Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” Thread, for the week of December 7-13, 2020. We've got a new Star of the Month to discuss, as well as some feel good movies, and a wide range of films going all the way from 1927 through to 2005. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
One of this week's TCM Imports is Knife in the Water, which will be on TCM at 4:00 AM Monday. The directorial debut of Roman Polański and made in his native Poland, the movie tells the story of a married couple Andrzej (Leon Niemczyk) and Krystyna (Jolanta Umecka) who, early one Sunday, are on their way to the lake region to take their small sailboat out on the lake for a day. They're stopped in the middle of the road by a Young Man (Zygmunt Malanowicz) who is looking for a ride. They take him as far as the marina after some bickering, and then decide to take him on the boat, something for which he isn't suited at first. Andrzej kind of needles the young man about not being experienced and enough of a man yet. When the winds die down and the three are forced to stay on the lake overnight, tensions rise, especially over the young man's nice knife. The couple find that they've got problems between themselves, too.
Now that we're into the first full week of a new month, it's time for a new Star of the Month on TCM. This month, however, we technically get two Stars of the Month, as it's the comedy duo of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy Their movies will be on TCM three Mondays in prime time in December. (December 21 is part of TCM's Christmas movie marathon.) Actually, they made a whole bunch of shorts for Hal Roach before the pair started making feature-length films, and many of those shorts will also be running, starting at 12:30 PM Monday with the silent Do Detectives Think? Their first feature, Pardon Us, will kick off prime time at 8:00 PM.
If you're sick of how badly the Badgers have played this season, then watch a feel-good sports movie: The Game of Their Lives, on Flix at 11:00 AM Tuesday. In 1950, the US qualified for the World Cup in Brazil and put together a team consisting disproportionately of first-generation immigrants from St. Louis and New York. The midwesterners were led by goalie Frank Borghi (Gerard Butler), with the East coasters led by Walter Bahr (Wes Bentley). Simply getting the team together and down to Brazil was a titanic struggle in and of itself, and anybody who knew anything about soccer expected the Americans to be the whipping boys of the tournament. They had to face mighty England, one of the pretournament favorites (of course, the English are always overrated, but the movie doesn't mention this). Surprisingly, the Americans would go on to win the game 1-0. The movie displays practically every sports movie cliché you can think of, starting with telling the story in flashback (Patrick Stewart plays the elderly version of the sports reporter who went to Brazil to cover the game), but it's always fun to watch English football get its comeuppance.
There's a night of Dickens adaptations on TCM on Tuesday. Among them is David Lean's version of Oliver Twist, at 2:15 AM Wednesday. John Howard Davies plays Oliver, the orphan who grows up in a workhouse, asking for another serving of gruel. Eventually, Oliver runs away to London, where he's spotted by the Artful Dodger (a young Anthony Newley) and taken to Fagin (Alec Guinness) to learn the art of being a street urchin pickpocket. Oliver is taken in by a kindly old man Mr. Brownlow after the Dodger's attempt to rob Brownlow goes wrong and Oliver is falsely accused. But Fagin's men, led by Bill Sykes (Robert Newton) spot Oliver and kidnap him in order to return him to Fagin. One thing leads to another and there's a murder and a mob chasing Sykes who is trying to escape with Oliver. There's a twist ending that I won't reveal if you haven't read Dickens' novel. Thankfully, this version doesn't have a bunch of cloying musical numbers.
A movie that I haven't recommended before but it absolutely worth a watch is The Harder They Come. You can see it at 1:15 PM Wednesday on Flix. Jimmy Cliff plays Ivanhoe Martin, a man from the Jamaican countryside who journeys to Kingston to see his mother after Grandma dies, and to try to make a new life for himself in the city. However, he finds that the big city is not paved with gold at all and trying to make a success out of life is going to be difficult. He meets a nice woman Elsa, who is the foster child of a preacher, and the two fall in love. Meanwhile, Ivan is a talented singer and has written a song that he'd like to record. But Mr. Hilton has a virtual monopoly on the recording studios and controls what songs get played on the radio, so although he makes a recording of Ivan's song, he pays Ivan a pittance. Ivan meets Pedro, and in order to support himself, gets involved in the drug trade. The police take a light hand to keeping the drugs in check (see The Panic in Needle Park, on TCM at 4:30 AM Saturday, to see an example of what happens when the users are left without an avenue to get their drugs), to keep the people from getting too antsy and to keep the army from trying to enforce the drug laws. But Ivan becomes too big and just has to be stopped. This one was made by Jamaicans in Jamaica in the local version of English and has subtitles, and shows the abject poverty of the region much better than any Hollywood movie could ever do. And of course there's great music.
For a western that I don't think I've recommended before, you could try The Brass Legend, at 5:29 AM Thursday on StarzEncore Westerns. Donald MacDonald is Clay Gipson, riding back to town when he discovers the hideout of Tris Hatten (Raymond Burr), who is wanted by the police and has a reward out for his capture. Clay tells the sheriff, Wade Addams (Hugh O'Brian), who suggests that Clay not tell anybody while Addams will come up with a false story about who found the Hatten place in order to keep Clay safe. Unfortunately, Clay tells his father about all this, and Dad thinks the sheriff is trying to cheat him, so Dad goes to the press, which unsurprisingly publishes the story about Clay finding Hatten because the press doesn't care how much damage it inflicts in people's lives. Hatten is unsurprisingly pissed off, and his girlfriend hires a gunman to get Clay for getting Hatten. It's standard B western stuff from the 1950s, but another one that's more than competently made.
Marie Dressler was one of America's most beloved stars until her untimely death in 1934, and she makes even otherwise mediocre stuff worth watching. A good example of this is Prosperity, on TCM at 4:15 AM Friday. Dressler plays Maggie Warren, manager of a small-town bank who hands the bank over to her son John (Norman Foster) upon John's marriage to Helen Praskins (Anita Page), the daughter of Lizzie (Polly Moran, a frequent co-star of Dressler's in these programmers). Maggie and Lizzie don't always get along, and things get worse when, some years later and now in the Depression, Lizzie convinces John to invest the bank's assets in a risky scheme that ultimately leads to a run on the bank. Maggie is more or less able to save it for the time being, but to do so she has to sell her house and move with with Lizzie and work as a maid for Lizzie! The only way to solve the problem long-term is to get the bank's bonds back from the crooks who are in possession of them, and Maggie is going to find a way.
If you like those old 1930s detective movies, then you'll really enjoy The Case of the Curious Bride, at 6:30 AM Saturday on TCM. Warren William plays Perry Mason, somewhat differently from how you remember Raymond Burr from the TV show. Here, Mason is in San Francisco, planning to leave for China when he's approached by an old flame Rhoda Montaine (Margaret Lindsay). Her first husband Moxley died some years back and she remarried Carl Montaine (Donald Woods). However, apparently Moxley wasn't dead after all, and is supposedly blackmailing Rhoda, so she wants Perry to see if he can do anything about it. Moxley is found dead, and unsurprisingly Rhoda is a key suspect. Perry investigates and is able to get the real killer to confess in the final reel. Moxley only appears in a flashback sequence at the end, where he's played by a pre-stardom Errol Flynn. Claire Dodd is Della Street, and Allen Jenkins is Drake, nicknamed “Spudsy” here.
Another movie that I don't think I've recommended before is The Professional (also known as Léon: The Professional, or just Léon). It's got an airing this week at 3:25 PM Saturday on StarzEncore Classics. Jean Reno plays Léon, whose profession is a “cleaner”, a euphemism for a hired hitman. He lives in New York working for mobster Tony (Danny Aiello). He lives next door to 12-year-old Mathilda (Natalie Portman), who has an unhappy life in part because her father is a petty criminal working with crooked DEA agents led by Stansfield (Gary Oldman). One day Stansfield figures out that Mathilda's dad has been crossing him, so Stansfield has the entire family killed. Mathilda, however, escapes by having been out at the time, and decides to take refuge with Léon since she has nowhere else to go. And then she finds out that Léon is a hitman, so she wants to learn the trade from him so that she can get revenge on Stansfield. An uncomfortable bond forms between Léon and Mathilda.
The week concludes on Sunday night with a pair of movies on TCM dealing with the topic of caring for elderly parents. The first of these is The Trip to Bountiful, at 8:00 PM. Geraldine Page plays Carrie Watts, an elderly woman living with her son Ludie (John Heard) and his wife Jessie Mae (Carlyn Glynn) in a cramped apartment in 1940s Houston. Jessie Mae isn't happy about having to take care of her mother-in-law, and she nags Ludie incessantly about it while treating Carrie less well than the probably should. Carrie grew up in the village of Bountiful, and has an old friend living there that she'd like to see one last time. But Ludie and Jessie Mae can't afford it. So Carrie basically runs away to try to get to Bountiful, making friends with army wife Thelma (Rebecca De Mornay) on the bus along the way. But Ludie has called the police to find his mom, and they may just prevent Carrie from getting to Bountiful. And what's even there worth seeing after all these years? Geraldine Page gives the performance of her life and deservedly won an Oscar.