While I’m in a movie picking sort of mood I thought I might remark on Turner Classic Movies’s “Guest Programmer Month”. All through the month of November each evening TCM has had a guest programmer select four movies that would be shown that evening. Guest programmers ranged from directors, actors and actresses, to the great mystery writer James Ellroy and opera diva Renee Fleming. Some of the selections have been, well, the usual suspects e.g. Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane. Some of the selections have been intriguingly self-revealing. Tracey Ullman’s selections highlight the difference growing up in the UK might mean to one’s selections. Whoopi Goldberg’s picks were remarkably romantic. Jerry Stiller’s picks suggest an extremely sentimental guy.
Well, what if I were guest programmer? The following picks aren’t necessarily my favorite pictures. Some of them are, some aren’t. But these are the pictures I’d choose if I had the opportunity to be TCM guest programmer for an evening.
The 39 Steps
My favorite picture and the quintessential Hitchcock picture. Hitchcock remade this picture in some sense at least three times over the period of the next 30 years. And look at Kim Novak in Vertigo. She’s dressed up as Grace Kelly dressed up as Madeiline Carroll, the female lead in The 39 Steps. Both fun and influential—it’s been imitated and parodied countless times.
The Searchers
In this picture John Ford returns to a number of the motifs that dominated his work—family loyalty, the loner, Monument Valley. And the long silences. In a real sense John Ford continued to make silent movies for thirty years after silent movies had stopped being made. And John Wayne gives one of his best, most complex portrayals. Probably the best western ever made.
Key Largo
John Huston coaxed great performances from practically every actor and actress in this movie. When people talk about great Bogart movies they usually mention Casablanca or To Have and Have Not or The African Queen or The Big Sleep but I think this one is as good as any of them. What is it about the great, underestimated Claire Trevor? She elevated every picture she was in, giving it a tone of gritty reality. What a performance! An actress who wasn’t afraid to be ugly.
I Walked With a Zombie
For your late night viewing pleasure how about this creepy, atmospheric gem? Besides the atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife it has several other attractions. It’s a great Val Lewton-Jacques Tourneur picture. It features a solid performance by the gorgeous Frances Dee, IMO one of the most beautiful movie actresses ever. And it shows how material can be adapted in weird and wonderful ways—it’s an adaptation of Jane Eyre.
So, if you were guest programmer what would you pick?
Question: Are you restricting yourself just to movies that TCM has in its vaults?
Nah. Whatever you’d want to program.
Four movies, eh?
Well, I’d go for 2001 and all three of the Lord of the Rings movies. The Peter Jackson trilogy is something very rare – a movie or set of movies that actually do justice to a masterwork. I believe that Jackson has been compared to Eisenstein for his battle scenes.
If the LOR trilogy is considered to be one work, then add Alien and Terminator, for the horror and action genres.
Here are four movies that make me happy:
Arsenic and Old Lace
Song of the South
Totoro
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
I’d probably not remain happy after the backlash from showing S.o.S., but I love the music, the animated stories and James Baskett as Uncle Remus. I particularly think its a shame people can’t see Baskett’s Acadamy-award winning performance.
Totoro is a sweet movie.
Hmm, four movies. That’s tough. There are all kinds of genres to choose from, and it would be hard to not load up on one genre: comedies, for example. But here’s a quick stab.
1) “Singin’ in the Rain” – It’s not as thematic as musicals would become (in fact the musical numbers often have little to do with the movie itself), but somehow this movie just hits all the right notes. In particular, Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont is simply incredible!
2) “Victor/Victoria” – Perhaps the best roles for both Julie Andrews and Robert Preston. The two versions of “The Shady Dame from Seville” are both highly entertaining, for completely different reasons. The supporting parts are very well cast (Leslie Ann Warren stands out. I’ve got a thing for ditzy blondes in movies if played well.) And even the bit players are well done (the long suffering waiter, who has the best line in the whole movie, “And it is a moron who gives advice to a horse’s arse.”). Also, some trademark Blake Edwards chaos (The outside shot of the restaurant exploding into chaos is brilliant.) This is my favorite Blake Edwards film.
3) “American Graffiti†– George Lucas’s best movie, without a doubt. There are several interwoven stories, but to me Richard Dreyfus’s character Curt is the central character. Over the course of a night he ends up discovering that the world is a bit more complex than he had thought. The pivotal scene for me is the meeting with Wolfman Jack. The Wolfman insists that he isn’t the Wolfman at all, and dispenses some good advice. That advice really hits home when Curt discovers that the man he had been talking to WAS the Wolfman. The look on Curt’s face looking back through the glass is perfect. (The movie also gives a brief glimpse of the trauma of the coming Vietnam War. At the end of the movie we discover that Toad died in war, and that Curt became a draft dodger.)
4) “Run Lola, Run!†– The best film of the latter half of the 1990s, in my opinion. A German film that features crime, love, alternate realities, and a girl (Franka Potente) with shocking hair. Bonuses: the all-time greatest movie scream; a funny intro sequence (the security guard talking about soccer), and the bum from Monty Python. (Not really, on that last point. But it may as well be.) Be certain to watch this in the original German. Dubbing can ruin a performance.
Just missing the cut: “Full Metal Jacketâ€, “The Shawshank Redemptionâ€, “Touch of Evilâ€, “Aliensâ€, “Die Hardâ€, “Terminator†& “Terminator IIâ€, and a host of others.
A recommendation from an associate of mine, Jeffrey Sweet:
Tonight, there’s a rare showing of one of my favorite lesser-known movies — THE WRONG BOX. Amazing cast — Ralph Richardson, John Mills, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Nanette Newman, Tony Hancock, Wilfrid Lawson and Peter Sellers in two scenes in which virtually every line and move is a laugh.
The script is by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, their only other collaboration (I believe) after A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. It does for Victorian England what FORUM did for Rome. It is filled with memorable quotes. (Michael Caine is asked why he is training to be a doctor: “Grandfather says that if one cannot join the ruling classes, one must do one’s best to deplete them.”)
Cook and Moore were used effectively in only a handful of films (most notably BEDAZZLED), but, though they did no writing on this picture, their performances here show them at their most disciplined. They are a pair of villainous cousins determined to do whatever is necessary to get their hands on their adopted uncle’s fortune. A very, very funny movie.
TCM, 11:45, tonight.