American Madness, playing on Wednesday on TCM
Pretty slim week this week, though make sure to watch out for TCM’s tribute to Elizabeth Taylor on Sunday, when they’re giving over the entire day to her films, from Lassie Come Home to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. I’d also recommend early Frank Capra film American Madness (playing Wednesday), my favorite of an early Capra series I watched last year. Finally, look for a Mary Pickford triple feature on Friday.
Monday, April 4
8:00am – TCM – Mrs. Miniver
One of the more celebrated World War II home front films has Greer Garson in an Oscar-winning turn as the stalwart title character, holding her home together against the German Blitz. It’s the kind of movie that could only be made in 1942, and it won awards all over the place. It comes off a bit over-earnest today, though.
1942 USA. Director: William Wyler. Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright.
10:30am – IFC – Barton Fink
One of the Coen Brothers’ most brilliant dark comedies, Barton Fink follows its title character, a New York playwright whose hit play brings him to the attention of Hollywood, where he goes to work for the movies. And it all goes downhill from there. Surreal, quirky, and offbeat, even among the Coens work. It’s based loosely on the experiences of Clifford Odets, whose heightened poetic style of writing has clearly been influential on the Coens throughout their career.
1991 USA. Director: Joel Coen. Starring: John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, Tony Shalhoub.
8:00pm – TCM – Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell’s sprawling best-seller became David O. Selznick’s sprawling epic, the story of spoiled southern belle Scarlett O’Hara coping with the horrors of unrequited love, threats to her family’s plantation, and oh, yeah, the Civil War. Gone With the Wind needs no introduction, really.
1939 USA. Director: Victor Fleming. Starring: Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel.
Must See
Tuesday, April 5
6:00am – IFC – Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Lawrence Sterne’s 1769 proto-postmodern novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy has long been considered unfilmable. So what does director Michael Winterbottom do? He makes a film about the difficulty of filming Tristram Shandy. Winterbottom’s film is something of an experiment, but it’s a delightful one, showing the behind-the-scenes antics of production as well as highlighting the circularity and self-defeating narrative of Sterne’s novel in the film-within-the-film.
2005 UK. Director: Michael Winterbottom. Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, Jeremy Northam.
(repeats at 1:00pm)
12:45pm – TCM – Theodora Goes Wild
Irene Dunne got a few chances to test her screwball comedy skills, and while I don’t think Theodora Goes Wild is as solid as The Awful Truth on any level, it’s still a fun showcase for Dunne’s comedic talents.
1936 USA. Director: Richard Boleslawski. Starring: Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell, Thurston Hall.
8:00pm – TCM – The Major and the Minor
A rather slight and sometimes shrill comedy that still has its moments, notable for being Billy Wilder’s first Hollywood film as a director (he also wrote it, of course, with Charles Brackett). Ginger Rogers plays a young woman who pretends to be a twelve-year-old child to get half-fare on a train; in so doing, she catches the attention of a soldier who takes her under his wing, thinking she’s actually twelve. Events snowball from there. I have a soft spot for this film, personally, and especially for Diana Lynn as the sarcastic and much-wiser-than-her-years kid who becomes Rogers’ confidant.
1942 USA. Director: Billy Wilder. Starring: Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, Robert Benchley, Diana Lynn.
8:00pm – Sundance – Marie Antoinette
Though Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette is unconventional, it is a solid and riveting re-interpretation of the giddy but not untroubled courts of Louis XVI and Louis XVII. The use of actors like Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman, who are not known as period actors, as well as anachronistic music, sounds like an ill-conceived attempt to make the story feel contemporary, but it actually works. Coppola took some serious risks with this film, but they paid off beyond all expectation.
2006 USA. Director: Sofia Coppola. Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Rose Byrne.
Wednesday, April 6
6:00am – IFC – Curse of the Golden Flower
One of the weaker entries in Zhang Yimou’s series of historical martial-arts-on-wires films, but it still has its moments – and the production design, as usual, is flawlessly beautiful. Definitely worth a watch if you’re a fan of the style.
2006 China. Director: Zhang Yimou. Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou, Ye Liu.
(repeats at 1:30pm)
10:15am – IFC – Che
Steven Soderbergh’s ambitious two-part epic about South American revolutionary Che Guevara. IFC is playing both parts back to back.
2008 USA. Director: Steven Soderbergh. Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Julia Ormond, Rodrigo Santoro.
(repeats at 6:00am and 12:55pm on the 7th)
1:00pm – TCM – American Madness
A tautly-written comedy-drama from Robert Riskin and Frank Capra, about a bank owner (Walter Huston) troubled by demands from the board to merge with another bank and a robbery being pinned on one of his brightest young employees, all eventually leading to one of the greatest bank-run sequences ever put on film, certainly a prototype for It’s a Wonderful Life, but even more well-done.
1932 USA. Director: Frank Capra. Starring: Walter Huston, Pat O’Brien, Kay Johnson.
Newly Featured!
5:45pm – TCM – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
One of Humphrey Bogart’s best films casts him as greedy prospector Fred C. Dobbs, who teams up with old-timer Walter Huston and youngster Tim Holt to find a horde of gold. Along the way, they uncover instead the darker sides of human nature. One of director John Huston’s most impressive films.
1948 USA. Director: John Huston. Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, Walter Huston.
Must See
7:45pm – IFC – The Usual Suspects
One of the earliest in the late 90s wave of “twist” films, and still one of the few that did it best. Spoiler warnings may not have been invented for The Usual Suspects, but it was certainly one of the films that popularized anti-spoiler sentiment (and the converse glee for spoiling, I suppose). Thanks to Christopher McQuarrie’s tight script and great acting turns, though, the film is about more than the twist, which is what makes it continue to be worthwhile over a decade and multiple viewings later.
1995 USA. Director: Bryan Singer. Starring: Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Bryne, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollack, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite.
(repeats at 2:15am on the 7th)
8:00pm – Sundance – L’auberge espagnole
A French student moves into an apartment with six other people in Barcelona. The interactions of these roommates with diverse cultural backgrounds and personalities forms the basis of the film as a whole, which may be short on plot but is great on the interpersonal relations and conversations that the French are so good at putting on film.
2002 France. Director: Cédric Klapisch. Starring: Romain Duris, Judith Godrèche, Kelly Reilly.
Thursday, April 7
10:30am – IFC – Renaissance
In near-future Paris, a brilliant young scientist is kidnapped; her employer Avalon (a highly influential company that sells youth and beauty itself) wants her found, but her importance to them may be more sinister than first meets the eye. The story’s not handled perfectly here, but it’s worth watching for the beautifully stark black and white animation.
2006 France. Director: Christian Volckman. Starring (English version): Daniel Craig, Romola Garai, Ian Holm, Catherine McCormack, Jonathan Pryce.
(repeats>The Uninvited
Not to be confused with the 2009 film The Uninvited, which is actually a remake of Korea’s A Tale of Two Sisters, this unrelated ghost story film is a lovely example of a certain style of 1940s horror – quiet, understated, atmospheric, and yet chilling and haunting.
1944 USA. Director: Lewis Allen. Starring: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp.
10:00pm – TCM – Frankenstein
The most recognizable image of Frankenstein’s monster comes from this film, rather a departure from Mary Shelley’s novel, but nonetheless iconic as a film. More a tragedy than a horror film, almost, with Dr. Frankenstein’s god-like experiments yielding a monster whose very simplicity becomes his downfall, and self-righteous townspeople who become monsters themselves. Lots more subtlety and tenderness than you’d expect.
1931 USA. Director: James Whale. Starring: Colin Clive, Boris Karloff, Mae Clarke.
Must See
1:30am (8th) – TCM – Wuthering Heights
William Wyler’s moody 1939 version of Emily Bronte’s moody gothic novel, with Laurence Olivier as the moody Heathcliff. Probably the best film version of the story up till now.
1939 USA. Director: William Wyler. Starring: Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Geraldine Fitzgerald, David Niven, Flora Robson.
Friday, April 8
6:00am – TCM – The Poor Little Rich Girl
One of Mary Pickford’s best-known roles (in a story that would later be remade with Shirley Temple), as a young girl ignored by her rich family but ends up lost and cared for by a poor family. At the time, Pickford was already America’s Sweetheart, and soon to be one of the most powerful women in Hollywood.
1917 USA. Director: Maurice Tourneur. Starring: Mary Pickford, Madlaine Traverse, Charles Wellesley.
Newly Featured!
8:45am – TCM – Coquette
After many years of playing innocent girls usually much younger than her actual age, Mary Pickford took on this role of a not-quite-so-innocent flirt.
1929 USA. Director: Sam Taylor. Starring: Mary Pickford, Johnny Mack Brown, Matt Moore.
Newly Featured!
Saturday, April 9
6:00am – TCM – You Can’t Take It With You
Capra won his third directing Oscar for this film (the others were for It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town), but to me it’s not one of his more interesting pieces. Young couple James Stewart and Jean Arthur invite chaos when his staid, wealthy family meets her wacky, irreverent one.
1938 USA. Director: Frank Capra. Starring: Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Spring Byington.
8:30am – TCM – Kiss Me Deadly
Iconic noir film, with hard-boiled action, nuclear paranoia, and one of the more memorable non-Hitchcock McGuffins in movie history. Plus some great LA locations. One of the pulpier noir films, and one of the most enjoyable.
1955 USA. Director: Robert Aldrich. Starring: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Cloris Leachman, Marian Carr.
12:00N – TCM – Tarzan and His Mate
The second film of the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan series, generally considered the best. Picking up where Tarzan the Ape Man left off, Tarzan and Jane are living an idyllic life in the jungle, but are threatened by ivory hunters and those who want to “rescue” Jane. Barely squeaking in before the Production Code, there’s some fun pre-Code action here as well.
1934 USA. Director: Cedric Gibbons. Starring: Johnny Weismuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Neil Hamilton.
Newly Featured!
2:00pm – TCM – Gilda
Gilda was the last person Johnny ever expected to meet again, much less as the wife of his boss, a sleazy casino operator in South America. Glenn Ford plays a quintessential defeated noir narrator in Johnny, while Rita Hayworth imbues Gilda with all her available mystique to make Gilda one of the more memorable films of the 1940s.
1946 USA. Director: Charles Vidor. Starring: Glenn Ford, Rita Hayworth, George Macready
4:00pm – TCM – From Here to Eternity
There’s the famous part, yes, where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr make love on the beach among the crashing waves. But there’s also a solid ensemble war tale, involving young officer Montgomery Clift and his naive wife Donna Reed, and embittered soldiers Frank Sinatra and Lee J. Cobb.
1953 USA. Director: Fred Zinnemann. Starring: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Montgomery Clift, Lee J. Cobb.
5:25pm – Sundance – No One Knows About Persian Cats
A pair of Iranian rock musicians, unable to perform their music publicly because the government won’t give them a permit, try to put together a final underground gig to raise money to escape the country – it’s based on the actual story of the two people playing the musicians, so there’s an intriguing intersection of reality and fiction.
2009 Iran. Director: Bahman Ghobadi. Starring: Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad.
7:15pm – Sundance – A Town Called Panic
One of the most delightful films I saw in 2009, a whacked out stop-motion film from Belgium that follows Horse, Cowboy, and Indian throughout a series of adventures, mostly focused on trying to rebuild their house which keeps getting stolen every night. This is mile-a-minute absurdity with more inventiveness in 75 minutes than I usually see all year.
2009 Belium. Directors: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar. Starring: Stéphane Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Bruce Ellison, Vincent Pater.
10:15pm – IFC – 28 Days Later
Danny Boyle brought the zombie film into the new millennium, with a fast-spreading virus infecting the population at record speed (the “zombies” also move at record speed), leaving only a few survivors to try to escape London before it’s too late. I’m not a particular fan of the ending, but up until then, it’s a mile-a-minute thrill ride that’s hard to beat.
2002 UK. Director: Danny Boyle. Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston.
Sunday, April 10
6:00am – TCM – Lassie Come Home
Family classic that has every kid wanting a collie at some point in their lives. Hint: Get a border collie. Regular collies are quite high-strung.
1943 USA. Director: Fred M. Wilcox. Starring: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, Elsa Lanchester, Elizabeth Taylor.
7:30am – TCM – National Velvet
One of my favorite movies growing up, probably not least of all because I was mad about anything to do with horses. Even so, National Velvet stands pretty tall among family friendly films, with a young Elizabeth Taylor fighting to run her beloved horse in England’s most prestigious steeplechase with the help of world-weary youth Mickey Rooney.
1944 USA. Director: Clarence Brown. Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere, Angela Lansbury.
11:30am – TCM – Father of the Bride
Long before Steve Martin kicked off his nearly twenty-year run of remaking classic comedies with his version of this film, Spencer Tracy was the Father of the Bride, dealing with the difficulty of letting his only daughter, Elizabeth Taylor, go to some other man. I don’t hate the Martin version, but this one is better.
1950 USA. Director: George Cukor. Starring: Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Bennett, Russ Tamblyn.
1:15pm – TCM – Father’s Little Dividend
The sequel to Father of the Bride picks up soon after, with Taylor expecting her first child, and Tracy dealing with the idea of becoming a grandfather. It isn’t nearly as great as the first film, but it’s enjoyable enough.
1951 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Starring: Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Bennett.
Newly Featured!
6:00pm – TCM – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams’ play hits the screen in Southern gothic glory with dying patriarch Big Daddy Pollitt reuniting with his alcoholic son Brick, whose wife Maggie struggles to get him away from the bottle. Lots of interpersonal drama here, with meaty roles for all involved.
1958 USA. Director: Richard Brooks. Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives.
Newly Featured!
8:00pm – TCM – BUtterfield 8
Elizabeth Taylor’s first Oscar came for this role as a high-priced call girl, but I was honestly far more impressed with the supporting turn from Susan Oliver as the woman who fears she’s losing her boyfriend Eddie Fisher to Taylor (life imitates art, Fisher and Taylor married in real life). Not top-shelf melodrama, but some snappy dialogue here and there helps.
1960 USA. Director: Daniel Mann. Starring: Elizbaeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher, Susan Oliver.
10:00pm – TCM – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis both won acting awards for their parts in Mike Nichols’ version of Edward Albee’s dysfunctional dinner party play. Remains probably the most well-remembered team-up of erstwhile couple Taylor and Richard Burton.
1966 USA. Director: Mike Nichols. Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sandy Dennis, George Segal.
12:30am (11th) – TCM – Giant
The saga of a Texas cattle rancher and two generations of his family’s rivalry with a nearby rancher and oil tycoon. A bit sprawling and overlong for my tastes, but certainly has its moments, and is one of only three films James Dean made before his death.
1956 USA. Director: George Stevens. Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Carroll Baker, Mercedes McCambridge.
They’ve had a Mary Pickford exhibit at the TIFF Lightbox for months, and I feel guilty that I’ve not made the time for it on my several trips there…
I’m bad about getting to those things, too. I’ve not seen very many Pickford movies; hopefully I’ll catch these this week. I’ve seen Coquette, but I don’t remember it much. I think the Silent Movie Theatre here played The Poor Little Rich Girl a while back when I was volunteering but for whatever reason I didn’t watch it. Might’ve been before I learned to be okay with missing the first few minutes of films while I finish up volunteering.
Wuthering Heights for me this week.