Classic films in December-Week 3

[Universe Prince]

More films showing on TCM This month. This post covers the third week, Sunday through Saturday, December 14-20.

Sunday, December 14:

Patterns-4:00 AM ET-This is a little seen film in the vein of “Executive Suite”, but it’s got a good script by a young Rod Serling. Van Heflin plays an industrial engineer rising up the corporate ladder. The man who runs the company wants to replace his second-in-command, and he picks Heflin’s engineer to be the replacement. It’s a film about corporate politics, and it’s complex, but tightly edited, with the whole film lasting less than 90 minutes. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer-6:00 AM ET-This won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay of 1948. It’s an amiable comedy with an entertaining team up of Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Rudy Vallee and a teenaged Shirley Temple. Grant plays a playboy artist who ends up before a judge, played by Myrna Loy. Later he gives a speech at a local high school and the teenaged sister of the judge, played by Shirley Temple swiftly develops a crush on him. As can only happen in the movies, the solution decided upon is for Grant’s character to date the teenaged girl in the hopes that she will get over her crush naturally, rather than cling to it if it is forbidden to her. The film is lots of fun, and the chemistry between Grant and Loy is quite good. Singing in the Rain-8:00 AM ET-Do I really need to say anything about this one? It is silly and tons of fun. Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor star in this musical about a movie studio and actors dealing with the introduction of sound to the movies. The Absent-Minded Professor-3:30 PM ET-This is the film that started Disney’s long string of science gone haywire movies, and it remains the best of the bunch. Fred MacMurray plays the title role, a college science professor who invents an amazing substance he calls Flubber. He’s also trying to woo back the woman he loves after having left her at the altar. It’s kooky family fun as only Disney could produce.

Monday, December 15:

The Nutty Professor-2:00 PM ET-This is another film with a professor and science gone screwy, but this is not the one with Eddie Murphy. This is the original, with Jerry Lewis. There are no digital effects and no fat suits in this movie. Lewis plays a college science professor who is the ultimate socially inept nerd. Tired of being bullied and unable to attract women, he sets out to find a formula that would transform him into something better. The result is an egotistical but much more socially adept man who becomes popular with the students. It’s kooky social commentary as only Jerry Lewis could produce. Guys and Dolls-8:00 PM ET-In some of the strangest casting for a musical, the lead actors for this movie are Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, neither of whom had ever done a musical before. And they were not skilled singers. But thanks to editing, the singing of Brando and Simmons sounds just fine. Frank Sinatra plays a man who needs cash to set up his latest crap game, and he bets that Brando’s gambler character cannot take the Salvation Army style missionary, played by Simmons, to Cuba for a date. Hamlet-10:45 PM ET-This is the 1948 film of the Shakespeare play, starring Laurence Olivier and Jean Simmons. It tries at once to be theatrical and cinematic, and sometimes this is to the film’s detriment. But all in all, it is an interesting interpretation of the play, with a number of changes made to the sequence of events, and the (at the time new) idea that Hamlet has some unresolved Oedipal issues with his mother.

Tuesday, December 16:

Shadow of a Doubt-8:00 PM ET-This is another underrated Hitchcock film. It doesn’t get mention with “Psycho” or “Vertigo” but it a fine little gem of a film. Theresa Wright plays a young woman who idolizes her uncle, played by Joseph Cotten. When he comes to visit the family, however, she begins to suspect that he is the Merry Widow Murderer. Much creepy suspense follows. “Ooh boy!” (You’ll get that joke once you’ve seen the movie.) The Third Man-12:00 Midnight ET (Tuesday night)-This is one of my all time favorite films. First, there is that zither music that stays in your head. And then there is the story of a naïve American writer, played by Joseph Cotton, who travels to post-war Vienna to see his old pal and ends up running into a dark reality. It’s beautifully constructed. And of course, it contains one of the best entrances of a character ever on film. I could go on, but I won’t.

Wednesday, December 17:

The Apartment-2:45 PM ET-This comedy won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Jack Lemmon stars as a lonely man and employee of a huge company. He has a nice apartment and makes inroads with his bosses by letting them use the apartment as a place to take their mistresses, girlfriends and, well, you get the idea. One day he meets a lovely young elevator girl, played by Shirley MacLaine, only to discover later that she is the boss’s mistress. It’s actually a dramatic story peppered with naturally comedic moments that make the characters worth watching. The Great Escape-5:00 PM ET-This, of course, is a wonderfully entertaining drama about the planning and execution of an escape from a Nazi prisoner of war camp. It stars Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, David McCallum, and James Coburn. The action scenes are great, and McQueen did most of his own motorcycle stunts. The music is good, as are the characters introduced. The story and the characters are based on real events in World War II. Cleopatra-12:00 Midnight ET (Wednesday night)-If you are a fan of epic films, then this is the movie for you. An epic story both on and off the screen, but let’s stick to the screen. Elizabeth Taylor plays the title role in a lot of snug, figure accentuating dresses. Rex Harrison plays Julius Caesar, and Richard Burton plays Marc Anthony. It is an enormous spectacle at about four hours in length, covering Cleopatra’s affairs with Caesar and Anthony, and the consequences of those affairs.

Thursday, December 18:

12 Angry Men-10:00 PM ET-This is all I got today. This film is an interesting twist on the courtroom drama, being almost entirely made up of the jury deliberations. One man on the jury tries to convince the other eleven people not to rush to find a young man guilty of murder. If nothing else, this film has interesting camera work considering the story is basically twelve men sitting around a table and talking.

Friday, December 19:

Paths of Glory-9:45 AM ET-This film takes place during World War I. After a failed attack on a German held site, the French general in charge refuses to face up to his failure and instead brings three men up on charges of cowardice. A colonel played by Kirk Douglas decides to defend the men and discovers the insensitivity of his commanding officers and grows disgusted with the whole situation. I think the acting by Douglas is excellent, and the direction by Stanley Kubrick is possibly the best work he ever did. Christmas in Connecticut-10:00 PM ET-And now for something completely different. Ignore the god-awful remake, and watch this instead. This, I promise you, is the good one. This film is a funny comedy about a faux Martha Stewart type, played by Barbara Stanwyck, who has a regular and highly popular magazine column. Only it’s all a lie. Unfortunately, the man, played by Sydney Greenstreet, who owns and runs the magazine does not know this. And when he arranges for an injured war hero, played by Dennis Morgan, to spend Christmas at her farmhouse, she has to find a way to fix things and quickly. I would be remiss in not also mentioning S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall being in this film. He is entertaining as always.

Saturday, December 20:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-12:15 PM ET-I don’t generally agree much with the political ideas that sometimes seep into Frank Capra’s movies, but it’s hard to resist a movie about an ordinary guy sticking it to Congress. James Stewart plays an idealistic young man chosen to replace a deceased U.S. Senator. He is chosen because he’s naïve and ignorant of how the system works, making him a man to be manipulated, so think the powers that be. But as Stewart’s character learns how the system works and how corrupt it is, he decides to make a stand. A Christmas Carol-4:45 PM ET-This is the original American film of the story. It was based in part on the (at the time) yearly radio performance of the story that had Lionel Barrymore in the role Ebenezer Scrooge. He was to have played the role in the movie, but was injured and could not recover in time for filming. He chose Reginald Owen to play the part, and it is widely regarded as Owen’s best role. It’s really a decent telling of the story. Scrooge-6:00 PM ET-This is on earlier in the month (and later too), but I mention it here because it is shown directly after the version of “A Christmas Carol” mentioned above. This version stars Albert Finney as the title role in a musical version of the story. Finney does an excellent job in the role, and comparing the two films and the two performances could be interesting. At least it could be for a film geek like me. Your experience may vary. EDIT: I've just watched this again, and Finney's acting is about the only thing good in it. I had forgotten how completely awful the songs were, and how everyone else seems to be merely going through the motions. I apologize for having recommended this.

[Universe Prince]

I edited my entry for "Scrooge", the musical version of "A Christmas Carol" with Albert Finney. The movie is much worse than I recalled. I read somewhere recently some comment complaining that it was overlooked in theaters because of another musical, "Oliver!" which was apparently released about the same time. I'm pretty sure "Scrooge" was overlooked because it is bad.