CATCH A CLASSIC
TCM Spotlight: Dance Numbers
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
It’s time for one last dance (or a few of them) as Turner Classic Movies airs its final Monday night salute to films with great choreography this month. Famed dancer/director/choreographer Bob Fosse features in tonight’s first two films, beginning with the Best Picture Oscar-nominated Cabaret (pictured), the beloved 1972 big-screen adaptation of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s stage musical, directed and choreographed by Fosse. Set in 1931 Berlin, the stylishly creative classic won eight of the 10 Oscars for which it was nominated, including Best Director for Fosse, Best Actress for Liza Minnelli and Best Supporting Actor for Joel Grey. Fosse also received a Best Director Oscar nomination, and shared a Best Original Screenplay Oscar
nomination with Robert Alan Aurthur, for tonight’s next film, the Best Picture Oscar-nominated All That Jazz (1979), which he also choreographed. The second-to-last film Fosse made before his passing in 1987, All That Jazz is a semi-autobiographical
fantasy based on aspects of his life and career, as fictionally depicted through Joe Gideon, a theater director/choreographer portrayed by Best Actor Oscar nominee Roy Scheider. The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and took home four of
the Oscars for which it was nominated. The evening finishes up with three of the four films in MGM’s Broadway Melody series from the 1930s and ’40s, beginning with Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell and George Murphy, Astaire’s
first male dancing partner on film, star in the movie, directed by Norman Taurog and featuring classic Cole Porter tunes like “Begin the Beguine.” Next, Powell also stars in
Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), alongside Robert Taylor and a teenage Judy Garland, wgho became a star practically overnight thanks to her performance of “You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want to Do It)” in the film as a tribute to Clark Gable. The evening, and this monthly spotlight as a whole, finishes up with the Best Picture Oscar-nominated Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935), which
also stars Powell and Taylor, along with Jack Benny. — Jeff Pfeiffer