Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” Thread, for the week of February 17-23, 2020. Apparently, spring training begins this week, but that's baseball so of course nobody cares. The Champions League resumes, but that's only two days this week. So there's a lot of time to watch interesting movies. In addition to the Oscar-nominated movies on TCM, there's a lot of fun stuff on other channels too. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentiond.
George Arliss was about 60 when talking pictures came along, so he only got about a decade in sound films, which is a bit of a shame since he elevates everything he was in, no matter how trifling it was otherwise. Arliss even won an early Best Actor Oscar, for Disraeli, and it's that movie that's on TCM at 7:15 AM Tuesday. Arliss plays Benjamin Disraeli, the Jewish Prime Minister in Victorian Britain. He was concerned about the Asian part of the Empire, and knew that the Suez Canal was the key to maintaining effective lines of communications between India and Britain. So he tries to buy it, but there's a conspiracy of Russian spies including Mrs. Travers (Doris Lloyd) trying to gain influence for Russia and prevent Disraeli from getting the financing for the UK to buy the canal. Disraeli, of course, outfoxes everybody. George's real-life wife Florence plays Mrs. Disraeli, and a young Joan Bennett is a romantic interest for Disraeli's adviser, with Disraeli helping the two get together. Creaky, but as always, Arliss is what makes it worth a watch.
I don't recall the last time that 49th Parallel ran on TCM, but it's showing up again this week, at noon Tuesday, and is highly worth a watch. The British wanted to make a movie that would get the still-neutral United States more on the side of the UK in World War II, and made this story about a Nazi U-Boat forced to hide in Hudson Bay. A landing party goes ashore, led by Lt. Hirth (Eric Portman), and when the submarine gets bombed, the Nazis try to make their way south to the US which, still being neutral, would have to turn the soldiers back over to Germany. Along the way, Hirth and his comrades meet a variety of Canadians who haven't been particularly concerned with the war, until now it's coming to them. There's a Québecois trapper (Laurence Olivier, hilariously miscast), a bunch of pacifist Hutterites (watch for a young Glynis Johns, still alive at 96), and an art collector living in a tepee amongst the natives (Leslie Howard). The Canadians may care more about themselves than some larger cause, but that's enough to defeat the rigid Nazis.
I'm not certain the last time I recommended the original blockbuster Jaws. It's going to be on multiple times this week, including 1:50 AM Wednesday on Action Max. Roy Scheider plays Brody, the sheriff of a popular summer beach community on Amity Island. He finds a swimmer dead on shore, looking for all the world like the victim of a shark attack, and wants to close the beach to swimming. But the mayor (Murray Hamilton) doesn't want to lose tourist revenue. Sure enough there is a shark out there, and the attempt to get it before it can kill more people brings in bounty hunters like Quint (Robert Shaw). But there's also the biologist and expert on sharks, Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) who has his own ideas on how to deal with the shark and that what hunters like Quint are doing isn't right. Still, Quint's the one with the boat, even if they're clearly going to need a bigger boat. This was one of the first summer blockbusters to get a wide opening release and, being a hit, changed the way Hollywood marketed summer movies forever.
A couple of weeks back I mentioned 48 Hrs. The movie was popular enough that a sequel was made, Another 48 Hrs. That sequel shows up this week, on StarzEncore Classics at 8:04 AM Wednesday. Nick Nolte returns as Jack Cates, this time looking for a mysterious drug dealer called the Iceman, whom the folks in Internal Affairs think doesn't exist. In trying to run down leads, kills a man and claims self defense, but Internal Affairs obviously has it in for Cates – or is on the take from the drug lords – as they don't have a drop gun for Cates. Indeed, they're going to try him on a manslaughter charge, which would put him in prison. Thankfully, for Cates, Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) is about to be released from prison having served his entire sentence. Cates wants Hammond to help him, but once again there are a couple of problems. One is that the $500,000 from the first movie hasn't been given to Hammond, and second is that there are hitmen from the first case who are out to get Hammond – somehow, they couldn't get him in prison, which I'd think would have happened if Internal Affairs is corrupted. (After all, look at how they were able to get Jeffrey Epstein.)
Some years had a really strong slate of films nominated for Oscars. A good example is 1950, where All About Eve and Sunset Blvd. were the leaders, but there were quite a few other fine films whose nominations are overlooked. A good example is The Asphalt Jungle, at 6:00 PM Wednesday on TCM. Career criminal “Doc” Riemenschneider (Sam Jaffe, who got a Supporting Actor nomination) has just gotten out of prison and has a great idea for another heist, which involves stealing a bunch of diamonds. But he needs a team of people to carry it off, a financier and a fence. Respectable lawyer Emmerich (Louis Calhern) plays the latter two, and Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) is recruited to be the muscle. The heist seems to go OK until the end, when an alarm goes off, followed by various members of the gang trying to double-cross each other. Spare a thought for Dix, who just wanted enough money to get back to the farm he grew up on taking his girlfriend (Jean Hagen). Watch for an early Marilyn Monroe performance as Emmerich's trophy girlfriend.
A movie that's back on FXM for the first time in I don't know how long is Doll Face, which will be on at 4:30 AM Friday. Vivian Blaine plays the titular Mary “Doll Face” Carroll, a burlesque queen who finds that the doors to more respectable entertainment are closed to her. So her fiancé/manager Mike Hannegan comes up with a brilliant idea. When he gets a book as a “free gift”, he decides that he'll turn Doll Face respectable by hiring a ghostwriter to do an autobiography of her; specifically, the author of the book he got, Fred Gerard (Stephen Dunne). Fred actually agrees, and writes a book that becomes a success both financially and in its intended purpose of getting Doll Face a stage job away from burlesque. But along the way, Mike starts to become convinced that Doll Face is falling in love with Fred. And if Mike is going to treat his fiancée like that, perhaps she just will take up with Fred anyway. Perry Como is as bland as always in a supporting role, while Carmen Miranda gets one musical number in black and white and otherwise fills a sort of Eve Arden role as the wisecracking best friend.
Up against Doll Face is the hilarious Torch Song, at 4:15 AM Friday on TCM. Joan Crawford plays Jenny Stewart, a Broadway star who has a reputation for being extremely demanding toward everybody she works with, throwing out one zinger after another. When she has a tiff with her pianist who quits on her, there just happens to be another one who can step in right at hand: Tye Graham (Michael Wilding). However, it turns out that he's blind, leading Jenny to think he's not up to the job. (As she tells him, “Get yourself a seeing-eye girl!”) Still, she has to work with him, because the success of her new show depends on it and she's got family (mom Marjorie Rambeau got an Oscar nomination) depending on her. Jenny finds herself falling in love with Tye, a prospect that frightens her, especially because he seems to be rebuffing her, even though he's got secrets of his won. Watch for the memorable color palette, as well as the delightfully tacky “Two-Faced Woman” number. And have fun laughing at the unintentional comedy.
Just for Goldie, I'm selecting a chick flick this week: Terms of Endearment, airing on Friday night at 8:00 PM on TCM. Shirley MacLaine plays a Aurora Greenway, a strong-willed woman in Texas who becomes a widow while her daughter Emma is still a child. Emma grows up (played by Debra Winger) and becomes as strong-willed as her mother. Emma marries a college English professor, Flap (Jeff Daniels), despite her mother thinking he's not right for her, and the two eventually move up north to follow Flap's career. Aurora, left alone, starts seeing the next door neighbor, former astronaut Garrett (Jack Nicholson). The two women face the ups and downs of life together through long-distance phone calls, Emma starting an affair of her own with Sam (John Lithgow) when she suspects her husband of having an affair. It goes on like this, until one of the women is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Flap has to learn to deal with both his wife and his mother-in-law.
I mentioned Sam Jaffe in The Asphalt Jungle above. One of the other nominees up against Jaffe that year was Jeff Chandler, in Broken Arrow. That movie you can see at 12:56 AM Saturday on StarzEncore Westerns. James Stewart plays Tom Jeffords, a scout in the Arizona Territory in the late 1870s. The settlers have been encroaching, and the Apaches, led by Cochise (that's Jeff Chandler), are none too pleased about it, attacking Whites whom they believe attacked them first. Jeffords is sent by the federal government to figure out if there's any way to deal with the Apache. Jeffords spends quite a bit of time with the Apache, learning their language, becoming friends with Cochise, and even marrying an Apache woman (Debra Paget). As a result of all this, Jeffords comes up with a radical idea: try to make peace with the Apache! Needless to say, a lot of the whites aren't too thrilled with the idea, but then some of the Apache don't think the white man can be trusted to make peace with either. This one is worth watching because it humanized the Indians more than most westerns of the time.
I didn't realize that the 1951 version of Kind Lady got an Oscar nomination. It did, in black-and-white costume design, so TCM can use it for 31 Days of Oscar. They're showing it this eek at 5:00 AM Sunday. Ethel Barrymore plays Mary Herries, an old lady in turn-of-the-century London with a taste for fine art. One day she meets struggling artist Henry Elcott (Maurice Evans) and, believing his sob story, decides to help him. She probably shouldn't have done so, since once he sees the beautiful art in her home his con artist side comes out and devises a plan to separate the old lady from her art. He says that his wife Ada (Betsy Blair) is sick and can't survive in their cold flat, so Mary puts her up. This gets Henry an in to start replacing the servants with pliant accomplices the Edwardses (Keenan Wynn and Angela Lansbury) who will help keep Mary trapped in the house and try to gaslight her into insanity while Henry can start looting and selling off the art. This is actually a remake of a mid-1930s movie, but I think this is the better version.