Great Directors Theme of the Month on TCM in May

[moira finnie]

This month's theme focusing on Great Directors on TCM is almost too big a topic. Here's the list of entire month's worth of directors and their films.

Do you have any directors whose work you are looking forward to?

Here are the movies that are being shown during the day on Tuesday, June 2nd:
Bombshell
Test Pilot
Treasure Island (1934)
Captains Courageous
A Guy Named Joe
Tortilla Flat
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

Those movies all had Victor Fleming in common. Since I've just finished reading Michael Sragow's Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master (Pantheon, 2008) I am in awe of the book and the director whose life was captured so brilliantly on the pages of this National Book Award winner. Sragow's bio should go on a shelf with Kevin Brownlow, Scott Eyman, James Curtis and a very few other authors who have written deftly and thoroughly about the studio era.

Victor Fleming, a man born into extreme rural poverty, who wound up at the Versailles Treaty talks in Paris with Pres. Wilson, squired everyone from Clara Bow to Ingrid Bergman and made just a few choice movies, i.e. Red Dust, The Wizard of Oz, and Gone With the Wind, as well as a great silent version of Lord Jim (1925) that I saw a few weeks ago at the George Eastman House, and one of Clara's best, Mantrap, as well as one of the genre setting Westerns, The Virginian (1929). He not only knew how to craft a great entertainment, but the man had one heckuva life! Thanks very much to Miss Goddess for recommending that I read this one.

Other than looking at Fleming with renewed interest and respect, I'm looking forward to Jules Dassin's day on the 18th when the rarely seen Phaedra (1962) and A Letter For Evie (1945) with Marsha Hunt and Hume Cronyn are being shown. It will also be great to see some of Truffaut's best, including The Bride Wore Black on display that night.

[charliechaplinfan]

That sounds an interesting book, Victor Fleming has always struck me as colourful to be treated with respect by a good writer makes it a must have. Thanks for the recommendation

[MissGoddess]

I am glad you pointed out Letter for Evie, I do like Marsha Hunt a lot so that makes it all the more enticing.

I'm hoping to watch and record the following for the first time:

HANGMEN ALSO DIE, a Fritz Lang film I've heard about for so long but keep missing.

Jacques Tourneur's THE FEARMAKERS

A ROYAL SCANDAL (Otto Preminger taking over for Ernst Lubitsch)

ESCAPE IN THE FOG - an early Budd Boetticher outing.

[Mr. Arkadin]

There are a lot of great films showing, but it would take a lengthy post and by the time the films actually rolled 'round, nobody would remember them, so I'll just state my weekly preferences. For 6/1-6, I'm mainly concentrating on the Ingmar Bergman line up (as seen in my avatar ). Although The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries (both 1957) are regulars on TCM, Persona (1966), Hour of the Wolf (1968) and The Passion of Anna (1970) are rarely shown and deserve mention.

Other interesting ones this week:
Hour of the Gun (1967)
Immortal Blacksmith (1944)
Our Daily Bread (1933)
The Crowd (1928)
The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)
Running Man (1963)
Our Man in Havana (1960)
The Man Between (1953)
Duel (1971)
These Three (1936)
Hells Heroes (1929)

[feaito]

Moira,

Thanks for the recommendation of Victor Fleming's Bio. I'll put it in my Wish List immediately.

As for your question:

Do you have any directors whose work you are looking forward to?

Since I don't have access to TCM USA, I won't be able to watch the films, but I'd love to see a whole day devoted to Frank Borzage.

There are other choices that might be obvious: Hitchcock, Hawks, Wyler, Wilder et al, but there are some lesser-known directors of whom it would be interesting to get to see more of their body of work, like John M. Stahl, who directed very successful melodramas during the 1930s; William Dieterle, who directed some gems during his long career; Herbert Brenon, who was one of the most gifted directors during the Silent period and Sidney Franklin who directed some of the best pictures in which both Normas appeared (Talmadge & Shearer).

[mrsl]

Making directors the topic of the month should be a good thing for me. I know Sirk does overdone melodramatic soap operas, and of course I know John Ford, although Howard Hawks sometimes seems like a Ford picture to me, and I'm pretty good at spotting a Billy Wilder flick. The rest however, I need coaching on to differentiate one from another. I know the names of Wellman, Wyler, Mann, Mankiewicz etc., but in the middle of the picture, I couldn't say who the director actually is. I forgot to mention HItch, whose work is also pretty easy to spot. So finally after months of pretty much passing over TCM, maybe I'll find some things to watch again.

Anne

[Birdy]

Anne, I hope you find some great watching this month. I, on the other hand, have very little pink highlighter in my Now Playing guide. Some of the best of my favorite genre/era are being shown (ex. Bombshell) but I practically know them by heart and I'm not seeing much 30's stuff that's new to me on there. Maybe I'll have to broaden my horizons a little.
B

[Ollie]

... I won't be able to watch the films...

Please feel free to list the ones you'd like to see and I'll try to 'make that happen'.

[feaito]

... I won't be able to watch the films...

Please feel free to list the ones you'd like to see and I'll try to 'make that happen'.

Thanks Ollie!

[Ollie]

Fernando, this is never a problem when I'm around, as I should be for several years now. TCM has so many good films that should be seen by more people.

Of course, I wish you'd get your local film makers to bring Godzilla to, like, Valparaiso, or San Antonio. Vina Del Mar sounds great, too. C'mon, couldn't they use a filming of Godzilla, smashin' thru the town a bit?

Or what about down south a ways, like Chiloe Island. I mean, Godzilla could be swimmin' along, gets trapped chasin' a buncha pilot whales or something, and he could hit Achao or Ahoni, Queilién... Do you REALLY need all those port towns anyway?!! Look - Godzilla's hit Tokyo any number of times and see what it's done for them - they STILL have plenty of pachinko machines!

(Have you ever visited these mid-coast islands? Are they mountainous? Forested? Vegetated, or rocky without much farming ability, so the inhabitants have always lived off the sea?)

And if Godzilla's too passé, Ray Harryhausen's still around and his 5-limbed octopus probably doesn't have anything better to do. Maybe with the breaking up of ice-flows, James Arness could call in a few old pals like flying ants or dragon flies or something.

We know we can't use the Falklands-Malvinas for this - good grief, it'd cause another big ruckus for the Royal Navy. I don't even know if Galtieri's still around!

Just an idea...

[feaito]

Hey Ollie,

Your knowledge of Chilean places impresses me. I can't picture Godzilla walking through Viña or San Antonio, 'cuz my in-laws live in Viña and my parents live very close to San Antonio -in Santo Domingo- But it'd be good idea to have a monster or disaster film set in the Desertic North of Chile, let's say...

This year I visited the Coyhaique, Puerto Chacabuco, Aysén Area, which is located in our XIth Region, farther south than Chiloe, Chonchi et al (Xth Region). I fell in love with this part of the country and I'd love to spend some years living there. Beautiful scenery; quite, peaceful, simpler life.

I think Galtieri passed away years ago. The Falkland Islands are a touchy subject here in Chile, because when the English-Argentinian Conflict occurred during the '80s Argentina accused Chile of helping England and of being on their side.

BTW, you'd love both the Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia.

[ziggy 6708]

Hey! Welcome back SSO. Missed you guys.

Directors theme okay, but why eliminate Underground, Silents and Imports for a whole month?
Bummer!

[charliechaplinfan]

My education on directors is lacking but is getting better. Does anyone know of a good book that covers directors from cinema's inception to the 1960's?

[Mr. Arkadin]

Another week, another set of films.

From 6/7-13 we have some good ones showing. As for what I'm interested in seeing:

6/8
Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
Human Desire (1954) HD has not been shown in over two years so catch it if you can.

6/9
Night Ambush (1957)

6/11
Sin of Harold Diddleback (1950)
Red Beard (1966)

6/12
Nightfall (1957)
The Fearmakers (1958)

Anyone else want to discuss these, or talk about their own choices?

[Dawtrina]

I'm looking forward to many of the same ones you are and I'm sure we're not alone. I watch a lot of movies on TCM but there's so much good stuff that I rarely watch them twice. Instead I keep my eyes open for stuff that they haven't shown before or at least not for a long while.

So I'll be recording Human Desire, Night Ambush and Red Beard too, but I'll add in A Canterbury Tale and Kagemusha.

The Cabin in the Cotton is an interesting film, as is anything with Richard Barthelmess, though it's far from his best. Watch out for those cotton picking peckerwoods though! Some of the dialogue is amazing.

Nightfall is similarly interesting but lesser for Jacques Tourneur.

It's next week I'm looking forward to as there's lots for me to catch up on: a lot of Tony Richardson and Francois Truffaut that'll be new to me, even a few odd films by Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks and Orson Welles that I haven't seen, even though they're generally far better represented on the schedules.