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by Lani
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.)
Happy New Year! Here's to another year of classic movies full of old favorites and new discoveries!
1/1: American Remakes
8 PM - The Magnificent Seven (1960)
10:15 PM - M (1951)
The Magnificent Seven is a western about seven gunman hired to protect a town from ruthless bandits. Based on the Japanese film Seven Samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa, this is an example of a remake that lives up to the original. The change of setting to the American West works quite well and it has a great cast including Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn. A remake of the remake is scheduled to come out in fall of 2016 starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, and Ethan Hawke. No idea if they've kept the setting and storyline, but let's hope the new version retains Elmer Bernstein's rousing score for the 1960 film.
M is based on a German film of the same name directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre. The German film is a suspenseful, noir-ish story about the manhunt for a murderer. I had no idea there was an American remake starring David Wayne, a Tony award-winning actor who I always enjoy when he shows up in supporting roles on film. I'm interested to see if this version matches the suspense of the original.
1/3, 9:45 PM - Broadcast News (1987)
Writer-director James L. Brooks created this examination of television news whose themes about entertainment vs. journalism are still relevant today. At the center of the story is a love triangle, as an ambitious and headstrong female producer (Holly Hunter) is drawn toward her network's handsome new anchor (William Hurt), while also being admired by a good-hearted, though neurotic, reporter (Albert Brooks). All the main characters are very well-drawn and well-acted. The first time I saw Broadcast News the thing that stood out to me was that the female protagonist was not wholly sympathetic; and for once, she wasn't being asked to choose between an obvious jerk and and obvious nice guy. Both the men are decent people; they are just different people. Mixed among the satire of the media are some truths about relationships: Sometimes you love the wrong person; you can't make someone love you, no matter how much you want them to; being a nice person is often underrated.
Directed by Ida Lupino
1/5, 12 AM - The Bigamist (1953)
1/12, 9:30 PM - Never Fear (1949)
Today, actress-turned-director Ida Lupino is regarded as a filmmaking pioneer. However, during the 1940s and 50s, when the number of women directing films in Hollywood could be counted on one hand, she was considered an oddity. Creating her own production company with her then-husband Collier Young, Lupino made films with a social conscience and storylines which focused on women. As the title suggests, The Bigamist is about a man secretly keeping two families in different cities. It stars Lupino, alongside Joan Fontaine and Edmond O'Brien as the three spouses. In real life, Lupino had at this point divorced Collier Young, who was also the film's screenwriter, but the two continued to produce together. Young had remarried with none other than Joan Fontaine. And so Ida found herself directing, and playing a rival to, her ex-husband's new wife, which seems...awkward. The film is part of a night featuring films restored with support from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group of journalists which hands out the Golden Globe Awards each January. Never Fear is the story of a young dancer who contracts polio and how the diagnosis affects her career and relationships. This film was restored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Film Archive.
The situation for women in Hollywood has changed shockingly little in the past 60 years. Though women have moved into all levels of the film business, they are by far the minority and the balance of power still weighs heavily towards men. (In fact it's even less equal than it was 17 years ago.) In addition, film studios are still wary of making films about women's lives, despite the fact that female-starring films have been among the most popular of all-time -- from the 1930s when Shirley Temple and Deanna Durbin were the top stars of their respective studios, to recent hits like Frozen and Bridesmaids, not to mention films like Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and The Sound of Music which are routinely shown in theaters today, decades after their first release. All this is to say that I have a deep admiration for trailblazers like Lupino and hope that very soon her type of "women's pictures" no longer seem daring.
1/22: The Divine Miss Emma
8 PM - Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
10 PM - Sense and Sensibility (1995)
12:30 AM - Impromptu (1991)
2:30 AM - The Remains of the Day (1993)
Speaking of talented women in film... Emma Thompson has appeared on film and TV steadily for the past 30 years, but she had quite a run of good films in the early 1990s. She won the Best Actress Oscar for Howard's End and followed that up with starring roles in the Shakespeare adaptation Much Ado About Nothing and Remains of the Day, for which she received another Best Actress nomination. In 1995, she scored a major triumph adapting Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility for the screen and starring in the film. She thought she was too old to play Elinor Dashwood -- after all, in the book the character is 19 and Thompson was in her 30s -- but director Ang Lee thought she would be perfect for the part, aged up to 27 in the screenplay so that the idea of Elinor as an old maid would be more plausible to modern audiences. Thompson was nominated as Best Actress again; however, she won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay making her the first (and possibly only) person to follow up an acting award with one for writing.
Thompson had a small part in Impromptu which centers on the romance between French author George Sand (Judy Davis) and composer Frederic Chopin (Hugh Grant). I haven't seen this one, but the cast -- which includes not only Thompson, but Julian Sands, Mandy Patinkin, and Bernadette Peters -- should be a treat to watch. The other three films on the schedule tonight are excellent and delightful in their own way -- from Much Ado's exuberance and wit, to the warm heart of Sense, to the melancholia of Remains.
by Lani
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.)
5/8, 8 PM & 11:30 PM - Don't Say No Until I've Finished Talking: The Story of Richard Zanuck (2013)
The latest TCM original documentary takes on producer Richard Zanuck, son of 20th Century Fox studio mogul Darryl F. Zanuck. The younger Zanuck was Fox studio president in the 1960, and well-regarded producer in his own right. Under Richard's tenure the studio produced Best Picture winners The Sound of Music, Patton, and The French Connection; it also turned out legendary flops like Dr. Doolittle and Star!, which led to his being fired...by his father Darryl. Richard was an independent producer from the 1970s until his death in 2012, bringing to the screen Jaws, The Sting, Cocoon, and Driving Miss Daisy. With such a distinguished career to cover, not to mention Zanuck's family legacy in Hollywood, this doc should have some interesting tidbits about "the biz".
5/20: Spy Spoofs
From a 21st century filmgoer's perspective, the early James Bond films can sometimes seem like a parody of 1960s culture all on their own. However, at the time, Bond was definitely more cool than kitsch. Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as Bond, hit theatres in 1963 and almost immediately inspired a new genre of secret agent comedies which served their martinis with a wink and tongue planted firmly in cheek.
8 PM - Our Man Flint (1965) - Probably the best-remembered film in the genre, this one stars James Coburn as American secret agent Derek Flink.
10 PM - The Silencers (1965) - Dean Martin had his own franchise starring as suave super-spy Matt Helm which included this film and Murderer's Row.
11:45 PM - Murderer's Row (1966)
1:45 AM - Carry on Spying (1964) - This entry in the British Carry On... series of B-movies may have contained the first Bond parody.
3:30 AM - Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) - The Goldfoot films are mash-ups of three 1960s genres -- beach party movie, spy parody, and horror-comedy -- starring Vincent Price as the super-villain of the title. Frankie Avalon plays Price's secret agent foil in the first film, while Fabian fills the role in the sequel.
5:15 AM - Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966)
5/22, 12:30 AM - True Confessions (1981)
I'm curious about this neo-noir based on the infamous Black Dahlia murder case. Not because of the mystery -- the Black Dahlia case remains unsolved, after all -- but because it was the first time Robert Duvall and Robert DeNiro shared the screen (The Godfather: Part II doesn't count because they had zero scenes together). Duvall plays a police detective investigating the murder of a prostitute with ties to prominent Los Angeles businessmen, as well as to his own brother, played by DeNiro, a monsignor supervising several generously funded church building projects. Both actors were at the top of their careers -- DeNiro had just won the Best Actor Oscar for Raging Bull and Duvall would soon win for 1983's Tender Mercies -- so why have I never heard of this movie? We'll see...
5/28, 8 PM - Hard Times (1975)
There was only one Jimmy Stewart, but at the same time there was also Henry Fonda and Gary Cooper. There was only one William Powell, too, but then you also had Melvyn Douglas and Don Ameche. Charles Bronson, though, was a singular presence in his era. I can't think of any contemporary who had quite the same quality. He certainly didn't have the look of a leading man, like co-stars Steve McQueen or Yul Brynner. With his round head, exceedingly lined face, and eyes hidden by a perpetual squint, Bronson sort of resembled a compressed Clark Gable. Then there was his athletic body. Sporting the sort of extreme muscle tone that was not yet de rigueur for all male action stars, Bronson often played the heavy or strong-man type. After notable performances in the ensembles of The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen, and The Magnificent Seven, he achieved worldwide stardom in the 70s with a string of violent, though simplistic, thrillers including The Mechanic and Death Wish. In the midst of those films, however, he got the chance to play a more complex character in Hard Times, the first feature by writer-director Walter Hill. Here Bronson plays a drifter during the Great Depression who gets by as a bare-knuckle boxer. He's surrounded by a strong supporting cast which includes James Coburn, Strother Martin, and Bronson's real-life wife Jill Ireland. TCM is showing the film as part of its Tuesday night spotlight of classic "tough guys" on film and I agree that Bronson deserves his place among other tough guy icons like Robert Mitchum and John Garfield. (Today, an actor who reminds me a bit of Bronson is Daniel Craig in a film like Munich or Defiance; however, it's an indicator of how much times have changed that someone with Bronson-like grit and physicality is now also portraying James Bond. Can you imagine Roger Moore as a street fighter?)
BONUS: 5/14, 3:15 AM - The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
This thriller set on the NYC subway is scheduled late night after the Tuesday "tough guys" programming in prime time and I think it fits the evening's theme, too. Though I'm not sure who's tougher -- Walter Matthau as a veteran transit officer or Robert Shaw as the leader of a gang of train hijackers.
Friday Night Spotlight: Second Looks
This month-long series programmed by actress & filmmaker Ileana Douglas features movies which weren't enthusiastically received at time of their release, but warrant a revisit for one reason or another. I'm interested to see Top Banana (1954) starring Phil Silvers on 5/17 and The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945) starring Jack Benny on 5/10; Silvers and Benny were two extremely popular comics who conquered just about every other medium -- radio, stage, TV -- but neither had much of a film career despite their talent.
However, the real story here is that A New Leaf is finally being shown on TCM! Sure, Ileana picked it, but I like to think that my consistent mentions of this 1971 film by writer-director Elaine May made a difference, too. Consider this: in a July 2010 post about Walter Matthau's hilarious performance as a spoiled golddigger, I complained that A New Leaf was not available on DVD; then, a mere 2 years and 2 months later, the film came out on DVD (which I celebrated alongside the September 2012 classic movie picks)! Of course, it still hadn't been shown on TCM. And so I began my imaginary letter-writing campaign (it works sort of like The Secret) to get this darkly comic romance into its rightful place in the TCM rotation. Now, seven months after my first victory, I've done it again! So, on 5/31 at 8 PM, I'll be toasting the TCM premiere of A New Leaf!
Cheers!
