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Coming up on Turner Classic Movies in May-- rare Leone, Bunuel and Welles

Filed under: Imported

I'm not sure it tops the past April Fools month of 200-plus comedies as TCM's Best Month Ever, but the wealth of rareties found in their May selections makes it a close call, at least for fans of Orson Welles, Luis Bunuel and Sergio Leone.

Monday the 2nd is Rory Calhoun night, which cumulates with an uncut, letterboxed screening of The Colossus of Rhodes, Leone's first picture and probably the best sword-and-sandal epic ever made. It's never been available on videotape in the U.S., and the bootlegs, while not awful, just didn't cut it. This is great news.

(Speaking of Rory, I remember seeing The Texan and his latest wife-- number 9?-- on one of those newlywed game shows, and when the host asked for the most unusual place the couple had "made love," old Rory smirked and said, "On a barstool.")

Rory Calhoun doll, 1961, apparently complete with barstool

Thursday the 5th, from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., five prime Bunuel classics will be shown in a row. Most astonishing is the back-to-back airing of The Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert. Both of these films have only been available on tape in the worst possible prints, when you could find them at all. It's possible they won't look any better on TCM, but I'm hoping for the best.

Best of all, perhaps, are the 20 Orson Welles films they have scheduled for every Wednesday. First up will be the big four: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Lady from Shanghai and Touch of Evil. They'll be showing some lesser-known films he acted in after that, along with almost every other picture he directed. (Only Chimes at Midnight is missing.) The standout in the last group will be The Immortal Story, a 60-minute adaptation of an Isak Dinesen story that he did for French TV in 1968, and the only fiction film he ever did in color (at least of those finished in his lifetime). Again, this has existed in the U.S. only as a bootleg, and it will be great to finally see it looking good (again, I hope).

Welles and Jeanne Moreau on the set, 1968

While these seem to me to be the highlights, there's also some Anthony Mann, G.W. Pabst, Lupe Velez and Leon Errol, Cantinflas (and a dozen or so Mexican comedies and dramas), half-a-day of Boris Karloff movies, and more. TCM is the saving grace of cable TV, and it's the only channel I watch with any regularity. It's so good, I can't help wondering how long it's going to be before they take it away.

Posted by Steve Monaco at April 29, 2005 6:03 PM

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