TOURNEUR AND WYLER: TWO DIRECTORS, 50 MOVIES

Frenchman Jacques Tourneur, who died in 1977, made himself quietly at home in Hollywood for nearly three decades. The underrated director, whose work was always competent, frequently compelling, and occasionally brilliant--as in "Out of the Past," shown above--is currently being paid tribute by The Film Society of Lincoln Center . The series, "Whispers in a Distant Corridor: The Cinema of Jacques Tourneur," runs through September 12 at the Walter Reade Theater. Here are a few of the highlights. (For The Film Society of Lincoln Center's salute to director William Wyler--director of "Wuthering Heights," "The Little Foxes" and "The Best Years of Our Lives," shown immediately above--see below.) EDITOR'S NOTE: Click on highlighted names of actors to read one-on-one interviews by Guy Flatley.

JACQUES TOURNEUR

CAT PEOPLE (1942): Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Tom Conway, Jack Holt. This subtle, genuinely scary horror film gave World War II audiences more nightmares than the news from the front did.

"...(producer) Lewton and the director, Jacques Tourneur, employed suggestion, creepy sound effects, and inventive camera angles, leaving everything to the viewers' fear-filled imagination...Some of the sequences, such as the swimming pool, are in their own way classic." --Pauline Kael, "5001 Nights at the Movies"

"There is nothing finer in Lewton's work than the zoo sequences or the swimming-pool nightmare in 'Cat People,' supreme vindications of the menacing nature of shadow, composition, and pace. Short of ideas, Tourneur is a classic instance of cinemeatic fluency, invaluable as a contrast to such opinionated drabs as Zinnemann, Kramer, or latter-day Stevens." --David Thomson, "A Biographical Dictionary of Film"


THE LEOPARD MAN (1943): Dennis O'Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, James Bell, Abner Biberman, Ben Bard, Margaret Landry, Richard Martin. The going gets grisly when both a leopard and a human serial killer are on the loose in a shadowy little town in New Mexico.

"...one of the most remarkable B-films ever to have come out of Hollywood... Depending for much of its effect on a subtle and poetic nudging of the spectator's imagination, the film has a couple of sequences that are truly terrifying." Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Chicago Reader

"Intriguing but flawed thriller about a series of murders in a small New Mexican town blamed on an escaped leopard." --Leonard Maltin, Movie & Video Guide

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943): James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett, James Bell, Christine Gordon, Theresa Harris, Sir Lancelot, Darby Jones, Jeni Le Gon. Lovely nurse Frances Dee finds more sickness than she bargained for on a voodoo-crazed island in the Caribbean.

"It transcends the conventions of the horror genre and remains one of Lewton-Tourneur's most compelling studies in light and darkness. Not to be missed." Don Druker, The Chicago Reader

OUT OF THE PAST (1947): Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Webb, Steve Brodie, Virginia Houston, Dickie Moore. Tough guy Mitchum has reason to mistrust sultry Greer and slimy Douglas in what many consider Hollywood's classiest film noir ever.

"'Out of the Past' is still Tourneur's masterpiece, a civilized treatment of an annihilating melodrama." Andrew Sarris, "The American Cinema"

"A thin but well-shot suspense melodrama, kept from collapsing by the suggestiveness and intensity that the director, Jacques Tourneur, pours on. It's empty trash, but you do keep watching it." Pauline Kael, "5001 Nights at the Movies"

"Bob Mitchum is so very sleepily self-confident with the women that when he slopes into clinches you expect him to snore in their faces." --James Agee, The Nation


STARS IN MY CROWN (1950): Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Dean Stockwell, Juano Hernandez, James Mitchell, Lewis Stone, Alan Hale, Ed Begley, Arthur Hunnicutt, Connie Gilchrist, Jack Lambert, Amanda Blake, James Arness. Joel McCrea plays a small-town 19th-century minister who struggles to pull his son (Dean Stockwell) through a bout of typhoid, stands up to racist goons who menace an innocent resident (Juano Hernandez), and behaves in typically honorable McCrea fashion in this moving, atypical Tourneur film.

"...one of the most neglected films in the history of cinema...A view of the American heartland that's emotionally engaged but still charged with darkness (a typhoid epidemic and a near lynching are among its key episodes), it recalls some of John Ford's best work in its complex perception of goodness." --Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Chicago Reader

"...creates warm feeling for characters and setting. Prime Americana from Joe David Brown's popular novel." --Leonard Maltin, Movie & Video Guide


ALSO IN THE LINCOLN CENTER LINE-UP...


KILLER DOG (1936): Short

HARNESSED RHYTHM (1936): Short

GRAND BOUNCE (1937): Short

ROMANCE OF RADIUM (1937): Short

THEY ALL COME OUT (1939): Rita Johnson, Tom Neal, Edward Gargan, Addison Richards, George Tobias, Ann Shoemaker, Charles Lane

PHANTOM RAIDERS (1940): Walter Pidgeon, Donald Meek, Joseph Schildkraut, Florence Rice, Nat Pendleton, John Carroll, Steffi Duna, Cecil Kellaway, Hugh Beaumont

EXPERIMENT PERILOUS (1944): Hedy Lamarr, George Brent, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker, Carl Esmond, Olive Blakeney, Margaret Wycherly, Stephanie Bachelor, Mary Servoss, Julia Dean

CANYON PASSAGE (1946): Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Brian Donlevy, Patricia Roc, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Fay Holden, Stanley Ridges, Lloyd Bridges, Andy Devine, Rose Hobart, Halliwell Hobbes, James Cardwell, Onslow Stevens

BERLIN EXPRESS (1948): Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin, Paul Lukas, Robert Coote, Reinhold Schunzel, Fritz Kortner, Tom Keene

EASY LIVING (1949): Victor Mature, Lucille Ball, Lizabeth Sctt, Sonny Tufts, Lloyd Nolan, Paul Stewart, Jack Paar, Jeff Donnell, Art Baker, Gordon Jones, Don Beddoe, Ridhard Erdman, William "Bill" Phillips

STRANGER ON HORSEBACK (1955): Joel McCrea, Miroslava, Kevin McCarthy, John McIntire, Nancy Gates, John Carradine, Emile Meyer, James Bell, Walter Baldwin

NIGHTFALL (1956): Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Anne Bancroft, Jocelyn Brando, James Gregory, Frank Albertson, Rudy Bond

CURSE OF THE DEMON (1957): Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall Macginnis, Maurice Denham, Athene Seyler, Liam Redmon

THE FEARMAKERS (1958): Dana Andrews, Dick Foran, Marilee Earle, Veda Ann Borg, Kelly Thordsen, Mel Torme



AND IF YOU'RE IN THE MOOD FOR STILL MORE TOURNEUR, BROWSE THE VIDEO RACKS FOR THESE FILMS THAT--FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER--ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE LINCOLN CENTER RETROSPECTIVE...


DAYS OF GLORY (1944): Tamara Toumanova, Gregory Peck, Alan Reed, Maria Palmer, Lowell Gilmore, Hugo Haas, Glen Vernon

THE FLAME AND THE ARROW (1950): Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Robert Douglas, Aline MacMahon, Nick Cravat, Gordon Gebert, Norman Lloyd, Victor Kilian, Francis Pierlot

ANNE OF THE INDIES (1951): Jean Peters, Louis Jourdan, Debra Paget, Herbert Marshall, Thomas Gomez, James Robertson Justice, Sean McClory, Francis Pierlot

CIRCLE OF DANGER (1951): Ray Milland, Patricia Roc, Marius Goring, Hugh Sinclair, Naunton Wayne, Dora Bryan

WAY OF A GAUCHO (1952): Rory Calhoun, Gene Tierney, Richard Boone, Hugh Marlowe, Everett Sloane, Enrique Chaico, Lidia Campos

APPOINTMENT IN HONDURAS (1953): Glenn Ford, Ann Sheridan, Zachary Scott, Rodolpho Acosta, Jack Elam, Stuart Whitman

WICHITA (1955): Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Wallace Ford, Edgar Buchanan, Peter Graves, Keith Larsen, Carl Benton Reid, John Smith, Walter Sande, Jack Elam, Mae Clarke

GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING (1956): Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr, Leo Gordon, Regis Toomey, Carleton Young




WILLIAM WYLER


While the folks uptown at Lincoln Center are offering moviegoers the chance to discover the relatively obscure Jacques Tourneur, the programmers downtown at Film Forum are putting together a series that will enable us to reappraise the career of William Wyler, widely acknowledged to be a major force in American cinema. Starting on September 13 and running through October10, 34 Wyler films will be shown at the movie mecca on West Houston Street. With the exception of his World War II documentaries and "The Gay Deception"--a 1935 bit of fluff starring Frances Dee as a working girl who wins the lottery and Francis Lederer as a prince who pretends to be a pauper--all of Wyler's talkies will be shown. In order of their original release dates, this is what you've got to look forward to...


THE LOVE TRAP (1929): Laura La Plante, Neil Hamilton, Robert Ellis, Jocelyn Lee, Norman Trevor, Clarissa Selwynne, Rita La Roy

HELL'S HEROES (1930): Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, Fred Kohler, Fritzi Ridgeway, Joe De La Cruz, Walter James, Maria Alba, Buck Connors

THE STORM (1930): Lupe Velez, Paul Cavanagh, William "Stage" Boyd, Alphonse Ethier, Ernie Adams

A HOUSE DIVIDED (1931): Walter Huston, Helen Chandler, Douglass Montgomery, Vivien Oakland, Mary Foy, Lloyd Ingraham, Marjorie Main, Charles Middleton

TOM BROWN OF CULVER (1932): Ben Alexander, Tom Brown, Andy Devine, Eugene Pallette, Slim Summerville, Sidney Toler, H.B. Warner, Richard Cromwell, Russell Hopton, Willard Robertson, Norman Phillips Jr., Tyrone Power, Kit Wain, Betty Blythe, Kit Guard

HER FIRST MATE (1933): Slim Summerville, ZaSu Pitts, Una Merkel, Warren Hymer, Berton Churchill, George F. Marion, Henry Armetta, Jocelyn Lee

COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW (1933): John Barrymore, Bebe Daniels, Doris Kenyon, Isabel Jewell, Melvyn Douglas, Onslow Stevens, Thelma Todd, Mayo Methot, Vincent Sherman, John Qualen, Richard Quine

GLAMOUR (1934): Paul Lukas, Constance Cummings, Philip Reed, Joseph Cawthorn, Doris Lloyd, Luis Alberni, Louise Beavers, May Beatty, Sheila Bromley, Claire Du Brey, Grace Hayle

THE GOOD FAIRY (1935): Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall, Frank Morgan, Reginaldwen, Eric Blore, Beulah Bondi, Alan Hale, Cesar romero, Lujis Alberni, June Clayworth, Al Bridge, Ann Miller, Jane Withers

THESE THREE (1936): Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea, Catherine Doucet, Alma Kruger, Bonita Granville, Marcia Mae Jones, Carmencita Johnson, Mary Anne Durkin, Margaret Hamilton, Walter Brennan, Al Bridge, Joan Barclay

DODSWORTH (1936): Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor, David Niven, Gregory Gaye, Maria Ouspenskaya, John Payne, Spring Byington, Harlan Briggs, Kathryn Marlowe, Odette Myrtil, Charles Halton

COME AND GET IT (1936): (Begun by Howard Hawks, completed by Wyler) Edward Arnold, Joel McCrea, Frances Farmer, Walter Brennan, Andrea Leeds, Frank Shields, Mady Christians, Mary Nash, Clem Bevans, Edwin Maxwell, Cecil Cunningham, Rollo Lloyd, Charles Halton, Robert Lowery, Jack Pennick

DEAD END (1937): Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie, Claire Trevor, Allen Jenkins, Marjorie Main, Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsly, Minor Watson, James Burke, Ward Bond, Elizabeth Risdon, Esther Dale, Don "Red" Barry, Al Bridge, Charles Halton, Robert Homans, Esther Howard

JEZEBEL (1938): Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Fay Bainter, Richard Cromwell, Henry O'Neill, Spring Byington, John Litel, Gordon Oliver, Janet Shaw, Theresa Harris, Margaret Early, Irving Pichel, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Georges Renavent, Trevor Bardette, Al Bridge, Georgia Caine, Ann Codee, Sam McDaniel, Charles Middleton, Jack Norton

WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939): Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson, Donald Crisp, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Hugh Williams, Leo G. Carroll, Miles Mander, Cecil Kellaway, Cecil Humphreys, Sarita Wooton, Rex Downing, Douglas Scott

THE WESTERNER (1940): Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport, Fred Stone, Forrest Tucker, Paul Hurst, Chill Wills, Lilian Bond, Dana Andrews, Charles Halton, Trevor Bardette, Tom Tyler, Lucien Littlefield, Jack Pennick

THE LETTER (1940): Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort, Gale Sondergaard, Bruce Lester, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Sen Yung, Doris Lloyd, Willie Fung, Tetsu Komai, David Bruce, Holmes Herbert, John Ridgely, Douglas Walton

THE LITTLE FOXES (1941): Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Dan Duryea, Patricia Collinge, Charles Dingle, Carl Benton Reid, Jessie Grayson, Russell Hicks, Lucien Littlefield, Virginia Brissac, Al Bridge

MRS. MINIVER (1942): Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Dame May Whitty, Reginald Owen, Henry Travers, Richard Ney, Henry Wilcoxon, Christopher Severn, Brenda Forbes, Clare Sandars, Marie De Becker, Helmut Dantine, John Abbott, Rhys Williams, Billy Bevan, Walter Byron, Tom Conway, Mary Field, Peter Lawford, Aubrey Mather, Ian Wolfe

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946): Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Russell, Gladys George, Roman Bohnen, Ray Collins, Minna Gombell, Walter Baldwin, Steve Cochran, Dorothy Adams, Don Beddoe, Michael Hall, Victor Cutler, Charles Halton, Ray Teal, Erskine Sanford, Al Bridge, Joyce Compton, Heinie Conklin, Claire Du Brey, Blake Edwards, Amelita Ward, Cathy Wyler, Judy Wyler

THE HEIRESS (1949): Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins, Vanessa Brown, Betty Linley, Ray Collins, Mona Freeman, Selena Royle

DETECTIVE STORY (1951): Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O'Donnell, George Macready, Horace McMahon, Gladys George, Joseph Wiseman, Lee Grant, Gerald Mohr, Frank Faylen, Luis Van Rooten, Bert Freed, Warner Anderson, William "Bill" Phillips, Ann Codee, Catherine Doucet

CARRIE (1952): Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins, Eddie Albert, Basil Ruysdael, Ray Teal, Barry Kelley, Mary Murphy, Harry Hayden, Charles Halton, Walter Baldwin, Dorothy Adams, Jacqueline deWit, Royal Dano, Don Beddoe, John Alvin, James Flavin,

ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953): Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power, Harcourt williams, Margaret Rawlings, Tullio Carminati

THE DESPERATE HOURS (1955): Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Arthur Kennedy, Martha Scott, Dewey Martin, Gig Young, Mary Murphy, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton, Alan Reed, Bert Freed, Ray Collins, Whit Bissell, Ray Teal, Walter Baldwin, Ann Doran, Beverly Garland

FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956): Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton, Phyllis Love, Mark Richman, Walter Catlett, Marjorie Main, Robert Fuller, Charles Halton, Frank Jenks, Diane Jergens, William Schallert, Russell Simpson, Frank Sully

THE BIG COUNTRY (1958): Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, Alfonso Bedoyha, Chuck Connors, Dorothy Adams, Carey Paul Peck, Jonathan Peck, Stephen Peck

BEN HUR (1959): Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Sam Jaffe, Finlay Currie, Andre Morell, Marina Berti

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR (1961): Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner, Miriam Hopkins, Fay Bainter, Karen Balkin, Veronica Cartwright

THE COLLECTOR (1965): Terence Stamp, Samantha Eggar, Mona Washbourne, Maurice Dallimore

HOW TO STEAL A MILLION (1966): Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith, Charles Boyer, Fernand Gravet

FUNNY GIRL (1968): Barbra Streisand, Omar sharif, Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Waler Pidgeon, Lee Allen, Mae Questel, Gerald Mohr, Frank Faylen, Lloyd Gough, Tommy Rall, Frank Sully

THE LIBERATION OF L. B. JONES (1970): Lee. J. Cobb, Anthony Zerbe, Roscoe Lee Browne, Lola Falana, Lee Majors, Barbara Hershey, Yaphet Kotto, Chill Wills, Ray Teal