A
Guide to the Rare and Unusual on TCM
By
Ed Garea
CONSTANCE
CUMMINGS
An
actress who got her start in regional stock theater back in 1926,
Constance Cummings has 58 movie and TV credits to her name, yet she
is mostly forgotten today. She made her film debut as Mary Brady in
Howard Hawks’ 1931 prison drama, The Criminal Code. She
worked steadily during the ‘30s, appearing in such films
as Attorney for the Defense, American
Madness, Movie Crazy, Washington
Merry-Go-Round (1932), The Mind Reader, Broadway
Through a Keyhole (1933), and Remember Last
Night? (1935). Her most famous role was as Ruth Condomine in
David Lean’s 1945 drama, Blithe Spirit.
TCM
is honoring her on August 24, showing many of the films listed above,
save for the latter two. We recommend the following: Haunted
Honeymoon (1940, 7:30 am), The
Mind Reader (9:00 am), The
Big Timer (1932, 3:30 pm), Attorney
for the Defense (5:00 pm), Broadway
Through a Keyhole (8:00 pm), Night
After Night (1932, 9:45 pm), famous as the film
that introduced Mae West, American
Madness (11:15
pm), Doomed Cargo (1936,
12:45 am), Movie Crazy (2:15
am), and The Criminal Code (4:15
am). There are a few other Pre-Code films of hers playing through the
day for those fans of the sub-genre.
OUT
OF THE ORDINARY
August
17: Director
Samuel Fuller’s excellent war drama set in Korea, The
Steel Helmet (1951),
starts at 6 pm.
August
18: A rarely seen, but interesting, film is airing at 9:45
pm, Go Into Your Dance (1935),
starring the real-life couple of Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler in their
first – and last – pairing. Al is a singer trying to make a
comeback who teams with dancer Keeler. Along the way, however, he
gets enmeshed with gangster Barton MacLane. Solid support comes from
Glenda Farrell and the irrepressible Patsy Kelly. Though the film was
a solid hit, there would be no more pairings of Keeler and Jolson
because of Al’s enormous ego. After seeing the comment cards from
test audiences, he told his wife that "They don't want to see me
anymore. They want us.” Al just couldn’t bear not
being Number One.
The film is wonderful, with Al at the top of his
game belting out such tunes as “Mammy, I’ll Sing to You,”
“About a Quarter to Nine,” and the great “Latin From
Manhattan,” which was nominated for an Oscar for Bobby Connolly's
masterful dance direction. Another reason to tune in is to see the
great Helen Morgan. She was the queen of the torch singers in the
‘20s, but years of alcoholism had taken its toll. She performs the
ballad "The Little Things You Used To Do," while in her
customary pose of being sprawled on the piano. A mere five years
later she would be dead from cirrhosis of the liver.
August
23: On a day devoted to French sex kitten Brigitte Bardot,
there are quite a few films to choose from, but none more important
than the one airing at 6:15 pm. And
God Created Woman, a 1956 production directed by her
then-husband Roger Vadim. Though it’s a silly exploitation film
seemingly based around Bardot’s talent of shredding her clothes,
it’s importance lies in the fact that it was an “art house” hit
here in America, and more than any other film, started the movement
that eventually brought down the hated Production Code.
Watching it
today, we quickly pick up on two points: Bardot can’t act and Vadim
can’t direct. But the real point is that Bardot didn’t have to
act – all she had to do was walk around half-naked and just be
Bardot. No other actress so exuded pure weapon sexuality like Bardot.
As for the film, somehow it became a favorite, along with its
director, of the Cahiers de Cinema crowd with both
Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard slobbering over its supposed
virtues, calling Vadim “our only truly modern filmmaker.” He was
an auteur, for God’s sake, which made him important to
these two would-be (at the time) filmmakers. Watch it anyway, it’s
a hoot.
Godard
finally got his chance to work with Bardot, and the results can be
seen in Masculin-Feminin from
1966, airing at 2:00 am and the earlier Contempt,
from 1963, which airs afterward at 4:00 am.
August
29: The day belongs to Charles Boyer, and the best of his
movies, The Earrings of Madame de
... (1954), airs at noon. Regular readers of this
column have seen me rave about this film, directed by the great Max
Ophuls, and for those who haven’t, tune in and discover a wonderful
and subtle film about how a woman’s little white lies can balloon
and come back to haunt her.
PRE-CODE
August
18: Four classic Ruby Keeler WB musicals are on tap,
beginning the Gold Diggers of
1933 (1933) at 6 pm, followed by 42nd
Street (1932) at 8 pm, Dames (1934)
at 11:30 pm, and Footlight
Parade (1933) at 1:30 am.
PSYCHOTRONICA
AND THE B-HIVE
August
17: At 10 am, it’s Phil Karlson’s hard-hitting
docudrama, The Phenix City
Story (1955), made right after the National Guard
went into the corruption riddled city to clean out the rats. It stars
John McIntyre, Richard Kiley and Kathryn Grant, who later married
Bing Crosby.
August
18: Star-of-the-Day Angie Dickinson stars with Rock Hudson
in Roger Vadim’s must-see, Pretty
Maids All in a Row (1971) at 2:15 am.
August
21: Tune in at 1:45 pm for that great unintentional comedy
team, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, starring in the
unforgettable What Ever Happened to
Baby Jane? from 1962. The film was a small at the
box office and begat a trend whereby the leading ladies would chew
yards of scenery in B-grade horror films.
August
22: Robert Montgomery is so good, so compelling as a serial
murderer in Night Must Fall (1937)
that we sometimes wonder if he wasn’t born for the role. It airs at
the late hour of 3:45 am.
August
23: Even star-of-the-day Brigitte Bardot made a psychotronic
film, which is on display at 12:15 pm. It’s the offbeat homage to
Edgar Allan Poe, Spirits of the
Dead (1968). The film was a trilogy of tales, all
based on Poe stories, with each segment of the trilogy helmed by a
different director: Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini.
While we might well expect Bardot to be featured in Vadim’s part of
the trilogy, “Metzengerstein,” she actually appears as Giuseppina
in “William Wilson,” which is directed by Malle. Despite the
trilogy format, the film maintains a consistent quality that rates it
as one for the better horror films to come out of the ‘60s.
August
26: As the day is devoted to Boris Karloff, it’s loaded
with psychotronic films. To save time we’ll just review the best of
the bunch, starting at 10:15 am with The
Mask of Fu Manchu (1932). Karloff is in his
element as the dastardly villain out to discover the secret to global
power. Lewis Stone and Charles Starrett are the unwitting explorers
who accidentally wander into his den, and Myrna Loy shines as
Karloff’s daughter Fah So See.
For
a good B movie, check out British
Intelligence (1940) at 1 pm with Karloff as a
German agent up against double agent Margaret Lindsay. The joy in the
film is seeing Karloff in a non-horror role and he gives a stellar
performance.
At
8 pm, it’s back to horror, with five notable Karloff films in a
row. First up is the classic Frankenstein (1931),
followed by The Bride of
Frankenstein (1935), a sequel superior to the
original. Both are directed by the great James Whale. At 11 pm, it’s
the eerie and haunting The
Mummy from 1932, the directorial debut of noted
cameraman Karl Freund. At 12:30 am, it’s Edgar G. Ulmer’s
offbeat The Black Cat (1934)
with Bela Lugosi in the unaccustomed role of good guy battling the
devil-worshipping Karloff. It’s rarely shown and is well worth the
time invested. Finally, at 1:45 am, Karloff and Henry Daniell star in
producer Val Lewton’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s
classic story, The Body
Snatcher (1945).
August
29: At midnight, it’s Charles Boyer as the villain in the
classic Gaslight (1944)
as he tries to drive wife Ingrid Bergman crazy.
August
31: Dean Martin cashes in on the James Bond craze as Matt
Helm in The Silencers (1966),
airing at 9:45 am. Martin brings his own brand of humor and style to
what could be just another Bond ripoff and actually makes it fun to
watch.
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