Welcome to another edition of Fedya's “Movies to Tivo” Thread, for the week of September 25-October 1, 2017. Autumn is supposedly here, although you can't tell it by the weather. It's getting dark noticeably early, though, so we can't spend as much time doing outdoor stuff. So why not spend your indoor time watching some good movies? Once again I've used my discerning taste to select a series of movies I know you'll all enjoy. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
For those of you who like the old two-reelers, you're in luck as this week's Silent Sunday Nights on TCM is showing five of them starting at midnight tonight (ie. 11:00 PM tonight LFT). They all star Harry Langdon, a name that's been largely forgotten. Unfortunately, TCM has the irritating habit when they run a block of shorts like this of listing them as starting at midnight – all five of them. And the order that they're listed in on TCM's daily schedule page doesn't match what shows up either on the printable monthly schedule or the box guide. (The box guide is even worse when it comes to one-reelers since the start and end times don't match up making recording a pain.) You'll just have to record the entire two hours.
TCM is showing a bunch of Herbert Lom movies on Monday night. You probably recall him best from the Pink Panther movies, but there's much more, such as The Dark Tower, which will be on at 8:00 PM. Lom plays Torg, a man who shows up at a struggling British circus. The circus is run by brothers Phil (Ben Lyon) and Tom (David Farrar), and Tom and his wife Mary (Anne Crawford) are the trapeze and high wire acts that re supposed to be the circus' main attraction. One day Torg is able to handle a lion after the tamer collapses, and that's what gets Torg into the circus for real. It turns out that Torg is using hypnosis, and he starts using it on Mary, to make her more relaxed for the heights, to the point that she might not even need anything for balance, which would be a real show. But Tom is worried that Mary is falling under Torg's spell in more ways than one, and of course Torg has an answer for that. This is a movie that Warner Bros. made at its British studio to satisfy British quota laws, and was never intended for release in the US. But it's quite good and really deserves to be seen.
We get one final night of Jennifer Jones movies on TCM, including one I'm not certain I've recommended before, The Barretts of Wimpole Street at 8:00 PM. You probably know some of the story in part because this is a remake of a 1930s film I know I've recommended before, and because the characters are real-life people. Jones plays Barrett, who is of course Elizabeth Barrett, that renowned Victorian poetess. She was sickly as a young woman, which kept her confined to her house by her father Edward (John Gielgud). But Elizabeth wrote and read a lot of poetry, eventually corresponding with famed poet Robert Browning (Bill Travers). And then Browning decides to come to Wimpole street to meet the young Barrett, and the two fall in love, much to the distress of Daddy, who doesn't want to lose his daughter. Elizabeth's sister Henrietta is played by Virginia McKenna, who in real life was married to Bill Travers.
Bobbikins is back on FXM Retro, this week at 1:30 PM Saturday and 3:00 AM Saturday. Ben (Max Bygraves) has returned from a stint in the Navy doing national service to find that his wife Betty (Shirley Jones) bore his son while he was away. And what a son he is. This little brat starts talking, and not just “dada”, but real, fully fleshed thoughts. The only thing is that the kid only talks to Ben, and when he tries to get anybody else to believe it, the kid clams up. One day Ben takes the kid out in the pram, where they meet a bigwig politician who likes babies but is himself childless. The old guy holds the baby while talking to an advisor, and the baby hears about business doings that will make anybody who holds particular stock rich. So the baby tells Ben all of this stuff and gets Ben to invest in the proper company, which earns Ben a tidy profit and the questioning of the authorities, who understandably don't see how Ben coul keep picking the right stocks. Max Bygraves may be a bit manic and tough to take at times, but the story more or less works.
Another movie that shows up after a long absence is Night Unto Night, which will be on TCM at 11:30 AM Wednesday. Ronald Reagan plays John Galen, a research scientist who is looking for a nice secluded place in the middle of nowhere part of Florida to do his research. Well, actually, he's got another reason for seeking out someplace in the middle of nowhere, which is that he has epilepsy and wants to shut himself off from the world. He rents the disused beach house of Ann Gracy (Viveca Lindfors, who was being groomed for stardom with this movie), who is a bit off in her own right, in that she's a widow who insists that she can hear the voice of her dead husband in that house. Meanwhile, Ann's sister Lisa (Osa Massen) has the hots for John, but if he's right for anybody, it's Ann. John, of course, doesn't want to get emotionally close to anybody. The one person who does understand what's going on with John is C.L. Shawn (Broderick Crawford who is ridiculously miscast), an artist who has grand theories on art and life. Eventually, all are drawn together by an oncoming hurricane. Oh, this movie is a mess, but it's an interesting mess.
We saw Kirk Douglas in a western last week, so why not mention another of his westerns this week? Man Without a Star will be on StarzEncore Westerns at 3:15 AM Thursday. Douglas plays Dempsey Rae, a cowboy who is drifting west and meets Jiff (William Campbell) along the way. The two wind up at a ranch owned by Reed Bowman (Jeanne Crain), who is the cattle baroness of the region. There's not enough room her her large herd and everybody else, especially since the other folks are starting to put up barbed wire, so Reed decides to use violent tactics against the others, something that Dempsey doesn't care for. So he leaves and winds up back in town with an old flame (Claire Trevor), until hearing that Reed has hired somebody even worse in the form of the brutal Steve (Richard Boone) to whip the hired hands into shape and beat the other ranchers. That drives Dempsey back into action. It's the sort of material we've seen before, but Kirk Douglas makes material like this good.
After watching the Packers demolish the Chicago team on Thursday Night Football, you switch over to TCM for the uplifting movie Panic in Needle Park, at midnight Friday (ie. 11:00 PM Thursday LFT). Helen (Kitty Winn) is a young woman living in a difficult situation in early 1970s New York. One day, into her life walks Bobby (Al Pacino), a small-time heroin dealer and user, who sweeps Helen off her feet. Bobby and Helen fall for each other and start living together, but Bobby's drug habit becomes worse. On top of that, Bobby introduces Helen to his social circle in “Needle Park”, the square in New York where all the drug addicts hang out, and then gets her to start using heroin too! Of course her life begins to go downhill as she starts to use heroin. To make matters worse, the cops are trying to choke off the supply of heroin. This is an unflinchingly brutal movie, so it may be uncomfortable to some viewers, especially once scene that will disturb dog lovers.
Friday night's lineup on TCM is all four A Star is Born movies, starting at 8:00 PM. I say four, although only three of them are titled A Star is Born. These are the “original” 1937 version with Janet Gaynor and Frederic March at 8:00 PM; the Judy Garland version at 10:00 PM; and even the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson version at 1:15 AM. The fourth version is titled What Price Hollywood? and comes on at 3:45 AM Saturday. It predates the other three, and while the 1937 version got an Oscar nomination for its original screenplay, it's a pretty obvious remake of What Price Hollywood? once you watch it. Supposedly there are plans to update the movie again with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper and a release set for next year.
I'm not certain how long it's been since I've seen The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, but it's on Starz Encore Classics this Saturday at 12:35 PM. Leslie Nielsen plays Los Angeles police detective Frank Drebin, reprising his role from the TV series Police Squad! He's given the task of making certain Queen Elizabeth II stays safe on her upcoming visit to Los Angeles. However, he's got more than that on his plate. Somebody has attacked his partner Nordberg (O.J. Simpson), and Drebin's got to solve that too. Evidence in that case points to the property developer Vincent Ludwig (Ricardo Montalbán), and as Drebin investigates, he discovers that Ludwig might be trying to do something to the Queen too. And on top of all this, Frank is trying to keep up a romance with Jane (Priscilla Presley). The movie was popular enough that it spawned two sequels, and those will be following on Starz Encore Classics immediately after this one.
I absolutely love The Bad and the Beautiful, and it's going to be on TCM again this week at 8:00 PM Saturday. Kirk Douglas stars as Jonathan Shields, a movie producer whose studio is in crisis because nobody wants to work with him any more, Shields' second-in-command, Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon), calls up a couple of people who collaborated with Shields in the past and tries to persuade them to listen to Shields' new movie idea. But each of them has good reason not to want to work with Shields. There's Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan), who got his start in the movies at the same time as Jonathan, but feels Jonathan took one of his ideas. Actress Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner, looking as gorgeous as ever) became famous under Shields, but was unable to win his love. And then there's James Bartlow (Dick Powell, once again excellent doing straight drama), a college professor turned writer who wrote screenplays for Shields but lost his wife (Gloria Grahame). To add to all that is the cast jam-packed with great character actors. One of the best Hollywood-on-Hollywood movies ever made.
Finally, since the Packers aren't going to show up on Sunday, you can watch a movie like The Little Foxes, at noon Sunday on TCM instead. Based on the play by Lillian Hellman, this one tells the story about the vile Hubbard family, running roughshod over their little portion of the south. Brothers Oscar and Ben, along with sister Regina (Bette Davis) are trying to add to their family's fortune and power. They plan to do this by bringing a mill to town, but to do that they need $75,000. Regina's husband Horace (Herbert Marshall) has the money, but it's tied up in bonds and besides, he's estranged from Regina and convalescing up north from what is probably a fatal illness anyway. Regina exploits her daughter Alexandra (Teresa Wright in one of her first roles) to get her to manipulate Dad into coming home. But when Horace still doesn't want to invest in the mill, Regina decides to use her nephew Leo (Dan Duryea) to go steal those bonds to pay for the mill. Bette Davis gets another chance to play an over-the-top schemer, and boy does she shine.