Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” thread, for the week of October 9-15, 2017. Some of you may get a day off on Monday (I don't 
), which leaves you more time to watch some good movies. Once again, I've used my discerning taste to pick out a bunch of movies that I know all of you will like. There's Star of the Month Anthony Perkins, some good horror, and some other stuff too. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
This week, Silent Sunday Nights on TCM is running another classic horror movie, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, at 12:15 AM Monday (overnight tonight, or late this evening at 11:15 PM LFT). Conrad Veidt plays Cesare, the somnambulist who is manipulated by Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) into doing Caligari's bidding, with the result that people wind up being murdered and other townsfolk start investigating. It's famous for Veidt's performance and for its expressionist sets that create a rather dystopic view of a small German town. But the real reason I wanted to mention this one this week is that FXM Retro is running a completely different movie called The Cabinet of Caligari, at 11:10 AM Tuesday and 6:00 AM Wednesday. Glynis Johns plays a young woman Jane who suffers a blown-out tire in her car and needs a place to spend the night until she can get her car fixed. So she stops at the isolated estate of Caligari (Dan O'Herlihy), who seems more than happy to put her up for the night. The next morning, Jane finds that she can't leave, and that she's not the only one who's being held prisoner in the house. But why? It's nowhere near as good as the Veidt movie, but what is?
If you want a movie with a hoot of a plot, you could do worse than to watch The Great Lie, which will be on TCM at 4:30 AM Tuesday. Sandra (Mary Astor) is a concert pianist in love with pilot Peter (George Brent) and marries him and amazingly gets knocked up the one and only time they have sex. However, it turns out that their marriage is not valid because Sandra's previous divorce had not been finalized. So Peter goes to see his former fiancée Maggie (Bette Davis) and decides to marry her. And then he gets a government job down in South America and promptly goes missing and is presumed dead. Meanwhile, Sandra is pregnant (but we can't say that!) and husbandless, so Maggie gets the brilliant idea of having Sandra go off Loretta Young style and have the baby, but with a difference in that Maggie will go with her and adopt the baby, as if it were Maggie's baby all along. After all, she was the one legally married to Peter. And it would have worked too if it weren't for that meddling Peter, who wasn't dead but suddenly shows up back in the US. And Sandra wants her baby and the man she loves.
Hollywood tried to turn a lot of singers into movie stars in the early rock and roll era. Not all of them were even rock stars, such as Connie Francis (ask an old fart like bvan about her). She was in an ensemble cast in Where the Boys Are, but was giving the starring role in Looking for Love, which TCM is running at 6:30 PM Tuesday. Connie plays singer (what a shock) Libby, who can't make it in Hollywood, so she decides to go into real work and find a husband. She invents an anti-wrinkle device and meets her dream man Paul (Jim Hutton), although Paul prefers a different type of woman. Still, he's interested in her invention, and gets her an appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (playing himself). When Johnny finds that Libby is a singer, he has her sing, and this is what makes Libby's career take off. We then get to see Libby go through Hollywood around a series of cameos; George Hamilton and Paula Prentiss among others play themselves.
On Wednesday and Thursday nights, TCM is honoring George Pal. Pal is the Hungarian-born animator turned director who was responsible for such live-action films as the 1960 version of The Time Machine (Thursday at 1:15 AM) and Tom Thumb (Thursday at 8:00 PM), and in animation, for the creation of the Puppetoons (The Puppetoon Movie, a compilation of the shorts, will be on at 10:00 PM Wednesdeay and 4:30 AM Friday). Pal was also the subject of a posthumous documentary, and that documentary will be kicking proceedings off at 8:00 PM Wednesday.
Over on StarzEncore Westerns, you can watch Comanche Territory, which will be on at 1:27 AM Thursday. Macdonald Carey plays Jim Bowie, who has been sent out to the Comanche territory to negotiate a new treaty with the Comanche. The old one is about to expire, and in the meantime, there's been silver discovered on Comanche land. The US government wants to be able to mine the silver without disrupting the Comanche too much because they don't want the Comanche to attack. But it turns out there are already American settlers on the land. Katie Howard (Maureen O'Hara) runs the town, and she seems to be ticked to no end that Bowie has shown up. Apparently they know of the silver and want it for themselves. Now, in real history, Bowie did get sent to negotiate with the Comanche, but they would have been on Mexican land at the time since this was Texas before the Battle of San Jacinto. Watch for Will Geer, playing Bowie's friend who here is named Dan'l Seeger instead of Davy Crockett.
You may not have heard of Georges Feydeau. He was a playwright of the Belle Époque, writing farces about the French upper class such as A Flea in Her Ear that I've recommended a couple of times. Another one that's been turned into a movie multiple times is Hotel Paradiso, which will be on TCM at 12:30 PM Thursday. Civil engineer Benedict (Alec Guinness) is married to Angelique, who nags him to no end. So he's happy to be rid of her for a few days when she goes off to see a sick relative. His neighbot Henri (Robert Morley) is an architect who frequently gets called in by the authorities to inspect buildings that may have problems. One night he has to go to a hotel where people are claiming there's a ghost; apparently an architect can figure out the real problem. Henri's wife Marcelle (Gina Lollobrigida) and Benedict figure this is the perfect time to get revenge on Henri by pretending to have a tryst. Of course, they wind up at the hotel that Henri is inspecting. And there are all sorts of other people there to serve as flies in the ointment.
Star of the Month Anthony Perkins returns on Friday. One of his movies that I don't think I've recommended before is Five Miles to Midnight, which will be on at 8:00 PM Friday on TCM. Perkins plays Robert, an American ex-serviceman living in Paris with his Italian wife Lisa (Sophia Loren). However, it's not a happy marriage, and Robert figures out a good way out of it. He's taken out an insurance policy, and happens to get in a plane crash where he's the only survivor but has been presumed dead! So he's going to have his wife who is now presumed to be his widow claim on the policy which will allow them to part but will also leave both of them at least reasonably financially set. And then she meets David (Gig Young). He's an insurance investigator, and he has to determine that there hasn't been any fraud committed before he'll pay off on the policy. And he certainly has a lot to be suspicious about. Meanwhile, Lisa finds herself falling in love with David….
Before he was known for being a child rapist, Roman Polanski actually made some good movies. Rosemary's Baby will be on StarzEncore Classics at 12:55 AM Saturday. Mia Farrow plays Rosemary, who with her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) moves into an old Manhattan apartment building because the price is right. This even though they've been warned about it because of some of the oddball tenants. Still they move in, and meet the elderly couple next door, Roman (Sidney Blackmer) and Minnie (Ruth Gordon, who won an Oscar); Guy even becomes fast friends with them. And Rosemary gets pregnant, which shouldn't be a surprise considering the title of the movie. But strange things begin to happen, and the devoutly Catholic Rosemary begins to worry that there's something not right at all going on and that her baby might be at risk.
If you want something bizarre, you could do worse than to watch Steelyard Blues, which will be on TCM at 4:00 PM Saturday. Jesse Veldini (Donald Sutherland) is a bohemian who's always getting in trouble and winding up in jail because he just wants to drop out of society before the parole board comes after him again. This particularly distresses his brother Frank (Howard Hesseman) who has dreams of respectable society and running for political office. Eventually, Jesse decides he's going to get away for good, together with a bunch of his “friends” including girlfriend Iris (Jane Fonda), in an old flying boat that they've found. The problem is that the flying boat isn't airworthy at all, and to get it airworthy is going to take a lot of money. Money, of course, is something they don't really have since dropping out of society means not having real jobs and whatnot. Peter Boyle plays the mechanic friend who's going to fix the plane by hook or by crook.