TCM Schedule for Saturday, June 15, 2019 -- The Essentials: Directed by Agns Varda

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, The Essentials is back! (or should that be The Essentials are back?), with trailblazing producer, director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay, who will join primetime host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss the films she has chosen. Tonight's theme is films directed by Agnès Varda. From TCM, take it away, Roger!

A pioneering legend in the French New Wave movement of the 1950s and '60s, director Agnès Varda passed away on March 29, 2019 at age 90, leaving behind a legacy of influential experimental films focused on women's issues and social justice.

Born Arlette Varda in Brussels, Belgium in 1928, she was the daughter of a Frenchwoman and an engineer of Greek heritage. Varda received a degree in literature and psychology from the Sorbonne in Paris and began her career as a still photographer and photojournalist. She began making films in 1954 and was quickly recognized as an auteur with a great influence on the New Wave; she was later dubbed "the mother" and "the grandmother" of the movement.

In 1962, Varda married director Jacques Demy, and they were together until his death in 1990. She continued making films for theatrical release and television until her death and won numerous international awards including an honorary Academy Award in 2018.

TCM's tribute focuses on three works from the early part of Varda's career, including her first film La Pointe Courte (1955), which is also being screened as part of our series "The Essentials." The film tells of a young couple (Silvia Monfort and Philippe Noiret) who examine their troubled marriage while visiting the fishing village in the south of France that provides the film's title. The scope of the film broadens as it considers problems faced by the local community. Varda's combination of fiction and documentary elements was considered experimental and original, and she later recalled that, partly because she was a young woman at the time, her film hit the cinematic community "like a cannonball."

Du Côté de la Côte (1958), also known as Along the Coast, is one of several documentary shorts directed by Varda in the years following La Point Courte, which did not perform well at the box office despite its brilliance. Varda was commissioned by the French office of tourism to make this 25-minute film, which on its surface is a travelogue about the Côte d'Azur. Despite the beautiful scenery and colorful cinematography, however, the tone is ironic and at times humorously sarcastic.

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Varda's second feature-length film, follows a pop singer named Cléo (Corinne Marchand) through roughly two crucial hours in her life as she awaits the results of tests that will determine whether she has cancer. Again mixing documentary and dramatic content, the film has a feminist viewpoint as it considers the perception of women in society and the ways in which they are objectified. Making guest appearances in a silent film watched by Cléo and other characters are Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, Eddie Constantine and Jean-Claude Brialy. Composer Michel Legrand, who wrote the film's score, plays "Bob the Pianist."

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- BETRAYED (1954)
During World War II, a U.S. officer falls for a Resistance fighter suspected of being an enemy spy.
Dir: Gottfried Reinhardt
Cast: Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Victor Mature
C-109 mins, CC,

Clark Gable's last picture before he was released from his MGM contract in March 1954. He first signed with the studio in 1930 (he'd first appeared at the studio as an extra in The Merry Widow (1925)). By the early 1950s most of his films were unsuccessful at the box office and MGM found it difficult to justify his $500,000 per year salary. Gable too was anxious to enter into far more lucrative percentage deals and would do so exclusively for the remaining 6 years of his life.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE MAD MAESTRO (1939)
The maestro is conducting his orchestra of assorted animals. Some of them aren't particularly good at following his direction.
Dir: Hugh Harman
BW-8 mins, CC,


8:09 AM -- FAMOUS BONERS (1942)
This short film looks at three instances of people who either caused or were the victims of errors.
Dir: Douglas Foster
Cast: Margaret Bert, Joe Yule, Dave O'Brien
BW-10 mins,


8:20 AM -- GLIMPSES OF GUATEMALA (1946)
This short film takes the viewer to Guatemala.
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick
C-8 mins,


8:29 AM -- MEN OF AMERICA (1933)
A modern-day rancher faces lynching when he's suspected of a mob killing.
Dir: Ralph Ince
Cast: William Boyd, Charles "Chic" Sale, Dorothy Wilson
BW-58 mins,

William Boyd directed the scenes in which director Ralph Ince acted.


9:30 AM -- LOST CITY OF THE JUNGLE: FIERY DANGER (1946)
Episode five of thirteen.
Dir: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor
Cast: Russell Hayden, Jane Adams, Lionel Atwill
BW-17 mins, CC,


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: LET'S CELEBRAKE (1938)
Popeye invites Olive's grandmother along for a New Year's Eve party.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
BW-7 mins,

Oscar, Popeye's bucktooth friend from the Thimble Theatre comic strip makes a very rare appearance in this cartoon. He is the waiter who brings the food to Popeye and Grandma's table.


10:08 AM -- THE FALCON IN HOLLYWOOD (1944)
A society sleuth tours the movie capital, where he uncovers an actor's murder.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Tom Conway, Barbara Hale, Veda Ann Borg
BW-67 mins, CC,

When The Falcon first arrives at The Sunset Studios (early in the film), he is stopped at the gate by the stereotypical "old gate guard". Watch for a quick cameo by Tom Conway's real-life brother, George Sanders, who walks in the gate and smiles. He is in a small group of men. Don't blink or you'll miss him. Trivia game answer could be "Who has a quick cameo at the fictional Sunset Studios gate in the 1944 RKO Film "The Falcon in Hollywood?"


11:30 AM -- I WON'T PLAY (1944)
In this short film, a Marine boasts his skill as an entertainer, much to the disbelief of his friends.
Dir: Crane Wilbur
Cast: Janis Paige, Robert Shayne, Dane Clark
BW-18 mins,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead


12:00 PM -- ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939)
A team of flyers risks their lives to deliver the mail in a mountainous South American country.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess
BW-121 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Walker, and Best Effects, Special Effects -- Roy Davidson (photographic) and Edwin C. Hahn (sound)

Richard Barthelmess had deep scars that resulted from an infection due to plastic surgery. The only way to cover them up was with heavy make-up, but Howard Hawks convinced him to leave them the way they were because "those scars tell the story and are important to your character." Hawks also removed planks to make Barthelmess appear smaller, to reflect his character's inferiority among his fellow pilots.


2:15 PM -- KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952)
To commit the perfect crime, a former detective keeps his colleagues' identities secret from each other.
Dir: Phil Karlson
Cast: John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster
BW-99 mins, CC,

None of this movie was shot in Kansas City. The aerial footage of Kansas City Union Station is probably stock footage.


4:00 PM -- RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962)
Two aging gunslingers sign on to transport gold from a remote mining town.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Final film of Randolph Scott. He retired from acting once he saw the finished film, saying he wanted to quit while he was ahead and that he would never be able to better his work here.


5:45 PM -- THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN (1970)
A Western crook tries to break out of prison.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Hume Cronyn
C-123 mins, CC,

Warner Brothers' front office was very worried about this film. It was shot over a five-month period in the first half of 1969, but it was well over a year before it was given any commercial showings. Like Joseph L. Mankiewicz's previous film, The Honey Pot (1967), it opened in Britain some two months before the US, in late 1970. According to Mankiewicz's biographer, Kenneth Geist, his preferred version of the film ran to 165 minutes; however, Warners objected to this and re-cut the film, to his great irritation, to a more manageable 126 minutes. One notable casualty of this re-cutting was the prominently-billed Lee Grant, a very well-known actress at the time, whose appearance is now barely a couple of minutes in length.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: DIRECTED BY AGNES VARDA



8:00 PM -- LA POINTE COURTE (1954)
Two storylines concern the simultaneous efforts of a husband and wife to mend their broken marriage interwoven with the life of a fishing village.
Dir: Agnès Varda
Cast: Philippe Noiret, Sylvia Montfort,
BW-80 mins,

This film is considered by many critics as the starting point of the French New Wave film movement. It was Agnès Varda's directorial debut.


9:45 PM -- CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1962)
This film concentrates on two hours in the life of a French singer waiting on the results of a cancer test.
Dir: Agnès Varda
Cast: Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dorothée Blank
C-89 mins,

Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, and Jean-Claude Brialy all make uncredited cameo appearances as the actors in the silent film shown to Cléo and her friend.


11:30 PM -- DU COTE DE LA COTE (1958)
The French Riviera comes to life only after the tourists are gone.
Dir: Agnès Varda
Cast: Roger Coggio, Anne Olivier, Jacopo Nizi
C-26 mins,

The French nickname for the Côte d'Azur is: Eden.


12:00 AM -- PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953)
A petty thief accidentally steals a communist spy's purse.
Dir: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter
BW-80 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter

Marilyn Monroe sat in on a rehearsal and actually read for the role of Candy. While director Samuel Fuller liked her very much, he said she was wrong for the part, telling her that her "overwhelming sensuality" was wrong for the story.


1:45 AM -- 13 WEST STREET (1962)
Despite police warnings, an engineer takes on a teen gang.
Dir: Philip Leacock
Cast: Alan Ladd, Rod Steiger, Michael Callan
BW-80 mins, CC,

Alan Ladd and Margaret Hayes had previously shared the screen in The Glass Key (1942) 20 years earlier, They do not have a scene together in this film.


3:30 AM -- GREEN DOLPHIN STREET (1947)
In 19th-century New Zealand, two sisters compete for the same man against a backdrop of political unrest and natural disaster.
Dir: Victor Saville
Cast: Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Donna Reed
BW-141 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie (visual), Warren Newcombe (visual), Douglas Shearer (audible) and Michael Steinore (audible)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- George J. Folsey, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD), and Best Film Editing -- George White

Lana Turner let her hair go back to its natural brown color for this role.