Master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock directed so many truly great movies that even several of his less famous movies are among his greatest and the greatest of any era. Shadow of a Doubt is not as famous as Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, or North by Northwest, but it is secretly one of his greatest movies. At first it may seem like a slight or minor movie given its small scale and quaint setting, however these aspects belie its dark and unsettling plot. It is also the epitome of Hitchcock’s ultimate career long theme: danger is always lurking and will come at the most unexpected time in the most unexpected form to someone who feels completely safe.
The stars, Joseph Cotton and Teresa Wright, are two of my favorite classic era performers. This movie is where I first saw them. The setting is Santa Rosa, California, a town so average it could be Anytown, USA. It is so idyllic and cozy that things like crime and murder and even war don’t seem possible there, even though the year is 1943. There is no trace of darkness in the home of Young Charlie, that is until Uncle Charlie arrives.
Teenage Young Charlie (Teresa Wright) is discontent with the mundanity of suburban comfort and longs for something to rejuvenate her family. The change comes with the arrival of lively and charming Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotton), who does indeed recharge the household dynamic. He also brings darkness that Young Charlie could not have imagined. Though mother Emma (Patricia Collinge)–Hitchcock’s last sympathetic portrayal of a mother–delights in having her brother with her, the real connection is between the two Charlies. The very morning she planned on sending him a telegram to come visit, the family receives a telegram that Uncle Charlie is on his way. No one has any suspicions that he is possibly The Merry Widow Murderer.
There are a lot of things I like about Shadow of a Doubt, but what makes it special are the performances of Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotton. They are excellent choices to play average Americans while still being distinct. Joseph Cotton rarely played a villain but he does a fantastic job playing a complex character that is as sinister as he is charming. He never does anything forthrightly villainous, at least not for most of the movie, but he behaves just suspicious enough for Young Charlie to have doubts about him. In Cotton’s best scene Uncle Charlie’s jovial mask begins to slip and delivers a speech brimming with contempt and disgust about rich windows: “[Husbands] die and leave their money to their wives, their silly wives, .... these useless women...drinking the money, losing the money… faded, fat, greedy women.”
As Young Charlie, Teresa Wright is fresh-faced and lively, at first. She is perhaps naïve but she is not dull or dim. Once her suspicions are raised, she does detective work of her own and puts the pieces and clues together. The scene where she finds the newspaper story about the Merry Widow Murderer that Uncle Charlie hid from the family is an effective one. Hitchcock wanted the camera instead of Wright to gasp so it pulls back from a close-up to a wide overhead shot. My favorite moment comes when Young Charlie finally makes her appearance at a dinner party as Uncle Charlie is about to give a toast. She descends the stairs wearing the ring he gave her, a ring she now realizes is evidence. The camera pushes in from a wide shot of Charlie to a close up of the ring. Neither she nor Uncle Charlie say anything about the ring, but the tone of the entire scene changes for her and him and the audience though it remains the same for the other characters.
That things are not what they seem and pleasant appearances and behavior belie a hidden menace were frequent themes of Hitchcock’s movies. Just about every Hitchcock movie dealt with the dark side of human nature and society to some degree. This is especially pronounced in Shadow of a Doubt. Perhaps the darkest sequence is when Uncle Charlie takes his niece to a seedy bar to confront her about her suspicions. Smoke fills the bar and their waitress is a former classmate of Young Charlie’s who wears a bitter, dour expression, looks at her and says, “I never thought I’d see you here.” When he realizes that he cannot charm her any longer, Uncle Charlie tells her how little she knows about the world. His words are harsh and cynical but they sting because there is truth in them. This scene is similar to the sequence in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet where young and naïve Jeffery (Kyle MacLachlan) goes to Lincoln Avenue, the bad and dangerous part of his small, quaint town, and sees and learns harsh realities. I do not know for sure how much Shadow of a Doubt influenced Blue Velvet but the two films share similar themes and would make a great double feature. (Shadow of a Doubt certainly had a more direct influence on the film Stoker, a previous Shocktober recommendation, which is also about a newly arrived sinister Uncle Charlie who casts a spell over his niece). The ending might feel anticlimactic but it turns out to be a subversive conclusion fitting for this surprisingly dark and challenging classic.
Shadow of a Doubt airs on TCM on Sunday, October 26th at 9PM CT and might be at your local library.
The poster for Summer of ‘84 makes it seem like a hokey 80’s throwback or something intentionally campy. I admit I was skeptical of this random find–an independent Canadian production that received a marginal theatrical release and was essentially a direct to streaming movie–especially when I saw that there were 3 credited directors, but this is actually a solid suspense picture and coming of age story that draws on Hitchcock as much as it does any of the 1980s movies it references. The screenplay, production design, and costumes are steeped in the specific kind of 80’s nostalgia ushered in by Stranger Things. The basic premise shares similarities with Stranger Things, among many other movies and television series: 4 teenage boys investigate something mysterious and have an adventure of sorts. They even ride bikes, but the similarities end there. More than Stranger Things or even Rear Window, Summer of ‘84 is on the same wavelength as David Lynch’s Blue Velvet and Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt; these are films young people who discover the dark and shocking secrets of their seemingly perfect small towns.
The idea is simple enough: even serial killers live next door to somebody. 15 year old Davey (Graham Verchere) becomes concerned that his neighbor, amiable local police officer Mackey (Rich Sommer), is secretly the Cape May Killer, responsible for a series of disappearances of young teen boys. Davey recruits his friends Woody, “Eats”, and Curtis to help investigate. At first it is nothing more than another game to them but then evidence begins to accumulate. The plot more or less unfolds how you expect but it is well done regardless and there are some truly tense scenes. The eerie synth score is highly effective in creating an unsettling and mysterious mood.
The teenagers are all well played though some get more backstory than others. They are recognizable in the way they talk and in their behavior, likeable or not. They let each other spend the night to avoid troubled home lives. They insult each other affectionately. Like all teenage boys they are sex obsessed and routinely try to spy on Davey’s former babysitter and neighbor, Nikki (Tiera Skovbye). She gets enough of a backstory and is played well enough by Skovbye to be more than eye candy or a potential trophy. Davey’s conversations with her reveal that she is bound for Stanford and dealing with her parents’ divorce. Woody (Caleb Emery) is dealing with his overworked, alcoholic mother. “Eats” (Judah Lewis) is dealing with his possibly abusive father and quarrelling parents.
What really makes Summer of 84 something special is its final act and resolution. Up to this point things unfold as you might expect but then the story takes a decidedly dark turn. The final confrontation between Davey and Mackey is all the more terrifying for how unconventional it is. Davey’s final scenes fit the harsh reality that was the 1980’s, with the dim outlook that many had about their present and potential future. This tone will probably resonate with people watching in 2025. Still this movie is not mean; it is not grim for the sake of being grim or shocking for the sake of being different. Teenage anxiety and the fear of things yet to come that is dismissed by adults never really goes away or becomes less felt (it just becomes general anxiety). In the season one finale of Mad Men, Don Draper tells Kodak executives that nostalgia is Greek for the “pain from an old wound.” I think Davey would agree. That is the kind of nostalgia on display here.
Summer of 84 is available to stream for free on Kanopy and Hoopla (Kanopy has the better quality transfer).
This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, for the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.
Whether you are interested in horror movies, classic movies,
or film history in general, eventually you find Peeping Tom. It is a
peculiar film: made in a classic style, shot in bold technicolor, and made at a
time when horror, like other genres, was beginning to touch on darker subjects
and themes. Too dark for many in 1960. Peeping Tom was so reviled by
critics and audiences that it was pulled from theaters and essentially ended
the career of Michael Powell, the renowned British director of many revered
classics such as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes,
Black Narcissus, and The Thief of Bagdad. Powell and Peeping
Tom were ahead of their time; a cliché but true. Only eight years later Rosemary’s
Baby, a much much darker film, would achieve mainstream success with
critics and audiences. In the decades since it’s disastrous release, Peeping
Tom has been recognized as a classic, and you’ll find it on
many underrated, overlooked, or “best movies you’ve never seen” lists. Of
course the standards of what is shocking and vile change so much that the visuals
and set pieces in Peeping Tom would be considered tame by the next
decade. The real horror in Peeping Tom isin what you don’t see,
in what it implies, and in its themes which retain their disturbing and
dreadful shock value.
In a way, Peeping Tom is about making movies. It is
certainly about watching movies. Our main character is Mark (Carl Boehm) , a
young, handsome Austrian man, who works as a focus puller at a British movie
studio. He also moonlights as a smut photographer for pornographic magazines.
Also, he is a serial killer who films his victims at the moment of their death.
As memorable as Freddy Kruger’s glove with knives or Leatherface’s chainsaw is
Mark’s weapon of choice: a knife hidden in the leg of his camera’s tripod. As
he moves in for a close up, so does the blade.
Mark owns the building where he lives, inherited from his
father, but he cannot afford the upkeep so he rents the other rooms. His
apartment is unassuming, but there is, as you might imagine, a back room where
he develops and screens the films of his murders. In the apartment below him
live Helen (Anne Massey) and her mother (Maxine Audley). In the
excitement of her 21st birthday, Helen invites Mark to her apartment. When he hesitates,
she goes to his apartment where she, and we, learn his backstory. We learn that
Mark’s father, a famous psychologist, conducted and filmed experiments on Mark
as a child to learn about children’s reactions to fear. We see “home movies” of
him harshly waking up Mark in the middle of the night by shining a light in his face or dropping lizards on him. Mark’s killings are part
of of own his own documentary on fear and death. It is not until the climax
that we realize the full scope of Mark’s documentary of death.
Helen is shy, like Mark, but also full of life. She is a
strong enough force on him that she convinces him to go on their date without bringing along his beloved camera. However, after Helen kisses Mark, he
responds by kissing the lens of his camera as though he is compelled to
do this. Perhaps this is because Mark was not able to film their kiss, or
perhaps because experiences are only real for him if is his camera “sees” them,
or perhaps because Mark sees himself as a camera. That Peeping Tom
allows for multiple pathways to explore its themes and subtexts is what makes it a great film and explains why it has endured through the decades despite its
initial unwelcome reception.
Perhaps the film’s signature sequence involves Mark and Viv
(Moira Shearer), an extra in the film currently shooting at the studio,
sneaking on set at night. Viv believes they are
there so Mark can film her dance. Mark, and we, know the real reason she is
there. Shearer, who starred in Powell’s The Red Shoes, dances as Mark
rearranges the set and adjusts the lights, making sure everything is just right
for the camera. Shearer is so full of life that we feel the full weight of the
impending tragedy yet we accept it as a fulfillment.
It is worth noting that Peeping Tom was released in
not only in the same year, but mere months before Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
The reaction to the two films could not have been more different. Roger Ebert
speculated in his Great Movies essay on Peeping Tom that this was “because audiences expected the macabre from Hitchcock” while Powell was known
for “elegant and stylized films.” It’s hard not to compare and contrast the
films once they are linked. Both films feature psychologically damaged young
men but while Psycho only flirts with voyeurism, Peeping Tom is
expressly about voyeurism. Powell employs the POV (point of view) shot that not
only shows us exactly what Mark sees when he commits the murders, but
implicates the audience in the crime. Countless slasher films from the 1980’s onward would use the POV shot to either not reveal the identity of the killer or for pure
sensation. Powell uses the POV shot not only for sensation but as part of an attempt to
explore the life and mind of a person who would commit such crimes. However,
unlike Psycho, shot in black and white, Peeping Tom is shot in bold and vivid
technicolor. I believe that this is major reason why audiences had such an
intense negative reaction.
The saturated
technicolor look which Powell had mastered through the 1940’s and 50’s implied
a warm, uplifting picture. It was generally used by musicals and comedies while
noir films and prestige dramas where shot in black and white. Even dramas shot
in technicolor tended to be broad melodramas, well done soap operas on the big
screen, like the films of Douglas Sirk (Imitation of Life, Magnificent
Obsession, Written on the Wind). Peeping Tom showed people in full technicolor
something they would rather leave in the shadows.
Peeping Tom airs on TCM on Sunday, October 30th at 7PM CT and is streaming free on Tubi and the Roku Channel.
This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.
Brian De Palma’s Sisters is a murder mystery that has
enough suspense and violence to firmly qualify it as a horror film. The plot is heavily
influenced by Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Psycho, which is
no surprise since De Palma is so heavily influenced by Hitchcock. He even hired
Bernard Herrmann, the composer of numerous Hitchcock films, to create the score
for Sisters. However, De Palma's own artistic flair makes this movie feel like a new version of a familiar story.
The film begins with Margot Kidder as Dannielle, a French
Canadian model, on a date with a man she met through a game show. Their pleasant
night together comes to a gruesome end when Danielle’s psychotic sister,
Dominique (also Kidder), brutally murders the man. Danielle’s ex-husband, Dr. Breton (William Finley), helps cover up the crime, but a reporter, Grace (Jennifer Salt),
witnesses them from her apartment across the street.
Like Psycho, this is a film in two parts with the
second part being an investigation of the first. Grace tells the police what
she witnessed, but since she previously investigated police abuses of power
they are not willing to believe or help her. She turns to a private detective, played by Charles Durning, to help her investigate. Her mother,
played by Mary Davenport, also helps and has some
memorable moments. There are more than a few twists and turns to the plot, which,
if you’ve seen some Hitchcock movies, you’ll see coming from a mile away. We
may know what Grace’s investigation will turn up, but Sisters is well
crafted and well-acted enough to still be thrilling and suspenseful as the pieces come together.
The violence in this movie is sparse but sudden and bloody
when it happens. Instead of relying only on shock value, De Palma creates
suspense whenever and however he can. He employs split screen several times to intensify dramatic tension. The best use of split screen comes when
on one side of the screen we see Grace trying to get the police to believe her
about the murder as the detectives slowly make their way to the crime scene
while on the other side of the screen we see the murder being cleaned up. There
is one creepy sequence in which Grace finds herself paralyzed by
the nefarious Dr. Benton. The scene is shot from Grace’s point of view with a
close up on Dr. Benton’s face as she is hypnotized.
Sisters was released through AIP (American
International Pictures) which distributed many, many low budget exploitation films, including the work of the legendary producer-director Roger Corman. This certainly feels like an exploitation picture, but the style and
skills on display make it feel a step above other exploitation
films. This is a great example of how the ideas and
techniques of the “New Hollywood” of the late 60’s/early 70’s also helped change the
horror genre. The murder mystery angle combined with the macabre twists make this a
great film for any horror fan, or even the horror hesitant viewer, to watch on any
Shocktober day or night.
This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas.
Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the
month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober. Night 5: Argento Night
Italian filmmaker Dario Argento is most famous for his work
in the horror genre, namely Suspiria, but he began his career writing
and directing films known as giallos, an Italian subgenre of violent murder
mysteries and thrillers. This genre, which takes its name from pulp novels
printed on yellow paper (giallo is Italian for yellow), often skirted the line
between thriller and horror. Giallo plotlines would be murder mysteries or
who-done-its but sometimes also followed the structure of a slasher movie,
with the violence to match. For this reason, many, if not all, giallo films can be considered horror movies, including Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso,
or Deep Red.
David Hemmings plays Marcus, an English pianist visiting
Rome who witnesses the brutal murder of Helga Ulman (Macha Meril), a famous
psychic. He teams up with a persistent reporter, Gianna (Daria Nicolodi), to
solve the murder. They interview potential witnesses, collect clues, and are
pretty competent detectives. The police seem to be only slightly involved in
the investigation and mostly just help Marcus conduct his own investigation. At
the initial crime scene, Marcus asks the police if they touched or moved
anything in the dead psychic’s apartment. It’s a peculiar choice but it allows
Marcus to be at the center of the action.
Dario Argento’s directorial style is, well, being stylish.
The auditorium where Helga demonstrates her psychic abilities for an audience
(mentioning that she can only read people’s thoughts and see their past, not predict the
future... hence her bloody murder with a cleaver) has lush red curtains and table
where she sits is draped in the same bold red. The production design and color
palette are bold and eye catching in every scene. Blood in Deep Red, and
there’s a lot of it, is actually a bright, bold red bordering on orange-red in
certain scenes. It looks completely fake, but it’s stylish to the point of
turning the murder scenes into gruesome tableaus. The progressive synth rock
score by Goblin is creepy and thrilling in all the right ways and of course, gives
the movie a stylish soundtrack. The cinematography by Luigi Kuveiller is a feast for the eyes; every shot is well composed and photographed.
Even a scene with not much happening visually, like Marcus and his friend Carlo
talking on a deserted street with a Roman statue in the background looks
impressive. Light and shadow, close-ups, and POV shots are used to great effect.
Not only do they create a distinct look, but they also create an atmosphere of
mystery and suspense. In a particularly effective scene, we see extreme close ups
of the inner workings of a piano as Marcus composes a song followed by a POV
shot of the killer approaching Marcus. Then we see a wide shot of the
room and a shadow covers Marcus and his piano.
In its best moments, Deep Red is reminiscent of an
Alfred Hitchcock film: an excellent blend of style and suspense. Also like in a
Hitchcock film, Hemmings plays an everyman caught in an extraordinary
situation that he has to solve (mostly) on his own. Like the protagonists in
Argento’s previous films The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Cat O’Nine Tails, Marcus must solve a murder by picking apart his memory. While
the supernatural sets up the premise for Deep Red, the rest of the movie
is a straightforward mystery. However, the gruesome deaths, an increasing body count, and creepy touches like
the killer playing a recording of children singing, a random ghastly faced
automaton firmly plant Deep Red in the
horror genre. It is not without lighter moments, usually of Marcus and Gianna being
at odds, and bizarre moments, like Gianna mistakenly stabbing a bird in
midair. All of that style takes the dread out of the violence and makes Argento’s
macabre mystery a thoroughly engaging picture.
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.)
7/4, 4 AM - Miss Firecracker (1989) This slice of Southern Americana is perfect programming for the Fourth of July, if you are in the mood for something slightly bittersweet and satirical. Holly Hunter stars as Carnelle, a young misfit obsessed with winning the annual beauty contest in her small town of Yazoo City, Mississippi. After seeing her elegant cousin Elain (Mary Steenburgen) win the pageant 10 years earlier, subsequently marry up, and become a local celebrity, Carnelle is sure that the title of Miss Firecracker will be her ticket to a new life outside her hometown. While not her first film, Miss Firecracker may be the first time I saw Holly Hunter on screen. Mild-mannered child that I was, Hunter's intensity and energy, not to mention her flame red hair, were a bit frightening; however, I did admire her determination and spirit. The highlight is the performance by Hunter, as well as a very strong supporting cast including Steenburgen, Alfre Woodard, and Tim Robbins. The film was adapted from an off-Broadway play, and while far from perfect, it - like Carnelle - is worth giving a chance.
7/7: Hitchcock in the UK 8 PM - Number Seventeen (1932) 9:30 PM - The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) 11 PM - The 39 Steps (1935) 12:45 AM - The Lady Vanishes (1938) TCM is spotlighting filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock on Wednesdays and Fridays this month, moving chronologically from 1927's The Ring on July 5 to his final film, 1976's Family Plot, on July 28. You're sure to find something interesting on any evening devoted to Hitchcock's work, but I've chosen to focus on this batch of films from the 1930s. At the time Hitchcock was working in England making films with steadily bigger budgets and production value, and not only gaining acclaim in the UK, but in America with his first trans-Atlantic hit, The 39 Steps. The 39 Steps also made a film star of British stage actor Robert Donat (four years later Donat would win an Oscar for Goodbye, Mr. Chips). Donat plays that favorite Hitchcock character: an innocent man accused. After a spy is killed, and Donat blamed, he goes on the run across Scotland, all the while handcuffed to the woman who turned him in; together, they must discover the real killer and expose a spy ring. Among the other films tonight is the original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, a big hit in Britain and the first English-language film for character actor Peter Lorre. Hitchcock liked this story about a vacationing family accidentally drawn into international espionage so much, he remade the film in 1956. The low-budget thriller Number Seventeen is not one of Hitch's most celebrated works, but it is notable for possibly introducing the director's signature gimmick, the "Macguffin" - an object that drives the plot, but is basically irrelevant to the overall story. In this case, the Macguffin is a stolen necklace which draws the characters to a spooky old house where they encounter a string of mysteries, including a man's corpse. 1938's The Lady Vanishes was Hitchcock's biggest hit to date and helped him to secure a lucrative Hollywood contract. The plot - including a sudden disappearance, a plucky heroine, secret agents, and plenty of sly humor - is a treat for any Hitchcock fan.
7/25: Lili Damita Double Feature 10:45 AM -Friends and Lovers (1931) 12 PM - The Woman Between (1931) French actress Lili Damita was one of the many foreign beauties brought to Hollywood during the silent era - including Pola Negri, Greta Garbo, and Marlene Dietrich - to play exotic temptresses. Cast for their ability to give meaningful glances rather than speak lines, not all the imports made a successful transition to talkies. However, Garbo, Dietrich, and, yes, Damita were among the few who did. Today she's remembered as Errol Flynn's first wife; although, when they married in 1935, Flynn was just a handsome newcomer and Damita was the star. An old-fashioned gal, Damita gave up her career after marrying Flynn...which may be why she's better known for the divorce which bankrupted Flynn than for her own movies, but that's a story for another day. Today's double feature includes two films made in 1931 with director Victor Schertzinger for RKO Studios. In Friends and Lovers, Damita flirts her way through British society in India, blackmailing her conquests under the (monocled) eye of her unscrupulous husband, played by Erich von Stroheim. Adolphe Menjou and Laurence Olivier, in his first American film, star as young British officers ensnared by Damita's charms. In the second film, Damita is the titular Woman, this timeunintentionally coming between a father and son. Happily married to a rich older man, Damita is shocked when her husband's son returns from WWI and it is revealed that her stepson is also her former lover. (Since we're all thinking it, I'll just say that I have found no evidence that this film was the inspiration for the classic 1997 TV-movie My Stepson, My Lover.) You may recognize O.P. Heggie, who plays Damita's husband, as the blind hermit from Bride of Frankenstein.
7/27: Star of the Month Ronald Colman 8 PM - A Double Life (1947) 10 PM - Random Harvest (1942) 12:15 AM - The Talk of the Town (1942) The suave British actor Ronald Colman is TCM's Star of the Month with his films scheduled in primetime each Thursday in July. Colman was a top leading man from the silent era through the 1940s, equally popular with men and women for his dashing manner and handsome good looks. I plan on watching several of his movies this month, including early hits like Bulldog Drummond (1929) and Raffles (1930), but I am recommending three of his most popular films from the 40s. In the politically-tinged comedy The Talk of the Town Colman shares leading man duties with Cary Grant. Grant plays an accused arsonist on the lam who hides out in the home of schoolteacher Jean Arthur. He enlists Arthur's help to convince Colman, a respected law professor, of his innocence. Of course both men develop romantic feelings for the lovely Ms. Arthur and the film leaves you guessing until the end as to which man she will choose. This may be the only instance in which a love triangle involving Cary Grant felt equally weighted. Apparently alternate endings were filmed, one in which Arthur chose Grant and one in which she chose Colman; see if you agree with the final outcome. The Talk of the Town was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture and breathed new life into Colman's career and he followed it with another hit, the romantic drama Random Harvest. The plot is a bit convoluted, but basically it involves Colman getting amnesia - twice! - and forgetting the love of his life, played by Greer Garson. Director Meryn LeRoy quipped that "the English language was never spoken more beautifully on film." The film received seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Director, and Best Actor. However, most of the awards that year went to Garson's other hit, Mrs. Miniver; Colman lost out to James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy. For Colman, fourth time was the charm when he finally won the Best Actor Oscar for A Double Life playing an actor in a production of Othello opposite his own wife who finds his character's jealousy seeping into his own psyche. Married writing team Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin originally wanted Laurence Olivier for the lead role, but jumped after Colman when their first choice was unavailable. It was Colman who wasn't sure if he was right for the role; despite a stage background, he had never been a Shakesperean actor. However, the Kanins got Colman to sign on by promising him that the role would earn him that elusive Oscar - and they were right!
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.)
It's award season in Hollywood, which means it's time for TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" programming. Each day in February (and a few in March, too) will feature films which were Academy Award winners or nominees. This year, the films are being shown from A to Z starting with Abe Lincoln in Illinois on February 1 and ending with, well, Z on March 3. The alphabetical order creates some interesting programming blocks of films you might never see on a double feature except during 31 Days of Oscar. I've chosen a few of my favorite groupings this month.
2/1: A is for archetype 8 PM - All About Eve (1950) 10:30 PM - An American in Paris (1951) 12:30 AM - Annie Hall (1977) What better way to start the month than with the film which holds the record for most Oscar nominations, All About Eve? It's 14 nominations have since been tied by Titanic and this year's awards frontrunner La La Land; however, there were fewer categories in the 50s, so All About Eve's record is even more impressive. The film won 5 awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Supporting Actor for George Sanders. In his autobiography Sanders said of winning an Oscar, "I was grateful and flattered to get mine, but apart from making my already large ego one size larger it did absolutely nothing for me." The film's star, Bette Davis, might disagree. Davis and co-star Anne Baxter were both nominated for Best Actress, the first time two lead actresses had been nominated for the same film; however, the award that year went to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday. The film is the ultimate backstage story, centering on an established stage actress threatened by an ambitious younger woman with her sights set on stardom. Davis's powerful performance as Broadway star Margo Channing and Baxter's equally good turn as the cunning upstart Eve Harrington, plus the bitingly witty dialog by writer /director Joseph Mankiewicz, make this one of the best of all time. Though musicals had been popular since silent films became talkies, it was rare for a musical to win best picture. An American in Paris broke the trend garnering 8 nominations and 6 wins, including Best Picture. Gene Kelly stars as an American painter living in Paris who has a complicated romance with a French girl. The charming performances of the cast, particularly Kelly and love interest Leslie Caron, beautiful dances choreographed by Kelly, and the iconic music of the Gershwins, make An American in Paris a true delight. One of the most memorable sequences is the 17-minute "dream ballet" which ends the film. The power of this sequence must have stuck in the minds of the Academy voters because while director Vincente Minelli lost out to the director of A Place in the Sun, George Stevens; Gene Kelly was given an honorary award "in appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film." I would give credit to both Minelli and Kelly for the creative vision which made this film one of the crowning achievements of MGM's golden age. Annie Hall received 4 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Woody Allen's direction, the screenplay by Allen and Marshall Brickman, and Best Actress for Diane Keaton. The only nominated category it didn't win that year was Best Actor, in which Allen lost to Richard Dreyfuss for his performance in The Goodbye Girl. Comedy is another genre which is not often recognized by Oscar. Annie Hall was the first comedy since 1963's Tom Jones to win Best Picture (beating out Star Wars along the way); and I'm not sure there's been another since then...maybe Shakespeare in Love? The story is a simple one in which boy, comedy writer Alvy, meets girl, aspiring singer Annie, but the two quickly complicate matters with their neuroses and insecurities. With this film, Allen created the blueprint for modern romantic comedy.
2/8: F is for force 12 AM - The French Connection (1971) 2 AM - Friendly Persuasion (1956) The French Connection was the big winner of 1971, with 8 nominations and 5 wins, including Best Picture. The film, which follows two Brooklyn narcotics detectives tracking a drug kingpin, is memorable for a breathless car chase sequence and Gene Hackman's forceful portrayal of brutish cop Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle. No surprise then that the film picked up Oscars for Best Editing and Best Actor, in addition to awards for its director, William Friedkin, and screenplay by Ernest Tidyman. Friendly Persuasion proves that you can also make an impact through the rejection of violence, a sentiment echoed by this year's Oscar nominated film Hacksaw Ridge (ironically, an extremely violent film). The story centers on a Quaker family in Indiana whose commitment to peace is tested during the Civil War. The film received 6 nominations for Best Picture, Screenplay, Sound, and Director, as well as for the featured song "Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)" and supporting actor Anthony Perkins. Though set against the tumult of the Civil War, this is also a sentimental film about a family kept together by their strength of will and faith. But despite box office popularity, able direction by William Wyler, and strong performances by Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire, Friendly Persuasion lost the big prize that year to the star-studded spectacle of Around the World in 80 Days filmed in ultra wide screen Todd-AO.
2/11: H is for hysteria 10 PM - A Hard Day's Night (1964) 11:45 PM - Harvey (1950) Put together quickly to capitalize on worldwide Beatlemania, A Hard Day's Night is much better than it has any right to be and ending up getting two Academy Award nominations. The filmmakers were secretly worried that the Beatles could be a passing fad; therefore, the film needed to get to theaters quickly. The filming was completed in six weeks and the finished product premiered only three months after filming began! The hilarious, and Oscar-nominated, screenplay by Alun Owen focuses on a day (or so) in the life of the band as they talk to the press, evade hordes of screaming fans, and generally goof around, all in the lead-up to a performance on a television show. The screenplay is further helped by the innate charm of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, as well as a crack supporting cast of British character actors, most notably William Brambell as Paul's crotchety, mischievous grandfather. Of course another big reason to watch the film is the music, including the title song and other hits like "Can't Buy Me Love" and "All My Loving." Producer George Martin received the film's second Oscar nomination for the score. (Note: the category of "musical score - adaptation or treatment" was only around from 1963 to 1968, and most nominees were films which had been adapted from Broadway musicals with existing scores.) Harvey received two Oscar nominations, Best Actor for star James Stewart and Best Supporting Actress for Josephine Hull (which she won). However, it's a shock to me that the screenplay, adapted for film by Mary Chase and Oscar Brodney from Chase's Pulitzer Prize winning play, was completely overlooked. The concept -- that a small-town eccentric (or drunk, depending on your opinion) is accompanied everywhere by a 6'3" invisible rabbit to the embarrassment and dismay of his family -- is so out there, it takes a masterful touch to make it work. Stewart gives one of his most memorable comedic performances as the gentle iconoclast Elwood P. Dowd, though he lost the Oscar to Jose Ferrer's starring performance in Cyrano de Bergerac. The play had been a hit on Broadway for five years and the filmmakers imported most of the original cast, including Hull as Dowd's increasingly desperate sister. A couple of interesting facts about the film -- though it is implied that Elwood is an alcoholic, due to the film production code he is never shown taking a drink; many of the shots in the film are intentionally wider than they need to be to allow room for the invisible Harvey.
2/19: N is for nominee 6:30 AM - North by Northwest (1959) 9 AM - Now, Voyager(1942) 11 AM - The Nun's Story (1959) They say it's an honor just to be nominated. Sometimes a really great film can pick up a few nominations, but in the end lose to that year's juggernaut. That's what happened to Alfred Hitchcock's spy thriller North by Northwest, which picked up 3 nominations for Art Direction, Editing, and Screenplay; unfortunately for Hitch, his film was up against Ben-Hur which would set a record that year with 11 wins. (The record still stands, but is shared with Titanic and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.) The original screenplay award that year would go to the Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedy Pillow Talk. Combining many of Hitchcock's signature elements -- mistaken identity, a glamorous blonde, diabolical villains, and fear of those people and institutions we should trust -- plus favorite leading man Cary Grant, North by Northwest is the quintessential Hitchcock picture. The famous crop duster scene is so well done, it is suspenseful no matter how many times I watch it. However, one of the best parts of the movie didn't even get a nomination: Bernard Hermann's memorable score. Also coming up empty at the 1959 Oscars was The Nun's Story, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Audrey Hepburn. This moving portrait of a nun who must repress her natural independence first as a novice, and later on a mission to Africa, was one of the most popular movies of the year. The strength of the film lies in the star power of Hepburn, and she gives a superb performance as Gaby/Sister Luke; playing against her fashion-plate image, she spends most of the film covered up in a nun's habit. Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress, but lost to Simone Signoret, the polar opposite of a nun as an unfaithful wife in Room at the Top. The film received 8 nominations in all, including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Score, and Adapted Screenplay. I'll admit that the film might sound dull at first, but The Nun's Story is so well-crafted it will pull you in and keep you captivated. Now, Voyager is an emotional drama about a plain, put-upon woman who comes into her own through the help of a psychiatrist and her chaste love for a married man. It was Bette Davis's biggest hit of the 1940s and provided many quotable lines, including "Don't ask for the moon, we have the stars." The brilliant Bette Davis was again nominated for Best Actress, but did not win. (Lest you're feeling sorry for her now, she had already won the award twice in the 1930s for her performances in Dangerous and Jezebel.) Gladys Cooper, who played Davis's domineering mother, received a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Both the Best Actress and Supporting Actress Oscar would go to the stars of that year's big winner Mrs. Miniver, Greer Garson and Teresa Wright, respectively. However, Now, Voyager did manage one win for the elegant score by Max Steiner.
2/22: R is for romance 8 PM - Roman Holiday (1953) 10:15 PM - A Room with a View (1986) Roman Holiday is an effervescent romp through the streets of Rome which made Audrey Hepburn a star. She plays a princess on an official tour of Europe, who runs away from her duties and has an adventure with an American reporter (played by Gregory Peck). The film received 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction, Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Eddie Albert. It won in three categories: Best Actress, Costumes, and Motion Picture Story. It is interesting to note that, at the time, "motion picture story" was a separate category from screenplay; so, Dalton Trumbo's original story (perhaps inspired by England's rebellious Princess Margaret) won the Oscar, but the completed screenplay did not. Hepburn's chic, modern clothes and gamine haircut were copied by women around the world, which probably helped costume designer Edith Head grab the win over other films with more elaborate costumes. It's back to Italy with A Room with View, a delightful period comedy about a young Englishwoman torn between her straitlaced fiance and an impetuous Bohemian she meets in Florence. The film received 8 Oscar nominations, tying that year's ultimate Best Picture winner Platoon. It won in three categories: Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, and Costume Design. A Room with a View was the first worldwide hit for producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory, and writer Ruth Prawer-Jhabavala, who adapted the story from the E.M. Forster novel. If you think "Merchant-Ivory film" means a stuffy costume drama, this film may surprise you. It pokes fun at the buttoned-up aspects of Edwardian culture, but never dips into farce; while the romance is handled with deft delicacy.
