THIS MONTH ON TCM - SEPTEMBER 2018
A New Feature on itsjustamovie.com
As a movie fan who began to watch old movies on 'UHF' channels when they first appeared on TV, I thought that I would pass along some of the movies I look forward to watching this month on TCM, the new, improved classic movie channel with no commercials - back in the day, UHF was a popular venue for commercials like : 'ALL THE MUSIC YOU LOVE' on 36 albums with your first album FREE then only $12.99 a month plus shipping and handling!
So, here are my picks for what to watch in September on TCM (not necessarily the best movie playing that day, but a great one).
9/10 - D.O.A. - one of the first great noir movies. The versatile Edmund O'Brien plays an accountant who goes on a fatal vacation. If you haven't seen this one, you are in for a treat.
9/11 - Until Dark Wait - Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman who is taught how to cope for herself by Alan Arkin in one of his most memorable roles.
9/12 - A Night at the Opera - The Marx Brothers are in the hands of the MGM artists and turn in their most polished performance. Don't miss the 'sanity clause' bit between Groucho and Chico.
9/13 - Rio Bravo - John Wayne is a local sheriff who has to arrest the most powerful man in the territory's no good brother on murder charges. Dean Martin and the always scene-stealing Walter Brennan are along for the ride.
9/14 - King of Hearts - lunatics escape the asylum during WW I - or have they?
9/15 - The Best Man - Henry Fonda wants to be nominated for President at his party's convention but is being opposed by a loud mouth demagogue. Gore Vidal's script is as biting as it is real and an old timer, Lee Tracy, gives his finest performance.
9/16 - Monkey Business - Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe in a farce about an elixir that makes you a kid again.
9/17 - The Loved One - maybe stranger movies have been made, but few that are funnier. Robert Morse makes his way through Hollywood, one corpse at a time.
9/18 - Out of the Past - a seminal film noir classic with everybody's favorite bad boy - Robert Mitchum and everybody's favorite bad girl, Jane Greer.
9/19 - Oceans 11 - the original. This one has a plot and actually works because the set-up that a bunch of former GIs from the same unit in WWII were never very good at anything on their own, but as a team - robbing the casinos in Vegas is child's play compared to beating the Nazis.
9/20 - The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone - Tennessee Williams script starring Vivien Leigh in one of her final performances and Warren Beatty in one of his first,
9/21 - Dr. Dolittle - Rex Harrison is a doctor who talks to the animals. The music and Samantha Eggar make this movie worth watching.
9/22 - The Professionals - Richard Brooks decided to make a movie for the fun of it and he took along Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Willie Strode, Jack Palance and Ralph Bellamy. Along the way, Brooks picked up 2 Oscar nominations for script and directing and his cinematographer, Conrad Hall, picked up one too.
9/23 - Far From the Madding Crowd - directed by John Schlesinger, adapted from the Thomas Hardy novel by Frederic Raphael and starring Peter Finch, Alan Bates, Terence Stamp and - the reason to watch this slightly overcooked period drama - Julie Christie.
9/24 - The Last Waltz - the Band's final concert as filmed by Martin Scorsese.
9/25 - Pat and Mike - Tracy and Hepburn play a sports agent and the athlete he signs up. They don't make movies like this anymore - just a solid, very good, funny movie.
9/26 - The Silencers - the opening credits featuring a stiptease by Cyd Charisse is the best thing in this movie, but spending 90 minutes or so with Dean Martin is not the worse way to wile away the night.
9/27 - The Little Foxes - Bette Davis plays a southern Gordon Gekko with a husband who has a heart of mush and two brothers who think they should run the show. OK, here it is short and simple - one of the best movies ever made. There.
9/28 - Suspicion - Penniless playboy Cary Grant marries prim heiress Joan Fontaine - for her money? It's Hitchcock so you know you're going to enjoy the ride.
9/29 - The Big Sleep - this original Philip Marlowe adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel by - get this - William Faulkner. Howard Hawks directs.
9/30 - That Hamilton Woman - Vivian Leigh and her then husband Laurence Olivier in the story of a British Naval hero and his mistress during the Napoleonic Wars - it's better than it sounds.