Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award winners Stan Laurel, Jack Lemmon, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Kirk Douglas will be celebrated by Turner Classic Movies with a four-film presentation beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 22, the night before TCM's sister networks TNT and TBS present a live simulcast of the 2010 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Of the four films — the short Tit for Tat, and the features The Out-of-Towners, A Raisin in the Sun, and Last Train from Gun Hill — I've only seen the moderately entertaining John Sturges Western Last Train from Gun Hill, whose most memorable feature is Carolyn Jones as the female lead (actually a supporting role). I'd probably have liked it better had it starred Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper, or Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott. Or even Alan Ladd and Dana Andrews. I'd have liked it even better had Anthony Mann or Delmer Daves directed it.
And here is the Jan. 22 schedule:
8 p.m. Tit for Tat (1935) – starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
8:30 p.m. The Out-of-Towners (1969) – starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis.
10:15 p.m. A Raisin in the Sun (1961) – starring Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil and Ruby Dee.
12:30 a.m. Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) – starring Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn.
This year’s Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement honoree is television and film actress Betty White. The 2010 SAG Awards ceremony will be simulcast live (except for those on the West Coast, which is pretty silly) on TNT and TBS Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), 7 p.m. (CT) and 6 p.m. (MT).
I would encourage you to view the 1961 version of A Raisin In The Sun as a then "realistic" depiction of Black American family life in the early 1960s. It is one of the few films featuring three strong African American actresses, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands. The film is a classic adaptation of a play to film.
The Out-Of-Towners is a really great film and features a fine performance by Sandy Dennis.
For me, notably, Dennis and Sands are actors who did not live to completely fulfill their destinies as exceptional performers. Any film that features these women, who died quite young, is a treasure.