Excellent week of directors here, with Billy Wilder and Howard Hawks getting full days on the weekend and some more of my favorites being featured later on. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday June 13

3:30 AM Avanti! (Wilder, 1972) - C-144 mins. - I can’t let a full day of Billy Wilder films pass without mentioning it. Everything being shown is on DVD, but it’s still a good opportunity to catch (or record) a lesser-known gem like Avanti!, which I think is Wilder’s most underrated work. Jack Lemmon plays a businessman who travels to Italy to recover his deceased father’s body. While there, he meets the daughter (Juliet Mills) of his father’s mistress. Wilder captures a perfect tone of melancholy. Movies typically don’t like to address the concerns of the middle-aged demographic, but the perpetually bittersweet director shows it can be done. The MGM disc available in R1 is fine, though without any extras. I think the R2 is probably the same.

Sunday June 14

8:00 AM Tiger Shark (Hawks, 1932) - BW-77 mins. - One-handed Portuguese tuna fisherman Edward G. Robinson is married to Zita Johann (recognizable to fans of The Mummy) but Johann is on the fast track to an affair with the younger Richard Arlen, whose life Robinson saved when he lost that hand. Add in the titular marine animal (which reminds me of Wes Anderson’s “jaguar shark”) and you’ve got yourself an early Howard Hawks picture, released the same year as Scarface. First National/Warner Bros. did the film and it’s not come to DVD yet. Hawks films air all day. Only this and The Crowd Roars (at 4:30 AM) aren’t on DVD in R1, but there are worse ways of spending the day than watching Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday again.

Monday June 15

11:15 AM The White Cliffs of Dover (Brown, 1944) - BW-126 mins. - Yawn. Clarence Brown day.

8:00 PM Elia Kazan: A Director’s Journey (Schickel, 1995) - BW-76 mins. - My love-hate relationship with Elia Kazan and his films should get some extra fuel by this documentary. It’s narrated by Eli Wallach and seems to depend mostly on interviews with Kazan as well as clips from his films. The documentary can also be found on disc two of the WB’s A Streetcar Named Desire release. TCM isn’t showing Streetcar tonight, but you can see four other Kazan pictures, including A Face in the Crowd (3:30 AM).

Tuesday June 16

1:45 AM Macbeth (Welles, 1948) - BW-107 mins. - Strong version of the Shakespeare classic. I’ve seen this on TCM before (it’s not available on DVD in R1) and the print shown is from a restoration. It looks impressive, with the ample blacks used by Welles coming through memorably. Second Sight has a release in R2. The film was originally made by Republic Pictures and Lionsgate now owns most of that library, which does not bode well for a future disc in R1. Except for Touch of Evil, most of the main Welles classics are all shown tonight on TCM (Citizen Kane, The Lady from Shanghai, The Magnificent Ambersons, and The Trial).

Wednesday June 17

8:15 AM The Sailor from Gibraltor (Richardson, 1967) - BW-88 mins. - An eclectic set of films from Tony Richardson today, including his version of Hamlet at 11:30 AM. Great cast on this one - Jeanne Moreau, Ian Bannen, Vanessa Redgrave, Orson Welles, Hugh Griffith, even a young John Hurt. It’s based on a Marguerite Duras novel, in which a man (Bannen) finds himself helping a strange woman (Moreau) search for her lover, the sailor of the title. Cinematography was by Raoul Coutard. Away from the camera, Richardson was still married to Redgrave, though not for much longer as his affair with Moreau was instrumental in the couple’s divorce the same year the film was released. Messy. I think MGM probably controls this in R1, but it’s not on DVD here or in the UK.

Thursday June 18

6:15 PM Brute Force (Dassin, 1947) - BW-98 mins. - This is definitely one of my favorite days in the TCM “Great Directors” month, as Jules Dassin films air until the prime time hours when François Truffaut takes the reins. Three Dassin films on tap (Phaedra, The Canterville Ghost and A Letter for Evie) don’t have R1 DVD releases, but I’ve mentioned those all before so I’m instead singling out the great prison noir Brute Force, which I wrote a little about not long ago. Great film, really bolstered by Dassin’s direction. It’s on DVD in R1 from the Criterion Collection in a solid, though admittedly overpriced, edition.

2:00 AM Small Change (Truffaut, 1976) - C-105 mins. - What a joy to see five Truffaut films on the schedule tonight. You can’t go wrong with any of them, but I’m mentioning Small Change because, foremost, it’s a delightful movie and it’s also gone out of print in R1 DVD. The MGM edition can still be found via third party sellers at an affordable rate. The film concerns several young French schoolchildren and their activities in and out of school. There’s no real plot or main character in the movie, which sort of allows it to establish its own rhythm. It’s hardly “arty” or whatever term people might associate with a Truffaut picture. He’s a little sentimental, but I typically find his films use that quality as necessary instead of going too far in either of the alternate directions.

Friday June 19

7:30 AM Experiment in Terror (Edwards, 1962) - BW-123 mins. - I liked Blake Edwards as a director more before I finally watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but I’m still willing to see what’s in store for the day. This period for Edwards (with Breakfast just before and Days of Wine and Roses and The Pink Panther still to come) was certainly his most relevant. Experiment in Terror stars Glenn Ford and Lee Remick as, respectively, an FBI agent and a bank teller who becomes the reluctant accomplice of a thief. A very young Stefanie Powers co-stars. As early ’60s crime thrillers go, this sounds pretty good. It was on DVD from Sony but rudely got taken out of print so finding a copy now isn’t the easiest task (over thirty bucks even for a used copy at Amazon Marketplace). Henry Mancini did the score.

10:00 AM The Carey Treatment (Edwards, 1972) - C-101 mins. - A Michael Crichton novel provided the source material for this hospital conspiracy thriller. James Coburn stars as a laid-back doctor who discovers something’s not right after one of his colleagues (James Hong) faces a murder charge following an abortion. Director Blake Edwards was apparently unhappy with the finished product and disowned the film. Still sounds interesting and it’s not been released on DVD yet. MGM originally put it in theaters so Warner Bros. should now control.