Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” Thread, for the week of March 8-14, 2021. Daylight Savings time starts this week, as clocks are put ahead by an hour between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Before that, however, there's more from Star of the Month Doris Day, and interesting movies that through an odd coincidence are mostly from either the 1930s or the 1970s. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
There's another night of Doris Day's movies on Monday night, including a slightly different movie for her, Starlift, at 7:45 AM. In World War II, there were a lot of movies made for morale both of the soldiers and of the folks back on the home front. Several years later, America was in the Korean War, and actress Ruth Roman was doing her part for the American troops, which was the genesis for this movie. Ron Hagerthy plays an Air Force officer, Cpl. WIlliams who hails from the same home town as actress Nell Wayne (Janice Rule). He only flies troops back and forth, but leads Nell to believe he's actually in harm's way, leading to an all-star revue at Travis AFB outside of San Francisco with a bunch of Warner Bros stars. But then Nell finds out Cpl. Williams really isn't in harm's way, which threatens to screw everything up, so he decides to enlist for more dangerous duty. Doris Day is one of the stars playing herself, along with James Cagney, Jane Wyman, Errol Flynn's wife Patrice Wymore, and more. More interesting as a period piece than for the actual plot.
A movie that I'm surprised hasn't been hit yet by cancel culture is National Lampoon's Animal House. You've got a chance to see it this week, at 8:00 PM Tuesday on The Movie Channel. In the early 1960s, Fraternity Row at Faber College offers something for everybody, including Delta House for the people who don't fit in with the rest of the college. That leads Dean Wormer (John Vernon) to try to get the fraternity de-affiliated and kicked off campus. But members like Bluto (John Belushi), Otter (Tim Matheson), and Stork (Douglas Kenney) aren't about to have that. Meanwhile, two new recruits, Larry (Tom Hulce) and Kent (Stephen Furst) go through initiation. Of course, the nominal plot is not the reason to watch the movie, but the series of gags and raunchy jokes. The movie spawned a whole genre of imitators which never matched it, and all three (at the time) TV networks tried to cash in with similar sitcoms that promptely crashed in the ratings. And Donald Sutherland didn't get too many chances to do comedy.
Kurt Russell's birthday is next week, but since it falls on St. Patrick's Day, TCM is spending that day with Irish-themed movies and instead showing several Russell movies this Wednesday, starting at 6:00 AM with Fools' Parade. Russell plays Johnny Jesus, a convict being released from prison in Depression-era West Virginia together with Lee (Strother Martin) and Mattie (James Stewart). Mattie having been in prison the longest, he's got a rather large check for all the prison work he did, and plans to open up a general store with that money. Doc Council (George Kennedy) is a prison official, and he, knowing about the large check, plans to double-cross Mattie and his friends so that Doc can get all that money for himself. Well, not just himself; he's going to have to share it with the banker in his scheme, Homer (David Huddleston). Mattie and his friends thwart the first attempt, but they know that they're now marked men and that Doc is going to stop at nothing to get them. As part of the escape, they wind up at the river where a riverboat/bordellow owned by Cleo (Anne Baxter) awaits them; Cleo wants the money too when she learns about it.
After the end of Fools' Parade, switch over to MovieMax, so that you can catch the start of The Poseidon Adventure, at 7:46 AM Wednesday. The aging cruise ship the Poseidon is plying the Mediterranean over the holiday period with passengers including New York cop Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine), grandparents the Rosens (Jack Albertson and Shelley Winters), bratty kid Robin (Eric Shea) and his sister Susan (Pamela Sue Martin), and bachelor businessman James Martin (Red Buttons). The seas are rough but still, everybody should try to celebrate, going to the New Year's Ball with musical accompaniment by Nonnie (Carol Lynley), singing the Oscar-winning song “The Morning After”. However, at the stroke of midnight, a rogue wave hits the Poseidon and knocks it upside-down, leaving everybody to try to escape. Ship's chaplain Frank Scott (Gene Hackman) tries to lead a group of passengers to safety through the engine room, which is normally near the bottom of the ship, but is now closest to the surface. Watch for Leslie Nielsen as the ship's captain.
People nowadays would probably consider George Arliss old-fashioned, but he's always worth watching. One of his films, Voltaire, will be on TCM at 6:00 AM Thursday. Unsurprisingly, Arliss plays Voltaire, the French philosopher and writer living during the reign of Louis XV (Reginald Owen). Voltaire writes scathingly of some of the injustices the King's ministers are helping the King perpetuate, and while Voltaire has a protector in the form of the King's mistress the Madame de Pompadour (Doris Kenyon), he's also got a powerful enemy in the Count de Sarnac (Alan Mowbray) who has the King's ear. When Sarnac has a man executed instead of pardoned so that Sarnac can get at that man's wealth, the man's daughter, Nanette Calas (Margaret Lindsay) comes running to Voltaire for help and he hides her, even though this will put Voltaire in great personal danger. Voltaire writes an allegorical play about the situation to save himself, Nanette, and Pompadour.
Two things that I've mentioned quite a bit regarding westerns are Jesse James, and Audie Murphy. The two combine this week in a film called Kansas Raiders, which will be on StarzEncore Westerns at 8:53 AM Thursday. Jesse (Audie Murphy) and his brother Frank (Richard Long) lived in southwestern Missouri with their parents. When Union forces were unforgiving in trying to put down any hints of rebellion in the area, the Jameses along with their cousins the Youngers (James Best plays Cole Younger) decide to join the guerilla army of Colonel William Quantrill (Brian Donlevy) to try to avenge their humiliations. However, Quantrill's Raiders may be even more brutal than the Union forces were, and that causes Jesse to start wondering whether they did the right thing. There's also a romantic subplot involving Jesse and Quantrill's girlfriend Kate (Marguerite Chapman), and friend of the Jameses and Youngers Kit Dalton, who is played by obvious western star… Tony Curtis at the beginning of his career.
Another movie that I feel the need to mention almost every time it shows up is Hide-Out. This week, it airs at 7:45 AM Friday on TCM. Robert Montgomery plays Lucky Wilson, a gangster in the big city protection rackets. It's a dangerous business of course, and Lucky finally gets unlucky as he takes a bullet in the arm as he's trying to escape. His underlings drive him out of the city, eventually stopping at a small farm that looks like a good place to get his injuries tended to, pretending to be on a hunting party. The farm is owned by the Millers (Elizabeth Patterson and Whitford Kane), who have a young son Willie (a young Mickey Rooney) and adult daughter Pauline (Maureen O'Sullivan. Pauline falls for Lucky, and eventually the feeling is mutual, as Lucky begins to think he might be amenable to settling down and getting at the rackets. That is, if he could ever get away from the law which, thanks to the Production Code, isn't likely to happen. The cops are closing in, and surely the Millers are going to have to learn the truth eventually.
One of the movies that's recently been running in the FXM rotation is Champagne Charlie. It's going to be on again this week, at 5:00 AM Friday. Paul Cavanaugh plays Charlie, a professional gambler and small-time con artist who is plying the cruise ship trade. He's fallen into debt, and a couple of gangers, finding that rich heiress Linda Craig (Helen Wood) is on the next cruise, want Charlie to to romance her so that he can get at the money and the gangsters can get their money back. However, Charlie winds up falling in love with Linda, which leads to all sorts of problems. Ship's bartender Fipps (Herbert Mundin) tries to help Linda, and the result is murder. Not that there's a bunch of mystery since this is a B movie, but it's also not too often that we get to see Fox's B movies.
Up against Champagne Charlie is the original version of The Jazz Singer at 4:45 AM Friday on TCM, part of a series of films that need to be “reframed” because heaven forfend anybody think about a movie in a way out betters don't approve of. Al Jolson plays Jakie Rabinowitz, son of an Eastern European Jewish immigrant (Warner Oland) who is a cantor at the synagogue. Dad expects his son to follow in the family tradition and become a cantor, but Jakie has heard the new sounds and wants to sing jazz, much to Dad's consternation. So when Jakie grows up, he runs off to Los Angeles, hides his Jewishness, and becomes a secular success, falling in love with Mary (May McAvoy) along the way. But he returns to New York to what is supposed to be his triumphant premiere on the Broadway stage just in time for Yom Kippur, to a Dad who still doesn't approve and worse, falls sick and won't be able to sing the Kol Nidre in the synagogue. In many ways this is a standard story of tradition versus morality, but it's one of the originals and done well regardless of what you think of Jolson's shtick.
I've got a lot of old movies this week, and will conclude with another 1930s film, A Farewell to Arms, at 6:00 AM Sunday. Based on the book by Ernest Hemingway, this version stars Gary Cooper as Frederic Henry, who has gone over to Europe to fight in the Great War alongside the Italians (who, remember, were on the Allies' side in that war) as an ambulance driver. He does a good job until he gets shot and taken to a hospital in Milan. There, he's tended to by British nurse Catherine Barkley (Helen Hayes). As you can probably guess, the two fall in love. But Frederic has a commanding officer, Major Rinaldi (Adolphe Menjou), who has also seen Catherine and is jealous of Frederic. So Rinaldi prevents Frederic's letters to Catherine from going out and blocks Catherine's letters from getting to Frederic. Frederic still loves Catherine, and the feeling is mutual, so he deserts and heads back to Milan to try to find Catherine, which can only lead to tragedy for all involved. Apparently Hemingway liked Gary Cooper but didn't particularly care for the rest of the movie.