TCM this weekend - Robin Hood, Captains Bligh and Blood, plus Sessue Hayakawa

May 8, 2:44 PMNY Classic Movies ExaminerCliff Aliperti

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TCM this weekend - Robin Hood, Captains Bligh and Blood, plus Sessue Hayakawa

Here are the programming highlights from Turner Classic Movies (TCM) this weekend, May 9-10, including several indisputable classics along with a few hidden treasures.

First up, here are the classics which you need to see if you haven't, or are more likely already all-time favorites because you have:

Saturday, May 9
12:00 pm - "Stagecoach" (1939) - John Ford's western is so much more than a western. The Duke becomes a star here.
6:15 pm - "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) - One of the first movies I looked at in this space.
8:00 pm - "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935) - I've been covering a lot of Charles Laughton here (and here) but his Captain Bligh is one of his best. Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian. Franchot Tone here too.
10:30 pm - "Captain Blood" (1935) - My favorite pirate movie, more Flynn-Rathbone swordplay.

Sunday, May 10
11:00 am - "Mildred Pierce" (1945) - Joan Crawford spars with daughter Ann Blyth throughout this James M. Cain classic.
3:30 pm - "I Remember Mama" (1948) - Irene Dunne as matriarch of the early 20th Century Hanson family, Norwegian immigrants in San Francisco.

Now if you miss any of those titles above, honestly, they'll be back on the air soon enough. You may need to wait some for these next few though, so be sure to record them if need be:

Late Saturday night, or early Sunday morning depending upon your perspective, at 2:30 am "The Tunnel" (1935) stars Richard Dix, Leslie Banks, Madge Evans and Helen Vinson star. Not a great movie, I can't even say for sure if you'll like it, but very interesting early sci-fi well worth at least one viewing. Basic premise is constructing a Trans-Atlantic tunnel connecting Britain to the east coast of the United States. Despite some great visuals I found the story and characters dull enough to make this one an effort to watch. But I did, so should you ... once.

Early Sunday morning, at 6 am, "Bachelor Mother" (1939) is a gem starring Ginger Rogers as a poor shop girl who finds a baby and thus, lots of scrutiny, from those around her, especially love intererst David Niven and his father Charles Coburn. If you've never seen it, DVR it, "Bachelor Mother" is charming, funny, and even a little daring for a 1939 film. Directed by Garson Kanin.

Finally Sunday night at midnight this week's silent feature "The Cheat" (1915) starring Sessue Hayakawa and Fannie Ward and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. You're probably already familiar with this one because of the famous branding scene, where Hayakawa brutalizes Ward. "The Cheat" is followed at 1 am by "The Dragon Painter" (1919), also starring Hayakawa.

That's quite a bit, but here are a few other movies airing this weekend which also may be of interest:
Harold Lloyd in "The Cat's Paw" Saturday morning at 6 am, Friday night's James Bond films re-air Saturday afternoon wtih "Goldfinger" (1964) at 2 pm followed by "Thunderball" (1965) at 4.

"Lady By Choice" (1934) stars Carole Lombard and airs at 7:30 am Sunday morning. It's followed by Cary Grant in "None But the Lonely Heart" (1944) at 9 am. Frank Capra's "Lady for a Day" remake "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961) features Bette Davis and airs at 1 pm Sunday. The 8 pm feature is Otto Preminger's "Bunny Lake Is Missing" (1965)

Featured collectibles: Errol Flynn is shown on a 1940 Bridgewater trading card. Small real-photo card measures just 1-1/8” X 2”. Richard Dix is featured on a game card from the 1929 Movie-Land Keeno game set. Dix appeared in both the 1929 and the later version of the Keeno game, this particular “Calling Card” is from the earlier, 1929 version.

Sessue Hayakawa is shown on one of my all-time favorite issues above, a 1916 M.J. Moriarty Playing Card. I’ve sold and split apart over a couple of dozen of these decks now, and what’s most interesting for collectors is that they’ll find far more than the advertised 53 cards in this deck if they wish to continue collecting. In fact, I’ve seen more than twice that number of card variations and I’m not sure that I’ve seen them all yet.