Welcome to another edition of Fedya's "Movies to Tivo" Thread, for the week of May 6-12, 2019. This coming Sunday is Mother's Day, and unsurprisingly TCM is going to be taking the opportunity to run several mother-themed movies. (Sadly, Throw Momma from the Train does not seem to be on anywhere this week.) In addition to what's on TCM, there's a bunch of interesting stuff on other channels as well. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
One of Alfred Hitchcock's more underrated movies is going to be on this week: The Wrong Man, at 1:00 PM Monday. Henry Fonda plays Manny Balestrero, a bassist in the house band at the Stork Club, and married to nice Rose (Vera Miles). They're short of money, so he goes to borrow against her insurance policy, at which point he gets a shock: the people at the company recognize Manny as the man who robbed their safe some time back. Manny is innocent, of course, but has a hard time finding anybody to corroborate his alibi. Worse, other people recognize Manny as the man who committed other hold-ups. So he's going to be put on trial. The strain of it all is too much for poor Rose, who begins to suffer a nervous breakdown. And even if Manny is able to prove his innocence, will he and Rose be able to repair the damage to their relationship? This one is based on a true story, and thanks to the serious nature of the material, Hitchcock forgoes his usual cameo and instead gives a brief statement at the beginning of the movie.
On Tuesday morning and afternoon, TCM is running a bunch of Gary Cooper movies. Since Ken Kercheval died recently, I'll mention Dallas, at 2:15 PM. Cooper plays Hollister, who fought for the South in the Civil War, only to see his home destroyed by the Marlow brothers. So Hollister wants revenge, but it also means he won't be getting the amnesty other ex-Confederates get. To get around this, Hollister fakes his own death in a gunfight with Wild Bill Hickok, and follows the trail of the Marlows west to Dallas, TX. There, Hollister takes on the identity of a US Marshal. He finds that William Marlow (Raymond Massey) has become a respectable citizen even if his two brothers aren't. Meanwhile, a member of Hollister's old regiment shows up in Dallas, threatening to screw up Hollister's entire plan. Ruth Roman plays the girl that Cooper gets at the end of the movie.
If you want a fun western you can just turn your mind off and by entertained by, you could do worse than to watch The War Wagon, on StarzEncore Westerns at 1:51 AM Wednesday. Taw Jackson (John Wayne) has just gotten out of prison after being fleeced out of a ranch and gold mine and framed by Pierce (Bruce Cabot). Pierce had tried to kill Taw with the help of hired gunman Lomax (Kirk Douglas) earlier, and plans to use Lomax again to get Taw. But Taw is able to convince Lomax of a deal. Apparently Pierce transports his gold on an armored stagecoach called "The War Wagon" and armed with a repeating rifle, and Taw wants to get his revenge by robbing the War Wagon. Where Lomax comes in is that he's a safe-cracker and can crack the War Wagon's safe. Of course, there's all the other defenses it has.... They also hire explosives expert Robert Walker Jr., who unfortunately has a drinking problem, and get help from Indian Levi Walking Bear (the hilarious miscasting of Howard Keel).
Wednesday night is once again given over to the movies of Paul Newman, including The Young Philadelphians at 8:00 PM. Newman plays Anthony Lawrence, whose mother married into the rich Main Line society, only to lose her husband on their wedding night. In fact, said husband isn't actually the father, so Anthony and his mom don't get any of the inheritance. Tony goes off to Princeton where he meets Chet (Robert Vaughn), a scion of a Main Line family who gets Tony's foot in the door. After Tony's on-again, off-again relationship with Joan (Barbara Rush) goes off, Tony realizes the only way he's going to make it in life is to become a ruthless bitch, putting himself first at all times. He tries to have an affair with one boss's wife (Alexis Smith), and steals his first boss's prize client (Billie Burke). But then Chet gets in a jam and will be the defendant in a murder trial, and wants Tony to defend him. It could threaten Tony's legal career.
For a more humorous take on the western, you could try Two Guys from Texas, at 12:45 PM Thursday. Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson play Warner Bros. answer to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, that being the comic duo of Steve Carroll and Danny Foster respectively. They're going west to make it in Hollywood, but they're forced to stop at a dude ranch in Texas when their car runs out of gas. There, they have a series of adventures that includes each of them being pursued by women: Steve by lovely Joan (Dorothy Malone) and Danny by plainer Maggie (Penny Edwards). Danny overcomes his fear of animals, and there's an animated sequence involving Bugs Bunny, and Steve crooning to a bunch of sheep. Things take a slightly darker turn when there's a robbery and the police find that Steve and Danny's abandoned car, which had been stolen, was used in the robbery. They have to try to clear their names. Morgan and Carson were no Crosby and Hope, but their movies are entertaining enough.
White Witch Doctor is back on the FXM schedule after a long absence; you can watch it at 7:55 AM Friday. Susan Hayward plays Ellen Burton, a nurse who's going to a distant outpost in the Belgian Congo to provide medical care for the natives. She's guided there by Lonnie (Robert Mitchum), who together with his partner Huysman (Walter Slezak) are animal hunters. Huysman, however, has other ideas, specifically about the gold that the Bakuba people are rumored to have on their lands. They're also known for their violence, and would never let anybody abscond with that gold. However, along the way Ellen meets a boy who has been attacked by a lion, and nurses him back to health. He's the son of a Bakuba chief, and when the chief's own witch doctors can't help the boy, the chief begins to trust Ellen. Huysman sees that as his way to get on the Bakuba lands.... It's a reasonably good movie, although the Hollywood sets are nothing like the Belgian Congo.
Next up is Illegal, which you can see at 4:45 PM Friday on TCM. Edward G. Robinson plays Victor Scott, a zealous prosecutor who sends poor DeForest Kelley to the electric chair, only for it to turn out later that Kelley's character is really quite innocent. With Scott's reputation now in tatters, he takes up drinking and tries to become a defense attorney. The drinking could get in the way, but thankfully (more or less) for Scott he's noticed by representatives for Frank Garland (Albert Dekker). Garland is a mobster, and realizes that Scott's tenacity and use of legal tricks could be very valuable. Indeed, Scott does quite a bit for Garland. But with the Production Code still in effect, things are going to unravel. It turns out that Ellen Miles (Nina Foch), Scott's old assistant in the DA's office, has discovered that her boyfriend Ray (Hugh Marlowe) is an informant for Garland, so she kills him. He may have to defend her, which causes all sorts of problems. Jayne Mansfield appears in one of her earliest roles as Garland's moll.
This week's installment of the Essentials is African movies, including Black Girl at 10:15 PM Saturday on TCM. Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) is arriving in France, where she's going to take on a job as governess to the three children she had met when the family was working in Senegal. Diouana has unrealistically high hopes for her new life in France, but when she gets there, the kids aren't there (probably off at boarding school, and we only see one of them), and Diouana is put into service as a regular made. As Diouana gets increasingly disilusioned about life in France as she thinks her job is increasingly resembling indentured servitude, she thinks back to how she met the family in Dakar in the first place and what life was like then, with her family and her boyfriend still around. Diouana becomes increasingly truculent, leading to a surprising ending.
Mother's Day is this Sunday, and StarzEncore Classics is running a highly appropriate movie for the day: Child's Play, at 5:02 AM. Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) wants a Good Guys doll for his birthday, and thankfully, his mother Karen (Catherine Hicks) is able to find one. Well, not so thankfully as it turns out. The doll turns out to be possessed by Chucky, the spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif). Ray had been killed in a shotout with the cops, but before dying was able to use black magic to transfer his soul into the doll. Being owned by the Barclays is as good a time for Chucky to start going on another killing spree, which he does starting with the boy's aunt. Andy realizes that it's the doll that killed his aunt, but when he tells this to the police investigator Norris (Chris Sarandon), it's only natural that Norris thinks Andy is nuts and making things up. Norris eventually realizes that Andy was telling the truth, but is it to late for him to do anything about it? The movie spawned a whole string of sequels.
Mother's Day on TCM has a more traditional set of movies. The Noir Alley selection, White Heat at 10:00 AM Sunday, even fits in here since James Cagney's character has an oversized attachment to his mother and one of the best scenes in the movie is when he learns that his mother has died.
Mother's Day on TCM is yet another chance for them to run Mildred Pierce, at 3:30 PM. It's probably overplayed, but dammit if it isn't a fun movie, and watching Joan Crawford smack Ann Blyth (whose character richly deserves it) is worth the price of admission.
Other movies for Mother's Day on TCM include the sentimental look back at immigrants, I Remember Mama, at 8:00 PM, and the blended family with 18 children in Yours, Mine, and Ours at 10:30 PM.