Welcome to the latest edition of Fedya's "Movies to Tivo" thread, for the week of June 30-July 6, 2008. It's a holiday week, which means we're going to get some special programming, and it's also the start of a new month, which means TCM is going to bring us a new "Star of the Month". As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise specified.

Our first selection is the Eliot Spitzer Story: Rain, Monday at 4:30 AM on TCM. Walter Huston stars as a holier-than-thou missionary visiting American Samoa who takes an interest in trying to save the soul of a streetwalker (Joan Crawford), only to fall for her. (Actually, Elmer Gantry might have been more appropriate for Mr. Spitzer, but that's not airing this week.)

We've got a double feature of Ingrid Bergman movies on Monday afternoon. First up is her first American movie, Intermezzo: A Love Story, at 1:30 PM Monday on TCM. Bergman stars as the piano teacher to the daughter of a prominent violinist, played by Leslie Howard. He needs a new accompanist for his next concert tour, and asks her to accompany him. On the tour, he falls in love with her, despite the fact that he's already married. It's an affair that's bound to end in tragedy. But Bergman is gorgeous on the screen. Of course, she was quite familiar with the material, since this is a remake of a Swedish movie she had done a few years earlier.

Intermezzo will be followed by Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound at 2:45 PM, in which Bergman plays a psychiatrist who helps solve the case of Gregory Peck's amnesia, thus saving him from a murder rap. Spellbound is probably best known for a famous dream sequence, created by Salvador Dali. (You knew this already, though, since I've recommended Spellbound before.)

On Tuesday at 6:30 PM on TCM, we have Humphrey Bogart before he became a big star, in Crime School. This 1938 movie isn't original; it's a remake of James Cagney's The Mayor of Hell, which I recommended when it aired back in January as part of the salute to Cagney as TCM's Star of the Month. Bogart stars as the reform-minded warden of a school for juvenile delinquents, although he has to deal with the corruption of the previous regime. Here, the kids are played by the Dead End Kids, who appeared in a slew of mostly B movies in the late 1930s and early 1940s as a gang of tough-talking, but loveable, wannabe heavies. The Dead End Kids were probably better idolizing Cagney in Angels With Dirty Faces, but they're fine here, and fun to watch, as is Bogart.

Tuesday is July 1, and the new month brings TCM's new Star of the Month, Rosalind Russell. TCM is honoring her by showing her movies every Tuesday in prime time in July. The first movie they're showing is one I've recommended a number of times before, His Girl Friday, at 8:00 PM. I'm mentioning it again because one of our regular readers has a Cary Grant fetish, and he is of course the male lead in the movie. His Girl Friday is a remake of the 1931 movie The Front Page (not starring Russell), which is airing on TCM at 1:30 PM Wednesday.

A Russell movie I haven't mentioned before is My Sister Eileen, Wednesday at 12:30 AM on TCM. Russell stars as a woman from small-town Ohio who, along with her sister (Janet Blair) moves to New York City to try to become a writer. The two take a basement apartment in Greenwich Village (for the princely sum of $50 a month! ), and Russell eventually realizes that like all writers, the key to success is writing about the things she knows about. In her case, that means the fellow tenants in her building, who keep popping in to her apartment, the other assorted nutjob visitors to the basement apartment (thanks in part to the former tenant, who was a medium), and the antics of her pretty but free-spirited sister, including a climactic scene invoving a shipful of Portuguese sailors, none of whom speaks a lick of English! It's a really fun comedy from the days when the Hollywood studios made intelligent comedies, instead of things like American Pie 37. There's also a cameo at the end, but I won't give away who unexpectedly shows up in the apartment.

Our next intelligent comedy shows up on TCM at 4:00 PM Wednesday: You Can't Take It With You. Jean Arthur stars as the sensible granddaughter in a family full of eccentrics, led by patriarch Lionel Barrymore. Property developers are after their house, and unbeknownst to them, Arthur falls in love with the tycoon's son (played by James Stewart). Stewart loves her no matter what -- even knowing that his family is going to hate hers, because they're nowhere near the blue blood that tycoons of their position require. The result is another really fun, madcap comedy that was recognized by the Academy as the Best Picture of 1938. The excellent supporting cast includes Edward Arnold as Stewart's father; Spring Byington as Arthur's mother; Ann Miller, and Mischa Auer playing his usual Russian immigrant role, as in My Man Godfrey (which earned him his only Oscar nomination).

On Wednesday nights in July, TCM is saluting big bands, first, with movies starring big bands, and then, at the end of each Wednesday night (actually, early Thursday morning), showing shorts featuring the bands.

Thursday, July 3, marks the birth anniversary of George Sanders, the British actor who played a lot of debonair, but scheming men, such as his Oscar-winning performance as the theater critic in All About Eve. We are recommending three of his movies, all of which are airing on Thursday. First up is Man Hunt, Thursday at 6:00 AM on the Fox Movie Channel. Walter Pidgeon stars as a British big game hunter. In 1939 Germany, he's near Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" retreat, and aims his rifle sight on Hitler just to prove to himself that he could assassinate Hitler if he wanted to. Until he stupidly decides he's actually going to kill Hitler and puts a bullet in the gun. One of the Nazi guards spots him and captures him, taking him to his commander (George Sanders). Sanders eventually decides to kill Pidgeon by pushing him off a cliff, but of course, Pidgeon doesn't die, being saved by his backpack catching on a tree branch. This leads to Pidgeon trying to escape back to England, with Sanders hot on his heels. It doesn't help that he's not going to be safe even back in England -- the Nazis are saying he was sent by the British Government to assassinate Hitler.

Up against Man Hunt on TCM is Samson and Delilah, Thursday at 7:15 AM. Victor Mature stars as Samson in Cecil B. DeMille's telling of the tale of the Biblical strongman who gets his strength from his ridiculously long hair. Delilah is played by the gorgeous Hedy Lamarr. This is a DeMille movie through and through, so you should expect to get an overblown story with special effects, but one that is thoroughly entertaining. Sanders is part of the supporting cast, as the ruler of the Philistines. Also appearing, as Delilah's sister, is a young Angela Lansbury.

Our last George Sanders movie is Witness to Murder, Thursday at 11:00 AM on TCM. As the title implies, this is a movie similar to Rear Window, which was released about the same time, although Witness to Murder isn't quite as good. Barbara Stanwyck stars as the witness, a woman who is convinced she saw a murder take place in the apartment across the street. However, she can't get anybody to believe her. The only person who believes her is the murderer (there's George Sanders again), and that of course is no help to our heroine. Indeed, Sanders does everything he can to get Stanwyck out of the way, first by trying to get her committed to an asylum, and then eventually trying to kill her. The only person who might possibly be a help is a policeman played by Gary Merrill, but can he save Stanwyck before it's too late?

TCM's programmers have an evil streak on Thursday night, pairing the 1963 classic about Henry Fielding's classic about a foundling, Tom Jones, at 10:00 PM, and following it with What's New, Pussycat at 12:15 AM Friday.

Friday is Independence Day. For whatever reason, TCM is celebrating by showing several of Alfred Hitchcock's movies during the morning and afternoon. Rear Window, which I mentioned briefly above, shows up at 6:00 PM, while Janet Leigh declares her independence from a humdrum life in Psycho, at 11:30 AM.

Friday night on TCM has a number of musicals that deal with Americana. First up at 8:00 PM is The Music Man -- 76 trombones and all that. Following The Music Man, at 11:00 PM, is 1776. It's a musical look at our Founding Fathers and the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The key figures here are John Adams (William Daniels), Benjamin Franklin (Howard da Silva), and of course, Thomas Jefferson (Ken Howard), who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

After 1776, TCM gives us the James Cagney classic Yankee Doodle Dandy, at 2:00 AM Saturday, about the life of George M. Cohan. Cagney won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal.
The final musical of the night is On the Town, at 4:15 AM Saturday.

Last year, a new version of the classic movie 3:10 to Yuma was released. TCM is showing the original at 8:00 PM Saturday. Van Heflin stars as a rancher who's down on his luck, and is taking the quick buck of escorting notorious outlaw Glenn Ford to the train station, where Ford is to take the train to Yuma to stand trial for his crimes. Naturally, Ford has no desire to stand trial, and does everything he can to try to convince Heflin to let him go. In addition to this dynamic, we've got Ford's gang, who are certain to come back to try to free their man, by force if necessary. It's an excellent movie from a time when they had good stories, and didn't rely on CGI explosions to cover for the actors' defects.

Our Cary Grant Watch for MsPacman includes Notorious again, at 7:30 AM Friday on TCM;
the war movie Destination Tokyo at 11:30 PM Saturday on TCM; and
the comedy Every Girl Should Be Married, at 5:00 PM on TCM.

Last, but not least, for Blair Kiel I should mention To Catch A Yeti, airing Monday at noon on the Fox Movie Channel. It's actually originally a TV movie though, in which Meat Loaf chases what he thinks is the abominable snowman, only to find that it's, well... I won't give that away. The movie is terrible, though.

Why do Yetis get such a bad rap around here?

Thank goodness Notorious is coming on again this week. We got unexpected company on Thursday and my whole weekend was disrupted. I WILL get it copied this time...

PS - I watched Sasquatch Mountian a couple of nights ago and just wanted to commend Blair on his stellar performance.

quote:

Originally posted by Blair Kiel:
Why do Yetis get such a bad rap around here?

Because they have even less rhythm than white guys.

Just ask Goalline.