TCM Look-Ahead - May 8
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, May 8
09:30 p.m. PST Duel in the Sun. King Vidor's whacked-out western is, despite its bouts of silliness and litany of racial stereotypes, actually a fairly effective meditation on class, race and white privilege. Joseph Cotten is the "good" son of Walter Huston's ranch-owner, Gregory Peck the "bad" son. Jennifer Jones is Pearl Chavez, a Mexican worker who is torn between them. But there really is no contest, as Peck, cast against type, exudes sexuality, despite being an absolute shit. Jones is a bit of a liability as an actress – she was largely the reason the film was every conceived and made as she was married to the film's producer, David O. Selznick. But she gives it her all, and her agony in the amazing final shootout in the desert is deeply felt.
Saturday, May 9
09:45 p.m. PST Salvatore Giuliano. Francisco Rosi's narratively ambitious epic about the infamous Sicilian bandit. As the story moves to and from from the past to the present, it becomes clear that his assassination is not a clear-cut case of good versus evil. As always with Rosi the politics are more important than the story, but this is a riveting crime thriller nonetheless. You can certainly see the influence on The Godfather, which Coppola willingly acknowledged.
Monday, May 11
02:30 a.m. PST Pather Panchali
and 04:45 a.m. PST Apajarito
Not sure you need me to recommend the first two films of Satyajit Ray's masterful Apu Trilogy (unclear why TCM is not showing the third, World of Apu), but I find that every time I turn to it I am amazed that they even exists. Young Apu and his family, living in a typical Indian village, struggle to deal with poverty and try to make a better life for themselves. Deeply moving without ever being treacly. Simply, when taken as a hole, one of the greatest accomplishment of movie-making ever. If you must choose one, you should start with Pather Panchali. It stands alone.
Tuesday, May 12
I have always wanted to curate a series of Film Noirs set in Mexico, and TCM is beating me to the punch on May 12. And a dizzying array it is! I will present these in order of recommendation, the last couple on the list films I have not seen and, thus, can not recommend with confidence.
1) 06:15 p.m. PST Out of the Past. Arguably the template for Film Noirs of all kinds, starring the quintessence of poor-sap hero (Robert Mitchum) and cunning Femme Fatale (Jane Greer) . Remade in the 80s and also set in Mexico as Against All Odds, with Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward. Who are not Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer.
2) 06:00 a.m. PST The Breaking Point. Discussed in a previous column. A second film version of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. Now is your chance to redeem yourself for not listening to me.
3) 04:00 p.m. PST His Kind of Woman. This was a recommendation from a previous column. Now is your chance to redeem yourself for not listening to me.
4) 12:00 p.m. PST The Hitch-Hiker. Ida Lupino's taut thriller uses the claustrophobia of a car ride to Mexico to great effect.
5) 07:45 a.m. PST Border Incident. Anthony Mann (directing) and Jon Alton (shooting). How can one go wrong? Timely tale about migrant trafficking.
6) 01:15 p.m. PST Jeopardy. Barbara Stanwyck is the incredibly dedicated wife of Barry Sullivan, who uses her wiles to rescue him from kidnapper Ralph Meeker.
7) 10:45 a.m. PST The Big Steal. Don Siegel-directed, Vera Cruz-set, Robert Mitchum-starring. Mitchum plays another in a series of saps who is falsely accused of theft, and travels to the marvelous port town to find the real culprit.
8) 02:30 p.m. PST Second Chance. Mitchum and Greer reunite after the success of Out of the Past. Have not seen this one, but directed by Robert Wise in his heyday, so check it out.
9) 09:30 a.m. PST Mystery in Mexico. Another one I have no knowledge of, which makes it all the more interesting. Also helmed by Robert Wise, with a zero star cast.
Aaaaaand, that wraps that up (but don't miss the 5 (five!) Ozu classics that follow up this fantastic festival).
Wednesday, May 13
04:30 p.m. PST Ride the High Country. Sam Peckinpah's early, elegiac modern Western, stars icons Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea as friends who may not actually be friends. This is the film that put Bloody Sam on the map after languishing in t.v. early in his career.
Thursday, May 14
09:15 a.m. PST While the City Sleeps. Late American-career Fritz Lang concerning newspaper men who go to all ends to catch "The Lipstick Killer." An interesting companion to Lang's German serial killer classic M.
12:30 p.m. PST Badlands. Another one that probably doesn't need my recommendation, but in case you have not seen Terence Malick's gorgeous, moving masterpiece, a retelling of the Charles Starkweather story starring an electric Martin Sheen and a heartbreaking Sissy Spacek, get on it! One of the twenty greatest American movies ever made.
Friday, May 15
Midnight, PST. Gumshoe. Albert Finney in Stephen Frears knowing, darkly funny private eye homage/spoof.
01:45 a.m. PST The Last of Sheila. A film that was that has grown in renown over the years, a truly diabolical whodunit with a cast of 70s icons like James Coburn, Raquel Welch and Richard Benjamin, about the murder of a movie producer on a boat and the unveiling of the killer. A direct inspiration for Rian Johnson's Knives Out mysteries, and, in many ways, superior.
Okay, if you don't have your DVR set for this week on TCM, what are we even doing here?
