Turner Classic Movies Vintage Movies Top Picks Great Director (Mann, Hitchcock, Cukor ) Showcase June 26 to June 30, 2009 Review

Classic Films by acclaimed directors are the spotlight on Turner Classic Movies (the cable station) all through June.

On Friday June 26th, day-time a selection of film's by David Lean, perhaps his greatest cinematic masterpieces are Bridge on the River Kwai (1957 (2 p.m.  PST)  and Lawrence of Arabia (not on the schedule).  One of his most popular films 1965's Doctor Zhivago is shown at 10:30 p.m. a sweeping romantic drama concerning an intense illicit love affair between Omar Shariff and Julie Christie during the turbulent times of the Russian Revolution.  Lean was masterful adapting literary classics and of the best examples is his 1946 classic adaptation of Charle's Dickens'  Great Expectations with John Mills, and Valerie Hobson (airing at 7 a.m. on the West Coast).  Another personal favorite is the romantic and sophisticated Brief Encounter a simple story about two married strangers who meet in a train station and fall in love.  One of the best films of the 1940s or any era  it airs at 9 a.m.

Friday Night it's the films of Norman Jewison which include  an hour interview and clip show with Robert Osborne that begins at 5 p.m. and is followed by the Oscar winning 1967 drama; In the Heat of the Night with Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates and Lee Grant at 6 p.m. PST.  Just for fun you might watch The Cincinnati Kid a 1965 crowd pleaser  starring Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Ann Margret and Karl Malden.  The wonderful film version of Fiddler on the Roof from 1971 airs at 10p.m. and that's followed by slightly underrated compelling A Soldiers Story from 1984 concerning an African American's challenging investigation of a racially motivated murder during World War 2.  Howard E. Rollins Jf., Adolph Caesar, and Denzel Wathington star  (airs at 1:15 a.m.).

Saturday the 27th is devoted to films by Alfred Hitchcock.  There's  a special Dick Cavett show from June 8 , 1972 that airs 3 a.m. PST for Hitch fans.    Several of his best and best known films;  1954's Rear Window (9:15 p.m.),  Vertigo (1958) 10:15 p.m.,  Psycho (1960) 12:30 p.m. and North by Northwest (1959) 2:30 p.m. are shown and they are among the best suspense thrillers ever made.

Consider also 1940's Rebecca (airing at 6 a.m.), the paranoid thriller from 1941 Suspicion with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine (airing at 4:15 a.m.),  the psychological suspense thriller 1945's Spellbound  with a dream sequence designed by artist Salvadore Dali and Hitch that airs at 8:15 a.m.   The disturbing psycho-sexual thriller from 1964  Marnie  with Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. Airing 10:15 a.m. on the West Coast.   War-time intrigue and suspense in the effective 1946 Hitch thriller Notorious starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains (airing at 5 pm.) is also a good choice.  And though it's dated , the witty dialogue and charming performances will make you a fan of 1935's  The 39 Steps about a man falsely suspected of killing a spy who is handcuffed to a beautiful blonde and avoids the authorities racing across Scotland to clear his name.  it airs at 1:30 a.m. on the West Coast.    

There is also the very popular 1956  The Man Who Knew Too Much (a big budget color remake of Hitch's earlier film) with James Steward and Doris Day (the hit Que Sera Sera is from this film). It airs at 7 p.m. 

On Sunday, the films of George Cukor are showcased.   They include the wonderful Charles Dicken's adaptation of David Copperfield with a never better W.C. Fields and Lionel Barrymore, (airing at 7 a.m.), the Tracy-Hepburn romantic comedy  from 1949  Adam's Rib (ariing at 9:15),  Greta Garbo in Camille from 1936 (airing at 3 am. Pst).   One of the best versions of the often filmed Gaslight from 1944 starring Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cottten and Charles Boyer  airs at 11:15 p.m.  Judy Holiday fans take note  at 1:15 p.m. is 1952's  The Marrying Kind and at 3p.m. (pst) is the delightful comedy from 1950 that earned Judy H. an Oscar, Born Yesterday.   At 5 p.m. it's the classic romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story with Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart , followed by just about everyones favorite melodrama  1939's The Women starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and Mary Boland at 7 p.m.     At 9:30 p.m.  Audrey Hepburn learns manners from Rex Harrison in 1964's My Fair Lady. and at 12:30 it's the 1936 version of Romeo and Juliet with Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard and John Barrymore. 

June wraps up  Monday and Tuesday with  several films by the late great Sidney Lumet on June 29th including 1958's Stage Struck with Henry Fonda and Susan Strasberg (airing at 3 a.m. )and the little seen Deadly Affair starring James Mason  from 1966 and the under-rated The Fugitive Kind from 1960 with Marlon Brando. At 10:15 p.m. it's 1965's The Hill where prisoners in a North African military stockade try to survive inhumane conditions.  It stars Sean Connery .

Monday night the films of the iconic Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille are featured.   I recommend the Kenneth Branagh  narrated  Kevin Brownlow documentary on DeMille's life and career that airs at 5 p.m. on the west caost.   The films featured through the night include  1952's star-studded circus drama  The Greatest Show on Earth,  1934's version of Cleopatra, the silent epic film of Christ's life, The King of Kings and the superb early silent film from 1915  The Cheat!

On Tuesday June 30th, during the day some films from the lesser known mostly MGM musical director Robert Z. Leonard.   His musical remakes of Grand Hotel and The Shop Around the Corner, 1945's Weekend at the Waldorf (Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon and Van Johnson), and 1949's  In the Good Old Summertime (with Judy Garland and Van Johnson)  are entertaining  (they air at 10 a.m. and  Summertime at 1 p.m.  on the West Coast).  His best is probably 1940's  Pride and Prejudice a good adaptation of Jane Austen's comic novel about 5 sisters on the prowl for husbands in 1800's England with Greer Garson, and Laurence Olivier which airs at 3 p.m. (pst).

It's some films from Director Anthony Mann Tuesday Night and that means 2 great James Stewart films are featured.   5 p.m. it's  the 1955 Western,  The Man from Laramie, and at 8 p.m. its Strategic Air Command from 1955 with James Stewart  playing  Red Sox legend Ted Williams who walked away from baseball stardom to heed the call of Cold War patriotic duty.  Spectacular aerial photography and James Stewarts performance make this one memorable.

At 9 p.m. it's the film Jean Luc Godard claims re-invented the Western, 1958's  Man of the West.  It's a genre masterpiece with Gary Cooper, Julie London, Lee J. Cobb, Arthur O'Connell and Jack Lord.

1960's Cimarron is flawed re-make.  Director Mann actually left the production mid-stream, though he is responsible for the thrilling Oklahoma land rush sequence.  An uncredited Charles Walter directed half the film and finished it with producer Edmund Grainger.  It airs 1:15 in the morning on the West Coast.

If you ever doubted how good Anthony Mann was, and if he really did rank right beside John Ford , just look at 1955's  The Last Frontier . It's a good not great film Western with three stars who were NOT known as Western stars.  You'll be convinced however that  Victor Mature, Robert Preston and Ann Bancroft are perfectly cast in this memorable Western .