Born on July 17: John E. Brennan in 1865; Mauritz Stiller in 1883; Jack Conway in 1887; Stanley Ridges in 1890; Mary Clare in 1892; James Cagney in 1899; William Gargan in 1905; John Carroll in 1906; Barbara O’Neil in 1910; Irene Manning in 1912; June Vincent in 1920; Helen Walker in 1920; and Acquanetta in 1921.
All links lead to each actor’s IMDb page, set to open in a new tab.
Classic Movie Daily subscribers will find images of James Cagney, William Gargan, and Helen Walker inside today’s issue—plus a clippings post for each of those three.
TCM TV Alerts through Monday, July 20 at 7 am:
These titles play on TCM’s US schedule and all quoted times are for my own local Eastern time zone.
—TCM Friday, 7:45 am – 5:30 am, Summer of Darkness. Titles I’ve enjoyed that play Friday include Tension (1950 – 7:45 am), Where Danger Lives (1950 – 9:30 am), Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951 – 4:45 pm), and 99 River Street (1953 – 12:15 am). Also playing is The Racket (1951 – 8:00 pm) with Roberts Ryan and Mitchum. Director John Cromwell is one of my favorites, but I’m not a big fan of this particular title. I did like the earlier silent version from Lewis Milestone, so here’s my review of that 1928 release if you’d like to compare after TCM plays the ’51 version.
—Saturday, 6:00 am, TCM: Captain Blood (1935), still my favorite adventure film. Errol Flynn amazing in his first big leading role.
—Saturday, 8:15 am, TCM: Crime and Punishment (1935), underrated adaptation from director Josef von Sternberg stars Peter Lorre, Marian Marsh, and Edward Arnold. Von Sternberg gets the best performance of Marian Marsh’s career out of her in this one.
—Saturday, 10:00 pm, TCM: The Last Hurrah (1958), Spencer Tracy stars in John Ford film that reunites many classic stars of the 1930s on the campaign trail. See Basil Rathbone, Pat O’Brien, Donald Crisp, James Gleason, Edward Brophy, Frank McHugh, Jane Darwell, and, returning to the screen for his final feature release, Ricardo Cortez.
—Saturday, 12:15 am, TCM: The Dark Horse (1932), Warren William in his never-say-die pre-Code persona is so full of bluster that he even tries to get Hicks from the Sticks, Guy Kibbee at his dopiest, elected Governor. With Bette Davis in one of her early leading lady roles. Starts strong, ends weak, but still a great example of William doing what he did best. Here’s my full review at my Warren William site.
—Sunday, 6:00 am, TCM: Mrs. Parkington (1944), Greer Garson, made up to be in her 80s, looks back on her life and love of a man played by, who else, Walter Pidgeon. Entertaining, if on the long side. Pidgeon is a blast here, the movie loses a lot after his character disappears. Strange to hear Edward Arnold call Garson “Grannie.” I enjoy this one though, it all clicks for me.
—Sunday, 8:00 pm, TCM: Metropolis (1926), always beautiful to look at.
—Sunday, 11:00 pm, TCM: Fury (1936), more Fritz Lang in gripping story of lynch mob gunning for star Spencer Tracy, and Tracy subsequently seeking his vengeance on the mob. One of my favorites, Sylvia Sidney, is romantic support and gets a few decent scenes. Great film. Congratulations to my friend Raquel for having her essay about this classic published on the Library of Congress website.
—GetTV runs those four Crime Doctor titles again early Saturday morning (5:30 am – 12:00 pm) and slips the Stanwyck pre-Code Shopworn (1932) on late Saturday night at 4:00 am. Ho hum.
Cliff’s Notes
—Congratulations to Laura on the 10-year anniversary of her blog Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings. Laura’s one of the most prolific bloggers out there, classic movies or otherwise, typically posting multiple new articles on a daily basis. When I put together a new review, nine times out of ten, she’s already covered whatever I’m writing about! She’s one of a few inspirations towards my going daily here, and heck, I couldn’t cut it, had to kill weekends after only a few months.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, Laura, in conjunction with Warner Archive, is giving away three different sets of Warner Archive DVDs—and all you have to do to enter the contest is leave a comment on her tenth anniversary post HERE. Best of luck to you when she draws the names!
Congratulations again, Laura!
—Looking for some weekend reading? This week Kristina of Speakeasy and Karen of Shadows and Satin co-hosted a 1947 Blogathon, which will be right up your alley if you’ve been enjoying TCM’s Summer of Darkness schedules. Kristina has a recap post HERE that links to recaps of each of the three days of the Blogathon.
—That’s all for me this morning. I spent a good portion of Thursday night seeking out the clippings that follow, so I’m pretty bushed! I also scribbled some notes for a new Lightning Review, it should be ready for Monday morning’s mailing.
Happy weekend, back Monday—
Cliff
Above: Acquanetta in Dead Man’s Eyes (1944).
Cliff, that was so nice of you to write about me in your daily news report! Thank you!!
I am thoroughly enjoying your daily takes and am so glad I “got with the program” and subscribed!! It’s great fun to get your thoughts each day on various topics. I plan to alert my readers to this in a future roundup. 🙂
Thanks again,
Laura
You’re welcome, Laura, and thank you for putting out that alert! As of today, everybody got with the program … I merged all subscriptions into the Daily. So far, so good!