One hundred thirty-seven Sundays ago, x4 was riven by terrible bickering over the Packers' dreadful 2005 season. In order to deal with that bickering, Fedya made the bold suggestion that perhaps we should all watch some great movies instead. (It certainly beats singing "Kumbaya".) Now, on this 138th Sunday, x4 is once again beset by bickerers, and more then ever, the board can use suggestions for good movies. It is with this in mind that we present Fedya's "Movies to Tivo Thread" for the week of July 14-20, 2008. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.

TCM airs a classic foreign movie in its "TCM Imports" feature overnight at 2:00 AM between Sunday and Monday. This week, that import is Wild Strawberries. Directed by Ingmar Bergman, the movie stars the elderly Victor Sjöström as a retired professor who's setting out on a trip to a university in the south of Sweden in order to receive an honorary degree. Along the way, our hero is forced to come to grips with what has been a somewhat lonely and difficult personal life, and the fact that the world is moving on without him. I could compare this to some famous people we know, but this is a bicker-free zone. As always, Bergman's photography is beautiful, helped of course by the natural beauty of Sweden. If you can stand reading subtitles, and a movie that has depth instead of action, Wild Strawberries is an excellent choice.

Monday is July 14, which is celebrated as Bastille Day in France. TCM is celebrating with an entire morning and afternoon of movies set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, including two versions of A Tale of Two Cities: the 1935 version at 7:30 AM, and a 1958 remake at 3:15 PM.

Following the 1958 version of A Tale of Two Cities, at 5:15 PM Monday, TCM is showing the lavish 1938 production of Marie Antoinette. Norma Shearer stars in what was her first movie after the death of her husband, producer Irving Thalberg in this biography of the French Queen and wife of Louis XVI. Marie is treated here extremely sympathetically, as a victim of a political marriage, trying to produce a male heir for a husband who didn't really want much sex; Shearer doesn't even utter the famous "Let them eat cake" line. The rest of the cast is stellar as well, including Robert Morley (from The African Queen) as Louis XVI; John Barrymore as Louis XV; and Tyrone Power as Marie's Swedish lover. The movie was originally supposed to be done in Technicolor, but unfortunately, cost overruns and the limited availability of Technicolor cameras prevented it. (That's a shame, since historical dramas were really made for Technicolor, since it wouldn't matter whether color made the movie look dated more quickly.)

On Monday nights in July, TCM is showing interviews by film critic Elvis Mitchell of movie personalities, and the people and movies who influenced them. This Monday's interviewee is Bill Murray, complete with Aaron Rodgers style porn moustache. The interview airs twice, at 8:00 PM and 10:30 PM Monday. In between is the Marx Brothers' A Night At the Opera, at 8:30 PM, which apparently influenced Bill Murray, although we'll have to wait for the interview to find out how. Following the second showing of the interview is another movie that influenced Murray, Cary Grant's North by Northwest. (Considering that Murray starred in The Man Who Knew Too Little, I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise if he was influenced by Hitchcock.)

We'll jump ahead a bit, to early Wednesday morning. At 5:15 AM, TCM is showing Evelyn Prentice. William Powell and Myrna Loy star in what is a rarity for them -- a drama. Powell stars as a high-powered attorney who isn't attentive enough to his wife, Myrna Loy. She meets a poet looking for money to finance his new book, and falls in love with the guy, which unfortunately becomes a problem when he starts blackmailing her. She kills him in self-defense, but all the clues lead to the guy's wife. Powell then gets the job of defending the wrong woman, despite the fact that Loy knows who the guilty party really is. Sure, it's a bit of a melodrama, but audiences liked this stuff back in the 30s, and William Powell and Myrna Loy are always fun to watch together.

A different mystery shows up over on the Fox Movie Channel on Wednesday: Black Widow, at 2:00 PM. The title is a bit misleading, as there are no spiders, no widows, and no black people (sorry, Goalline). Van Heflin stars as a theater producer who takes an aspiring actress under his wing while his wife (Gene Tierney) is away. This aspiring actress is a bit unstable, a problem which manifests itself when she winds up hanged in Heflin's apartment. Heflin is the natural suspect, although he knows he's innocent, and flees the police to try to prove his innocence. The cast also includes an older Ginger Rogers as a tempestuous actress in Heflin's latest production, who seems to know something about the murder, and is willing to use it against Heflin; and Geoge Raft as the chief police investigator.

Perhaps the Fox Movie Channel is showing Black Widow on Wednesday because it marks the birth anniversary of Ginger Rogers. TCM is celebrating the day with a number of musicals with Fred Astaire:
Roberta at 2:00 PM;
The Gay Divorcee at 4:00 PM; and
Swing Time at 6:00 PM.

Going back to the Fox Movie Channel, however, we have another mystery: Moontide, Thursday at 6:00 AM. French actor Jean Gabin (I've recommended him before in Le jour se lève) appears in one of his rare Hollywood movies as an itinerant dockworker who has a problem with the bottle: he develops amnesia when he drinks to much, and in Moontide, his drinking too much at the start of the movie just happens to coincide with another man's murder. Gabin's companion, played by Thomas Mitchell, knows about Gabin's drinking problem, along with the fact that during a previous bender, Gabin actually did kill a man in self-defense, and uses this to blackmail Gabin. Mitchell's blackmailing hits a snag, however, when Gabin saves a suicidal Ida Lupino from drowning, and falls in love with her, driving a wedge into their relationship.... It's a mystery with enough holes to drive a truck through, but it's still fun. It helps that Claude Rains is in the cast too.

TCM ironically selected this Friday night to show a bunch of movies set in Mississippi. (No, our favorite Mississippian doesn't show up.) I've already recommended In the Heat of the Night, which airs at 8:00 PM, so instead I'll recommend one of the other movies this time: Tomorrow, Saturday at 12:15 AM. This movie has nothing whatsoever to do with Little Orphan Annie, and is much less upbeat than that little waif. Based on a story by William Faulkner, it stars Robert Duvall as the lone holdout on a 1930s jury; unlike 12 Angry Men, however, the movie is a long flashback as to why he's the holdout. Twenty years earlier, he was working as a laborer looking after a site that was to become a sawmill, and living in a one-room shack on the property. Suddenly, on Christmas Eve, a pregnant woman running away from her abusive husband walks into his life. He decides to look after the woman, and even falls in love with her. Unfortunately, the fact that she's still married causes problems, and there are a number of tragic consequences I can't mention since they would give away the plot. Tomorrow is a beautiful movie full of affecting performances, and although the characters all speak with heavy southern accents, it's really not that difficult to understand.

In our next selection, Brett Favre learns the disturbing truth about the food served at the Lambeau Field atrium: Soylent Green Bay Packers, Saturday at 6:00 PM on TCM. OK, I'm joking. It's really just Soylent Green, the classic with Charlton Heston and a dying Edward G. Robinson in his last role.

TCM's Essential, at 8:00 PM Saturday is You Can't Take It With You, the Best Picture Oscar winner from 1938 which I recommended a few weeks ago. It kicks of a night of "You Can't..." movies, of which I'll recommend You Can't Run Away From It, Saturday at 10:15 PM. This is a remake of It Happened One Night, although it's not the first remake. In 1945, Columbia Pictures released Eve Knew Her Apples, starring Ann Miller in the Claudette Colbert role. In 1956's You Can't Run Away From It, it's June Allyson playing the Colbert role, for which she's not so well suited. The Clark Gable role is played here by Jack Lemmon. Veteran actor Charles Bickford plays Allyson's father, and the cast also includes Jim Backus and Henny Youngman in small roles.

Finally, we have "Essentials Jr." on Sunday evening on TCM. This week brings a double feature, starting at 8:00 PM with Sherlock Jr.. In this silent, Buster Keaton stars as a movie projectionist who fantasizes about the movies he shows, and really longs to be a detective. He's not very competent, though, getting framed for theft by his romantic rival. Eventually, Keaton takes solace in the silver screen, entering one of the mysteries he's showing in a dream sequence, and solving the mystery himself.

Sherlock Jr. will be followed at 8:50 PM by The Music Box. I've recommended this short movie, too; it's the Laurel and Hardy classic in which the comic duo play deliverymen trying to move a piano up a long flight of stairs.

The movie following The Music Box is also suitable for the family, and especially suitable for MsPacman: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Cary Grant stars as Blandings, a New York adman (living on the princely sum of $12,000 a year ) who finds his apartment is getting too small for his family, and who longs to move to a bigger place in the suburbs. Of course, you know the result is going to be the home makeover from hell. Everything that goes wrong to poor Mr. Blandings does, and if you've ever done any home remodelling, you'll enjoy this movie. Myrna Loy plays Mrs. Blandings, and has probably the best scene in the movie, when she discusses the colors she wants the various rooms painted. Guys, I'm sure you'll recognize this scene. (Sorry, ladies, but it's funny because it's true. When Martha Stewart was a TCM Guest Programmer last November, she selected this movie, and Robert Osborne specifically asked her about this scene. Stewart commented that she was rather picky about her own custom colors.)

Thanks! Your last suggestion is TIVO set. Just saw portions of it previously. As I recall, with all the add-ons, the price of the house jumped all the way up into the neighborhood of $20,000!

I love Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House!

Ahhh, poop! I'm gonna be on vacation...

quote:

Originally posted by MsPacman:
I love Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House!

Ahhh, poop! I'm gonna be on vacation...

isn't that why you use Tivo?

quote:

Originally posted by El-Ka-Bong:

quote:

Originally posted by MsPacman:
I love Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House!

Ahhh, poop! I'm gonna be on vacation...

isn't that why you use Tivo?

Yes, it would be if I had it.