My favorite Doris Day flick... Love Me or Leave Me (1955, Charles Vidor) expires March 28th It's based on the real life relationship between Chicago gangster, Martin "Mo The Gimp" Snyder, and his singer/protégé , Ruth Etting. Day plays against type as a tough siren opposite Cagney, who reprises his gangster portrayal beginnings. Though the film features several flashy musical production numbers it's essentially a drama. To me, Day was never better. Cagney got an Oscar nod. The film got several more. Here's a taste of the real Ruth Etting in an early sound reel: "Hey, little girl; I noticed you've been sitting there for an hour without dancing. But I'm going home now. Here's your ticket for parking." WatchTCM website is back up and streaming everything listed - for now.
Marnie (1964, Alfred Hitchcock) expires March 28th Someone in the doc above put it succinctly (I believe), "If you love movies, you love Marnie". Hitch is his usual old paranoiac, fearful self but when he narrows the point-of-view of all the neurosis through a singular character he's able to raise his game to another level. I think this separates his general suspense flicks like Notorious, Lifeboat or Rope from The Birds, Vertigo, North By Northwest and, of course, Marnie. Also, the specter of the frightening, strong-willed, full-of-sex-secrets, eccentric, old hag of a mother who ruins their children is another Hitch trope that works well in Marnie. She's just a ghost in Psycho, but a full-fledged character here.
Swing Time (1936, George Stevens) expires March 26th I just discovered that this one was picked up by Criterion. And, no, it isn't streaming on their channel.
Wish I could say otherwise but Swing Time, after all the hype I'd heard and read, was very disappointing. Considering the actual music and dance material included the whole thing might have been cut to a half hour. Might try and do that some time. The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed) expires March 28th The 4K restoration is supposed to be stunning. I don't believe its what's streaming on WatchTCM (the hard copy is hard to find, evidently). The doc on the original novel writer, Graham Greene, Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene, makes for a nice intro/supplement to the Reed film.
The Heiress (1949, William Wyler) expires April 5h I wonder if Wyler ever made a bad picture. The Wyler episode of American Masters (above) is a nice accompaniment to the classic story of an insecure debutante who gets jilted by a fortune hunter.
We just watched Revolt in the Big House (1958), which like every movie he's in is worth watching for Timothy Carey if nothing else.
GREENSTREET & LORRE The name combination has a law firm ring to it. Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre appeared in 9 films together, most of which are currently streaming for roughly a month on WatchTCM (The Maltese Falcon (posted above) is one of the titles not streaming) - The Maltese Falcon (1941) Casablanca (1942) Background to Danger (1943) Passage to Marseille (1944) The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) The Conspirators (1944) Hollywood Canteen (1944) Three Strangers (1946) The Verdict (1946) Always love seeing TCM runs like this one. Got a favorite film with the combo? Recommendation? I'm not sure if the two were even friends but one would assume so given the number of movies they did together within a 6 year period. Having only watched Casablanca I'm looking forward to viewing the rest over the next month.
You could call his role in "Bayou" (aka "Poor White Trash") a leading role. And then there's "The World's Greatest Sinner"....
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, John Houston) Starting in a few minutes on TCM (2:45 PM EST). I've never seen it, though I'm a big admirer of Houston. Hopefully it'll be added to WatchTCM. There's a "making of" Sierra Madre that might be an interesting supplement.
Treasure’s running for a month (expires April 26th) I knew this would be good but not quite this good. The making of doc (above) is a nice supplement to the film but, in this instance, the movie’s the thing. The most novel aspect of it is the casting of Humphrey Bogart against type. I won’t spoil the plot but I think, as far as the film is concerned, anyway (haven’t read the B. Traven novel), Bogie’s character is involved in Houston’s point-of-view problem. That is, since Bogart gets top billing audiences go in assuming, not necessary that he’s the hero, but that our point-of-view is his. Now, this was 1946, post-War II in America and we’re introduced to a character begging on the streets of Mexico with “Help out a fellow American?” entreaties. He even approaches the same passerby (in a funny John Houston cameo) twice with the same line. He then has the nerve to tell a kid hustling for pennies, “Quit begging!” Right off the bat we’re presented with sympathizing with Bogie’s predicament but definitely not his unsavory character. It’s a strange place to be. Houston not only increases this tension as the film proceeds but (and I won’t say how) jettisons the Bogie/audience point-of-view altogether! Very few directors had the guts to do this in the Hollywood of that era. Few do now.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935, Frank Lloyd) expires April 5th Just a few days left to watch this one. I've seen the 1962 (Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard) and 1984 (Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins) versions, the latter of which is supposed to be the more accurate account of what happened with the 1789 mutiny on the British Royal Navy ship than the earlier two. Never watched this until now. Looking forward to it.
A truly great film....totally uncompromising and pitiless. Speaking of small parts- the kid who sells the ticket to Bogart is little Robert Blake. Ironically, in his starring role in "In Cold Blood", Blake's character Perry mentions "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" several times, as part of his wish to go to Mexico and pan for gold
Probably one of my least favorite Hitchcock films - which means that I've only seen it about 5 times as opposed to the 20 or more times I've watched "Psycho" and "The Birds" and "Vertigo" and "North by Northwest" and "Strangers on a Train"
Ha. Like most buffs I feel the same way about particular Hitchcock pictures. I will give WatchTCM credit for almost always having some Hitch flick available to stream. Vertigo is the latest add. Might give that a go tonight. Not a Kim Novak fan, especially, so I'm generally looking everywhere else for those distinctive Hitch touches. The Bernard Herrmann score is unforgettable. And who hasn't ever had a ridiculous obsession?
Agnes of God (1985, Norman Jewison) expires April 8th This one intrigues me because of the (mostly) adversarial relationship between Anne Bancroft and Jane Fonda. Fonda plays an investigator put on a case where a nun is discovered with a dead baby. Bancroft plays the Mother Superior who tries to protect the nun from interlopers out to exploit the case for their own ends. Meg Tilly is great as the naive-savant nun, seemingly oblivious to all the tumult around her. The John Pielmeier script, based on his play, is solid. But I think it's the atmosphere that Jewison creates which brings me back to it again whenever I see it playing. Perhaps because he's Canadian and the film is set in Canada. Beyond that though, he obviously has a certain way with actors which has brought out some of the best film performances in the history of American movies. The extended DP/30 interview above is a bit meandering but it covers all of the films he directed in his long career.
CAROL (2015, Todd Haynes) expires April 10th New to me. Never read the Patricia Highsmith novel, The Price of Salt, on which the film is based. In the above conversation playwright, Phyllis Nagy, talks about adapting it. The film's a WatchTCM premier.
Five Easy Pieces (1970, Bob Rafelson) expires April 13th One of Nicholson's best, imo. It's essentially about a drifter who eventually attempts to reconcile himself with his past. Interesting review above.
On the Gs now I'm going backward til I find an Oscar winner that I find intriguing. Five Easy Pieces was good to again (tried to figure out what was supposed to be the fifth easy classical piece that was never played). The Egg and I (1947, Chester Erskine) looks amusing: City executive and wife decide to retire to the country and raise chickens. Claudette Gilbert's in it so it can't be all bad!
The Birds (1963, Alfred Hitchcock) expires April 16th My favorite Hitchcock. Who else would have such an amusing nightmare?
Yes. The World's Greatest Sinner. Interestingly (and aptly?) his first role was that of a corpse in a 1951 Clark Gable western.
Great film selection and turnover, great transfers, but absolutely one of the worst apps ever. No search function by title or person. Until recently, there were discrepancies between the titles that appeared on the desktop and the iPad versions. The desktop app used to work on my new Mac, but now only works on machines with an M1 chip (why, oh why?). The iPad app is so crowded, with no "blank area," so that it's hard, if not impossible, to scroll through the title icons without accidentally hitting a title to "play." Sometimes new titles cannot be played for a few days. It's very unstable when using AirPlay (well, so are most apps, but still....)
All true. We went over this a couple of pages back. My solution to the desktop problem was to download an emulator (BlueStacks) for Windows, download the app through the emulator and watch that way. I've had no problem with playback since (even on recent additions). But, YES, the search function is non-existent. I think deliberately so.
Inherit The Wind (1960, Stanley Kramer) expires April April 25th Loosely based on the famous trial formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial in July 1925, this WachTCM addition is one of the April Oscar features. The film dramtizes the legalcase where a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. First time viewing for me. The documentary above (though in poor visual shape) effectively provides background for the film.
