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TCM movies in 2008 Note: all times EST, subtract 3 hours for Pacific *******************
February 2008
1 Friday
6:00 AM Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
The bandit king of Sherwood Forest leads his Merry Men in a battle against the corrupt Prince John. Cast:
Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone. Dir: William Keighley, Michael Curtiz. C-102 mins, TV-G, CC DVS
7:45 AM Mogambo (1953)
In this remake of Red Dust, an African hunter is torn between a lusty showgirl and a married woman.
Cast: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly. Dir: John Ford. C-116 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
9:45 AM King Solomon's Mines (1950)
A spirited widow hires a daredevil jungle scout to find a lost treasure in diamonds. Cast:
Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson. Dir: Compton Bennett, Andrew Marton. C-103 mins, TV-PG, CC
11:30 AM Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)
Three prospectors fight off bandits and each other after striking-it-rich in the Mexican mountains.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt. Dir: John Huston. BW-126 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
1:45 PM Krakatoa, East Of Java (1969)
A salvage boat's captain gets mixed up with island convicts during a volcanic eruption. Cast:
Maximilian Schell, Diane Baker, Brian Keith. Dir: Bernard L. Kowalski. C-131 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
4:00 PM Naked Prey, The (1966)
A captive hunter in Africa has one chance to survive, if he can outrun a native tribe. Cast:
Cornel Wilde, Gert Van Den Berg, Ken Gampu. Dir: Cornel Wilde. C-91 mins, TV-14, Letterbox
5:45 PM Northwest Passage (1940)
True story of Rogers' Rangers and their fight to open up new frontiers for Colonial America.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan. Dir: King Vidor. C-127 mins, TV-G, CC
8:00 PM Jaws (1975)
The sheriff of an island town takes to the seas when a bloodthirsty shark invades the local waters.
Cast: Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss. Dir: Steven Spielberg. C-124 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
10:15 PM Hospital, The (1971)
A harried hospital administrator copes with rising costs, a seductive young woman and a serial killer.
Cast: George C. Scott, Diana Rigg, Barnard Hughes. Dir: Arthur Hiller. C-103 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
12:02 AM Short Film: Romance Of Radium (1937)
BW-10 mins
12:15 AM Network (1976)
Television programmers turn a deranged news anchor into 'the mad prophet of the airwaves.' Cast:
William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch. Dir: Sidney Lumet. BW-121 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
2:30 AM Five Easy Pieces (1970)
A classical pianist who's dropped out of society returns to the family he deserted. Cast:
Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush. Dir: Bob Rafelson. C-98 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
4:13 AM Short Film: Stop, Look And Listen (1967)
An Academy nominated stop-motion live-action short about driving safety and dealing with road rage.
Cast: Len Janson, Chuck Menville Dir: Len Janson, Chuck Menville C-10 mins,
4:27 AM Short Film: Hitler Lives? (1945)
BW-17 mins
4:45 AM Darling Lili (1970)
A World War I flyer falls for a beautiful enemy spy. Cast:
Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, Jeremy Kemp. Dir: Blake Edwards. C-143 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
2 Saturday
7:15 AM 2010 (1984)
Sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a US-Soviet crew investigates a mysterious monolith orbiting Jupiter
Cast: Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Keir Dullea. Dir: Peter Hyams. C-116 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
9:15 AM Forbidden Planet (1956)
A group of space troopers investigates the destruction of a colony on a remote planet. Cast:
Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen. Dir: Fred M. Wilcox. C-99 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox DVS
11:00 AM Them! (1954)
Federal agents fight to destroy a colony of mutated giant ants. Cast:
James Arness, James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn. Dir: Gordon Douglas. BW-93 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:45 PM The Time Machine (1960)
A turn-of-the-century inventor sends himself into the future to save humanity. Cast:
Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Alan Young. Dir: George Pal. C-103 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox, DVS
2:30 PM The Black Hole (1979)
Researchers discover a lost space ship on the edge of a black hole. Cast:
Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster. Dir: Gary Nelson. C-98 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
4:15 PM 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
A renegade sea captain uses a pioneering submarine to force peace on the world. Cast:
Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas. Dir: Richard Fleischer. C-127 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
6:30 PM War Of The Worlds (1953)
A scientist on vacation stumbles upon a Martian invasion. Cast:
Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne. Dir: George Pal. C-85 mins, TV-PG, CC
8:00 PM Gandhi (1982)
The legendary Indian leader uses peaceful means to free his homeland from British rule. Cast:
Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, John Gielgud. Dir: Richard Attenborough. C-191 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
11:15 PM Atlantic City (1981)
An aging gangster's love for a gambling house waitress puts him in the middle of a heist gone bad.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon, Kate Reid. Dir: Louis Malle. C-104 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
1:15 AM Trip To Bountiful, The (1985)
An aging woman escapes her controlling family to visit her childhood home. Cast:
Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn. Dir: Peter Masterson. C-107 mins, PG-14
3:15 AM Mephisto (1982)
A stage actor in wartime Germany sells his soul to the Nazis. Cast:
Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda, Ildiko Bansagi. Dir: Istvan Szabo. C-138 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox
5:36 AM Short Film: Gay Parisian, The (1941)
C-20 mins
3 Sunday
6:00 AM Anchors Aweigh (1945)
A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star. Cast:
Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson. Dir: George Sidney. C-139 mins, TV-G, CC
8:30 AM Brigadoon (1954)
Two Americans in Scotland discover a mystical village that only materializes once a century.
Cast: Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Van Johnson. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. C-108 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
10:22 AM Short Film: Cat Concerto, The (1947)
C-7 mins
10:30 AM Harvey Girls, The (1946)
Straitlaced waitresses battle saloon girls to win the West for domesticity. Cast:
Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury. Dir: George Sidney. C-101 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
12:15 PM Band Wagon, The (1953)
A Broadway artiste turns a faded film star's comeback vehicle into an artsy flop. Cast:
Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan, Cyd Charisse. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. C-112 mins, TV-G, CC
2:15 PM Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954)
When their older brother marries, six lumberjacks decide it's time to go courting for themselves. Cast:
Howard Keel, Jane Powell, Russ Tamblyn. Dir: Stanley Donen. C-102 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox, DVS
4:00 PM Gigi (1958)
A Parisian girl is raised to be a kept woman but dreams of love and marriage. Cast:
Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. C-116 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox, DVS
6:00 PM American in Paris, An (1951)
An American artist finds love in Paris but almost loses it to conflicting loyalties. Cast:
Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. C-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
8:00 PM Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Jane Austen's classic tale of two sisters with different romantic notions. Cast:
Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet. Dir: Ang Lee. C-136 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
10:30 PM Quiz Show (1994)
A blue-blood academic gets swept up in the quiz show scandals of the '50s. Cast:
John Turturro, Rob Morrow, Ralph Fiennes. Dir: Robert Redford. C-133 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
12:45 AM Kundun (1997)
The dalai lama fights Chinese oppression while trying to lead his flock. Cast: Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong,
Gyurme Tethong, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin. Dir: Martin Scorsese. C-134 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
3:05 AM Short Film: Merry Wives Of Windsor (1953)
MGM Symphony Orchestra performs the Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor. C-9 mins, Letterbox
3:15 AM Wings of the Dove, The (1997)
An impoverished noblewoman matches her lover with a dying heiress. Dir: Iain Softley. Cast:
Helena Bonham Carter, Linus Roache, Alison Elliott. C-102 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox
5:00 AM Short Film: Music Box, The (1932)
Two men running a moving company have to get a large piano up a daunting flight of stairs. Cast:
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Billy Gilbert. Dir: James Parrott. BW-29 mins, TV-G
5:30 AM Story Of Louis Pasteur, The (1935)
True story of the French scientist's battle to establish modern medical methods. Cast:
Paul Muni, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise. Dir: William Dieterle. BW-86 mins, TV-G, CC
4 Monday
7:00 AM Life Of Emile Zola, The (1937)
The famed writer risks his reputation to defend a Jewish army officer accused of treason. Cast:
Paul Muni, Joseph Schildkraut, Gale Sondergaard. Dir: William Dieterle. BW-116 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
9:00 AM Adventures of Mark Twain, The (1944)
Twain moves from Mississippi riverboats to the Gold Rush to literary immortality. Cast:
Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp. Dir: Irving Rapper. BW-130 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
11:15 AM Eddy Duchin Story, The (1956)
The famed pianist loses the love of his life and almost loses his son's love as well. Cast:
Tyrone Power, Kim Novak, James Whitmore. Dir: George Sidney. BW-123 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox
1:30 PM Joker Is Wild, The (1957)
Singer Joe E. Lewis fights to rebuild his life after gangsters slash his vocal cords. Cast:
Frank Sinatra, Mitzi Gaynor, Jeanne Crain. Dir: Charles Vidor. BW-126 mins, TV-PG
3:45 PM Night And Day (1946)
Fanciful biography of songwriter Cole Porter, who rose from high society to find success on Tin Pan Alley.
Cast: Cary Grant, Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith. Dir: Michael Curtiz. C-128 mins, TV-G, CC
6:00 PM Glenn Miller Story, The (1954)
The famed bandleader fights to establish himself and keep his family going. Cast:
James Stewart, June Allyson, Harry Morgan. Dir: Anthony Mann. C-116 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Wings (1927)
In this silent film, romantic rivals fly against the enemy in World War I. Cast:
Richard Arlen, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Clara Bow. Dir: William A. Wellman. BW-139 mins
10:30 PM Sunrise (1927)
In this silent film, a farmer's affair with a city woman almost destroys his life. Cast:
George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Bodil Rosing. Dir: F.W. Murnau. BW-94 mins, TV-PG
12:15 AM Broadway Melody, The (1929)
Love and success break up a vaudeville sister act. Cast:
Charles King, Anita Page, Bessie Love. Dir: Harry Beaumont. BW-100 mins, TV-G, CC
2:04 AM Short Film: Swing High (1932)
BW-10 mins
2:15 AM 42nd Street (1933)
The definitive backstage musical, complete with the dazzling newcomer who goes on for the injured star.
Cast: Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Warner Baxter. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. BW-89 mins, TV-G, CC
4:00 AM A Nous La Liberte (1931)
An escaped convict creates a business empire that becomes a new prison for him. Cast:
Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Rolla France. Dir: Rene Clair. BW-83 mins
5:24 AM Short Film: Boy And His Dog, A (1946)
A young boy fights to save a dog from his cruel owner. Cast:
Harry Davenport, Billy Sheffield, Russell Simpson. Dir: LeRoy Prinz. BW-21 mins, TV-G
5:45 AM Green Years, The (1946)
An orphaned Irish boy is taken in by his mother's Scottish relations. Cast:
Charles Coburn, Tom Drake, Dean Stockwell. Dir: Victor Saville. BW-125 mins, TV-PG
5 Tuesday
8:00 AM Captains Courageous (1937)
Spoiled rich boy is lost at sea & rescued by a fishingboat, where hard work & responsibility help him mature
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore. Dir: Victor Fleming. BW-117 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
10:00 AM Yearling, The (1946)
A Florida boy's pet deer threatens the family farm. Cast:
Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman, Jr. Dir: Clarence Brown. C-128 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
12:15 PM 400 Blows, The (1959)
A 12-year-old boy turns to crime to escape family problems. Cast:
Jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy. Dir: Francois Truffaut. BW-100 mins, TV-14, Letterbox
2:00 PM Little Women (1949)
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Cast: June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Lawford. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. C-122 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
4:15 PM Janie (1944)
A small-town girl defies her father by falling for a soldier. Cast:
Joyce Reynolds, Robert Hutton, Ann Harding. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-102 mins, TV-G, CC
6:00 PM Sterile Cuckoo, The (1969)
An innocent college boy gets mixed up with a needy, neurotic young woman. Cast:
Liza Minnelli, Wendell Burton, Tim McIntire. Dir: Alan J. Pakula. C-106 mins, TV-PG, CC
8:00 PM Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)
Three returning servicemen fight to adjust to life after World War II. Cast:
Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy. Dir: William Wyler. BW-170 mins, TV-PG, CC
11:00 PM All the King's Men (1949)
A backwoods politician rises to the top only to become corrupted. Cast:
Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge. Dir: Robert Rossen. BW-110 mins, TV-PG, CC
1:00 AM Casablanca (1942)
An American saloon owner in North Africa is drawn into World War II when his lost love turns up.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-103 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
2:45 AM Rebecca (1940)
A young bride is terrorized by the memories of her husband's glamorous first wife. Cast:
Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-130 mins, TV-PG, CC
5:00 AM Body And Soul (1947)
A young boxer slugs his way out of the slums only to fall prey to organized crime. Cast:
John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Anne Revere. Dir: Robert Rossen. BW-106 mins, TV-PG, CC
6 Wednesday
7:00 AM Five Star Final (1931)
An unscrupulous newspaper editor searches for headlines at any cost. Cast:
Edward G. Robinson, H.B. Warner, Marian Marsh. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. BW-89 mins, TV-PG, CC
8:30 AM Front Page, The (1931)
A crusading newspaper editor tricks his retiring star reporter into covering one last case. Cast:
Pat O'Brien, Adolphe Menjou, Edward Everett Horton. Dir: Lewis Milestone. BW-100 mins, TV-G, CC
10:15 AM When Ladies Meet (1933)
A female novelist doesn't realize her new friend is the wife whose husband she's trying to steal.
Cast: Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy. Dir: Harry Beaumont. BW-85 mins, TV-G, CC
11:45 AM Teacher's Pet (1958)
Tough editor assumes fake identity to study journalism with a lady professor who's criticized his work
Cast: Clark Gable, Doris Day, Gig Young. Dir: George Seaton. BW-121 mins, TV-G
2:00 PM Libeled Lady (1936)
When an heiress sues a newspaper, the editor hires a reporter to compromise her. Cast:
Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy. Dir: Jack Conway. BW-98 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
3:45 PM Citizen Kane (1941)
Investigation of publishing tycoon's dying words reveals conflicting stories about his scandalous life
Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead. Dir: Orson Welles. BW-120 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
5:45 PM Foreign Correspondent (1940)
An American reporter covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat.
Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, George Sanders. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-120 mins, TV-PG
8:00 PM Vertigo (1958)
A detective falls for the mysterious woman he's been hired to tail. Cast:
James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-130 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
10:15 PM Rear Window (1954)
Photographer with a broken leg uncovers a murder while spying on the neighbors in a nearby apt. building
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
12:15 AM Country Girl, The (1954)
While trying to help her husband make a comeback, an alcoholic singer's wife fights her love for another man
Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, William Holden. Dir: George Seaton. BW-104 mins, TV-PG, CC
2:15 AM Bullfighter and the Lady (1951)
An American takes up bullfighting to impress the ladies but learns to respect the sport. Cast:
Robert Stack, Joy Page, Gilbert Roland. Dir: Budd Boettcher. BW-125 mins, TV-G
4:30 AM Wild Is The Wind (1957)
A woman marries her late sister's husband but finds true love with his son from an earlier marriage
Cast: Anna Magnani, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Franciosa. Dir: George Cukor. BW-110 mins, TV-PG
7 Thursday
6:30 AM Brothers Karamazov, The (1958)
Adaptation of the Dostoevsky classic; 4 brothers adjust to the death of their domineering father
Cast: Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, William Shatner. Dir: Richard Brooks. C-146 mins, TV-PG, CC
9:00 AM Three Musketeers, The (1948)
Athletic adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' adventure about the musketeers & their zeal to protect France
Cast: Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, June Allyson. Dir: George Sidney. C-126 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
11:15 AM Tale Of Two Cities, A (1935)
Charles Dickens' classic story of two men in love with the same woman during the French Revolution
Cast: Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone, Edna May Oliver. Dir: Jack Conway. BW-126 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
1:30 PM Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
An orphan in 1850 Missouri gets into a variety of scrapes, including a murder mystery. Cast:
Tommy Kelly, Jackie Moran, Victor Jory. Dir: Norman Taurog. C-91 mins, TV-G, CC
3:15 PM Farewell To Arms, A (1932)
An American serving in World War I falls for a spirited nurse. Cast:
Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou. Dir: Frank Borzage. BW-89 mins, TV-G
4:45 PM Hawaii (1966)
Missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands fight nature, disease and their own passions. Cast:
Max von Sydow, Julie Andrews, Richard Harris. Dir: George Roy Hill. C-161 mins, TV-14, Letterbox
8:00 PM 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Classic sci-fi epic about a mysterious monolith that seems to play a key role in human evolution. Cast:
Keir Dullea, William Sylvester, Gary Lockwood. Dir: Stanley Kubrick. C-149 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox DVS
10:45 PM Lolita (1962)
Vladimir Nabokov's racy classic focuses on an aging intellectual in love with a teenager. Cast:
James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers. Dir: Stanley Kubrick. BW-154 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox DVS
1:30 AM Easy Rider (1969)
A cross-country trip to sell drugs puts two hippie bikers on a collision course with small-town prejudices.
Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson. Dir: Dennis Hopper. C-96 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox
3:15 AM Reivers, The (1969)
A young man comes of age when he stows away in his grandfather's stolen car. Cast:
Steve McQueen, Rupert Crosse, Mitch Vogel. Dir: Mark Rydell. C-111 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
5:15 AM Whisperers, The (1967)
An elderly woman tries to cope with her predatory son and husband. Cast:
Edith Evans, Eric Portman, Avis Bunnage. Dir: Bryan Forbes. BW-106 mins, TV-G, Letterbox Format
8 Friday
7:15 AM Sin Of Madelon Claudet, The (1931)
A woman takes to the streets to provide for her illegitimate son. Cast:
Helen Hayes, Robert Young, Neil Hamilton. Dir: Edgar Selwyn. BW-75 mins, TV-G
8:30 AM Champ, The (1931)
A broken-down prizefighter battles to keep custody of his son. Cast:
Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich. Dir: King Vidor. BW-86 mins, TV-G, CC
10:00 AM Great Lie, The (1941)
Believing her husband to be dead, a flyer's wife bargains with his former love to adopt the woman's baby
Cast: Bette Davis, Mary Astor, George Brent. Dir: Edmund Goulding. BW-108 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:00 PM Mildred Pierce (1945)
A woman turns herself into a business tycoon to win her selfish daughter a place in society.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-111 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
2:00 PM Grand Hotel (1932)
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through scandal and heartache. Cast:
Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford. Dir: Edmund Goulding. BW-113 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
4:00 PM Camille (1936)
Classic 19th-century romance: kept woman runs off with a young admirer in search of love and happiness
Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore. Dir: George Cukor. BW-109 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
6:00 PM Kitty Foyle (1940)
Girl from the wrong side of the tracks endures scandal & heartbreak when she falls for a high-society boy
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, Gladys Cooper. Dir: Sam Wood. BW-108 mins, TV-G
8:00 PM Bound For Glory (1976)
Story of folk singer Woody Guthrie, who rose to the top while fighting for the rights of migrant farm workers
Cast: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon. Dir: Hal Ashby. C-148 mins, TV-14, Letterbox
10:30 PM Voyage Of The Damned (1976)
A luxury liner carries Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany in a desperate fight for survival.
Cast: Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Lee Grant. Dir: Stuart Rosenberg. C-151 mins, TV-14
No relation to 2008 Doctor Who TV-movie of the same name about a spaceship named "Titanic"
1:15 AM Apocalypse Now (1979)
An Army captain travels to Cambodia during the Vietnam War to terminate a renegade officer. Cast:
Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall. Dir: Francis Coppola. C-153 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
4:00 AM Midnight Express (1978)
A young man arrested for drug smuggling fights to survive the horrors of a Turkish prison. Cast:
Brad Davis, Bo Hopkins, John Hurt. Dir: Alan Parker. C-121 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox Format
9 Saturday
6:15 AM 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
A Chinese showman uses his magical powers to save a Western town from itself. Cast:
Tony Randall, Barbara Eden, Arthur O'Connell. Dir: George Pal. C-100 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
8:00 AM Bishop's Wife, The (1947)
An angel helps set an ambitious bishop on the right track. Cast:
Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven. Dir: Henry Koster. BW-109 mins, TV-G, CC
10:00 AM Topper (1937)
A fun-loving couple returns from the dead as ghosts to help a henpecked husband. Cast:
Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young. Dir: Norman Z. McLeod. BW-98 mins, TV-G, CC
12:00 PM Thousand and One Nights, A (1945)
Aladdin tries to make his fortune with the help of a beautiful genie. Cast:
Cornel Wilde, Evelyn Keyes, Phil Silvers. Dir: Alfred E. Green. C-94 mins, TV-G
1:45 PM Hook (1991)
A grown up Peter Pan has to fight off the return of Captain Hook. Cast:
Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts. Dir: Steven Spielberg. C-142 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
4:15 PM Absent Minded Professor (1961)
A college professor fights off corrupt businessmen to market his new anti-gravity invention. Cast:
Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn. Dir: Robert Stevenson. BW-96 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
6:00 PM Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971)
An apprentice witch and three war orphans try to prevent the Nazi invasion of England. Cast:
Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Roddy McDowall. Dir: Robert Stevenson. C-117 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
A tough detective tries to clear a cartoon character charged with murder. Cast:
Bob Hoskins, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer. Dir: Robert Zemeckis. C-104 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
10:00 PM WarGames (1983)
In search of the ultimate game, a young man accidentally hacks into the government's top military computer.
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman. Dir: John Badham. C-113 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
12:00 AM Stand by Me (1986)
Four friends share a rite of passage on a long walk to view a dead body. Cast:
Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman. Dir: Rob Reiner. C-89 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox Format
1:45 AM Dead Poets Society (1989)
An English teacher inspires his students to seize the day with sometimes disastrous results. Cast:
Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke. Dir: Peter Weir. C-129 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
4:00 AM Au Revoir, Les Enfants (1987)
A French boarding school harbors Jewish children during the Nazi occupation. Cast:
Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejto, Francine Racette. Dir: Louis Malle. C-105 mins, TV-14, Letterbox
10 Sunday
6:00 AM Lady Of Burlesque (1943)
A star dancer and comedian team to investigate murders. Cast:
Barbara Stanwyck, Michael O'Shea, J. Edward Bromberg. Dir: William A. Wellman. BW-90 mins, TV-PG
7:45 AM Ladies in Retirement (1941)
A housekeeper tries to manage her actress employer and her own emotionally disturbed sisters.
Cast: Ida Lupino, Louis Hayward, Evelyn Keyes. Dir: Charles Vidor. BW-92 mins, TV-PG
9:30 AM Gaslight (1944)
A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion. Cast:
Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Angela Lansbury. Dir: George Cukor. BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
11:30 AM Spellbound (1945)
A psychiatrist tries to help the man she loves solve a murder buried in his subconscious. Cast:
Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-118 mins, TV-PG, CC
1:30 PM Maltese Falcon, The (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet. Dir: John Huston. BW-101 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
3:15 PM Murder On The Orient Express (1974)
Detective Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of a mysterious businessman during a luxury-train ride
Cast: Albert Finney, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman. Dir: Sidney Lumet. C-128 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
5:30 PM Sleuth (1972)
A mystery novelist plots revenge on his wife's lover. Cast:
Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, John Matthews. Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. C-138 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The king of Halloween Town sets out to take Santa Claus' place. Cast:
Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey. Dir: Tim Burton. C-76 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
9:30 PM Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
The Fellowship of the Ring fights its last desperate battle to save Middle Earth from the forces of evil.
Cast: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellan. Dir: Peter Jackson. C-201 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
1:00 AM Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Fledgling FBI agent enlists a psychopath's help in catching a serial killer. Hello, Clarice. Cast:
Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn. Dir: Jonathan Demme. C-118 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
3:15 AM Se7en (1995)
Police detective and his new partner investigate a serial killer whose crimes mirror the 7 deadly sins
Cast: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey/ Dir: David Fincher. C-127 mins, CC, Letterbox
11 Monday
6:30 AM Abe Lincoln In Illinois (1940)
An exploration into the domestic and political life of this past president. Cast:
Raymond Massey, Ruth Gordon, Gene Lockhart. Dir: John Cromwell. BW-110 mins, TV-G, CC
8:30 AM Great Dictator, The (1940)
A Jewish barber takes the place of a certain war-hungry dictator. Cast:
Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie. Dir: Charles Chaplin. BW-120 mins, TV-PG, CC
10:30 AM I Married A Witch (1942)
A 300-year-old witch wreaks havoc when she falls in love with a young politician. Cast:
Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Susan Hayward. Dir: Rene Clair. BW-77 mins, TV-G
12:00 PM Best Man, The (1964)
Two presidential hopefuls get caught up in the dirty side of politics. Cast:
Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Lee Tracy. Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner. BW-102 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox
1:45 PM Born Yesterday (1950)
A newspaper reporter takes on the task of educating a crooked businessman's girlfriend. Cast:
Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden. Dir: George Cukor. BW-102 mins, TV-PG
3:30 PM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption. Cast:
James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-130 mins, TV-G, CC
5:45 PM Meet John Doe (1941)
A reporter's fraudulent story turns a tramp into a national hero and makes him a pawn of big business
Cast: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-122 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
8:00 PM It Happened One Night (1934)
A newspaperman tracks a runaway heiress on a madcap cross-country tour. Cast:
Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable, Walter Connolly. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-105 mins, TV-PG, CC
10:00 PM Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
When he inherits a fortune, a small-town poet has to deal with the corruption of city life. Cast:
Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Lionel Stander. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-116 mins, TV-G, CC
12:00 AM Awful Truth, The (1937)
A divorced couple keeps getting mixed up in each other's love lives. Cast:
Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy. Dir: Leo McCarey. BW-91 mins, TV-PG, CC
1:45 AM Carefree (1938)
Psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be nudging into marriage with someone else
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy. Dir: Mark Sandrich. BW-83 mins, TV-G, CC
3:15 AM Lady For A Day (1933)
A gangster helps an old apple-vendor pose as a society woman to fool her visiting daughter. Cast:
May Robson, Warren William, Guy Kibbee. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-96 mins, TV-G
5:00 AM Alibi (1929)
A mobster kills a police offer and uses the victim's daughter as his alibi. Cast:
Chester Morris, Mae Busch, Regis Toomey. Dir: Roland West. BW-83 mins, TV-PG
12 Tuesday
6:30 AM Window, The (1949)
A boy who always lies witnesses a murder but can't get anyone but the killer to believe him.
Cast: Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy. Dir: Ted Tetzlaff. BW-74 mins, TV-G, CC
7:45 AM Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
A woman's two lives as small-town innocent and author of torrid romances collide. Cast:
Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell. Dir: Richard Boleslawski. BW-94 mins, TV-G
9:30 AM Mannequin (1937)
A small-time crook's wife falls for a shipping magnate. No relation to the 1987 fantasy movie. Cast:
Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, Alan Curtis. Dir: Frank Borzage. BW-95 mins, TV-PG, CC
11:15 AM Guys And Dolls (1955)
A big-city gambler bets that he can seduce a Salvation Army girl. Cast:
Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons. Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. C-149 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
1:45 PM Odd Couple, The (1968)
A divorced neat freak moves in with his sloppy best friend. Cast:
Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Herb Edelman. Dir: Gene Saks. C-105 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
3:45 PM Apartment, The (1960)
Aspiring exec lets his bosses use his apartment for assignations, only to fall for big chief's mistress
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-125 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
6:00 PM Thousand Clowns, A (1965)
A free-living New Yorker fights to maintain custody of his nephew. Cast:
Jason Robards Jr., Martin Balsam, Barry Gordon. Dir: Fred Coe. BW-118 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox
8:00 PM Caesar And Cleopatra (1945)
Julius Caesar gives the famed Egyptian queen lessons in government. Cast:
Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Stewart Granger. Dir: Gabriel Pascal. C-128 mins,
10:30 PM Red Shoes, The (1948)
A young ballerina is torn between her art and her romance with a young composer. Cast:
Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer. Dir: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. C-134 mins, TV-G, CC
1:00 AM Pirate, The (1948)
An actor poses as a notorious pirate to court a romantic Caribbean girl. Cast:
Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Gladys Cooper. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. C-102 mins, TV-PG, CC
2:45 AM Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Spirited musical biography of the song-and-dance man who kept America humming through 2 world wars.
Cast: James Cagney, Walter Huston, Joan Leslie. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-126 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
5:00 AM Brief Encounter (1945)
Two married strangers meet in a train station and fall in love. Cast:
Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway. Dir: David Lean. BW-86 mins, TV-PG, CC
13 Wednesday
6:30 AM Penny Serenade (1941)
A woman on the verge of divorce recalls her heartbreaking attempts to adopt a child. Cast:
Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Beulah Bondi. Dir: George Stevens. BW-119 mins, TV-G, CC
8:30 AM Suzy (1936)
A French air ace discovers that his showgirl wife's first husband is still alive. Cast:
Jean Harlow, Cary Grant, Franchot Tone. Dir: George Fitzmaurice. BW-93 mins, TV-G, CC
10:15 AM Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
A radio correspondent tries to rescue a burlesque queen from her marriage to a Nazi official.
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant, Walter Slezak. Dir: Leo McCarey. BW-115 mins, TV-G, CC
12:15 PM My Favorite Wife (1940)
A shipwrecked woman declared dead, shows up just in time for her husband's re-marriage. Cast:
Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott. Dir: Garson Kanin. BW-88 mins, TV-G, CC
1:45 PM Operation Petticoat (1959)
During World War II, the crew of a decrepit submarine takes on a team of Navy nurses. Cast:
Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Dina Merrill. Dir: Blake Edwards. C-121 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
4:00 PM Father Goose (1964)
A "filthy beast" finds himself sharing an island with schoolgirls and their beautiful teacher during WW2
Cast: Cary Grant, Leslie Caron, Trevor Howard. Dir: Ralph Nelson. C-116 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
6:00 PM Houseboat (1958)
An Italian socialite on the run signs on as housekeeper for a widower with three children. Cast:
Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer. Dir: Melville Shavelson. C-110 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Quiet Man, The (1952)
An Irish ex-boxer retires to Ireland and searches for the proper wife. Cast:
John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald. Dir: John Ford. C-129 mins, TV-PG, CC
10:15 PM Roman Holiday (1953)
A runaway princess in Rome finds love with a reporter who knows her true identity. Cast:
Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert. Dir: William Wyler. BW-118 mins, TV-G, CC
12:30 AM Mating Season, The (1950)
A woman pretends to be a cleaning lady to get to know her son's high-society in-laws. Cast:
Gene Tierney, John Lund, Thelma Ritter. Dir: Mitchell Leisen. BW-101 mins, TV-G, CC
2:15 AM Tender Trap, The (1955)
A swinging bachelor finds love when he meets a girl immune to his line. Cast:
Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, Celeste Holm. Dir: Charles Walters. C-111 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox DVS
4:15 AM Indiscretion Of An American Wife (1954)
An American woman tries to break it off with her Italian lover. Cast:
Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, Richard Beymer. Dir: Vittorio De Sica. BW-63 mins, TV-PG
5:30 AM Written On The Wind (1956)
A young woman marries into a corrupt oil family then falls for her husband's best friend. Cast:
Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack. Dir: Douglas Sirk. C-99 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format
14 Thursday
7:30 AM Love Affair (1939)
Near-tragic misunderstandings threaten a shipboard romance. Cast:
Charles Boyer, Irene Dunne, Maria Ouspenskaya. Dir: Leo McCarey. BW-86 mins, TV-G
9:00 AM One Night of Love (1934)
An aspiring opera singer and her mentor fight so much they barely realize they're in love. Cast:
Grace Moore, Tullio Carminati, Lyle Talbot. Dir: Victor Schertzinger. BW-84 mins, TV-G
10:30 AM Love With The Proper Stranger (1964)
When a one-night stand results in pregnancy, a musician and a young girl try to resolve the issue together
Cast: Steve McQueen, Natalie Wood, Tom Bosley. Dir: Robert Mulligan. BW-100 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:30 PM For Love of Ivy (1968)
A wealthy family finds a beau to romance their maid. Cast:
Sidney Poitier, Abbey Lincoln, Beau Bridges. Dir: Daniel Mann. C-101 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
2:15 PM Lover Come Back (1961)
An ad exec in disguise courts his pretty female competitor. Cast:
Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall. Dir: Delbert Mann. C-107 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format
4:15 PM Too Young To Kiss (1951)
A grown woman poses as a child prodigy to advance her career as a concert pianist. Cast:
June Allyson, Van Johnson, Gig Young. Dir: Robert Z. Leonard. BW-89 mins, TV-G, CC
6:00 PM Kiss Me Kate (1953)
Feuding co-stars reunite for a musical version of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." Cast:
Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller. Dir: George Sidney. C-110 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
8:00 PM Hello, Dolly! (1969)
A widowed matchmaker sets her sights on a wealthy man looking for a rich, young wife. Cast:
Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford. Dir: Gene Kelly. C-148 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
10:30 PM Funny Girl (1968)
Comedienne fights to prove that she can be the greatest star and find romance even though she isn't pretty
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford. Dir: William Wyler. C-153 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
1:15 AM My Fair Lady (1964)
A phonetics instructor bets that he can pass a street urchin off as a lady. Cast:
Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Stanley Holloway. Dir: George Cukor. C-172 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
4:15 AM Entertainer, The (1960)
Third-rate vaudevillian uses liquor and young women to escape the pressures of changing times. Cast:
Laurence Olivier, Brenda de Banzie, Joan Plowright. Dir: Tony Richardson. BW-104 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
15 Friday
6:00 AM All-American Co-Ed (1941)
A college boy dresses as a girl to infiltrate a women's college. Cast:
Frances Langford, Johnny Downs, Harry Langdon. Dir: LeRoy Prinz. BW-49 mins, TV-G
7:00 AM Tanks a Million (1941)
A military man promoted to sergeant because of his photographic memory fights to prove his worth.
Cast: William Tracy, James Gleason, Noah Beery, Jr. Dir: Fred Guiol. BW-50 mins, TV-G
8:00 AM Circus, The (1928)
In this silent film, the Little Tramp joins a circus to hide from the police. Cast:
Charles Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Allan Garcia. Dir: Charles Chaplin. BW-69 mins, TV-G
9:30 AM Speedy (1928)
In this silent film, a young man helps his girlfriend save the family trolley business. Cast:
Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy, Babe Ruth. Dir: Ted Wilde. BW-86 mins, TV-G
11:00 AM Way Out West (1930)
Carny worker caught conning the local cowboys is forced to work off his sentence on the open range
Cast: William Haines, Leila Hyams, Cliff Edwards. Dir: Fred Niblo. BW-70 mins, TV-G
12:15 PM Day At The Races, A (1937)
A group of zanies tries to save a pretty girl's sanitarium. Cast:
The Marx Bros., Allan Jones, Maureen O'Sullivan. Dir: Sam Wood. BW-109 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
2:15 PM Pink Panther, The (1964)
First Inspector Clouseau film: bumbling detective tries to stop notorious jewel thief from nabbing diamond
Cast: Peter Sellers, David Niven, Robert Wagner. Dir: Blake Edwards. C-115 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
4:15 PM Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
After driving his boss to insanity, Inspector Clouseau has to stop him from destroying the world. Cast:
Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Lesley-Anne Down. Dir: Blake Edwards. C-103 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
6:00 PM Tootsie (1982)
An unemployed actor masquerades as a woman to win a soap-opera role. Cast:
Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr. Dir: Sydney Pollack. C-116 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox
8:00 PM Little Big Man (1970)
An American pioneer raised by Indians ends up fighting alongside General Custer. Cast:
Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George. Dir: Arthur Penn. C-140 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
10:30 PM Save the Tiger (1973)
A clothing manufacturer faces a midlife crisis and a failing business. Cast:
Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman. Dir: John G. Avildsen. C-100 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
12:15 AM Shootist, The (1976)
A dying gunfighter tries to set his affairs in order. Cast:
John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, James Stewart. Dir: Don Siegel. C-99 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
2:15 AM Nashville (1975)
Country music stars get caught up in tangled affairs and an independent's political campaign. Cast:
Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Ronee Blakley. Dir: Robert Altman. C-158 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
5:00 AM Wind And The Lion, The (1975)
An Arab chief triggers an international incident when he kidnaps an American widow and her children.
Cast: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith. Dir: John Milius. C-119 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
16 Saturday
7:00 AM Dragon Seed (1944)
Chinese peasants fight to survive the Japanese occupation during World War II. Cast:
Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Agnes Moorehead. Dir: Jack Conway. BW-148 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
9:30 AM Lion In Winter, The (1968)
England's Henry II and his estranged queen battle over the choice of an heir. Cast:
Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Anthony Hopkins. Dir: Anthony Harvey. C-134 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
12:00 PM Woman Of The Year (1942)
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter. Cast:
Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter. Dir: George Stevens. BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
2:00 PM Pat And Mike (1952)
Romance blooms between a female athlete and her manager. Cast:
Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Aldo Ray. Dir: George Cukor. BW-95 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
3:45 PM African Queen, The (1951)
A grizzled skipper and a spirited missionary take on the Germans in Africa during World War I.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley. Dir: John Huston. C-105 mins, TV-PG, CC
5:45 PM Rainmaker, The (1956)
A fake rainmaker melts the heart of a Kansas spinster while trying to save the town's crops. Cast:
Katharine Hepburn, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey. Dir: Joseph Anthony. C-121 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM On Golden Pond (1981)
Elderly couple comes to grips with aging and their troubled relationship with their adult daughter
Cast: Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda. Dir: Mark Rydell. C-109 mins, TV-14, Letterbox
10:00 PM Steel Magnolias (1989)
Small-town Southern women help each other through the trials of life. Cast:
Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton. Dir: Herbert Ross. C-117 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
12:15 AM Big Chill, The (1983)
A friend's death brings together a group of former college activists. Cast:
Glenn Close, William Hurt, Kevin Kline. Dir: Lawrence Kasdan. C-105 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
2:15 AM Absence of Malice (1981)
An ambitious reporter unwittingly slanders a businessman under federal investigation. Cast:
Paul Newman, Sally Field, Melinda Dillon. Dir: Sydney Pollack. C-116 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
4:15 AM My Favorite Year (1982)
A flamboyant star throws a TV comedy show into chaos, then the gangsters show up. Cast:
Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper. Dir: Richard Benjamin. C-92 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
17 Sunday
6:00 AM Long Voyage Home, The (1940)
A merchant ship's crew tries to survive the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war. Cast:
John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald. Dir: John Ford. BW-106 mins, TV-G
8:00 AM How the West Was Won (1962)
Three generations of pioneers take part in the forging of the American West. Cast:
James Stewart, Henry Fonda, John Wayne. Dir: John Ford/Henry Hathaway/George Marshall. C-165 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox DVS
11:00 AM She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
An aging Cavalry officer tries to prevent an Indian war in the last days before his retirement.
Cast: John Wayne, Joanne Dru, Ben Johnson. Dir: John Ford. C-104 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
1:00 PM True Grit (1969)
A young girl recruits an aging U.S. marshal to help avenge her father's death. Cast:
John Wayne, Kim Darby, Glen Campbell. Dir: Henry Hathaway. C-128 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
3:30 PM Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
During World War II, a marine sergeant must turn his recruits into fighting men. Cast:
John Wayne, John Agar, Adele Mara. Dir: Allan Dwan. BW-109 mins, TV-PG, CC
5:30 PM They Were Expendable (1945)
A Navy commander fights to prove the battle-worthiness of the PT boat at the start of WW2. Cast:
Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed. Dir: John Ford. BW-135 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
8:00 PM River Runs Through It, A (1992)
A preacher's sons, one serious, one wild, look out for each other while growing up in rural Montana
Cast: Brad Pitt, Craig Sheffer, Tom Skerritt. Dir: Robert Redford. C-124 mins, TV-14, Letterbox
10:15 PM Amistad (1997)
Africans on a slave ship headed to the U.S. mutiny against their captors. Cast:
Morgan Freeman, Djimon Honsou, Anthony Hopkins. Dir: Steven Spielberg. C-115 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
1:00 AM L.A. Confidential (1997)
Detectives clash while investigating political corruption. Cast:
Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger, Kevin Spacey. Dir: Curtis Hanson. C-138 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
3:30 AM Jerry Maguire (1996)
A sports manager strikes out on his own after he loses his job. Cast:
Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, Cuba Gooding, Jr. Dir: Cameron Crowe. C-139 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
18 Monday
6:00 AM Rasputin And The Empress (1932)
True story of the mad monk who plotted to rule Russia. Cast:
John Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore. Dir: Richard Boleslawski. BW-121 min, TV-PG, CC
8:15 AM Taras Bulba (1962)
A cossack leader clashes with his rebellious son. Cast:
Yul Brynner, Tony Curtis, Christine Kaufmann. Dir: J. Lee Thompson. C-124 mins, TV-14, Letterbox
10:30 AM Quo Vadis (1951)
A Roman commander falls for a Christian slave girl as Nero intensifies persecution of the new religion.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. C-169 mins, TV-PG, CC
1:30 PM Fall of the Roman Empire, The (1964)
A mad emperor's excesses leave the Roman Empire open to barbarian invasions. Cast:
Sophia Loren, Christopher Plummer, Alec Guinness. Dir: Anthony Mann. C-183 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox
4:45 PM Raintree County (1957)
In this sumptuous Civil War story, a willful southern belle goes mad out of fear that she may be part black.
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Eva Marie Saint. Dir: Edward Dmytryk. C-188 mins, PG, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Gone With the Wind (1939)
Classic tale of Scarlett O'Hara's battle to save her beloved Tara and find love during the Civil War.
Cast: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland. Dir: Victor Fleming. C-233 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
12:00 AM Wuthering Heights (1939)
A married noblewoman fights her lifelong attraction to a charismatic gypsy. Cast:
Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Geraldine Fitzgerald. Dir: William Wyler. BW-104 mins, TV-PG, CC
2:00 AM Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)
A married violinist deserts his family when he falls for his accompanist. Cast:
Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Edna Best. Dir: Gregory Ratoff. BW-70 mins, TV-14, CC
3:15 AM Garden Of Allah, The (1936)
A monk deserts his calling to marry a beautiful woman he meets in the Sahara. Cast:
Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone. Dir: Richard Boleslawski. C-79 mins, TV-PG, CC
4:45 AM Great Ziegfeld, The (1936)
Lavish biography of Flo Ziegfeld, the producer who became Broadway's biggest starmaker. Cast:
William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer. Dir: Robert Z. Leonard. C-185 mins, TV-G, CC
19 Tuesday
7:55 AM San Antonio (1945)
A reformed rustler tracks down a band of cattle thieves and tries to reform a crooked dance-hall girl.
Cast: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S.Z. Sakall. Dir: David Butler. C-109 mins, TV-PG
9:45 AM Arizona (1940)
A tough pioneer woman needs a young man's help in fighting land grabbers and finding love. Cast:
William Holden, Jean Arthur, Warren William. Dir: Wesley Ruggles. BW-122 mins, TV-G
12:00 PM Cimarron (1931)
A husband and wife fight to survive in the early days of the Oklahoma Territory. Cast:
Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Edna May Oliver. Dir: Wesley Ruggles. BW-124 mins, TV-PG, CC
2:15 PM Cimarron (1960)
A pioneer couple plays a major role in the settling of Oklahoma. Cast:
Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, Anne Baxter. Dir: Anthony Mann. C-148 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
4:45 PM Hondo (1954)
An Army man takes a widow and her son under his wing in Apache territory. Cast:
John Wayne, Geraldine Page, Ward Bond. Dir: John Farrow. C-84 mins, TV-PG, CC
6:15 PM Tin Star, The (1957)
An experienced bounty hunter helps a young sheriff learn the meaning of his badge. Cast:
Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, Betsy Palmer. Dir: Anthony Mann. BW-93 mins, TV-PG
8:00 PM Ox-Bow Incident, The (1943)
A loner gets caught up in a posse's drive to find and hang three suspected rustlers. Cast:
Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn. Dir: William A. Wellman. BW-76 mins, TV-14
9:30 PM Duel In The Sun (1946)
A fiery half-breed comes between a rancher's good and evil sons. Cast:
Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten. Dir: King Vidor. C-144 mins, TV-14, CC
12:00 AM Samson and Delilah (1949)
Epic re-telling of the story of the Biblical strongman laid low by love. Cast:
Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature, Angela Lansbury. Dir: Cecil B. DeMille. C-128 mins, TV-PG, CC
2:15 AM Since You Went Away (1944)
A mother and wife struggle to cope while her husband is off serving in World War II. Cast:
Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten. Dir: John Cromwell. BW-177 mins, TV-G, CC
5:15 AM Mrs. Miniver (1942)
A British family struggles to survive the first days of World War II. Cast:
Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright. Dir: William Wyler. BW-134 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
20 Wednesday
7:30 AM Red Danube, The (1949)
A Russian ballerina in Vienna tries to flee KGB agents and defect. Cast:
Walter Pidgeon, Janet Leigh, Ethel Barrymore. Dir: George Sidney. BW-119 mins, TV-PG
9:30 AM Comrade X (1940)
An American warms up an icy Russian streetcar conductor. Cast:
Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Eve Arden. Dir: King Vidor. BW-90 mins, TV-G, CC
11:00 AM Ice Station Zebra (1968)
A sub commander on a perilous mission must ferret out a Soviet agent on his ship. Cast:
Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown. Dir: John Sturges. C-152 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
1:45 PM Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming, The (1966)
When a Russian sub runs aground in New England, it creates a local panic. Cast:
Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin. Dir: Norman Jewison. C-126 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox
4:00 PM Ninotchka (1939)
A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love. Cast:
Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire. Dir: Ernst Lubitsch. BW-111 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
6:00 PM One, Two, Three (1961)
A Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin tries to keep the boss's daughter from marrying a Communist. Cast:
James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Arlene Francis. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-108 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Some Like It Hot (1959)
Two musicians on the run from gangsters masquerade as members of an all-girl band. Cast:
Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-121 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
10:15 PM Stalag 17 (1953)
A cynical serviceman in a World War II POW camp has to prove he's not an informer. Cast:
William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-120 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:30 AM Caine Mutiny, The (1954)
Naval officers begin to suspect their captain of insanity. Cast:
Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson. Dir: Edward Dmytryk. C-125 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
2:45 AM Buccaneer, The (1958)
French pirate Jean Lafitte tries to redeem his name helping the U.S. in the War of 1812. Cast:
Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston, Claire Bloom. Dir: Anthony Quinn. C-120 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
5:00 AM On The Waterfront (1954)
A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks. Cast:
Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger. Dir: Elia Kazan. BW-108 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
21 Thursday
7:15 AM From Here To Eternity (1953)
Enlisted men in Hawaii fight for love and honor on the eve of World War II. Cast:
Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra. Dir: Fred Zinnemann. BW-118 mins, TV-PG, CC
9:15 AM Strategic Air Command (1955)
A baseball star takes to the air to help plan the U.S.' aerial defense. Cast:
James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Lovejoy. Dir: Anthony Mann. C-114 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
11:15 AM Action In The North Atlantic (1943)
A Merchant Marine crew fights off enemy attacks at the start of World War II. Cast:
Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. BW-127 mins, TV-G, CC
1:30 PM Commandos Strike At Dawn, The (1942)
A Norwegian refugee leads the British in an attack against his country's Nazi invaders. Cast:
Paul Muni, Anna Lee, Lillian Gish. Dir: John Farrow. BW-100 mins, , CC
3:15 PM Sergeant York (1941)
True story of the farm boy who made the transition from religious pacifist to World War I hero.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Margaret Wycherly. Dir: Howard Hawks. BW-134 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
5:45 PM King Rat (1965)
A U.S. officer in a World War II Japanese POW camp tries to raise money to buy his fellow prisoners' freedom
Cast: George Segal, Tom Courtenay, James Fox. Dir: Bryan Forbes. BW-135 mins, TV-PG
8:00 PM Dirty Dozen, The (1967)
A renegade officer trains a group of misfits for a crucial mission behind enemy lines. Cast:
Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson. Dir: Robert Aldrich. C-150 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox DVS
10:45 PM Great Escape, The (1963)
Thrown together by the Germans, a group of captive Allied troublemakers plot a daring escape. Cast:
James Garner, Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough. Dir: John Sturges. C-172 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
1:45 AM Thomas Crown Affair, The (1968)
A bored tycoon turns to bank robbery and courts the insurance investigator assigned to bring him in.
Cast: Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke. Dir: Norman Jewison. C-102 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
3:30 AM Pocketful Of Miracles (1961)
A good-hearted gangster turns an old apple seller into a society matron so she can impress her daughter.
Cast: Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Hope Lange. Dir: Frank Capra. C-137 mins, TV-G, Letterbox Format
22 Friday
6:00 AM Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)
True story of Annette Kellerman, the world's first great swimming star. Cast:
Esther Williams, Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. C-110 mins, TV-G, CC
8:00 AM This Sporting Life (1963)
A rugby player finds the violence in his professional life tainting his personal relationships. Cast:
Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel. Dir: Lindsay Anderson. BW-134 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox
10:30 AM Pride Of The Yankees, The (1942)
Baseball legend Lou Gehrig faces a crippling disease at the height of his success. Cast:
Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan. Dir: Sam Wood. BW-128 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:45 PM Champion (1949)
An unscrupulous boxer claws his way to the top. Cast:
Kirk Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Ruth Roman. Dir: Mark Robson. BW-99 mins, TV-PG, CC
2:30 PM Grand Prix (1966)
Auto racers find danger and romance at the legendary European road race. Cast:
James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand. Dir: John Frankenheimer. C-176 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
5:45 PM Fortune Cookie, The (1966)
A crooked lawyer trumps up an insurance case for a cameraman injured at a pro football game. Cast:
Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Cliff Osmond. Dir: Billy Wilder. BW-126 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Heaven Can Wait (1978)
When a football player dies early, he gets a second chance in the body of a crooked industrialist.
Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, James Mason. Dir: Warren Beatty/Buck Henry. C-101 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
9:45 PM Goodbye Girl, The (1977)
A dancer discovers her runaway boyfriend has sublet her apartment to an aspiring actor. Cast:
Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings. Dir: Herbert Ross. C-111 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
11:45 PM Manhattan (1979)
A TV comedy writer falls for his best friend's girl. Cast:
Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep. Dir: Woody Allen. BW-96 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
1:30 AM Love Story (1970)
Students from opposite sides of the tracks fight for their love. Cast:
Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, Ray Milland. Dir: Arthur Hiller. C-100 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
3:15 AM Equus (1977)
A psychoanalyst tries to help a young man who blinded a stable full of horses. Cast:
Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Joan Plowright. Dir: Sidney Lumet. C-138 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox
5:45 AM Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973)
A New York City housewife faces a midlife crisis that forces her to re-consider her way of life.
Cast: Joanne Woodward, Martin Balsam, Sylvia Sidney. Dir: Gilbert Cates. C-88 mins, TV-14
23 Saturday
7:30 AM Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
A young girl fears her favorite uncle may be a killer. Cast:
Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-108 mins, TV-PG
9:30 AM Notorious (1946)
A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil. Cast:
Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-101 mins, TV-PG, CC
11:15 AM Man Who Knew Too Much, The (1956)
International spies kidnap a doctor's son when he stumbles on their assassination plot. Cast:
James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda De Banzie. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-120 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox
1:30 PM North By Northwest (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase. Cast:
Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-136 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox DVS
4:00 PM Psycho (1960)
A woman on the run gets mixed up with a repressed young man and his violent mother. Cast:
Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-109 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
6:00 PM The Birds (1963)
In a California coastal area, flocks of birds unaccountably make deadly attacks on humans. Cast:
Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. C-119 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Poltergeist (1982)
Evil spirits abduct a suburban family's daughter causing chaos and havoc. Cast:
Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne. Dir: Tobe Hooper. C-115 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
10:00 PM Ordinary People (1980)
When a young man drowns, his family fights to recover from the trauma. Cast:
Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Timothy Hutton. Dir: Robert Redford. C-124 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox
12:15 AM Raging Bull (1980)
Hard-won bio of middle-weight champ Jake La Motta, whose life was haunted by violence in and out of the ring
Cast: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci. Dir: Martin Scorsese. BW-129 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
2:30 AM Breaker Morant (1980)
When his commanding officers make a mistake, an Australian soldier faces court martial. Cast:
Edward Woodward, Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown. Dir: Bruce Beresford. C-107 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox
4:30 AM Yes, Giorgio (1982)
An opera star touring America courts a beautiful doctor. Cast:
Luciano Pavarotti, Kathryn Harrold, Eddie Albert. Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner. C-111 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
24 Sunday
6:30 AM Unsinkable Molly Brown, The (1964)
Musical biography of the backwoods girl who struck it rich in Colorado and survived the Titanic. Cast:
Debbie Reynolds, Harve Presnell, Ed Begley. Dir: Charles Walters. C-129 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
9:00 AM Bachelor Mother (1939)
A fun-loving shop girl is mistaken for the mother of a foundling. Cast:
Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn. Dir: Garson Kanin. BW-82 mins, TV-G, CC
10:30 AM Boys' Town (1938)
True story of Father Flanagan's fight to build a home for orphaned boys. Cast:
Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull. Dir: Norman Taurog. BW-93 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
12:30 PM Bells Of St. Mary's, The (1945)
A liberal priest tries to soften the strict nun running a boys' school. Cast:
Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Travers. Dir: Leo McCarey. BW-126 mins, TV-G, CC
3:00 PM Oliver! (1968)
Musical version of the Dickens classic about an orphan taken in by a band of boy thieves. Cast:
Ron Moody, Oliver Reed, Mark Lester. Dir: Carol Reed. C-154 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format
5:45 PM Annie (1982)
An orphan attracts the attention of a Wall Street tycoon and a con artist. Cast:
Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Aileen Quinn. Dir: John Huston. C-127 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
A composer gives up his dreams to change lives as a high school music teacher. Cast:
Richard Dreyfuss, Glenne Headley, Olympia Dukakis. Dir: Stephen Herek. C-143 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
10:30 PM Men in Black (1997)
A hot-shot police officer gets mixed up in an alien invasion. Cast:
Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio. Dir: Barry Sonnenfeld. C-98 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
12:30 AM Contact (1997)
An expert on interplanetary communication receives plans for a mysterious space vessel. Cast:
Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skeritt. Dir: Robert Zemeckis. C-150 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
3:15 AM Bodyguard, The (1992)
A former Secret Service agent signs on as bodyguard to a temperamental pop star. Cast:
Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston, Gary Kemp. Dir: Mick Jackson. C-129 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
5:30 AM Little Caesar (1930)
A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there? Cast:
Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Glenda Farrell. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. BW-79 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
25 Monday
7:00 AM Hide-Out (1934)
Farmers take in an injured racketeer and try to reform him. Cast:
Robert Montgomery, Maureen O'Sullivan, Mickey Rooney. Dir: W.S. Van Dyke II. BW-81 mins, TV-G, CC
8:30 AM G-Men (1935)
A mob protege joins the FBI when a friend is gunned down. Cast:
James Cagney, Ann Dvorak, Margaret Lindsay. Dir: William Keighley. BW-86 mins, TV-PG, CC
10:00 AM Key Largo (1948)
A returning veteran tangles with a ruthless gangster during a hurricane. Cast:
Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall. Dir: John Huston. BW-101 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
12:00 PM Naked City (1948)
A step-by-step look at a murder investigation on the streets of New York. Cast:
Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart. Dir: Jules Dassin. BW-96 mins, TV-14
1:45 PM White Heat (1949)
A government agent infiltrates a gang run by a mother-fixated psychotic. Cast:
James Cagney, Edmond O'Brien, Virginia Mayo. Dir: Raoul Walsh. BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
3:45 PM Asphalt Jungle, The (1950)
A gang of small time crooks plots an elaborate jewel heist. Cast:
Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Marilyn Monroe. Dir: John Huston. BW-112 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
5:45 PM In Cold Blood (1967)
Two vagrants try to outrun the police after committing a savage crime in this real-life shocker. Cast:
Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe. Dir: Richard Brooks. BW-134 mins, TV-MA, Letterbox
8:00 PM Stagecoach (1939)
A group of disparate passengers battle personal demons and each other while racing through Indian country.
Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, George Bancroft. Dir: John Ford. BW-96 mins, TV-G, CC
9:45 PM Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
A team of flyers risks their lives to deliver the mail in a mountainous South American country. Cast:
Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth. Dir: Howard Hawks. BW-121 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:00 AM Public Enemy, The (1931)
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime. Cast:
James Cagney, Edward Woods, Jean Harlow. Dir: William A. Wellman. BW-84 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
1:30 AM Buccaneer, The (1938)
French pirate Jean Lafitte tries to redeem his name helping the U.S. in the War of 1812. Cast:
Fredric March, Franciska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff. Dir: Cecil B. De Mille. BW-126 mins,
3:45 AM Cowboy And The Lady, The (1938)
A socialite posing as her own maid falls for a rodeo rider. Cast:
Gary Cooper, Merle Oberon, Patsy Kelly. Dir: H.C. Potter. BW-92 mins, TV-G
5:30 AM There Goes My Heart (1938)
An heiress takes a job as a department store clerk. Cast:
Fredric March, Virginia Bruce, Patsy Kelly. Dir: Norman Z. McLeod. BW-83 mins, TV-G
26 Tuesday
7:00 AM Smart Money (1931)
A barber's good luck turns him into a big-time gambling boss. Cast:
Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Evalyn Knapp. Dir: Alfred E. Green. BW-81 mins, TV-G, CC
8:30 AM Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942)
A possessive son's efforts to keep his mother from remarrying threaten to destroy his family.
Cast: Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead. Dir: Orson Welles. BW-88 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
10:00 AM Tortilla Flat (1942)
Inhabitants of a Southern California fishing village strive for the simple pleasures of life.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield. Dir: Victor Fleming. BW-99 mins, TV-PG, CC
11:45 AM Kings Row (1942)
Small town scandals inspire an idealistic young man to take up psychiatry. Cast:
Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan. Dir: Sam Wood. BW-127 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
2:00 PM Johnny Belinda (1948)
A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate. Cast:
Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Agnes Moorehead. Dir: Jean Negulesco. BW-102 mins, TV-G, CC
3:45 PM Some Came Running (1958)
A veteran returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals. Cast:
Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine, Dean Martin. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. C-136 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
6:15 PM Cheers For Miss Bishop (1941)
On her retirement, students wonder why their favorite teacher never married. Cast:
Martha Scott, William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn. Dir: Tay Garnett. BW-94 mins, TV-PG
8:00 PM Talk Of The Town, The (1942)
An escaped political prisoner and a stuffy law professor vie for the hand of a spirited schoolteacher.
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman. Dir: George Stevens. BW-117 mins, TV-G
10:15 PM Miracle of Morgan's Creek, The (1944)
During World War II, a 4F tries to help the woman he loves cover up a surprise pregnancy. Cast:
Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, William Demarest. Dir: Preston Sturges. BW-98 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:00 AM To Be or Not to Be (1942)
A troupe of squabbling actors joins the Polish underground to dupe the Nazis. Cast:
Jack Benny, Carole Lombard, Robert Stack. Dir: Ernst Lubitsch. BW-99 mins, TV-PG
1:45 AM Hamlet (1948)
The melancholy Dane flirts with insanity while trying to prove his uncle murdered his father.
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Eileen Herlie, Jean Simmons. Dir: Laurence Olivier. BW-154 mins, TV-14
4:30 AM Portrait of Jennie (1948)
An artist discovers his gift when he falls for a beautiful ghost. Cast:
Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore. Dir: William Dieterle. BW-86 mins, TV-PG, CC
27 Wednesday
6:00 AM Princess And The Pirate, The (1944)
A cowardly knight rescues a disguised princess from pirates. Cast:
Bob Hope, Virginia Mayo, Walter Brennan. Dir: David Butler. C-94 mins, TV-G, CC
7:45 AM Spanish Main, The (1945)
Dutch rebels in the Caribbean turn pirate and kidnap the corrupt Spanish governor's bride-to-be.
Cast: Paul Henreid, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak. Dir: Frank Borzage. C-101 mins, TV-PG, CC
9:30 AM Captain Caution (1940)
When a ship's captain dies at war, his daughter takes command. Cast:
Victor Mature, Louise Platt, Leo Carrillo. Dir: Richard Wallace. BW-86 mins, TV-G
11:00 AM Captain Kidd (1945)
An infamous pirate tries to double cross the King of England. Cast:
Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott, John Carradine. Dir: Rowland V. Lee. BW-81 mins, TV-G
12:30 PM Captain Blood (1935)
After being unjustly sentenced to prison, a doctor escapes and becomes a notorious pirate. Cast:
Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-119 mins, TV-G, CC
2:30 PM Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Classic adventure about the sadistic Captain Bligh, who drove his men to revolt during a South Seas expedition
Cast: Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone. Dir: Frank Lloyd. BW-133 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
4:45 PM Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
Villainous Captain Bligh drives his crew to revolt during a South Seas expedition.
Cast: Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, Richard Harris. Dir: Lewis Milestone. C-185 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM On the Beach (1959)
After a nuclear war, U.S. sailors stationed in Australia deal with the end of civilization. Cast:
Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire. Dir: Stanley Kramer. BW-134 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox
10:30 PM High Noon (1952)
A retired Marshal must defend his town from a revengeful villain. Cast:
Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell. Dir: Fred Zinnemann. BW-85 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:00 AM Seven Samurai (1954)
Japanese villagers hire a team of traveling samurai to defend them against a bandit attack. Cast:
Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Kuninori Kodo. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-206 mins, TV-PG
3:30 AM Rashomon (1950)
In medieval Japan, four people offer conflicting accounts of a rape and murder. Cast:
Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-88 mins, TV-PG
5:00 AM Greatest Show on Earth, The (1952)
A circus ringmaster and an egotistical trapeze artist vie for the love of a pretty acrobat. Cast:
Betty Hutton, Charlton Heston, James Stewart. Dir: Cecil B. DeMille. C-152 mins, TV-PG, CC
28 Thursday
7:45 AM Member of the Wedding, The (1952)
When her brother marries, a 12-year-old girl faces the awkward pains of adolescence. Cast:
Julie Harris, Ethel Waters, Brandon de Wilde. Dir: Fred Zinnemann. BW-89 mins, TV-G
9:15 AM Father Of The Bride (1950)
A doting father faces mountains of bills and endless trials when his daughter marries. Cast:
Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Bennett. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. BW-93 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
11:00 AM Philadelphia Story, The (1940)
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage. Cast:
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart. Dir: George Cukor. BW-112 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
1:00 PM High Society (1956)
In this musical version of The Philadelphia Story, tabloid reporters invade a society wedding. Cast:
Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra. Dir: Charles Walters. C-107 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox DVS
3:00 PM Royal Wedding (1951)
A brother-and-sister musical team find romance when they tour to London for Elizabeth II's wedding
Cast: Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford. Dir: Stanley Donen. C-93 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
4:45 PM Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
In Russia before the revolution, a Jewish milkman tries to marry off his daughters who have plans of their own
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey. Dir: Norman Jewison. C-181 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
8:00 PM Man for All Seasons, A (1966)
A devout scholar gets caught in the middle of Henry VIII's plans to break with the Catholic Church.
Cast: Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller. Dir: Fred Zinnemann.. C-120 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox
10:15 PM Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Illicit lovers fight to stay together during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution. Cast:
Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Rod Steiger. Dir: David Lean. C-200 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox DVS
2:00 AM Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
A medium kidnaps a child so she can help the police solve the crime. Cast:
Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Nanette Newman. Dir: Bryan Forbes. BW-115 mins,
4:00 AM Summer And Smoke (1961)
A small-town spinster's repressed love for the local rebel spells danger. Cast:
Geraldine Page, Laurence Harvey, Una Merkel. Dir: Peter Glenville. C-118 mins, TV-PG
29 Friday
6:00 AM Libel (1959)
A former POW is accused of being an impostor. Cast:
Dirk Bogarde, Olivia de Havilland, Wilfrid Hyde-White. Dir: Anthony Asquith. BW-100 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox
8:00 AM Trial (1955)
A Mexican boy accused of rape and murder becomes a pawn for Communists and red-baiters. Cast:
Glenn Ford, Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy. Dir: Mark Robson. BW-109 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox
10:00 AM Letter, The (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson. Dir: William Wyler. BW-95 mins, TV-PG, CC
12:00 PM I Want To Live! (1958)
True story of the small-time lady crook who fought to escape the gas chamber. Cast:
Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Theodore Bikel. Dir: Robert Wise. BW-121 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox
2:15 PM Fury (1936)
An innocent man escapes a lynch mob then returns for revenge. Cast:
Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney, Walter Brennan. Dir: Fritz Lang. BW-93 mins, TV-G, CC
4:00 PM Paradine Case, The (1947)
A married lawyer falls for the woman he's defending on murder charges. Cast:
Gregory Peck, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC
6:15 PM 12 Angry Men (1957)
A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty. Cast:
Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall. Dir: Sidney Lumet. BW-96 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format
8:00 PM Day Of The Jackal, The (1973)
British and French agents join forces to save President De Gaulle from a deadly assassin. Cast:
Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Alan Badel. Dir: Fred Zinnemann. C-142 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
10:30 PM Three Days of the Condor (1975)
A CIA researcher uncovers top secret information and finds himself marked for death. Cast:
Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson. Dir: Sydney Pollack. C-117 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
12:30 AM Marathon Man (1976)
A covert government group uncovers a criminal plot run by Nazi War criminals. Cast:
Dustin Hoffman, Roy Scheider, Laurence Olivier. Dir: John Schlesinger. BW-125 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox
2:45 AM Boys From Brazil (1978)
A Nazi hunter tracks a mad scientist out to bring back Hitler. Cast:
Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason. Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner. C-125 mins, Letterbox
5:00 AM Kotch (1971)
Alienated from his son's family, an elderly man becomes infatuated with a pregnant teen. Cast:
Walter Matthau, Deborah Winters, Felicia Farr. Dir: Jack Lemmon. C-114 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox
Link to this page from your website or blog: https://www.angelfire.com/mn/nn/TCM.html
It should come as no surprise to fans of “The King of the Gimmick” that William Castle was not his real name. Born William Schloss in New York City on April 24, 1914, the future director of such B-movie cult classics as The Tingler (1959), House on Haunted Hill (1959) and 13 Ghosts (1960) was a shy, awkward boy whose parents sent him to camp to make a man of him. Teased for his lack of athletic ability, he found salvation in the discovery of a freakish anatomical elasticity. Being double jointed and able to wrap his legs around his neck made “Slush” a hit when he appeared as “The Spider Boy” at the camp’s annual circus.
The Depression found William Schloss shouldering a series of odd jobs, from washing dishes at the Horn & Hardart Automat to appearing as Simple Simon in Bloomingdale’s front window “Living Nursery Book.” Occasional theatre work lifted his spirits. As William Castle, he made his Broadway debut in 1922 in The Torch Bearers. Passing himself off as the nephew of Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn, Castle bluffed himself into the ensemble of Jules Leventhal’s revival of An American Tragedy in 1931. In 1941, he charmed his way into the office of Orson Welles, then vacating his Connecticut theater in Stony Creek to prepare for filming Citizen Kane (1941). Assuming the posture of a well-heeled producer, Castle got Welles to not only offer a lease on the theater but to seal the deal with one of his cherished Churchill cigars.
In Stony Creek, Castle got the most out of his Berlin-born leading lady Ellen Schwanneke. When The Third Reich invited the Mädchen in Uniform (1931) star to return to Germany, Castle capitalized on her refusal by billing Schwanneke as “The Girl Who Said No to Hitler” and vandalizing his own theater with swastikas to generate publicity. The gambit paid off and the success of the play (which he had written in forty-eight hours and passed off as the work of a German playwright to skirt labor restrictions on using foreign talent) got Castle an invitation to meet Columbia Pictures studio boss Harry Cohn. Castle met with “King” Cohn only once before he was put to work absorbing the mechanics of Columbia’s A and B-picture mills. A chance meeting with director George Stevens got Castle his first Hollywood job, as a dialogue director on the set of Penny Serenade (1941). Three years of frenzied activity followed, as Castle toiled as a dialogue director, assistant editor and bit player in dozens of Columbia productions.
Castle’s debut as a director was the “Boston Blackie” mystery The Chance of a Lifetime (1943) with Chester Morris. Castle hated the script and the critics hated Castle, with The Hollywood Reporter branding him “unfit to handle a motion picture.” Despite the vote of no confidence, Castle plunged back into work, racking up an impressive resume of forty-plus films before he broke out on his own. (Castle had also endured amoebic dysentery and a thirty-five pound weight loss while associate producing and shooting second unit footage in Mexico for Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai in 1947.) The American success of the French psychological thriller Les Diaboliques (1955) sparked in Castle a long dormant desire to make scary movies. With scenarist Robb White, he adapted the novel The Marble Forest (the work of several writers published under the collective nom-de-plume “Theo Durrant”), which they gave the vaguely French titled Macabre (1958)
Seeing the finished product (self-produced for $86,000 and shot in a week), Castle knew he was no Henri-Georges Clouzot and decided a gimmick was needed to sell the film. For $5,000, he purchased an insurance policy from Lloyds of London guaranteeing a $1,000 payout to the beneficiaries of anyone felled by fright while watching Macabre. Castle sold the package to Allied Artists for twice his shooting budget and a percentage of the substantial profits. For their follow-up, Castle and White co-opted Macabre’s triple dog dare to ticket buyers with a terror tale in which millionaire Vincent Price offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could survive a night in House on Haunted Hill (1959). Castle arranged to have a plastic skeleton flown over the heads of moviegoers during a key point in the film as part of a gimmick he called “Emergo.” While Columbia had turned down Macabre, the success of House on Haunted Hill prompted the studio to invite him back.
Arguably Castle’s signature film, The Tingler (1959) imagines a creature born of human fear that can be released only by screaming. In addition to the novelty of color film used for sequences involving blood, Castle dreamed up “Percepto,” a device installed below theater seats that simulated the vibrations of The Tingler as Vincent Price implored customers to “Scream...scream for your lives!” For 13 Ghosts (1960), he provided patrons with “Ghost Viewer” glasses enabling them to see the eponymous spooks hidden in the film by dint of the optical process “Illusion-O.” Borrowing a trick from Alfred Hitchcock, Castle introduced Homicidal (1961) in an onscreen appearance, announcing a “Fright Break” for those who found the suspense too much to bear. Castle pulled a similar stunt in the gothic Mr. Sardonicus (1961), in which the denouement was stalled to allow audiences to vote on the fate of its disfigured title character.
Through the 1960s, Castle’s promotional campaigns were often more satisfying than his features. The gimmick of Strait-Jacket (1964) was the sight of aging Hollywood icon Joan Crawford as an axe-wielding, head-chopping hellion. In 1968, Castle produced Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, whose success was for him tempered by the subsequent deaths of composer Krzysztof Komeda and Polanski’s wife Sharon Tate. Castle himself suffered a spell of uremic poisoning and later a nervous breakdown. His output slowed during the next decade. He produced the short-lived anthology TV series Ghost Story (which underwent a mid-season title change to Circle of Fear) and Jeannot Szwarc’s Bug (1975) before his death by heart attack on May 31, 1977. His 1976 autobiography, Step Right Up, I’m Gonna Scare the Pants Off America, was reprinted in 1991 with an affectionate foreword by John Waters, who eulogized Castle as “a famous showman in today’s lackluster showbiz environment.”
by Richard Harland Smith
Sources: Step Right Up, I’m Gonna Scare the Pants Off America: Memoirs of a B-Movie Mogul by William Castle Horror Film Directors, 1931-1990 by Dennis Fischer
The Horror People by John Brosnan
The Film Encyclopedia by Ephraim Katz
Roger Corman Profile
Roger Corman is known primarily for his low budget, highly profitable films, but also for providing in-house training to young filmmakers who went on to become masters of the Hollywood cinema. Working outside the studio system, Corman has established a record as one of the most commercially successful filmmakers in Hollywood history, with over 200 films to his credit, 90% of which have turned a profit.
After graduating from Stanford in 1947, Corman broke into the film business, first as a messenger boy and later as a story analyst and screenwriter. After his first script ("Highway Dragnet" 1954) was altered by a studio, he decided to make his own movies, beginning with "Monster from the Ocean Floor" in 1954. American Releasing Corporation, which later became known as American International Pictures, distributed Corman's second film, "The Fast and the Furious" (1954), as part of an unusual deal: ARP advanced the filmmaker cash to make additional movies. Corman later employed this arrangement with other distributors such as Allied Artists.
By 1955, when he made his directorial debut, the Corman formula was in place: quirky characters; offbeat plots laced with social commentary; clever use of special effects, sets and cinematography; employment of fresh talent; and above all, miniscule budgets (under $100,000) and breakneck shooting schedules (5-10 days). Corman titles from the 1950s and 60s include such genre films as "Swamp Women" (1956), "Machine Gun Kelly" (1958), "Little Shop of Horrors" (1961), "The Wild Angels" (1966) and "The Trip" (1967). His films based on the stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe ("The Pit and the Pendulum" 1961, "Tales of Terror" 1962, "The Raven" 1963, "Masque of the Red Death" 1964) were typically shot in three weeks on only slighly higher budgets, yet have become classics of the horror genre.
Dissatisfied with increasing studio and AIP interference in both the content and budgets of his films, Corman decided to start his own company in order to exert total control over his product. In 1970 he formed New World Pictures, which produced and distributed, not only exploitation movies such as Death Race 2000 (1975), but also sophisticated European art films by celebrated directors such as Truffaut, Bergman and Fellini. Corman once again demonstrated his Midas touch; New World became the largest independent production and distribution company in the US and in January 1983 he sold it for $16.5 million.
In 1983 Corman founded Concorde/New Horizons, a production company which continues to be both prolific (over 20 films annually) and commercially prodigious (1987 gross earnings: $94 million). Taking full advantage of "ancillary" markets (videocassete, pay TV and foreign sales), Corman continues his lucrative practice of releasing successful, cut-rate exploitation films such as "Not of this Earth" (1988), "Nightfall" (1988) and "The Lawless Land" (1989)
Corman's legendary success is attributed to the fact that he operates outside the usual Hollywood constraints. He does not shrink from hiring unconventional actors such as pornography film stars like Traci Lords; he was one of the first producers to recognize the financial advantages of shooting in Europe; and he has even used sets discarded from other lavish, expensive movies for his own films.
In addition to his successful business innovations, Corman is recognized for his sponsorship of new talent. His ability to locate, and then provide a training ground for young filmmakers has produced an impressive roster of directors and performers. Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, John Sayles, Robert Towne, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Dennis Hopper and Charles Bronson are but a few of the names associated with Corman films early in their careers. When Ron Howard directed his first film (for Corman), "Grand Theft Auto," Corman joked that if he did a good job, he'd never have to work for him again.
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Tod Browning Profile
Among the most underrated directors of the silent and early sound eras, Tod Browning stretched the boundaries of the cinematic imagination and paved the way for the contemporary horror film. Best known for his groundbreaking Dracula (1931), he specialized in a unique brand of grotesque melodrama that was not easily categorized, experimenting with the crime thriller (The Unholy Three, 1925), pseudo-supernatural whodunit (The Thirteenth Chair, 1929), revenge tale (Freaks, 1932), science fiction film (The Devil-Doll, 1936) and some films so strange they defy classification (The Unknown, 1927).
Among Browning's most outlandish stories was that of his own life. In interviews and press releases, he wove a dramatic tale of a boy who ran away to join the circus at age sixteen, and who toured the world as a celebrated comedian and musical performer, the headlining act of a variety of famed music hall troupes. For good measure, he added that he also worked as a horseracing jockey in Kentucky during the off-seasons.
But this story, like those of his films, was a colorful exaggeration of real life. Born Charles Albert Browning in Louisville, Kentucky in 1882, Tod was given a conservative, religious upbringing with a strong work ethic. From his youth, however, he yearned to escape this life of responsibility and respectability, to pursue dreams and ambitions fueled by turn-of-the-century dime novels, traveling circuses and music hall performances. As for jockeying, the closest the lanky six-foot Kentuckian came to working with horses was as a clerk in a harness company. When he was in his twenties, Browning found work in a traveling musical comedy troupe and eventually landed in Hollywood as a supporting comic actor, first at the Biograph Studios in 1913, then at the Mutual Film Corp., where he had a recurring role as "Mr. Hadley, The Boss" in a popular series of comedies about Bill the Office Boy.
Browning's biggest professional break came in 1925, when MGM producer Irving Thalberg signed him to direct a film, and allowed him near-complete freedom in selecting the property. His choice, an adaptation of Clarence Robbins's almost comically far-fetched novel The Unholy Three, seemed preposterous. But in the leading role Browning cast Lon Chaney, who had been a supporting player in two of the director's previous films. Browning's confident direction and Chaney's command of the screen transformed the ridiculous into the sublime and The Unholy Three became a critical and popular success.
With every subsequent film, Browning tested the limits of plausibility with outrageous tales of lust and revenge, set in African swamps (West of Zanzibar, 1928), among European gypsy camps (The Mystic, 1925), the wharves of London (The Blackbird, 1926), the jungles of Indochina (Where East Is East, 1929) and the American criminal underworld (The Big City, 1928). Throughout his career, Browning returned to the lowbrow amusements of his youth, with films centered around the circuses, sideshows, music halls and phony psychics that had fascinated him as a boy.
To illustrate the twisted obsessions of his characters, Browning encouraged Chaney to exploit every thespian technique at his disposal, from physical contortion (as Alonzo the Armless in The Unknown or "Dead Legs" Flint in West of Zanzibar) to dramatic makeup (the scar-faced, milky-eyed Singapore Joe in The Road to Mandalay, 1926 or the razor-toothed vampire of London After Midnight, 1927) to an excessive performance style. In ordinary films, these techniques would overwhelm the narrative, but they are the perfect complement to Browning's diabolical stories.
Of working with Chaney, Browning once said, "I'm particularly lucky in carrying out my ideas by having an artist like Lon to take on guises and disguises of the most grotesque nature. The more grotesque, the better Lon likes them."
In Browning's universe, the larger-than-life villains - as personified by Chaney, Lugosi and Barrymore - were usually more charismatic and interesting than the so-called heroes. From this unconventional formula emerged a new breed of film in which audiences reveled in the sadistic impulses of the morally ambiguous hero. Although he may not have recognized it as such at the time, Browning was giving birth to the modern day horror film.
His 1931 Dracula was among the first major American films to posit a supernatural premise. Prior to this, ghoulish creatures were revealed (at the dramatic climax) to be human creations, which was the case with Browning's legendary vampire film London After Midnight, a film that unfortunately no longer exists. The success of Dracula paved the way for Frankenstein and opened the floodgates of unnatural movie monsters.
During the 1930s, Browning's career fell into a slump. His brand of filmmaking did not adapt well to the rigidly organized factory-style system that was adopted by the major studios. At the same time, the influence of the Production Code Authority was intensifying, and Browning's films encountered much resistance both within the studio and with censors. After the release of his controversial Freaks, Browning's creative freedom was greatly restricted.
In 1939 he directed Miracles for Sale, a mystery thriller about a magician detective who exposes psychic fraud in the course of solving a bewitching murder. MGM's legal department forbade Browning to reveal the workings of any magic tricks - for fear of offending any professional magicians associations. This proved the final straw for Browning who, at 59, retired from filmmaking.
Browning lived quietly in his Malibu home with wife Alice (his wife since 1917). Suffering from heart disease and cancer of the larynx, he died in 1962, leaving no children.
by Bret Wood
Fun fact: David Niven was one of the first Hollywood stars to join the war effort, joining the British commando service in 1940. His first feature movie after the war was Stairway To Heaven (1946), about WW2 pilots and others arriving in Heaven.
Freaks (1932) was banned in Britain for 30 years, directed by Tod Browning, and even the ending was edited out before it was released in America. This storyboard wasn't approved for filming (it involved an axe and a bag of feathers)
Fragi-le, must be Italian! Darren McGavin, A Christmas Story
Rod Serling co-wrote the original screenplay for Planet Of The Apes including the ending on the beach. What would it look like as a Twilight Zone episode? (opening narration comes from the episode "Elegy," closing narration comes from "The Shelter")
Doc Hudson is the Hudson Hornet