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.)
6/3: Early Billy Wilder
10 PM - Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
12 AM - Double Indemnity (1944)
On Fridays this month, TCM is spotlighting one of my favorite filmmakers: Billy Wilder. Wilder made his Hollywood directing debut with 1942's The Major and the Minor (showing this evening at 8 PM). I'm not a huge fan of this comedy because the plot is just a bit icky -- basically grown-up woman Ginger Rogers pretends to be a child and grown-up man Ray Milland falls in love with her. However, it's not a bad movie and Paramount Studios was impressed enough to let Wilder and his writing partner Charles Brackett produce their next film, which ended up being Five Graves to Cairo. Wilder's second Hollywood film was a departure from his first, Cairo is a WWII spy adventure set in North Africa. Though Franchot Tone was the nominal star of the film, as you can see by the poster, Erich von Stroheim as Field Marshall Rommel came to dominate the film; however, Tone and the rest of the cast, including Anne Baxter and Akim Tamiroff, are all first-rate and make this a fun, engaging adventure. Wilder would soon follow these successes with a definitive film noir, and one of the best movies ever made, Double Indemnity. The story, about an insurance salesman who plots with a femme fatale to bump off her husband, is based on a novel by James M. Cain, but Wilder and Raymond Chandler, author of many a classic crime novel himself, are credited with the superb screenplay. Beautiful black and white cinematography contrasts the sunny California setting with the shadowy realms the characters inhabit. The banter, the look, plus excellent performances by Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson, all combine to make this a classic noir thriller.
Best of '73 or the Importance of Casting
6/14, 4:15 AM - The Last Detail (1973)
6/25, 8 PM - The Sting (1973)
In researching my picks for the month, I read that Jack Nicholson turned down the Robert Redford role in The Sting in order to make The Last Detail. It got me thinking about the importance of casting the right actor in the right role and how changes in casting can change the entire film. In The Last Detail, two Navy lifers, Buddusky (Nicholson) and Mulhall (Otis Young), transport a young sailor (Randy Quaid) to a military prison in another state and along the way befriend their prisoner and try to show him a good time before he gets locked up. Nicholson had originally envisioned that his good friend Rupert Crosse would play Mulhall; however, Crosse became ill and had to back out of the film. Crosse was a higher profile actor than Young, having received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for 1969's The Reivers. While Young does a fine job, I wonder if Nicholson and Crosse's real-life friendship would have brought a different sort of chemistry to their characters' relationship and given the film more of a buddy-picture vibe. As it is, Nicholson dominates the film and he received his second Best Actor Oscar nomination. The film's profanity-laden script also brought notice for writer Robert Towne, who would collaborate with Nicholson again on 1974's Chinatown, which is considered a career-high for almost everyone involved.
The Sting is notable for the chemistry between the two stars, Robert Redford and Paul Newman. It was a re-teaming of the two actors with their Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid director George Roy Hill; and though the story of Depression-era con men bears little similarity to the former film, The Sting feels like an unofficial sequel to Butch. If Nicholson had been cast as Johnny Hooker, we can be certain that Paul Newman would not have taken the role of Henry Gondorff -- originally a much smaller part which was beefed up to capitalize on the Redford/Newman pairing. Yes, the script is excellent...but without Redford and Newman, would The Sting have been so well-received by critics and audiences? The film was named Best Picture at the Academy Awards and it garnered Redford his first, and only, Best Actor nomination. (Which, by the way, is crazy because he was amazing in All is Lost.)
Going further down the rabbit hole...I have to wonder if the success of The Sting influenced Nicholson's decision to make 1975's The Fortune, a now-forgotten film in which Nicholson and Warren Beatty play Jazz-age con men. Despite Nicholson and Beatty's star-power, The Fortune was a million-dollar flop.
One last thought on casting...while watching The Last Detail for the first time, I could not stop thinking that Sam Rockwell would be perfect for the Nicholson role if the film were ever remade. Are you listening, Hollywood? You can have that one for free because I just really want to see a remake of The Last Detail starring Sam Rockwell.
6/18: Adapting Jane Austen
8 PM - Pride and Prejudice (1940)
10:15 PM - Persuasion (1995)
I recently saw Love & Friendship, the latest film by writer-director Whit Stillman, which is adapted from the Jane Austen short story Lady Susan. It's delightful and very funny -- a wonderful confluence of one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers and one of my favorite classic authors -- and it has put me in the mood for more Austen adaptations. The 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice isn't strictly faithful to the novel; however, Greer Garson is lovely and spirited as Lizzie Bennet and Laurence Olivier is appropriately smoldering as Mr. Darcy. Though the novel is set in Regency England (late 1700s-early 1800s), the time period in the film has been moved forward to the Victorian 1830s, possibly so that the women could wear big, flouncy gowns rather than the nightgown-like Regency dresses. (I read one article which claimed that MGM didn't want to spend a lot of money on this film, so they repurposed costumes from Gone with the Wind for the background players.) Even more anachronistic (and barely accurate) is the film's promotional tagline: Bachelors Beware! Five Gorgeous Beauties are on a Madcap Manhunt!
Persuasion has not been adapted as frequently as Pride, so while I have read the novel I have not seen a screen version. The story centers on Anne Elliot, played by Amanda Root, who in age and character may be Austen's most mature heroine. Resigned to a life as an old maid in her late twenties, Anne gets a second chance at love when an old flame re-enters her life. The love interest is played by Ciaran Hinds who audiences may recognize for his more recent roles in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Game of Thrones, and Rome.
6/28: Disney Vault Treasures
8 PM - The Parent Trap (1961)
11 PM - Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009)
1:15 AM - An Adventure in Color/Donald in Mathmagic Land (1961)
This is the seventh installment of TCM's series "Treasures from the Disney Vault" including feature films, cartoons, and documentaries. I always enjoy these periodic dips into the extensive Disney library of films and TV shows, but this month feels especially like a trip back to my childhood. The Parent Trap was made twenty years before I was born, but it seemed ubiquitous when I was growing up and its continued popularity spawned two tv-movie sequels in the 80s. Of course I was surprised to learn that twins Sharon and Susan were both played by one actress (I was a kid, ok!). The trick camera work used to show both twins side by side holds up pretty well, and Hayley Mills does a great job of giving each girl a distinct personality. It's pretty hard not to be charmed by this film.
Waking Sleeping Beauty is a documentary about Disney's animation studio which went from the brink of shutting down in the early 80s to producing a string of hits over the decade between 1984 and 1994, now known as the "Disney Renaissance." I grew up on classics like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King, so it's fun for me to see the stories behind the scenes. If you are a fan of animation or like showbiz documentaries, this one is a must-see.
The real treasures of this bunch are the two cartoons Adventure in Color and Donald in Mathmagic Land, which were shown together on the first episode of the TV show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. As the name of the show implies, these were the first Disney cartoons to be shown on television in color (of course you had to have a color television to appreciate it). New character Ludwig von Drake explains color then Donald Duck learns the ways that math affects everything from making music to playing pool. As the comments on its entry in the unofficial Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts reflect, this cartoon has been an essential educational tool for many a youngster. It should be required viewing in elementary school.
