TCM Look-Ahead - June 12
A weekly feature here on Big Heads that looks forward to the week ahead on the mighty Turner Classic Movies. For your viewing and recording pleasure.
Friday, June 12
08:00 p.m. PST Scarlet Street. (1945) Perhaps the perfect noir? All the elements are there. Eddie Robinson as the on-the-nose-monikered Criss Cross, a hapless, mediocre painter (a cashier by trade – that's going to be important, natch), who falls for femme fatale Joan Bennett, and her helmet of raven hair and endless supply of coffin nails, and the inevitable Dan Duryea, swaggering around with Big Dick Energy. And, most importantly of all, Fritz Lang entrapping his characters with his mise-en-scene, a box from which there is no escape.
Saturday, June 13
Midnight PST Nightmare Alley. (1947) Inexhaustibly bleak carnival-set classic, with Tyrone Power cast severely against type and having a ball as a drifter/grifter, obsessed with the Circus Geek until he inevitably becomes one. Often shown in a double feature with Todd Browning's Freaks, which is almost uplifting in comparison. Remade, rather well, with Bradley Cooper in the Power role, by Guillermo del Toro in 2021.
02:00 a.m. PST The Yakuza. (1974) The great Robert Mitchum gave a series of sad, soulful, exhausted performances of flawed men in his late period (Ryan's Daughter, The Friends of Eddie Coyle). Here was a movie star that never particularly cared about looking suave or unassailable and he really leaned into it in his later years. Here he is Harry Kilmer (perfect Mitchum name) who helps his friend (Brian Keith) track down his daughter, who has been kidnapped by the Japanese mafia, aka The Yakuza. Richard Jordan and his ironically delivered line "have a nice day" is scene-stealing support. Directed ably by Sydney Pollack and co-written by the Schrader brothers (Paul and Leonard, with a bit of doctoring by Robert Towne), who received an unprecedent amount for their spec script.
02:00 p.m. PST House of Wax. (1953) An early foray into 3-D, but don't worry, even without the effect it is still a pretty effective and creepy Vincent Price vehicle directed by the great Andre de Toth. Price's wax sculptor opens up a new museum at around the same time citizens of the town start to go missing. What on earth could be going on there?
Sunday, June 14
12:00 p.m. PST Twentieth Century. (1934) Regular readers no I bow to no man in my love for Carole Lombard. Here is one of her best, and she is matched by John Barrymore in his late great performance before degenerate alcoholism took its toll. Lombard plays Broadway star Lily Garland, who finds herself aboard the titular train with Oscar Jaffe, a former giant of the great white way who discovered her but has fallen on some bad luck. He tries to lure her back, as much to buoy his faltering career than through some romantic longings, but she proves to be more than his match. In case it isn't entirely obvious from frame one, directed by Howard Hawks. And trains!
Monday, June 15
02:00 a.m. PST Ariel. (1988) What a delightful surprise to see TCM programming one of the important early films of the Finnish master Aki Kaurismaki. Long ago A.K. was an art-house hero. He is still cooking – 2023's Fallen Leaves was one of the best films of its year, but he never broke in a Yorgos Lanthimos kind of way. Probably just as well.
03:30 a.m. PST Cesar. (1936) It's a bit odd having the third in Marcel Pagnol's "Fanny Trilogy" showing stand alone, I am not sure how it will play if you have not seen the first two of the trilogy, Marius and Fanny, but any chance to see any of these masterpieces is welcome. This is the only of the three that was actually helmed by the author himself.
Tuesday, June 16
03:30 a.m. PST The Crowd. (1928) King Vidor's silent masterpiece concerns how the big city can ensnare, entrap and, ultimately, devour you. The lead actor, James Murray, is himself a tragic figure, seeming to be poised for stardom, who barely worked again and died young from alcoholism. The movie itself does offer a ray of hope despite what my description may indicate.
Wednesday, June 17
Wednesday spanning into Thursday TCM presents a festival of classic Disaster Films, and all the titles you would expect are there! I cannot recommend any of them (despite the fact that, like many my age, I thought the The Towering Inferno was the greatest film ever made at the time). But if they and their unintentional comedy are your jam, have at it. Also...
Midnight PST The World of Henry Orient. (1964) Beguiling comedy about obsessive fandom, played for laughs and sighs. Peter Sellers, in an atypically non-showy performance (made the same year as his tour de force in Dr. Strangelove), is an ego-maniac concert pianist whose efforts to woo the scrumptious Paula Prentiss (such a gifted comedienne!) is interrupted by the machinations of two young super-fans. The versatile George Roy Hill helms.
Thursday, June 18
02:45 p.m PST Spider Baby. (1967) ("or, the maddest film ever made") Bat shit cult film from the great Jack Hill. Lon Chaney Jr., who must have wondered what he had done to deserve this, is a family chauffer who has to cover up the mis-deeds of the mentally-challenged kids in his charge. The opening credits, with its rudimentary animation and whacked-out theme "sung" by Chaney, is worth smashing that record button alone.
Friday, June 19
A series of Hitchcock classics from early (British) and late (American) periods. Hardly needs me to recommend them but, if you must be choosy, don't miss the spiritual cousins The Lady Vanishes (at 11:15 a.m. PST) and North by Northwest (at 1:00 p.m. PST). More trains!
