TCM TiVo Alert for August 15-22

TCM TiVo ALERT

For

August 15–August 22

DAVID’S BEST BETS:

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (August 18, 8:00 am): An absolute classic, directed by Frank Capra, about a runaway snobby socialite (Claudette Colbert) and a reporter (Clark Gable) in the film that put the two on the movie map even though they both already had about 20 credits to their names. It's a wonderful screwball romantic comedy with great chemistry between the two. The story takes place over more than one night despite the title. It's a wonderful film with two of cinema's most famous scenes. The first has Colbert successfully hitching a ride for the two, after Gable fails, by lifting up her skirt and showing her leg. The other has the two of them sharing a room and Gable putting up a blanket to separate them, calling it "the walls of Jericho," which ties in nicely at the end of the film. Released in 1934, it has aged well. 

JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (August 19, 3:00 am): Sit down and get comfortable before watching this three-hour film. A huge ensemble cast of brilliant actors – Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Richard Widmark and Maximilian Schell – and memorable small roles played by Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich make this drama one of the most riveting films made. It also makes you question the responsibility of people who commit atrocities or do nothing to stop them. The movie is a post-World War II military tribunal in which three American judges (Tracy as the chief judge in an extraordinary role) are hearing the cases of four former German judges (Lancaster is the main ex-jurist) accused of committing war atrocities for passing death sentences on people during the Nazi regime. The film is horrifying, hard-hitting, and pulls no punches, including showing real footage of hundreds of dead bodies found by American soldiers at the end of the war. You have to decide for yourself if being German during the regime of Adolf Hitler is a war crime. 

ED’S BEST BETS:

GIRL WITH GREEN EYES (August 15, 10:00 pm): The film that propelled Rita Tushingham is a lovely and touching bittersweet romance. Kate Brady (Tushingham) leaves her family farm and heads for Dublin, where she lives with her former convent friend, the wise-cracking Baba Brennan (Lynn Redgrave in a wonderful performance). When she meets older man Eugene (Peter Finch), who is a writer and intellectual, the two fall in love. However, when Kate's father finds out about their romance, he is determined to break it up. Kate moves in with Eugene, and though she remains devoted they slowly realize they have nothing  really in common. Eugene does not share her strong Catholic religious beliefs, his friends do not regard Kate seriously, and he continues to correspond with his estranged wife, for whom he still has some feelings. Kate finally decides to leaves Eugene and return to Baba, who is packing to move to London. She invites Kate to come along, and Kate accepts, though she is hoping that Eugene will come after her and ask her to return to him. Instead he sends word through Baba that their breakup is probably for the best. Sadly, Kate departs for London with Baba, where she gets over her heartbreak and meets other, different people. A film definitely worth catching, and one that both Tushingham and director Desmond Davis would never top.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE (August 16, 8:00 pm): Ernst Lubitsch was best known for what was called “the Lubitsch touch,” a style of sophisticated comedy unmatched by anyone else. And this film represents Lubitsch at his best. Jewel thieves Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins fall in love in one of the most riotous scenes of one-upmanship in the movies, but now find their newly minted relationship threatened when Herbert turns on the charm to their newest victim, rich Paris widow Kay Francis. Their mastery of their characters is helped along with a witty script full of sparkling dialogue, clever plotting, great sexual gamesmanship, and brilliant visuals. Critic Dwight MacDonald described the film “as close to perfection as anything I have ever seen in the movies.” All I can add is watch for yourselves. Once you tune in and spend a while, you’ll be hooked by this delightfully sophisticated take own romantic comedy.

WE DISAGREE ON ... NETWORK (August 15, 11:45 pm):

ED: C-. Network is typical Chayefsky – shrill, self-important and hollow. Hollywood has always eaten yup attacks on its mortal enemy – television – even though the dividing line between the two was erased long ago. Billed as a satire on the industry, the film lacks what every good satire needs, plausibility. Can we really believe that a network would keep a man who has having a total nervous breakdown on the air? Not only that, but pander to his psychosis as long as it gets ratings? The press would have exposed that ploy long ago. Finch’s performance shocks at first, but ultimately it has nowhere to go and losses its luster rather quickly. Giving a show to a SLA-type revolutionary group? This seems to be more in the realm of fantasy than satire, and arranging the murder of Finch’s character because his ratings have gone down is the height of bad plotting, and in doing so the film goes quickly from satire to camp. The real targets of the film seem to be radicals and pushy career women. William Holden is the rational TV executive who has an insight that overly cynical program director Faye Dunaway wants for some reason. While I can see her wanting to bed him, I can’t see his rationale for getting involved with her other than a one-night stand. Telling each other how lousy they were in bed seems to be the film’s attempt at real honesty. Take it for its camp value; anything else is illusory, lost in all the hyperbole and shouting.

DAVID: A+. This brilliant film is not only the best satire of television ever made, but it is about two decades ahead of its time showing how reality TV could and did capture the attention of the viewing audience. As the years pass, this 1976 film becomes more relevant as society's interest in the obsession of pseudo celebrities and our insatiable appetite for around-the-clock garbage news increase. At times, you can see yourself in the film watching some of the crap that litters the airwaves today. You know it's awful and/or outrageous, but you can't help but watch. Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay is exceptional and it's the best film directed by the incredibly talented Sidney Lumet. The film shows us the mental breakdown of anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) and how it captures the attention of viewers whose voyeur tendencies only grow. Chayefsky won an Oscar for the screenplay. The script is so exceptional that it provides many of the film's actors moments to shine. Finch, Faye Dunaway (as an overly ambitious and sexy network executive), and Beatrice Straight (in a bit but important role as the wife of a TV executive played by William Holden) won Oscars in three of the four acting categories. Like Finch, Holden was nominated for Best Actor (two lead male actors?), but obviously didn't win. Finch's "Mad as Hell" speech is one of cinema's finest and one of its top five most iconic moments. It's drop-dead serious while also being outrageously funny. How much do I love this film? I can't count the number of times I've seen it. My favorite example is when my wife went into labor in 1997 with our second child. I borrowed a VHS copy of the movie from the library and we got through about one-third of it when it was obviously time to get her to the hospital. After the delivery and several hours of bonding between us and our daughter, it was time for me to leave the hospital, get some much-needed sleep and come back in the morning to bring them home. What did I do before going to sleep? Yeah, I watched the rest of Network. I don't regret a second of that decision. That's how great this film is.

For the complete list of films on the TCM TiVo Alert, click here.