Welcome to another edition of Fedya's "Movies to Tivo" Thread, for the week of January 31-February 6, 2022. We've got the last night of Kay Francis movies on Monday night, followed by a new Star of the Month for February. TCM's Saturday matinee block sees a new serial beginning, the Buck Rogers serial from 1939 that I think aired back in 2010 or 2011. But there's also interesting stuff on the other movie channels, and I've recommended several of those movies too. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
We get one more night of Kay Francis movies on Monday night, continuing into Tuesday morning, as we can see from the airing of Dr. Monica, at 7:00 AM Tuesday on TCM. Francis plays Dr. Monica Brayden, a lady obstetrician, and a woman who is herself unable to have a baby, married to playboy John (Warren William). He's having an affair with Mary Hathaway (Jean Muir), although he breaks it off because he realizes he really loves Monica. However, he had that affair just long enough for Mary to get pregnant. And wouldn't you know it, but Mary goes to Dr. Monica as her doctor when she gets pregnant! Not that Monica knows who the father of the child of this unmarried woman is. At least, not yet. You know the sparks are going to fly when Monica finally does find out that her husband has knocked up another woman. Perhaps Monica's best friend Anna (Verree Teasdale) will be able to patch things up between Monica and John. Unfortunately, the movie was released one week before the Production Code took off in high gear, and would be butchered by Joe Breen's office.
One of the true classics is currently in the FXM rotation: All About Eve. It's got an airing this week, at 6:00 AM Tuesday. Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) is about to receive a prestigious award for stage actors, as we're told by newspaper columnist Addison DeWitt (George Sanders). A bunch of other people at the awards banquet know Eve and have a history with her, which we're about to learn as the movie goes into flashback.... Some time earlier, Eve showed up at the stage door at the theater where veteran stage actress Margo Channing (Bette Davis) is performing in her latest play. Eve says she's Margo's biggest fan, and would love to break into the world of acting. Margo makes Eve her protégée, while playwright Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), whose wife Karen (Celeste Holm) is a friend of Margo's, writes a play for Margo, that Margo's boyfriend Bill (Gary Merrill, who would go on to marry Bette Davis in real life) will direct. Eve, however, has other plans, trying to manipulate things so that she can become an understudy, and then make certain Margo will miss a performance.
We have a slightly weird situation this week of one month ending with a Star of the Month's day and the next month being on Tuesday, so we actually get February's Star of the Month on TCM this week. That star is Henry Fonda, and his movies will be on TCM every Tuesday in prime time, continuing into Wednesday morning. Fonda was a contract player at Fox before World War II, and among those movies is Drums Along the Mohawk at midnight Wednesday (which is still 11:00 PM Tuesday LFT). Fonda plays Gil Martin, a pioneer who's moved into the relatively new territory of central New York's Mohawk Valley in the 1770s. He gets married to Lana (Claudette Colbert), and takes her back to his farm in the valley. However, it's not long before the Revolutionary War begins, and the farmers in the valley are on the opposite side of the war not only from the British, but also the Iroquois allies of the British. Troops are mustered among the menfolk, while the women like the quickly adapting Lana and friends like McKlennar (Edna May Oliver) eventually hole up at the fort to defend themselves from the Iroquois.
For a truly dated cultural reference, try mentioning Steven Biko. Biko is the nominal subject of the movie Cry Freedom, on 4:55 AM Wednesday on Starz In Black. Biko, played by Denzel Washington, was an anti-apartheid activist in 1970s South Africa. Donald Woods (Kevin Kline) was a liberal white South African journalist who at first didn't get all of Biko's positions, since the African National Congress had a large strain of Marxism mixed in with its push for racial equality. But then Woods starts talking personally to Biko, and slowly becomes more accepting of Biko's ideas, and publishing anti-apartheid editorials, a position that's personally dangerous to do. Of course, it's even more dangerous to be black like Biko, and he eventually gets arrested and tortured to death. Woods knows that he has to write a book about Biko, but also knows that the South African government will never permit it, and won't even permit him to leave South Africa to get the book published abroad. Woods has to try to make a break for it somehow.
If you like pre-Codes like Dr. Monica, then you'll be interested in The Runaway Bride. It shows up at 12:30 PM Wednesday on TCM. Mary Astor plays the bride in question, one Mary Gray. She's engaged to Dick Mercer (David Newell), and the two run off together to get married until she realizes he's really a good-for-nothing. His response to breaking off the marriage is to lock her in their apartment! That is until the previous occupants of the apartment show up. One of those occupants is a jewel robber who returns in order to plant the jewels on the new occupants, which in this case means Mary. But he gets shot in the process, and Mary needs an escape. Fortunately, a maid Clara (Natalie Moorhead) shows up, which gives Mary the chance to change identities and work herself as a servant in the mansion of one Mr. Blaine (Lloyd Hughes). Of course, Clara has her own agenda that Mary is fully unaware of. This was directed by one Donald Crisp, and yes, it's the same Donald Crisp who would go on to become a venerable character actor.
I'm not certain when the last time was that I mentioned Down Three Dark Streets. It's got an airing this week, at 11:30 PM Thursday. Kenneth Tobey plays FBI agent Zack Stewart, who gets killed in the line of duty. The case is given to Stewart's supervisor, Agent Ripley (Broderick Crawford), who takes the logical view that the killing has to do with one of Stewart's investigations. With that in mind, Ripley starts looking through the open cases Stewart was working on, of which there were three (hence the film's title). One involves a gangster who was killed, but also was well away from the scene of Stewart's murder at the time of the killing. However, the gangster had a girlfriend Connie (Martha Hyer) who may know something. There's also Kate Martell (Ruth Roman), who has an extortionist trying to get a bunch of money from her. Then there's a car-theft ring involving the Angelinos (Gene Reynolds and Marisa Pavan). Can Ripley solve Stewart's murder before the killer comes for him?
A search of x4 suggests that I haven't recommended Buchanan Rides Alone recently. It's on StarzEncore Westerns this week, at 9:16 AM Friday. Randolph Scott plays Tom Buchanan, who in the movie's opening scene is crossing the border back into the US, to a town that clearly doesn't want a stranger like him. The Agrys, led by patriarch judge Simon (Tol Avery) relent when they realize he's got a bunch of money they can bilk from him. But then their idiot son shows up and gets drunk, trying to pick a fight with Tom. A passing Mexican cowboy, Juan de la Vega (Miguel Rojas), also gets involved, and winds up shooting the Agry boy in self-defense. Needless to say, both Tom and Juan are going to be in big trouble, since there's no way they can get a fair trial in a town like this. The judge thinks perhaps he can ransom Juan off to Juan's wealthy Mexican father, but the other Agrys have other ideas, and the townsfolk are certainly up for a lynching. Scott made several of these westerns with director Budd Boetticher, and they're all worth watching. In fact, another one, Ride Lonesome, precedes this at 8:02 AM Friday.
I'm pleased to see that The Brood is part of TCM Underground this week. It'll air at 2:15 AM Saturday on TCM. Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar) is in an estranged marriage with her husband Frank (Art Hindle), and seeing experimental psychiatrist Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed). Frank is trying to get full custody of the couple's child, because he discovers marks on the daughter that there doesn't seem to be any good way to explain other than abuse from Mom. But this is the point at which things turn weird. Grandma is taking care of the granddaughter, when a kid who looks like Chucky from Child's Play but who is dressed for the winter just like the daughter shows up... and beats Grandma to death! And it's only the first of several killings, all of which involve similarly-dressed children. Meanwhile, there are also ex-patients of Dr. Raglan's facility who are thinking of suing him for malpractice who may or may not have something to do with the killings.
I was watching something with Burgess Meredith off my DVR recently, and the DVR's search feature helpfully pointed out that his appearance in Rocky is going to be coming up this week. Several times, in fact, including 7:53 AM Saturday on MovieMax. Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), is a small-time boxer in South Philly who makes his money working as a debt collector for loan sharks and trying to enjoy life with his girlfriend Adrian (Talia Shire). It's really not much of a life for any of these people. And then heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) comes along. His latest fight has fallen through, and he's decided to come up with a PR gimmick to pick some schlub from the middle of nowhere and give that boxer a chance at immortality by fighting him, and he picks Rocky. Rocky starts training with Mickey (Burgess Meredith) for the big fight, but really, does he have any hope beyond getting the crap beat out of him? Watch also for George O'Hanlon, the voice of George Jetson, as one of the commentators at the title fight. The voice is still unmistakable.
A fun and suitably creepy movie that doesn't get enough attention is Our Mother's House. It will be on TCM again this week, at 6:00 AM Sunday. Mother, Mrs. Hook, is a sickly single mother preaching a rather odd brand of Christianity to her seven children. And then one day, Mom has the temerity to die! Since the kids have no father around, they're terrified of being split up. Elsa (Margaret Leclere), the oldest, has Mom buried secretly in the back garden, with the kids building a sort of shrine to her and having "Mother Time", with the kids living off Mom's annuity checks on which one of the kids is able to forge Mom's signature. It's a ruse that in real life would be bound to be caught out pretty quickly, since how can the youngest kids keep such a secret? But somehow, they're able to go on until Charlie (Dirk Bogarde) shows up. He claims to be the kids' father, although the youngest kids don't recognize him at all, and there's enough of an age difference that you'd think the oldest kids do remember him. Well, Elsa does, but she's not about to let the secret out. Charlie, of course, only cares about the annuity checks.