TCM Schedule for Tuesday, October 28th: Billy Wilder in the 50s

[CBHagman]

Good stuff, even in the middle of the night!



Tuesday, October 28th, 2008.

12:00 AM Vigil In The Night (1940)
A good nurse ruins her career by covering up for her sister's careless mistake. Cast: Carole Lombard, Anne Shirley, Brian Aherne. Dir: George Stevens. BW-96 mins, TV-PG

1:45 AM In Name Only (1939)
A wealthy man falls for a widow but can't get his wife to divorce him. Cast: Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Kay Francis. Dir: John Cromwell. BW-95 mins, TV-G, CC

3:30 AM They All Kissed the Bride (1942)
A woman running a trucking company falls for the reporter out to expose her business practices. Cast: Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Roland Young. Dir: Alexander Hall. BW-87 mins, TV-PG

5:00 AM Street of Women (1932)
A property developer is torn between his wife and his mistress. Cast: Kay Francis, Roland Young, Alan Dinehart. Dir: Archie Mayo. BW-59 mins, TV-G

6:00 AM Matchmaker, The (1958)
A matchmaker falls for the man she is supposed to help find a wife. Cast: Shirley Booth, Shirley MacLaine, Anthony Perkins. Dir: Joseph Anthony. BW-101 mins, TV-G, CC

I doubt I need to tell DUers that this was eventually made into a musical called Hello, Dolly! But did you know Thornton Wilder based his play on a Viennese farce named Einen Jux will er sich machen, which had been based on an earlier work by, I believe, John Gay? And that Tom Stoppard adapted the story yet again, this time as On the Razzle?

7:46 AM Short Film: Incredible Stranger, The (1942)
In 1893, a reclusive stranger from Chicago moves to a small town. His withdrawn and unfriendly behavior perplexes even the most vigilant members of the community, until one day they stumble upon the truth. BW-12 mins,

8:00 AM Desperate Hours, The (1955)
Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they're holding hostage. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Arthur Kennedy. Dir: William Wyler. BW-113 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format



10:00 AM Summer And Smoke (1961)
A small-town spinster's repressed love for the local rebel spells danger. Cast: Geraldine Page, Laurence Harvey, Una Merkel. Dir: Peter Glenville. C-118 mins, TV-PG, CC

12:03 PM Short Film: Dr. Zhivago: Behind The Camera With David Lean (1965) A behind the scenes look with legendary director David Lean showcasing the development and filming of "Dr. Zhivago" (1965). C-10 mins,

12:15 PM Boeing Boeing (1965)
A playboy uses airline schedules to maintain "exclusive" relationships with three flight attendants at the same time. Cast: Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Thelma Ritter. Dir: John Rich. C-103 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Recently revived on Broadway in a critically acclaimed (and apparently hilarious) production starring Bradley Whitford, Mark Rylance, and Christine Baranski.

2:00 PM Penelope (1966)
A neglected wife turns to bank robbery to get her husband's attention. Cast: Natalie Wood, Dick Shawn, Peter Falk. Dir: Arthur Hiller. C-98 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

3:39 PM Short Film: Penelope Featurette (1966)
C-4 mins,

3:45 PM Family Plot (1976)
A phony psychic takes on a pair of kidnappers. Cast: Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, Karen Black. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-120 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

5:57 PM Short Film: Garbo Festival (2000)
BW-3 mins,

6:00 PM MGM Parade Show #11 (1955)
Judy Garland and Gene Kelly perform in a clip from "For Me and My Gal"; Susan Hayward introduces a clip from "I'll Cry Tomorrow." Hosted by George Murphy. BW-26 mins, TV-G

6:27 PM Short Film: Who'S Superstitious? (1943)
BW-10 mins,

6:45 PM Billy Wilder Speaks (2006)
TCM original documentary on prolific director, writer and producer Billy Wilder. BW-71 mins, TV-MA, CC

What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: BILLY WILDER IN THE 50'S

8:00 PM Sunset Boulevard (1950)
A failed screenwriter falls into a mercenary romance with a faded silent-film star. Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-110 mins, TV-PG, CC

10:00 PM Ace In the Hole (1951)
A small-town reporter milks a local disaster to get back into the big time. Cast: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-111 mins, TV-14, CC

12:00 AM Sabrina (1954)
Two wealthy brothers fall for the chauffeur's daughter. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-114 mins, TV-G, CC



2:00 AM Witness For The Prosecution (1957)
A British lawyer gets caught up in a couple's tangled marital affairs when he defends the husband for murder. Cast: Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-116 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format



4:00 AM Some Like It Hot (1959)
Two musicians on the run from gangsters masquerade as members of an all-girl band. Cast: Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-121 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

[Hidden Stillness]

1. "Sunset Boulevard"

This, if anybody on this forum doesn't know it, is an astonishing movie, one of the greatest. It is brilliantly written and acted, a great cast, very smart, funny, bitter dialogue, memorable scenes, a shocking ending. It is a real insider's knowledge of Hollywood, the way studios are (were) constructed, the different levels of career prople, and where they hang out (Schwab's, etc.). Not only a devastating portrait of forgotten stars, and mental illness--Gloria Swanson brilliantly playing it--but fabulous, real-Hollywood sets, "on location." This is also one of the best movies ever done on the life of a writer, how generally poor and desperate they are--the repossessed car starts the whole series of events--how hard it is to think of new material, all the pressure that people at the studio feel, to make a hit, how everything just rolls on and on, to the next project, and how people like Norma Desmond, once so famous, are left behind and crushed by it all. The lavishness of the '20s lifestyle, compared with the modern late '40s-early '50s simplicity and casualness; the cut-off, fearful Norma Desmond mansion, compared with the happier, fast-moving current world.

Of course, you keep telling the writer, in your own mind, to get the hell out of there, but then discover eventually, that the writer has nowhere else to go, needs money, has no prospects, and is not that moral or innocent either. This movie, like "Stalag 17," reminds you of why William Holden was so great, too; Holden really acts like a writer, with a kind or introversion, and sharp wit, like a real thinker-with-words. (I think originally it was supposed to be Montgomery Clift as the writer; that would have made it a very different kind of effect--not a kind of sleazy exploiter, as Holden, but somebody who would have seemed almost as fragile and neurotic as Norma Desmond, but differently.) As the movie goes on, at the scene where they go to Paramount, thinking it is about her awful script, there is a wonderful, touching scene, where the workers there, remember her from 25 or so years earlier, and greet her again; she was a great star. It is very moving; she is not just "nuts." Of course, she is disturbed.

This movie, being from 1950, would have been referring to a decade, the '20s, that was still within living memory of most of the audience--not like the otherworldly distance it seems now, even the 1950s seem now. It would have been like clinging to 1985 or so, God help us. This is a grim, but witty, creepy, very atmospheric story, with fabulous interior and exterior sets, and powerful characters. Several old Hollywood stars did end up something like this, although later interpretations would have called it Alzheimer's, etc., and I have heard, and believe it, that Wilder, who co-wrote the script, actually had a lot of sympathy for the glamorous old stars of the '20s and felt sympathy for their perspective. It is an asonishing story, very rich and detailed, as the relationship progresses, to its crisis, the way the writer is actually no kinder to her than the rest of Hollywood, and yet she cannot be made to belong to the current world, she can't face it--brilliant.

You can recognize people like Buster Keaton, the brilliant physical comedian, at the poker table during the scene at the house, who was actually forgotten and suffering much of this failure to keep up with the modern world, at the time. So much about this great movie is so haunting--including the fact that the "modern" 1950 setting is itself the distant past now. A stunning movie, one of the all-time greats!

[CBHagman]

2. I picked it up in progress.

I've been meaning to watch it for years but have always had some excuse for missing it -- such as timing or the feeling that it would be devastating to take! And the plot points are floating around in the ether anyway, given the famous quotations and of course Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of some years back. Hell, even the Canadian group Blue Rodeo recorded a song, "Floating," that employs a particularly memorable image from the film.

Anyway, I'm glad I saw it, and must make sure I watch it from beginning to end. That ontgomery Clift was set to play the lead is a jaw-dropping bit of information. I'm actually glad he dropped out, because Holden certainly nailed the essence of the character and the film.

It all does make me wonder what it would have been like to wander around in Billy Wilder's psyche, all that cynicism and despair and laughter.