In a year like no other, schoolteachers in particular have been tasked with the challenging responsibility of maintaining their commitment to educating their students, and they have undoubtedly risen to the occasion. TCM is honoring teachers and showing our appreciation for their resilience by inviting four teachers to present an evening of movies and discuss how these films have been useful, engaging or inspiring in the classroom.
Jim Pieper chooses two films that include dogs as important characters. Lassie Come Home (1943) is MGM’s screen treatment of the classic Eric Knight novel about a Yorkshire collie whose devotion to his young master (Roddy McDowall) is severely tested by a harrowing cross-country journey. Fred M. Wilcox directed. Sounder (1972) also spins a story of a boy and his canine friend – in this case the young son (Kevin Hooks) of a sharecropper family and his beloved dog. The story, set in the Deep South during the Great Depression, is based on the novel by William H. Armstrong. Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson, both Oscar-nominated for their roles, play the boy’s parents.
Pieper’s other choices are two classic comedies: The Gold Rush (1925), starring Charlie Chaplin; and The Music Box (1932), starring Laurel and Hardy.
Lea McMahan selects two sparkling Frank Capra comedies, including It Happened One Night (1934) the movie that established his reputation as a brilliant director. Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable won Oscars for their performances as a runaway heiress and the newspaper reporter who falls for her. The film also won a Best Picture Oscar. Capra also directed Arsenic and Old Lace (1943), a screen version of Joseph Kesselring’s stage hit about a pair of elderly sisters who murder lonely old bachelors to end their “suffering.” Cary Grant stars as the sisters’ nephew who uncovers the gruesome goings-on.
McMahan’s final selection is the beloved MGM musical Singin’ in the Rain (1952), starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds.
Susan Loccke picks two powerful screen dramas adapted from the works of renowned writers. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) is based on the Tennessee Williams play about the disintegration of an aging Southern belle as she visits her sister and brother-in-law in decadent New Orleans. Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden won Oscars for their roles. Among the film’s other nine nominations were one for Kazan’s direction and another for Marlon Brando’s performance as the loutish brother-in-law.
Director Daniel Petrie helmed the screen adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun (1961), written for the screen by writer Lorraine Hansberry and adapted from her original Broadway play. Hansberry’s compelling story follows a family living in segregated Chicago as they attempt to improve their financial situation. Sidney Poitier stars as the family patriarch, who debates with his family how to spend the life insurance money of his recently deceased father. Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, and Diana Sands also star.
Loccke’s remaining selection is the adventure drama Lord of the Flies (1963), based on the novel by William Golding.
Maria Schwab presents two film dramas with music by great American composers. Rhapsody in Blue (1945) is a fictionalized biography of George Gershwin, directed by Irving Rapper for Warner Bros. Robert Alda plays Gershwin, and Oscar Levant, Paul Whiteman and Al Jolson appear as themselves. Levant recorded the piano soundtrack, and the musical score features renditions of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and “An American in Paris.” Show Boat (1951) is the second screen version of the 1927 stage musical based on the Edna Ferber novel, with a score by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. George Sidney directed the MGM film, which stars Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel and Ava Gardner. Among the evergreen songs are “Make Believe,” “Bill,” and “Ol’ Man River.”
Schwab’s other choice is Wuthering Heights (1939), the classic romantic drama based on the novel by Emily Brontë, with William Wyler directing Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon as the conflicted lovers.
