My Labor Day plans are set with TCM’s repeat of their Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood documentary series, but there’s plenty of other good stuff this week, too. TCM has a great day of movies all day on Sunday, all New York-set films to honor the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Also be sure to check out The Innocents on Saturday night if you like atmospheric Victorian horror. I’ve also included B-movies and more programmatic fare that nonetheless have merit.

Monday, September 5

6:00am – IFC – 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.

8:30am – TCM – The Red Shoes
Almost all of the films Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger made together are incredibly good, but The Red Shoes might just be the best. In the film, a mix of the tale of Svengali and of Hans Christian Anderson’s story about a ballerina who couldn’t remove the red shoes and was doomed to dance to her death, actual ballerina Moira Shearer is the dancer made successful by a jealous ballet impresario, though she loves a poor composer. The centerpiece of the film is a Technicolor extravaganza performance of the titular ballet, still one of the greatest ballet sequences on film.
1948 UK. Directors: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. Starring: Moira Shearer, Marius Goring, Anton Walbrook.
Must See

10:45am – TCM – Films of Georges Méliès
I don’t know which seventeen shorts TCM has programmed in this set of films from pioneer special effects guru Méliès, but I’m sure it will include A Trip to the Moon and some of his other best-known ones; with seventeen of them, there are likely to be a good chunk of camera trick-ridden wonders.
1903-1910ish France. Director: Georges Méliès.
Newly Featured!

12:45pm – TCM – Moguls and Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood
TCM premiered this original documentary series last year one episode a week, and I loved the parts I saw, but sadly missed a few. They’re running them all back to back Labor Day afternoon, and you can bet I’m going to be there catching up on the ones I missed. If you’re interested in an introductory, broad-strokes look at Hollywood history, this one is informative and engaging.

10:00pm – IFC – Layer Cake
Sounds like an unusual title for a crime film, but it’s also an unusually solid crime film, with Daniel Craig in one of his breakthrough roles as a drug dealer given a couple of tough jobs just before planning to retire. Last jobs never go well, so you can kind of predict all won’t go as planned.
2004 UK. Director: Matthew Vaughn. Starring: Daniel Craig, Tom Hardy, Sally Hawkins, Burn Gorman.

1:30am (6th) – TCM – Election
It seems really odd to see TCM playing a film as recent as Election, but I guess it’s part of their Telluride festival, and anyway, it’s a pretty awesome movie, with Reese Witherspoon in one of her best roles ever cheerfully tormenting her put-upon high school teacher Matthew Broderick.
1999 USA. Director: Alexander Payne. Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Chris Klein.
Newly Featured!

3:30am (6th) – TCM – 8 1/2
Federico Fellini translates his creative block in making his next film into a film about a director with a creative block – and in so doing, makes one of the most brilliant and creative films of all time.
1963 Italy. Director: Federico Fellini. Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée.
Must See

Tuesday, September 6

7:15am – TCM – I Married a Witch
A slight and fun screwball-ish comedy with Veronica Lake as a witch burned in the 17th century by a puritan and curses his progeny with always being unlucky in love; when she recovers corporeal form (don’t ask too many questions) two and a half centuries later, she decides to torment his current descendent herself.
1942 USA. Director: René Clair. Starring: Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley.
Newly Featured!

8:45am – TCM – The Thing from Another World
An team of scientists in the arctic discover an ice-bound spacecraft, but when they bring the dead pilot back to their station, they discover he’s carrying a bloodthirsty alien parasite. Through credited to Christian Nyby, the film is at least partially directed by Howard Hawks (who produced). Also, this is one of the very few situations where I think the remake (John Carpenter’s The Thing) is actually better than the original. But this one is still worth watching, especially if you’re into 1950s sci-fi/horror.
1951 USA. Director: Christian Nyby. Starring: Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, James Arness.

11:20am – MGM – Witness for the Prosecution
This courtroom drama/thriller is among the last great films for all three of its stars, as Charles Laughton plays the crotchety judge overseeing the murder trial of Tyrone Power, with the major witness in the case being Power’s wife Marlene Dietrich. But not everyone is playing on the level here, and as the trial goes on, loyalties shift and double-crosses are revealed right and left.
1957 USA. Director: Billy Wilder. Starring: Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power.

11:45am – TCM – Them!
I love a good classic sci-fi film and this one hits all the high points. Radioactive material? Check. Mutant insects? Check. Scientists? Check. Nuclear paranoia? Check. Giant mutant ants (created by radioactivity left by atomic bomb tests in Arizona) start attacking people, first in Arizona, then to Texas and Mexico, and finally in the middle of Los Angeles. A team of scientists works with the police to take the monsters down. One of the better examples of the “atomic mutant” sci-fi films, of which there were many; it builds intensity perfectly (in fact, it’s at least half an hour in before you come close to finding out what’s happening, adding in a very welcome mystery element) and doesn’t spend to long on its obligatory romantic subplot.
1954 USA. Director: Gordon Douglas. Starring: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness.

1:30pm – TCM – Forbidden Planet
What’s better than Shakespeare’s The Tempest? Why, a science fiction film set on a planet run by a maverick genius, his robot, and his daughter, of course. Okay, Forbidden Planet isn’t really better than The Tempest, but it is an interesting take on the play, and an obvious influence on the original Star Trek.
1956 USA. Director: Fred M. Wilcox. Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis.

8:00pm – TCM – The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Barbara Stanwyck is a domineering woman with a dark past, whose secret is only known by her alcoholic husband (Kirk Douglas in his first film), who’s also the city’s D.A., but completely controlled by Stanwyck. How I’ve managed to never see this film, with as much as I love Stanwyck and film noir, I can’t explain, but hopefully this dire situation will be fixed soon.
1946 USA. Director: Lewis Milestone. Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas.

10:00pm – TCM – Out of the Past
Out of the Past comes up in most conversations about film noir. It’s got all the elements: low-key lighting (due in this case to budgetary concerns), an existential anti-hero (Robert Mitchum), a femme fatale (Jane Greer), etc. It’s honestly not my favorite noir, but it’s a good one to see once.
1947 USA. Director: Jacques Tourneur. Starring: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer.

12:30am (7th) – IFC – thirteen
As disinterested as I am in Twilight and Red Riding Hood, I keep giving Catherine Hardwicke the benefit of the doubt based on this film, a pretty solid exploration of a young teenager’s troubled relationship with her mother as she acts out with a wild-living friend.
2003 USA. Director: Catherine Hardwicke. Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Holly Hunter, Nikki Reed.

1:30am (7th) – TCM – A Letter to Three Wives
An Oscar-winner for Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s directing, this film also has an interesting narrative structure, following three women who receive a letter from a woman who has run away with one of their husbands – but which one is a mystery. The letter-writer (voiced by Celeste Holm) never appears in the film, but her presence pervades it.
1949 USA. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Starring: Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas, Barbara Lawrence.

Wednesday, September 7

9:15am – TCM – A Story of Three Loves
A very loose anthology film, its three stories connected only by the tenuous theme of “love.” In one, a ballerina must choose between her health and her love of dance; in another, a young boy gets his wish to be a man for a day and sees a new side of his pretty tutor; in the third, a trapeze artist loses his partner to a stunt, then ends up falling for his new partner. The third one is the longest and probably the best, but the other two have their moments as well, notably another chance to see ballerina Moira Shearer in addition to The Red Shoes.
1953 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli, Gottfried Reinhardt. Starring: Kirk Douglas, Moira Shearer, Farley Granger, Leslie Caron, Pier Angeli.

10:15am – 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.

6:15pm – TCM – The Harvey Girls
A standard-grade MGM musical, but any time you have Judy Garland leading a production number like “On the Atchison, Topkea, and the Santa Fe,” backup from such as Virginia O’Brien, Cyd Charisse and Angela Lansbury (both very young), and a western setting, I’m along for the ride. I actually enjoy this movie far more than I probably should.
1946 USA. Director: George Sidney. Starring: Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger, Angela Lansbury, Preston Foster, Virginia O’Brien, Marjorie Main, Cyd Charisse.
Newly Featured!

8:00pm – 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.

8:00pm – Fox Movie – Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Not maybe as inspired as Mel Brooks’ other parodies, but still has its moments as it takes on the swashbuckling adventure genre.
1993 USA. Director: Mel Brooks. Starring: Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, Roger Rees.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 2:00am and 4:00pm on the 8th)

9:20pm – IFC – Hard Candy
Ellen Page burst onto the scene as a teenage girl getting involved with an older guy she met on the internet – initially looks like a cautionary tale about internet chat relationships, but goes into even more twisted realms than that, with Ellen owning the screen every second.
2005 USA. Director: David Slade. Starring: Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh.

1:45am (8th) – TCM – Lady of Burlesque
This is not technically a very good movie, a B-level programmer originally envisioned as a vehicle for burlesque superstar Gypsy Rose Lee (and based on her book), but it ended up with Barbara Stanwyck in it instead, and despite the mundanity of its mystery plot, she turns in her typical material-elevating performance and makes it a fun watch.
1943 USA. Director: William A. Wellman. Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Michael O’Shea, Iris Adrian.
Newly Featured!

3:30am (8th) – TCM – Gypsy
One of the best shows ever written about stage mothers turns into a pretty decent film – it purports to be the story of vaudeville/burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee, but ends up being much more about her mother Mama Rose. It’s a good showcase for any actress, and Rosalind Russell, though not quite the singer that the role pulls on Broadway, does a fine job. Plus, it’s chock-full of showstopping tunes.
1962 USA. Director: Meryvn LeRoy. Starring: Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden.

Thursday, September 8

6:30am – TCM – The Ladykillers
One of the most delightful of the Ealing comedies, with Alec Guinness leading a bunch of crooks (including a young Peter Sellers) whose bankrobbing plans get flustered by an unlikely old lady.
1955 UK. Director: Alexander Mackendrick. Starring: Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers.
Must See

9:30am – 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, Michelle Williams.

6:00pm – Fox Movie – Bedazzled
One of the best films of the British mod era, a comedic take on Faust with Dudley Moore a socially inept guy infatuated with the unattainable (to him) Eleanor Bron – granted seven wishes by Satan (Peter Cook), he tries to wish his way to her, but somehow fails hilariously every time.
1967 USA. Director: Stanley Donen. Starring: Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Eleanor Bron.

8:00pm – IFC – Carlos
Sundance has all of Olivier Assayas’ 5 1/2 hour long epic about Venezuelan revolutionary Carlos the Jackal playing. I’ve heard the film is quite a good one and worth the length, so check it out here to see it in its entirety.
2010 France/Germany. Director: Olivier Assayas. Starring: Édgar Ramírez, Alexander Scheer, Alejandro Arroyo.

9:15pm – IFC – American Psycho
A virtuoso performance from Christian Bale leads this controversial thriller about an affluent Wall Street investment banker leading a double life as a psychopath carrying out his amoral and misanthropic fantasies through sex and murder.
2000 USA. Director: Mary Herron. Starring: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon.
(repeats at 11:30pm)

12:05am (9th) – MGM – The Party
It may not be quite politically correct to cast Peter Sellers as an Indian movie extra who accidentally gets invited to a big Hollywood party instead of being fired for bunglling a major stunt, but the movie certainly is hilarious, largely made up of a series of sight gags as Sellers bumbles his way around a swinging ’60s party.
1968 USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: Peter Sellers, Claudine Longet, Natalie Borisova, Jean Carson, Marge Champion.

1:45am (9th) – 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.

2:00am (9th) – IFC – Red Riding: 1980
The second of the Red Riding trilogy, all set in the same British town, following the town’s police department. This one is somewhat disconnected from the other two, not focused on the same set of murders – instead it’s concerned with Paddy Considine, a cop sent to investigate the department’s actions in the first film and the personal diffculties he encounters. I quite liked it, but it is far different in tone from the other two films.
2009 UK. Director: James Marsh. Starring: Warren Clarke, Paddy Considine, James Fox.

2:30am (9th) – Fox Movie – The Panic in Needle Park
A harrowing tale of NYC heroin addicts, exemplifying the dark side of youth culture that New Hollywood does so well. A star-making turn for Al Pacino, just a year prior to The Godfather.
1971 USA. Director: Jerry Schatzberg. Starring: Al Pacino, Kitty Winn, Alan Vint.

Friday, September 9

10:00am – IFC – Paranoid Park
I go back and forth on whether I think Gus Van Sant is brilliant or a pretentious bore – maybe some of both. But I really quite liked the slow, oblique approach in this film about a wanna-be skateboarder kid who relishes hanging out with the bigger skateboarders at the titular skate park – but there’s a death not far from there, and it takes the rest of the movie to slowly reveal what exactly happened that one night near Paranoid Park. Gets by on mood and cinematography.
2007 USA Director: Gus Van Sant. Starring: Gabe Nevins, Daniel Lu, Jake Miller, Taylor Momsen, Lauren McKinney.

7:30pm – IFC – Sin City
Frank Miller joined Robert Rodriguez in creating this adaptation of Miller’s graphic novel series, a highly stylized evocation of film noir tropes that’s rather overdone in many ways, but still so visually striking that I really enjoyed watching it. Most of it.
2005 USA. Directors: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller. Starring: Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson.
(repeats at 3:00am on the 10th)

2:00am (10th) – MGM – Blow Out
Sound man John Travolta is recording sound samples one night, and may have accidentally recorded a murder occurring. As he tries to investigate, he’s drawn into a dangerous conspiracy. Inspired to some degree by Antonioni’s photography-based Blow-Up, but this is definitely DePalma’s film all the way.
1981 USA. Director: Brian DePalma. Starring: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz.

Saturday, September 10

8:00am – Fox Movie – Carmen Jones
Oscar Hammerstein takes on Bizet’s Carmen, transposing it into a contemporary setting at a Korean War army base and writing new lyrics to go with Bizet’s operatic melodies. It’s interesting not only for the adaptation of opera to musical, but also its use of an all-African American cast – giving Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte and many others lead roles in an era when they were still all-too-often relegated to roles as servants or one-off entertainers.
1954 USA. Director: Otto Preminger. Starring: Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey.

9:30am – TCM – The Kennel Murder Case
William Powell is well-known for playing detective Nick Charles in the Thin Man series of movies, but he also played private eye Philo Vance in a less well-remembered series of films based on detective novels by S.S. Van Dine. This is probably the best of the lot, a witty mystery that’s not really too far off from the Thin Man vibe.
1932 USA. Director: Michael Curtiz. Starring: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette, Ralph Morgan.

3:30pm – Fox Movie – Let’s Make Love
One of Marilyn Monroe’s last films, with billionaire Yves Montand trying to win Marilyn, the lead in a show satirizing his own life. To do so, he hires Bing Crosby to teach him to sing, Gene Kelly to teach him to dance, and Milton Berle to teach him to be funny so he can join the show himself. Not a great classic, but a fun time.
1960 USA. Director: George Cukor. Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, Tony Randall.
Newly Featured!

5:45pm – TCM – The Caine Mutiny
Humphrey Bogart’s Captain Queeg is a piece of work, and by that I mean some of the best work Bogart has on film. He’s neurotic, paranoid, and generally mentally unstable. Or is he? That’s the question after first officer Van Johnson relieves him of duty as being unfit to serve and faces charges of mutiny.
1954 USA. Director: Edward Dmytryk. Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Jose Ferrer.

8:00pm – IFC – Valhalla Rising
Nicholas Winding Refn’s nearly wordless take on the Viking action film, privileging visual storytelling and a somewhat surreal and philosophical feel.
2009 Denmark. Director: Nicholas Winding Refn. Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Stevenson, Alexander Morton.
(repeats at 10:00pm)

10:00pm – TCM – The Innocents
A genuinely creepy and disturbing little horror film, with Deborah Kerr as a new governess hired to raise a young boy and girl on a lonely Victorian estate. She becomes convinced the two are possessed by the spirits of two former employees – but the truth may be even weirder than that. Extremely effective; this is honestly my favorite type of horror, and few are better at it than this.
1961 UK. Director: Jack Clayton. Starring: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Michael Redgrave, Martin Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Megs Jenkins.
Newly Featured!

10:00pm – Fox Movie – Unfaithfully Yours
Preston Sturges’s last great film is a pitch-black comedy with Rex Harrison as a jealous conductor who fantasizes ways to deal with his wife’s supposed infidelity as he conducts a symphony. The combination of bombastic music and his by turns morbid and farcical fantasies makes for one of the more unusual memorable films of the 1940s.
1948 USA. Director: Preston Sturges. Starring: Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee.
(repeats at 2:00am on the 11th)

12:00M – TCM – Dead of Night
An omnibus horror film from 1945, set at a country house where each guest tells his or her horror story. In the frame story, a man is drawn to the house, where he seems to know everything that will happen before it does, though he can’t figure out how; the other stories are pretty varied, a couple of them even comedic. But Michael Redgrave’s evil ventriloquist dummy story is one to watch. It’s quiet horror, but that makes it all the better for me.
1945 United Kingdom. Director: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Chrichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer. Starring: Mervyn Johns, Roland Culver, Mary Merrall, Googie Withers, Frederick Valk, Anthony Baird, Sally Ann Howes, Michael Redgrave.

3:45am (11th) – Fox Movie – All That Jazz
Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographial film plays something like his musical take on 8 1/2, as stage director Joe Gideon works through his creative difficulties and womanizing before illness takes him. Extremely powerful, and with some of the greatest choreography in any film ever.
1979 USA. Director: Bob Fosse. Starring: Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Ben Vereen.
Must See

Sunday, September 11

6:00am – TCM – Life Begins for Andy Hardy
The Andy Hardy series is not really essential cinema, but it does represent a very popular genre at the time, the family-friendly musical comedy, and Mickey Rooney was one of the top box office draws at the time, largely for the Andy Hardy films and his series of musicals with Judy Garland. This is one of the better Andy Hardy films, bolstered by a more adult than most plot, plus Garland in the supporting cast.
1941 USA. Director: George B. Seitz. Starring: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lewis Stone, Ann Rutherford.

7:45am – TCM – The Pride of the Yankees
Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig, star baseball player for the Yankees in the 1930s, until he was diagnosed with the disease that now bears his name. The film is a high-end studio-era biopic, following Gehrig’s early life, career, and marriage, and Cooper brings it off with great aplomb, especially the touching “luckiest man” speech that was his farewell to baseball.
1942 USA. Director: Sam Wood. Starring: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth, Walter Brennan.

10:00am – TCM – 42nd Street
By 1933 when 42nd Street came out, the Hollywood musical had already died. So excited by the musical possibilities that sound brought in 1927, Hollywood pumped out terrible musical after terrible musical until everyone was sick of them. 42nd Street almost single-handedly turned the tide and remains one of the all-time classic backstage musicals. It may look a little creaky by later standards, but there’s a vitality and freshness to it that can’t be beat.
1932 USA. Director: Lloyd Bacon. Starring: Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, George Brent, Bebe Daniels, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, Una Merkel.

11:45am – TCM – Guys and Dolls
Marlon Brando seems like an unusual casting choice for a musical, and indeed, he’s a bit uncomfortable for a good part of this. But the rest of the cast (especially second leads Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine) make up for it, bringing Damon Runyon’s colorful underground New York gambling scene come to life.
1955 USA. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Starring: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine.

2:30pm – TCM – The Clock
This was Judy Garland’s first real purely dramatic role, directed by her then-husband Vincente Minnelli in 1945. It’s a wartime story of a soldier on leave (Robert Walker) who meets a girl (Garland) and their attempts to get married before he has to return to his unit. It’s a sweet, unassuming little film that showcases Garland’s charm quite well, and has a nice supporting role for comedian Keenan Wynn.
1945 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Starring: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, Keenan Wynn.

4:15pm – TCM – Annie Hall
Often considered Woody Allen’s transition film from “funny Woody” to “serious Woody,” Annie Hall is both funny, thoughtful, and fantastic. One of the best scripts ever written, a lot of warmth as well as paranoid cynicism, and a career-making role for Diane Keaton (not to mention fashion-making).
1977 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane.
Must See

6:00pm – TCM – On the Town
Sailors on leave Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin hit New York City, spending the day sightseeing and searching for Kelly’s dream girl Vera-Ellen, meanwhile picking up Betty Garrett and Ann Miller for the other boys. Not much plot here, but enough to precipitate some of the best song and dance numbers on film. Also one of the first musicals shot on location.
1949 USA. Directors: Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly. Starring: Gene Kelly, Vera-Ellen, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin, Alice Pearce.
Must See

6:00pm – MGM – 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

8:00pm – TCM – Casablanca
Against all odds, one of the best films Hollywood has ever produced, focusing on Bogart’s sad-eyed and world-weary expatriot Rick Blaine, his former lover Ingrid Bergman, and her current husband Paul Henreid, who needs safe passage to America to escape the Nazis and continue his work with the Resistance. It’s the crackling script that carries the day here, and the wealth of memorable characters that fill WWII Casablanca with life and energy.
1943 USA. Director: Michael Curtiz. Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains.
Must See

8:00pm – Fox Movie – The Verdict
Powerhouse filmmaker Sidney Lumet returns to his 12 Angry Men courtroom milieu for The Verdict, starring Paul Newman as an on-the-rocks lawyer who takes a medical malpractice suit to trial in a somewhat desperate attempt to salvage his career.
1982 USA. Director: Sidney Lumet. Starring: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden.
(repeats at 1:00am on the 12th)

8:45pm – IFC – Carrie
There aren’t that many movies that you can say are equally loved by horror fans and feminist academics, but Carrie is one of them – Carrie’s physical coming-of-age sparks telekinetic abilities, allowing her to take bloody revenge on the schoolkids who mistreated her. And who can’t relate to that, really?
1976 USA. Director: Brian DePalma. Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving.

10:00pm – TCM – Mister Roberts
Henry Fonda is the title character, an XO on a cargo ship who often butts heads with the captain (James Cagney), who runs the ship with an iron fist. The tone is a satisfying combination of comedy and drama, and with a cast that also includes William Powell in his last role and Jack Lemmon in one of his first, you can hardly go wrong. Though John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy share credit for the film, it’s mostly Ford – LeRoy was brought in to finish it when Ford had to undergo emergency surgery, but he tried to emulate Ford’s style as much as possible.
1955 USA. Director: John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy. Starring: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon, Betsy Palmer, Ward Bond.

2:00am (12th) – TCM – Red River
Howard Hawks’ brilliant transposition of Mutiny on the Bounty into the Old West has John Wayne as a tyrannical cattle drive leader and Montgomery Clift (in one of his earliest roles) as his adopted son who soon defies him.
1948 USA. Director: Howard Hawks. Starring: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru.
Must See

4:15am (12th) – TCM – She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The first of John Ford’s informal “Cavalry trilogy,” which continued with Fort Apache and Rio Grande – all three films star John Wayne, though they’re unrelated in plot and character.
1948 USA. Director: John Ford. Starring: John Wayne, Joanne Dru.