This seems to be a very solid week of movie stars getting the daily TCM spotlight. Frank Sinatra on Friday gets quite a bit of attention normally, but the other six (Sterling Hayden, Angela Lansbury, Fredric March, Merle Oberon, Yul Brynner and Ida Lupino) all fly under the radar more or less. It might be a good time to reiterate my intentions with these picks in stating that I make no claims that these are in any way the “best” films TCM will show in a given week, only that they all look interesting and are mostly hard to otherwise find or not generally discussed very often. So, for example, on Ida Lupino day on Thursday, her turns in On Dangerous Ground, They Drive by Night and High Sierra are all likely to be superior to the three I did mention but those films are also readily available on DVD and shown with some frequency by TCM. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday August 22

11:00 AM Five Steps to Danger (Kesler, 1957) - BW-80 mins. - It’s clear from TCM’s schedule today that Sterling Hayden made a whole lot of undistinguished pictures. Nonetheless, Hayden is one of my favorites and there are probably half a dozen gems being shown, including Terror in a Texas Town (7:30 AM) and Johnny Guitar (4:00 PM).  This one has Sterling denying his essence to some shady figures out to recover a secret formula possessed by a hitchhiker (Ruth Roman) he’s picked up. Werner Klemperer is third-billed and the cast also features Robert Mitchum’s brother John. Made for the director’s production company, United Artists released theatrically and MGM seems to have the rights now. It’s not on DVD. A website called Fancast (is that similar to Hulu?) is streaming Five Steps to Danger right now for free.

10:00 PM Manhandled (Foster, 1949) - BW-96 mins. - Interesting to see Dorothy Lamour, typically associated with the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope “Road” movies, in a crime thriller. She’s a secretary to a quack psychiatrist who becomes involved in the murder investigation of a patient’s wife. Dan Duryea is her neighbor and Sterling Hayden plays an insurance investigator. It’s the kind of plot which is noirish in feel if perhaps not in execution. Paramount put it out in cinemas, but the rights are probably with Universal I think. No DVD release.

Sunday August 23

11:00 AM All Fall Down (Frankenheimer, 1962) - BW-110 mins. - Director John Frankenheimer’s second feature, released, incredibly, the same year as Birdman of Alcatraz and The Manchurian Candidate (which follows at 1:00 PM), was adapted from a James Leo Herlihy (author of Midnight Cowboy) novel by William Inge. It stars Warren Beatty as a character named Berry-Berry. Karl Malden and Angela Lansbury are his parents and Eva Marie Saint plays Echo, an older woman with whom Beatty becomes involved. Brandon de Wilde has the younger brother role. I thought for sure this would come to R1 DVD a few years ago when Warner Bros. included the film in a “DVD Decision” vote among fans. It finally trickled out as part of the Warner Archive burn-on-demand idea earlier this year.

4:15 PM The Reluctant Debutante (Minnelli, 1958) - C-96 mins. - Angela Lansbury day continues with a Vincente Minnelli-directed trifle starring Sandra Dee as the mostly American daughter who goes to London to stay with her British father (Rex Harrison) and stepmother (Kay Kendall). Dee is, as you can guess, reluctant to accept her new social duties. MGM then, Warner Bros. now, the movie hasn’t found a DVD release.

Monday August 24

9:30 AM There Goes My Heart (McLeod, 1938) - BW-83 mins. - Did you know TV’s Ed Sullivan was once a screenwriter in Hollywood? It’s true, and he received an original story credit for this Fredric March comedy. Fred’s a reporter who catches up with runaway heiress Virginia Bruce who’s working at a department store. Nancy Carroll and Eugene Pallette fill out the cast. The plot sounds very It Happened One Night-ish with maybe a little Nothing Sacred (airing at 6:45 PM) thrown in for good measure. I don’t think there’s a DVD available, and United Artists is listed as theatrical distributor. Maybe MGM would have the rights.

1:30 PM One Foot in Heaven (Rapper, 1941) - BW-108 mins. - Here’s a Best Picture nominee I haven’t seen and otherwise would have trouble finding. The film joined Citizen Kane in losing to How Green Was My Valley that year. Fredric March stars as a Methodist minister who moves with his family (including wife Martha Scott) from parish to parish over time. It seems like a fairly meandering sort of picture. Gene Lockhart and Beulah Bondi are also in the cast. Warner Bros. made it but no DVD yet. Probably one for the Archive.

Tuesday August 25

2:45 PM Affectionately Yours (Bacon, 1941) - BW-88 mins. - I know virtually nothing about Merle Oberon so today is a potential wash for me. The one title that seemed most intriguing was this comedy co-starring Dennis Morgan as Oberon’s husband who has to hurry home from his international reporting gig to prevent her from divorcing him and marrying Ralph Bellamy. Rita Hayworth va-vooms as Morgan’s current side gal. Bellamy sure did have a niche, didn’t he. The solid cast also includes James Gleason and the Gone with the Wind co-stars Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen. No DVD from Warner Bros. Jacques Tourneur’s Berlin Express, starring Oberon and Robert Ryan and slated for the Warner Archive treatment, airs later at 6:30 PM.

Thursday August 27

7:30 AM The Lady and the Mob (Stolof, 1939) - BW-66 mins. - A day for Ida Lupino films is a day to celebrate. Ida here plays the future daughter-in-law of Fay Bainter, who returns from a dry cleaning pick-up so upset with the local racket that she vows to beat them at their own game. This would seem to be a cheaply made picture done for Columbia. It’s not on DVD.

2:30 PM Women’s Prison (Seiler, 1955) - BW-80 mins. - The title probably says it all. A nice line-up of actresses join Ida, including Jan Sterling, Cleo Moore, Audrey Totter, Phyllis Thaxter, and further down the cast list, Mae Clarke. Howard Duff is a psychiatrist who wants to improve prison conditions, but real-life spouse Lupino’s warden resists the change. Columbia again, no DVD release. Frtiz Lang’s While the City Sleeps, with Ida in a small but interesting role as a columnist willing to seduce Dana Andrews, comes on a bit later at 6:00 PM.

12:00 AM Ladies in Retirement (Vidor, 1941) - BW-92 mins. - A “spooky melodrama” directed by Charles Vidor and starring Ida Lupino and Evelyn Keyes as, respectively, housekeeper and maid to a retired actress living in the English countryside. Elsa Lanchester is one of Lupino’s two sisters who are in need of somewhere to live after being removed from their residence due to some sort of intolerable and scandalous behavior. This was also made for Columbia, with the same not-on-DVD treatment by Sony.