Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” thread, for the week of June 29-July 5, 2020. Independence Day is this week, and one can hope against hope that we'll soon be free from all the government panic bullsh!t surrounding the coronavirus. But if not, there's still an ample number of interesting movies to watch, including more from Star of the Month Ann Sheridan, and a movie suitable for the July 4 holiday. As always, all times are in Eastern unless otherwise mentioned.
I recommended a Ronald Reagan movie last week, and didn't realize I'd be mentioning a couple more this week. The first of them is Storm Warning, which will be on TCM at 10:00 AM Tuesday. Top billing goes to Ginger ******, playing Marsha, a fashion model who decides to stop in a Southern town one day to see her sister Lucy (Doris Day) and Lucy's relatively new husband Hank (Steve Cochrane). However, on the way into town, Marsha witnesses a murder! The good news is that the murderers didn't see Marsha. The bad news is that when she, not having been at Lucy's wedding, meets Hank for what is supposed to be the first time, she realizes that Hank is one of the murderers! Worst of all is that Hank and the other guy are part of the Klan, and had murdered a reporter who had come south to do an exposé on the Klan. Reagan plays Burt Rainey, a local prosecutor. Everybody in town knows the Klan is responsible for the murder, but nobody wants to identify the murderers because they have to live with the Klan. Marsha, as a temporary visitor, won't have to live with the Klan, and Burt realizes she could be a valuable witness. But it will put a lot of people in danger.
On Tuesday, we get one more night of TCM Star of the Month Ann Sheridan. This final night features some movies with people she starred with frequently, although considering the studio system, it shouldn't be a surprise that she starred opposite the same people over and over. One of those co-stars was Ronald Reagan, and that partnership is spotlighted by Juke Girl, at 3:00 AM Wednesday. Sheridan plays the titular girl, named Lola, who works in a juke joint in rural Florida frequented by migrant farm labor in an era when the Mexicans hadn't made all the way across the country. Among them are best friends Steve (Reagan) and Danny (Richard Whorf). Danny works for Madden (Gene Lockhart), a wholesaler who is a bit unscrupulous, while Steve works for one of the farmers getting victimized by Madden. Steve sees what Madden is doing to the farmers and, having lost his own farm in the Dust Bowl, decides he wants to help the farmers beat Madden's wholesale monopoly. This is going to test Steve and Danny's friendship.
You probably recall Peter Marshall from The Hollywood Squares. But before that he was in a comedy time with Tommy Noonan, and they made a couple of films together. One of those, Swingin' Along, will be on FXM this week at 4:45 AM Wednesday. Noonan plays Freddy, a failure in life who delivers custom-made cakes for his aunt Sophie (Connie Gilchrist) while trying to write a song for a contest. While trying to get a better job as a pianist, he runs into Duke (Marshall), an obnoxious small-time con artist. Duke takes Freddy under his wing, but it's really only because Duke wants the prize money from the contest since he's in debt. Duke keeps running into Carol (Barbara Eden before I Dream of Jeannie), and uses every trick in the book to try to schmooze with her and get her to be his girlfriend. Unfortunately, Noonan and Marshall didn't really translate well to the big screen. But this movie at least has a couple of cameos from well-known singers, including Ray Charles and Bobby Vee, and the movie doesn't overstay its welcome.
Speaking of Ray Charles, he was the subject of the biopic Ray, and that movie shows up, at 7:25 PM Tuesday on HBO. Jamie Foxx stars as Charles, the singer who had a rather eventful life. Ray wasn't born blind, but lost his sight around the age of 7. He learned to play the piano, and in the late 1940s, he left his native Florida to make it out in the wide world, getting a series of jobs in the live music business since he can play the piano so well. Eventually he's successful enough to get a record contract as the lead singer, but he's also introduced to heroin, which is going to be a problem throughout his life. He gets married but also has a kid by another woman, and also has to deal with the civil rights struggle being a black man who developed a significant popularity with white audiences. Through it all, Ray also tries to change music by melding various genres such as R&B, country, and gospel together on songs like “I Can't Stop Loving You” and “Hit the Road Jack”.
In addition to Ray Charles, there's also Ray Harryhausen, the man famous for his stop-motion photography in sci-fi and monster movies of the 1950s. Monday is the centenary of his birth, so it's not surprising that TCM is spending Monday night with some of the movies featuring his animation. The night includes one of his earliest movies, Mighty Joe Young at 1:30 AM Tuesday, in which Harryhausen animated a King Kong-like ape. One of Harryhausen's last movies, 1981's Clash of the Titans, follows at 3:30 AM. But the night starts off with a trio of his films from when he was at his highest (although unfortunately, Jason and the Argonauts isn't among them). Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (10:00 PM Monday) is a fun little one that has UFOs crashing into various landmarks in Washington DC, which is never a bad thing.
I've already mentioned Ginger ****** once, but I'm recommending another of her movies this week: Top Hat, on TCM at 12:15 AM Thursday (which is still late Wednesday evening LFT). Ginger plays Dale Tremont a model working in London. Also working there is dancer Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire), who is working on numbers for his new show. They're in the same hotel, with Jerry's producer Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton) in the room directly over Dale's, so his dancing keeps poor Dale up until all hours of the night, so she of course hates the dancer above. Except that the first time she meets him, she doesn't realize he's the dancer, and they fall in love. But of course she's going to find out, and complications are going to ensue. Further making things a mess for them is that Mrs. Hardwick (Helen Broderick) is an old friend of Dale's. Of course, one doesn't really watch a movie like this for the nonsense plot; one watches to see Fred and Ginger dance together, and they get some great numbers here like “Cheek to Cheek”.
It's been a couple of years since I recommended Garden of Evil, but I see that it's coming on again this week, at 9:41 PM Thursday on StarzEncore Westerns. Three men: Hooker (Gary Cooper), Fiske (Richard Widmark), and Daly (Cameron Mitchell) are traveling by boat to California when the boat develops problems and they have to stop in a small village in Mexico. There, the three men are approached by Leah (Susan Hayward), who says that she has a job for them that could pay big. It seems that her husband has been trapped in a cave-in in their gold mine (you'd think he'd have died by now from lack of food or oxygen), and if the three can help rescue him, it could be worth their while. Of course, the mine is on Indian land, and the Indians are violent. Leah may have her own motivations too. And all three guys start thinking about getting that mine for themselves, as well as possibly getting Leah if the husband (Hugh Marlowe) doesn't make it. Rita Morena also has a small role.
Another movie with a slightly nutty plot is Consolation Marriage, which airs this week at 6:30 AM Friday on TCM. Irene Dunne plays Mary Brown, a shop-girl who was in love with Aubrey until he left her to marry a rich woman. Pat O'Brien is Steve Porter, a reporter in love with Elaine (Myrna Loy) until she leaves to marry another man. So the two jilted parties meet each other and decide that the most logical thing to do is get a marriage of convenience to each other to cut expenses, with the caveat that it's a sort of open marriage in that either can leave should somebody better come along. They even have a baby together in the midst of all this. But wouldn't you know that Aubrey grows increasingly disillusioned with his marriage and comes back looking for Mary. And at about the same time, Elaine has the same thoughts about her husband and wants Steve to dump Mary for her. The obviously solution would be for Aubrey and Elaine to marry each other and possibly suffer, but can Steve and Mary's marriage last the test of time?
For those of you who like more recent movies, I already mentioned Ray. But there's also Wayne's World, which shows up on StarzEncore Classics at 8:23 AM Saturday. Based on the Saturday Night Live sketches, the movie stars Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne and Garth respectively. They're a couple of friends from Aurora IL who haven't quite made it in life and for whom one of their joys is to host a poorly-produced show on the local cable public access channel. Somehow, the show becomes enough of a hit to attract the attention of Ben Oliver (Rob Lowe), who wants to give them a show on a real channel, with professional polish. This brings them into contact with a band fronted by Cassandra (Tia Carrera), with whom Wayne promptly falls in love. But Wayne and Garth also discover that the big time isn't all it's cracked up to be as it changes the show in ways they don't like. Also, Ben wants Cassandra for himself and has his own agenda for having made Wayne and Garth popular.
Saturday being Independence Day, it's not a surprise that TCM gives us a couple of movies that are appropriate for the day. One of them is John Paul Jones, at noon Saturday. You probably remember that name from your American History classes; Jones (played by Robert Stack) is a Scottish-born sailor who flees to the American colonies to escape some legal difficulties. When the revolution comes, Jones sees his chance to rise in the new American navy. He takes his ship the Bonhomme Richard and beats one of the best British ships in battle. But in the aftermath of the war the new America doesn't seem to want him. He works for a few years in the service of Russia's Catherine the Great (Bette Davis) and eventually dies in Paris. The film is riddled with historic inaccuracies. There's a love triangle in which he and Patrick Henry (Macdonald Carey) are the two suitors for the same woman. More amusing is that Jones' longtime friend Ben Franklin (Charles Coburn) is at Jones' bedside when Jones is dying. In real life, Franklin died several years before Jones.