Turner Classics Movies weekend host Ben Mankiewicz will be co-presenting (with Robert Osborne) the cable network’s annual 72-hour Memorial Day marathon. Here, comments on 10 of the 34 films by Ben — who will also be appearing live in conversation with his dad, Frank, the former press secretary for Robert F. Kennedy, presidential campaign director for George McGovern and president of National Public Radio, on June 1 at Film Forum on Houston Street.
‘A Guy Named Joe’ (1943)
9 a.m. Saturday
The setup: A downed World War II pilot (Spencer Tracy) becomes guardian angel for his successor (Van Johnson) and their mutual girlfriend (Irene Dunne).
Mankiewicz: “It’s impossible not to like or be touched by the back story of how the irascible Tracy insisted that production be held up while Johnson recovered from an automobile accident. It dovetails nicely with the character in the movie, looking out for people. What’s less known is that MGM only agreed to do this on the condition that Tracy and [director] Victor Fleming stop mercilessly teasing Dunne.’’
‘The Steel Helmet’ (1951)
1:45 p.m. Saturday
The setup: Americans trapped behind enemy lines fight off Communists in this Korean War classic from director Sam Fuller.
Mankiewicz: “The kind of war movie I love, it demonstrates this wild pointlessness of some wars. I don’t know how ready the country was — six years after the end of World War II — for a movie that made us not look great, showing inhumanity and challenging the orthodoxy on internment [of Japanese-Americans]. This is why so many big-time directors think so highly of Fuller.’’
‘Objective, Burma!’ (1945)
3:15 p.m. Saturday
The setup: An American platoon led by Errol Flynn parachutes into Burma to take out a strategic Japanese outpost.
Mankiewicz: “With Flynn in [director Raoul] Walsh’s hands, you can’t go wrong. It’s a good war movie, but you have to acknowledge the propaganda stuff. There’s a really horrible line from the reporter [played by Henry Hull] that seems designed to whip up anti-Japanese sentiment. The British banned it for seven years — because it didn’t give them credit for winning Burma.’’
‘The Dirty Dozen’ (1967)
8 p.m. Saturday
The setup: A renegade officer trains a group of misfits for a crucial mission behind enemy lines during World War II.
Mankiewicz: “Is there any other pro-war movie that also manages to be anti-establishment? That’s really hard to do. There were a lot of objections to the violence at the time, but by war movie standards it seems relatively minor. Making these guys rebels close to the height of the [Vietnam War] protests was a stroke of marketing genius.’’
‘Where Eagles Dare’ (1969)
10:45 p.m. Saturday
The setup: An Allied team led by Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton sets out to free an American officer held by the Nazis in a mountaintop castle.
Mankiewicz: “The only movie I have a poster to, bought at a yard sale in LA five years ago. Growing up, it was my favorite war movie — a perfect example of a film where the Germans can’t shoot straight. It is thrilling and I couldn’t love that movie more. It has as good an ending to a war movie as I’ve ever seen. The Alpine cable car scene is fantastic.’’
‘Kelly’ s Heroes’ (1970)
1:30 a.m. Sunday
The setup: During World War II, an American platoon, including Clint Eastwood and Don Rickles, tries to recover buried treasure behind enemy lines.
Mankiewicz: “It’s super-hard to keep this and ‘The Dirty Dozen’ straight; Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas are in both. That said, ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ is more flawed — it’s clearly missing something because of what feels like MGM’s gutlessness.’’
‘Sergeant York’ (1941)
7:30 a.m. Monday
The setup: Biopic of the farm boy (Gary Cooper) who made the transition from religious pacifist to World War I hero.
Mankiewicz: “If you were going to list 25 examples of perfect Hollywood casting, [Cooper] would be one of them. It was incredible for [director Howard] Hawks to find nobility in a war that was absolutely bananas — they thought it would be neat to end hostilities at precisely 11:11 on Nov. 11, hours after the Armistice was reached. So thousands of people died needlessly.’’
‘The Young Lions’ (1958)
3 p.m. Monday
The setup: A Jewish soldier faces anti-Semitism when he enlists to fight in World War II.
Mankiewicz: “Maybe the most underrated movie we’re showing this weekend. Having seen it again recently, it’s much better than its reputation. These are really great stars — Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin — at the top of their games and the neat parallel story totally works. A really subtle movie. I think people were just disturbed at how Montgomery Clift looks [after a real-life automobile accident].’’
‘The (Fighting) Sullivans’ (1944)
6 p.m. Monday
The setup: The true story of five Iowa brothers who perished together on a destroyer in the South Pacific during World War II.
Mankiewicz: “This is the movie that inspired ‘Saving Private Ryan.’ It’s barely a war movie, but at the time — knowing what happened to this family and all of the other families that lost brothers in World War II — it was a reminder of what we were fighting for.’’
‘Twelve O’Clock High’ (1949)
8 p.m., Monday
The setup: The head of a World War II bomber squadron cracks under the pressure.
Mankiewicz: “Very underrated, courageous, challenging — and Gregory Peck’s best performance. Just a few years after the war, have a movie significantly examining [post-traumatic stress] and not portraying these guys as cowards, that’s great. It feels kind of groundbreaking, and from the first moment you’re sympathetic to those guys. The sensitivity shown by the officers is incredibly rare [for war movies], they’re aching for these guys.”