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.