I love that Turner Classic Movies doesn’t just show classic old movies. I love the classic old movies, I do. But TCM also shows obscure movies and documentaries that aren’t shown on other channels, and I love those too.
Several days ago, they showed Gilda Live, Gilda Radner’s Broadway show, filmed in September 1979. It includes most of the characters she made famous on Saturday Night Live: Emily Litella, rocker Candy Slice, Jewish gal of privilege Rhonda Weiss, Judy Miller (the energetic little girl with the big imagination who puts on “The Judy Miller” in her bedroom), and, of course, personal advice expert Roseanne Roseannadanna. It also features Don Novello as Father Guido Sarducci.
I saw this several times back in 1980 or so, when it was shown on one of the movie channels like HBO that, back then, showed movies. I must have seen it a dozen times back then, and I was thrilled that it was still so funny to me now… but maybe only to those that love Gilda Radner like I do and know these characters so well.
Radner was SO talented – the amount of energy she puts into every performance is astounding. She was one of my idols when I was a pre-teen – I wanted to be as funny and talented as her, but I never dared to really go for it the way she did. I always held back. I ended up crying through the last song: “Baby, Kiss Me… With Your Clothes On.” It’s so sweet. SNL was one of those sanctuary activities when I was a kid, providing a safe space for the madness all around. If it weren’t for shows like this and weekends at my grandparents’, I wouldn’t ever get nostalgic about childhood. I sure miss her.
Several weeks before this, TCM showed, The Spanish Soil, a 1937 documentary/propaganda piece showing the struggle of Spanish Loyalists – also known as Republican – that supported the established government against the rebellion by ultra-right-wing forces led by General Francisco Franco, which was backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The short film was meant not only to show the bravery of the Spanish people, but also to how the Fascist forces were disrupting the simple lives of a small village just trying to irrigate a field. The film was produced by the Contemporary Historians production company, formed by theatrical producer and director Herman Shumlin, writer Lillian Hellman and poet, writer, critic, and satirist Dorothy Parker. The English narration was written by John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway, and originally, the film was narrated by Orson Welles – his narration for this film represents the very first professional film work of Welles, then a theatre and radio celebrity in his early twenties.
I love being able to actually see pre-World War II propaganda, rather than just reading about it. My sympathies have always firmly been with the Spanish Loyalists and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, and I admit to finding myself stirred by the passion of the filmmakers to get this message out – though the film isn’t so great. Still, wasn’t at all wasted time. Learning history never is.
And so, in summary: I love movies.
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