The write-ups are on the brief side this week, but it’s a good enough set of picks overall. Lots of stuff from the thirties and forties and even a silent. Speaking of silents, I reviewed Sunrise at DVD Times, the new Masters of Cinema Blu-ray edition, and I put a lot of time into it. Maybe it was worth the effort, perhaps not, but it’s there if anyone would like to read it. TCM is here for us too. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Sunday October 4

6:15 AM The Beast with Five Fingers (Florey, 1946) - BW-89 mins. - October brings Halloween and an emphasis on the scary, suspenseful, thrilling, horror sort of movies. My interest in these pictures, the classic varieties at least, has slowly increased over the years. The Beast with Five Fingers involves the hand of a pianist (Robert Alda) which somehow survives the body’s death and goes out on its own in search of vengeance. Anything with Peter Lorre, who stars, is usually worthwhile. Warner Bros. was the studio behind this film. I don’t believe it has a DVD release.

12:00 AM Tell It to the Marines (Hill, 1926) - BW-103 mins. - Lon Chaney is a drill sergeant in the U.S. Marines who faces off against a particularly troublesome new recruit, played by William Haines. Complicating matters further, the two men share a common interest in the same woman (Eleanor Boardman). Director George Hill later did the still potent prison movie The Big House. Chaney, the famed “man of a thousand faces,” apparently wore no make-up for his role. This silent was done for MGM and should now be with Warner Bros. It’s unreleased on DVD. Two Jean Renoir pictures follow, with La bête humaine airing at 2:00 AM and The Southerner at 4:00 AM.

Monday October 5

6:00 AM The Whistler (Castle, 1944) - BW-60 mins. - “Whistlin’ Monday” begins with the first film in the Whistler series, directed by low-budget horror man William Castle. The intriguing plot has Richard Dix as a man in such despair from his wife’s death that he get another man to hire an assassin (J. Carrol Naish) to kill him (Dix). The uh-oh comes when the wife turns up alive but Dix can’t call off the hit. Gloria Stuart is the female lead, Dix’s secretary. Six more of these Whistler films follow today, with three Red Skelton “Whistling in … ” movies airing afterward. None of these are on DVD (in R1 at least)  and all were released by Columbia.

1:15 AM Lili (Walters, 1953) - C-81 mins. - Star of the Month for October is Leslie Caron and TCM brings out the heavy (and musical) hitters on night one with Best Picture winners An American in Paris (Caron’s debut) and Gigi. Also on tap is Caron’s Oscar-nominated performance as a French orphan who befriends puppets. I’ve read lots of good things about this film - and I also mentioned it back in March - but haven’t seen it. Definitely will be making an effort this time. Director Charles Walters was also recognized by the Academy with a nomination. Mel Ferrer co-stars. It’s now in Warner Bros.’ hands via MGM, but not released on DVD.

Tuesday October 6

9:15 AM Brief Moment (Burton, 1933) - BW-69 mins. - Tuesday looks to be my favorite day of the week on TCM as it’s full of lighthearted thirties comedies, including three with Carole Lombard. Here she’s a nightclub singer who marries a rich playboy (Gene Raymond). I’ve been waiting for more of the hard-to-see Lombard films to air since she was Star of the Month a full year ago. Sony controls this one. There should be enough Columbia films for a Lombard DVD box set but I’m not holding my breath just yet. Lady by Choice, which TCM has aired two or three times this year, follows.

12:00 PM In Name Only (Cromwell, 1939) - BW-95 mins. - Cary Grant is married to Kay Francis but wants a divorce so he can marry widow Carole Lombard. Francis gets the villain part. Also with Charles Coburn, the film was made for RKO and did get a VHS release. I guess the R1 rights are now with Warner Bros., but nothing has come along DVD-wise. Manga Films put out a (R2) disc in Spain. Kay Francis joins Ronald Colman in Raffles at 2:00 PM before re-treaming a couple of years later on …

3:30 PM Cynara (Vidor, 1932) - BW-78 mins. - Colman is an English barrister who succumbs to temptation in the form of shop girl Phyllis Barry while wife Kay Francis is away. After years of fidelity, the affair is just a fling to him but more to the younger woman. King Vidor directed for the Samuel Goldwyn Company. IMDb has United Artists as theatrical distributor so MGM might now control in R1, though I can’t be sure. The film isn’t available on DVD.

Wednesday October 7

10:00 AM Yolanda and the Thief (Minnelli, 1945) - C-108 mins. - This seems like the sort of film deserving of a DVD release. Vincente Minnelli directed, Arthur Freed produced, and Fred Astaire was the lead. He plays a con man in a fictional Latin American country who poses as the guardian angel of rich girl Yolanda (Lucille Bremer). Technicolor MGM musical. Warner Bros. controls the rights.

Thursday October 8

2:15 AM Girls of the Road (Grinde, 1940) - BW-60 mins. - I’m really interested in the Depression-centered films TCM will be showing on Thursdays this month. Several have made their way to DVD by now, including the first four pictures shown tonight, but this short, largely unseen B-movie is a rarity. It stars Ann Dvorak (Paul Muni’s sister in Scarface) as a governor’s daughter whose social consciousness compels her to assume the life of a runaway. Along the way, she meets girls with nothing to fall back on. Columbia released theatrically. Black Moon, a voodoo horror picture starring Fay Wray, airs next at 3:30 AM.

4:45 AM The Missing Juror (Boetticher, 1944) - BW-66 mins. - TCM has been good about showing Budd Boetticher’s early B-picture crime dramas lately and this is one of his earliest. The plot has jurors in a big murder case being murdered one by one and a detective out to stop the killer. Judging by the film’s title, there’s probably an unaccounted for juror in the mix. This is another Columbia picture unreleased by Sony.