Welcome to Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” thread, for the week of August 8-14, 2016. We've got more exhibition football, but for those who want real football, you'll have to wait a few weeks. So why not spend that time kicking back with some classic movies? Once again, I've used my impeccable taste to pick out a series of films I know you'll all enjoy. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
TCM's star for Monday is Esther Williams. She's of course known for her swimming, but every now and then she was in support of somebody else, as in Texas Carnival, at 9:30 AM Monday. Here, the real star is Red Skelton. He plays Cornie, a carnival barker who is part of a dunk-tank act with Debbie (that's Williams; a dunk tank is one way to get her into the water, I suppose). One day, drunk Texas oil baron Dan (Kennan Wynn) shows up, invites Cornie to a party and then, through a comedy of errors, Cornie and Debbie get mistaken for Dan and Dan's sister Marilla (Paula Raymond). Needless to say, this causes problems. The problems get bigger, though, when cowboy Slim (Howard Keel) shows up, falling in love with Debbie thinking she's Dan's sister. With Esther's swimming, singing Howard Keel, and even the dancing of Ann Miller thrown in, the movie is a bit of a mess at times since it can't always decide whether it wants to be a Red Skelton comedy or some sort of musical.
On Tuesday, the TCM spotlight will be on Tim Holt for 24 hours. He's probably best remembered for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which will be on at 8:00 PM Tuesday. He made a lot of cheap westerns in the second half of his career after returning from World War II; among them is Overland Telegraph at 5:30 PM. Holt plays a character named Tim Holt, a troubleshooter brought in to find out why the telegraph line being constructed is being sabotaged. It turns out that there's a storekeeper who is servicing the local fort, and once the telegraph line is finished, the fort is going to be shuttered, which means there goes the storekeeper's business. That's why he's hired a gang of saboteurs to keep the line from being completed. Meanwhile, Holt gets involved with the daughter (Gail Davis) of the man building the line for the government. The leader of the gang is played by Hugh Beaumont, who would go on to play the father on the TV show Leave It to Beaver.
If you want a different sort of western, you could watch Heller in Pink Tights, which will be on StarzEncore Westerns at 10:50 PM Monday and 8:00 PM Sunday. The pink tights refer to those worn by Sophia Loren who plays Angela. She's an immigrant in the traveling theater managed by Tom Healey (Anthony Quinn). They travel the frontier trying to bring culture to the masses, always living on the edge since money is an issue. Angela, being played by Loren, is of course gorgeous, and that gets her looks from all them men, much to her manager's irritation. But those men bring in the money, especially if she can seduce them. So she winds up involved with gunman Clint (Steve Forrest) who had been working for banker De Leon (Ramon Novarro in his final film). Rounding out the merry crew are 16-year-old Della (Margaret O'Brien who was actually 22 at the time), her mother (Eileen Heckart), and ham actor Doc (Edmund Lowe, also in his final film).
Wednesday on TCM will see a full day of the movies of Hedy Lamarr. (Don't call her Hedley.) One that I'm not certain if I've recommeded before is The Conspirators, which you can catch at 6:00 PM. Warner Bros. had had a big hit with Casablanca a year earlier, and so made this film which seems strangely familiar. Once again, Paul Henried plays a man from the Resistance, this time Dutchman Vincent Van Der Lyn; this time, he's in neutral Lisbon. There he meets Ricardo Quintanilla (Sydney Greenstreet, who doesn't seem very Portuguese to me), leading the various anti-Nazis. But it seems there's a double agent in their midst. It could be Quintanilla himself. Or it could be Jan (Peter Lorre, yet another refugee from the cast of Casablanca), another of the anti-Nazis. Then again, it could be Irene (Lamarr). After all, she's married to a Nazi officer (Victor Francen; I could imagine Conrad Veidt doing this if he hadn't died so inconveniently a year earlier).
Going back a little further in time, I'll mention a movie that's airing as part of Spencer Tracy's day in Summer Under the Stars: Whipsaw, at 4:15 AM Friday. Made not long after Tracy moved from Fox to MGM, this one has him as McBride, a government agent who is assigned to find some people suspected of planning a jewel robbery. Vivian (Myrna Loy) is part of that group; together with two men, the group pulls off the robbery. McBride goes with Vivian to try to find where the jewels are hidden, but there are some complications. First is that McBride finds himself beginning to fall in love with Vivian, and the feeling is mutual after Vivian helps an honest woman in an emergency. But there's that jewel robbery. Also a problem is that there's another group of crooks that want those jewels, and they have far fewer scruples than McBride. Tracy and Loy would both go on to better things (such as Libeled Lady, which is on tonight at 6:00 PM as part of Jean Harlow day), but Whipsaw is still an enjoyable film.
Up against Whipsaw, over on StarzEncore Classics, you can find Deliverance, at 4:25 AM Friday. You probably know the story. Lewis (Burt Reynolds) lives in Atlanta but has a taste for the outdoors. The Corps of Engineers are damming up a river in northeast Georgia, and Lewis wants to take his friends Ed (John Voight), Bobby (Ned Beatty), and Drew (Ronny Cox) and show them the river one last time before the dam turns it into one big lake. So they drive up in their cars and get in their canoes to paddle down the river, but get more than they bargain for. Never mind the creepy kid at the beginning playing the banjo; just wait until they meet the hillbilly people living in the middle of nowhere. This pleasant little canoe trip turns into a nightmare and a fight for their very survival. Of course, it was all filmed on location, which only adds to the harrowing storyline.
Since you all like early movies like Whipsaw, I'll give you something even earlier: Street Angel, at 10:00 PM Friday on TCM. This one is on as part of a 24-hour salute to Janet Gaynor. She plays the titular character, Angela, a woman who gets arrested after stealing some money to try to help her sick mother. She breaks out of jail, and runs off with the circus, which is where she meets painter Gino (Charles Farrell, Gaynor's frequent co-star). He paints a picture of her, and selling it brings a commission to paint a mural. But somebody must have recognized the woman in the portrait, because just as Angela and Gino are about to get married, the law catches up with her and she has to go away again, which of course destroys Gino's will to go on painting. Can they ever live happily, never mind the ever after part?
A movie returning to FXM Retro after an absence is Fathom, which you can catch at 10:10 AM Saturday. Raquel Welch, looking very sexy since this was the swinging 60s and she was young, plays the title character, a dental assistant who goes around Europe in parachuting competitions in her spare time. One day, she's approached by a Scottish colonel who says he's working for a spy agency, and needs Fathom to use her parachuting skills to parachute unnoticed into a Mediterranean villa. It seems the folks there have stolen a priceless Ming Dynasty-era statue, inside which there's an advanced device for triggering atomic bombs. She reluctantly accepts, and then finds out from Merriweather (Tony Franciosa) that the colonel's story is a bunch of bunk, the “colonel” is a thief, and using her to get the statue. Or is that the bogus story? Poor Fathom gets sucked into both sides and then some as she tries to figure out who the good guys and who the bad guys are. This is one of the many spoofs of spy films made after James Bond movies became popular, and Welch does a good job in her role.
Back on TCM on Saturday, we'll have a full day of the movies of Ralph Richardson. This includes the comedy The Wrong Box at 6:00 PM. Richardson plays Joseph Finsbury, who with his brother Masterman (John Mills) are the last two survivors of a tontine, a sort of insurance contract in which all the members put in an equal amount, and the last surviving member gets all the money (which of course has been invested wisely). Masterman seems to be on his deathbed, much to his grandson Michael's (Michael Caine) consternation, so Masterman wants to see Joseph one more time, so he can kill Joseph and grandson Michael will get the money. Joseph is incredibly healthy, and a pompous Cliff Clavin type, living with his nephews (Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) and niece (Nanette Newman). A comedy of errors leads the nephews to think Joseph has died, and they try to prevent Masterman and Michael from finding out since they want the money (Joesph doesn't seem to care); meanwhile, Michael falls in love with the niece. All sorts of mayhem ensues.
Finally, I'll mention the star for Sunday: Cyd Charisse. TCM has a full day of her movies, including one I'm not certain I've recommended before, The Wild North at noon. The star here is actually Stewart Granger, playing Jules, a trapper living in the boreal forests of the Candidan territories. However, he gets involved in a killing which means that the Mounties are on to him, in the form of tenderfoot officer Pedley (Wendell Corey). Pedley is determined to get Jules, but Jules knows the lay of the land well since he's been living here forever. That having been said, the two wind up facing a common enemy, and one that's much more severe: the Canadian winter. As for Charisse, she's cast as an Indian woman and a love interest for Stewart Granger. The movie is helped by its location shooting, done in the Sun Valley area of Idaho.