DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY
September 9, 2013  | By David Bianculli

TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET

 

This excellent new documentary import continues tonight with its second installment, a show with a lengthy title but a narrow focus: 1918-28 – The Triumph of American Film and the First of Its Rebels. It covers the ascendance of Hollywood, its first early stars – including the silent-comedy geniuses Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton – and the introduction of sound. And arrive early and stay late, because the night’s TCM lineup also includes Buster Keaton’s hilarious short One Week at 8 p.m. ET, and, at 4:15 a.m. ET, Harold Lloyd's brilliant, full-length Safety Last! feature (pictured) from 1923. My film students, if they watch tonight’s TCM lineup, will be cheating by “reading ahead” – but it’s the one type of cheating I actively encourage.

 
 
 
 
 
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