Arts Agenda - Pick a flick

There are certainly people who know more about film than Charlie Tabesh, but few can boast of a job as enviable as his. Vice-president of programming at Turner Classic Movies, Tabesh’s job assembling TCM’s schedule from its collection of 5,000 movies is a film fan’s heaven. When he’s not coming up with salutes to W.C. Fields and George Cukor, Los Angeles native Tabesh is shaking up the corporate scene by engaging in impish subliminal programming, as in a surreptitious Thanksgiving line-up of films devoted to overweight actors like Orson Welles and Sydney Greenstreet or the devilishly irreverent “sheep night” consisting of films featuring ram, lamb or ewe.

FF: Is this your dream job?

CT: Other than centerfield for the Dodgers, yeah.

What do you think is the most overrated classic movie?

I think The Searchers is a very good movie, but to me it is overrated ... it gets so much acclaim.

Are today’s movies worthy to stand alongside the films of the ’30s and ’40s?

Yes, some of them are. They made plenty of bad ones in the ’30s and ’40s, too.

How do you feel you’re contributing to the movies of our past?

I didn’t study film, and I just sort of got into it because maybe I saw a Woody Allen movie and he referenced a Marx Brothers movie, and then I watched a Marx Brothers movie marathon. And I think that in the same way that I sort of came — not from an academic standpoint but just as a fan — I think people in general ... will learn to appreciate them.

Most old movie freaks would sell their mother for your job — what is the most difficult part of your job that people aren’t aware of?

There’s very much a financial part of the job ... there’s a budget to deal with.

If you could inhabit the body of Robert Mitchum, Clark Gable or Cary Grant for a day, who would you be and why?

Not Clark Gable. Probably Cary Grant ... always knew what to say, very suave, very witty.

Marilyn Monroe or Rita Hayworth?

Rita Hayworth.

What movie scared you the most when you were a kid?

Definitely The Wizard of Oz scared the shit out of me. The witches scared me so much ...

The bad witch ...

Yes!

Who would win at an arm wrestling match — you or TCM interlocutor Robert Osborne?

I’ll give it to Robert, assuming he works out once in a while and I never work out.

In The Night of the Hunter Robert Mitchum had “love” and “hate” tattooed on his knuckles. What would you have on your knuckles?

Bart and Lisa.

Are there some people out there who maybe take old movies a little too seriously?

Oh my God, yes.

Who are the most fanatical?

I would say silent film [fans]. Although there are fewer of them, they’re more fanatical.

If you could take three films with you to a desert island, what would you take?

Crimes and Misdemeanors, Roman Holiday and Miller’s Crossing.

What’s the one thing that’s always in your fridge?

Beer.

What’s the last really great movie you’ve seen?

I’m willing to put Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the great category.

Is there any director now you think is completely overrated?

Ridley Scott I think is a terrible director.

Have you ever run into Ted Turner in the employee restroom?

No, I don’t know if he’s ever even at our office. He has no idea who I am.??