A few recommendations for those who watch Turner Classic Movies:
Cecil B. DeMille’s beautifully shot, tinted 1921 sex drama The Affairs of Anatol stars Wallace Reid as titular Anatol, married to Gloria Swanson while getting acquainted with a number of women including Bebe Daniels, Wanda Hawley, and Agnes Ayres (Rudolph Valentino’s leading woman in The Sheik). The film is based on Arthur Schnitzler’s novel Anatol. Reid, one of the biggest and most handsome stars of the silent era, would die two years later at age 31, while trying to kick a morphine addiction. (Tuesday, June 6, 7 a.m. EDT.)
Pietro Germi’s 1961 comedy of social mores and manners, Divorce, Italian Style / Divorzio all’italiana is hardly one of the funniest comedies ever made, but it became a huge international hit, solidifying Marcello Mastroianni’s reputation as a (self-mocking) matinee idol. Youthful beauty Stefania Sandrelli is the object of his affection, while Daniela Rocca – the film’s one element that works – is the object of his murderous thoughts. Both director Germi and star Mastroianni were shortlisted for Academy Awards for the year 1962, when Divorce, Italian Style opened in the Los Angeles area. (Saturday, June 10, 2 a.m. EDT.)
Some consider Laurence Olivier’s hammy music hall actor in The Entertainer (1960) to be the best the performance of his illustrious film career. Whether or not you’re an Olivier fan, this is one of the seminal Angry Young Men British films of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Entertainer was directed by future Academy Award winner Tony Richardson (Tom Jones, 1963). Also in the cast are several past and future British Names, among them Brenda de Banzie, Roger Livesey, Albert Finney, Alan Bates, and Joan Plowright, who would become Olivier’s second wife following his divorce from Vivien Leigh. (Saturday, June 10, 10 p.m. EDT.)
The Wind, a 1928 box office disappointment directed by Victor Sjöström (or Seastrom in Hollywood), is surely one of the best silent films ever made. This is a harsh, downbeat psychological drama that boasts first-rate performances by Lillian Gish – who totally loses it (see photo) – and Lars Hanson. (Tuesday, June 13, 4:30a.m. EDT.)