in Chicago in the mid-1960s. The two have big dreams though they are always looking for a good time with women, drinking, getting high and shooting dice. While they are barely in class during the movie, the two have big dreams. Preach hopes to become a writer while Cochise's ticket gets punched for a college scholarship as he's one of the best basketball players in the city. The funniest scene in this 1975 film has the two of them on a joy ride with two older guys from the neighborhood who steal a car. Preach, who often makes up elaborate stories, convinces everyone he's an excellent driver. He's behind the wheel when the vehicle pulls up next to a police car, and he panics. They end up on a high-speed chase, finally eluding the cops in a warehouse only to have Preach crash the car into another vehicle. Everything is OK until the two are pulled out of class accused of grand theft auto. The two guys who stole the car are busted and while out on bail, they look for Preach and Cochise mistakenly thinking the boys squealed on them to the police. The little adventure results in a tragic ending. This all occurs with an amazing soundtrack largely consisting of Motown songs. When the film ends with the Four Tops' "(Reach Out) I'll Be There," I admit to tearing up even though I've seen the movie at least a dozen times. Based on this film, Hilton-Jacobs was almost immediately cast as Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington on the Welcome Back, Kotter TV show. Already a blaxploitation veteran, that is where Turman primarily remained until the genre died out. He showed up more than a decade later on the awful A Different World TV show, spending five seasons as a college math teacher/retired Army colonel. The first time I saw the words "Cooley High" was during the closing credits of the TV show What's Happening!! (yes, it has two exclamation points). The credits said the show was based on Cooley High even though the only similarities were Preach and Raj, the show's lead character, both wore black plastic-frame glasses and the casts were primarily black.

For the complete list of films on the TCM TiVo Alert, click here.