MattHelm
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Posts posted by MattHelm
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Congratulations on your excellent schedules Sinatrafan, Dewey and sweetsmell ... it's great to see new people joining in the Challenge.
Some notes on my schedule ...
Sunday: For some reason it always amuses me to see actors playing pianists and the camera angles they choose so you can't see their hands hitting the wrong notes on the piano, or whatever they're doing with their hands.
I got the Criterion Collection's Burden of Dreams for Christmas, and it's a must-see for fans of Herzog, or just Fitzcarraldo in particular. So, I thought I'd offer both for the Imports.
Monday: I've been wanting to choose Ann Corio's movies in past challenges but wasn't sure who owned Monogram films at the time. Now I know, so here they are. Speaking of Monogram ...
Tuesday: Now we can see Charlie Chan on TCM. I can't wait for March to see some of these for the first time in I don't know how many years.
I'm a big fan of the Great Gildersleeve radio show, and I've been wondering when TCM would play the movies, since they're RKOs. My DVD box set comes with the following movies:
Look Who's Laughing (1941) featuring Fibber McGee & Molly
Here We Go Again (1942) also featuring Fibber McGee & Molly
The Great Gildersleeve (1942)
Seven Days' Leave (1942)
Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943)
Gildersleeve's Bad Day (1943)
Gildersleeve's Ghost (1944)
Jack Benny and Fred Allen used to take shots at each other on their radio shows to promote Love Thy Neighbor and Buck Benny Rides Again. They created the rivalry through flashbacks on Allen's show, going back years ago to when they had a vaudville act and fell out with one another, not speaking for twenty-five years. The great witty banter and insults were a riot. I doubt Love Thy Neighbor has ever been shown on TCM so I used up a premeire on it.
Thursday: I chose this week because I wanted to showcase a lot of George Zucco's horror movies, using the public domain Producer's Releasing Corp. and was able to throw in some Monograms, too. Not only are these movies great B flicks, but I like choosing these one hour movies because you get to cram more movies into a day and get more bang for your buck.
For the Take Five films, I wanted to take a more obscure route, taking a look behind the scenes through a mix of comedy and drama.
Friday: I was going to originally do my DVD box set on the theme of wooden actors but all of the movies I was planning on including in it are already on DVD. Other actors included were Jeff Chandler and Robert Stack.
On the Underground movies ... Daimajin is sort of Godzilla meets Yojimbo. A giant statue comes to life when it hears the plea of the peasants to save them from the Samuai class and brigands. You have to wait through the whole movie to see him come to life and step on people, but we all know that's worth it. 2000 Maniacs is probably too Underground for Underground. Northerners' car break down in a southern town where the confederate dead from the Civil War have come back to life ... and it's payback time. If this traumatized anyone, I scheduled Little Orphan Annie after the Underground as a sort of pallet cleanser.
Saturday: The serials are back. I tried to make the day a good excuse for being a couch potato by filling it up with fun B-flicks. I chose Planet of the Apes for an essential because, beside being a fan since I was a kid, I think it's a landmark film as far as make-up effects go. The DVD box set comes with the documentary on the movie, as well as an out take of Edward G. Robinson in a screen test wearing a crude version of the make-up for Dr. Zaius, the role that finally went to Maurice Evans. After that, the night is devoted to movies that starred the Apes' cast.
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Sunday January 7
6:00 Androcles and the Lion (1953) Victor Mature, Jean Simmons 98m RKO
8:00 The Fire Fly (1937) Allan Jones, Jeanette MacDonald 131m MGM
10:15 Weekend at the Waldorf (1945) Ginger Rogers, Walter Pidgeon 130m MGM
12:30 Tender Comrade (1944) Robert Ryan, Ginger Rogers 102m RKO
2:30 Storm Warning (1951) Ronald Reagan, Ginger Rogers 93m WB
4:15 The Hasty Heart (1950) Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal 102m WB
THE ESSENTIALS REPLAY
6:00 Captain Blood (1935) Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland 119m WB
LIKE THEY CAN REALLY PLAY THAT PIANO
8:00 Four Daughters (1938) John Garfield, Priscilla Lane 90m WB
9:30 Rhapsody in Blue (1945) Robert Alda, Joan Leslie 139m WB
SILENT SUNDAYS
12:00 Die Nibelungen: Seigrfied (1924) Paul Richter, Hannah Ralph 100m Decla-Bioscop AG
TCM IMPORTS
2:00 Fitzcarraldo (1982) Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale 158m New World Pictures
4:30 Burden of Dreams: The Making of Fitzcarraldo (1982) Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski 95m Flower Films
5:30 Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe: Documentary/Short (1980) Werner Herzog 20m Flower Films
Monday January 8
ANN CORIO: QUEEN OF THE BURLESQUE
6:00 Swamp Woman (1941) Ann Corio, Jack LaRue 68m Producers Releasing Corp.
7:15 Jungle Siren (1942) Ann Corio, Buster Crabbe 68m PRC
8:30 Sarong Girl (1943) Ann Corio, Tim Ryan 63m Monogram
9:45 The Sultan?s Daughter (1944) Ann Corio, Tim Ryan 64m Monogram
11:00 Call of the Jungle (1944) Ann Corio, James Bush 60m Monogram
NYC HOT SPOTS
JILLY?S
12:00 Manchurian Candidate (1962) Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey 126m UA
TOOT SHOR?S
2:15 Come Blow Your Horn (1963) Frank Sinatra, Babara Rush 102m Paramount
21 CLUB
4:15 Spellbound (1945) Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman 116m UA
THE STORK CLUB
6:15 My Friend Irma (1949) Diana Lynn, John Lund 102m Paramount p/s
HEAD AND SHOULDERS: EDITH HEAD?S THREADS
8:00 The Glass Key (1942) Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake 85m Paramount p/s
9:30 The Farmer?s Daughter (1947) Loretta Young, Joseph Cotton 96m RKO
11:45 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) James Stewart, John Wayne 122m Paramount p/s
1:45 Pocketful of Miracles (1961) Glenn Ford, Bette Davis 136m UA p/s
4:15 The Court Jester (1956) Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns 101m Paramount
Tuesday January 9
CHARLIE CHAN MONOGRAM MARATHON
6:00 Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944) Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland 65m Monogram
7:15 The Chinese Cat (1944) Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland 65m Monogram
8:30 Black Magic (1944) Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland 65m Monogram
9:45 The Jade Mask (1945) Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland 64m Monogram
11:00 The Scarlet Clue (1945) Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland 65m Monogram
12:15 The Shanghai Cobra (1945) Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland 64m Monogram
1:30 The Red Dragon (1946) Sidney Toler, Benson Fong 64m Monogram
2:45 Dark Alibi (1946) Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland 61m Monogram
4:00 Shadows Under Chinatown (1946) Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland Monogram
5:15 Dangerous Money (1946) Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Young 66m Monogram
6:30 The Trap (1946) Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland 69m Monogram
THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE DVD BOX SET PREVIEW
8:00 The Great Gildersleeve (1942) Harold Peary, Nancy Gates 62m RKO
9:15 Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943) Harold Peary, Billie Burke 65m RKO
10:30 Gildersleeve?s Ghost (1944) Harold Peary, Marion Martin 63m RKO
11:45 Look Who?s Laughing (1941) Harold Peary, Fibber McGee & Molly 79m RKO
JACK BENNY vs. FRED ALLEN
1:15 Buck Benny Rides Again (1941) Jack Benny, Eddie Anderson 82m Paramount
PREMEIRE:
2:45 Love Thy Neighbor (1940) Jack Benny, Fred Allen 80m Paramount
4:15 We?re Not Dressing (1934) Bing Crosby, Carole Lombard 80m Paramount
Wednesday January 10
PAUL HENREID?S BIRTHDAY
6:00 Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) Robert Donat, Greer Garson 110m MGM
8:00 Casablanca (1943) Humphry Bogart, Ingrid Bergman 99m WB
10:00 Now, Voyager (1942) Bette Davis, Paul Henreid 118m WB
12:00 Between Two Worlds (1944) John Garfield, Paul Henreid 110m WB
2:00 The Spanish Main (1945) Paul Henreid, Maureen O?Hara 101m RKO
4:00 Of Human Bondage (1946) Paul Henreid, Eleanor Parker 108m WB
6:00 Song of Love (1947) Paul Hendreid, Katharine Hepburn 117m MGM
STAR OF THE MONTH: PAT O?BRIEN
8:00 Hell?s House (1932) Bette Davis, Pat O?Brien 80m State?s Rights/P.D.
9:30 Devil Dogs of the Air (1935) Pat O?Brien, James Cagney 90m WB
11:00 The Irish in Us (1935) Pat O?Brien, James Cagney 84m WB
12:30 The Great O?Malley (1937) Pat O?Brien, Sybil Jason 70m WB
2:00 Women Are Like That (1938) Pat O?Brien, Kay Francis 78m WB
3:30 Castle on the Hudson (1940) Pat O?Brien, John Garfield 78m WB
5:00 Having Wonderful Crime (1945) Pat O?Brien, Carole Landis 70m RKO
Thursday January 11
GEORGE ZUCCO?S BIRTHDAY
6:15 The Mad Monster (1942) George Zucco, Anne Nagel 79m Producer?s Releasing Corp
7:45 Fog Island (1945) George Zucco, Lionel Atwill 70m PRC
9:00 The Black Raven (1943) George Zucco, Wanda McKay 62m PRC
10:15 Dead Men Walk (1943) George Zucco, Mary Carlisle 66m PRC
11:30 The Flying Serpent (1946) George Zucco, Hope Kramer 59m PRC
12:30 Voodoo Man (1944) George Zucco, Bela Lugosi 62m Monogram
1:45 Return of the Ape Man (1944) George Zucco, Bela Lugosi 60m Monogram
2:45 Scared to Death (1947) George Zucco, Bela Lugosi 64m Screen Guild Pro. Int?l
3:00 The Secret Garden (1949) Margaret O?Brien, Dean Stockwell 92m MGM
4:30 Joan of Arc (1948) Ingrid Bergman, Lames Lydon 150m RKO
7:00 Strangler of the Swamp (1946) Rosemary LaPlanche, Blake Edwards 60m PRC
TAKE FIVE: HOLLYWOOD BEHIND THE SCENES
8:00 Boy Meets Girl (1938) Pat O?Brien, James Cagney 86m WB
9:30 Stand-In (1937) Leslie Howard, Joan Blondell 91m UA
11:00 The Last Tycoon (1976) Robert DeNiro, Jeanne Moreau 122m Paramount p/s
1:15 The Bad and the Beautiful (1953) Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner 117m MGM
3:15 Hellzapoppin? (1941) Olsen & Johnson 82m Universal
4:45 The Falcon in Hollywood (1944) Tom Conway, Barbara Hale 67m RKO
Friday January 12
COMMIES AND PINKOS
6:00 The 27TH Day (1957) Gene Barry, Valerie French 75m Colombia
PREMIERE:
7:30 I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951) Frank Lovejoy, Dorothy Hart 84m WB
9:00 The Woman on Pier 13 (1950) Laraine Day, Robert Ryan 73m RKO
10:30 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter 80m Allied Artists
12:00 Mission to Moscow (1943) Walter Huston, Ann Harding 123m WB
2:15 The North Star (1943) Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews 106m RKO
4:00 Song of Russia (1944) Robert Taylor, Susan Peters 107m MGM
6:00 Ninotchka (1939) Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas 110m MGM
THREE OF THE WOODENEST ACTORS EVER
JOHN ?LINDEN? LUND
8:00 The Perils of Pauline (1947) Betty Hutton, John Lund 96m Paramount
RALPH ?BIRCH? BELLAMY
10:00 Sunrise at Campobello (1960) Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson 144m WB
VICTOR ?MAHOGANY? MATURE
12:30 The Las Vegas Story (1952) Victor Mature, Jane Russell 88m RKO
TCM UNDERGROUND
2:00 Daimajin (1968) Miwa Takada, Yoshihiko Aoyama 86m Dalei Motion Picture Co.
3:30 2000 Maniacs (1964) Connie Mason, Thomas Lund 85m Box Office Spectaculars
5:00 Little Orphan Annie (1932) Mitizi Green, Edgar Kennedy 60m RKO
Saturday January 13
6:00 Bluebeard (1944) John Carradine, Jean Parker 73m PRC
7:30 Hitler?s Madman (1943) John Carradine, Patricia Morison 85m MGM
9:00 Bulldog Drummond?s Secret Police (1939) John Howard, Heather Angel 56m Paramount/P.D.
10:00 SATURDAY SERIALS
The Phantom Creeps (1939) Bela Lugosi
Drums of Fu Manchu (1940) Henry Brandon
Jesse James Rides Again (1947) Clayton Moore
Panther Girl of the Congo (1955) Phyllis Coates
11:30 CARTOON ALLEY
Tortoise Beats Hare (1941)
Tortoise Wins by a Hare (1943)
Rabbit Transit (1947)
12:00 The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews 75m 20TH Century-Fox
1:30 Strange Illusions (1945) Warren Williams, James Lydon 84m PRC
3:00 Baby Face Morgan (1942) Mary Carlisle, Richard Cromwell 65m PRC
4:15 The Sphinx (1933) Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi 70m Monogram
5:30 Behind the Planet of the Apes (documentary) (1968) Charleton Heston, Roddy McDowall 126m 20th Century-Fox
7:45 Short: Planet of the Apes Make-Up Test on Edward G. Robinson 10m
THE ESSENTIALS
8:00 Planet of the Apes (1968) Charleton Heston, Kim Hunter 112m 20th Century-Fox
BEYOND THE PLANET OF THE APES
10:00 The Naked Jungle (1954) Charleton Heston, Eleanor Parker 95m Paramount p/s
11:45 Lassie Come Home (1943) Roddy McDowall, Elizabeth Taylor 90m MGM
1:15 The Young Stranger (1957) Kim Hunter, James MacArthur 84m RKO
2:45 Kind Lady (1951) Maurice Evans, Ethel Barrymore 78m MGM p/s
4:00 Behind the Planet of the Apes: (documentary) (1968) Charleton Heston, Roddy McDowall 126m 20th Century-Fox
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For the first time in the Challenges, I'm having a hard time coming up with premiers. But I've found many films that TCM owns that may seem like premiers, since they own, but have never shown them.
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Happy belated birthday, filmlover.
Kubrick, don't sweat the Cartoon Alley stuff, no one really places too much importance on that. Just check out a few months worth of Cartoon Alley on the upcoming schedules and pick a few titles. As far as silents go, just google silent movies and pick one. You don't have to adhere to the rules and can pick any one you want.
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Guys, if you have trouble picking a week, just think of an actor/actress that you would love to showcase, and pick the week they were born. You'd be surprised who else was also born that same week, and that gives you another person to plan a day's worth of movies around ... sometimes.
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filmlover, regarding TCM Underground, Imports and Silents, do we have the same option we have had in the last few Challenges to choose any movie within those genres, seeing how they don't always adhere to the rest of the RKO, Warner, MGM, etc. library?
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Sounds great, filmlover! I can't wait to dive in.
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Scratch that ... it was the 60s version called, The Christmas Story. While I couldn't remember whether it was Alexander or Morgan, I do recall that Barry Williams was in it, so it couldn't have been the 50s. It was the same story, though.
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Good question ... I think it was with Ben Alexander but I'm not 100% sure.
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This was the genuine color episode. The reason production companies take advantage of PD material is to basically get something for nothing so they don't have to spend too much, and colorizing costs a lot, never mind for just a half hour episode. I've seen the color Dragnet shows in syndication, but this was the first time I ever saw this Christmas episode, and it was the same color film stock as the rest, with that greenish tint. I'm trying to remember what was on before it, and I think it was a Christmas episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I've been checking this channel constantly since then, but they haven't played anything as obscure except for reruns of Charlie's Angels.
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Technically, the "old B&W show" aired one episode in color, "The Big Little Jesus," but it apparently survives only in B&W. I think it's among the various PD episodes floating about today.
There may be hope of a color one turning up on DVD, because a local channel here showed it in color just before this Christmas.
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Rusty,
The movie would have been called "George Brent Came C.O.D." if he did his own stunts. But the thing that made guys like Brent look bigger than they really were, were those skimpy mustaches. You take them off, or position them in an oblique angle, and it takes 50 pounds off of them.
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I noticed that Chesterfields machine or sign in the background, and immediatley thought, 'Hey, what about Fatima cigarettes?' They were the sponsors for the Dragnet radio series, and Jack Webb appeared in ads telling people that they were "wise" for smoking Fatimas. Maybe the 'wise' comes in meaning that by smoking these they instantly saw the Our Lady of Fatima prophecies and the end of the world. The end of the Fatima world came in 1980. It must be pretty bad when a cigarette brand bites the dust. And now Jack Webb for our sponsor ...
http://www.wclynx.com/burntofferings/packsfatima_jackwebb.html
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Watching it now ... great stuff. The TV show was aired in reruns when I was at an age where I couldn't care less about it. Now, I listen to the radio shows online and was thrilled to see that this was on tonight.
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I'll be around. I just don't have enough time now to visit here as often as I have in the past. I gotta make enough money to get out of this swamp and get back to Massachusetts, where I belong ... and still be able to fleece taxpayers to pay my teaching salary.
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If anyone wants more of Martin & Lewis for free, listen to their radio shows here:
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Fred,
The way he tells it, they told him that this guy was the "original" Boston **** that the character was based on. In context, my father was living in Boston at the time, and I think they were just trying to jokingly impress a little kid, and forgot to tell him that it was just a joke.
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Rusty,
I've been busy making third graders cry at my day job, and making myself cry freelancing at night, and haven't been on much. I don't think any punch thrown in that movie wasn't a roundhouse, but when they switched to the real rough stuff, all of a sudden two of the most obvious stunt doubles in cinematic history appeared on the screen. This blatant disregard for the audience's intelligence wouldn't be rivaled until 30 years later on TV, with the Starsky & Hutch and Dynasty fight scenes.
My father has been telling me for years that his father's cousin dated the "real" Boston **** back in the day. I think maybe she dated some mobster and they told him he was Boston ****, and the old man believed it all these years. He still tells the story and I haven't the heart to tell him that ****'s a totally fictional character.
I must get me some of those MST3K stuff. I haven't seen them in years.
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Cecilia: Who are you?
****: Right now, I'm a fugitive from an autopsy.
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Hi Kyle,
Been teaching by day and freelancing nights, so it's been all work and no play.
If you have iTunes there may be a couple of other online OTR sites in the "radio" section, but Antioch is the best that I've found. I also love that in between shows he plays some great music from that era, too. Here's my search results for OTR shows on the archive site, to make it easier to browse their selection.
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3A%22oldtimeradio%22
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I used to listen to the Antioch station on iTunes (and donate to the man if you become a regular listener) before I found www.archive.org. The latter has a more comprehensive selection of radio shows, but you have to know what you're looking for on there and do a search for it. Recently, I've been listening to a lot of "Box 13" with Allan Ladd ... "Dragnet" ... "Inner Sanctum" ... "Martin & Lewis"... "The Whistler" ... "Mr. Keen Tracer of Lost Persons" ... "Rocky Fortune" with Sinatra ... and lots more.
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From a few reviews, I've gleaned that it's a let's-pretend-studio-era-movie. It's like what a pervert from today who watches Casablanca and fantasizes Bogie having sex with Bergman, would come up with. It's a perversion of our TCM favorites. I haven't seen it and only read this, so I could be wrong. But I have no desire to see it. If it's true, why try to make a movie in the classic mold and inject today's sexuality and corrupt values in it? The actors in it can't hold a candle to the ones they ape, so it just looks like a pretentious waste of time.
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I get a kick out of these gorey slasher flicks for a couple of reasons: One, because horror movies have always been an escapist way of confronting one's fears, and since I find being killed by a sadistic sociopath more realistic than a rubber bat morphing into Bela Lugosi outside my window(at least these days), I fear that more; the second reason is because I used to want to be a make-up fx artist and spent most of my teenage years making monsters and realistic wounds, and I look at these movies technically, trying to think of how they did a certain effect.
But, having said that, these movies are coarsening today's youth. I'm not talking about all violence, just the extreme, realistic violence in movies like Saw and Hostel. It's not just the extreme violence in movies, it's the whole culture of violence that permeates music, video games and TV. While I don't think network TV is that violent, or gratuitously so, MTV shows like Jackass and the visualization of violent songs/misogyny in music videos just adds to the creation of a degenerate generation.
I was on the fence about the subject of extreme violence in movies, because I got a kick out of them, and was in denial about their effect on kids. What made me change my mind was when I saw all those violent, ugly mobs of kids all over the country the day that Playstation 3 came out. It was almost as if it were planned because it happened in so many places, but it wasn't. That's scary, and what's even scarier is the fact that most of those creating havok that day were 20-somethings. It's not just one thing, it's a whole corrupted culture that's creating this. I'd be a hypocrite if I just denounced the music and TV shows that contribute to this, and still continued to selfishly support these movies by giving them my money. So I decided that it's better to make sacrifices (though it's not much of one) for the greater good. If people stopped supporting these things with their money, then they wouldn't continue to make this garbage.
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otterhere,
A recent book, and other past studies, show that the individualists give more to charities than the communalists. Individualism sounds selfish and greedy, but for the most part, it's not.
LAST DAY! ?THE TCM Programming Challenge: Take 5? with PRIZES
in TCM Program Challenges Archive
Posted
Kubrickbuff, I wish you would join us in making a week's programming. There's some work involved but it's not that hard ... it's fun. Just focus on your favorite movies and what you wish TCM would play. You could study TCM's past or future schedules, or the schedules from the past Challenges, to get ideas. But just remember that it's all for fun, and not some kind of test. We vote for the best schedule, but never judge each other's choices.