SFSFF: NAPOLÉON (1927)—The Evening Class Interview With Charles ("Charlie") Tabesh

I first met Charles ("Charlie") Tabesh, the Senior Vice President of Programming for Turner Classic Movies (TCM), when Tabesh and Robert Osborne attended the 2007 summer edition of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF). Not only was Osborne on hand to introduce Camille (1921), but—on behalf of TCM—he accepted SFSFF's commendation to TCM for their continuing contributions to the silent film genre.

At that time I asked Charlie Tabesh to talk about TCM's commitment to the silent film genre and he replied: "As far as the silent film programming and why we do it and why it's important to us, there are three things I can think of off the top of my head that really explain it: One, we are not ad-supported. As a programmer, that's great because it gives us all sorts of flexibility and it allows us to not do things that advertisers would want to try to reach a mass audience, or whatever. Strategically, then, doing something niche like silent film, gives us really passionate advocates for the channel because we're the only place you can get it. There are a lot of people all over the country where the only way you're going to see a silent film is on Turner Classic Movies and that's really key because then you have those people going to their cable affiliates saying, 'I really want TCM. Give me TCM.' From a business perspective, that really helps us. It helps us and we're not hurt by the fact that it's very niche because we don't have to worry about advertisers. That's really good.

"The second thing on that is that our general programming strategy and philosophy is we're the history of movies. We're the history of the film and we're the place to go to learn about it. Of course, that means sometimes that includes newer films and people might complain when we play a newer film, but that also includes silent films. You can't be the history of movies and not include silent movies. [Third,] to narrow that further, we're also very much about context. We don't just put movies up on there; everything is themed and there is an idea or a reason behind it. So not only are we about film history, but in the way we look at film history by looking at actors, or directors, or various themes. No matter what theme you do—if you're doing romantic comedies—silent film is a part of that. They're actors and actresses that were both in silent films and sound films and—if we're going to do a tribute to Garbo—we're going to show both her silent and sound films. Silent films are a piece of film history and that's what TCM is all about."

When it was announced in January that TCM had signed on to be the media sponsor for SFSFF's upcoming international premiere of Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927), fully-restored by Kevin Brownlow with the original score by Carl Davis, I was delighted and contacted Charlie Tabesh to congratulate TCM. My thanks to Heather Sautter for facilitating our recent conversation.

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Michael Guillén: Charlie, thanks for taking a few minutes this morning to talk to me about the international premiere of Abel Gance's Napoléon. You are no stranger to interacting with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I first met you and Robert Osborne back in July of 2007 when you were brought out to San Francisco to be honored by SFSFF for Turner Classic Movies (TCM) silent film programming on Sunday nights.

Charlie Tabesh: That was great. It was really a fantastic experience.

Guillén: In January of this year SFSFF announced that TCM had signed on to be the official media sponsor for the Napoléon premiere. Can you talk to how that came about?

Tabesh: We are friendly and have a good relationship with the various people that are putting it on, both people from SFSFF and Patrick Stanbury and Kevin Brownlow, all of who are working on the project. They approached us about being partners and for TCM this Napoléon premiere is such an important event for film lovers and for film history that we really wanted to be affiliated and associated with it. We figured out a way to work with them and I'm really glad.

Guillén: What does TCM's involvement as an official media sponsor actually entail?

Tabesh: Well, that's not really my area. That gets into the marketing department and how they handle the sponsorship. I know we've done some programming on air in support of it. There was some Napoléon-themed programming in January around it to help talk about it and there will be Abel Gance films coming up in March to lead people into it.

Guillén: Will TCM in any way be filming the event? Or doing any interstitial footage of the event?

Tabesh: No, we won't be filming, partly because the legal rights—as you know—are what have kept this film out of circulation for so long. Filming around the event would be problematic and so we aren't planning on doing that.

Guillén: We've spoken before about TCM's silent film programming and discussed TCM's Young Composers initiative. Is that initiative still in effect?

Tabesh: No. We don't do that particular program any longer. It was a great experience and a great program for us but, to be honest, it was very expensive. But TCM is still funding the scoring of silent films.

Guillén: I'm aware that the third edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood is coming up soon. Do you screen silent films there?

Tabesh: We've programmed silent films the last two years and we will continue to do so this year. Every year we do silent films. Some are big name well-known films and others are more obscure; but, we do have a silent film program.

Guillén: One of the things we discussed when you were in San Francisco was after Robert Osborne commented that the appreciation of silent cinema appears to be a bit stronger on the West Coast due to an advantageous time zone. Your Sunday night programming hits us at prime time, whereas it's airing at midnight on the East Coast. Has that issue ever been addressed?

Tabesh: You're exactly right and that's still true. It's a challenge. Anything we do is a bit of a challenge because we have one feed. It's true that the silent films are smackdab in prime time for the West Coast. The one thing that has maybe changed since we last talked is the prevalence of DVRs so that our audience on the East Coast can now tape the silent films if midnight is too late for them. Again, that applies to all things that we do. We have an 8:00 franchise on Saturday nights that is perfect for the East Coast but it's maybe a little bit early for the West Coast. TCM has to try to balance that and make each coast as happy as we can.

Guillén: In recent years I've been intrigued to witness this resurgence of interest in silent cinema, of which TCM has clearly played a part. Do you have any thoughts on why there has been this rekindled interest in silent cinema?

Tabesh: I hope that's true that TCM has had something to do with that. The only thing I can think of is consistency. We've stayed with silent cinema and it's always been part of our mission so maybe just over time people have had the opportunity to catch some silent programming on air and discovered they're really good films. Initially, when you're not used to it, when it's not something you're familiar with, you might put up a little bit of a block and say, "I don't want to sit there and watch a silent movie. What do you mean no dialogue?" But once you give it a try, you're hooked, depending on the film and what your own tastes are. It's great that a movie like The Artist (2011) has helped to revive an interest in silent film.

Guillén: Can you speak to the amount and/or the quality of silent films TCM has in their library?

Tabesh: Within the Turner library itself we have the MGM and the Warner Brothers silents. Not all of them are in great shape so we've gone through a process of determining which materials are good and what we can save, preserve and score from that list. We also work with various studios whose films we license and we work with a lot of independent companies like Milestone Films, Kino and Jeff Mosino from Flicker Alley who has helped fund a lot of great restoration work. A lot of what we do is directly from the library that Ted Turner bought a few years ago, and a lot of what we do is working with these other companies that are as passionate about silent film who are putting them out on DVD. TCM is their television partner in a lot of cases. It just depends on the project. Sometimes Jeff will approach us and he's so passionate about a particular project and is persuasive enough that TCM goes, "Sold. Let's do it." A good example would be J'Accuse! (1919), the Abel Gance film that TCM will be screening [on Sunday, March 18, 9:00PM PT]. TCM funded that restoration some years ago. We can't do all of the restoration of silent films, but we can do quite a bit.

Guillén: I recall when the newly-restored print of J'Accuse! was screened at SFSFF in 2009. I wasn't aware that TCM was involved in that restoration; but, it's great to hear. I was actually going to ask if TCM has screened any Abel Gance films on the network?

Tabesh: We've screened J'Accuse! and La Roue (1923) and a version of Napoléon, but not the version that will be screening in the Bay Area.

Guillén: Will there be any chance of Brownlow's current restoration of Napoléon ever being screened on TCM?

Tabesh: It's so complicated. I hope we can someday; but, for right now, it's a long shot that it would be done anytime soon.

Guillén: All the more reason to catch the Paramount screening! Another wonderful feature of TCM's programming is your invitation to guest hosts to educate audiences about film. Will you have Brownlow or Carl Davis on TCM to speak about silent cinema?

Tabesh: It's funny you ask that. I was just thinking yesterday—not specifically about that idea—but, thinking about doing something with film historians and having them come on TCM. I don't know. Both Brownlow and Davis are in London, you know. We had Kevin Brownlow out last year at the TCM Classic Film Festival and I was really hoping that Carl Davis—when he was out in San Francisco—would stick around and come to our festival too; but, unfortunately, he's not going to be able to do that. I'm hoping we can invite him out next year or some time down the line. If we can get them here and set up a time for them to co-host movies on TCM, I would love to make that work, with them or other historians.

Guillén: Charlies, thanks again for taking the time today. I want to congratulate TCM on its continuing support of silent cinema. It was fantastic to hear that you signed on to be the media sponsor for the Napoléon screening and—if I don't see you at The Paramount—I will certainly see you in Hollywood at the Classic Film Festival.

Tabesh: Oh good! I'm really glad.

LIZA MINNELLI—The Advocate and TCM Interviews

Along with "fessing up" in this month's issue of The Advocate, Liza Minnelli will sit down with Turner Classic Movies (TCM) host Robert Osborne for Private Screenings: Liza Minnelli, an in-depth interview special slated to premiere Saturday, Dec. 11, at 7:00PM (PT). Having had the opportunity to read both Michael Joseph Gross's Advocate interview with Liza and to preview Osborne's Private Screenings conversation—and as someone committed to the craft of the face-to-face interview—I'm struck by the intriguingly disparate approaches by both interviewers. Whereas Gross takes a hard-hitting (i.e., rude?) gay-centric approach, Osborne takes the high road and treats the iconic star (and her legendary parents Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli) with nothing but tact and respect; clearly an instance of different strokes for different folks.

Favoring Osborne's less-invasive approach, I admired how he solicited Minnelli's memories of her parents rather than focusing exclusively on Minnelli herself. In conjunction with the Private Screenings premiere, TCM will pack two nights (Dec. 11 and Dec. 14) with films starring Garland, directed by Vincente Minnelli and/or starring Liza Minnelli.

"Liza Minnelli has a perspective about Hollywood unlike anyone else," says Osborne. "She is an Academy Award®-winning actress with parents who both were also Oscar winners (Judy Garland in 1939 and Vincente Minnelli in 1958). Her playground was soundstages, where she watched her parents and other film icons work, so she has insights into their world, which became her world. Her story is at once fascinating, dramatic and touching and has never been extensively told before. We're very excited to be able to devote two nights to celebrating the lives and work of this extraordinary family." At the TCM website, Osborne focuses on the special in the December video edition of Now Playing.

Here's the TCM schedule for the two evenings celebrating this iconic family (all times Pacific).

Saturday, December 11, 2010

5:00PM Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)—Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family. Dir.: Vincente Minnelli.

7:00PM Private Screenings: Liza Minnelli (2010)—Premiere broadcast.

8:00PM The Clock (1945)—A G.I. en route to Europe falls in love during a whirlwind two-day leave in New York City. Dir.: Vincente Minnelli.

9:45PM The Pirate (1948)—An actor poses as a notorious pirate to court a romantic Caribbean girl. Dir.: Vincente Minnelli.

11:30PM Private Screenings: Liza Minnelli (2010)—Encore broadcast.

12:30AM An American In Paris (1951)—An American artist finds love in Paris but almost loses it to conflicting loyalties. Dir.: Vincente Minnelli.

2:30AM Gigi (1958)—A Parisian girl is raised to be a kept woman but dreams of love and marriage. Dir.: Vincente Minnelli.

4:30AM Minnelli on Minnelli: Liza Remembers Vincente (1987)—Liza Minnelli shares memories of her famous father while showing clips from his greatest movies. Dir.: Richard Schickel.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

5:00PM Private Screenings: Liza Minnelli (2010)—Encore broadcast.

6:00PM Cabaret (1972)—A young writer gets mixed up with a pleasure-loving singer in the decadent world of 1930s Berlin. Dir.: Bob Fosse.

8:15PM A Matter of Time (1976)—An eccentric countess teaches a hotel chambermaid to follow her dreams. Dir.: Vincente Minnelli.

10:00PM Stepping Out (1991)—A Broadway burnout finds a tap-dancing class into a life-changing experience for all involved. Dir.: Lewis Gilbert.

1:00AM Madame Bovary (1949)—A romantic country girl sacrifices her marriage when she thinks she's found true love. Dir.: Vincente Minnelli.

3:00AM The Bad and the Beautiful (1953)—An unscrupulous movie producer uses everyone around him in his climb to the top. Dir.: Vincente Minnelli.

5:00AM Home From the Hill (1960)—A Southern landowner's family is torn apart by the revelation that he has an illegitimate son. Dir.: Vincente Minnelli.

In defense of Michael Joseph Gross's Advocate interview, I guess someone had to pursue a line of questioning that has lingered at the back of people's minds for decades—namely, why Liza and her mother Judy Garland both married gay men? Whether Liza's grandfather Frank Gumm (Judy's father) and her father Vincente Minnelli were gay? And whether she knew her first husband Peter Allen was gay?—if only to clear an air polluted with prurience. And I appreciate that after a somewhat prickly interview of diminishing returns, Gross approached composer John Kander to query why Liza would be less than forthcoming about such subjects. Kander reminded Gross: "Every performer, if she's good, will make you in the audience feel as if you know her. And the fact is, all you know is performance.... To a lot of people, Liza is a symbol. What she is to me, besides being somebody I love, is an immense talent. What other people choose to make of her—what the audience sees is what the audience needs to see. And what she really is and what all great performers are is a combination of supreme talent, discipline, hard work, self-criticism, all sorts of prosaic things that the people who watch her don't like to deal with because it's too boring."

Addressing his predominantly gay readership, Gross concludes: "So if Liza's never really thought about you, don't take it personally. Her job isn't to think about you. Her job is to make a self for you to think about. In fact, if she spent her time thinking about you, there would be no her for you to know. Instead of wondering what Liza thinks about her gay audience, wonder, How did she make that self—and how, in spite of everything, has she kept it?"

Photos courtesy of The Advocate. Cross-published on Twitch.

TCM—THE EASTWOOD FACTOR

In tandem with its Memorial Day Weekend programming of 72 hours worth of war films, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) pays an all-day birthday tribute to Clint Eastwood on Memorial Day proper, highlighting nine Eastwood performances and premiering The Eastwood Factor produced, written and directed by Richard Schickel, narrated by Academy Award® winner Morgan Freeman. Unbelievable as it might seem, Eastwood achieves 80 come Monday, born in San Francisco on May 31, 1930.

As TCM synopsizes: "This new film presents Clint Eastwood both at his home and visiting film locations and sites where his movies were created, including the costume department and the Eastwood Scoring Stage on the Warner Bros. lot. Eastwood's candid, intelligent and often humorous interviews about his body of work and the choices he made, along with abundant clips from his movies, come together to form an up-close and personal portrait of one of the great movie icons. The end result is a clear reminder of why Eastwood's career as both a great filmmaker and actor has been so enduring."

The Eastwood Factor was originally released by Warner Home Video (WHV) earlier this year as part of its Clint Eastwood: 35 Films, 35 Years at Warner Bros. giftset. TCM will present an extended version of the film, which will be released on home video June 1 in conjunction with the releases of Eastwood's latest film, Invictus (2009).

Also on June 1, WHV will release four new WHV Eastwood collections along with The Eastwood Factor Extended Version as a single DVD title for a suggested retail price of $14.97. The Eastwood collections include The Clint Eastwood Collection, a new Blu-ray box set featuring 10 films on Blu-ray; Essential Eastwood: Director's Collection, on both Blu-ray and DVD; Essential Eastwood: Action Collection; and an Eastwood Blu-ray Promotion, with Blu-ray double features. In addition, Clint Eastwood: 35 Films 35 Years at Warner Bros., the previously released 19-disc collection, will now include the feature-length The Eastwood Factor Extended Version.

I've had a chance to take a look at Schickel's new documentary and find it intriguing for diverging from his more usual practice of letting his subject interviewees speak for themselves without narrative voiceover (a practice we discussed in my interview with him some time back). Schickel has handed that honor over to Morgan Freeman, whose longstanding association with Eastwood recently culminated in Invictus, a project that Freeman brought to Eastwood's attention. Freeman's voiceover skillfully guides us towards an enhanced contextualization of Eastwood's body of work.

Of concern, however, is that The Eastwood Factor is clearly meant for existing Eastwood fans and not so much for those unfamiliar with his iconic work. In its thorough survey of the many films under Eastwood's belt—in which he has either starred and/or directed—the documentary is rife with spoilers and pretty much reveals the ending to each and every film it discusses. Though this provides some appropriate insights into films seen, it was not so much appreciated for films not yet seen. So a big fat spoiler alert needs to be given to anyone planning on catching the documentary's world premiere on Monday, May 31, first at 7:30PM and then at its encore screening at 1:15AM (PT).

Here's the schedule for TCM's Memorial Day birthday tribute to Clint Eastwood (all times Pacific).

3:00AM—The First Traveling Saleslady (1956). Co-starring Ginger Rogers, Barry Nelson and Carol Channing. This offbeat, comic western features Ginger Rogers and Carol Channing as a couple of gals trying to sell girdles in the old West. Amazingly, Eastwood plays Channing's love interest.

5:00AM—A Fistful of Dollars (1964). Co-starring Gian Maria Velonté and Marianne Koch. This atmospheric and exciting Sergio Leone spaghetti western is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai film Yojimbo, with Eastwood taking the role played by Toshiro Mifune in the original. Eastwood's character comes into a town with two warring gangs, and he proceeds to play them against each other for his own gain. This film made Eastwood an international star and—thanks to Ennio Morricone's legendary score—changed the way westerns sounded for decades to come.

6:45AM—For a Few Dollars More (1965). Co-starring Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Velonté. Eastwood is back as the nameless gunslinger in this sequel, which finds the character forming an uneasy partnership in order to track down an outlaw. A scene in which Lee Van Cleef strikes a match on the neck of Klaus Kinski is particularly memorable.

9:00AM—The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966). Co-starring Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. Sergio Leone's third film in the Dollars trilogy features Eastwood, Van Cleef and Eli Wallach as three gunmen hunting for a Confederate government treasure chest. After the film's tremendous success, composer Ennio Morricone's theme is now a pop culture icon. A reminder that I transcribed Robert Osborne's on stage conversation with Eli Wallach when The Good, The Bad and the Ugly screened at the first-ever TCM Classic Film Festival.

Noon—Hang 'Em High (1968). Co-starring Inger Stevens, Ed Begley, Ben Johnson, Bruce Dern and Pat Hingle. Continuing the success he enjoyed with spaghetti westerns, Eastwood starred in this American take on the sub-genre. He plays a hanged man who survives and goes on the hunt for the men who strung him up.

2:00PM—Where Eagles Dare (1969). Co-starring Richard Burton, Mary Ure and Michael Hordern. This rip-roaring World War II action flick recaptures the excitement of the old Republic serials. The story involves a group of soldiers sent to rescue an American officer held captive by Germans in a mountain-top castle.

5:00PM—Kelly's Heroes (1970). Co-starring Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland and Carroll O'Connor. Eastwood returns to World War II with this funny, action-filled movie about a gold heist behind enemy lines.

7:30PM—The Eastwood Factor (2010). World television premiere.

9:15PM—Dirty Harry (1971). Co-starring Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni and John Larch. Eastwood introduced one of his greatest characters, rule-bending cop Harry Callahan, in this taut action film about the hunt for a serial killer in San Francisco. TCM premiere.

11:00PM—Magnum Force (1973). Co-starring Hal Holbrook, Mitchell Ryan and David Soul. In this, the first of several sequels to Dirty Harry, Eastwood is back as Callahan, this time involved in an investigation that may lead right back to the police department. This macho thriller was written by John Milius and Michael Cimino. TCM premiere.

1:15AM—The Eastwood Factor (2010). Encore.

Cross-published on Twitch.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL 2010: THE GOOD EARTH (1937)—Onstage Conversation With Luise Rainer

I first learned of Luise Rainer—as with so many other of the creative individuals of her generation—through the diaries of Anaïs Nin. If I recall correctly, they befriended each other about the time that Rainer was separating from her first husband playwright Clifford Odets and what sticks in my memory is Nin's descriptions of Rainer's suffering at the time, especially one episode where she sat on the steps of her home painfully enunciating the word "masochism", which lends credence to the ascription by film historian Emanuel Lefy that Luise Rainer was the "most extreme case of an Oscar® victim in Hollywood mythology" (All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards, Continuum International Publ. 2003, p. 314). It wasn't until years later that I caught Rainer's Oscar®-winning performance as the Chinese peasant woman O-lan in The Good Earth (1937), which came offered to participants at the first-ever TCM Classic Film Festival in a brand new print from Warner Bros., with Rainer—at 100!—present to converse with TCM host Robert Osborne.

The TCM notes for The Good Earth state: "Luise Rainer became the first actor to win two Oscars and the first to score back-to-back wins with a role that gave her fewer lines than the average supporting performance. Playing the devoted, long suffering farmer's wife in Pearl Buck's epic tale of life in a remote Chinese province, she didn't need words. She relied on her expressive eyes and exquisite body language to bring O-Lan to life. The performance was showcased in one of MGM's most impressive productions. The studio had devoted six years to developing this tale of a Chinese family struggling to survive war, famine and a spectacular plague of locusts. The original director, George Hill, shot location footage in China while studio researchers sent hundreds of home furnishings and props back to Hollywood. After Hill's suicide, the project lay dormant for two years until Sidney Franklin took it over. Although MGM production head and "boy wonder" Irving G. Thalberg had originally planned to shoot The Good Earth entirely in China, he eventually had technicians transform 500 acres of Chatworth, CA, into terraced Chinese farmland. This was the last project Thalberg brought to fruition and he fought tirelessly to realize Buck's vision to the fullest. When he died shortly after principal photography ended, Mayer gave Thalberg what he would never take himself—on-screen credit for his work."

Led to the stage of The Egyptian Theatre on the offered arms of two young strong men, Rainer beamed as the audience took to their feet in a cheering standing ovation. The event, however, proved a near disaster. Though Rainer had managed to make it to Hollywood from Vienna inbetween spewing plumes of ash from Iceland's erupting volcanoes, she accidentally broke her hearing aid earlier in the morning and could not hear a word of what Osborne was asking her. With cameras rolling—the conversation was being filmed for future broadcast on TCM—the otherwise poised Robert Osborne seemed momentarily nonplussed until someone from the audience shouted out the suggestion that he write down his questions and rushed to the stage with a notebook pad and pen so he could do so. Ever gracious, Osborne expressed his gratitude to his audience's ingenuity.

Rainer apologized for the fact that she had to limp into the theater assisted by others. Her comment underscored the commonly-held belief of yesteryear's "stars" that they owed glamour to their fans.

Asked how she developed her characterization of O-lan, Rainer said that she first of all fought against the excessive make-up the studios wanted to apply to "turn" her Chinese. "Are you mad?" she told them. She refused to wear such a mask. As an actress who worked "from the inside out", she believed that—if she couldn't become O-lan—no amount of make-up was going to do the trick. She claimed her interpretation was largely gestural, based upon the small gestures she had observed in Chinese women. It's difficult not to address the faint trace of racism in such a comment, let alone that many today believe the role should have rightfully gone to Anna May Wong, who—by MGM's refusal to consider her for the role—faced the most severe disappointment of her career. Despite consideration of what Wong might have brought to the role of O-lan, wide berth must be given to Luise Rainer who had her own issues with the Hollywood system.

On the set during one of the crowd scenes Rainer dropped her pocketbook and as she bent down to look for it she knocked heads with one of the Chinese extras who was helping her search. The extra recoiled, shocked, but then smiled and let out a garbled laugh, and in that moment Rainer knew that this Chinese woman was O-lan and that she would base her character on this woman, who she found demure and loveable.

Asked about working with co-actor Paul Muni, who played her husband Wang Lung, Rainer recalled that he was a "naughty" man who was quite different from her not only in his acting style but how he approached the project. They were never on a first-name basis. She called him "Mr. Muni." Muni's wife would sit at the monitors to make sure her husband looked better than anyone else. "I was not so much in love with him," Rainer admitted.

As for what it was like to work with Louis B. Mayer, Rainer recalled that—in Mayer's eyes—she was "a little crumb". He couldn't make her out because she wasn't interested in becoming a "star." He called her a Frankenstein and said that—if they weren't careful—she would end up ruining MGM. She refused to sit on his knee like the other young actresses and not only was she disinterested in being one of his stars, she didn't even want to be one of the tools in his dream factory. She wanted to create beautiful films and create characters whose feelings she could share with others. It was the process of creating her characters that mattered to her. She didn't believe in "acting"; she believed in being. For her the human personality possessed as many layers as an onion, of which an actor was required to be aware, so that as they peeled back each layer—ranging from murder to love—they could eventually arrive at deep feeling, deep beauty.

It is the warmth of human beings that enhances her own existence, Rainer attested. She recalled that Greta Garbo adored her and her beauty, her face, down to her perfect feet. When Osborne asked her, "What about Luise Rainer today?" she promptly answered, "Here!"

She touched upon her love for her first husband Clifford Odets and how their marriage failed in divorce. Her second husband, publisher Robert Knittel, remained by her side for 47 years before his death. She adored him because he saw her as the center of the universe. "As do we," Osborne concluded the session, despite Rainer's protestations that she wanted to have more time with the audience, to answer their questions. Such was not to be.

Cross-published on Twitch. The photograph of Luise Rainer being led into the Egyptian Theatre courtesy of Movie Morlocks.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL 2010: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)—On Stage Conversation with Anjelica & Danny Huston

One of the many fascinating sidebars at the first-ever TCM Classic Film Festival was their tribute to The Hustons: A Hollywood Dynasty. Walter and John Huston were acknowledged with a screening of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); Anjelica Huston with her turn in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989); and her half-brother Danny Huston with his recent performance in The Proposition (2005).

The TCM notes synopsize Treasure of the Sierra Madre: "With this 1948 Western, John and Walter Huston went into the record books as the first father and son to win Oscars and, eventually, two thirds of the first family to produce three generations of Oscar winners (including Anjelica Huston). Rarely have the awards been so well-deserved. Sadly, the film and star Humphrey Bogart didn't do as well. In fact, though most critics now hail Bogie's Fred C. Dobbs as his best performance, he wasn't even nominated. Perhaps his decidedly unsympathetic portrayal of paranoia was too far ahead of its time. Indeed, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre set new standards for Hollywood. Filmed mostly in Mexico, it was one of the first U.S. films shot almost entirely on location. Its cynical tale of three prospectors divided by greed after they strike it rich pointed to the more adult Westerns of later decades (i.e. Sam Peckinpah's films). B. Traven's novel reminded John Huston of his days with the Mexican Cavalry when he first read it in 1936, and he dreamed of directing his father as Fred C. Dobbs. By the time he got to make the film in 1947, the elder Huston had outgrown the lead, so his son re-shaped the role of the elderly prospector for him. Not only did he have to convince the matinee idol to accept a character role, but on the first day of shooting he had to wrestle his father's false teeth from him to make sure he played it right. Once he heard himself deliver the lines, Walter Huston knew it was the right choice. In fact, he was so good, his son started getting memos from studio management warning him not to let him steal the film from the star. That was hardly a danger; Bogart matched him scene for scene. But when award season rolled around, it was the Hustons who came out on top, with honors from the Academy, the Golden Globes, the New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review."

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is not only my favorite Humphrey Bogart film but, quite possibly, one of my top 10 favorite films. I have seen it countless times on television, and a few times in movie theaters, but never in such a pristine print as shown at the TCM Classic Film Festival. I love it for many reasons, from Bogart's ability to play the greed-addled Fred C. Dobbs to Alfonso Bedoya needing "no stinkin' badges"; every performance in this film is outstanding and exquisitely embodied. Walter Huston's jig at finding gold matches my enthusiasm for this timeless B. Traven story. I attended TCM's morning screening of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in Grauman's Chinese Theater with Anjelica and Danny Huston present to introduce the film by way of an on-stage conversation with TCM host Robert Osborne.

* * *

Robert Osborne: I have to ask, is it tough being a Huston?

Anjelica Huston: Not this morning.

Osborne: But aren't there expectations that come with being part of the Huston clan?

Anjelica Huston: I think yes; but, we had quite an exacting father. He liked when we put our best foot forward and we tried to do that, right Danny?

Danny Huston. Yes. I mean, he's such a giant of a filmmaker that to measure oneself up against him is quite difficult and one seems to be having to crane one's neck to look up high; but, in a sense, he was very supportive of us as filmmakers and I found this little place beneath this giant that protected me from the harsh rays of the sun. It was a gentle feeling and one of encouragement.

Osborne: Did you talk to your father about his films very often? Or was that something that wasn't talked about much in your family?

Danny Huston: Something that brings me to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was an experience I had at the Cannes Film Festival where he was showing Under the Volcano. The producer, Michael Fitzgerald, and I stayed up all night waiting for the reviews and the following morning Michael Fitzgerald was translating the reviews from French to English. But my father didn't appear to be listening. He had this faraway stare. Michael said, "John? Are you listening?" And he said, "This reminds me of when I stayed up all night to read reviews for a play that my father put on, which he'd wanted to do his entire career: Othello." Walter Huston reached a point in his career where he could put this play on in New York. Othello was applauded at the end but my father had a nagging feeling that maybe it hadn't gone as well as he'd imagined. My father stayed up all night and the following morning read the reviews and they were terrible, absolutely awful, and he thought, "Oh dear. What am I going to do?"

He went to my grandfather's place and rang the doorbell. He could hear laughter and he thought, "Jesus, this is going to be even more difficult than I expected." The door opened. The reviews were all on the floor and my grandfather had tears streaming down his cheeks, but laughing, and laughing with a certain amount of glee. That's the laughter that they called upon for the end of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre when the gold is blown back into the hills....

Anjelica Huston: [Admonishing.] Sssssshhhhh!!

Danny Huston: I suppose you've all seen it?

Osborne: How do you both feel about this film in your father's catalogue? Is it a particular favorite of yours? Have you seen it recently?

Anjelica Huston: I haven't seen this film recently. I think maybe 15 years ago I saw it on television; but, it was the first film actually of my father's in memory; this film and The African Queen. Growing up on the West Coast of Ireland without television and just the movie projector; all the films that I saw were my father's films. The first time that I saw a film that wasn't my father's was something like Gidget Goes Hawaiian. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was a staple at our household and there was always this endless routine of looping the projector—because no one really knew how to loop the projector—so there was always an incredible anticipation of whether, in fact, we could even get the movie projected. Eventually, I guess I've seen this movie maybe ... well, certainly over 50-70 times in my childhood. So I know it pretty well but I can't wait to see it on a big screen again. I know it will bring back a lot of memories. I used to have a little black poodle growing up called Mindy and—every time the donkeys ran—Mindy would run after the donkeys. I always enjoyed that moment. I hope you will too.

Danny Huston: It was a deliciously noisy little projector, wasn't it? And usually it was a very scratchy print. But it was a way for us to say hello to our grandfather and in a way it was a rather glamorous family album. It's so wonderful to be able to share it with you all today. Thank you, Robert, for being such a champion of these films.

Anjelica Huston: I was recently up in Vancouver working on a film and—in my spare time—I just laid in my bed in my hotel room and watched TCM with the great Robert Osborne conducting. I have to say, it's such a pleasure to see these beautiful old movies so carefully and lovingly presented without commercials.

Osborne: I have to tell you a little story. I don't want to take this up from talking to you guys; but, at the Telluride Film Festival a couple of years ago they asked me and Sam Goldwyn, Jr. to present Dodsworth at the festival. Sam's father had produced it and he had come to talk about the making of the film. This was the year that Babel and King of Scotland and all of those films were out—these were the hot new movies—and they don't show old films at the Telluride Film Festival; but, they decided to show Dodsworth. It turned out—it was so incredible—it was the hit of the festival. It went so well, they had such a crowd, that they asked, "Would you and Sam do another [screening]?" We did. They had a third showing and that had never happened before. It was that film of your grandfather's and it's so magnificent—particularly for anybody who really knows Walter Huston from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre—to see him as a dapper, elegant leading man in Dodsworth. To have that legacy in the family is pretty terrific too.

Anjelica Huston: Yes, I actually met my grandfather through film. If it hadn't been for Treasure and Dodsworth, I wouldn't have known anything about him; but, as it is, I have a very clear picture of him as an extraordinary actor because these two parts—as you were saying—are so diverse. It's a treasure for me to have Treasure.

Osborne: Is there a personal favorite of your father's films beyond The Treasure of the Sierra Madre?

Danny Huston: This is definitely my favorite for many reasons, including sentimental reasons; but, the lesser-known films such as Fat City, Wise Blood, The Misfits of course—Eli Wallach was here the other night; what a thrill it was to meet him—there are so many. But if I had to choose, this would be the one.

Another little story, if I may, and hopefully I won't ruin the end. It was a beautiful Spring morning and my father and his father (Walter) decided to go on a picnic. The hillsides were covered with wild flowers. My grandfather and his wife at the time, Nan, got out of the car and they laid out this cloth and my grandfather pounded this flower and hit it again and absolutely destroyed it. Then he turned around and hit another and hit another—the hillside was covered in these beautiful blossoming flowers—and then he stood up and, like the god Pan, pounded another and then pounded another again and Nan said, "Walter! Stop it! What are you doing?" There was this sort of panic in the air. He said, "I'm stopping Springtime." That was apparently the genesis of the wonderful jig dance that he does in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, combined with this ironic laughter in the face of disaster.

Osborne: Now was it true from your family history that your father had a difficult time talking your grandfather into doing this movie?

Danny Huston: I believe he had to take his teeth out and my grandfather was not that happy about it.

Osborne: Because he had been seen in Dodsworth as a very elegant man so Treasure was a big stretch for him?

Danny Huston: I guess. As I say, he was not too keen on taking his teeth out. But it did win him an Oscar®.

Anjelica Huston: Dad asked Jack Nicholson to wear a toupee for Prizzi's Honor. He kind of liked to do that sort of thing.

Osborne: What would you say is maybe the one thing you miss most about your father?

Anjelica Huston: That's a big question. I'd say just the voice. That voice that resonates through my being, every nuance in it, that's what I miss most about my dad.

Danny Huston: Yes, I would agree with that. Sometimes it was like speaking to God.

Anjelica Huston: He played God in The Bible.

Danny Huston: And Noah. And directed it.

Osborne: So what are you doing now? You mentioned, Anjelica, that you were in Vancouver making a movie?

Anjelica Huston: I was making a movie—it's untitled; I wish I could give you a title—with Seth Rogen and a wonderful young director Jonathan Lavine, also with Joe Gordon-Levitt, Bryce Dallas Howard. I think it's going to be a very beautiful film. I play the mother of a boy who gets cancer. It's moving and it's funny and I'm proud to be part of it.

Osborne: And Dan?

Danny Huston: Well, forgive me for being crass; but, You Don't Know Jack airs tonight at 8:00 on HBO. It's about Dr. Kevorkian, with Al Pacino.

Osborne: But since we're here tonight, we'll get another chance to see it because HBO won't show it just this once, right?

Danny Huston: That's correct. I'm competing with myself unfortunately because there's a screening of The Proposition tonight—of which I'm very proud—at the same time.

Osborne: Thank you both so much for participating and adding so much glamour and clout to our festival and for sharing the memories of your father and this movie. We can't thank you enough.

Anjelica Huston: Our honor.

Cross-published on Twitch.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL 2010: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY (1966)—Onstage Conversation With Eli Wallach

Continuing with its celebration of the nonagenarian spirit, the TCM Classic Film Festival paid tribute to 94-year-old Eli Wallach with a morning screening of Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966) at Grauman's Chinese Theater.

As the TCM program notes synopsize: "Often hailed as the greatest of all 'spaghetti Westerns,' this 1966 epic has become an indelible part of our culture. The title The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is now a part of the vocabulary, while Ennio Morricone's influential score created new ways of setting Westerns to music. Director Sergio Leone expanded writer Luciano Vincenzoni's idea for a film about three scoundrels looking for treasure during the Civil War to deal on a grand scale with the absurdity of war. For history buff Leone, that meant making the film as accurate as possible, from the Confederate uniforms to the design of the Betterville Prison Camp (modeled on Andersonville). He also planned it as the third film of his Dollars trilogy, following A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965), which meant getting Clint Eastwood back to star as the good. For the bad and ugly sides of the equation he jumpstarted Lee Van Cleef's career and gave Eli Wallach the role of a lifetime. The production in Spain was lavish and so chaotic Wallach and Eastwood were almost killed (Wallach more than once). But it also provided the epic canvas for Leone's vision of war, greed and personal demons."

The "role of a lifetime" was, of course, that of the scheming, scene-stealing Tuco. Eli Wallach and Robert Osborne introduced The Good, The Bad and the Ugly with an onstage conversation.

* * *

Robert Osborne: Tell us a little bit of how you first got involved with this?

Eli Wallach: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

Osborne: Yeah.

Wallach: Well, I didn't know I was going to wind up as The Ugly! I was in California doing a film and Sergio Leone came and said he wanted to meet me. I said, "All right. What for?" He said, "It's for what they call a 'spaghetti Western'." I asked him, "What is a 'spaghetti Western'?" I had no idea what the hell a "spaghetti Western" was; but, he showed me the credit at the beginning of his movie. He comes across and then a gun comes in and shoots him right off the screen and I thought, "Anybody who can do that, I'll work for him."

Osborne: What was that experience like?

Wallach: With Leone?

Osborne: Yeah.

Wallach: I'll tell one little quick story.

Osborne: You tell as many stories as you want.

Wallach: He said, "I don't want you to put a gun in your holster." I said, "Where do I put it?" He said, "Look, you have a rope around your neck and in your hand is a gun and when I say, 'Action!', you go like this [Wallach makes a whooshing sound]. I said, "Will you show me?" He said, "Don't put the gun in the holster. Don't." He put the rope around his neck, he had the gun, and he went like this and the gun missed his hand and hit him in the groin. He said to me, "All right, Eli, just put it in your pocket." For the rest of the movie I never had a holster. I kept my gun in my pocket.

Osborne: Problem solved! Was that a good experience over there in Spain? Did you love traveling to Spain and working over there?

Wallach: Spain and Italy. Yeah, I enjoyed it. Spain is a beautiful country, beautiful, and it was a joy to work there.

Osborne: And how about Clint Eastwood?

Wallach: Clint? He said to me, "Don't show off. This is my third Italian movie and I know it's very dangerous. Don't put events. Don't be showing off." I said, "What do I do?" He said, "Act." And so that's what I did.

Osborne: And you did it very well.

Wallach: Thank you.

Osborne: Your first role was in Baby Doll in 1956. Why did it take so long to get you to do a movie? And I've always wanted to ask: there's always been the story that you were the first one offered the role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity, which you turned down supposedly to do Camino Real on Broadway? Is that true?

Wallach: Correct.

Osborne: Did you ever regret that?

Wallach: No, because I chose to do what I did. I was in the Army for five years in World War II. I wound up as a captain in the medical administrative corps. I was in Berlin in 1945 two months after Hitler committed suicide and then they were going to ship me to Japan; but, then the bomb went off and I went home, after five years. Work is what intrigued me. As a matter of fact, in the hospital we put together plays and I always wound up as Hitler. It was very interesting.

Osborne: So movies didn't intrigue you that much then?

Wallach: No. For the first five years after I came out of the Army, I spent with my wife [Anne Jackson] on the stage doing the plays of Tennessee Williams. For 10 years I didn't do any movies. I wasn't involved with movies. The stage was what attracted me and what I needed to do. Then I got a job with Elia Kazan directing the play then the movie Baby Doll by Tennessee Williams. That was my first film.

Osborne: How did you like film acting once you started getting into it?

Wallach: Oh, I loved it.

Osborne: The process?

Wallach: Yeah. I made a movie here not long ago with a lady named Kate Winslett called The Holiday.

Osborne: You've never stopped working. You have two films coming out this year. You had two last year. Two the year before.

Wallach: I never stop. When I die, I'll stop. Though at my age I always say, "How old am I?"

Osborne: I don't know. I would have to look that up on IMDb.

Wallach: On what?

Osborne: IMDb.

Wallach: I'm 94 years old.

Osborne: As an actor, what haven't you done that you would like to do? You've done so many varied parts and characters....

Wallach: You mentioned From Here to Eternity. I was set to do a play by Tennessee Williams called Camino Real and they didn't have the money so I auditioned for the movie called From Here to Eternity. The producer said, "He doesn't look Italian enough." So I said, "I've been playing an Italian by Tennessee Williams for a year and a half. What do you mean I can't?!" He said, "You'll have to do an audition." I said, "All right." I did the audition and I got the job for From Here to Eternity. And then the money came through for the play. Now I had to choose. The play? Or the movie? And I chose the play. You know who played the role of Maggio in the movie? Frank Sinatra. Every time he'd see me, he'd say, 'Hello, you crazy actor!' " But we were good friends.

Osborne: You also made the famous The Misfits for John Huston with that incredible cast, you being one of them: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter. Incredible people. Tell us a little bit about that experience.

Wallach: I knew Marilyn. She had come to New York in a scubble with the movies here. She came, we met, and we learned about a relationship and she got the part in this movie that her husband Arthur Miller was going to put on. I was going to be under the type "A Marilyn Monroe movie", then Clark Gable came in so I moved over one. Then came Montgomery Clift and I moved over two. And then came Thelma Ritter. She said, "I'll do it but I have to be first under the title." I wound up on Third Avenue somewhere! I learned my lesson because they were a wonderful team of actors and John Huston was marvelous.

The first day I worked with Clark Gable, I was sitting in my truck and he was standing and leaning. John Huston said, "Action!" and I kept looking at Gable and I was thinking, "He's the King of the Movies! I hope he doesn't know I never saw Gone With the Wind." He looked at me and he went [Wallach imitated Gable garbling his words] and he couldn't remember what the hell I did or where I was from: Brooklyn. Right? So Huston said, "I said action!" Then he said, "Forget it" and he ordered a drink for each one of us. And we hooked together. From then on we were a great couple.

Osborne: What about Huston as a director compared with the other directors that you've worked with?

Wallach: He was the best. He was doing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and his father Walter Huston was playing one of the big roles. I loved that John Huston said to his father, "Listen, you're going to be in this movie and I want you to take out your teeth." His father was a huge star on Broadway, right? But he took out his teeth. I wasn't going to take out mine.

Osborne: You say Huston was the best. What made him the best? Compared to the others?

Wallach: He didn't say, "You have to do it this way or that way or move this way. Impress me." And I worked to play that movie for a reason in dealing with the people in the movie, not with the director. But he was very helpful. Wonderful.

Osborne: Was Elia Kazan as a director on film different than when he directed you on stage?

Wallach: I wouldn't say that. But he did say a very interesting thing. He said, "In the movies, all the crew people who are making the movie, when they're ready they say to the director, 'We're ready' and then the director usually says, 'Action!' " Kazan said to me, "Listen. Let them take all the time they want to achieve what they want—the set, the scenery, and all of that—because when you're playing your scene where they burn down the cotton gin, you turn your back to the audience and take your time, the same amount of time they took, and when you're ready just signal with your hand and I'll say, 'Go ahead.' " That was the way he directed. He directed me and I played it and he didn't have to say, "This way or that way. Never." I loved working with him.

When I did my first movie with Clint Eastwood, Mystic River, he said to me, "I'm doing a movie up in Boston and I'd like you to be in it." I said, "All right. How many weeks?" He said, "One day." I said, "One day?!" He said, "Oh, c'mon, it will be a reunion." So I went for that one day and it was a great experience because—the way he directed me?—he said, "How are you, Eli?" I said, "Good." He said, "You ready?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "So do it."

Osborne: Any directors you wouldn't want to work with again? We won't tell them.

Wallach: I always made peace with the people I've worked with. I listened to what they had to say. But then I would adjust to what my needs were. And they were helpful to me. I've worked with some great directors.

Osborne: Who are some of the other favorites you've worked with?

Wallach: John Sturges on The Magnificent Seven.

Osborne: Not a bad movie.

Wallach: Oooooh, wow. [At this juncture Wallach asked Osborne if he could share something.] The music in movies always impressed me. Ready? [He pulled out a birthday card that—when opened—played Morricone's theme song to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.]

Osborne: That's great.

Wallach: [Coyly] You're a treat.

Osborne: You're a treat! My God. You're terrific, just terrific. I love your stories, we love your work, you've done such great work and we so appreciate you and appreciate your taking the time to come and join us and making this film festival so important.

Wallach: And I have a sharp thank you to Turner Classic Movies for a reason: they put the movie on! You don't have to sit through 18 commercials.

Osborne: I often think it's so unfair. I don't know why—when movies first went on television, back in the days when television needed movies terribly—why they didn't make a rule back then that they could only show a movie uncut. You could put commercials on before or after but not during the movie. But they let that get away from them and I think it's such a serious damage done to movies because of the rhythm of a movie. I'm very proud of that about TCM.

Wallach: Well, I'm glad you asked me to be here.

Osborne: We're thrilled to have you here and, again, we love your lovely wife Anne Jackson, and we love you, thank you.

05/11/10 UPDATE: "[S]o much of what we remember vividly from Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) can be traced to the words which laid the foundation for the imagery with which Leone and his stars fashioned this memorable movie," writes Dennis Cozzallio at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, as preface to his obit tribute to screenwriter Furio Scarpelli.

Cross-published on Twitch.