Born on this date: C. Aubrey Smith in 1863; James O’Neill in 1863; Maria Falconetti in 1892; Lenore Ulric in 1892; Ken Maynard in 1895; Gladys Hulette in 1896; Allyn Joslyn in 1901; and William Pawley in 1905.
All links lead to each actor’s IMDb page, set to open in a new tab.
Classic Movie Daily subscribers will find images of Lenore Ulrich and Ken Maynard, plus a couple of others, inside today’s issue.
TCM TV Alerts through tomorrow at 7 am:
These titles play on TCM’s US schedule and all quoted times are for my own local Eastern time zone.
—It’s a great day to watch a ballgame or pop in a DVD. Maybe sign up for GetTV, though if you already have it, you’ve seen these before.
—TCM’s daytime theme is based around “time” beginning with the 6:30 am opening act I mentioned yesterday, Star of Midnight (1935), and running through The Devil At Four O’Clock (1961) at 4:45 pm. In between the highlights are WWII movie Twelve O’Clock High (1949 – 9:45 am) and Western classic 3:10 to Yuma (1957 – 3:00 pm).
—The TCM evening theme, “Seeing Red,” opens with Cover Girl (1944 – 8:00 pm) and The Quiet Man (1952 – 10:00 pm) and doesn’t do much more for me than the daytime schedule did.
—Get ready for a run of Spencer Tracy movies come Wednesday morning on TCM. It’s by no means the greatest schedule of Tracy films, but it sticks to the 1930s and early ’40s with a couple of goodies tucked in. One of the better titles is the opener, 20,000 Years at Sing Sing (1932 – 6:15 am), a little bit long and never winding up quite as good as I expect, but an entertaining ride for a little while. Tracy stars with Bette Davis. Back with the rest tomorrow.
—GetTV Tuesday offers one of the best of the Frank Capra/Barbara Stawncyk films, The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932 – 5:00 pm) in the late afternoon, with a double-helping of Capra’s adaptation of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon (1937) playing in the evening hours, first at 9:00 pm, later at 2:05 am. I don’t know why they’re showing it twice, but it sure helps fill the hours. Later that morning a double shot of Chester Morris as Boston Blackie begins with Alias Boston Blackie (1942) at 5:10 am, followed by Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood (1942) at 6:45 am.
Cliff’s Notes
—I was alerted to a home video release by Kendahl Cruver’s post at Classicflix about the Olive Films DVD and Blu-Ray release of Republic Pictures Western Man of Conquest (1939). Don’t be afraid of Richard Dix looking like a pilgrim on the cover, he’s actually starring as Sam Houston in a better-than-expected offering peppered with familiar character actors in famed roles: Edward Ellis as Andrew Jackson, Victor Jory as William B. Travis, Robert Barrat as David Crockett, Robert Armstrong as Jim Bowie, and our old pal C. Henry Gordon as Santa Ana. Plus Gail Patrick and Joan Fontaine (small part) as Houston’s wives. Recommended purchase, I’m even going to upgrade my gray-market copy eventually.
Once more, Kendahl’s post, and be sure to visit her own blog as well.
—And I’m going to have to cut us short right there. I just finished seeking out some representative C. Aubrey Smith clippings, which follow after the next few birthday photos, and all of a sudden it’s 6:55 am. This will be in your inbox within 5-6 minutes of my pressing the publish button, which means I’d better press it now!
Talk to you tomorrow,
Cliff
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