Current Events > summer under the stars begins on turner classic movies tmrw

(+) Yeah! (+)

every day in august they do a 24 hour block of a single actor's films :)

https://twitter.com/tcm/status/1678796394038022145

who are you most excited to see, CE?

today is lucille ball btw

the movie where she met desi, too many girls, already aired.

but they starred in the long long trailer which is the primetime slot, directed by the goat vincente minnelli

"Capital-A Art" says ignatiy vishnevetsky

leonard maltin says "Though based on the popular novel by Clinton Twiss, this enduringly popular slapstick comedy is almost an I Love Lucy episode on wheels."

the goat dave kehr writes "Vincente Minnelli has the last word on 50s situation comedy in this film designed as a vehicle for Lucille Ball and Desi Arenaz at the height of their television popularity. Minnelli amplifies Lucy's character into the personification of Consumer Culturea shrill, castrating harpy who drags the helpless Desi through humiliation after humiliation in her maniacal pursuit of middle-class bliss."

anyone else a fan of shrill, castrating harpies who drag you through humiliation after humiliation?

forgot to tag my pals no wonder no one is posting in the topic @Smashingpmkns @blue_inigo @bsp77

How do I watch these? Do you need cable?

Man, this is just a reminder of how many pre-70s movies I have not seen. I have been watching movies like crazy the last few years but I can never catch up on everything I missed.

Based on my limited experience with many of these actors, I really do enjoy James Stewart. My fiance and I just watched Rope for the first time a couple weeks back. I was surprised by the homoerotic tension, and looking it up afterward, it sounds like it might have been intentional considering the actors' lives.

Ooh, there's a Vincent Price day, nice

I am now tracking this topic

And my mom is definitely gonna be hearing about this

Flynn, Price, and Stewart. Bogart missing a notably fil.

This is neat but I don't think I have any way to watch unless they're doing a live stream on MAX.

unknownhombre posted...

How do I watch these? Do you need cable?

basically. also available on youtube tv and hulu tv if you subscribe to either of those.

AndreLeGeant posted...

Flynn, Price, and Stewart. Bogart missing a notably fil.

notable film you mean? they play casablanca all the fucking time. its the most played movie on the channel.

bsp77 posted...

Man, this is just a reminder of how many pre-70s movies I have not seen. I have been watching movies like crazy the last few years but I can never catch up on everything I missed.

Based on my limited experience with many of these actors, I really do enjoy James Stewart. My fiance and I just watched Rope for the first time a couple weeks back. I was surprised by the homoerotic tension, and looking it up afterward, it sounds like it might have been intentional considering the actors' lives.

pre 70s movies dude. way better than post 70s movies. 100%

today is anthony perkins day. primetime movie is, of course, psycho. one of the greatest movies ever made.

orson welles' the trial, winter kills, and remember my name also receive a lot of praise. only seen the first though. know a lot of people love the latter especially altho i don't think perkins is really the lead

remember my name letterboxd blurbs:

This is a genuinely unsettling, even frightening stalker drama with an all-timer of a lead performance from Geraldine Chaplin

It's an eccentric, stubborn, and gripping piece, in which Rudolph executes an elegant Hitchcockian transfer of audience identification from victim to aggressor.

Alan Rudolph starts with a very typical Fatal Attraction scenario and manages to build a slippery film that is both attentive to human mystery and emotionalyl raw. It slowly goes from confounding to painful as the film carefully moves toward a confrontation that is immediately felt as few genre films are.

Zithers posted...

who are you most excited to see, CE?

Errol Flynn, Geraldine Chaplin, Vincent Price, Ernest Borgnine, Ann Sheridan, and John Carradine. I say this, but since I don't have access to TCM I won't actually watch any of it.

Vincent Price is probably my favorite just because I love a ton of his classic horror movies, but Bogey's day will also be killer.

i always liked this appreciation of vincent price from john waters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ne9wK5n-6A&ab_channel=TheVincentPriceLegacy

stella stevens day tmrw. i don't know much about it her honestly. not sure i've heard of her until earlier this year when she passed away. apparently she was a playmate too!

anyway her primetime film is girls! girls! girls! with elvis. the big hit song in that one was "return to sender." and the most notable movie she was in, also playing tmrw, was probably the ballad of cable hogue, a sam peckinpah western. some letterboxd blurbs on it:

A film about the difficulty of not being a psychopath in a world of psychopaths. Lets make a western about how revenge is futile, and forgiveness is crucial, but no matter which you choose, youll die and then you will be dead.

Jason Robards puts his theatrical gestures to good use; he's rarely seemed so at home in a movie. But the film belongs to Stella Stevens, who, as the prostitute who moves in with Hogue, shows the kind of warmth and spirit that would have made her a major star had she not been pinioned by changing tastes

anyone watching stella stevens today

wonder if i can keep this topic going all month

jackie cooper day today. third straight first-timer for summer under the stars. he was a major kid actor in the 30s but was able to hang around as an adult albeit not in lead roles so much.

skippy is on at 9:45pm est. he was nominated for best lead actor as a 9 year old. i think thats still the record for youngest nomination? he lost to lionel barrymore who approached him afterward and said "they only gave this to me since i don't have much time left, but you deserved it." and then he lived for another 20 years, damn.

the primetime film is the champ, where he co-starred with wallace beery. beery would win the best actor oscar for this while playing an alcoholic gambling boxer struggling to keep custody of his son.

or you could watch ziegfeld girl which has busby berkeley directed musical numbers. can't go wrong there.

Hey Zithers, what are your thoughts on Yorgos Lanthimos?

i like the favourite

Zithers posted...

i like the favourite

Somehow I never got around to it in 2019 and it has been on my to-watch list since. Trailers for Poor Things has inspired me, so I did just watch Dogtooth and The Lobster. Weird shit but I mostly like it, especially the first half of The Lobster. It was a fantastic satire regarding societal norms about coupling up, but I thought the second half didn't quite keep it going as well as it should.

i saw the lobster in the theater and what i remember most is some normie shouting "what IS this movie???" while laughing and i was so annoyed

shut the fuck up asshole

lot of Errol Flynn tomorrow...

Zithers posted...

basically. also available on youtube tv and hulu tv if you subscribe to either of those.

Ah bummer. Oh well. Maybe next time.

invertedlegdrop posted...

lot of Errol Flynn tomorrow...

yeah. its the weekend so they gotta put the big stars out. adventures of don juan is nearing its end.

they died with their boots on airs later. his final film with olivia de havilland, who was his leading lady on eight occasions, and also apparently a hagiography of general custer!

primetime is the private lives of elizabeth and essex but that movie weirds me out cuz of how they made bette davis look

then you've got b2b swashbucklers from michael curtiz with the adventures of robin hood and the sea hawk

seems like a pretty solid lineup. not surprising since he was one of wb's biggest stars of the 30s-40s and tcm of course owns all of that so yeah. here's his daughter talking about him when they did a big retro of his movies awhile back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eiDSPq6Sug&ab_channel=RoryFlynn

Zithers posted...

then you've got b2b swashbucklers from michael curtiz with the adventures of robin hood and the sea hawk

Two masterful sword duels between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone that were choreographed by Fred Cavens.

debbie reynolds day today. carrie fisher's mom!

the obvious recommendation is singin' in the rain, where she features in one of the most romantic scenes ever captured on celluloid. one of the great films and you should check it out if you haven't seen it. often called a musical for people who don't like musicals. although i think la la land may have usurped it for movie that most commonly gets that description... should be on max or any digital rental platform as well.

the unsinkable molly brown is on next. i've had that on in the background a few times. seems like the most annoying performance in cinema history. i like this dave kehr review of it.

Alas. When Molly, an ambitious young orphan from 19th-century Denver (Debbie Reynolds) boards the Titanic, it's time to cheer the iceberg. Ruthlessly, demonically cheerful, this 1964 musical receives some competent direction from Charles Walters, which is infinitely more than it deserves.

"ruthlessly, demonically cheerful." amazing line.

primetime is the tender trap, where frank sinatra singles the title song. apparently has super regressive 1950s man/woman politics so i guess avoid it if you're sensitive to that.

the gazebo is on later which has a fun premise altho glenn ford is the lead instead of her.

TV writer Elliott Nash buries a blackmailer under the new gazebo in his suburban backyard. But the nervous man cant let the body rest there.

glenn ford's nash is apparently working with alfred hitchcock and even asks him for advice at one point in the movie. fun. probably on an ok watch.

alright tmrw is robert ryan. pretty major. you got...

woman on the beach - jean renoir's last film he made in america since 15-20 minutes were cut without his supervision. people still think its a pretty good noir with some reservations due to the missing scenes.

act of violence - another noir about a celebrated war hero who may have lied about his deeds... as robert ryan stalks him and tries to reveal his betrayal to his fellow soldiers.

the naked spur - pretty good anthony mann western where jimmy stewart plays a bounty hunter looking for ryan. although im pretty sure they always show some terrible vhs rip.

the set up - noir where ryan is a washed up boxer whose manager bets on him to lose... only he doesn't... movie plays out in real time.

on dangerous ground - hey wow another noir. great one tho, where ryan plays a vicious cop sent to the boonies as punishment. falls in love with the blind ida lupino (who directed a few scenes when nicholas ray missed some days). really wonderful.

lolly-madonna xxx - never heard of this but its later career ryan and sounds like a solid hicksploitation movie

Zithers posted...

skippy is on at 9:45pm est. he was nominated for best lead actor as a 9 year old. i think thats still the record for youngest nomination? he lost to lionel barrymore who approached him afterward and said "they only gave this to me since i don't have much time left, but you deserved it." and then he lived for another 20 years, damn.

I don't think Barrymore necessarily expected to die so much as he was aware of his physical disabilities. He had severe arthritis and morphine addiction by 1931. That said, he could also have been nice.

AndreLeGeant posted...

I don't think Barrymore necessarily expected to die so much as he was aware of his physical disabilities. He had severe arthritis and morphine addiction by 1931. That said, he could also have been nice.

i don't know if people with severe morphine addictions tend to live that long... although i'll admit i had no idea he was largely confined to a wheelchair or anything like that until i came across that interview on youtube a week or two ago.

anyway a new entertainment weekly article, which is surprisingly in-depth and detailed, came out this morning about how clueless david zaslav and the WBD execs are, at least in regards to their handling of the layoffs at TCM a couple months ago. doesn't seem like they have any idea how the channel runs or what it requires. very upsetting. i would be full-on devastated if TCM lost its direction.

https://ew.com/tv/tcm-insiders-detail-fight-to-protect-turner-classic-movies-network/

guys its joan blondell day tmrw. sixteen movies! since most of what they're airing is 70 minute pre-code films. woo! strongly recommend the primetime triple feature of dames, gold diggers of 1933, and footlight parade. great comedies/musicals that still resonate today since rich ppl/execs are always trying to fuck artists. altho footlight parade *does* have some racism in the form of yellowface and discussion of "beautiful white bodies" so be aware of that. busby berkeley music numbers tho - cinema.

turning this into my movie related blog. really great article from the showrunner of dickinson about the strikes:

https://theankler.com/p/death-spiral-of-hollywood-monopolies

also i watched sorcerer last night to memorialize william friedkin, may he rip. great movie. really beautiful location photography and some fun thrills. lots of explosions. real explosions. super cool. rentable on apple tv!

anyway tmrw is the nicholas brothers. they were a black dancing duo who would appear in musicals for a number or two. there is probably going to be a shit ton of problematic/racist stuff on the channel tmrw so prep yourself for that. stormy weather is the primetime pick. it's an all-black musical from 1943 and from what i understand, quite a good movie. lena horne and bill 'bojangles' robinson lead it. there's also the pirate, starring gene kelly and judy garland, which i like. gene kelly shows his thighs off a lot in that one if thats your thing. directed by the god vincente minnelli (who yes was judy's husband and liza's dad).

not going to watch any of this btw cuz i got a matinee showing of oppenheimer finally

would more people post in this topic if i did day bumps instead of night bumps

i guess not.

i did not like oppenheimer btw. really just a totally exhausting movie. the pace is relentless. it reminded me of elvis, the shitty movie from last year. although i did like some of the more impressionistic touches in oppenheimer, with the caveat that a lot of it seemed to be aping twin peaks the return's episode 8. however if you are going to steal from something, that is a solid source to rip off.

i don't know. 3 hours of everything being pitched at a crescendo isn't my idea of a good time. honestly i had a headache after and popped an ibuprofen as soon as i got home. every scene is meant to be important and has that unending music underlining it... it should have been longer so that scenes could breathe, or so that the movie could even have scenes. everything is so short, it's almost just constant montage.

i didn't expect to like it that much but not in this fashion. oh well! chris nolan continues to be the most overpraised filmmaker in the world i guess.

I have my DVR set to record

• Out of the Past
• The Blue Dahlia (mostly because I just watched something on the Black Dahlia case)
• Goodbye Mr. Chips
• Mrs. Miniver
• Lost Horizon
• The Prisoner of Zenda (recorded the other one accidentally, so I wanted the earlier one lol)

Already have Harper DVR'd.

whoa. do we have a classic hollywood fan in our midst

out of the past is a good one for tmrw's star, rhonda fleming. while the city sleeps aint bad either. there's also the killer is loose, which i've not seen, but its directed by budd boetticher so it can't be that bad. hoping to get his new boxset that came out for criterion during the next half off flash sale.

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/6702-the-ranown-westerns-five-films-directed-by-budd-boetticher

I noticed when I was looking through that there seemed to be an actor theme going on, but didn't know it was a TCM event or anything. Haven't seen those westerns you mentioned, but Randolph Scott is usually a solid bet, so maybe I'll look 'em up tomorrow and see if they're playing anywhere (maybe that westerns channel).

ride lonesome and decision at sundown both stream on tubi. sundown is also on roku. generally i am weary of a movie's transfer if it streams on both of those services tho...

i've seen ride lonesome (which airs on tcm sometimes - that's how i first saw it), comanche station, and 7 men from now. all good. all of them are basically remixes of the same ideas/themes but that's ok. theyre all like 75 minutes long, have randolph scott being a hardass, and look good thanks to the western outdoor photography.

I wasn't DVR-ing based on a particular actor, though, just stuff I remember hearing about that I hadn't seen. Found a bunch of random stuff that way, like Klute and They Won't Forget.

klute is great. jane fonda at the end of the movie - good acting. you should check out all the president's men and the parallax view if you haven't already. also directed by alan j pakula and shot by gordon willis as part of their 'paranoia' trilogy.

never heard of they won't forget but it'll go on the list. mervyn leroy and claude rains. can't be that bad. also less than 1,000 views on letterboxd so watching it will give me some obscurity cred 8)

I think I recorded They Won't Forget on some random oldie channel (Comet?) that was mostly playing Gene Autry stuff.

Zithers posted...

you should check out all the president's men and the parallax view if you haven't already. also directed by alan j pakula and shot by gordon willis as part of their 'paranoia' trilogy.

Hmm, I feel like I watched both of those once upon a time. I'll keep an eye open for reairs.

folks we got alan ladd now.

shane. you guys know shane, right? there's also a noir triple feature where he's paired up with veronica lake in this gun for hire, the glass key, and the blue dahlia.

weekend is showcasing deborah kerr which is a bit surprising since i didn't think they'd consider her a major star... and then paul newman on sunday.

I hope they still have this event in 30 years when my kid is out of the house and I can just lay in bed all day as an old man watching movies that were filmed decades before my parents accidentally conceived me.

Ehh, I don't remember liking Shane that much. High Noon either.

i dont know that either film's reputation has held up super well over time. a lot of people i follow on letterboxd seem to rate them far below several westerns of ford, hawks, boetticher, mann, and so forth, rather than as pinnacles of the genre which i feel like is where they stood when i was first getting into movies

deborah kerr's got her two collabs with powell/pressburger tmrw with black narcissus and the life and death of colonel blimp - both of which are among the great films. you can also do a nun kerr double feature with black narcissus and heaven knows, mr allison, where she's stranded in the pacific with robert mitchum during the war. an affair to remember is an iconic film (altho a remake!) - you know, the couple agrees to meet at the empire state building six months later...

remember when smashing pumpkins dude said the black narcissus tv show looked visually impressive. really weird comment.

also for movie blog - i saw ball of fire. terrific motion picture. really funny and sweet. good blocking from hawks with his seven dwarfs. barbara stanwyck is endlessly watchable. the romantic moments are when you really see billy wilder's hand appear (he co wrote it) and they are heart melting. anyway this movie isn't available on bluray! only for digital rental or some crappy dvd. annoying!

Saw Black Narcissus once -- pretty good.

Watched Bad Day at Black Rock yesterday. Also pretty good.

yeah i like bad day at black rock. wes anderson is a big fan. asteroid city ripped off its opening credits! also paul thomas anderson claims that john sturges' dvd commentary for bad day at black rock is a better film school than actual film school.

paul newman day. interestingly the last movie of the day is rachel, rachel - a movie he directs instead of stars in. supposed to be pretty solid. stars his wife joanne woodward.

then you got the usual suspects like cool hand luke and cat on a hot tin roof. somebody up there likes me is supposed to be alright. nothing else looking very interesting.

greer garson today. gave the longest oscar speech in history apparently at 6 minutes. nice.

her primetime movie is mrs miniver, which won best picture. goodbye, mr chips precedes it which is supposed to be good. there's also pride and prejudice with laurence olivier. not sure any of the other films airing are notable...

btw tomorrow for ronald colman day she co stars with him in random harvest, which is great.