Welcome to another edition of Fedya’s “Movies to Tivo” Thread, for the week of October 4-10, 2021. This being the first full week of a new month, it’s time for some new programming themes, most notably a TCM Star of the Month, whom I’ll mention later. There’s more in the way of horror in the run-up to Halloween, a couple of movies from the 1990s, not the 1890s, and more. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
On Monday in prime time, TCM is showing several movies about the music business, kicking off at 8:00 PM with Coal Miner’s Daughter. Sissy Spacek plays Loretta Lynn, who at the start of the movie the teenage daughter of coal miner Ted Webb (Levon Helm). Doolittle Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones) has just returned from World War II, meets Loretta, and falls in love with her, marrying her when she’s still under age and taking her halfway across the country, getting her out of the grinding poverty of eastern Kentucky. Life is still tough when Doolittle has her get up on stage and sing, showing everybody that she’s actually got some talent. They cut a record, but trying to get it played as more or less independent artists is difficult, until the songs start to become hits, and Loretta becomes famous. However, fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as there’s a lot of pressure on Loretta. (In real life, Loretta has said in interviews that she’d get home from touring and didn’t even recognize her own home, not being able to find anything in the kitchen.)
FXM actually has some older horror movies on Monday. I don’t think I’ve mentioned Curse of the Fly before, so you’ve got a chanceto catch it at 9:00 AM Monday. If you remember the movie The Fly, you’ll know that David Hedison’s scientist character researching teleportation of matter, died because his DNA got mixed up with that of a fly, with disastrous consequences. Ah, but the character had a son, Henri Delambre (Brian Donlevy), who has decided to continue the research together with his own to sons, Martin (George Baker) and Albert (Michael Graham). Albert is based in London, as Henri is trying to transport people over much larger distances, namely between the old family estate in Quebec and the UK. However, as we eventually learn, the experiments aren’t quite working so well, as some people who have gone through the transporter have wound up mentally unstable to say the least, and need to be kept effectively prisoner on the Quebec estate. So Albert doesn’t particularly want the experiments to continue. When Martin falls in love with a woman who has escaped from a mental institution, that might bring the authorities around the estate….
Tuesday’s prime time theme on TCM is a series of Italian movies, which gives me another chance to mention the excellent Rome, Open City, showing up at 8:00 PM. Roberto Rossellini directed this first of a trilogy about the late stages and aftermath of World War II, at a time not long after the Allies had liberated Rome. Set when the Italian fascists were still running the place with help from the Germans. They’re looking for Giorgio Manfredi (Marcello Pagliero), a member of the underground. He escapes to the home of another underground member, Francesco, who has a pregnant fiancée in Pina (Anna Magnani). Helping them out is the “legitimate” face of the underground, Catholic priest Don Pietro (Aldo Fabrizio), who has more freedom of movement because the Fascists don’t suspect him. However, the Fascists are going to arrest some of the members of the underground and pressure them into giving up Don Pietro. Filmed in a neo-realist style with an excellent story, Rome, Open City is one you should definitely see.
It may be hard to believe, but Misery is already 30 years old. It’s got a couple of airings this week, including 10:29 PM Tuesday on 5StarMax. James Caan plays Paul Sheldon, author of a series of popular romance novels who has just finished his latest book, not part of that series. On his way back from Colorado where he wrote the book, he has an accident, driving his car into a deep ravine in a blizzard. Fortunately nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) finds him and takes him to safety in her house since the roads are impassible. Further, Annie is Paul’s #1 fan, even having named her pet pig “Misery” after the main character in those romance novels. But while Paul is convalescing, Annie reads the last of the “Misery” novels and discovers that Paul has killed off Misery, which enrages Annie and kicks her deranged side into high gear. She proceeds to torture Paul and hold him hostage in order to get him to write a new Misery novel in which Misery does not in fact die. Paul has to find a way to save himself.
Wednesday night on TCM is dedicated to 20 th Century-Fox, including perhaps Tyrone Power’s best performance, in Nightmare Alley, at 2:30 AM Thursday. Power plays Stan, a carny in the traveling carnival who works with phony mentalist act Zeena (Joan Blondell) and her alcoholic husband Pete (Ian Keith). Also in the carnival are geek – in the original sense of biting the heads off of animals – Bruno (Mike Mazurki) and his wife Molly (Coleen Gray). Pete’s alcoholism eventually kills him, Bruno’s brutality finally forces Molly to leave him, and Molly Stan do the mentalism act at a swanky nightclub where it seems higher-class. There, Stan meets psychiatrist Lilith (Helen Walker), who illicitly (and probably a violation of professional ethics) records her patient’s sessions to records, giving Stan an idea of how to scam people bigger than what one can do in the carnival or the nightclub. Stan may be ambitious and ruthless, but Lilith is no dummy and he may have just met his match. An incredibly dark movie that Fox never really promoted since they wanted Power to do more of the light swashbuckling stuff. Guillermo del Toro has directed a remake that’s currently scheduled for a release in December of this year.
Now that we’re in the first full week of a new month, it’s time for a new Star of the Month on TCM. This time out, that’s Lucille Ball, whom you probably remember best for her TV work. But she had been making movies for 15 years before moving to TV. TCM will be running her movies every Thursday in prime time into Friday morning. This first Thursday includes a bunch of Lucy’s movies from the 1930s, including Don’t Tell the Wife at 2:15 AM Friday. Ball only has a supporting role here, as a secretary to a bunch of shady businessmen. These include Maj. Manning (Thurston Hall) and Steve Dorsey (Lynne Overman). They plan to issue shares in a phony gold mine and, when the gold mine doesn’t actually find any gold, walk off with all the capital invested. To get the seed money, they have to convince Mrs. Dorsey (Una Merkel), and newspaper columnist Winthrop (Guy Kibbee) that the money is for a legitimate purpose. But along the way, Mrs. Dorsey and Winthrop start asking too many questions. If you’ve seen a movie like William Powell’s High Pressure that I’ve mentioned here in the past, you might get an idea of the sort of material here.
A search of x4 claims that it’s been almost six years since I mentioned Four Guns to the Border. It’s on again this week, at 10:57 AM Friday on StarzEncore Westerns. Rory Calhoun plays Cully, who’s an outlaw thanks to having robbed a bank and having been forced out of town thanks to his former friend Sheriff Flannery (Charles Drake). But he’s returned to his old stomping grounds, finding out that his old girl Maggie (Nina Foch) has gone and married Flannery while he was away! Cully’s plan is to return to rob the bank again, using his confrontation with the sheriff as a diversion. However along the way, he runs into Simon Bhumer (Walter Brennan), a former associate of Cully’s who has aged out of a life of crime and would like to settle down to farming. Bhumer has an adult daughter Lolly (Colleen Miller) and when Cully meets her, the two develop a decided attraction for one another, much to Simon’s chagrin. But will that screw up the planned bank robbery?
For another horror movie, try Dementia 13, at 6:15 AM Saturday on TCM. Luana Anders plays Louise Haloran, wife of a man with a bad heart, who unsurprisingly dies suddenly. Louise goes to her mother-in-law’s estate in Ireland, for a memorial for the dead man’s sister, who died some years back. Louise, however, lies about her husband having died, because with him dead, she’d be out of the will. Meanwhile, Louise has two brothers-in-law, Richard (William Campbell) and Billy (Bart Patton). As they all get together at the estate, Louise begins to think there might be something wrong with everybody in the Haloran family. Meanwhile, some of them begin to wonder what’s wrong with Louise, not realizing that she’s lying about her husband. But all of that will have to take a back seat once an axe-murderer shows up and kills somebody on the estate. Who’s doing the killing and why? This was one of the first movies directed by Francis Ford Coppola, of all people.
A movie that has nothing to do with college football is Crimson Tide. You can catch it at 5:30 AM Sunday on Epix Hits. Gene Hackman plays Frank Ramsey, commander of the USS Alabama, a submarine equipped with nuclear missiles. Thanks to the rebels in the Caucasian region of Chechnya, there’s military instability that may lead to civil war in Russia. A commander has taken over a Russian missile facility, and Ramsey is given orders that he may have to expect further orders permitting a pre-emptive strike against that base. Meanwhile, Ramsey has a new, but relatively inexperienced executive officer in Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington). The Alabama get what seems like the message to expire, but just before they can, two things happen. One is that they get a second transmission, while the second is that they get attacked by a Russian sub that among other things cuts out the radio during that second transmission which may be countermanding the order to fire. Ramsey and Hunter have a severe disagreement over what to do, but at the same time they have to deal with being in a standoff against an enemy sub.
This week’s Noir Alley selection is the original version of Brighton Rock. The second airing, as always, is at 10:00 AM Sunday on TCM. Richard Attenborough plays Pinkie, the violent leader of a gang in the British seaside resort of Brighton who has only recently taken over that role after the killing of the former leader. Pinkie blames a certain crusading journalist whose newspaper stories broke open the rackets. When said journalist shows up in Brighton, Pinkie comes up with a plot to have the guy killed. But there are a few problems. One is an entertainer at one of the seaside attractions, Ida Arnold (Hermione Baddeley). She becomes friends with the journalist and, thinking the guy’s death was foul play and not a heart attack, starts playing amateur detective. There’s also waitress Rose (Carol Marsh), who could be a witness proving that Pinkie’s alibi is phony. So Pinkie woos her an ultimately marries her, more to get her out of the way than out of love. How will Pinkie’s scheme unravel? Well, you’ll have to watch the movie for that.