Classic Movie Picks: August 2012

by Lani
Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies Now Playing guide for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

It's the 10th anniversary of TCM's Summer Under the Stars when each day of the month is devoted to the films of one classic actor or actress. To celebrate 10 years of star power, I've chosen my top 10 stars of the month: 4 redheaded ladies and 6 unique gentlemen. And for each star I've selected one "top pick" plus two others for further viewing, because when you're given 24 hours with your favorite star why stop at just one?

8/5: Claude Rains
9:30 PM - Mr. Skeffington (1944)
8 PM - The Invisible Man (1933); 12:15 AM - The Unsuspected (1947)
Bette Davis plays a vain society beauty who marries Claude Rains' Skeffington for his money and only comes to love him much later in life. For his marvelously understated performance as Job Skeffington, aptly named as he is patience personified, Rains received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.

8/8: Rita Hayworth
2 AM - You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
4:45 PM - You'll Never Get Rich (1941); 12 AM - Gilda (1946)
Though she's known as one of the screen's great beauties (and deservedly so), Rita Hayworth was also one of classic cinema's best dancers. She's one of the most natural dancers I've ever seen - an opinion shared by none other than Fred Astaire. He starred with Rita in two films, You Were Never Lovelier and You'll Never Get Rich, and later named her as his favorite on screen dance partner.

8/9: Toshiro Mifune
2:45 PM - Yojimbo (1961)
9:15 AM - Seven Samurai (1954), 12:45 PM - Throne of Blood (1957)
Toshiro Mifune starred in many Hollywood films, but he was proudest of his work with director Akira Kurosawa in Japan. Their biggest hit, Yojimbo, is a samurai tale modeled on classic Westerns. Mifune plays a traveling samurai who saves a divided town by pitting its leaders against each other. You may recognize that plot from Sergio Leone's "spaghetti Western" A Fistful of Dollars, which was inspired by Yojimbo.

8/10: Lionel Barrymore
10:15 PM - Night Flight (1933)
3:15 PM - The Return of Peter Grimm (1936); 8 PM - You Can't Take It With You (1938)
Lionel Barrymore was known among his fellow actors as an inveterate scene-stealer; and none knew it better than his brother and co-star John Barrymore. You can see the sibling rivalry in action in Night Flight, which was consigned to the vaults until 2011 and is being shown for the first time on TCM. Based on a best-seller by former aviator Antoine de Sainte-Exupery, the film depicts the dangerous flights of an Argentinian air mail service. It also features Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Helen Hayes, and Robert Montgomery.

8/11: James Mason
8 PM - Lolita (1962)
5:30 PM - Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959); 3:30 AM - Mayerling (1968)
James Mason stands out in every one of his films, whether he's the lead or a supporting player. However, for better or worse, Mason's signature role will always be aging academic Humbert Humbert, brought to ruin by his obsession with the decidedly underage Lolita. 

8/13: Deborah Kerr
6 AM - Vacation From Marriage (1945)
3:30 PM - The Sundowners (1960); 8 PM - Black Narcissus (1947)
I saw this film 12 years ago and have been waiting for it to appear on TCM again, so I was delighted to see this film on the schedule this month. Vacation From Marriage was directed by Alexander Korda, co-stars Deborah Kerr and Robert Donat, and boasts an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, but you'd be forgiven if you've never heard of it. It's a unique love story about a married couple separated by war, who find themselves reluctant to reunite. Donat and Kerr are both wonderful, delicately conveying the changes that have occurred in each spouse during their time apart.

8/15: Lillian Gish
8 PM - Intolerance (1916)
6 AM - Broken Blossoms (1919); 1 AM - The Night of the Hunter (1955)
One of cinema's treasures, Lillian Gish is one of the greatest actresses of any era. She is best known for her films with director D.W. Griffith during the silent era. Intolerance is an epic in every sense - grand themes of good and evil, gigantic sets depicting ancient Babylon, and an extra-long running time of 198 minutes - however, it's an essential for any film buff.

8/18: Freddie Bartholomew
10:15 PM - Kidnapped (1938)
8 AM - The Devil is a Sissy (1936); 8 PM - Captains Courageous (1937)
Freddie Bartholomew was simply one of the finest child actors in movie history and one of the few who could truly carry a film on his own strengths. (And somehow you don't totally hate him, even when he's playing spoiled brats.) In this adventure-filled film, Freddie's evil uncle arranges for him to be kidnapped and sent out to sea in order to steal his inheritance.

8/24: Irene Dunne
6:15 PM -  My Favorite Wife (1940)
11 AM - The White Cliffs of Dover (1944); 8 PM - The Awful Truth (1937)
My Favorite Wife, co-starring Cary Grant, is quintessential Irene Dunne - witty, poised, confident, and able to carry off some truly ridiculous hats. She's the type of woman that any man would want to marry and any girl would like to grow up to be. In this film, lucky Cary is already married to Irene...until she is shipwrecked and presumed dead. Of course, she reappears just in time to disrupt Cary's plans for remarriage and prove why she's the superior mate.

8/25: Tyrone Power
8 PM - The Razor's Edge (1946)
12:45 AM - Witness for the Prosecution (1957); 2:30 AM - A Yank in the RAF (1941)
With a face and name (yes, that's his real name) tailor-made for the movies, Tyrone Power seemed destined to make an impression on screen. In The Razor's Edge Power showed dramatic depths that proved he was more than just a pretty face. The film (and novel by W. Somerset Maugham) popularized the idea of "finding" one's self. That's what the main character sets out to do by taking a trip to India, thus inspiring countless spiritual journeys which in turn gave us everything from the late 60s output of The Beatles to Eat Pray Love.