This month sees continuing tributes to Jean Harlow (Tuesday, note especially Libeled Lady, easily on of her best) and MOMA (Wednesday) on TCM, as well as a Jean-Luc Godard double feature late Sunday/early Monday that you should not miss if you share my film taste at all – both Band of Outsiders and Breathless are in my all-time Top 50. Beyond that, don’t miss classic hesit film Rififi on Thursday, and hilarious comic western The Paleface (costarring the recently deceased Jane Russell) on Saturday.

Monday, March 14

10:45pm – TCM – The Man from Laramie
One of several westerns that James Stewart and Anthony Mann made together, and this one is one of the most solid; in this one, Stewart is a wagon train leader who gets pulled into a territorial feud against his will when one side torches his wagons. These westerns begin to show the dark side of the west, where the hero is only a hero because it’s expedient for him, or because he has some personal gain to get out of it.
1955 USA. Director: Anthony Mann. Starring: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy O’Donnell.

12:45am (15th) – TCM – Strangers on a Train
Guy Haines is a tennis star all set to marry into a posh, loving family, if it weren’t for that pesky and annoying wife he’s already got – a problem that fellow train-passenger Bruno has a solution for: all Guy has to do is kill Bruno’s troublesome father and Bruno will take care of Guy’s wife. This criss-cross setup begins one of Hitchcock’s best films, full of memorable shots and set-pieces, not to mention one of the most mesmerizingly psychotic performances in all of cinema in Robert Walker’s portrayal of Bruno.
1951 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Patricia Hitchcock, Leo G. Carroll, Laura Elliott.
Must See

2:45am (15th) – TCM – The Graduate
One of the classic coming-of-age stories, with Dustin Hoffman in one of his first roles as the recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock. Unsure of what to do with his life after college, he takes advantage of his family’s upper middle-class wealth and does nothing – oh, except for fall into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, his father’s partner’s wife. When Elaine Robinson returns home from Berkeley, Benjamin’s attentions waver from mother and daughter. There’s no question that the film has become a cultural milestone.
1967 USA. Director: Mike Nichols. Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross.
Must See

Tuesday, March 15

10:00am – Sundance – Man on Wire
One of the most highly-acclaimed documentaries of recent years tells the story of high-wire walker Philippe Petit as he embarks on perhaps his most dangerous stunt yet.
2008 UK/USA. Director: James Marsh. Starring: Philippe Petit, Jean François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau.
(repeats at 6:40pm)

8:00pm – TCM – The Public Enemy
Famous for the scene where James Cagney smashes a grapefruit into Mae Clarke’s face, this is one of the gold standards of early gangster films, along with Little Caesar and Howard Hawks’s Scarface.
1931 USA. Director: William A. Wellman. Starring: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell, Mae Clarke.

9:30pm – TCM – Bombshell
One of the first films to really bring Jean Harlow to prominence (or at least use her talents to their fullest), as she plays a Hollywood star who tries out various other life pursuits, with comic results.
1933 USA. Director: Victor Fleming. Starring: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, Franchot Tone.
Newly Featured!
(repeats on the 20th at 6:15am)

11:15pm – TCM – Libeled Lady
Throw William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, and Jean Harlow all together in an MGM comedy, and you’re almost guaranteed a winner. And Libeled Lady delivers with a twisty story, fast-talking script, and the best these stars have to offer.
1936 USA. Director: Jack Conway. Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Walter Connolly, Charley Grapewin.

6:00am (16th) – TCM – Bringing Up Baby
Poor Cary Grant just can’t get away from delightfully ditzy Katharine Hepburn, especially after her dog steals his museum’s priceless dinosaur bone. Oh, and after her pet leopard escapes (and a dangerous zoo leopard escapes at the same time). Incredible situation follows incredible situation in this zaniest of all screwball comedies.
1938 USA. Director: Howard Hawks. Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, May Robson, Barry Fitzgerald.
Must See

Wednesday, March 16

7:25am – Sundance – Mary and Max
This adult-aimed stop-motion film from Australia got a number of positive reviews last year on the festival circuit, but didn’t get much of a release in the United States despite having a fairly recognizable voice cast. Anyway, here it is on Sundance (it’s also on Netflix Instant Watch), and I’m greatly looking forward to catching it one of these days.
2009 Australia. Director: Adam Elliott. Starring: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana.
(repeats at 12:25pm and 5:25pm)

8:00am – TCM – Arsenic and Old Lace
In what is probably Capra’s zaniest, least Capra-corn-esque film, Cary Grant plays Mortimer Brewster – a perfectly normal man until he discovers that his sweet old maid aunts have accumulated several dead bodies in the basement due to poisoning lonely old men. Add in another nephew who is a serial killer, a quack plastic surgeon, and an uncle who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, and Mortimer’s got his hands full trying to keep his family secrets away from the girl he loves. It’s over-the-top, sure, but you gotta love the crazy.
1944 USA. Director: Frank Capra. Starring: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre.

10:00am – TCM – Born Yesterday
Judy Holliday nabbed an Oscar as the showgirl wife of an uncouth tycoon crashing around Washington DC with his newfound wealth – he hires William Holden to teach her to be a lady, but things don’t quite turn out as he expected.
1950 USA. Director: George Cukor. Starring: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden.
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12:00N – TCM – Sunnyside Up
Janet Gaynor’s first talking film stradles a bit of an uncomfortable line between silents and talkies, but has so much innocent charm to it that it’s hard to focus on its faults. Gaynor’s a delight as always. Pretty sure this isn’t on DVD.
1929 USA. Director: David Butler. Starring: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Marjorie White, El Brendel.
Newly Featured!

12:30pm – IFC – A Prairie Home Companion
One of Robert Altman’s final films, and one I’ve not yet gotten up to in my attempts to rectify my Altman blind spot. As much as I’ve been enjoying his films during the New Hollywood marathon, though, I’m definitely putting his entire filmography higher on my to-watch list.
2006 USA. Director: Robert Altman. Starring: Woody Harrelson, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Lily Tomlin.

2:00pm – TCM – Follow the Fleet
The debonair Fred Astaire as a sailor seems like a bit of a stretch at first, but this is actually one of the best Fred and Ginger vehicles; it doesn’t get quite as much press as some of the others, but it’s definitely a gem, not least of which due to its strong irving Berlin score.
1936 USA. Director: Mark Sandrich. Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard.
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2:45pm – IFC – Dancer in the Dark
Bjork plays a factory worker whose increasing blindness threatens to keep her from being able to do her job, which will keep her from earning the money she needs for an operation that will prevent her son from suffering the same blindness. Add in the relationship with her not-as-happy-as-they-seem neighbors and a trenchant critique of the justice system and death penalty, not to mention several musical numbers juxtaposed throughout, and you have a film that’s unlike any other.
2000 Denmark. Director: Lars von Trier. Starring: Bjork, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare.

5:00pm – TCM – On the Waterfront
Marlon Brando’s performance as a former boxer pulled into a labor dispute among dock workers goes down as one of the greatest in cinematic history. I’m not even a huge fan of Brando, but this film wins me over.
1954 USA. Director: Elia Kazan. Starring: Marlon Brando, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint.
Must See

8:00pm – IFC – Blood Simple
The Coen Brothers’ first feature is already a pretty good indication of their style – a noirish thriller with a black comedy edge where everything goes more and more wrong the more people try to fix their mistakes. When the “mistakes” involve murder, leaving evidence at murder scenes, and having the worst time ever trying to get rid of a body, you’re in for a good time at pretty much every character’s expense.
1984 USA. Director: Joel Coen. Starring: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh.
(repeats at 3:30am on the 17th)

1:15am (17th) – TCM – Sunrise
One of the finest artistic achievements in cinema history – the story might be a little flimsy/far-fetched these days, of a man tempted away from his wife by a loose woman but later reconciled – but the use of cinematography and expressionist art direction to create a mesmerizing mood has rarely been matched since. A breathtaking experience still.
1937 USA. Director: F.W. Murnau. Starring: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston.
Must See

3:15am (17th) – TCM – Abraham Lincoln
One of only two sound films D.W. Griffith ever made, it suffers a bit from Griffith’s tendency to oversentimentalize as well as the fact that despite innovating so much cinematic technique in the 1910s, he didn’t really keep up with it through the ’20s, but it’s still regarded as a decent film, though perhaps more of interest to early cinema buffs. I haven’t actually seen it myself yet, but I’m intrigued.
1930 USA. Director: D.W. Griffith. Starring: Walter Huston, Una Merkel, William L. Thorne.
Newly Featured!

6:00am (17th) – IFC – Before Sunrise
Before Sunrise may be little more than an extended conversation between two people (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who meet on a train in Europe and decide to spend all night talking and walking the streets of Vienna, I fell in love with it at first sight. Linklater has a way of making movies where nothing happens seem vibrant and fascinating, and call me a romantic if you wish, but this is my favorite of everything he’s done.
1995 USA. Director: Richard Linklater. Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy.
Must See
(repeats at 3:30pm on the 17th)

Thursday, March 17

8:05pm – IFC – The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Not Wes Anderson’s best perhaps – it skirts the line of self-consciously quirky and ends up a bit too awkwardly artificial even for him. But there’s still a lot about it to like, and the attention to detail is top-notch. It’s worth a watch for sure, especially for Anderson fans.
2004 USA. Director: Wes Anderson. Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe.
(repeats at 2:45am on the 18th)

9:15pm – TCM – Rififi
Widely regarded as one of the greatest heist films ever, with meticulous planning and execution detailed in front of our eyes. A film’s gotta be pretty engaging to have a huge stretch of silence devoted to the execution of the heist, and this one definitely is.
1955 France. Director: Jules Dassin. Starring: Jean Servais, Carl Mohner, Robert Manuel.
Must See
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6:00am (18th) – TCM – Maria Full of Grace
Once in a while a film comes out of nowhere and floors me – this quiet little film about a group of South American women who agree to smuggle drugs into the United States by swallowing packets of cocaine did just that. Everything in the film is perfectly balanced, no element overwhelms anything else, and it all comes together with great empathy, but without sentimentality.
2004 USA. Director: Joshua Marston. Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Virginia Ariza, Yenny Paola Vega.
(repeats at 1:15pm on the 18th)

Friday, March 18

11:00am – IFC – Renaissance
In near-future Paris, a brilliant young scientist is kidnapped; her employer Avalon (a highly influential company that sells youth and beauty itself) wants her found, but her importance to them may be more sinister than first meets the eye. The story’s not handled perfectly here, but it’s worth watching for the beautifully stark black and white animation.
2006 France. Director: Christian Volckman. Starring (English version): Daniel Craig, Romola Garai, Ian Holm, Catherine McCormack, Jonathan Pryce.

4:25pm – Sundance – The Darjeeling Limited
Not perhaps my favorite Wes Anderson film, but that’s not really that much of a negative statement for one of my favorite directors. Certainly the central image of the train is a fitting one for his flat, widescreen visual style, and the Indian setting allows for great use of color, so if nothing else, it looks freaking gorgeous.
2007 USA. Director: Wes Anderson. Starring: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Angelica Huston.
(repeats at 1:00pm on the 19th)

7:55pm – Sundance – Fish Tank
Andrea Arnold’s electrifying sophomore film isn’t to be missed. Newcomer Katie Jarvis is brilliant as a disaffected working class teen in industrial England (as is Michael Fassbender as the stepfather figure), and Arnold never compromises the harshness here, but also manages to introduce a strangely lyrical quality – both together make the film nearly transcendent, and one of the best films of the year.
2009 UK. Director: Andrea Arnold. Starring Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender.
(repeats at 1:45am on the 19th)

12:15am (19th) – TCM – Jules and Jim
Jules and Jim are best friends. Then Catherine falls into their lives like a hurricane – she’s almost a force of chaotic primal nature. She marries Jules, but when Jim reconnects with the couple after WWII (in which the two friends fought on opposite sides), their relationship gets…um…complicated. This is one of the classics of the New Wave, and exemplifies the movement’s realistic style, dispassionate camera and narration, and intellectual pursuits, while still being achingly romantic.
1963 France. Director: François Truffaut. Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre.

6:00am (19th) – IFC – Harlan County, U.S.A.
Often considered one of the finest documentaries ever put on film, Barbara Kopple’s film documents a 1973 coal miner’s strike in Kentucky which lasted over a year.
1976 USA. Director: Barbara Kopple.
(repeats at 3:15pm on the 19th)

Saturday, March 19

12:00N – TCM – The Paleface
Bob Hope is the titular character, a mild-mannered dentist who wants nothing more than to escape the Wild West – instead, he’s drafted into posing as Calamity Jane’s husband to uncover a gun runner. The jokes fly fast and furious here, in one of the best farces on screen. The recently late Jane Russell is great as Calamity Jane, more than holding her own against Hope. Also seek out the sequel Son of Paleface, which is possibly even better.
1948 USA. Director: Norman Z. McLeod. Starring: Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Robert Armstrong.
Newly Featured!

1:15pm – IFC – The Station Agent
One of the most pleasant surprises (for me, anyway) of 2003. Peter Dinklage moves into a train depot to indulge his love for trains and stay away from people, only to find himself befriended by a loquacious Cuban hot-dog stand keeper and an emotionally delicate Patricia Clarkson. A quiet but richly rewarding film.
2003 USA. Director: Thomas McCarthy. Starring: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale.

4:00pm – TCM – In the Heat of the Night
Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger make an unlikely pair of cops working a case in a racist town in the South. Steiger won an Oscar for his portrayal of the southern police chief.
1967 USA. Director: Norman Jewison. Starring: Rod Steiger, Sidney Poitier, Warren Oates.

5:30pm – IFC – The Claim
A typically complex film from Michael Winterbottom, with Peter Mullan anchoring the ensemble cast as the rich leader of an old West mining town faced with pressure from the railroad and echoes from his past. The rest of the cast, including Sarah Polley and Milla Jovovich (in one of her rare actually good movies), are superb as well and make this well worth seeking out.
2000 UK/Canada. Director: Michael Winterbottom. Starring: Peter Mullan, Milla Jovovich, Wes Bentley, Sarah Polley, Nastassja Kinski, Shirley Henderson.

8:00pm – TCM – Hannah and Her Sisters
Though I love Manhattan and Annie Hall to bits, I throw my vote for best Woody Allen movie ever to Hannah and Her Sisters. It has all the elements Allen is known for – neurotic characters, infidelity, a tendency to philosophize randomly, New York City, dysfunctional family dynamics, acerbic wit – and blends them together much more cogently and evenly than most of his films do.
1986 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Barbara Hershey, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest, Woody Allen.
Must See

10:00pm – TCM – Tarzan, the Ape Man
Get your pre-code action right here, as swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller brings Tarzan to life and Maureen O’Sullivan teaches him the ways of the human world as Jane. Generally, the sequel Tarzan and His Mate is considered the best of the series, but hey. Gotta start somewhere.
1932 USA. Director: W.S. Van Dyke. Starring: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan.

11:00pm – IFC – Alien
Often considered one of the best sci-fi/horror creature features of all time (or just behind its sequel Aliens). Sigourney Weaver gets an iconic role as ass-kicking astronaut Ripley.
1979 USA. Director: Ridley Scott. Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, John Hurt.

Sunday, March 20

9:00am – IFC – Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
I need to give another look to this Peter Weir film about a British commander pursuing a French vessel through dangerous waters during the Napoleonic Wars; it didn’t impress me a whole lot when I watched it, but it’s pretty highly regarded in the Third Row. I’m kind of back and forth on Weir in general, but I’d be plenty to happy to add this one back to the “pro” column.
2003 USA. Director: Peter Weir. Starring: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Billy Boyd.
Newly Featured!

12:00N – TCM – Going My Way
Best Picture winner, but a bit overly sentimentalized for my tastes, with Bing Crosby a priest who brings a relatable quality to the church’s ministry to a gang of kids, as well as reigniting a love of life in his aging superior.
1944 USA. Director: Leo McCarey. Starring: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Gene Lockhart, Frank McHugh, Jean Heather.

2:15pm – TCM – The Lavendar Hill Mob
Alec Guinness leads the Ealing Studios regulars in this delightful heist comedy, one of the greats among a bunch of great late ’40s, early ’50s Ealing films. Also look for a really young Audrey Hepburn in a walk-on (this is her first film, I believe).
1951 UK. Director: Charles Crichton. Starring: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sid James, Marjorie Fielding.

3:45pm – TCM – Sleeper
One of Woody Allen’s early films, and a rare attempt at science fiction on his part, has meek Miles Monroe cryogenically frozen only to wake in a totalitarian future as part of a radical movement to overthrow the government. A rather different film for Woody, but still with his signature anxious wit and awkwardness.
1973 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, John Beck, Mary Gregory.

10:00pm – Sundance – The Royal Tenenbaums
My favorite of all of Wes Anderson’s films (and indeed, one of my favorites of the whole decade), a web of fine characterizations surrounding Royal Tenenbaum, an eccentric old man whose imminent mortality forces a reunion with his family. But its morbidity is tempered by absurd humor and quirk.
2001 USA. Director: Wes Anderson. Starring: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray.
Must See
(repeats at 4:30am on the 21st)

2:00am (21st) – TCM – Band of Outsiders
This relatively unassuming film about a trio of young people wandering Paris, taking English classes, talking in cafes, and oh yeah, planning to steal some money from the girl’s employer, is currently sitting pretty in fourth place on my all-time favorite film list. Its combination of dispassionate narrative with far-more-complex-than-they-seem relationships and motivatations hits my sweet spot, made Godard one of my favorite directors, and got me obsessed with the New Wave. Not bad.
1964 France. Director: Jean-Luc Godard. Starring: Anna Karina, Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur.
Must See
Newly Featured!

4:00am (21st) – TCM – Breathless
Godard’s first and best-known film is an unusual take on the crime genre that almost seems not to care about the crime aspect at all, favoring instead, as was Godard’s wont, conversation and tangentially-related philosophical musings. A stylistic breath of fresh air in 1960, many of its techniques have become commonplace now, yet it still retains an electric quality.
1960 France. Director: Jean-Luc Godard. Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg.
Must See
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