Note: This is a regular monthly feature, highlighting, well, the highlights on Turner Classics' schedule. Why? Simple. Because Turner Classics remains a veritible college education in film.Jan. 2 : “The Devil Doll.” This is my all-time favorite Tod Browning flick. Lionel Barrymore plays a nut who literally shrinks psychopaths and gives them to his victims as dolls. Plus “The Woman in White,” a guilty pleasure starring Eleanor Parker and Gig Young.
Jan. 4 : “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here,” blacklister Abraham Polansky’s allegory on race relations is a ‘60s film disguised as a Western. It stars Robert Redford and Katharine Ross (the “Butch Cassidy” pair) and Robert Blake and Susan Clark, who are much more interesting.
Jan. 5: “Skidoo,” a must-see Otto Preminger that Paramount has made difficult to see. Don’t miss it. Plus, “The Love-Ins,” in which Richard Todd, of all people, becomes a love guru during the summer of love.
Jan. 6 :Two of Steve Martin’s better films, when he cared about what he did on screen: Carl Reiner’s “All of Me” and Herbert Ross’ “Pennies from Heaven.” Plus, “Interlude,” a rarely-seen June Allyson film directed by Douglas Sirk (record it!) and Alexander Macendrick’s masterful “Sweet Smell of Success.”
Jan. 7 :A “Stay In” Night on Turner: “Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque,” Chris Marker’s “La Jetee,” Katharine Hepburn in George Stevens’ “Alice Adams” and Joseph Anthony’s “The Matchmaker” and its musical remake ”Hello, Dolly!,” directed by Gene Kelly. Plus Gwyneth as “Emma.”
Jan. 8: “Stay Away, Joe,” an Elvis film version of the Broadway musical, “Whoop-Up!” and Sellers in Edwards’ “The Pink Panther.”
Jan. 9: John Badham’s “WarGames,” starring a very young Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy.
Jan. 10: “The Clock,” a very sweet wartime romance with Judy Garland (who is bearable for once) and Robert Walker, with Vincente Minnelli directing.
Jan. 11: Terence Young's “Mayerling,” starring Catherine (Deneuve) and Omar (Sharif), and Robert Wise’s hugely comparionable “This Could Be the Night,” with a great cast – Paul Douglas, Jean Simmons, Anthony Franciosa, Joan Blondell, Julie Wilson, Neile Adams, J. Carroll Nash, Zasu Pitts, Rafael Campos, Tom Helmore, Mervyn Vye and Vaughn Taylor.
Jan. 12: Paul Bartel’s “Death Race 2000.” I love it. Drivers score points by running down pedestrians. Please, sir, I want some more.
Jan. 13: A good day to stay in: “The Country Girl,” with a very good Bing Crosby (too convincing as a creep) and an even better Grace Kelly; “Sunday in New York,” with the sexy team of Jane Fonda and Rod Taylor; “The Tender Trap,” an enjoyable stage-bound comedy with Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, Celeste Holm, David Wayne and the aforementioned Helmore. Plus two with Geraldine Page: Peter Masterson’s “A Trip to Bountiful” and Peter Glenville’s “Summer and Smoke.”
Jan. 15:The Fabulous Bridges Boys prevail - Beau in Hal Ashby’s extraordinary “The Landlord” and Jeff in Robert Benton’s forgotten “Bad Company.” Plus Bogdanovich directs Karloff in “Targets.”
Jan. 17: “Love me or Leave Me.” Doris Day as Ruth Etting. Perfect casting.
Jan. 16: “Suddenly,” with Sinatra as a would-be President assassin.
Jan. 18: Can’t stop laughing: Howard Hawks’ “His Girl Friday,” with the great team of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, and Frank Capra’s “Pocketful of Miracles,” with Glenn Ford and every possible low-life comic imaginable.
Jan. 19: “The Wild, Wild Planet,” in which Earth is invaded for yet the umpteenth time. Plus Anthony Mann’s “The Tin Star” with Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins and Betsy Palmer, and the deliriously likable Danny Kaye as “The Court Jester.”
Jan. 20: Waste the day with Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes in Kazan’s “A Face in the Crowd,” Cary and Ingrid in Stanley Donen’s “Indiscreet” and the wonderful Alan J.Pakula romance, “Love with the Proper Stranger,” with Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen.
Jan. 21: Turner is shameless. What a line-up: The complete version of Truffaut’s “Mississippi Mermaid,” with the impossibly perfect Deneuve and Belmondo (they don’t build movie stars like that anymore), Marty Ritt’s “Paris Blues,” avec Newman and Woodward and Poitier and (Diahann) Carroll (written by Walter Bernstein) and Charles Burnett’s important “Killer of Sheep.”
Jan. 22: “Killer of Sheep” gets a replay with Burnett’s “Several Friends.” Also Wilder’s
“Some Like it Hot” and Peckinpah’s restored “Major Dundee.”
Jan. 24: Spencer Tracy in John Sturges’ taut, tight “Bad Day of Black Rock,” Bette Davis and Debbie Reynolds (and Ernest Borgnine and Rod Taylor) doing Paddy Chayefsy in “The Catered Affair,” and Ryan and Ali in Arthur Hiller’s “Love Story.”
Jan. 27: Another good screening day - “Stardust Memories,” first-class Woody Allen; Alan J. Pakula’s debut film, “The Sterile Cuckoo,” with Liza Minnelli, too believable as a needy, neurotic young woman and “Four Daughters” and its remake, “Young at Heart,” with the dream team of Sinatra and Day.
Jan. 28 :Have a pencil handy: “The Barefoot Contessa,” “Gigi,” “Handle with Care,” “Affair with a Stranger,” “The Day They Robbed the Bank of England” and “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” in which David Niven and Doris Day play Walter and Jean Kerr.
Jan. 30: Silvio Narizzano’s “Die! Die! My Darling!,” in which Tallulah Bankhead terrorizes Stefanie Powers with a copy of the Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. Plus Wilder’s antic “One, Two, Three,” with the definitive Cagney performance.
Note in Passing: You might want to compare and contrast Billy Wilder's "One, Two, Three" and Frank Capra's "Pocketful of Miracles" this month because, plotwise, they are virtually
the same film. They were even released months apart during the same year - 1961.
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(Artwork: Beau Bridges as Ashby's "The Landlord" and art work for Pakula's "Love with the Proper Stranger" and Wilder's "One, Two, Three.")
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