If you are a regular reader, you know that Turner Classic Movies is one of my favorite TV channels. TCM showcases great movies from all eras, and it has given me a real appreciation of some terrific stars who, while I knew who they were, I wasn't all that familiar with much of their body of work. Foremost among such stars has been Barbara Stanwyck. Seeing her in such movies as "Sorry, Wrong Number", "The Lady Eve", "Ball of Fire", and, of course, the fabulous "Double Indemnity", well, this is a great actress at work.
Anyway, this past weekend, thanks to TCM and our DVR, I watched the 26 year old Stanwyck in the movie "Baby Face". This movie was made in 1933, prior to Hollywood's self-imposed "production code" that limited what types of portrayals could be made in regard to sexual content and other issues regarding morality (who should be the judge of such "morality" is a whole other issue).
"Baby Face" concerns a young girl, Lily Powers, played by Stanwyck, who leads a terrible life in an industrial town, working in her father's illegal speakeasy. Not only does she have to serve booze to a bunch of rowdy drunks, her father pimps her out to influential men to help pay the bills and keep the place open.
When her father is killed in an accident, Lily leaves town, heads for New York, and vows to make a better life for herself, and she uses her, shall we say, feminine charms to get what she wants. This alternate poster for the movie gives you and idea of the story line:
How her rise to power and position within the bank for which she works is depicted makes for some great movie making, although it does settle for an ending that is close to being a cop-out.
What can I say, Stanwyck is gorgeous, devious, and very sexy in this movie.
"Baby Face" doesn't often show up on TCM, but it is well worth seeing if you ever get the chance.
The Star of the Month for November on Turner Classic Movies is the great Burt Lancaster, and each Wednesday night in the month TCM will be featuring Lancaster movies.
This past Wednesday night included such classics and maybe-not-so-classic-but-still-pretty-good movies as "From Here to Eternity", "Jim Thorpe - All American", "The Swimmer", and Lancaster's very first movie, one that I had never seen, a nifty little noir flick called "The Killers" (1946). I watched it and was a really terrific movie.
So, I didn't notify you about those, but get that DVR programmed for the following (all times Eastern):
November 13
8:00 PM - Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957) co-starring Kirk Douglas
10:15 PM - Sweet Smell of Success (1957) co-starring Tony Curtis
12:00 AM - Elmer Gantry (1960) Lancaster won his only Oscar for this one. Shirley Jones also and Oscar winner for her role in the movie.
2:30 AM - Seven Days in May (1964) co-starring Kirk Douglas and Fredric March, directed by John Frankenheimer. A terrific cold war thriller. All three stars are absolutely outstanding in this one. A Must See.
November 20
9:45 PM - Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) I wrote about this movie in depth about a year ago (http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2012/11/judgement-at-nuremberg.html)
I won't restate it everything else again, except to say that if you ignore every other movie mentioned in this piece, don't ignore this one. A great, great movie that should be mandatory viewing for all high school history students. One great acting performance after another in this one.
1:00 AM Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) Okay, so maybe the movie glorifies a career criminal who was pretty much a scumbag, but that doesn't detract from yet another great Lancaster performance.
November 27
8:00 PM Field of Dreams (1989) This is one of everybody's, including me, favorite baseball movies, and Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones are the stars, but Lancaster, in a mere five or so minutes of screen time, as the older Moonlight Graham, steals the movie, in my opinion. It was his last movie. "Suppose I'd have never become a doctor? Now that would have been a tragedy."
There are many other Lancaster movies being shown in November, perhaps some of your own favorites, but these are the ones I shall be recording and watching.
I love Turner Classic Movies, if for no other reason than it has given me an appreciation for stars like Burt Lancaster, people who may have been prominent slightly before my time. Another such star is Barbara Stanwyck and that leads me to another recommendation for November. "Ball of Fire" (1941) Midnight, Friday, November 22. A screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks and co-starring Gary Cooper. A really funny movie and Stanwyck is terrific.
For a movie fan, TCM is giving us a lot for which to be thankful this November!!
