The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

Discussion of programming on TCM.
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JackFavell
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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I've never seen that photo before. Thank you, again, Masha!
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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A rainy morning here, and a perfect lineup to watch in grey weather - First, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, then Blackmail by Hitchcock, then Ford's The Informer, and now Dead of Night. Wonderful, and they all seem connected somehow to me, not sure what the connection is, though I know Ford was influenced by UFA films and so was Hitch.

I'd never seen The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), but the opening scenes pulled me in immediately. What a great way to be introduced to this mastermind (I'm talking about Mabuse, not Lang :D)The movie bounces around in time, with flashbacks and flash forwards, but is clear as a bell, never gets confusing. Some of the best parts were just little things - a row of workers at desks a la Metropolis or The Crowd, a wonderful shot of a ghostly presence, appearing suddenly behind someone's back, then disappearing just as quickly. Unfortunately, I had to get Alice off to school, get breakfast ready, and empty trash and take it outside for pickup at 7:30, so I missed the entire middle of the film. Luckily I recorded the movie and all the others showing this morning. I loved the police inspector, played by Otto Wernicke, through which Lang got in some of his funniest lines and moments. I do so love Lang's humor when it's present. Also thrilling was the performance of Karl Meister, I think it was, who played the insane Dwight Frye-alike, Hofmeister. Also Karetsky, played by Theo Lingen. You've just got to love those men who laugh... right into madness.


Blackmail
was great, though the pacing after Mabuse seemed almost sleepy. There was a slow part after the main action took place where I almost did fall asleep. Hitch had not tightened up his style yet, but it was plain this was his picture and it came round. Amy Ondra was a little silly at the beginning of the film, not quite as expressive as other Hitch heroines. It seemed hard work for her to find the more complex emotions we expect of Hitchcock's women. I wasn't sure I liked her, but over the course of the scant 90 minutes, she won me over with a very good performance... and she's quite amazing looking, very cute. Her voice reminded me of Glynis Johns. Charles Paton was excellent as her cop boyfriend Frank who was willing to do anything to keep her from confessing, and Donald Calthrop was appropriately seedy and then nervous as the blackmailer who picked the wrong couple to target. I found him quite sympathetic, trapped in the mess of his own making. Cyril Ritchard was by turns totally charming and creepy as the artist Ondra flirts with, ultimately facing off with when he assaults her. It was a great pleasure to see him so young, and on top of that, he actually got to play and sing a number at the piano which was thrilling.

After that, the incomparable Informer, with Victor MacLaglen. I can't say enough about this great film. MacLaglen is beyond terrific. He's incredible, compelling, a giant of a man and an actor, and sympathetic at all times. Big, dumb and forgetful, the scene at the end where he pleads for someone to "tell me why I did it? Can somebody tell me why I did it?" just breaks me into little pieces, and then breaks those pieces into little pieces. I was a sobbing mess by the time it was over, and I've seen it about a hundred times, always with the same reaction. I defy someone to not shed a tear at the end of that film.

Also terrific in a performance that grows on me more and more each time I see it, is Joe Sawyer, broken-nosed avenging angel who never lets up on MacLaglen's Gypo. He suspects right from the start that Gypo is the informer. And speaking of angels, Margot Grahame is Katie, the girl Gypo wants to take out of misery and poverty, the reason he betrayed his friend in the first place. An exceedingly realistic and yet appealingly dramatic performance from Grahame, make sure to pay attention to her tired voice and the look she gives the john who tries picking her up at the beginning of the film. She's great as a world weary, hungry girl on the edge of prostituting herself for food.

Donald Meek gives an outstanding performance as Mulligan the tailor, an essentially comic role - his relating of his actions during the day of the betrayal lightens the mood considerably but without changing the solemnity of the movie. I always crack up when he talks about the egg he had for lunch, as if that's the most important part that the IRA would want to know about. Every other actor in this film is excellent, and Ford's expressionist mise en scene make this one of my favorites, even a favorite among Ford's work which is saying a lot. Perfect for a rainy, foggy day.
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JackFavell
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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Tonight (Friday, Dec. 6th) at 8 PM ET, Blonde Venus with Marlene Dietrich will be on. I can't wait, I haven't seen this movie since I was a teen.
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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Ooh, thanks for the reminder about Blonde Venus! I've never seen this. Gonna set the dvr!

Sandy K
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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sandykaypax wrote:Ooh, thanks for the reminder about Blonde Venus! I've never seen this. Gonna set the dvr!
Image
Don't miss the gorilla production number, Sandy. It's a pip...and one of the reasons I've always wondered if they had acid in the 1930s.
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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Cleopatra - Claudette Colbert 1934


Image
Image

It's may not be as grandeur as Elizabeth Taylor version back in 1963 nor as epic as Vivian Leigh version back in 1945. This movie is stylish, classy, and the costumes for its period was out of this world. I enjoyed watching this movie tonight on Turner Classic Movies and I haven't seen this version for years and having seen both Taylor and Leigh versions - this version can stand up of its own. I enjoyed this movie tonight and its was grand seeing it again ... I think Claudette Colbert did a masterful job as Cleopatra and the actors and actresses that co-starred with her did well too. Warren Williams did well as Julius Caesar and Henry Wilcoxon did fabulous as Marc Anthony - and Ian Keith did a wonderful job as Octavian.

I will repeat this post on the December Thread too ... Cecil B. DeMille was the Director of this Movie and he should be proud of the way he directed it.
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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Hi,

Well, Marlene certainly knows how to make an entrance....
I first saw this movie on TV back in the 50's and was very surprised about the gorilla and girls and then - - Marlene!! "Hot Voodoo" indeed.... I loved it.....

Sandy - I hope you enjoyed it all.

Now - - how did Claudette keep her assets (not to mention her busomettes) contained in that first costume in the film?? You need an engineering degree to figure that out!!!

Larry
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moira finnie
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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Vecchiolarry wrote:Now - - how did Claudette keep her assets (not to mention her busomettes) contained in that first costume in the film?? You need an engineering degree to figure that out!!!
Or a roll of double-sided tape?
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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One more thing Moira ... I loved your Avatar ... just gorgeous! :)
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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Rita Hayworth wrote:One more thing Moira ... I loved your Avatar ... just gorgeous! :)
Thanks, Erik. It's a cover by artist J.C. Leyendecker (1874-1951)whose graphic crispness, lush and imaginative work sometimes echoed that of Michelangelo (when he wasn't selling Arrow collars, Duesenbergs or Saturday Evening Posts).
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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moirafinnie wrote:
Rita Hayworth wrote:One more thing Moira ... I loved your Avatar ... just gorgeous! :)
Thanks, Erik. It's a cover by artist J.C. Leyendecker (1874-1951)whose graphic crispness, lush and imaginative work sometimes echoed that of Michelangelo (when he wasn't selling Arrow collars, Duesenbergs or Saturday Evening Posts).

Thanks for the information here. :)
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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Joseph Losey
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
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JackFavell
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Re: The December 2013 Schedule on TCM

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I know what you mean kingrat! After the density and more technical cinematic reflections of The Story of Film, I've just been settling into a groove now, watching Christmas movies and Astaire films, my comfort food as far as movies go.

This week I've watched The Lemon Drop Kid, with Bob Hope, a charming vehicle for him from a Damon Runyon story. Hope introduced the song Silver Bells as a duet with Marilyn Maxwell, who is excellent as Hope's long suffering, wedding ring-less girlfriend. I can only think of one Damon Runyon film I am not altogether pleased with. Love his stories, the mix of dark and light.

Holiday Affair and Remember the Night I don't think I have to really describe, since they are now staples of TCM's Christmas lineup. Enjoyed them tremendously, especially the deeply sensitive latter. Another hidden gem that starts out as screwball but somehow turns the corner to bittersweet redemption story. So many great moments from this film. It's dense with meaning and emotion, ranging from very funny to romantic, to most moving. A perfect performance by Stanwyck, in what I can only assume was a very personal film.

I very much enjoyed the day of musicals (including some Astaire films) the other day, with a standout among them being the 'Shoes with Wings On' number from The Barkleys of Broadway which I have yet to see all the way through. I love Astaire so much, I thought I'd seen every film of his, but somehow I never really wanted to see him and Rogers ten years later. I don't know why. The other standout was It's Always Fair Weather, an offbeat, modern musical that surprised me by being quite good. Why is no one talking about this film? But more on that later.

Fred Astaire not only dances like a dream, he injects real life movement into his dances which gives them spark. But I have to say, he also wins out on the technical side - he was always innovating. The best part is, he innovates so much that just when you think you know everything there is to know about a number he did, he tricks you. In the movie One Week, Buster Keaton leads you to believe his house is going to be demolished by an oncoming train, then fakes you out by placing the train on another track side by side with the one the house is on. As it rushes by the house, you feel relief, then he brings a surprise train coming the other way which makes matchsticks out of his home. This is how he got the biggest laugh of the movie. Astaire does something very similar with his Shoes With Wings On number. As we watch, shoes come to life in his little cobbler shop. It's perfectly obvious that there are dancers inside those shoes, but that they've been mechanically erased, leaving the background behind. The sets of dancing shoes start parading around the set. Astaire gives you time to absorb this, dancing with them, letting them line up behind him, shooting them down Top Hat style. Then the shoes start dancing around him, a little more technically difficult section. Even this is explainable, again, they've whited out the dancer's bodies, or implanted Astaire into the already corrected scene. But then Astaire gives you the whammy - he starts leaping over the shoes, coming closer and further away, using depth instead of side to side movements, which is perplexing from a special effects standpoint. And one pair even walks under, right between his legs.... you know the dancer in those shoes was still upright, as they are a ballerina's toe shoes. How did they do THAT??? It's enormously entertaining, and challenging to the mind even in today's special effects-rich world. I love the big laugh it handed me at my own expense, when I realized I wasn't as smart as I thought I was, figuring out how he filmed the number. I still have no idea how that trick was done.

As for It's Always Fair Weather, this film is a bittersweet, even cynical look at three disillusioned older men, men who've come back from the war full of dreams, but who have failed to meet those dreams. I can't remember seeing a classic film as interested in failure before. Maybe H.M. Pulham, Esq. or The Hucksters, or parts of The Best Years of Our Lives, but certainly not a musical. I suspect that we were too far into the prosperity of the late fifties and early sixties for this movie to go over very well. Or maybe it was just to painful for folks to be comfortable watching, It hit too close to home to be the smash hit that Singing in the Rain turned out to be.

The performances are excellent, and I'd go so far as to say this is the best I've ever seen Cyd Charisse. She's perfect as the female equivalent of Gene Kelly's smart-ass cad. I want to be her character when I grow up! She's somewhere beyond smart and educated... BRILLIANT I guess would be the word...pretty, and completely disillusioned by men and by her job as the go-getter for a reality TV show. My next favorite performance was Dan Dailey's. Dailey's devil-may-care soldier ends up as a beaten down, fusty, stuffy man old beyond his years...about to lose his wife, thanks to his conformist job as an ad executive who works for the big television show. The musical also includes a wonderful send up of reality television, which feels pretty spot on right now. Anyway, Dailey's scene where he gets drunk and breaks out of his role as yes man had me horrified and laughing and quite touched by his performance.

The dancing of course is fantastic. There's a bit of a lull in the middle section, where Gene's character gets a little too much exposition, but it's not at all dull, just needed maybe one injection of the trio again, or maybe an extra song. All in all, this was a very fine movie. I just don't know why I haven't seen it touted by musical fans.

Other films I watched this week were

Broadway Melody of 1940
- I just love Fred here, his tough scene with George Murphy was quite excellent, as was Murphy's noble gesture at the end. The dancing is just sublime, and although I used to dislike Eleanor Powell intensely, I can't now imagine why I did. The numbers are artsy in a Busby Berkeley way in the most beautiful stark black and white and I like how Fred tailored his dancing to Eleanor Powell's style.

Finian's Rainbow - am I the only person on this planet who actually likes parts of this movie? Fred is fine, especially any time he moves his feet, the music is gloriously good, the plot is ahead of it's time, some of the numbers are staged inventively outdoors, the girl who plays Susan is wonderful, and I really like Al Freeman, Jr. Tommy Steele, noooooo.


The Naked Spur
- what can you say about a movie where the leads are Jimmy Stewart, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker and Millard Mitchell? It's actually kind of operatic, with each character larger than life, and Jimmy's anger larger than any of them. Each of the actors get their great moments, but how is it, in this film with such a great stand off between Stewart and Ryan, that my favorite character is bounder Meeker?

Scrooge
- I had stayed away from this movie for years. I was always put off by Finney's ugly pan, the face he makes as he portrays elderly Scrooge. I also wasn't thrilled with the idea of Scrooge! The Musical! The first half is actually quite good, with a terrific performance by Alec Guinness as Jacob Marley - he floats! Finney grew on me as he played the younger part of the role, he's an actor I usually like very much. Some of the technical tricks were done very well, such as Marley's face appearing in the door knocker and his eery floating, his chains weighing him down. It was such an obvious touch, I don't know why other filmmakers hadn't thought of it.

The second half of the film is just awful from a technical perspective. It doesn't help that they change Dickens' wording, to make it easier for modern audiences to understand I guess. The makeup is dreadful, which kept pulling me out of the movie. Finney would be emoting, then turn his head to the other camera and look totally different. The movie just went on and on, and the skeleton inside the ghost of Christmas future's robes was just silly. Just when I thought it was mercifully over, Scrooge took a detour to hell. For some reason he can crawl out of his grave onto what looks like red hot lava, but when he touches his finger to a stalagmite, he burns it. Oh well.
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