The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

Discussion of programming on TCM.
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moira finnie
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Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

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"...he'd be convincing as a Hollywood studio executive"
Good one, king. Love your new avatar, Nan.
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Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

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kingrat wrote:Bronxie, you didn't think I was going to miss The Best of Everything and Della, did you? Am still laughing about the Ramada Inn comment, and I love your comparison to "Rappacini's Daughter." As for Paul Burke, I'm voting for borderline creepy. Not my idea of a romantic lead, though he doesn't miss by much--but enough--and he's not a bad actor. Diane Baker was actually very good as the disturbed daughter in Della. This TV pilot is worth seeing for Diane, and the cinematography is really quite nice. The TV pilot elements and the diva-who-owns-the-town-and-has-a-secret story don't mesh together.

It's fun to see Diane naive in Rona Jaffe Land and then neurotic in Royal Bay, setting for the next hit TV series (well, that's what they hoped). And Robert Evans in The Best of Everything seems so sleazy he'd be convincing as a Hollywood studio executive.




Hey, king! Ha!! THE BEST OF EVERYTHING seems to be a guilty pleasure for everybody, including moi of course. moira's comments on it are invaluable (and also check out Self Styled Siren's blog (click 10 Melos The Siren Would Rather Watch Than Mad Men) My favorite character has to be Brian Aherne's dirty old executive. This actor, who I've always liked (sorry, Jackie!) is master of the offhand remark and a general casual, ironic, sophisticated bemusement with himself and the world. I especially love his name "Mr. Shalimar" -- the "exotic" perfumey sign of great schlock. This goes along with the sweeping, "luxe" musical score, "modern" dining room (where sensible Hope Lange orders a plebian hamburger and glass of milk for lunch at the counter -- ah, yes, the struggles of a working girl) and glorious shots of glass-towered midcentury Manhattan. (I get the same chills with the opening of HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, those little white-gloved, pearl necklace days long, long gone, sob....) I've never really been a fan of Stephen Boyd except in the looks department. He wouldn't know subtlety from a hole in the wall. Robert Evans, well, all I can ever say about him is: Shudder! Lurv Suzy Parker, though! Hard to put into words how I feel about her - totally charming, elegant, even a certain impulsive, "tomboyish" air. And a darned good actress! She's in good company with Hope and Diane in the talent department.

Speaking of Diane, I also thought she did an excellent job in DELLA. She can effortlessly play demure and manipulative at the same time. (oh, wait, duh, those two qualities are usually not mutually exclusive) I wonder if they really DID "spiff" up an old Ramada Inn for the mansion. A lot of Joan's dialogue seemed specifically designed for her, you know, along the lines of "Bad manners, the infallible sign of genius", from HUMORESQUE. Crawford (looking stunning with grey hair that really flatters her, and a fabulous wardrobe; the soft-focus lens helps, too) has similiar sardonic sparring exchanges with the, yes, that's it, "borderline creepy" Paul Burke. (although I did have my romantic moments with him in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, but basically, he's detective material..) I know I might have been stretching the analogy with "Rappacini's Daughter" -- DELLA certainly doesn't have undercurrents of woman-as-poisonous-sexual Other, etc., but in the "hothouse flower" aspect -- Diane's character lives in darkness, too, literally it turns out as well as symbolically, repressed, yearning for the light which is deadly to her, hoping to fulfill her destiny as a woman. Of course in Hawthorne, Beatrice's condition comes about as the result of scientific male calculation, whereas for Baker, it's a horribly unfair accident of birth.
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Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

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Western Guy wrote:Actually Barb, I know Jan. But the Christmas cards came from both. Never got a chance to directly meet or talk to Mickey -- and likely won't now. I'll see if I can get my stepdaughter to scan the Jan/Mickey/Camel Christmas card and I'll try to post it. Sad, they look so happy together in that shot.

Hey, I live in Canada and when I mentioned I was writing a bio of George Raft, virtually no one knew who I was talking about. That's why SSO is so valuable.

Thanks, Western Guy! That card will be a treat!

Almost no one up your way knows Raftie? I would never move there on that fact alone, lol. Forgive my ignorance, but is your bio finished? And where can I obtain a copy?
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Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

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JackFavell wrote:Don't you think Mr. Smith would be a better film without those cherubic kids getting driven off the roads and stuff? This is where I draw the line in the film. I LOVE Jean Arthur and Thomas Mitchell, Jean is easily the best part for me - she cracks me up, especially when she does her angry imitation of the senator's daughter. She's totally believable, and really quite pretty in this film, retaining her humor, but pulling off the serious parts perfectly. Jimmy does so well with all that serious aw shucks stuff, you never once feel he's phoning it in, he's sincere and I like him. I just can't bear the parts where the kids come in, somehow, they seem so overdone, overkill you know, so DIRECTED. I love Harry Carey, even though he has nothing to do except sit and look benign and bemused. I actually hate the ending, the dancing around... jeez, Claude Rains just tried to kill himself. The good guys are dancing a jig!

Compare that attempted suicide with Rains screaming his guilt to the quiet suicide of Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner. With anyone but Rains playing the part it would be laughable. He brings a certain crazy, off-his-rocker intensity to it that I almost buy (I especially like his waving his gun around in his hand and the people trying to subdue that wild hand), but it's filmed so corny. Sorry, I really like some of Capra... Yen, American Madness, Meet John Doe (where the goopy corny stuff is completely balanced by the darker parts), and Mr. Deeds. I used to completely love this one from start to almost the end. I love what it represented to a Fascist Europe. I love how brave it was about politics. I even love the performances here. But I don't like the hokum and how Capra really stacks the deck. The evil is just too evil, the good too good. I prefer John Doe where the evil is subterranean and quiet. Of course, one might say that Capra was just portraying Congress as it is....over-the-top evil.... and I'll say nothing to refute that...I'd have to be crazy in this day and age to argue that point. :D

Oooh, Jackie, I love your description of DOE's evil as "subterranean and quiet". I think Edward Arnold expresses this perfectly. I'm no Capra expert, but I do appreciate the way he seems to cast actors capable of great subtlety (Stanwyck, Cooper, Stewart, just off the top of my head) who can find the grey areas within those good/bad moral extremes. (whereas Val Lewton's "good" always seemed rather simplistic)

Oh, yes, the children, the children.....UGH!!! You know me with kids, urchins in general, lol.

Now, Claude Rains is one of my favorite character actors. But I have an almost instinctive aversion to him with white hair playing these types of parts like in SMITH, FOUR DAUGHTERS, even my beloved HERE COMES MR. JORDAN, etc. Although I've never seen THEY WON'T FORGET -- is he a Southern lawyer? Love your comparison of the two suicides in SMITH and SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. Yes, actually Claude CAN get away with it because he does have a sort of maniacal quality that can leap out at any minute (a la THE INVISIBLE MAN)

Interesting how the great Thomas Mitchell seems to be in so many banner year 1939 films -- GWTW, STAGECOACH, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, MR. SMITH, probably more I can't think of at the moment)
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Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

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kingrat wrote:I agree about Suzy Parker, who looks like she should have had a big career. I've never seen TEN NORTH FREDERICK. Earlier in the studio era she would probably have become a big star.
From what I have read, actor Bradford Dillman and Parker had a good marriage, and the model turned actress took such painful drubbings from the critics in her first few films, I can see why private life's siren song might beckon so sweetly. From what I've read, the hurly-burly of the silver screen didn't mean that much to her. Btw, Ten North Frederick (1958) features an excellent Gary Cooper performance too. You can see the movie here:
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Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

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Oh geez, Claude Rains is TERRIFIC in They Won't Forget, such an underrated movie. He gives a superb performance, though most movie fans would hate him, he's a 'word I can't mention' in the film.

I'll admit I like Four Daughters and Here Comes Mr. Jordan is one of my very favorite films - falling into that 'ghostly love' category from the late forties that hits a spot for wistful folks like me. Rains is quite an interesting Heavenly Being, not quite benign, and not above pulling a fast one on poor Joe. His idea of a supreme being is more like Lang's version of heaven and I find I like that cynicism about the afterlife quite a bit.

I have to give it to Rains, pulling off the final scene in Mr. Smith. You nailed it when you compared it to his turn in The Invisible Man. When my daughter watched The Invisible Man a couple of years ago, she loved it, but at the end she said, "Mom! I didn't picture him looking like that!" LOL, It never occurred to me that someone WOULDN'T picture Rains, but audiences of that time wouldn't have had an idea of what he looked like either...

Oh my gosh, thanks for posting Ten North Frederick! I've been waiting to see that one for so long. I know Miss G recommended it quite some time ago and I've been longing to get my hands on a copy. For what it's worth, I like Suzy Parker tremendously in The Best of Everything.
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Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

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If interested, there is an excellent chapter in the book, Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood about the making of The Best of Everything. There are some insights into the on-set interactions of a fragile Joan Crawford with her younger co-stars and some interesting comments about Brian Aherne, though too little character development of his role in favor of the youngsters prevented him from showing his best in this part, imo.
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Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

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*Bump* for a foreign film feast overnight on TCM this evening:

A Man and A Woman (1966) is on TCM at 2:15am (ET)
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The Shop on Main Street (1965) is on at 4:15am (ET)
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Re: The January 2014 Schedule for TCM

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Masha wrote:
moirafinnie wrote: A Man and A Woman (1966) is on TCM at 2:15am (ET)
This movie is one of my favorite of all time movies from France! It is perfection on all levels.

I find it amazing that so many people have not heard of the movie but recognize in an instant the theme music. :)
It's a favorite of mine too, Masha! I think many of the once familiar foreign films from the '40s-'70s are completely unknown to many whose awareness of film was formed after such movies ceased to appear on broadcast television and in revival houses. With A Man and A Woman, I never saw it until about twenty years after its release, but you can sense how exciting, original, and affecting it was first released. There are many filmmakers who have imitated its editing, use of color and music, dreaminess, and longing, but no one ever quite matched the casting of Anouk Aimee or Jean-Louis Trintignant or the Claude Lelouch style. Francis Lai's wonderful music has been used for everything from car commercials to perfume ads, so I guess that is why so many people recognize that part of the movie.

Now I am really looking forward to this movie again.
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