TCM Presents Native American Images On Film During May

As part of its popular "Race & Hollywood" series, Turner Classic Movies presents Native American Images On Film every Tuesday and Thursday nights in May starting at 8 PM EST. Hosted by TCM's own Robert Osborne and Professor Hanay Geiogamah, director of the American Indian Studies Center at UCLA, the 30 film retrospective traces the evolution of how Native Americans have been portrayed (both positively and negatively) on the big screen.

Below are the topics that will be covered each night (along with a sampling of the movies being featured):

The evolution of Native American depictions by director John Ford (May 4)-

• Stagecoach (1939) starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor and John Carradine

• Cheyenne Autumn (1964) with Richard Widmark, Carrol Baker, and Karl Malden

Non-Indians in Indian roles (May 6)-

• The Outsider (1961) starring Tony Curtis as the ill-fated WW II hero Ira Hayes

• Walk the Proud Land (1956) featuring Anne Bancroft as an Apache widow gifted to an Indian agent (Audie Murphy) by a grateful Apache chieftain

Indians as enemies (May 11)-

• Northwest Passage (1940) with Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, and Walter Brennan

• The Last of the Mohicans (1992) starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeline Stowe, and Wes Studi

White men living among Indians (May 13)-

• John Huston's 1960 western The Unforgiven starring Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn

• The 1990 Best Picture Oscar winner Dances With Wolves starring Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, and Graham Greene

Indians as “noble savages” (May 18)-

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) featuring Will Sampson as Chief Bromden

• 1970's A Man Called Horse starring Richard Harris in the title role and featuring Dame Judith Anderson as Buffalo Cow Head!

Native Americans facing racism (May 20)-

• Devil's Doorway (1950) starring Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern, and future All My Children star James Mitchell

• The 1992 mystery Thunderheart which stars Val Kilmer as a half-Sioux FBI agent

Native American actors and filmmakers (May 25)-

• The 1994 made-for-cable movie Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee starring Irene Bedard (who in addition to providing the voice of Pocahontas in the 1995 Disney animated film of the same name, was the physical model for the character as well)

• Smoke Signals, the 1998 road movie starring Adam Beach, Evan Adams, and Irene Bedard

Images from outside Hollywood (May 27)-

• The 1922 silent documentary Nanook of the North

• Broken Rainbow, the 1985 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature which tells the story of the mistreatment of Native Americans at the hands of the U.S. government.

For a complete list of movies that TCM will feature in the Native American Images On Film festival, as well as other information on the retrospective, please click here.

TCM Presents Latino Images In Film During May

As part of its annual "Race & Hollywood" series, Turner Classic Movies presents Latino Images in Film every Tuesday and Thursday nights in May starting at 8 PM EST. Hosted by TCM's own Robert Osborne and film historian Chon Noriega, the 32 film retrospective traces the evolution of how Latinos have been portrayed (both positively and negatively) on the big screen. Some of the highlights include:

Tortilla Flat (1942)- An adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel about a group of paisanos (fellows/countrmen) who live on the California coast, this movie stars John Garfield, Spencer Tracy, and Hedy Lamarr.

Giant (1956)- Starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and in his final big screen role, James Dean, a major subplot of this epic is the racism against Mexican-Americans in Texas.

Blackboard Jungle (1955)- One of the earliest films about juvenile delinquency, this movie features Raphael Campos as student Pete Morales.

Stand and Deliver (1988)- This fact-based story stars Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, a dedicated high school math instructor who successfully teaches his underachieving students calculus.

My Family (1995)- Tracing three generations of a Mexican-American family, this drama features Jimmy Smits, Esai Morales, and Jennifer Lopez.

For a complete list of movies that TCM will feature in the Latino Images in Film festival, as well as other information on the retrospective, please click here.

TCM Airs One Potato, Two Potato

On Saturday May 2nd/Sunday May 3rd at 1 am EST, Turner Classic Movies airs the 1964 drama One Potato, Two Potato. Starring Barbara Barrie ("Nana" on Suddenly Susan), Bernie Hamilton (Capt. Dobey in the series Starsky and Hutch), and Richard Mulligan (Soap and Empty Nest), the film is one of the earliest to deal with interracial marriage. Barrie stars as a white divorcée with a young daughter who marries a black co-worker (Hamilton). Things are fine until her ex-husband (Mulligan) returns and sues for full custody of their daughter, claiming that a mixed racial household is an improper environment to raise the child.

I saw this film years ago on cable and really enjoyed it. If you've seen One Potato, Two Potato already or check it out tonight, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.