Welcome to another edition of Fedya's "Movies to Tivo" thread, for the week of July 22-28, 2019. The Packers open training camp this week, with this week being the time for fans to fall in love with the UDFA that makes a nice play, only to regress to the mean a few days later. In the meantime, there are a lot of interesting movies worth watching, from Star of the Month Glenn Ford to more recent stuff on some of the other movie channels. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
The salute to Star of the Month Glenn Ford continues on TCM on Monday in prime time, including another remake of a 1930s movie after last week's Cimarron. This time, it's Pocketful of Miracles, at 2:15 AM Tuesday. A remake of Lady for a Day, the movie stars Bette Davis as Apple Annie, a Depression-era apple seller who has a bit of a patron in Dave the Dude (Glenn Ford), because he believes her apples always bring him good luck. But Annie has a problem. She has a daughter Louise (Ann-Margret making her feature film debut) who has been living in a convent in Spain all these years, and believes her mother is high society. She's written that she's getting married to a count (Arthur O'Connell), and wants him to meet Mom. Of course, Mom isn't high society at all. It's up to Dave the Dude and his girlfriend Queenie (Hope Lang) to give Annie a makeover and to find her a bunch of high-class friends so that Louise and the Count will believe her mom is who she's been leading Louise to believe all these years. There's a great supporting cast of veterans like Thomas Mitchel (in his final film), and a young Peter Falk getting an Oscar nomination.
A search of the website says it's been quite a while since I recommended The Far Country. It's going to be on again, at 1:22 AM Monday on StarzEncore Westerns. James Stewart plays Jeff Webster, who has just arrived in Seattle in the early days of statehood having driven a herd of cattle. Unfortunately, the drive didn't go as well as planned, leading to one of the cowhands getting shot and Jeff accused of murder. So Jeff and his business partner Ben Tatum (Walter Brennan) have to beat a hasty retreat, on board a ship bound for Alaska and the Yukon gold rush, They're protected by Ronda (Ruth Roman), who is on her way north to make money servicing the prospectors. Gannon (John McIntire) plays a corrupt town boss who wants to steal Stewart's cattle. Of course, the Yukon gold rush is in Canada, which is just a bit outside Gannon's jurisdiction, so he has to come up with other ways to gain his revenge, which ultimately involves claim-jumping. Jeff finally has to redeem himself in the final reel.
Joan Crawford's films after leaving MGM are always a lot of fun, even when they're not particularly good. One that shows up this week is This Woman Is Dangerous, on TCM at 6:15 PM Wednesday. Crawford plays Beth Austin, the brains behind a small gang of heisters which also includes her hot-tempered boyfriend Matt Jackson (David Brian). After their latest hold-up, Beth realizes that she's having some sort of problem with her eyes. She goes to a doctor, who tells her she needs an operation from a doctor in the Midwest, Ben Halleck (Dennis Morgan). While she's recovering, however, she begins to fall in love with the good doctor. Meanwhile, Matt has been monstrously stupid and killed a cop. That, and he dumped the body in the trailer the gang had been using. So now the investigators are going to be able to find Beth. But Matt is also going to find Beth too, and he's not going to be one big happy when he finds she's fallen in love with another man. Not the best material, but the cast make it work.
A movie on FXM Retro that I'm not certain I've recommended before is Kangaroo, which will be on at 8:30 AM Wednesday. As you can probably guess from the title, the movie is set in Australia (and the movie probably got the title just to make certain audiences would know Fox had gone to Australia to film). Peter Lawford plays Richard Connor, a man stuck in Australia circa 1910 and trying to get home. He first attempts to rob Gamble (Richard Boone), but Gamble is just as broke as he is. They then discover drunken rancher McGuire (Finlay Currie), who in his drunken state thinks Connor is the son he left at an orphanage ages ago. So Connor and Gamble decide to go along with the ruse, as it might get them a chance to make some money on a herd of cattle, as well as a chance to get out of Sydney and escape the police. When they get to the station (as ranches are called in Australia), they find McGuire has a lovely daughter Dell (Maureen O'Hara) whom every man would like to pursue, which of course causes complications, especially since Dell already has a boyfriend in the form of the local constable.
Another movie that I haven't mentioned in quite some time is Moonstruck. It's going to be on again this week, at 2:38 AM Thursday on StarzEncore Classics. Cher plays Loretta, an Italian-American bookkeeper who's been a widow for some time after husband was killed in a bus accident. She thinks it's time to remarry, and there's a man out there, Johnny (Danny Aiello), who could provide her with security and a good home. They get engaged, but he has to go off to Italy on business. In the interim, she meets Johnny's brother and black sheep of his family, Ronny (Nicolas Cage). He lost his hand in an accident he blames on Johnny, and only works in a bakery as a result. Of course, you just know that Loretta is going to fall in love with Ronny and that this is going to cause all sorts of problems. On the bright side, Loretta isn't the only one with love problems, as her mom (Olympia Dukakis) is convinced that Dad (Vincent Gardenia) is cheating on her. Cher and Dukakis both won Oscars for their roles.
On Wednesday in prime time, TCM is running the first half of a two-night salute to 20th Century Fox (well, technically the first selection is from before the 1935 merger). There are 11 movies over this and next Wednesday, looking at the legacy of the studio over half a century. This first Wednesday looks at the 1930s through the 1960s, with one of their biggest stars of the 1930s, Shirley Temple, kicking the night off at 8:00 PM with Bright Eyes. One of the big stars of the 1940s at Fox was Tyrone Power, who gets honored with The Black Swan at 4:15 AM Thursday. Two of Fox's Best Picture Oscar winners, All About Eve (1950, at 11:15 PM) and Gentlemen's Agreement (1947, at 1:45 AM Thursday), are also on the schedule.
If you like 30s programmers, then you'll enjoy Living on Velvet, which will be on TCM at 2:00 PM Thursday. George Brent plays Terry, a former pilot who feels he's living on borrowed time after being in a plane crash that killed the rest of his family. So he lives his life that way. Through his good friend Walter (Warren William), Terry meets Amy (Kay Francis), who is actually Walter's girlfriend originally but who winds up falling in love with Terry; it's also Terry whom she eventually marries. But because of Terry's carefree attitude toward life, he's never really able to make as much of a success out of life as he thinks he should have been the one to die in the crash. Amy leaves Terry, but eventually returns just when he needs her most. It's an utter melodrama, but it also has one sequence that amazed me the first time I saw it. Kay Fwancis was known for having trouble with the letter R, and in one scene where she's naming months, she mentions Apwil, which causes Brent to joke about her speech impediment. I was stunned Kay let that one stay in the movie.
Albert Finney died some months back, and TCM is honoring him on Thursday in prime time with a night of his movies. While the excellent Tom Jones will be on at 10:15 PM, the one I'd like to mention is his remake of Night Must Fall, at 4:30 AM Friday. Finney plays Danny, a handyman and fiancé to Dora (Sheila Hancock), housekeeper to Mrs. Bramson (Mona Washbourne). She's an invalid living in a small house in the English countryside, looked after by her daughter Olivia (Susan Hampshire). Everybody is immediately taken with the dashing Danny, especially the elderly Bramson, who takes him into her house. However, Olivia starts having misgivings because as the viewers know, Danny is obviously insane. That, and an axe murderer. Will these three women be able to figure things out before Danny does something to them? This was a remake of a classic 1930s film, and it's easy to be lazy and compare the two, which is a bit of a shame because while the 1930s movie is great, this one isn't bad.
Up against Night Must Fall is Sign 'O' the Times, on Flix at 4:40 AM Friday, although it will also be on Flix at 2:35 PM Thursday. You might recognize the title as the name of Prince's albums as well as the title track off that album. The movie is a condensed concert film (well, technically a lot of it is a reshoot of the concerts because Prince didn't think the sound from the concerts was suitable for the film) featuring quite a few songs off the album as well as "Little Red Corvette". Drummer Sheila E. gets a solo, and the music video for U Got the Look, a duet with Sheena Easton, is shoehorned in. In case you don't remember it, here's the musically brilliant but lyrically idiotic title song:
When Carole Lombard died in a plane crash on a war bonds tour at the start of World War II, it prompted her widower, Clark Gable, to sign up to fight even though he was past 40. Gable made one final film between her death and his being shipped off, that being Somewhere I'll Find You, which TCM is running at 6:00 AM Saturday. Gable plays Johnny Davis, a foreign correspondent in the days just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor propelled the US into the war. He's got a kid brother Junior (Robert Sterling), who is also a correspondent for the same paper. The two brothers get involved in a love triangle with lady reporter Paula Lane (Lana Turner, being re-teamed with Gable after the big hit Honky Tonk), with Johnny falling for her despite the fact that she's already attached to Junior. The action goes from New York to Hanoi to the Philippines, the last of which the Japanese are preparing to invade because the action spans time before and after the US's entry into the war.
We'll conclude with a double feature on TCM on Sunday night. It kicks off at 8:00 PM with A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift as a young man of poor background getting a job from his rich uncle, falling in love with a co-worker (Shelley Winters), and then meeting on of his cousin's friends (Elizabeth Taylor) and falling in love with her. Unfortunately, by this time he's gotten Winters knocked up, which brings disastrous consequences.
A Place in the Sun is based on the book An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, and at 10:15 PM the first film version of the novel, called An American Tragedy like the book, will be on. Phillips Holmes plays the Clift part, with his past as the son of an urban missionary more fleshed out. Sylvia Sidney plays the pregnant co-worker, and Frances Dee is in the rich girl role. Both versions are good in their own way and both deserve to be seen.