Posthumous glory for the last but not least

IN all the tributes to Googie Withers I saw no mention of her appearance in Shine, Scott Hicks's film about the pianist David Helfgott.

110827 arificial intelligence film

IN all the tributes to Googie Withers I saw no mention of her appearance in Shine, Scott Hicks's film about the pianist David Helfgott.

Googie, then in her 80th year, played the communist novelist Katharine Susannah Prichard, one of Helfgott's friends and mentors.

It was to be her last film, though Hicks went on to direct bigger things in Hollywood, including Hearts in Atlantis (Wednesday, 8.30pm, Movie Greats), adapted from a Stephen King novel and starring Anthony Hopkins.

This strange, unashamedly sentimental tale is about a boy befriended by a mysterious stranger, who becomes a father figure to him. As in many a King novel, the characters have psychic powers, which does nothing for the story's charm or credibility. But the film is redeemed by a central performance from Hopkins of compelling strength and dignity, and I recommend it for troubled teenagers and their fathers.

Actors' last films often look more significant in retrospect, but Rebel Without a Cause (Monday, 8.30pm, Fox Classics) stands out in its own right. A powerful study of juvenile lawlessness, it starred James Dean (in his last appearance) as another teenager groping for love in a society he finds alien and oppressive. Among the high points is a game of chicken between Dean's character and his hot-rodding high-school rival (Corey Allen). Who will be the first to jump from his car as they race towards the cliff edge? Soon after the film's release Dean died in what looked like a replay of the chicken-run scene, prompting a world-wide outburst of necrophilic grief.

His co-star, Natalie Wood, drowned in a mysterious accident, and another of the film's stars, Sal Mineo, was murdered in Hollywood. I can assure readers that the film is perfectly safe to watch. Dean's intensely moody performance, reminiscent of Marlon Brando in The Wild One, defined a whole generation of restless 1950s youth.

The Misfits (Tuesday, 11.55pm, Movie Greats) was completed eight days after Clark Gable's death from a heart attack. His co-star, Marilyn Monroe, died of an overdose two years later. It's a sad and disturbing story about modern cowboys, lost in a world that has drained the old west of its meaning and purpose. Gable's last performance -- tough, macho, muscular -- was worthy of his memory, but Monroe seemed less happy under John Huston's direction.

Ten years earlier, Huston directed one of the classic Hollywood crime stories, The Asphalt Jungle (Sunday, 4.30pm, TCM), unequalled in its meticulous depiction of a jewel heist, planned by a master criminal (Sam Joffe) in a prison cell. Monroe's cameo appearance, like her bit part in All About Eve the same year, was a harbinger of greater things to come.

When Stanley Kubrick died in 1999 his last, unfinished project was passed to Steven Spielberg, who spent two years completing A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Saturday, 8.30pm, Movie Greats). In an ecologically devastated future, childbirth is strictly controlled, but artificial children can be programmed to simulate real emotions and build what appear to be loving relationships with their adoptive parents. Haley Joel Osment is wonderfully affecting as the boy robot eventually parted from his mother (Frances O'Connor). Everything is rounded off with a spectacular Spielbergian light show, and I doubt if Kubrick would have approved. Even so, the film has many passages of haunting beauty.

Witness (Tuesday, 6.30pm, Showtime Drama) was Peter Weir's first Hollywood film, a superb thriller about a boy who accidentally witnesses a gangland murder, and the tough, cynical cop (Harrison Ford) who has to protect him.

And brief mentions for Random Harvest (Saturday, 9.25pm, Fox Classics), one of the imperishable Hollywood tear-jerkers, about a war veteran (Ronald Colman) who loses his memory and the wife (Greer Garson) who waits for him; Of Mice and Men (Tuesday, 6.30pm, Starpics), an underrated 1992 version of John Steinbeck's novel, with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich; Unforgiven (Tuesday, 8.30pm, Fox Classics), the Oscar-winning Clint Eastwood western that did much to revive and redefine the genre, and is shown regularly on cable; and our old friend Casablanca (Sunday, 8.30pm, TCM).

Robert Connolly's The Bank (Monday, 4.20pm, Showtime Drama) is worth seeing again. It's a smart Australian thriller about a maverick mathematician (David Wenham) who discovers a formula for predicting stock market fluctuations. We could use him now.

CRITIC'S CHOICE
Rebel Without a Cause (M) 4 stars Monday, 8.30pm, Fox Classics
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (M) 3-1/2 stars Saturday, 8.30pm, Movie Greats
Witness (M) 4 stars Tuesday, 6.30pm, Showtime Drama
The Bank (M) 3-1/2 stars Monday, 4.20pm, Showtime Drama