5 Questions with Ben Mankiewicz on FilmStruck's new TCM Select

If you haven't already signed up for TCM's streaming service FilmStruck now is the best time. FilmStruck, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Digital, will be adding hundreds of classic movies to the service. And to celebrate beloved movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood, TCM Select will offer streaming classics with bonus content.

Since FilmStruck first launched it's been the go-to service for arthouse, foreign and independent cinema and now that they are boosting their service with classic movies will make this a one stop shop for the ultimate movie fan. This will mean that Warner Bros.'s Warner Archive Instant streaming service will be sunsetting in April. Many of those titles will be transferring over to FilmStruck. And I hope some of the quirkier and more obscure titles available on Warner Archive Instant will make it over to FilmStruck too.

Want to know more about what FilmStruck and TCM Select have to offer? I had the pleasure of asking TCM host Ben Mankiewicz some questions about the newly expanded service.

Raquel Stecher: What makes FilmStruck stand out as a streaming service? 

Ben Mankiewicz: FilmStruck is the only streaming service for serious movie fans. From the Criterion Collection to foreign films to arthouse films to cult films, and now to the best movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age, there is no comparable service. Netflix, Amazon and Hulu all have a role to play as we go forward and reinvent how we watch something, but if you are a true movie lover there’s only one service you need and it’s FilmStruck. It’s not close.

Stecher: What role will you be playing with FilmStruck’s TCM Select and what kind of bonus content can we expect? 

Mankiewicz: I’ll be shooting introductions for the TCM Select movies that appear on FilmStruck and we’ll have a rotating library of roughly 600 movies. We’ll be curating them similarly to the job we do here on Turner Classic Movies, by putting them in their proper cinematic and Hollywood context.

Stecher:  If you curated a new FilmStruck collection, what would be the theme and what would some of the movies include? 

Mankiewicz: I’d do a noir collection and then I’d call Eddie Muller and tell him to curate it. Otherwise I’d curate a collection of movies about journalism and the media, from The Front Page through Spotlight and The Post, which we have no chance of getting on FilmStruck right now since I think one is still in theaters. I’d include The Front Page, His Girl Friday, Citizen Kane, Ace in the Hole, A Face in the Crowd, Sweet Smell of Success, All the President’s Men, Absence of Malice, and the movies of today as soon as we can get them.

Stecher: What are some of the TCM Select films that you personally recommend subscribers watch? 

Mankiewicz: What are some of the TCM Select films that you personally recommend subscribers watch? Night in the City, Jules Dassin’s last movie before he was blacklisted. Sweet Smell of Success, as good of a movie as there is about the ugly side of publicists and the media. Really, there’s not a movie on TCM Select that I wouldn’t put the full force of a recommendation behind.

Stecher: Why do you think TCM has such devoted fans and what do you hope they will get out of FilmStruck? 

Mankiewicz: Every actor, every host, every athlete has said that they have the best fans in the world, but here’s the truth, and I mean this, TCM has the most dedicated and attentive fans in the history of this business. Since we took on the mantle to protect and present classic Hollywood films, our fans have said, ‘Okay fine, but in that case you best do it right.’ So they don’t just watch us, they watch over us to make sure we don’t make a mistake. We’ve been true to our core mission at TCM and we will continue with that core mission as we expand into FilmStruck with TCM Select, and if we make a mistake, we’re certain our fans will let us know and that’s a blessing.


Many thanks to Ben Mankiewicz of TCM for taking the time to answer my questions.

For those of you interested in subscribing to FilmStruck and getting the TCM Select titles, here is the pricing breakdown and available devices. They offer a 14 day free trial so you can test it out before you commit.

FilmStruck – $6.99/month - arthouse, foreign and cult films, plus TCM Select, an exclusive rotating collection of the most iconic movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood, supplemented with hosted introductions, rare archival TCM content and bonus materials.

FilmStruck + The Criterion Channel – $10.99/month - offering everything in the FilmStruck subscription plus unlimited access to Criterion’s entire streaming library of films and special features, along with channel-exclusive original programming such as filmmaker profiles, master classes, and curated series by celebrated guests from the film world and beyond.

Annual Subscription - $99/year for FilmStruck + The Criterion Channel (a $30 annual savings) . (I have this one!)

Devices -  Roku, Google Chromecast, Apple TV 4th generation devices, Amazon Fire TV, web, iOS and Android devices. FilmStruck can be accessed via the Apple App store, as well as online and via Google Play for Android users.

Goodbye Again (1933)

Author Kenneth Bixby (Warren William) is one hot ticket. His sensational novels are titillating lady readers all over the country. Bixby and his secretary Anne (Joan Blondell) are on a nation wide book tour and have made a pit stop in Cleveland. Anne, who is a secretary by name but is practically his wife in all other respects, tends to Bixby's hectic schedule, his meals, his growing scrapbook and the multitude of calls for lectures and bookstore visits. But Bixby is more interested in attending prize fights than he is giving short informal talks or autographs to his adoring fans. And a possible distraction for this perennial playboy is just around the corner. Housewife Julie (Genevieve Tobin) is bored with her life and her mild mannered husband Harvey (Hugh Hubert). Her obsession with Bixby, with whom she once had a fling, has turned her into a crazed fan. Julie is convinced she's the inspiration for all his passionate novels. Julie and Bixby have an affair while Julie's uptight sister Elizabeth (Helen Chandler) and brother-in-law Arthur (Wallace Ford) try to separate them to save Julie's marriage. Caught in the middle is the long suffering Anne who sees her beloved Bixby slipping away from her and Bixby who wants nothing to do with outrageous situation. Can sensible Anne get Bixby out of this jam?

Goodbye Again (1933) is a ridiculous movie that has to be seen to be believed. This film is full of outrageous antics, zippy one-liners and a love triangle so twisted it will make your head spin. When does this guy have time to write his books? It's amazing how much comedy they tried to fit in only 66 minutes. And like many Pre-Codes, Goodbye Again is infused with sexual innuendos and scenarios. Bixby and Julie have a full on affair and Anne practically lives with Bixby while they're on the road. At one point Bixby pretends to have a son and he claims that he's not married, just "bohemian". Based on a successful play by Allan Scott and George Haight, Goodbye Again was directed by Michael Curtiz for First National picture after they had merged with Warner Bros.

Warren William and Joan Blondell were two of the most dynamic on screen personalities in the Pre-Code era. This is one of five feature films they appeared in together. The others were Three on a Match (1932), Gold Diggers of 1933, Smarty (1934) and Stage Struck (1936). William and Blondell are the two biggest reasons to watch this film. William fits the bill as the remorseful playboy and Blondell is at her best as the wise-cracking and sensible dame. Tobin was a bit too over-the-top for my taste but it's what her character called for. And there wasn't nearly enough for Hugh Hubert to do.

You have to be in the mood for a zany whackadoodle film to appreciate Goodbye Again. This short screwball comedy moves so quickly that you'll have to watch it a second time to catch what you missed. In Alan K. Rode's book Michael Curtiz: A Life, he says 

"Blondell was never better than in this film. She serves up smart-aleck palaver to William, who volleys it right back... Variety got it exactly right, 'Perfect for audiences of quick wit, but too slick for others.' Fortunately, there were enough clever theatergoers who appreciated this amusing picture."

Goodbye Again (1933) is available on DVD-MOD from the Warner Archive Collection and can be purchased at the WB Shop. You can hear George Feltenstein, Matt Patterson and D.W. Ferranti discuss this movie on the Warner Archive podcast. This movie makes its home video debut with this DVD release.

Warner Archive Wednesday - On (random) Wednesdays, I review one title from the Warner Archive Collection. Thank you to Warner Archive for sending me a copy of Goodbye Again (1933) to review!

Hank & Jim by Scott Eyman

Hank & Jim
The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart
by Scott Eyman
Hardcover ISBN: 9781501102172
Simon & Schuster
October 20017

Amazon — Barnes and Noble — Powells

Their friendship was an oxymoron. They were polar opposites and they were two peas in a pod. Actors Henry Fonda and James Stewart couldn't have been more different from each other or more the same. Fonda was a liberal and Stewart a conservative. They didn't agree on politics, morality or relationships. But their mutual respect for each other meant they agreed to disagree. They shared a deep love for acting even if they both approached their careers very differently. When fame reared it's ugly head, they both understood that the key to keeping their sanity was to not bring work home with them. When Hank and Jim were together the conversation was never about work and sometimes it was about nothing at all. They both appreciated silence and could just be together without saying much. They met before they became major stars and stayed friends through their successes and trials and tribulations. Other people came and went but their friendship lasted until the bitter end.

Historian Scott Eyman's Hank & Jim explores one of the most enduring and fascinating Hollywood friendships in film history. The narrative follows the parallel lives of two movie legends from their salad days during the Great Depression, to their transition to Hollywood and the many movies and theatre productions to come. It also explores Fonda's five marriages and his relationship with his son Peter and daughter Jane as well as Stewart's marriage to Gloria and raising their two sets of twins. In between it all was Margaret Sullavan, the vibrant yet troubled actress whom enchanted Fonda (she became his first wife) and Stewart (he longed for her but she was always out of reach). The book also details their WWII years when Fonda served in the Navy and Stewart in the Army Air Corps.

This book could have easily been called Hank & Jim & Friends because there is a lot of information about Fonda and Stewart's friendships with other key figures including Burgess Meredith, Gary Cooper, James Garner, John Swope, Joshua Logan, and especially Leland Hayward. But overall this book paints a portrait of two men who had two distinctly different careers as actors, even when they worked as University Players or in the several films they worked on together. Eyman discusses their many films and, especially is the case with Fonda, their many Broadway and off-Broadway productions. None of their films are discussed too in-depth so that they could all be highlighted as they occur in the timeline of Fonda and Stewart's respective careers.

The biggest takeaway from reading Hank & Jim was how Fonda and Stewart understood and respected each other. This was the foundation of their friendship. It's the reason why it lasted so long and why it was so special.

This book is incredibly well-organized. It flips back and forth between Fonda and Stewart following their lives and careers in tandem. Even with all the switching, the transitions were so smooth that I never felt lost. It's clear that Eyman did a thorough job at researching this book. He interviewed Shirlee Fonda, Brooke Hayward, Kelly Stewart and others who knew both principal figures well including Robert Wagner, Norman Lloyd and more. Peter and Jane Fonda are heavily quoted. Eyman credits the late Robert Osborne in being instrumental in the genesis of the book.

While I usually love Eyman's books, I never quite found Hank & Jim all that engrossing. I struggled to finish this one in a way that I haven't with other dual biographies. I have heard from other classic film enthusiasts who read and loved this book. I've also heard from at least one other person who shared my same reaction. The preface and epilogue are brilliantly written and I would definitely go back to the book to re-read those. I just wasn't as captivated by the meat of the book. With that said, if you have a keen interest in both figures, I would highly recommend giving this book a try.

Hank & Jim by Scott Eyman is a well-researched and thorough look at an enduring friendship of two major Hollywood legends.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me a copy of Hank & Jim to review!