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 scheduling. All times are EST.
Monday, November 7 — Battle of the Blondes
Veronica Lake
8:00 p.m. This Gun for Hire & 9:30 p.m. The Blue Dahlia
Lake and her frequent co-star Alan Ladd had quite the chemistry going and these two films are among the best of both of their careers. In both, Ladd plays a man on the run and Lake his ally against betrayal, bad guys and/or the cops.
Lana Turner
11:15 p.m. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Turner is at her most seductive and mercurial as a woman who conspires with her lover (John Garfield) to murder her husband. Though this movie is considered by many to be a film noir, I think the photography is too bright and low-contrast for it to really be considered a true noir. That doesn't make it any less entertaining though.
1:15 a.m. The Bad and the Beautiful
Turner plays a starlet indebted to a scheming producer (Kirk Douglas) in this behind-the-scenes Hollywood exposé that in tone and focus reminds me of The Player (1992). And I mean that in the best way.
Tuesday, November 8
1:45 p.m. Timbuktu (1959)
My new favorite director Jacques Tourneur helmed this story of an officer attempting to stop a revolt in French Sudan during World War II.
6:00 p.m. The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)
A blacksmith-turned-gladiator doesn't realize he has bigger problems than his opponents and saving his adopted son from Roman persecution.
Wednesday, November 9
6:00 p.m. Dinner at Eight (1933)
Thirties regulars Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, and Jean Harlow take part in a dinner party billed as "a dazzling pageant of stars" and directed by George Cukor (The Philadelphia Story, Born Yesterday).
8:00 p.m. Born Yesterday (1950)
Judy Holliday won an Oscar for her portrayal of a gangster's apparently ditzy girlfriend, who falls for a newspaper reporter (William Holden). A really funny, touching movie.
12:00 a.m. (Thurs.) Bombshell (1933)
Jean Harlow is hilarious as a star who wants to reinvent herself despite the wishes of her agent, studio, and parasitic entourage. With Franchot Tone and Pat O'Brien; directed by Victor Fleming (Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz).
Thursday, November 10
Claude Rains fans have seven movies to choose from today. I definitely recommend the two in which he co-stars with Bette Davis, Mr. Skeffington and Now, Voyager. I'm also interested in two pictures I've never seen, Four Wives (1939) and Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941; remade in 1978 as Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty.)
Friday, November 11
A block of James Garner movies starts with Darby's Rangers at 5:45 p.m. and continues with Up Periscope (8:00 p.m.), The Americanization of Emily (10:00 p.m.) and Marlowe (12:00 a.m. Saturday). I can't say that I've seen any of these, but I always liked Garner as Rockford on The Rockford Files so I'll probably give one or more of these a shot.
Saturday, November 12
8:00 p.m. The Bank Dick
***TCM Party***
Curmudgeon W.C. Fields plays a drunk who unwittingly stops two robberies at a bank and is then appointed to guard it. Possibly the best Fields movie ever. Watch & tweet with #TCMParty.
2:15 a.m. (Sun.) Hot Millions
An embezzler fresh out of prison (Peter Ustinov) and his girlfriend (Maggie Smith) use computers to rob a corporation. See a couple of Britain's best thesps (Hercule Poirot! Minerva McGonagall!) play a heist picture for laughs in tribute to classic comedies like The Lavender Hill Mob.
Sunday, November 13
If you haven't seen Woman of the Year (9:00 a.m.), To Have and Have Not (11:00 a.m.), or The Way We Were (12:45 p.m.), definitely tune in for those. I'm interested to see Forsaking All Others (7:30 a.m.) starring Cary Grant and Joan Crawford, written by Joseph L. Mankewicz (All About Eve), and directed by W.S. Van Dyke II (The Thin Man).
Comments