Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” thread, for the week of June 15-21, 2020. Normally, we'd be getting to that time of year when the Packers have their mini-camp, but we all know why that's not happening this year. So instead of arguing over who the third back-up guard is going to be, why not spend some time with interesting movies? We've got more from Star of the Month Ann Sheridan, more in the Jazz on Film spotlight, movies for Father's Day on Sunday, and interesting stuff on a bunch of the channels, not just TCM. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
A movie that's returning to the FXM rotation is Day-Time Wife, which will be on at 6:00 AM Monday and again on Saturday at 4:45 AM. A very young Linda Darnell plays Jane Norton, married to businessman Ken (Tyrone Power). When he fails to come home for a party one night and isn't working late at the office, Jane gets the sneaking suspicion that Ken is having an affair with his secretary Kitty (Wendy Barrie), thanks in no small part to a catty divorcée friend of hers (Binnie Barnes). Jane decides she's going to try to figure out what makes men tick by getting a job as a secretary herself without telling Ken. She does this under an assumed name, working for architect Dexter (Warren William) and does a competent job of it. That is, until one day when who should show up to see Dexter? Why Ken himself! And Jane doesn't want Ken to realize what she's doing, so she has to come up with some lie to keep out of Dexter's office whenever Ken shows up.
If you like those lush potboilers from the late 50s and early 60s, you'll be glad to know that Parrish is on this week, at 2:45 PM Tuesday on TCM. Claudette Colbert plays Ellen, a widow taking her adolescent son Parrish (Troy Donahue) with her to her new job on a Connecticut tobacco farm to help the farmer, Sala Post's (Dean Jagger) daughter handle being a debutante. Parrish gets a job out in the fields, and quickly learns a lot about tobacco farming. But not as much as rival farmer Judd Raike (Karl Malden). Raike meets Ellen, falls in love with her, and marries her, which his adult sons resent. Meanwhile, Raike hires Parrish to be an assistant, but what Parrish doesn't yet realize is that Raike really wants to control the entire valley and is going to stop at nothing, including violence, to get what he wants. Along the way, Parrish goes through a series of complicated relationships with women, including Sala's daughter, Raike's daughter, and the daughter of one of Sala's farmhands who, it turns out, has gotten knocked up by one of Raike's sons.
A couple of weeks back TCM ran a night of Sam Peckinpah's films, including the Steve McQueen classic The Getaway. There's another version of The Getaway, from 1994, and that version is airing at 5:18 AM Tuesday on StarzEncore Classics. Alec Baldwin plays Doc McCoy, who gets jailed in Mexico when a plot to get a man out of prison goes wrong and McCoy's partner Rudy (Michael Travis) leaves him holding the bag. A crime boss, Jack Benyon (James Woods) needs McCoy for his latest job, so Benyon pulls some strings and gets McCoy out of prison. The only problem is that Benyon's job is also going to have Rudy in the gang, and with the tension between them, you know things are going to go wrong. McCoy is once again left holding the bag, this time literally as it's a bag full of money. McCoy and his wife Carol (Kim Basinger, who was Baldwin's real-life wife at the time just like the original starred McQueen and his real-life girlfriend, and later wife, Ali McGraw) have to make a run for the border with everybody after them.
TCM returns with another night of Star of the Month Ann Sheridan's movies on Tuesday in prime time, and kicking the evening off at 8:00 PM is Nora Prentiss. Sheridan plays the title role, a nightclub singer who comes into the life of Dr. Richard Talbot (Kent Smith). She works at a club near his office, and one day when she gets minor injuries in a traffic incident outside his office, he treats her. He immediately falls in love with her, although he doesn't necessarily realize it at first, since he's got a wife (Rosemary DeCamp) and daughter he loves. Still, Dr. Talbot starts seeing Nora, first the nightclub act, and then more and more, to the point that he's thinking of leaving his wife for Nora. There's no way to get out without causing controversy, however, until one night a complete stranger comes to his office complaining of chest pains. The guy dies of a heart attack and, being close in size to Dr. Talbot, the no longer so good doctor realizes he can fake his own death using the dead patient as him, and go off with Nora. Of course, this means he can no longer be a legitimate doctor without the truth coming out, and what will happen when Nora no longer cares for him? Or his past as Dr. Talbot starts closing in?
Those of you who reflexively hate big business will probably enjoy Tucker: The Man and His Dream. It's on at 7:41 AM Wednesday on MovieMax. Jeff Bridges plays Preston Tucker, a businessman and inventor who, in the years after World War II, comes up with an innovative new automobile design, including things not standard at the time such as seat belts and safety glass. Together with Abe Kraatz (Martin Landau) providing the venture capital, Tucker comes up with a business plan to get a factor making the cars and a bunch of auto dealerships selling them. But, of course, automobile manufacturing is one of the more heavily regulated industries, with car dealerships being perhaps even more so. There are powerful interests from the Big Three automakers who have obvious motivations to ensure that Tucker doesn't succeed, bringing the power of the state to bear on Tucker. This is based on a true story, and since Tucker isn't a household name, you probably have some idea of how it turns out. Joan Allen plays Preston Tucker's wife and a young Christian Slater his son.
If you want an odd romantic pairing, try Joe E. Brown and Ginger Rоgers. But they show up together in You Said a Mouthful, running on TCM at 3:45 AM Thursday. Brown plays Joe Holt, a man who has invented an “unsinkable” bathing suit, even though he's afraid of the water. When his aunt dies, he inherits her fortune and moves out to Catalina to get that inheritance, which amounts to some worthless stock and foster child Sam (Allen “Farina” Hoskins from the Out Gang shorts). So he starts working at a hotel. That's where Alice Brandon (Ginger Rogеrs) comes in. She knows of a champion Canadian swimmer named Joe Holt, and when Alice meets Joe, well and finds out he's invented a bathing suit, she puts two and two together. Except that there are actually two Joe Holts. Still, Alice enters inventer Joe in a marathon swim race, where he has to compete against Ed Dover (Preston Foster) not only in swimming, but also for Alice's affections. If you like Joe E. Brown's physical comedy, you'll like this one.
Marlon Brando actually made a few westerns during his career. One of them, The Appaloosa, is on this week, at 8:53 AM Friday on StarzEncore Westerns. Brando plays Matt Fletcher, an American who had been raised by Mexicans before fighting in the Civil War. The war over and Matt wanting to live a peaceful life, he decides he's going to go to borderlands and start a ranch, with the titular Appaloosa horse. Coming to his ranch, however, is Mexican Trini Medena (Anjanette Comer), the unhappy wife of bandit Chuy (John Saxon). Chuy is understandably pissed, so when he finds out where she is, he goes to Matt's ranch, beats the crap out of him, and takes the Appaloosa. Matt spends the rest of the movie trying to find the horse and gain revenge against Chuy, ultimately winding up in a climactic fight where Matt singlehandedly takes on the entire gang, which I suppose isn't terribly realistic. But then again, how many Hollywood westerns are?
TCM's Jazz on Film spotlight continues on Thursday night with a bunch of foreign films using jazz music. After the foreign films, it's a visit to the birthplace of jazz, New Orleans, with the documentary Always for Pleasure, at 5:00 AM Friday. Documentarian Les Blank visits the city in what plays out somewhat like a down-market Travel Channel episode. Where the current travel shows all show sanitized views of the city with places that upper-middle class people who think they're oh-so broadminded would feel secure going (much like the old Traveltalks shorts), this documentary actually feels like it's looking at the real New Orleans behind the veneer (not that I know what New Orleans was really like 40 years ago, of course), with the old-style jazz funeral processions, and preparations for Mardi Gras among other things.
If you want to watch a rousing war movie, you could do a lot worse than to watch The Eagle Has Landed. It's got multiple airings this week, including at 6:20 AM Saturday on Action Max. An all-star cast is headed by Michael Caine. He plays Kurt Steiner, a Nazi SS officer who's in trouble for not supporting the rounding up of Jews. The Nazis give him a chance to save his skin, however. Col. Radl (Robert Duvall) has come up with a daft plan that appeases Hitler, but can't possibly work. Apparently British PM Winston Churchill is known to visit a village not far from an isolated section of coastline, and Radl thinks the Germans can send in a troop of soldiers to infiltrate the town posing as Free Polish set to secure the area and then kidnap Churchill and bring him back to Berlin! Steiner's UK contact is IRA agent Devlin (Donald Sutherland). But one Nazi is quickly caught out after saving a drowning girl; the Nazis are stupidly wearing uniforms under their plainclothes so they'll be identified as soldiers and not spies. So the nearby American Army soldiers are brought in to help find the rest of the Nazis; this is really just an excuse to get the presence of some more American stars in the cast like Larry Hagman.
Sunday is Father's Day, which means TCM is trotting out a bunch of old favorites for the day. This includes The Courtship of Eddie's Father, which will be on at 3:30 AM Sunday. Eddie, played by Ron Howard back when he was still called Ronny, is the son of Tom Corbett (Glenn Ford), a man who has become a widower in the semi-recent past. Eddie thinks it's time for his Dad to start seeing women again, but Dad isn't so sure, especially after meeting new girl in town Dollye (Stella Stevens), whom Tom sets up with best friend Norman (Jerry Van Dyke). Tom also meets Rita (Dina Merrill) and starts a tentative relationship with her, but Eddie knows that the woman who is really right for Dad – and frankly him, too – is their next door neighbor, nurse Elizabeth (Shirley Jones). How is this little kid going to be able to maneuver his father into winding up with the right woman? Ford and Jones both prove to be quite good at this sort of light drama.