Skip to main content

Welcome to another edition of Fedya's "Movies to Tivo" thread, for the week of November 26-December 2, 2018.  If the Badgers' season couldn't get any worse, it did yesterday, so why not drown your sorrow with some good movies?  It's the last full week of the month, so we get some more movies with the November Star of the Month.  But it's also the beginning of December, so Christmas movies start to show up.  There's so much to choose from, I had to leave stuff out (like airings of Charade and His Kind of Woman).  As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.

 

On Monday, we get one more evening of movies with TCM's Star of the Month, Glenda Farrell. One that doesn't show up so often is Merry Wives of Reno, at 2:00 AM Tuesday. This one was made back in the day when you had to go to Nevada to get a quickie divorce; hence the presence of Reno in the title and the story line. Glenda plays Bunny, married to Fitch (Hugh Herbert), who seems more interested in his sheep than in her. She brings over Frank (Donald Woods) who thinks he's going to sell her a boat; she's really more interested in him even though he's allegedly happily married to Madge (Margaret Lindsay). Madge, for her part, can hear the constant bickering of long-term couple Tom (Guy Kibbee) and Lois (Ruth Donnelly) in the next apartment. Ultimately, differences push all three couples to the point of divorce, which is what sends them to Reno. However, they seem to cause more problems than they solve for everybody while they're in Reno, especially for poor put-upon hotel employee Al (Frank McHugh).

 

Over on StarzEncore Westerns, there's When the Daltons Rode, at 11:30 PM Monday. The Daltons were a gang in Kansas around 1890 who were cousins of the Youngers. All but one of the brothers were killed in a botched bank robbery in 1892, but this movie takes a rather more fanciful and sympathetic look at their lives. Randolph Scott stars as Tod Jackson, a lawyer friend of the Dalton family who comes from back east to represent them when a land development company is trying to take the Daltons' land right out from under their noses. The corrupt company succeeds in a miscarriage of justice, which is what turns the Daltons against the law. But what's really fascinating about this one is the cast with some surprising big names. Bob is played by Broderick Crawford (!) while his elder brother Grat is played by Brian Donlevy. Third brother Emmett is played by Frank Albertson. And then there's Kay Francis as the love interest in a love triangle involving her, Bob Dalton, and Tod Jackson. It's utterly bogus history, but interesting filmmaking.

 

Perhaps the highlight of the week is a showing of A Soldier's Story, at 8:00 PM Tuesday on TCM.  In 1944 Louisiana, Army sergeant Waters (Adolph Caesar) is walking from tow back to base when he's accosted by someone and shot to death.  Because of the nature of the shooting, Washington sends Capt. Davenport (Howard Rollins) down to investigate.  This being Louisiana in 1944, the assumption has been that it was racist Klan sympathizers who shot the black sergeant, and that a white town isn't going to stand for the black Davenport arresting white guys.  However, as Davenport investigates, he finds that pretty much everybody under his command had reason to hate Waters, as he had very demanding views on what black people should be like.  Of course, he's a lifer in the army and saw some serious racism in the first World War.  Meanwhile the soldiers also suffer the discrimination of not being allowed to fight in the war over in Europe.  Denzel Washington at the beginning of his career plays a private in Waters' platoon.

 

A movie on FXM Retro that I'm not certain I've recommended before is Bachelor Flat, which can be seen at 1:30 PM Wednesday and 6:00 AM Thursday.  Terry-Thomas plays Bruce, an English paleontology professor who is teaching at a college on the Pacific Coast which is teeming with hot co-eds.  That English accent makes him irresistible to the ladies, which is a bit of a problem considering that Bruce is engaged to Helen (Celeste Holm).  When she goes off to Europe, Bruce stays at her beach house.  One day while Helen is away, young Libby (Tuesday Weld) shows up at the house, and also falls for Bruce.  Helen apparently never told Bruce that she had a daughter named Libby, further complicating the relationship.  Wait until Helen gets home -- and you just know she's going to get back from Europe early.  Then there's the neighbor Mike (Richard Bruner), who falls in love with Libby.  A comedic subplot involves Mike's dachshund, who takes an interest in the bones Prof. Bruce has dug up.

 

TCM is running a western I don't think I've recommended before: Roughshod, at 11:00 AM Wednesday.  Robert Sterling plays Clay, who is driving a herd of horses to the ranch where he and his kid brother Steve (Claude Jarman Jr.), also on the drive, are going to settle down.  Along the way, they run across a broken-down carriage that has four women in it.  They're saloon girls, who were forced to leave their last town when the townsfolk start a clean-up drive.  Helping the women get where they're going is going to cause some problems with driving those horses, but what's a man to do?  One of those women, Mary (Gloria Grahams), begins to fall in love with Clay and helps teach Steve to read.  But Clay isn't certain if a saloon girl is right for him.  Complicating things 9s that Clay is being pursued by the outlaw Ledvon (John Ireland), whom Clay helped put in prison some years back and who is vowing revenge now that he's out of prison.  Hav9ng the women around for that would be a problem, too.

 

A search of the site claims I haven't recommended Trapped in Paradise before, which I find hard to believe.  Anyhow, it's going to be on at 3:08 PM Thursday on StarzEncore Classics.  Nicolas Cage plays Bill, who at the start of the movie is picking up his brothers Dave (Jon Lovitz) and Alvin (Dana Carvey) who have convinced the parole board to release them from prison.  However, they haven't really been rehabilitated, and hold up a convenience store and then get Bill in on the act by pointing out his ID was left at the store.  It leads them to Dave and Alvin's real plan, which is to go to the small town of Paradise, PA, and rob the bank there on December 24 while the town is celebrating the Christmas festival it's famous for.  However, Bill meets bank employee Sarah (MΓ€dchen Amick) and falls in love with her.  Meanwhile, Dave and Alvin bungle the hold-up.  But when the three try to get out of Paradise, they keep facing difficulties and have to deal with the townsfolk who are just so damn preternaturally nice.  Further complicating matters is that Dave and Alvin got the robbery idea from some other prisoners who aren't happy about having had their idea stolen....

 

TCM is starting up with the Christmas movies on Saturday night, what with that being the 1st of December.  There are a lot of old Christmas favorites in the month's lineup, including The Bishop's Wife at 9:45 PM Saturday.  The evening begins at 8:00 PM with Beyond Tomorrow (also known as Beyond Christmas).  Charles Winninger, C. Aubrey Smith, and Harrey Carey play a trio of wealthy businessmen who are going to be spending Christmas Eve alone, so they decide to test human nature.  Each throws out a wallet with a $10 bill (a reasonable sum for 1940) and their return address in it, and if people return the wallet, they'll get a Christmas dinner.  Singer Arlene (Helen Vinson) takes the money and leaves the wallet behind; small-town boy trying to make it in the big city James (Richard Carlson) and working girl Jean (Jean Parker) return the wallets.  They start a relationship that gets cut short when the industrialists are killed in a plane crash.  But they return as ghosts to try to help the relationship along.  James begins to make it in radio, but there's Arlene, trying to take him away from Jean....  A fun Christmas movie that deserves to be a lot better known than it is.

 

Another movie that I supposedly haven't mentioned before according to a site search is Honky Tonk, which will be on TCM at 3:00 PM Friday.  Clark Gable plays Candy, an Old West con artist who at the start of the movie is about to be tarred and feathered out of yet another town with his partner in from Sniper (Chill Wills).  On the train to the next town he meets Elizabeth (Lana Turner), daughter of a JP who is on her way to meet him.  Candy loves her so much he's willing to go straight, but the Judge (Frank Morgan) is an old friend and a small-time conman himself now living on graft.  Candy decides he's going to settle down for Elizabeth's sake, but the allure of graft is too much.  The judge doesn't want to see his daughter corrupted, and when he sees what Candy is doing to Elizabeth's character, the judge is willing to go to the feds to stop it.  Can everybody live happily ever after?  Marjorie Main co-stars as a preacher's widow, and Claire Trevor is Candy's old friend who tries to warn Elizabeth.

 

It may be hard to believe, but it's been almost 40 years since the release of The Jerk. It's going to be on The Movie Channel this week, at 4:30 AM Friday. Steve Martin plays the title character, a white man named Navin Johnson who grew up in a family of black sharecroppers and could never figure out why he didn't quite fit in with them. Eventually he realizes he's different, and leaves for the big city and a series of adventures with various people trying to fleece him. Getting a job at a gas station, he comes up with an invention for a device that makes eyeglasses fit better, and this could lead to big money, if only the guy he invents it for is able to find him later once the invention is a success. In the meantime, Navin gets a girlfriend Marie (Bernadette Peters) and is the subject of a random assassination attempt from a lone wacko (M. Emmet Walsh). Eventually the money does flow in for a while, but what will happen when it stops coming in? This is really more of a vehicle for Steve Martin's brand of comedy.

 

Saturday brings a few changes to TCM's Saturday matinee lineup. They had been runnign movies in The Saint series but eventually got through all of them, as this Saturday will bring the first of the Hildegard Withers movies, The Penguin Pool Murder, in the slot just after a Popeye short at 10:00 AM Saturday. Edna May Oliver plays Hildegard, a schoolteacher who solves mysteries on the side; in this case the murder takes place at an aquarium. She's also a constant thorn in the side of police detective Piper (James Gleason), with comedic barbs flying between them fast and furious.
The Saturday matinee block begins at 8:00 AM with a series of shorts. This week the first one is Peace on Earth, a cartoon that's set after mankind has supposedly destroyed itself in war, although the movie was made before the start of World War II, and way before the atomic bomb. Two baby squirrels ask their grandpa what the line β€œgoodwill to men” means, and grandpa (Mel Blanc) explains about the last war for mankind.

Original Post

I loved "A Soldier's Story." Lots of themes running through it-- Sadistic Army lifer's frustrated, hatred of the"gitchee" black man who, in the Lifer's eyes, is keeping the whole race down. White privilege meets black mythology and folklore is seen through the white officers' eyes and uncomfortable demeanor and even through Captain Davenport's eyes as he investigates the murder of the Army Lifer Sgt. Highly recommended!

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×