Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” thread, for the week of April 26-May 2, 2021. We're finally at the end of this year's 31 Days of Oscar, although I didn't actually select a movie on TCM from the return to regular programming since that's only on Sunday. Instead, there are the Oscar-nominated movies as well as some fun stuff on other channels. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
TCM's 31 Days of Oscar has been running movies in alphabetical order, which means that Oscar-nominated remakes would be paired if you want to watch the same movie twice. Or, if you want to watch the same movie three times. All four versions of A Star Is Born received Oscar nominations, and TCM is running the first three one after the other, starting at 6:00 PM Monday with the 1937 Janet Gaynor/Fredric March version. That will be followed by the 1954 Judy Garland/James Mason version and the 1976 Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson version. The most recent version with Lady Gaga got a nomination in the Best Original Song category but is not on the TCM schedule. (Some would argue that What Price Hollywood? from 1932 is the real original, and that got an Oscar nomination for screenwriting, but it doesn't fit in alphabetically and isn't on the schedule.)
You may remember that horrible Eric Clapton song “Tears in Heaven”. You may not recall that is was actually written for a movie, and that movie, Rush, shows up this week at 4:05 AM Monday on Cinemax. In rural 1970s Texas, narcotics officer Jim Raynor (Jason Patric) has been investigating the drug scene, run by the mysterious Will Gaines (Gregg Allman). Raynor selects new officer Kristen Cates (Jennifer Jason Leigh) as his partner in the operation, which is going to require them to inject drugs themselves as they'll get killed if they try to fake it (see Rusty Tamblyn in High School Confidential! for an example). As you can probably guess, Kristen gets addicted to heroin, followed by Jim. All of this investigation gets evidence on the little guys, but gets them no closer to Gaines. So in typical cop fashion, Raynor decides the best thing to do is fake the evidence against Gaines. (Not that we're supposed to care, since the only way we're allowed to care about cops screwing people over is in terms of race.) Sam Elliott co-stars as Jim and Kristen's supervisor.
Don't be afraid to try again and watch The Stranger at 2:15 PM Tuesday on TCM. Orson Welles stars as Charles Rankin, a professor at one of those small-town New England liberal arts schools that populate old Hollywood movies. He's fallen in love with Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young), daughter of a prominent judge, and is planning on marrying her. But Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) suspects something is up. Ranking only showed up in town recently, and Wilson, who is from the committee investigating Nazi war crimes, thinks he's actually the Nazi Kindler, who escaped Germany and wound up who knows where to continue the Nazi struggle. Wilson has followed another Nazi, Meineke, here, and that's where the trail has seemingly dried up. As with Shadow of a Doubt last week, however, everybody else in town seems to have great respect for Rankin. What will Mary do if it turns out that Rankin is in fact actually Kindler?
I wonder about the search function of x4 because there are some movies I feel like I commented upon but don't show up when I search the site. One such movie is Strictly Ballroom, which is going to be on Flix at 10:00 AM Tuesday. In Australia, Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio) is a ballroom dancer whose parents were big in the insular competitive ballroom dance scene back in the day. So they want him to follow in their footsteps and make it to the Pan-Pacific championship. Scott, however, wants to dance his own steps, which is considered scandalous, and causes his regular dance partner to break up with him. Fran (Tara Morice), a beginner student at the dance school where the Hastings teach, is part of the local Spanish immigrant community, whose parents aren't so sure about her dancing with regular Australians, especially once they meet Scott, who doesn't quite have flamenco or the paso doble in his heart. But the two fall in love, and perhaps Scott can learn the paso doble for the big competition. Fun, once you can get past director Baz Luhrmann's obvious sneering at a certain segment of society.
I've got a lot of more recent movies this year (well, the rest of you probably don't consider 30 years old recent), with the oldest movie only dating to 1936. That would be Theodora Goes Wild, on TCM at 9:45 PM Wednesday. Irene Dunne plays Theodora Lynn, from a long line of Lynns who founded the stodgy New England town of Lynnfield. However, Theodora has a rebellious streak that has led her to write a Peyton Place-like novel under a pseudonym that's caused a scandal because of how racy it is, not that the locals know that the author is one of their own. However, when she goes to meet her publisher in New York, the book's illustrator, Michael Grant (Melvyn Douglas) learns of the true identity of the author and decides to follow her back to Lynnfield because he's beginning to fall in love with her. He's got the goods on her so she has to go along with his ideas, but eventually Theodora figures out a way to turn the tables. A great little screwball comedy.
Another Nazi-related movie is This Land is Mine, on TCM at 5:45 AM Thursday. In an unnamed country that's obviously France during World War II, Nazis come in to occupy the country, putting Major Keller (Walter Slezak) in charge in one small town. Some people collaborate openly, such as railyard manager George Lambert (George Sanders); others quietly do what little they can to resist, such as the school headmaster Sorel and young teacher Louise Martin (Maureen O'Hara). Complicating things is that Louise is engaged to George. And then there are people stuck in the middle, such as Louise's fellow teacher Albert Lory (Charles Laughton). He's been cowed by his mother (Una O'Connor) all his life, and just wants to survive while doing the minimal amount of either resistance or collaboration. But Albert gets caught up in everything when George commits suicide after an attack on the railyard, the Nazis call it murder, and arrest Albert in order to name names. Will he finally find his courage? Directed by Jean Renoir during his exile in America.
Mother's Day is two weeks from today, so the movies appropriate for the occasion should be recommended next week. But I notice that Throw Momma from the Train is on this week, at at 5:10 AM Thursday on Showtime 2, so I'll mention it now. Billy Crystal plays Larry Donner, a professor of creative writing suffering writer's block himself and whose estranged wife stole his previous work an became a big success with it. One of Larry's students is Owen (Danny DeVito), who wants to write a mystery but has no sense of how to do it. Larry suggests Owen watch some Alfred Hitchcock movies for a positive example of how to structure a story. Owen sees Strangers on a Train, and comes up with a completely different idea. Owen has a mother (Anne Ramsey) who is making his life a living hell, so perhaps Owen can get rid of Larry's wife and Larry can get rid of Owen's mom. Larry scoffs, but then his ex-wife goes missing at sea, and Larry takes credit for it and insists Larry meet Mom, who is an absolutely holy terror. I mention it this week because the inspiration for it, Strangers on a Train, is also on this week, at 4:15 PM Tuesday on TCM.
We've got a couple of French-language movies on this week. One of them is The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, on TCM at 4:30 PM Friday. Nino Castelnuovo plays Guy, a young mechanic in Cherbourg in the late 1950s who dreams of opening his own service station. He's in love with Geneviève (Catherine Deneuve), daughter of Mme. Emery (Anne Vernon), who owns the titular umbrella shop in town. But Guy gets called up to serve in the French Army that's fighting the insurrection in Algeria (then part of France). Letters from the front stop coming, and sing Guy is missing in action, Geneviève's mom suggests that she could have a much more stable financial future if she married diamond dealer Roland (Marc Michel) instead. Guy was only injured, and eventually, having been demobbed, returns to Cherbourg to look for Geneviève. Can these two young lovers find happiness? A gorgeous film to watch, although director Jacques Démy took the daring step of having all of the characters sing their dialogue, which may be off-putting to some viewers.
A search of x4 claims that it's been five years since I mentioned Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It's back in the FXM rotation, at 9:35 AM Saturday. The Van Allen radiation belts that protect Earth from cosmic rays have somehow caught fire, and mankind is uncertain of what to do since they don't know whether the fire will burn itself out. Meanwhile, down on the Earth's surface, it's getting hotter and hotter, threatening all life on earth. Adm. Nelson (Walter Pidgeon) is the captain of the Seaview, an experimental nuclear submarine that has several of his detractors on board for the sub's maiden voyage. He believes that he could put out that fire, but to do so will involve firing a nuclear missile at the belts from the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Since mankind doesn't have many other options, Nelson heads for the Marianas anyway. Peter Lorre plays Comm. Emery, who believes in Nelson; Joan Fontaine plays a scientist; and for the younger viewers there's Frankie Avalon and a young Barbara Eden.
If you like your World War II propaganda, then you'll enjoy The White Cliffs of Dover, on TCM at 3:30 PM Saturday. Irene Dunne plays Susan Ashwood, who in the framing story at the start of the movie is a nurse volunteering at a British hospital in World War II, a war in which her son is fighting. Flash back a good 30 years…. Susan is an American who was visiting London with her father (Frank Morgan) when she gets invited to a ball where she meets Sir John Ashford (Alan Marshal). When the Great War comes, he goes off to fight and dies, but not before knocking his wife up with a son, John II (played by Roddy McDowall as a boy and Peter Lawford as an adult). Susan raised John II in England, but when the Nazis came to power Dad saw the writing on the wall and tried to get Susan to come home to safety with her kid while she's living with her mother-in-law (Gladys Cooper). Obviously she stayed or we wouldn't have a movie. Watch for a young Elizabeth Taylor as a girl pursued by John II.
31 Days of Oscar concludes on TCM on Saturday, although since their programming day begins at 6:00 AM, the last movie is actually early on Sunday morning: Z, at 4:30 AM Sunday. Based on real events in Greece in the early 1960s, although the country isn't named in the movie, it stars Yves Montand as Z, a parliamentarian and activist who's opposing nascent moves toward a military dictatorship. After a political rally, Z is killed in what looks to be a hit-and-run accident. But an autopsy reveals that he was actually beaten to death, and an investigating magistrate (Jean-Louis Trintignant) digs deeper into the case to try to figure out what really happened. Unsurprisingly, the authorities don't want the real truth to come out, and put pressure on the magistrate and the photojournalist (Jacques Perrin) from whom he's getting assistance to chance their stances. Both stand firm, but the government has a lot of power either to try to make them change, or just to bury the story. Still relevant today, considering we have a government that buries a policeman's autopsy for three months in order to spin an obvious lie, and a media that happily goes along with it for political reasons.