January, February and March TCM Schedules are up

[moira finnie]

I couldn't find the links to the TCM Schedules for the next three months on our site, so I've added them here, HOW can it be 2010 so soon?:

January 2010 on TCM

February 2010 on TCM

March 2010 on TCM

Enjoy

[jdb1]

I've only looked over January so far, and it seems like we're getting a month of good movies, with something for everyone. I'd like to point out a few:

1/2 @ 8PM - Lolita (1962). A very watered-down version of the scandalous novel, but not terrible, and the three stars, James Mason, Shelley Winters and Sue Lyon, are very good. I don't really understand what Peter Sellers is supposed to be -- his character appears hardly at all in the book. One quibble, even with this bowdlerized version of the story, is that the movie never quite seems to take a stand -- is it a drama, a comedy, a psychological study?

1/3 @ 12PM - Lunch with Steve McQueen in The Reivers (1969). Based on a story by Faulkner - the picaresque adventures of some country slackers. Minor, but entertaining.

1/3 @ 2PM - Hooray for The Egg and I (1947). I think some of us who have seen this comedy starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray -- and introducing -- Ma and Pa Kettle! -- don't like it as much as I do, but I think this one is so very wry and tongue-in-cheek. Can't wait to record it.

1/4 @ 4:15PM - My Favorite Year (1982), a very sweet memoirist kind of comedy based on the behind the scenes antics at the Sid Caesar TV show of the 1950s, with the very good and underused comic actor Mark Linn-Baker as the youngest writer on the staff. Peter O'Toole gives a very affecting performance as a burnt-out Erroll Flynn type who is a guest star on the show (or is that a burnt-out Peter O'Toole type? Same difference, I guess). Joseph Bologna is very funny as the monstrously self-important Sid Caesar character, who is called King Kaiser. The scenes wherein the young man takes the guest star home to dinner in Brooklyn are hilarious.

[jdb1]

More on the January schedule:

1/9 @2PM - Fear Strikes Out (1957). An extremely simplistic treatment of the book by baseball player Jimmy Piersall about his battle with mental illness, but an extremely fine performance by Anthony Perkins as the beleaguered young athlete.

1/17 @ 2:15AM - Every time I see Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries (1957) I'm a little older, and every time, I find something new in it that gets to me more and more. One of cinema's greatest.

1/18 @ 4:15AM - When is the last time The Goddess (1958) was shown anywhere? A very good portrait of the disintegration of a glamorous movie star who has little going for her in her life except for her image. The excellent and rarely-seen Kim Stanley plays the actress, who is based on Monroe, Hayworth and others. Early on, watch for a lovely scene with Patty Duke as the younger version of the main character. She'll break your heart.

1/21 @ 11:45AM - A morning of Edw. G. Robinson films, including one called Two Seconds (1932). The description says a man on death row reviews his life. I don't know this one -- can anyone comment?

1/22 @ 8PM - Tit for Tat (1935), a Laurel and Hardy short. In this one, they do that total destruction of property for revenge thing they did so well.

1/24 @ 2:45AM - Max Ophuls' Lola Montes (1955), which has been discussed here recently. I haven't yet seen this one, and will be interested to do so.

[jdb1]

Sorry, but I've had to break this up because my laptop won't let me type too much in the box. I have two more:

1/27 @ 2PM - Lucy and Desi star in Forever, Darling (1956). This one is nowhere near as good as their other movie,The Long, Long Trailer, but it's interesting anyway. I am sure I read somewhere that this script, by Helen Deutsch, was intended originally for Tracy and Hepburn. That's the interesting part of this movie, because a lot of the dialogue sounds much more Tracy-Hepburn than Lucy-Desi. In any event, it's a pretty movie, and rather bittersweet - a couple seems to be on the outs, but an angel helps them get together again. The angel is played by James Mason, which is another interesting dynamic. The movie also features Louis Calherne and Natalie Schaffer who, twenty years before, had been married to each other.

1/31 @ 3:45AM - Robert Redford directed Ordinary People (1980). This is not an easy movie. It's a sad story of a family torn apart by the death of a son, and the guilt and recriminations that followed. The three stars, Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland and Timothy Hutton, are really extra-ordinary here. Hutton got an Oscar. Moore is absolutely wonderful at being awful, as the mother who can't forgive her younger son for not being the one who died. I think the saddest element of the story is that it is all too real, and a lot of us probably know of similar circumstances in real life. The final brief scene, with the father and son just sitting together, is as eloquent as if they were speaking out loud. Donald Sutherland is one of Hollywood's greatest assets. I can forget all about his silly offscreen antics when I see a performance like the one he gives here.

[moira finnie]

1/21 @ 11:45AM - A morning of Edw. G. Robinson films, including one called Two Seconds (1932). The description says a man on death row reviews his life. I don't know this one -- can anyone comment?

I have read that this features an extraordinary early performance by Robinson, but I've never seen Two Seconds either. The fact that it was directed by a young Mervyn LeRoy during his rambunctious Warner Brothers years is a plus for me too.

I love the way that you described the effect of Wild Strawberries. It is a film that never ceases to deepen my appreciation of the richness of the themes or Victor Sjöström.

[markfp]

Just remember, as TCM has reminded us, all schedules, especially those several months out, are "works in progress" and subject to change.

[Bob]

Another one to make note of is Borzage's MOONRISE on Feb 3. Borzage's sole excursion into noir territory establishes a romantic melancholy mood, with the ill-fated Gail Russell and Dane Clark - the poor man's John Garfield. My copy of this was from an old UK broadcast, so this will surely be an upgrade.

[Dewey1960]

I'll second Bob's mention of MOONRISE, a truly beautiful, poetic noir. Not to be missed!!