What's On TCM August 3-9
Note: TCM comsiders the day to begin at 6AM for scheduling purposes. This is important this month, because every single day is themed around a specific star. Thus, the films listed for 2AM Friday, are actually Friday night aka Saturday morning. Hope this isn't too confusing.
3 Friday Joan Crawford Day
2:00 AM Berserk! (1967)
A lady ringmaster milks the publicity from a string of murders. Cast: Joan Crawford, Diana Dors, Ty Hardin. Dir: Jim O'Connolly. C-96 mins, TV-PG
4:00 AM Trog (1970)
A scientist tries to protect a caveman brought back from suspended animation. Cast: Joan Crawford, Michael Gough, Bernard Kay. Dir: Freddie Francis. C-93 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format
Naturally, I concentrate solely on Crawford's end-of-career appearances in horror films. This is a pair of cheerfully sleazy US/UK productions, produced by the incorrigible Herman Cohen. Back in the '50's, Cohen worked for AIP, where he produced their amazing "Teenage Monster" films (I Was a Teenage Werewolf, I Was a Teenage Franenstein, Blood of Dracula) before moving to the UK and independent production. In the UK, Cohen produced such gems as Horrors of the Black Museum, Konga, and these two gems. Almost all of Cohen's UK productions feature the finely-judged, tightly-controlled scenery chewing of Michael Gough (sadly best remembered now as Alfred in the Burton/Schumacher Batman films.) Gough is in both of these films and a joy to watch. Cohen's mix of over-baked soap opera melodramatics and gleeful sadism (with a touch of rampant illogic) usually makes for great entertainment. Add in Joan Crawford during her desperate later years, playing an imperious ringmistress and an obsessed scientist, and I can't see how this can possibly go wrong (except in the best way possible.) Trog, btw, is Crawford's last screen role. What a way to go. It also features stock footage of dinosaurs by Ray Harryhausen, cribbed from Irwin Allen's The Animal World, which apparently is a lost film these days. (The negative was reportedly cut to hell for use as stock footage. Dammit, Hollywood! Stop that!)
4 Saturday William Holden Day
5:45 PM Stalag 17 (1953)
A cynical serviceman in a World War II POW camp has to prove he's not an informer. Cast: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-120 mins, TV-PG, CC
8:00 PM Bridge On The River Kwai, The (1957)
The Japanese Army forces World War II POWs to build a strategic bridge in Burma. Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa. Dir: David Lean. C-161 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format
I have nothing to say about William Holden, and I don't really like WWII movies, but these are supposed to be excellent films.
5 Sunday Jimmy Stewart Day
9:45 AM Harvey (1950)
A wealthy eccentric prefers the company of an invisible six-foot rabbit to his family. Cast: James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Cecil Kellaway. Dir: Henry Koster. BW-104 mins, TV-G, CC
Best feel-good mental illness movie ever. Jimmy Stewart can do no wrong.
4:00 PM Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (1962)
An experienced gunman and a peace-loving tenderfoot clash with a Western bully. Cast: John Wayne, James Stewart, Lee Marvin. Dir: John Ford. BW-123 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format
Absolutely kick-ass western by the great John Ford. Stewart is a lawyer who's gone west to make a career, but runs afoul of local togh-guy Valance (Lee Marvin being nasty). Big western stars Wayne and Stewart hadn't teamed up before this film. Made in black and white, mostly shot on interior sets, this is a moody, gripping story with a lot on it's mind. It climaxes in one of those not-exactly-shootouts I've mentioned before. It's more of a running ambush, really.
6 Monday Robert Mitchum Day
11:45 AM Out of the Past (1947)
A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas. Dir: Jacques Tourneur. BW-97 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
Considered one of the best noirs ever. And with Mitchum and Douglas, it must be tough as nails.
11:30 PM El Dorado (1967)
A gunfighter and a drunken sheriff take on a corrupt cattle baron. Cast: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan. Dir: Howard Hawks. C-126 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format
Remake of Hawks' own Rio Bravo (one of my fave westerns.) Studio-bound staging makes it look like a TV show, but the story is good, the cast is good, and you get to compare Mitchum toDean Martin (who played the equivalent role in the original.) How often do you have a basis for that comparison?
7 Tuesday Jane Russell Day
6:00 AM Double Dynamite (1951)
A bank teller reaps the rewards of saving a gangster's life, but can't reveal where he got the money. Cast: Frank Sinatra, Jane Russell, Groucho Marx. Dir: Irving Cummings. BW-80 mins, TV-G, CC
One of only two Groucho movies I haven't seen. This can't be much good, really, but it has to be better than Skidoo.
7:30 AM His Kind Of Woman (1951)
A deported gangster causes problems for guests at a Mexican resort. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Vincent Price. Dir: John Farrow. BW-120 mins, TV-PG, CC
Terrific, funny, pseudo-noir (not nearly enough doom for the real thing). Mitchum is tough, Russell is sultry, and Price is hilarious as a swashbuckling movie actor.
10:00 AM Las Vegas Story, The (1952)
When newlyweds visit Las Vegas, the wife's shady past comes to the surface. Cast: Jane Russell, Victor Mature, Vincent Price. Dir: Robert Stevenson. BW-88 mins, TV-PG
Jane goes to Vegas! And Vincent Price is there!
4:45 PM Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955)
A sister act in Paris tries to top their aunts' escapades there during the roaring twenties. Cast: Jane Russell, Jeanne Crain, Alan Young. Dir: Richard Sale. C-99 mins, TV-G, Letterbox Format
Sequel to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, minus Marilym Monroe.
8:00 PM Outlaw, The (1943)
Billy the Kid and Doc Holliday fight over possession of a stallion and a sultry Mexican girl. Cast: Jack Beutel, Jane Russell, Walter Huston. Dir: Howard Hughes. BW-116 mins, TV-PG, CC
Ahistorical melodramatic hogwash of the highest order, from the man who brought us the Spruce Goose. The film that made Jane Russell's rack into a star!
8 Wednesday Dana Andrews Day
11:00 AM Fearmakers, The (1958)
A Korean War veteran discovers his Washington-based PR firm has been taken over by Communist infiltrators. Cast: Dana Andrews, Dick Foran, Mel Torme. Dir: Jacques Tourneur. BW-85 mins, TV-PG
12:45 AM Curse of the Demon (1958)
An anthropologist investigates a devil worshipper who commands a deadly demon. Cast: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis. Dir: Jacques Tourneur. BW-95 mins, TV-PG, CC
A pair of films from horror auteur Jacques (Cat People) Touneur. Curse of the Demon is an especially good occult thriller with a steadfstky skeptical hero and one of the best villains ever. Fearmakers I have not seen, but it has Commie Fifth Columnists and Mel Torme!
9 Thursday Myrna Loy Day
9:30 AM Thin Man, The (1934)
11:15 AM After The Thin Man (1936)
1:15 PM Another Thin Man (1939)
3:00 PM Shadow Of The Thin Man (1941)
4:45 PM Thin Man Goes Home, The (1945)
6:30 PM Song Of The Thin Man (1947)
All Six Thin Man movies in a row! Both a demonstration of the law of entropy as applied to movie series, and a good way to kill 9 hours or so. First one's best, of course, but the rest are never less than cheerfully amusing entertainment. With William Powell.
8:00 PM Libeled Lady (1936)
When an heiress sues a newspaper, the editor hires a gigolo to compromise her. Cast: Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy. Dir: Jack Conway. BW-98 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
Also with William Powell (he's the gigolo) plus a side order of Jean Harlow. One of the films that uses swimming as a substitute for sex scenes (see also: The Philadelphia Story, Tarzan and His Mate, etc. Suddenly it occurs to me to wonder what those Esther Williams movies were really up to.) Funny stuff.
9:45 PM Love Crazy (1941)
A businessman concocts a series of harebrained schemes to keep his wife from divorcing him. Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jack Carson. Dir: Jack Conway. BW-99 mins, TV-PG, CC
Again with the Powell. When they do a William Powell day, how will I know the difference? Still, if it ain't broke...
5:00 AM Naughty Flirt, The (1931)
A flighty heiress goes to work as a secretary to win the straitlaced man she loves. Cast: Alice White, Paul Page, Myrna Loy. Dir: Edward F. Cline. BW-57 mins, TV-G
Myrna's not the lead in this one, but I'm always ready for a pre-code sex comedy. Plus, under an hour long!
Special note: Friday August 10 is Vincent Price Day!!!! 24 hours of Vincent! Woo!