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Guest programmer- #3

posted 14 years ago by schappe1
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Watching TCM, I was interested in the “guest programmers” Robert Osborne had on: celebrities who talked about their favorites films that were in the TCM “vault” with their comments being a “wrap-around” to showing of the films They are usually on for a month or so, introducing two films a night in a weekly show. I wondered what films I would pick if I were a “guest programmer“. As a fantasy project, I decided to figure it out. I found I couldn’t have cut it off with four shows, so I wound up with ten weeks of shows. That’s too many I know but it is a fantasy-and Alec Baldwin seemed to be on there forever . I decided to post it to see if it interested anyone. You could respond by critiquing my choices or interpretations of these films and/or by telling us what films you would select if you were a TCM “guest programmer” and what you would say about them.

I didn’t list films simply because I liked them- I grew up on Errol Flynn movies but there are none here. Instead I decided to concentrate on films along a particular theme- how we viewed ourselves and the world we lived in, as reflected by Hollywood. Tinseltown did a great job of entertaining us over the years but didn’t often take a good look at the real world we lived in. The results were interesting when it did. I also wanted to look for themes that still resonate with us today. I love old movies and they are TCM’s stock in trade. I decided to limit myself to films that came out before 1960.

The video revolution of the 80’s and beyond were a Godsend to me: I was able to fill in so many blanks in my understanding of the past and see many films I’d only been able to read about before and judge them for myself. I developed the habit of renting two films at once: one is sure to be better than the other. They usually were related in some way to each other: originals and sequels or re-makes; two films by the same actor or director; two films in the same genre or which came out in the same year, etc. The TCM guest programmer typically introduces two films in a night so this seemed to fit in.

I chose 20 American films that came out from 1928-1957. I don’t know if TCM would have all of them. They all had a general relationship to each other in that they were related to my theme of how we saw ourselves through this period but I paired them up so direct comparisons could be made between films that seemed connected in some way. Some of these films can be seen on the internet, (mostly U-Tube), in their entirety. For some of them there were only clips. You may be able to find them in your video store- if you can find a video store. I’ve provided some links: if you see “Part 1”, that means that parts 2, 3, 4, etc. are also available. U-Tube will usually offer the next part so you can just click on it. If you click on the box with the arrows pointing outwards, you can get the image “full screen”. Some of them you’ve seen before and I hope my take on them will be interesting. Some you haven’t seen, at least not in their entirety. There may be a couple you‘ve never heard of.

The past is a series of presents. The present is living history we are priviledged to witness

[–] schappe1 14 years ago

Possessed is an example of a common theme in the depression cinema: the heroine, (and it’s usually the heroine, rather than the hero), from the wrong side of the economic tracks falls in love with a rich, handsome young man who will “take her away from all this”. But his career or reputation will be impacted and the lovers have to decide whether to continue their relationship. Here another element is added: the young man, Clark Gable, is an ambitious young politician. He’s not married to Joan Crawford and the political opposition makes a campaign issue of the “morality” of their relationship. She tries to convince him to dump her to save his career. I first saw this during the Clinton scandals and it amazed me how prescient a film made more than six decades before seemed. The situation was rather different but the willingness of political opposition to use a politician’s private life against him in lieu of dealing with public issues was very much the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ztycKWFqE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo3R3e2Tds8

Note: Joan Crawford also appears in a 1947 movie called Possessed. It’s not a remake: the story is totally different.

My Man Godfrey probably reveals more about depression-era attitudes than any other film of the time, even though it isn’t very realistic. Hollywood did a great job of entertaining us over the years but made few films that actually reflected what was going on except in an exaggerated funhouse-mirror image such as we see in the gangster films. Something like Our Daily Bread was ignored and even The Grapes of Wrath was a genre to itself. But you can see the attitudes people had toward what was going on in the films made during the era and perhaps moreso in My Man Godfrey than any of them.

It opens with a “scavenger hunt” by a bunch of wealthy dilettantes, one of whom is Carole Lombard. They’ve decided this time that they should each pick up a “forgotten man”, (political correctness wasn‘t invented in our time). They assemble at the city dump, where a bunch of homeless men are living. Carole comes away with the wonderful William Powell, who used to be a member of her economic class but lost all his money. He’s spent the last few years living with the hobos in an area known as “The Dump” and has come to prefer their company. But he goes along with the charade, then tells all the rich people off. (But the best line goes to Eugene Pallette as Carole‘s father, who is at a party with “the right kind of people”. His response: “For an asylum, all you need is an empty room and the right kind of people.”)

Carole’s family needs a new butler and Carole comes up with the idea of hiring Powell because of his gentlemanly manner, despite his circumstances and his contempt for their class. He agrees to take the position. The film them becomes a sort of urban “Admirable Crichton” as Powell looks after a family consisting of the acerbic Pallette, his silly wife Alice Brady, their arrogant daughter Gail Patrick and the free-spirited Carole, who falls for Godfrey. When Pallette losses his money in a banking disaster, Brady and Patrick will be without the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. Lombard doesn’t care: all she wants is Powell, (for once it’s the man who is the impoverished one: but not for long here), who again rescues the family because he’s invested his salary well- so well that he’s able to found a nightclub on the site of “The Dump” and to employ all his old friends there- so they can prove that they aren’t “forgotten”. The film ends with everyone in the sort of fancy night club everyone dreamed of spending an evening in in that era.

The picture reveals the contempt depression era audiences had for the wealthy- they are silly, arrogant and greedy and have no idea what to do with money while the hero, Powell, not only has better values but a superior business sense as well. But the happy ending requires that they have plenty of money, dress glamorously and be surrounded by luxury because the audience wanted to imagine what it would be like to have a lot of money and live like that, just like the people they hated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOkIru_OvC4

The past is a series of presents. The present is living history we are priviledged to witness