The Howdygram 2: I don’t like Clint Eastwood and I refuse to recommend any of his movies.

Friday, August 3, 2018

I don’t like Clint Eastwood and I refuse to recommend any of his movies.

It’s August, boys and girls, and time once again for Summer Under the Stars on Turner Classic Movies! TCM features a different movie star every day of the month, giving you a chance to see 24 hours of nonstop Peter Lorre movies (for instance) or maybe Doris Day movies. Here’s TCM’s schedule for the rest of the month, and as each few days approach I’ll let you know which movies you shouldn’t plan to miss under any circumstances. (Do with this information whatever you will ... although watching great TV is the general idea here!)

I apologize for the length of that list. But I guess I’ll use it now as a springboard to recommend a few movies for today, tomorrow, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday … okay?

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 … LIONEL ATWILL

The Devil is a Woman (1935) starring Marlene Dietrich
Captain Blood (1935) starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) with Fay Wray
The Vampire Bat (1933) with Melvyn Douglas
Mark of the Vampire (1935) with Lionel Barrymore and Elizabeth Allen

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5 … KATHARINE HEPBURN

Little Women (1933) with Joan Bennett
The Philadelphia Story (1940) with James Stewart and Cary Grant
Pat and Mike (1952) with Spencer Tracy
Desk Set (1957) with Spencer Tracy

MONDAY, AUGUST 6 … AUDREY TOTTER

The Cockeyed Miracle (1946) with Frank Morgan and Cecil Kellaway
Lady in the Lake (1947) with Robert Montgomery

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 … HAROLD LLOYD

The Milky Way (1936) with Adolphe Menjou and Veree Teasdale
Movie Crazy (1932) with Constance Cummings

And a few more items of note ...

LIONEL ATWILL (August 3) is fabulous in horror movies are there are a bunch of them you shouldn’t miss today, such as The Vampire Bat and Mark of the Vampire. And he has a great role in Captain Blood, which isn’t in the horror genre at all despite the title … it’s a classic swashbuckler that launched Errol Flynn into instant stardom.
I don’t like CLINT EASTWOOD (August 4) and I refuse to recommend any of his movies. Deal with it.
AUDREY TOTTER (August 6) is the queen of film noir. I don’t really care for any of her movies … with the exception of The Cockeyed Miracle (a quirky story, great cast) and Lady in the Lake (because I love Robert Montgomery).
I think HAROLD LLOYD (August 7) is fantastic but I honestly don’t have the patience to watch consecutive silent films. However, TCM is showing a couple of his “talkies” that are definitely worth seeing! The Milky Way and Movie Crazy are both terrific and were even remade more than once! The Milky Way was remade by Danny Kaye as The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), and Movie Crazy was remade by Stuart Erwin as Make Me a Star (1933) and by Red Skelton as Merton of the Movies (1947).