) who don't do Daylight Savings Time. So pay careful attention when it comes to the Saturday night/Sunday morning schedules. Actress Maureen O'Hara died yesterday and I'm sure at some point TCM will be doing a programming tribute to her, but as of this point they don't have anything scheduled. There is one O'Hara movie to recommend this week, however. As always, all times are in Eastern unless otherwise mentioned.Since I know how much you all love silent films, we'll start off with a silent.
You can catch The Trail of '98 at 11:30 AM Monday on TCM. The year refers to 1898, which was shortly after gold was discovered in the Klondike region. There was a gold rush that has been the subject of quite a few movies; indeed, Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush precedes this one at 9:45 AM Monday. The gold rush is in some ways the backdrop for some standard plot devices. Dolores Del Rio plays Berna, who on the boat to Alaska meets Larry (Ralph Forbes) and falls in love with him; Jack (Harry Carey Sr.) tries to win Berna away from Larry. There are also things like claim-jumpers. But this one should probably be watched for the location shooting and the spectacularly harrowing stunts. One of the scenes involves the would-be gold miners crossing a river on their way to the Klondike. Four stuntmen died in the making of that scene. 
Monday night sees one final night of the films of David Niven on TCM, continuing into Tuesday morning with such fare as Guns of Darkness, at 10:15 AM Tuesday. Niven plays Jordan, a businessman with an estranged wife (Leslie Caron) who is on a business trip in one of those bogus Latin American countries that show up in the movies for the purpose of having political turmoil. This time, it's yet another coup d'État, deposing President Rivera (David Opatoshu). Jordan gets the brilliant idea of telling the now ex-President that he'll help him escape over the border. Poor put-upon Mrs. Jordan agrees to the hare-brained scheme, if only because she wants to get the hell out of the country too. But undertaking a task like this may just make a better man out of Mr. Jordan, one that Mrs. Jordan may want to remain married to. I wish Crisis were on this week, but then David Niven wasn't in that one.
Somebody wanted me to recommend vintage French porn last week. Tuesday night's look at trailblazing women directors is dedicated to foreign films, and two of them are about as close as we'll get to vintage French porn. First up at 8:00 PM is the 1948 French version of Gigi. You probably know the story from the big-budget MGM musical of the late 1950s, but this one is more faithful telling of the story, involving a teenaged girl who is being raised by her grandmother and her greataunt to woo a wealthy guy twice her age so that she'll be set for life when she marries him. This one doesn't have the music, and it's in black and white, but then, I have to admit I've never particularly cared for the MGM Gigi.
The other film is Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, at 3:15 AM Tuesday. Delphine Seyrig plays Jeanne, a single mother who makes money by prostituting herself in her Brussels apartment. The movie looks very tediously at three days in her life.
FXM Retro is running a film this week that I don't think I've ever mentioned here before: Immortal Sergeant, at 6:00 AM Wednesday. Henry Fonda stars, although he's not the title character. Instead, he's Colin Spence, a Canadian who has enlisted in the British army in World War II, where he's a corporal. He's serving under the Sgt. Kelly, played by Thomas Mitchell. Everybody admires Sgt. Kelly, especially Cpl. Spence, who's severely introverted and doesn't know if he'd be able to lead the way the sergeant does. Spence's introversion has also caused him problems back on the home front, where he's got a girl Valentine (Maureen O'Hara) who would be pining after him if only he'd ever had the gumption to tell her his true feelings for her. Not having done so has allowed old schoolmate Tom (Reginald Gardiner) into the picture. And then Sgt. Kelly gets killed and the corporal actually does have to find out whether he could be a leader.
Wednesday night on TCM brings another night of the semi-regular Treasures from the Disney Vault. The night kicks off at 8:00 PM with three shorts featuring the Three Little Pigs. The first one is the classic from 1933, which of course has them up against the Big Bad Wolf with two of the pigs living in houses that can't stand up to the wolf's huffing and puffing. This short also gave us the well-known song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?". The wolf and pigs show up in two more shorts, one based around the Little Red Riding Hood story and the other based on the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" story.
They're also showing an animated feature, amazingly enough. Well, that feature is relatively short by feature standards (70 minutes) and is an anthology: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, at 8:30 PM. This one is animated adaptations of two popular stories: Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Bing Crosby provides the narration for the Irving story, and Basil Rathbone for the Mr. Toad segment.
For those of you with Encore Westerns, you can watch the silly Saskatchewan at 7:05 AM Thursday. Alan Ladd stars as O'Rourke, a Canadian who grew up around the Cree, has a Cree half-brother (Jay Silverheels), and is now a Mountie. The Cree have taken up with the Sioux to the south who have just massacred Custer at the Little Big Horn in part because the Canadians have treated them shamefully. On a patrol O'Rourke comes across Grace (Shelley Winters) who was in a travelling party attakcked by the Cree. It turns out she's on her way to Montana, accompanied by sheriff Smith (Hugh O'Brian), on her way to stand trial for murder. It's O'Rourke's job to get her back to the States and prevent the Crees from attacking more. But the best way to do that conflicts with official Canadian policy. That, and O'Rourke starts to fall in love with Grace. There's little realistic here, although the mountain scenery is lovely to look at. Saskatchewan, of course, doesn't have any mountains; those were all in Alberta.
The final night of the look at women directors comes on Thursday, starting at 8:00 PM with Canadian director Sarah Polley's Away From Her. Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie play Grant and Fiona, a couple who have been happily married for 44 years. But now there are signs that something's wrong with Fiona's cognition, and it turns out that she has Alzheimer's. Eventually the difficult decision is made to put Fiona into a nursing home. It's there that Fiona meets Aubrey (Michael Murphy), a man whose Alzheimer's has progressed to the point that he no longer speaks. Fiona takes an interest in Aubrey, and it develops to the point that Grant sees it as being a relationship as strong as the one he and Fiona had for all those years. But does Fiona really know what she's doing? Meanwhile, Grant meets Aubrey's wife Marian (Olympia Dukakis) who had to be caregiver for her Alzheimer's patient far longer than Grant ever did, something which took a toll on her.
With Saturday being Halloween, we're pretty much getting 72 hours of horror movies on TCM starting Thursday morning, with the exception of the women directors in prime time Thursday. Any look at classic studio horror would be incomplete without the low-budget horror Val Lewton produced at RKO during World War II, stuff such as The Seventh Victim, at 11:00 PM Friday. Kim Hunter plays Mary, a teenager at a Catholic school whose tuition is being paid for by her rich older sister Jacqueline (Jean Brooks). Except that the administrators inform her that Jacqueline hasn't paid the tuition in several months, and has in fact gone missing. So Mary travels to New York to find her sister. What she discovers is that there's some sort of satanic cult around that her sister may have gotten into. And the cult members aren't happy that the sister has let the cat out of the bag about them, so they're trying to impress upon her that she should commit suicide for having done so! There's none of the blood and gore you'd expect from a slasher movie, and no monsters, but The Seventh Victim is still super-creepy even 70 years on.
Those of you who like child rapists may enjoy the next film: The Fearless Vampire Killers, at 11:15 AM Saturday on TCM. Directed by Roman Polanski, this one tells the story of a man Abronsius (Jack MacGowran) who, being an expert on bats, goes to eastern Europe with his assistant Alfred (director Polanski himself) to try to find if there are any actual vampires. He stays at the sort of inn that shows up in these horror movies set in isolated areas, and falls for the innkeeper's daughter Sarah (Sharon Tate). However, Sarah is abducted, and Abronsius has to go to the local castle to try to find her, which is where he runs into a bunch of real, no-fooling vampires. The only thing is, this movie is a spoof like Young Frankenstein and not a genuine horror movie. Just consider that the count's son is really quite gay. Or the Jewish vampire.
With the end of Halloween, we get back to more traditional programming fare from TCM, with stuff like Camille at 6:00 AM Sunday. Greta Garbo stars as a 19th century Parisian courtesan who is involved with the wealthy Baron de Varville (Henry Daniell). Meanwhile, dashing young Armand (Robert Taylor) meets her and immediately falls for her. The feeling isn't quite mutual at first, since Camille has a comfortable life with the Baron and who would want to give it up. Armand's dad (Lionel Barrymore) also doesn't think Camille would be right for him and impresses upon her that she should remain with the Baron. So even though by this time Camille has really begun to fall for Armand, she stays with the Baron. And then Camille gets tuberculosis, which in those days was a death sentence. Armand doesn't seem to care that Camille is going to die.... This is definitely a chick flick through and through, although with the MGM shine it's definitely a well-made chick flick.