TCM's Salute to Fox

Tonight and next Wednesday, TCM is putting the spotlight on 20th Century Fox, which of course is now a part of the Disney conglomeration. I don't know that two nights is enough to do a retrospective for an entire studio, but it's what we're getting. Over the two nights, we're getting 11 movies that cover a 40 span from the 1930s to the 70s. There are 11 films in all, and I've got some brief thoughts on how they fit into a Fox spotlight. I'll spread it out over two parts partly for length, and partly to remind everybody of the movie airing on the 31st closer to the day.

Bright Eyes (8:00 PM tonight). The film that is generally considered to have made Shirley Temple a star, and she was one of the studio's biggest box office draws of the 1930s, so I think this is a worthy selection.

Laura (9:30 PM). Gene Tierney was one of the bigger female stars at Fox in the 40s, certainly when it came to the prestige movies. Laura, while not the first noir and not even the first one at Fox since I think I Wake Up Screaming pretty squarely fits into the noir genre. But I think Laura and Double Indemnity over at Paramount, both released in 1944, really jump-started the noir genre. It also re-introduced moviegoers to Clifton Webb, who was a bankable star for Fox for the next dozen years, so another worthy choice.

All About Eve (11:15 PM). One of Fox's Best Picture Oscar winners, and a landmark film that still stands the test of time. I think it's another Fox essential.

Gentlemen's Agreement (1:45 AM). Another of Fox's Best Picture winners, although if I'm limited to a dozen movies I don't know that this is one of the ones I pick. As we'll see with the next selection, there's a fair amount of legacy from the 40s that's getting glossed over because of the limited number of movies.

The Black Swan (4:15 AM). Tyrone Power was one of the more bankable stars at Fox for about a 15 year period (excluding World War II), but again, this isn't the Power movie I think I'd select. I think that's because the spotlight is overlooking Fox's history of musicals, which included another of the studio's big names of the 1940s, Betty Grable. There's also Don Ameche, which would lead me to pick something like Alexander's Ragtime Band since it has both Power and Ameche. (The female lead is Fox's musical star before Grable, that being Alice Faye.) The spotlight is also overlooking Linda Darnell, but again, if you're limited to 11 or 12 movies there's a lot you're going to have to overlook.

The Agony and the Ecstasy (5:45 AM). Definitely one I'd jettison in favor of something else. Since we're in the 60s now, I think I'd have to pick Cleopatra, which was bombastically large and iconic, and also had a pretty big effect on the studio since it was such a massive money hole. FXM has been running a whole bunch of B movies from the early 1960s that I always think of as the sort of movies they distributed to try to make a buck to help finance Cleopatra.

Next week, the final five movies.