TCM Classic Short Film Tips

THE BIG SLEEP [1946]/B&W/114 mins.

DIRECTED BY: Howard Hawks
WHAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC: From a novel by hard-boiled novelist Raymond Chandler and with a script by literary genius William Faulkner, this noir is as smart and sinister as they come.
HAS INSPIRED THE LIKES OF: Other complex noir tales of corruption like Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974)

If you thought David Lynch’s plot lines were hard to follow, meet the ultimate corkscrew storyline in this film noir so twisted even pulp novelist Raymond Chandler was stumped on key elements of his yarn. Classic noir hero Humphrey Bogart is ultra-cool gumshoe Philip Marlowe hot on the trail of a blackmailer.  But don't get so hung up on plot you miss the really juicy stuff: nymphomaniacs, gambling, murderous thugs, pornographers, double-crosses galore and real-life lovers Bogie and Lauren Bacall trading some steamy sexual patter.

Watch THE BIG SLEEP on TCM.

I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG [1932]/B&W/93 mins.

DIRECTED BY: Mervyn LeRoy
WHAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC: It showed that movies didn't have to be mindless entertainment, but could offer commentary and create social change.
HAS INSPIRED THE LIKES OF: Other crusading social issue dramas like Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line (1988) that also brought about legal change. Cool Hand Luke in 1967 covered similar material of brutal Southern chain gangs, and the Coen brothers offered their own homage to LeRoy's classic in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).

Based on the real-life case of a World War I veteran implicated in a stickup and sentenced to years of hard labor, this gripping expose of brutal Southern chain gangs actually led to their dismantling and earned star Paul Muni an Oscar® nomination for his brilliant caged- animal performance.  Long before crusading stars like George Clooney and Sean Penn came along, this film made Warner Bros.'s reputation as the go-to studio for socially conscious movies.

Watch I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG on TCM.

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN [1952]/Color/103 mins.

DIRECTED BY: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
WHAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC: That unforgettable scene of Gene Kelly dancing his heart out and...singin' in the rain.
HAS INSPIRED THE LIKES OF: A brutally ironic tribute featuring the title song and criminal mayhem in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971).  Also extensively parodied in Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run (1969).

No need for Prozac when you’ve got this perky toe-tapper on the tube.  Probably the most beloved Hollywood movie musical ever made, this sublime mix of twinkling toes and lung power boosts an original, satirical story about Hollywood’s transition from silent to sound. A teenage Debbie Reynolds and a twinkle-toed Gene Kelly make sweet music as the charismatic leads who make life into their personal stage.

Watch SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN on TCM.

THE HUSTLER  [1961]/B&W/134 min.
DIRECTED BY: Robert Rossen
WHAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC: A breakthrough performance by Paul Newman as  a cocky pool player sure he's got the chops to be a winner, but whose  blind confidence and naiveté do him in.
HAS INSPIRED THE LIKES OF: Martin Scorsese, who made a sequel 25  years later with Paul Newman, The Color of Money.

The essence of cool permeates Robert Rossen’s gritty pool hustling  saga thanks to a star-making performance by hunky Paul Newman as a  minnow in a sea of sharks.  Newman would go on to embody the 
irreverent rebel in such classics as Cool Hand Luke and The  Sting. Smalltime pool hustler “Fast” Eddie Felson (Newman) gets a  painful education in the school of hard knocks when he attempts a  billiard show down with the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie  Gleason).  The saga of Eddie’s rise, fall and rebirth was parodied in  the Farrelly Brother’s spoof Kingpin, where the showdown was  relocated to a bowling alley.

Watch THE HUSTLER on TCM

SUNSET BLVD  [1950]/B&W/110 min.
DIRECTED BY: Billy Wilder
WHAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC: Downbeat take on the moviemaking business.   You know a story is pessimistic when it's recounted by a corpse in  flashback, as this one is.
HAS INSPIRED THE LIKES OF: Other dipped-in-cynicism tales of  Hollywood's dark side like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Player, Mulholland Drive, Hollywoodland and The Black Dahlia.

For as long as movies have been made, filmmakers have loved to tear  apart the fantasy of Hollywood make-believe.  A legion of films have  suggested that the Tinsel town dream is rotten to the core, but none 
as potently as Billy Wilder’s battery acid 1950 autopsy of the dream  factory.  A cocky young screenwriter (William Holden) stumbles into  the cob webbed mansion of an aging movie star (Gloria Swanson) and  their twisted romance devolves into L.A. horror noir.  Amazingly, Sunset Blvd has lost none of its bite in the half century  since it was made.

Watch SUNSET BLVD. on TCM

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY [1940]/B&W/112 min.
DIRECTED BY: George Cukor
WHAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC: Hollywood screwball with all the right comic  stuff: great timing, romantic tension, whip smart dialogue and genius  comic performances from leads Hepburn and Grant.
HAS INSPIRED THE LIKES OF: Contemporary romantic slapstick of director Nancy Meyers (e.g. Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday).

You know this isn’t your typical cuddly romantic comedy when Cary  Grant smacks down leading lady Katharine Hepburn in the opening  reel. The Philadelphia Story is a quintessential “screwball”  comedy, so named for its hectic pace, razor wire wit and irreverent  attitude.  Hepburn and Grant get their goof on as a snooty rich girl 
about to be betrothed to a dullard.  Grant is the pickled playboy ex  who puts a hitch in Hepburn’s bridal plans by interfering with her  wedding. A blockbuster in its day, Cukor’s comic masterpiece  won a deserved Best Screenplay for its sassy wit.

Watch THE PHILADELPHIA STORY on TCM

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