Sunday, October 3, 2010

Some Movies To See In October

I've mentioned a lot of movies in this blog over the course of a year and a half, some of them tangentially, some with full-blown essays. Turner Classic Movies is showing many of them this month. Check them out if your cable system carries TCM. All times are Eastern Daylight Time.

Especially timely is tomorrow evening's showing of I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang. Check out Paul Muni's Katie nominated lead performance then check back later in the week to read about why I am choosing him as the best dramatic actor of 1932-33.

3 Sunday
4:30 AM Farewell To Arms, A (1932)
An American serving in World War I falls for a spirited nurse. Cast: Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou. Dir: Frank Borzage. BW-89 mins, TV-G

4 Monday
9:45 PM Skyscraper Souls (1932)
A ruthless financier will stop at nothing to control a 100-story office building. Cast: Warren William, Maureen O'Sullivan, Verree Teasdale. Dir: Edgar Selwyn. BW-99 mins, TV-G
1:30 AM I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932)
A World War I veteran faces inhuman conditions when he's sentenced to hard labor. Cast: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. BW-93 mins, TV-PG, CC

8:00 PM Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1932)
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a scientist who unleashes the beast within. Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian. BW-96 mins, TV-PG, CC
5:45 AM Anna Karenina (1935)
Adaptation of Tolstoy's classic tale of a woman who deserts her family for an illicit love. Cast: Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Basil Rathbone. Dir: Clarence Brown. BW-94 mins, TV-14, CC

6 Wednesday
6:15 PM Twentieth Century (1934)
A tempestuous theatrical director tries to win back the star he created and then drove away. Cast: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly. Dir: Howard Hawks. BW-91 mins, TV-PG, CC

8 Friday
11:30 AM Queen Christina (1933)
Romantic tale of the 17th-century Swedish queen and her romance with a Spanish diplomat. Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lewis Stone. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian. BW-99 mins, TV-G, CC

9 Saturday
2:00 PM Public Enemy, The (1931)
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime. Cast: James Cagney, Edward Woods, Jean Harlow. Dir: William A. Wellman. BW-84 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
4:00 AM Grand Hotel (1932)
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through scandal and heartache. Cast: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford. Dir: Edmund Goulding. BW-113 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS

13 Wednesday
8:00 PM General, The (1927)
In this silent film, a Confederate engineer fights to save his train and his girlfriend from the Union army. Cast: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender. Dir: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman. BW-75 mins, TV-G

14 Thursday
6:30 AM Broken Blossoms (1919)
In this silent film, an Asian man in London falls in love with an abused child. Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp. Dir: D.W. Griffith. BW-89 mins, TV-PG
8:00 AM Orphans of the Storm (1921)
In this silent film, two sisters, one of them blind, fight to find each other during the French Revolution. Cast: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut. Dir: D.W. Griffith. BW-151 mins, TV-G

15 Friday
6:30 AM Five Star Final (1931)
An unscrupulous newspaper editor searches for headlines at any cost. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, H.B. Warner, Marian Marsh. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. BW-89 mins, TV-PG, CC

16 Saturday
12:15 AM Morocco (1930)
A sultry cabaret singer falls hard for a Foreign Legionnaire. Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Adolphe Menjou. Dir: Josef von Sternberg. BW-92 mins, TV-14, CC
3:45 AM Blue Angel, The (1930)
A stodgy professor falls from grace when he's seduced by a nightclub singer. Cast: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron. Dir: Josef von Sternberg. BW-107 mins, TV-PG

17 Sunday
12:00 AM Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1923)
In this silent film, a deformed bell-ringer gives sanctuary to a beautiful gypsy accused of witchcraft. Cast: Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry. Dir: Wallace Worsley. BW-117 mins, TV-G

18 Monday
6:00 AM Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1932)
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a scientist who unleashes the beast within. Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian. BW-96 mins, TV-PG, CC

19 Tuesday
8:00 PM Design For Living (1933)
An independent woman can't chose between the two men she loves. Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Gary Cooper. Dir: Ernst Lubitsch. BW-91 mins, TV-G
12:00 AM Barretts of Wimpole Street, The (1934)
An invalid poetess defies her father's wishes to marry a dashing young poet. Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton. Dir: Sidney Franklin. BW-109 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS

20 Wednesday
6:30 AM Nothing Sacred (1937)
When a small-town girl is diagnosed with a rare, deadly disease, an ambitious newspaper man turns her into a national heroine. Cast: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Walter Connolly. Dir: William A. Wellman. C-74 mins, TV-PG
11:00 PM Last Flight, The (1931)
Four disillusioned Army buddies roam post-WWI Europe. Cast: Richard Barthelmess, David Manners, Johnny Mack Brown. Dir: William Dieterle. BW-76 mins, TV-G

22 Friday
8:45 AM What Price Hollywood? (1932)
A drunken director whose career is fading helps a waitress become a Hollywood star. Cast: Constance Bennett, Lowell Sherman, Neil Hamilton. Dir: George Cukor. BW-88 mins, TV-G

24 Sunday
12:00 AM Nosferatu (1922)
In this silent film, a beautiful woman risks her life to end a vampire's plague of death and pestilence. Cast: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schroder. Dir: F.W. Murnau. BW-89 mins, TV-PG
2:00 AM Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (1932)
Classic tale of a young traveler finding himself in a sinister castle. Cast: Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel. Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer. BW-72 mins, TV-PG

25 Monday
3:15 AM 42nd Street (1933)
The definitive backstage musical, complete with the dazzling newcomer who goes on for the injured star. Cast: Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Warner Baxter. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. BW-89 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS

27 Wednesday
1:15 AM Gold Diggers Of 1933 (1933)
Three chorus girls fight to keep their show going and find rich husbands. Cast: Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. BW-98 mins, TV-G, CC

29 Friday
7:30 AM Mystery Of The Wax Museum, The (1933)
A disfigured sculptor turns murder victims into wax statues. Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell. Dir: Michael Curtiz. C-77 mins, TV-PG, CC

30 Saturday
12:45 AM Mad Love (1935)
A mad doctor grafts the hands of a murderer on to a concert pianist's wrists. Cast: Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive. Dir: Karl Freund. BW-68 mins, TV-PG, CC
2:00 AM Cat People (1942)
A newlywed fears that an ancient curse will turn her into a bloodthirsty beast. Cast: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway. Dir: Jacques Tourneur. BW-73 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS

31 Sunday
6:15 AM Freaks (1932)
A lady trapeze artist violates the code of the side show when she plots to murder her midget husband. Cast: Wallace Ford, Olga Baclanova, Harry Earles. Dir: Tod Browning. BW-62 mins, TV-PG, CC
1:30 AM Phantom of the Opera, The (1925)
In this silent film, a hideously deformed man haunts the sewers beneath the Paris Opera. Cast: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry. Dir: Rupert Julian. BW-90 mins, TV-G

2 comments:

Yvette said...

CAT PEOPLE is one of my all time favorite movies. It's on my Halloween movie monster fest list on my blog. Even though, really, the 'monster' in CAT PEOPLE is very much in the imagination. THAT's what I love about the film.
The 'creepy' factor.

Mythical Monkey said...

Yeah, absolutely. It's what you don't see that makes it so scary.

I bought the Val Lewton collection last year, which includes Cat People, I Walked With A Zombie and several others. Wonderful stuff. Highly recommended.