Welcome to another edition of Fedya's "Movies to Tivo" Thread, for the week of April 11-17, 2022. Easter is this weekend, and it's not only TCM getting in on the action. FXM has a double feature of The Robe followed by Demetrius and the Gladiators, both of which I've mentioned in the fairly recent past. There's also more from Star of the Month Errol Flynn; a couple of TCM spotlights; and a movie that's less than 15 years old for those of you who bitch that I only mention old movies. So there really should be something worth watching for everybody. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
Monday morning and afternoon on TCM sees a bunch of people on the run, starting off with a surprising actor for that genre at 6:00 AM in a film called Boulder Dam. That actor is Ross Alexander, who was generally the star of light romantic comedy programmers at Warner Bros. Here, Alexander plays Rusty, a mechanic who gets into an argument with his boss that results in a fight in which Rusty accidentally kills his boss. With a depression on, Rusty heads on the road with all the other unemployed folks out there, changing his name too to evade detection by the police. Rusty winds up in the southwest, where construction of Hoover Dam is going on. There, he also meets a young woman, Ann Vangarick (Patricia Ellis), and falls in love with her. Since there's a Production Code out there, Rusty is going to realize through his love for Ann that he's going to have to go back and face justice, especially when another guy from back east, Lacy (Lyle Talbot) shows up. Note that the name of the dam was always Hoover Dam, but that the petty little shits in the Roosevelt administration had a hissy fit over this and only called it Boulder Dam.
A lot of singers who go into acting have uneven acting careers. Such is the case with Madonna, although she's not half bad in Desperately Seeking Susan, on Flix at 2:40 AM Tuesday. Madonna plays Susan, who communicates with her boyfriend Jim (Robert Joy) through the personals column. Meanwhile, Roberta (Rosanna Arquette) is a bored housewife in suburban New Jersey who gets her thrills by reading the personal ads, specifically the ones between Susan and Jim, to the point that she practically starts stalking Susan. One day, however, Susan gets involved with a mobster in Atlantic City, taking a pair of earrings he had before he winds up dead. Both another gangster and the police are looking for Susan. Roberta, who by this time has bought a jacket Susan traded in at a vintage clothing store, is also looking for Susan, as is Jim. Jim sends friend Dez (Aidan Quinn) to see Susan, not knowing that Roberta wrote the most recent "Desperately Seeking Susan" ad, and after a series of errors that includes an accident and Roberta's losing her ID and winding up with amnesia, but Dez and Roberta think that she is in fact Susan.
TCM's Star of the Month Errol Flynn is best known for the swashbucklers and other action movies that he did, but as we'll see later in the month, he could hold his own starring in the right kind of comedy. One comedy where he only has a small role is in Don't Bet on Blondes, which TCM has at 10:30 AM Tuesday. The star here is Warren William, playing Oscar Owen, nicknamed "Odds". He's a professional gambler/bookmaker who wants to get into something more legitimate, so he decides to become an insurance agent with the selling point that he'll insure anything, no matter how odd it may seem. This is because he's got those old enforcers who can make paying out less likely. But then lazy Col. Jefferson Davis Youngblood (Guy Kibbee) comes in to Odds' office. The colonel is living off his daughter Marilyn (Claire Dodd) while allegedly writing a book, and wants Odds to insure against her getting married to the tune of $50,000, because what husband would want to support a layabout father-in-law? That's all fine and good, until Odds meets Marilyn, and starts falling in love with her. Flynn plays the guy pursuing Marilyn whom Odds pushes out of the way.
Tuesday night on TCM is a look at stuntmen in the movies. Back in the old days, it wasn't uncommon for actors to do their own stunts, with one of the most famous examples of that being Harold Lloyd in Safety Last!, at 8:00 PM Tuesday. Lloyd plays The Boy (also named Harold), who leaves behind The Girl (Mildred, played by Mildred Davis) to go to the big city and become enough of a success so that he can go home and marry her. Through a series of mistakes involving him and his roommate Bill (Bill Strother), Bill gets chased by a policeman and escapes by climbing up the side of a building, human flies being a thing back in the 1920s. Harold, in an attempt to promote the department store where he's working, tells his boss they could have somebody climb up the side of it, with Harold having Bill in mind and the two of them splitting the bonus money. But as the appointed day comes, Bill gets chased by that policeman again, forcing Harold to do the climb up the building, including hanging from the hands of a clock in one iconic image.
Safety Last! will be followed at 9:30 PM by the iconic 1939 version of Stagecoach, which made John Wayne a star. Yakima Canutt, who had been working in Poverty Row westerns throughout the 30s, often alongside Wayne, does his famous stunt of going under the stagecoach, as well as several other stunts with the horses. You may also recall that Stagecoach was remade in the 1960s, and that remake will be on StarzEncore Westerns at 11:46 PM Monday. Watch for Bing Crosby as the alcoholic doctor; Red Buttons as the whiskey salesman; Van Heflin as the marshal; Bob Cummings as the bank embezzler; and Ann-Margret as the dancehall girl with a past.
For those of you who like more recent movies, you might like Doubt, airing at 3:15 PM Wednesday on Cinemax (or three hours later if you only have the west coast feed). At a Catholic church and the attached parochial school in the Bronx in 1964, Fr. Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is the new priest, who seems to be more in step with Vatican II and the changing social mores, while the school's principal, Sr. Aloysius (Meryl Streep), is a traditionalist of the highest order. She even hates ball-point pens. As part of the changing times, the school has one black student, Donald Miller, who is also one of the altar boys. One day, Fr. Flynn calls Donald down to the rectory, and after that meeting, Donald's teacher, Sr. James (Amy Adams), suspects that something is wrong. The official explanation is that Donald got into the Communion wine, but that doesn't sit well with Sr. Aloysius, who sees this as an opportunity to get the modernist priest out of "her" bailiwick. However, a discussion with Donald's mother (Viola Davis) yields a surprising twist, and makes us really doubt what happened in that unseen meeting between Donald and Fr. Flynn.
A movie that I am always thrilled to see show up on TV is The Asphalt Jungle. This week, it will be on TCM at 12:15 PM Thursday. Sterling Hayden plays Dix Handley, a small-time crook in trouble with his bookie. At the same time, recently-released criminal mastermind Doc Riemenschneider (Sam Jaffe) comes in with a brilliant plan for a heist, but he needs a bankroll. This puts Doc, and ultimately Dix too, in touch with presumably high-class attorney Emmerich (Louis Calhern), and with the help of a safecracker and a getaway driver, the crew goes off to steal a million dollars' worth of jewels. While they are able to get the jewels, the explosives they use in the heist cause a bunch of other alarms in the area to trip. Worse, it's not just the cops that are going to be on the gang's tail. Emmerich is short of money, and isn't able to pay the up-front money to fence the jewels, and has been planning to double-cross the gang. And poor Dix just wants the money to go back to Kentucky and retire to a horse farm with his girlfriend Doll (Jean Hagen). Watch also for Marilyn Monroe in a small role as Emmerich's mistress.
Lovely actress Yvette Mimieux died back in January. She's one of the stars of the 1960s version of The Time Machine, which TCM is showing at 8:00 PM Thursday as part of their theme on time travel in the movies. However, another of her movies is back in the FXM rotation, so I'll mention that film: The Neptune Factor, at 7:45 AM Friday on FXM. Mimieux plays oceanographer Jansen, who doesn't show up until a bit later in the film. The film starts with "Oceanlab", an undersea research station, doing research on the ocean floor out in the middle of the Atlantic. Mackay (Ernest Borgnine) is the head of the divers in Oceanlab, with boss Dr. Andrews (Walter Pidgeon) running things from the surface. However, a giant undersea earthquake occurs, unmooring Oceanlab and sending it hurtling into a deep-sea fissure! Dr. Andrews is going to need a maneuverable bathyscaphe to get the Oceanlab crew out, run by Cmdr. Blake (Ben Gazzara) with Mackay and Jansen along for the ride. There are some things on the seabed they're not quite ready for....
TCM Underground this week is a double-feature of Divine movies, starting at 2:15 AM Saturday with Lust in the Dust. Divine, for once not being directed by John Waters to be a freak-show, plays Rosie, a dance-hall girl in the old west. She's shepherded through the desert by Abel (Tab Hunter) after being waylaid by the gang led by outlaw Hard Case Williams (Geoffrey Lewis), to the town of Chili Verde, where she saloonkeeper Marguerita (Lainie Kazan). Everybody who is anybody in town shows up at the saloon, but the real reason for it is because they're looking for gold, and Marguerita and Rosie each have one half of a treasure map allegedly leading to that gold tattooed on their butts. So everybody wants to see both butts in order to be able to find the treasure.Woody Strode gets a small role as a member of Hard Case's gang, while Cesar Romero shows up as a priest.
Ted Danson didn't exactly have the biggest range as an actor, something you can see in the movie Getting Even With Dad, on HBO Family at 6:00 AM Saturday. Danson plays Dad, a thief named Ray Gleason who recently got out of prison and is biding his time working at a bakery until he can pull off his next heist. Since he's a dad, he's got a kid, Timmy (Macaulay Culkin), who had been living with Mom until Mom died, at which point he moved in with his aunt as Dad was still in prison at the time. But Aunt Kitty is getting married, and since Dad has gotten out of prison, she decides to let father and son bond together while she goes on her honeymoon with her new husband. After all, Dad has a reasonable case for having custody of the kid. Except that Dad doesn't necessarily want custody, being more concerned with that heist and how having a kid in tow is going to screw things up. Timmy, for his part, wants his father's love and attention, and doesn't care if he screws up Dad's heist.
Sunday is Easter, which means that we get a bunch of religious-themed movies suitable for the day on TCM, along with the annual airing of the musical Easter Parade at 8:00 PM Sunday. But let's talk about the Christian movies instead, and mention that you can see Barabbas at 2:30 PM. Those of you who remember the Gospels or who still attend church regularly will recognize the name Barabbas, played here by Anthony Quinn. He was a thief set to be crucified next to Jesus, but since the legal tradition demanded the Jews be allowed to let one condemned man free during Passover, Pontius Pilate (Arthur Kennedy) asks the Jews, who select Barabbas. Now, that's the end of Barabbas' story in the Bible, but here. Barabbas has a girlfriend Rachel (Silvana Mangano) who has become a believer in Jesus, although Barabbas isn't. So when Jesus really does rise from the dead on the third day, Barabbas doesn't know what to do. Neither do the early Christians, and it begins a long, difficult journey of redemption for Barabbas that winds up in the Roman arena with Barabbas up against gladiator Jack Palance. And that solar eclipse? That's no special effect. The part of Italy where filming was taking place was going to be experiencing a solar eclipse, and director Richard Fleischer deliberately scheduled the production so that he could get the eclipse for a key scene.