Carter Stevens' Guide to TCM This Week (June 1-14)

Been occupied with health issues for the last several weeks so I'm going to try and catch up a little. Hope somebody out there missed me.


JUNE 1

1:00pm  Some Like It Hot (1959)  
Two musicians on the run from gangsters masquerade as members of an all-girl band.
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft Dir: Billy Wilder BW-121 mins, TV-PG

Only Billy Wilder could take a one joke film and make it a classic. And Marilyn just walking away from the camera out acts everybody else.

10:00pm  Rocky (1976) 
A dimwitted boxer fights to prove he can go the distance against a glamorous champ.
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers Dir: John G. Avildsen C-120 mins, TV-14

For years everyone thought Stallone was that guy but everyone always forgets he wrote the original screenplay.  Forget the endless sequels see this original masterpiece.


JUNE 2

9:30pm   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, Peter Bull Dir: John Huston C-105 mins, TV-PG

Action, Adventure, but most important it's a tender love story told by a master director with two great actors.


JUNE 3

4:45pm  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, Joan O'Brien, Dina Merrill Dir: Blake Edwards C-121 mins, TV-G

Cary Grant shows how easily he did "Cary Grant". Tony Curtis studied his every move so he could channel him for "Some like it Hot", but all in all a cute film.

JUNE 4

10:00pm  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, Peter Lorre Dir: Richard Fleischer C-127 mins, TV-G

Disney does Verne. (actually does him well too.)


JUNE 5

5:15am  Perversion For Profit (1965)
This anti-porn documentary shows a floodtide of filth engulfing the country in the form of newsstand obscenity
Cast: George Putnam narrates. BW-31 mins, TV-MA
EVERYBODY needs to see this film. A laugh a minute. Light up a joint, put one of my porn films in the DVD player for afterwards and enjoy.

12:00pm  Paint Your Wagon (1970)  
Two California miners share a gold claim and a wife.
Cast: Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg, Harve Presnell Dir: Joshua Logan C-159 mins, TV-14

Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood sing!! Not really, I wouldn't call it singing, but Harve Presnell does "Maria" justice. Over done but I still love this film.


JUNE 6

10:15am   Strangers On A Train(1951)  
A man's joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Leo G. Carroll Dir: Alfred Hitchcock BW-101 mins, TV-PG

I know some people will argue but...Hitchcock never made a better film.


JUNE 7

4:15am  Defiant Ones, The (1958)  
Two convicts, a white racist and an angry black, escape while chained to each other.
Cast: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel, Charles McGraw Dir: Stanley Kramer BW-96 mins, TV-PG

A white guy chained to a black guy (and a better looking guy at that). They sure knew how to punish those white boys in the south..


JUNE 8

It's  The Saint day on TCM.  6 different  Saint movies in a row and the first one stars my favorite movie Saint... Louis Hayward. (But here is a shout out to Roger Moore who was a much better Saint on TV then he was a James Bond in the movies)


JUNE 9

7, count them 7 Bride movies in a row. (and not one Brother. Come on TCM no 7 Brides for 7 Brothers? And why not program them on the 7th.  Which programer missed that one.).  Not to the taste of this 3x marriage loser.


JUNE 10

8:00pm  Diabolique (1955)  
A cruel man's wife and lover plot to kill him. Cast: Paul Meurisse, Vera Clouzot, Simone Signoret, Charles Vanei Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot BW-116 mins, TV-14

The French do Noir. And do it damn well.

2:15am  Deadly Affair, The (1966) 
A secret agent investigates the tangled affairs surrounding a government official's suicide. Cast: James Mason, Simone Signoret, Maximilian Schell, Harriet Andersson Dir: Sidney Lumet. C-107 mins, TV-14

Lumet does La Carre, and nobody does it better than La Carre.


JUNE 11

A full day of  Jacques Cousteau. 19 full hours of the undersea world. Don't tell me, I'll bet it's his Birthday. What's that you say,  you don't like underwater footage...swim for your life.

JUNE 12

12:30am  Bullitt (1968) 
When mobsters kill the witness he was assigned to protect, a dedicated policeman investigates the case on his own.
Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon Dir: Peter Yates C-114 mins, TV-MA

Forget the famous car chase (which is just as good as it is reported to be).  This film is a taunt tight little cop film that stands on it's own without the chase.


JUNE 13

3:00pm   Judgment At Nuremberg(1961)  
An aging American judge presides over the trial of Nazi war criminals.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich Dir: Stanley Kramer BW-179 mins, TV-14

I'd watch Spencer Tracy read the phone book. And Burt Lancaster acts against type. A damn powerful film.

9:30pm  All the King's Men (1949)  
A backwoods politician rises to the top only to become corrupted.
Cast: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Joanne Dru, John Derek Dir: Robert Rossen BW-110 mins, TV-PG

A film so good it almost makes me forget about that damned book report I had to write in college.

JUNE 14

1:45am   Rebel Without a Cause(1955) 
An alienated teenager tries to handle life's troubles and an apron-wearing dad.
Cast: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Dennis Hopper Dir: Nicholas Ray C-111 mins, TV-PG

James Dean shows why he is a legend even with so few films to show and Jim Backus makes you forget all about Mr. Magoo.