Veronica Lake in Sullivan's Travels
TCM looks at classic movies about Life in the Depression throughout October
Throughout October Turner Classic Movies airs 25 movies which take a look at "Life in the Depression." The features air each Thursday night, and while including a handful of more recent classics really concentrates its focus on films which were released during the Great Depression itself including lesser seen gems such as "Gabriel Over the White House" and "The Match King."
While recent times have shown us all what it's like when times are tough, these movies serve as a reminder of just how bad things were during the Great Depression. I don't mean to gloss over the suffering of today, but as much as today's times have left many hurting, it really pales in comparison to the mass travails of the Depression. These movies are most often about about desperation, losing everything but the clothes on your back and perhaps a dime in your pocket, hunger, though as Sullivan's Travels reminds us, often "with a little sex" thrown in for good measure. Yes, there are some comedies here, often great successes such as "My Man Godfrey," which were one of only a few escapes for Depression fatigued theatergoers of the 1930's.
While some of these films such as, again, "Sullivan's Travels" and "The Grapes of Wrath" are all-time classics, my preferred choices this month are the 12 pre-code selections (including all 6 films airing on the 29th) which were not only made during some of our toughest times but lacked many of the constraints later films had in dealing with the censors. Thus take everything I'd mentioned earlier about desperation and tough times and multiply it, as it's hard to be more harrowing than say, "Wild Boys of the Road."
"Our Daily Bread"
Other features throughout October are movies featuring Star of the Month Leslie Caron plus TCM's idea of October scares, which is often more thriller than horror and each year reminds us more of what's missing than what's here--yes, we have a day of Karloff and some Jacques Tourneur, but those are nothing new. If not TCM it'd be nice if somebody, anybody, aired the Universal horror classics come some October--yes, many are available on DVD, but wouldn't it be nice to just run into them again while flipping through the channels?
This space will certainly be back with greater details on October 1,8,22, and 29, though I'm not so sure about the 15th. Following is the complete rundown of the Depression tales TCM is airing throughout October:
October 1
Bound for Glory (1976)
Our Daily Bread (1934)
Heroes for Sale (1933)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936)
Three Faces West (1940)
October 8
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
Girls of the Road (1940)
October 15
Paper Moon (1973)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Sounder (1972)
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
October 22
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Annie (1982)
Gabriel Over the White House (1933)
October 29
Faithless (1932)
American Madness (1932)
Prosperity (1932)
The Crash (1932)
Looking Forward (1933)
The Match King (1932)
Warren William and Lili Damita star in "The Match King"
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