Turner Classic Movies in July

Today, July 1, we have two of the best films of two of the world's best directors:  John Ford's The Searchers, his best Western, and Danish director Carl Theodore Dreyer's Day of Wrath, a story of a witch hunt in 17th century Denmark, made in Dreyer's rigorously austere style.

Turner continues its "Summer of Darkness" with its Friday night films noirs. My favorites include Raoul Walsh's White Heat, with an explosive James Cagney, and Nicholas Ray's lovely and sad They Live by Night on July 3.  On July 10 is Anthony Mann's Side Street and his Raw Deal (a great film noir title), Rudolph Mate's D.O.A. (about a man who solves his own murder), Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly (where Mike Hammer acts tough but is used as a patsy).  On the 17 is Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (with a Raymond Chandler screenplay based on a Patricia Highsmith novel) and Phil Karlson's 99 River Street (about a boxer who tries to play it straight and suffers for it).  On the 24th is Fritz Lang's Clash by Night (a dark film about infidelity) and Otto Preminger's Angel Face (Preminger's films noirs are among his best films).  On the 31st there is more Lang, The Big Heat and the brilliant Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Nicholas Ray's colorful period gangster/musical film Party Girl, Robert Siodmak's fatalistic Criss Cross, John Huston's Asphalt Jungle, a failed caper film, and Hitchcock's The Wrong Man, the ultimate film about the prosecution of an innocent man.

There are other John Ford films this month, including The Last Hurrah (Ford's final comments on contemporary America) July 18, The Quiet Man (about Ireland as seen by an American) July 21, and Wee Willie Winkie (about the world as seen by a child) July 13. There is more Nicholas Ray -- the iconic Rebel Without a Cause July 18-- and an Anthony Mann Western with James Stewart that shows the genre at its most intense:  The Man From Laramie July 11.

Also this month are two musicals by Vincente Minnelli, the rich period piece Meet Me in St Louis July 7 and the melancholy The Band Wagon July 5,and there is Jacques Demy's fairy-tale musical Donkey Skin July 5.  There are two sparkling comedies by Lubitsch, Shop Around the Corner July 11 and  Heaven Can Wait July 8, as well as Chaplin's The Great Dictator July 5.

Three of my favorite films in July are melodramas, all three about dealing with death, both courting it and trying to avoid it :  Otto Preminger's Bonjour Tristesse July 29, King Vidor's Duel in the Sun July 8, and Val Lewton's The Seventh Victim July 2.

These are among my favorites for July, though as always I strongly encourage the viewing of films that are not familiar or that you may not even have heard of; there are always new gems to find.