Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule 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.)
I haven't done this in a few years, but this month, in honor of TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" programming which devotes an entire day's line-up to one actor or actress, I'm picking one film for each day of the month. Most of these picks are films that I haven't seen before, but that is one of the things I love about Summer Under the Stars -- the chance to discover new films from favorite actors and actresses. If you don't agree with my choice for your favorite star, just tune in any time during the 24 hour mini-marathon and catch another great film!
8/1: Jane Fonda
5:45 PM - The China Syndrome (1979)
This tense drama features Fonda, during a peak period in her career, as a TV reporter who witnesses a meltdown at a nuclear power plant.
8/2: David Niven
10 PM - Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
Niven stars as Phileas Fogg in this adaptation of Jules Verne's classic novel. The extensive cast, exotic locations, and lavish sets and costumes make it feast for the eyes.
8/3: Walter Pidgeon
3:30 PM - Scandal at Scourie (1953)
This one may seem like an odd choice, but I find it so interesting to watch films from the past that deal with social issues which are virtually irrelevant for modern audiences. In this case, Pidgeon and frequent co-star Greer Garson play a Protestant couple who adopt a Catholic orphan, thus causing a scandal and threatening Pidgeon's political career.
8/4: Judy Garland
6 PM - Summer Stock (1950)
In this delightful musical, Garland plays a farmer (!) whose younger sister allows a theatre troupe, led by Gene Kelly, to take over the family barn. Of course, when the show needs a new leading lady, Kelly discovers that the lady farmer also happens to be a pro at singing and dancing...naturally.
8/5: Barbara Stanwyck
10 PM - Night Nurse (1931)
Stanwyck plays the title character in this pre-Code melodrama, as a nurse looking after two young children who are being abused by their neglectful mother and her violent chauffeur.
8/6: Paul Muni
9:30 PM - Scarface (1932)
Muni stars as the original Scarface (a character unofficially based on Al Capone) in a film which shocked audiences at the time for its violence and vulgarity. How does it hold up against modern gangster films?
8/7: James Stewart
This farce set in the theatre world was the only co-starring vehicle for Stewart and Rosalind Russell. Russell plays a successful Broadway actress and Stewart is the naive Minnesota playwright who charms her into a marriage.
8/8: Jeanne Moreau
10:15 PM - Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
In this French thriller, Moreau and her lover plan the seemingly "perfect murder," but their plan goes awry with unpredictable results.
8/9: William Powell
11:45 PM - Crossroads (1942)
I had never heard of this whodunit drama in which a diplomat is blackmailed for crimes he can't remember, but I love William Powell in just about everything. Co-stars Hedy Lamarr and Basil Rathbone just sweeten the pot.
8/10: Carole Lombard
10 PM - True Confession (1937)
Lombard is in her element here as a pathological liar who ends up confessing to a murder she didn't commit. Fred MacMurray plays her straitlaced husband and defense lawyer.
8/11: Marlon Brando
8:30 AM - The Young Lions (1958)
This World War II film tells stories of soldiers on both sides. Brando stars as a Nazi officer and Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin play American soldiers.
8/12: Alexis Smith
9 AM - One Last Fling (1949)
In this light, husband-wife comedy Smith plays a wife who ran the family business during the war. Now that her husband has returned, she finds life as a housewife boring and jumps at a chance to go back to work at their store -- and keep tabs on husband Zachary Scott.
8/13: Cary Grant
9:30 PM - Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
The dashing Cary Grant is in total goofball mode here as the increasingly frustrated Mr. Blandings, yearning for the simple life with wife Myrna Loy and family in the Connecticut countryside, but thwarted at every turn.
8/14: Charles Chaplin
9 PM - A Dog's Life (1918)
9:45 PM - The Kid (1921)
These silent films directed by and starring Chaplin are both under 1 hour each, so why not watch both? Chaplin shares the screen with two adorable co-stars, the adorable dog Mutt and young Jackie Coogan (possibly the cutest kid to ever act on film).
8/15: Faye Dunaway
8 PM - The Three Musketeers (1973)
Dunaway plays the duplicitous Milady de Winter in this comedic take on the Musketeers story, which stands out from other adaptations for its combination of slapstick and swashbuckle.
8/16: Herbert Marshall
10:15 PM - Murder! (1930)
This Alfred Hitchcock mystery was Herbert Marshall's first "talkie." He plays a juror who, unconvinced of the jury's guilty verdict, sets out to solve the murder and prove the condemned woman innocent.
8/17: John Hodiak
12 AM - The Harvey Girls (1946)
Hodiak gets to sing and dance alongside Judy Garland in this musical about a battle of wills on the American frontier between the upstanding Harvey House waitresses and the denizens of the town saloon.
8/18: Claudette Colbert
10 PM - Skylark (1941)
Ray Milland's neglect of wife Colbert drives her into the arms of handsome lawyer Brian Aherne to form the love triangle at the heart of this marital comedy.
8/19: Paul Newman
6 AM - The Rack (1956)
This military courtroom drama is a showcase for Newman's talent in one of his earliest film roles, He plays a Korean war veteran accused of breaking under torture and put on trial for treason.
8/20: Thelma Ritter
11:30 PM - The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951)
With wisecracking character actress Thelma Ritter starring as a marriage broker-for-hire who interferes in the love life of model Jeanne Crain, this film doesn't look like your average romantic comedy.
8/21: Lee Tracy
6:30 PM - Turn Back the Clock (1933)
In this film Tracy plays a middle-aged man who gets the chance to go back in time and live his life over again. Look for the Three Stooges (before they were the Stooges) in cameos as wedding singers.
8/22: Audrey Hepburn
9:30 AM - Secret People (1952)
I've seen just about every Audrey Hepburn movie, so I was excited to see this unfamiliar title in today's line up. Hepburn plays a supporting role as the younger of two refugee sisters who become connected to an assassination plot.
8/23: Ernest Borgnine
11:45 PM - The Badlanders (1958)
This western remake of heist classic The Asphalt Jungle stars Borgnine alongside Alan Ladd and future wife Katy Jurado.
8/24: Gladys George
10 PM - Madame X (1937)
Character actress Gladys George takes center stage here as a woman who abandoned her family and is reunited years later with her son when he must defend her in a murder trial.
8/25: Dick Powell
2:45 PM - Hard to Get (1938)
Powell plays a gas station owner who sparks with a spoiled heiress played by Olivia deHavilland -- sure it's an old story, but it works. And I love to hear Dick Powell sing, so I'm happy that he gets at least one musical number in this film: "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" written by Johnny Mercer.
8/26: Sophia Loren
12:15 AM - Arabesque (1966)
Loren plays an exotic spy opposite Gregory Peck's straitlaced professor in this fun spy caper directed by Stanley Donen.
8/27: Edmond O'Brien
8 PM - D.O.A. (1950)
In this inventive noir O'Brien plays a victim of a slow-acting poison who sets out to solve his own murder before the poison kills him.
8/28: Arlene Dahl
10:30 PM - Wicked as They Come (1956)
Dishy bad girl Dahl uses seduction to manipulate a series of men and move higher up the food chain. The tag line says it all: "What she wanted out of life...she got out of men!"
8/29: Joseph Cotten
9:45 PM - Duel in the Sun (1946)
Cotten plays the honorable Jesse McCanles caught in a love triangle with his amoral half brother Lewt (Gregory Peck) and the fiery Pearl (Jennifer Jones) in this epic western.
8/30: Betty Grable
10 PM - Down Argentine Way (1940)
Grable is at her charming, likeable best as an American girl who falls in love with an Argentinian horse breeder (the also charming Don Ameche). Look for outlandish costumes and vivacious musical numbers featuring Carmen Miranda and the Nicholas Brothers.
8/31: Alan Ladd
11 AM - The Man in the Net (1959)
Finish off the month with this little-known drama directed by Michael Curtiz in which Ladd plays a reclusive artist falsely accused of murdering his wife. In an interesting twist, it's the children of the town who come to his aid to clear his name.
