Burt Lancaster

Coming up on TV: Brute Force

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On November 2, Turner Classic Movies will be airing Brute Force (1947).  This Jules Dassin noir is by far the best of the Hollywood prison dramas of the 30s and 40s.  A convict (Burt Lancaster) is taunted by a sadistic guard (Hume Cronyn) and plans an escape. It’s a pretty violent film for the 1940s, and was inspired by the 1946 Battle of Alcatraz in which three cons and two guards were killed.  Charles Bickford, Whit Bissell and Sam Levene are excellent as fellow cons.

It’s on my list of 10 Best Prison Movies.

Coming up on TV: Sweet Smell of Success

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Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of Success

Billy Wilder’s 1957 Sweet Smell of Success contains Tony Curtis’ most subtly acted role.  Curtis is a Broadway press agent who is completely at the mercy of Burt Lancaster’s sadistically nasty columnist.  Many of us have experienced being vulnerable to the caprice of an extremely mean person – Curtis perfectly captures the dread and humiliation of being in that position.  Plays December 6 on TCM.

Coming up on TV: Seven Days in May

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Douglas MacArthur, I mean Burt Lancaster, with Kirk Douglas in Seven Days in May

“I’m suggesting Mr President, there’s a military plot to take over the Government of these United States, next Sunday…”

John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) is a master of the thriller, and his 1964 Seven Days in May is a masterpiece of the paranoid political thriller subgenre.  Edmond O’Brien’s performance is best among outstanding turns by Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Frederic March and Whit Bissell.  Plays November 25 on TCM.

For other great movie choices on TV, see my Movies on TV.