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Public Enemies – TCM airs 5 gangster classics plus an excellent documentary
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Humphrey Bogart appears in 2 movies very
important to his career late tonight, "The Petrified
Forest" and "High Sierra." He's shown here on a
circa 1940 Made in USA Arcade Card.
Public Enemies – TCM airs 5 gangster classics plus an excellent documentary
Well, "Great Directors" month is all over, and Turner Classic Movies returns to my favorite format this month--business as usual! Despite a pretty underwhelming Star of the Month (Stewart Granger), TCM does have all of us classic film buffs excited about the "39 from '39" theme running all month which kicks off tomorrow night with "The Wizard of Oz" and a brand new documentary on that fantastic year of hits!
It's not brand new, but tonight's "The Public Enemies" documentary, airing at 12:30 am, is a pretty good one itself with heavy focus on Warner Brothers gangster releases from “Little Caesar” (1931) and “The Public Enemy” (1931) through “White Heat” (1949).
The night opens with "Manhattan Melodrama," which gets its greatest (and currently its latest round of) fame through its association with John Dillinger—if you’ve as much as heard of this movie then you know Dillinger was coming from seeing it when he was gunned down. I’ve always found the movie itself a little overrated, but when you’ve got Gable, Powell, and Loy you can afford to get by on a lot of charm!
By the way, very glad Johnny Depp is actually playing Dillinger in that movie--back when I first heard about “Public Enemies” (2009) I was scared they were trying to remake William Wellman’s groundbreaking “The Public Enemy” (1931) starring Jimmy Cagney—whew! Another aside, really enjoyed Warren Oates as “Dillinger” (1973) in a recent viewing, and have a feeling I’m going to prefer that to the new movie too. No surprise there.
Here’s tonight’s entire TCM schedule of “Public Enemies”:
8:00 pm "Manhattan Melodrama" (1934) starring Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy
9:45 pm "Fog Over Frisco" (1934) starring Bette Davis, Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay
11:00 pm "G-Men" (1935) starring James Cagney, Ann Dvorak, Margaret Lindsay
12:30 am The Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film
2:30 am "The Petrified Forest" (1936) starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart
4:00 am "High Sierra" (1941) starring Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Arthur Kennedy
The late night is big for the Bogie fan, as you can catch him first as the menacing Duke Mantee in “The Petrified Forest,” which is credited as the role which really got him going in Hollywood, and then as Mad Dog Earle in “High Sierra,” which itself is credited as the movie which launched him towards major stardom. Beyond Bogie, both films are major entries into the gangster family of films.
For a great post about classic film gangsters please see Richard Hourula’s recent Film Gangsters, They Do Indeed Pre Date the 1970’s on his Riku Writes – Mostly About Films blog.
Enjoy today’s slideshow of vintage movie cards and collectibles featuring these stars of tonight’s gangster classics airing on TCM:
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