“The secret in animating is first to have an everlasting sense of humor, next to be able to see the commonplace in a funny way and most important of all, to be able to sketch your idea so that the other person will think it’s funny.“—Tex Avery, The Dallas Morning News, 1933

At the start of Fred “Tex” Avery’s RED HOT RIDING HOOD (‘43), the Wolf, Red Riding Hood and even Grandma rebel against a traditional rendering of the classic fairy tale and threaten to quit the cartoon right then and there. “Every cartoon studio in Hollywood has done it this way,” Red complains. “I’m pretty sick of it myself,” Grandma chimes in. And just like that, something new had been added, with a cat-calling, zoot-suit-bedecked Wolf cruising Hollywood Blvd.; Red Hot Riding Hood (aka that Sweetheart of Swing) knockin’ ‘em dead at a Hollywood night club; and a slang-slinging Grandma (“Hiya cousin, what’s buzzin?’”) waiting for a wolf of her own in her penthouse digs.

RED HOT RIDING HOOD kicks off TCM’s early morning tribute to Tex Avery, which will easily be the funniest thing you see all day. The cartoons will be preceded by John Needham’s British documentary TEX AVERY: KING OF CARTOONS (‘88). It is an ideal primer into the Avery-verse that charts his legendary career from high school cartoonist through his tenures with Walter Lantz Productions, Warner Bros. and MGM. Along with a generous sampling of clips from his Warner Bros. and MGM cartoons, there are priceless interviews with equally legendary colleagues such as Chuck Jones, Heck Allen and Mike Lah, along with June Foray, the Queen of Cartoons and Joe Adamson, who wrote the essential book, also titled Tex Avery: King of Cartoons. (Coincidence, isn’t it?)

Needham told TCM he was encouraged to make the documentary by Chuck Jones, whom Needham had profiled for the BBC arts series, Omnibus. “He simply said, ‘We should make a film about Tex,” he said. As an Avery fan himself, Needham was all in. “I think it’s his ability to take a gag to the extremes and then take it further and then take it even further,” he said. “Chuck said that he could never copy Tex because he didn’t have a clue what Tex was doing, he just knew that he was a genius. I’m sure I don’t know either, but what he did was incredibly funny.”

The seven cartoons included in the TCM tribute meet the “incredibly funny” standard. They were produced for MGM. These are not as well known or as widely seen as his cartoons for Warner Bros., where, most notably, Avery directed A WILD HARE (’40), the cartoon that established Bugs Bunny’s brash personality. Avery was an outlier at the tony studio that boasted “more stars than there are in the heavens.” MGM did make sparkling and sophisticated romantic comedies directed by the likes of George Cukor and Ernst Lubitsch, but MGM was where clowns went to die.

Buster Keaton wrote in his memoir that signing with MGM was “the worst mistake” of his career. THE CAMERMAN (’28) was an auspicious beginning, but gradually, Keaton lost the lion’s share of his creative control, suffered studio interference and was partnered with Jimmy Durante. The Marx Brothers’ association with the studio likewise began promisingly with A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (‘35), but soon the iconoclastic highs of the brothers’ Paramount films were but a dim memory and the brothers were relegated to playing second fiddle to insipid romantic leads like Kenny Baker and Florence Rice in AT THE CIRCUS (‘39).

But MGM could not tame Tex Avery. Or perhaps studio execs didn’t think animation was worth the time and trouble to meddle with, allowing him to work unimpeded. The best of the cartoons he made for the studio between 1942-55 put the “mad” in madcap, if that’s your idea of a good time. In his book, Adamson observes: “No artist, in any century, on any continent, in any medium, has ever succeeded in creating his own universe as thoroughly and overwhelmingly as Tex Avery.”

You might say that a Tex Avery cartoon is like that proverbial box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get. “Say, what kind of a cartoon is this gonna be, anyway?” asks the title character in SCREWBALL SQUIRREL (‘44), another of the Avery 7 to be featured in TCM’s mini-Avery-palooza. Well, it’s NOT going to be a charming Disney-esque romp with adorable forest creatures. Screwball Squirrel sees to that when he takes one of them behind a tree and violently disposes of him, assuring the audience, “The funny stuff will start as soon as the phone rings.”

BAD LUCK BLACKIE and KING-SIZE CANARY, two masterpieces that are highlights of TCM’s Avery cartoon block, break all rules of the physical world and nature. In the former, a black cat brings instant bad karma each time he crosses the path of a bullying bulldog. At one point, the unfortunate pooch must dodge a succession of falling objects that escalate from a sink to a battleship. In the latter, a chase between a cat, mouse and dog escalates to gigantic proportions thanks to a bottle of Jumbo Gro.

What critic James Agee wrote about the Marx Brothers also applies to Avery in that even lesser Tex is better worth seeing than most other things I can think of. SYMPHONY IN SLANG (’51) is a succession of silly sight gags inspired by a hipster’s arrival at the Pearly Gates. He tells his life story to a befuddled Noah Webster, who pictures literal translations to such phrases as, “I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” “It was raining cats and dogs” and “I died laughing.”

SCREWBALL SQUIRREL features some great self-referential gags, such as the title character peeking ahead to the next scene to figure out what to do next. But the character was so obnoxious that he was actually killed off at the end of his fifth, and final, cartoon.

Avery’s influence is vast. When in THE LITTLE MERMAID (‘89), Sebastian’s jaw drops like an anvil when he spies Ariel nursing an injured Prince Eric, that’s a classic Tex Avery take. THE MASK (‘94) pays direct homage to RED HOT RIDING HOOD when Jim Carrey’s Mask man is undone by nightclub chanteuse Cameron Diaz. And the Tex Avery force is strong in Animaniacs’ helter-skelter pacing and fourth-wall breaking.

But there is nothing like the real thing. No one made cartoons that were loonier. The secret? As Avery told Joe Adamson, he didn’t think in terms of the age of his audience: “I tried to do something I thought I would laugh at if I were to see it on the screen.”

We all have our favorite Oscar winners that we love to watch over and over again. But there are numerous Oscar winners and nominees that have gained new life thanks to TCM, HBO Max and DVD that are definitely worth revisiting. Here are some of my favorites:

RANDOM HARVEST

I interviewed the legendary funny man Carl Reiner a few months before his death and the conversation drifted to RANDOM HARVEST (’42) and how much he loved the romance. Robert Redford is also a fan. In the 1990s, he was planning on doing a remake, and in 2014, it was announced that Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) was hired to pen a remake. The handsome MGM production based on James Hilton’s bestseller starring Ronald Colman and Greer Garson was a huge hit that year and was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Film, Actor for Colman, Actress in a Supporting Role for Susan Peters and Director Mervyn LeRoy. 

Both Colman and Garson had great success in other Hilton adaptations – Colman starred in LOST HORIZON (’37) and Garson made her U.S. film debut and earned her first Best Actress Oscar nomination in GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (’39). RANDOM HARVEST is often overlooked by the other big MGM film released in 1942, William Wyler’s MRS. MINIVER. Not only was the stirring drama about a British family attempting to survive the years of World War II a blockbuster at the box office, but it also won a striking eight Oscars.

But I think RANDOM HARVEST is the more engaging film. It’s hard not to fall in love with this romantic tale with Colman at his most dreamy as a shell-shocked amnesiac veteran of World War I (Colman was wounded in the global conflict) named Smith who falls in love and marries a loving young entertainer (Garson). But Smithy, as Garson’s Paula calls him, is hit by a car on his way to a job interview and wakes up with no memory of the past three years but does remember who he really is – an aristocrat by the name of Charles Rainier.

Will true love reunite these two? The sigh level is very high with RANDOM HARVEST and this love story has a very strong place in my heart.

NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART

I’ve had more than a few people ask me why I like NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART (’44) so much. It’s depressing, they say. It’s downbeat, they say. But I think it’s a chance to see Cary Grant in a rare break out of his “Cary Grant” suave, sophisticated image. Adapted and directed by Clifford Odets from the novel by Richard Llewellyn (How Green Was My Valley), NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART casts Grant as Ernie Mott, a Cockney drifter who returns home to his Ma (Ethel Barrymore).  When he learns that she’s dying of cancer, Ernie stays to help run her second-hand shop. But Ernie can’t stay out of trouble, joining forces with a gangster stealing cars and pursuing the mobster’s wife (June Duprez). 

Meanwhile, his neighbor Aggie (Jane Wyatt) is madly in love with him and tries to save Ernie from a life of crime. The film was generally warmly received, earning four Oscar nominations and winning supporting actress for Barrymore. She shot her scenes during her two-week vacation from her Broadway triumph The Corn Is Green, and the Academy Award transformed the Broadway star into a much-in-demand film actress. She would go on to earn three more Oscar nominations.

Grant, who had earned his first Oscar nomination three years earlier for PENNY SERENADE (‘41), didn’t attend the Academy Awards where Bing Crosby won best actor for GOING MY WAY. Grant never earned another Oscar nomination, but received an Oscar honorary in 1970.

NIGHT MUST FALL

Handsome and charismatic Robert Montgomery was one of MGM’s top leading men in the 1930s, best known for his work in comedies including PRIVATE LIVES (’31) and FORSAKING ALL OTHERS (’34). Though he did an occasional dramatic part, nothing really stretched him as an actor until NIGHT MUST FALL (’37). Montgomery had long been bugging MGM head Louis B. Mayer for better roles. He supposedly allowed Montgomery to do NIGHT MUST FALL because the studio head thought the actor would be embarrassed when the movie failed. Montgomery later said, “they okayed me playing in it because they thought the fan reaction in such a role would humiliate me.” He went so far as to help subsidize the film’s production budget.

Based on the play by Emlyn Williams which ran on Broadway in 1936, NIGHT MUST FALL finds Montgomery playing Danny, a serial killer who just happens to have a trophy from his latest victim—her head—in a hatbox. Danny charms his way into the heart and home of a wealthy elderly woman (Dame May Whitty, reprising her London stage role). Rosalind Russell, who made five films with Montgomery, plays the elderly woman’s niece who has her suspicions about Danny but can’t convince her aunt that she’s in danger. Both Montgomery and Whitty earned Oscar nominations.

Though Montgomery returned to the comedy genre after NIGHT MUST FALL, he began directing films such as LADY IN THE LAKE (’46) and found great success in TV in the 1950s with the anthology series Robert Montgomery Presents, which often featured his daughter Elizabeth.

THE NAKED SPUR

Jimmy Stewart’s image took a 180 degree turn in the 1950s thanks to Alfred Hitchcock with REAR WINDOW (’54) and VERTIGO (’58), but most notably in the five Westerns he made with Anthony Mann. Far from the boy-next-door character he played pre-World War II, Stewart was transformed into conflicted, troubled men – anti-heroes who often could be as villainous as the bad guys who peppered these sagebrush sagas. (Mann also directed Stewart in three non-Westerns).

THE NAKED SPUR (’53), which earned a screenplay Oscar nomination for Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom, is my favorite of their collaborations. Stewart really digs deep into the character of Civil War veteran turned bounty hunter, Howard Kemp. He’s angry and bitter having lost his land during his conflict. Kemp hopes he can get his land back by working as a bounty hunter. And he’s doggedly determined to get outlaw Ben Vandergroat (a fabulously vile Robert Ryan). Along the way, he encounters two men (Millard Mitchell and Ralph Meeker) who join him on his journey. And when he finds Vandergroat, he also discovers he has a young woman (Janet Leigh) with him. Intelligent, often disturbing and brilliantly acted, THE NAKED SPUR is an exceptional exploration of the dark side of humanity.

“Bugsy Malone is like nothing else,” Roger Ebert wrote in his 1976 three-and-a-half-star review. “It’s an original, a charming one.”

Alan Parker’s directorial debut, a one-of-a-kind gangster musical acted out by children (including Scott Baio in the title role and a then-13-year-old Jodie Foster as a sassy nightclub chanteuse), was an early career triumph for Paul Williams. Williams is everything that he wanted to be: an actor, an Oscar-winning songwriter of era-defining hits and composer of iconic movie scores. He’s something else, too: sober. Earlier this month he celebrated just over 30 years of sobriety. “When I got sober, the career I thought I had been gone for 10 years,” he says. “I feel like Lazarus; I’m 80-years-old, and I feel like a tired 34.”

But he’s ebullient talking about BUGSY MALONE, a cult favorite in the United States, but in its native England, it is something of a viewing rite of passage for children, thanks in part to a 1980s stage adaptation by Micky Dolenz. The film itself won four BAFTAs, including Best Screenplay and Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actress for Foster. Williams was nominated for two Golden Globes, including Original Score and Original Song.

He has completed a new musical, Fortunate Sons, about how the Vietnam War draft lottery affects two households. His last major acting role was as ex-lawyer and informant JT on two seasons of the Amazon series, Goliath. “I’ve always said I’m a pretty good songwriter for an out-of-work actor,” he jokes. “Acting is where I got my start.”

Where in the process did you get involved with Bugsy Malone?  

Paul Williams: BUGSY MALONE began as a bedtime story Alan made up for his kids. Every night he put his kids to bed, they said, ‘Tell us more about Bugsy tomorrow night, dad.’ So maybe the answer to that question is that the headwaters of BUGSY MALONE is Alan’s love for his children and his great love for the traditional American gangster film. He found a place where those two things would meet in a way that was really unique.

How did Bugsy Malone come to you? 

PW: Alan Parker liked my songs, but I don’t know where he got the idea to approach me. It was around the time of A STAR IS BORN (for which he co-wrote the Oscar-winning song “Evergreen” with Barbra Streisand). He sent me a batch of beautiful color drawings of the cars, the splurge guns and the sets. Then he sent me the script, and I loved it. I was playing Vegas a lot and when I agreed to do it, he came over to talk to me. I was opening for Liza Minnelli or Olivia Newton John, I don’t remember who. Alan and I sat down at a deli, drank coffee and I was just singing bits and pieces of songs that I thought would be good ideas. I thought we needed to open with a song about Bugsy. It poured out of me. When the marriage is right, that seems to happen with me.

What was your own connection to American gangster movies? Were you a fan?

PW: Oh, my god, I was a huge Humphrey Bogart fan. One of the great times that I ever had was doing THE CHEAP DETECTIVE, because I was playing Elisha Cook’s role from THE MALTESE FALCON. As a little boy, I knew his name before I knew Santa Claus. I remember when I first came back to Hollywood to try and make it as an actor, one of the first things that happened was I walked into a drug store just as (character actor) Royal Dano was walking out. You’ve seen him in a hundred movies. I said, ‘Hiya, Mr. Dano,’ and he snapped his head around and said, ‘Hello, young man.’ I told that story on Carson, and I got a letter from Royal Dano. He said, ‘Although I don’t remember meeting you, it seems to me you were thinner then.’ I love that.

How did you approach writing the songs, because they are songs being lip-synced by children, but they are not children’s songs. 

PW: The script is the Bible. The two basic tasks a songwriter have are to move the story ahead and to display the inner life of the characters. Alan Parker was similar to Jim Henson in that the rule of writing was to not write down to kids, but to write accurately for character and story. The characters Alan wrote were so strong; they are archetypes of the great Warner Bros. characters. Bugsy was John Garfield meets Humphrey Bogart.

Where did the idea come from to have the child actors lip-sync to adult voices?

PW: They got kids that could act, they got kids that could dance, but the songs had intricate rhythms and to find kids who could sing them was a challenge. I thought that if the automobiles are these weird little hybrids that make the sound of an engine but are being pedaled, and the guns shoot cream, then why couldn’t the kids sing with adult voices? It would have the feel of an animated film. It solved the whole problem. The one regret I will have my entire life is that I put another (singing) voice in Jodie Foster’s mouth; one of the great actors in American film history.  That’s a terrible legacy (laughs). I did that with (the character) Beef in PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE. I used a guy named Ray Kennedy who had a great beefy voice, but when I heard Gerritt Graham sing later, I thought maybe I should have given him a shot.

This was before your collaboration with Jim Henson and the Muppets. Was Bugsy Malone a project you personally wanted to take on as something your own children could see?

PW: Bugsy Malone is the one motion picture I’ve written songs for that I’ve seen more than anything that I ever worked on, and there’s a simple reason for it. When my wife and I broke up, I would spend the weekend with my kids and I would plunk them down in front of the TV with pizza and, god bless them, they must have seen BUGSY MALONE for years. Eventually, I learned how to talk to my kids and be a sober real dad, but my kids just love BUGSY.

The closing number, “You Give a Little Love,” is Bugsy Malone’s legacy song, much like “The Rainbow Connection” is for The Muppet Movie. It was even used in a Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial.

PW: That song is pretty much my philosophy. I absolutely believe it. My entire life has proven to me that there is something about the elegance of kindness that has always had a solid return. The core philosophy of BUGSY MALONE is, ‘We could have been anything that we wanted to be/and it’s not too late to change.’

In America, Bugsy Malone received good reviews and is a cult favorite. But it’s huge in England. Why do you think it was so embraced there?

PW: We took it to the stage in the 1980s. Every kid in England, Wales and Ireland, but especially in Great Britain, grew up seeing BUGSY MALONE. It’s like GREASE in this country. Edgar Wright did BUGSY as a kid, which led me to a role in BABY DRIVER. 

Where do you rank Bugsy Malone in the Paul Williams canon?

PW: It is probably the best opportunity I ever had in this life to preach a little kindness. It’s probably the best opportunity I’ve ever been given to express the possibilities and probabilities that we could be anything we want to be. I was the runt of the litter from the Midwest; this little dude who didn’t fit into any world. I just absolutely loved music and movies and without thinking twice, I thought, ‘I’m going to do that.’ I hope BUGSY MALONE inspires that for anyone looking up at the screen and is attracted to the possibilities of telling the truth about themselves in a way that helps someone else.

Bugsy Malone is but one chapter in an incredible life and career. Have you given any thought to writing your autobiography? 

PW: You know what? In recovery we call it an inventory (laughs). I think I’m at a place in my life where I feel like a beginner, like I’m just getting started. I know how idiotic that sounds at 80, but I want three digits on my driver’s license, and I think the one thing that gives me a shot at that is that I love being busy and doing the things that matter most to me, and that’s trying to tell the truth in a way that helps someone else.

In 2012, Robert Osborne interviewed a spry 90-year-old, Doris Day. He, of course, asked all the correct questions a true Day fan would be curious about: when she realized she could sing, how her career in film began and did she consider her serendipitous life to be destiny. A vibrant and gracious Day revealed that she wasn’t nervous when it came to performing, and if you have seen her first film ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS (‘48), her organic ease fits like the exact correct puzzle piece. 

Although she passed almost two years ago, fans the world over still celebrate her iconic status. One of those fans is a public speaker on all things Doris, author of Day at a Time: An Indiana Girl’s Sentimental Journey to Doris Day’s Hollywood and Beyond, Mary Anne Barothy. Her fortune ironically played out like a classic Hollywood script, much like the beginnings of Day’s career. A devotee of Day since childhood, threads of fate connected and Barothy would find herself rubbing shoulders with Hollywood’s elite, astonishingly becoming Day’s live-in secretary, maintaining an active friendship from 1967-1974. 

What was a typical day with Doris like?

Mary Anne Barothy: I lived with Doris in her Beverly Hills home after her TV show [The Doris Day Show] filming ended - December 1972 and ran through June of 1973 on CBS. Her bedroom was just opposite mine in the back. Mine was the front bedroom. She slept with seven of her dogs, and I slept with the other four – Bobo, Charlie, Rudy and Schatzie. She would get up and come into the kitchen where I often fixed her breakfast. Doris loved her dogs and spent time playing with them both indoors and out. Many days she would get ready and bike down to Nate ‘N Al’s Deli for a late breakfast and many times would meet someone, or we would go together for breakfast. Doris loved her fans, and she was very good about answering her fan mail. 

As you know, her passion was animal welfare and she kept up with Actors & Others for Animals and frequently attended board meetings. I went with her and was also a proud member of Actors & Others for Animals. In the summer she would swim in her pool on occasion. She would call friends and once in a while meet someone for lunch or dinner. After dinner, sometimes we would sit in one section of her living room and watch the news. Doris was very down to earth; as I said, she was like a big sister to me. To me, this was an incredible dream come true! It is still hard to believe that I had this awesome opportunity to spend precious time with my idol, Doris Day!

The designer Irene dressed her in high fashion. Did she have a favorite costume/gown?

MB: She never spoke about that, but she looked good in a bathrobe. She just had a way of radiating, looking beautiful no matter what she had on. She always said CALAMITY JANE [‘53] was her favorite movie because she was kind of a tomboy. She never came across that way except for in movies, but she liked to be comfortable. She would ride her bike with shorts on and look very casual and comfortable. I always told her she could put on a paper bag and look good! 

Now that she’s passed, what would she want the world to know about her if anything?

MB: She was a down to earth person and I think some people think celebrity is high and mighty because they are in the movies, and I’d say a religious person without talking about church all the time. She had a passion for animal welfare and that was very important to her and she’d been that way apparently since she was a young person. She just enjoyed life and her friends. She wasn’t one for “I’ve got to be seen here and I’ve got to do this.” Her work was her work, she’d go to the studio to do what she had to do and that was it. 

Your book recounts so many extraordinary memories including that of a conversation with Elvis. If you had to choose one pinch-me moment, what would it be?

MB: When Doris called me and asked me to come work with her. The Christmas she invited me to stay. The fact that she trusted me was so special.

What was it like waking up in your idol’s home walking outside of your room and thinking I live here now?

MB: It was surreal because I wasn’t just staying a night or two, I’m staying here to the fact that I changed my address over. It was all like a movie. Here I am, actually living with her! It was meant to be. She was like a big sister. She made me feel welcome.

Do you have any memorabilia? 

MB: I have some clothes she gave me. My favorite one is the hat she wore when she met me. She gave it to me and then another hat from a movie, a skirt, and top from THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT [1966]. She gave me a ring and an autographed Christian Science book, and that is special. I’ve got many letters and cards she gave me over the years. (Barothy reads a card) “Thanks for doing your own Christmas shopping. I love you Mairzy Doats, you’re the best there is! Always, your friend Clara.” And on the other side, it says, “Merry Christmas from the kids too!” – the dogs. “Mairzy Doats,” she’d sing that once in a while. I’ve saved a lot of these things. Of course, when I do my talks, I use copies. 

What was Beverly Hills like then? 

MB: To me, Beverly Hills, when I lived with Doris Day in her home, was a much more  relaxed city, almost small townish. Doris could ride her bike from her home four blocks down to either Bailey’s Bakery or the classic Beverly Hills deli, Nate N 'Al’s on Beverly Drive. No paparazzi – that would never happen today. I would see Barbara Stanwyck and Fred Astaire at the Beverly Hills Post Office, saw Rosalind Russell at Ralph’s grocery, and would see Loretta Young at Good Shepherd Catholic Church. People appeared to live pretty normal lives. Beverly Hills was a welcoming community and a fun place to be, especially since I was living with Doris in her home.

What would Doris think of the world today?

MB: I think Doris would be concerned about the direction we seem to be going in. Doris was a very religious person without going to church. I learned a lot from her. With people being out of work these days, I think Doris would be very concerned about the welfare of dogs and cats and all animals. As you know, she was a strong animal advocate and was one of the founders of Actors & Others for Animals. When she moved to Carmel, California, she started her own foundation, The Doris Day Animal Foundation, and animal welfare was her number one priority.

Looking back, does it seem like this all really happened to you?

MB: Yeah, it kinda seems surreal, and friends that are big Doris fans, just say, how did that happen? I just followed my dream and that is why when I give talks, I tell people to follow your dream, don’t say oh I could have or I should have; if you really believe in something go for it. All I can say it was meant to be. I drove my parents crazy and drove my teachers crazy, but I got what I wanted. I never would have dreamed that all of this would happen. I mean talk about a dream come true…unreal! “It really happened, I’m not making it up, I’ve got pictures to prove it!”

What are your plans for the future?

MB: I look forward to getting back on the road again to share my “Dream Story With Doris Day” presentations. Due to the pandemic last year, I was not able to do them as people were in lock down. Now, things are opening up and I am doing Zoom but really prefer the in-person talks where I share many photos I’ve taken of Doris over the years, as well as scripts and other Doris Day memorabilia. It’s a fun “sentimental journey.” People can contact me through my website. 

Family dynamics change dramatically and often tragically as parents and grandparents grow older. Some children continue to love their parents in their senior years and care for them when they become infirmed. But others turn their back on their loved ones and forget to “honor thy father and thy mother.”

King Lear, one of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, explores this theme. The elderly King Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters. But he makes a fatal error when he tells his daughters that they must offer florid declarations of love in order to get the land.

The vile Goneril and Regan are effusive in their love and get part of the kingdom. But his beloved Cordelia, the only one who really loves Lear, refuses to be insincere and is disinherited. Lear learns quickly just how Goneril and Regan really feel about him when they go back on their promises to support him. Lear becomes mad as he wanders the land with his faithful Fool. And though he is reunited with Cordelia, it doesn’t end well.

This subject continues to be explored in literature, theater and feature films. In fact, there are three acclaimed films released this year that are all in awards consideration.

Netflix’s DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD is the unique, funny and poignant Sundance Award-winning documentary in which Kirsten Johnson attempts to cope with her sweet widowed father’s dementia by staging increasingly absurdist ways her father could die—body doubles did the stunts—and even stages a mock funeral so he can hear just how much people love him. Anthony Hopkins gives one of his most complex performances in the haunting film THE FATHER, which will be released this December, as a man descending down the rabbit hole of Alzheimer’s when his daughter (Olivia Colman) leaves him in a nursing home in London and moves to Paris to live with her new boyfriend.

And then there’s Sophia Loren’s powerful turn in Netflix’s Italian-language drama THE LIFE AHEAD. The still stunning 86-year-old actress, who won the Best Actress Oscar of 1961 for Vittorio De Sica’s harrowing TWO WOMEN, plays Madame Rosa, a former prostitute living in Naples who is haunted by memories of the Holocaust. Madame Rosa has created her own family as a foster mother to a trio of children born of prostitutes, as well as a loyal, caring group of friends. THE LIFE AHEAD was a family affair for Loren. Her youngest son, Edoardo Ponti, directed and co-wrote this adaptation of a 1975 Romain Gary novel. He said in a recent interview that when they collaborate on a project, “We want to show the world the best of Sophia.” And he did.

There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of one of the most admired films dealing with old age, Leo McCarey’s MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (’37). McCarey is best known for his zany Marx Brothers comedy DUCK SOUP (’33); THE AWFUL TRUTH (‘37), the hilarious screwball comedy for which he won the directing Oscar; the sentimental GOING MY WAY (‘44), which swept the Oscars; and the four-hankie weepie romance AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (‘57).

So, it’s hard to believe the same filmmaker made MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW, a drama so powerful, well-acted and sad that it will stay with you forever. In fact, it may force you to look at the way you treat your ageing parents. Filmmakers such as Orson Welles once said of MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW, “It would make a stone cry.” Jean Renoir, Ernst Lubitsch, Frank Capra, Delmer Daves and Bertrand Tavernier have championed the movie as well. And, it also inspired Yasujiro Ozu’s masterpiece TOKYO STORY (’53).

In a 2010 piece he wrote for Criterion, Tavernier recalled seeing the film for the first time. “The screening remains one of the most powerful moments of the decade for me,” he noted. “The nearly miraculous way in which McCarey manages to avoid the bathos inherent in such a subject, steering clear of sticky pity, of condescension and moralizing sermons – it all transfixed me. It was as though an arrow had struck me and stayed vibrating in my heart. I’ve experienced the same feeling every time I’ve seen the film in the 40 years since.”

Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore give the performances of their storied careers as a longtime married couple who lose their home to a bank foreclosure. Though they have five children, none of their offspring are willing to take them together. So, Bondi goes to live with her son (Thomas Mitchell) where she keeps driving her daughter-in-law (Fay Bainter) and teenage granddaughter (Barbara Read) crazy. Moore doesn’t have it any better moving in with his hard-nosed daughter and lazy son-in-law. The couple reunite for one day in New York City and those scenes are a gut-punch of emotion. And unlike most Hollywood films of the day, it doesn’t end happily for the couple.

Paramount pleaded with McCarey to change the ending to something more upbeat. He refused. Despite good reviews, the film bombed at the box office. Paramount dropped him from their roster. So, he signed with Harry Cohn at Columbia where he made THE AWFUL TRUTH, starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, which was nominated for six Oscars including Best Film, Best Actress and McCarey winning Best Director. But McCarey didn’t forget MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW during his Oscar acceptance speech. He opened it by saying: “Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture.”

Who was the most romantic actor during the Golden Age of Hollywood? For me, it was Paul Henreid. He was tall-6’3”-handsome, with a gorgeous Austrian accent and a nobility and intelligence that could sweep women off their feet. Like that iconic scene in NOW, VOYAGER (‘42) where he lights two cigarettes at once giving one to Bette Davis; or when he utters the words “if I were free, there would be only one thing I’d want to do – prove you’re not immune to happiness. Would you want me to prove it, Charlotte? Tell me you would. Then I’ll go. Why, darling, you are crying.”

And this exchange with Rick (Humphrey Bogart) in his most famous role as the noble resistance leader Victor Laszlo in the Oscar-winning classic CASABLANCA (‘42):

Rick: “Don’t you sometimes wonder if it’s worth all this? I mean what you’re fighting for.”

Victor: “You might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we’ll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.”

But Henreid was so much more than those two roles. He was dashing and sexy as a pirate in the 1945 Technicolor swashbuckling adventure THE SPANISH MAIN, he gave a complex and haunting performance as the mentally troubled composer Robert Schumann in SONG OF LOVE (‘47) and proved he could be a wonderfully vile film noir bad guy in HOLLOW TRIUMPH (‘48).

He also survived the blacklist, directed numerous episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as well as the delicious thriller DEAD RINGER (‘64) with Davis. Even before he came to Hollywood, Henreid made his U.S film debut in the terrific romantic war drama JOAN OF PARIS (‘42); he had been a star on the Vienna stage as a member of the legendary Max Reinhardt’s theater company and also appeared in films. He was offered a movie contract with UFA in Berlin with the caveat that he join the National Socialist Actors Guild of Germany. Henreid turned down the offer.

Henreid went to England where he earned good reviews on the London stage as Prince Albert in 1937 in Victoria Regina. Though he played a sympathetic German in GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (‘39), he was typecast generally in Nazi roles such as in Carol Reed’s classic NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (‘40). He even played an odious German consul in his first Broadway show Elmer Rice’s Flight to the West in 1940. Then came Hollywood. And a name change from Von Hernreid to Henreid.

He was 84 when he died in 1992.

I recently chatted via e-mail with his daughter Monika Henreid, an actress/writer/director who is currently working on a documentary about her father.

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The charming Oscar-nominated 1936 comedy THREE SMART GIRLS made a star out of 14-year-old Deanna Durbin, who not only proved to be a first-rated comic actress but possessed an extraordinary operatic voice. She eventually became the highest paid actress in Hollywood before she bailed from the maddening crowd of Tinseltown with her third husband, director Charles David in 1950, and lived quietly in France until death at 91 in 2013. The only time she thought of returning to the limelight was when she was offered the 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady.

I have been a huge fan of Durbin’s since I was tiny when I watched her on TV. And through getting reacquainted with her on TCM and DVD, my love hasn’t changed. I always feel a lot happier when watching her movies.

But I want to sing the praises of THREE SMART GIRLS director Henry Koster. The classic made him a major player in Hollywood. Koster was a German-Jewish emigre who had left Germany when the Nazis came to power, and he eventually went to Budapest where he met Hungarian-born producer Joe Pasternak while working for Universal in Europe. When Pasternak left Europe to return to Universal in Hollywood, he brought Koster, who could not speak English at the time, with him. Their first collaboration was THREE SMART GIRLS, a delightful fluffy bauble of a comedy that did so well it saved the struggling studio from bankruptcy. (The film also boosted the career of young leading man Ray Milland, who is absolutely a doll in this film.)

Koster spent a lot of time coaching newcomer Durbin—she had only appeared with Judy Garland in the 1936 short “Every Sunday”—and all of his effort paid off handsomely. So handsomely that he directed six of the 10 films Pasternak made with Durbin, including Oscar-nominated ONE HUNDRED MEN AND A GIRL (’37), which cast Durbin opposite legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski.

In 1939, Koster directed Durbin in the fun sequel THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP and the charming FIRST LOVE, in which the uber-handsome Robert Stack gave Durbin her first screen kiss. The last Pasternak/Koster/Durbin collaboration was the very funny IT STARTED WITH EVE (’41) with Charles Laughton and Robert Cummings.

Koster also brought Bud Abbott and Lou Costello to Hollywood. He had seen the comedy duo perform at a nightclub in New York and convinced Universal to put them under contract. Koster had great instincts. The comedy legends made their debut in ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS (’40), and Abbott and Costello went on to become one of the studio’s biggest moneymakers of the 1940s and early 1950s.

When Pasternak left Universal to head a musical unit at MGM, Koster went with him and Durbin’s career suffered after their departure. She did an enjoyable 1943 sequel to the SMART GIRLS series, HERS TO HOLD and a nifty film noir LADY ON A TRAIN (’45), which was produced by her second husband and directed by future spouse David. But audiences’ interest in Durbin waned and her later films were commercial and critical disappointments.

Koster’s career, though, soared. He earned his only Best Director Oscar nomination for the beloved 1947 Christmas movie THE BISHOP’S WIFE, starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven. And he directed Loretta Young, Celeste Holm and Elsa Lanchester to Oscar nominations in COME TO THE STABLE (’49) a heart warmer based on a true story about two French nuns who come arrive in the small New England town of Bethlehem determined to build a children’s hospital.

Then came HARVEY, the sublime1950 adaptation of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit about a whimsical man, Elwood P. Dowd, who has a six-foot invisible rabbit named Harvey has his best friend. Jimmy Stewart, who played the role briefly on Broadway, received his fourth Oscar nomination for his deliciously sweet turn as Dowd. And Josephine Hull is a hoot as his often hysterical and exasperated sister (she received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar). Koster and Stewart teamed up for the taut thriller NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY (’51) and in the 1960s for three light comedies: MR. HOBBS TAKES A VACATION (’62), TAKE HER, SHE’S MINE (’63) and DEAR BRIGITTE (’65).

Koster directed one of my favorite films, MY COUSIN RACHEL (’52), a beautifully-acted adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s romantic thriller starring Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton. The Welsh actor earned a supporting actor Oscar nomination for his first Hollywood film. In 1953, Koster guided Burton to his second Oscar nomination for the lavish religious blockbuster THE ROBE, which was the first film in CinemaScope. The film earned five Oscar nominations including Best Film and earned Oscars for art direction/set decoration and costumes.

And I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Koster’s religious drama A MAN CALLED PETER (’55), for which he received a Directors Guild of America nomination for his work. Based on Catherine Marshall’s best-selling book about her late husband, the Scottish émigré Peter Marshall who became the chaplain of the US. Senate. A MAN CALLED PETER features moving performances from Richard Todd and Jean Peters. And I adore Alfred Newman’s score and still have the soundtrack album.

Koster continued to make movies until 1966. His final film was the flop THE SINGING NUN (’66) with Debbie Reynolds. He may have retired from films, but Koster didn’t retire from artistic pursuits. He moved to Camarillo, California and became a painter. He died in 1988.

A group of people terrorized in a desolate house, cut phone lines and a faceless murderer; none of these elements are new to a horror film. They are all featured in the story of THE BAT (‘59), which by the time of its release, wasn’t new to audiences either. However, the modernized 1959 version of the horror thriller has a new and refreshing feel today.

The story originated as a stage play that premiered in August 1920, written by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. Five film versions of the story were then released over the years: THE BAT (‘26), THE BAT WHISPERS (‘30), SH! THE OCTOPUS (‘37), THE GORILLA (‘39) and this version. Some of the stories change “The Bat” to a gorilla or another animal, but the premise is still the same in each — a group of people in a house terrorized by an animal-like murderer.

Agnes Moorehead stars in this version as mystery writer Cornelia van Gorder, who rents the Oaks mansion from a small-town bank president in order to write her next novel. But soon after moving in, all of her servants quit, and she and her maid Lizzie, played by Lenita Lane, are the only ones left in the house. Rumors of a murderer named “The Bat” circulate — a killer that slits throats with long talons and is said to have no face.

Adding a complication to the plot, the bank president embezzles millions and he is killed shortly after. Only one person knows the bank president committed the crime, but a newly married bank clerk, Vic Bailey (Mike Steele), is arrested on suspicion.

Others involved in the plot include:

• Local doctor, coroner and bat expert, Dr. Malcolm Wells (Vincent Price)
• Chief detective, Lt. Andy Anderson (Gavin Gordon)
• Cornelia’s house guests: Judy (Darla Hood), who can testify in the embezzlement case, and Dale Bailey (Elaine Edwards), the wife of Vic who is in jail
• The mysterious chauffeur, Warner (John Sutton)
• Mark Fleming (John Bryant), the nephew and heir of the bank president

With multiple characters all behaving suspiciously, THE BAT weaves a web of intrigue and keeps you guessing about who the murderer is.

By 1959, Vincent Price’s career was largely dedicated to horror films. But while Price stars here, he isn’t the main focus of the film — instead Agnes Moorehead is the star.

Chameleon-like in the versatility of her film roles, some of Moorehead’s characters have included the glamorous but catty best friend in SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (’44); the fragile Aunt Fanny in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (’42); and the strange, sloppy maid to a reclusive Southern belle in HUSH…HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (’64). Even at the time THE BAT was being filmed, Moorehead was preparing for her role in Disney’s POLLYANNA (’60) and a Broadway musical co-starring Ginger Rogers called The Pink Jungle.

Her varied performances have made Moorehead well-remembered, and her image lives on today, particularly because of roles like Endora in the television show Bewitched. Because she could adapt to any character or personality type, many of Moorehead’s film roles were supporting character actors. THE BAT was one of Moorehead’s few leading lady roles. Her character of Cornelia van Gorder is a smart and savvy writer, who doesn’t have a love interest, nor does she need one. The men Cornelia calls on to help solve the crime are barely useful and she takes matters into her own hands. While Cornelia and her maid Lizzie may be frightened by the idea of the Bat, they take charge of the situation and uncover the secrets that break the case.

The maid in this film, Lizzie, is portrayed by Lenita Lane, who was also the wife of Crane Wilbur, who directed and wrote the screenplay for THE BAT. Lane was a supporting actress in the 1930s and early 1940s, and by the time THE BAT was released, her film career had slowed. This was Lane’s first film in five years as she was already in semi-retirement and this was Lane’s last film. While Lane’s character of Lizzie is Cornelia’s maid, she is treated as Cornelia’s equal and is the only other levelheaded individual in the case. Audiences will also see former child star of the Our Gang series, Darla Hood, in the role of Judy.

Though this isn’t a new story, I feel like the modernized, 1959 version of THE BAT is more noteworthy than its predecessors. Film reviews from 1959 and today aren’t always complimentary of THE BAT, saying it lacked momentum or scares. But the dry wit and humor brought into the story give the movie an offbeat, quirky feel and its overall more fun than the other versions.

The characters also set this 1959 film apart. In many horror films of the 1950s and early-1960s, women are terrorized and a man saves the day. But the men in THE BAT are either killed, suspicious or useless. There are certainly a few damsels in distress in this film, but it’s the women — particularly Cornelia and Lizzie — who solve the crime and wrap up the case.

Adding to the quirky vibe is a score featuring jazz guitarist Alvino Rey with his steel guitar. Each time the Bat enters, we hear a twang of the unique sounding instrument, which has a sinister Hawaiian guitar sound to it.

But what really makes this movie is Agnes Moorehead. The film left me wishing that Agnes Moorehead had her own film or television detective series.