Kowabunga, cartooners!
Once again, it’s that time when
Thrilling Days of Yesteryear takes a look at what’s in store for
the curious on The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™.
(You know,
Rick
Brooks should be able to send his kids to
private school by now.
I’m
just sayin’.)
There’s a multitude of
fine viewing in May on Tee Cee Em—a salute to Aussie cinema, a tribute to Moms
and Memorial Day…and the channel’s Star of the Month will spotlight the vast
cinematic oeuvre of “the girl next door.”
That’s right, June Allyson devotees—the Bronx gal born
Eleanor Geisman in 1917 is getting the Star of the Month accolades for May;
every Wednesday night viewers can stuff their faces full of some of the
actress-singer’s best-remembered movies (29 in all).
I gotta come clean here—I’m not much of a
Junie fan (though Dick Powell seemed to like her all right—so who am I to
judge), but I am intrigued to see
They
Only Kill Their Masters (1972) on the schedule (May 28, 3:45am); I’ll have
to DVR it because James Garner.
(
Masters was the last MGM film to be
lensed on the studio’s backlot before it was sold; because of this, a handful of
former MGM stars agreed to be grace the movie in supporting roles.
Allyson plays a lesbian in the film—she
accomplished this amazing performance simply by donning a sweatshirt.
Vee-ola!
Acting!)
Here’s a look at what’s
in store for her fans:
May 7, Wednesday
08:00pm The Glenn
Miller Story (1954)
10:15pm The Stratton
Story (1949)
12:15am The Secret
Heart (1946)
02:00am The Three
Musketeers (1948)
04:15am Right Cross
(1950)
05:45am The Sailor
Takes a Wife (1945)
May 8, Thursday
07:30am Girl Crazy
(1943)
09:15am Words and
Music (1948)
May 14. Wednesday
08:00pm Little Women
(1949)
10:15pm The McConnell
Story (1955)
12:15am Meet the
People (1944)
02:00am The Reformer
and the Redhead (1950)
03:45am The Girl in
White (1952)
05:30am Her Highness
and the Bellboy (1945)
May 15, Thursday
07:30am Till the
Clouds Roll By (1946)
May 21, Wednesday
08:00am Two Girls and
a Sailor (1944)
10:15am Best Foot
Forward (1943)
12:00am Good News
(1947)
01:45am Too Young to
Kiss (1951)
03:30am The Bride
Goes Wild (1948)
05:15am High Barbaree
(1947)
May 22, Thursday
07:00am Thousands
Cheer (1943)
May 28, Wednesday
08:00pm My Man
Godfrey (1957)
10:00pm The Opposite
Sex (1956)
12:00am Music for
Millions (1944)
02:00am Battle Circus
(1953)
03:45am They Only
Kill Their Masters (1972)
05:30am Executive
Suite (1954)
May 29, Thursday
07:30am Two Sisters
from Boston (1946)
And for those of you who don’t like June Allyson…there’s sport
war. TCM honors those who sacrificed in
service to their country with military-themed films over the course of the
Memorial Day weekend, May 24-26:
May 24, Saturday
06:00am Journey for
Margaret (1942)
07:30am The Shopworn
Angel (1938)
09:00am A Guy Named
Joe (1943)
11:15am Hell to
Eternity (1960)
01:45pm The Steel
Helmet (1951)
03:15pm Objective,
Burma! (1945)
05:45pm The Hill
(1965)
08:00pm The Dirty
Dozen (1967)
10:45pm Where Eagles
Dare (1969)
01:30am Kelly's
Heroes (1970)
04:00am Men of the
Fighting Lady (1954)
05:30am The
Horizontal Lieutenant (1962)
May 25, Sunday
07:00am Imitation
General (1958)
08:30am See Here,
Private Hargrove (1944)
10:15am What Next,
Corporal Hargrove? (1945)
12:00pm Mister
Roberts (1955)
02:15pm Ensign Pulver
(1964)
04:15pm Pillow to
Post (1945)
06:00pm The Password
is Courage (1962)
08:00pm No Time for
Sergeants (1958)
10:15pm Onionhead
(1958)
12:15am The Better
'Ole (1926)
02:00am Carnival in
Flanders (1935)
04:00am The Dawn
Patrol (1938)
May 26, Monday
06:00am The Red Badge
of Courage (1951)
07:30am Sergeant York
(1941)
10:00am Friendly
Persuasion (1956)
12:30pm The White Cliffs
of Dover (1944)
03:00pm The Young
Lions (1958)
06:00pm The Fighting
Sullivans (1944)
08:00pm Twelve
O'Clock High (1949)
10:30pm The Best
Years of Our Lives (1946)
01:30am Pride of the
Marines (1945)
03:45am Above and
Beyond (1952)
When you think of Australian film directors, several names
come to mind: Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, Gillian Armstrong, George Miller, Fred
Schepsi…and of course, Yahoo Serious.
Friday nights in May—a total of 25 features, though two of those are
repeats of that
Story of Film: An Odyssey documentary that several of my
Facebook chums agreed wasn’t worth
anyone’s
time—the channel will highlight many outstanding films directed by renowned
folk from the land Down Under (and some I’ve been wanting to see for a while
now).
(
Note to TCM: while it is always nice to represent female
directors on the schedule, Jane Campion—director of An Angel at My Table and Sweetie—is
from New Zealand
. I realize that technically
Campion is based in Australia, but if I’ve
learned anything from Death Proof,
it’s that you do not call a Kiwi an Aussie.)
May 2, Friday
08:00pm Breaker
Morant (1980)
10:00pm Gallipoli
(1981)
12:00am Tim
(1979)
02:00am Mad Max
(1979)
04:00am Road Games
(1981)
May 9, Friday
08:00pm Picnic at
Hanging Rock (1975)
10:00pm The Last Wave
(1977)
12:00am The Cars That
Ate Paris (1974)
01:45am Walkabout
(1971)
03:45am The Story of Film: An Odyssey: 1969-1979 –
Radical Directors in the 70s - Make State of the Nation Movies (2011)
May 16, Friday
08:00pm My Brilliant
Career (1979)
10:00pm Starstruck
(1982)
12:00am An Angel at
My Table (1990)
02:45am Sweetie
(1989)
04:30am The Story of Film: An Odyssey: The 1990s –
The First Days of Digital - Reality Losing Its Realness in America and
Australia (2011)
May 23, Friday
08:00pm The Year of
Living Dangerously (1982)
10:00pm The Plumber
(1979)
11:30pm The
Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972)
01:30am Don's Party
(1976)
03:15am Muriel's
Wedding (1994)
May 30, Friday
08:00pm Newsfront
(1978)
10:00pm Sunday Too
Far Away (1975)
11:45pm The Chant of
Jimmie Blacksmith (1978)
02:00am The Devil's
Playground (1976)
04:00am Lonely Hearts
(1982)
And on May 11—“M is for the million things she gave
me…” That’s right: a salute to the
extraordinary women who cooked our meals and wiped our noses and did our
laundry and more on an endless list of sacrifices. (It’s criminal that we only celebrate
Mother’s Day once a year.)
May 11, Sunday
06:00am Lady for a
Day (1933)
07:45am The Catered
Affair (1956)
09:30am Now, Voyager
(1942)
11:30am Gypsy
(1962)
02:00pm Mildred
Pierce (1945)
04:00pm Marty
(1955)
05:45pm Imitation of
Life (1959)
08:00pm I Remember
Mama (1948)
10:30pm The Mating
Season (1951)
And if that’s not enough for ya—and by gosh…don’t you think
it oughta be?—here’s the remainder of what’s on tap for May:
May 1, Thursday – The channel is doffing its cap to M-O-M on
Mother’s Day, ‘tis true…but before that Momaganza, TCM offers up a primer on
“Moms in the Movies” in the primetime hours beginning with
Imitation of Life (1959—also scheduled for May 11) at 8pm.
White
Heat (1949) follows at 10:15pm (not a motion picture I would have gone with
to present a positive picture of matriarchs…but then, I don’t work for TCM),
then it’s
Bachelor Mother (1939;
12:15am),
The Catered Affair (1956;
2am—also on May 11) and
The Magnificent
Ambersons (1942; 3:45am).
May 2, Friday – The Old Groaner himself would have celebrated
his 111th natal anniversary today…and he’d probably still end up stealing Dorothy Lamour from his pal Bob Hope. Movies featuring Bing Crosby start at 7:45am with
Going Hollywood (1933)…followed by Pennies from Heaven (1936; 9:15am), Road to Bali (1953; 10:45am), High
Society (1956; 12:30pm) and Man on
Fire (1957; 2:30pm).
May 3, Saturday – TCM finishes out the remaining entries from
RKO’s
Mexican Spitfire series
beginning at 10:30am with
Mexican
Spitfire Sees a Ghost (1942).
(This
movie actually played
at the top of
motion picture bills—the bottom half was
The
Magnificent Ambersons.)
Lupe Velez
and Leon Errol continue their hijinks the following week (May 10) with
Mexican Spitfire’s Elephant (1942) and
wrap it up with
Mexican Spitfire’s
Blessed Event (1943) on May 17.
The
series films don’t start up again until May 31, when the first of the “Doctor”
series,
Doctor in the House (1954)
airs at 10:30am.
On TCM’s The Essentials, the scheduling of
Best Picture Oscar winner In the Heat of
the Night (1967) at 8pm ushers in works from the oeuvre of director Norman
Jewison; The Russians are Coming The
Russians are Coming (1966) follows Night
at 10pm and the night concludes with The
Cincinnati Kid (1965) at 12:15am. On
TCM
Underground, the 1973 cult classic that many believe to be the
inspiration for the hit T&A TV phenom Charlie’s Angels airs at 2:15am: The Doll Squad!
May 5, Monday – TCM scratches the replacement theme scheduled
for today and sticks with their initial plan:
UFO (1956; 6:15am),
The
Bride Came C.O.D. (1941; 7:45am),
H.M.
Pulham, Esq. (1941; 9:30am),
The
V.I.P.s (1963; 11:45am),
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945; 2pm),
The F.B.I. Story (1959; 4pm) and
D.O.A. (1950; 6:30pm).
(All right, that pun was as painful for me as
it was for you.
Please don’t trample the
flowers in my comments section.)
The channel’s schedule seems to be saturated with mothers—Partridge Family matriarch Shirley
Jones is feted with a primetime schedule of her movies; the occasion kicks off
at 8 with the movie I was proud to introduce my niece Rachel to over the
holidays, The Music Man (1962). Carousel
(1956; 10:45pm) is next, followed by The
Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1963; 1am)…and the evening concludes with
Shirl’s Oscar-winning performance in 1960’s Elmer Gantry at 3:15am.
May 6, Tuesday – If you thought the previous day’s “initial”
line-up was bad…see if you can guess what today’s movies have in common:
The Scarlet Letter (1926; 6am),
Scarlet Pages (1930; 8am),
Scarlet Dawn (1932; 9:15am),
Scarlet River (1933; 10:15am),
A Study in Scarlet (1933; 11:15am),
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935; 12:30pm),
Scarlet Street (1945; 2:15pm),
The Scarlet Clue (1945; 4:15pm) and
The Scarlet Coat (1955; 5:30pm).
(Frankly, my dear…)
Come nightfall, the channel catches up on “the latest
gossip” with like-minded movies in The
Children's Hour (1961; 8pm), The
Women (1939; 10pm), My Reputation
(1946; 12:15am), The Age of Innocence (1993;
2am) and The Gorgeous Hussy (1936;
4:30am).
May 7, Wednesday – Happy 113th birthday, Coop! Two-time Oscar winner Gary Cooper is the
proud recipient of cake and ice cream today and Tee Cee Em pulls out all the
stops with A Farewell to Arms (1932;
6:15am), One Sunday Afternoon (1933;
7:45am), Today We Live (1933;
9:15am), The Westerner (1940;
11:15am), Meet John Doe (1941; 1pm),
Sergeant York (1941; 3:15pm) and The Pride of the Yankees (1942;
5:45pm). (Yup.)
May 8, Thursday – TCM gets an early jump on celebrating comedy
great Phil Silvers’ birthday (it’s actually May 11) by scheduling one of my
favorites of his films,
A Thousand and
One Nights (1945) at 1pm.
The rest
of the line-up includes
You’re in the
Army Now (1941; 11:30am—Regis Toomey alert!),
Lucky Me (1954; 2:45pm),
Top
Banana (1954; 4:30pm) and
A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966; 6am).
(Hey, Phil’s daughter Cathy “Jenny Piccolo”
Silvers and I are Facebook friends now…
gladaseeya!)
In primetime, movies adapted from successful stage
productions in the 1960s are the order of the day, beginning with the great
political drama The Best Man (1964)
at 8pm. A Thousand Clowns (1965; 10pm), The Night of the Iguana (1964; 12:15am) and The Subject Was Roses (1968; 2:30am) follow…but the night is capped
off (at 4:30am) by a movie I’ve not seen (and will definitely re-visit) since
the early, Duck Dynasty-free days of A&E: Marat/Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as
Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the
Marquis de Sade) (1967).
May 10, Saturday – Child star Anne Shirley is featured as part
of a three-film fete that gets underway with The Essentials showing of
Stella Dallas (1937) at 8pm
(heeeeyyyy Stellllllaaa!!!). The movie
that inspired Anne Shirley to become
Anne Shirley (she was originally billed as “Dawn O’Day”), Anne of Green Gables (1934), follows at 10pm…and then Shirley’s
final film (and all grown-up, too!), Murder,
My Sweet (1944), rings down the curtain at 11:30pm.
May 12, Monday – It’s Katharine Hepburn’s 107th natal
anniversary today—the weekend of May 10-12, classic movie bloggers will gush
about some of their favorite Kate films during
The
Katharine Hepburn Blogathon, hosted by
Margaret
Perry.
TCM will feature
Little Women (1933; 6am),
Stage Door (1937; 8am),
Mary of Scotland (1936; 9:45am),
Alice Adams (1935; 12pm),
Bringing Up Baby (1938; 2pm),
Woman of the Year (1942; 4pm) and
Pat and Mike (1952; 6pm)—so if you
haven’t seen any of these hold off on reading any essay discussing them until
you do so.
(Sorry if I sound like
anyone’s mother—I think it’s prolonged exposure to my own.)
The incomparable Mitzi Gaynor (still going strong!) is in
the primetime spotlight with several of her movies: The Joker is Wild (1957; 8pm), Les
Girls (1957; 10:15pm), The I Don't
Care Girl (1953; 12:15am) and Golden
Girl (1951; 2:45am). The odd man out
is her 1974 CBS-TV special Mitzi: A Tribute to the American Housewife,
which airs at 1:45am.
May 13, Tuesday – Another well-known boob tube Mom gets her
moment in the TCM spotlight during the daytime hours; Jane Wyatt (
Father
Knows Best) will be featured in two films that I reviewed over at
ClassicFlix,
Pitfall (1948; 11:30am) and
Criminal Lawyer (1951;
4:30pm).
Rounding out the schedule are
We're Only Human (1936; 7:30am),
Kisses for Breakfast (1941; 8:45am),
Army Surgeon (1942; 10:15am),
Bad Boy (1949; 1pm),
Task Force (1949; 2:30pm) and
Never Too Late (1965; 6pm).
The actress known by many as “Goldwyn’s Garbo,” Anna Sten,
is placed in charge of the primetime schedule—her American film debut in Nana (1934) is at 8pm, followed by We Live Again (1934; 9:45pm), They Came to Blow Up America (1943;
11:15pm) and her feature film swan song, The
Nun and the Sergeant (1962) at 12:45am.
(Anna’s the nun.) If you like
Anna, go with it (I thought she was quite good in 1941’s So Ends Our Night) but if your tastes run toward cinema vérité
TCM’s showing two Maysles Brothers classics afterward: Grey Gardens (1976; 2am) and Salesman
(1968; 3:45am).
May 14, Wednesday – If you’ve been keeping up with the news—you
and my father have a lot in common.
Just
kidding…but you may have heard that the only governor we’ve got here in the
Peach State recently signed into law what we unwashed hippie liberals call the Fellate
Your Firearms Fondly Bill—which odiously expands the “Stand Your Ground”
doctrine to protect convicted felons who kill using illegal guns.
(Freedom!)
So with that, might I suggest you watch some of the movies in today’s
line-up for tips on how to beat a potential murder rap (never turn down free
legal advice):
The Postman Always Rings
Twice (1946; 6am),
The Strange Love
of Martha Ivers (1946; 8am),
Dark
Passage (1947; 10am),
The Unfaithful
(1947; 12noon),
Impact (1949; 2pm),
A Fever in the Blood (1961; 4pm) and
Twilight of Honor (1963; 6pm).
May 15, Thursday – “A preachment, dear friend, you are about to
receive…on John Barleycorn, nicotine and the temptations of Eve…” The daylight TCM hours host films about those
men call upon to preach—Hallelujah!
(1929) kicks the medicine show off at 10:30am, followed by TDOY fave Stars in My Crown (1950;
12:15pm), Count Three and Pray
(1955; 2pm), Wise Blood (1979;
4pm—one of sister Kat’s favorites) and The
Night of the Hunter (1955; 6pm).
In primetime, the subject turns to “hypochondriacs”—another
favorite here at Yesteryear Hospital, Why
Worry? (1923) starts the evening at 8pm, then it’s Hannah and Her Sisters (1986; 9:15pm), Up in Arms (1944; 11:15pm), Send
Me No Flowers (1964; 1:15am), The
Little Shop of Horrors (1960; 3am) and Gold
Diggers of 1937 (1936; 4:15am).
May 16, Friday – Tee Cee Em takes the WABAC machine to 1940 and
dots its schedule with films from that year—Always a Bride (6am), Cross
Country Romance (7am), I Take This
Woman (8:15am), It's a Date (10am), Keeping Company (12noon), Lucky
Partners (1:30pm), Married and in
Love (3:15pm), My Love Came Back (4:30pm)
and 'Til We Meet Again (6pm).
May 17, Saturday – Cue the Theremin!
The
Haunting (1963) is on tap on
TCM’s Essentials at 8pm, and what
follows are pants-wetting trips into the unsettling world of paranormal
investigations.
Which is just a fancy
way of saying that
The Legend of Hell
House (1973) and
Poltergeist
(1983) follow at 10 and 11:45pm, respectively.
Stick around for
TCM Underground at 3:30am—a favorite
of Castle Yesteryear,
Night of the Eagle
(1962—a.k.a.
Burn, Witch, Burn!), is
on the menu.
(Evil laugh.)
May 18, Sunday – The movie that won Oscars for director Elia
Kazan and Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck (Best Picture), Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), is scheduled at 8pm. The two men’s attempt to make lightning
strike twice with the socially conscious Pinky
(1949) follows at 10:15. (Despite Oscar
nominations for stars Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore and Ethel Waters, however…Pinky came up stinky.)
May 19, Monday – Bring on the empty horses!
Oscar-winning actor David Niven is in this
morning’s spotlight with
The Charge of
the Light Brigade (1936) at 6:15am, followed by
The Dawn Patrol (1938; 8:15am),
The First of the Few (1942—a.k.a.
Spitfire; 10am),
A Kiss for
Corliss (1949; 12pm),
The Moon Is
Blue (1953; 1:30pm),
Tonight's the
Night (1954; 3:15pm),
The Little Hut
(1957; 5pm) and
The Extraordinary Seaman
(1969; 6:30pm).
When evening shadows fall today and on May 20, TCM tips its
hat to films produced by Mel Brooks’ production company, Brooksfilms (catchy
title!). On Monday, it’s Fatso (1980; 8pm), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987; 10pm) and The Doctor and the Devils (1985; 12mid); Tuesday features The Elephant Man (1980; 8pm), My Favorite Year (1982; 10:15pm) and To Be or Not to Be (1983; 12mid).
May 21, Wednesday – Here’s as keen an idea for a film festival
as I’ve seen in a long time: a salute to character great Victor Moore (or as
Fred Allen joshingly refers to him in
It’s
in the Bag!—“Grandma’s glamour boy!”).
The first four features—
Meet the
Missus (1937; 6am),
We're on the
Jury (1937; 7:15am),
Radio City
Revels (1938; 8:30am) and
She's Got
Everything (1938; 10:15am)—all team Vic up with frequent onscreen sparring
partner Helen Broderick.
After that,
it’s
This Marriage Business (1938;
11:30am),
The Heat's On (1943;
12:45pm),
It Happened on 5th Avenue
(1947; 2:15pm) and
A Kiss in the Dark (1949;
4:15pm).
May 22, Thursday – While I often find it hard to choose between
Sherlock, Jr. (1924) and The General (1926) as to which is
Buster Keaton’s masterpiece…my favorite Keaton feature (simply on the amount of
sheer pleasure it gives me) is Seven
Chances (1925; 9:15am). Maybe it’s
because one of my favorite actresses, Jean Arthur, has a tiny role in it. Well, who cares—it’ll give me a reason to
watch it for the umpteenth time, plus I can enjoy The Silver Horde (1930; 10:15am), Danger Lights (1931; 11:45am), Public
Hero No. 1 (1935; 1pm), The Ex-Mrs.
Bradford (1936; 2:30pm), History is
Made at Night (1937; 4pm)…and what may be my favorite Jean film of them
all, The Talk of the Town (1942;
5:45pm).
He’s back from the TCM Classic Film Festival—where he made
lame movie buffs walk and blind flicker aficionados see! Yes, good ol’ Bobby Osbo sets up his
projector at 8pm with a few “picks”—beginning with The House on 92nd Street (1945) at 8pm…then he moves up the block
to The House on 56th Street (1933)
at 9:45. Hobson’s Choice (1954) is next at 11pm (sure, I kid R.O. but he’s
got great taste in movies) followed by The
Belle of New York (1952) at 1am to round out the evening.
May 23, Friday – Noir icon and The Restless Gun star
John Payne is the focus of today’s film line-up…though disappointingly, only
one Payne noir is featured—1949’s The
Crooked Way at 3:45am. But TCM will
show Dodsworth (1936) at 6am (yes,
that was his feature film debut!), followed by Garden of the Moon (1938; 7:45am), Indianapolis Speedway (1939; 9:30am), Kid Nightingale (1939; 11am), Wings
of the Navy (1939; 12noon), King of the Lumberjacks (1940; 1:45pm)
and Tear Gas Squad (1940; 2:45pm).
DVR-TiVo-Or whatever
recording device strikes your fancy-alert!
At 5:15am, TCM will show one of the funniest of the Our Gang silent
comedies—the 1926 two-reel classic
Thundering
Fleas.
Not only is “the Gang all
here” (Mickey Daniels, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Joe Cobb) but there are
contribution from stars and supporting players from the “Lot of Fun”—chiefly
Oliver Hardy, Jimmy Finlayson and Charley Chase.
Tape this if you get a chance.
May 27, Tuesday – Actress Merle Oberon has the daytime schedule
baton passed to her, and the proceedings get underway at 6am with The Divorce of Lady X (1938). The
Lion Has Wings (1939) is on deck at 7:45am, then it’s Over the Moon (1940; 9:15am), Affectionately
Yours (1941; 10:45am), Lydia
(1941; 12:15pm), That Uncertain Feeling
(1941; 2pm), A Night in Paradise
(1946; 3:30pm) and Deep in My Heart (1954;
5pm).
The only
nun who
has voting privileges as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences takes over primetime—it’s none other than The Reverend Mother Dolores
Hart…though back in her movie days, she was plain ol’ Dolores.
She’s the TCM Guest Programmer this month,
and we shouldn’t be surprised to see that the first movie on the schedule is
one of her own: 1962’s
Lisa (at
8pm).
(Yes, I was
so hoping it would be
Loving
You [1957].
I would have even
settled for
Where the Boys Are
[1960].)
The other films to be hosted by
The Reverend Mother (I sound like I wandered into a
Flying Nun rerun) are
Laura (1944; 10pm),
The Song of Bernadette (1943;
11:45pm—there’s a stunner!) and
The Rose
Tattoo (1955; 2:30am).
(Fellow CMBA
member
A Trip Down
Memory Lane has some interesting background on the Mother Prioress in
this
2012 post.)
May 28, Wednesday – “San Francisco/Open your golden gate/You’ll
let nobody wait…” Yes, the “City by the
Bay” is feted today with the movie being sung about in those lyrics—San Francisco (1936) airs at
9:30am. Other Frisco-based films on the
schedule are Welcome Danger (1929;
6am), Frisco Jenny (1932; 8am), Gold Is Where You Find It (1938;
11:30am), Shadow of the Thin Man
(1941; 1:15pm), Seven Miles from
Alcatraz (1942; 3pm), Night Song
(1947; 4:15pm) and Hit the Deck
(1955; 6pm).
May 29, Thursday – Johnny Mercer alert! The two feature films featuring Savannah’s
favorite native son Johnny Mercer as an actor (well, that’s certainly
debatable) will air today—Old Man Rhythm
(1935) at 9:30am and To Beat the Band
(1935) at 2:30pm.
One of the most talked-about classic movie books in the
blogosphere last year was
My Lunches with
Orson—a series of transcribed conversations between the great
actor-director and his devoted minion, Henry Jaglom…also in the acting and
directing profession.
Edited by Peter
Biskind (author of one of my favorite film books,
Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love
the Fifties), I glommed onto a promotional copy of
Lunches…and while I still consider Welles to be an amazing talent (not
only in movies but in radio as well), some of the revelations in the book put a
little tarnish on his legend (though you can argue that it always was there; I
was just too Jaglom-like to notice it).
TCM will toast these two conversationalists with airings of the Welles
films
Citizen Kane (1941; 8pm) and
F for Fake (1973; 10:15pm)…followed by
two Jaglom joints,
Someone to Love
(1987; 12mid—Welles’s last feature film appearance) and
Eating (1990; 2am).
The
channel wraps up the evening with
My
Dinner with Andre (1981) at 4am—I guess they want folks to compare it to
Lunches.
May 30, Friday – Hold my calls…TCM fetes one of my favorite
film directors, Fritz Lang, with a daylong scheduling of his films. My mother will be happy that The Blue Gardenia (1953) is on the
schedule (3pm); she saw the second half of it the last time it was on the channel
and expressed an interest in seeing the whole enchilada. The other movies scheduled are Metropolis (1926; 6am), M (1931; 7:30am), Fury (1936; 9:15am), Scarlet
Street (1945; 11am), Clash by Night
(1952; 1pm), Moonfleet (1955;
4:45pm) and While the City Sleeps
(1956; 6:15pm)
May 31, Saturday – To close out the merry month of May, TCM’s Essentials
will offer up the start of “Pygmalion stories” with the musical version of
George Bernard Shaw’s classic, My Fair
Lady (1964), at 8pm. The Josephine
Baker rarity Princesse Tam-Tam
(1935) follows at 11pm, and then it’s Judy Holiday as the world’s most beloved
“dumb blonde” in Born Yesterday
(1950) at 12:30am.
