Sometimes the best things you can find on the various streaming services are not the latest film or miniseries but a good old movie or two. This past week I found two on Max, previously known as HBO Max.

Max has the best of HBO, TCM, and various other suppliers. Included among those new to Max from TCM this month are a restored version of George Cukor’s David Copperfield and a somewhat in need of restoration presentation of Fred Zinnemann’s The Nun’s Story.

Charles Dickens’ own personal favorite amongst his many classic novels, David Copperfield has since been filmed numerous times, most notably as TV miniseries on at least three occasions, yet it’s Cukor’s 1935 version that remains the best. That’s due primarily to the casting of an ensemble of actors seemingly born to play their parts. Chief among them are Freddie Bartholomew as young David, W.C. Fields as the resourceful Micawber, Roland Young as the loathsome Uriah Heep, Edna May Oliver as David’s Aunt Betsey, and Jessie Ralph as Nurse Peggotty, all of them deserving Oscar nominations that they may well have gotten had there been categories for supporting players in 1935.

Also of note are Frank Lawton as David as a young man, Maureen O’Sullivan as his beloved Dora, Madge Evans as his faithful Agnes, Elizabeth Allan as Mrs. Copperfield, Basil Rathbone as the despicable Mr. Murdstone, Lionel Barrymore as Dan Peggotty, Lewis Stone as the befuddled Mr. Wickfield, Lennox Pawle as Mr. Dick, Herbert Mundin as Barkis, Una O’Connor as Mrs. Gummidge, Jean Cadell as Mrs. Micawber, and Elsa Lanchester as Clicket.

Some of them take just a moment or two to establish their characters but the hair and makeup is right out of the pages of the novel. Even if you haven’t read it, you’ll know immediately what kind of character they are, even the deceitful ones of which there are several.

The film did receive Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Assistant Director (a discontinued category), and Editing. Cukor, who received a Best Director nomination for Little Women two years earlier would have to wait until 1940 to receive a second nomination for The Philadelphia Story. He would finally win for 1964’s My Fair Lady.

David Copperfield hasn’t looked this good in the almost 90 years that have passed since its initial release.

Fred Zinnemann had won an Oscar for From Here to Eternity released six years prior to The Nun’s Story and would win again for A Man for All Seasons seven years hence.

The source material for The Nun’s Story was a novel by Kathryn Hulme based on the life of a real Belgian nun who left the convent to join the resistance to Hitler early in World War II. The screenplay was by Robert Anderson (Tea and Sympathy), cinematography was by Franz Planer (Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany’s), and the score was by Franz Waxman (Sunset Boulevard). The film was nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Actress (Audrey Hepburn), Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography – Color, Film Editing, Score, and Sound.

This was Hepburn’s favorite film of hers, the only one in which she played her own nationality, Belgian. Her character is a strong-willed woman who, contrary to her vows, is a nurse first and a nun second until she finally cracks.

The superb supporting cast is led by Peter Finch as the chief doctor in the Belgian Congo, Edith Evans (in the film’s second standout performance) as Hepburn’s order’s Superior General, Peggy Ashcroft as the Mother Superior in the Congo portion of the film, Dean Jagger as Hepburn’s father, Mildred Dunnock as the cold Mother Superior of the postulants, Patricia Collinge as a warm teaching nun, Beatrice Straight as the head nun in the insane asylum, and Barbara O’Neil as Hepburn’s superior in her last assignment. Colleen Dewhust is unforgettable as a raving lunatic in the insane asylum sequence.

The film looks good and sounds great but would benefit greatly from a 4K restoration.

This past week saw the deaths of two major stars of earlier decades that were still working.

Glenda Jackson had been a major star, a four-time Osar nominee and two-time winner before entering British politics, who having retired from Parliament, returned to acting in triumph in her 80s.

You can catch Jackson in her prime in 1970’s Women in Love for which she won her first Oscar, 1971’s Sunday Bloody Sunday for which she scored her second nomination, 1973’s A Touch of Class for which she won a surprise second Oscar, and 1975’s Hedda for which she was given her fourth nomination. Other films of note include 1971’s Mary, Queen of Scots in which she reprised her Emmy-winning role in the same year’s Elizabeth R and 1975’s The Romantic Englishwoman opposite the recently deceased Helmut Berger.

Treat Williams began his Broadway career as Barry Bostwick’s replacement in the original company of Grease and later won a Golden Globe for his first film musical, Milos Forman’s Hair.

Williams had iconic screen roles in 1976’s The Ritz, 1979’s Hair, and 1981’s Prince of the City, played Stanley Kowalski to Ann-Margret’s Blanche Dubois in the 1984 TV version of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and was a frequent presence in many other films. He was also a force to be reckoned with in his many TV roles, most notably as the widowed brain surgeon in Everwood from 2002-2006, Benny Severide in Chicago Fire from 2013-2018, and Mick O’Brien in Chesapeake Shores from 2016-2022.

Be sure to catch some Glenda and Treat soon.

Happy viewing.