Rising from the Ashes: Buster Keaton?s Most Amazing Stunt
Remember: If it bends, it?s funny. If it breaks, it isn?t. ?Lester (Alan Alda),?Crimes and Misdemeanors There was nothing funny about it when Buster Keaton broke. Keaton?s fall is legendary. Most of the time it?s told sketchily, and too often as if it were the end.?As...
Elizabeth Taylor?s Best Actress Oscars: BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Who?s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Elizabeth Taylor won two Best Actress Oscars, for?BUtterfield 8?(1960) and?Who?s Afraid of Virginia Woolf??(1966). The first she perhaps rightly dismissed as a pity vote. The second she won fair and square, and I hope it meant something to her. Until fairly recently I...
A Viewer?s Guide: How to Watch the Cinematic Collaboration of Humphrey Bogart and John Huston
On the set of The African Queen (1951) John Huston and Humphrey Bogart made six movies together, six points of intersection over their long careers. Three of the six were crucial in the careers of both men:?The Maltese Falcon?(1941),?The Treasure of the Sierra...
A Viewer?s Guide: How to Watch The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Martha Ivers in the shadows The Strange Love of Martha Ivers?is a total kinkfest, and if you?re new to it, you can use a little help learning the ropes. I?ll be happy to show you around. Time Out?s synopsis is as concise and elegant as could be, so here it is: ?Superb...
A Viewer?s Guide: How to Watch The Gang?s All Here (1943)
sten ?your seat belts.?The Gang?s All Here?is too much. It?s the thrill ride of Hollywood musicals. If you?ve not seen it but have seen other Busby Berkeley movies you?re thinking, Yeah, got it. But all the fabulous excesses of Berkeley in black-and-white pale in...
In Her Own Words: Maureen O?Hara (1920-2015)
TCM is honoring Maureen O?Hara (1920-2015) with a 24-hour tribute starting at 6am ET on Friday, November 20. I thought some commentary from herself discussing?her experiences shooting several of the movies in the TCM lineup would be add dimension to this day of...
Dickie Moore (1925-2015), Lost and Found
Where all parents are strong and wise and capable, and all children are happy and beloved? ?H.I.,?Raising Arizona It?s an intense little face. The Cupid?s Bow mouth and tiny, turned-up nose sit beneath large, dark, deeply?serious eyes. Dickie wasn?t just cute, he was...
A Dickie Moore Primer (1925-2015)
TCM?s tribute to Dickie Moore starts this morning at 6:15 a.m. Dickie Moore?was one of those very rare people you can watch grow up onscreen, starting when he was 11 months old. That?s when he made his screen debut, playing John Barrymore as a baby in?Beloved...
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
??Where have you been all my life?? That?s how I feel when I see a movie for the first time and fall totally in love with it.?The Ghost and Mrs. Muir?was a movie I had certainly heard of, but I knew the title from the Hope Lange TV series of the same name in the...
The Lusty Men (1952): Robert Mitchum is the Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Summer Under the Stars presents Nicholas Ray’s The Lusty Men, part of TCM’s 24-hour tribute to Robert Mitchum “There never was a bull that couldn’t be rode, there never was a cowboy who couldn’t be throwed. You eat a little dirt if you have to. —Jeff McCloud Hayward...
The More the Merrier (1943): Kissin’ on the Stoop
I Like a Man That Takes His Time ”You look like a high-type, clean-cut, nice young fellow.” What’s really hard with a movie this delightful is to write just about one scene, even a scene this great. A brief digression: I’m posting this an hour before leaving for...
The General (1926): Split-second timing, decades ahead of his time
In 1926 Buster Keaton, one of the most successful comedians in Hollywood, released?The General,his eighth feature. It was a masterpiece, now considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made. But things were different in 1926, and in the wake of the film?s...