I feel incredibly fortunate to have seen six Nicholas Ray films screened over the past two weeks. TCM is stingy with Ray (though A Woman’s Secret is airing this week) and so many aren’t on DVD here. I did bite the bullet on Warner Archive’s Party Girl because it ultimately seemed like a better choice than the French R2 release. I’m going to have a review on that, after seeing the film yesterday at Film Forum for the first time in too many years, up in a couple of days. A few other Warner Archive titles will hopefully follow. This week on TCM includes a day for the films of Gloria Grahame. Tremendous. It more than makes up for the unappealing nature of the following week. I couldn’t be happier to see GG finally get her due. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Sunday August 9

6:00 AM Once Upon a Time (Hall, 1944) - BW-88 mins. - Are there people who enjoy classic movies but dislike Cary Grant? Hard to imagine that being the case. Today is all Grant’s on TCM, starting with this comedy where he plays a struggling Broadway producer who encounters a young boy with a dancing caterpillar. Grant hopes the boy and his bug can help save his theater. Janet Blair, James Gleason, and William Demarest co-star. It’s a Columbia picture and a DVD has been released in R1, but was taken out of print by Sony. Prices from third-party sellers at Amazon are high without being completely unreasonable.

12:00 AM Crisis (Brooks, 1950) - BW-96 mins. - This was the directorial debut of Richard Brooks and he’s also credited with the screenplay. Cary Grant is a doctor vacationing in South America with his wife only to have the country’s dictator (Jose Ferrer) need immediate medical attention. Ethical quandries ensue. It’s strange how beyond the real classics Grant starred in (of which there are plenty for sure), his other work is fairly unknown. There aren’t a lot of Cary Grant films considered on the fringe of greatness, I guess. Crisis can be had, if you’re desperate, through the Warner Archive site. Similarly, Mr. Lucky follows at 2:00 AM and is available at the same place.

Monday August 10

6:30 PM So Long at the Fair (Fisher, 1950) - BW-86 mins. - Film Forum in New York has this scheduled for August 18th in its “Brit Noir” series, but everyone can sit down with the film eight days earlier thanks to TCM. The plot sounds fascinating, with Jean Simmons searching for a missing brother in late nineteenth century Paris amid claims he was never there at all. Shades of Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes. Dirk Bogarde seems to play a role similar to the one Michael Redgrave had in the Hitchcock picture. It’s Bogarde all day and many of the films being shown are somewhat obscure on this side of the pond. So Long at the Fair doesn’t have a DVD release in R1, though it can be found in R2 (Spain). A British police drama directed by Basil Dearden, The Blue Lamp (on DVD in the UK), follows at 8:00 PM. It too has piqued my interest.

9:30 PM The Servant (Losey, 1963) - BW-116 mins. - Occasionally I’ll decide that Joseph Losey is a director whose work I really should seek out closer, but then distractions come from every direction and Losey’s films remain unexplored. One of the obstacles, the main one really, is that Losey is woefully underrepresented on R1 DVD. His films are tough to find here and I’m more than hesitant to shell out for Optimum’s substantial Losey set in the UK. I have two good chances for a proper introduction now, with The Servant (out of print in R1 but easily had in R2) airing this evening on TCM and The Criminal being shown at Film Forum at the end of August. The Servant, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, lets Dirk Bogarde play manservant to James Fox. Sarah Miles and Wendy Craig co-star. The Jack Clayton-directed Our Mother’s House follows at 11:30 PM.

Tuesday August 11

6:00 AM Laughter in Paradise (Zampi, 1951) - BW-97 mins. - Today’s star is Audrey Hepburn, but instead of just showing the well-known and popular titles TCM has thrown in a couple of her pre-Roman Holiday pictures. Audrey is way, way down the cast list on this one, credited at IMDb as “Cigarette girl.” Italian-born Mario Zampi directed Laughter in Paradise, a comedy starring Alastair Sim, Fay Compton, Guy Middleton, and George Cole as the heirs of a millionaire (Hugh Griffith) who included a provision in his will for the heirs to go to great and strange lengths to collect their shares. No DVD in R1 but Optimum has a Sim collection with the film included.

8:00 AM The Secret People (Dickinson, 1952) - BW-95 mins. - This early Audrey Hepburn picture sounds more to my taste and she even has a supporting role instead of just a bit part. The star is Valentina Cortese, who was so good in Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway. She plays the daughter of a man killed by a European dictator, whose assassination she later finds herself somewhat involved in via a former lover (Serge Reggiani, of Melville’s Le doulos). Director and co-writer Thorold Dickinson was someone I had absolutely no knowledge of until a year or two ago when a retrospective of his films popped up. I didn’t see any of them, but that nonetheless put his name on my radar. Now I’m anxious to look at The Secret People. A Chinese import DVD exists for this movie, but I didn’t find any other, more official releases. It was done for Ealing in the UK. I haven’t any idea of the rights issues now.

Wednesday August 12

8:00 PM Red Dust (Fleming, 1932) - BW-83 mins. - The runner-up to The Magnificent Ambersons for most inexplicable DVD absence among the Warner Bros. holdings would probably be this Clark Gable-Jean Harlow classic later remade as Mogambo (which, of course, is available). Gable is a rubber plantation owner entangled with prostitute Harlow as well as the wife (Mary Astor) of his new employee. Warner Bros. made known an intention to, I believe, include this film in a potential Jean Harlow set which still hasn’t materialized and now seems unlikely to appear. TCM doesn’t show it that often either so this would be a good time to acquaint yourself with the picture.

Thursday August 13

10:30 AM Roughshod (Robson, 1949) - BW-88 mins. - Gloria Grahame day finally arrives on TCM. In total, six of her pre-Odds Against Tomorrow pictures that are not on DVD air today. Four I’ve already seen but I’ll mention anyway, starting with her first real role in the otherwise forgettable Blonde Fever at 6:00 AM. Merton of the Movies, where GG is a glamorous Hollywood actress working alongside goofy Red Skelton, airs at 9:00 AM and the Nicholas Ray-directed curiosity A Woman’s Secret is scheduled for 4:30 PM. Minnelli’s The Cobweb comes on later at 2:15 AM. Roughshod, one of just a couple of westerns Grahame made, is, in my experience, more rare since I’ve never come across it in the TCM schedule over the last few years and the movie isn’t available on DVD outside of Spain. Robert Sterling is the male lead, a rancher, and I think Gloria plays a saloon girl of some sort. It was made for RKO.

3:00 PM The Glass Wall (Shane, 1953) - BW-80 mins. - Also hard to find is this film directed by Maxwell Shane and starring Vittorio Gassman as a World War II refugee trying to avoid being deported from the U.S. Gloria Grahame is second-billed playing a woman Gassman befriends. After this and Roughshod, only the Sam Katzman production Prisoners of the Casbah and Grahame’s other western Ride Out for Revenge will have still eluded me from the pre-Odds Against Tomorrow pictures. TCM designed posters for each of the stars being honored in August, and the one for Grahame is sensational. I don’t think any are available for purchase, but I’m sure there would be some interest if they were. The Glass Wall was done for Columbia, and hasn’t had a DVD release. It and Roughshod never made it to VHS either to my knowledge.

4:30 AM Chandler (Magwood, 1971) - C-86 mins. - After Odds Against Tomorrow in 1959, Gloria Grahame’s film career was effectively done. She did a few television shows, including guest spots on The Fugitive and Burke’s Law, and some stage work. There was somewhat of a revival in the movies for Grahame with 1971’s Blood and Lace which started another chapter of low-budget work and small parts in films like Melvin and Howard, but still nothing like where she was in the forties and fifties. One of the smaller roles she had was in this private detective movie starring Warren Oates. It was the only directorial effort from Leslie Caron’s fourth husband Paul Magwood. Caron is also in Chandler, as are Mitch Ryan and even Charles McGraw. I’m anxious to see it even though the 4.3/10 rating at IMDb is less than promising. MGM produced, but no DVD. It’s hardly unimaginable to see this turn up in the Warner Archive at some point, especially if the print TCM shows ends up being a nice, letterboxed affair.