OCTOBER 2018 ON TCM
The star of the month is Rita Hayworth. She was a triple threat - a great beauty who could act, sing and dance. I think that she was Fred Astaire's finest partner after his years with Ginger Rogers.
Take a look at Fred and her doing the Shorty George - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z08FrM6J4hE -
or their impeccable dancing to I'm Old Fashioned - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwmjx8gpzrA.
Here are my daily picks for your watching pleasure this month on TCM:
10/1 - Tunes of Glory - An acting tour de force with Alec Guinness, John Mills and Dennis Price.
10/2 - You Were Never Lovelier - Astaire, Hayworth, Kern - you can't beat that trifecta.
10/3 - The Phantom of the Opera (silent) - Lon Chaney in one of his iconic roles.
10/4 - Dinner at Eight - This was one of the first ALL-STAR CAST movies with many of MGM's great stars in one package. Jean Harlow steals the movie.
10/5 - Night Train - early Carol Reed (The Third Man) thriller with Rex Harrison and Margaret Lockwood.
10/6 - OBJECTIVE, BURMA - Raoul Walsh directs Errol Flynn in an early realistic war pic.
10/7 - A STAR IS BORN - Judy Garland and James Mason in the best dramatic musical written for the screen. The Arlen-Gershwin score, Moss Hart script and George Cukor direction make this a movie that cannot be missed.
10/8 - HIS GIRL FRIDAY - Howard Hawkes took the story of a reporter who is always at war with his editor and made them a divorced couple, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.
10/9 - THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI - Orson Welles tells a tale of murder and deceit.
10/10 - THE JOURNEY - Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner in a Cold War film with a lot of warmth.
10/11 - TALL STORY - Jane Fonda's debut - she's a college girl with a plan - to hook star basketball player Anthony Perkins. Ray Walston, Anne Jackson and a gang of other great actors make this a gem. Hey, I even like the song.
10/12 - THE CANDIDATE - Robert Redford stars as the clueless candidate in a spot on look at politics in the USA.
10/13 - THE NIGHT DIGGER - Roald Dahl wrote this strange wonderful movie with Patricia Neal.
10/14 - CITY LIGHTS - I know, you don't like silent movies - get over it and watch one of the greatest movies ever made - by Chaplin.
10/15 - THE LADY REFUSES - OK, not a classic but not bad for 1931.
10/16 - PAL JOEY - Sinatra at his best with a great Rodgers & Hart score, Nelson Riddle arrangements and Kim Novak and Rita Hayworth to make it all shine.
10/17 - THE MORE THE MERRIER - Three people share a room and fall in love - just watch it and see.
10/18 - STAGECOACH - 1939 was the year when Hollywood hit all the right notes and this western by John Ford made John Wayne a star and created the western movie template. Even if you don't like westerns, you will like this one. I guarantee it.
10/19 - TIME WITHOUT PITY - Michael Redgrave in one of his usual outstanding performances - and the rest of the cast isn't too shabby either.
10/20 - SLITHER -James Caan and Sally Kellerman top this excellent cast in a caper movie.
10/21 - GYPSY - The grandmommy of all stage door mother movies. Year by year, this movie gets better as audiences get to see other Mama Roses and realize that what Rosalind Russell and company pull off is not as easy as they make it look.
10/22 - SUSPICION - Cary Grant's ne'er do well playboy marries Joan Fontaine's prim General's daughter in this Hitchcock gem about what makes opposites attract - money and murder or love and redemption?
10/23 - SEPARATE TABLES - Wendy Hiller, Burt Lancaster, David Niven (Oscar winner for his role as a troubled ex-colonel) and Rita Hayworth inhabit a dreary small hotel living lives of quiet desperation.
10/24 - THE DAWN PATROL - Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp AND Barry Fitzgerald fight the good fight in this WWII drama.
10/25 - HIGH ANXIETY - Mel Brooks takes over a psychiatric clinic headed by Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman in this hilarious tribute to Hitchcock.
10/26 - KATHARINE HEPBURN: ALL ABOUT ME - If you like or dislike the lady, you will enjoy this rare glimpse at a life lived large.
10/27 - DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE - Victor Fleming directs Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner in this version of the classic tale. Bergman is incredible and does that rarest of rare things - steams the move from Tracy.
10/28 - THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE - The plot follows the ups and downs of a - yes, you guessed right. In the mid-1960s, this is what the studios thought would be a hit.
10/29 - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE - OK, you must have heard of this one - but don't let that fool you - Bette Davis is incredible.
10/30 - KING KONG - The original - and it is as strange and alluring as any movie ever made.
10/31 - THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH - Roger Corman at his sleazy best with Vincent Price.