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WEST SIDE STORY
July 5, 2015  | By David Bianculli  | 1 comment

TCM, 5:15 p.m. ET

 

This 1961 movie musical is one of the best film versions ever made of a Broadway show: the opening scene alone, in which co-directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins establish the New York City setting, and the warring street gangs of Jets and Sharks, through aerial photography and fluid choreography, is vibrant and bold. So is everything else here, especally the music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Natalie Wood stars as Maria, the young Puerto Rican girl whose love for city-born Tony threatens to incite a gang war. Co-stars include Rita Moreno and two young men who, three decade later, would resurface as supporting players on ABC’s Twin Peaks: Richard Beymer and Russ Tamblyn. And West Wide Story is only the first of three superb movie shown in succession tonight by TCM. The others: At 8 p.m. ET, the Marx Brothers in 1933’s subversively silly Duck Soup, followed at 9:30 p.m. ET by Charlie Chaplin’s brave 1940 satire of Adolf Hitler, The Great Dictator.

 
 
 
 
 
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1 Comments
 
 
Donna
Natalie Wood couldn't dance or sing!
Jul 5, 2015   |  Reply
 
 
 
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