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.