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by Lani
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.)
9/14: Directed by Sidney Lumet
8 PM - Deathtrap (1982)
10:15 PM - Running on Empty (1988)
12:30 AM - The Verdict (1982)
2:45 AM - Just Tell Me What You Want (1980)
4:45 AM - Bye Bye Braverman (1968)
Tonight's line-up spotlights the films of the versatile director Sidney Lumet, ranging from mystery-thriller to courtroom drama to romantic comedy. Trained as an actor in the theatre, Lumet was known for bringing out great performances from his actors and made several successful film adaptations of stage plays. Deathtrap was a hit play on Broadway in the late 70s, the story of a washed-up playwright who plots to murder a younger writer and steal his work. Starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve, the film's twist may seem less shocking to today's audiences, but it is still a fun thriller. Running on Empty follows a family on the run from the law and how the actions of the parents have had (predictably) adverse effects on their children. Screenwriter Naomi Foner and River Phoenix, portraying the rebellious teenage son, both received Oscar nominations. The Verdict features a great performance by Paul Newman as an alcoholic lawyer with a challenging case. The last two films tonight -- Just Tell Me What You Want and Bye Bye Braverman -- are two comedies set in Lumet's home base of New York City. Both films make the most of the location, such as Just Tell Me's fight inside Manhattan department store Bergdorff-Goodman, and feature eclectic casts including Myrna Loy, Alan King, Ali McGraw, George Segal, Jack Warden, and Joseph Wiseman (aka Bond villain Dr. No).
9/15, 6:15 PM - Agatha (1979)
This film comes at the end of a day-long birthday tribute to writer Agatha Christie featuring film versions of some of her best-loved mystery stories. However, Agatha takes the author herself as the subject of the central mystery, speculating on what might have happened during Christie's eleven-day disappearance in 1926. Vanessa Redgrave portrays Christie and Dustin Hoffman stars as an American journalist who befriends her.
9/19: Starring Anton Walbrook
8 PM - The Red Shoes (1948)
10:30 PM - The Soldier and the Lady (1937)
12 AM - I Accuse! (1950)
It's always a treat when Anton Walbrook shows up in a film. Originally from Austria (aka Adolf Wohlbrueck), his acting career flourished as a character actor in British films with some of his best roles in collaboration with the Archers -- filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, including tonight's first film, The Red Shoes. Walbrook is wonderful as the controlling ballet impresario Boris Lermontov. Even though he's the villain of the piece, I always find myself perking up during his scenes -- some feat considering the film's famous dance sequences. I Accuse! is director-star Jose Ferrer's take on the Dreyfus affair, a notorious espionage scandal from 1890s France. Often cast as the villain, Walbrook portrays the traitorous Maj. Esterhazy. The Soldier and the Lady was Walbrook's first Hollywood film and he stars as a Russian courier who must trek behind enemy lines to deliver military messages. It should be a nice change to see Walbrook as the hero in this one!
9/29, 12 PM - The Age of Innocence (1934)
In this first film adaptation of Edith Wharton's prize-winning novel, Irene Dunne stars as the glamorous Countess Olenska who catches the eye of a young attorney engaged to another woman. I've read that this film is perhaps inferior to Martin Scorsese's wonderful 1993 version starring Michelle Pfeiffer. However, I'm such a fan of Dunne's that I'm very interested in seeing her take on this emotionally complex part.
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.)
First things first, as of this week the delightfully dark romantic comedy A New Leaf is finally available on DVD! It stars Walter Matthau as a spoiled Manhattanite who can't accept the fact that he's broke. A solution to his money troubles appears in the form of a mousy, but rich, botanist played by Elaine May, who also wrote and directed the film. Their romance is a bit awkward, since Matthau plans to follow marriage with murder; however, the film overall is funny, sweet, and completely unique. If you haven't seen this film, and don't mind taking a risk, buy this now (or at least rent it)!
9/2: Give 'em a hand
8 PM - Hands of a Stranger (1962)
9:45 PM - The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
11:30 PM - Mad Love (1935)
12:45 AM - The Hands of Orlac (1925)
In an interesting bit of programming, tonight the TCM elves have given us 3 versions of the same tale - The Hands of Orlac, Mad Love, and Hands of a Stranger - in which an experimental operation gives a concert pianist the hands of a murderer, hands which are not necessarily under his control. Then, in a twist, the elves have thrown in a film with an almost opposite story: In The Beast with Five Fingers a concert pianist's hand is severed, and the hand goes on to become a murderer itself!
9/3, 10:45 AM - The Dot and the Line (1965)
This Academy Award-winning animated short by Chuck Jones is simply delightful. Simple - in that the characters are a dot and a line; delightful - because it succeeds in giving these shapes personalities. A romance for the ages alongside Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Scarlet and Rhett, or Harry and Sally.
9/10: Choreo by Jack Cole
8 PM - Tonight and Every Night (1945)
10 PM - On the Riviera (1951)
11:45 PM - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
1:30 AM - Les Girls (1957)
3:30 AM - River of No Return (1954)
As a huge fan of movie musicals, I've certainly seen the work of Jack Cole; however, I was completely unaware of it. So I'm grateful for TCM's tribute to Cole this month and looking forward to learning more about this extremely influential, but little known choreographer. Plus, tonight's line-up gives me a chance to see some of my favorite musical stars - Rita Hayworth, Danny Kaye, and Gene Kelly - in films that aren't shown very often on TCM.
9/16: Around the World with Maggie Smith!
8 PM - Travels with My Aunt (1972)
10 PM - Love, and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973)
It may come as a surprise to some younger viewers, but Dame Maggie Smith, recognizable today as proper schoolmarm Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter series and Downtown Abbey's Dowager Countess (the Edwardian version of the sassy grandma), was young once. But even as a young woman, like Angela Lansbury before her, Smith often played above her age. Never so much as in Travels with My Aunt, which casts the not-yet-forty Smith as a septuagenarian. The role was originally meant for Katharine Hepburn, but Smith was able to make it her own, earning a Best Actress nomination. In Love... Maggie is once again cast as the older woman opposite a younger leading man. However, she's playing much closer to her own age as a 40 year old "spinster" who has a love affair with an 18 year old college dropout (Timothy Bottoms) on a bus trip through Spain.
By Agatha Christie
9/23, 8 PM - Ten Little Indians (1966)
9/26, 2:15 AM - Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
I love mysteries and I'm on a bit of a Christie kick lately, so I'm looking forward to these adaptations of two of her most popular stories. Ten Little Indians diverges a bit from the original story, but retains the main plot of 10 strangers trapped in a remote location and bumped off one-by-one. Murder on the Orient Express hews much closer to Christie's book and features a formidable cast of stars including Albert Finney as detective Hercule Poirot. This film along with two other all-star adaptations of Poirot stories, Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982), offer a great introduction to Christie's work.
Thursdays in September: Mack Sennett
Producer and director Mack Sennett was a comedy pioneer who worked with many of the great talents of the silent era including Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, the Keystone Cops, and Mabel Normand. TCM is showing 83 shorts and 4 feature-length films by Sennett every Thursday this month in primetime.
