HITS & MISSES: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow on TCM

[Swithin]

Thursday, July 21

 

10 p.m.  Dog Day Afternoon (1975)  “Attica!  Attica!”  Another classic from the 70’s.

 

The Oscar-winning script for Dog Day Afternoon was written by Frank Pierson, whose parents were the subject of this 1945 movie:

 

[LawrenceA]

Saturday, July 23/24

 

Unfortunately, this has now disappeared from the schedule….

2:15 a.m.  The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1975).  A Peter Cushing Dracula that I have not yet seen.  Sounds like it is a Hong Kong entry.

 

It was, in fact, a co-production between Hammer Films and the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers. It was a flop, and Hammer Films was finished, at least for the next 40+ years.

[LornaHansonForbes]

Saturday, July 23/24

 

Unfortunately, this has now disappeared from the schedule….

2:15 a.m.  The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1975).  A Peter Cushing Dracula that I have not yet seen.  Sounds like it is a Hong Kong entry.

 

it's not great.

Dracula makes a brief appearance at the end and he is not played by Christopher Lee and he looks overly-made up and, I swear, during his resurrection scene he starts out as this thing that looks like a giant poo.

it's really hard to take him seriously after that.

[EricJ]

It was, in fact, a co-production between Hammer Films and the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers. It was a flop, and Hammer Films was finished, at least for the next 40+ years.

 

 

Actually, they had three more films after that, but their "big-budget" The Lady Vanishes remake with Elliot Gould and Cybil Shepherd wasn't well received in the US.

 

Even so, Cushing wasn't really in the same film as most of the HK actors, and it shows.

[mr6666]

Sat. features 3 good picks on 'Brenda De Banzie' night....

8:00 PM   Hobson's Choice (1954)  

A widower father fights to control the lives of his three strong-willed daughters.

Dir: David Lean Cast:  Charles Laughton , John Mills , Brenda De Banzie .

BW-108 mins, CC,

10:00 PM Entertainer, The (1960)  

A third-rate vaudevillian uses liquor and young women to escape the pressures of changing times.

Dir: Tony Richardson Cast:  Laurence Olivier , Brenda De Banzie , Joan Plowright .

BW-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

 

12:00 AM   Mark, The (1961)  

A reformed child abuser fights the stigma of his past when he falls for a single mother.

Dir: Guy Green Cast:  Maria Schell , Stuart Whitman , Rod Steiger , Brenda De Banzie.

BW-127 mins, Letterbox Format

 

[Bogie56]

Sunday, July 24/25

 

2 a.m.  Touki Bouki (1973).  I’m going to check out this Senegalese film.

[Emily Dean]

Hit for me today is DR.STRANGELOVE.  I had just graduated from High School when I saw this movie and it showed at the local "arts" theatre.  The audience just had a blast watching this movie and I loved every nuanced and non-nuanced utterance along with the ridiculousness of the whole "nuclear" war concept, especially when George C. Scott worries about the "mine gap" and the Russian ambassador is still taking pictures of the War Room.  Then ending was absolutely the best.

 

Was put off with Ms. Tiffany's summation believing she had to explain the sexist component of the movie, come on now I am grown up and believe I am able to discern for myself what the context is...and actually if the TCM team had read any of the discussions about the movie there was a much deeper set of sexual contexts to the movie than just the idea of 10:1 ratio in the mine shaft. TCM staff should do better research and in Ms. Tiffany's intro video stating that she composes film discussions in the showers, then today's efforts indicate she would do better if she read a few books. 

 

Anyway Dr. Strangelove still resonates with me today and the aspect of atomic war looks less threatening than that of unexpected mass shootings and bombings all over the world.  In those days we only had to worry about the Military Industrial Complex and Khrushchev. 

[LornaHansonForbes]

10:00 PM Entertainer, The (1960)  

A third-rate vaudevillian uses liquor and young women to escape the pressures of changing times.

Dir: Tony Richardson Cast:  Laurence Olivier , Brenda De Banzie , Joan Plowright .

BW-104 mins, CC, Letterbox Forma

 

this is another example of a good, well-made movie that i don't like- which is in all likelihood what the makers were aiming for.

see also: LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR

 

I actually think this is Olivier's greatest performance, he is so great as someone who has NO TALENT- he has this devastating scene where he takes the pipe hard in front of an audience and it is AGONY to watch.

 

Brilliant agony, but agony.

[misswonderly3]

this is another example of a good, well-made movie that i don't like- which is in all likelihood what the makers were aiming for.

see also: LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR

 

I actually think this is Olivier's greatest performance, he is so great as someone who has NO TALENT- he has this devastating scene where he takes the pipe hard in front of an audience and it is AGONY to watch.

 

Brilliant agony, but agony.

 

I know what you mean about a film that you don't like because it is painful or unpleasant or emotionally harrowing, yet is a good movie. It's very possible to know a movie is good - well-made, well-acted, smart -  and yet not enjoy it.

 

The Entertainer is a very sad movie. With the possible exception of the grandfather, all the characters are sad, Laurence Olivier's most of all. When he stands there on the stage, with his heavy theatre make-up and his terrible little jokes, a handful of maybe 10 people in the audience, it's heart-breaking.

[darkblue]

I know what you mean about a film that you don't like because it is painful or unpleasant or emotionally harrowing, yet is a good movie. It's very possible to know a movie is good - well-made, well-acted, smart -  and yet not enjoy it.

 

The Entertainer is a very sad movie. With the possible exception of the grandfather, all the characters are sad, Laurence Olivier's most of all. When he stands there on the stage, with his heavy theatre make-up and his terrible little jokes, a handful of maybe 10 people in the audience, it's heart-breaking.

 

I like 'Looking for Mister Goodbar'.

 

I enjoy watching a story of a professional woman in the 70's who is determined to be independent and has a great attitude that feeds that purpose. She takes no ****, and stands up for herself and her choices.

 

Keaton is fantastic in the role - much more enjoyable than the usual mousy, insecure thing she often does.

[misswonderly3]

I like 'Looking for Mister Goodbar'.

 

I enjoy watching a story of a professional woman in the 70's who is determined to be independent and has a great attitude that feeds that purpose. She takes no ****, and stands up for herself and her choices.

 

Keaton is fantastic in the role - much more enjoyable than the usual mousy, insecure thing she often does.

 

It is a good movie, and Keaton shows what she can do when given a role like that.

 

But it's just so despairing, that final scene where she's lying dead on the bed, her life so quickly and so violently dispatched. It all happens so suddenly, too, there's no time for the audience to get emotionally prepared that something terrible is going to happen to her. I know what Lorna means about its being hard to watch.

[darkblue]

It is a good movie, and Keaton shows what she can do when given a role like that.

 

But it's just so despairing, that final scene where she's lying dead on the bed, her life so quickly and so violently dispatched. It all happens so suddenly, too, there's no time for the audience to get emotionally prepared that something terrible is going to happen to her. I know what Lorna means about its being hard to watch.

 

Tragedy happens in movies all the time. People die in movies all the time. It's sad but real. I like real.

 

But, as you may know, I'm sure that we are souls who inhabit temporary bodies, so that tends to inform my reaction to "death".

[Bogie56]

Monday, July 25/26

 

4 a.m.  Rampage (1963).  A Robert Mitchum film that I have yet to see.

 

[LawrenceA]

Monday, July 25/26

 

4 a.m.  Rampage (1963).  A Robert Mitchum film that I have yet to see.

 

Hey, I'm recording that one, too.

[film lover 293]

Monday, July 25th; All times E.S.T.:

 

11:00 a.m. "The Floradora Girl" (1930)--Marion Davies film--If it's shown--I search for the film, and all information and links are Gone?--as of 12:09 a.m., E.S.T., TFG has been deleted from Marion Davies filmography?

Edit--TCM DID show TFG--Thank You!

 

 

3:30 p.m. "Peg O' My Heart" (1933)--One of Davies last MGM films.

 

5:00 p.m. "Love in the Rough" (1930)--Fluff musical about golf has a good score by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh.

 

2:15 a.m. "They Rode West" (1954)--Pro-Indian Western by noir director Phil Karlson

[Bogie56]

Tuesday, July 26

 

6 a.m.  Go West (1925).  Keaton!

 

12:45 p.m.  Mail Order Bride (1964).  Good cast with Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea, Lois Nettleton, Warren Oates, Marie Windsor, etc.  Might be worth checking out.

 

[CaveGirl]

Tuesday, July 26

 

6 a.m.  Go West (1925).  Keaton!

 

12:45 p.m.  Mail Order Bride (1964).  Good cast with Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea, Lois Nettleton, Warren Oates, Marie Windsor, etc.  Might be worth checking out.

Thanks for the Keaton update, Bogie!

[film lover 293]

Tuesday, July 26th/27th; All times E.S.T.;--two directed by Delmer Daves:

 

11:45 p.m. "Broken Arrow" (1950)--Fine western with James Stewart and Jeff Chandler.

 

4:00 a.m. "The Hanging Tree" (1959)--Good western has Gary Cooper as a doctor with a Past.  Costarring George C. Scott and Maria Schell.

[Bogie56]

Wednesday, July 27

 

9:30 p.m.  Little Big Man (1970).  Terrific Arthur Penn western with great cast that includes Chief Dan George.

 

[lydecker]

Tuesday, July 26

 

6 a.m.  Go West (1925).  Keaton!

 

12:45 p.m.  Mail Order Bride (1964).  Good cast with Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea, Lois Nettleton, Warren Oates, Marie Windsor, etc.  Might be worth checking out.

 

I had never seen Go West before and while I am not a big lover of westerns, this was a sweet, sweet film.

[film lover 293]

Wed., July 27th/28th: all times E.S.T.

 

8:00 p.m.--"The Shooting" (1967)--allegorical Monte Hellman western starring Millie Perkins and Warren Oates.  A "love it or hate it" film.  I love it.

 

12:00 a.m.--"McCabe and Mrs. Miller" (1971)--A pipe dream of a movie, with beautiful photography by Vilmos Zsigmond and an Oscar nominated performance by Julie Christie.

[Fedya]

Nobody's mentioned the Joe E. Brown birthday salute tomorrow.

 

There's Eleven Men and a Girl (6:30 AM), in which co-star Joan Bennett uses her sex appeal to get a bunch of college football stars to transfer to her (and 36-year-old Brown's) school and save it through having a successful football program.

 

That's followed at 7:45 AM by Sally which apparently has Brown singing and dancing to "Look for the Silver Lining", as well as a two-strip Technicolor musical number.

 

Perhaps most interesting is Broadminded at 10:45, which opens with a "baby party", complete with the disturbing image of Brown in a baby carriage with blanky and bottle. The movie also has Bela Lugosi doing comedy (fairly well, I might add).

[Bogie56]

Thursday, July 28

 

12 hours of Joe E. Brown movies.  Is there a prize to sit through all of these?

 

4 a.m.  Let’s Do It Again (1975) with Bill Cosby.

[EricJ]

Thursday, July 28

 

12 hours of Joe E. Brown movies.  Is there a prize to sit through all of these?

 

 

I guess saying "hhhhhhhhhhHHHELP!" would be too obvious of a response here?

[DownGoesFrazier]

Thursday, July 28

 

12 hours of Joe E. Brown movies.  Is there a prize to sit through all of these?

 

4 a.m.  Let’s Do It Again (1975) with Bill Cosby.

With Trump's news conferences and the Dem Convention going on, anyone that chooses to sit through 12 hours of Joe E. Brown movies is truly living in the past, and a fairly obscure past at that..