What's On TCM July 20-26
20 Friday
12:30 PM Thrill Of A Romance (1945)
A soldier returning from World War II finds love with a lady swimmer. Cast: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Tommy Dorsey. Dir: Richard Thorpe. C-105 mins, TV-G, CC
2:30 PM Easy To Wed (1946)
In this remake of Libeled Lady, a tough newspaper editor hires a gigolo to compromise a woman suing his paper for libel. Cast: Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball. Dir: Edward Buzzell. C-106 mins, TV-G, CC
4:30 PM Neptune's Daughter (1949)
Mistaken identity complicates a polo player's romance with a bathing suit designer. Cast: Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton. Dir: Edward Buzzell. C-95 mins, TV-G, CC
6:15 PM Dangerous When Wet (1953)
A family of fitness freaks sets out to swim the English Channel. Cast: Esther Williams, Charlotte Greenwood, Fernando Lamas. Dir: Charles Walters. C-95 mins, TV-PG, CC
8:00 PM On An Island With You (1948)
A movie star falls for a handsome naval officer during location shooting in Hawaii. Cast: Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban. Dir: Richard Thorpe. C-107 mins, TV-G, CC
How many different roles can you possibly find for an actress most famous for her swimming ability? Here are five samples. Aside from Esther Williams herself, these pics are notable for the inclusion of several actors best known to people of my general age as TV actors: Peter Lawford, Lucille Ball, and Ricardo Montalban (who appears in two of them.)
21 Saturday
2:00 AM I Bury The Living (1958)
A cemetery keeper thinks he can mark people for death. Cast: Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel, Herbert Anderson. Dir: Albert Band. BW-76 mins, TV-PG
3:30 AM Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)
Sailors try to salvage a sunken treasure guarded by zombie seamen. Cast: Gregg Palmer, Alison Hayes, Morris Ankrum. Dir: Edward L. Cahn. C-70 mins, TV-PG
4:45 AM Man Who Turned to Stone, The (1957)
Mad scientists steal the life force from reform school girls. Cast: Victor Jory, William Hudson, Charlotte Austin. Dir: Laszlo Kardos. C-71 mins, TV-PG
Three horror cheapies from the 1950s! I Bury the Living is a modestly ambitious and original picture, with a touch of style. Zombies is... not. Man Who Turned to Stone can't possibly be as much fun as it's description suggests (mad scientists? reform-school girls?!?) but I'll watch it anyway.
10:00 AM Alias Boston Blackie (1942)
A reformed thief tracks down an escaped convict so he can prove the man is innocent. Cast: Chester Morris, Adele Mara, Richard Lane. Dir: Lew Landers. BW-67 mins,
Blackie gets to clear someone else of a crime they didn't commit. Makes a nice change of pace for him...
2:00 PM Jack the Giant Killer (1962)
A farm boy rises to noble heights to protect a princess from an evil wizard. Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Judi Meredith, Torin Thatcher. Dir: Nathan Juran. C-94 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format
Nifty, fun, yet slightly tacky knock-off of The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. Same star, same actor playing the villain, same director. CLunky, sub-Harryhausen effects are fun anyway. Plus, a chimp.
22 Sunday
5:00 AM Complicated Women (2003)
Documentary that looks at the phenomenon of "pre-code women" during the years 1929-1934. Cast: Narrated by Jane Fonda. Dir: Hugh Munro Neely. BW-56 mins, TV-PG, CC
This sounds interesting. Pre-1935, there were no national restrictions on content (other than "obscenity"), and the studios only had to worry about local censor boards. Result: sex and violence, baby! Not, you know, '70s levels of s&v, but still, more than anyone would see in American film for 30 years...
2:00 PM Big Heat, The (1953)
A police detective whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a scarred gangster's moll to bring down a powerful gangster. Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin. Dir: Fritz Lang. BW-89 mins, TV-14
Police noir by the director of Metropolis!
23 Monday
7:15 AM Big Sleep, The (1946)
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a society girl's involvement in the murder of a pornographer. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Malone. Dir: Howard Hawks. BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
Classic Raymond Chandler adaptation. Must see.
6:45 PM Go, Johnny, Go! (1959)
Rock-n-roll promoter Alan Freed searches for a talent contest's mysterious winner. Cast: Alan Freed, Jimmy Clanton, Chuck Berry. Dir: Paul Landres. BW-75 mins, TV-G
Vintage rock musical, featuring Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Ritchie Valens, Jackie Wilson, the Cadillacs and the Flamingos! The movie stars "teen idol" Jimmy Clanton, who sings five songs. Clanton was a singer/songwriter who had some big hits I've never heard of, like "Just a Dream" (which has kind of a Fats Domino sound) and "Venus in Blue Jeans." Actually, I'd never heard of Clanton before now.
24 Tuesday
6:00 AM Winning Your Wings (1942)
James Stewart hosts this classic Air Force recruiting film. BW-0 mins,
Jimmy Stewart war propaganda! Come and get your Jimmy Stewart war propaganda! Vintage ephemera usually spells fun and education (though not always in what you were intended to be educated in.)
10:00 PM Flying Tigers (1942)
American flyers help the Chinese fight off Japanese invaders. Cast: John Wayne, John Carroll, Anna Lee. Dir: David Miller. BW-102 mins, TV-PG, CC
Presumably set in Burma (where the Flying Tigers were stationed), and presumably never actually mentioning the Burmese (we're there to help the Chinese, after all.)
25 Wednesday
6:00 AM Murder! (1930)
A juror who had voted to convict a murder suspect tries to prove someone else did it before the execution date. Cast: Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring, Miles Mander. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-92 mins, TV-PG
I mention this because, aside from being a good film, it's one of the ones I've reviewed for my project. (That review is here.)
8:00 PM Godspell (1973)
Contemporary hippies relive the story of Christ's ministry and crucifixion. Cast: Victor Garber, David Haskell, Lynne Thigpen. Dir: David Greene. C-103 mins, TV-G, Letterbox Format
10:00 PM New York, New York (1977)
A jazz musician and a singer fight and love their way through the show biz world of the late forties. Cast: Liza Minnelli, Robert De Niro, Lionel Stander. Dir: Martin Scorsese. C-155 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format
1:00 AM Tommy (1975)
A seemingly handicapped boy becomes a Pinball Wizard. Cast: Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Roger Daltrey. Dir: Ken Russell. C-111 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format
3:00 AM Paint Your Wagon (1970)
Two California miners share a gold claim and a wife. Cast: Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg. Dir: Joshua Logan. C-166 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format
Four very different films from the decade in which the musical "died". It makes for an interesting study of the collision of the fanciful nature of the Hollywood musical with the newly fashionable naturalism of '70s film. These 4 pictures attempt different approaches, with varying success. One odd result is the casting of actors who really shouldn't be paid to sing: Robert De Niro? Oliver Reed? Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood?!? Even Jack Nicholson gets a verse or two in Tommy. (Speaking of Tommy, another thing to recommend this little opus by lunatic/genius director Ken Russell is the classic "Ann Margaret rolling around in baked beans" scene. Someday, someone will make a That's Entertainment-style compilation film of all the post-1970 musicals, and will be crushed if that scene isn't included.
26 Thursday
8:15 AM Merry Wives Of Reno, The (1934)
Three couples raise a ruckus when they travel to Nevada for quickie divorces. Cast: Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods, Guy Kibbee. Dir: H. Bruce Humberstone. BW-64 mins,
Ah, Reno, city of sin. Since this was made before 1935, there's a chance some of the characters might stay divorced.