Friday, May 7, 2010

King Kong and Jewel Robbery On The Air

If you're a devotee, as I am, of both Turner Classic Movies and the Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards, you'll be glad to know that a pair of Katie nominees, King Kong and Jewel Robbery are airing on America's classiest cable channel tomorrow, Saturday, May 8. King Kong is up for three Katies, including best picture and director; Kay Francis is up for best actress in Jewel Robbery.

At 6 a.m. EDT is Jewel Robbery, starring William Powell as a suave jewel thief who forces his victims to smoke marijuana during the robbery, leaving them happy, giggling and quite unable to identify him to the police. One of his victims (Kay Francis) is so taken with the thief, she insists on a repeat performance.

After the film's release, thousands of people wrote the studio asking where they could get hold of some of this marijuana stuff for themselves.

The other film, King Kong, I dare say you've heard of. Released in 1933, this is the ultimate in fun-stupid summer-blockbuster entertainment. It's spawned many remakes and sequels, but the original is the one people keep coming back to, and with good reason. If somehow you've never seen this classic action-sci-fi-horror flick, set your recorder or block out some time.

It's on at Noon, EDT time.

From TCM's website:

6:00am [Romance] Jewel Robbery (1932)
A jewel thief falls for a tycoon's wife in Vienna.
Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Helen Vinson, Hardie Albright Dir: William Dieterle BW-68 mins

12:00pm [Horror/Science-Fiction] King Kong (1933)
A film crew discovers the "eighth wonder of the world," a giant prehistoric ape, and brings him back to New York, where he wreaks havoc.
Cast: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher Dir: Merian C. Cooper BW-105 mins

2 comments:

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

A film crew discovers the "eighth wonder of the world," a giant prehistoric ape, and brings him back to New York, where he wreaks havoc.

Back in the day my parents used to subscribe to TV Guide, the back section of which was devoted to one-sentence reviews of all the movies on TV that week. Many of these reviews were funny & brilliant in their own way, sort of a Mad Magazine impersonation of a Reader's Digest version of the World of "Film." :-)

Mythical Monkey said...

I seem to remember reading that some paper described The Wizard of Oz as "farm girl kills two sisters." Probably the New York Times ...