MR & MRS SMITH (1941) is on at 12:45 PM, one of Hitchcock's only attempts at a straight comedy-- Hitch himself never thought much of it and I've never seen it but it's got a solid cast so I'll bet it's entertaining.
Which I can't say for the SALLY FIELD festival that's on tonight-- if you like Sally, if you really like her, then go on and watch a host of movies like NORMA RAE, but I'll be holding my sign elsewhere thank you.
RIFIFI (1954) is on at 12:45 AM on Tuesday-- a great heist picture with some real noir elements to it.
THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (1933) is on Wednesday at 6 AM with William Powell as society detective Philo Vance-- there's something charming about these early high class who done its, but it's not for everyone.
Joel McCrea enters his westerns period Wednesday night-- I don't like Westerns but I like Joel McCrea so I'm giving these an overall thumbs up.
Thursday at Noon we've got LADY IN THE LAKE (1947) with Bob Montgomery directing himself as Philip Marlowe using an experimental first person camera technique that seemed to be the rage in 1947 (along with Dark Passage)-- I would call it a fail but it's a movie based on a Raymond Chandler novel so it's still worth your time.
LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948) follows at 2 PM proving even Orson Welles makes bad decisions, the movie is great but his choice of the Irish brogue is laughable and distracting.
Following that at 345 PM is THE LADY EVE (1941) with Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda which is a tough go even with such a likeable cast-- but it's going to look like it was sent from heaven if you compare it to FUNNY LADY with Babs Streisand, who I suspect was put on this earth for nefarious reasons.
DILLINGER (1945) follows at 8pm notable because it casts legendary tough guy Lawrence Tierney as the FBI's most wanted man. Tierney is not a fake Hollywood tough guy--he was the real deal-- allegedly frightening the hell out of Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander when he was cast as Elaine's Dad on SEINFELD in one of its best episodes.
DILLINGER is a good solid B Film.
THE MORTAL STORM (1940) has an amazing cast and tells the story of the rise of Nazi's on a German family-- it's on Friday at 10 PM and I'd highly recommend it.
STRANGE CARGO (1940) follows it with Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in a sweaty tale of Devil's Island-- it's one of my personal favorites but it's not for everyone.
Saturday's BOSTON BLACKIE is PHANTOM THIEF (1946) -- you should check out some of these Blackie's they are fast paced, short little programmers with nice casts and a good way to kill an hour.
At noon starts the showing of DICK TRACY (1937) with three chapters from that serial. If you've never watched a serial this is a good one to start with, although it's the creakiest of the four Dick Tracy serials which all star Ralph Byrd as the comic strip detective.
THE ESSENTIALS with Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore this week is DINNER AT EIGHT (1933) which is listed as a Jean Harlow romp-- I've never been much for Harlow but you can't miss with anything shown on The Essentials. That's at 8 PM Saturday night.
At 10 PM is TOPPER (1937) with Roland Young as a blustered middle aged (although he looks OLD to me) banker haunted by two of his recently departed clients played delightfully by Cary Grant and Constance Bennet. TOPPER RETURNS is a better movie, but this one has Cary Grant who can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. I'm going with this one as the Must See Pic Pick of the Week.
MEANWHILE over at IFC--
I don't normally cover the film channels that show commercials-- I HATE THAT-- but IFC is doing something fun each Saturday afternoon with DRIVE IN DOUBLE FEATURE at Noon. This week they're showing THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955) and REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS and I'm going to give those a try-- I like the idea of a creature double feature type of thing and want to support it. Check it out if you have it-- if you don't-- why don't you get DirecTv?
