On Tuesday Night, September 3, at 9:45 ET, TCM shows Jesse Hibbs’ The World in My Corner (1956), with Audie Murphy and Barbara Rush; Later that Night It Shows Rush Again, This Time Paired with Paul Newman, in One of His Best Performances, in The Young Philadelphians (1959)

By David in TN
monday, september 2, 2024 at 3:56:00 p.m. edt

On Tuesday Night, September 3, at 9:45 ET, TCM shows Jesse Hibbs’ The World in My Corner (1956), with Audie Murphy and Barbara Rush.

Murphy plays a welterweight contender from Jersey City who falls for the unhappy daughter (Rush) of his wealthy manager. This film is rarely on television. It’s part of Barbara Rush night on TCM.

At 1 a.m. ET (Wednesday, September 4), TCM shows Vincent Sherman’s The Young Philadelphians (1959) with Rush playing another rich girl, this time the love interest of Paul Newman. This is one of Newman’s best performances, as an ambitious lawyer trying to make his way into high society.

N.S.: The Young Philadelphians featured Robert Vaughn in a supporting role as a young drunk, which got him nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and paved the way to him being cast as the nervous, exhausted gunfighter in The Magnificent Seven the following year. A few years after that, he was cast as secret agent Napoleon Solo, alongside David McCallum, as a Russian, Illya Kiryakin, in The Man from Uncle (1964-1968). Vaughn never retired; he just worked until he died, at 83 (1932-2016). (Actually, his last movie, Gold Star, unofficially opened in 2017, nine months after his death.) Ditto for McCallum, who worked until he died six days after his 90th birthday (1933-2023).

In 2006, when I published my obituary for Bruno Kirby, Vaughn sent me a short but sweet note, praising it. (By the way, Billy Crystal did not murder his former friend, though Kirby may have been left with a knife scar in his back. He died of leukemia.)

By David in TN
monday, september 2, 2024 at 6:30:00 p.m. edt

Something I forgot.

This is Audie Murphy playing a similar character to John Garfield in Body and Soul (1947), which set the standard for boxing films. Garfield was one of the greatest actors of all time. Murphy was in real life, somewhat like the character.

In Don Siegel’s The Gun Runners (1958), based on Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not (novel, 1937), Murphy played the character John Garfield played in The Breaking Point (1950). The latter is considered the better film. Garfield could play most any role.

But Audie Murphy was, in real life, similar to the his role in The Gun Runners.

N.S.: There was only one Audie Murphy.