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Some times it takes the coolest cat in town to turn up the heat... Tony Curtis has spent fifty years playing one of the suavest characters in Hollywood, with his dark and handsome good looks and well-coifed pompadour. In the 1950s, he was a favorite of fans; Universal received 10,000 letters a week asking for a lock of his hair. But as a star, Curtis was a long way from his roots. He grew up as a street kid—born Bernie Schwartz in New York City, before becoming one of the smoothest operators in film land. Curtis got his first taste of The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with Burt Lancaster. Sweet Smell is a veiled biography of the muck raking journalist Walter Winchell. Lancaster plays JJ Hunsucker, a ruthless columnist; Curtis plays a young publicist trying to make good in a tough town. The dialogue is pure hipster slang, and the film provides a rare trip back to the dark, smoky bohemian after-hours clubs, making you wish you had a goatee and dark glasses, a martini in your hand and a dame under your arm. For most audiences, Curtis' most memorable role was in Some Like It Hot (1959), a sunny sex comedy. In this film, Curtis dons drag and joins an all girl band to escape from the Chicago mob. Marilyn Monroe, at her most voluptuous, becomes the object of his desire; so Curtis again disguises himself as a near sighted impotent millionaire with the voice of Cary Grant, to seduce her. Sound absurd? Well, it was one of the funniest, most daring films to come out of Hollywood in the late 1950s. Riding on the crest of Some Like It Hot, Curtis got to work first hand with his idol Cary Grant in Operation Petticoat (1959). When I think of Tony Curtis, I think of that style, that hair, and especially that voice. His unique accent brought a bizarre mix of Cary Grant and the Lower East Side to each of Curtis' films. "Yonder lies da castle of my fadda," he made it seem natural for a Norseman to have a New York accent in The Vikings (1958). In The Defiant Ones (1958) and The Boston Strangler (1968), Curtis had the chance to play against type, as a racist convict with Sidney Poitier in the former, and as the dashing serial murderer in the latter. But like his mentor Cary Grant, Tony Curtis most often played the character he created for himself. He was Tony Curtis whether he was playing the daredevil escape artist in Houdini (1953) or a Roman sentry in Sparticus (1960). But his experience in the spotlight wasn't all good times, and Curtis speaks frankly about the dark days as well as the glorious moments of his long career in Private Screenings, a Turner Classic Movies exclusive interview featured in January. TCM Host Robert Osborne sits down for heart to heart with Curtis to discuss love, loss, film and fun in Hollywood with Marilyn, Burt Lancaster, Cary Grant, Janet Leigh and many many more. 
26 Tuesday 8:00 PM Private Screenings: Tony Curtis (1998) 9:00 PM Sweet Smell of Success (1957) A crooked press agent stoops to new depths to help an egotistical columnist break up his sister's romance. Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Martin Milner. D: Alexander Mackendrick. BW 97m. L 11:00 PM Private Screenings: Tony Curtis (1998) 12:00 AM The Defiant Ones (1958) Two convicts:a white racist and an angry black—escape while chained to each other. Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel. D: Stanley Kramer. BW 97m. 2:00 AM Operation Petticoat (1959) During World War II, the crew of a decrepit submarine takes on a team of Navy nurses. Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Dina Merrill. D: Blake Edwards. C 121m. L C 27 Wednesday 11:30 PM Some Like It Hot (1959) Two musicians on the run from gangsters masquerade as members of an all-girl band. Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis. D: Billy Wilder. BW 122m. L C 2:00 AM Trapeze (1956) An aging trapeze star and his protˇgˇ fall for the same woman. Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida. D: Carol Reed. BW 106m. L 4:00 AM Don't Make Waves (1967) A swimming-pool salesman gets mixed up with beauty queens and body builders when he falls in love. Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale, Sharon Tate. D: Alexander Mackendrick. C 97m. L |