TCM Week – Jan. 16-22

TCM Week spotlights a highly subjective selection of the week’s essential or undiscovered films on the Turner Classic Movies channel to help plan movie viewing, DVR scheduling or TCM Party attendance. All times are EST. 

Monday, January 16 — Before Spike (Lee)
For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, TCM is featuring a day of films related to how Americans dealt with race and racial issues. My top choice is The Defiant Ones (1958) at 6:15 p.m. Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier play two men—one white, the other black— who escape from prison in the South. They despise each other, but they are literally chained together and have to learn to cooperate if they’re going to survive. At the time, American films hardly ever addressed racial inequity and almost never starred African-Americans. Neither actor was afraid to play against their usual likability; both Curtis and Poitier were nominated for Best Actor Oscars. The film also received nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Theodore Bikel), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Cara Williams), Best Director (Stanley Kramer), Best Film Editing (Frederic Knudtson), and Best Picture. It won Best Black-and-White Cinematography and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen. There’s no question that it’s an old-fashioned movie; Spike Lee felt that Poitier’s character was the prototype of the “Magical Negro.” But it does propose that if we don’t get to know those who are different from us, we’ll never respect or like each other either…something that as a society we still need to work on.

Tuesday, January 17
6:15 p.m. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Everybody’s workin’ for the weekend…especially Arthur Seaton (Albert Finney), a rebellious young Brit who works in a factory all week and just wants to unwind with a few pints and his best friend’s wife on his days off. Based on Alan Sillitoe’s novel of the same name, both book and film were part of the Angry Young Man movement in literature and cinema trending in Britain from the mid-’50s to the early-’60s. Saturday Night shares the same sensibility as Look Back in Anger, Room at the Top, A Taste of Honey, Billy Liar and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. They’re a bit melodramatic, but these were the first British films to focus on the working class and portray their everyday lives. You might find the mood or some of the dialogue in Saturday Night familiar…this film and its movement have been an enduring influence on British (and thus, eventually, American) popular culture. For example, Morrissey of The Smiths borrowed lines directly from Saturday Night and generally made the AYM attitude a lifestyle; both the Stranglers and the Arctic Monkeys have albums named after this film.

1:30 a.m. (Wed.) Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)
Paulette Goddard plays a maid who records her impressions of the houses where she works. A rare chance to see Jean Renoir’s version of a novel of the same name by French writer Octave Mirbeau. Remade in 1964 by Luis Buñuel.

Wednesday, January 18 — Happy Birthday, Cary Grant
TCM honors the birthday of one of my favorite actors of all time with 12 hours of movies beginning at 6:15 a.m. If you can only watch one or two of these, my personal advice would be to choose from those in which sparks fly between Grant and his female co-stars, all great talents in their own right.
8:15 a.m. Topper (Constance Bennett)
10:00 a.m. Holiday (Katharine Hepburn)
noon In Name Only (Carole Lombard)
1:45 p.m. My Favorite Wife (Irene Dunne)
Happy birthday to all you hardworking, stylish Capricorns out there as well. Take some time for you and watch your knees. Love you guys.

8:00 p.m. The World of Harry Orient
***TCM Party***
Last night I saw a clip on TCM of Star of the Month Angela Lansbury describing her character in this as less than intelligent and not very nice. Sounds like a departure from type for her (although she wasn’t very pleasant in State of the Nation). She also said that she and co-star Peter Sellers improvised most of their dialogue, so this should be pretty interesting. Find us on Twitter with #TCMParty…watch and tweet along!

Thursday, January 19
Though his best-known films were done with Powell & Pressburger, cinematographer-director-genius Jack Cardiff had a lot of career outside of that collaboration. Tonight TCM has four films in which Cardiff worked with other directors, and while they might not be the greatest in terms of direction, acting, or writing, they certainly have effective and beautiful cinematography. If Faber & Faber are reading this, please bring out another edition of Cardiff’s book Magic Hour…the cheapest copy I can find is around $100!
8:00 p.m. Under Capricorn I see what you did there TCM
10:15 p.m. The Master of Ballantrae Roger Livesey Alert
midnight The Prince and the Showgirl The making of this film was apparently fraught with tension between stage-trained Laurence Olivier and Method proponent Marilyn Monroe. It formed the basis for the book and the film My Week with Marilyn.
2:00 a.m. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

Friday, January 20
Bright Leaf (11:15 a.m.) caught my eye. I’ve never seen it but the cast includes Gary Cooper and Lauren Bacall, although she is apparently not the female lead; Patricia Neal is. It was directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca). Also of note is tonight’s Essential, A Letter to Three Wives. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve, Suddenly Last Summer) wrote and directed this soapy look at three different crumbling marriages.

 

Was it self-defense or…gasp!…murder? Bette Davis and James Stephenson in The Letter

Saturday, January 21
midnight The Letter (1940)
Ms. Bette Davis is at her best as a woman claiming it was self-defense when she shot and killed a man one night in Malaysia. My favorite Bette Davis movie.

Sunday, January 22
8:00 p.m. Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
One of three films tonight starring Bela Lugosi, who along with Boris Karloff, provided many of Universal’s thrills and chills during the early ’30s.

2:00 a.m. (Mon.) Night of Cabiria
I’m not really all that familiar with Federico Fellini’s work, having only seen La Dolce Vita, but I wanted to give those who are a heads up.

So TCM fans…what are you watching this week? Any favorite Cary Grant movies? Leave me a comment!

Film Noir Friday – TOUCH of EVIL

I’ve had a horrendous case of writer’s block this week, trying to come up with something original to say about Orson Welles’ 1958 film noir masterpiece, Touch of Evil. As I noted last August, it’s practically impossible to say anything that hasn’t already been said about Welles and his work. After all, there are countless books and movie blogs rightly singing their praises, and Touch of Evil has long been regarded as a great of the film noir genre. But I’ve got to add my $.02 because Detroit Film Theatre is showing the film on Saturday, January 14 at 4:00 p.m. as part of their DFT 101 series. So I’ll just list why I’m so looking forward to this opportunity to see it as it was meant to be seen:

  • Touch of Evil is arguably the last in the film noir classic cycle. Welles’ own Citizen Kane is considered an important influence on what would eventually come to be known as film noir, and it’s clear that he had mastered the elements of film noir style, exemplified by his use of chiaroscuro lighting and subjective camerawork. Welles also wrote the film’s script, which contains most of film noir’s thematic elements. A hero (Charlton Heston as a Mexican narcotics officer named Mike Vargas) lost in a labyrinth of shadiness and duplicity, shadowed streets, corruption, and seedy characters. In Welles’ hands, it’s a feast for the eyes.
  • Welles also stars in this, his last American film, taking on the role of corrupt, alcohol-soaked cop Hank Quinlan. Quinlan’s jurisdiction is Los Robles, a seedy town on the Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border where all sorts of crime occurs, but Quinlan seems to be the worst. We see him slowly losing even the pretension of moral authority, as he conspires against Vargas, endangers Vargas’ wife (Janet Leigh), plants evidence, drinks to excess, and generally acts as judge and jury, convicting anyone he doesn’t like, usually a Mexican.

 

  • It will be a joy to see the film’s opening sequence, a three-minute, 20-second long take, on the big screen. We are shown a bomb being armed and concealed in the trunk of a Cadillac, which we then follow over the border in an amazing continuous shot, that ends with the explosion of the bomb.
  • As Tana (Marlene Dietrich) might have said about the 1958 version of Touch of Evil, “Honey, you’re a mess.” Welles wasn’t allowed to control the film’s final cut. The studio’s version placed the credits over the long take, added a musical soundtrack to it, and added some scenes to the rest of the film —  apparently the film’s plot was deemed to intricate for the average moviegoer. Thankfully, DFT will be showing the 1998 restoration, which was based on a painstaking 58-page memo Welles sent to the head of Universal Studios (who ignored it), so that what we see on Saturday will be as near to what Orson Welles intended as possible. Don’t miss it!

The DFT is located on the John R side of the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue. To purchase tickets, call 313.833.4005 or visit the DFT Ticket Info page.

TCM Week – Jan. 9-15


TCM Week spotlights a highly subjective selection of the week’s essential or undiscovered films on the Turner Classic Movies channel to help plan movie viewing, DVR scheduling or TCM Party attendance. All times are EST. 

Monday, January 9
I’m not a huge fan of either of the genres represented today — Westerns and Epidemics. Choosing strictly based on TCM summaries and IMDB reviews, I’d pick The Dude Goes West with Eddie Albert and Gale Storm at 4:30 p.m. At 8:00 p.m. the Epidemics begin contamination, led by The Andromeda Strain. Based on a novel by Michael Crichton and directed by Robert Wise (Somebody Up There Likes Me, West Side Story), it seems to be the least chintzy of the lot.

Benjy (Mark Linn-Baker) is in for a wild ride when he babysits Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) in My Favorite Year.

Tuesday, January 10
Writer-director-producer James L. Brooks (of Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News fame, among many others) is tonight’s Guest Programmer, beginning at 8:00 p.m. with This Is Your Story, which I haven’t seen. I’ve not seen Prince of the City (2:00 a.m.) either. But I love Brooks’ other three choices. My Favorite Year (8:15 p.m.) is about a 1940s radio show writer (Mark Linn-Baker) trying to keep fun-loving actor Alan Swann (Peter O’Toole doing his best Errol Flynn) sober and vertical, at least until Swann can guest star on that week’s broadcast. Dr. Strangelove (10:00 p.m.) and Network (11:45 p.m.) are two of the most prophetic movies ever made — the former foreshadows the increasing dominance of the military-industrial complex, the latter prefigures the rise of reality TV and that medium’s overall “if it bleeds, it leads” ratings-first mentality.

Wednesday, January 11
8:00 p.m. The State of the Union (1948)
***TCM Party***
Frank Capra’s follow-up to the now-beloved flop It’s A Wonderful Life was made as Truman defeated Dewey and the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated Hollywood. It’s about a presidential candidate who gets mixed up in the dirty side of politics. Though Star of the Month Angela Lansbury was in her early twenties when she made this film, she was nonetheless cast as Spencer Tracy’s character’s fortysomething mistress.
Watch and tweet with #TCMParty

Just one frame of the amazingly beautiful Black Narcissus

Thursday, January 12
TCM’s tribute to cinematographer Jack Cardiff continues tonight with my favorite films of his, those he did with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, collectively known as the Archers. Cardiff was the foremost practitioner of Technicolor and an accomplished fine artist who — I can’t think of any other way to say this — painted with light. I don’t think anyone else could have done the beautiful work he did. Put that together with the excellent direction, writing, art direction, acting, etc., and you have some incredibly fascinating and moving films.
8:00 p.m. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
11:00 p.m. Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)
We are lucky to have this excellent documentary as it seems as if Cardiff passed away not long after it was completed. But if you haven’t seen tonight’s films, my advice is to record this or wait until it’s rerun next Thursday…seriously. You want to experience the magic before you see how it was done.
12:30 a.m. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
2:30 a.m. The Red Shoes (1948)
5:00 a.m. Black Narcissus (1947)

Greta Garbo is a Polish aristocrat and Charles Boyer is Napoleon in Conquest

Friday, January 13
8:00 p.m. Conquest (1937)
Director Clarence Brown guided Greta Garbo from the silents into talkies and was a favorite with the star, apparently because, he said, “I had a special way with her. I never gave her direction in anything louder than a whisper.” This was the last film they made together, the story of a Polish countess (Garbo) who gets involved with Napoleon (Charles Boyer).

Saturday, January 14
10:30 p.m. Adam’s Rib (1949)
I’ll be setting the DVR for this one as I’ve never seen it, but with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn starring, and George Cukor directing — he also directed Hepburn in my favorite movie of hers, The Philadelphia Story — it should be good.

Sunday, January 15
Abbott and Costello spoof scary monsters and the horror genre beginning at 8:00 p.m., in a block that includes Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet The Invisible Man, and Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy.

 

Video: Angela Lansbury on her first film, Gaslight '44

While I’m under the weather I’m taking a little breather but I wanted to share this video I found of Angela Lansbury recalls making her first film, Gaslight (1944). She earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, which is amazing to me, as she was just 17 years old when the movie’s shoot began. Lansbury is TCM”s Star of the Month and this film is tonight’s #TCMParty, beginning at 8:00 p.m. EST. Join the party by watching and tweeting with the hashtag #TCMParty. Hope to see you there!

TCM Week – Jan 2-8

TCM Week spotlights a highly subjective selection of the week’s essential or undiscovered movies on the Turner Classic Movies channel to help plan movie viewing, DVR scheduling or TCM Party attendance. All times are EST.

Monday, January 2
8:00 a.m. A Stolen Life (1946)
Bette Davis is absolutely brilliant at playing twin sisters, one naughty and one nice, in this movie. Both are in love with the same man (Glenn Ford), but the naughty one steals him away from the nice one and the couple marries. When the naughty twin dies accidentally, the nice one takes over her life. Davis relies on attitude and gesture, rather than clothing or hairstyle changes, to differentiate the twins, and later, effectively captures the awkwardness of one twin imitating the other’s completely opposite nature, while avoiding any appearance of acting. To sum up, she is amazing.

Tuesday, January 3
9:45 p.m. Annie Oakley (1935)
Before the musical Annie Get Your Gun, there was this 1935 version of the sharpshooter’s life story, starring one of my favorite movie stars, Barbara Stanwyck, as the title character. It was director George Stevens’ second A-picture, after Alice Adams, and continued his hot streak, one that included Swing Time, Vivacious Lady, Gunga Din, A Place in the Sun, and Giant, among others.

Ingrid Bergman regards Charles Boyer with some suspicion...as she should.

Wednesday, January 4
8:00 p.m. Gaslight (1944)
***TCM Party***
Though multi-talented Angela Lansbury is TCM’s star of the month, she isn’t the star of this movie — Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman are — but she did earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her work. Bergman also earned a nomination, for Best Actress, and won the award, edging Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. Watch and tweet with #TCMParty.

Thursday, January 5
9:00 a.m. The Red Danube (1949)
This Cold War movie, made while the HUAC hearings were roiling Hollywood, exemplifies the ideological conflict between the USA and the Soviet Union in the story of a Russian ballerina (Janet Leigh) attempting to defect.

Friday, January 6
11:15 a.m. The Unguarded Hour
The rare starring role for Franchot Tone (Five Graves to Cairo) as the prosecutor whose wife (Loretta Young) could save a condemned man, but only if she reveals information that would humiliate her husband.

Saturday, January 7
10:30 a.m. Counter-Espionage (1942)
During the WWII Blitz, a detective known as the Lone Wolf (Warren William) is on the trail of Nazi spies. This movie interests me because it mines similar territory as Powell & Pressburger’s Contraband.

Sunday, January 8
Today’s schedule features two different movie stars. Beginning at 6:00 a.m., Elvis Presley stars in Clambake, followed by It Happened at the World’s Fair at 8:00 a.m., and Spinout at 10:00 a.m. Then TCM celebrates the 100th anniversary of José Ferrer‘s birth with a block that starts at noon with The Caine Mutiny. Other classic movies featuring Ferrer follow: I Accuse (4:00 p.m.), Deep in My Heart (5:45 p.m.), Cyrano de Bergerac ’50 (8:00 p.m.), and Joan of Arc ’48 (10:00 p.m.).

2011 Year-End List

How is that for a generic blog post title? The thing is, I’m pretty sure there are a lot of year-end “Best and Worst Lists” out there that I completely agree with, and chances are, you’ve probably already read those. So here is a little bit quirkier, non-standard list.

  1. Film that unintentionally emphasizes the importance of hand sanitizer Shame
  2. Movies I liked that prove I’m not too picky The Three Musketeers (2011). Cowboys and Aliens
  3. Sequel that prompted me to check out the first installment in the series Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
  4. 2011 movies I’ve haven’t seen yet but want to Moneyball. Young Adult. Drive. The Ides of March. Warrior. Melancholia. 50/50. The Guard
  5. 2011 movies I’m dying to see but couldn’t until 2012 (and still haven’t) A Dangerous Method. Haywire. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The Artist. The Mill and The Cross.
  6. Possibly the hugest disappointment The Green Hornet. I still don’t know what happened there.
  7. My most anticipated movies of 2012 Wettest County (It’s about Prohibition. Tom Hardy and Jessica Chastain are in it, and the screenplay is by Nick Cave. I’ll be there.) The Dark Knight Rises. The Hobbit. The Woman in Black (if I can handle it). John Carter.
  8. Movie in which I totally identified with the main character to the point that people in theatre were staring as I laughed and cried my way through it Bridesmaids
  9. First Woody Allen movie I’ve really, really liked in years Midnight in Paris
  10. Extraordinarily gorgeous movie I saw three times in the theatre Jane Eyre (2011)

So…what are some of your quirkier likes and dislikes of 2011?

This Week on TCM – Dec. 19-Jan 1

Monday, December 19
Seven movies starring Cary Grant make an awesome block, starting at 6 a.m. with Penny Serenade. I’ll be setting the DVR for Dream Wife at 8:00 a.m., Mr. Lucky at 10:00 a.m., Walk Don’t Run (Grant’s last film) at noon, and Topper at 4 p.m. If you haven’t seen Grant and Joan Fontaine under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock in Suspicion (6:00 p.m.), you really should.

TCM’s celebration of the bicentennial of Charles Dickens’ birth continues at 8 p.m. tonight with A Tale of Two Cities (1958). Scrooge (1970), in which Albert Finney plays the title character, follows at 10:00 p.m.

Tuesday, December 20
9 a.m. Thirteen Women
I’ve never seen this film in which pre-stardom Myrna Loy plays a woman intent on bumping off her boarding-school classmates, one of whom is played by Irene Dunne. Until 7:30 p.m., all of today’s movies feature Dunne, who was equally funny and elegant in screwball comedies like My Favorite Wife (3:30 p.m.) but could also handle serious dramatic roles like Mama in I Remember Mama (5:00 p.m.).

Wednesday, December 21
Films featuring Jane Fonda make up the schedule until 8:00 p.m. tonight. I wish her 1964 film Les felins was among them, but since it’s not, I’m going to check out Spirits of the Dead, which is based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe, at 2:45 p.m., and Private Screenings: Jane Fonda at 7:00 p.m.

Winona Ryder is TCM’s guest host tonight. Beginning at 8:00 p.m., she’ll be introducing four films she’s chosen: The Front, starring Woody Allen as a bookie who serves as a front for blacklisted screenwriters; #TCMParty favorite Ball of Fire, in which Barbara Stanwyck disrupts Gary Cooper’s academic household; Judy Holliday and William Holden in Born Yesterday; and Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal as a singer and the radio exec who makes him a star in A Face in the Crowd.

Thursday, December 22
The Thin Man Marathon
***TCM Party*** & ***Drive-In Mob***
In honor of the December Star of the Month William Powell, TCM is running all six of the films in the Thin Man series tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. Although the quality of the movies became uneven toward the end of the series, the chemistry between the stars and the colorful cast of characters are always a lot of fun. Watch and tweet with #TCMParty or #DriveinMob.

Friday, December 23
Today’s offerings include re-runs of Susan Slept Here at 2:15 p.m., The Man Who Came to Dinner at 4:00 p.m., and Scrooge(1970) at 6:00 p.m., but I’m more interested in the quirkier-sounding pictures and a couple of classic-era noirs.

9:30 a.m. Cover-Up (1949)
Noir fixture Dennis O’Keefe stars as an insurance investigator who discovers a conspiracy to cover up a murder in this Christmas-set noir-lite, which features William Bendix as the local sheriff who knows more than he’s telling.

8:00 p.m. Backfire (1950)
In one of those pictures that hints at malaise in post-WWII America, a veteran (Gordon McRae) tries to clear his buddy of a murder charge at Christmastime.

I can’t really recommend Lady in the Lake (10:00 p.m.), especially for those who have read the Raymond Chandler novel on which the film is based, but I can’t resist writing about it. For the first and only time, Chandler was tapped to write an adaptation of his own work, but his script was rejected and rewritten. He wanted a screen credit until he read the revision and saw how much had been changed — then he wanted nothing to do with the film. And you can’t blame him. In my opinion, the filmmakers made a mess of the source material. This was Robert Montgomery’s official directorial debut (he helped direct They Were Expendable, but didn’t receive screen credit). He used subjective camera and voiceover to re-create the book’s first-person point of view, while the script inexplicably changed the plot and characters in ways that change the themes and message of the story. Chandler’s work is inherently cinematic —while he might not have been the best person to adapt his own work, he wrote more screenplays than novels — and Lady is crying out for a truer movie version.

midnight Murder My Sweet (aka Farewell My Lovely – 1944)
Chandler’s work fares far better in this adaptation, which stars Dick Powell as Marlowe and Claire Trevor as one of the quintessential femme fatales. Playing a hard-boiled noir anti-hero was the departure for Powell, who was mainly known as a crooner in musicals like the Gold Diggers pictures, and he’s surprisingly effective in the role.

Saturday, December 24
12:30 p.m. It Happened on 5th Avenue
If you missed this still-relevant comedy last Sunday, you can catch it now. TCM is also re-playing Holiday Affair, In the Good Old Summertime, Meet Me in St. Louis, Miracle on 34th Street, and The Bishop’s Wife.

Sunday, December 25
Religiously themed movies make up most of today’s schedule.
6:00 a.m. The Green Pastures
7:45 a.m. The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima
9:30 a.m. Ben-Hur (1959)
1:30 p.m. The Greatest Story Ever Told
5:00 p.m. King of Kings (1961)
8:00 p.m. Going My Way

I’m taking a break from writing here for the rest of the month. But I can’t stay completely away from classic movies, so I’ll be attending a few #TCMParties. Hope you can watch and tweet with us.

***TCM Parties***
Tuesday, December 27
8:00 p.m. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Wednesday, December 28
8:00 p.m. The Paleface (1948)
10:00 p.m. The In-Laws

Thursday, December 29
The William Powell & Myrna Loy Marathon starts at 8:00 p.m. with The Great Ziegfeld.

Friday, December 30
8:00 p.m. Tootsie

Many to thanks everyone who agreed to be interviewed for, commented on, and/or read, my posts. I really appreciate you all taking some of your time to share the classic movie love. See you all back here on Sunday, January 1, 2012.
What do you think of these picks? Did I miss any of your faves? Who of today’s actors could possibly play Philip Marlowe? Let me know your thoughts in the comments…

This Week on TCM | Dec. 12-18

Christmas is a couple weeks out but there’s some great holiday classics on TCM this week.

Monday, December 12
Today begins with an Edward G. Robinson marathon. I had always thought of Robinson as a bad guy —as in The Little Giant  (10:30 a.m.) — or a representative of law and order—as in A Bullet for Joey (6:15 p.m.), or I am the Law (3:00 p.m.)—but today’s schedule shows he took on a wide variety of roles, particularly during the 1930s.

Tonight is TCM’s celebration of the Bicentennial of Charles Dickens’ birth. While I admit Dickens is not one of my favorite authors, his work pretty much demands to be made into films, and they contain some really good showcases for actors. Alastair Sim as Scrooge and Alec Guinness as Fagin are the ones that stand out to me, I’m sure there are others.

8:00 p.m. A Christmas Carol (1951)
***TCM Party***
Technically Dickens’ bicentennial isn’t until February 7, 2012, but it makes sense to celebrate it now because of A Christmas Carol. I think it is Dickens’ most-read and best-loved work, and the most heartwarming, at least for me.Watch and tweet with #TCMParty.

9:45 p.m. Oliver Twist (1948)
Midnight Nicholas Nickleby (1947)
2:00 a.m. (Tues.) Great Expectations (1946)

Tuesday, December 13
4:00 p.m. B.F.’s Daughter Real-life pals Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin play a conservative financier’s daughter and the college professor she marries, despite her father’s strenuous objections. Also known for the debut of Barbara Stanwyck’s glamorous post-war style.

8:00 p.m. The Lemon Drop Kid
***TCM Party***
Bob Hope is the Kid of the title, who takes advantage of Christmas generosity to raise the money he owes a gangster. Based on a story by Damon Runyon and featuring “Silver Bells.” Watch and tweet with #TCMParty.

Wednesday, December 14
10:00 a.m. The Trespasser (1929)
I am interested in this because it stars Gloria Swanson, who made her name in the silents and continued into the talkies. She is best-known today for Sunset Boulevard.

11:45 a.m. The Moon and Sixpence (1942)
This film is based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, which was loosely inspired by the life of Paul Gauguin. George Sanders stars as a stockbroker who abandons his job and family to become an artist.

3:00 p.m. A Page of Madness (1926)
A rare Japanese silent film which was declared “the first filmlike film born in Japan.”

William Powell and Kay Francis

Thursday, December 15
TCM concentrates on the late career and dramatic roles of Star of the Month William Powell, beginning at 8:00 p.m. withtonight’s TCM Party, Life with Father (1947), which also stars the brilliant Irene Dunne and a teenaged Elizabeth Taylor. The Powell block continues with The Girl Who Had Everything, where Powell and Taylor again play father and daughter; Mister Roberts, Powell’s last film; It’s A Big Country;One Way Passage, which reunites Powell with his Jewel Robbery co-star Kay Francis; The Key (1934); and Road to Singapore (1931).

Friday, December 16
1:00 p.m. In Gay Madrid (1930)
Ramon Navarro is a law student mixed up with at least two different girls.

6:00 p.m. The Wet Parade (1932)
Two families cope with the ill effects of both too much and not enough booze (aka Prohibition). The large cast includes Walter Huston, Myrna Loy and Jimmy Durante.

8:00 p.m. The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
***TCM Party***
Watch another Christmas classic with Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven. Tweet with #TCMParty.

10:00 p.m. Christmas in Connecticut
***TCM Party***
Barbara Stanwyck has been living a lie as the 1940s equivalent of Martha Stewart, a homemaking columnist for a magazine. When her publisher (Sydney Greenstreet) decides she should host a war hero for Christmas, it becomes evident that her stories about an idyllic farm and happy family are just that…stories. Watch and tweet with #TCMParty.

Midnight The Shop Around The Corner (1940)
If you’ve ever watched You’ve Got Mail, you owe it to yourself to check out the original Christmas classic with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as the feuding co-workers who don’t know they’re in love with each other. Also playing on Sunday, December 18 at 10:00 a.m.

Saturday, December 17
The absolute must-sees for today are the block of movies featuring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn: Bringing Up Baby (8:00 p.m.), The Philadelphia Story (10:00 p.m.), Holiday(midnight), and Sylvia Scarlett (2:00 a.m. Sunday).

Sunday, December 18
12:00 p.m. A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas!
This TCM original features clips and interviews with some of the stars and filmmakers involved in all-time favorite holiday classics.

8:00 p.m. It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
***TCM Party***
A couple of homeless men occupy a spacious New York City mansion while the family are wintering in a warmer climate…what happens when the daughter returns unannounced?Watch and tweet with #TCMParty.

OK TCM fans, what are you watching this week? What is your favorite Christmas classic? Let me know in the comments…

Danger 5: The Diamond Girls

From Australia, with love and not a whole lot of budget…if you dig Inglourious Basterds, James Bond movies, exotic (?) locales, intentionally bad dubbing, and goofball humor as much as I do…you’re gonna love this web series from Australia’s SBS, cooked up to promote a broadcast series premiering in February 2012.

What a sequel-ready ending…I hope there is some way we’ll be able to watch Danger 5 in the US.

Eames: The Architect and The Painter

This weekend I had the good fortune to see a film that, though of recent vintage, will appeal to those who appreciate the classics of design. Eames: The Architect and The Painter profiles the highly influential American designers Charles and Ray Eames, who participated in and influenced just about every form of art and design there is…print design, film, interiors, furniture, photography, packaging, toys, etc. This documentary is the first about the Eameses and, and as promised, traces “their personal lives and influence on significant events in American life – from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age.”

If you ever saw the film Powers of Ten (or one of the many versions that followed), you’ve seen the work of the Eameses. (If you haven’t seen it, take 9 minutes and watch it. It’s all the more mind-blowing when you realize it was made in 1977.) Charles and Ray were a married couple (not brothers, as I thought when I first read about them) who managed to combine life and work into one seamless existence. The film is pretty honest about the complexities of their relationship; among other issues, contemporary society’s perception of women left Ray in the background at times. But it is also a celebration of two uniquely American geniuses whose united creativity and resourcefulness yielded innovations that will live on forever. Highly recommended for design junkies, history buffs, and anyone who wants to understand how those super-cool chairs came to be.

The documentary is quite impressive on the big screen, but if you missed it in the theatre, you can still catch it on PBS as part of the American Masters series. It will on air on WTVS-56 on Monday, December 19 at 10 p.m.

Kudos are in order to Cass City Cinema (CCC) for picking Eames up for the only Detroit-area theatrical showing. CCC is a new venture set up in the same location as the Burton Theatre, a former elementary school in midtown Detroit. It’s only been open since Halloween but has featured some interesting films. It offers an appealing cinema experience in a small vintage auditorium, complete with hardwood floors and old-school seats, and fresh popcorn and Faygo or Mexican Coca-Cola to complete the scene. The staff are dedicated film bufffs and really interested in featuring what people want to see. Upcoming films include Gus Van Sant’s Restless showing November 25-27, and Christmas favorite Love Actually for Midtown Detroit’s Noel Night, December 3.

CCC is located at 3420 Cass Avenue in Detroit. Tickets are $5 and are available at the door a half-hour before showtime or online by using CCC’s contact form.