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TCM Website
March 30, 2000
TCM Presents Vices in the Movies in May
Some of the greatest moments in movie history have come from films that show characters at their most human. Every Saturday night in May, Turner Classic Movies will present Vices in the Movies, a 20-film festival of movies spotlighting cinematic sin. For more information on other May highlights, please visit the TCM Web Site at www.turnerclassicmovies.com.
Moviegoers have always been fascinated by characters with flaws and vices that mirror real life. Each Saturday night, TCM will a showcase a different vice, including Drinking and Smoking (May 6), Gambling (May 13), Adultery and Drugs (May 20) and Prostitution (May 27).
The vices of Drinking and Smoking are explored in I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955, 8 p.m.), with Susan Hayward delivering an Oscar®-nominated performance as Lillian Roth, the singer-actress who fell from grace because of alcohol abuse, then fought her way back with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. Then Dick Van Dyke plays a minister who leads a campaign in which an entire town attempts to stop smoking for a month to win a contest prize of $25 million in Cold Turkey (1971, 2:15 a.m.).
Gambling (May 13) has been the focus of numerous films, including The Cincinnati Kid (1965, 8 p.m.), with Steve McQueen as a young cardsharp who takes on veteran poker player Edward G. Robinson in a New Orleans showdown. Ocean's Eleven (1960, 10 p.m.) puts the spotlight on a Las Vegas gambling gang played by Frank Sinatra and fellow "Rat Packers" Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford.
Adultery (May 20) has never been portrayed more sizzly onscreen than in MGM’s version of James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946, 8 p.m.), starring Lana Turner as an unfaithful wife and John Garfield as the drifter who helps her plot her husband’s murder. During filming, director Tay Garnett struggled with his own vice, alcohol addiction, suspending production until he regained sobriety.
Drugs (May 20), according to writer-director Billy Wilder, played a role in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970, 2 a.m.), in which Robert Stephens plays the celebrated sleuth as a cocaine addict.
Prostitution (May 27) has been a popular movie subject since the days of Greta Garbo’s first talkie, Anna Christie (1930, 2 a.m.), in which she plays the Eugene O’Neill heroine haunted by her shady past. In the film version of John O’Hara’s Butterfield 8 (1960, 8 p.m.), Elizabeth Taylor is Gloria Wandrous, a sometime model and "party girl." Taylor, then accustomed to playing more respectable roles but pressured by MGM into making the movie, strongly objected to aspects of Gloria’s character and labeled the script "pornographic." Nevertheless, her performance earned her an Academy Award®
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