This article was originally written for the Two for One programming in the TCM Now Playing newsletter in May 2025.
TCM’s popular Two for One series returns this month with a lineup of respected guest filmmakers and stars who will discuss with host Ben Mankiewicz two films with special connections to each other and our special guests.
Actor, singer, director and creator of the Broadway megahit musicals “Hamilton” and “In the Heights,” Lin-Manuel Miranda, kicks off this month’s series with a double feature of musicals centered on the stage. While Miranda has achieved major success and earned several award wins and nominations for writing the music for films such as Moana (2016) and Encanto (2021), his stage work has won him a Pulitzer Prize, two Grammys, three Tony Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. His love for musical theater is reflected in his night’s picks.
Fred Astaire stars in the Vincente Minnelli spectacle The Band Wagon (1953) playing a fading star whose hope for a comeback is derailed when his director plans to turn his musical comedy vehicle into a dramatic play starring a world-renowned ballet dancer (Cyd Charisse). Though it was a box-office disappointment when released, The Band Wagon earned three Oscar nominations for Best Costume Design, Best Music and Best Writing for Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who modeled Charisse and Astaire’s characters off themselves. Miranda pairs that film with Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical musical All That Jazz (1979). Directed by Fosse, who co-wrote the script with Robert Alan Arthur, the film follows hedonistic alcoholic theater director Joe Gideon as he attempts to simultaneously stage a musical for Broadway and edit a film for Hollywood, the stress of which wreaks havoc on his personal life and his health. A critical and box-office smash, the film earned 9 Oscar nominations, winning four.
Before becoming an iconic scream queen in the Halloween (1978) franchise and winning an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), actress and producer Jamie Lee Curtis was a child of Hollywood royalty. Her mother Janet Leigh was one of Hollywood’s most popular leading ladies of the 1950s and ‘60s, and her father Tony Curtis, was one of the era’s most popular leading men. Curtis does not often discuss her parents’ work, making this an extra special exclusive for TCM on Saturday, May 10th. In The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Leigh plays a young woman who encounters a traumatized soldier played by Frank Sinatra who, along with his sergeant (Laurence Harvey), has returned from fighting in the Korean War a victim of brainwashing by Communist Russia. Leigh openly shared that she made this film at the time when her marriage to Tony Curtis was ending, and yet she never let it interfere with her professionalism as an actress, delivering one of her most praised performances. The film is based on a controversial 1959 novel of the same name by Richard Condon. Both were released at the height of the Cold War and remain as relevant as ever.
In Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Curtis plays Sidney, a ruthless young press agent who will do anything to get his clients on the pages of New York’s most powerful column headed by journalist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). Hunsecker will oblige, but only if Sidney agrees to help him break up his sister’s romance with a jazz musician. Lancaster had just worked with Curtis in the film Trapeze (1956) and as co-producer of this film, he was able to champion Curtis for the part of Sidney. Audiences in 1957 were jarred at seeing these two matinee idols in such unsympathetic roles and the film was a box-office flop at the time of release. Thankfully, the film has since earned loud praise for all connected with it, and Tony Curtis named it his personal favorite of all his films.
If Halloween was the film that put Jamie Lee Curtis on the map, it did the same for its director John Carpenter. Carpenter is also the director of such cult classics as The Thing (1982) and Big Trouble in Little China (1986). On May 17th, Carpenter will join Ben for a look at two of the classic horror films that influenced his own horror and genre style of filmmaking.
The original Frankenstein (1931) by director James Whale is widely considered the definitive screen version of Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel about a mad scientist who assembles a living being from the body parts of dead people. Colin Clive plays the title character and Mae Clark is Elizabeth, his neglected fiancée. The true star of this film version, however, is Boris Karloff as the monster (the film credits the creature as just “?”). Karloff had already made over 70 films in the silent era and was not considered a bankable star. Whale only cast Karloff because he resembled himself. The enormous success of this film, along with the 1931version of Dracula, led to more now-classic horror movies like The Mummy (1932) The Old Dark House (1932) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). These would establish Universal as the leading studio of monster movies, with Whale as the leading director and Karloff as the leading star.
In the 1950s, the British-based production company Hammer Films had similar success with their screen adaptations of the same series of classic horror stories. The first of these was The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). Different from the 1931 film, but more faithful to the original novel, this version focuses much more on the character of Dr. Victor Frankenstein (played here by Peter Cushing and Melvin Hayes). The film opens from Victor’s prison cell where he is awaiting execution for the murder of his maid. Victor shares with a visiting priest what has brought him to now be on his way to the guillotine. In flashback, we see Victor as a young man left in charge of his family’s estate and devoting his life to studying science and pursuing the ability to resurrect the dead. Of course, Victor’s experiments lead to disastrous consequences.
Decades later came another iconic performance of the horror genre, that of Kathy Bates in Misery (1990). Bates went from being a little-known stage actress to winning an Oscar (a rarity for horror films) for playing Annie Wilkes, the terrifying obsessed superfan of writer Paul Sheldon (James Caan). Bates has since maintained her reputation as one of the great character actresses. Bates shared that one of her favorite and most influential actresses is the great Katharine Hepburn. On May 24th, Bates joins Ben for two of her favorite Hepburn films.
In 1937 and 1938 Hepburn was at a career low, eventually being named “Box Office Poison” after making a series of commercial flops. Ironically, a few of these films are now some of Hepburn’s most beloved work. Stage Door (1937) was one of RKO’s attempts at boosting Hepburn’s sinking box office draw by pairing her with one of their most profitable stars, Ginger Rogers. Hepburn plays Terry, a girl from a wealthy family who has come to live at a New York boarding house while pursuing an acting career. Among the other girls in the boarding house dreaming of show business is feisty dancer Jean (Rogers). The two form both a rivalry and an unlikely friendship.
Though critically well-received and even nominated for Best Picture of 1937, the film was not enough to boost Hepburn’s public appeal. A year later, Hepburn starred in Bringing Up Baby (1938), now regarded as one of the great screwball comedies. Cary Grant is Dr. David Huxley, a nerdy (as much as Cary Grant can be) paleontologist who is trying to impress both his demanding fiancée and a wealthy woman considering donating a million dollars to his latest exhibit. David’s efforts are interrupted by Susan (Hepburn), an eccentric young woman who mistakes David for a zoologist who can help her with taming her new pet leopard, affectionately named Baby. Director Howard Hawks originally wanted Carole Lombard for the lead role and reportedly did not get along very well with Hepburn, finding her “demanding.” Despite their tensions, the film is now a high point in the canons of both the actress and the director.
With choices like these, our guests for this Two for One series will make May a month to remember.
MAY FEATURED FILMS & SPECIAL GUESTS
5/3 Lin-Manuel Miranda
The Bandwagon (1953)
All That Jazz (1979)
5/10 Jamie Lee Curtis
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
5/17 John Carpenter
Frankenstein (1931)
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
5/31 Kathy Bates
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Stage Door (1937)
