Classic Movie Picks: November 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.)

Star of the Month: Constance Bennett
11/6, 8 PM - Lady With a Past (1932)
11/6, 9:30 PM - Sin Takes a Holiday (1930)
11/20, 8 PM - After Office Hours (1935)
11/20, 9:30 PM - Merrily We Live (1938)
I know Constance Bennett primarily for her delightful performance as a society ghost in Topper (showing 11/20, 11:15 PM), so I'm looking forward to seeing more of her films in the light comedy vein. I love the ease she brings to comedy, but the real highlight of any Connie Bennett film is watching her wear stylish clothes while swanning through gorgeous art deco interiors.

11/9: Man With No Name Trilogy
8 PM - A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
9:45 PM - For a Few Dollars More (1965)
12 AM - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)
For something on the opposite end of the spectrum from Connie Bennett, try Clint Eastwood in a trio of Spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Leone. Before he was Dirty Harry, before he achieved directorial acclaim, before he chastised an empty chair - Clint was The Man With No Name, a lone gunman based on the ronin of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. While they may not feature art deco high rises, Leone's films do have an abundance of style; notably, the famous score by Ennio Morricone which complements the stark desert landscape to create an iconic representation of the Old West.

11/14: Sister, Sister
6 AM - Little Women (1933)
8 AM - Fog Over Frisco (1934)
9:15 AM - Double Wedding (1937)
10:45 AM - The Sisters (1938)
12:30 PM - My Sister Eileen (1942)
2:15 PM - Two Sisters From Boston (1946)
4:15 PM - A Stolen Life (1946)
6:15 PM - Born to Kill (1947)
Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters... - so goes the song from White Christmas. That lyric could describe some of the siblings in today's line-up of films with a sisterly theme - the March girls from Little Women, Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair in My Sister Eileen. This line-up also teaches us that if Bette Davis is your sister, you'd be better off as an only child. This is a perfect day of films for November, the beginning of the holiday season and a time to be with your family, or, on the other hand, to think about why you don't want to be with your family.

11/26, 6:30 PM - The Steel Trap (1952)
I already picked this film when it made its TCM premiere last January because it sounded interesting and co-starred Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. If you missed it then, don't miss it this time - what a gem of a thriller! Cotten plays a middle manager at a bank who devises a plan to rob the bank over the weekend and escape to Brazil with his wife. However, Murphy's Law is in full effect every step of the way. If he decides to turn back, can he replace the money by Monday morning? I was squirming in my seat the whole time, hoping that Cotten could come away clean one way or another.

11/30, 11:15 PM - Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (1954)
Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, a.k.a. Don't Touch the Loot, was directed by Jacques Becker, a former assistant to the great French director Jean Renoir. With this film, Becker set off a new era of French crime films featuring experienced pros whose codes of honor are threatened by changing times - see Rififi, Bob le Flambeur, Le Samourai, Le Cercle Rouge. In Grisbi, the wonderful Jean Gabin plays a gangster who comes out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their loot is demanded as ransom.