Charlie Baker

On previous New Year's Eves TCM has run marathons of The Thin Man series, and the That's Entertainment films. This year, all five hosts will be officiating together as each has chosen one film to show. New Year's Eve with the TCM Hosts

On Watch TCM but expires today 12/23. From Darkness to Light.

On CBS Sunday Morning: Ben Interviews Werner Herzog

It doesn't compare with They Shoot Horses for utter bleakness, but Schwarzer Kies is one of the darkest noirs I've seen in a while. And it's extremely well done.

Both "Raised to be Rotten" and "Torchy Song" were a lot of fun. Born to Be Bad can't be taken seriously for a minute, so on that level it's a good time, but it's not a good movie. Then there's Torch Song. Campy--but I like Marjorie Rambeau's Oscar-nominated performance as JC"s mother, and she also brings out a casual, lower-key Crawford that is a nice break from her heightened playing in the rest of the movie. Then there's "Two-Faced Woman" which has to be one of the worst musical numbers from an MGM movie. If I remember correctly, they used the same track for a Cyd Charisse number in another movie and it didn't make the final cut. (I think this is noted in That's Entertainment III?) Torch Song also recycles some dance music from Royal Wedding.

The Big Combo, a pretty hard core gritty item, recently played Noir Alley and is still on Watch TCM. In his closing remarks, Eddie remembers an interview with Earl Holliman about him and Lee Van Cleef pushing censorship boundaries in playing two hit men as a gay couple. EH said it was intentional on everyone's part and that they didn't think too many people would catch on. That was then--as Eddie says it's quite obvious to a viewer today.

Eddie hosted last night with noirs from 1944, what he terms the breakout year of the genre. Double Indemnity, Laura, Murder My Sweet, Phantom Lady, all on Watch TCM. Ethan Hawke's double feature repeated tonight has The Gunfighter, a terrific, stark Western with an excellent Gregory Peck performance and a really notable supporting one from Millard Mitchell, who I knew mostly from Singin' in the Rain. And the second one, the cult classic noir Gun Crazy.

Jonathan Haze, original Seymour in Little Shop, died at 95.

Gig Young movies during the day today, and Gena Rowlands tribute tonight.

This past week's Noir Alley The Crooked Way isn't all that remarkable but it does have the striking work of one of Eddie's favorite cinematographers, John Alton. The new documentary on the Merchant/Ivory team is on Watch TCM and what I've seen of it looks very good, especially for fans of their movies. Tonight's Creepy Cinema movies are definitely creepy. Targets, Peter Bogdanovich's first feature as director (he's also in the cast), is a disturbing, somewhat Hitchcockian look at a mass shooting. It's got a lot of polish on an American International budget, and it's got a touching late performance from Boris Karloff. The second one, The Fan, is something else entirely. It's focused on a movie star's stalker turned slasher in 80s horror style I don't recommend this at all, though some have found camp value in the stage musical that the star lady is performing in, as well as some of the over-the-top mayhem. Lauren Bacall, James Garner, and Maureen Stapleton (One exclamation point for each of them--!!!) slummed it in this one. Mitzi Gaynor did what she could in movies and when the roles weren't coming turned to Las Vegas and TV for some snazzy specials. She was smart.

Two stars with new books turned up on CBS Sunday Morning: Shirley MacLaine Ben with Al Pacino with a link for the extended interview

Mario Cantone is back with Ben for Creepy Cinema, starting tonight and on October Thursdays. How could they not begin with two of Mario's favorite women, Joan Crawford (Sudden Fear) and Bette Davis (In This Our Life)?

I liked Three Days of the Condor very much. Redford at his coolest, with good chemistry with Dunaway, Von Sydow and Robertson very good, and slickly capturing the anxious feel of its era. I seem to be reporting on Noir Alley pretty regularly--have to mention this past week's selection, High Wall, a smartly done psychology-of-its-time thriller. Robert Taylor in a demanding role of a man who may have killed his wife and doesn't remember if he did, Audrey Totter dressed down as a coolly efficient psychiatrist, smooth as always Herbert Marshall as the late woman's employer. Some of the details are fudged, and the romantic angle is sort of shoved in late--but it's another good one I hadn't been exposed to. Next week--Detour, which I've seen a number of times, but I won't be able to resist Eddie's commentary. In previewing it, he called it "sixty-eight minutes of grungy glory" and termed Ann Savage a most memorable femme fatale, "a hitchhiking harpy from hell."

Sorry this one got by me. Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Marcello Mastroianni's birth, and TCM devoted last night to him, with a break for Noir Alley. 8 1/2, A Special Day, La Notte, White Nights. Quite the coincidence that he was almost exactly ten years older than his wonderful screen partner, Sophia Loren.

Well, Eddie Muller had a busy weekend. Too bad the Noir Alley, Split Second, isn't on Watch TCM. It's a very watchable mix of atomic bomb paranoia from the 50s and noir, spinning off from the Petrified Forest trope of a mix of types, some criminal, stuck at a remote desert spot. Directed by Dick Powell. Hopefully it turns up again before too long. Earlier on Saturday, Eddie had a conversation with Carl Franklin about his two quite fine neo-noirs, Devil in a Blue Dress, which I know has some fans here, and the very tough One False Move, which is also a reminder that we lost Bill Paxton too soon. Sunday night Eddie was with Francis Ford Coppola, promoting his new opus, but programming two 30s screwball comedies (!). All of that appears to be on Watch TCM. And TCM will be repeating Two for Ones, the double features programmed by filmmakers on Saturday evenings starting next month, in case you didn't see the promos. Some interesting talk and pairings.