HITS & MISSES: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow on TCM

[kingrat]

Monday night gives us an opportunity to see the two best Ronald Neame films back to back: Tunes of Glory and The Horse's Mouth. If you like the smaller-scale David Lean films, these two films are the logical continuation of that style. Neame was a frequent collaborator with Lean, and with Alec Guinness and Kay Walsh (the second ex-Mrs. Lean) in both films and John Mills in Tunes, the resemblance is even more pronounced.

If you like the larger-scale Lean films, there's Lawrence of Arabia earlier in the evening, although I do prefer seeing it on a larger screen.

It's hard to go wrong with any of the four Monday night films.

[Bogie56]

Tuesday, October 2

8 p.m.  You’ll Never Get Rich (1941).  I thought Robert Benchley was pretty good in this one.  Great head credit sequence.  And Rita looks great!

[speedracer5]

13 hours ago, Bogie56 said:

Tuesday, October 2

8 p.m.  You’ll Never Get Rich (1941).  I thought Robert Benchley was pretty good in this one.  Great head credit sequence.  And Rita looks great!

Fred and Rita’s other film, “You Were Never Lovelier” is also fun to watch! 

[TomJH]

Wednesday, October 3 6am (EST)

THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE (1941)

Director Raoul Walsh's affectionate sentimental Gay '90s valentine, with James Cagney as a pugnacious dentist who, married and settled down, still thinks back wistfully to the girl that got away in his youth. A story about growing up and realizing that a little bit of heaven is in your own backyard, after all, this lovely comedy-drama has one of Cagney's most affecting performances.

A marvelous supporting cast, headed by Olivia de Havilland (with sublime chemistry with Cagney), Rita Hayworth as the title character in an important role on her road to stardom, Jack Carson and Alan Hale. This film always remained a great personal favourite of Walsh.

The scene in which a mellowed Cagney, just released from prison, is reunited with De Havilland for the first time in years is a marvelous demonstration of restrained emotion by its two lead actors, and proof that "action" director Walsh was capable of moments of great sensitivity.

[Bogie56]

Wednesday, October 3/4

12:30 a.m.  The Penalty (1920).  I still haven't seen this Lon Chaney where he has his legs amputated.  A good double bill with The Unknown where he plays an armless knife thrower.

[scsu1975]

14 minutes ago, Bogie56 said:

Wednesday, October 3/4

12:30 a.m.  The Penalty (1920).  I still haven't seen this Lon Chaney where he has his legs amputated.  A good double bill with The Unknown where he plays an armless knife thrower.

The Penalty is an excellent film; outstanding performance by Chaney. Wait until you see him climb up a series of pegs using only his arms. The guy must have had incredible strength.

[LornaHansonForbes]

On 9/30/2018 at 6:09 PM, kingrat said:

Monday night gives us an opportunity to see the two best Ronald Neame films back to back: Tunes of Glory and The Horse's Mouth. If you like the smaller-scale David Lean films, these two films are the logical continuation of that style. Neame was a frequent collaborator with Lean, and with Alec Guinness and Kay Walsh (the second ex-Mrs. Lean) in both films and John Mills in Tunes, the resemblance is even more pronounced.

If you like the larger-scale Lean films, there's Lawrence of Arabia earlier in the evening, although I do prefer seeing it on a larger screen.

It's hard to go wrong with any of the four Monday night films.

JOHN MILLS and ALEC GUINESS put forth two of the best performances I’ve ever seen on film in TUNES OF GLORY; And Guinness really should’ve won an Oscar for best actor for THE HORSES MOUTH, although he was nominated for adapting the screenplay. Even though he had won the previous year for RIVER KWAI, there is absolutely no excuse for his not being nominated in 1958, which was a very weak year for lead performances.

Watching both TUNES and HORSE, you would never guess in 1 million years Neame later directed THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE 

[Bogie56]

Thursday, October 4

9:45 p.m.  Dinner at Eight (1933).  At 9:45 ?  Missed it by that much.

[LornaHansonForbes]

OCTOBER 4th at 7:15 am: THE LOST PATROL (1934), one of my favorite JOHN FORD films and quite possibly KARLOFF'S finest "legit" performance. Also with a very good VICTOR MACLAGLEN, WALLACE FORD and a very sexy REGINALD DENNY.

It's also a stunningly short movie- clocking in at a brisk hour and 12 minutes long.

[speedracer5]

1 minute ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

OCTOBER 4th at 7:15 am: THE LOST PATROL (1934), one of my favorite JOHN FORD films and quite possibly KARLOFF'S finest "legit" performance. Also with a very good VICTOR MACLAGLEN, WALLACE FORD and a very sexy REGINALD DENNY.

It's also a stunningly short movie- clocking in at a brisk hour and 12 minutes long.

I love films that are short and concise.  They know the story they want to tell and damn it, they're going to do it in 75 minutes, not a second wasted.  I like short movies, it makes me feel more productive (as productive as you can be anyway, sitting on the couch watching movies) as I can knock a couple out in a night, rather than devoting myself to a long 2+ hour movie. 

[LornaHansonForbes]

27 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:

I love films that are short and concise.  They know the story they want to tell and damn it, they're going to do it in 75 minutes, not a second wasted.  I like short movies, it makes me feel more productive (as productive as you can be anyway, sitting on the couch watching movies) as I can knock a couple out in a night, rather than devoting myself to a long 2+ hour movie. 

And ***SO MUCH**** HAPPENS in that 72 minutes of THE LOST PATROL!

[Bogie56]

Friday, October 5

1 p.m.  Wedding Rehearsal (1932).  Alexander Korda film with Maurice Evans and Roland Young.

[TheCid]

21 hours ago, speedracer5 said:

I love films that are short and concise.  They know the story they want to tell and damn it, they're going to do it in 75 minutes, not a second wasted.  I like short movies, it makes me feel more productive (as productive as you can be anyway, sitting on the couch watching movies) as I can knock a couple out in a night, rather than devoting myself to a long 2+ hour movie. 

I agree.  There are too many movies where they have what I call filler.  Long walks or drives in automobiles, lots of time in entertainment venues, long meaningless conversations, lots of shots panning nothing related to plot, etc.  

I think that is one reason why movies from the 30's through 50's are so appealing.     Not saying some long movies are not worth watching, but not twice for sure.  But they are very, very rare.

[scsu1975]

1 hour ago, Bogie56 said:

Friday, October 5

1 p.m.  Wedding Rehearsal (1932).  Alexander Korda film with Maurice Evans and Roland Young.

Boy, that Maurice Evans was a hot babe.

[speedracer5]

48 minutes ago, TheCid said:

I agree.  There are too many movies where they have what I call filler.  Long walks or drives in automobiles, lots of time in entertainment venues, long meaningless conversations, lots of shots panning nothing related to plot, etc.  

I think that is one reason why movies from the 30's through 50's are so appealing.     Not saying some long movies are not worth watching, but not twice for sure.  But they are very, very rare.

There are so many films, especially nowadays, where every director feels like he or she needs to make an epic.  Not every movie needs to be pushing 3 hours.  Sometimes the story just is not compelling enough to need to last that long.  Occasionally the film has enough material that it needs 3-4 hours to tell the story--but often times, I feel like it's a director's way to be pretentious and show off what he or she can do.

[Bogie56]

59 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:

There are so many films, especially nowadays, where every director feels like he or she needs to make an epic.  Not every movie needs to be pushing 3 hours.  Sometimes the story just is not compelling enough to need to last that long.  Occasionally the film has enough material that it needs 3-4 hours to tell the story--but often times, I feel like it's a director's way to be pretentious and show off what he or she can do.

When reading this I was thinking of a rather good film from 2017 that is just 71 minutes long:  The Party by Sally Potter which features Patricia Clarkson, Timothy Spall, Bruno Ganz, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Cherry Jones and Kristen Scott Thomas who was my choice for best actress of 2017.  I saw it in the cinema and the audience didn't seem to mind its running time one bit.

[Hibi]

4 hours ago, scsu1975 said:

Boy, that Maurice Evans was a hot babe.

LOL!

[Hibi]

2 hours ago, Bogie56 said:

When reading this I was thinking of a rather good film from 2017 that is just 71 minutes long:  The Party by Sally Potter which features Patricia Clarkson, Timothy Spall, Bruno Ganz, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Cherry Jones and Kristen Scott Thomas who was my choice for best actress of 2017.  I saw it in the cinema and the audience didn't seem to mind its running time one bit.

I dont remember that one. Good cast. I dont think it played here.

[LornaHansonForbes]

17 hours ago, speedracer5 said:

There are so many films, especially nowadays, where every director feels like he or she needs to make an epic.  Not every movie needs to be pushing 3 hours.  Sometimes the story just is not compelling enough to need to last that long.  Occasionally the film has enough material that it needs 3-4 hours to tell the story--but often times, I feel like it's a director's way to be pretentious and show off what he or she can do.

Or even worse, it becomes an 8 episode limited run series on Netflix or Amazon Prime. (CoughPICNICATHANGINGROCKcoughcough)

[LornaHansonForbes]

at noon on the dot on SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6TH is one of the less-discussed gems of both the year 1939 and the career of JOHN FORD-

YOUNG MR. LINCOLN.

HENRY FONDA is marvelous, but the best performance of the film (and one of the best of the entire year) is from ALICE BRADY as the mother of (as I recall it) a young man accused of murder. She had won Best Supporting Actress the year before for IN OLD CHICAGO, had also been nominated for her dizzy socialite in MY MAN GODFREY, and- tragically- she died of cancer very soon after MR. LINCOLN was released.

 

[Bogie56]

Saturday, October 6

10 a.m.  Popeye: King of the Mardi Gras (1933).

9:45 p.m.  Blume In Love (1973).  Pretty good Paul Mazursky film as I recall.  With George Segal and Susan Anspach.

2 a.m.  California Split  (1974).  Good Robert Altman film with George Segal and Elliott Gould.

[speedracer5]

9 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

Or even worse, it becomes an 8 episode limited run series on Netflix or Amazon Prime. (CoughPICNICATHANGINGROCKcoughcough)

Lol.

It seems like every film these days becomes a mini series or vice versa. 

[TomJH]

Sunday October 7

For Mummy boys (and girls)

8pm (EST) THE MUMMY'S HAND

9:30pm THE MUMMY'S GHOST (1944)

10:45PM THE MUMMY'S CURSE (1944)

The second and third films both feature Lon Chaney Jr. as Kharis, but it's The Mummy's Hand, the first of the Mummy sequels with Tom Tyler in the same role, that has always been a favourite of mine. The film has atmosphere and light comedy relief, and an above average cast for these "B" efforts. And those closeups of Kharis' face, with his pupils missing, scared the heck out of me when I was a kid. (Okay, okay, they still give me the shivers today).

Charming leading lady Peggy Moran had a relatively short Hollywood career, leaving the film industry after marrying director Henry Koster for a happy union that lasted almost 46 years until his death. Peggy would later go to some film conventions and sign autographs for the fans. There was no other film in her career to which she received as much feedback as The Mummy's Hand, a little bit to the lady's annoyance.

Universal re-utilized the same set featured below for their 1940 jungle adventure Green Hell.

 

[scsu1975]

1 hour ago, TomJH said:

Sunday October 7

For Mummy boys (and girls)

8pm (EST) THE MUMMY'S HAND

9:30pm THE MUMMY'S GHOST (1944)

10:45PM THE MUMMY'S CURSE (1944)

 

The Mummy's Curse features a good-looking Virginia Christine, who would later hawk Folger's coffee on television.

Weird trivia bit involving the last two films on the list: The Mummy's Ghost features silent star Claire Whitney in a supporting role, and she gets some decent screen time. The Mummy's Curse features a bit by silent star William Farnum; he and Whitney were paired as romantic leads in a few silent films.

The whole series is fun, but don't expect masterpieces.

Here is a photo of Whitney, circa 1920. Very lovely lady:

[TomJH]

Speaking of attractive actresses in the Universal Mummy films, Ramsay Ames in The Mummy's Ghost, while a limited actress, was still quite a stunner. She was even more impressive in colour, having a small part as one of Maria Montez's attendants in Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.

From IMDb:

According to director William Witney, Republic Studios stuntmen suffered more injuries running on rooftops to get a better look at Ramsay Ames walking across the backlot than were hurt performing dangerous action sequences in the studio's westerns.