Wlecome to another edition of Fedya's "Movies ot Tivo" thread, for the week of July 8-14, 2013.. First off, I have to apologize for not realizing that CinÉmoi was going to get into a contract dispute with DirecTV that would lead to its being taken off DirecTV. So if you really wanted to see Bugsy Malone, you were out of luck. Anyhow, the good programming on other channels continues, so there are always going to be movies worth watching. As always, all times are in Eastern, unless otherwise mentioned.
TCM is showing a bunch of beach movies on Monday morning and afternoon, perfect for the hot summer weather. One that has some curiosity value is It's a Bikini World, at 8:00 AM Monday. No Frankie and Annette here; instead we get Tommy Kirk as Mike, the male lead, a jerk of a man who meets Delilah (Deborah Walley) on the beach. He wants her, but she doesn't want him. So he decides to disguise himself as the sort of man Delilah claims to want, passing himself off as Mike's brother Herbert. Unsurprisingly, complications ensue. The plot is no better than most beach movies, but there are other reasons to watch. Eric Burdon and the Animals show up as one of the musical acts. Mike's pal Woody is played by Bob Pickett, a name that might vaguely ring a bell -- because as Bobby "Boris" Pickett, he had a huge hit with "Monster Mash". Future horror star Sid Haig also shows up.
Monday night brings a second night of "Carson on TCM". This week's five interviewees are: Doris Day from 1976; Charlton Heston, also from 1976; Chevy Chase from 1986; Steve Martin from 1979; and Tony Curtis from 1973. Tony Curtis is then honored with a showing of his movie Some Like It Hot at 9:00 PM, in which he and Jack Lemmon go in drag to escape mobsters, only to meet and fall in love with Marilyn Monroe along the way. Some Like It Hot was, of course, directed by Billy Wilder, so after that, the rest of the Monday night lineup is given over to other films Wilder directed, all of which I've recommended in the past. Since this is a football forum, I should point out The Fortune Cookie at 11:15 PM, starring Jack Lemmon as a TV cameraman who gets run into by a football player; brother-in-law Walter Matthau is a lawyer who thinks Lemmon can sue and get big bucks!
TCM is honoring Glenn Ford yet again on Tuesday, even though his birthday was back in May. Anyhow, you can catch him in a service comedy, Imitation General, at 4:30 PM. Ford plays a sergeant working with Corporal Red Buttons in World War II. They're serving as drivers to a general, Kent Smith, who has decided to go visit the troops on the front line. The only problem is, this section of the front line gets cut off with the general getting killed. So Ford gets the bright idea of impersonating the general to bolster the morale of the troops. Of course, this is highly illegal and could get Ford court-martialed if anybody found out he was acting as a general when he's only a Master Sergeant. And there's a private out there who was once MSgt. alongside Ford before getting busted in rank, and he'd like nothing better than to bust Ford.
On Tuesday night, we get the second night of films from Star of the Month Paul Henried. This Tuesday begins with three movies on which Henried collaborated with Bette Davis. I've mentioned Now, Voyager before, in which Davis famously has a nervous breakdown and then falls in love with Henried even though he can't marry her; that kicks the evening off at 8:00 PM. Henried directed Davis, who plays both halves of a pair of twins, one of whom murders the other, in Dead Ringer, which comes on at midnight Wednesday (or 11:00 PM Tuesday LFT).
In between those two, at 10:00 PM, is Deception. Davis stars as music teacher Christine, who before World War II had been in love with cellist Karel (Henried). However, the war came and Christine was able to make it to America, but not Karel, who was presumed dead. So Chrstine met and fell in love with composer Alex (Claude Rains). And then, things get complicated, when Christine goes to a concert and sees Karel's name in the program. He's alive! And Alexander didn't know anything about her former affair, while obvoiusly Karel doesn't know anything about Christine's having fallen in love with Alexander. He thinks he can just come back into her life and have the both of them live happily ever after. But both Karel and Alexander are insanely jealous, and each wants Christine only for himself. What's a woman to do? Well, wait until you see what this woman does. Rains had also been in Now, Voyager, but this time, he gets a bigger role.
Over on the Fox Movie Channel, you can catch Woman Obsessed, at 9:30 AM Wednesday. Susan Hayward stars as a farmer's wife way in the backwoods of Canada, with a young son to boot. Things turn bad when her husband is killed in an accident, and needing somebody to help run the farm, she hires Stephen Boyd, who had been working in one of the logging camps. Eventually the two fall in love and marry, but they don't live happily ever after. First of all, the son is pissed that his mother actually kisses his new stepfather! But Stepdad has his problems, first in that he's hot-headed, and then in that he comes to think his stepson is a coward because the kid gets squeamish when Stepdad has to kill and dress a deer. Stepdad's thinking the kid is a coward really pisses off Mom, too; it doesn't help that she's gotten pregnant.... This is uneven, especially in the cinematography which varies between location shots and studio shots, but there's also some unintentional comedy.
Thursday, July 11, marks the 82nd birthday of actor Tab Hunter, so it's no surprise that TCM is spending much of the morning and afternoon with Hunter. That includes movies such as Gunman's Walk, which is airing at 12:30 PM. Hunter plays son to Van Heflin, who is a cattle rancher. While trying to chase after a wild stallion, Hunter accidentally kills half-Sioux Bert Convy (whom you may remember as a game show host in his later career). There's a murder trial, but Daddy is able to bribe witnesses to get his son off. Hunter later shoots one of the bribed witnesses, and while Daddy is trying to bribe witnesses again for the upcoming second trial, Hunter shoots his way out of jail, killing the deputy (Mickey Shaughnessy). How is Daddy going to get his son out of this one? Rounding out the cast are James Darren as Hunter's brother, and Kathryn Grant as Bert Convy's sister.
Ray Harryhausen died back in May. TCM will be honoring the life and work of this special-effects wizard on Thursday evening with five of Harryhausen's movies. The night kicks off with the movie that might involve Harryhausen's best-known effects: Jason and the Argonauts, at 8:00 PM. Jason (Todd Armstrong) returns home after 20 years to take the throne that should rightfully be his. But it turns out that to be able to claim the throne, he first has to go out and find the Golden Fleece. So he assembles a crew of sailors in search of it, only to find that there are a lot of obstacles along the way. There's the statue that comes off of its pedestal, as well as the multi-headed Hydra. Most famous of them all, however, are the sword-wielding skeletons, who fight Jaon and his men in a memorable sequence painstakingly animated by Harryhausen's stop-motion photography. The effects are more worth watching than the acting, to be honest, but they're worth it, as they're so much more fun than the sterile CGI of today.
It seems as though I'm recommending more westerns this week than I normally do. Well, I've got another one to recommend: Vengeance Valley, at 12:45 PM Friday on TCM. Burt Lancaster stars as an orphan who's been raised by cattleman Ray Collins, and has made Collins very happy. Much more so than Collins' dissolute son, Robert Walker. Lancaster becomes ranch foreman, but also spends a good deal of his time cleaning up the messes that Walker makes. Walker doesn't like this, and decides to get back at Lancaster. Although Walker is married (to Joanne Dru), he's knocked up Sally Forrest. However, Walker gets Lancaster to deliver the hush money to Forrest, so that Forrest's brothers will catch Lancaster doing it, and conclude that it's Lancaster who's the father -- if the brothers get Lancaster out of the way, Walker can have the ranch all to himself!
TCM's Friday Night Spotlight, dedicated to the movies of FranÇois Truffaut, contines at 8:00 PM with The Bride Wore Black. Jeanne Moreau plays Julie, whom we see at the beginning of the movie trying to commit suicide and then leaving her Paris home. She then heads down to the Riviera, where she invites herself to a party in an upper-story apartment. There, she woos a man, gets him out on the apartment balcony... and then gets him to fall to his death! Oh, but she's not about to stop there. She goes to another town, and finds another man. Working her way into his apartment, she spikes his wine with poison, which he drinks, not knowing that it's going poison that's going to kill him? What is Julie up to, and how many more men is she going to try to kill? The answer to that question is revealed on about the third guy she tries to kill, at which point the question becomes whether or not she'll succeed in her plan to kill a bunch of people who knew each other, but don't know her at all. It's a wonderful little thriller, and Truffaut's homage to Alfred Hitchcock.
I said at the beginning that there are good films on channels other than TCM this week; one example is the 1962 version of Cape Fear, at 10:30 AM Saturday on Encore Suspense. Gregory Peck plays a lawyer happily married to Polly Bergen, with daughter Lori Martin rounding out the family. Of course, that happiness is about to be shattered. Some time back, Peck witnessed a crime, and his eyewitness testimony convicted Robert Mitchum. Well, Mitchum's served his sentence, and he's made his way to the small town where Peck and his family live, simply menacing Peck with his mere presence, something which is perfectly legal. Peck realizes that Mitchum is up to something, and the wife and daughter start to get freaked out, but what can they do as long as Mitchum isn't committing another crime? Robert Mitchum is wonderfully sinister in this one.
Original Post