Monday, January 7, 2013
TCM This Week: THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT
GASLIGHT (1944) is on today at 930am. It's a Hitchcock movie Hitch didn't make with Ingrid Bergman as the woman who thinks she's going crazy and Charles Boyer as the guy she's married to.
THE DEVIL'S MASK (1944) is an entry in the I LOVE A MYSTERY Series from Columbia, which was itself a very popular radio drama at the time. Its good mystery fun.
Friday we've got a great WB Triple Feature starting at 715am starting with EACH DAWN I DIE (1939) which is basically Shawshank Redemption as seen through the eyes of 1939 with a stellar cast and George Raft who is one of the worst actors to ever get work in Hollywood-- but I like him anyway.
They oil up Raft's joints so he can move a bit more at 9am with THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940) which is one of my all time favorite films. Raft and Humphrey Bogart are hard working truckers who can't catch a break, and Ida Lupino is the bosses wife who can't get Raft out of her head. Bogart must have sat between takes shaking his head that he was billed under the wooden Raft.
At 1045am is MANPOWER (1941) which is a drama about a love triangle between George Raft, Marlene Dietrich and Edward G. Robinson-- supposedly Raft didn't want Bogart in the cast because he felt he was starting to overshadow him, so Robinson got the role. They're hard working Electric Linemen-- and its amazing to think there was ever a time that a lightning bolt hits a power line and a crew of about a dozen guys shows up in a single truck like fireman to repair it. You'd think they're saving babies in trees with their 24 hour on call lifestyle, but it's good, fast paced and fun.
Looks like the day continues with George Raft, if you can't get enough of him-- I can so you're on your own.
Saturday you can watch LES MISERABLES (1935) which shows you that you can actually tell this story in 109mins, which is more than current filmmakers can claim. It's got Frederic March and Charles Laughton-- and a terrific cast including John Carradine.
SPELLBOUND (1945) is on at 4pm-- its a Hitch Classic even if its not at the top of my list. And ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM (1946) is the Essentials this week so its likely good. Although they showed THE WAY WE WERE a few weeks ago which I wouldn't watch if you held my family hostage so I'm starting to doubt Ozzie's choices lately.