TCM Tuesday is a weekly feature wherein I look at the upcoming week's schedule on Turner Classic Movies—the best and greatest of all television channels—and pick some stuff for you to watch or save to your DVR. All times are EST, all dates based on the SCHEDULE date on TCM.com. Check your local listings, or look on the new WatchTCM app to live stream or watch on demand.
TCM Tuesday Picks for the Week of 11/19/13–11/25/13
(Full Schedule)
TOP PICK
Breathless / À bout de souffle (1960), airing Saturday, 11/23 at 8:00 PM: Jean-Luc Godard's jittery crime romance may not have been the first film of the French nouvelle vague, but it certainly presaged the radical, anarchic style that school would come to embody. Godard famously said that you only need a girl and a gun to make a movie, and here in his debut, it's hard to be sure which one will spell doom for Jean-Paul Belmondo's antihero Michel. A low-rent criminal aping American film heroes like Bogart, Michel is on the run after killing a cop. He meets up with Patricia (the iconic Jean Seberg), his sometime-girlfriend, and the two enjoy an up-and-down relationship while moving through Paris's underworld in the hopes of finding a way out. Godard fills the film with jump-cuts, movie references, philosophical musings, and sprightly hand-held location camerawork by the New Wave's defining cinematographer Raoul Coutard. It's stylish, jazzy, and clever, and largely free from the obscurity and political agitation that would mar some of Godard's later work. But as a film that came to define the aesthetic of an era, Breathless is not to be missed.
TCM is airing Breathless as part of a night of famous directors' first films, which also features debuts from Spielberg and Scorsese. I've seen neither of those films, but you might want to stick around after Breathless ends to check them out as well.
The rest of this week's picks are after the jump.
Showing posts with label TCM Tuesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TCM Tuesday. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
TCM Tuesday #6
TCM Tuesday is a weekly feature wherein I look at the upcoming week's schedule on Turner Classic Movies—the best and greatest of all television channels—and pick some stuff for you to watch or save to your DVR. All times are EST, all dates based on the SCHEDULE date on TCM.com. Check your local listings, or look on the new WatchTCM app to live stream or watch on demand.
TCM Tuesday Picks for the Week of 11/12/13–11/18/13
(Full Schedule)
TOP PICK
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), airing Friday 11/15 at 8:45 AM: This noir delight, directed by Lewis Milestone, features good performances by Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Lizabeth Scott, as well as the screen debut of Kirk Douglas. Like so many noir movies, this one involves a tragic event in the past and the psychic/interpersonal scars it leaves on those involved. Here, Martha Ivers (Stanwyck) was involved in an incident as a youth, and only Walter O'Neil (Douglas) knows the truth. He uses his knowledge to marry, blackmail, and control Martha into adulthood, until her former love Sam Masterson (Heflin), who was there on the night of the incident, returns years later, scaring Walter with the things he may or may not know. Walter, now the DA, then uses Toni Marachek (Scott), an ex-con who runs the boarding house where Sam is staying, to get at Sam and head off the potential threat to his power. The whole thing is deliciously pulpy and grim, full of great character moments and all of the world-weary melodrama found in the best noirs. It's no game-changer for the noir genre, nor even one of its greatest or best-known examples, but it's a well-made, darkly satisfying picture all the same. Once you've seen the film, you can thank Jen Myers for recommending this one to me years ago.
Runner Up
The Women (1939, airing Sunday, 11/17 at 8:00 PM: George Cukor's adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce's scabrously funny play keeps with the original's all-female conceit; from its cast (headlined by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Joan Fontaine, among many others) to the animals and decor, not a single male is represented on screen. The film is a dark, biting satire about the social and class pressures facing a group of Manhattan socialites and their relationships, and how gossip and peer pressure between the women stuck in that messed-up system wrecks marriages and destroys lives. The film's catty elements and eye for fashion eventually turned it into a camp favorite, but Cukor's breezy direction and the strong cast make this the rare camp classic that's also a mainstream touchstone. As good as this version is, it's better yet if you pretend the unfortunate 2008 remake never happened.
Other picks for the week below the cut
TCM Tuesday Picks for the Week of 11/12/13–11/18/13
(Full Schedule)
TOP PICK
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), airing Friday 11/15 at 8:45 AM: This noir delight, directed by Lewis Milestone, features good performances by Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Lizabeth Scott, as well as the screen debut of Kirk Douglas. Like so many noir movies, this one involves a tragic event in the past and the psychic/interpersonal scars it leaves on those involved. Here, Martha Ivers (Stanwyck) was involved in an incident as a youth, and only Walter O'Neil (Douglas) knows the truth. He uses his knowledge to marry, blackmail, and control Martha into adulthood, until her former love Sam Masterson (Heflin), who was there on the night of the incident, returns years later, scaring Walter with the things he may or may not know. Walter, now the DA, then uses Toni Marachek (Scott), an ex-con who runs the boarding house where Sam is staying, to get at Sam and head off the potential threat to his power. The whole thing is deliciously pulpy and grim, full of great character moments and all of the world-weary melodrama found in the best noirs. It's no game-changer for the noir genre, nor even one of its greatest or best-known examples, but it's a well-made, darkly satisfying picture all the same. Once you've seen the film, you can thank Jen Myers for recommending this one to me years ago.
Runner Up
The Women (1939, airing Sunday, 11/17 at 8:00 PM: George Cukor's adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce's scabrously funny play keeps with the original's all-female conceit; from its cast (headlined by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Joan Fontaine, among many others) to the animals and decor, not a single male is represented on screen. The film is a dark, biting satire about the social and class pressures facing a group of Manhattan socialites and their relationships, and how gossip and peer pressure between the women stuck in that messed-up system wrecks marriages and destroys lives. The film's catty elements and eye for fashion eventually turned it into a camp favorite, but Cukor's breezy direction and the strong cast make this the rare camp classic that's also a mainstream touchstone. As good as this version is, it's better yet if you pretend the unfortunate 2008 remake never happened.
Other picks for the week below the cut
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
TCM Tuesday #5
TCM Tuesday is a weekly feature wherein I look at the upcoming week's schedule on Turner Classic Movies—the best and greatest of all television channels—and pick some stuff for you to watch or save to your DVR. All times are EST, all dates based on the SCHEDULE date on TCM.com. Check your local listings.
TCM Tuesday Picks for the Week of 11/05/13–11/11/13
(Full Schedule)
TOP PICK
Casablanca (1942), airing Sunday, 11/10 at 4:00 PM: Look, there's just no chance I would see Casablanca on the schedule and not pick it. There's also really no reason why anyone reading this should not have seen it already. But whether you've seen it or not, it's hard to imagine a more (re)watchable, enjoyable film. Casablanca is basically the apex of what the studio system could produce at the height of its powers. It has that lightning-in-a-bottle quality, in that every aspect—even the notoriously difficult writing process that dragged on through principal photography—comes together to elevate what could have been a standard studio picture into, to paraphrase the film itself, a movie like any other, only more so. Humphrey Bogart may have better performances in other pictures, but this came to be his most iconic, defining screen role. Claude Rains's louche, opportunistic Captain Renault steals the picture, a tough ask considering the incredible supporting cast and charmingly-drawn minor characters (many of whom were refugees from the Nazis, adding a certain poignancy to the film's plot). Director Michael Curtiz, an efficient studio hand with a sharp visual style, somehow balances a tone that is alternately tense, witty, romantic, patriotic, and sad, all with great effect. Casablanca is simply without peer.
View this week's other picks after the cut.
TCM Tuesday Picks for the Week of 11/05/13–11/11/13
(Full Schedule)
TOP PICK
Casablanca (1942), airing Sunday, 11/10 at 4:00 PM: Look, there's just no chance I would see Casablanca on the schedule and not pick it. There's also really no reason why anyone reading this should not have seen it already. But whether you've seen it or not, it's hard to imagine a more (re)watchable, enjoyable film. Casablanca is basically the apex of what the studio system could produce at the height of its powers. It has that lightning-in-a-bottle quality, in that every aspect—even the notoriously difficult writing process that dragged on through principal photography—comes together to elevate what could have been a standard studio picture into, to paraphrase the film itself, a movie like any other, only more so. Humphrey Bogart may have better performances in other pictures, but this came to be his most iconic, defining screen role. Claude Rains's louche, opportunistic Captain Renault steals the picture, a tough ask considering the incredible supporting cast and charmingly-drawn minor characters (many of whom were refugees from the Nazis, adding a certain poignancy to the film's plot). Director Michael Curtiz, an efficient studio hand with a sharp visual style, somehow balances a tone that is alternately tense, witty, romantic, patriotic, and sad, all with great effect. Casablanca is simply without peer.
View this week's other picks after the cut.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
TCM Tuesday #4
TCM Tuesday is a weekly feature where I'll take a look at the upcoming week's schedule on Turner Classic Movies—the best and greatest of all television channels—and pick some stuff for you to watch or save to your DVR. All times are EST, all dates based on the SCHEDULE date on TCM.com. Check your local listings.
TCM Tuesday Picks for the Week of 10/29/13–11/04/13
(Full Schedule)
TOP PICK:
Killer of Sheep (1979), airing (technically on) Wednesday, 10/30 at 5:30 AM (see Tuesday's schedule)
Writer/director Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep is a fascinating film. Inspired, seemingly, by Italian neorealism and perhaps the indie ethos of Cassavetes, Burnett sculpts a multifaceted look at working-class African-American culture in Los Angeles's vibrant, potentially volatile Watts neighborhood. A series of scenes, many of them focused on slaughterhouse worker Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders) and his family and friends, takes a wide view of Watts's residents and the struggles and opportunities they face. But even though Stan is prominent, the film doesn't follow him or even craft a real overarching narrative. Watts serves as the connective tissue between otherwise stand-alone bits, making Killer of Sheep almost like a cinematic Winesburg, Ohio. Burnett employs non-professional actors and shoots on location, documenting the neighborhood as it was when he shot it in the early 70's. His deft touch highlights the social realities of being an urban black person in one of the wealthiest cities on Earth without turning the film into an over-obvious "issue" picture. He simply lets the people and the location speak for themselves. Killer of Sheep is this week's pick because it's still not as known as it should be. The film was once very hard to find due to music rights issues that prevented an official release, but it finally became widely available only six years ago. This delay turns the film into a sort of time capsule that shows how much has changed since it was filmed... but also how little.
The rest of this week's picks are hiding out below the jump!
TCM Tuesday Picks for the Week of 10/29/13–11/04/13
(Full Schedule)
TOP PICK:
Killer of Sheep (1979), airing (technically on) Wednesday, 10/30 at 5:30 AM (see Tuesday's schedule)
Writer/director Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep is a fascinating film. Inspired, seemingly, by Italian neorealism and perhaps the indie ethos of Cassavetes, Burnett sculpts a multifaceted look at working-class African-American culture in Los Angeles's vibrant, potentially volatile Watts neighborhood. A series of scenes, many of them focused on slaughterhouse worker Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders) and his family and friends, takes a wide view of Watts's residents and the struggles and opportunities they face. But even though Stan is prominent, the film doesn't follow him or even craft a real overarching narrative. Watts serves as the connective tissue between otherwise stand-alone bits, making Killer of Sheep almost like a cinematic Winesburg, Ohio. Burnett employs non-professional actors and shoots on location, documenting the neighborhood as it was when he shot it in the early 70's. His deft touch highlights the social realities of being an urban black person in one of the wealthiest cities on Earth without turning the film into an over-obvious "issue" picture. He simply lets the people and the location speak for themselves. Killer of Sheep is this week's pick because it's still not as known as it should be. The film was once very hard to find due to music rights issues that prevented an official release, but it finally became widely available only six years ago. This delay turns the film into a sort of time capsule that shows how much has changed since it was filmed... but also how little.
The rest of this week's picks are hiding out below the jump!
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
TCM Tuesday #3
TCM Tuesday is a weekly feature where I'll take a look at the upcoming week's schedule on Turner Classic Movies—the best and greatest of all television channels—and pick some stuff for you to watch or save to your DVR. All times are EST, all dates based on the SCHEDULE date on TCM.com. Check your local listings.
TCM Tuesday Picks for the Week of 10/22/13–10/28/13
(Full Schedule)
TOP PICK:
Them! (1954), airing Sunday, 10/27 at 6:00 PM
Look, I'm no monster. There's just no way that I could possibly pick a different movie in a week when Them! is on. If you're unfamiliar, Them! is about giant ants that attack the country, starting in and around the areas where nuclear bomb testing took place. In a way, it's completely typical of the '50s sci-fi trend of movies about science going TOO FAR and inadvertently making bad things—often, as here, evil giant animals. But at the same time, Them! is better than most of those movies. For one, the scientists it depicts are neither clueless nor evil. As played by Edmund Gwenn (best known for Miracle on 34th St) and Joan Weldon, they come across as smart, helpful, and level-headed, a rare set of traits in this sort of picture. Them! also focuses on building scares through suspense, sound effects, and things left unseen. The tactic pays off well; even though we don't see the giant ants for quite a while, and even though they are laughable effects now, they're still effectively scary. Between its moderate-but-tense pacing, its likable, human characters, and the sheer amount of fun it is to watch, Them! is one of the all-time great sci-fi films and is not to be missed.
Check out the rest of the week's selections below the cut:
TCM Tuesday Picks for the Week of 10/22/13–10/28/13
(Full Schedule)
TOP PICK:
Them! (1954), airing Sunday, 10/27 at 6:00 PM
Look, I'm no monster. There's just no way that I could possibly pick a different movie in a week when Them! is on. If you're unfamiliar, Them! is about giant ants that attack the country, starting in and around the areas where nuclear bomb testing took place. In a way, it's completely typical of the '50s sci-fi trend of movies about science going TOO FAR and inadvertently making bad things—often, as here, evil giant animals. But at the same time, Them! is better than most of those movies. For one, the scientists it depicts are neither clueless nor evil. As played by Edmund Gwenn (best known for Miracle on 34th St) and Joan Weldon, they come across as smart, helpful, and level-headed, a rare set of traits in this sort of picture. Them! also focuses on building scares through suspense, sound effects, and things left unseen. The tactic pays off well; even though we don't see the giant ants for quite a while, and even though they are laughable effects now, they're still effectively scary. Between its moderate-but-tense pacing, its likable, human characters, and the sheer amount of fun it is to watch, Them! is one of the all-time great sci-fi films and is not to be missed.
Check out the rest of the week's selections below the cut:
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
TCM Tuesday #2
TCM Tuesday is a weekly feature where I'll take a look at the upcoming week's schedule on Turner Classic Movies—the best and greatest of all television channels—and pick some stuff for you to watch or save to your DVR. All times are EST, check your local listings.
TCM Tuesday for 10/15/13–10/21/13
(Full Schedule)
Pick of the Week:
Gaslight
US, 1944
Directed by George Cukor
Airs Wednesday, Oct. 16th at 7:30 AM
Based on a play by Patrick Hamilton (already filmed under the same name only four years earlier), Gaslight is a dark, occasionally melodramatic story of treachery, manipulation, and madness. Ingrid Bergman stars as Paula Alquist, who, as a child, interrupted a thief in the process of robbing and murdering her guardian Aunt (a famous opera singer). She is then raised to become a singer herself, and eventually meets the charming Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), who sweeps Paula off her feet and marries her, becoming her overprotective de facto controller. Paula begins hearing and seeing strange things, and Anton isolates her, claiming he's doing it for her own good, but it's clear (to us, at least) that he's a villain. Paula has allies—a charming police detective and opera fan named Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten)—and adversaries—a crude Cockney maid played by a young Angela Lansbury in her first film role—but Anton's perception-altering tricks may have her doubting herself too much to be saved. We now refer to this sort of behavior as "gaslighting" largely because of the film's success.
I made this my pick of the week largely based on its atmosphere and tone. Joseph Cotten also happens to be one of my favorite classic stars, and I wrote about this period of his career in grad school, so my opinion may be biased, but still. George Cukor, usually thought of as a comedy director, does well here in a noirish milieu, creating a disorienting ambiance to match Paula's mental state. Joseph Ruttenberg's cinematography and Cedric Gibbons and team's Oscar-winning art direction help set this mood, turning a sumptuous, privilege-infused home into a shadowy, sinister space. Despite this effective tone-setting, I fully admit that the film sometimes verges on camp. Boyer's Anton is a cartoonish scoundrel that beggars belief, and Bergman's hysteria can come across as overplayed, now, though she, Boyer, and Lansbury were Oscar-nominated for the film (with only Bergman winning). At any rate, it's a suitably creepy film that highlights an experience that a lot of women have in abusive relationships. There's little worse than being made to distrust your own sanity, and Gaslight shows us the true horror of someone else reshaping your reality to suit his own purposes.
So that's this week's must-see pick. Look for the daily highlights below the cut.
TCM Tuesday for 10/15/13–10/21/13
(Full Schedule)
Pick of the Week:
Gaslight
US, 1944
Directed by George Cukor
Airs Wednesday, Oct. 16th at 7:30 AM
Based on a play by Patrick Hamilton (already filmed under the same name only four years earlier), Gaslight is a dark, occasionally melodramatic story of treachery, manipulation, and madness. Ingrid Bergman stars as Paula Alquist, who, as a child, interrupted a thief in the process of robbing and murdering her guardian Aunt (a famous opera singer). She is then raised to become a singer herself, and eventually meets the charming Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), who sweeps Paula off her feet and marries her, becoming her overprotective de facto controller. Paula begins hearing and seeing strange things, and Anton isolates her, claiming he's doing it for her own good, but it's clear (to us, at least) that he's a villain. Paula has allies—a charming police detective and opera fan named Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten)—and adversaries—a crude Cockney maid played by a young Angela Lansbury in her first film role—but Anton's perception-altering tricks may have her doubting herself too much to be saved. We now refer to this sort of behavior as "gaslighting" largely because of the film's success.
I made this my pick of the week largely based on its atmosphere and tone. Joseph Cotten also happens to be one of my favorite classic stars, and I wrote about this period of his career in grad school, so my opinion may be biased, but still. George Cukor, usually thought of as a comedy director, does well here in a noirish milieu, creating a disorienting ambiance to match Paula's mental state. Joseph Ruttenberg's cinematography and Cedric Gibbons and team's Oscar-winning art direction help set this mood, turning a sumptuous, privilege-infused home into a shadowy, sinister space. Despite this effective tone-setting, I fully admit that the film sometimes verges on camp. Boyer's Anton is a cartoonish scoundrel that beggars belief, and Bergman's hysteria can come across as overplayed, now, though she, Boyer, and Lansbury were Oscar-nominated for the film (with only Bergman winning). At any rate, it's a suitably creepy film that highlights an experience that a lot of women have in abusive relationships. There's little worse than being made to distrust your own sanity, and Gaslight shows us the true horror of someone else reshaping your reality to suit his own purposes.
So that's this week's must-see pick. Look for the daily highlights below the cut.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
TCM Tuesday #1
TCM Tuesday is a new (weekly?) feature where I'll take a look at the upcoming week's schedule on Turner Classic Movies—the best and greatest of all television channels—and pick some stuff for you to watch or save to your DVR. All times are EST, check your local listings.
TCM Tuesday for 10/08/13-10/14/13
(Full Schedule)
Pick of the Week:
His Kind of Woman
US, 1951
Directed by John Farrow (and Richard Fleischer)
Airs Thursday, Oct. 10th at 9:45 PM
TCM's Star of the Month is Vincent Price—who happens to be one of my all-time favorite actors—and every Thursday, the network is airing all sorts of Price movies in prime time. But His Kind of Woman can't really be called a Vincent Price film, so much as a Robert Mitchum/Jane Russell noir that Vincent Price steals right out from under them. Mitchum is one of Hollywood's top tough guys, and here he plays Dan Milner, a hard-luck gambler who takes a huge payment (and a free stay at a Mexican resort) in exchange for an unspecified job. Of course, it turns out that he's in over his head, having inadvertently teamed with notorious criminal Nick Ferraro (Raymond Burr) in his attempts to illegally enter the US. En route, Milner hits it off with the sultry singer Lenore Brent (Russell), the mistress of a hammy actor named Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price) who is also staying at the resort. Milner's not really a bad guy, so he strikes up a friendship with Cardigan and even helps some other people out. But between a tip-off from an undercover fed (Tim Holt) and the shady doings around the resort, Milner begins to think he's in more trouble than he can handle, and tries to figure out what he's in for before it's too late.
Frank Fenton and Jack Leonard's script mixes the light and the dark, with Price's character largely providing the leavening as Mitchum broods and fights. Of course, it's hard to tell what was in the original script and what came from the rewrites famously demanded by producer Howard Hughes (who also replaced Farrow with Richard Fleischer for a number of added scenes and reshoots). Still, despite all of the off-screen trouble, His Kind of Woman is one of the most entertaining and compulsively-watchable noirs ever made. The reliably rugged Mitchum has great chemistry with Russell, who fits perfectly in the role of a troubled femme fatale. While detractors may say it may sacrifices the melodramatic depth and serious commentary of many noirs in favor of simple fisticuffs and crowd-pleasing laughs, His Kind of Woman is good enough to have been my pick of the week as soon as I saw it on the schedule. Don't miss it.
If that's not enough for you, check out some daily highlights from this week's schedule after the jump:
TCM Tuesday for 10/08/13-10/14/13
(Full Schedule)
Pick of the Week:
His Kind of Woman
US, 1951
Directed by John Farrow (and Richard Fleischer)
Airs Thursday, Oct. 10th at 9:45 PM
TCM's Star of the Month is Vincent Price—who happens to be one of my all-time favorite actors—and every Thursday, the network is airing all sorts of Price movies in prime time. But His Kind of Woman can't really be called a Vincent Price film, so much as a Robert Mitchum/Jane Russell noir that Vincent Price steals right out from under them. Mitchum is one of Hollywood's top tough guys, and here he plays Dan Milner, a hard-luck gambler who takes a huge payment (and a free stay at a Mexican resort) in exchange for an unspecified job. Of course, it turns out that he's in over his head, having inadvertently teamed with notorious criminal Nick Ferraro (Raymond Burr) in his attempts to illegally enter the US. En route, Milner hits it off with the sultry singer Lenore Brent (Russell), the mistress of a hammy actor named Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price) who is also staying at the resort. Milner's not really a bad guy, so he strikes up a friendship with Cardigan and even helps some other people out. But between a tip-off from an undercover fed (Tim Holt) and the shady doings around the resort, Milner begins to think he's in more trouble than he can handle, and tries to figure out what he's in for before it's too late.
Frank Fenton and Jack Leonard's script mixes the light and the dark, with Price's character largely providing the leavening as Mitchum broods and fights. Of course, it's hard to tell what was in the original script and what came from the rewrites famously demanded by producer Howard Hughes (who also replaced Farrow with Richard Fleischer for a number of added scenes and reshoots). Still, despite all of the off-screen trouble, His Kind of Woman is one of the most entertaining and compulsively-watchable noirs ever made. The reliably rugged Mitchum has great chemistry with Russell, who fits perfectly in the role of a troubled femme fatale. While detractors may say it may sacrifices the melodramatic depth and serious commentary of many noirs in favor of simple fisticuffs and crowd-pleasing laughs, His Kind of Woman is good enough to have been my pick of the week as soon as I saw it on the schedule. Don't miss it.
If that's not enough for you, check out some daily highlights from this week's schedule after the jump:
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