Know what? I just realized that I’m overdue to plug my favorite films for week two of Turner Classic Movie’s annual SUMMER UNDER THE STARS hoo-hah! Since I finished up last time with August 7 [see post] you’re probably expecting me to begin with August 8 except SURPRISE! HAHAHA! YOU’RE WRONG! The featured star on August 8 is Jeanne Moreau, and I don’t speak French and don’t enjoy movies with subtitles because you can’t look away for five seconds to eat a cookie or blow your nose. Therefore I’ll start instead on August 9.
AUGUST 9: WILLIAM POWELL. He’s definitely a huge favorite around here! Don’t miss: Road to Singapore (1931) with Louis Calhern; Jewel Robbery (1932) with Kay Francis; Lawyer Man (1933) with Joan Blondell; Double Harness (1933) with Ann Harding; Manhattan Melodrama (1934) with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy; Libeled Lady (1936) with Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow; Double Wedding (1937) with Myrna Loy; I Love You Again (1940) with Myrna Loy; Love Crazy (1941) with Myrna Loy; The Thin Man (1934) with Myrna Loy; After the Thin Man (1936) with Myrna Loy; Mister Roberts (1955) with James Cagney and Henry Fonda; and High Pressure (1932) with Evelyn Brent.
AUGUST 10: CAROLE LOMBARD. No More Orchids (1932) with Lyle Talbot; Lady by Choice (1934) with May Robson; Twentieth Century (1934) with John Barrymore; Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), an ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL screwball comedy with Robert Montgomery; To Be or Not to Be (1942) with Jack Benny; and Nothing Sacred (1937) with Fredric March.
AUGUST 11: MARLON BRANDO. Marlon Brando could do damn near everything and here’s the proof: really adorable World War II service comedy in The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) with Glenn Ford; singing and dancing in Guys and Dolls (1955) with Frank Sinatra; classic angst in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) with Vivien Leigh; and he even does Shakespeare in Julius Caesar (1953) with an all-star cast including Sir John Gielgud, James Mason and Louis Calhern. (Just about everybody gets stabbed to death. It’s excellent.)
AUGUST 12: ALEXIS SMITH. The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945) with Jack Benny; Rhapsody in Blue (1945), a completely bullshit biography of George Gershwin with Robert Alda and Joan Leslie (at least the music’s great); Night and Day (1946), a completely bullshit biography of Cole Porter with Cary Grant (again, the music); Gentleman Jim (1942) with Errol Flynn; San Antonio (1945) with Errol Flynn; Conflict (1945) with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet; and The Young Philadelphians (1959) with Paul Newman and Robert Vaughn. (Do NOT miss Robert Vaughn’s performance in this movie. Seriously.)
AUGUST 13: CARY GRANT. Every Cary Grant movie on August 13 is worth watching so I’ll list them all because I really love to type. So here goes: The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy; Bringing Up Baby (1938) with Katharine Hepburn; His Girl Friday (1940) with Rosalind Russell; My Favorite Wife (1940) with Irene Dunne; The Philadelphia Story (1940) with Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart; Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Raymond Massey and Priscilla Lane; The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1948) with Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple; Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) with Betsy Drake; Hot Saturday (1932) with Nancy Carroll; Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) with Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas; Gunga Din (1938) with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Victor McLaglen; Destination Tokyo (19453) with John Garfield; and Room for One More (1952) with Betsy Drake.
AUGUST 14: CHARLIE CHAPLIN. This is your lucky day if you’re into silent movies because most of Chaplin’s films on August 14 are from the silent era. Here are my picks (some are silent, some are not): Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914) with Marie Dressler; Sunnyside (1919) with Edna Purviance; The Gold Rush (1925); Modern Times (1936) with Paulette Goddard; The Great Dictator (1940) wih Paulette Goddard; The Kid (1921) with Jackie Coogan; and Monsieur Verdoux (1947) with Martha Raye.
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