Interesting selection on Monday and a great Lillian Gish tribute on Wednesday make for a strong week. As always all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday October 10

4:30 PM Sirocco (Bernhardt, 1951) - BW-98 mins. - On DVD in R1 from Sony but now out of print, this Humphrey Bogart starrer was based on a novel by Joseph Kessel, who also wrote the source material for Belle de jour and Melville’s Army of Shadows, and co-adapted for the screen by A.I. Bezzerides, screenwriter of On Dangerous Ground. Bogart plays an American expatriate in the 1920s who becomes involved in gun-running for the Syrians in their fight against the French occupation. Lee J. Cobb and Everett Sloane are among the supporting cast.

12:15 AM Dr. Socrates (Dieterle, 1935) - BW-70 mins. - Paul Muni all night this evening. He’s reunited with Scarface co-star Ann Dvorak in this crime drama from writer W.R. Burnett. Muni plays a doctor forced by gangsters to provide medical treatment. Barton MacLane is the ring leader and Mayo Methot plays his moll. This looks to be one of those quick little gangster pictures Warner Bros. was so good at churning out at the time. It’s not on DVD. Seemed like a good candidate for entry in a Gangsters Collection before the studio gave up on releasing box sets. The Story of Louis Pasteur follows at 1:30 AM.

Sunday October 11

2:30 AM Ecstasy (Machaty, 1933) - BW-87 mins. - Scandalous! Hedy Lamarr (using her given name Hedy Kiesler) caused an international uproar when she appeared nude in this film. It certainly got her noticed, but she still wouldn’t make another picture until 1938’s Algiers. The Vienna-born Lamarr plays a frustrated wife in Ecstasy, which is actually considered to be a Czech film. I’ve tried watching it before but found it tough going filmwise. A DVD is available in R1 from Image (and it has a stunning cover). Those in the New York City area will soon have the opportunity to get a better look at Hedy, on the big screen, when the film shows at the Film Society of Lincoln Center on October 25.

Monday October 12

6:45 AM Five Golden Hours (Zampi, 1960) - BW-90 mins. - An Ernie Kovacs-Cyd Charisse pairing sounds pleasant enough. He’s a con artist specializing in rich widows and she’s, yep, a rich widow. The catch is that her baroness character isn’t quite so innocent. George Sanders does what he does in support. Chris Challis was director of photography. The releasing studio was Columbia, though it’s not on DVD from what I can tell.

6:00 PM The Appointment (Lumet, 1969) - C-115 mins. - TCM rolls on today with a nice tribute to Anouk Aimée. Fellini’s masterful 8½ plays at 1:45 PM in a rare afternoon showing of a foreign language film. It’s followed by Model Shop and this unheralded Sidney Lumet feature. If you noticed my signed Dog Day Afternoon sleeve I posted last week, it won’t come as a surprise that I’m a Lumet fan. He still has a surprising number of films unavailable on R1 DVD, including this picture which also stars Omar Sharif. The two leads play a married couple in Rome. Sharif’s character suspects his wife is spending her free time as a high end prostitute. Doesn’t sound like your typical Sidney Lumet film, though his versatility is sometimes taken for granted. MGM released theatrically, giving Warner Bros. the rights now. It’s not available on DVD.

8:00 PM The Man Who Understood Women (Johnson, 1959) - C-105 mins. - Romain Gary, who’d marry Jean Seberg in 1962 and later write the story on which Sam Fuller’s White Dog is based, had his novel adapted by writer/director Nunnally Johnson for this film. It sounds fascinating. Henry Fonda stars as a Hollywood producer trying to turn wife Leslie Caron into a major sex symbol. She becomes so disenchanted with the whole thing that she leaves him and the business to go back to France, where she also finds another man. Especially intriguing is that the Fonda character in Gary’s book was apparently modeled after Orson Welles (married, of course, to Rita Hayworth at one time). That Gary went on to marry and then direct Seberg before the two divorced also makes for a sad coda to the story. The film was made by Fox, and isn’t on DVD.

Tuesday October 13

10:00 PM Escape Me Never (Godfrey, 1947) - BW-104 mins. - Lucky Errol Flynn gets paired with Ida Lupino and Eleanor Parker in this romantic drama. He’s a composer in Venice who’s engaged to Parker but falls for Lupino, who herself is engaged to Flynn’s brother (Gig Young). The film was made by Warner Bros. and is not on DVD. Flynn pops up again in the Raoul Walsh-directed Northern Pursuit at midnight.

Wednesday October 14

9:15 AM La Boheme (Vidor, 1926) - BW-94 mins. - Lillian Gish was born on this day in 1893. TCM honors the screen legend with seven films on the daytime schedule. She’s paired with John Gilbert in this King Vidor silent about a romance in Paris in the 1830s. He’s an artist and she’s a seamstress, both struggling to make ends meet. Looking forward to this one. It was MGM but now should be in the hands of Warner Bros. Nothing on the DVD front. The Scarlet Letter follows at 11:00 AM.

12:45 PM The Wind (Sjostrom, 1928) - BW-82 mins. - TCM aired this a couple of years ago and I don’t think it’s been on since. It’s truly a masterpiece of silent cinema, and Warner Bros. should be embarrassed at not having yet released a DVD version. Gish plays a somewhat fragile young woman who moves to Texas and faces a tumultous series of events. If you have any interest at all, try to make time for this one. It remains an incredibly affecting film. MGM was the original studio.

Thursday October 15

6:15 AM Parole Girl (Cline, 1933) - BW-68 mins. - Good to see a pre-Code Mae Clarke picture pop up on the schedule. Information is sparse, but it seems to be a drama where she’s paroled from prison for a crime she didn’t even commit. Edward Cline, who also did The Bank Dick, directed. Ralph Bellamy gets the male lead. Made for Columbia, the film hasn’t been put on DVD.