TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
December
23–December 31
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
I
LOVE YOU AGAIN (December
23, 4:00 pm): Cinema's
greatest couple, William Powell and Myrna Loy, are reunited in this
1940 film with W.S. Van Dyke, who directed them in the 1934
classic, The Thin
Man. When you have
Powell and Loy working together, the chemistry is magic. It's a fun
film to watch with Powell showing great range, playing the same
character two completely different ways. Before a head injury that
reverts Powell's character back to his old self as a conman, he
promised to take a group of Boy Rangers on trip into the woods to
learn about deer-tracking techniques. He has no idea what to do so he
makes stuff up. He ends up falling into holes, getting caught in
traps and is completely lost. It's Powell's best physical-comedy role
that I've seen. And Myrna, what can you possibly write to capture her
beauty and talent? Well, you could write a book. But I'll leave it as
she is wonderful and delightful in this movie with her character
evolving with the changes in Powell's character.
BEN-HUR (December
25, 1:00 pm): It's nearly four hours long, but it's one of cinema's
most spectacular epics. Charlton Heston is masterful as Judah
Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince who ends up getting in a lot of trouble when
reunited with an old friend, who happens to be a Roman tribune with a
real mean streak. The incredible chariot race is reason enough to
watch Ben-Hur.
It's one of the most spectacular scenes you'll ever seen in film. Add
to that, Ben-Hur's time as a galley slave on a Roman boat and the
preparation he does to exact revenge and you have an epic film in
every way possible.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
CHRISTMAS
IN CONNECTICUT (December 24, 8:00 pm): Barbara
Stanwyck was one of the very, very few that could go from playing in
tear jerkers (Stella Dallas) to corporate dramas (Executive
Suite) to steamy crime dramas (Double Indemnity) to
Westerns (The Maverick Queen) to screwball comedies (The
Lady Eve) and distinguish herself in each genre. And this gentle
romantic comedy is no different. Here she plays Elizabeth Lane, a
Martha Stewart type, a columnist for “Smart Housekeeping,” and a
woman touted as “the greatest cook in the country,” with a
perfect home in the ‘burbs, a perfect husband, and a perfect baby.
She’s the role model to millions of readers. The only problem is
that Elizabeth Lane is none of the above. She’s unmarried, no
child, lives in the city, and the closest she’s even been to a
stove is how near she sits to the restaurant’s kitchen. Trouble
ensues when a war hero (Dennis Morgan), as part of a publicity stunt
for her magazine, is granted a visit to her “farm.” And, to make
things worse, her boss, played by Sydney Greenstreet, is coming
along. How can she pull of this charade and not get fired? Stanwyck
pulls it off beautifully, giving yet another top-notch performance as
the harried columnist. Morgan is excellent as the visiting war hero,
and it’s nice to see Sydney Greenstreet in a role other than as the
bad guy. He acquits himself rather nicely here. This is the perfect
film for those who want to see light holiday fare during this time,
and a perfect film for those that have not yet had the pleasure of
sampling Stanwyck’s work in comedies.
SULLIVAN’S
TRAVELS (December 25, 10:00 pm): This film is rightly
said to be writer/director Preston Sturges’s masterpiece. John L.
Sullivan is a noted director of light musical fare such as Ants
in Your Plants of 1939 and Hey, Hey in the Hayloft.
However, he wants to make an Important Film, and he has one in mind,
namely O Brother, Where Art Thou, a leaden novel
concerned with the struggle between Capital and Labor. The studio
execs pooh-pooh it, noting that he grew up rich and never suffered.
So, Sullivan sets out to see how the other half lives, and ends up
with far more than he bargained for when everybody assumes he died.
It’s both hilarious and touching with many insights from Sturges
into the human ego versus the human condition. It’s best to record
it to be seen again later – and you will definitely want to see it
again.
WE
DISAGREE ON ... THE OMEGA MAN (December 26, 8:00 pm)
ED:
B. I love the writings of Richard Matheson, and his
works are some of the very few sci-fi writings I’ve read over the
years, as I’m not exactly a big fan of sci-fi. For the very few of
those out there reading this who aren’t aware, The Omega
Man was the second attempt at filming Matheson’s wonderful
novel, I Am Legend. Having read the novel I was never
happy with any of the film adaptations, but I rate the original
Italo-American production, The Last Man on Earth, with
Vincent Price as the best, as it stuck mainly to Matheson’s
original. This film was produced by Charlton Heston and has its
strengths and failings. One of its greatest strengths was casting
Rosalind Cash in the female lead role. She delivered the best
performance of the film in her breakout role. I wasn’t all that
keen with the writers changing matters of plot that I admired from
the book and which were left unchanged in the Price original, but I
could live with it given the trend of the times in sci-fi movies:
that of dystopia. No, the biggest failing of the film was in Heston
the producer casting Heston the actor in the leading role. Heston the
actor believes that what he must bring to the film is the uncanny
ability to chew scenery. Hells Bells, he could’ve hired William
Shatner and gotten the same result – and Shatner’s more
charismatic to boot. No, the film would have worked much better
without Chuckie Baby in the lead and that’s why I didn’t give it
an “A.”
DAVID: A. I'm a sucker for late 1960s-early 1970s post-apocalyptic/dystopian films. If they star Charlton Heston, such as Soylent Green or Planet of the Apes, I'm an even bigger sucker. I love the cool intensity he brings to his characters in these films. Some say he's one of cinema's biggest overactors and I've been teased about being a Heston fan by Ed and our late mutual friend, Bill Kunkel. The two are the most knowledgeable cinefiles I've known, and this film has been a topic of discussion. But despite their sentiment, I remain convinced this is a great film and Heston is outstanding in it. In The Omega Man, he is one of society's last remaining human survivors after biological warfare (between the Chinese and Russians) in 1975 wipes out most people and leaves a bunch of crazed albino mutants. A group of them are called The Family, who want to get rid of technology and science; Heston’s character, Robert Neville is a former military scientist. Because they want to eliminate technology and science, which caused the plague, Chuck is on their chopping block. I agree with Ed that Rosalind Cash (who has an amazing afro) as Lisa, the female lead, is one of the movie's greatest strengths. But the film's excellence is based largely on Heston's performance. Heston plays Neville as a brilliant yet lonely man desperate to survive and desperate for human companionship. Among the great scenes are Neville "negotiating" the sale of a car with a corpse at an auto dealership, and watching Woodstock in an empty theater reciting lines from the concert documentary. The film shows Heston's range as a comedian, a survivor and of course, an action hero. And the ending, which is both happy and sad, is memorable. It's a movie I go back to again and again.
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