John Wayne, James Cagney and more get a ‘Summer Under the Stars’
It’s not only another summer, it’s another “Summer Under the Stars.”
Turner Classic Movies’ annual, month-long salute to specific performers – featuring 24 hours of the movies of one of them each day – begins anew Tuesday, Aug. 1, by showcasing Marilyn Monroe. Among other notables who will get their own “days”: Robert Mitchum (Aug. 6), Sandra Dee (Aug. 9), Sidney Poitier (Aug. 10), Barbara Stanwyck (Aug. 13), Elvis Presley (Aug. 16, the 40th anniversary of his death), Cary Grant (Aug. 20), Leslie Caron (Aug. 27), essential character actor Slim Pickens (Aug. 28) and Elizabeth Taylor (Aug. 31).
Saturday-afternoon TCM host Tiffany Vazquez is marking her second “Summer Under the Stars,” and this time, she helps showcase several talents iconic in hugely distinctive ways: Gene Kelly (Aug. 5), John Wayne (Aug. 12), Angela Lansbury (Aug. 19) and James Cagney (Aug. 26).
“I’m still so happy that within my first year, I got to do Humphrey Bogart’s ‘Summer Under the Stars’ day and talk about ‘Casablanca,’ ” the pleasant Vazquez reflects. “Angela Lansbury is just one of my favorites, so this is great. The first time I ever went to any TCM event as a fan, it was a screening of ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ with her and Robert (Osborne, the channel’s principal host until his recent passing), and it was incredible. She definitely has a special place in my heart for that, too.”
Vazquez deems Kelly’s dance routine with the cartoon mouse Jerry in “Anchors Aweigh” to be “still one of those scenes that people just drop everything and watch. It’s still very impressive, and impactful on further liveaction-and-animation scenes, for sure.” Vazquez also notes that she recently saw Wayne’s star-making “Stagecoach” in a theater for the first time, and enthuses that it’s “how you were supposed to see” such films: “And I can’t talk about ‘Stagecoach’ without talking about Claire Trevor. She was fantastic in it.”