Coming Up on TCM

[CineMaven]

Hi folks. My recommendation being pulled straight from today's TCM schedule would be one satire and two thrillers:

3:45 PM Face In The Crowd, A (1957)
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star. Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau. Dir: Elia Kazan. BW-126 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

8:00 PM Mr. Sardonicus (1961)
A man whose face is frozen in a horrible smile forces a doctor to treat him. Cast: Oskar Homolka, Ronald Lewis, Audrey Dalton. Dir: William Castle. BW-90 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

9:45 PM Strait-Jacket (1964)
Murder follows an axe murderer home when she's released from a mental hospital. Cast: Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, George Kennedy. Dir: William Castle. BW-93 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

Andy Griffith gives a towering debut performance in a role that doesn't seem much different than what's going on in cable news today. This movie is kind of scary being presciently written by Budd Schulberg fifty-two years ago. Andy Griffith more than holds his own opposite Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau. Oh, and check out Lee Remick too. She twirls a mean baton!

With the two thrillers, Sardonicus is great fun, and so is Strait-Jacket. Look at Joan near the end of her career swing a mean axe!

[JackFavell]

Oh , I can heartily recommend two of those Cinie!

A Face in the Crowd - I ALWAYS watch this one when it's on.... Pat Neal, superwoman, brought down to crushing earth by her own need.... and Andy Griffith - so appealing right up until the moment he becomes a demagogue.... You can really see how people would fall for him. Heck, I fall for him every time and I have seen the movie at least 5 times! You just can't help it.

Mr. Sardonicus - I saw this one last year, and it blew me away! It creeps me out in just the right campy way. Don't forget to watch out for Oskar Homolka and his little pets.... ewwwww!

[feaito]

I had nightmares when I watched as kid both "Strait-Jacket" and "Mr. Sardonicus", especially the latter. I own them both on DVD and it was great to revisit them -as the camp classics they are- from an adult's point of view, since I hadn't seen them again.

[CineMaven]

Just having watched Walter Huston give a great performance in "DODSWORTH" last night, (and I believe Moira has mentioned this already...may I reiterate this reminder of another Huston screening:

FOR FRIDAY - OCTOBER 23rd, 2009:

2:00 AM Gabriel Over The White House (1933)
A crooked president reforms mysteriously. Cast: Walter Huston, Arthur Byron, Karen Morley. Dir: Gregory La Cava. BW-86 mins, TV-G, CC

And for fans of these two stalwart thirties brunette lovelies - Ruth Hussey and Margaret Lindsay:

7:30 AM Within the Law (1939)
A wrongly convicted woman studies law and seeks her revenge. Cast: RUTH HUSSEY, Tom Neal, Paul Kelly. Dir: Gustav Machaty. BW-65 mins, TV-G

11:45 AM Law in Her Hands, The (1936)
A lady lawyer for the mob tries to break free of her criminal connections. Cast: MARGARET LINDSAY, Warren Hull, Glenda Farrell. Dir: William Clemens. BW-58 mins, TV-G

[Dewey1960]

Hey Maven, WITHIN THE LAW is one of my own personal favorite B pictures. Hussey is a dynamo in it and it's always a refreshing change of pace to see Tom Neal playing a squeaky clean nice guy for a change.

[jdb1]

Hey, all, the excellent sleeper Pretty Poison (1968) is on TCM overnight tomorrow at 2:15 AM. This first-time, low-budget effort by novice director Noel Black is better than it should be, due to the terrific performances of all concerned, especially Tony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. There is a weak and boring made for TV version,from the late 90s, that points up how good the original really is. I believe the TV actor Grant Show plays Perkins' role. Good grief, what were they thinking? The role was perfect for the high-strung yet subtle acting style of Perkins.

I find more in this modest movie every time I see it (primarily in the skillful performances), and it always confirms my belief that Tony Perkins was one of Hollywood's most ill-used and underrated actors. He would have been much better off forsaking Hollywood all together and staying with independent features. I enthusiastically recommend this one.

[Ollie]

Maven, I've got the recorders set for those several Friday a.m. gems.

[ChiO]

Having watched as I recorded WITHIN THE LAW and THE LAW IN HER HANDS, something tells me that I might get Mrs. ChiO to watch the former, but if she watches the latter, she'll disbar me (and more if I don't out run her).

[jdb1]

Amid all the ballyhoo of naming the good movies coming up, I'd like to point out that the now almost-forgotten Targets (1968) will be shown on October 28 at 8 PM. This was Peter Bogdanovich's first commercial release, and it looks it -- it has that very low budget, film school look to it. However, after a somewhat static and talky start, the film settles down into a very well done and pretty disturbing tale of a crazy lone gunman and his random victims. Boris Karloff lends gravitas to the proceedings with a really terrific peformance, playing a fictionalized version of his public self. He makes the climactic scene a real mindblower, as we used to say way back in 1968.

I suppose with all the awful goings-on of the last 40 years, this is not a movie that should be touted and/or shown to the impressionable, but its relevance makes it all the more affecting.

If you watch it and get too upset, you can stick around TCM for the life-affirming Harold and Maude, which follows. Hey. That Harold and Maude song -- I hear it in those phone thingy commericals now. Far out.

[JackFavell]

Harold and Maude is in my top ten favorite movies..... well, top twenty.

[CineMaven]

"Hey, all, the excellent sleeper Pretty Poison (1968) is on TCM overnight tomorrow at 2:15 AM. This first-time, low-budget effort by novice director Noel Black is better than it should be, due to the terrific performances of all concerned, especially Tony Perkins and Tuesday Weld." - jdb1.

Tuesday Weld. Now that's a girl who drives men mad. And if the guy is mad already...she's cool with that in this film. And checking out a bit of "Lord Love A Duck"...I don't know if there was anyone else quite like her.

[knitwit45]

And checking out a bit of "Lord Love A Duck"...I don't know if there was anyone else quite like her. cm

Is Lord Love a Duck a British saying? I can remember everyone said it for a while when the "British Invasion" was going on....and no,Klonnie, I'm not talking about the one in the 1700's

[JackFavell]

I've always liked Tuesday, even when she was in some not so great movies. But I have to say I still like her appearances on Dobie Gillis best, one of the great unsung TV shows of all time.

[CineMaven]

Yes Jackaaay...Thalia Meninger. Poor Zelda. She would never stand a chance with Dobie. Last movie I saw Tuesday Weld in was Michael Douglas' "Falling Down."

[JackFavell]

She was in that??? I should have at least looked at it, except that I hate Michael Douglas and everything he does.

The last movie I watched her in was a TV movie with Peter Coyote about a woman whose boyfriend stole her money and split town. During the course of the film we find that he is a thief, conning women into moving in with him, then stealing their life savings. When Weld finally tracks him down, he can't even remember who she is, he has conned so many women. Not great but a heck of a lot of fun. I can't imagine ANY man not remembering Tuesday......