A
Guide to the Rare and Unusual on TCM
By
Ed Garea
STAR
OF THE MONTH
The
Star of the Month this May is Sterling Hayden, who made
quite a mark on and off the screen. Hayden made his mark in action
films, whether film noir or Westerns, and managed quite a long and
successful career. Off the screen, his military service, working for
OSS in World War II, took him to Yugoslavia, where he worked with
Tito’s partisans. This close affiliation led him to join the
Communist Party briefly after the war, and he was active in
supporting the Communist-controlled painter’s union in its quest to
absorb other unions. Called before the House on Un-American
Activities Committee, Hayden confessed his past affiliations and
named names. Hayden’s then-wife, Betty de Noon, said that the
Committee, having a list of all known Communists in the U.S., already
knew the names her husband provided. In later years, Hayden
repudiated his cooperation with the committee, stating in his
autobiography that he has held himself in contempt ever since.
May
6: Featured this night are some of Hayden’s better-known
films and performances beginning at 8:00 pm with The
Killing (1956) for director Stanley Kubrick.
Following at 9:45 is John Huston’s masterful The
Asphalt Jungle (1950). At 11:45, it’s Crime
Wave (1954), a neat little B from Warner Bros.
with Hayden as a cop. The last noteworthy film airs at 1:15 am, the
underrated Suddenly (1954),
with Hayden as a sheriff of a small California town (named Suddenly)
who must confront Frank Sinatra and his band of assassins, who are in
town to kill the president.
May
13: At 8:00 pm, it’s the wonderfully ridiculous Zero
Hour! (1957). A flight crew suddenly falls ill to
ptomaine poisoning during a flight from Winnipeg to Vancouver. The
only man capable of taking over is ex-pilot Ted Stryker (Dana
Andrews), but his experiences as a pilot in the war have given him a
distinct fear of flying. If this all sounds familiar, it is, for it
formed the plot of the hilarious Airplane! (1980).
Hayden plays the Robert Stack role in this film.
The
rest of the night is so-so, with The
Golden Hawk (1952), a pirate saga with Rhonda
Fleming as a female pirate, at 9:30; Ten
Days to Tulara (1958), a dud thriller, at 11:15
pm; and the Korean War actioner, Battle
Taxi (1955), at 12:45 am.
FRIDAY
NIGHT SPOTLIGHT
The
Friday Night Spotlight for May is an excellent one, devoted to the
films of Orson Welles. This is great, because it’s almost like
having two Stars of the Month, except for the fact that, as a
director, and sometimes actor, Welles wasn’t that prolific.
May
1: The evening begins with what are arguably Welles’s two
greatest films – Citizen Kane (1941)
at 8:00 pm, and The Magnificent
Ambersons (1942) immediately following at 10:15
pm. Even though Ambersons was taken away from
Welles by the studio, re-edited, and new scenes were shot, enough of
Welles’ original vision comes across in this portrait of
turn-of-the-century Midwestern America.
At
midnight, it’s Welles as an actor in the rarely seen Jane
Eyre (1944) from 20th Century
Fox. Welles plays the mysterious Mr. Rochester and Joan Fontaine is
the title character in this slow-moving adaptation of Charlotte
Bronte’s classic novel.
Lastly,
at 1:45 am, we’re in for a real treat. It’s Too
Much Johnson (1938), a farce based on portions of
a 1912 play by William Gillette, a prominent actor/dramatist best
known for his stage interpretation of Sherlock Holmes. Most film fans
will say that Citizen Kane was Welles’s
directorial debut, but the truth is that he directed three other
films before making Kane, and this is one of them.
Welles never completed the film, and even if he had it wouldn’t
have been shown as a regular movie, as it was meant to be part of a
stage production by the Mercury Theatre, the New York troupe founded
by Welles and producer John Houseman. The film had been considered
lost for years, but in 2013, 10 reels were discovered at a warehouse
in Pordenone, Italy, a major center of film culture renowned for its
annual festival of silent cinema. The footage was sent to the George
Eastman House in the U.S., where the film was stabilized and
transferred to modern film stock. I’ll be setting my recorder to
capture this one for sure.
May
8: More familiar Welles classics air tonight, led off at
8:00 pm by the restored version of his 1958 noir, Touch
of Evil. At 10:00 pm, it’s the wonderful The
Lady From Shanghai (1948), with Welles as a
drifter who gets tangled up with a corrupt tycoon (Everett Sloane)
and his beautiful wife (Rita Hayworth).
At
11:45 pm, it’s the overrated Mr.
Arkadin (1962), directed by and starring Welles
as a famous tycoon with a shady past that a blackmailer is attempting
to exploit. Lastly, at 1:45 am, it’s a film Welles co-wrote (with
Joseph Cotten), co-produced, and was said to have directed: Journey
Into Fear (1943). It’s yet another project RKO
took away from him, and in later years he denied directing it. But
there are definite signs that Welles did at least direct some scenes,
as they bear his unmistakable touch. Everything aside, it’s a
well-written and acted thriller, and those who haven’t yet seen it
should take it in.
May
15: Anyone for Shakespeare? Airing tonight – three of
Welles’s adaptations of Shakespeare. They are interesting, to say
the least, and very rarely shown on television. Starting at 8:00 pm,
it’s Chimes at Midnight,
aka Falstaff (1965),
with Welles as Shakespeare’s knight errant. Welles draws mainly
from Henry IV and adds scenes from other plays to complete a portrait
of the larger-then-life Falstaff; with Jeanne Moreau, John Gielgud,
Margaret Rutherford, and Fernando Rey.
At
10:15 pm, it’s Welles’s take on Othello
– The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice (1952)
with Welles as the celebrated Moorish general and Micheal MacLiammoir
brilliant as the scheming Iago. Also with Suzanne Cloutier as
Desdemona, and Doris Dowling as Bianca. Look for Joseph Cotten and
Joan Fontaine in bit parts.
At
midnight, it’s Macbeth (1948),
from Republic Studios, believe it or not. Welles is the Scottish
warlord, and Jeanette Nolan (in her film debut) shines as Lady
Macbeth. It’s a moody and atmospheric adaptation shot in bizarre
sets to emphasize its theatricality. I’ve never forgotten it since
I first saw it as a teenager, my first exposure to Shakespeare.
OUT
OF THE ORDINARY
May
3: At 2:00 am, it’s director Akira Kurosawa’s
classic Seven Samurai (1954).
There’s little I can add to what’s already been said about this
adventure about a 16th century Japanese village that
hires samurais to protect them from bandits. Of course, it was remade
in America as The Magnificent Seven in 1960,
but it has also influenced scores of filmmakers from Sam Peckinpah to
Arthur Penn.
May
9: Tune in at 12:45 am for James Whale’s original Show
Boat (1936), with Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, and
the magnificent Paul Robeson (singing “Old Man River”). It’s
miles ahead of the tepid 1951 MGM remake. It might seem unusual for
Whale, who specialized in horror films, to direct this musical, but
he did and it was an excellent job: the film is paced well, never
dragging for a minute, and his attention to detail gives us a better
look at the setting.
May
10: From Russia, it’s The
Ascent (1977), the last film from renowned Soviet
director Larisa Shepitko and a film I’ve been yearning to see for
years. It’s a haunting drama of two Russian partisans who are
captured by Nazi-friendly Belarusians. During their captivity, one of
them experiences a spiritual awakening. It contains all the horrors
associated with the Great Patriotic War, but it also contains a lot
of religious symbolism and has many references to the Crucifixion,
unusual for a film made in the Soviet Union at the time. I’m
looking forward to seeing it and I hope other cinephiles are, too.
May
12: At 5:45 pm is an interesting film that would have been
much better if only they had changed leads. The film is The
Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), a modernized
adaptation of French playwright Jean Giraduox’s 1943 satire on the
Occupation. It concerns a woman named Countess Aurelia, who drifts
through life in late ‘60s Paris as if it were still 1919, carrying
a parasol and wearing oversized picture hats loaded with veiling.
Though she’s a definite oddity, the locals look upon her warmly, as
she is a model of civility in an increasingly uncivil world. When she
gets wind of a plot by powerful men to level Paris in the belief that
it’s sitting on a vast pool of oil, she rallies her fellow citizens
and vows to stop all the madness and greed. The problem with the film
is not only its modernized setting, but also its lead. Katharine
Hepburn plays Countess Aurelia, and she captures nothing of the
character’s zany optimism of life, instead sticking out like a sore
foot. The Countess should have been played by one of the supporting
cast, Giuletta Masina, who is totally wasted in the small role of
Gabrielle. Masina has the requisite touch for playing such a complex
character within the confines of the delicacy envisioned by the
playwright. Where Hepburn galumphs, Masina would charm.
May
15: Following
the Welles Shakespeare festival, stay tuned for Akira Kurosawa’s
take on Macbeth, Throne
of Blood (1957).
It’s the Bard in a samurai setting with a brilliant performance
from Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune as the Macbeth character,
Taketoki Washizu. I can safely say that nothing like it has ever
appeared before or since on the screen. It’s one of the enduring
masterpieces of cinema. Look especially for the finale. It’s
followed at 4:00 am by another Kurosawa saga, Yojimbo (1961),
with Mifune as a traveling samurai who happens upon a town in the
midst of a war with different factions fighting each other for
control. Mifune plays both sides against each other and brings peace
to the town. It owes a lot to Westerns that Kurosawa had seen from
America, and would itself be recycled by Sergio Leone as Fistful
of Dollars in
1964.
PSYCHOTRONICA
AND THE B HIVE
May
2: At 10:30 am, TCM begins unspooling the “Bomba the
Jungle Boy” series with the initial entry, Bomba
the Jungle Boy (1949). Bomba was Monogram’s
answer to Tarzan and even employed Johnny Sheffield, who was Boy in
the Tarzan series, as Bomba. This was the first of 12 such Bomba
adventures, the series lasting through 1955. Ford Beebe directed and
wrote many of the screenplays for the series, which was based on the
“Bomba” novels by Roy Rockwood. The films were aimed at the
Saturday matinee crowd and were a gold mine for Monogram before the
growing programming of television convinced many kids to stay home
instead of going to the theater. They’re pretty bad, but if you can
be patient and give them a try . . . they’re still pretty bad. In
the opener, Bomba helps a photographer (Onslow Stevens) and his
daughter on safari.
At
2:00 am, it’s Linda Blair in the incredibly cheesy Roller
Boogie (1979). Imagine, someone actually tried to
make a disco film on roller skates and it’s even worse then the
description, thanks to some awesome non-acting from star Blair.
May
4: At 6:00 pm, it’s Two
on a Guillotine (1965) from Warner Bros. Connie
Stevens has to spend a week in a creepy old mansion in order to
collect her inheritance. Cesar Romero hams it up as her magician
father, thought dead, but who is alive, insane, and wants to kill his
daughter. It’s William Castle without any of the fun.
May
9: Bomba returns in The
Lost Volcano (1950). In this entry he fights
greedy African guides who are after hidden treasure.
At
2:00 am, it’s one of the most publicized, and profitable,
psychotronic films ever. From none other than director Larry Cohen
comes It’s Alive (1974).
Somehow, Cohen got Warner Bros. to co-produce and release this film.
It concerns a couple who want to have a baby, and an overdose of
fertility drugs results in a monster baby being born. The creature
doesn’t waste any time killing the doctor and nurses in the
delivery room. Later it attacks a milk truck. But the most shocking
thing about the film is its PG rating.
May
11: TCM devotes this evening to the theme of “Biker Gang”
films, starting at 8:00 pm with Tom Laughlin’s The
Born Losers (1967), the film that introduces the
character of Billy Jack to an unsuspecting world. At 10:00 pm, it’s
the original biker gang flick, Stanley Kramer’s The
Wild One (1953), with Marlon Brando and biker
rival Lee Marvin competing to see who can be the best slob actor. At
11:30 pm, it’s Jack Nicholson and Adam Rourke in Hell’s
Angels on Wheels (1967), a lame attempt to cash
in on Roger Corman’s successful The Wild Angels of
a year before. This film actually features some real Hell’s Angels,
including leader Sonny Barger. At 1:30 am, it’s the psychotronic
classic, Easy Rider (1969),
followed immediately at 3:15 am by The
Glory Stompers (1967), another attempt to cash in
on The Wild Angels, with a pre-Easy
Rider Dennis Hopper, and Jody McCrea, son of Joel and
veteran of the Beach Party films. It also stars Sally Field’s
stepfather, Jock Mahoney as one of the bikers. Finally at the wee
hour of 4:45 am, it’s Devil’s
Angels (1967), a rather lame re-working from AIP
of The Wild One, and starring John Cassavetes, of
all people.
May
13: A rarely seen “comedy” from RKO airs at 12:15.
It’s Genius at Work,
with the incredibly lame comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney.
Brown and Carney are two radio sleuths that get involved in the hunt
for a killer called “The Cobra.” Lionel Atwill is the killer, and
Bela Lugosi is wasted as his sidekick.
May
15: An entire morning and afternoon of psychotronic films.
Those worth your time are Five
Million Years to Earth (1968, 7:30 am); Village
of the Damned (1961, 9:15 am); The
Giant Behemoth (1959, noon); These
Are the Damned (1962, 3:15 pm), and X
the Unknown (1956, 5:00 pm).
No comments:
Post a Comment