Friday, June 25, 2021 at 8:43:00 P.M. EDT
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 and 10 a.m. ET is Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943) with Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, Hume Cronyn, MacDonald Carey and Wallace Ford.
[N.S.: I’m sorry, David, but the Film Noir Guide spoiled everything, so I replaced most of it.]
Bright, vivacious, young woman Charlotte feels a malaise, and she knows the perfect cure: Uncle Charlie! She resolves to wire her favorite relative and namesake, with whom she has always enjoyed a deep spiritual bond, to invite him to come for a visit. But before she can do that, Uncle Charlie shows up!
Unfortunately, something’s a bit off about Uncle Charlie, and things go from bad to worse with the two namesakes.
I believe that the scene in which Charlie takes Charlie to the dark side of town inspired the “Pottersville” fantasy in Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).
This picture is on my top 100 movie list, and is also on the short list for the greatest pictures never nominated for an Oscar. It should have been up for at least seven: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay, Editing and Cinematography.
Interestingly enough, an even greater picture was released that year which was also not nominated for a single Oscar. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a love letter to Britishness, was co-produced, co-written, and co-directed by “The Archers,” born Englishman Michael Powell and Englishman by choice, the Hungarian-born Jew, Emeric Pressburger, and starred Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook, and Deborah Kerr. (The Archers also made Stairway to Heaven and The Red Shoes.)
All those missed nominations. Must have been the war.
Film Noir Guide: “Wright and Cotten teamed again in the 1952 noir, The Steel Trap, this time as husband and wife. Shadow of a Doubt was remade in 1958 as the inferior Step Down to Terror.”
2 comments:
Nicholas,
Fine! Film Noir Guide did give away too much.
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night at 12:30 am ET is Joseph's Lerner's Guilty Bystander (1950) with Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Mary Boland, J, Edward Bromberg, Kay Medford, and Sam Levene.
Since this is Fourth of July Weekend, there is only one showing.
Film Noir Guide: "Scott stars as an alcoholic ex-cop eking out a living as a house dick at a seedy hotel owned by Boland. After his ex-wife (Emerson) comes to him for help in finding their missing child, Scott searches for is son, while struggling to stay on the wagon. His investigation leads him to a floozy (Medford) and a murderous gang of jewel thieves led by a hypochondriac gangster (Bromberg). Levene plays Scott's former boss at the department. Noir veteran Scott is disappointing as the rum-dum ex-cop, and Boland, who was known for her comedic roles in the 1930s, is miscast as Scott's spunky boss."
In his outro last week, Eddie Muller boasted how "grungy" Guilty Bystander is.
On Friday Night, TCM is showing "Neo-Noirs." At 8 pm ET, Harper (1966), with Paul Newman and Lauren Bacall. Point Blank (1967) with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson at 10:15 pm, and Warning Shot (1967) with David Janssen and Ed Begley at Midnight ET.
Harper is kind of a 20 years on update of The Big Sleep. Paul Newman gives a characterization he had a patent on. Lauren Bacall plays her character in The Big Sleep 20 years later.
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