Welcome to another edition of Fedya's "Movies to Tivo" Thread, for the week of September 16-22, 2019. There's only so much time that you can spend "liking" everybody's posts, and a good way to relax during the downtime is to watch some good movies. I've got an eclectic mix this week of movies from the 30s through the 90s (and yes, that is the 1990s, not the 1890s), including Star of the Month Sidney Poitier; a Best Picture Oscar winner; and more. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
We'll start off with a movie that gets panned more than it probably should: Blood Alley, which will be on TCM at 8:15 AM Monday. John Wayne stars as Tom Wilder, a ship's captain in the merchant marine. Unfortunately, his ship gets taken by the Chinese communists, and Tom gets sent to a brutal prison for a long sentence. He's able to escape with the help of some local villagers, led by Tso (Paul Fix, in one of many wonderful examples of using white actors to play Chinese). Of course, they have their own reasons for freeing him. They hate the communists, and want to escape to British Hong Kong. But that's going to require a boat journey on a rickety old riverboat they've taken, for which they need an experienced ship's captain, which Tom just so happens to be. He doesn't have much choice, although of course he wants his own freedom, too. Along for the ride is Cathy Grainger (Lauren Bacall), an American whose father got caught behind the lines as a medical missionary and was killed by the Communists. Because of the casting, Wayne's political views, and the at times unlikely plot, a lot of people give this a poor review, but it's a serviceable adventure.
I've recommended The Spoilers before, as it's an engaging story that's been made into a movie on several occasions. This week I'm going to mention the 1955 version, which is going to be on StarzEncore Westerns at 12:59 AM Wednesday. Jeff Chandler stars as Roy Glennister, who owns a gold mine near Nome during the Alaska gold rush of the 1890s. He's returning after a trip to Seattle to get supplies; also on the boat is Judge Stillman (Carl Benton Reid), who is going to help resolve the land claims since claim jumping is a big thing. However, it turns out that the claims inspector McNamara (Rory Calhoun) is dishonest and the judge is his stooge. Meanwhile, Glennister has an on-again, off-again girlfriend in Cherry (Anne Baxter) who could help the honest miners get the justice that is due them. But Glennister finds himself falling in love with the judge's niece who accompanied him to Nome. This version, the last so far, benefits from Technicolor and wide-screen photography.
Sidney Poitier's turn as TCM's Star of the Month continues on Tuesday in prime time. Among the movies on the schedule is To Sir, With Love, at 8:00 PM. Poitier plays Mark Thackeray, an engineer from Guyana who is now in London. He's working as a teacher hoping for an engineering job to open up, and in the sort of school he played a student in a dozen years earlier in The Blackboard Jungle. It's a tough working class area where the students tend to show relatively little respect for the teachers, while the teachers in turn suffer burnout. Mark finds that he doesn't just need to teach his students the academic stuff, but about life in general, expecting them to act like adults if they want his respect. It's unorthodox and results in his getting involved in the students' personal lives -- especially Denham (Christian Roberts) and Pamela (Judy Geeson) -- for better and worse, but he's going to be the teacher they end up remembering later in life. It also has a memorable title song:
There hasn't been too much on FXM Retro recently that I haven't recommended here a relatively short time ago. One that I don't think I've mentioned for quite some time is My Blue Heaven, which will be on at 9:50 AM Wednesday. Betty Grable and Dan Dailey star as Kitty and Jack Moran, married entertainers who started in vaudeville, moved to radio, and are now moving to the new medium of television. Kitty would like to start a family, but unfortunately she suffers a miscarriage and probably won't be able to have children naturally. So a pair of married friends, the Pringles (Jane Wyatt and David Wayne), suggest that Kitty and Jack try adoption. Apparently the head of the adoption agency must have heard all those Hollywood rumors, because the agency doesn't want to let showbiz couples adopt. They try various means to adopt with the standard complications along the way, also doing a whole bunch of song-and-dance numbers because this is a Betty Grable movie after all. Watch for Mitzi Gaynor in an early role trying to put the moves on Dan and doing a spoof of South Pacific (which was a recent Broadway hit at the time but not yet a big movie for Gaynor).
The United Artists movies continue on TCM on Wednesday with movies from the 1960s, including one of their Best Picture Oscar winners, Tom Jones, at 12:45 AM Thursday (which of course is still Wednesday night LFT). Based in the Henry Fielding novel, the movie tells the story of Tom Jones (Albert Finney), who is a foundling on the estate of an 18th century English nobleman, Squire Allworthy. Tom is a free spirit resented by the Squire's real heir Blifil (David Warner). Tom has a series of dalliances with woman, first with servant girl Maggie (Diane Cilento), and then with Sophie (Susannah York), daughter of a neighboring Squire (Hugh Griffirth). Blifil and the squire object to this relationship on class grounds, and force Tom to leave for London. There he has even more relationships with women, to the point that one could get him in fatal trouble. Finney is excellent, the score is lovely, and the production values are a marvel. It's the sort of movie that the British make so well but Hollywood never got quite right.
It's been a while since since TCM ran The Match King, but it's going to be on again this week, at 8:15 AM Thursday. Loosely based on the real-life story of Ivar Kreuger, the movie stars Warren William as Paul Kroll, a Swedish-American who at the opening is a janitor. A relative back in Sweden runs a safety-match factory that's going bankrupt, and Kroll schemes to get himself over to Sweden, where he's ultimately able to take over the factory. In fact, all his life turns into one giant scheme, from having screwed over a friend's wife Babe (Glenda Farrell) back in America to lying to the banks to get the money to take over more and more match factories until he has a virtual monopoly on the market. And Paul is going to go to great lengths to keep it, such as having people who threaten him committed to the insane asylum to shut them up. But then he meets lovely actress Marta Molnar (Lili Damita), and he starts paying more attention to her than to his match empire, which could doom the empire when the Depression hits....
It's hard to believe that our next pick was released over a quarter of a century ago, but in fact Clear and Present Danger came out in August 1994. It's going to be on StarzEncore at 3:26 PM Thursday (and again three hours later for those of you with the west coast feed). Harrison ford plays Jack Ryan, the CIA analyst created by Tom Clancy. His boss, Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with cancer, so he takes a leave of absences, making Jack the acting deputy director of intelligence. One of the President's close friends is murdered, and it turns out that the murder victim had ties with the Colombian drug cartels. The National Security Advisor, Cutter (Harris Yulin) goes over Ryan's head and authorizes a retaliatory action against the particular drug kingpin assumed responsible for commissioning the murder, without telling Ryan. And then Cutter strikes his own deal with the cartel leader, leaving the American agents in the field as well as Ryan in personal danger.
TCM is running a bunch of non-Bond spy movies on Friday. One of the more fun ones is The Liquidator, at 9:30 AM. Trevor Howard plays Mostyn, a higher-up in British intelligence whose department is having a problem with leaks caused by a supposed infestation of Soviet spies. Mostyn remembers having been saved in World War II Paris by Boysie Oakes (Rod Taylor), so he finds Oakes and drafts him to be a killer. The problem is, it was purely dumb luck that Oakes killed the Nazi who was threatening Mostyn, and Oakes is in fact thoroughly unsuitable for the spy game. Indeed, he hires a contract killer to do the killings for him! Boysie would much rather make out with the boss's secretary Iris (Jill St. John), having taken the job in part because he thought about the girls and cars superspies get involved with, at least if the movies are to be believed. The two eventually escape to the south of France, but it turns out they walk into a major spy drama and now Boysie has to be a spy for real, a task for which he may or may not actually be suited.
Another 80s movie I think I haven't recommended before is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which will be on Epix at 4:20 AM Sunday. Michael Caine plays Lawrence, a suave con artist trying to cheat rich ladies out of their money in a tony town on the French Riviera. Into this town comes another fraudster, brash American Freddy (Steve Martin). Lawrence doesn't like Freddy, but unfortunately Freddy gets the goods on Lawrence, so they have to work together until Lawrence comes up with an idea: the first to bilk the next mark out of $50,000 gets to work the town by themselves. And a suitable mark comes in the form of American soap heiress Janet (Glenne Headly). Freddy poses as a paralyzed veteran in need of medical care, while Lawrence plays a noted psychiatrist. And the schemes might work, until the two learn that Janet really isn't wealthy at all. Further complicating matters is that Freddy finds himself falling in love with Janet. There are a lot of twists and turns until the grand reveal at the end…. All three leads are good, and the location shooting is a big plus. The movie was recently remade as Hustle, which came and went from theaters earlier this year.
Up against Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is Sabotage, which will be on TCM at 3:30 AM Sunday. Oskar Homolka plays Karl Verloc, a terrorist carrying out sabotage operations in London for a group engaged in some unstated campaign. His front is owning a movie theater together with his American wife (Sylvia Sidney) and her kid brother Stevie (Desmond Tester). The police are closing in on the group, with Scotland Yard detective Ted Spencer (John Loder) watching the theater. Spencer finds himself developing feelings for Mrs. Verloc, which causes problems. She's completely innocent, and doesn't yet suspect her husband, although that might change after Karl carries out his next operation, which is to bomb one of those double-decker buses. Unfortunately, he can't place the bomb himself since he knows he's being watched, so he's going to have to use a dupe. And Stevie might just be the perfect person for the job. Alfred Hitchcock directed in his native England several years before coming to Hollywood, and although he later said he'd handle Stevie differently, I think what he did works quite well.