The May 2014 TCM Schedule

[moira finnie]

I can't believe we didn't start a thread devoted to this month's TCM schedule and the month is almost half over! I am going to blame it on a TCMCFF hangover...even if I didn't go.

Here's a link to the entire schedule:
http://www.tcm.com/schedule/monthly.html?tz=est&sdate=2014-05-01

In any case, here's the gist of things:

June Allyson is SoTM on Wednesdays...what, if any, are your favorite Allyson movies?
Mine are Two Sisters From Boston and The Secret Heart.

Tonight on TCM, if you like Anna Sten, TCM is made for you.
I think that "They Came to Blow Up America" & "The Nun & the Sergeant" are both TCM premieres.
(All times shown are ET):

8:00 PM
NANA (1934)
A streetwalker rises to stage stardom but triggers a scandal when two brothers fall for her.
Dir: Dorothy Arzner Cast: Anna Sten , Lionel Atwill , Richard Bennett .
BW-87 mins,

9:45 PM
WE LIVE AGAIN (1934)
A Russian nobleman discovers the peasant girl he once seduced has turned to crime.
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian Cast: Anna Sten , Fredric March , Jane Baxter .
BW-82 mins, CC,

11:15 PM
THEY CAME TO BLOW UP AMERICA (1943)
A government agent is assigned to join a hate group in order to gain information on their underground activities.
Dir: Edward Ludwig Cast: George Sanders , Anna Sten , Ward Bond .
BW-73 mins, CC,

12:45 AM
NUN AND THE SERGEANT, THE (1962)
A sergeant commanding a mission in Korea is joined by a schoolgirl and a nun.
Dir: Franklin Adreon Cast: Robert Webber , Anna Sten , Leo Gordon .
BW-75 mins, Letterbox Format

[kingrat]

Moira, my favorite June Allyson movie is High Barbaree, which will be shown in the middle of the night next week. The Secret Heart is another good one.

By the way, I am definitely suffering festival hangover, having watched fewer movies than usual in the last month after returning home. I forgot to mention this delightful moment overheard at the festival: An excited young woman said, "Illeana Douglas re-tweeted my photo!"

Movies I'm looking forward to in the next couple of weeks include:

Grey Gardens (tonight)
A Fever in the Blood (after reading your post and seeing the movie poster on the Bad Movies thread)
Why Worry?
An Angel at My Table
The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (Rumer Godden novel; Maureen O'Hara and Rossano Brazzi)
Raw Deal

[Jezebel38]

Tonight on TCM, if you like Anna Sten, tonight on TCM is made for you.
(All times shown are ET):

8:00 PM
NANA (1934)
A streetwalker rises to stage stardom but triggers a scandal when two brothers fall for her.
Dir: Dorothy Arzner Cast: Anna Sten , Lionel Atwill , Richard Bennett .
BW-87 mins,

Tsk, Tsk..... TCM listing omits Phillips Holmes from the cast of NANA - I've watched this film in the past just for him, although I like him better in contemporary roles.

[feaito]

Tonight on TCM, if you like Anna Sten, tonight on TCM is made for you.
(All times shown are ET):

8:00 PM
NANA (1934)
A streetwalker rises to stage stardom but triggers a scandal when two brothers fall for her.
Dir: Dorothy Arzner Cast: Anna Sten , Lionel Atwill , Richard Bennett .
BW-87 mins,

Tsk, Tsk..... TCM listing omits Phillips Holmes from the cast of NANA - I've watched this film in the past just for him, although I like him better in contemporary roles.

IMO Phillips Holmes has been vastly underrated. He was a very fine actor.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

TCM has begun running its promo of Mother Dolores Hart's Guest Programming visit on May 27. Mother Dolores is the only nun who is a voting member of the Academy.



Here is the announcement on the TCM website:

Rev. Mother Dolores Hart, a former film star who became a Roman Catholic nun, is the TCM Guest Programmer for May. Now Prioress of the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn., Hart made 10 films in six years in the 1950s and '60s, appearing with such costars as Elvis Presley (Loving You, 1957), Anna Magnani (Wild Is the Wind, 1957) and George Hamilton (Where the Boys Are, 1960).

Hart chooses Lisa (aka The Inspector, 1962), a film in which she starred as a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. She remembers the film (a TCM premiere) as "a deep experience of the meaning of suffering." Laura (1944) is a reminder of Hart's childhood, when she gazed at Gene Tierney and thought, "I want to do that too!" She also has fond memories of The Song of Bernadette (1943) and agrees with host Robert Osborne that Jennifer Jones was "luminous" in that movie. Hart's final pick is The Rose Tattoo (1955), because Magnani, its star, "taught me what acting was about."


More about her Oscar-nominated documentary, "God is Bigger Than Elvis" here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/nyreg ... .html?_r=0

[Rita Hayworth]

Some of my MAY Favorites coming up on TCM!

19 Monday

3:15 AM PST
CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, THE (1936)
Two brothers love the same woman at a perilous Indian outpost.
Dir: Michael Curtiz Cast: Errol Flynn , Olivia de Havilland , Patric Knowles

10:45 PM PST
CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE (1957)
A scientist's attempts to create life unleash a bloodthirsty monster.
Dir: Terence Fisher Cast: Peter Cushing , Hazel Court , Robert Urquhart .

20 Tuesday

9:15 AM PST
BIG SLEEP, THE (1946)
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a society girl's involvement in the murder of a pornographer.
Dir: Howard Hawks Cast: Humphrey Bogart , Lauren Bacall , John Ridgely .


11:15 AM PST
BAREFOOT CONTESSA, THE (1954)
A Spanish dancer becomes an international star but still longs to get her feet in the dirt.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cast: Humphrey Bogart , Ava Gardner , Edmond O'Brien

22 Wednesday

5:00 PM PST
TWO GIRLS AND A SAILOR (1944)
Singing sisters create a World War II canteen and become rivals for the same man.
Dir: Richard Thorpe Cast: June Allyson , Gloria DeHaven , Van Johnson

1:00 PM PST
HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT (1937)
A romantic headwaiter fights to save a woman from her possessive ex-husband.
Dir: Frank Borzage Cast: Charles Boyer , Jean Arthur , Leo Carrillo .


5:00 PM PST
HOUSE ON 92ND STREET, THE (1945)
An FBI agent infiltrates a Nazi spy ring.
Dir: Henry Hathaway Cast: William Eythe , Lloyd Nolan , Signe Hasso .


6:45 PM PST
HOUSE ON 56TH STREET, THE (1933)
A woman loses her family after being falsely convicted of a crime.
Dir: Robert Florey Cast: Kay Francis , Ricardo Cortez , Gene Raymond .


2:45 AM PST
SUSAN AND GOD (1940)
A flighty socialite neglects her family to promote a new religious group.
Dir: George Cukor Cast: Joan Crawford , Fredric March , Ruth Hussey .


All of these has Closed Captioning.

[moira finnie]

Darryl F. Zanuck tries to be a liberal on Sunday Night on May 18th on TCM. The evidence? He hired Elia Kazan to direct two "controversial" movies--both of which still pack a punch if one is seeing them for the first time. These are good movies to show young people to stir discussion of the reality of everyday prejudice with them. :



Gentleman's Agreement (1947) 8pm (ET):
No one wanted to utter the word "anti-Semitism" in Hollywood, particularly since so many of the people who built the dream factory were Jewish and were still hoping to blend into the American Melting Pot. Today it seems a bit tame, and makes one wonder if no one had seen the front pages of a few months before full of the horror of the concentration camps and the Nuremberg Trials. In any case, Zanuck, who was not Jewish, took the plunge and addressed the issue as carefully as possible adapting Laura Z. Hobson's book into a screenplay starring Gregory Peck as a reporter posing as a Jewish man and documenting the reactions of those around him. Good cast, great intentions, and a few electric moments, courtesy of Roy Roberts as a smooth hotel manager at a discreetly restricted establishment and John Garfield whose very real resentment boiled over, bringing life into a rather restrained film. Celeste Holm got an Oscar for this, though I'm not really sure why (I thought Garfield, a tormented Dorothy McGuire, stalwart Anne Revere, and Dean Stockwell acted rings around Ms. Holm).



Pinky (1949) 10:15pm (ET):
Begun by John Ford, who was going through one of his rough patches, this movie was directed by Kazan on short notice. It concerns a light-colored African American woman (Jeanne Crain) who leaves her Southern rural home, trains as a nurse and returns to live with her Grandmother (Ethel Waters). Pinky finds work caring for an elderly white woman (Ethel Barrymore) in her mansion. Upon her death, the young woman, who was engaged to a white doctor (William Lundigan) discovers that she is the recipient of the woman's estate, including the house. Barrymore's relatives fight the will, but the outcome galvanizes the young woman's sense of self in a way that might not have occured before. Today, a white woman would not have been given this leading role, but would the movie have been able to be made if, say, a Dorothy Dandridge or Ruby Dee were cast in the lead? Probably not. Not wholly dissatisfying, some standouts in the cast are Ethel Waters and Evelyn Varden.

[mrsl]

.

Gentlemens Agreement:

Two movies, as you said, if never seen before are worth sitting down and watching, and even if having seen, definitely worth a re-visit. I believe this role is what helped Gregory Peck to become a true actor in every sense of the words, looks, and mannerisms. Seeing his growing concern about the objects of his documentation as the movie progresses, and the firm decision to involve the whole family even when his little boy has to suffer because of it, tested the mans integrity, and courage and Peck brought all of that into the forefront with his acting ability. Most of his family believe the basis of this movie is what caused John Garfield's death at such an early age, and he was quite amazing in his role.

Pinky:

Agreeably today a black actor would have the part of Pinky, but I wonder if the character strength of Ethel Waters, and the comfort Pinky finally found in her own skin would be played with such impact. In retrospect Ethel Waters and her role of Gran were both actually children of slaves who, as a free woman was able to raise a child who ultimately became a full fledged nurse making Gran so proud not only of Pinky but of herself, though she would never admit that. "The times, they are a-changing" is so true as to feelings about what is going on in our world. In my mind, Pearl Harbor is still the worst terrorist ploy ever conceived and carried out against the U.S. Most people naturally feel 9-11 was. Please understand that it is what you live through that pacts the biggest wallop. As my parents grieved for FDR, I grieved for JFK, and one of my kids grieved for JFK, jr. For big government events they often bring out the old gentlemen in their 90's who fought in WWII, now they're finally bringing out the fellows who were there in Vietnam, and soon it will be all these desert wars we're having now. I hope I've made myself clear with my past and present examples so that you understand my review of these movies. Several years ago I offended a few people when I discussed some things very similar to these, but I used the wrong words and phrases, and many took my statements completely differently than I meant them to be. I just hope that I haven't repeated myself, but I really like and admire both of these movies very much.
.

[Rita Hayworth]

CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, THE (1936)
Two brothers love the same woman at a perilous Indian outpost.
Dir: Michael Curtiz Cast: Errol Flynn , Olivia de Havilland , Patric Knowles

Saw this movie for the first time in 20 years and I thoroughly enjoyed this grand film starring Errol Flynn and the lavish costumes/uniforms of the day. Olivia was very lovely and the acting was marvelous too.

[sandykaypax]

Catching up on threads today, so forgive the lateness of these responses...

Masha, what did you think of Grey Gardens? I am kicking myself for forgetting to record it. I saw it once, about 5 years ago, and would like to revisit it, now that I've seen the Drew Barrymore biopic of Little Edie.

Ann--I understand what you mean about Pearl Harbor. I wasn't born yet in 1941, but your post made me remember the morning of September 11, and my feelings of fear, dread, confusion, anger and disbelief as I watched it unfold on tv. I could see how people may have felt similar feelings as they heard the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I can't believe that I never really connected it that way. I'll probably view many films made during the war years in a new light, as well as films that concern the attack, like From Here to Eternity. (A film that I love, BTW.)

Recorded the 3 June Allyson/Van Johnson films last night. Anyone have any thoughts on those? I think they make a darling couple!

ETA: What lovely photos of Delores Hart! Has anyone seen Lisa? Sound interesting. Maybe I'll record it.

Sandy K

[movieman1957]

During a fit of insomnia I watched about 30 minutes of GREY GARDENS. They're eccentric and probably have an interesting family history I just didn't find it all that interesting to stick with it. I think once I got the idea that was enough for me.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Grey Gardens is certainly entertaining on some levels, but it's like watching the train wreck of two lives that once had promise and vitality, Chris.

If you are interested in seeing close-ups of that fabulous montage featured in TCM's 20th Anniversary Promo with the 20 Guest Programmers, it was also set up in the lobby of the Chinese Multiplex during the TCMFF 2014 and I've posted some photos on "Sue Sue" here: viewtopic.php?f=92&t=4260&start=825

[moira finnie]

I know many people find the mother and daughter in Grey Gardens fascinating, but each time I've tried to watch the documentary, they make me so sad. I really believe that they were being exploited by the filmmakers because they were Bouviers, not simply because they were people whose once graceful lives were in such tragic if often lively psychological and physical decay.

I guess I'll never be able to watch these people in pain without thinking about the individuals behind the camera. What were they thinking? What did they hope to accomplish?
______________________________________________

On a lighter note, The House on 56th Street (1933-Robert Florey), one of Kay Francis' more interesting sudsers, is on TCM tonight at 9:45pm (ET). It's almost the same plot as The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933) meets Frisco Jennie (1932), but heck, when a formula works, why not replicate it a few (hundred) times? Besides, Kay's stoicism as she endures life on the shady side of the street is pretty effective and as usual, her wardrobe is phenomenal. Ricardo Cortez, Gene Raymond and Margaret Lindsay are along for the ride too.


Hobson's Choice (1954), one of David Lean's last b & w films, is on TCM at 11pm (ET). John Mills, Charles Laughton & Brenda de Banzie are each outstanding in the comedic story with something apt to say about men, women, power, and class. With great cinematography by Jack Hildyard.

If you can't catch the TCM airing it can be seen online here:

phpBB [video]

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Tonight's fair is certainly intriguing, especially with a lovely Kay Francis vehicle, and I always enjoy Hobson's Choice, and Lloyd Nolan in anything.

Moira, Grey Gardens did exploit those ladies because of the Bouvier connection, and it is difficult for me to watch because it wouldn't have existed otherwise. To spend time viewing a film when you know there is little joy as a reward for the viewer other than as voyeur or the 'cinema verite' of the particpants and their hopeless existence doesn't give me much pleasure as a viewer. Maybe I was in a contrary mood when I first saw it, but I don't much care to see it again.

On a lighter note, I'm going to watch Kay Francis now.