Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” Thread, for the week of December 14-20, 2020. Now that the nightmare that was this college football season has ended for most of you, why not get back into watching movies? As always, I'm using my impeccable taste to pick a batch of movies that I know all of you will find interesting. Not only that, but this week I've even deigned to pick something as recent as 2018! As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
I can't recall whether I've mentioned Deep Valley before. TCM is running it this Monday at 8:15 AM, so now is the time to mention it! Ida Lupino plays Libby Saul, a young woman who's got a mess of a life. She's got a stuttering problem, and has parents (Henry Hull and Fay Bainter) who use her to get at each other. Not only that but the family lives in the middle of nowhere, so Libby doesn't know anybody else. One day while walking her dog in the woods on the way to an abandoned cabin that's her refuge, she runs across a construction crew building a new highway. The crew uses prison labor and is administered by war veteran Jeff Barker (Wayne Morris), somebody Dad thinks would be right for Libby. Libby, however, sees prisoner Barry (Dane Clark) and immediately falls for him, and the feeling is mutual. And then during a big storm, Barry gets the chance to escape, going to Libby's cabin in the hopes that she can help him. Lupino is really much too old for the role, but if you like melodrama, there's worse out there than this one.
With Laurel and Hardy being the Stars of the Month on TCM, I should point out that the movie Stan & Ollie shows up this week, at 6:55 AM Monday on StarzEncore, or three hours later if you only have the west coast feed. Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly) made their final film together in 1950. Three years later, Stan was trying to get the funding with a British producer for a new movie, and as part of promoting the duo, Stan and Ollie got together with British stage producer Bernard Delfont (Rufus Jones) to do a stage tour of Britain and Ireland with all their old routines. The tour starts off with small audiences in second-rate theaters although audiences do eventually pick up. But there are other problems. The comics' wives show up and that puts a strain on things; funding for the movie falls through; Stan and Ollie start remembering old insults that harmed their relationship back in the 30s; and then Oliie has a minor heart attack that makes his wife push him to retire now.
There are a couple of Lana Turner films on TCM on Tuesday. One of her earlier ones, and one that I don't think I've mentioned before, is These Glamour Girls, at 7:15 AM Tuesday. Philip (Lew Ayres) is a student at prestigious Kingsford College, and has a fiancée in Carol (Jane Bryan). To be honest, Carol really prefers Philip's friend Joe (Richard Carlson), but Philip's family is wealthy, Joe's never was, and Carol's lost the family wealth in the Depression, so Carol's parents have been trying to impress upon her that she should marry Philip instead of Joe. The guys are all getting ready for the big society party at Kingsford which Carol and Philip are supposed to attend together, with the other guys bringing their own girls of various sorts. But Phil steps out like a lot of other society men, and at a dance hall he got drunk and met Jane (Lana Turner) and invited her to the ball. And dammit, she wants to go even though she's nowhere near the society type. The women get catty and the men try to cope.
If you want good mindless fun that has nothing to do with Christmas, you could do worse than watch Sudden Death, airing at 2:05 PM Tuesday on The Movie Channel. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Darren McCord, a former firefighter in Pittsburgh who has retired from active duty and is now serving as the fire marshal for Pittsburgh's Civic Arena, the old Igloo that's since been replaced. That was the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are now playing the Chicago Blackhawks in the decisive Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. However, there are a bunch of VIPs, including the Vice-President, in one of the luxury boxes, and a former CIA agent, Joshua Foss (Powers Booth) has commandeered his way into the suite, taking the VIPs hostage and threatening to blow up the building and kill the VIPs. Some Secret Service agents know, with Darren eventually being let in. He has to try to find the bombs and defuse them. It's also personal for him, in that he's brought his two children along for the big game.
I think it's been a while since Escape from East Berlin has been on. It's got an airing this week, at 5:45 PM Thursday on TCM. Based on a true story, the movie is set in East Berlin not long after the Berlin Wall was built to keep East Germans in the country. Don Murray plays Kurt Schröder, a chauffeur for the East German Politburo who has a relatively good life in the country thanks to his job. His colleague Günther thinks about escaping which Kurt discourages; unsurprisingly, the escape doesn't work and Günther gets shot for his troubles. Then Günther's sister Erika (Christine Kaufmann) shows up, not realizing the attempt failed. Eventually there are enough people around Kurt who want out that he agrees to an escape plan. Since their apartment is near the Wall, the plan is to tunnel under the wall, using an uncle's loud band practices to mask the sound of the tunnel drilling. But there are the problems of whether they actually can tunnel under and through, and whether there will be anybody in their circle who rats them out to the Communists.
TCM is running a Christmas movie marathon, which I think starts on Friday evening, running a week up until Christmas. This means any number of movies that I probably recommended last year. Among them is Remember the Night, at 8:00 PM Friday. Fred MacMurray plays John Sargent, an assistant DA in New York who is given the task of prosecuting shoplifter Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck). It's Christmas time and Lee can't make bail, which means she's going to have to spend Christmas in jail. This just won't do, so Sargent comes up with a novel idea that probably ought not pass legal muster, except that then we wouldn't have a movie. Sargent was planning to visit his mother (Beulah Bondi) out in the country (and in another state), and offers to take Lee in custody with him over the holidays and bring her back for the trial. Obviously Lee makes things difficult for him along the way, but even more difficult is the fact that Sargent predictably falls in love with Lee, especially since he can't bring himself to tell Mom what Lee really is. But then the experience is changing Lee too….
Every now and then, one of the premium cable channels other than StarzEncore Westerns actually has an old movie. An example this week is the movie Downhill Racer, which gets a showing at 1:45 PM Saturday on Flix. Robert Redford plays Dave Chappellet, a hot-shot young skier from the US who has recently qualified for the US Ski Team, which means that he gets to go around Europe at a time when international travel was much less common than it is today (well, before the fucking lockdowns). The sport at this time was dominated by the Europeans, who don't respect the Americans, especially this newcomer who does things his own way. As such, Dave isn't even particularly respected by his nominal coach, Claire (Gene Hackman). This doesn't deter Dave, who continues to go his own way while going to all the competitions, including having an affair with whatever continental actress Hollywood was trying to promote at this time, in this case Sweden's Camilla Sparv. Ultimately the goal is to qualify for the Olympics.
One of the odder Christmas movies to show up this year is We're No Angels, at 8:00 PM Saturday on TCM. Joseph, Albert, and Jules (played respectively by Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov) are three French criminals circa 1900 who got sentenced to Devil's Island. But they escaped, and are trying to get off the island by mingling with the other paroled criminals legitimately allowed to go back to metropolitan France. While waiting for a boat, they decide to hide with a family by holding them hostage, the family being merchant Felix Ducotel (Leo G. Carroll), his wife Amelie (Joan Bennett), and their daughter, whose good graces the criminals get into by offering to repair their roof. But as the roof repair goes on, the criminals discover the family has a whole lot of problems, involving among others Felix's nominal boss André (Basil Rathbone). The criminals get some of the Christmas spirit and keep helping out the Ducotels. But surely their criminal past has to be discovered at some point.
I think most of what's on FXM this week is stuff that I've recommended fairly recently, although I believe it's been the longest since I mentioned Decision Before Dawn. That one will be on FXM at 8:50 AM Sunday. Set in the waning days of World War II, the Americans are advancing on Germany but need vital information on German troop strength and where it is. One thing the Americans have is a lot of German POWs, so they make the risky decision to recruit some of those POWs to be double agents, spying on their old country for the Americans. Led by Col. Deviln (Gary Merrill) and Lt. Rennick (Richard Basehart), they eventually find two Germans who might be suitable for the task at hand: Sgt. Barth (Hans Christian Blech), nicknamed Tiger, and Cpl. Maurer (Oskar Werner), nicknamed Happy. Tiger, Happy, and Rennick set off to parachute into Germany, but will Tiger or Happy betray the Americans? The movie was filmed on location in the American sector of Germany (especially around Würzburg) several years after the end of the war, but when the country was still in ruins and rebuilding.
Finally, we'll conclude with another Christmas movie, the British film The Holly and the Ivy, at 8:00 PM Sunday. Ralph Richardson plays Rev. Gregory, a minister in a small English town who's getting ready to invite family home for the holidays a couple of years after the end of World War II. Unfortunately, the good vicar has a bit of a difficult family situation. His daughter Jenny (Celia Johnson) has been taking care of Dad for years, also taking care of Mom until her recent death. She's got a man pursuing her, David (John Gregson), and he wants to marry her because he's got a great job offer coming up overseas, but that requires taking her away from Dad. Perhaps sister Margaret (Margaret Leighton) could help take care of Dad. She's been living in London as a fashion designer, but she's also an alcoholic as it turns out. There's another son, Michael (Denholm Elliott) who resents Dad's overbearing ways, and two sisters-in-law, one of whom understands Jenny's predicament as she too had to take care of an ailing mother. This is one of those little movies that the Brits were quite good at making, full of fine acting.