November 2007
Thursday November 1
8:00 PM Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau, 1946) - BW-94 mins. - I don’t think it’s too much to call this one of the best films ever made. I’m not a fan of this well-known story, and I’ve never seen the Disney version, but I thought Cocteau’s treatment was truly magical. Beautiful, enchanting filmmaking, made even more incredible by when it was made and where. The Criterion Collection DVD is superb, a must-own even, but it’s also pricey. TCM will be using the same restoration. Those who haven’t seen the film might find themselves wanting to buy the DVD after watching it here.
2:30 AM A Face in the Crowd (Kazan, 1957) - BW-126 mins. - I think about this movie probably every week. It’s a little miracle of a film, with Andy Griffith giving a chilling and eerily on the money performance as Lonesome Rhodes, a drunken hobo who becomes a media sensation. Budd Schulberg was responsible for the story and the film is like nothing Kazan ever did before or after. Along with Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, this is one of the most strikingly cynical and depressingly accurate films to depict the power of the media this decade. Warner Bros. released it in their first Controversial Classics set, as well as individually. There’s an insightful interview with Griffith included in the disc’s featurette.
Friday November 2
8:00PM Trouble in Store (Carstairs, 1955) - BW-86 mins. - I don’t think Norman Wisdom is really known at all in the U.S. I’m not familiar with him, for sure, but the British comedian has a following in his native country. Here he plays a stock boy at a department store who ends up foiling a robbery. I’m speculating that this might be one of his better films since TCM is showing it in a prime time slot. It’s available on DVD in the UK, but not in R1. Warner Home Video released it on VHS so I’d assume they still own the rights here.
Sunday November 11
12:00 PM Sleeper (Allen, 1973) - C-88 mins. - Very funny and often overlooked early Woody Allen film. A sci-fi comedy, where Woody is frozen and transported 200 years into the future. This was his first time directing Diane Keaton, after co-starring together in the previous year’s Play It Again, Sam, and wow is she beautiful here. Released by MGM on DVD, but, like all of Allen’s films, completely without extra features so there’s not much difference between seeing the disc and watching it here.
3:00 AM The Great Flamarion (Mann, 1945) - BW-78 mins. - Anthony Mann directs Erich von Stroheim, who plays the vaudevillian marksman title character. Mary Beth Hughes plays the femme fatale and Dan Duryea her drunk husband in this early Mann noir. I’ve never seen the film so I don’t know much else, but I’ll probably try to record it just the same. Originally released by Republic, it now seems to be in public domain and with two cheap R1 DVD releases. Screencaps at DVD Beaver for a French release look quite good though.
4:30 AM The Blue Gardenia (Lang, 1953) -BW-88 mins. - Great, maybe second-tier Lang noir starring Anne Baxter, Richard Conte and Raymond Burr. Without giving too much away, one dies and one can’t remember whether he/she is the murderer. Fritz Lang was so good with these kinds of films that it’s difficult to rank where many of them fall within his noir filmography. I enjoyed The Blue Gardenia quite a bit, though not as much as Lang’s very best for sure. It’s on DVD in R1 from Image, but the disc is nothing to write home about.
Tuesday November 13
8:00 PM Stakeout on Dope Street (Kershner, 1958) - BW-89 mins. - Prop your eyes open kids - tonight’s guest programmer is demon dog of American crime fiction James Ellroy. His first pick is about teenagers who discover a briefcase full of heroin, and it’s directed by Irvin Kershner, the director of The Empire Strikes Back. Hard to imagine why there’s no DVD release yet. It’s a Warner Bros. film.
9:30 PM Murder by Contract (Lerner, 1958) - BW-81 mins. - Ellroy’s next choice is one I’ve been meaning to see for a few months now. I frequently hear comparisons made about this film to Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï. TV doc Vince Edwards stars as a different kind of hitman, whose next contract is to kill a woman. TCM does show this occasionally, but I think it’s usually buried and not in a prime time slot. Made for Columbia, Sony probably has no intention of releasing the film on DVD.
11:00 PM The Lineup (Siegel, 1958) - BW-86 mins. - Oddly enough, novelist Jonathan Lethem chose a double bill of Murder by Contract and this film directed by Don Siegel, starring Eli Wallach and Robert Keith as hitmen tracking a heroin shipment, recently for his series at BAM. Great literary minds apparently think alike. Another Sony/Columbia orphan unavailable on DVD. Two films from Richard Fleischer immediately follow, Armored Car Robbery at 12:30 AM and Follow Me Quietly at 1:45 AM. Both of those are also absent on DVD, and were made for RKO.
Wednesday November 14
8:00 PM Blues in the Night (Litvak, 1941) - BW-88 mins. - This is a movie with a screenplay written by The Hustler director Robert Rossen, and based on a play co-written by Elia Kazan, who also turns up in the picture. The TCM guide says, “members of a traveling jazz band try to keep their leader from drinking himself to death.” Matt Groening, creator of a show about yellow people, chose the film, as well as Chaplin’s The Circus which airs at 10:45 PM. Warner Bros. released the film in theaters and it remains unreleased on DVD.
1:45 AM He Ran All the Way (Berry, 1951) - BW-78 mins. - Worth watching because it was John Garfield’s last time on the screen. The actor died in 1952, at just 39 years old. He had suffered from persistent heart problems and the damning reality of being on Hollywood’s blacklist. An absolutely tragic loss. Here he co-stars with Shelley Winters as a fugitive forcefully hiding out at her apartment. Fellow blacklistee Dalton Trumbo had a hand in the screenplay. Released by United Artists theatrically, the film is not on DVD and rights should be controlled by MGM.
Thursday November 15
10:00 PM Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946) - BW-102 mins. - One of my top two or three favorite Hitchcock films, yet not hardly as popular as a handful of others by the director. Aside from the appealing presence of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, I think I love the movie so much because, like Casablanca, it has virtually everything people enjoy in movies (or used to, I should say). There’s just a little bit of humor, a little more romance, a splash of mystery, quite a lot of suspense, and many, many brilliant and memorable scenes. Criterion’s superior R1 (though I’d guess the image might be improved on if released today) has been out of print for a few years, but the film’s is readily available in other regions. Cybill Shepherd apparently has a thing for Cary Grant since two of her other picks also star the actor, including the delightfully hilarious His Girl Friday.
Friday November 16
8:00 PM The Asphalt Jungle (Huston, 1950) - BW-113 mins. - I’ve been immersed in the man, the myth, and the legend of John Huston this week while watching and re-watching Criterion’s new release of Under the Volcano so I figured why not draw attention to a great film from early in Huston’s career. I obviously like Sterling Hayden too, and Marilyn Monroe even pops up in this superb heist picture. A very strong cast and an exceedingly brilliant film, The Asphalt Jungle is the first pick from tonight’s guest programmer, the somewhat neglected filmmaker Paul Mazursky. Warner Bros. released a quality DVD in their first film noir set three years ago, but it’s a film that’s always worth watching.
Saturday November 17
8:15 AM Red Dust (Fleming, 1932) - BW-83 mins. - Conspicuously absent on DVD, the best-known pairing of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow is very pre-Code and very un-PC. He’s a plantation owner in Indochina who develops an interest in a prostitute (Harlow) and, then, a surveyor’s wife (Mary Astor). Remade with Gable again 20 years later as Mogambo for John Ford. Originally an MGM film, this should pop up on DVD soon, perhaps in 2008 and/or in the much-promised Jean Harlow set from Warner Bros.
10:00 AM Journey Into Fear (Foster, 1942) - BW-68 mins. - The correct answer to what did Orson Welles do after Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. Mercury man Joseph Cotten is credited with this film’s screenplay and much speculation has been made that Welles had a hand in directing as well as contributing to the script. In addition to Cotten and Welles, Kane veterans Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, and Everett Sloane join Dolores del Rio in a film that feels like fragments of a larger puzzle. It’s a curiosity piece, but, at only 68 minutes, Welles fans should give it a look. Made for RKO, rights now controlled by Warner Bros. and unreleased on R1 DVD. A French DVD seems to have pretty good image quality.
8:00 PM Kes (Loach, 1969) - C-111 mins. - Funny British lady Tracey Ullman picks a not-so-funny British film as part of her guest programmer duties. Ken Loach’s classic film about a young boy who copes with his working-class life through training a pet falcon has still not been released on R1 DVD. United Artists is credited as original theatrical distributor of the film, meaning it’s an MGM property. They put out R2 and R4 DVDs of Kes a few years ago.
Monday November 19
11:00 AM The Falcon Strikes Back (Dmytryk, 1943) - BW-66 mins. - TCM continues their November tributes to classic serials with a marathon of films about The Falcon (George Sanders) and his brother, also The Falcon (Tom Conway, also Sanders’ actual brother). Anyone interested in a short history of the series can read jackal’s informative write-up from back in January. None of these are on DVD yet, and all are controlled by Warner Bros. This was the fifth in the series, after Sanders had already handed over the reins to Conway. TCM is showing eleven total, and in order, I believe. I decided to spotlight this particular entry because of its director Edward Dmytryk, who’d go on to make some noteworthy films like Crossfire and The Caine Mutiny.
Tuesday November 20
8:00 PM The Bad and the Beautiful (Minnelli, 1952) - BW-118 mins. - Minnelli’s semi-vicious attack on Hollywood won five Oscars, including a deserved one for the lovely Gloria Grahame, who manages to pack a very memorable performance into not a lot of screen time. Still, it feels a little bit like a guilty pleasure to me. Kirk Douglas was also nominated, the film’s only non-win, but goes pretty far over the top at times (even for him) and much of the film is cheesy. I like it though - the cast is fun and the ending’s pretty great also. Warner Bros. released a DVD in R1 that still comes in a snapper case, I believe, and is double-sided. I remember the image quality being fine and a lengthy Lana Turner documentary on the flipside of the disc. Tune in to see what Alec Baldwin has to say about the film, plus Sorry, Wrong Number at 4:00 AM, which might be an unfortunately titled choice for someone who made headlines earlier this year for calling his 11-year-old daughter a rude little pig in a recorded phone message.
Wednesday November 21
6:00 AM The Cuban Love Song (Van Dyke, 1931) - B-87 mins. - This kicks off a day of Lupe Velez-starring films. What caught my eye was Velez in a pre-code musical and that it’s directed by W.S. Van Dyke. Metropolitan Opera baritone Lawrence Tibbett co-stars. Some of Velez’s “Mexican Spitfire” movies follow later in the afternoon. An MGM release, Warner Bros. now controls DVD rights.
7:30 AM The Half-Naked Truth (La Cava, 1933) - BW-78 mins. - Lupe Velez again, along with Lee Tracy. He’s a carnival barker who becomes a publicity man and turns her from a sideshow dancer into a Broadway star. Another Gregory La Cava comedy. After McCarey, Lubitsch, Hawks, and Capra, La Cava has to be pretty far up the list of 1930s Hollywood comedy directors. Not on DVD and made for RKO, the rights are now owned by Warner Bros.
Thursday November 22
12:30 AM The Crowd (Vidor, 1928) - BW-94 mins. - You hear words like “masterpiece” and “landmark” often bandied about when discussing King Vidor’s highly regarded silent film. I wish I had seen it so I could add some intelligent praise, but the film has thus far eluded me. Warner Bros. keeps promising a DVD, but nothing so far. Maybe after some turkey I’ll sit back and see what I’ve been missing. (IMDB lists the film at 10 minutes longer than TCM, but I’m afraid I don’t know the reason behind the disparity.)
4:30 AM Comanche Station (Boetticher, 1960) - C-74 mins. - Not only was this the last of the Budd Boetticher-Randolph Scott westerns, but it was the last feature the director made until 1969’s A Time for Dying and the penultimate film for Scott, who’d only appear in Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country before calling it a career. Written by Burt Kennedy, who also penned Seven Men from Now and the screenplay for The Tall T, the film was released by Columbia and remains unavailable on DVD.
Friday November 23
1:15 AM Stalag 17 (Wilder, 1953) - BW-121 mins. - What guest programmer Joe Pantoliano lacks in originality, he makes up for in taste. Surprisingly not picking Gladiator, the former Ralph Cifaretto chose great films by Ford, Wyler, Curtiz and this one, Billy Wilder’s excellent take on an American POW camp in World War II. It has a great DVD release from Paramount in R1, but I love the film and I haven’t mentioned Wilder in awhile. (It’s an ironic salute 
)
Saturday November 24
10:00 AM Desperate (Mann, 1947) - BW-73 mins. - Sandwiched amid an Anthony Mann triple feature, this not-on-DVD noir features Raymond Burr as a mobster whose brother is staring down a death sentence. The other two Mann films are worth checking out as well, especially He Walked by Night which is credited to Alfred Werker and stars Richard Basehart as an extreme loner who faces a citywide manhunt after shooting a cop. It’s on a fairly good DVD from MGM. Desperate was made for RKO so Warner Bros. should control its rights.
12:00 AM Movers & Shakers (Asher, 1985) - C-82 mins. - This interests me strictly out of curiosity as to why its star and screenwriter Charles Grodin, guest programmer of the night, decided to choose the film. Not on DVD and with a very low IMDB rating, it would seem to be rarely shown anywhere. Walter Matthau also stars as a studio head who promises his dying friend (Grodin) that he will turn a notorious sex manual into a movie. Gilda Radner, in one of her few film roles, adds support. It’s probably terrible, but this is likely the best chance to see for yourself. It was released by MGM/UA theatrically.
Sunday November 25
8:00 AM Latin Lovers (LeRoy, 1953) - C-105 mins. - Lana Turner. In Technicolor. Released by MGM, but rights now likely to be controlled by Warner Bros.
2:30 AM Age of Consent (Powell, 1969) - C-91 mins. - Michael Powell’s widow, multi-Oscar winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker, picked a night of British films that starts off with medical mystery Green for Danger and is followed by three from Powell. The Edge of the World, unavailable in R1 and released by the BFI on R2 DVD, is the first of these and is followed by arguably the best film from Powell and his collaborator Emeric Pressburger, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. If you’ve not seen Blimp then by all means watch it or pick up the excellent Criterion DVD. The real rarity of the night, though, is Age of Consent. As far as I know unavailable on DVD anywhere in the world, the film stars a very young Helen Mirren and James Mason. Mason is an artist who falls for the much-younger Mirren in the South Pacific. IMDB lists Columbia as the U.S. distributor, meaning a DVD release from Sony in R1 is unlikely.
Monday November 26
12:30 AM The Boy with Green Hair (Losey, 1948) - C-83 mins. - Director Joseph Losey was forced out of Hollywood after refusing to go before the HUAC, living and working abroad for the remainder of his life. However this film, his first feature, was made in Hollywood for RKO. Dean Stockwell is the young boy whose hair suddenly turns green. Robert Ryan and Pat O’Brien star in Losey’s parable of war and public acceptance/rejection. A public domain DVD is available in R1, but I’d think that Warner Bros.’ ownership of most of the RKO library would place them as controlling the film’s rights. Regardless, they probably have access to the best materials for a DVD release, though I’ve read nothing implying they had any plans for one.
Tuesday November 27
6:30 AM Four Daughters (Curtiz, 1938) - BW-91 mins. - Musician Claude Rains and his four musically inclined daughters have their easygoing life shook up when brash composer John Garfield, making his film debut, shows up. The film received five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and nods for Curtiz and Garfield, yet remains unavailable on DVD from Warner Bros. Two follow-ups were made, Four Wives and Four Mothers, and they air right after this showing. Another film, Daughters Courageous, reunited the principal cast members in 1939, but was not technically a sequel.
Wednesday November 28
8:00 PM Odd Man Out (Reed, 1947) - BW-117 mins. - Who knew tonight’s guest programmer Brian Dennehy was such an Anglophile? His first selection, from The Third Man director Carol Reed, stars James Mason as an IRA agent on the run. I’m ashamed to have not yet seen the film, despite looking forward to it very much and having a dusty VHS with a previous TCM showing, but I’ll direct those interested to John Hodson’s nice write-up. I can vouch for the quality of TCM’s print and add that an R1 release from Criterion should be forthcoming.
11:45 PM The Wrong Box (Forbes, 1966) - C-110 mins. - Dennehy also picked Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (on R1 DVD from MGM) and this mystery-comedy with an all-star cast. Ralph Richardson and John Mills are the brothers Finsbury who have a significant stake in outliving each other. Other members of the Finsbury clan include Michael Caine, Dudley Moore, and Peter Cook. Peter Sellers is in there somewhere as well. There’s no DVD yet, but an R2 was announced and then delayed. R1 rights are controlled by Sony, but those who want to see the film should make a point of watching the TCM showing given Sony’s track record.
Thursday November 29
12:30 AM Juliet of the Spirits (Fellini, 1965) - C-137 mins. - Devo frontman and frequent scorer of Wes Anderson films Mark Mothersbaugh gets to pick the movies tonight and, following Inherit the Wind and A Face in the Crowd, he uses his powers for good by selecting Fellini’s first color film. After 8½, where Fellini turned the camera around and told the story of a womanizing director, he gave his wife Giulietta Masina a starring role as a woman struggling with what to do about her philandering husband. Though Criterion released the film on DVD a few years ago, the image quality on that disc has been bested by Nouveaux in R2. It will be interesting to see the quality of TCM’s showing.
3:00 AM Hot Rods to Hell (Brahm, 1967) - C-100 mins. - Director John Brahm’s final film paired Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain as a couple on family vacation who are improbably tormented by a gang of teen hot rodders. So bad it’s good, or at least fun? Maybe. Warner Bros. put it in their Cult Camp Classics DVD set earlier this year, but the hilariously bizarre plot and presence of Brahm, Andrews, and Crain at least required a mention.
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?