mr6666

3:45 AM C - 103 m TV-14 war Ashes And Diamonds (1958) Synopsis: On the last day of World War II, a Polish Resistance fighter is ordered to kill a Communist leader. Dir: Andrzej Wajda Cast: Zbigniew Cybulski , Ewa Krzyzewska , Adam Pawlikowski . see: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67693/Ashes-And-Diamonds/articles.html LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: 😧 Andrzej Wajda. Zbigniew Cybulski, Ewa Krzyzanowska, Adam Pawlikowski, Bogumil Kobiela, Waclaw Zastrzezynski. Stark, intelligent, perceptive account of the Resistance movement in Poland during the closing days of WW2. Cybulski, the Polish James Dean, came into his own with his portrayal of a young Resistance fighter. The last of Wajda's War trilogy, following A GENERATION and KANAL.

late Sun., 5-10 2:00 AM (ET) B/W - 95 m TV-PG Wajda by Wajda (2017) Synopsis: Dir: Andrzej Wolski “Afterimage,” the final film by Poland’s Andrzej Wajda, is a fitting coda to the career of one of world cinema’s giants. Unlike fellow Poles such as Roman Polanski and Jerzy Skolimowski, who decamped for the West’s freedoms not long after their careers launched, Wajda, who died at 90 following the film’s premiere at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival, remained in Poland trying to examine that country’s modern history and mores. Prior to the collapse of Soviet Communism, his efforts often led to difficulties with Poland’s Communist regime, which in turn gave him a theme that recurs in “Afterimage”: the necessity for individuals and artists to resist the soul-crushing demands and cruelties of totalitarian governments..... https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/afterimage-2017

Sat., 5-9 3:45 PM (ET) C - 107 m TV-G Comancheros, The (1961) Synopsis: A Texas ranger teams up with a gambler to stop an outlaw from running weapons into Mexico with the help of the Comanches. Dir: Michael Curtiz Cast: John Wayne , Stuart Whitman , Ina Balin . "..........was the last film directed by Michael Curtiz, it was arguably more a reflection of the work of John Wayne, who stars as Texas Ranger Jake Cutter but also had a big hand--uncredited--in casting, producing and even directing. ..... see: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/18069/Comancheros-The/articles.html

Alicia Malone @aliciamalone · 1h I'm sorry, but who are these absolute SMOKE SHOWS? Thanks @TelevisionAcad for featuring @TCM in Emmy Magazine... and to the team of artists who transformed us! (Of course, Eddie is wearing his own clothes) @davekarger @BenMank77 @EddieMuller @ProfJStewart https://emmys.com/news/features/

Class Acts - Hollywood history is alive and well at Turner Classic Movies, whose five hosts — each a film expert extraordinaire — shine as brightly in the film firmament as the stars of the silver screen. "The ghost of Greta Garbo may be hovering nearby in delight: all five hosts of Turner Classic Movies — dressed in glamorous 1940s-inspired duds — have gathered to commemorate the cable network's dedication to vintage flicks. Location: The American Legion's swanky Hollywood outpost — officially, Post 43 — a private club popular with military vets and stars since 1929. Look! There's Jacqueline Stewart — the first African American to join TCM's rotating team of film presenters — in a silver-sequined gown, recalling movie siren Lena Horne! And isn't that Tinseltown scion Ben Mankiewicz (his grandfather Herman cowrote Citizen Kane with Orson Welles!) channeling a young Kirk Douglas? Meanwhile, Dave Karger could be long-ago heartthrob John Gilbert. "Thanks!" Karger says. "Someone said I look like a gangster, but I prefer the more debonair Gilbert. But I don't drink as much as he did." Cue the eerie draft. "I'm going for a Robert Mitchum–Cary Grant mix," says resident noir expert Eddie Muller (he admits Mitchum probably never donned a polka-dot ascot, though). As for Alicia Malone, an Aussie prone to matching her vintage dresses with flowers in her red hair, she's aiming for "the sultriness of Lauren Bacall." The fab five are relishing their TCM gigs, too, with a hat tip to legendary film historian Robert Osborne. ............. https://www.emmys.com/news/features/class-acts

early Thurs., 5-7 6:00 AM (ET) B/W - 92 m Closed Captions Sapphire (1959) Synopsis: A "light-skinned" black co-ed has a penchant for passing as white and hanging at London's bars at night. When she is found murdered, a number of suspects are considered, including the naive white architectural student who fell in love with her, never suspecting she was black. Dir: Basil Dearden Cast: Nigel Patrick , Michael Craig , Yvonne Mitchell . LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: 😧 Basil Dearden. Nigel Patrick, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig, Paul Massie, Bernard Miles, Earl Cameron, Rupert Davies, Yvonne Buckingham. When music student is murdered, it is discovered she was passing as white. Considered daring in its day, still absorbing today--both as entertainment and social comment. Fine performances. Story and screenplay by Janet Green (with additional dialogue by Lukas Heller).

Q&A: Director Brad Bird on choosing his 'essentials' for TCM https://www.richmond-news.com/q-a-director-brad-bird-on-choosing-his-essentials-for-tcm-1.24127719

Sun., 5-3 for PRE-CODE PREMIERES.......... (times ET) 8:00 PM Silver Cord, The ( 1933) Dir: John Cromwell Cast: Irene Dunne , Joel McCrea , Laura Hope Crews . BW- 76 mins, CC, LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: 😧 John Cromwell. Irene Dunne, Joel McCrea, Laura Hope Crews, Frances Dee, Eric Linden. Very much a photographed stage play (by Sidney Howard), but interesting for its look at a self-absorbed woman (Crews) who attempts to dominate her sons' lives completely--not counting on the strength of her new daughter-in-law (Dunne), a career woman with a mind of her own. Both Dunne and Dee are first-rate. 9:30 PM Sin of Nora Moran, The ( 1933) Dir: Phil Goldstone Cast: Cora Sue Collins , Zita Johann , Alan Dinehart . BW- 65 mins, CC, LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: 😧 Phil Goldstone. Zita Johann, Alan Dinehart, Paul Cavanagh, Claire Du Brey, John Miljan, Henry B. Walthall, Cora Sue Collins. Surprisingly interesting Poverty Row cheapie with supernatural overtones, told in flashback, about a hard-luck woman (Johann, who's excellent) who falls in love with the wrong man and makes the ultimate sacrifice for him. More notable for its ambitions than its achievements, with great use of stock footage and a wall-to-wall music score, unusual for 1933. 10:45 PM Once to Every Woman ( 1934) An able nurse clashes with a new doctor at her hospital. Dir: Lambert Hillyer Cast: Ralph Bellamy , Fay Wray , Walter Connolly . BW- 64 mins, CC, (no further info found...........)

Noir Alley @NoirAlley · 21h See Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell in FALLEN ANGEL ('45) on #NoirAlley hosted by @EddieMuller tomorrow on #NoirAlley with an encore on Sunday morning.

Alicia Malone @aliciamalone · A big congrats to producer @acecarone , host @BenMank77 and the podcast team at @TCM on the launch of THE PLOT THICKENS! Subscribe, rate, review, do all the things! see : http://theplotthickens.tcm.com/ The Plot Thickens | Season one "I’M STILL PETER BOGDANOVICH Welcome to The Plot Thickens, a new documentary podcast about the movies and the people who make them. Our first season is I’m Still Peter Bogdanovich, the tale of a young cinephile who became one of Hollywood’s top directors – but soon found himself a victim of jealousy, public scorn, and a devastating crime.........."

8:00 PM B/W - 92 m TV-PG Widescreen Foxfire (1955) Synopsis: Dir: Joseph Pevney Cast: Jane Russell , Jeff Chandler , Dan Duryea . http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/75559/Foxfire/articles.html LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: 😧 Joseph Pevney. Jane Russell, Jeff Chandler, Dan Duryea, Mara Corday, Barton MacLane. Russell battles cultural barriers when she impulsively marries Indian mining engineer Chandler while vacationing in Arizona. Not bad; the stars are well matched. Incidentally, that's Chandler singing the title song; he also wrote the lyrics.

late Sun., 4-26 TCM Imports......... 3:00 AM (ET) B/W - 103 m Fireworks (1997) Synopsis: Nishi, a violent cop forced into retirement by an accident that caused the death of one colleague and severe injuries to two others. Unemployed, he spends most of his time caring for his leukemia-stricken wife and borrowing money from the yakuza to stay afloat. Dir: Takeshi Kitano Cast: Takeshi Kitano , Kayoko Kishimoto , Ren Ôsugi "....The story has the violence and tension characteristic of the yakuza genre, but Kitano imbues it with a serenity and tender humanity, along with a formal and narrative minimalism, that render the work, in the eyes of many reviewers and audiences, unclassifiable and hard to describe. There is little dialogue in the film and long pauses between lines. American critic Roger Ebert, rating the film highly in 1998, said Fireworks "lacks all of the narrative cushions and hand-holding that we have come to expect" and called it "a demonstration of what a story such as this is really about, fundamentally, after you cut out the background noise." http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/524457/Fireworks/articles.html

see: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/95783/Wicked-Woman/articles.html

Brad Bird @BradBirdA113 · Apr 23 Join ⁦ @BenMank77 ⁩ and me as we shelter in place and yack about (and show) all time great movies for ⁦⁦The Essentials on @TCM ! Starting May 2! http://tcm.com/essentials #TCMEssentials

Sat., 4-25 for Spotlight: PETER BOGDANOVICH........ 10:15 PM (ET) B/W-115 min. Saint Jack (1979) Synopsis: Jack Flowers (Ben Gazzara, Husbands, Road House) is a street savvy American living in Singapore. And like all Americans, Jack has a dream... to open the best whorehouse in Singapore.... Dir: Peter Bogdanovich Cast: P Ganesan , Nina Bagharib , Juliana Loi . .......In the Chicago Reader Dave Kehr specified his accomplishment: "Gazzara draws his consummate self-possession, his boxer's stance, and his sly smiles in the face of adversity from a long-lost film tradition: the performance is assured and seamless and dead-ahead in a way that seems all but anachronistic in the self-doubting cinema of the '70s."......... see: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/88910/Saint-Jack/articles.html

bump for Sun., 4-19

Sun., 4-19 THE TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL--THE HOME VERSION......... 8:00 PM (ET) B/W - 95 m Floyd Norman: An Animated Life (2016) Synopsis: Animator. Storyman. Troublemaker. At 80 years old, see how Disney Legend Floyd Norman, the first African-American animator at Disney, continues to impact animation and stir up "trouble" after the company force-retired him at age 65. Dir: Michael Fiore Cast: Cosmo Anzilotti , Jane Baer , Dave Bossert . ".........Besides extensive commentary by the youthfully vibrant Norman, the film features effusive testimonials by many of his colleagues and friends, including Whoopi Goldberg, Leonard Maltin and such animation veterans as Dean DeBlois (How to Train Your Dragon), Gary Trousdale (Beauty and the Beast) and Mary Poppins composer Richard M. Sherman. Diffuse and rambling at times, An Animated Life, which sometimes has the feel of a tribute film shown at an award gala, is not as compelling as such similarly themed docs as Waking Sleeping Beauty and Frank and Ollie. Nonetheless, it serves as an entertaining salute to an unsung figure whose considerable accomplishments well deserve recognition. " https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/floyd-norman-an-animated-life-922842

Tue s., 4-14 for Clifton W ebb...... 9:45 PM (ET) B/W - 103 m Man Who Never Was, The (1956) Synopsis: British officials would print a set of bogus documents indicating that the Allies were actually preparing to invade nearby Sardinia and Greece, throwing the Germans off the Sicilian scent. ......... arranged for an elaborate subterfuge whereby a drowned man would be washed ashore - on a Spanish coastline where Germans would be pretty sure to find the body - with the papers hidden in his clothing. Dir: Ronald Neame Cast: Clifton Webb , Gloria Grahame , Robert Flemyng . "..... director Neame keeps the story moving at a brisk pace, giving it enough bite and surprise to keep it involving from start to finish. Clifton Webb plays mildly against type as Lieutenant Commander Montagu, making a strong enough impression to remain a vivid presence even during the long stretch when the German agent dominates the story. Gloria Grahame and Josephine Griffin are excellent as Lucy and Pam, respectively, and Grahame delivers a stunning moment when a phone call at work informs her that her fiance has been killed. Winston Churchill doesn't appear on the screen, but his voice is heard, impersonated by none other than the great comedian Peter Sellers in a non-comic performance that couldn't be more convincing." see: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/82752/Man-Who-Never-Was-The/articles.html LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: 😧 Ronald Neame. Cast: Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin, Stephen Boyd. "Good WW2 spy yarn based on true story of Allies planting elaborate red herring to divert attention from invasion of Sicily. CinemaScope."

late Sun., 4-12 for TCM Imports....... (times ET) 2:45 AM B/W-89 min Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972) Synopsis: Dir: Kenji Misumi Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama , Akihiro Tomikawa , Go Kato . 4:15 AM B/W - 81 m Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972) Synopsis: Dir: Buichi Saito Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama , Akihiro Tomikawa , Yoichi Hayashi . (click titles for info) ============================================== -frankly, thought two I saw were rather silly