This may not be the strongest week of TCM’s “Great Directors” month, with one whole day devoted to Mervyn LeRoy and the daylight hours of another given to W.S. Van Dyke, but it does have an inspired pairing of Otto Preminger and Ernst Lubitsch on Tuesday. There’s also a night of Fellini movies and another for Kubrick. The good and the less good do even out. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday June 20

3:00 PM Anthony Adverse (LeRoy, 1936) - BW-141 mins. - Fredric March plays the title character, who’s orphaned in Italy soon after birth and travels the world as he gets older. The love story elements depend on Olivia de Havilland in the female lead. Claude Rains is along as well. I’m halfheartedly trying to watch all of the Best Picture nominees so here’s another notch on that. It also yielded Gale Sondergaard the Oscar. Still, a film of this length - a ’30s epic - and one credited to Mervyn LeRoy (whose films take up the entire day’s schedule) is something I’d typically avoid. It was made for Warner Bros., but hasn’t been released on DVD.

Monday June 22

10:45 AM Raintree County (Dmytryk, 1957) - C-173 mins. - Another epic, this one bigger, in color and widescreen. TCM has a nice video piece it sometimes shows about the small Kentucky town where this film was made. Some of the residents reminisce on what it was like having Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift around the area. The Civil War-set drama also features Eva Marie Saint, Nigel Patrick, Agnes Moorehead, Rod Taylor and Lee Marvin. The runtime is listed at 173 on the TCM site, but IMDb has 168 for the “original version” and 188 for a “Turner Library Print” which could factor in an overture and intermission (just a guess). Though Raintree County has not been released on DVD, and should be controlled by Warner Bros. since it was an MGM production, there are questionably authentic copies available from respected retailers. Even Barnes & Noble lists an edition which shows Asian writing on the cover.

Tuesday June 23

1:15 PM A Royal Scandal (Preminger, 1945) - BW-94 mins. - Today we get TCM’s most inspired pairing of directors, with Otto Preminger by day and Ernst Lubitsch by night. The careers of these two crossed more times than you might expect, including on this picture, started by Lubitsch but finished by Preminger. The latter was responsible for most or all of what’s on screen, having taken over after Lubitsch became ill early on. Tallulah Bankhead made a rare screen appearance - and she wouldn’t do another picture for twenty years - following the success of Lifeboat the previous year. She plays Catherine the Great, with Anne Baxter as a Countess and William Eythe the Russian soldier who’s a romantic interest for both. Though the film has its admirers, I found it completely flat and difficult to trudge through even as a curiosity. The completely different styles of Lubitsch and Preminger really struggle to merge into anything resembling either’s strengths. No DVD exists in R1, but the BFI put the film and Preminger’s pre-Laura turn both in front of and behind the camera in Margin for Error onto a double feature set for R2. I reviewed that release at DVD Times.

12:00 AM The Merry Widow (Lubitsch, 1934) - BW-99 mins. - If you want to remember how a real Lubitsch picture can make you feel, I’d suggest watching TCM in the evening when The Shop Around the Corner, Ninotchka, and this gem all air. The Merry Widow brought Lubitsch and the stars of his Paramount musicals together again. Perhaps it was the evolution of the sound picture, but I think I tend to rate this higher than those earlier ones. The Smiling Lieutenant would be very close, though. Jeannette MacDonald plays the title widow, who’s the most important resident of a small kingdom because she basically underwrites the economy with the taxes she has to pay. It’s then a real crisis when she goes away to Paris, so much so that Maurice Chevalier must follow her to convince her to marry him and return to the kingdom. Light and breezy, but nonetheless exquisite. MGM made the film, placing it now within the jaws of Warner Bros. and it’s sad to think of a Lubitsch classic being relegated to something like the expensive garbage heap of Warner Archive so I’ll continue holding out hope that a legitimate R1 DVD might come out at some point. Lubitsch’s MGM silent The Student Prince of Old Heidelberg, which has an ending I wasn’t expecting, follows at 2:00 AM.

Wednesday June 24

12:00 PM Naughty Marietta (Van Dyke, 1935) - BW-104 mins. - Another Best Picture nominee not on DVD, this musical romance stars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy as, respectively, a French princess who ventures to colonial New Orleans and the captain who rescues her from pirates. Frank Morgan and Elsa Lanchester co-star. Made for MGM, the film is now controlled by Warner Bros.

8:00 PM Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (Harlan, 2001) - C-142 mins. - You can get this on DVD from Warner Bros., but I’ve never seen it. Being generally reluctant towards Kubrick, watching a documentary about him hasn’t felt like a priority. I will see this, though, and I’m sure there are others anxious to give it a watch. TCM has another showing scheduled for 3:00 AM, with Dr. Strangelove and Lolita set to air in between. If anyone’s curious, my favorite Kubrick is Eyes Wide Shut, followed by  Paths of Glory. Most of the rest I find personally incompatible.

Thursday June 25

6:00 AM One Mysterious Night (Boetticher, 1944) - BW-62 mins. - Budd Boetticher is better known for his westerns, but he also dabbled in cheaply made crime dramas early in his career. I watched The Killer Is Loose (on today at 10:00 AM) just the other day and found it to be a tightly plotted, intriguing picture. A dozen years earlier Boetticher made this Boston Blackie entry for Columbia. Chester Morris stars as former thief Blackie who here helps the police track down a stolen diamond. The title of the film confused me for awhile because it’s also known, in the UK apparently, as Behind Closed Doors and Boetticher directed another movie (on DVD from Kino) called Behind Locked Doors. Completely separate pictures though. One Mysterious Night hasn’t been released on DVD to my knowledge.

7:15 AM Escape in the Fog (Boetticher, 1945) - BW-63 mins. - It seems that One Mysterious Night would have been the first released film credited to Boetticher (still using his given name of Oscar in the titles). Columbia must’ve been pleased enough to keep him around since several more small noirish movies followed, including this one. Nina Foch is a nurse who suffered a nervous breakdown. She continues to have nightmares in which a pair of men struggle to kill a third man. Otto Kruger co-stars, as does William Wright, playing the victim of Foch’s dream who’s a government agent, which sets up the espionage angle of the plot. This isn’t on DVD either. Four of Boetticher’s westerns with Randolph Scott air starting at 11:30 AM.

Friday June 26

6:00 AM Madeleine (Lean, 1950) - BW-115 mins. - North American fans of the earlier David Lean movies not yet available in R1 should probably just spring for an R2 set assuming region-free capabilities. It was years ago now that MGM announced these titles only to quickly cancel them, presumably due to not having the release rights. I’m not sure where the rights to Madeleine currently reside in R1. I can tell you about the film, which was based on real events and stars Ann Todd (married to Lean at the time) as a woman scandalously accused of murdering her French lover in the 1850s.

8:00 AM The Passionate Friends (Lean, 1949) - BW-91 mins. - David Lean’s previous film was this adaptation of an H.G. Wells novel, also starring Ann Todd. Interesting that both films have Todd playing a woman who has an outside lover considering she was apparently having an extramarital affair with future husband Lean during filming. The plot here has Todd married to Claude Rains but excited to rekindle a previous romance when she bumps into Trevor Howard. Did Lean have a curiosity or interest in making films with adultery as the subject matter? Same thing rightswise as with Madeleine. The film is easy to find on DVD in the UK, but not stateside. Criterion has released so many of Lean’s movies that I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of these trickle out from them in due time.