The TCM Ten 8/30-9/5 August 29, 2008
Posted by clydefro in : The TCM Ten , add a commentThis weekend marks the end of TCM’s annual Summer Under the Stars, finishing up with Katharine Hepburn on Saturday and, fittingly, Spencer Tracy the day after. I like the comfort in a day full of the same actor, but there’s something to be said for variety. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.
Sunday August 31
11:30 PM A Man’s Castle (Borzage, 1933) - BW-69 mins. - I’ve heard excellent things about this film, which had been on the July schedule at one point only to be nixed before air. Spencer Tracy stars as a Deperession-era man with no job. After getting girlfriend Loretta Young pregnant (a reminder of the film’s pre-Code origin), he turns to crime. Tracy and Young really were a couple after meeting on the set (despite her being just 20 to his 33). From what I’ve read on the film and about Borzage’s delicate romanticism, it seems like a major outing. An early Columbia picture, A Man’s Castle is not on DVD. (I’m bothered by TCM’s 69 minutes of promised runtime versus the 75 in IMDb’s listing, especially since TCM originally had the latter.)
Monday September 1
8:00 PM Millions Like Us (Gilliat & Launder, 1943) - BW-103 mins. - Courtroom dramas make up the entire daytime of the channel’s schedule, leading into a tribute to the Telluride Film Festival. The Lady Vanishes screenwriters Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder made their directing debut as a team with this British wartime drama. The pair also finished up their supporting characters Charters and Caldicott, who had debuted in the Hitchcock movie and also popped up in a pair of other films. Patricia Roc stars as a woman working at an airplane factory during the war, looking for love and friendship. Gordon Jackson, Anne Crawford, and Eric Portman highlight the rest of the cast. I’m not sure who has the R1 rights, but it’s not yet released here on DVD. There is at least one version in the UK, but it seems to be out of print.
Tuesday September 2
6:00 AM The Men Who Made the Movies: King Vidor (Schickel, 1973) -55 mins. - I’m really keen on Richard Schickel’s auteur-focused series, originally airing on PBS in the ’70s and updated years later with improved clips, and TCM will be airing five episodes consecutively today. Vidor, who directed films as varied as The Crowd and Duel in the Sun, is interviewed here, as are actors Jennifer Jones and Gary Cooper. Though several of Schickel’s entries are included as supplements to Warner Bros. DVDs, this one is not. Maybe the studio will tack it on if The Crowd ever gets released. The Howard Hawks episode, available on two different DVD releases airs next and is followed by…
8:00 AM The Men Who Made the Movies: Raoul Walsh (Schickel, 1973) -55 mins. - Also not available on DVD, Schickel’s look at oft-neglected studio director Raoul Walsh, known for White Heat and High Sierra among several others, includes interview footage with the eye-patched filmmaker. The future of this special on DVD seems decidedly uncertain since most of Walsh’s major films controlled by Warner Bros. are already out. It might possibly show up on the unavailable James Cagney-Rita Hayworth film The Strawberry Blonde, assuming Warner Bros. turns its attention back to releasing in-demand catalog titles with any frequency. Episodes for Sam Fuller and William Wellman immediately follow.
3:00 AM Private Screenings: Shirley MacLaine (2003) - C-53 mins. - The nonfictional programming continues with Robert Osborne’s chatting up the one and only Shirley MacLaine. I don’t think I ever made time for this special. It’s not on DVD, is it? Even without seeing it, I’m confident Shirley provided plenty of strange, yet endearing memories of the Rat Pack and Billy Wilder. TCM has built a night of her movies around this program, including her Wilder collaborations Irma La Douce, at 10:15 PM, and The Apartment, at 12:45 AM.
Wednesday September 3
10:15 PM The Candidate (Ritchie, 1972) - C-110 mins. - Because the only DVD in R1 is incorrectly presented in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, viewers of the film old and new may want to check out TCM’s promised letterbox airing. Robert Redford as a long-shot senatorial candidate facing a seemingly sure thing incumbent, with Melvyn Douglas as his former governor father and Peter Boyle his campaign mastermind. This and Advise & Consent are my favorite films about politics, with the ending here among the best I’ve seen. Please Warner Bros., cough up that re-release in the correct AR. The next month or so would have been the perfect timing, too. Several other political-themed films air this evening, all pretty good from what I’ve seen. One I haven’t watched is The Dark Horse, a 1932 comedy starring Guy Kibbee, and set for 4:45 AM.
Thursday September 4
9:15 PM Jewel Robbery (Dieterle, 1932) - BW-68 mins. - Star of the Month for September is Kay Francis, whose work I am just barely familiar with and mostly know from Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise. The good news for classic film fans is that the great majority of these Kay Francis films are not on DVD, giving everyone the chance to watch movies otherwise difficult to see. A couple of William Dieterle-directed pre-Code pictures air tonight. Jewel Robbery, co-starring William Powell as a thief who romances a tycoon’s wife in Vienna, is followed later by the female executive-male secretary romance Man Wanted, airing at 1:00 AM. Both were made for Warner Bros. and remain absent on DVD.
5:00 AM I Loved a Woman (Green, 1933) - BW-91 mins. - Kay Francis gets caught up with Edward G. Robinson, or maybe it’s the other way around. Robinson plays an art student who returns home to his father’s meatpacking plant and marries Francis as he increasingly loses sight of his earlier ideals. She corrupts him, he corrupts himself and he ultimately faces the consequences. Sounds pretty good. Warner Bros. again and not on DVD.
Friday September 5
6:45 AM Living on Velvet (Borzage, 1935) - BW-76 mins. - The ever-popular Frank Borzage makes another appearance this week. He takes Kay Francis along for the ride this time, with George Brent and Warren William somewhere in the background. Word doesn’t seem as encouraging for this film as with the other Borzage or the two other Francis pictures, but it’s at least worth a mention anyway. Brent is a pilot who walked away unhurt from a crash that killed his family. He falls for Francis, who just happens to be engaged to Brent’s buddy Warren William. Another Warner Bros. title not available on DVD.
8:15 AM If You Could Only Cook (Seiter, 1935) - BW-72 mins. - Three mid-thirties Jean Arthur films this Friday morning. Leading off, Herbert Marshall stars as a well-off executive who’s lured into working as a butler. Happens all the time. The lurer in this situation is Jean Arthur, trying to get a job as a cook and in need of a service partner. Could it be love? Does co-star Lionel Stander have a raspy voice? The film was made for Columbia, but isn’t on DVD. Arthur co-stars with Joel McCrea in Adventure in Manhattan, airing right afterwards at 9:30 AM, and then listens to Stander again in More Than a Secretary at 10:45 AM.
The TCM Ten 8/23-8/29 August 22, 2008
Posted by clydefro in : The TCM Ten , 1 comment so farA good first half of the week and a more ho-hum, standard second part. Really nothing interesting going on here elsewhere. If anyone’s wondering, the current header is taken from the film Privilege. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.
Saturday August 23 - Laurel & Hardy
Sunday August 24 - Henry Fonda
7:30 AM Let Us Live (Brahm, 1939) - BW-68 mins. - Fonda plays one of two men convicted and sentenced to death for a murder they didn’t commit. Maureen O’Sullivan and Ralph Bellamy work to catch the real killer before the sentence is carried out. I’ve enjoyed some of director John Brahm’s other work so this might be worth a look. Based on a true story, the film is not on DVD. It was made for Columbia.
2:00 AM Welcome to Hard Times (Kennedy, 1967) - C-103 mins. - I was really interested to see that E.L. Doctorow, noted author of Ragtime and other historical novels, wrote the source book for this film, which was adapted and directed by Burt Kennedy. Fonda plays a weak town mayor who allows a violent stranger to wreak havoc, struggling to maintain any sense of order as a result. The plot itself doesn’t sound particularly unique in the western genre, but Fonda excelled at this kind of role. Several well-known faces and names are in the cast, including Keenan Wynn, Aldo Ray, and Warren Oates. Looks to be a Warner Bros. title now, via MGM. It’s not on DVD.
4:00 AM Wanda Nevada (Fonda, 1979) - C-107 mins. - As of now, this is Peter Fonda’s last directed film (only his third total). He got his father to play an old prospector. It’s a small role, but TCM has used it as a welcome excuse to air the film on Henry Fonda day. Brooke Shields actually plays the title role here, a young orphan won in a poker game by star Peter Fonda. A little Paper Moon-ish, maybe? The movie’s reputation is quite poor, and probably a big reason as to why Fonda hasn’t directed since. A DVD was released in Spain, but nothing yet in R1. The original American distributor was United Artists so MGM should control home video rights.
Monday August 25 - Ingrid Bergman
6:00 AM Stromboli (Rossellini, 1950) - BW-107 mins. - The first of five straight collaborations between Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini. The scandal that erupted was perhaps the most notorious adultery-related episode to ever hit Hollywood. I’ve seen the second of their films, Europa ‘51, but not this one, and it’s been a little while since TCM aired it. Ingrid is a refugee who marries an Italian fisherman and has difficulty adjusting to the titular town and its volcano. Something to keep in mind is that TCM lists 107 minutes as the runtime, yet they only devote 105 minutes in the schedule. IMDb has a U.S. version at just 81 minutes, presumably done by Howard Hughes at RKO, though surely this will be longer than that. (I believe there’s also an Italian language version that’s shorter than the advertised 107 minutes.) I’ll probably pad the recording times a few minutes to be sure. The film may be on DVD somewhere in the world (Italy?), but I’m not sure where. It’s not been released in R1. Despite RKO originally distributing in the U.S., I believe Criterion actually will be the ones to release these Rossellini-Bergman films on DVD.
12:30 PM Rage in Heaven (Van Dyke, 1941) - BW-85 mins. - Still here? This one sounds interesting because it stars a young Ingrid and Robert Montgomery, with George Sanders in support. The plot is also intriguing - Montgomery plots to fake his own death in order to implicate his wife’s lover Sanders. I can smell the stench of mediocrity and somehow I don’t care too much. I’d still like to see it. Made for MGM, it’s not on DVD and should be controlled by Warner Bros.
3:30 AM The Yellow Rolls-Royce (Asquith, 1964) - C-123 mins. - How did Anthony Asquith, directed of films like A Cottage on Dartmoor, The Browning Version, and The V.I.P.’s, end up making this, his last film? At least it’s worth watching for an unbelievable cast that includes Bergman, Rex Harrison, Jeanne Moreau, Shirley MacLaine, George C. Scott, Omar Sharif, Alain Delon, and, wait for it, Art Carney! The gimmicky plot concerns the car of the title and three different sets of owners, focusing mostly on their heartbreak along the way. Another MGM release, not yet put onto DVD by Warner Bros.
Tuesday August 26 - Janet Leigh
2:00 AM One Is a Lonely Number (Stuart, 1972) - C-97 mins. - Golden Globe-nominated Trish Van Devere stars as a woman whose husband leaves her, causing the new divorcee to rebuild her own life. Janet Leigh and Melvyn Douglas are there in support. As an aside, Douglas is listed at 111 acting credits and his final movie was released in 1982, a year after he died. I half-expect him to pop up in everything now. One Is a Lonely Number was directed by Mel Stuart, who seemed to work mostly in nonfiction and whose name I recognized because he also did I Love My Wife starring Elliott Gould. This was yet another MGM and, now, Warner Bros. title, and is not on DVD.
Wednesday August 27 - Tony Curtis
10:15 PM Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick, 1957) - BW-96 mins. - Nearly all the Curtis films TCM is showing today are on DVD so I almost picked Boeing Boeing (at 5:00 PM) just because it’s not available, but then I wised up. Sweet Smell of Success is a special film and despite other movies that might be looked at as similar, there’s really nothing else like it. Curtis is such a weaselly whipping boy, and Burt Lancaster plays a character more repulsive than 90% of screen murderers. When I watched Atlantic City the other day, I was thinking about Lancaster’s performance here and how complete of a career the guy had. I still have this nagging feeling that he’s a bit underrated. And this movie is the kind you can easily watch once a year and never get tired of it. The MGM DVD is completely bare save for a trailer.
Thursday August 28 - Charlton Heston
7:30 AM The Buccaneer (Quinn, 1958) - C-120 mins. - This isn’t really something I’m interested in, but I was surprised to find it’s not easily available on DVD (and I was looking for some filler). Of note, it was the only film Anthony Quinn directed and he’s not in the cast. It was a remake of the 1938 DeMille original starring Fredric March as Jean Lafitte. Yul Brynner takes over this time and is joined by Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer, Inger Stevens and Charlton Heston as Andrew Jackson. If you like actual pirates and stories about the War of 1812, this could be your movie. It was done for and should still be owned by Paramount.
Friday August 29 - Marlon Brando
6:00 AM The Fugitive Kind (Lumet, 1960) - BW-121 mins. - Here’s a somewhat off-the-wall pick, but I’ve been interested in seeing this for awhile without actually taking the plunge. If anyone’s familiar with the film, feel free to chime in with advice. The pros, for me, are Sidney Lumet, Brando, Anna Magnani, and Joanne Woodward. However, many of those are the cons, as well, with both Brando and Magnani being inconsistently tolerable. It’s also written and adapted by Tennessee Williams, whose work I’ve never enjoyed. So I don’t know what to think, really. Drifters and lusty women in the south rarely interest me in Williams’ stories. The alternative to this broadcast is a DVD from MGM available in R1, which DVD Beaver chastised for having no supplements and not being enhanced for widescreen televisions.
The TCM Ten Archive January 18, 2008
Posted by clydefro in : The TCM Ten , add a commentI’ve now archived my TCM picks by month as subpages on the separate TCM Ten page. Someone might find them useful and I hate to delete them outright. Reference purposes maybe. I’ve also updated The TCM Ten for next week’s selections and will continue to do so (most) every Friday. Comments, concerns, and suggestions are always welcomed.