What’s on TCM: September 2015

Happy September, everyone! Hope everyone had fun with Summer Under the Stars this year, I know I did. That’s always a hard programming line-up to top, but there’s a lot of very interesting things coming up on TCM in September.

Susan Hayward is September’s Star of the Month and her films will be shown every Thursday night. On Tuesdays, TCM will be running a series called Five Came Back, spotlighting five major American film directors who were involved with World War II by working to create documentaries and other films for the government. The series will include some of these films, as well as their movies that directly deal with the war and show how their wartime experiences changed their styles. This should be an absolutely fascinating series; I’m really looking forward to it.

On September 25, there will be a spotlight on the television career of James Dean. This should definitely be interesting, since these appearances are rarely seen. If you’ve only seen his major Hollywood films and always wanted to see more of his work, this is a golden opportunity.

Without further ado, let’s get on to the rest of the schedule…

Beau Geste (1939)

As some Legionaries approach a fort in the desert, they initially think it’s fully manned with soldiers, but upon closer inspection, they realize all the soldiers are dead and have been posed to look alive from a distance. As they look at the bodies, they find a note on one of them confessing to stealing a valuable sapphire known as the “Blue Water.”

As children, brothers Beau (Gary Cooper), John (Ray Milland), and Digby (Robert Preston) were adopted by their aunt Lady Brandon (Heather Thatcher) and enjoy a happy childhood living with her, her ward Isobel (Susan Hayward), and her heir Augustus (G.P. Huntley). Lady Brandon is the owner of the valuable “Blue Water” sapphire, which, thanks to her husband, is the last valuable asset she owns. When her husband wants to sell it, Beau asks Lady Brandon to let them see it one last time. But while they’re looking at it, the lights suddenly go out and the jewel is gone.

Not wanting to disgrace the family, each of the Geste brothers leaves a note confessing to stealing the jewel and leaves to join the French Foreign Legion. But it isn’t long before their cruel Sergeant Markoff (Brian Donlevy) hears the brothers had been involved in a jewel heist and that Beau is the most likely suspect. When the fort where Beau and John are stationed is attacked, nearly all of their fellow soldiers are killed during battle. Markoff, Beau, and John are the last three standing and Markoff takes the chance to try to make the “Blue Water” sapphire his own.

Beau Geste is a movie that really does have a little something for everyone. It’s got the mystery surrounding the missing jewel, it’s got a story about brotherly love, it’s got lots of thrilling battle scenes, and it has just a little bit of a love story to it. You just don’t see too many movies that have that kind of combination. And if you were to find another movie (that wasn’t another adaptation of the novel “Beau Geste”) that has all of those things, you’d be even harder pressed to find one with such a high-caliber cast and excellent direction. I had a hard time buying a nearly 40-year-old Gary Cooper as a 20-something Beau Geste, but other than that, the cast was great. Although Gary Cooper and Ray Milland are two very recognizable names, Brian Donlevy is a great reason to want to see this movie; his performance as the sadistic Markoff was fantastic.

Beau Geste also had one of the most absolutely intriguing opening scenes I’ve seen in a while. A few Legionaries finding a fort manned by a bunch of corpses and a note confessing to a jewel heist is definitely the kind of opening that makes you want to keep watching the movie. On the whole, I really liked Beau Geste a lot more than I expected to; in fact, it’s one of my favorite movie discoveries in recent memory. Although it was a big hit when it was released, it’s not a movie I hear talked about very often anymore, and that’s really too bad.

The Honey Pot (1967)

After catching a performance of the play “Volpone,” Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) has the idea of playing a prank on some of his former lovers.  He decides to send letters to three of his former lovers — actress Merle McGill (Edie Adams), Princess Dominique (Capucine), and his common law wife Lone Star Crockett Sheridan (Susan Hayward) — telling them he is on his deathbed and his heir has yet to be decided.  Cecil is perfectly healthy, he just wants to see how they react. Cecil hires out of work actor William McFly (Cliff Robertson) to pose as his assistant and help carry out this scheme.

Since Cecil is a very wealthy man, naturally the three women rush to be by his side.  When Lone Star arrives with her personal nurse Sarah Watkins (Maggie Smith) in tow, she is confident that she will inherit his estate since she is his common law wife.  That night, Sarah goes out with William and when she returns, she finds Lone Star dead, looking as though she had overdosed on sleeping pills.  But Sarah knows it couldn’t have been an accidental overdose or suicide.  Even though Lone Star took sleeping pills regularly, Sarah made a point of giving her placebos to take at night so she couldn’t possibly take too many.  Someone else had to have given Lone Star the pills that killed her.

After a police officer pays a visit to question Cecil and his guests, Sarah finds out that Cecil isn’t really dying, it’s all a ridiculous prank.  Since Sarah had told William that Lone Star took sleeping pills, she immediately suspects him of killing her and believes he may be planning to kill Cecil next.  William is innocent, so when Cecil turns up dead, the story only becomes more twisted.

I really enjoyed The Honey Pot.  The entire cast is absolutely wonderful; I positively adored Rex Harrison, Maggie Smith, and Susan Hayward in this. Joesph L. Mankiewicz’s writing and direction is masterful.  The tone of the movie changes sharply from dark comedy to murder mystery, but Mankiewicz was able to make it work. The comedic parts are extremely witty and the murder mystery aspect is loaded with twists to keep you on your toes.  The Honey Pot is one of those movies I’m going to have to watch twice to make sure that I caught all the details.  I’m definitely glad I decided to give this one a chance.

Adam Had Four Sons (1941)

Things couldn’t be better for Adam (Warner Baxter) and Molly (Fay Wray) Stoddard at the turn of the 20th century.  Adam’s business is doing well, they have a beautiful home, and they have four wonderful sons: Jack (Richard Denning), David (Johnny Downs), Chris (Robert Shaw), and Phillip (Charles Lind).  They hire Emilie Gallatin (Ingrid Bergman) to be the boys’ governess and she quickly becomes one of the family.  Times get tough for the Stoddards, though, after Molly dies and Adam loses all his money in a stock market crash.  Unable to keep the family home, he has to send Emilie back home to France, but promises to send for her as soon as he gets the house back.

Seven years later, Adam’s luck has finally turned around and he buys the house back and sends for Emilie.  When Emilie returns, she comes back to find all four boys are now grown up and have all gone into the military and David has some news that surprises the entire family — he’s gotten married.  His new bride Hester (Susan Hayward) puts up a front of being a nice woman, but she really has her sights set on the Stoddard’s fortune and isn’t happy to have Emilie standing in her way.

David gets called to fight in World War I, and while he’s gone, Hester lives with Adam and Emilie.  When Jack comes home for a while, Hester seduces him.  Adam nearly catches them together, but Emilie knows whats happening, so she pretends it was her with Jack.  Adam is shocked and Jack doesn’t want Emilie to be stuck in that awful position, but she knows the truth would only hurt Adam.  But as Hester’s actions continue to tear the family apart, Jack realizes he must tell the truth.

Adam Had Four Sons is an enjoyable, but not great, little drama.  However, if you’re a big fan of Ingrid Bergman or Susan Hayward, this is one you’d definitely be interested in seeing.  Warner Baxter and Fay Wray were no strangers to film audiences in 1941, but Ingrid and Susan were very new to the game at the time.  Adam was only Ingrid Bergman’s second American film and Susan Hayward only had a few credited roles under her belt, but both of them show serious star quality here.  The two of them absolutely steal the movie and are far more memorable than their more experienced co-stars.