By Ed Garea
STAR
OF THE FORTNIGHT
Our
featured star this issue is the great Lee
Tracy, who makes his debut with “Summer Under the Stars”
with a day of his films on August 21.
Tracy
is the quintessential Pre-Code star. Renowned for his wiseguy
persona, impeccable timing and rapid-fire delivery, Tracy starred in
20 pictures between 1929 and 1933. However, in 1933, an incident in
Mexico City during the filming of Viva Villa cost Tracy his
job with MGM. He turned to freelancing, but as the years went on, the
quality of his films declined. It was the coming of television that
revived his career and Tracy made the most of it, starring in two
series during the ‘50s. He also returned to the stage and won
notice for his role as ex-President Art Hockstader (based on Harry
Truman) in Gore Vidal’s The Best Man. He reprised the
role in film in 1964, and was nominated for an Oscar as Best
Supporting Actor.
I’m
sorry to say that The Best Man is not among the
films bring run this day, but many of his Pre-Code gems are being
shown, including The Half Naked
Truth, with Lupe Velez (3:45 pm), Love
is a Racket (5:15 pm), Turn
Back the Clock (6:30 pm), Bombshell,
with Jean Harlow (8:00 pm), Blessed
Event, my favorite (10:00 pm), Dinner
at Eight (11:30 pm), Doctor
X (1:30 am), and Clear
All Wires (4:30 am).
Tracy
is one of the lost treasures of the Pre-Code era, packing the manic
energy, novelty, and innuendo of the era into his thin, redheaded
frame.
OUT
OF THE ORDINARY
August
16: On the day dedicated to Herbert
Marshall, two gems are running back to back. First up at
midnight is William Wyler’s remake of Somerset Maugham’s The
Letter, starring Bette Davis as Leslie Crosbie.
Marshall plays Bette’s husband, Robert Crosbie. Following at 1:45
am is the original 1929 version with Jeanne Eagels as Leslie and
Marshall as her lover, Geoffrey Hammond, whom she shoots in a lover’s
quarrel. It’s great to watch both back to back and compare the
versions, one Pre-Code, and the other shot under the new censorship.
The 1929 version is also important for film buffs, as it’s the
first - and only - surviving appearance of Jeanne Eagels in a talkie.
This version is also a helluva lot more frank. While I love Davis’
portrayal, I have to admit that Eagels has her beat by the proverbial
country mile, overcoming the handicaps of the primitive sound system
to deliver a performance that justifies her reputation as one of
Broadway’s most-accomplished actresses. A long-time abuser of
alcohol and drugs, Jeanne passed away on October 3, 1929, from an
overdose of heroin.
August
20: It’s Thelma
Ritter’s day, and the pick of the litter is her
wonderful turn in Sam Fuller’s 1953 noir, Pickup
on South Street (10:00 pm), starring Richard
Widmark as a pickpocket who steals the wrong purse. This one belongs
to a woman (Jean Peters) whose boyfriend (Richard Kiley), a Commie
spy, has hidden top-secret microfilm in it. Naturally the Reds are
eager to get the contents back and launch a manhunt for it. Ritter is
Moe, an alcoholic ex-pickpocket who will sell information to anyone -
except Communists. She garnered a well-earned nomination for Best
Supporting Actress for her efforts. This is a brutal - and compelling
- film where every character is a loser. For his part, J. Edgar
Hoover hated it and sought changes in the way his agents were
portrayed, but neither Fuller nor Fox Studio head Darryl Zanuck would
give in to his demands. This is a noir that’s definitely worth
one’s time.
August
26: The pick on a day devoted to the films of Sophia
Loren is the venerable Two
Women, from 1961. Sophia shines in this story of an
Italian mother who, along with her daughter, is raped by Allied
Moroccan soldiers during WW2. (Couldn’t make it the same way today.
Political Correctness, you know.) How they manage to survive and get
to safety is the story, which is wonderfully directed by Vittorio De
Sica.
August
29: It’s Joseph
Cotten’s day, and I would be remiss if I did not
mention The Third Man (1949),
with Orson Welles, showing at 12:15 am. Precious few movies are in a
league with this masterpiece of intrigue, set in the divided city of
Postwar Vienna. With a script by Graham Greene and direction by the
great Carol Reed, what seems to us at first as a mere film
noir is actually a complex look at morals, and that is why
it’s a masterpiece.
August
31: Alan
Ladd owns
the day, and, at 8:00 pm, one of the greatest Westerns of all time is
being shown: Shane.
Ladd is the enigmatic former gunslinger who comes to the aid of
homesteader Van Heflin, who is being harassed by evil land baron
Emile Meyer. When Ladd drives off Meyer’s gunsels, the baron
responds by hiring creepy gunslinger Jack Palance (in an
unforgettable performance.) The film presents an image of a mythic
West that in all likelihood existed only in the imagination, but who
cares? This is Hollywood, and Hollywood at it best. Jean Arthur and
young Brandon De Wilde are excellent as Van Heflin’s wife and son.
PSYCHOTRONICA
August
21: At 1:30 am, it’s Lee Tracy in Doctor
X. He’s a reporter investigating a series of
gruesome murders at a medical college headed by the film’s red
herring, Lionel Atwill. The two-strip Technicolor process only adds
to the film’s eeriness as Tracy pokes around corners and looks into
crevices in search of the killer. Though it looks somewhat dated,
made in 1932, it’s great fun. Horror fans will love it. Mystery
fans will love it. Lee Tracy fans will love it. Fay Wray fans will
love it. Get my point?
August
27: It’s Edmond O’Brien in three great psychotronic classics.
First up at 8:00 am is The
Hitch-Hiker (1953), an excellent noir directed by
Ida Lupino. O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy are two businessmen on a
hunting trip who make the mistake of their lives when they give a
ride to William Talman, who turns out to be a murderous psychopath on
the run. Lupino brought the same intensity that had marked her career
as an actress to this low-budget film, basing it on the real-life
story of serial killer William Cook. It makes for first-class
entertainment and a must of lovers of noir.
Next,
at 6:00 pm, O’Brien is a federal agent tailing psycho mommy-addled
gangster Jimmy Cagney in Raoul Walsh’s White
Heat. Cagney is superb as Cody Jarrett and O’Brien’s
not too far behind as Treasury Agent Hank Fallon, who has been
assigned to infiltrate Jarrett’s gang. It’s a non-stop
roller-coaster of one great scene after another with a stellar
supporting cast featuring Virginia Mayo as Jarrett’s duplicitous
wife and Margaret Wycherly in a performance of a lifetime as Ma
Jarrett.
Following
at 8:00 pm is the role O’Brien is best known for, that of
accountant Frank Bigelow in the noir classic, D.O.A. (1950).
Bigelow has only a few hours to track down who gave him a slow-acting
poison, and why. We are hooked right from the opening scene where he
walks into a police station to report a murder - his own. They do not
come any better than this one.
August
28: Looking for some pure escapism? Try Journey
to the Center of the Earth, from 1959, screening at
8:00 pm. Based on a Jules Verne story, James Mason stars with Pat
Boone and Arlene Dahl as explorers who discover a path to the center
of the Earth in an Icelandic volcano. It’s a bit silly at times,
but that only adds to the fun. It’s the sort of film they don’t
make any longer: a good, old-fashioned adventure.
August
30: Here’s a good one starring Betty Grable, of all
people: I Wake Up Screaming.
(And wouldn’t you, if you found out you were co-starring with
Victor Mature?) This 1941 Whodunit stars Grable and Mature as
suspects in the murder of Grable’s sister. They are pursued
throughout by dogged detective Laird Cregar, who steals the film. It
airs at 11:45 pm.
August
31: A double-dip of psychotronic noir from
Alan Ladd. At 12:45 pm, it’s Dashiell Hammett’s The
Glass Key. This remake of the 1935 original has Ladd
as the henchman to political boss Brian Donlevy. Donlevy is backing a
reform candidate for governor because he’s in love with the
candidate’s daughter, played by alluring Veronica Lake. When
Donlevy emerges as the leading candidate in the death of the
candidate’s son, it’s up to Ladd to clear his boss, all the while
falling for Donlevy’s girl.
At
10:15 pm it’s the picture that put Alan Ladd on the star map, This
Gun For Hire (1942). Ladd is stone-cold gunman
Raven, who seeks revenge when his treacherous employer tries to frame
him for the crime. The screenplay by Albert Maltz and W.R. Burnett is
from Graham Greene’s novel, A Gun For Sale. Check my
Best Bet in next week's TiVo Alert for more on this wonderful noir.
Speaking
of Ladd, it would have been nice of TCM to show more of his earlier
efforts, especially his 1939 picture, Hitler
- Beast of Berlin, which he made for PRC predecessor
Producer’s Distributing Corporation and director Sam Newfield.
Maybe soon, huh?
RECOMMENDED
WEBSITE: Do you like bad movies as much as I do? Well, I
have a great site for you. It’s called Bad Movie Night Cinema and
can be accessed at badmovienightcinema.com.
You
just gotta love any site that posts rules such as these for judging
its product:
1.
The film must be devoid of coolness and charm, except the coolness
and charm due to its being so godawful.
2. It
should inspire some sense of anger in normal people, the kind of
anger that can only be deadened by alcohol.
3. It
should be cast with people who clearly are not professional actors.
At least some of the cast must be such bad actors that the question
is raised as to whether they have ever seen a film.
4. All
special effects should be laughable. It isn’t enough to merely use
a string to lift the rocket…you should be able to see that the SFX
person was too lazy to cut away the excess.
5. All
aspects of the production should appear to be done by amateurs. It
should arouse the belief that cameras and lights were handed to
chimpanzees hopped up on Mountain Dew.
6. If
the producers try to show a moral to the film, it should benefit no
one. If anything, you might be a worse person for having watched it.
7. There
must be moments in the movie that are so bad that the video must be
stopped and rewound to confirm how bad the scene was. In some cases,
no amount of review will relieve the disbelief.
8. At
the end of the movie, the viewer should feel emotionally damaged. The
way to measure that damage is to see how long it takes the viewer to
look at a clock or watch to determine how much of their life was just
wasted.
As
Olson Johnson said in Blazing
Saddles,
“Now, who can argue with that?” That’s why I urge everyone to
pay a visit and enjoy the show.
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