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Grace Kelly: TO CATCH A THIEF, THE SWAN

Grace Kelly on TCM: Part I
Thanks to Kelly’s Oscar win, The Country Girl is interesting as a historical curiosity — it’s the sort of "gutsy" and "realistic" film adaptation of a respected stage play that was very popular among the filmgoing elite of the 1950s (e.g., Tea and Sympathy, A Hatful of Rain), but that I generally find both lame and artificial. Bing Crosby’s drunk is about as convincing as Kelly’s frumpish housewife (a role that should have gone to original choice Jennifer Jones), but that didn’t prevent a number of Academy members from making sure Crosby, director George Seaton, and the film itself received Academy Award nominations. Seaton, in fact, did win an Oscar for his [...]

Grace Kelly on TCM

Stating the obvious: most people take great pleasure in idealizing their idols — which is why idols are idols.
Whether we’re talking of gods, saints, prophets, or pop stars, the process is pretty much the same: flaws are expunged, deeds that never took place are turned into (at times miraculous) facts, the Pantheon of the Immortals becomes their abode following their earthly demise. (In some extreme cases — assorted gods, Elvis — the idol in question doesn’t die, period.)
Grace Kelly, Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month, is one of the lofty ones now dwelling in the aforementioned Pantheon. True, the flesh-and-bood Philadelphia-born (Nov. 12, 1929) woman (nee Grace Patricia Kelly) may have been quite different [...]

Shadows of Russia Schedule

Angela Lansbury, Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate

Below is the complete "Shadows of Russia" schedule on Turner Classic Movies:

Wednesday, Jan. 6
Part One: Twilight of the Tsars
8 p.m. The Scarlet Empress (1934) – starring Marlene Dietrich and John Lodge.
10 p.m. Rasputin and the Empress (1932) – starring John, Ethel and Lionel Barrymore.
Part Two: Red Romance
12:15 a.m. Red Danube (1949) – starring Walter Pidgeon and Ethel Barrymore.
2:30 a.m. Reds (1981) – starring Warren Beatty, Diane [...]

Shadows of Russia: Communism on TCM

Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas in Ninotchka (top); Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford in The Way We Were (bottom)

From the Romanovs’ last stand to Warren Beatty’s first solo directorial effort: On every Wednesday in January 2010, Turner Classic Movies will present the 20-film festival "Shadows of Russia," a showcase of Hollywood movies portraying Russia (and/or the Soviet Union) and the sociopolitical reverberations of Communism throughout the 20th century.
Among the scheduled films are classics such as Ninotchka, The Manchurian Candidate, and Reds, in addition to lesser-known fare like Counter-Attack, I Was a Communist for the FBI, and The Strawberry Statement. Get ready for some laughs and a few tears — mostly laughs. And mostly of the unintended kind.
I must red-facedly [...]

Robert Osborne, Alec Baldwin to Host TCM’s 2010 “The Essentials”

Two-time Emmy winner Alec Baldwin will be returning for a second season as co-host of Turner Classic Movies‘ "The Essentials," joining forces with TCM host Robert Osborne to present a new slate of must-see movies every Saturday at 5 p.m. (PT).
The 10th season of "The Essentials" will kick off in March 2010 with Elia Kazan’s 1951 version of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Oscar nominee Marlon Brando and Oscar winners Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden. If you haven’t seen it, yet, you must. If you have, it’s one of those movies that can be watched again and again.
As per the TCM press release, the season will also feature four [...]

THE CRANES ARE FLYING, WILD ORANGES on TCM

A couple of recommendations for Turner Classic Movies viewers on the evening of Sunday, Sept. 20.
Wild Oranges (1924) is an early King Vidor effort featuring Virginia Valli, a popular leading lady of the 1920s. In this drama set on an island off the Florida coast, Valli plays a young woman whose quiet life with her grandfather is disturbed following the appearance of an evil escaped prisoner.
Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying (adapted by Viktor Rozov from his own play) is a beautifully photographed romantic drama about a young woman who goes through some rough times after her boyfriend, without having the chance to say goodbye, is sent to [...]

Claude Rains on TCM: CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, JUAREZ

Claude Rains, Gale Sondergaard in Anthony Adverse

Turner Classic Movies will be showing eight movies featuring Claude Rains, TCM’s Star of the Month of September, beginning at 5PM Pacific Time.
Of those, I’ve seen only three:
Juarez (1939) could have been a good historical biopic, but things go wrong from the start thanks to the miscasting of Paul Muni as Benito Juárez. Even Bette Davis, who plays the mad Empress Carlotta von Hapsburg, would have been more believable as Mexico’s first full-blooded American Indian to be elected president. William Dieterle was also the wrong man to direct Juarez, as Dieterle’s hand tended to be quite heavy when dealing with real-life subjects, e.g., The Life of Emile Zola, The Story of [...]

Claude Rains on TCM: HERE COMES MR. JORDAN, DECEPTION

Claude Rains returns this Wednesday, Sept. 9, in more films featuring Turner Classic Movies‘ Star of the Month.
Every single one of the titles listed below is worth watching if only because of Rains’ presence. That said, a couple of them actually have considerably more to offer: Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and Deception (1946).
Here Comes Mr. Jordan is a witty, romantic comedy about love, death, reincarnation, greed, bad timing, and prizefighting. I know, this all (minus the prizefighting) sounds like some heavy-duty drama straight out of the Bible or some other holy book, but director Alexander Hall and screenwriters Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller, adapting Harry Segall’s play Heaven Can Wait, handle those serious themes with [...]

Claude Rains on TCM

Claude Rains, one of the greatest actors of the studio era — in fact, one of the greatest film actors of the 20th century — is Turner Classic Movies‘ Star of the Month of September.
What would I recommend?
Well, whether on TCM or on DVD or on VHS or in some hidden vault somewhere, I’d say check him out in The Invisible Man and (ouch!) The Lost World; his supporting roles opposite Priscilla Lane and Bette Davis; his Oscar-nominated roles in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Casablanca, Mr. Skeffington, and Notorious; his brief appearances in Lawrence of Arabia and The Greatest Story Ever Told; his cinematic swan song, Twilight of Honor. In sum, if Claude Rains is in it, [...]

Claire Bloom on TCM

Claire Bloom, Julie Harris in The Haunting. Photo: Courtesy of Turner Classic Movies.

Claire Bloom, one of the most talented and stunning-looking actresses of her generation, will have her "Summer Under the Stars" day on Monday, Aug. 31.
Handpicked by Charles Chaplin to be her young leading lady in the 1952 melodrama Limelight, the British-born Claire Bloom developed into a fantastic actress; one who should have become an international film superstar. That never happened, perhaps because Bloom was more enamored of the stage (A Streetcar Named Desire, The Cherry Orchard, A Doll’s House) than she was of film, and wasn’t as discerning in her film choices as she should have been.
I knew of her, but was mostly unfamiliar with her work [...]

Claire Bloom TCM Schedule

Claire Bloom on Turner Classic Movies

Claire Bloom, Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Claire Bloom on TCM
Pacific Time
31 Monday
3:00 AM Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm, The (1962)
Fanciful biography of the German fairy-tale collectors, with reenactments of three of their stories. Cast: Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Barbara Eden. Dir: Henry Levin, George Pal. C-136 mins.
5:30 AM Outrage, The (1964)
A Mexican bandit’s crimes receive wildly different interpretations from four witnesses. Cast: Paul Newman, Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson. Dir: Martin Ritt. BW-96 mins.
7:30 AM Brothers Karamazov, The (1958)
In this adaptation of the Dostoevsky classic, four brothers fight to adjust to the death of their domineering father. Cast: Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, [...]

Jean Arthur on Turner Classics

Jean Arthur is one of my all-time favorite performers. So, it’s great to see her listed as one of Turner Classic Movies‘ "Summer Under the Stars" stars. Jean Arthur Day will take place on Sunday, Aug. 30.
Jean Arthur was Columbia’s top star from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s, when Rita Hayworth became the studio’s reigning queen and Arthur semi-retired from films. Her characters were cynical but idealistic, strong but vulnerable, independent-minded but deeply devoted to whoever her leading man might be. In other words, Jean Arthur was the Ideal Woman: complex, passionate, warm — and she had sparkling eyes only matched by her equally sparkling smile. (And there was that voice. It should have been trademarked.)
Of course, since [...]

Peter Sellers on TCM

Peter Sellers in Lolita. Photo: Courtesy of Turner Classic Movies.

Peter Sellers will have his "Summer Under the Stars" day on Saturday, Aug. 29.
Turner Classic Movies will present thirteen Peter Sellers vehicles, including two TCM premieres, John Guillermin’s Waltz of the Toreadors and Robert Day’s Two-Way Stretch.
First of all, I must admit that I’m not that familiar with Sellers’ film career. Among the few of his films I’ve seen are a couple of the Pink Panther flicks — neither of which was very good — in addition to his two Oscar-nominated performances in Dr. Strangelove and Being There. So, this Peter Sellers Day on TCM will be a good opportunity for myself — and others — to become better [...]

Frank Sinatra on TCM

Bobby-soxer-turned-blue-haired-matron idol Frank Sinatra will have his "Summer Under the Stars" day on Friday, Aug. 28.
Turner Classic Movies will show twelve of the actor-singer films, the best of which is On the Town, a zesty musical about three sailors and their three girls (four, if you include Alice Pearce) spending a day together in New York City. The three guys — Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Jules Munshin (above) — are all likable and fine, but it’s the female quartet that does it for me: in addition to Pearce, there’s Vera-Ellen, Betty Garrett, and Ann Miller. In my view, those women are the ones who should have been the superstars of Hollywood musicals of the ’40s and ’50s. Anyhow, Kelly [...]

Ida Lupino on TCM

Ida Lupino, one of the top Warner Bros. stars of the ’40s, will have her "Summer Under the Stars" day on Thursday, Aug. 27.
More than a second-rank Bette Davis but less than a truly great talent, Ida Lupino — whether at her best or at her worst — was invariably interesting. Yet, I can’t say that I’m an inveterate Ida Lupino admirer. My problem with the likes of Lupino, Anne Baxter, Susan Hayward, and, oftentimes, Bette Davis is that when they emoted, they ***EMOTED*** — in caps, italics, bold, and with asterisks all around it. Just in case you didn’t get that their characters were going through some really rough times.
That said, what makes those actresses interesting — as [...]

Ida Lupino TCM Schedule

Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart in They Drive by Night. Photo: Courtesy of Turner Classic Movies.

Ida Lupino on TCM
Pacific Time
27 Thursday
3:00 AM Gay Desperado, The (1936)
A Mexican bandit kidnaps a singing cowboy star to learn American ways. Cast: Nino Martini, Ida Lupino, Leo Carrillo. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian. BW-87 mins.
4:30 AM Lady And The Mob, The (1939)
A woman sets out to break a criminal gang controlling the dry cleaning business. Cast: Fay Bainter, Ida Lupino, Lee Bowman. Dir: Benjamin Stoloff. BW-66 mins.
5:45 AM Lone Wolf Spy Hunt, The (1939)
A spy forces a reformed jewel thief to crack the safe where plans for an anti-aircraft gun are stored. Cast: Warren William, Ida Lupino, Rita Hayworth. Dir: Peter [...]

Yul Brynner on TCM

Yul Brynner’s "Summer Under the Stars" day is Wednesday, Aug. 26.
Inevitably, The King and I (1956), the movie that earned Brynner an Academy Award and turned him into a major international star, is included in Turner Classic Movies‘ Yul Brynner Day line-up. Brynner is great in it and so is Deborah Kerr as the Englishwoman who teaches the King of Siam how to dance, but the movie itself, directed by Fox stalwart Walter Lang, takes quite a bit to get going. In fact, I prefer the more modest 1946 non-musical, Anna and the King of Siam, with Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison — even though Brynner is much more believable (and funnier) than Harrison.
The other Yul Brynner-Deborah Kerr pairing, The [...]

Merle Oberon on TCM

Merle Oberon, who’ll have her "Summer Under the Stars" day on Tuesday, Aug. 25, is one of those actresses I’d say unjustly suffered (and continue to suffer) from the Marion Davies Syndrome.
As I wrote in my Jennifer Jones on TCM post, I believe that many film critics and historians dismiss actresses such as Marion Davies (whose film career was a direct result of her relationship with William Randolph Hearst), Norma Shearer (MGM’s second-in-command Irving Thalberg), and Jennifer Jones (producer David O. Selznick) because they had powerful backers.
The fact that Davies and Jones could quite possibly have become even bigger stars had their sponsors been less controlling and more discerning, and that Shearer would probably have reached superstardom [...]

Fredric March on TCM

Carole Lombard, Fredric March in a Nothing Sacred publicity shot.

Fredric March has his "Summer Under the Stars" day on Monday, Aug. 24.
Turner Classic Movies will present 13 Fredric March films, including the TCM premiere of Richard Boleslawski’s Academy Award-nominated Les Miserables (1935), a handsome — if dramatically stale — adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel that pits March’s bread-thief Jean Valjean against Charles Laughton’s law-enforcing sociopath Inspector Javert.
Among the other Fredric March must-sees that day are:
Produced by David O. Selznick, William Wellman’s 1937 version of A Star Is Born features Janet Gaynor the actress doing a delicious impersonation of Janet Gaynor the persona, here named Esther Blodgett (and later renamed Vicki Lester), an ambitious but [...]

Angela Lansbury on TCM

Angela Lansbury’s "Summer Under the Stars" day is Sunday, Aug. 23.
Thanks to the popular TV series Murder She Wrote, Angela Lansbury became a bigger star in the last two decades than she ever was during her heyday as an MGM contract player in the 1940s, supporting (or antagonizing) the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, and Elizabeth Taylor.
Ironically, most people today probably know who Angela Lansbury is, while names such as Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr, and Greer Garson — three of MGM’s top stars of that era — have dimmed (at least) somewhat.
Turner Classic Movies‘ Angela Lansbury Day will offer only one TCM premiere: A Lawless Street (1955), a minor Joseph H. Lewis Western starring Randolph Scott. [...]

Sterling Hayden on TCM

Sterling Hayden’s "Summer Under the Stars" Day will take place on Saturday, Aug. 22.
Now, Sterling Hayden is an interesting choice for the Turner Classic Movies series. Like previous TCM "Summer Under the Stars" honoree Gloria Grahame, Hayden — though tall, blond, and handsome — was never a major Hollywood personality or a top box-office attraction. And despite his presence in several important and still well-known films — The Asphalt Jungle, Johnny Guitar, Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather — he’s hardly a recognizable name today. And that’s why TCM’s decision to dedicate a day to him is so welcome. I mean, let’s take a break from Judy Garland…
Sterling Hayden Day will offer no less than five TCM premieres, of [...]

Gene Hackman on TCM

Gene Hackman’s "Summer Under the Stars" day is Friday, Aug. 21.
Turner Classic Movies will present 11 films featuring or starring two-time Academy Award-winner Gene Hackman (The French Connection and, in the supporting category, Unforgiven), whom some consider one of the best American actors of the last four decades.
I can’t say that I agree with that assessment, though throughout his long career Hackman has delivered some truly remarkable performances. My personal favorite is his paranoid surveillance expert in writer-director Francis Ford Coppola’s intriguing The Conversation (top photo, 1974), which is part of TCM’s Hackman line-up.
This Academy Award-nominated and Palme d’Or-winning drama, released not long after the Watergate scandal (though made before the shady events became public knowledge), [...]

Miriam Hopkins on TCM

An early photo of Miriam Hopkins. Photos in this article: courtesy of Allan Ellenberger

Miriam Hopkins, one of the most underrated performers of the studio era, will have her "Summer Under the Stars" day on Thursday, Aug. 20.
Turner Classic Movies will present fourteen Miriam Hopkins films, including one TCM premiere — the Samuel Goldwyn production of Barbary Coast — and three of Hopkins’ saucy pre-Code vehicles made at Paramount.
Although there are no Hopkins rarities in the program — TCM must lease the Universal library, which contains both the Universal and Paramount classics — it’s great to have a day dedicated to an actress who, no matter how good, has been usually dismissed because of her (alleged) off-screen behavior.
As I’ve [...]

Red Skelton on TCM

Ann Rutherford, Red Skelton, Virginia Grey in Whistling in the Dark. Photo: Courtesy Turner Classic Movies

Red Skelton’s "Summer Under the Stars" day is Wednesday, Aug. 19.
Turner Classic Movies will show fifteen Red Skelton films, most of which I’ve never seen. With perhaps one or two exceptions, they’ve been on TCM a number of times — there are no premieres in the list — but Skelton, for some inexplicable reason, remains one of the few stars of the ’40s that I don’t know very well. (In fact, I’m totally unfamiliar with his television work.)
That’s strange, I admit, as I actually find him more likable (though not necessarily funnier) than the majority of film comedians then or now, and his [...]

John Wayne on TCM

John Wayne in The Alamo. Photo: Courtesy Turner Classic Movies.

It’s John Wayne day on Tuesday, Aug. 18, as Turner Classic Movies continues with its "Summer Under the Stars" series.
One of the most popular film stars ever, John Wayne was almost invariably John Wayne (or the screen version of himself) no matter who or what he played. But then again, the same can be said of Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and other well-respected actors of the studio era. I’m not quite sure why Wayne is generally regarded as less of an actor than those other performers, but perhaps one explanation is that Westerns and war movies aren’t perceived as settings for a real actor, and Wayne made his [...]

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