Amph Turner Classic Movies: RARE FILM ALERT: "Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages" (1922) on TCM Tonight

Today it's Peter Sellers:

3:00am [Crime] Your Past Is Showing (1957)
Bumbling blackmail subjects join forces to do in their tormentor.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton, Terry-Thomas Dir: Mario Zampi BW-93 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

4:30am [Comedy] Mouse That Roared, The (1959)
An impoverished nation declares war on the U.S. hoping to lose and score foreign aid.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Jean Seberg, William Hartnell, David Kossoff Dir: Jack Arnold C-83 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

6:00am [Comedy] I'm All Right Jack (1960)
A veteran starting out in business gets caught between management and labor.
Cast: Ian Carmichael, Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough, Terry-Thomas Dir: John Boulting BW-105 mins, TV-14 [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

8:00am [Comedy] Millionairess, The (1961)
When the world's richest woman falls for an ascetic Indian doctor, they plan a test to decide whose dreams will come true.
Cast: Sophia Loren, Peter Sellers, Alastair Sim, Vittorio De Sica Dir: Anthony Asquith C-86 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

9:30am [Comedy] Only Two Can Play (1962)
A Welsh librarian fed up with his meager, married existence meets a beautiful woman with whom he tries to consummate an affair.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Mai Zetterling, Virginia Maskell, Richard Attenborough Dir: Sidney Gilliat BW-106 mins, TV-PG [Email Remind Me]

11:30am [Comedy] Wrong Box, The (1966)
Two elderly brothers plot to kill each other for a fortune.
Cast: John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook Dir: Bryan Forbes C-106 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

1:30pm [Drama] After The Fox (1966)
A notorious con man poses as a film director to front a major caper.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Victor Mature, Britt Ekland, Martin Balsam Dir: Vittorio De Sica BW-103 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

3:15pm [Comedy] Murder by Death (1976)
A criminal madman invites the world's greatest detectives for a night of dinner and murder.
Cast: Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Truman Capote Dir: Robert Moore C-95 mins, TV-14 [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]
What's On Tonight: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: PETER SELLERS

5:00pm [Drama] Lolita (1962)
Vladimir Nabokov's racy classic focuses on an aging intellectual in love with a teenager.
Cast: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers Dir: Stanley Kubrick BW-153 mins, TV-14 [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

8:00pm [Comedy] Waltz of the Toreadors (1962)
A retired general's marriage is rocked by the return of his mistress.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Dany Robin, Margaret Leighton, John Fraser Dir: John Guillermin C-105 mins [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

10:00pm [Comedy] Two-Way Stretch (1960)
A convict plots to commit the perfect crime while still behind bars.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Wilfrid Hyde-White, David Lodge, Bernard Cribbins Dir: Robert Day BW-87 mins [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

11:30pm [Comedy] There's a Girl in My Soup (1970)
A womanizing TV star meets his match in an independent teenager.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Goldie Hawn, Tony Britton, Nicky Henson Dir: Roy Boulting C-96 mins, TV-MA [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

1:15am [Comedy] Party, The (1968)
An Indian actor turns a swank Hollywood party into a disaster.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Claudine Longet, Marge Champion, Sharron Kimberly Dir: Blake Edwards C-99 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]


"The Party" is pretty funny ('birdy num-num!'), and I enjoyed "Two-Way Stretch" when I saw it at age 10. "I'm All Right, Jack" was funny, too.

 

You know, two things.

First, on Lupino, I think they should have shown soemthing she directed too. Hitch-Hiker, for instance. I find it fascinating; you'd never think she'd be a director. Women directors are still rare and this was back in the golden age when it would have been even less likely.

Second, on Sellers. The Wrong Box is high farce and brilliant. Ralph Richardson is sidesplittingly funny.

 

They did: "The Bigamist" was directed by her.

I agree that "The Hitch-Hiker" was very good; I enjoyed it.

 

On Dangerous Ground is probably my least favorite Ray film. It's utterly contrived and Lupino's character strains all bounds of credulity.

 

I was enjoying it until Lupino entered, stage right, as the Redemptive Blind Person. Bleah.

Today it's Jean Arthur.

4:30am [Drama] Public Hero No. 1 (1935)
An undercover G-man helps with a jailbreak to learn the mob's secrets.
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur, Chester Morris, Joseph Calleia Dir: J. Walter Ruben BW-90 mins, TV-G [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

6:00am [Crime] Adventure in Manhattan (1936)
A hotshot reporter and a temperamental actress clash when he investigates the backer of her latest show.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Reginald Owen, Thomas Mitchell Dir: Edward Ludwig BW-73 mins, TV-G [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]


7:30am [Drama] Whirlpool (1934)
An ex-convict tries to connect with the daughter who doesn't even know he exists.
Cast: Jack Holt, Jean Arthur, Donald Cook, Allan Jenkins Dir: Roy William Neill BW-72 mins [Email Remind Me]

8:45am [Adventure] Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
A team of flyers risks their lives to deliver the mail in a mountainous South American country.
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth Dir: Howard Hawks BW-121 mins, TV-PG [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

11:00am [Western] Shane (1953)
A mysterious drifter helps farmers fight off a vicious gunman.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon de Wilde Dir: George Stevens C-118 mins, TV-G [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

1:00pm [Comedy] Devil and Miss Jones, The (1941)
A department store owner goes undercover as an employee to thwart union activists.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Edmund Gwenn Dir: Sam Wood BW-92 mins, TV-G [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

2:45pm [Drama] Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption.
Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold Dir: Frank Capra BW-130 mins, TV-G [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

What's On Tonight: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: JEAN ARTHUR

5:00pm [Comedy] You Can't Take It With You (1938)
A girl from a family of freethinkers falls for the son of a conservative banker.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold Dir: Frank Capra BW-126 mins, TV-G [Email Remind Me]

7:15pm [Suspense/Mystery] Ex-Mrs. Bradford, The (1936)
A detective teams with his ex-wife to solve a murder.
Cast: William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Gleason, Eric Blore Dir: Stephen Roberts BW-82 mins, TV-G [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

8:45pm [Comedy] If You Could Only Cook (1935)
An unhappy executive gets a job as a butler on a lark, only to fall for the family cook.
Cast: Herbert Marshall, Jean Arthur, Leo Carillo, Lionel Stander Dir: William A. Seiter BW-72 mins, TV-G [Email Remind Me]

10:00pm [Comedy] Too Many Husbands (1940)
When her long lost husband returns after her re-marriage, a woman decides to try life with two mates.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, Melvyn Douglas, Harry Davenport Dir: Wesley Ruggles BW-81 mins, TV-G [Email Remind Me]

11:30pm [Comedy] Impatient Years, The (1944)
A feuding couple re-creates their courtship in hopes of falling back in love.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Lee Bowman, Charles Coburn, Edgar Buchanan Dir: Irving Cummings BW-91 mins, TV-G [Email Remind Me]

1:30am [Drama] Party Wire (1935)
When a small-town girl's boyfriend leaves in disgrace, gossips spread false reports of her pregnancy.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Victor Jory, Helen Lowell, Robert Allen Dir: Erle C. Kenton BW-69 mins, TV-G

 

Today it's Claire Bloom:

3:00am [Epic] Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm, The (1962)
Fanciful biography of the German fairy-tale collectors, with reenactments of three of their stories.
Cast: Laurence Harvey, Karl Boehm, Claire Bloom, Walter Slezak Dir: Henry Levin C-136 mins, TV-G [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

5:30am [Western] Outrage, The (1964)
A Mexican bandit's crimes receive wildly different interpretations from four witnesses.
Cast: Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson Dir: Martin Ritt BW-96 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

7:30am [Drama] Brothers Karamazov, The (1958)
In this adaptation of the Dostoevsky classic, four brothers fight to adjust to the death of their domineering father.
Cast: Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, Claire Bloom, Lee J. Cobb Dir: Richard Brooks C-146 mins, TV-PG [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

10:00am [Epic] Alexander The Great (1956)
Biography of the ancient warrior who conquered the known world.
Cast: Richard Burton, Fredric March, Claire Bloom, Barry Jones Dir: Robert Rossen C-136 mins, TV-G [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

12:30pm [Drama] Richard III (1955)
A hunchbacked madman plots to make himself king of England.
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Claire Bloom, Sir Cedric Hardwicke Dir: Laurence Olivier C-158 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

3:15pm [Drama] Man Between, The (1953)
An East Berliner helps a British woman trapped behind the Iron Curtain.
Cast: James Mason, Claire Bloom, Hildegarde Neff, Geoffrey Toone Dir: Carol Reed BW-102 mins, TV-G [Email Remind Me]

What's On Tonight: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: CLAIRE BLOOM

5:00pm [Suspense/Mystery] Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The (1965)
A British agent infiltrates the enemy by allowing himself to be disgraced at home.
Cast: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Peter Van Eyck Dir: Martin Ritt BW-112 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

7:00pm [Horror/Science-Fiction] Haunting, The (1963)
A team of psychic investigators moves into a haunted house that destroys all who live there.
Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn Dir: Robert Wise BW-112 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

9:00pm [Drama] 80,000 Suspects (1963)
A doctor must contend with a smallpox epidemic and his failing marriage.
Cast: Jill Curzon, Kay Walsh, Arthur Christiansen, Claire Bloom Dir: Val Guest BW-109 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

11:00pm [Adventure] Clash Of The Titans (1981)
A Greek hero fights a series of monsters, including the dreaded gorgon, to win the woman he loves.
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith, Burgess Meredith Dir: Desmond Davis C-118 mins, TV-14 [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

1:15am [Comedy] Severed Head, A (1971)
When a woman leaves her husband for his best friend, it triggers a series of romantic unions and breakups.
Cast: Lee Remick, Richard Attenborough, Ian Holm, Claire Bloom Dir: Dick Clement C-98 mins, TV-MA [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

 

Bernard Herrmann Profile

* Films in Bold Air on TCM in September

Bernard Herrmann Profile<br> * Films in Bold Air on TCM in September

"Oscar-winning® composer Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) created some of the movies' most memorable and haunting scores, especially when working in collaboration with Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock. After making his movie debut in 1941 with Welles' Citizen Kane, Herrmann reteamed with the mercurial director for The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). Unfortunately, more than half of his score - by turns lyrical and sinister - was cut when the film was subjected to massive re-editing. Herrmann had his name removed from the credits by threatening legal action.

Herrmann's expressive score for Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) is probably the single most impressive element of this adventure starring Robert Wagner and set in Key West and its surrounding waters. In an early use of stereo recording, Herrmann isolated his instruments, including nine harps, and established the mysterious sound of many an undersea adventure to come.

Vertigo (1958), often considered the masterpiece of the Hitchcock/Herrmann collaborations, makes lushly romantic use of Herrmann's mood-setting strings, which become increasingly neurotic and haunting as this story of doomed love begins to take nightmarish twists. Another Hitchcock thriller, Psycho (1960), contains what is probably Herrmann's best-known score, especially the shrieking strings that accompany Janet Leigh's fatal shower scene. Hitchcock, notorious for his stinginess with praise, said that Herrmann's score accounted for at least one third of the movie's impact.

Herrmann's score for Cape Fear (1962), with its ominous four-note brass motif, lends such an atmosphere of impending danger to J. Lee Thompson's thriller that Martin Scorsese had Elmer Bernstein adapt the original music for a 1991 remake."

Today they are showing "Hangover Square", "The Devil & Daniel Webster", "Citizen Kane", "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "On Dangerous Ground"

 

He was an astounding composer all right. Day the Earth Stood Still is a great score for a mediocre film. And even his last effort, Taxi Driver, was brilliant. Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a sadly forgotten score.

 

Citizen Kane just ended, the Magnificent Ambersons begins in ten minutes on TMC.

Interestingly, Robert Osborne had a factoid after Kane that I found amazing.

Bernard Hermann composed his score for Citizen Kane at age 29.

 

That's amazing.

Tonight, a tribute to Claude Rains, which will be ongoing in September:

5:00pm Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption.
Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold Dir: Frank Capra BW-130 mins, TV-G

7:15pm 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, Claude Rains Dir: Michael Curtiz BW-103 mins, TV-PG

9:15pm Mr. Skeffington (1944)
A flighty beauty marries a stockbroker for convenience and almost ruins both their lives.
Cast: Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel, George Coulouris Dir: Vincent Sherman BW-146 mins, TV-G

11:45pm Notorious (1946)
A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil.
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern Dir: Alfred Hitchcock BW-101 mins, TV-PG


The pick of these are "Casablanca" ("I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to see that gambling is going on here") and "Notorious", where he plays one of his best roles ever.

 

I love Rains in Casablanca. In addition to the iconic, "I'm shocked" gambling line, I also like, "I'm just a poor corrupt government official."

 

Rains was usually pretty great. Give him a nice juicy supporting role (or even a not too juicy one, like in Lawrence of Arabia) and he'll give you just what you want. Notorious is his best, Casablanca a close second.

 

It just dawned on me...Rains played a slimy government official in both Casablanca AND Lawrence of Arabia. True, one was in law enforcement and one was in diplomacy but they were both of questionable motives. Those seemed to be the roles that Rains could really sink his teeth into.

 

He was ahead of his time in playing very morally complicated characters. Even in Notorious, he finds real humanity in his character; Grant is the hero, but he's not very likable. By the end of the movie, you feel sorry for Rains, which is very odd.

 

Not really, when you consider that Rains is the Hitchcock surrogate in the story...the short not-so-beautiful man who loves a tall, beautiful woman who loves a tall, beautiful man.

 

11:00pm [Comedy] La Ronde (1950)

"A series of inter-related affairs link lovers from all levels of society.
Cast: Danielle Darrieux, Simone Signoret, Fernand Gravey, Jean-Louis Barrault Dir: Max Ophüls BW-93 mins, TV-14"


Haven't seen it. Next week I understand it's another Ophuls film: "The Earrings of Madame De..."

 

AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!

My recorder is malfunctioning and I did not get "La Ronde"

Tuesday night, more Bernard Hermann scores:

What's On Tonight: TCM SPOTLIGHT: BERNARD HERRMANN
5:00pm [Suspense/Mystery] Five Fingers (1952)
A British valet in Turkey during World War II sells secrets to the Germans.
Cast: James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie, Walter Hampden Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz BW-108 mins [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

7:00pm [Drama] Snows Of Kilimanjaro, The (1952)
As he fights a deadly jungle fever, a hunter remembers his lost loves..
Cast: Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner, Hildegarde Neff Dir: Henry King C-114 mins, TV-PG [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

9:00pm [Adventure] Beneath The 12-Mile Reef (1953)
Love brings together two families of rival sponge fishers.
Cast: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland, J. Carrol Naish Dir: Robert D. Webb C-101 mins, TV-G [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

11:00pm [War] Naked And The Dead, The (1958)
A green lieutenant comes up against incompetent officers and a sadistic sergeant during World War II.
Cast: Aldo Ray, Cliff Robertson, Raymond Massey, Lili St. Cyr Dir: Raoul Walsh C-131 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

1:15am [Adventure] 3 Worlds of Gulliver, The (1960)
A physician lost at sea discovers lands populated by tiny warriors and giant kings.
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Jo Morrow, June Thorburn, Lee Patterson Dir: Jack Sher C-99 mins, TV-PG

Of these, I've only seen the first, in which James Mason is highly entertaining.

 

Okay, some good movies today:

John Boorman's "Point Blank" is on at 3:00 pm. PT

and at 5:00 pm. "The Long Hot Summer" starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. You want chemistry? This film is a whole chemistry set, and thoroughly entertaining.

 

Hitchcock's Vertigo began just a few minutes ago on TCM.

I missed the great Saul Bass opening titles & the awesome Hermann main titles score.

 

Yes, they are great.

Tonight is the last night of the Bernard Hermann tribute:

5:00pm [Suspense/Mystery] Bride Wore Black, The (1968)
A woman seeks revenge on the five men who murdered her fiance.
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Claude Brialy, Michel Bouquet, Charles Denner Dir: François Truffaut C-108 mins, TV-14 [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

7:00pm [Suspense/Mystery] Road Builder, The (1971)
A drifter with a deadly secret ignites passions in two lonely women.
Cast: Patricia Neal, Pamela Brown, Nicholas Clay, Jean Anderson Dir: Alastair Reid C-96 mins, TV-PG [Email Remind Me]

9:00pm [Suspense/Mystery] Obsession (1976)
A businessman falls in love with a double for his murdered wife.
Cast: Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow, Sylvia Kuumba Williams Dir: Brian De Palma C-98 mins, TV-14 [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

11:00pm [Drama] Taxi Driver (1976)
A loner becomes fixated on a teen prostitute.
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle Dir: Martin Scorsese C-114 mins, TV-MA

 

9:00pm [Suspense/Mystery] Obsession (1976)
A businessman falls in love with a double for his murdered wife.
Cast: Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow, Sylvia Kuumba Williams Dir: Brian De Palma C-98 mins, TV-14 [

This movie was, I believe, widely criticized for being a ripoff of Vertigo, and DePalma for awhile was attacked for being a Hitchcock wannabe who shamelessly stole from the master himself. Well, the year DePalma made this film, Hitchcock made his final film, Family Plot, using John Williams. And who did DePalma use? Bernard Hermann. Not to put too fine a point on it.

 

Sorry for the double post.

TCM now showing Taxi Driver. First time they've ever shown this on TCM, it's because of their tribute to Bernard Hermann.

Interesting factoid from the always reliable Robert Osborne:

Hermann died one day after completing the recording of the score for Taxi Driver, in December 1975.

I guess he felt his "work" was done.

 

The last night of the September tribute to Claude Rains

5:00pm [Drama] They Won't Forget (1937)
Bigotry flares when a Jewish businessman is accused of killing a small-town girl in the South.
Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris, Otto Kruger Dir: Mervyn LeRoy BW-95 mins, TV-G [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

7:00pm [Drama] Twilight Of Honor (1963)
A struggling lawyer takes on a controversial murder case that could make or break him.
Cast: Richard Chamberlain, Joey Heatherton, Nick Adams, Claude Rains Dir: Boris Sagal BW-104 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Email Remind Me]

9:00pm [Drama] They Made Me A Criminal (1939)
A young boxer flees to farming country when he thinks he's killed an opponent in the ring.
Cast: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, May Robson Dir: Busby Berkeley BW-92 mins, TV-PG [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

10:45pm [Suspense/Mystery] Unsuspected, The (1947)
The producer of a radio crime series commits the perfect crime, then has to put the case on the air.
Cast: Joan Caulfield, Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett Dir: Michael Curtiz BW-103 mins, TV-PG [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

12:30am [Suspense/Mystery] Where Danger Lives (1950)
A psychopath draws her doctor into her murderous schemes.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Claude Rains, Maureen O'Sullivan Dir: John Farrow BW-80 mins, TV-PG

 

DePalma was attacked like that, but I still think he had the last laugh. He wasn't always on point (neither was Hitchcock), but think, stylistically, Carrie is as close to a Hitchcock film as we really get post-Hitchcock.

 

Um...no. Da Palma isn't temperamentally the least like Hitchcock.

The best non-Hitchcock-directed Hitchcock is "Charade".