While in the middle of writing this post, I discovered that TCM has updated its website. I’m still deciding on how I feel about it. A positive is that the website looks brighter and is more mobile-friendly. On the other hand, I have to go to the daily/monthly schedule to find out when the films air now and I don’t know what is coming up later in the month.
STAR OF THE MONTH: PETER CUSHING (MONDAYS IN OCTOBER)
It is fitting that a horror film star is October’s Star of the Month. Peter Cushing has been credited for turning horror movies into an art form. Cushing appeared in more than 100 films in six decades including a little film called Star Wars.
Peter Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Surrey, England to a family with a history of performing. His paternal grandfather and aunt were actor. Peter always wanted to be an actor. He performed in school plays and later won a scholarship to Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. By the age of 26, Cushing decided to try his luck in Hollywood. He did score some roles in America including a Laurel and Hardy film, A Chump at Oxford (October 6 @ 6:15AM/5:15AM) and the Carole Lombard drama Vigil in the Night (October 6 @ 7:30AM/6:30AM). As with a lot of British actors, Cushing felt the pull to return home to England when war was declared. Peter’s health prevented him from serving on the front lines, so he joined an entertainment unit and performed for the troops. There he met his wife Helen and they spent 28 years together before her death in 1971.
Cushing finally had his big break when he was cast as Osric in Laurence Olivier’s adaptation of Hamlet (October 6 @ 3:30AM/2:30AM). During the 1950s, Cushing had supporting roles in the first adaptation of Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair (October 5 @ 9:30PM/8:30PM) and John Paul Jones (October 6 @ 1:15AM/12:15AM). Hammer time for Cushing began in 1957 when he campaigned for the role of Baron Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (October 20 @ 1AM/midnight). The monster was played by Christopher Lee and the duo went toe-to-toe in nearly two dozen films including Horror of Dracula (October 19 @ 9:30PM/8:30PM), The Hound of the Baskervilles (October 19 @ 8PM/7PM) and The Mummy (October 19 @ 11:15PM/10:15PM). Peter Cushing made a total of 22 films for Hammer Horror. Peter Cushing died in 1994 at the age of 81.
WOMEN MAKE FILM (TUESDAYS IN OCTOBER)
As stated in the September on TCM post, I will be creating a separate post on October’s lineup of Women Make Film.
TCM SPOTLIGHT: 30 YEARS OF THE FILM FOUNDATION (THURSDAYS IN OCTOBER)
TCM celebrates the 30th anniversary of The Film Foundation, a non-profit established by Martin Scorsese and other filmmakers to restore, preserve, and protect motion picture history. The Film Foundation has restored over 850 films (and counting) that have been made available to museums, festivals and institutions around the world. The spin-off The World Cinema Project has restored 42 films (and counting) from 25 countries. The Film Foundation also has a free educational curriculum, The Story of Movies, which so far has taught over ten million students about film language and history. The first films offered were Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Twenty films restored by The Film Foundation and five films from the World Cinema Project will air. They are on October 1
- Frederico Fellini’s La Strada (8PM/7PM)
- Stanley Donen’s Two for the Road (10PM/9PM)
- William Wyler’s Dodsworth (midnight/11PM)
- The Western Destry Rides Again (2AM/1AM)
- The French-Senegalese film Black Girl (3:45AM/2:45AM) part of the World Cinema Project
October 8 starts with
- The 1931 adaptation of The Front Page (8PM/7PM)
- The film noir Detour (10PM/9PM)
- The Frank Sinatra addiction drama The Man with the Golden Arm (11:30PM/10:30PM)
- The first adaptation of Leo McCarey’s Love Affair (1:45AM/12:45AM)
- The Taiwanese crime drama A Bright Summer Day (3:30AM/2:30AM)
On October 15
- The Alec Guinness war drama Tunes of Glory (8PM/7PM)
- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (10PM/9PM)
- Fred Zinnemann’s war drama The Seventh Cross (1AM/midnight)
- George Stevens’ The Diary of Anne Frank (3AM/2AM)
- The Moroccan musical documentary Trances (6:15AM/5:15AM)
October 22 has
- Ronald Reagan’s final film The Killers (8PM/7PM
- John Garfield’s penultimate film The Breaking Point (9:45PM/8:45PM)
- The two-Technicolor horror movie Mystery of the Wax Museum (11:30PM/10:30PM)
- George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1AM/midnight)
- The joint India/Bangladesh production of A River Called Titas (3AM/2AM)
Finally on October 29
- The Anthony Mann western Winchester ’73 (8PM/7PM)
- John Ford’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon 10PM/9PM)
- The 1960 documentary Primary (midnight/11PM)
- The JFK documentary Crisis: Behind a Presidental Commitment
- The Mexican horror film Dos Monjes (2:15AM/1:15AM)
TCM SPECIAL THEME: FRIGHT FAVORITES (FRIDAYS IN OCTOBER)
TCM just comes out right and says it. Doesn’t 2020 feel like a horror movie? So TCM is again bringing some of the cinema’s best chillers for a little bit of escapism. Joining host Ben Mankiewicz is author David J. Skal who recently wrote Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond.
The fun starts on October 2 with Dracula (8PM/7PM) followed by Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People (9:30PM/8:30PM), the 1959 version of William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill (11PM/10PM) and Robert Wise’s The Haunting (12:30AM/11:30PM). Don’t watch the remake, it’s a load of crap.
October 9 focuses on people(?) rising from the dead starting with The Ghoul (8PM/7PM) starring horror icon Boris Karloff and ending with another viewing of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (12:15AM/11:15PM).
October 16 focuses on horror anthologies beginning with the British chiller Dead of Night (8PM/7PM) followed by a trio of tales written by Nathaniel Hawthorne Twice-Told Tales (10PM/9PM) and Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (12:15AM/11:15PM).
October 23 is all about the creatures starting with The Creature From the Black Lagoon (8PM/7PM) followed by The Blob (9:30PM/8:30PM) featuring 28-year-old Steve McQueen as a teenager, William Castle’s gimmick The Tingler (11:15PM/10:15PM) and Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World (12:45AM/11:45PM).
Finally on October 30 we celebrate(?) the devil with The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (8PM/7PM) Eye of the Devil (9:15PM/8:15PM) The Devil’s Bride (11PM/10PM) and the insane The Wicker Mam (12:45AM/11:45AM). It’s not the one with the lady punching
and the bees.
NOIR ALLEY
October’s offering of noir starts with Where the Sidewalk Ends on October 3 & 4, The Racket (1951 version) on October 10 & 11, Destination Murder on October 17 & 18, Macao on October 24 & 25 and appropriate for Halloween (plus November 1) The Seventh Victim.
HAPPY 125TH BIRTHDAY BUSTER KEATON!! (OCTOBER 4)
Buster Keaton is 125 years young today and TCM is celebrating his milestone birthday with an evening of Keaton’s greatest hits. The fun starts with friend of TCM Peter Bogdonavich’s 2018 documentary The Great Buster: A Celebration (6PM/5PM) followed by the 1924 how did he do that? Sherlock Jr. (8PM/7PM), Keaton’s magnum opus The General (9PM/8PM), another how did he do that Steamboat Bill Jr. (10:30PM/9:30PM), and the get married by a certain day film Seven Chances (midnight/11PM)
STARRING ANDY GRIFFITH (OCTOBER 7)
Andy Griffith is mostly known for his television roles as Sheriff Andy Taylor and attorney Ben Matlock but has anyone seen his hypnotic and frighteningly real performance as Lonesome Rhodes in still powerful and timely A Face in the Crowd (10:15PM/9:15PM)? Hell, this performance scared Griffith off from doing more dramatic work for years. Other films in this tribute include No Time for Sergeants (8PM/7PM) and Onionhead (2:30AM/1:30AM), both released in 1958, and the Western comedy Hearts of the West (12:30AM/11:30PM).
ALMOST LOST (OCTOBER 18)
TCM presents a double feature of two 1980s films which were almost lost to history. First up is the TCM premiere of Cane River (8PM/7PM) which was released in 1982 and scheduled for a wider release but the director, Horace B. Jenkins, died of cancer on December 3, 1982 (two weeks before I was born!). Richard Pryor tried to make a deal with Warner Bros. for release but was declined. The film was rediscovered in 2013 and re-released in 2018. The second film airing tonight is another 1982 film, Losing Ground (10PM/9PM). This film never played outside the film festival circuit and the director, Kathleen Collins, died in 1988. In 2015, the movie was restored by Collins’ daughter, Nina, and reissued.
Mariah's Musings 