By Ed Garea
STAR
OF THE MONTH
This
month’s star is Hollywood icon Cary Grant. He’s been in so many
memorable movies that it seemed as if he was always around. Born
Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, England, he left school at age
14, and lying about his age and forging his father’s signature on a
permission slip, Grant joined Bob Pender’s troupe of knockabout
comedians, where he learned pantomime and acrobatics, and even the
Cockney accent, as he toured the English provinces.
In
July 1920, he was one of eight Pender boys selected to go to America
for the Broadway show Good Times, which ran for 456
performances. When the boys returned to England, Grant stayed behind
and worked various productions on the stage. In 1931, he signed with
Paramount, where his name was changed to “Cary Grant.” His first
film was This is the Night in 1932. It was Mae West
who made him a star when she chose him to co-star in She Done
Him Wrong (1933). West was taken with Grant’s combination of
virility and gentlemanly manners. From there, Grant never looked back
and become one of Hollywood’s most popular stars until his
retirement at the age of 62. Many of his films are considered
classics by film buffs around the world.
December
1 - We begin with a night of early Grant, starting with his
first feature, This is the Night at
8:00 pm. Following at 9:30 and 10:45 are two films with Mae West, She
Done Him Wrong, and I’m
No Angel. Then, at 12:30 am, it’s the World War I
drama, The Eagle and the
Hawk (1933), followed at 2:00 am by 1932’s Hot
Saturday. Rounding out the evening at 4:00 am
is Suzy (1936),
with Jean Harlow and Franchot Tone.
December
2: Two early morning flicks - The
Toast of New York (1937) at 6:00 am, followed by
the biopic Night and Day (1946)
at 8:00.
December
8: A night of vintage Grant, beginning at 8:00 pm with An
Affair to Remember (1957), with Deborah Kerr. At
10:00 pm it’s the classic Topper (1937),
followed at midnight by the 1948 comedy with Myrna Loy and Melvin
Douglas, Mr. Blandings Builds His
Dream House. At 1:45 am is the George Stevens directed
classic, The Talk of the
Town (1942), with Grant in the offbeat role (for
him) of playing an anarchist framed for arson and murder. He is
hiding out at the home of his friend Jean Arthur, who has rented her
house for the summer to Harvard law professor Ronald Colman. It makes
for a most thoughtful comedy, and one that will stick with the viewer
for long afterward.
December
9: Again a spillover from the night before, with two films
on the slate. At 7 am it’s the heartwarming Room
For One More, followed by 1943’s wartime
comedy/drama Mr. Lucky.
December
15: A slate of adventures, beginning with Grant as a
submarine commander in 1943’s Destination
Tokyo. At 10:30 am, the genre shifts to a war comedy
with Howard Hawks’ I Was a Male
War Bride (1948), with Ann Sheridan. At 12:30 am,
it’s the classic adventure Gunga
Din (1939), followed at 2:45 am by Howard Hawks’
1939 Only Angels Have Wings.
FRIDAY
NIGHT SPOTLIGHT
December’s
Friday Night Spotlight is dedicated to the films of overlooked
director Charles Walters. Walters began his Hollywood career as a
choreographer, and was given a break as a director with the 1947
musical Good News. The movie was a hit, and
Walters went on to helm some of the finest MGM musicals of that
golden age of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, when every film that
came off the assembly line was a hit.
December
5: We begin with Good News at
8:00 pm, and go on to 1948’s Easter
Parade with Judy Garland and Fred Astaire at
9:45. Then at 11:45, it’s the reunion of Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers in The Barkley’s of
Broadway (1948). At 1:45 am, it’s The
Belle of New York (1952), and a rare non-musical,
Three Guys Named Mike (1951)
at 3:15.
December
12: We begin with Judy Garland in Summer
Stock (1950) at 8:00 pm. At 10:00 pm, it’s
Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrer in the delightful Lili (1953).
Esther Williams proves she’s Dangerous
When Wet (1953) at 11:30. At 1:15 am, it’s Joan
Crawford in the overwrought romantic musical Torch
Song from 1953, and finally, Esther Williams and
Red Skelton in 1951’s Texas
Carnival.
‘TIS
THE SEASON
Thursdays
in December are dedicated to Christmas Classics with some of our
holiday favorites scheduled for us to enjoy.
December
4: Start at 8:00 pm with the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck/Fred
MacMurray Remember the Night (1940).
Boasting a witty screenplay by none other than Preston Sturges,
MacMurray is an assistant D.A. who, rather than send shoplifter
Stanwyck to jail for the holiday while awaiting trial, takes her home
with him for the holiday. He first tries to take her to stay with her
mother in Indiana, but her mother wants no part of her. So he takes
her to his childhood home for a very merry Christmas where they fall
in love. Sturges said of the movie that it “had quite a lot of
schmaltz, a good dose of schmerz and just enough schmutz to make it
box office."
Next
up are Stanwyck and Gary Cooper in Frank Capra’s Meet
John Doe (1941) at 10:00 pm. Then it’s Garland
and Van Johnson in MGM’s In the
Good Old Summertime (1949) at 12:15, followed by
one of the greatest Christmas films - Judy Garland and Margaret
O’Brien starring in Meet Me in St.
Louis (1944) at 2:15. Garland sings what later
became a holiday standard, “Have Yourself a Very Little Christmas”
in this heartwarming slice of turn-of-the-century Americana.
December
11: The picks tonight begin with Ernst Lubitsch’s Holiday
classic, The Shop Around the
Corner (1940) at 8:00 pm. Jimmy Stewart and
Margaret Sullavan star as co-workers who have no idea that they are
secret romantic open pals. At 9:45, it’s Robert Mitchum and Wendell
Corey wooing war widow Janet Leigh in 1949’s Holiday
Affair. And at 11:30, Monogram Studios makes a
contribution to the season with It
Happened on 5th Avenue (1947),
starring Victor Moore, Don DeFoe, and the lovely Ann Harding. Lay
aside any prejudice against the Poverty Row studio and just sit back
and enjoy. It’s a good movie.
OUT
OF THE ORDINARY
December
2: Warren William is always fun to watch, and beginning at
10:15 am, TCM is running a slew of his films, beginning with the
funny political satire Dark Horse (1932),
with Guy Kibbee and the young Bette Davis. Following at 11:45 is the
naughty Pre-Code Under
Eighteen (1932) with Marian Marsh. At 1:15 pm,
it’s The Woman From Monte Carlo,
a rather ordinary programmer save for the fact that it’s the only
American appearance of German actress Lil Dagover, who was most
famous from 1919’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
At 2:30 pm, it’s Don’t Bet on
Blondes (1935) with Claire Dodd and Guy Kibbee,
and we end with 1946’s Fear,
from Monogram, at 3:30 pm. William is a detective who uses
psychological means to wring a confession out of suspect Peter
Cookson.
December
3: A night of Ingmar Bergman classics, featuring the films
we’ve seen and loved over the years. It begins at 8:00 pm
with Smiles of a Summer Night (1955).
Following in order are Wild
Strawberries (1957) at 10:00, The
Seventh Seal (1957) at 11:45, Through
a Glass Darkly (1961) at 1:30 am, Winter
Light (1962) at 3:15 am, and the rarely seen The
Silence (1964) at 4:45. For those new to Bergman,
all are worth the time. Just check the synopsis in the TCM TiVo Alert
and choose.
December
12: A mini-marathon of Edward G. Robinson begins at 7:30 am
with 1930’s The Widow From
Chicago, worth catching for Robinson’s performance.
At 8:45, it’s Smart Money from
1931, the only film where both Robinson and James Cagney appeared
together. Also on the slate is Tiger
Shark from 1932 (10:15), directed by Howard Hawks
and remade several times by Warner’s; Bullets
or Ballots (1936) with Joan Blondell and Humphrey
Bogart at 2:45 pm; Kid
Galahad (1937), with Bette Davis and Bogart;
and The Last Gangster (1937)
at 6:00 pm.
PSYCHOTRONICA
December
11: We could call this morning and afternoon mini-marathon
“The Women of Psychotronica.” It starts at 8:15 am with a film
I’ve never seen before, Miss Robin
Crusoe from 20th Century Fox
(1953). It’s a distaff take on Defoe’s classic story with Amanda
Blake (Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke) as a shipwrecked woman
fighting to survive on a desert island. Rosalind Hayes is Friday, and
George Nader is along for the ride as Jonathan. The only thing I know
about it - and the reason I’ll be tuning in - is that it’s said
to be a laff riot. And that’s enough of a recommendation for me.
At
9:30 am, it’s Island of Lost
Women from WB (1959), with Jeff Richards and John
Smith as downed flyers that find themselves trapped in a reclusive
scientist’s estate. He happens to have three beautiful daughters
living with him, so take it from there.
Hammer
takes over at 11:00 am with the study Prehistoric
Women, a laff riot from 1967 with Martine Beswick as
the queen of the evil brunette tribe that hold blondes as slaves.
Great stuff.
It’s
Hammer again at 12:45 with The
Viking Queen (1967). Don Murray is a Roman
captain who tries to stop his troops and the Druids from destroying a
Briton settlement ruled over by the titular character, Salina, played
by the equally singularly named Carita. This woman has all the screen
presence of the Invisible Man and is a hoot to watch emote on the
screen. Hammer had big plans for her, but everything fizzled with
this movie.
Hammer
had better luck with the 2:30 pm film, She (1965)
because they had the good sense to star Ursula Andress as the
immortal queen. It’s by no means a screen classic, but it is a lot
better than the 1935 RKO original. Unfortunately, Hammer didn’t
know when to quit and followed this film up with the wretched
1968 The Vengeance of She,
in which the queen of the lost city possesses the body of a young
innocent, played by the immortal Olinka Berova, a Czech actress best
known for films in her home country. If she was trying to make a name
for herself in the English-speaking world, she should have tried
something else.
The
day ends at 6:15 with the film that made Raquel Welch the poster girl
of teenage boys everywhere, Hammer’s One
Million Years B.C. (1966). Raquel is Loana, a
sexier version of Wilma Flintstone. Her rival is Nupondi (Martine
Beswick), and yes, they get into the inevitable catfight. There’s
also animation by Ray Harryhausen, though the producers ran out of
money and reverted to the old lizards-with-horns glued on in one
scene. The dialogue never gets beyond grunting, but who cares? Raquel
sports a fur bikini, which is enough to get us to tune in.
December
13: TCM
Underground gives us a double feature of psychotronica, beginning
with the absurd The
Manitou (1978)
at 2:30 am, and followed by the sublime The
Beast With Five Fingers (1946)
at 4:15. The latter’s plot is the old chestnut of a murdered
pianist’s hand returning to wreak revenge, but it’s never been
done better. Robert Alda stars, but Peter Lorre walks away with the
movie as the late pianist’s secretary. Luis Bunuel asserted he
wrote the screenplay but both director Robert Florey and the
producers disputed Bunuel’s claim.
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