More films showing on TCM This month. This post covers the second week, Sunday through Saturday, December 7-13.
Sunday, December 7:| | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea-4:00 PM ET-Yes, it’s a Disney movie showing up somewhere besides the Disney Channel. Don’t question why, just be grateful it’s so. Anyway, this film is based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name. Kirk Douglas plays a harpooner who, along with a scientist and the scientist’s aide, ends up on a submarine run by Captain Nemo, played by James Mason. Well ahead of stories like “V for Vendetta”, Nemo is a sympathetic terrorist attempting to stop what he considers evil. The highlight of the film is, of course, the fight with the giant squid, a marvelous bit of special effects before computer generated images came into use.
The Parent Trap-8:00 PM ET-This movie is sweet and fun. Long separated twins discover each other and switch places and eventually scheme to bring their parents back together. Hayley Mills, with the help of some camera tricks, plays both of the twins, Maureen O’Hara plays the mother, and Brian Keith plays the father. This is far and away a much better film than any of the remakes and sequels. |
Monday, December 8:| | Gunga Din-10:00 PM ET-I’ll tell you straight up, this is a guy film. Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Victor McLaglen play a trio of adventure seeking soldiers of Her Majesty’s Lancers in Colonial India. The trio are good friends, though one seeks to leave the military and get married. Anyway, there are fights a-plenty, a jail break, gold treasure, an evil villain, and heroic deeds. Sam Jaffe plays the title character (in a bit of “brownface” unfortunately). It’s an all around a good action film based on a poem by Rudyard Kipling.
Captains Courageous-2:00 AM ET (Again, I’m considering this Monday night.)-Another film based on a work by Rudyard Kipling, this movie tells the story of a rich brat who falls off of a luxury liner and is rescued by Portuguese fishermen. Since due to their work they cannot take the boy home for a couple of months, the boy is stuck there on the fishing boat and ends up learning what life is all about from a down-to-earth sailor played by Spencer Tracy. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture and Spencer Tracy won one for Best Actor. |
Tuesday, December 9:| | The Bad and the Beautiful-11:30 AM ET-This is fictional account of how Hollywood works, but it is, at least in part, based on facts. In a nice bit of story telling the career of a movie producer, played by Kirk Douglas, is told in three parts through the eyes of three of his former friends. Barry Sullivan plays the director who started his career with the producer. Lana Turner plays the actress the producer found and turned into a star. Dick Powell plays the writer who got hired to write for the producer. Walter Pigeon plays the man who tries to convince the director, actress and writer to work one more time with the now down-on-his-luck producer. This film really is brilliantly constructed and shot from beginning to end.
Lust for Life-3:45 PM ET-This is a biopic with Kirk Douglas playing Vincent van Gogh. It’s a strong portrayal of a brilliant artist who is driven to madness by his burning desire to create. The movie also stars Anthony Quinn as Paul Gauguin. |
Wednesday, December 10:| | 2001: A Space Odyssey-3:30 PM ET-This film is not for everyone. The tale told is one of mankind encountering a mysterious alien influence, once in the pre-historic past and again in the future. The film starts with a sequence of prehistoric, ape-like humans who struggle to survive and encounter a black, rectangular monolith. The humans soon learn the concept of a tool and a weapon. In the future, men on the moon encounter an identical monolith that prompts them to send men to Jupiter. It’s a cerebral sci-fi film that, I think, is brilliant. It has its flaws, and it is not an action film. In terms of visual art made with motion pictures, it is nothing less than beautiful.
The Naked City-8:00 PM ET-Speaking of beautiful, this film has some incredible cinematography, much of it shot through the window of van to capture genuine, on-location images of New York City. This film tells the story of a police investigation into the death of a young model. Starring in the film is Barry Fitzgerald as a cop heading the murder investigation, which is a surprising departure for the man who usually had supporting roles of much kinder men, such as that in “Going My Way” or “The Quiet Man”.
High Noon-10:00 PM ET-This is one of the finest westerns ever made. It uses the unique technique of having every minute of story in the film take an actual minute in real time. Gary Cooper plays the sheriff of a small town who has just gotten married to a Quaker, played by the gorgeous Grace Kelly. He gets word that a really bad man (repeatedly they leave his crimes unsaid and simply say things like “You all know what kind of man Frank Miller is”), whom the sheriff had put in jail, is coming back to town to get revenge. Given the option of running away or staying to face the man and protect the town, the sheriff stays, a decision that is not as popular with the townsfolk as he expected. (Interestingly, this film is one of several chosen by Guest Host Frank Miller, who wrote the “300” and “Sin City” graphic novels upon which the movies of the same names were based.)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three-1:30 AM ET (Wednesday night)-Walter Matthau stars at the Transit officer who must deal with men who have taken a subway train and its passengers hostage in this excellent crime drama. Robert Shaw plays the leader of the band of four men who take control of the train and hold it hostage for a ransom. Everything has been planned, and Matthau’s character struggles to find out what that plan is and to stop the men from getting away with the money. Look for good supporting roles by Martin Balsam and Jerry Stiller (yes, that Jerry Stiller). |
Thursday, December 11:| | My Fair Lady-12:45 PM ET-This is one of my favorite musicals. While being full of comedy and good songs, it tells an appealing story with interesting characters. Based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, the film tells the story of a poor young woman who is transformed by a phonetics expert into a lady fit for high society. There are memorable songs as well, like “I’m an Ordinary Man”, “On the Street Where You Live” and the ever popular with guys “Hymn to Him”.
High Society-11:45 PM ET-This is another musical that has its origins in a play. Based on “The Philadelphia Story”, this film updates the story a little and adds songs. It is not, imo, as good as the the film “The Philadelphia Story”, but it is enjoyable and notable for having the lovely Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm and Louis Armstrong all together in one film. |
Friday, December 12:| | The Man Who Came to Dinner-12:15 AM ET-There are two (count ‘em, one, two) versions of “Little Women” coming on before this film, one from 1933 with Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett, and the other from 1949 with June Allyson and (a very young) Elizabeth Taylor. But, to be honest, those movies just are not my style. This film, “The Man Who Came to Dinner”, however, I highly recommend. The movie stars Monty Woolley as an acerbic but popular radio star. While in a small Ohio town, he is coerced into visiting a local family, and promptly injures his hip on the steps to their front porch. After announcing he will sue the family, he proceeds to take over their house. Bette Davis plays his secretary, and when she falls in love with a local reporter, Wooley’s character decides to try to break up the affair and keep his secretary from leaving him. This sounds serious, but the film is in fact sharply funny throughout. Also in the film are Ann Sheridan and Jimmy Durante, both at their best. |
Saturday, December 13:| | Meet John Doe-12:00 Noon ET-This film is great, in my opinion. Gary Cooper plays a poor everyman who gets sucked into a scam started by a woman news reporter, played by Barbara Stanwyck, to keep her job. She faked a letter supposedly by a man so fed up with the state of the world that he intends to throw himself off the roof of City Hall at midnight on Christmas Eve. The letter is signed John Doe, and garners such interest that Stanwyck’s character convinces the newspaper to keep up the fraud with more stories and even finding a man to be John Doe. Enter Gary Cooper’s character. This works so well, the owner of the newspaper decides to further his political career by using the fake John Doe and the John Doe movement that springs up. It’s a strong drama with an ending that works, but, well, I won’t spoil it for you. I’ll bring it up in another thread if anyone wants to discuss it.
3:10 to Yuma-8:00 PM ET-This is the original 1957 film, starring Van Heflin and Glenn Ford. Heflin plays a farmer having trouble making ends meet during a drought. He takes a job to escort an outlaw, played by Glenn Ford, to a train that will take the outlaw to Yuma to stand trial. Much of the film takes place inside a hotel room where the two men wait for the train. The screenplay is based on a short story by Elmore Leonard. It’s a psychological drama in the setting of a Western, and is regularly on lists of best Westerns ever made. |
