Some notes about what’s showing this week on Turner Classic Movies.
Sweet Smell of Success (Sunday, 1/6, 6:15 PM ET) — I’m skipping it, because it won’t fit into my resolution to be more positive this year, but this is a gen-u-ine classic of the late 1950s, when media was beginning to question the ideas of achievement and capitalism the culture had been sold post-war. Press agent Tony Curtis tries to manipulate powerful gossip columnist Burt Lancaster only to find himself out-schemed. Gritty but lovely to look at.
La Jetée (Monday, 1/7, 4:15 AM ET) — Never heard of this before, but this is the kind of discovery I like to make on TCM: a classic experimental French film from the early 1960s made up almost entirely of still images. It tackles big ideas through a time travel plot and was a major inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys. At only half an hour, how can I not give it a try to be as mind-blowing as reviews suggest?
Hello, Dolly! (Tuesday, 1/8, 12:15 AM ET) — One of the great Hollywood turkeys, an overstuffed musical that relies on money (visible on screen) and artifice to cover over miscasting and lack of heart. Barbra Streisand sashays through an unbelievable romance with a dour Walter Matthau (and reportedly, the two fought off-screen). It does have Michael Crawford long before he was the Phantom, and it won Oscars for Best Sound, Best Score, and Best Set Decoration (see? Money!).
WarGames (Wednesday, 1/9, 4 AM ET) — Love this movie! Still one of the best portrayals ever of the hacker mindset. Don’t worry about the technology (woefully outdated, when today’s kids have never heard the word “mainframe”, let alone hacked one); pay attention to the problem-solving and social engineering and pure psychology involved in how the characters interact. (And intercaps, like in the title, still haven’t gone away.)
Two scenes still perfect in my mind. The first, when Matthew Broderick first has Ally Sheedy up in his room, and she traps him between her legs, parked on his desk. Such a beautiful example of how simple and yet flustering boy-girl relationships can be. The second, when genius recluse John Wood doesn’t want to deal with the two or the potential results of his work, and he tries to dismiss them as though programming a computer: “Path. Follow path. Gate. Open gate, through gate, close gate. Run, run, run.” I think the DVD says that that happened because he couldn’t remember his lines that day, but it’s a perfect demonstration of how to break down a flow and be amusingly dismissive.
The Shining Hour (Wednesday, 1/9, 12:30 PM ET) — Glorious melodrama. Joan Crawford, a nightclub dancer (which is often old-movie code for “hooker” or “whore”), marries into a well-to-do rural family who worries about their place as town leaders. I forget if she marries Melvyn Douglas or Robert Young, but the other one is married to Margaret Sullavan, who’s jealous of Joan when her husband starts falling for her too. There’s a huge disaster at the end that reminds everyone what’s really important (and I think kills one of the trouble-makers, conveniently). Great wallowing entertainment of the kind they don’t do any more.
Rock Around the Clock (Friday, 1/11, 9:30 PM ET) — I bet that hasn’t aged well, but it’s a great way to see some foundational performers and watch outrageous dancing from an era where partners still touched.
Similar Posts:
This Week on TCM
§
This Week on TCM
§
This Week on TCM
§
This Week on TCM
§
This Week on TCM
