Tonight is as good a time as any to discover the greatness of Turner Classic Movies. With the beginning of each month comes a new featured star, and starting tonight, TCM dedicates June to the great Cary Grant starting with a brand new documentary about his life called Cary Grant: A Class Apart followed by three of his four great collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, starting with North by Northwest.
Check the website for the rest of the schedule. Of course, if you’ve never seen it, the absolute don’t-miss selection has to be the June 15 broadcast of <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0032904/"The Philadelphia Story with Jimmy Stewart and Katharine Hepburn. Strangely enough, there is one enormous omission: the benchmark Howard Hawks comedy, His Girl Friday, an obvious precursor to most modern battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedies. (I could have sworn they’ve shown it before, but maybe it’s not in their humongous library.) In any event, get those DiVos/TiVos/VCRs going.
And other highlights in June (after the jump):
- If you want to see why everyone is so up-in-arms about Gwyneth Paltrow playing Marlene Dietrich, watch the real Dietrich in her starmaking performance in The Blue Angel late-night on Friday 6/11. It’s followed (at 4 AM Eastern) by a documentary about Dietrich’s life made by her grandson about 4 years ago — Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song.
- For a taste of classic Italian neo-realism, don’t miss Visconti’s magnificent La Terra Trema the very next week.
- Before that on June 14 at 4 PM (Eastern), you can see a film from the father of Neo-realism, Roberto Rossellini’s Stromboli. It may not be as powerful as either of his earlier masterpieces, Open City or Paisan, but it is notable for being the first collaboration between him and his then-new muse, Ingrid Bergman, meaning in some way, it is responible for giving the world Isabella Rossellini.
- And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention TCM will be showing Ingmar Bergman’s (not to be confused with Ingrid, of course) The Seventh Seal late-night on June 25. All-in-all, it’s a good month for “TCM Imports.”
- It’s also a pretty fine damn month for “Silent Sunday Nights.” Every late-night Sunday at midnight (9 PM for you on the West Coast), TCM shows silent films, and this month’s lineup starts next weekend with the original vampire classic, Nosferatu.
- You can also take a look at early Italian cinema and what was once considered big special effects with the 1913 The Last Days of Pompeii on June 27.
- If like me you loved Todd Haynes’ brilliant Far From Heaven, don’t miss the film which inspired him, All That Heaven Allows from 50s melodrama master Douglas Sirk on Sunday 6/27. (Tangentally, if you’ve never experienced Fassbinder, you could do worse than his take on Sirk’s film, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. Keep in mind, all three films have plenty of differences.)
- A boxing film with a noirish tilt, The Set-Up is perfect DiVo fodder since it’s on at the god-awful time of 8 AM on Saturday 6/19.
- If you want cheesy fun, don’t miss the night of Tarzan Classics this Thursday starting at 8 PM with the original 1932 Tarzan, The Ape Man starring swimmer Johnny Weismuller and Mia Farrow’s mom, followed by a new documentary about the Tarzan character and its trip to the big screen.
- Also this month on Wednesdays, TCM honors graphic designer Saul Bass “who revolutionized movie title sequences.” Tomorrow features three films from the great Otto Preminger starting with one of his best, The Man With the Golden Arm.
Those are just some highlights from their schedule. There’s lot more this month; go visit their site.
Out of Focus 