By David in TN
Friday, December 8, 2017 at 7:31:00 PM EST
The TCM Film Noir of the Week for Sunday, December 10, at 10 a.m. ET is The Breaking Point (1950). This is based on Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not, and is more faithful to Hemingway's story than Howard Hawks’ 1944 film.
John Garfield stars as a charter boat owner forced by looming poverty to smuggle illegal aliens (Chinese) from Mexico into the U.S. In Noir fashion, Garfield is double-crossed by the smugglers and gets in trouble with the Mexican government.
Patricia Neal plays the femme fatale and Phyllis Thaxter his faithful wife.
Garfield then gets involved with a crooked lawyer played by Wallace Ford fronting for would be stick-up men. It concludes in dramatic fashion with a …
Our host Eddie Muller considers this the best film ever made of a Hemingway story.
3 comments:
jerry pdx
Another military related "hate crime" hoax. Black navy sailor, 27 yr. old Marquie Little, turned out to have been the one to have written racial slurs on his bed. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/12/09/navy-sailor-staged-racist-vandalism-investigation-finds.html
I'm unable to find a photo of Marque Little, a search of google images, usually the best bet to find a picture of someone, turned up nothing.
The only major news outlet covering this story appears to be Foxnews. As usual, the powers that be make grand sweeping pronouncements about "racism", then are silent after it is determined to be fake. This is reminiscent of the recent Colorado Air Force Academy hoax, where a black football player (who was never named publicly), also wrote racial slurs: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/08/air-force-academy-discovers-racial-slurs-were-hoax-months-after-superintendent-lauded-for-tough-speech.html
Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria delivered a speech about the incident that received a million of hits on Youtube and his sanctimonious virtue signaling received sickening praise from many major media outlets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfjZ1otkS3o
TCM's Film Noir of the Week for Sunday, December 17, at 10 am ET is The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). This version of James M. Cain's novel is perhaps most notable for pairing John Garfield and Lana Turner.
Garfield plays a drifter who happens upon a diner just outside of Los Angeles. The proprietor (Cecil Kellaway) offers him a job. Garfield's "itchy feet" make him inclined to turn the job down until he sees the owner's (much younger) sexy blond wife, whereupon he hires on.
The doomed lovers soon hatch a plan to dispose of the oblivious Kellaway and run off together. This is the prototype Noir plot line. The protagonist spots the sexiest woman he's ever seen and self-destructs. Hume Cronyn has a supporting role as a conniving defense lawyer who gets them off. At first.
Turner is always dressed in white.
Our host, Eddie Muller, says The Postman Always Rings twice was John Garfield's biggest box office hit. Along with Body and Soul, one of his most famous.
I apologize for the belated notice. TCM is showing For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) at 8 pm ET tonight, February 17.
If The Breaking Point with John Garfield (1950) is the best movie made on a Hemingway story from an artistic sense, For Whom the Bell Tolls was the "Biggest." It had Gary Coper and Ingrid Bergman in the starring roles. Akim Tamiroff and Katina Paxinou practically stepped out of the pages of the book as the leaders of the Spanish guerrilla band.
Sam Wood's direction dragged often and Hemingway's theme of disillusionment became a sort of war adventure story typical of the time.
Anyway, I'm going to DVR it and watch a day or two later.
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