Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” Thread, for the week of March 22-28, 2021. There's not all that much interesting to discuss in sports, so why not watch some fun movies instead? We have more from Star of the Month Doris Day on Monday night, some fun B sci-fi, and John Gielgud doing comedy, among other things. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
Late-era Joan Crawford is fun to watch, regardless of the quality of the movie. One of thos movies, Autumn Leaves, is on TCM this Monday at 10:30 AM. Crawford plays Millie Weatherby, a spinster who makes her living as typist. One evening, she meets much younger Burt Hanson (Cliff Robertson). The two immediately fall in love, but when Burt proposes to Millie, she realizes the age difference is a problem. After some on-and-off, the two do run off to Mexico to get a quickie marriage. But there are problems, such as that Burt has been less than honest about his past, most importantly the fact that he has an ex-wife Virginia (Vera Miles), except that he never signed the final divorce decree. That, and he lied about his father (Lorne Greene), saying that Dad was dead! Dad suggests that Burt might be suffering from some form of mental illness, but Millie doesn't want to put Burt in any sort of hospital. Wait until she and Burt find out the truth about his father and Virginia! It's the sort of fun melodrama that Crawford made worthwhile in the 1950s and 1960s.
A movie that recently started showing up in the FXM rotation is The Earth Dies Screaming. It's going to be on again this week, at 4:55 AM Tuesday. In a small town somewhere in rural England, people just start dropping dead. Then, Jeff Nolan (Willard Parker) shows up trying to figure out what happened, before he's confronted by Quinn (Dennis Price) and Peggy (Virginia Field). It turns out that there's been some sort of attack that killed pretty much everybody, except for people who were in places that had an air supply cut off from the rest of the world. An older couple, drunk Edgar and his girlfriend Violet, show up, followed by young Mel and his pregnant wife Lorna. Next to show up are a pair of “spacemen”; at least, they're in some sort of sealed off space suit. Violet tries to ask them for help but one of them kills her. That night, she returns as a zombie to terrorize the remaining humans, who have to figure out a way to survive. Decidedly low budget and a British B movie, but it works well enough for one watch.
Next up is Mannequin, at 7:45 AM Tuesday on TCM. Joan Crawford plays Jessie, who lives in the slums of New York, helping support her parents and kid brother. She's got a boyfriend in Eddie Miller (Alan Curtis), and eventually convinces him to marry her, not realizing that he's poor, too. At the wedding party, held in a restaurant, Jessie is spotted by John Hennessey (Spencer Tracy), who originally hails from the same part of New York but has made it big in shipping. He's immediately taken by Jessie although of course she's married. When Jessie finds that Eddie isn't good for her, she eventually divorces him and reluctantly marries Hennessey so that she can live comfortably. Eddie, still in love with Jessie, tries to get Jessie to divorce Hennessey with a settlement and remarry Eddie. And then there's another economic downturn, threatening Hennessey's shipping business and testing the strength of the relationship between him and Jessie. Not to be confused with the 1987 movie Mannequin (not on this week as far as I know) and the song it gave us:
Early musicals can be hit or miss, and a good example of this is Flying High, airing at 10:45 AM Wednesday on TCM. Bert Lahr, future cowardly lion, plays Rusty Krause, who has invented an “aerocopter”, a helicopter precursor. But he doesn't have the money to get it off the ground. He meets Sport Wardell (Pat O'Brien), one of those smooth talkers who always wind up in jail, as another character says. Sport tries to get the money for the venture, from a Mr. Smith (Guy Kibbee), falling in love with Mrs. Smith's daughter along the way. But Smith has no cash flow, and to get the needed cash, Sport thinks of a waitress who just inherited money from her uncle, a woman named Pansy (leggy Charlotte Greenwood). She wants a husband and is willing to buy one, so Sport offers up Rusty, who isn't given a say in the manner. They can get more money for the project by entering the autocopter into the air races. A couple of the musical numbers were handled by Busby Berkeley as an assistant director, and it's fairly obvious which ones, like when you've got dozens of dancers spelling out the names of famous aviators.
I don't recall whether I've mentioned True Confessions before. It's on this week, at 2:15 PM Wednesday on Epix, so I'll mention it this week. Robert DeNiro plays Msgr. Des Spellacy, ministering in a church in a desert town outside Los Angeles. Some years back, he had a much better parish in the city, and more responsibility. He's also got a brother Tom (Robert Duvall), who back in those days was a detective in the LAPD. At that time, Des was managing all of the diocesan construction for the bishop (Cyril Cusack), which brought him into contact with Jack Amsterdam (Charles Durning). Jack was a bigwig in the construction industry, but also corrupt; unbeknownst to Des, Jack had been bribing Tom for years. But a parish priest dies of what might not be natural causes, while a prostitute/adult actress dies of what may or may not be a suicide, and this brings everybody together. The movie is nominally a retelling of the Black Dahlia murder but it's more about the characters involved than the mystery itself.
If classic literary adaptations are your thing, then you'll probably enjoy David Lean's version of Great Expectations. TCM is showing it at 2:00 PM Thursday. John Mills plays Pip (as an adult; Tony Wager plays him as a kid), who as a kid is orphaned and apprenticed to a cruel blacksmith relative. He's able to help escaping convict Abel Magwitch (Finlay Currie) break his chains, but this sets off a chain of events. The spinster Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt) pays for Pip to come over and be a sort of play date for Estella (played by a young Jean Simmons as an adolescent and Valerie Hobson as an adult); both women treat Pip cruelly because Havisham has something against men and is trying to teach Estella to hate men too. Eventually Pip grows up, but gets an offer from a nameless benefactor to go to London and learn to become a gentleman, which brings him back in touch with Estella, who is being taught how to become a lady. But who would be a benefactor to Pip, and why? Well, you've probably read the book so you already know.
A search of the forums claims that I haven't mentioned Death Becomes Her before, or at least not since the last time old messages were purged. It's going to be on this week at 7:45 AM Thursday, so it gets a mention this week. Writer Helen (Goldie Hawn) and actress Madeline (Meryl Streep) are a pair of women who haven't gotten along for years. This was exacerbated when Helen got engaged to Dr. Ernest (Bruce Willis) but Madeline stole Ernest away from Helen. Helen wound up in an asylum, and has only recently gotten out. But she's looking surprisingly young when she runs into the now unhappily married Madeline and Ernest. Madeline discovers there's a woman, Lisle von Rhuman (Isabella Rossellini) who claims to have discovered a fountain of youth, and that Helen may have availed herself of von Rhuman's services. Madeline, wanting to rejuvenate her career, also takes the injections. Helen has shown up again with the intent of killing Madeline, but now that they've both taken von Rhuman's treatments, they're going to find out that this isn't nearly as easy as you'd think….
If you like King Kong, then you'll probably also like Mighty Joe Young, which you can see at 4:30 PM Friday on TCM. Terry Moore plays Jill Young, who has lived her whole life on a farm in colonial Africa run by her father. When she was a kid, she adopted a baby gorilla, and she and the gorilla have both grown up. Back in America, Max O'Hara (Robert Armstrong) is planning to open an African-themed nightclub, and goes to Africa with former rodeo star Gregg (Ben Johnson) to get attractions for the club. They see Jill's gorilla which tries to defend itself from the two men, which is how Max and Gregg meet Jill and bring the gorilla to Los Angeles. Joe the gorilla becomes a big star, but Jill begins to realize that this isn't in the gorilla's best interests, especially once the gorilla gets drunk and goes on a rampage, leading some people to want the gorilla put down. Can Jill and the gorilla escape? Can Max and Gregg help save the gorilla's life? One of the first movies with stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen.
It took Paul Newman way too long to be awarded with an Oscars. One of his nominations before he finally won was for The Verdict, which is on StarzEncore Classics at 8:32 AM Sunday. Newman plays Frank Galvin, a former big-firm lawyer in Boston who lost his job and developed a drinking problem. So now he's become an ambulance chaser going to wakes to try to drum up business. In order to get Frank's practice back on its feet, old partner Mickey (Jack Warden) gets Frank a case that's sure to go to a large settlement, or a woman who went into hospital to give birth and the anesthesiologist screwed up, leaving her a vegetable. But Frank decides to refuse the settlement and have the case go to trial, to go against the Catholic hospital system. The Archdiocese hires high-powered attorney Ed Concannon (James Mason) to defend them, and with Frank's drinking and the Church's big money, there doesn't seem like much chance that Frank can win the case. But he's indefatigable, which even leads to getting a girlfriend in Laura (Charlotte Rampling.)
If you get caught between the moon and New York City, you might want to watch the movie Arthur, at 6:15 PM Sunday on TCM. Dudley Moore plays Arthur Bach, heir to the Bach fortune, who, being in line to come into so much money, spends his nights out on the town getting drunk and carousing. This bothers Grandma Bach (Geraldine Fitzgerald), since Arthur is supposed to marry Susan (Jill Eikenberry), part of the suitable Johnson family. One day while out doing a bunch of shopping, Arthur walks into Bergdorf Goodman where he sees Linda (Liza Minnelli) about to get busted for shoplifting. Arthur, being a nice guy, pays for the tie, and wouldn't you know if, Arthur and Linda fall in love with each other. Never mind that they're not nearly of the same social class, which can cause all sorts of problems with their relationship; there's the fact that Grandma might write Arthur out of the will if he doesn't marry into polite society. Sir John Gielgud plays Arthur's put-upon valet who seems to know how to deal with Arthur, winning an Oscar in the process; the movie won a second Oscar for its theme song.