How do you feel about actress
Laraine Day? I like her though I am not sure why. The lovely eyes? The warmth in her voice? The kindly if curiously bland manner? The way she wore her hat? Does it matter? She's just nice (even when she's bad).
Monday is Laraine Day's Birthday. In honor of this, TCM is airing many of her B films, listed below, along with a few of her A pictures too. Too bad
The Locket, her best film dramatically, was shown once earlier this month and one of her most memorable,
Foreign Correspondent, is being aired on Sun., Oct. 19th at 5:45pm (ET). Her appearances opposite Lew Ayres in the Dr. Kildare series are being aired this month with her final appearance as Nurse Lamont coming up this Sat., Oct. 18th in
Dr. Kildare's Crisis (1941)--bring your hankies for this one.
On Monday, TCM is showing her last co-starring film with Ayres,
Fingers at the Window, which the pair made together at MGM just before Lew filed for C.O. status and got the public heave-ho from the studio. (The movie is good fun with Lew and her as an unlikely couple and a certain Mr. Rathbone along for the jaunt).
If anyone has seen these movies being shown on Monday and has an opinion, I hope you'll share it here. I am especially curious about
A Yank on the Burma Road (Barry Nelson, war god?!) and
Unholy Partners (Eddie vs. Eddie?). It has been about two decades since I last clapped eyes on
Tycoon, but I do remember John Wayne building a dam, getting p.o.ed a great deal, and Laraine being restricted from personal expression by her dad (Cedric Hardwicke, if you can believe that miracle of genetics) while his sister Judith Anderson acts as duenna. :
Monday Oct. 13th
6:00 AM
The Painted Desert (1938)
A cowboy and a bandit face off over possession of a valuable mine.
Dir: David Howard Cast: George O'Brien , Laraine Johnson (Later Laraine Day), Ray Whitley .
BW-59 mins, CC,
7:15 AM
And One Was Beautiful (1940)
Two sisters vie for the same dashing young man.
Dir: Robert B. Sinclair Cast: Robert Cummings , Laraine Day , Jean Muir .
BW-70 mins, CC,
8:30 AM
Unholy Partners (1941)
A gangster helps pay a tabloid editor's debts to gain control of the paper.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy Cast: Edward G. Robinson , Edward Arnold , Laraine Day .
BW-94 mins, CC,
10:15 AM
A Yank on the Burma Road (1942)
The Pearl Harbor attack inspires a truck driver in the Far East to join the war effort.
Dir: George B. Seitz Cast: Laraine Day , Barry Nelson , Stuart Crawford .
BW-67 mins, CC,
11:30 AM
Journey for Margaret (1942)
An American correspondent tries to adopt two children orphaned during the London blitz.
Dir: Major W. S. Van Dyke II Cast: Robert Young , Laraine Day , Fay Bainter .
BW-81 mins, CC,
1:00 PM
Fingers at the Window (1942)
A magician uses hypnosis to create an army of murderers.
Dir: Charles Lederer Cast: Lew Ayres , Laraine Day , Basil Rathbone .
BW-81 mins, CC,
2:30 PM
Mr. Lucky (1943)
A gambling-ship owner is out to fleece a beautiful society woman, but falls in love.
Dir: H. C. Potter Cast: Cary Grant , Laraine Day , Charles Bickford .
BW-100 mins, CC,
4:15 PM
Bride by Mistake (1944)
An heiress poses as her own secretary to screen out fortune-hunting suitors.
Dir: Richard Wallace Cast: Alan Marshal , Laraine Day , Marsha Hunt .
BW-81 mins, CC,
5:45 PM
Tycoon (1947)
While building a tunnel through the Andes, an engineer falls in love with his possessive boss's daughter.
Dir: Richard Wallace Cast: John Wayne , Laraine Day , Sir Cedric Hardwicke .
C-129 mins, CC,
