Thrilling Days of Yesteryear

When worlds collide #77

2009-12-16T08:30:00.000-05:00

“Did you Bogie with your baby…”

2009-12-16T05:30:00.001-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen—start your DVRs, TiVos and any other recording device that strikes your fancy! TCM’s Star of the Month tribute to Thrilling Days of Yesteryear idol Humphrey Bogart continues in one half-hour, and will feature these Bogie favorites (titles highlighted in green will be new additions to the dusty TDOY archives):

6:00 AM Becoming Attractions: Humphrey Bogart (1996)

Host Robert Osborne takes a look at Humphrey Bogart's rise to stardom through the marketing of his movie trailors. C-45 mins, TV-G, CC

7:00 AM Return Of Doctor X, The (1939)

A murderer returns from the grave with a thirst for blood. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, Dennis Morgan. Dir: Vincent Sherman. BW-63 mins, TV-PG, CC

8:15 AM You Can't Get Away With Murder (1939)

A young tough takes the rap for a hardened gangster. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Billy Halop, Gale Page. Dir: Lewis Seiler. BW-79 mins, TV-G, CC

9:45 AM Brother Orchid (1940)

After a failed hit, a mob chief recuperates in a monastery. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. BW-88 mins, TV-PG, CC

11:15 AM It All Came True (1940)

A gangster hides out in a boardinghouse full of eccentrics. Cast: Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, ZaSu Pitts. Dir: Lewis Seiler. BW-97 mins, TV-PG

1:00 PM Wagons Roll At Night, The (1941)

A circus manager turns a young farm boy into a star lion tamer. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Sylvia Sidney, Eddie Albert. Dir: Ray Enright. BW-84 mins, TV-G

2:30 PM Across The Pacific (1942)

An American agent tries to keep Axis spies from blowing up the Panama Canal. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet. Dir: John Huston. C-97 mins, TV-G, CC

4:15 PM All Through The Night (1942)

A criminal gang turns patriotic to track down a Nazi spy ring. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Jane Darwell. Dir: Vincent Sherman. BW-107 mins, TV-PG, CC

6:15 PM Big Shot, The (1942)

A mob leader escapes prison and flees with his love to a mountain hideaway, where he tries to atone for his sins. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Irene Manning, Richard Travis. Dir: Lewis Seiler. BW-82 mins, TV-PG

8:00 PM Maltese Falcon, The (1941)

Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet. Dir: John Huston. BW-101 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS

10:00 PM Casablanca (1942)

An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-103 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS

12:00 AM Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)

Three prospectors fight off bandits and each other after striking-it-rich in the Mexican mountains. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt. Dir: John Huston. BW-126 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS

2:15 AM African Queen, The (1951)

A grizzled skipper and a spirited missionary take on the Germans in Africa during World War I. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley. Dir: John Huston. C-105 mins, TV-PG, CC

Originally, when my fever-racked brain came up with the idea for these posts, I had planned to supplement them with some quick mini-reviews about some of the Bogart films from the previous week (the ones I had not seen, of course). But as with all good intentions, this project went by the wayside—I just haven’t been able to sit down and find the time to watch any of them with three exceptions: Isle of Fury (1936), One Fatal Hour (1936, aka Two Against the World) and The Great O'Malley (1937). These last two have been put under the microscope by Rick Brooks at Cultureshark, and Matt Hinrichs at Scrubbles.net has a brief take on Hour as well. My main problem in watching Fury is…well, I’m two-for-two falling asleep during the damn thing. (Fury is based on W. Somerset Maugham’s The Narrow Corner, which might go a long way toward explaining why the film cures me of insomnia; Maugham is not one of my favorite authors. I lost precious moments of my adolescence having to read Of Human Bondage in high school, time I’m never getting back.)

So I’m planning to try a new tack by gearing up to watch Love Affair (1932) and Big City Blues (1932) sometime in the next day or two, and then come back to Fury. Of course, I’ve still got China Clipper (1936)… Swing Your Lady (1938)… Men Are Such Fools (1938)…I think you get the picture. But I’m telling you—you’re not going to find a finer mini-marathon that the one that starts at 8:00pm this evening: The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and The African Queen (1951)—four of Bogie’s very best.

R.I.P, Val Avery

2009-12-15T16:45:00.003-05:00

There’s precious little to write about here at Rancho Yesteryear today—I’ve been catnapping rather than flexing any movie or TV-watching muscles—but I caught this blurb from Dennis Cozzalio over at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule that reports the passing of character actor great Val Avery. Avery shuffled off this mortal coil at the age of 85 from undisclosed causes at his Greenwich Village residence Saturday.

Dennis mentions in his tribute one of the roles that I always remember Avery for—that of the traveling haberdasher who has a gentleman’s disagreement with undertaker Whit Bissell in the burial sequence in The Magnificent Seven (1960, when Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen volunteer to take the remains of an Indian local to Boot Hill). It was a nice change of pace for the actor, who was generally cast in parts that required him to be, as Dennis explains, “one of the many go-to guys from which Hollywood had to choose when they needed a Mafia kingpin or a neighborhood tough, a seasoned law-enforcement administrator or a nails-tough beat cop.” He goes on to say: “…he seeded each of these appearances with wit and truth and a sense of joy for acting that spoke to his sensitivity as a performer, whatever the role.”

Among the films that benefited from Avery’s presence: The Harder They Fall (1956, his feature film debut); Edge of the City (1957), Last Train from Gun Hill (1959), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), Hud (1963), Hombre (1967), Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), The Anderson Tapes (1971), Papillon (1973), Let's Do It Again (1975), Up in Smoke (1978), The Wanderers (1979), Easy Money (1983), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984, my personal favorite; Avery is marvelous as the mobster who cuts off Eric Roberts’ thumb) and Donnie Brasco (1997). He also had a lengthy C.V. on television, appearing on such shows as Johnny Staccato, The Untouchables, The Defenders, East Side/West Side, The Fugitive, The Wild Wild West, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Ironside, The F.B.I., Mannix, Barnaby Jones, Columbo and Quincy, M.E.

The New York Times’ obituary mentions that Avery married actress Margot Stevenson in 1953 and their union produced a daughter (also named Margot); Stevenson—a one-time Margo Lane on radio’s The Shadow—survives him as of this post.

R.I.P, Mr. Avery. You will be missed.

Life lessons #94

2009-12-15T08:30:00.000-05:00

“Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can't already afford?”

2009-12-14T19:00:00.000-05:00

I always think of that above line from Chinatown (1974) anytime I read word that those kindly, altruistic souls at CBS DVD-Paramount are only trying to brighten the miserable existences of TV-on-DVD fans by releasing vintage favorites in the universally despised (well, I know I don’t like it—there’s bound to be others) “split-season” format. The latest candidate is Have Gun – Will Travel, the smash hit western originally telecast on CBS from 1957 to 1963. (This bulletin comes courtesy of TVShowsOnDVD.com, by the way.)

HGWT saw its first three seasons released to disc between 2004 and 2006, and though the sales for these sets were a textbook example of “underwhelming” my friend Martin Grams, Jr.—author of The Have Gun – Will Travel Companion—said that CBS/Paramount was committed to making sure it released the remaining seasons. Then, six months later, I had occasion to call him about an unrelated topic—which allowed him to drop the bombshell that the company had changed its mind about HGWT. (I thought about buying seasons four, five and six from Martin but I couldn’t justify the price tag at that time.)

So, it would appear that come March 2nd next year, HGWT will be back as Have Gun – Will Travel: Season 4, Volume 1. TSOD’s David Lambert writes (and I’m not entirely certain whether or not he reflected on the irony of this statement): “…you can strap your spurs back on, because CBS/Paramount is taking you and Paladin for a ride once more…” (Pause as I wait for the laughter to subside.)

I know people have grown weary of me bitching about this, but what really tears it about this arrangement is that the first three HGWT collections were modestly priced, which again chips away at the company’s monk-like belief that this split-season crap is all to benefit to the show’s fans. They did the same thing to Gunsmoke: the first season was released as a single box set, and then they began splitting up the seasons afterward. Now, while I don’t agree with the process I can certainly understand the argument the company makes about how there were more episodes produced per season back then (both Gunsmoke and HGWT’s inaugural seasons yielded thirty-nine episodes) but I don’t see how that would make much of a difference with a half-hour series. Perry Mason? Okay, thirty-nine episodes of that show in one set would be a bit pricey. But the fans are going to buy it—unless you do something totally idiotic like splitting the season in two and charging fans the same price for each.

I’d love to complete my HGWT collection—I eventually bought the remaining seasons from someone on Ioffer, but if I am afforded the opportunity (and the key word here, of course, is “afford”) to replace those bootlegs with pristine versions I’ll do so in a New York minute. Trouble is—there were complaints about the third season release and how some of those shows looked a little “raggedy.”

In other TSOD news, the release date for Hawaii Five-O: The Eighth Season has been confirmed via a press release—the set will hit the streets March 16th. The Matt Houston: Season 1 collection has also got the greenlight, making its debut online and in stores (well, maybe) March 9th.

The wonderful world of Facebook #30

2009-12-14T08:30:00.000-05:00

Shout! Shout! Knock yourself out!

2009-12-13T17:30:00.000-05:00

Frequent commenter rockfish has posited a series of queries regarding yesterday’s post on Shout! Factory’s brand-spanking-new “Direct-to-Consumer” program that will be unveiled next year (I had planned to address this in the comments but because of my concern that my response may be a bit longer than Blogger’s 4,090 word limit, I decided to do up a second post):

Apparently a big reason for this new method of releasing product is because major stores (and all but specialty stores, i'd bet) showed little interest in putting it on their shelves.

So I'm curious as to why you're less than pleased with this development and a cheerleader for Warners archive?

My only reservation re: the Shout! program is that in making a decision that certain TV-on-DVD box sets will be available from Shout! and Shout! only you eliminate competition, and this sort of puts the kibosh on economical pricing. Shout! Factory has released two TV-on-DVD box sets that I have not yet purchased (but are on my wish list): The Patty Duke Show and Mister Ed. Duke is available at Amazon.com for $32.99; Ed’s asking price is $35.99. But if I do a little comparison shopping (via DVDPriceSearch.com), I can pick up the horse (of course, of course) for $27.72 at Buy.com and Patty & Cathy can be purchased for $28.24. That’s a hell of a savings for two sets that are essentially the same product, just priced differently at separate stores. I concede your argument that a good many individuals may be buying sets such as these in major stores where they may not be available—but trends are starting to demonstrate a shift toward more online purchasing, and I think people are going to have to realize sooner or later that Target just may not be all that interested in talking equines or cousins who are two of a kind as they are Ugly Betty or Gossip Girl.

As for being a “cheerleader” for the Archive, I’ll freely admit that I have promoted a good many of their releases here on the blog—but such releases are usually those of a novelty nature, like the Joe McDoakes or Robert Benchley or Our Gang compilations. But I’m not as enamored of Warner’s archive as you’re interpreting: I still think their product is way too pricey, and as such I’ve not bought anything there since May of this year—mostly because many of the movies that I’m anxious to obtain have fortuitously turned up on TCM to where I can save myself the scratch and record it on my lonesome. (I own five Warner Archive titles—and of those five, only one of them has played on the channel in the last six months.) My initial enthusiasm for the Archive stemmed from the fact that the concept of releasing titles requested by fans without having to mass-produce them was and is still relatively novel—Fox/MGM has announced that they are planning to follow suit. Like it or not, this is pretty much going to be the future of classic film on DVD (and it’s not just due to the economy; Jaime Weinman makes a convincing case that classic films on DVD were getting the last rites even before the bottom fell out)—and I’ll certainly concur that there are major issues and problems to be ironed out. The future of classic TV shows on DVD, in turn, is going to resemble Shout! Factory’s plans…and while I think I have a legitimate grumble re: the cost I know it’s not going to matter “a hill of beans” in the long run.

Do you have money invested in dvd-r technology and believe that its superior to standard dvd product? Check reviews on the archive, there are many negative reviews on the product; if Shout! has made no progress in getting better prints (which is partly out of their hands, being as they don't own the original) then you may have a gripe.

Oh, Good Lord, no. I have no money period. I can only speak from experience that for those individuals who are concerned about the shelf life of DVD-R technology (and justifiably so) that standard DVD product is just as susceptible to instability. I have two DVDs sitting on my shelf—The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) and Blue Collar (1978)—that no longer play. Seriously. You put either one of these in the DVD player on my computer and click to see what’s on the disc and there’s no information on either one of them. It’s as if some joker came by and turned on a bulk eraser for shits and giggles. I have no explanation for why this happened, and have asked friends if they have had a similar experience—but they’re just as baffled as I am. In addition, I once sold a copy of The Bedroom Window (1987) to an eBay customer who reported that there was nothing on the disc—and sure enough, he was right…fortunately the film had recently been reissued so I was able to send him a substitute copy, with the money coming out of my pocket. (Hey…you do what you gotta do.)

I do realize that the quality of the prints received by Shout! Factory in putting together their collections is an issue over which they have a lot of control—but by the same token, this still makes them complicit and as Rick Brooks persuasively argues, why is this issue not addressed before the release of such sets? (The apologies—if they happen—more often than not occur after the release of sets like Mister Ed or Rhoda, when they’re already counting the pre-order money.) As for the Warner Archive, I haven’t read many of the reviews (again, because the number of titles I’ve purchased has been minimal) so I can’t comment on that aspect.

It just seems that if you're going to embrace one, wouldn't the other be given -- at least from the onset -- a similar benefit (of the doubt)?

Well, again—I think you’ve mistaken an occasional “Hey! Check out what’s now on DVD!” as my drinking the Kool-Aid. I promote a lot of CBS DVD-Paramount products here at TDOY, even though I loathe and despise their “split-season” policy on some TV-on-DVD sets—I think it’s nothing more than a ploy to gouge those consumers who love classic television but who don’t or won’t purchase any of the newer stuff. DVD companies expect every title to sell in Friends or Seinfeld-like numbers, and I think that’s completely unrealistic—what sets these older shows do sell are for the fans of these shows whose only chance of seeing this material depends solely on its DVD availability (‘cause it sure isn’t going to show up on TVLand anytime soon—there’s no room, what with the movies and High School Reunion and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and all that other useless crap).

A famous quote attributed to economist John Maynard Keyes goes: “When the facts change, I change my mind.” My enthusiasm (such as it was) for the Warner Archive has been tempered somewhat, and my initial take on Shout! Factory’s “Direct-to-Consumer” may also change—though I would like the record to show that I do plan to purchase Room 222: Season 2 despite my reservations over the visual quality and price (which, admittedly, has not yet been announced) because I am a huge fan of the series and would purchase sets even though they may not be as nice as I would like them to be. I guess that’s what it all comes down to when you examine the big picture—everybody has the right to piss and moan...and if necessary, do a right-face.

So allow me to wrap this post up with something completely off-topic as we retreat to neutral corners: NBC ran its yearly showing of It's a Wonderful Life (1946) last night (much to my chagrin—I forgot it was on until halfway-through) and for those of you who either cherish or despise the film (I’m in the “cherish” group) I think you’ll get a giggle out of World O’Crap’s incomparable Scott C.’s take on the film (like I said, I’m a cheerleader for the movie and even I couldn’t stop laughing) here.

What's the matter with Kansas?

2009-12-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

“Yoo hoo! Is anybody?”

2009-12-12T13:30:00.000-05:00

Hey—it’s the weekend, and what better way to kick back and recharge the old batteries by taking a look at some new TV-on-DVD announcements? (If you have other plans…well, away with you, then. I’m not budging from this comfortable chair…particularly since I have leftover chili.)

Stephen Bowie had the original heads-up on the news that one of television’s genuine sitcom classics—the 1949-56 series The Goldbergs—was headed toward a DVD release soon but TVShowsOnDVD.com has picked up the ball and run with it, doing a little investigative digging and revealing that the show will indeed see DVD action next year in a box set from Shout! Factory. The release date is still unknown as of this posting, and the sketchy info reveals only the following (via Bowie’s The Classic TV History Blog):

This Goldbergs release will be a “complete” series set, compiled by a well-known DVD producer and distributed by another label that specializes in classic television. “Complete” appears in quotation marks because The Goldbergs was, of course, staged live during all but its final season, so many of the episodes no longer exist. But the DVD set will gather all of the surviving kinescopes from the series’ various incarnations – it had runs on CBS, NBC, and DuMont, with a number of cast changes along the way – as well as all thirty-nine segments shot on film for the show’s last season. I don’t know the exact tally, but it will be over sixty episodes.

The 1950 feature film version of The Goldbergs (a Paramount property) will not be included. But the DVD set will contain some segments from the radio version of The Goldbergs, which ran on NBC and CBS for nearly twenty years, as well as the pilot for Berg’s next series, Mrs. G Goes to College.

Nice to see the radio version—which originally premiered on NBC Radio November 20, 1929 as The Rise of the Goldbergs—get a bit of attention here, as well as creator-star Gertrude Berg’s short-lived 60s sitcom (originally titled Mrs. G Goes to College, but renamed The Gertrude Berg Show), which was telecast on CBS-TV from 1961-62. (While I have heard a snatch or two of the radio Goldbergs I must confess I’ve never had the opportunity to look at the TV series.) As TSOD also points out, Timeless Media Group did do a smaller release of Goldbergs episodes last year: ten installments culled from the series’ 1955-56 syndicated run. It was TSOD who learned that Shout! was doing the set, as part of a “Direct-to-Consumer” program the company will unveil in 2010.

So how will this program work, I can hear you asking. (Well, I hear somebody saying something—and the voice doesn’t sound like any of the ones in my head…) Rather than emulate the Warner Archive (which release manufactured-on-demand titles), Shout! Factory will sell these collections (factory-produced) only on their website—which will kind of put the kibosh on hunting around online for the lowest-priced deals. They will do these with titles that, according to TSOD, “have much smaller fan bases, and for which most major retailers have resisted carrying any follow-up DVD releases.” Among the shows to receive this treatment will be Mr. Belvedere and My Two Dads.

Okay, I’m fighting back the urge to say something really snarky here but since several classic television shows have been also been selected as candidates for this program I shall reserve comment. Particularly since the Factory will finally get around to letting the other shoe drop and release the second (and final) season of The Bill Cosby Show—the 1969-71 incarnation whose inaugural season was released on disc in August 2006 (I swear it seems longer). Another participant will be Room 222, whose first season sales were apparently not much to write home about (much to my and Rick Brooks’ chagrin). Unlike Goldbergs and Cosby, 222 does have a definite release date (albeit no list price): January 19th of next year (you’ll be able to pre-order the title on Factory’s website December 17). Like my friend at Cultureshark Tower, I am anxious to obtain additional 222 episodes despite the fact that many of the installments from Season 1 were in less-than-pristine condition (honest to my grandma—they looked like the same prints they used to run on the USA Network twenty years ago). (Hey—maybe that’s why the sales were so disappointing…ya think?) Though I was disappointed with the set’s quality it wasn’t a particularly bitter pill to swallow because I lucked onto an Amazon.com glitch that let me purchase it for $11.99. As for release numero dos, Shout! is on record as saying that the collection was “created from the best surviving video masters available to Shout! Factory.” (Loosely translated, this means Room 222 fans are boned.)

The other notable “Direct-to-Consumer” release will be the third season of Ironside—the 1967-75 crime drama starring Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-bound chief of detectives with the San Francisco Police Department. I was surprised to learn via TSOD that the sales of the first and second season releases of this classic series were pretty dismal but—to Shout! Factory’s credit—they are continuing to press on with the season-by-season releases in response to fans’ demands (although it would seem that there aren’t quite as many Ironside fans as one would believe). Like 222, Ironside: Season 3 will be ready to ship on January 19, so if you’re a dedicated fan of the show you might want to think about setting aside a few extra pennies to get a copy. I will readily admit that I have mixed feelings about this “Direct-to-Consumer” program but since I am a Room 222 devotee I think I can bite the bullet and buy direct in order to ultimately obtain (knock wood) a complete set of the series. (“I’ll even eat a bug!”)

Not all of Shout! Factory’s offerings will be subject to this treatment, however: TSOD has announced that the Factory will be getting out Emergency!: Season 6 some time next year (no official release date as of this post), which I’m sure will come as good news to Laura. (As to whether the company will release the six post-series TV-movies telecast intermittingly between 1978 and 1979—that’s still up in the air.)

I'm sorry...I just can't help it with the Sam Johnson-bacon jokes...

2009-12-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

Coming distractions: March 2010 on TCM

2009-12-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Turner Classic Movies had a small portion of their March 2010 schedule up for some time (namely the last three days of their 31 Days of Oscar festival) and I debated as to whether I should have posted a heads-up about it. In the final analysis, I decided to keep mum until they had assembled the whole enchilada—and in retrospect, I think I made the right call. Let’s just say that if you’re a fan of Ginger Rogers or a devotee of Japanese cinema—this month’s for you. (All times EST.)

March 4 – TDOY idol John Garfield gets a birthday celebration beginning at 6am with Four Daughters (1938), his film debut. (To set the record straight, he is not in 1933’s Footlight Parade—IMDb be damned.) Following Daughters are They Made Me a Criminal (1939, 7:30am), Flowing Gold (1940, 9:15am), Saturday's Children (1940, 10:45am), Out of the Fog (1941, 12:30pm), The Sea Wolf (1941, 2pm), Between Two Worlds (1944, 3:30pm) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946, 5:30pm)

March 5 – “…and don’t call me Shirley…” TCM will show both Zero Hour! (1957, 11:45pm) and its mega-popular parody Airplane! (1980, 10pm) in a prime-time nod to danger in the skies. The fun starts at 8pm with The Crowded Sky (1960) and calls it a wrap with Crash Landing (1958, 1:15am). (Dana Andrews is at the controls of both Crowded and Hour…and I think he’s had a few before the flight…don’t panic!)

March 6 – Here’s the best movie news I’ve heard this week: TCM will kick off a four-week film festival starring America’s favorite juvenile delinquents every Saturday of this month at 10:30am…of course, I’m talking about the Bowery Boys. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and the rest of the gang are introduced in 1946’s Live Wires. March 13 brings us In Fast Company (1946), with Bowery Bombshell (1946) the following week and Spook Busters (1946) on March 27th. Am I hoping this will be continued in April? I am filled with humidity at the very thought…

March 7 – TCM shows the warts-and-all side of the movin’ pitcher bidness with showings of The Oscar (1966, 8pm), The Big Knife (1955, 10:15pm), Show People (1928, 12:15am), Le mépris (1963—aka Contempt, 2:15am) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952, 4am).

March 8 – More insider show bidness stuff, as TCM decides to give itself a gratuitous back-pat and devote the night to Warner Bros. with a repeat showing of the 2008 documentary The Brothers Warner (8pm, with a repeat at 3:15am). This will be supplemented with some of the studios’ best-known movies: The Jazz Singer (1927, 9:45pm), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932, 11:30pm), Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939, 1:15am) and Casablanca (1942, 5am). (It sounds to me like they needed an excuse to show Casablanca again—not that I’m complaining.)

March 9 – TCM will kick off a Director of the Month salute to one of the true masters of Japanese cinema, Akira Kurosawa. There’s an impressive lineup here of twenty-seven features, fellow film buffs—and I can just hear those DVD recorders humming as I type:

March 9

8:00 PM Ikiru (1952)

10:30 PM Kumonosu-jou (1957, aka Throne of Blood)

12:30 AM Kakushi-toride no san-akunin (1958, aka The Hidden Fortress)

3:00 AM Hakuchi (1951, aka The Idiot)

March 10

6:00 AM Donzoko (1957, aka The Lower Depths)

March 16

8:00 PM Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru (1960, aka The Bad Sleep Well)

10:45 PM Tengoku to jigoku (1963, aka High and Low)

1:15 AM Akahige (1965, aka Red Beard)

4:30 AM Ikimono no kiroku (1955, aka I Live in Fear)

March 17

6:15 AM Shubun (1950, aka Scandal)

March 23

6:00 AM Sugata Sanshiro (1943, aka Sanshiro Sugata)

7:30 AM Ichiban utsukushiku (1944, aka The Most Beautiful)

9:00 AM Tora no o wo fumu otokotachi (1945, aka The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail)

10:00 AM Zoku Sugata Sanshiro (1945, aka Sanshiro Sugata Part Two)

11:30 AM Waga seishun ni kuinashi (1946, aka No Regrets for Our Youth)

1:30 PM Subarashiki nichiyobi (1947, aka Wonderful Sunday)

3:30 PM Yoidore tenshi (1948, aka Drunken Angel)

5:30 PM Nora inu (1949, aka Stray Dog)

8:00 PM Rashômon (1950)

9:30 PM Shichinin no samurai (1954, aka Seven Samurai)

1:00 AM Yojimbo (1961)

3:00 AM Tsubaki Sanjûrô (1962)

4:45 AM Dodesukaden (1970)

March 30

8:00 PM Dersu Uzala (1975)

10:30 PM Kagemusha (1980)

1:45 AM Ran (1985)

March 10 – In addition to a Director of the Month, TCM will set aside several days in March to honor its Star of the Month—the lovely and talented Ginger Rogers, featured in thirty-seven films:

March 10

8:00 PM The Gay Divorcee (1934)

10:00 PM Top Hat (1935)

12:00 AM Swing Time (1936)

2:00 AM Roberta (1935)

4:00 AM Follow the Fleet (1936)

March 11

6:00 AM Shall We Dance (1937)

8:00 AM Carefree (1938)

9:30 AM The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)

11:15 AM The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

1:15 PM Flying Down to Rio (1933)

March 17

8:00 PM 42nd Street (1933)

9:45 PM Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

11:30 PM Professional Sweetheart (1933)

1:00 AM Rafter Romance (1933)

2:15 AM Carnival Boat (1932)

3:30 AM Suicide Fleet (1931)

5:00 AM Chance at Heaven (1934)

March 18

6:15 AM The Tenderfoot (1932)

7:30 AM You Said a Mouthful (1932)

9:00 AM The Tip-Off (1932)

10:15 AM Finishing School (1934)

March 24

8:00 PM Vivacious Lady (1938)

9:45 PM Bachelor Mother (1939)

11:15 PM Stage Door (1937)

1:00 AM Having Wonderful Time (1938)

2:15 AM 5th Ave Girl (1939)

3:45 AM In Person (1935)

5:15 AM Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934)

March 25

7:00 AM Upperworld (1934)

8:15 AM Romance in Manhattan (1935)

9:45 AM Star of Midnight (1935)

11:30 AM Perfect Strangers (1950)

March 31

8:00 PM Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940)

10:00 PM Tom Dick and Harry (1941)

11:30 PM The Major and the Minor (1942)

1:30 AM Primrose Path (1940)

3:15 AM Lucky Partners (1940)

March 12 – Run for your lives! TCM unleashes a quartet of science-fiction mutated monsters beginning at 8pm with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)—and then follows that up with It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955, 9:30pm), The Monster That Challenged the World (1957, 11pm—directed by the late Arnold Laven) and Them! (1954, 12:30am). Later on TCM Underground (2:30am), you’ll get the opportunity to see (by reputation) one truly bizarre film—the 1974 horror-fantasy Shanks, directed by schlockmeister William Castle and starring Marcel Marceau (I swear I’m not making this up) as a deaf-mute puppeteer who learns the secret of re-animating the dead. (Leonard Maltin gave this three stars in his one of his Movie Guides…so you just know it’s going to suck.)

March 13 – The “heat” is on! TCM takes their viewers’ temperatures this evening at 8pm and finds them blazing with White Heat (1949), followed by Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966, 10pm), The Big Heat (1953, 12 mid), Heat Lightning (1934, 1:45am), The Heat's On (1943, 3am) and Calypso Heat Wave (1957, 4:30am). Sing it with me now: “We’re havin’ a heat wave…a tropical heat wave…”

March 15 – Bette Davis’ favorite ~~doormat~~, er, leading man celebrates his birthday beginning at 6am with Miss Pinkerton (1932), followed by Baby Face (1933, 7:15am), Female (1933, 8:30am), The Keyhole (1933, 9:45am), Lilly Turner (1933, 11am), Desirable (1934, 12:15pm), Housewife (1934, 1:30pm), Living on Velvet (1935, 2:45pm), God's Country and the Woman (1937, 4:15pm) and Dark Victory (1939, 6pm). (Okay, I should probably see a few more of Brent’s oeuvre before making snarky cracks like that. I think I’ve seen three of these, and I watched Racket Busters [1938] the other day. Eh…it’s a start…)

March 18 – “I’m your huckleberry…” Legendary lawman Wyatt Earp receives four different interpretations beginning at 8pm with the John Ford classic My Darling Clementine (1946), followed by Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957, 10pm), Hour of the Gun (1967, 12:15am—John DiLeo recommends this highly, and I keep meaning to see it when it’s on) and Masterson of Kansas (1954, 2am). (My favorite is the first, even though it’s inaccurate as hell.)

March 20 – Actor Peter O’Toole is feted this evening with three of his best: Lawrence of Arabia (1962, 8pm), TDOY fave The Ruling Class (1972, 12 mid) and Lord Jim (1965, 2:45am). (They could have shown more if his movies weren’t so damn long.)

March 27 – Self-Styled Siren alert! TCM is showing Max Ophuls’ must-see Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) at 10:15pm. (While I’m on the subject—if you’re curious to see a real picture of Her Sirenship, click here…but remember what I told you last time about what happened to characters in serials who stumble onto secret identities…”Why, Ms. Smith…without your glasses, you’re…you’re beautiful!”)

March 29 – Is there a doctor in the house? Well, there will be one at 9:15am when TCM shows Doctor in the House (1954), the classic comedy starring Dirk Bogarde as physician Simon Sparrow, based on the novel (and subsequent follow-ups) by Richard Gordon. And there are follow-ups here, too—TCM will also show Doctor at Sea (1957, 11am) and Doctor in Distress (1963, 12:45am) as well. Oh, I’ll come clean—the whole darn ward is full of medicos, beginning with Doctor X (1932) at 6am and Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) at 7:30am. The day continues with The Interns (1962, 2:30pm), The Caretakers (1963, 4:30am) and The Young Doctors (1961, 6:15pm) until 8pm, when “Bobby Osbo” will usher in an all-night Marx Brothers festival—Monkey Business (1931, 8pm), Horse Feathers (1932, 9:30pm), Duck Soup (1933, 10:45), A Night at the Opera (1935, 12:00 mid), A Day at the Races (1937, 2am) and At the Circus (1939, 4am)

March 30 – See if you can guess what these films have in common: Bluebeard (1944, 6am), Carolina Blues (1944, 7:30am), Blues in the Night (1941, 9am), Paris Blues (1961, 10:30am), Blue Hawaii (1961, 12:30pm), The Blue Gardenia (1953, 2:30pm), The Blue Dahlia (1946, 4pm) and Blue Skies (1946, 6pm). (I guess that’s why they call it the blues.)

As always, Turner Classic Movies is notorious for substitutions and last-minute changes at their merest whim, so please remember not to shoot the messenger (that would be me) should a film or two disappear from this schedule without warning. It’s going to be a great month, folks—see you at the movies!

Imagine if they had released this in split-season...

2009-12-11T08:30:00.000-05:00

R.I.P. Gene Barry

2009-12-10T20:00:00.001-05:00

I heard the news from Jim Neibaur over at Facebook, and The Washington Post’s Post Mortem blog has confirmed it—actor Gene Barry has gone to his rich reward at the age of 90. He passed on at his Woodland Hills, CA home yesterday.

Barry became a household name on television in the late 50s/early 60s by playing sharply-dressed lawmen in two popular series: the NBC-TV western Bat Masterson (1958-61) and the ABC-TV crime drama Burke’s Law (1963-65). The latter show may well be his best-remembered showcase; in so much as he reprised the role of millionaire police commissioner Amos Burke in a short-lived spin-off entitled Amos Burke, Secret Agent and a short-lived revival of the original Burke’s Law series seen on CBS in 1994-95. Law was one of the early contributions to the cathode ray tube of überproducer Aaron Spelling, and was a blueprint of sorts for later Spelling productions like The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. (Each episode of Law featured a big-name guest star cast; the debut episode [“Who Killed Holly Howard?”], for example, spotlighted Elizabeth Allen, William Bendix, Bruce Cabot, Rod Cameron, Fred Clark, Jay C. Flippen, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Stephen McNally, Suzy Parker, ZaSu Pitts and Will Rogers, Jr.)

Barry’s other television jobs included a brief stint on the final season of the sitcom Our Miss Brooks (he played physical education instructor Gene Talbot, one of Connie Brooks’ many gentlemen callers when “bashful” biologist Philip Boynton left the show), The Name of the Game (1968-71), the anthology series on which he rotated with Anthony Franciosa and Robert Stack; and The Adventurer (1972-73), a syndicated series that starred him as Gene Bradley, a wealthy government agent (where did Barry’s public servants get all that loot, I wonder?) who posed as a movie star. Barry also played a role in the embryonic version of what later became the television mystery hit Columbo by co-starring alongside future star Peter Falk in Prescription: Murder (1968).

Gene Barry also enjoyed a none-too-shabby career in feature films—among those on his resume were The Atomic City (1952), The War of the Worlds (1953; he also had a cameo in the 2005 remake), Naked Alibi (1954), Soldier of Fortune (1955), China Gate (1957), Forty Guns (1957) and Thunder Road (1958). He kept busy on the stage as well, earning a 1984 Tony nomination for his work in La Cage aux Folles.

“Boys, you better stay in the foxhole—this one’s for your old captain…” R.I.P, Mr. Barry. You will be missed.

“We need a little Christmas/Right this very minute…”

2009-12-10T18:15:00.002-05:00

My esteemed blogging colleague and discredit to the legal profession J.C. Loophole has tagged me over at The Shelf in a meme that challenges participants to name their Top Ten favorite Christmas songs. Since I rarely back down from a challenge (well, unless the odds are just too freaking formidable—I mean, there’s no sense in getting oneself slightly killed, as Mr. Thornhill would say) I should now like to present the Top Ten Thrilling Days of Yesteryear Christmas Song Countdown…

10) Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby & David Bowie. One of the most sublime duets ever recorded.

9) It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas – Perry Como. Actually, I don’t have a preference for who sings this—it’s just for some odd reason I associate it with His Comoness. Written by Meredith Willson of The Music Man and Maxwell House Coffee Time with George Burns & Gracie Allen fame.

8) Christmas at Ground Zero – “Weird” Al Yankovic. I have a particular fondness for holiday-themed novelty tunes, and this is definitely one of the wackiest. (It also has a Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree bent to it.) YouTube won’t let me embed this one so if you want to watch it, click here.

7) Do They Know It’s Christmas – Band Aid. “Feed the squirrels…”

6) Silver Bells – Bob Hope & Marilyn Maxwell. This song always puts me in a Christmassy mood—but for some odd reason, I always forget to put the movie it appears in (The Lemon Drop Kid) on my list of favorite Yuletide-themed films.

5) Feliz Navidad – Jose Feliciano. During my years in exile in Morgantown, we were having a Christmas party at the place that generously awarded me a paycheck every two weeks and when this song was playing on a CD boom box I grabbed it and challenged my co-workers to go into the main building and get down with our bad selves. (I couldn’t get any takers, but from that moment on I developed a reputation as being the office nut; it was previously thought I was a bit on the reserved side because I never said much…but when you work with a group of women it’s often difficult to get a word in edgewise.)

4) Green Chri$tma$ - Stan Freberg. The best Christmas novelty record ever. Freberg relates in his autobiography It Only Hurts When I Laugh how controversial this release was at the time, something that still positively gobsmacks me to this day. (Of course, there’s a lot of truth in this song…which might be the reason why it made some people madder than hell.)

3) Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley. It’s not for nothing that they call him the King, friends and neighbors.

2) Do You Hear What I Hear? – Bing Crosby. I know people are going to be a little surprised that I didn’t put White Christmas on my list, but honest to my grandma—I think Der Bingle’s version of this carol is one of his finest vocal performances ever. His singing is so effective that I can close my eyes and picture myself hanging out with the shepherds in the song.

1) Happy Xmas (War is Over) – John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band. A sentiment that we should keep in mind not just during the holidays…but all year ‘round.

How about it, Linda, Jim, Matt, Stacia and Rick? Care to share your faves?

Movies I’ve stared at recently on TCM #48 (“They’ve taken the last of the canteens” edition)

2009-12-10T14:15:00.000-05:00

This past Monday, Turner Classic Movies commemorated the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor with the Why We Fight documentary series directed by Frank Capra (with an assistance on many of the docs by Anatole Litvak) and while I didn’t get the opportunity to sit down and enjoy any of them (I did record them, often catching the beginning and tail ends of each) its patriotic wartime spirit put me in the mood to watch a pair of films made during that era to boost the morale of Americans and to reassure them they were fighting the good fight. Both of these movies were shown on TCM within the last few months so I don’t want to give you the impression they were on Monday night (though I think Stage Door Canteen was shown on Saturday morning)—perhaps I should have retitled this post as “Movies I’ve recorded recently on TCM.” Oh, well. I will warn you that there are spoilers ahead…though with these two films it’s not like you couldn’t guess where the plot was going anyway…

Stage Door Canteen (1943) – The titular non-profit establishment was created in New York as a recreational center for servicemen; a place where they could get free grub, dance with pretty women and be entertained by big-name celebrities who either performed at the Canteen or were working there (bussing tables, handing out sandwiches, sweeping out the jernt, etc.) This film—financed by the Theatre Guild—is a fictionalized account of the “typical” goings-on; amidst the background of star-studded folk “doing their bit” are a solider, “Dakota” Smith (William Terry) and an aspiring actress, Eileen Burke (Cheryl Walker), who fall in love with one another and though the rules of the house prohibit fraternization outside the Canteen (we don’t want folks thinking that loose women are working here!) , Eileen and Dakota plan to tie the knot in holy ~~acrimony~~ matrimony. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam has plans for Mr. Smith and he’s shipped out with his buddies “Texas” (Michael Harrison—better known to B-western fans as Sunset Carlson) and “California” (Lon McCallister) faster than you can sing Oh, Promise Me. Texas and California also leave a pair of women behind; a Southern belle named Ella Sue (Margaret Early) and girl-next-door Jean (Marjorie Riordan).

So much for the plot, which admittedly is so thin it has only one side. You’ll want to watch Stage for the (as my friend Hal Erickson calls it) “movie star salad”—there are more celebrities in this film than one can possibly count, many of them relegated to blink-and-you’ll-miss-‘em walk-ons and cameos. Some of the participants get a bit more screen time than others: Edgar Bergen does a comedy routine with dummies Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd (one of the film’s highlights…but I might be a tad biased); Gracie Fields sings a cheerful little ditty about shooting down “Jap planes”; Ray Bolger does an impressive tap dance number; Gypsy Rose Lee stripteases (well, as much as a feature film will allow) and George Jessel places a phone call to “Mama.” There are also songs from Ethels Merman and Waters, and a concert piece performed by violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin (“Who’s Yehudi?”)

Loads of great big bands in this movie as well—music from Kay Kyser, Guy Lombardo, Freddy Martin, Count Basie, Xavier Cugat (with Lina Romay but sans his trademark Chihuahua) and Benny Goodman (with Peggy Lee as vocalist). As for the star cameos it’d be easier to skate on over to the IMDb for an inventory of who’s in the film but a handful of notables (longtime TDOY faves) include Ed Wynn, Tallulah Bankhead, Harpo Marx, Paul Muni, Johnny Weissmuller (Johnny’s in the back on KP and he takes off his shirt because it’s too hot—much to Franklin Pangborn’s approval), William Demarest, Allen Jenkins, Tom Kennedy, Ned Sparks and Helen Hayes (she has a lovely scene in which a soldier asks her to dance because he wants to tell his kids he danced with “Queen Victoria”). Stage is also on record as the only film stage legend Katharine Cornell appears in (she hands out oranges and does a snippet from Romeo and Juliet) and stage personages like the famous husband-and-wife duo of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne are also in attendance. Speaking of Kate, Katharine Hepburn makes an appearance toward the end of the film—she tries to console Walker when she learns of her boyfriend’s departure but does so with all the finesse of a prison matron. The print shown on TCM was in better shape than I expected; it’s fallen into the public domain and has been released by a slew of companies on both VHS and DVD—some of which have issued heavily-edited versions.

Hollywood Canteen (1944) – Out on the West Coast, movie stars Bette Davis and John Garfield (and MCA president Jules Stein) were the movers and shakers behind the Hollywood Canteen—an answer to Broadway’s (though there was also a Stage Door Canteen in Philly) popular establishment for servicemen. And because Davis and Garfield toiled at Warner Bros., it seems only fitting that Warners came to release a theatrical film based on the recreational hangout—which also goes a long way toward explaining why everyone volunteering to help out in the film were also Warners contractees (didn’t anyone from M-G-M or Paramount ever lift a finger?). Hollywood’s plot is pretty similar to that of Stage’s—two servicemen, Corporal “Slim” Green (Robert Hutton) and Sergeant Nowland (Dane Clark), recuperating from injuries sustained in battle in the Philippines, pay the Canteen numerous visits while waiting to be shipped back out. Slim, a bashful youth, has quite a thing for actress Joan Leslie (there’s a clip from The Hard Way [1943] at the film’s beginning as he and Nowland watch with other soldiers) and during his first visit Bette and Julie arrange for Joan to show up to meet the young soldier and give him a kiss (Garfield works out a “winning number” scam that is extremely funny). Slim and Joan’s paths continue to cross throughout the film, particularly when Slim unwittingly becomes the 1,000,000 visitor to the Canteen (based on a real-life incident in which the one-millionth solider received a kiss from 20th Century-Fox’s Betty Grable) and “wins” the “services” of Joan for the weekend (oh, it’s all perfectly innocent—they just go out on a lot of dates and meet her parents, you dirty-minded people). Meanwhile, Nowland (I know I often refer to actor Clark as “the poor man’s John Garfield” but he’s more like “the poor man’s Leo Gorcey” in this one) keeps striking out with many of the Canteen stars (notably Ida Lupino and Joan Crawford) before taking up with a studio guide (Janis Paige). As in Stage, the good times must eventually come to an end (we’ve got a war to win, dammit) and Slim and Joan part company in a train station sequence that bears a strong resemblance to the one in Since You Went Away (1944).

Stage definitely has more celebrities, but Hollywood is the slicker of the two productions (Stage was an independent film produced by Sol Lesser, and released through United Artists) and as previously mentioned, rounds up everybody on the Warner lot…with the exceptions of Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn. Sheridan was originally tapped for Leslie’s role but she refused to do it—not because she wasn’t patriotic but because she thought the premise (soldier falls in love with ingénue starlet) was ludicrous. Still, she’s mentioned a couple of times in the film (as is Bogart); as to why Flynn is missing from the roster I’ve always speculated that the long-running animosity between him and Davis put the kibosh on that. But this is nit-picking; there are plenty of other WB celebrities present and accounted for: Jack Carson, Jane Wyman (Jane and Jack do a fun duet of What Are You Doin' the Rest of Your Life), Paul Henreid, Alan Hale, Eleanor Parker, S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall, Zachary Scott, Alexis Smith, Barbara Stanwyck and so many others.

Again, I’m always partial to the comedy routines in hodgepodge films like this; Joe E. Brown does a funny bit while eating a donut as Slim enters the Canteen the first time (Brown later sings with Dennis Morgan a tune called You Can Always Tell a Yank) and I love Eddie Cantor’s reaction to having been relieved of a piled-high tray of sandwiches from some hungry servicemen: “If only I could get rid of my daughters as fast!” (Cantor also sings a duet with Nora Martin on We're Having a Baby.) There’s some entertaining badinage between Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, an amusing violin duet between virtuoso Joseph Szigeti and some amateur named Jack Benny, and two versions of Don’t Fence Me In by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers and The Andrews Sisters. (I think the Andrews’ reprise of Don’t Fence Me In is a bit superfluous—even if they did wind up with the hit record, sung with Bing Crosby—and had it been me I would have cut it from the film; their warbling of the titular tune and Gettin' Corns for My Country are far more entertaining.)

Hollywood isn’t as big-band heavy as Stage—but they do have Jimmy Dorsey and his musical aggregation on hand, which is nothing to sneeze at; Carmen Cavallero and his orchestra are also in the film but to be honest I think the movie could have survived without his contribution, Voodoo Moon (which is danced by a couple billed Rosario & Antonio). I don’t recall Stage having any moments in which the musical numbers slow down the film but Hollywood is rife with them—again, had I been editor I would have snipped the Ballet in Jive sequence (which features Joan McCracken, the star of the stage version of Oklahoma! at the time). (I expect to hear from Pam about this any second now.)

As with Stage, the participants in Hollywood generously donated their salaries (even Jack Benny!) to worthy wartime causes, and while both films are enjoyable to watch I think I have to give Stage the slight edge in overall entertainment value. Hollywood got the last laugh, though—the film was nominated for three Oscars including Best Music, Original Song (Sweet Dreams Sweetheart) and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture—Stage received the same nominations the previous year but Hollywood also managed to get a nod for Best Sound Recording. Delmer Daves wrote both screenplays (as well as directing Hollywood; Frank Borzage was at the reins of Stage) which could be a clue as to why both films’ “plots” are so similar—there’s also a subtle link between the two films that you should keep an eye out for: William Terry, who plays the male lead in Stage also has a brief bit in Hollywood…as the sailor who misses becoming the Canteen’s 1,000,000th guest by changing his mind about going in at the last minute!

Life lessons #93

2009-12-10T08:30:00.001-05:00

When worlds collide #76

2009-12-09T08:30:00.002-05:00

The Bogie Man Will Get You

2009-12-09T05:30:00.002-05:00

In one half-hour, Turner Classic Movies will continue with their Star of the Month salute to Humphrey DeForest Bogart, on the 110th anniversary month of his birth (his actual birth date being December 25th). Here’s the lineup for today (with movies not currently available in the dusty Thrilling Days of Yesteryear archives in green):

6:00 AM San Quentin (1937)

A convict's sister falls for the captain of the prison guards. Cast: Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. BW-70 mins, TV-PG, CC

7:15 AM Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse, The (1938)

A doctor plots crimes so he can study criminal psychology. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Anatole Litvak. BW-87 mins, TV-PG, CC

8:45 AM Crime School (1938)

A crusading warden sets out to improve conditions at a reform school. Cast: The Dead End Kids, Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page. Dir: Lewis Seiler. BW-85 mins, TV-G, CC

10:15 AM Men Are Such Fools (1938)

An ambitious secretary uses the men in her life to turn herself into a radio star. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris. Dir: Busby Berkeley. BW-69 mins, TV-G, CC

11:30 AM Racket Busters (1938)

A mobster tries to take over the trucking business. Cast: George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. BW-71 mins, TV-G, CC

12:45 PM Swing Your Lady (1938)

A wrestling promoter stranded in the South pits his star grappler against a lady blacksmith. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh, Louise Fazenda. Dir: Ray Enright. BW-77 mins, TV-G

2:15 PM Dark Victory (1939)

A flighty heiress discovers inner strength when she develops a brain tumor. Cast: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Edmund Goulding. BW-104 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS

4:15 PM Invisible Stripes (1939)

On his release from prison, a crook tries to stop his brother from following in his footsteps. Cast: George Raft, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. BW-81 mins, TV-G, CC

5:45 PM King Of The Underworld (1939)

A lady doctor gets mixed up with a criminal gang. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Kay Francis, James Stephenson. Dir: Lewis Seiler. BW-67 mins, TV-PG, CC

7:00 PM Bogart: The Untold Story (1996)

Stephen Bogart hosts this one-hour special on the life and career of his legendary father, Humphrey Bogart. Cast: Host: Stephen Bogart C-46 mins, TV-G, CC

8:00 PM Oklahoma Kid, The (1939)

A cowboy sets out to avenge his father's lynching. Cast: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. BW-81 mins, TV-PG, CC

9:30 PM Roaring Twenties, The (1939)

Three WWI Army buddies get mixed up with the mob in peacetime. Cast: James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Raoul Walsh. BW-107 mins, TV-G, CC

11:30 PM They Drive by Night (1940)

Truck driving brothers are framed for murder by a lady psycho. Cast: George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Raoul Walsh. BW-95 mins, TV-PG, CC

1:30 AM High Sierra (1941)

An aging ex-con sets out to pull one more big heist. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Arthur Kennedy. Dir: Raoul Walsh. BW-100 mins, TV-G, CC

3:30 AM Virginia City (1940)

A rebel spy poses as a wild West dance hall girl. Cast: Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-121 mins, TV-G, CC

I love the description for Bogart: The Untold Story, by the way: “Stephen Bogart hosts this one-hour special on the life and career of his legendary father, Humphrey Bogart” and then the time is given as 46 minutes. And yes, I know what you’re thinking—“Iv…you don’t have a copy of Dark Victory?” I think I did at one time but offered it up for sale on eBay some time back; it’s not really one of my favorites (and in actuality, it’s more a Bette Davis pic than a Bogart vehicle) due mainly to that atrocious brogue Bogart is forced to adopt as the Irish stableman. (Accents really weren’t Humphrey’s meat; I suspect the reason they made Charlie Allnut Canadian in The African Queen [1951] was so Bogie didn’t have to pass himself off as a British subject.) But since I made a vow to try and collect as many of Bogart’s movies as I can, I’m going to record Victory for keeps.

I had planned to do a write-up of the Bogart films I watched last week but the only one I’ve gotten around to seeing is Kid Galahad (1937)—again, I have this one in one of the Warner DVD box sets but I think last Wednesday was the first time I’d seen it in its entirety. I enjoyed the hell out of it; Edward G. Robinson is a fight promoter who vows to make bellhop Wayne Morris a heavyweight champion but goes berserk when Morris starts cuddling up to Robinson’s sister (Jane Bryan) in a romantical kind of way. Davis is Robinson’s chanteuse girlfriend (though her rendition of The Moon is in Tears Tonight was dubbed); Bogart Robinson’s gangster rival—and the usual suspects at Warner Bros. are present and accounted for, including Harry Carey (aces as Morris’ trainer), Ben Welden, Joseph Crehan, Veda Ann Borg, Frank Faylen and Matt Hinrichs fave Joyce Compton (I also spotted Don DeFore and Horace McMahon, too). Bogie and Bette don’t interact too much in this one—but that’s why we have Marked Woman (1937) on hand.

My cousin Kathy is on Facebook and paid me a flattering compliment by stating that she, too, is a huge Bogart devotee (her favorite film, like mine, is Casablanca) and remarked that she is also willing to sit through any picture with Bogart in it. Hal Erickson asked if that meant Swing Your Lady (1938), which will be on later today and is considered by many to be Bogart’s worst film. I haven’t seen it but I plan to record and watch it—let me just say that it’s going to have to be pretty awful to beat the Bogart flick I consider to be the actor’s nadir: The Return of Doctor X (1939).

Here’s where the story ends…

2009-12-08T18:30:00.001-05:00

CBS cancels another daytime drama

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS canceled "As the World Turns" on Tuesday, putting the company that coined the phrase "soap operas" out of the business of making daytime dramas for the first time in 76 years.

"As the World Turns" has been on the air since 1956 and televised its 13,661st episode Tuesday. Its last episode will be next September, the network said.

It's the second daytime drama CBS has canceled in a year, after "Guiding Light." Both shows were produced by a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, the company for which the term "soap operas" was created because it used the shows to hawk products like Ivory soap and Duz laundry detergent.

It's that little souvenir of a colorful year

Which makes me smile inside

So I cynically, cynically say, the world is that way

Surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise

Here's where the story ends

Ooh here's where the story ends

I don’t have a post—but I do have this…

2009-12-08T17:15:00.001-05:00

Back in August, my Facebook pal Matthew Coniam e-mailed me with an interesting query: he was commissioned to write an article for a British comedy magazine about the popularity of the BBC sitcom warhorse Last of the Summer Wine, and he was curious to get a Yank’s (that would be me) take on why the program was so popular here in the U.S. I was tickled pink to be asked to contribute—though someone should have warned Matthew that once I get started on the subject of Britcoms, the only sure-fire way to get me to stop talking involves a fire hose.

I submitted some of my musings to Mr. C, and he promised me he’d send me a copy of the publication upon completion. Matthew is a man of his word; I received Issue #9 in the TDOY mail box last week and spent an enjoyable weekend not only reading his article but many of the others as well. That’s a photo of the issue to your left, and if you’re curious to purchase a copy the details is at the magazine’s website here. (I believe the tariff for TDOY fans here in the States would be £4.00, or approximately $6.52 American at the current rate of exchange.) If I still had my scanner I would scan the article but I have a feeling that I’d be requiring the need of a “barrister” and/or “solicitor” (this English stuff just clings to me, doesn’t it?) not long after.

What surprised me about the article were two things; the first being that Matthew admitted he wasn’t much of a Summer Wine fan. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that—but the gist of his piece was that Summer Wine was more popular on this side of the pond than its country of origin. There’s nothing wrong with that, either—but it does give one reason to ponder. I read somewhere that Keeping Up Appearances (both it and Summer Wine sprung from the creative genius of writer Roy Clarke) was a hit in the UK but it was even a bigger success in the States. The ubiquitous Are You Being Served? is another example; in fact, I’ve always found it amusing that the series was available on Region 1 DVD before they got around to releasing it on Region 2.

The second surprise was that Matthew’s writing accomplished something truly astonishing: it made me sound semi-articulate. (I don’t always express myself well verbally, and many of my close, personal friends have often labeled my insights…well, “babbling” is perhaps the best way to put it.)

Speaking of articles, Vince Keenan posted a comment yesterday to the Arnold Laven post and included a link to an incredible interview that appeared in The Noir City Sentinel shortly before Laven’s passing. If you click on it, a .PDF file will pop up and you should really give it the once-over, because it’s a damn good read. I particularly enjoyed this tidbit, in which Laven talks about working as a script supervisor on the 1951 noir He Ran All the Way with TDOY idol John Garfield and Shelley Winters:

Sentinel: Shelley Winters acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with at times, particularly with directors and producers. Was that the case in He Ran All the Way?

AL: She wasn’t easy. It seemed to make the column in Variety or the Hollywood Reporter every day, what was happening on the set of He Ran All the Way.

Sentinel: Was all of that publicity due to Shelley, or Garfield, or both?

AL: The chemistry between Garfield and Shelley was antipathetic; they argued constantly. Sometimes yelling and screaming. They were all people with a high level of emotion and I’m including John Berry too. As I recall, though, 90 percent of the conflict was between Shelley and Garfield. One night I was working late and sitting on the sound stage, about a half-hour after everyone else had gone home. John Garfield’s dressing room started to rock and shake. The door finally opens and out walks Shelley, with a smile. So of course I am looking the opposite way, no eye contact. It was kind of an epochal moment in the history of that movie! Of course, Garfield was such a warm and charming guy.

Sentinel: Garfield had that unique star quality and was well thought of by his peers and colleagues.

AL: Very much so. I wanted to get a script job on I Love Lucy and mentioned it to Garfield. Do you know, he called a top guy at Desilu—not Lucy, but their production head under Desi—and got me an appointment, which was extremely nice. I really felt that John Garfield was a warm, authentic, likeable guy.

If you’re curious about how to get this sensational publication by becoming a member, check out the website of the Film Noir Foundation here.

Truth be told, I had planned a more substantial post today but I didn’t get finished with it in time so I apologize for what may seem to some as “filler.” To close this out—I don’t know if anyone still reads the Ripley’s Believe it Or Not! comic strip but yesterday they offered up this little tidbit:

Naturally, I was curious about the answer—and it was sort of amusing that they stuck a little “cliffhanger” on it, serial-style. So here’s today’s strip, courtesy of Comics.com:

Kowabunga, kids! Pretty darn amazing, isn’t it? Except for one…tiny…detail…

Al Gore doesn’t have an Oscar sitting on his mantelpiece. (Trust me on this one. Unless he’s rented out space to someone who does have an Oscar.)

The 2006 documentary that stars the former Vice-President, An Inconvenient Truth, nabbed two Oscars at the 2006 Academy Awards ceremony held on February 25, 2007: one for Best Documentary Feature and the other for Best Song (“I Need to Wake Up”). The Best Song award went to the person who wrote/composed the tune…in this case, Melissa Etheridge (who also sang the number in the film). The Best Documentary Feature award was handed to Davis Guggenheim, the doc’s director and executive producer. But Gore wound up with bupkis, because all he did was appear in the movie and Power-point to charts and graphs.

I know it sounds like I’m making a big deal of this, but this is the same kind of road apples that went on during Gore’s torpedoed-by-the-media Presidential campaign in 2000, when the “liberally-biased” MSM accused him of being a “serial exaggerator.” You know, when he was accused of claiming of having “invented the Internet” (a claim he didn’t make), how he was the inspiration for the lead character in the book Love Story (which author Erich Segal acknowledged he was), etc. Somebody at Ripley’s could have easily done their homework on this by doing a little “research” but got a little bit lazy. (I’m not pointing fingers, by the way, I’ve been guilty of insufficient fact-checking too many to count.) So this would be an example of "Not."

As for GBS—well, he did win the 1938 Oscar for Pygmalion (which he shared with Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Lewis and W.P. Lipscomb)—or “My Fair Lady without the music” as they referred to it in a memorable episode of Newhart. Mr. Shaw was considerably underwhelmed by his win, remarking: “It's an insult for them to offer me any honour, as if they had never heard of me before—and it's very likely they never have. They might as well send some honour to George for being King of England.” (I guess there’s no pleasing some people.)

Life lessons #92

2009-12-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

It still lives in infamy...

2009-12-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

Movies I’ve stared at recently on TCM #47 (R.I.P. Arnold Laven edition)

2009-12-07T16:30:00.001-05:00

I still have a project or two I’m working on, so it didn’t look as if I was going to be able to get anything up on the blog today…I had planned to squeeze a post out of taking yet another holiday quiz, this time courtesy of Greg Ferrara at Cinema Styles, but that one proved relatively easy to complete. However, I have been able to take a few moments out of the past several days to watch some movies of note…as always, beware of spoilers:

Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945) – This hardy Christmas chestnut was on Turner Classic Movies yesterday at 6:00am, but I transcribed it to watch at a more convenient time (namely during my dinner break, and I got so wrapped up in it I had to see it from pillar to post). Margaret “Gad, but I’m insufferably cute” O’Brien plays seven-year-old Selma Jacobsen, a young girl of Norwegian heritage growing up in a small Wisconsin hamlet, and the film (based on the 1940 best-seller by George Victor Martin) showcases vignettes of her life and relationship with her younger cousin Arnold (Jackie “Butch” Jenkins) and her parents, played by Edward G. Robinson and Agnes Moorehead. A second plot is interwoven into the narrative, that of the budding relationship between newspaper editor Nels Halverson (James Craig) and schoolteacher Viola Johnson (Frances “Nyoka” Gifford)—Halverson, fervently pro-rural, tries to woo Viola but she’s rather cool to country living…particularly when she sees how the community treats an emotionally disturbed woman (Dorothy Morris). It’s only when Selma commits a selfless act to aid a farmer who’s lost everything in a barn fire that Viola changes her mind and agrees to marry Nels—he’s been drafted but she will wait for his return by continuing to publish the newspaper in his absence.

Okay, I need to establish right off the bat (at the risk of alienating her fan club) that Margaret O’Brien gives me a rash. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me why I don’t care for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) (to which my usual response is: “Because Margaret O’Brien isn’t devoured by wolves”) I’d be rich beyond my wildest dreams. That having been said, I do like her performance in Grapes but that’s only because my usual O’Brien enmity was shifted to her co-star Jenkins, a stomach-churning brat who reminds me of Tommy Rettig’s demented younger brother. (I started to puddle up toward the end when O’Brien makes the donation…and if you tell anybody about this I will hurt you.) No, the real reason I tuned into Grapes was, of course, seeing Eddie G. (an actor whom I will watch in anything—one of the major travesties in cinema is that this superlative performer was never…ever…nominated for an Oscar) and getting my gal Aggie was also a nice bonus. As for the supporting players, Craig is his usual coffee-table self—but benefits from being paired with Gifford, who’s positively lovely—and there’s also TDOY faves Morris Carnovsky, Sara Haden, Arthur Space, Elizabeth Russell (whom I wish had more screen time; she’s a major fave), Frances Pierlot and Johnny Berkes. Charles Middleton plays the disturbed girl’s father…and let’s be honest—if the man who played both Ming the Merciless and Pa Stark was your old man; wouldn’t you be a little bughouse, too?

The Talk of the Town (1942) – My favorite Jean Arthur film. That chirpy-voiced gal plays Nora Shelley, a woman who rents out her home to stuffy college professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Colman) just about the time that her friend Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant) busts out of the Big House, having been convicted on trumped-up charges of arson and murder. Nora allows Leopold to hide out at Lightcap’s new digs (he’s got a bum ankle) where the nonconformist malcontent (posing as “Joseph,” the gardener) quickly makes fast friends with the professor (at times you’re not entirely sure if this movie isn’t about a romantic relationship between Grant and Colman’s characters) and tries—with Nora’s help—to “thaw out” Lightcap and introduce him to a world beyond musty law books.

I don’t think there are enough words to describe how much I love this romantic/screwball comedy; Colman has a distinct flair for comedy (his character reminds me of the college professor he would later play on radio and television’s The Halls of Ivy—though “Toddy” Hall was a bit more loosened up) and Grant…well, let’s put it this way. He’s supposed to be a fugitive from justice, hiding out in the swamps and wilds of New England…hasn’t had a bath or shower, trying to avoid capture…and he still looks like…well, Cary Grant. But Arthur is the one who always gets my attention; she has this hysterically funny scene where she’s primping in front of a mirror and doing a Kate Hepburn imitation (which comes to a screeching halt when Colman catches her) and her reactions in trying to keep Ronnie from seeing Cary’s picture on the front of the newspaper are priceless. Town has a first-rate supporting cast, too; future TV icon Edgar Buchanan plays Grant’s defense attorney (and has one of my all-time favorite movie quips, referring to Grant’s Dilg: “He’s the only honest man I’ve come across in this town in twenty years…naturally, they want to hang him…”), and there’s also Rex Ingram (as Colman’s devoted manservant—there’s no better way to class up a film than providing a part for Rex, I’ve decided), Glenda “Torchy Blane” Farrell, Leonid Kinskey, Charles Dingle Emma Dunn, Tom “Captain Marvel” Tyler and Don Beddoe…and cameo contributions from William “Whitey” Benedict, Al Bridge, Lloyd Bridges (as a newspaper reporter), Eddie Laughton and Robert Walker.

The Rack (1956) – Adapted by Stewart Stern from the critically-acclaimed television play written by Rod Serling, The Rack relates the tale of Captain Edward W. Hall, Jr. (Paul Newman), a Korean War veteran who’s recently returned to the United States after spending two years in a POW camp. Naturally, this sort of situation would require a tremendous period of adjustment for any solider—but Hall’s case is unusual because charges have been brought before him by another officer (Lee Marvin) that Hall collaborated with the enemy while imprisoned. Prosecuting the case is Major Sam Moulton (played by beloved TDOY loser Wendell Corey) and Hall’s defense will be handled by Lt. Col. Frank Wasnick (Edmond O’Brien, a.k.a. “The Sweatiest Man in Noir”). Moulton is reluctant to take the case out of respect for the senior Hall (Walter Pidgeon), a retired colonel; but feels it’s his duty and during the trial elicits incriminating testimony from Hall, Jr. that presents the soldier in an unflattering light. It’s up to Wasnick to argue that the situation Hall found himself in is rife with an entirely new set of circumstances that the “old rules” simply cannot acknowledge.

At the risk of spoiling this for anyone who’s not seen it—any film that allows O’Brien (perspiration machine he may be) to lose a case to Wendell Corey already has a few strikes against it (though if you stop and think that this is the military deciding the outcome it makes a little bit more sense) but the weakest link in this film is surprisingly Newman, who at this point in his career hadn’t completely shaken off that “all-too-aware-I’m-Method-acting” affectation that had a tendency to ruin the effectiveness of his early film performances. (The Rack was Newman’s third feature film and he comes across as a tad callous and shallow—though you could argue that his character was written that way.) It’s up to the old pros (Corey, O’Brien, Pidgeon) to put this one across; Marvin is also good (though when was he not?) and he didn’t have to attend the Actors Studio to boot. It’s nice to see Anne Francis (as Newman’s sister-in-law) re-teamed with her Forbidden Planet pop (Pidgeon) here, and there are also notable contributions from Cloris Leachman, Stacia fave James Best, Robert Burton, Adam Williams (I’ve seen Williams in a lot of films but North by Northwest [1959] is the one I always remember him for), Trevor Bardette and Barry Atwater. There are also quick bits by Robert “Baretta” Blake, Dean “Disney films” Jones, Rod “The Birds” Taylor and Paul Newlan—who would co-star alongside Marvin as his commanding officer on M Squad. (Last week was, interestingly enough, “Paul Newlan Week” at Rancho Yesteryear—not only did I see him in this movie but I caught him in the Thriller episodes “The Cheaters” and “The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk.”)

The Rack was directed by Arnold Laven, a journeyman whose other contributions to the silver screen include the interesting noir Down Three Dark Streets (1954), Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1957)—a good flick produced by Albert Zugsmith that I mentioned to Mark Evanier when he asserted that Zugsmith did nothing but trash like High School Confidential! (1958) and Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) (Evanier’s since dialed that back a bit, acknowledging that Zugsmith’s only noteworthy credit is Touch of Evil [1958]…but how can you dismiss Slaughter, a film whose cast includes Richard Egan, Jan Sterling, Dan Duryea, Julie Adams, Walter Matthau, Charles McGraw, Sam Levene, Mickey Shaughnessy and Harry Bellaver, ferchrissake?) and the Burt Reynolds western Sam Whiskey (1969). Laven also had a distinguished resume in television, helming episodes of The Rifleman, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, The Big Valley, Mannix and The A-Team, to name just a few. (Many of the shows Laven directed were from series associated with Laven’s company, Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions.)

The reason why I’m mentioning Laven is that I discovered that he passed away at the age of 87 in September of this year, and I was completely unaware of this news until I came across the obituary in The Guardian, which I stumbled onto when fact-checking something at the IMDb. R.I.P, Arnold. You will be sorely missed.

The wonderful world of Facebook #29

2009-12-07T08:30:00.000-05:00

Sticking it to The Man (?)

2009-12-06T14:30:00.000-05:00

I was surfing what the young people call “the Web” last night and noticed that DeepDiscount.com is having a sale on many of the DVDs available from the Warner Archive—some of their offerings going for close to 50% off. So here’s my question: would it be possible for individuals outside the U.S. to purchase some of these discs? I know that WBShop.com won’t ship to Canada but as far as I know DD doesn’t have those restrictions…