tcm alert thread (Jun '23 - tcm alert: dead)

Alright, who watched xpost Nightmare Alley? I saw most of it, but was very sleepy---and passed out for a while, having a dream about the characters which I can *almost* remember, through a translucent, yet blurry and unshakable carny tent flap--- a few questions:
What was the business with the bottles? Wiki says Stan accidently gave Pete the bottle of wood alcohol, rather than the moonshine he, Stan, had just purchased (atypically enough, according to the seller's comments). But Zeena says she kept it in her trunk, which Stan does have access to, since it sits unlocked, in an open area: we see him doing some kind of switcheroo *after* Pete's fatal imbibing. I thought, initially, that Pete helped himself to the easily available wood alchohol, after finishing the moonshine, but there seems to be some shine left? Anyway, something about Stan being the cunning sort re the code, but kinda slipping into self-monitor darkness re psychopathic detailing, how to get from point A to the main goal, acquiring the code.
And this foreshadows the way he finds his way toward the biggest pay-off of all (also lured by the evil shrink, who may not have a clear idea of why she tests Stanton The Great at first; they find each other). But does he also come to believe that he has a real degree of psychic power, despite the element of deceit, and that the latter is a means to a benevolent, healing end? Is that right? Or is he just pretty much aware of bullshitting Molly, and the goal is not money for the church, and the church for psychic healing, but just for the Big Score?
(Also, what is the deal with Molly and Bruno? He seems like a jealous father-boyfriend figure, and "You gotta marry her now," when Stan and Molly have just been hanging out--suppose the book made it seem like they'd been doing more than that--anybody read the book? Gotta find that.)

So I get that Stan is the unstable product of the system, the orphanages and all, at least according to him, and that his smarts and drive can veer off course, but I just couldn't quite track his course (shoulda grabbed a coffee).

I saw NA again a few months ago, and the short answer, i think, is "a little of all that."

The book is apparently a lot more raw and fetid, no surprise there.

Nightmare Alley

Thanks---just realized I have the book, in this Library of America omnibus:
Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s
The Postman Always Rings Twice • They Shoot Horses, Don't They? • Thieves Like Us • The Big Clock •
Nightmare Alley • I Married a Dead Man
notes etc.:
http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=1#sthash.etEUDNMd.dpuf

detour and glass key last night.

Detour was a muddy print with iffy sound but what a humdinger! Darker than a german chocolate cake and grittier than a mississippi dirt road. Only an hour but packed with sharp turns, great camera work and the battiest, angriest, hottest dame you'll ever see in Ann Savage. Two weeks of filming!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFXQqEoNofA

Glass Key was spectacular, probably even better. Clearly the antecedent of Miller's Crossing, good call pointing that out. Veronica Lake is an angel straight from heaven, Alan Ladd is an excellent tough guy and Bendix is the meanest, most sadistic, vaguely homoerotic heavy you're likely to find.

Well Miller's Crossing is obv based on the Glass Key. I vaguely remember also bits from the Dain Curse? Meanwhile Yojimbo, and then A Fistful Of Dollars, and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing also basically pull from elements of the Glass Key.

precedent, not antecedent duh

Isn't most of that stuff traced back to some old Italian play called "He Serves Two Masters"?

i wouldn't know but it certainly smacks of commedia archetype

Not so much for plot, but for tone and feel, if you're looking for something else with a possible influence on the Coens, I highly recommend On Dangerous Ground which is coming up later in the summer.

Goldoni was the playwright's name

Just realized TCM did put up a non-PDF version of the schedule:
http://summerofdarkness.tcm.com/#/schedule

courtesy of the Nitrate Diva---Australian poster:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CHe2QMfUkAEmSLD.jpg

Nightmare Alley was spectacular; unsurprised to note that the off-brand upswing at the very end was entirely studio created and forced on. Would love to double feature this with Freaks someday.
many xxps to Dow: The film presents it as Stan giving Pete the bottle of wood alcohol accidentally and believed (reasonably, as he took a slug himself and thought it was garbage) that he gave him the moonshine. So it's accidental but predestined as per the tarot reading of earlier... he didn't mean to kill him, but with this film's dark ethos, you can argue he was an instrument perhaps more willing than not to allow fate to flow through.
as per the "does he really buy this shit" question; he does seem to believe he's fully justified in his actions. he's certainly working hard to give himself the patina of good intentions but there's a cold subconscious plotting right under the surface.
i LOVED the scene with Molly and Bruno, old carny hands who've seen this act played out before, immediately recognizing, digesting and cynically moving forward with the necessary ends. no discussion, no chance for apology but a definite presumption that they must already be fucking since they're young, we're old and washed up so let's push em to be honest moral kids. which they're not! but there's presumption of circus code of ethics there.

Thanks, forks!
Yeah, early on, he says something like "I'm strange, I can't think about anybody but myself," and the way he tells it, he was dumped in a bad orphanage by his parents; he knows he doesn't fit in anyhwere, but he's eager to claw his way into some safe place, where he can eat his fill, finally. But he gets that other people seem to fit in society, and he wants to justify what he does, be an acceptable minister, with his own church of psychic healing---success in show biz, where he must know or sense that most people get that he's got some kind of gimmick---that kind of acceptance just isn't enough. So yeah I guess the con is conning himself, which may even be necessary, up to a point, but it's like the chef or chemist partaking too much of his own product. He isn't prepared for the consequences of his drive and magnetism---casting the star Tyrone Power, watching him go too far and melt down, might've been too disturbing for audiences seeking the new normal, in the aftermath of WWII; it's fairly disquieting even now.
Tonight, after the epic overdrive of Greed, a couple of Japanese thrillers I hadn't heard of, Zero Focus and Castle of Sand. I've found a few promising descriptions---anybody seem 'em?

I've seen Zero Focus, thought it was really good. I have Greed and Castle of Sand set to record.

this is the studio cut of greed, right? taping nonetheless as i never saw it.

i agree with your assessment there dow; part of the noir sensibility is that we all THINK we can figure out where we're supposed to fit in but there's no hope for mugs like us.
Power is wonderful in Nightmare alley i thought; totally believable and enmeshed in the character.

omg I've never seen "Greed"! :D

TCM is doing an insect monster marathon on June 18 with The Fly, Mothra, Them, The Wasp Woman, The Swarm and The Cosmic Monster
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/1096952%7C1096953/Bugging-Out.html

insect monsters? Almost too-excellent summer-appropriate programming.
What did yall think of Greed?!

watched Born to Kill last night... such a by the numbers story that it's hard to recommend but some intentionally shibboleth-crying plot points (lots of "i'm getting married but we can still fuck" threads seem out of place for the late forties) keep it lively, plus good direction and some amazing acting. Lawrence Tierney in particularly believable as a sociopathic heavy; that guy is hard boiled.

Tierney was the real deal.

Wish TCM wasn't a subscription only channel here in Jersey City (Verizon).

I enjoyed Zero Focus quite a bit ... slow-paced but twisty and dreadful throughout, lots of dark black-and-white cinematography of long train rides from Tokyo to the desolate north. The plot hangs on elements that could only work in the Japan of that time: an arranged marriage, 'war orphan' ex-prostitutes, the way that family and police attitudes toward suicide create opportunities for deception and murder.

As far as I can tell, no one has a clue what the title means.

Boy that Ann Savage performance in Detour is something else!

Right? Just A+ hot crazy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1OM5-kGeDo

Schedule for tomorrow:

Friday, June 19
6:00 AM CORNERED (1945)
7:45 AM CRACK-UP (1946)
9:30 AM GILDA (1946)
11:30 AM THE BIG SLEEP (1946)
1:30 PM THE KILLERS (1946)
3:15 PM NOBODY LIVES FOREVER (1946)
5:00 PM NOCTURNE (1946)
6:30 PM CROSSFIRE (1947)
8:00 PM HOLLOW TRIUMPH (1948)
9:45 PM MYSTERY STREET (1950)
11:30 PM BORDER INCIDENT (1949)
1:15 AM THE PEOPLE AGAINST O'HARA (1951)
3:15 AM GET CARTER (1971)

Big Sleep the obvious classic

Get Carter is spectacular if you've never seen it; looking forward to gilda and taping it all
watched most of danger signal last night; it's an odd relationship anxiety film but it wasn't killing me

i watched crossfire in a jewish identity in film class in undergrad. decent noir starring Robert Mitchum that came out the same year as Gentleman's Agreement.

The novel was about a homophobic murder, so they had to cahnge it to antisemitism.

films about antisemitism in 1947 were still fairly controversial themselves

In another sign of the times, films about Catholic priests in 1947 were very uncontroversial.

yes that is true Mordy, but antigay themes were literally unfilmable since the Production Code was raised against Franklin Pangborn.

Still kind of cheesed off that Thief was removed from tonight's 3:15 slot.

I DVR'd Hollow Triumph just because the title is close to Bitter Victory. I'm sure it won't be as good, though.

Is Border Incident the Anthony Mann movie with Ricardo Montalban?

Yep!

I remember seeing part of it and thinking it was pretty good, meant to follow up later.

I can't believe I watched all 15 chapters of that Batman serial. Or that I'm going to watch the 1949 Batman serial starting next week.

I actually would've done that if they had more than 1 part up per week...

Wouldn't have been possible without a DVR.

watched Gilda, great film throughout but HAYWORTH oh my god
http://38.media.tumblr.com/b973645987e56a353c78511635b37150/tumblr_mg8ad367FO1qaeet6o1_500.gif

http://33.media.tumblr.com/2a8c19623f5fcacb175484054c43687f/tumblr_njowx9kMes1rdfgw4o1_500.gif
http://37.media.tumblr.com/560711b84b32186537673287bf058c1b/tumblr_n08f2yOq321qicfexo2_r1_500.gif
http://24.media.tumblr.com/33c33d15bea71914839d716c0dfd4258/tumblr_n08f2yOq321qicfexo3_r1_500.gif
http://37.media.tumblr.com/715d413b7bc408acafe668fc49fea03a/tumblr_n08f2yOq321qicfexo4_r1_500.gif

i liked her better before she "fixed" her hairline

http://www.demeterclarc.com/wp-content/uploads/images/2010/08/RITA-HAYWORTH-FLOWER.jpg

she's like three scoops of ice cream in a shot glass

o god i need to see that

http://thesouloftheplot.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/hairflip1_gilda.gifhttp://thesouloftheplot.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/hairflip1_gilda.gifhttp://thesouloftheplot.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/hairflip1_gilda.gif

during their marriage, Orson Welles apparently preferred amphetamines and other women.

rly can't believe i haven't seen this. Astaire too? used to be all over Fred&Ginger when i was like 10