Actually a stronger than usual week I think. The January schedule is especially good for some diversity from what’s been shown over the last couple of years on the channel. The two Jerzy Skolimowski films that air as part of TCM Underground on Friday might not appeal to everyone but I couldn’t be more anxious to see them. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday January 9

8:00 AM Brighton Rock (Boulting, 1947) - BW-92 mins. - Richard Attenborough does psychotic well as the young gangster Pinkie Brown in this adaptation of a Graham Greene book. It’s still nowhere to be found on R1 DVD, though I saw Rialto’s print and wrote about the film last year. A remake is forthcoming with Sam Riley (Control) and Carey Mulligan (An Education). Maybe the R1 DVD will be released as a tie-in to that. Optimum already has a disc available in the UK.

Sunday January 10

8:30 AM It’s a Wonderful World (Van Dyke, 1939) - BW-86 mins. - Similar in name to a much better known James Stewart film, this earlier picture is otherwise unrelated to the Capra classic. Think screwball comedy, with Stewart as a private detective on the run because of a murder his client is accused of committing and Claudette Colbert trying to help him out of the jam. She’s a poetess, which doesn’t even seem like it should be a word much less a profession. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke and made for MGM, the film isn’t on DVD. TCM has not shown it for a very long time but the channel also has the picture scheduled for April 9th.

2:15 AM Boudu Saved from Drowning (Renoir, 1932) - BW-85 mins. - I very rarely discuss Jean Renoir, and there are several of his films I still need to see, but he’s nonetheless one of my favorite filmmakers and this comedy is probably the least recognized of his masterpiece-level pictures (despite having an excellent R1 DVD from the Criterion Collection). Michel Simon plays a homeless man who’s more than a little rough around the edges socially. He jumps into the Seine in Paris but is rescued by a well-to-do bookseller (Charles Grandval). The bookseller then takes Boudu in like he’s a helpless dog and, basically, Boudu acts in kind.

Tuesday January 12

6:00 AM Party Girl (Ray, 1958) - C-99 mins. - A very convincing love story, involving adults who’ve been around the block once or twice already, grounds this strange yet exhilarating gangster musical mutt of a film. It is, more than anything else, a Nicholas Ray picture. Robert Taylor plays the crippled mob lawyer for Lee J. Cobb and his band of cronies while Cyd Charisse is the dancer with whom he finds love. Of all of Ray’s films, this is the closest relative to In a Lonely Place, though it’s neither as focused nor as emotionally resonant. Still a pretty great one. There’s a French R2 release of Party Girl and Warner Bros. idiotically reduced it to burn-on-demand DVD-R status in the U.S. You can find my review of the film and that disc here.

12:30 AM Big City (Borzage, 1937) - BW-80 mins. - Today is Luise Rainer’s 100th birthday. The back-to-back Oscar winner is still around, though I’m not sure how her health is these days. Back in 1998 she was on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to past winners and I was amazed then to see her when it had already been 60 years since The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth. To honor the actress, I can’t think of anything more fitting than TCM airing a night of her films, including the latter as well as The Emperor’s Candlesticks (2:00 AM) and The Toy Wife (3:45 AM). She didn’t have a very long career but it certainly was notable. Big City was directed by Frank Borzage and co-stars Spencer Tracy. I mentioned it last year on this same day when TCM showed the film. Tracy plays a cab driver struggling to support himself and wife Rainer amid a taxi strike. Trouble follows when she’s accused of bombing a garage. It’s still not on DVD, having been made for MGM and likely controlled now by Warner Bros.

Wednesday January 13

3:30 AM The Strawberry Statement (Hagmann, 1970) - C-106 mins. - So TCM has this “Shadows of Russia” theme going on throughout January. Last week The Scarlet Empress (using a better print than Criterion was sidled with on its DVD release) was shown. This evening Comrade X and Ninotchka are included in the prime time schedule. Spring Madness, with Maureen O’Sullivan and Lew Ayres, comes on at 2:15 AM. This picture, which I’m not familiar with, follows. It stars Bruce Davison as a college student who initially isn’t concerned with the political demonstrations going on at his San Francisco school. But after meeting a girl (Kim Darby) who’s involved he too expresses interest as a means of making (female) friends and soon he’s a dedicated revolutionary. Bud Cort is also in the cast. MGM released and Warner Bros. likely controls but no DVD. You can also watch it on demand at Amazon for a fee.

Thursday January 14

2:00 PM Cast a Dark Shadow (Gilbert, 1955) - BW-83 mins. - Watch out for Dirk Bogarde. Here he plays a bluebeard with a thing for older women. He marries them with the intention of accelerating their death so he can then reap an inheritance. The intended victims include Mona Washbourne, Margaret Lockwood and Kay Walsh. Lockwood was BAFTA-nominated for her role. I couldn’t find a DVD release in either the states or the UK for this film. I’m also not sure where the rights would be here.

Friday January 15

9:30 PM Race Street (Marin, 1948) - BW-79 mins. - TCM has a stool pigeon theme tonight. The Big House, a quite good early talkie starring Wallace Beery, Robert Montgomery and Chester Morris airs at 8:00 PM, and this George Raft picture follows. Raft plays an accountant turned night club owner whose best friend (Harry Morgan) is taken out by the mob. Cop William Bendix warns Raft to stay cool but he goes after the gangsters anyway. RKO released this one, likely giving Warner Bros. the rights in R1 but no DVD. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (read more here if you don’t know the film) follows later at 12:45 AM.

2:30 AM Deep End (Skolimowski, 1970) - C-91 mins. - When I looked at the January schedule back a couple of months ago, this was probably the film I was most excited to see on it. I didn’t make time for Deep End when it screend for a week at the Anthology Film Archives over two years ago and I’ve been mentally kicking myself ever since. I don’t know if I’ll even like the film but it certainly sounds interesting. The plot involves a 15-year-old who becomes obsessed with a woman at his swimming pool job. Things turn dark from there. The Criterion Collection might release it on DVD but who knows. I read there could be complications. The sure thing seems to be that Paramount, which controls the picture, won’t do anything other than maybe license the rights to a third party like Criterion. It’s bothersome that TCM’s site doesn’t currently indicate a letterboxed showing. Maybe it will be.

4:00 AM The Shout (Skolimowski, 1979) - C-86 mins. - A later film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski which is on DVD in the UK but not here, The Shout stars Alan Bates as a mysterious man who comes upon married couple Susannah York and John Hurt. Skolimowski isn’t terribly well known as a director (he acted in Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises a couple of years ago) but every film of his I’ve read about has sounded absolutely fascinating. He was also one of the writers of Roman Polanski’s debut Knife in the Water. I believe that the Second Run label in the UK has a couple of his films planned for release at some point also. I’m not sure where the R1 rights to The Shout would be.