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.