Summer Under the Stars has been really great this month, but it could only last so long before regular programming returned. The good thing about September is that we have an actor as Star of the Month in Claude Rains who you’d hardly expect to see honored with that title. He’s a splendid choice despite most of his best films already being available on DVD. Even better is the monthlong tribute to composer Bernard Herrmann. I’ve never thought about having a favorite film composer, but Herrmann’s scores for Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, Citizen Kane, and, particularly for me, On Dangerous Ground are so impactful and immediately come to mind when thinking of those films. More on those two fellas over the next few weeks. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday August 29

4:30 PM After the Fox (De Sica, 1966) - BW-103 mins. - So much Peter Sellers today and I’m reminded that I really need to see more of his work. A lot of the films being shown I’ve either mentioned here before (The Millionairess, Only Two Can Play) or have R1 DVDs no longer in print, which is the case with After the Fox. Credit to TCM for not just filling the schedule with Pink Panther movies and resisting the urge to again air Dr. Strangelove. Here Sellers plays a world-renowned con man who takes on the persona of a film director in pursuit of a heist. Victor Mature has fun as a has-been movie star and Britt Ekland decorates with her presence. The screenplay was an unlikely collaboration between Neil Simon, whose play the film is based on, and Vittorio De Sica’s longtime creative partner Cesare Zavattini. MGM did have the film on DVD in R1, but it’s out of print. Looks to still be available in R2.

2:30 AM There’s a Girl in My Soup (Boulting, 1970) - C-96 mins. - Same deal here - was available in R1 but now discontinued. Sony, which left the R2 in print in the UK, had better things to do than keep pressing this one. Sellers co-stars with Goldie Hawn, with him playing a womanizing television star and her the 19-year-old he fancies. Interesting that Hawn was BAFTA-nominated. These sorts of roles for Sellers make me a bit uneasy due to the inevitable blurring of fact and fiction. While watching him as a performer, it can be difficult to separate what we know and what we see, if that makes sense.

Sunday August 30

9:00 AM Adventure in Manhattan (Ludwig, 1936) - BW-73 mins. - Jean Arthur all day? Done. I thought I was onto something a couple weeks back with Miriam Hopkins being paired so often with Joel McCrea (5 times total), but it seems that McCrea was also a frequent co-star with Jean Arthur. In addition to The More the Merrier (which isn’t even airing today), the two were co-stars in The Silver Horde (on at 6:00 AM) and this comedy. McCrea is a newspaper reporter looking into the financing of a play in which actress Arthur is appearing. Made for Columbia and not on DVD. The 1934 crime drama Whirlpool follows at 10:30 AM.

10:15 PM The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (Roberts, 1936) - BW-82 mins. - This opinion has come up before, but I think William Powell was just about the coolest cat in movies in the 1930s. One of the things he pulled off fairly well was not only giving life to Nick Charles in the Thin Man pictures, but also playing virtually the same character again in several Myrna Loy-less copycats. Even though these aren’t necessarily as good as the originals, Powell is always unflappable. I watched him with Ginger Rogers do the routine in Star of Midnight not long ago and it was fairly charming. Here he’s with Jean Arthur, though this time the two are a divorced couple solving a mystery instead of a married or engaged one. Director Stephen Roberts actually did Star of Midnight also and this was his last film before having a fatal heart attack at the age of 40. The Ex-Mrs. Bradford was done for RKO, most likely leaving it vulnerable to the Warner Archive treatment.

4:30 AM Party Wire (Kenton, 1935) - BW-69 mins. - Catchy title. I guess it concerns the residents of a town having a party line, which would allow for widespread access to phone conversations. The trouble starts with a romance between prominent daughter Jean Arthur and milkman Victor Jory and the subsequent leaving of town by Jory. Gossip then pops up that Arthur is pregnant. The film, a drama, was done for Columbia, like much of Arthur’s output. It hasn’t had a DVD release.

Monday August 31

10:30 AM The Brothers Karamazov (Brooks, 1958) - C-146 mins. - Richard Brooks was nominated by the Directors Guild for this and Lee J. Cobb earned a Supporting Actor Oscar nod. The source novel, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, is widely acclaimed. I’m really surprised, then, that the film is unreleased on DVD. It was made for MGM so Warner Bros. should have the rights. Cobb is the brothers’ father while Yul Brynner, William Shatner (in his film debut), Richard Basehart, and Albert Salmi play the four siblings. Star of the day Claire Bloom competes with Maria Schell for Brynner’s affection. I don’t generally enjoy long, epic movies from this period, but I do like Brooks and this film rarely shows up on the schedule. Knowing John Alton was director of photography doesn’t hurt.

4:15 AM A Severed Head (Clement, 1971) - C-98 mins. - It’s funny that the James Mason cold war drama The Man Between is airing on TCM today (at 6:15 PM) because Film Forum is also screening it a couple of times this evening. Later in the night, TCM has this comedy with the horror-sounding name. It would seem that the plot has Lee Remick and Ian Holm married but her falling for good friend Richard Attenborough. They all want to remain friends and keep things private. But Holm has a mistress (Jennie Linden) who he wants to keep secret, except her a professor (Claire Bloom) is Attenborough’s sister. That’s completely lifted and reworded on my part from the IMDb plot synopsis. It hardly sounds like a typical thing TCM would show, but intriguing nonetheless. Columbia released, no DVD (at least in R1).

Tuesday September 1

4:00 PM Escape from East Berlin (Siodmak, 1962) - BW-89 mins. - Director Robert Siodmak gets you in the door and then we’ll have to see if it’s worth sticking around for the movie. I believe it’s based on a true story where a group of people dug a tunnel underneath the Berlin Wall, an event which took place earlier in the year of the film’s release. Don Murray stars as an East German. Werner Klemperer is in the cast too and actually listed as also doing the casting on the film. It was shot in Berlin, at a time when Siodmak had already finished his stint working in Hollywood. Like too many of Siodmak’s films, this is not available on DVD. It was released theatrically by MGM so Warner Bros. should now have the rights.

Thursday September 3

12:00 PM The Man in the Net (Curtiz, 1959) - BW-97 mins. - One of Michael Curtiz’s last films, this “suspense-charged” drama finds artist Alan Ladd being accused by his new Connecticut neighbors after his alcoholic wife (Carolyn Jones) disappears. Help comes in the unlikely form of the neighborhood kids. Mirisch Productions made the film with United Artists releasing. MGM should control now, though it hasn’t been released on DVD. More movies starring Alan Ladd follow, including The Blue Dahlia at 2:00 PM.

Friday September 4

8:30 AM Behind the Rising Sun (Dmytryk, 1943) - BW-88 mins. - TCM is really focusing on director Edward Dmytryk today, the anniversary of his birth, with all 8 features in the daytime schedule having been helmed by the former blacklistee and eventual namer of names. The remarkable thing is that none of these films set to air have DVD releases in R1. Cornered, a noir with Dick Powell scheduled for 2:15 PM, might be the best known, but otherwise the selection is of fairly overlooked works. Behind the Rising Sun sounded interesting because its cast includes Margo (recognizable to fans of Tourneur’s The Leopard Man), Tom Neal (from Detour), J. Carrol Naish, and Robert Ryan, in a supporting part. The plot is listed as: “A Japanese publisher urges his American-educated son to side with the Axis.” Naish never met an ethnicity he didn’t like and he plays the Japanese publisher, but it’s more surprising to find Neal as the son. Russell Metty did the cinematography. The film can be had in R2 from the French Editions Montparnasse label.