(This is also at the DVD Times site. Same content both places. I just wanted to have it here too.)

When Warner Home Video opted last year to drastically change its business model in terms of classic film releases in R1, the impact was most felt by those who had loyally been purchasing the studio’s box sets across the better part of the decade. These bulky packages devoted to a star, director or genre typically contained five films or more at a fraction of the cost of buying each title individually. Wait long enough and you could usually find the sets discounted heavily at online retailers. (Indeed, Amazon.com is offering dozens of such bargains at this very moment.) The implementation of the Warner Archive’s more expensive and lower quality DVD-R editions has largely replaced retail DVD releases from the WB’s back catalog. A few sets and standalone films have trickled out in the past several months but it’s been nothing like the golden age of 2004-08, and there’s little reason to believe we’ll ever see a return to that pace.

In short, it doesn’t really seem like Warner Bros. had exhausted its potential possibilities for box sets. I came up with a neat ten choices that would have all been must-haves for my shelves, but this still feels like we’re barely scratching the surface of those massive WB, MGM, and RKO vaults from which Warner Home Video can pick and choose. There’s still time and a smidgen of hope for some of these to see the light of day in pressed and proper editions. (A fifth volume of film noir titles has been promised for two years now but remains unannounced.) So, while everyone continues to wait for The Magnificent Ambersons, Greed, The Wind, The Merry Widow, and Brewster McCloud, here are, depending on your perspective, some suggestions or, perhaps more likely, lamentations, in order of personal preference.

Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Volume Four (The Mouthpiece, Skyscraper Souls, The Match King, Employees’ Entrance, The Mind Reader) - Part John Barrymore, part bull terrier, Warren William might be the most electrifying and potent movie star that few have bothered to remember. A collection of his signature films, none of which have found DVD releases, would do well to re-introduce William to those who haven’t yet had the good fortune to catch a TCM showing or marvel at a repertory screening of the actor’s work. These pictures let William be oily and power-mad in such a dynamic fashion that newcomers may wonder how they haven’t heard about him earlier. Each one is blissfully pre-Code, often allowing William to shirk morality with a brazen focus on corporate greed that plays especially well to our modern cynicism. If WHV can devote a full release to director William Wellman as it did in Volume Three of the pre-Code Forbidden Hollywood series then a similar focus on the actor with the same initials wouldn’t be an unreasonable stretch.

Nicholas Ray: Warner Home Video Directors Series (A Woman’s Secret, Born to Be Bad, The Lusty Men, Party Girl, Wind Across the Everglades) - In the press release for its 2007 Stanley Kubrick releases, Warner Bros. announced the start of a “new series featuring influential films from some of history’s greatest directors.” This “Warner Home Video Directors Series” idea never went beyond the Kubrick set, however, and that stills stings a bit as a missed opportunity. Only rarely has the studio bothered to package movies around a director (Kubrick, Scorsese, Hitchcock, Ford, and Wellman all come to mind), but given the frequently held opinion that film is a director’s medium, it’s understandable to want auteur-driven sets that are maybe a tad less obvious. A package devoted to Ray might not make the most sense commercially but it would certainly help to plug a major gap in R1 DVD. So many of Ray’s films have been inexplicably absent in his native country that it’s starting to feel like some sort of cruel joke to those who greatly admire the romantic humanism of this chronicler of tortured souls.

Of the five unreleased titles that WHV likely controls, A Woman’s Secret is merely a curiosity and Born to Be Bad is just a notch better. The real gem is The Lusty Men, a modern western starring Robert Mitchum as a displaced former rodeo champ who coaches Arthur Kennedy into becoming something his wife, played by Susan Hayward, hardly recognizes. You get the feeling that there’s more of Nick Ray in this picture than in all but two (In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar) or three (Rebel Without a Cause) that he made. Party Girl, which did get thrown into the Warner Archive already, provides ample room for Ray to explore his preferred set-up of emotionally damaged lovers coming together while Wind Across the Everglades, a picture I’m not entirely sure WHV has the rights to, now looks like the beginning of the end for Ray’s directing career. Personal troubles proved distracting during the production but the film still gives Ray plenty of opportunities to further his exploration of the American outsider on film.

Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 5 - (Cornered, Desperate, The Devil Thumbs a Ride, The Woman on the Beach, The Window, Armored Car Robbery, A Lady Without Passport, The Tattooed Stranger, Roadblock, The Phenix City Story) - Assuming that ten, rather than five, titles are in play like we had with 2007’s Vol. 4 set, it’s not too difficult to quickly think up a dozen or more deserving picks for inclusion. If they hadn’t already been relegated to the Warner Archive I might have instead chosen The Bribe and Berlin Express, a couple of excellent noirs that highlight the importance of disorientation in that darkest of cinema styles. But since I have a few ounces of confidence that this box really will happen it seems best to imagine films not yet ghettoized by WHV. Getting pictures directed by the likes of Anthony Mann, Jean Renoir, Phil Karlson, Joseph H. Lewis and Richard Fleischer would give noirheads a major fix that they haven’t had since, well, the last WB box set. I’d particularly like to see the two films starring Charles McGraw - Armored Car Robbery and Roadblock - get some deserved recognition here.

TCM Archives: King Vidor Silents (The Big Parade, The Crowd, The Patsy, Show People) - It’s difficult to understand what the delay has been for bringing these pictures to DVD, particularly the first two which are so often included among the very best of silent cinema. There could be a hesitation on exactly how to market them since Vidor’s name isn’t necessarily a selling point even to many who regularly enjoy classic films. I’ve noticed that sets of older movies which might lack an obvious popularity frequently get branded with the “TCM Archives” banner, so that might’ve worked for this collection. Still, I sort of refuse to believe that a release with The Crowd and The Big Parade couldn’t move enough copies to justify its existence. Both have been promised repeatedly from the WHV people, but my preferred scenario would also include a couple of silents Vidor directed starring Marion Davies. Even if she’s an easy target considering how hands-on William Randolph Hearst was in steering her movie career, Davies could be a terrific comedienne and Vidor really got the best out of her. The Patsy was relegated to the Archive but Show People, a fairly biting Hollywood satire where Vidor plays himself and Charlie Chaplin cameos to get an autograph, is still in limbo.

Ginger Rogers: The Signature Collection (Vivacious Lady, Bachelor Mother, 5th Ave. Girl, Primrose Path, Once Upon a Honeymoon) - All of her teamings with dance partner Fred Astaire are available, but Ginger’s solo work remains decidedly unmined in R1. She knocked around in several early ’30s pictures with modest success before slowly taking off with the Busby Berkeley musicals 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 and her first pairing with Astaire - Flying Down to Rio, in which neither was the star. Rogers’ home studio was RKO, and that’s where she probably did most of her best work. Comedies like Vivacious Lady, Bachelor Mother, and 5th Ave. Girl are winning examples of the streetwise, somewhat cynical persona Rogers developed that still retains some of its edge and snap even today. Bachelor Mother, in particular, is one of the funniest films RKO made, also guided considerably by a young David Niven already sticking to his strengths. Primrose Path and Once Upon a Honeymoon both veer a tiny bit more dramatic and also give Rogers strong co-stars in, respectively, Joel McCrea and Cary Grant. Several of these can be had in R2 from the French label Editions Montparnesse and Once Upon a Honeymoon and 5th Ave. Girl have turned up in the Warner Archive. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the other three follow suit in time. A disappointing fate.

TCM Archives: The Sydney Greenstreet & Peter Lorre Collection (Background to Danger, The Mask of Dimitrios, The Conspirators, Three Strangers, The Verdict) - A true odd couple of the screen, Greenstreet and Lorre seemed to share little more than a remarkable gift for screen presence. The former was English, quite large physically, and a latecomer to film, making his debut at the age of 62 as Kasper Gutman in The Maltese Falcon. Lorre, a Hungarian, was diminutive in stature and in his mid-twenties when Fritz Lang’s M gained international attention for the actor. Their best known pairings are probably Falcon and Casablanca, but Warner Bros. put them in another five pictures together without Humphrey Bogart (plus Passage to Marseille with Bogie). Of those, Background to Danger is a George Raft vehicle directed by Raoul Walsh and The Conspirators stars Hedy Lamarr and Paul Henreid. It’s really the other three, where Greenstreet and Lorre were front and center, that warrant such a box set. The Mask of Dimitrios is delightfully strange and noirish while Three Strangers is a John Huston-penned tale of weary souls undone by their own flaws, a theme more familiar to Huston than director Jean Negulesco. The Verdict, which was Don Siegel’s feature directing debut and can be obtained from the Warner Archive’s burn-on-demand program, takes our duo to Victorian London for a murder mystery of guilt and vengeance.

Fritz Lang: Warner Home Video Directors Series (Rancho Notorious, Moonfleet, While the City Sleeps, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt) - There might be a better way to get these Fritz Lang films, including the last three he made in Hollywood, to R1 DVD but this seems to be the most convenient, if least likely. It’s a complete mystery why a director of Lang’s stature has managed to be so poorly represented in R1. If you exclude the Warner Archive DVD-R of Rancho Notorious, a full ten films of Lang’s are still unreleased. WHV should control four of these. Lang’s western starring Marlene Dietrich and Arthur Kennedy was given the cold shoulder of a purple underside but deserved better. It’s a fine companion piece to Ray’s Johnny Guitar and Fuller’s Forty Guns in tweaking gender roles in the typically male-dominated genre. Moonfleet may seem atypical of Lang given its swashbuckling premise but the film has plenty of admirers. That leaves a pair of noir dramas, both released in 1956 and starring Dana Andrews. They’re key works in the through line of Lang’s career. It’s interesting how, 25 years after M, he was still committed to exploring the psychology of guilt and its many permutations.

Edward G. Robinson: The Signature Collection (Five Star Final, The Hatchet Man, Tiger Shark, Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet, The Sea Wolf) - WHV has released a good number of Robinson starrers but they’ve usually hid behind the “Gangsters” umbrella, presumably because the studio thinks people are more likely to buy films associated with thugs and guns than ones starring the actor who often played those types of roles. If you try to come up with titles given the DVD treatment by the WB where Robinson appeared prominently but didn’t brandish a gun or play a tough guy you’d be stuck. There are even more of the same not yet available on DVD but I’m more interested in seeing the non-gangster roles of Robinson find their way to viewers. Five Star Final is, to me, far more brutal than any of Robinson’s more celebrated films. The Hatchet Man has Robinson stretching to play a Chinese hit man who kills his best friend but only after promising to take care of the man’s daughter (Loretta Young). Both Tiger Shark and The Sea Wolf involve Robinson playing nautical captains but the two pictures stray significantly from each other. The former finds the actor in one of his more warmly sympathetic roles while the latter lets him be utterly cold and frightening. And in the interest of diversity, how about the picture where he plays the real-life doctor who devoted himself to finding a cure for syphilis. That would be Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet, directed by William Dieterle and co-written by John Huston.

Jean Harlow: The Signature Collection (Red Dust, Hold Your Man, Bombshell, The Girl from Missouri, Riffraff) - Harlow didn’t make a whole lot of films before dying at just 26 years of age in 1937, and some of her more notable ones actually have surfaced on DVD from Warner Bros. (Red-Headed Woman, Dinner at Eight, Libeled Lady), plus Platinum Blonde from Columbia. The most obvious holes are probably Red Dust and Bombshell, both directed by Victor Fleming. She’s on fire as the odd woman out beside Clark Gable in Red Dust and excels at comedy with Lee Tracy in Bombshell. You could possibly quibble about what else to include among the MGM pictures she made, but Hold Your Man, also with Gable, and Riffraff, co-starring Spencer Tracy, seem like strong candidates. I think The Girl from Missouri, where Harlow was the lead, would then be preferable over The Beast of the City (which was an early Archive title) or one of her later pictures. Regardless, rumors indicated that a Harlow set was in the works for years and it never materialized. Here’s hoping something still turns up.

James Cagney: The Signature Collection, Vol. 2 (Blonde Crazy, Taxi!, The Crowd Roars, The Oklahoma Kid, The Strawberry Blonde, Tribute to a Bad Man) - Until something changes my mind, I’ll always point to the first (and so far only) Cagney box and the set devoted to Barbara Stanwyck as exhibits one and two in support of the greed and/or overconfidence which eventually resulted in WHV cranking up the Warner Archive. In both instances, someone at Warner Bros. deemed a handful of decidedly mediocre films as worthy of representing the star’s work when much better alternatives remained in the vault unreleased. Cagney’s situation is a bit tough because his most signature roles were included in other WB box sets. Still, plenty of prime Cagney hasn’t come out yet, including the pre-Codes Blonde Crazy and The Crowd Roars, both also with Joan Blondell. Those could occupy the same disc or either could be paired with the 1932 gangster romance Taxi! co-starring Loretta Young. One option would be to include Howard Hawks’ Ceiling Zero, but I had in mind the unique attempt to pair Cagney and Bogart in a western with a gangster plot - The Oklahoma Kid. That picture has some photography by James Wong Howe that really deserves a wider audience. Then show Cagney’s comedy chops in The Strawberry Blonde, directed by Raoul Walsh and co-starring Olivia de Havilland and Rita Hayworth. It and the later western Tribute to a Bad Man both got stuck in the Warner Archive but I think they show fascinating variations on the type of character we’re most accustomed to seeing Cagney play.

“31 Days of Oscar” is now over so it’s back to the weekly browsing of the TCM schedule for interesting and rare showings. Generally, March looks to be a very strong month for the channel but this week may not be the best. The Friday picks do look odd and appealing so take that as a hint of things to come. I’ll have more next week. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Sunday March 7

6:00 AM Riffraff (Ruben, 1936) - BW-94 mins. - Jean Harlow plays a worker at a tuna cannery who finds herself involved with hot shot fisherman Spencer Tracy. They marry, but trouble ensues after he loses his job and she goes to prison. The picture was made for MGM but, like most all of the WB’s Harlow properties, hasn’t been released on DVD. There was talk at one point of a box set but who really knows what’s going on over there now. It might be a good sign that the Harlow films haven’t been sent to the Warner Archive yet.

12:15 AM Show People (Vidor, 1928) - BW-79 mins. - Charming little silent comedy starring Marion Davies as a Southern belle who goes to Hollywood with her father to become a movie star. A very funny film, with the satire far more biting than you might expect. Director King Vidor even plays a version of himself. William Haines co-stars as Davies’ actor friend who gets left behind as she becomes increasingly popular. Warner Bros. now controls the rights, though it was made by MGM. I’m hopeful for a DVD release but it’s more likely that Show People will join another Vidor-Davies silent, The Patsy, in the Warner Archive.

Monday March 8

6:00 PM Two Weeks in Another Town (Minnelli, 1962) - C-107 mins. - In the same vein as The Bad and the Beautiful, this reuniting of Vincente Minnelli with star Kirk Douglas has the latter play a director trying to make a comeback picture in Rome. The cast also includes Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton, and Claire Trevor. A birthday tribute to the late Charisse ends with this showing. Most of the other pictures are on DVD but this one, made for MGM and now with Warner Bros., is not.

Tuesday March 9

8:00 PM Ikiru (Kurosawa, 1952) - BW-143 mins. - TCM is honoring the 100th anniversary of director Akira Kurosawa’s birth in a big way this month. Twenty-six of Kurosawa’s films will be shown, including a few that are otherwise tough to see. Of the selections tonight, a good choice to watch would be Ikiru, about a civil servant (Takashi Shimura) who learns he doesn’t have very long to live and dedicates himself to getting a playground built. It’s a warmly sentimental film but not really overly so, and it’s a good distance from the samurai and crime pictures for which Kurosawa usually garners the most attention. Criterion has the film out in a nice special edition DVD.

Wednesday March 10

6:00 PM Merry Andrew (Kidd, 1958) - C-103 mins. - Michael Kidd directs Danny Kaye in this story of an unlikely circus clown. Kaye plays an English teacher who meets acrobat Pier Angeli while on an archeological jaunt in Italy. It’s a musical, if you enjoy those. Sounds reasonably fun, and it’s in CinemaScope. Looks like this was released by MGM theatrically, but nothing DVD-wise. Warner Bros. likely has the rights. Ginger Rogers’ Star of the Month celebration begins afterward with her Fred Astaire pairings.

Thursday March 11

5:15 PM Police Dog Story (Cahn, 1961) - BW-63 mins. - Several dog-themed movies make up the afternoon schedule today. I thought this movie, apparently about a police dog who joins an arson investigation, might be interesting. It doesn’t even have enough votes for a rating at IMDb. United Artists put it in cinemas, possibly giving MGM the rights now. No DVD.

12:00 AM Over 21 (Vidor, 1945) - BW-105 mins. - Based on a play written by Ruth Gordon (Maude to Bud Cort’s Harold and an Oscar winner for Rosemary’s Baby), this newspaper comedy has Irene Dunne married to editor Alexander Knox. After he goes into the military, she ends up writing his articles to appease Knox’s oblivious publisher (Charles Coburn). See Coburn also in fine form earlier in the evening in The Lady Eve at 8:00 PM and The More the Merrier at 10:00 PM. Those are both on DVD but Over 21 isn’t. It was a Columbia release.

Friday March 12

2:15 PM Return from the Ashes (Thompson, 1965) - BW-108 mins. - An intriguing lineup here on Friday afternoon, with five films starring Samantha Eggar on the schedule. I’ve only seen The Collector, airing at noon, but it’s a brilliant work and really hinges on the performances of Eggar and Terence Stamp. In Return from the Ashes, she plays the stepdaughter of a wealthy Jewish widow (Ingmar Bergman veteran Ingrid Thulin) who marries gigolo Maximilian Schell. A murder plot ensues. The Mirisch Corporation produced the picture and United Artists released. MGM probably could release it on DVD but hasn’t.

6:15 PM The Walking Stick (Till, 1970) - C-101 mins. - Here Eggar plays a woman with polio who gets conned by stranger David Hemmings. It’s interesting how in both of these, as well as The Collector, Eggar seems to become the victim of a predatory male. MGM did The Walking Stick in the U.S. so Warner Bros. likely has the rights. I don’t believe it’s available on DVD anywhere.

2:30 AM Shanks (Castle, 1974) - C-93 mins. - Renowned mime Marcel Marceau in a William Castle thriller. Is there anything else that you really need to know? Okay, well he plays a mute puppeteer who figures out how to use his talents on corpses. It was also Castle’s last film, and the score was nominated for an Oscar. Are you interested yet? It’s with Paramount but no DVD release as of now.

Anyone who enjoys the films of Ernst Lubitsch will want to take a look at the recent box set release by the UK-based Masters of Cinema Series called “Lubitsch in Berlin: Fairy-Tales, Melodramas, and Sex Comedies.” The package, which I’ve just reviewed for DVD Times, contains six Lubitsch silents made between 1918 and 1921 in Germany. These films have been available from Kino in the U.S. for a few years already but some relatively small improvements easily give MoC the edge. If you’re not familiar with the films included and reluctant to splurge on the set, my advice would be to first rent or purchase the individual Kino releases containing both I Don’t Want to Be a Man (Ich möchte kein Mann sein) and The Oyster Princess (Die Austernprinzessin) as well as the one with The Doll (Die Puppe) and the feature-length documentary Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin. The other pictures stray some from typical Lubitsch fare, though Die Bergkatze is also a delight.

February begins TCM’s Oscar tribute, running all month and three days of March. This doesn’t tend to be my favorite month since the schedule usually sticks to more well-known fare but the programmers do seem conscious of this enough to also include things like Moonrise this week. I haven’t decided whether to post every week while the Oscar movies are running because finding the things I like to highlight can be more difficult when the scheduled is crowded with awards favorites. If not, I’ll pick back up in March. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Sunday January 31

12:00 AM Torrent (Bell, 1926) - BW-88 mins. - This was Greta Garbo’s first American film. The Swedish icon played a Spanish girl who moves to Paris to be an opera singer. Co-star Ricardo Cortez (whose real name was actually Jacob Krantz) may have approached Garbo coolly since this was her first picture at MGM and she replaced his wife, the actress Alma Rubens, who became ill. Garbo too must have been uncomfortable both as a newcomer to the country and the language and because Mauritz Stiller, the director who’d groomed her in Sweden and came with her to Hollywood, didn’t end up helming Torrent. At the very least, the film is a major curiosity piece and one rarely seen since there isn’t a DVD available. (Warner Bros. has otherwise been relegating some of the Garbo silents as Warner Archive titles.)

Monday February 1

6:00 AM Only When I Laugh (Jordan, 1981) - C-120 mins. - What I tend to find most interesting about TCM’s annual 31 Days of Oscar promotion, kicking off today, is the inclusion of a film like this. Three Academy Award nominations, all for acting (Marsha Mason, Joan Hackett, James Coco), but no DVD and little reputation today. It’s a movie I’d heard of almost solely due to coming across it every time I look at past Oscar nominations. Neil Simon adapted his play for the screen. The story has Mason playing an alcoholic Broadway actress trying to raise her daughter (Kristy McNichol) after a stint in rehab. Columbia did the picture, leaving it in Sony’s hands now.

10:30 AM 55 Days at Peking (Ray, 1963) - C-162 mins. - It’s really nice to see TCM showing this since it’s not on DVD in the U.S. and I’ve never tried to watch it. The film was basically Nicholas Ray’s last feature, not counting We Can’t Go Home Again, though Ray suffered a heart attack after removing himself from the picture and replacement directors were brought in. This isn’t my kind of movie, and I find it a little weird to think of Ray directing epics like this and King of Kings after that famously disparaging line spoken by the character Mildred Atkinson in In a Lonely Place. Having Ray direct Charlton Heston, who stars here alongside Ava Gardner and David Niven, also seems out of whack. Since the Weinstein Company released the Samuel Bronston productions El Cid and The Fall of the Roman Empire, I believe this is also part of that same deal except 55 Days at Peking’s potentially lavish DVD release was probably a victim of unmet sales expectations on the other two.

Tuesday February 2

1:30 PM Test Pilot (Fleming, 1938) - BW-119 mins. - Film Forum in Manhattan is having a Victor Fleming retrospective in March that includes this film and A Guy Named Joe in a double bill. I mention that because I’d considered going but those two pictures are somewhat lengthy for back to back watchings. Now with TCM showing Test Pilot, starring Clark Gable as the title aviator and with Spencer Tracy and Myrna Loy as, respectively, his best friend and wife, I’m leaning in the direction of just seeing the film on television. TCM does air it from time to time, and I’ve mentioned the fact that it was a Best Picture nominee in another post. The studio was MGM, leaving Warner Bros. with the rights but no DVD.

6:45 PM One Way Passage (Garnett, 1932) - BW-68 mins. - William Powell stars with Kay Francis in this romantic drama about an unlikely (and ill-fated) love affair aboard an ocean liner. She’s terminally ill while he’s a criminal condemned to death, though neither knows each other’s secret. The story won an Oscar and the film’s IMDb rating is a robust 8.3. This is also with Warner Bros. and not available on DVD.

Wednesday February 3

10:00 PM Moonrise (Borzage, 1948) - BW-90 mins. - Here’s this week’s winner on the schedule as far as I’m concerned. After being mostly unacquainted with the films of Frank Borzage for too long, I’ve immersed myself in his work this year in preparation for reviewing the BFI’s two semi-recent releases. (My Volume One review is up while Volume Two is on the way soon.) Moonrise is widely considered Borzage’s final great picture and it’s not on DVD (in R1 definitely and, I think, anywhere). The plot, leading to the picture often being qualified as a noir, involves the son (Dane Clark) of a man on death row who’s consumed by guilt. The film came out in theaters via Republic and that company also did the VHS. The Republic library has largely been in the hands of Lionsgate the last few years but I believe Paramount actually owns it. If Lionsgate’s license expires then a company like Criterion could possibly find a way to release Moonrise (and Johnny Guitar while they’re at it).

Thursday February 4

5:45 PM Flight Command (Borzage, 1940) - BW-116 mins. - Since we’re on the topic of Frank Borzage, why not also mention TCM’s showing of this Robert Taylor picture. The actor here plays a young Navy recruit trying to hang with an elite squad of fliers. Ruth Hussey, Walter Pidgeon, Paul Kelly, and, uh, Red Skelton fill out the cast. MGM was the distributor and Warner Bros. hasn’t touched the movie for a DVD release. Judging by the massive unloading of Robert Taylor movies into the Warner Archive, there’s no way this film will conceivably ever find a wide release on any format in the future. I think that realization may be passing some by with the Warner Archive, that most of the films going that route or likely to go that route will simply never be released regardless of the format. You can take that with a smile knowing that at least questionably reliable DVD-R copies are being made way above the going rate people are accustomed to or you can be a bit depressed about the whole thing due to how big of a step down it is from what we had going on across the last decade.

8:00 PM The Uninvited (Allen, 1944) - BW-99 mins. - Fairly popular, fairly enduring even, horror film starring Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey about a haunted house. The two leads are a brother and sister who try to make an abandoned English home their own but soon realize something’s already there. Martin Scorsese recently put the film on a list of the scariest movies of all time and I’ve frequently read people wondering why in the world Universal hasn’t released a DVD yet. I know there was a VHS release because I watched it years ago. At some point, I’d think a DVD will happen but who knows when.

10:00 PM Kitty (Leisen, 1946) - BW-103 mins. - Ray Milland again, this time as a financially strapped British lord who mistakenly thinks Paulette Goddard is something other than a street urchin and then gets the bright idea to pass her off to a rich husband in the hope of pocketing some money of his own. Director Mitchell Leisen is someone whose filmmaking skills are beloved by a vocal few but garner little respect from me. Still, he often had great material at Paramount and that studio’s movies of the forties sometimes have a pleasing sparkle about them that I can’t resist at least watching, if not wholly enjoying. Universal could throw a curveball and release this on DVD at some point but it’s not currently available on DVD.

Friday February 5

6:15 AM Address Unknown (Menzies, 1944) - BW-72 mins. - This sounds interesting. A German art dealer (Paul Lukas) based in America visits his native country and finds himself sympathetic to Nazi propaganda. William Cameron Menzies directed. It’s always fascinating to watch anti-Nazi films that were done during the war. Columbia put this out. It’s not on DVD.

Some of most everything this week. Edward G. Robinson as a Chinese hitman. Van Johnson as a vengeful police detective. Walter Huston as a U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union who finds the virtues of the country. And plenty more of interesting films and characters. Also worth noting, on Fox Movie Channel this Monday the 18th at 6:00 AM, is Raoul Walsh’s 1932 comedy Me and My Gal starring Spencer Tracy and the lovely Joan Bennett. As always all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday January 16

2:00 AM Scene of the Crime (Rowland, 1949) - BW-94 mins. - If you can handle Van Johnson as a tough cop, here’s a noirish tale about a homicide detective trying to solve the murder of a colleague. Arlene Dahl plays Johnson’s wife and Gloria DeHaven is the less virtuous female. Leon Ames and John McIntire are among the supporting cast. Scene of the Crime was done for MGM and should be with Warner Bros. now. It’s not on DVD.

Sunday January 17

12:00 PM God’s Little Acre (Mann, 1958) - BW-118 mins. - This doesn’t seem like typical Anthony Mann material and the film has probably maintained a certain level of popularity through the years that has nothing to do with its director. Robert Ryan stars as a Georgia widower who believes there’s buried treasure on his land and won’t give up looking until he’s found it. The cast full of recognizable faces and names includes Aldo Ray, Buddy Hackett, Tina Louise, Jack Lord, Vic Morrow, and Michael Landon. Elmer Bernstein did the music and Ernest Haller the cinematography. Multiple R1 DVD editions of the movie have been released but it looks like none are currently in print. The rights seem to be in the public domain. United Artists was the original distributor.

12:00 AM The Conquering Power (Ingram, 1921) - BW-89 mins. - Silent Sunday this week brings us a Rudolph Valentino drama directed by Rex Ingram. Valentino is, get this, a playboy. His father loses the family fortune so Valentino gets sent to live with the dastardly uncle, whose stepdaughter (Alice Terry) catches Valentino’s eye. The uncle disapproves. The film isn’t on DVD, in R1 at least, and it also looks like a public domain title. A much shorter Valentino effort, Stolen Moments, follows at 1:30 AM.

Monday January 18

10:30 AM Bright Road (Mayer, 1953) - BW-68 mins. - TCM celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as it usually does, with a few rarely shown films starring black actors. Today’s lineup includes the 1942 movie Go Down, Death, directed by Spencer Williams, who also co-stars. There’s also Bright Road, which stars Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte (in his film debut) and was directed by Louis B. Mayer’s nephew. The plot has Dandridge as a school teacher with a problem student she nonetheless believes in and wants to help. Belafonte plays the school principal. Dandridge would make Carmen Jones the following year. MGM released this. It’s likely to be with Warner Bros., though a DVD hasn’t emerged.

8:00 PM A Hatful of Rain (Zinnemann, 1957) - BW-108 mins. - This film has shown up often on the Fox Movie Channel but rarely if ever on TCM. Anthony Franciosa earned an Oscar nomination for his role as the brother of a Korean War veteran  addicted to morphine, played by Don Murray. Eva Marie Saint is Murray’s wife and Lloyd Nolan plays the brothers’ father.  The source play and screenplay were written by Michael V. Gazzo, who got an acting nod a few years later for The Godfather Part II. A Hatful of Rain is a Fox title and considering the rate that studio has been releasing its classics on DVD over the last year I don’t see a DVD in R1 happening.

4:15 AM The Goddess (Cromwell, 1958) - BW-105 mins. - Here’s one I wasn’t familiar with that really caught my eye. Kim Stanley made her film debut as a character apparently (and loosely) based on Marilyn Monroe, who had played the role in Bus Stop which Stanley earlier performed to great acclaim on Broadway. The lead character here is first played by Patty Duke before Stanley takes over. Lloyd Bridges is the boxer who becomes her second marriage. The film was written by Paddy Chayefsky. I wonder if he considered what Monroe, a fragile soul by all accounts and even portrayed that way it seems in this film, thought about having an unauthorized version of her life played out for everyone to see. Columbia did the picture. It’s not on DVD.

Tuesday January 19

9:30 AM Jeanne Eagels (Sidney, 1957) - BW-109 mins. - Speaking of the tragic lives of actresses, the silent star Jeanne Eagels was played by Kim Novak in this biopic also starring Jeff Chandler and Agnes Moorehead. Eagels’ best known film is probably The Letter (later remade with Bette Davis in the lead). Before that movie could open she descended into a pit of drugs and alcohol. Her untimely death in 1929 is referenced in Sam Fuller’s autobiography when he talks about getting a tip during his newspaper days of a young woman being brought into an exclusive Manhattan funeral home. Fuller described her as the most beautiful corpse he’d ever seen, recognizing the actress right away. Nearly thirty years later someone at Columbia had the great idea of doing a film about her. Hollywood cannibalizes itself without shame. It’s not on DVD.

Wednesday January 20

10:00 PM Mission to Moscow (Curtiz, 1943) - BW-123 mins. - The Russian focus continues on TCM. This Michael Curtiz picture is available in the burn-on-demand Warner Archive service but I don’t quite consider that to be an actual DVD release so it’s no impediment to a mention here. The story the film is based on is fascinating, especially in the context of the Cold War that followed. Walter Huston plays a real-life U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, whose book this film is based on. He discovers that Russia really is a great land after all, fit to be an ally to the U.S. in WWII. Roosevelt was instrumental in getting the picture made as a way to drum up American support for the Russians during the war. Heavy propaganda for sure but, as I said, fascinating.

12:15 AM The Kremlin Letter (Huston, 1970) - C-120 mins. - I’m almost sure that Fox announced this for a DVD release a few years ago but it never happened for some reason. Even though the film doesn’t have the best of reputations, fans of Bibi Andersson will surely be interested in seeing her second English language role (after Duel at Diablo). The rest of the cast is filled with noteworthy actors like Richard Boone, Dean Jagger, Lila Kedrova, Orson Welles, George Sanders and even Max von Sydow. The plot involves the letter of the title, which CIA agents fear will fall into the wrong hands and cause major trouble for international relations. Anything with John Huston’s name on it generally gets my attention.

Thursday January 21

9:00 AM The Hatchet Man (Wellman, 1932) - BW-74 mins. - Edward G. Robinson plays a San Francisco-based Chinese hitman who takes care of the daughter of his best friend after he’s killed him. Loretta Young, also supposedly Chinese, is the daughter. Insane, right? You expect to see J. Carrol Naish (who’s also in the cast!) playing characters of every ethnicity but having Robinson and, especially, Young as Chinese people blows the mind. Warner Bros. controls the film now and hasn’t yet put it in the Archive, which realistically is where it’ll probably end up.

Actually a stronger than usual week I think. The January schedule is especially good for some diversity from what’s been shown over the last couple of years on the channel. The two Jerzy Skolimowski films that air as part of TCM Underground on Friday might not appeal to everyone but I couldn’t be more anxious to see them. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday January 9

8:00 AM Brighton Rock (Boulting, 1947) - BW-92 mins. - Richard Attenborough does psychotic well as the young gangster Pinkie Brown in this adaptation of a Graham Greene book. It’s still nowhere to be found on R1 DVD, though I saw Rialto’s print and wrote about the film last year. A remake is forthcoming with Sam Riley (Control) and Carey Mulligan (An Education). Maybe the R1 DVD will be released as a tie-in to that. Optimum already has a disc available in the UK.

Sunday January 10

8:30 AM It’s a Wonderful World (Van Dyke, 1939) - BW-86 mins. - Similar in name to a much better known James Stewart film, this earlier picture is otherwise unrelated to the Capra classic. Think screwball comedy, with Stewart as a private detective on the run because of a murder his client is accused of committing and Claudette Colbert trying to help him out of the jam. She’s a poetess, which doesn’t even seem like it should be a word much less a profession. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke and made for MGM, the film isn’t on DVD. TCM has not shown it for a very long time but the channel also has the picture scheduled for April 9th.

2:15 AM Boudu Saved from Drowning (Renoir, 1932) - BW-85 mins. - I very rarely discuss Jean Renoir, and there are several of his films I still need to see, but he’s nonetheless one of my favorite filmmakers and this comedy is probably the least recognized of his masterpiece-level pictures (despite having an excellent R1 DVD from the Criterion Collection). Michel Simon plays a homeless man who’s more than a little rough around the edges socially. He jumps into the Seine in Paris but is rescued by a well-to-do bookseller (Charles Grandval). The bookseller then takes Boudu in like he’s a helpless dog and, basically, Boudu acts in kind.

Tuesday January 12

6:00 AM Party Girl (Ray, 1958) - C-99 mins. - A very convincing love story, involving adults who’ve been around the block once or twice already, grounds this strange yet exhilarating gangster musical mutt of a film. It is, more than anything else, a Nicholas Ray picture. Robert Taylor plays the crippled mob lawyer for Lee J. Cobb and his band of cronies while Cyd Charisse is the dancer with whom he finds love. Of all of Ray’s films, this is the closest relative to In a Lonely Place, though it’s neither as focused nor as emotionally resonant. Still a pretty great one. There’s a French R2 release of Party Girl and Warner Bros. idiotically reduced it to burn-on-demand DVD-R status in the U.S. You can find my review of the film and that disc here.

12:30 AM Big City (Borzage, 1937) - BW-80 mins. - Today is Luise Rainer’s 100th birthday. The back-to-back Oscar winner is still around, though I’m not sure how her health is these days. Back in 1998 she was on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to past winners and I was amazed then to see her when it had already been 60 years since The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth. To honor the actress, I can’t think of anything more fitting than TCM airing a night of her films, including the latter as well as The Emperor’s Candlesticks (2:00 AM) and The Toy Wife (3:45 AM). She didn’t have a very long career but it certainly was notable. Big City was directed by Frank Borzage and co-stars Spencer Tracy. I mentioned it last year on this same day when TCM showed the film. Tracy plays a cab driver struggling to support himself and wife Rainer amid a taxi strike. Trouble follows when she’s accused of bombing a garage. It’s still not on DVD, having been made for MGM and likely controlled now by Warner Bros.

Wednesday January 13

3:30 AM The Strawberry Statement (Hagmann, 1970) - C-106 mins. - So TCM has this “Shadows of Russia” theme going on throughout January. Last week The Scarlet Empress (using a better print than Criterion was sidled with on its DVD release) was shown. This evening Comrade X and Ninotchka are included in the prime time schedule. Spring Madness, with Maureen O’Sullivan and Lew Ayres, comes on at 2:15 AM. This picture, which I’m not familiar with, follows. It stars Bruce Davison as a college student who initially isn’t concerned with the political demonstrations going on at his San Francisco school. But after meeting a girl (Kim Darby) who’s involved he too expresses interest as a means of making (female) friends and soon he’s a dedicated revolutionary. Bud Cort is also in the cast. MGM released and Warner Bros. likely controls but no DVD. You can also watch it on demand at Amazon for a fee.

Thursday January 14

2:00 PM Cast a Dark Shadow (Gilbert, 1955) - BW-83 mins. - Watch out for Dirk Bogarde. Here he plays a bluebeard with a thing for older women. He marries them with the intention of accelerating their death so he can then reap an inheritance. The intended victims include Mona Washbourne, Margaret Lockwood and Kay Walsh. Lockwood was BAFTA-nominated for her role. I couldn’t find a DVD release in either the states or the UK for this film. I’m also not sure where the rights would be here.

Friday January 15

9:30 PM Race Street (Marin, 1948) - BW-79 mins. - TCM has a stool pigeon theme tonight. The Big House, a quite good early talkie starring Wallace Beery, Robert Montgomery and Chester Morris airs at 8:00 PM, and this George Raft picture follows. Raft plays an accountant turned night club owner whose best friend (Harry Morgan) is taken out by the mob. Cop William Bendix warns Raft to stay cool but he goes after the gangsters anyway. RKO released this one, likely giving Warner Bros. the rights in R1 but no DVD. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (read more here if you don’t know the film) follows later at 12:45 AM.

2:30 AM Deep End (Skolimowski, 1970) - C-91 mins. - When I looked at the January schedule back a couple of months ago, this was probably the film I was most excited to see on it. I didn’t make time for Deep End when it screend for a week at the Anthology Film Archives over two years ago and I’ve been mentally kicking myself ever since. I don’t know if I’ll even like the film but it certainly sounds interesting. The plot involves a 15-year-old who becomes obsessed with a woman at his swimming pool job. Things turn dark from there. The Criterion Collection might release it on DVD but who knows. I read there could be complications. The sure thing seems to be that Paramount, which controls the picture, won’t do anything other than maybe license the rights to a third party like Criterion. It’s bothersome that TCM’s site doesn’t currently indicate a letterboxed showing. Maybe it will be.

4:00 AM The Shout (Skolimowski, 1979) - C-86 mins. - A later film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski which is on DVD in the UK but not here, The Shout stars Alan Bates as a mysterious man who comes upon married couple Susannah York and John Hurt. Skolimowski isn’t terribly well known as a director (he acted in Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises a couple of years ago) but every film of his I’ve read about has sounded absolutely fascinating. He was also one of the writers of Roman Polanski’s debut Knife in the Water. I believe that the Second Run label in the UK has a couple of his films planned for release at some point also. I’m not sure where the R1 rights to The Shout would be.

Okay, first entry of the new year. It’s a bit late, of course, but so be it. Both my index of the TCM Ten and the dedicated page and subpages are now up to date so that you can see every movie I’ve ever picked and when it was aired on the channel. This week we have several rarely shown and hard to find titles on the schedule. It’s a good set of days certainly. TCM’s night of films honoring Jennifer Jones airs on Thursday the 7th, though it’s a bit skimpy at just four films and one of those (Indiscretion of an American Wife) repeating from another airing just a few hours before. It was probably difficult to air any of her movies made at Fox. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday January 2

10:45 PM Husbands (Cassavetes, 1970) - C-138 mins. - Sony finally released this on DVD in R1 a few months ago, but I was so surprised to see TCM showing it that I couldn’t resist a mention. Not the usual TCM fare, Husbands remains my favorite of John Cassavetes’ films. It stars Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and Cassavetes as three friends approaching middle age who, following the funeral of a fourth friend, try to cling to any sense of youth and irresponsibility they have left, including a trip to London on the spur of the moment. I wrote more on the film a couple of years ago here.

Sunday January 3

8:00 AM Footsteps in the Dark (Bacon, 1941) - BW-96 mins. - Errol Flynn plays an upper crust type who secretly has a thing for writing mystery stories. Things get a little too real once he falls into an actual murder case. Brenda Marshall is the female lead. Ralph Bellamy, Alan Hale and Lee Patrick are among the supporting cast. It’s all told with a healthy dash of light comedy. Warner Bros. did the film and it still hasn’t been released on DVD.

10:30 PM If I Had a Million (Various, 1932) - BW-84 mins. - I’ve wanted to see this for literally years and years. Many different directors, including Ernst Lubitsch, worked on segments of the film. The plot involves an elderly man who’s very wealthy but reluctant to give his fortune to leeching heirs. His solution is to randomly pick people and give them one million dollars each. The cast is mighty impressive, including Gary Cooper, W.C. Fields, Charles Laughton, George Raft, and Jack Oakie. I believe the star of the Lubitsch segment is Laughton. Paramount was the studio behind the picture. It’s now airing on TCM probably as one of the fruits of a recent deal the channel made with Universal (which now controls) that I’ve been hearing about for several months. It will be great to finally see a lot of these Paramount films from the ’30s and ’40s that Universal hasn’t bothered to release on DVD in R1. (A Fields set in the UK does include If I Had a Million.)

2:45 AM Le Schpountz (Pagnol, 1938) - BW-130 mins. - Tonight’s TCM Import selection was written and directed by Marcel Pagnol, probably most famous to movie fans for his Fanny trilogy. The film being shown here is about a man frequently made fun of who believes he’s signing a contract to be a movie star (his dream) but soon discovers he’s been had. I’m a little concerned with the running times because IMDb lists a version at 160 minutes and another at just 90 minutes but TCM has 130 minutes slotted. Pagnol’s film isn’t available in R1 but I did run across a disc that is or was available in France. I’m not sure where the rights sit, though Kino released a set with the Fanny films. If you’re interested, probably best to just watch or record TCM’s showing.

Monday January 4

11:00 AM Honeymoon for Three (Bacon, 1941) - BW-75 mins. - Ann Sheridan is the secretary and clandestine girlfriend to novelist George Brent. When a flame from his past (Osa Massen) visits Brent, her husband (Charlie Ruggles) gets so bent out of shape that he threatens to divorce her. Or something like that. I haven’t seen this one and plot descriptions vary a little so I’m unsure as to the main focus. There’s a reason no one talks about George Brent much. Sheridan’s likely to be the main draw. Warner Bros., of course. It’s not available on DVD.

1:15 AM Five Graves to Cairo (Wilder, 1943) - BW-96 mins. - This is one of just two of Billy Wilder’s Paramount films to not have a DVD release in R1. It is available in an edition from Australia which is more than acceptable. Erich von Stroheim plays Erwin Rommel. Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter star, with Akim Tamiroff along as well. I’ve been meaning to review the R4 disc here but, like so much else, haven’t had time to do it. Somehow, inadvertently, I didn’t watch a Wilder-directed film during the entirety of 2009. It wasn’t for a lack of interest either. Things just constantly got pushed ahead and so on.

Wednesday January 6

8:00 AM Play Girl (Enright, 1932) - BW-60 mins. - Seemingly provocative title for this pre-Code romance. Loretta Young, whose films fill today’s schedule, stars as a “young innocent” who falls for a “compulsive gambler” played by Norman Foster. When this film was made, Foster was in the middle of a seven-year marriage to Claudette Colbert. Following that divorce he soon married Sally Blane, who happened to be Loretta Young’s sister. Foster and Blane would remain married until his death over forty years later. He transitioned into directing films like Woman on the Run and television programs, including Zorro which I’ve been trying to review for weeks now. Play Girl is Warner Bros. but not on DVD.

12:00 PM She Had to Say Yes (Berkeley, 1933) - BW-66 mins. - Here’s another early ’30s Loretta Young picture, this time a comedy and one at least partially directed by Busby Berkeley (his first). The plot sounds very pre-Code in that Young is a secretary who helps the company by “going out” with clients. And judging by the title she had no choice in the matter! Lyle Talbot, Regis Toomey and Hugh Herbert add support. The film was released by First National, which was under the Warner Bros. umbrella. It’s absent from DVD.

Thursday January 7

6:00 AM Finishing School (Tuchock, 1934) - BW-73 mins. - A girls school drama starring Frances Dee and Billie Burke but also with Ginger Rogers, this one swooped in just prior to the Production Code being enforced. Something that got my attention was that the listed co-director is Wanda Tuchock. It’s unusual to see a film from this time that credited a woman as director. Tuchock, a screenwriter on films like King Vidor’s Hallelujah and Show People, doesn’t have any other feature directing credits. Finishing School was made for RKO. Warner Bros. should have R1 rights but it’s not yet on DVD.

5:00 PM The Unholy Wife (Farrow, 1957) - C-94 mins. - British bombshell Diana Dors marries vintner Rod Steiger but soon enough finds herself looking in the direction of Tom Tryon. Dors didn’t seem to quite cross over into Hollywood but I watched her in the true life crime story Yield to the Night a few months ago and was impressed enough by her acting ability. Fans of Dmytryk’s The Sniper might be interested in seeing lead Arthur Franz play, apparently, a priest. One of his victims in that film, Marie Windsor, is in The Unholy Wife too. Director John Farrow’s own production company did this picture. IMDb lists Universal as U.S. distributor, but I think VCI released it on VHS. Either way, it’s not on DVD to my knowledge.

Most of these are either directed by Frank Capra or starring Humphrey Bogart, but that’s what TCM has given us this holiday season. I’m assuming everyone already knows the pleasures of The Shop Around the Corner and Remember the Night, both of which show up in the next few days on the channel. All readers and passersby have a safe and merry Christmas. This edition of the TCM Ten covers two weeks so I’ll be back just after the first of the year. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Wednesday December 23

1:00 PM Conflict (Bernhardt, 1945) - BW-86 mins. - Rarely shown Humphrey Bogart thriller where he plays a husband anxious to get rid of his wife. The question as to whether she’s dead or not soon haunts Bogart’s character. Sydney Greenstreet co-stars. Warner Bros. made the picture and it’s not yet on DVD.

4:15 PM The Two Mrs. Carrolls (Godfrey, 1947) - BW-94 mins. - Bogie teams with Barbara Stanwyck in another hard to find noirish film. Again with Bogart and the bad husband, multiple lady friends type of deal. This is Warner Bros. too, and also not available on DVD.

Thursday December 24

10:00 PM Chicken Every Day (Seaton, 1948) - BW-94 mins. - Financially irresponsible Dan Dailey is married to the long-suffering Celeste Holm in the early 1900s in this warm comedy. Look also for Alan Young of TV’s Mister Ed, William Frawley and a young Natalie Wood. A rare Fox film popping up on TCM. Doesn’t seem to be on DVD.

Sunday December 27

8:00 PM Bedtime Story (Hall, 1942) - BW-85 mins. - Two by director Alexander Hall dot the schedule tonight, with probably his most famous picture, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, following. This is a screwy comedy set in the world of the theatre. Fredric March stars as a playwright whose wife Loretta Young is his frequent lead actress. When she wants to retire, it leads to a divorce but one that turns out to be invalid. Robert Benchley and Eve Arden are among the strong supporting cast. It was made for Columbia, leaving Sony with the rights but apparently not the desire to release a DVD.

Monday December 28

8:00 PM Broadway Bill (Capra, 1934) - BW-102 mins. - An heiress and her brother-in-law go off to harvest his dream of taking care of a racehorse. Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy star. The story is by Mark Hellinger. Paramount’s R1 DVD is out of print for some reason. No idea why. It’s getting up there in price on the secondary market.

10:00 PM Riding High (Capra, 1950) - BW-112 mins. - This too has gone out of print in R1 courtesy of Paramount. It’s a remake of Broadway Bill, but now with Bing Crosby and Coleen Gray. A couple of actors (Raymond Walburn and Clarence Muse) reprise their roles from the earlier picture. Most accounts place this as the inferior version, but watching both might make for an interesting contrast.

Tuesday December 29

8:30 AM Manhatta (1921) - BW-12 mins. - Well-regarded short featuring images of Manhattan against the poems of Walt Whitman. I’ve heard a good deal of praise but not yet acquainted myself with this. Plan to do so this time around, especially given the short length. You’d think a DVD including this short would exist somewhere but I don’t know if that’s the case.

Wednesday December 30

8:00 PM Deadline U.S.A. (Brooks, 1952) - BW-87 mins. - The last night of the Bogart tribute reminds us that there are still several of his films not on DVD even beyond the early crime ones. This was written and directed by Richard Brooks, who doesn’t really get his due nowadays. It centers around Bogart as the editor of a newspaper that’s about to be sold to a competitor with less journalistic integrity. He has just a few days to nail down a story involving a local gangster (Martin Gabel). Meanwhile, Bogart is also dealing with his ex-wife (Kim Hunter) remarrying and hasn’t lost hope at getting the paper’s owner (Ethel Barrymore) to change her mind. Battle Circus, a Brooks-Bogart pairing from 1953, airs earlier in the day at 12:45 PM. There’s also the documentary Bacall on Bogart, done in 1988, that sounds interesting and is scheduled for 6:30 PM. Fox did Deadline U.S.A. but it’s not on DVD. Fox has totally lost interest with releasing classic titles in R1.

9:45 AM The Left Hand of God (Dmytryk, 1955) - C-87 mins. - Bogart is joined by Gene Tierney in this unusual outing.  He plays a Catholic priest (sort of) who comes to a mission in China. Tierney is the war widow nurse he takes up with and Lee J. Cobb is in support as bad guy “Mieh Yang,” a ludicrous piece of casting. This is Fox too. It’s great to see these on the schedule since they rarely show up even on the Fox Movie Channel. Not on DVD. A proper Jennifer Jones tribute is scheduled for January 7th, but you can also see her with Bogie at 11:30 PM in Beat the Devil.

4:00 AM Two Guys from Milwaukee (Butler, 1946) - BW-90 mins. - I saw The Hard Way, with Ida Lupino, Joan Leslie and co-starring Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson, the other night. This sounds like a much different teaming of Morgan and Carson, with Leslie along here also. Morgan plays a prince who runs off to America in the hopes of seeing Lauren Bacall (like Borat crossed with Coming to America). He meets cabbie Carson in the quest. The tipping point is that I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder’s future collaborator, co-wrote the script. The film was done for Warner Bros. It’s not on DVD.

I have a Noir of the Week entry to share. It’s an appreciation for Robert Montgomery’s Lady in the Lake that I wrote and it went up today. A few weeks ago when I agreed to do the piece December seemed like it would have more time for writing than it’s actually proven to. As the target date rolled closer, I started to look less forward to watching the film again. My first viewing had been before it was on DVD, during a late night TCM showing that was part of a Montgomery Star of the Month tribute from a few years back. When the Film Noir Classic Collection Vol 3. came out I watched the picture again. My reaction both times was very positive, more so than the established consensus probably. I wondered if I’d really find a lot to love the third time around, but I’ve now become steadfast in thinking the soft reputation it has is undeserved. Even though the film may not be one of the greats, it’s extremely entertaining (or watchable, if you want to use fainter praise). Montgomery’s use of the subjective camera keeps things so strange and off-kilter, which might be part of what drives some away, that I can’t imagine not enjoying seeing this thing every few years. Ideally around Christmas.

Less than two weeks until Christmas now and plenty of those movies popping up on the TCM schedule. I really like that the channel tries to go a bit beyond the usual things. Also lots of Frank Capra and Humphrey Bogart choices this week and throughout the month. I saw the March schedule a couple of days ago and was excited at the idea that a Jules Dassin picture starring Marcello Mastroianni which is very tough to find is planned. Also, Akira Kurosawa gets a night each week and all day on the anniversary of his birth to celebrate his centennial. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Sunday December 13

6:00 PM Travels with My Aunt (Cukor, 1972) - C-109 mins. - Maggie Smith was Oscar-nominated for her role as the eccentric aunt to a young man (Alec McCowen) whose mother has just died. The two hit it off and take trips across Europe. Louis Gossett, Jr. is among the supporting cast. The film is an adaptation of a Graham Greene book. Since MGM released the film theatrically, Warner Bros. should now control the rights. There isn’t a DVD release so far.

4:45 AM Private Potter (Wrede, 1962) - BW-89 mins. - TCM has the silent Ben-Hur at midnight, followed by Dreyer’s Ordet at 2:30 AM and this little seen, little known Tom Courtenay picture. If you’re familiar with what the first two share then you might be able to guess some of the subject matter of Private Potter. It turns out to involve, yes, God in that Courtenay’s character stops fighting a military mission in Cyprus because he claims divine intervention. This was Courtenay’s film debut and he also made The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner the same year. Knowing that, I’m in for a watch. Another person of note involved was screenwriter Ronald Harwood. It was his first movie too. With MGM and now probably Warner Bros., the film doesn’t seem to have been put on DVD.

Monday December 14

8:00 PM The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Capra, 1932) - BW-87 mins. - On the strength of It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, there was a time when Frank Capra was probably my favorite director. I’ve, for better or worse, grown up since then and despite still loving both of those films as well as a few others Capra made I can see why his status critically isn’t on par with Ford and Hitchcock and their ilk. That said, the great, rarely discussed section of Capra’s work might be his Columbia films with Barbara Stanwyck in the early ’30s. TCM is showing an avalanche of Capra this month (though, due to rights reasons, not It’s a Wonderful Life) and I believe all are on the schedule. The two best are The Miracle Woman, which airs next week, and this one, with Stanwyck as an American who travels to China and slowly forms a bond with the man of the title (played by Nils Asther, a native Scandinavian who I incidentally just watched in the absolutely charming James Whale picture By Candlelight). Both Capra movies are on DVD in the UK in a Stanwyck set but still waiting to be released here in R1. I’ve read rumblings that Sony has something in the works, maybe for 2010.

3:45 AM The Younger Generation (Capra, 1929) - BW-84 mins. - Early, partial talkie from Capra here, which follows Dirigible (1931) and Flight (1929). It sounds pretty interesting. Ricardo Cortez is a Jewish businessman (last name: Goldfish) whose methods and ambitions contrast with those of his more traditional parents, played by Jean Hersholt and Lina Basquette. Apparently there are both silent and talking sequences. It was done for Columbia and isn’t on DVD.

Wednesday December 16

11:15 AM It All Came True (Seiler, 1940) - BW-97 mins. - With so many Humphrey Bogart pictures being shown on TCM this month, finding a couple each week not on DVD that sound worthwhile isn’t too tough. Most are crime movies and this is no exception. Bogie plays a nervous gangster who transforms a boarding house into a criminal enterprise. Add Ann Sheridan and that’s a recommendation in itself. Mark Hellinger was a producer, which usually promises a slightly more polished film. Warner Bros. for this one.

1:00 PM The Wagons Roll at Night (Enright, 1941) - BW-84 mins. - In the Bogart timeline, 1936’s The Petrified Forest is what really lead to all of those gangster pictures where he was usually playing the same tough character who’d often find his death before the film was over. That went on for about five years, until High Sierra came along in 1941 and The Maltese Falcon followed later in the same year. Between those two, this quite different film opened. I don’t know if it made much of an impact on making Bogart a star, but the subject matter was certainly a departure. Here he’s a carnival manager with an escaped lion. The lion is found by Eddie Albert, who somehow transitions into being lion tamer for the show. Things are fine until Albert gets eyes for Bogie’s younger sister played by Joan Leslie. This same basic story was done just a few years earlier as Kid Galahad (and years later too, with Elvis Presley) but without the circus hook. Bogart had been in that picture too. Here he’s also reunited with Dead End co-star Sylvia Sidney. Warner Bros. was the studio and it’s not available on DVD.

Thursday December 17

6:30 AM Have a Heart (Butler, 1934) - BW-80 mins. - Even with its significant flaws, IMDb tends to be the best place to figure out what’s worth mentioning on the TCM schedule from week to week and finding information about the things I do pick. I try to place as little worth in the User Comments as possible but they are always there on the screen, lurking and waiting to be read. In a pinch, they sometimes can’t be avoided. So what we end up with is finding a film like Have a Heart, directed by David Butler (who has several movies on today’s schedule), and starring James Dunn and Jean Parker as, respectively, the scrappy Irish guy and a dancer who can no longer use one of her legs after a fall. Going by these User Comments, I learned that the picture could be a nice little rainy weekend watch, that it gives Una Merkel a scene-stealing turn in support, that it’s dated, will break your heart, and, in a one-star review, that it’s a “strange little movie.” I don’t yet know whether I’ll enjoy Have a Heart, but I do know that I tend to like strange little movies. So there. The wasteland successfully navigated once again. MGM produced and Warner Bros. should now control. No DVD.

11:30 PM Never Say Goodbye (Kern, 1946) - BW-94 mins. - Errol Flynn gets a rare romantic comedy opportunity in this Warner Bros. film with a Christmas touch. He’s a magazine editor whose marriage to Eleanor Parker (an excellent and quite nice-looking actress I tend to mention frequently) has taken a rough turn. Their young daughter plots to reunite the couple. Of interest particularly in this Bogart-centric month is an impression Flynn does of the actor which Bogart himself apparently voiced. Promises to be fun. IMDb User Comment calls it a “predictable puffball.” Maybe I like predict- Oh nevermind. The picture is absent from DVD.

Friday December 18

6:00 AM Bachelor Bait (Stevens, 1934) - BW-75 mins. - Several 1930s George Stevens pictures are being shown today. This, the Fred Astaire starrer A Damsel in Distress and the excellent Vivacious Lady are all in need of R1 DVD releases (particularly the latter which I fear will be Warner Archive-d any week now). Bachelor Bait is about a marriage agency for lonely bachelors to find wives. Stuart Erwin and Rochelle Hudson headline. Skeets Gallagher is also in the cast. I’ve seen probably half a dozen thirties pictures with Gallagher and he seems to always play the same guy - a leaching drunk - but I enjoy it every time for some reason. This one was done for RKO, meaning Warner Bros. probably has R1 rights. It’s not on DVD to my knowledge.

12:00 AM Amazing Grace and Chuck (Newell, 1987) - C-115 mins. - Not one of TCM’s more inspired programming decisions, and it deviates heavily from what’s listed in my Now Playing guide, tonight’s line-up is dedicated to films directed by Mike Newell. Three of them actually, starting with Enchanted April and Four Weddings and a Funeral - not the usual TCM fare and for good reason. Some people might be interested in the chance to see this drama concerning nuclear proliferation. The plot is about a promising little league baseball player who vows to stop playing until nuclear weapons are disarmed. His idea catches on, first with a Boston Celtics player (played by real life NBA star Alex English, who never did play for the Celtics) and later with other athletes. The cast is certainly varied, with Jamie Lee Curtis, Red Auerbach as himself, William L. Petersen and even the great Gregory Peck as the President. I’m not overly familiar with this film so I don’t know what the hold-up regarding a DVD release is. You would think it would be available but it’s never been released here in R1. IMDb lists TriStar as theatrical distributor and Warner Bros. as the studio behind the VHS. HBO, now part of the same umbrella as WB, actually put the VHS out, which seems weird since TriStar is connected to Columbia/Sony.