TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
May
1–May 7
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
THE
BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (May
1, 6:15 pm): An excellent JD movie with Glenn Ford as a teacher
trying to put high school kids on the right track. Sidney Poitier and
Ford work exceptionally well with Poitier as a defiant and
intelligent student who Ford sees promise in and
tries to help. Vic Morrow plays the worst of the worst kids
to near perfection. The scene in which Morrow’s
character cruelly destroys a teacher's most-beloved items,
his record collection, in class as the teacher tries to reach
the kids, is an incredibly haunting piece of cinema. And the
soundtrack is great, particularly the opening credits with “Rock
Around the Clock.” While many think of the film as the
first with a rock-and-roll song in it, it is so much more than
that.
LOGAN'S
RUN (May 6, 2:15 pm): I'm a huge fan of
early and mid-1970s futuristic dystopian films such as
this, Soylent Green, Omega
Man and Rollerball. In Logan's Run,
it's the year 2274 and some sort of apocalypse has
occurred leaving people to live in a domed society with everything
they do is handled by a super-computer. That leaves them a lot of
time for wine, women (or men, though futuristic sex is a little
strange) and song. There is one catch to this society: once you get
to be 30, you go through a ritualistic death in a place called
"Carousel." The plot is compelling, and while some of the
special effects look straight out of 1976, they're effective and
enjoyable. The acting is solid with Peter Ustinov exceptional as
an old man living outside the dome. It's a fun science-fiction film
with a lot of action and women in very mini miniskirts.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
THE
EARRINGS OF MADAME DE (May 1, 11:15 pm): The films of
Max Ophuls are noted for their subtlety, and this film is a prime
example. Taking a simple premise, that of a French woman whose series
of white lies does her in, Ophuls raises it to the level of high
tragedy. Although it opened in the U.S. to mild praise, the film is
viewed today as one of the greatest gems of movie history, and
perhaps the acme of Ophuls’ career. Of course, a good cast helps,
and Ophuls has a terrific one with Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux
and Vittorio De Sica as his leads. Ophuls is in his element here,
painstakingly designing mies-en-scenes that frame and define his
characters, and combining that with close-ups that allow us some
psychological insight into the characters. The plot is beautifully
staged, opening and closing on the consideration of the eponymous
piece of jewelry that passes from owner to owner until returning to
Darrieux. This is a film of charm and beauty with a marvelous subtext
of the pain that goes hand in hand with vanity and which no amount of
lies can cover or explain.
THE
BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (May
4, 3:15 am): The late Ray Harryhausen’s great f/x epic about a
dinosaur thawed out on the Arctic and now on the loose in New York
City. It boasts an intelligent script, credible performances, and one
helluva great monster. My only complaint is that it’s too short,
but it was just what the doctor ordered for the Warner’s box office
at the time. I can watch it again and again . . . wait a minute – I
have.
WE
AGREE ON ... MUTINY
ON THE BOUNTY (May 2, 11:30 pm)
ED:
A+. A big, sweeping ocean
adventure done only as MGM could do it. Loosely adapted from the
Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall books, the story of the H.M.S.
Bounty has stirring adventure, a tyrannical captain, seamen pushed to
the point of mutiny, and Clark Gable. It also
has a theme popular with audiences: the revolt against a tyrant.
However, producer Irving Thalberg avoids the mistake made in many
other such adventures of pitting a strong hero against relatively
ineffectual villains. Captain Bligh, as portrayed by Charles
Laughton, is not just an excellent sailor, capable of astounding
feats of seamanship, but he is also a capable tyrant, courageously
facing down the mutineers. He is also corrupt and terrifyingly
sanctimonious; the strongest figure on the ship. Clark Gable is in
his element as Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutineers. His
rawboned defiance is a match for Bligh’s villainy. As Byam, the
officer who returns with Bligh to England to face trial, Franchot
Tone gives an engaging performance, though in the courtroom scene it
seems that he’s campaigning for an Oscar. Director Frank Lloyd also
gives room to the supporting cast and their stories, making the film
a much more compelling human drama than a mere Us versus Them
confrontation. The supporting cast includes such familiar names as
Herbert Mundin, Donald Crisp, Ian Wolfe, Dudley Digges, Francis
Lister, and Spring Byington, as well as Movita and Mamo Clark as the
Tahitians. It’s one to catch, even if you’ve already seen it
innumerable times.
DAVID:
A+. An incredibly strong cast – led by Charles
Laughton, who is masterful as the vicious Captain Bligh, and Clark
Gable as the cunning Fletcher Christian – combined with a
spare-no-expense set and some of the sharpest cinematography I've
seen in a black-and-white film make Mutiny on the Bounty a
timeless classic. Laughton's Bligh is completely ruthless and
unforgiving, which we see almost immediately when he insists a
sailor's flogging punishment be carried out even though the man is
dead. The tension builds over time with Bligh showing no mercy to
anyone. Things finally explode in a full-blown mutiny by many of
those aboard the Bounty when the ship's beloved doctor (played by
Dudley Digges) dies because Bligh pushes him too far and the captain
cuts the water rations. This isn't a swashbuckler film, but one with
a fascinating and approachable storyline. What adds to the film is
Bligh is also a brilliant seaman who somehow
manages to not only survive being placed on a small boat with about
50 loyalists set to drift to a sure death, but returns to Tahiti in
an attempt to exact revenge on Christian. I can't say enough about
Gable's acting skills in this movie as he's been accused at times of
being one dimensional. The scenery is also wonderful and there are subplots of about a dozen or so of the shipmates
stories to tell. The film captured the Oscar for Best Picture and was
the last film to do that without winning any other golden statues.
One of the problems was Laughton, Gable and Franchot Tone were all
nominated in the Best Oscar category and essentially canceled each
other out. Because of that, the Academy the following year created
the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories.
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