TCM Look-Ahead - May 29
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.
Sunday, May 31
01:30 p.m. PST The Seventh Victim. (1943) Much-adored cult thriller from the producer Val Lewton. Kim Hunter, in her film debut, goes searching for her missing sister in the mysterious big city. Shocking, given the year of its release, in its not very-veiled-homosexual and occult themes, but with the usual subtlety and genuine weirdness we associate with Lewton pictures.
04:45 p.m. PST Detour. (1945) Quintessential "Poverty Row" noir from the resourceful and deeply talented auteur Edgar G. Ulmer. Poor sap (the one-of-a-kind Tom Neal) finds himself inextricably drawn to a nutcase blonde (played by the wonderfully named Ann Savage). Pulp Sartre, sweat-soaked and jaw-dropping.
Monday, June 1
Andy Griffith day on TCM!
03:45 p.m. PST A Face in the Crowd. (1957) While the story stretches credulity (an odious, borderline demonic radio personality becomes a bigger-than-life political mover and shaker, which could never happen today), Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes is a ferocious force of nature, in Budd Schulberg's brilliant script. Elia Kazan directs this with all the subtlety of a Joe Louis right cross (complimentary). While the attention is on Rhodes' inexplicable rise, the film never stops pointing the finger back at a gullible nation, looking for a hero but finding only contempt and grift. In other words, maybe not the easiest watch right now. If you only know Griffith from Mayberry and Matlock, you are in for a shock.
06:00 p.m. PST Hearts of the West. (1975) Kind-hearted and elegiac, this underrated film from the American new wave stars Jeff Bridges (who was basically in every worthwhile movie in the 70s) as a gullible dime-store western novel writer who gets drawn into the movie business , and the influences upon him of a (yes, here we go again) feckless movie veteran (Griffith). Blythe Danner and Alan Arkin are great in support. From the underrated comic auteur Howard Zieff.
Tuesday, June 2
06:00 a.m. PST Moby Dick. (1930) I did not know this existed, to be honest, but am fascinated to give it a view if only for the chance to see John Barrymore chew scenery as Ahab. This is a rare one, but it might not be any good at all.
10:15 p.m. PST The Big Sleep. (1946) Howard Hawks' confounding, seminal adaptation of the Raymond Chandler Marlowe book. Bogart, Bacall and the scene stealing, bespectacled librarian Dorothy Malone round out a cast that is clearly having the times of their lives. Not even the film's main participants knew what the hell was going on in the plot, but this does not deter from the deep pleasure of sitting back and watching a master at play.
Wednesday, June 3
04:00 a.m. PST Grey Gardens. (1975) The Maysles' Brother classic, cringey documentary about the private lives of Kennedy relatives as they putter around their massive Long Island mansion and drive each other, and the viewer, crazy. Much more sympathetic than I am making it sound. A must-see.
Friday, June 5
12:30 a.m. PSST Leadbelly. (1976) From the great Gordon Parks, a musical biopic that is not the hagiography or romanticization we have come to expect from contemporary examples of that regrettable genre. This intimate epic concerns the early life of the great bluesman Huddie Leadbetter, culminating in a prison spell where meets the blues archivist Lomax brothers, allowing a legend to be born. Uplifting but not treacly, simply the best film of its kind. Roger E. Mosley, likely best known for his supporting role in Magnum P.I., gives a towering performance of such authenticity one can only regret that he is likely best known for Magnum P.I.
