Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” Thread, for the week of December 23-29, 2019. I'm sorry that this one is a bit briefer than normal, but I've been sick for the last several days and finally just crashed all day Saturday. Still, there are a lot of interesting movies I know you'll want to watch, and I've mentioned a couple of them here. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
The remakes continue on TCM on Monday, starting off with the 1929 version of The Letter at 6:00 AM. You may know the story from the Bette Davis version that follows at 7:30 AM; the basic story is of a Leslie Crosbie (Jeanne Eagels in the 1929 version) living in British Malaya with her husband Robert (Reginald Owen). She's taken up a boyfriend (Herbert Marshall, who plays the husband in the 1940 version) and killed him, claiming self defense. It's a defense that gets her off, but… there's a letter out that that she wrote which would show that it wasn't really self defense. Leslie needs her husband's money to get that letter back, but that would mean her husband knowing her secret. The 1929 version is rather raw in part because the original final cut is considered lost and this is a working print, but in some ways it's much more interesting than the Bette Davis version. This is partly because this one isn't constrained by the Production Code, and partly because Eagels is spectacular. Her life was a train wreck by this point, as her heroin addiction was about to kill her (she died seven months after the movie was released), and her cadaverous performance is something to see.
Lots of channels are running Christmas movies, and one that you can catch this week is Jingle All the Way, which will be on HBO Family at 5:30 PM Monday. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Howard Langston, a businessman at a mattress company who spends so much time with his work that he's more or less neglected his son Jamie (Jake Lloyd). Christmas is coming up, and Howard is determined to do right by his son this year. But there's one problem. Jamie wants a Turbo Man action figure, which is the hot toy this year the things like Fondle Me Elmo or whatnot would be in other years. And yet once again Howard has procrastinated and, come December 24, he still hasn't gotten a Turbo Man figure. (Remember, this is before Amazon.) So Howard goes all over town trying to find a Turbo Man, with no luck, until he gets to one mall where there's another guy, Myron (Sinbad), who wants a Turbo Man figure for his kid as much as Howard, and Myron and everybody else will stop at nothing to get it.
TCM has been in the Christmas spirit all month, but kicks things into overdrive on Tuesday. One of the movies they're showing that I could probably recommend every year is The Bishop's Wife, which will be on at 8:00 PM Tuesday. David Niven plays Bishop Brougham, an Episcopal bishop whose marriage to his wife Julia (Loretta Young) has hit a patch of the marital blahs. He's so busy trying to raise the funds necessary to build a new cathedral that he might not be spending enough time with his wife and daughter. So God sends the angel Dudley (Cary Grant) to help the bishop learn the importance of balancing faith and family, with a minimum of big special-effects miracles. Along the way, Dudley charms everybody in town, who of course don't know he's an angel from heaven, and complications arise in the relationship between Dudley and Julia. Other townsfolk are helped in much lighter ways, such as the ever-tippling professor (Monty Woolley), or the taxi driver (James Gleason) who gets a great ice-skating scene.
A western that I don't think I've recommended before is The Appaloosa. You'll be able to see it this week on StarzEncore Westerns at 6:22 AM Friday. Marlon Brando, who didn't make many westerns in his career, plays Matt Fletcher, a buffalo hunter near the US-Mexican border. He keeps getting harassed by the bandit leader Chuy (John Saxon) for a bunch 0f reasons, but most of all Matt's horse, from which we get the title. Eventually, Chuy does steal the horse, which understandably pisses Matt off to no end, and he wants revenge. This even if it means going up against Chuy's entire gang singlehandedly, which sounds unrealistic, but then we wouldn't have the movie if Matt didn't try. Anjanette Comer plays Chuy's girlfriend Trini, who becomes another bone of contention between Matt and Chug. I'm not the biggest fan of Marlon Brando, but I know there are people who really like his stilted style.
Next up is Flashdance. It's going to be on Epix at 8:00 PM Thursday. Jennifer Beals plays Alex, a young woman who is a welder at a Pittsburgh steel mill by day, and an exotic dancer by night. Alex is entirely self-taught, which makes her dancing style unorthodox. But she has dreams of becoming a real dancer, which means getting a place to study at the local conservatory and performing in the ballet. It's going to be a difficult road, however, and would be even if Alex had had traditional dance training. Things get much more complicated when one evening, Nick (Michael Nouri) comes into the club and watches Alex dance. He falls in love with her and the two start a relationship before Nick realizes that Alex is one of his employees. Can Alex achieve her dream? This one is dated and remembered more for the Irene Cara title song which won her an Oscar.
Up against Flashdance over on TCM is the last night of Star of the Month Joan Blondell, kicking off at 8:00 PM with The Cincinnati Kid. Steve McQueen stars in the title role, a high-stakes poker player who goes from one poker game to the next in 1930s New Orleans. Then another big gambler, Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson) shows up in town. He's the top, and the Cincinnati Kid wants a game with him to enhance his reputation. The Kid's friend Shooter (Karl Malden) is able to arrange that, but there are some bumps along the way. One has to do with Shooter's wife Melba (Ann-Margret), who wants the Kid instead of Shooter. But the Kid already as a girlfriend in Christian (Tuesday Weld), so trying to start a relationship with Melba would be a problem in multiple ways. As for Joan Blondell, she plays Lady Fingers, the dealer for the climactic showdown between the Kid and Lancey.
If you want to have a good laugh at a movie that goes off the rails, you could do worse than to watch All That Heaven Allows, at 8:00 PM Friday. Jane Wyman plays Cary, a small-town widow with two college aged kids. When the landscaper the family had used for years shows up to do his annual work, it's actually the old guy's son, Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson). Kirby actually has bigger dreams of going into forest management, and has some odd friends who spout Thoreau. But when Kirby and Cary meet, there's an immediate attraction. This is a problem because Cary, despite being a widow, is definitely upper-middle class, while Kirby is working class. And everybody in town starts gossiping about the two, with even Cary's children being horrified at the relationship. It's pure melodrama, with terribly obvious foreshadowing and overwrought music cues, but I think the best line is when Wyman says to Rock Hudson, “You're trying to make a man out of me.” Of course, I don't think anybody but Rock knew at the time he was gay, but looking back, it's hilarious.
One of the movies that's been back in the FXM rotation recently is Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing. It's on again this week, at 8:55 AM Sunday. William Holden plays Mark Elliott, an American correspondent who gets sent to Hong Kong in 1949 to try to cover the turbulent political situation in mainland China as best be can. In the course of his work, he meets Han Suyin (Jennifer Jones), a doctor of mixed racial background who's something of a refugee since her father was a bigwig in the Nationalist (the side that lost to the Communists) military. The two start seeing each other socially, and even fall in love. But there are all sorts of complications to their relationship. One is that Mark is trapped in a loveless marriage to a wife who won't grant him a divorce. On the other side, there are all of Han's Chinese friends who think she shouldn't be getting involved with a white guy since her home is in China. Fate takes over when 1950 comes and the war in Korea, which Mark gets sent to cover. This one is actually based on a true story.