TCM Guest Programmer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 2 Humphrey Bogart films noir, 2 John Wayne Westerns
As part of TCM’s “Guest Programmer” series, U.S. basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will be joining Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne to present four of his favorite films on Monday, March 22.
Most Guest Programmer evenings are devoted to the best-known classics, and Abdul-Jabbar’s (and, on April 1, Raquel Welch’s) will be no exception.
Here are Abdul-Jabbar’s choices, both centered on tough antiheroes: Humphrey Bogart stars in the 1940s films noir The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon; John Wayne stars in the Westerns The Shootist and Stagecoach.
Seen all of these before?
Well, check them out once again.
Who knows? Perhaps if you watch The Big Sleep for the 102nd time, you’ll finally be able to figure out what actually takes place in that Howard Hawks crime drama in which raspy-voiced private detective Philip Marlowe (Bogart) becomes enmeshed with murder and a throaty-voiced socialite (Lauren Bacall).
John Ford’s 1939 Western Stagecoach turned John Wayne into a star – though, in the acting department, the movie belongs to Claire Trevor as a traveling sex worker – while Don Siegel’s beautifully shot (no bad pun intended) The Shootist turned out to be the ailing actor’s swan song. This downbeat Western – the antihero (and, as it turned out, the actor playing him) is dying of cancer – is also one of Wayne’s rare star vehicles in which he succeeded in creating a well-rounded character.
Immediately below is TCM’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar movie schedule.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Osborne on TCM.
TCM Guest Programmer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar movie selections – March 22 schedule (EDT)
8:00 PM The Big Sleep (1946)
Director: Howard Hawks.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Sonia Darrin, Dorothy Malone, Regis Toomey, Peggy Knudsen, Charles Waldron, Bob Steele, Elisha Cook Jr., Louis Jean Heydt.
114m10:00 PM The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Director: John Huston.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook Jr., Barton MacLane, Lee Patrick, Jerome Cowan, Ward Bond, James Burke, Charles Drake.
Cameo: Walter Huston.
100m12:00 AM The Shootist (1976)
Director: Don Siegel.
Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Hugh O’Brian, Bill McKinney, Harry Morgan, Sheree North, Rick Lenz, John Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Gregg Palmer, Dick Winslow.
100m2:00 AM Stagecoach (1939)
Director: John Ford.
Cast: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell, Louise Platt, George Bancroft, Donald Meek, Tim Holt, Tom Tyler.
96m
“Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on TCM” notes
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Osborne images: Courtesy of Turner Classic Movies.