If you’ve swung by here in the last week you might have noticed a lack of anything new, but it’s nothing to worry about and mostly due to my inability to carve out any time to write (aside from a couple of reviews I did for DVD Times). There’s another Warner Archive title I’ll be writing about soon and we’ll always have TCM to get us through the night. Good week as usual for the channel, and Friday is one of those call in sick and curl up with the remote sort of days. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday September 19

10:00 PM Devotion (Bernhardt, 1946) - BW-107 mins. - Party with the Bronte sisters. We have Emily, played by Ida Lupino and author of Wuthering Heights (the film version of which airs immediately prior at 8:00 PM), and Charlotte, best known for writing Jane Eyre and portrayed here by Olivia de Havilland. The lesser-known sister Anne is present as well and played by the lesser-known actress Nancy Coleman. Also look for Sydney Greenstreet as Thackeray and Paul Henreid as Charlotte’s husband. Arthur Kennedy is the Brontes’ brother Branwell. There were actually six Bronte children in total, but they all died very young. The two youngest never saw their teens and the longest-living, Charlotte, was just 38 when she died. Devotion was made for Warner Bros. but hasn’t been released on DVD.

3:00 AM Kes (Loach, 1970) - BW-111 mins. - Often in the mix for greatest British movie ever (the BFI ranked it #7) yet not on DVD here in R1, Ken Loach’s second feature film is about a teenage working-class boy whose main refuge seems to be spending time with his pet falcon. Beyond that, let’s just watch the movie and see for ourselves. I don’t really have much of an opinion on Loach either way but it is surprising how poorly his films are represented on R1 DVD. The R2 disc is from MGM, but I’m not sure whether that studio controls the rights in the U.S.

Sunday September 20

12:15 AM Wild Oranges (Vidor, 1924) - BW-88 mins. - As King Vidor’s silent features remain virtually ignored on DVD, the best way to watch them might be through TCM’s odd showings. This one was a landmark in cinema for Vidor’s insistence on traveling outside the studio lot and shooting the tale of a girl and her grandfather on a remote island amid the sweltering Florida heat. The plot picks up when an escaped convict finds them and takes a particular interest in the girl. I believe there’s a shorter version in existence but, given the amount of time slotted, TCM will probably air the longer cut. The film was produced by Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and this is another one where I’m not sure about the current rights situation.

Monday September 21

8:00 AM The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (Weis, 1953) - BW-73 mins. - I haven’t seen this movie, but I did enjoy the television show quite a bit when I was a kid (and it was on Nick at Nite). I always liked the opening titles and theme song. Someone should really release the television show on DVD. Bobby Van plays Dobie in the film but the star is Debbie Reynolds whose character name is Pansy Hammer. No Maynard or Thalia here I guess, not even Milton Armitage. You do get future Cabaret and All That Jazz director Bob Fosse in what would seem to be a fairly large acting role. The film is set at a college (fictional Grainbelt University), with Dobie pining for Pansy. It’s not on DVD and was made for Warner Bros. Probably a good candidate for the burn-on-demand Warner Archive program.

3:45 PM The Window (Tetzlaff, 1949) - BW-74 mins. - This is a very atmospheric, suspense-laden film noir about a young boy known to tell a tale or two who really does witness some nefarious happenings only to have no one believe him except the perpetrators. Bobby Driscoll is the little boy while Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale are his parents. The neighbors/villains are played by Paul Stewart (who was probably never better than here terrorizing young Driscoll) and Ruth Roman.  It’s from a Cornell Woolrich story. The film is definitely worth checking out and it really should be on R1 DVD by now. Made for RKO, Warner Bros. likely controls. A French R2 DVD from Editions Montparnesse would be another option.

Tuesday September 22

8:15 AM Hi, Nellie! (LeRoy, 1934) - BW-75 mins. - Paul Muni all day, which gives viewers a chance to see several films not yet on R1 DVD like The Story of Louis Pasteur (1:15 PM) and Black Fury (9:45 AM). I was less familiar with this comedy where Muni plays a committed newspaper editor who gets demoted to the love advice column but still keeps hard at work. Muni is re-teamed with Glenda Farrell and Mervyn LeRoy, the female lead and director, respectively, of I Am Fugitive from a Chain Gang (his best film in my opinion and one airing at 6:30 AM). Hi, Nellie! is Warner Bros. It’s not on DVD.

Thursday September 24

4:15 AM Billy the Kid (Vidor, 1930) - BW-95 mins. - Another King Vidor film this week, though I’m less confident about this one. The title character is played by Johnny Mack Brown, a former University of Alabama football star and a B-western actor, while Wallace Beery is Pat Garrett. There are so many versions of this story on film that the surrounding facts are far less interesting than the characterizations from movie to movie. I’m curious to see how Vidor handled the material. MGM did the film so Warner Bros. should have the rights. No DVD.

Friday September 25

8:30 AM Child of Manhattan (Buzzell, 1933) - BW-70 mins. - TCM saved the best day of the week for last, beginning with several pre-Code efforts in the morning. Ann Carver’s Profession stars Fay Wray as a lawyer and airs just prior at 7:00 AM, but Child of Manhattan caught my eye just a tad stronger. It has Nancy Carroll playing a dance hall girl who secretly marries a rich playboy (John Boles) after she gets pregnant. I’m especially intrigued by the fact that the film was based on a play by Preston Sturges. It was the second filmed adaptation of a Sturges play after 1931’s Strictly Dishonorable. Look for Betty Grable in a small role as Carroll’s younger sister. This was a Columbia picture. It seems like so many pre-Code movies were done for that studio and haven’t made it to DVD yet.

8:00 PM Scandal Sheet (Karlson, 1952) - BW-82 mins. - There’s a great scene in Sam Fuller’s The Big Red One where the character Robert Carradine plays, who’s modeled on Fuller himself, is off at war and sees another soldier reading a book he had actually written but didn’t realize had been published. That’s apparently just the way it happened in real life with Fuller’s first published novel The Dark Half, which was later turned into this movie directed by Phil Karlson. It’s a noirish murder mystery set in the world of tabloid newspapers. Broderick Crawford and Donna Reed star. I think Fuller really would have preferred to have made the picture himself and didn’t quite like what Karlson and co. did with it, including the name change. Nonetheless, Sony will soon be releasing Scandal Sheet as part of a Fuller-themed box set in R1.

9:30 PM The Phenix City Story (Karlson, 1955) - BW-100 mins. - Despite Fuller’s reluctance to embrace Scandal Sheet, I’m excited to see TCM dedicate the night to director Phil Karlson, whose pictures like Kansas City Confidential and 99 River Street are classics of film noir. One that’s supposed to be good but I’ve not yet seen is The Phenix City Story, which is set in Alabama and involves a corrupt political machine. John McIntire, Richard Kiley and the lovely Kathryn Grant (Crosby) head the cast. Karlson’s The Brothers Rico, soon to be on DVD in Sony’s film noir box, and the Marilyn Monroe starrer Ladies of the Chorus follow. I haven’t come across any official DVD releases for The Phenix City Story. Its original distributor was Allied Artists, which puts the rights where?