Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)
1/4, 10 PM - Reds (1981)
Scheduled as part of an evening highlighting "quadruple threats," Reds was directed, produced, and written (with the assistance of playwright Trevor Griffiths and screenwriters Robert Towne and Elaine May) by Warren Beatty. Beatty also stars as journalist/activist/adventurer John Reed, whose best-known work Ten Days That Shook the World, chronicled the Russian Bolsheviks' rise to power in 1919. The film takes us along for Reed's many exploits, while also focusing on his romance with journalist Louise Bryant (played by Diane Keaton). Reds received 12 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, screenplay, and acting nods for Beatty and Keaton, and ultimately won three awards for Maureen Stapleton's supporting performance as anarchist Emma Goldman, Vittorio Storaro's cinematography, and Beatty's direction. Beatty holds the distinction, shared only by Orson Welles (I believe), of earning Oscar nominations for acting, writing, producing, and directing in the same year. Of course, Welles only did that once, while Beatty managed it twice. (His first quadruple-threat effort, 1978's Heaven Can Wait, will be shown tonight at 8PM.) Because Beatty is a multi-talented filmmaker, and so indelibly associated with Hollywood, I was surprised to learn that he has acted in only seven films in the 35 years since Reds. And despite being an Oscar-winning director, he has only directed 3 more films since Reds. However, he hasn't retired -- his latest film, Rules Don't Apply, was released in late 2016.
1/20: The Saint Marathon
8 PM - The Saint in New York (1938)
9:30 PM - The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
10:45 PM - The Saint in London (1939)
12:15 AM - The Saint's Double Trouble (1940)
1:30 AM - The Saint in Palm Springs (1941)
2:45 AM - The Saint's Vacation (1941)
4 AM - The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943)
Gentleman detective/vigilante Simon Templar, aka The Saint, was born from a series of stories by Leslie Charteris. As described by the author, Templar was "a roaming adventurer who loves a fight...a dashing daredevil, imperturbable, debonair, preposterously handsome, a pirate or a philanthropist, as the occasion demands." A character like that was a natural for a film adaptation, plus his backstory as a former criminal gave the Saint a morally-gray edge and left him open to using not-necessarily-legal means for bringing down his adversaries. In this series of Saint films from the 30s and 40s, our hero's varied exploits include killing NYC crime bosses, seeking vengeance for a policeman's daughter, acting a bodyguard to a stamp collector, and unmasking a gang of gold smugglers. In the films on tonight's schedule, Templar is portrayed by Louis Hayward, George Sanders, and Hugh Sinclair. Charteris felt that the actors selected to play his creation were hopelessly miscast, preferring instead a Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., or Cary Grant. But those were "A List" stars, and these were low budget "B" pictures. However, audiences didn't seem to agree with the author as the Saint films were quite popular. Sanders in particular was so popular as the Saint (though he hated the role), he was later cast in a similar series of detective pictures as "The Falcon."
1/26: Jane & Ross & Douglas & Rock
8 PM - Magnificent Obsession (1954)
10 PM - All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Star of the Month Jane Wyman had many phases to her long acting career, from chipper chorine to soap opera matriarch. In the 1950s, following her Best Actress Oscar for Johnny Belinda (1948), Jane was the queen of the dramatic tearjerker. The best films from this period were her collaborations with director Douglas Sirk and producer Ross Hunter who specialized in films which combined style, schmaltz, and social commentary. Young beefcake Rock Hudson got his breakthrough dramatic role in Magnificent Obsession. The team came back together for another winner the next year with All That Heaven Allows. Each film follows a similar formula -- Wyman is a widow who falls in love with the much younger Hudson, to the disapproval of society, and each finds redemption in their love -- though the details and plot twists change. The melodramatic stories are elevated through appealing performances from the leads and impeccable production design (shown in glorious Technicolor).
1/27: TCM Remembers Debbie Reynolds
6 AM - It Started with a Kiss (1959)
7:45 AM - Bundle of Joy (1956)
9:30 AM - How The West Was Won (1962)
12:30 PM - The Tender Trap (1955)
2:30 PM - Hit the Deck (1955)
4:30 PM - I Love Melvin (1953)
6 PM - Singin' in the Rain (1952)
8 PM - The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
10:30 PM - The Mating Game (1959)
12:30 AM - The Catered Affair (1956)
2:15 AM - The Singing Nun (1966)
4 AM - How Sweet It Is! (1968)
In tribute to the late Debbie Reynolds, TCM has pre-empted its original schedule to devote the day to her films. I intend to watch every single one.
Reynolds was America's Sweetheart in the 1950s, and considering her pretty looks, appealing alto voice, and spunky energy it is easy to see why. Not all her films are masterpieces, but she brought vivacity and spirit to each role, which, for me at least, makes any Debbie Reynolds film worth watching.
Today's line-up includes several films which were important to Reynolds' career and to cinema history, starting in the morning with Bundle of Joy. A musical remake of the Ginger Rogers film Bachelor Mother, the film was designed to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the marriage of Reynolds and co-star Eddie Fisher. Though the marriage didn't last, it did produce Reynolds' beloved children Carrie and Todd Fisher. In fact, Reynolds was pregnant with their daughter during filming -- a bit of trivia which seems more amazing as you watch Reynolds fly through high energy dance numbers while seven months pregnant!
Reynolds was part of the all-star cast of How the West Was Won, the first film shot in Cinerama -- a widescreen process which required three cameras placed side-by-side to film, and three projectors to screen it on a special wide, curved screen. The complications of filming and projecting Cinerama prevented it from taking off, but I imagine it was dazzling in its day, a predecessor of today's IMAX experience. (See if you can spot the lines separating the three images in the finished film.)
Her breakout role came in Singin' in the Rain, as Debbie proved that despite no professional dance experience she could keep up with veteran hoofers Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. She worked tirelessly to get the steps, a work ethic which would be a hallmark of her long career, and in the film she makes it look effortless.
Reynolds would continue to star in musicals through the 50s and 60s, the most successful being The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Her performance in the title role garnered an Oscar nomination, and perhaps more impressively, inspired astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young to name their Gemini 3 spacecraft "Molly Brown." The lively and ultimately "unsinkable" Brown would come to be synonymous with Reynolds herself -- weathering life's triumphs and tragedies with an indomitable spirit.
Read TCM's tribute to Reynolds here
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