Screen Gems Colfax Native Robert Osborne Guides Viewers Through Ted Turner’S Storehouse Of Classic Movies

Wilmer never gets his hands out of his pockets because Sam is on him so fast, smacking the baby-faced bad guy with a hard, open hand.

Wilmer’s gaze of rage doesn’t faze our hero.

“When you’re slapped,” Sam lisps, “you’ll take it and like it.”

Now that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? So, quick, name the actors, the film and the year it was released.

Too easy, right? That is, of course, Elisha Cook Jr. as Wilmer, Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, and the film is 1941’s “The Maltese Falcon.”

It’s easy to identify because most fans of movie classics have seen the John Huston-directed effort, or parts of it, a dozen times or more. And why is that? Because the broadcast of old movies on television has become a bit like Classic Rock radio: Only the Top-40 features get aired.

Ask yourself: How many times have you seen such films as “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” “It Happened One Night,” “Lost Horizon” or “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”? If you’re 40 or older, then you’ve had multiple chances to see them all.

And the likelihood is that, great as each one is, you’d opt for something else given half a chance.

But listen up: Before you can say Cable News Network, Ted Turner is riding to your rescue. The cable-TV magnate has taken his extensive library of MGM, Warner Bros. and RKO films, including all of the studios’ efforts from the golden era between 1930 and 1950, and begun broadcasting them on a special cable network called Turner Classic Movies.

That means, explains TCM host and Colfax, Wash., native Robert Osborne, that the movieviewing choices of Cox Cable subscribers have increased beyond what just a few years ago would have been thought impossible. And he, for one, is happy about it.

“I don’t want only obscure things because I also want to see Judy Garland in `Easter Parade,”’ he says. “But I also want Judy Garland in `Little Nellie Kelly.’ And I want Elizabeth Taylor in `Love is Better Than Ever,’ not just Elizabeth Taylor in `Raintree County.’ That’s the beauty of it.”

TCM went on the air April 14. Spokane’s Cox Cable franchise began carrying Turner’s new cable channel in mid-July, adding it to a 67-channel lineup that already boasts a similar network, American Movie Classics. And while TCM is only part of Cox Cable’s newly expanded service, it is at least partially responsible for the 2,000 new subscribers the company has attracted since the end of June.

TCM is part of Cox Cable’s Select Service package, an arrangement that offers subscribers eight additional channels above the basic package for an extra $4.95 monthly charge. TCM also can be ordered separately for $1.50 a month.

“Turner Classic Movies is kind of like having a movie service and it’s fairly inexpensive,” says Kim Boston, Cox Cable’s director of community relations. “It’s been real positive as far as customer reactions.”

In a phone interview from Atlanta, TCM host Osborne expressed admiration for American Movie Classics and how it proved that there was a market for older movies. “The only problem that I’ve seen with AMC is that it has kind of a limited library,” he says.

Limited is hardly the word you could use for TCM. Turner not only owns the entire MGM library, which includes all the great musicals featured in the “That’s Entertainment” series, but he owns all the Warner Bros. films that were made before 1948. He also owns all 800 of the RKO films, including the Orson Welles masterpieces “The Magnificent Ambersons” and “Citizen Kane.”

In addition, TCM has a licensing agreement that gives it access to more than 1,000 other classic films, including post-1948 Warner Bros. films and other features from Paramount, Columbia and Universal. According to Osborne, TCM could broadcast its entire library back-toback, 24 hours a day, and never show the same film twice in a year.

“It’s maybe the best library available,” he says, “because it’s not only Greer Garson and Greta Garbo and Judy Garland and Clark Gable and Tracy and Hepburn and all those people, but it’s also Cagney and Bogart and Bette Davis and those top Warner Bros. people.”

Not only does Turner’s library offer quality, but it offers diversity, too.

“It’s a great mix between the glossy style of MGM and this very gritty, down-to-earth Warner Bros. style,” Osborne says.

What can we expect over the next couple of months? Well, here’s just a sampling:

The acting of Edward G. Robinson

From the gangster-oriented “Key Largo” to the tender family-themed “Our Vines Have Tender Grapes,” Robinson displayed a tough vulnerability unmatched in Hollywood.

The films of Edward Dmytryk

He was American, and the blacklisting of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s made it difficult for him to find work. But he did direct a number of watchable films, including “Crossfire” and “Raintree County.”

Screwball Comedy

“Theodora Goes Wild” features the talents of Irene Dunn in her debut starring role, and “Libeled Lady” gives us Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, William Powell and Myrna Loy.

The acting of Barbara Stanwyck

Long before “The Big Valley,” the tough blonde was a major movie star, acting over the decades in such films as “Night Nurse” and “Walk on the Wild Side.”

The films of Busby Berkeley

In addition to the films he directed, Berkeley designed the choreography for many more. TCM will show such Berkeley classics as “Footlight Parade,” “42nd Street,” “Babes in Arms” and “For Me and My Gal.”

Osborne, who lives in New York City, introduces the three main features every night. Every month he travels to Atlanta, films his spots over an eight-day stay, and then returns to New York to write two entertainment columns a week and review Broadway plays for the Hollywood Reporter.

“We’re having a great time,” he says, “but I must say we’re putting in a lot of hours.”

The material, however, is worth the attention of anyone who appreciates how good films used to be.

“I’d love to have people love it enough that they might demand more out of movies that are being made today,” Osborne says.

Robert Osborne’s favorite films Most people have a top 10 list of favorite films. Robert Osborne came up with just six. They are: 1. “Gone With the Wind” (1939) - “I saw it on the 50th anniversary at the Radio City Music Hall, at which point everybody owned a copy on videocassette. But seeing it in a theater 50 years later, on a big screen with 6,000 other people all sobbing and having the best time, was one of the great experiences. And I thought, `Boy, any film that can affect people that way 50 years later and also fill a 6,000-seat theater is something.”’ 2. “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) 3. “The Razor’s Edge” (1946 version with Tyrone Power). 4. “A Place in the Sun” (1951) 5. “All About Eve” (1950) - This and the next choice, Osborne says, are included, “Mainly because they made me, in Colfax, want to live in New York.” 6. “Laura” (1944)

A second sidebar ran with this story under the headline “Theater spawned enduring passion.”