Classic Movie Picks: March 2013

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.)

3/4, 8 PM - Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Though Robert Donat is the star, and won the Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Mr. Chips, Greer Garson as Chips's wife Kathy is the lynchpin of this film. This was her first movie role, but I can't imagine any other actress in the part - she's just that perfect. Garson also earned an Oscar nomination, her first of seven, but she wouldn't win until 1942's Mrs. Miniver (showing 3/11 at 8 PM). However, it was the beginning of a great career as one of MGM's top leading ladies. Garson is TCM's Star of the Month for March and you can catch her films Monday nights all month long.

3/7: Musical Paris
8 PM - Can-Can (1960)
10:15 PM - Love Me Tonight (1932)
12 AM - Folies Bergere de Paris (1935)
1:30 AM - Roberta (1935)
3:30 AM - April in Paris (1952)
One of my favorite cities serves as the backdrop for five musicals tonight. Two of them (Love Me Tonight & Folies Bergere) star that quintessential Frenchman Maurice Chevalier. If you only remember the white-haired Chevalier crooning "Thank heaven, for little girls..." in Gigi, you may get a kick out of seeing him as a young casanova in the light musical comedies that made him a star in the 30s.

3/14: Double Agents
8 PM - 13 Rue Madeleine (1946)
9:45 PM - The House on 92nd Street (1945)
Tonight's line-up includes two documentary-style thrillers from director Henry Hathaway about uncovering Nazi double-agents. 13 Rue Madeleine stars James Cagney as an O.S.S. agent looking for a German missile site (and spies) in France. The House on 92nd Street concerns FBI agents in New York who must stop the Germans from obtaining the atom bomb formula.

BONUS PICK: 11:30 PM - Ice Station Zebra (1968) - A sub commander Rock Hudson must find the Soviet agent aboard his ship on a perilous mission to the North Pole.

3/17, 3:45 AM - Tomorrow, the World!  (1944)
An interesting film from the WWII period which attempts to portray "everyday" Germans, not just Nazi stereotypes (or double agents as in the films on 3/14). A young teenager (played by Skippy Homeier, who had played the same role to much acclaim on Broadway) is sent from his German home to live with American relatives. They soon discover that the boy has has been indoctrinated into the Nazi youth and uncle Fredric March must teach him a lesson about tolerance.

3/20, 8PM - For All Mankind (1989)
This documentary about the Apollo program and the race to the moon was assembled from extensive footage from NASA's archives, much of it shot by the astronauts themselves.