“I think half of this belongs to a horse somewhere out in the valley.” –Lee Marvin, upon accepting the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1965 Cat Ballou (Jane Fonda), a naive schoolteacher turned vigilante, sits in jail awaiting her execution by hanging. As a duo of singing cowboy minstrels (Nat King Cole and Stubby…
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1957 film The Wrong Man marks such a departure in tone, storyline, and the typical “Hitch” tropes that, upon first seeing it, many viewers may question whether they are actually watching a Hitchcock movie at all. The movie is a somewhat strange entry in Hitchcock’s repertoire. Based on a true story, it’s less…
Carrie’s choice: Twelve Angry Men (1957) Airing at 10:00PM EST This movie is special in its casting as well as its structure. I love this movie. I love the play–really, I love the concept. I actually saw the remake (with George C. Scott) first, mostly in passing. Then I saw this version. To be honest,…
Jezebel (1938) Airing 12:15PM EST Aside from the superb All About Eve, my favorite Bette Davis film is Jezebel. Some critics consider this film a kind of poor man’s Gone With the Wind, as the two movies share similar themes, but Jezebel does not fade in the shadow of the better-known film. This is due,…
No film director in history had quite as deft a hand in crafting wild, outrageous comedy as Preston Sturges. The director also wrote and produced his own screenplays, in addition to dabbling in acting, songwriting, and playwriting, among other varied interests. A prototypical “Renaissance man,” Sturges brought a wide-ranging knowledge to his films, reflected in…
True Classics 