This Week on TCM -- August 8-14

This Week on TCM spotlights a highly subjective selection of the week's essential or undiscovered films on the Turner Classic Movies channel to help plan viewing or DVR schedule.

What I can I say about Orson Welles that you can't read in a thousand other places? He was a brilliant writer-director-actor who changed movies forever. TCM is balancing Welles' day between his essential movies and some of his lesser-known work. Not that it's any easier to pick out just a few.

 

11:30 a.m. The VIPs

This sounds like Hotel set in an airport but I'm recording it to see if/how Welles plays off Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. 

 

1:30 p.m. The Stranger (1946)

Not a film adaptation of Albert Camus' novel…A Nazi war criminal hides out in a small town and no one catches on at first. A suspenseful and, in its way, really creepy movie. Directed by Welles.

 

3:15 p.m. Journey Into Fear

Welles has a small role in this story of a naval engineer (Joseph Cotten) on the run from the Nazis. Welles is believed to have directed this film, but he refused to take the credit (blame?), saying he only acted in it.

 

6:15 p.m. Mr. Arkadin

8:00 p.m. The Third Man

10:00 p.m. Citizen Kane

12:15 a.m. Touch of Evil

2:00 a.m. The Lady from Shanghai

 

A popular leading lady in the '30s, particularly in pre-code films, Dvorak was born Anna McKim in 1911. Her father was a film director, her mother a silent star. She was under contract with Warner from 1932-36, but finished on permanent suspension due to a pay dispute (see below). She worked regularly until and after the contract expired, but, without the support of the studio, her career was in effect over. She retired in 1951 and died mostly unknown in 1979. She would have been 100 years old on August 2, 2011.

 

2:00 p.m. The Crowd Roars

Dvorak plays loyal girlfriend to James Cagney's race car driver. Directed by Howard Hawks.

 

9:45 p.m. Three on a Match

Three childhood friends make different life choices and two (Bette Davis, Joan Blondell) end up having to rescue the third (Ann Dvorak) from the consequences of her actions.
Around the time she made this film, Dvorak discovered her salary was the same as the child actor playing her son. The situation escalated when Dvorak complained about it and also went AWOL, marrying and leaving for her honeymoon without letting the studio know. As Lorraine LoBianco writes, "By angering Warner Bros., Dvorak in effect derailed her career permanently. Had she waited a year or two before making salary demands, it would have been more successful and her career might have rivaled that of Bette Davis."

 

11:00 p.m. Blind Alley

A killer escapes from prison and hides out in a psychiatrist's home. The latter analyzes the former, trying to determine why he behaves the way he does. Dvorak, in a rare bad girl role, plays the killer's girlfriend.

 

6:00 a.m. Two Loves

In this drama based on the life of Sylvia Ashton-Warner, MacLaine plays against type as a buttoned-down New Zealand educator who cares so much about her students that she neglects her own life outside the classroom. 

 

2:00 p.m. Irma La Douce

Best Actress-nominated MacLaine, Jack Lemmon, and director Billy Wilder go together like gin, tonic, and lime in this comedy about a Parisian lady of the night and the innocent cop who loves her. Pssst...if you haven't seen my new favorite movie The Apartment, made by the same talented trio, catch it at 8:00 p.m.

 

10:30 p.m. Some Came Running

Frank Sinatra is a war veteran who returns home to his stalled writing career and small town drama. MacLaine was nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of his wife.

 

Unlike many movie cowboys, Johnson actually worked on ranches and in rodeos before becoming an actor. He got his start in 1941 when he delivered horses to Howard Hughes for The Outlaw and stayed on to do stunts; he continued acting until his passing in 1996.

 

1:15 p.m. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Johnson plays John Wayne's chief scout in this classic John Ford western about an army captain who is ready retire but first must defeat an "Indian uprising" while two ladies are in his charge.

 

1:15 a.m. The Last Picture Show

Teenagers in a Texas ghost town deal with adolescence. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich; cast includes Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, and Randy Quaid.

 

11:30 a.m. Three Came Home

An American woman is taken captive when the Japanese invade Borneo and must fight for her survival. Based on a World War II POW's memoir. Colbert's willingness to do stunts and torture scenes herself led to a chronic back injury which cost her the lead in All About Eve.

 

4:15 p.m. Without Reservations

A novelist (Colbert) meets a real-life version of her story's hero (John Wayne). Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

 

11:30 p.m. It Happened One Night

Directed by Frank Capra and starring Colbert & Clark Gable, this is arguably the original screwball comedy.

 

11:15 a.m. Wife vs. Secretary

Solid performances from a great cast distinguish this comedy in which Stewart plays the boyfriend of the titular secretary, Jean Harlow, who works for Clark Gable, who is married to Myrna Loy. 

 

2:30 p.m. Shop Around the Corner

Two bickering co-workers in a retail establishment don't realize that each is the other's romantic pen pal. Infinitely better than the remake, You've Got Mail.

 

8:00 p.m. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

An absolute must-see for its disillusioned, modern take on the mystique of the Old West: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Directed by John Ford.

 

Bellamy began acting at the age of 15 and was running his own theatre company by age 23. He acted on TV, on Broadway, and in the movies, where he often played the guy who lost the girl. Today, he is probably most known as Randolph Duke, the commodities trader who makes a bet for "the usual amount" in Trading Places.

 

1:15 p.m. Let Us Live

A police detective (Bellamy) and the girlfriend (Margaret O'Sullivan) of a convicted man (Henry Fonda) work to prove his innocence before he is executed.

 

8:00 p.m. His Girl Friday

9:45 p.m. The Awful Truth

In these two absolutely essential comedies, Bellamy loses Rosalind Russell and Irene Dunne to Cary Grant. 

 

11:30 p.m. Sunrise at Campobello

Bellamy brings his Broadway portrayal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to film.

 

What is everyone watching this week? Did I miss your favorite star's best film? Leave your picks in the comments!