Thelma Schoonmaker, the widow of director Michael Powell and the renowned film editor, noted particularly for her long collaboration with Martin Scorsese, is the guest programmer for this evening's line-up of movies on TCM. Most have rarely been broadcast on American tv and some may not be available on dvd either. Here's the rundown:
Green For Danger (1946)
8:00 PM ET
A police inspector investigates an operating room death that may be murder. Cast: Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Alastair Sim. Dir: Sidney Gilliat. BW-91 mins.
This is the first film that taught me that if necromancers do exist, they might just be shaped like actor Alastair Sim. Sims' unsettlingly calm and observant police inspector draws the truth out of an intense group of medicos in a wartime hospital. A very young Trevor Howard and Leo Genn are among the memorable staff members in this mystery.
The Edge of the World (1937)
10:00 PM ET
A fisherman fights to prevent changing times from destroying his family. Cast: John Laurie, Belle Chrystall, Eric Berry. Dir: Michael Powell. BW-72 mins, TV-PG
One of the first distinctively different Michael Powell films, shot on a shoestring and against considerable natural and financial odds in the Shetland Islands in a semi-documentary style. The remarkable landscape and unnerving shots of a people clinging to a spot on the sea as well as the strong undercurrent of Celtic darkness and poetry running through it helps to make this brief film unforgettable once it is seen.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
11:30 PM ET
An aging military man looks back on the loves and friends who shaped his life. Cast: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook. Dir: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. C-163 mins, TV-G
A chance to see the recently deceased Deborah Kerr at the height of her red-haired beauty and on the cusp of a great international career. Powell and Pressburger's unique blend of the fanciful, the humorous and the elegaic in the British spirit was, according to some, a thorn in Winston Churchill's government's side because the film suggests (rather gently in retrospect), that being a gentleman and a warrior simultaneously while fighting a world war might not be possible. And of course, there are those of us more than a bit partial to a certain Mr. Roger Livesey and the dashing, yet reserved and thoughtful Anton Walbrook. Now, if only TCM could snag the rights to Dangerous Moonlight(1941) or La Ronde(1951)...
Age Of Consent (1969)
2:30AM ET
An artist runs off to the South Pacific and falls for a young girl there. Cast: James Mason, Helen Mirren, Jack McGowran. Dir: Michael Powell. C-107 mins, Letterbox Format
Haven't seen this in about 15 years, but if memory serves, the sensuality of the Great Barrier Reef, a blooming Helen Mirren, and the quiet magnetism of the unjustly forgotten James Mason, as well as a few rueful truths about time and the artistic impulse enliven this film. This is Michael Powell's last full length film. And there's a very amusing dog companion who competes with the noteworthy scene-stealer Jack McGowran for the comical moments here.
The Seventh Veil (1945)
4:15 AM ET
A concert pianist with amnesia fights to regain her memory. Cast: James Mason, Ann Todd, Herbert Lom. Dir: Compton Bennett. BW-94 mins, TV-PG
Boy, if you haven't seen this Freudian doozie before, you owe it to yourself to tape this one. Lots of psycho-babble from Herbert Lom as Ann Todd's shrink, trying to puzzle out the tangle of emotions she feels for the men in her life, particularly that chilly fellow, Mr. Mason.
