On Turner Classic Movies there’s a regular feature hosted by Robert Osborne: the Guest Programmer of the Month. On this feature they select a celebrity guest programmer and the guest selects four movies which are shown back-to-back in one evening with commentary by the guest programmer and Mr. Osborne.
The feature was on last night on TCM. I didn’t catch the name of the “celebrity”. I gather he was an up-and-coming Broadway musical comedy star. The pictures he selected were Sunset Blvd., Mr. Skeffington, A Woman’s Face, and Meet Me in St. Louis. Well, that’s certainly the “Diva Sampler” (Gloria Swanson, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Judy Garland). They’re all great pictures (and some great roles for actresses). With the exception of A Woman’s Face I’d say those pictures are over-programmed, if anything.
My wife and I began discussing the pictures we’d select if we were guest programmers. There are several different strategies one could use. There’s the obvious “Favorite Pictures” strategy. Like good American kids we could use the “Expected Answer” strategy which seems to be the preferred strategy for most guest programmers. I’m not that big a fan of Citizen Kane. A “Guilty Pleasures” strategy would be interesting and would be sure to come up with some interesting selections.
But the strategy I argued for was a “Needs More Attention” strategy. In this strategy you select great pictures that more people should see but, for some reason or other, are rarely to be found. And, amazingly, when we agreed on this strategy my wife and I rapidly selected four pictures—one each from the 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s—that we immediately agreed we’d program.
The Shock
This is a rarely-seen Lon Chaney silent. This is neither the horror-makeup Chaney nor the Grand Guignol Chaney of The Unknown. This is the naturalistic Chaney demonstrating that he was one of the greatest movie actors who’ve ever lived through his unique ability to portray outcasts and defective people with tremendous honesty, sympathy, and humanity.
Fury
This Fritz Lang classic is a story of mistake, injustice, and revenge with Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney, two of the grittiest and most honest actors of the 1930’s.
Keeper of the Flame
Why isn’t this Tracy/Hepburn picture shown more often? It should be required viewing. The widow of a beloved political figure slowly learns the truth about her husband. This is a movie that looks at the fascist takeovers in Europe, asks “Could it happen here?”, and decides “Yes, it could”.
Full of Life
Second generation immigrant Richard Conte and his wife, played by the incomparable Judy Holliday, move to the suburbs and are shocked to find the house they’ve moved into is a rundown dump. The solution: get Conte’s immigrant father, a stonemason, to fix the problems. Papa is Old World and his ideas about practically everything disagree violently with his son’s. This is a charming picture that interweaves themes of family, conflict, and self-discovery. It’s also the story of the millions of GI’s who returned from World War II and moved to the suburbs. I just don’t know why this picture isn’t programmed more frequently. Don’t miss the fabulous performance by opera star Salvatore Baccaloni as Papa Rocco.
Best regards from NY!