Wanna See Some Great Movies?

For the month of February, Turner Classic Movies puts together perhaps one of the best themed film marathons, in my personal opinion. From February 1st until March 3rd, they put on their 31 Days of Oscar Marathon, saluting some of the most award-winning films, actors, and directors to grace the silver screen.

Rather than dividing the films up into Oscar category, such as Best Director or Best Cinematographer, TCM has come up with a more creative approach. The films are divided into themed or genre segments. For example, the segemnt called "The Southwestern United States" features the films Tulsa, Oklahoma!, and Cimarron. Each day is divided up into "departments", like a college, and the various departments have name like "The Education Department", "The Law Department", and "The Philosophy Department" and each "department" is subdivided from there.

For example, "The Foriegn Language" Department features segments entitled "Introduction to Italian" and "Intermediate French", including foriegn movies like The Four Days of Naples and Mr. Hulot's Holiday whereas the "Dance Department" features segements like "Advanced Tap" and "Introduction to Choreography", featuring various musical and dance films like Royal Wedding and 42nd Street. I'm not sure if this schedule will be better than the old standby, but it may help group together movies that will attract viewers with common interests in all of them.

For more information about what to expect with this year's 31 Days of Oscar, you can read this article twitchfilm.com did with Robert Osborne, who will be emceeing the majority of the event. Monstersandcritics.com has more on the set up of the marathon along with a schedule that will be more easy to access than downloading the pdf schedule from the TCM website. For those of you interested, here is TCM's press release about the event.

So, crack open those schedules and cancel all your plans for the rest of the month because some great films are coming to a television near you!

Mother/Daughter Murder Mystery

A great film noir, the story of Mildred Pierce has everything from romance, intrigue, betrayal, and a family with scores to settle. Based on a novel of the same name by James M. Cain, the drama unfolds over a course of four years and is almost a deadly soap opera in movie form.

The film starts showing Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford ) talking to police about the murder of her husband. It then flashbacks to her life as an unhappy housewife, raising her two daughters Veda (Ann Blyth ) and Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe ) with her unemployed husband Bert (Bruce Bennett ). When Mildred discovers Bert is having an affair with Maggie Biederhof (Lee Patrick ), she divorces him and keeps custody of the two girls. Her eldest daughter, Veda, complains about how they now do not have the financial security her father once provided and Mildred works as a waitress. Veda discovers this and after telling her mother waitressing is beneath her, Mildred opens up a small restaurant. As her restaurant empire grows, real estate agent Wally Fay (Jack Carson ) gives her advice and makes unsuccessful attempts for her affects. Wally introduces her to Monte Baragon (Zachary Scott ) who sells her property help the restaurant chain grow.

Kay, Mildred's sweet daughter, dies of pneumonia, leaving her crushed. Meanwhile, Veda pretends to be having the baby of wealthy Ted Forrester to extort money out of him. Mildred tears up the check and after a fight with Veda, the girl runs off to be a singer in a nightclub. Veda will only return to her mother if Mildred can give her life in the absolute lap of luxury so Mildred marries Monte in exchange for handing over a third of her businesses to him. Monte sells the third of Mildred's business, leaving her bankrupt and it becomes apparent to Mildred that her daughter has seduced her husband. When Mildred confronts Monte and Veda at his beach house, a shot is fired, but who is the killer?

Butterfly McQueen and Eve Arden both appear in the film, adding to the stellar cast. Shirley Temple was one of the actresses considered for the part of Veda Pierce Forrester and the part of Mildred Pierce was offered to Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell and Barbara Stanwyck before given to Joan Crawford. She won the Academy Award for her performance in this film. You can read more about the film itself using this reference guide from filmreference.com, here at filmsite.org, or this article from a website devoted to Joan Crawford.

There are several different reviews of this film, but as with Witness for the Prosecution , I wouldn't read them until after watching the film because they may contain spoilers. There is a great article on the film written by Slate magazine. Other reviews can be read here, thanks to classicmoviefavorites, and here from moviezeal.com. A few other opinions on the film come from The Film Noir Net and the Movie Setal Blogspot. All in all, Mildred Pierce is a great noir film with tons of supsense, thrill, and a whodunnit that will keep you guessing.

"There are spirits everywhere..."

Perhaps the first horror film ever made, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari or as it was originally titled in German Das Gabinet des Dr. Caligari, came to the screen in 1920 as a German Expressionist film directed by Robert Weine. Thanks again to public domain, you can watch a wonderful version of the film here.

The film is one any film student should watch and I also recommend it for those of you out there who are artists. The techniques used in the film are a little trippy and surreal at times. Expressionism, which was very prominent in Germany, was about distorting reality to create emotional turmoil. Other expressionist works include artist such as El Greco and Edvard Munch's famous and oft-stolen painting "The Scream", two of the German films I blogged about earlier The Golem as well as Nosferatu, the music of George Gershwin and Igor Stravinsky, as well as the literary works of August Strindberg, Franz Kafka, and Eugene O'Neill. Though you don't have to be a student of art or film to enjoy this movie, there are definite aspects of the movie art and film lovers would see before the rest of us.

The plot is somewhat elusive since the film is Expressionist, and all. The main character Francis (Friedrich Feher) tells a story about his friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowki) and Francis’s fiancée Jane (Lil Dagover). Alan and Francis go to a fair where they meet the strange Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) who shows his future-predicting sleepwalker Cesare (Conrad Veidt) to them. Cesare tells Alan he has until dawn to live and it comes to pass that Alan is murdered the next day. Cesare is the prime suspect and abducts Jane. Turns out, Dr. Caligari has been using Cesare to help him commit murders while sleepwalking for a period of time. Cesare runs away from those pursuing him, dying of exhaustion. After Cesare has died, they find Dr. Caligari has fled. Francis finds Caligari at a mental asylum. The ending at the asylum provides you with several twists and turns, making you wonder if anything in the film actually happened at all. The film may make you think or may leave you scracthing your head, trying to figure out what it was you just watched. Either outcome, I still think you should watch it.

The technical and artistic effects used in this movie are strange and wonderful, hence their appeal to the art and film lovers out there. The current time is done in strange blueberry hues whereas the flashback is done in dingy brown ones. This is one of the first films to do a “frame story” or flashback premise. The makeup is artistic and creates an image that is sort of a cross between a mime, a goth, Edward Scissorhands, and the guys from KISS. The scenery is extremely artistic and surreal. Most of the sets were made from paper and shadows were painted on the walls. The effects of the film are often citing as influencing film noir. The entire film has a dreamlike, surreal quality to it, which meshes perfectly with the macabre and unforeseen ending twists.

An artical done on the plot and further exploration of the film can be found here, written by the film and movie buffs at Plume-Noir.com. The Plume-Noir article details how this film influenced future German Expressionist film as well as its impact on German films in the 1930s and those made when Hitler came to power. Also, the Moving Picture Blog has done a great study on the film as well, which you can read here. Joe Leydon of this blog probably did a better job of describing the film than I did, so I would highly recommend you checking this out if you want to know more about the film.

"Uh, you folks American citizens...?"

Today Entertainment Weekly did a review for the 50th anniversary of Touch of Evil, a 1958 film with an all-star team behind it. Orson Welles directed and played a part in the film with Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Marlene Dietrich in various roles. One of the last of the Film Noir genre, the controversially made film still remains timeless.

The last film Orson Welles made, he was reluctant to sign on for the project. He was fired during post-production and in his will left instructions on how the film should be edited. The studio ignored his request and Welles's version of the film was not created until a version of it was released in 1998. Monsters and Critics did a good piece on Welles's problems with the film and how the modern version he wanted was finally created.

The story of Touch of Evil is that of Mexican narcotics officer, Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston), having a quickie honeymoon in a border town with his newly wed wife Susie (Janet Leigh), who is an American. Vargas must testify against drug lord Grandi (Akim Tamiroff) , who has all of his goons out to threaten and scare Vargas out of testifying. Soon, Vargas gets too involved in the case, endangering his wife, after a wealthy US developer is killed by a car bomb. Vargas catches a famed US cop (Orson Welles) planting evidence to make a Mexican national responsible for the bombing. The plot gets thicker and Vargas uncovers twisted tales of corruption, lies, deceit, drugs, and that justice and law don't mean the same thing to everyone.

The Chicaco Reader has done a great overview and analysis of the film that you can read here. This film is truly a marvelous one. You can tell from the all-star cast, Welles's direction, and the impact it has had on the culture since. It is amazing that we have had fifty years with this film.

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

Last night during supper, Turner Classic Movies was showing the prototype for all detective films and the birth of the 1940s detective cliché, The Maltese Falcon. This movie is one of my absolute favorites, so naturally I pulled up the TV tray and watched it, eating my soup and grilled cheese. Every time I watch this film, I'm always reminded how good it is and find myself, instead of passively watching a movie, engaged in it to the point its like I'm visiting with an old friend.

Everyone knows the classic story of gritty anti-hero P.I. Sam Spade, launched into a twisted web of lies, thievery, and murder when beautiful Miss Wanderly waltzes into his office. With his partner dead, the police on his tail, a manipulative pathological liar who has her eyes on Sam, and a group of thieves willing to do anything to get their hands on the multi-million dollar artifact known as The Maltese Falcon, Sam more than has his hands full solving the crime. Its dramatic storyline interwoven with twists, turns, romance, and intrigue has made it one of the best movies of all time

Based on 1930 detective novel by Dashiell Hammet, the 1941 film is not only a masterpiece but an important landmark in the history of film. This is the film that introduced Humphrey Bogart as an A-list leading man and hero and gave the legendary John Houston his directorial debut. It also marks the beginning of the celebrated film partnership between Bogart and Houston, arguably one of the greatest director/actor teams in film history. Peter Lorre and Mary Astor also give memorable performances as a sly, scum bag thief and a beautiful, wily damsel out to put the blame on anyone but herself. Historians also regard The Maltese Falcon as the first film in the "Film Noir" genre. The film itself is a cultural icon and through continuing parodies, references, and adaptations is still an important part of film today.

Though the film was nominated for three Academy Awards - best picture, Sydney Greenstreet for best supporting actor, and John Houston best adapted screenplay - it won none of the awards. However, the film has received a considerable amount of honors since then, especially from the American Film Institute. The film came in #31 on AFI's list of 100 Years...100 Movies, #26 on its list of 100 Years...100 Thrills, "the stuff that dreams are made of" quote from the Tempest spoken by Bogart in the film came in at #14 on the list of top movie quotes, was #6 on AFI's list of top mystery films, and Bogart came in #1 on the list of top male actors. In 1989, the film was selected by the National Film Registry for preservation in the first year of voting.

Modertimes.com has done a great rehashing of the film, focusing on criticism and giving an in depth look into all aspects of the film, from the characters, to the filmography, and a scene by scene analysis of the film. Filmsite.org also does a great review of the film along with fun facts about it and explanations of scenes that might be confusing to those who have not seen the film as many times as us more religious viewers of it.

Overall, The Maltese Falcon is an extremely enjoyable film experience. I recommend anyone who hasn't see it to go out and watch it and anyone who has seen it to watch it again. This is truly a film that makes you remember why you enjoy watching movies.