Asterisk indicates a film of exceptional interest
Saturday, September 26
8:00 a.m. (TNT)--HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1963)--An 'epic' saga, with more weaknesses than strengths, about three generations of western pioneers. Henry Fonda, Carroll Baker, Gregory Peck, George Peppard and countless others star. Co-directed by John Ford, Henry Hathaway and George Marshall.
*12:30 a.m. (TCM)--DREAMS (1955)--Ingmar Bergman directed this film about two women--a photo agency boss and a model--and their dreams, pleasures and crises. With Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Bjornstrand.
*2:00 a.m. (TCM)--CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972)--A drama about a dying woman, her sisters and a servant, directed by Ingmar Bergman. With Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullmann.
*4:00 a.m. (TCM)--SAWDUST AND TINSEL (1953)--A circus owner (Ake Gronberg) faces a series of moral dilemmas, involving the wife he deserted and his sexually driven mistress (Harriet Andersson). Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
6:00 p.m. (TCM)--AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)--Classic MGM musical directed by Vincente Minnelli and built around its Gershwin score; Alan Jay Lerner wrote the screenplay. Gene Kelly is an artist torn between gamine Leslie Caron and wealthy Nina Foch. With the irrepressible Oscar Levant.
*8:00 p.m. (TCM)--NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)--One of Alfred Hitchcock's wondrous late 1950s' color pieces, with Cary Grant as an ad executive turned into a wanted and hunted man.
*10:30 p.m. (TCM)--THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)--John Huston classic, based on the Dashiell Hammett novel, with Humphrey Bogart as private detective Sam Spade. Sidney Greenstreet, Mary Astor and Peter Lorre brilliantly co-star.
Sunday, September 27
12:30 a.m. (TCM)--MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)--Charles Laughton is memorable as the abominable Captain Bligh on board a British ship bound for the South Seas. Clark Gable is Fletcher Christian. Directed by Frank Lloyd.
1:45 a.m. (AMC)--JULIA (1977)--Vanessa Redgrave won an Oscar for her performance as the anti-fascist Julia based on Lillian Hellman's autobiographical work, Pentimento. With Jane Fonda, Jason Robards; directed by Fred Zinnemann.
3:00 a.m. (TCM)--THE DEER HUNTER (1978)--Michael Cimino's somewhat strained portrait of a group of Pennsylvania steelworkers, their experiences in Vietnam and back home again. With Robert De Niro, John Cazale, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, John Savage.
8:15 a.m. (AMC)--THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944)--Not a horror film at all, this is the story of a lonely girl who conjures up a vision of her father's mysterious first wife (Simone Simon from Cat People). Val Lewton produced, Robert Wise made his directorial debut.
*11:45 a.m. (TCM)--HIGH SIERRA (1941)--Wonderful, hard-boiled Raoul Walsh film about an ex-convict (Humphrey Bogart) and the two women in his life, a lame girl, Joan Leslie, whose treatment he pays for, and the tough, no-nonsense Ida Lupino. Final chase sequence in the mountains captures something essential about America. Written by John Huston and W.R. Burnett.
1:30 p.m. (Bravo)--THE BEST INTENTIONS (1992)--Bille August directed this film, written by Ingmar Bergman, about the courtship and marriage of Bergman's parents, in early 20th century Sweden. With Samuel Froler, Pernilla August.
*1:30 p.m. (TCM)--WHITE HEAT (1949)--Not-to-be-missed crime drama about hoodlum with a serious mother complex. James Cagney is unforgettable in Raoul Walsh's film.
2:00 p.m. (AMC)--THE WORLD IN HIS ARMS (1952)--Gregory Peck is an American ship's captain wooing an aristocratic Russian woman (Ann Blyth) in San Francisco in the 1850s. Raoul Walsh directed with his customary vigor.
3:00 p.m. (A&E)--BODY HEAT (1981)--Lawrence Kasdan directed this latter-day film noir, with William Hurt as a Florida lawyer manipulated by femme fatale Kathleen Turner (in her debut). Not as good as any of the films it pays homage to, but better than most of the other imitations.
3:30 p.m. (TCM)--GENTLEMAN JIM (1942)--Errol Flynn makes a dashing Jim Corbett, early boxing champion, in this biography directed by Raoul Walsh. Ward Bond plays John L. Sullivan with panache. Scripted by Vincent Lawrence and Horace McCoy (author of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, among other hard-boiled works).
5:45 p.m. (AMC)--HOME OF THE BRAVE (1949)--Mark Robson directed this well-meaning film about black GI suffering abuse from fellow US soldiers in the Pacific during World War II. One of the first to deal with racial discrimination.
*8:00 p.m. (TCM)--CASABLANCA (1942)--The Michael Curtiz classic about life and love in wartime Morocco, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
*10:00 p.m. (TCM)--CITIZEN KANE (1941)--Orson Welles' classic work, the tragic story of a newspaper tycoon with delusions of grandeur. Based loosely on the life of millionaire William Randolph Hearst, the film was essentially suppressed when it came out.
Monday, September 28
4:00 a.m. (AMC)--SPAWN OF THE NORTH (1938)--Henry Hathaway directed this intense and well-acted film about the Canadian fisheries. George Raft, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, John Barrymore and Akim Tamiroff starred.
*6:00 a.m. (TCM)--THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946)--John Garfield and Lana Turner play the illicit and doomed lovers in the film based on James M. Cain's novel. They kill her husband, the owner of a roadside diner, and suffer the consequences of nearly getting away with it. Tay Garnett directed.
*10:00 a.m. (TCM)--CASABLANCA (1942)--See Sunday, at 8:00 pm.
12:00 p.m. (TCM)--MILDRED PIERCE (1945)--Powerful melodrama, directed by Michael Curtiz, about a woman (Joan Crawford) who goes from rags to riches and her ungrateful daughter.
*2:00 p.m. (TBS)--SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (1949)--The second part of John Ford's cavalry trilogy, with John Wayne as an officer about to retire, drawn into campaign against a group of Indians. With Joanne Dru, Ben Johnson, Victor McLaglen.
6:00 p.m. (TCM)--IN THIS OUR LIFE (1942)--John Huston's second effort at directing. Bette Davis steals her sister's husband and eventually ruins her own life. Based on the novel by Ellen Glasgow. With Olivia de Haviland and George Brent.
*9:45 p.m. (AMC)--THE FAR COUNTRY (1955)--James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Walter Brennan and John McIntire co-star in this Anthony Mann western about a cattleman who brings his herd to Alaska and encounters many difficulties. As always with Mann, the Albert Bierstadt of movie directors, the exteriors are magnificent.
Tuesday, September 29
12:00 a.m. (TCM)--CORNERED (1945)--A postwar film noir with Dick Powell as a Canadian flyer tracking down Nazis in Argentina. Directed by future HUAC informer Edward Dmytryk.
1:00 a.m. (AMC)--MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936)--Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur play the leading roles in one of Frank Capra's Depression parables. Longfellow Deeds (Cooper) has twenty million dollars and wants to give it away to those in need; Arthur is the hard-boiled reporter trying to figure him out.
3:00 a.m. (AMC)--A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948)--Billy Wilder directed this story of post-war Germany, with Jean Arthur, an American provincial, sent to investigate conditions in Berlin, but falling in love. With Marlene Dietrich in fine form.
6:00 a.m. (TCM)--PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1940)--Hollywood's version of the Jane Austen classic about five sisters in early 19th century England. Laurence Olivier is the standout as the proud Darcy; Greer Garson plays the 'prejudiced' Elizabeth Bennett. Robert Z. Leonard directed; Aldous Huxley helped write the screenplay.
10:00 a.m. (TCM)--THE VALLEY OF DECISION (1945)--Tay Garnett directed this interesting film about romance and labor strife. Greer Garson is a maid who becomes involved with Gregory Peck; his family owned a mine in which her father and brother were killed. Set in Pittsburgh in 1870.
12:15 p.m. (AMC)--THE SONG OF BERNADETTE (1943)--Jennifer Jones is a 19th century French girl who sees visions and stirs up a storm in her village, in Henry King's version of the Franz Werfel novel.
4:45 p.m. (AMC)--I CONFESS (1953)--Alfred Hitchcock's tale of priest, played by Montgomery Clift, who hears a confession of a murder and later becomes accused of the crime. Filmed in Quebec.
6:00 p.m. (TCM)--MOBY DICK (1956)--John Huston's not entirely successful adaptation of Herman Melville's classic novel. Gregory Peck is an unexciting Captain Ahab; Richard Basehart is Ishmael. Huston and Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay.
*8:00 p.m. (AMC)--MEN IN WAR (1957)--The seriously underrated Anthony Mann directed this film about the Korean War. With a cast of stalwart character actors, including Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray and Vic Morrow (father of Jennifer Jason Leigh).
10:40 p.m. (TBS)--A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964)--In the first of Sergio Leone's Italian Westerns Clint Eastwood, in the role that made him a star, plays the Man With No Name. The story, a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo, involves warring families in a border town. Ennio Morricone's score is striking. With Gian Maria Volonté and Marianne Koch.
Wednesday, September 30
12:45 a.m. (AMC)--DARK CITY (1950)--Charlton Heston in his film debut, as a cynical lowlife who, along with a few accomplices, takes Don DeFore in a card game, with unforeseen consequences. Future Dragnet co-stars, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, are two of Heston's pals. With Lizabeth Scott and Viveca Lindfors. Directed by William Dieterle.
4:30 a.m. (AMC)--BLACK ANGEL (1946)--Woman tries desperately to prove that her husband did not kill another man's wife. Based on a story by Cornell Woolrich and directed by Roy William Neill, the film stars Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford and Wallace Ford.
9:00 a.m. (AMC)--THE STAR (1952)--Stuart Heisler directed this film about a movie star whose career is a thing of the past, with Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden and a young Natalie Wood.
10:30 a.m. (AMC)--GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT (1947)--Gregory Peck is a writer who pretends to be Jewish to gauge anti-Semitism. Moss Hart wrote the relatively tame script; Elia Kazan directed.
2:30 p.m. (AMC)--PEOPLE WILL TALK (1951)--Odd film, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with Cary Grant as a philosophizing doctor, married to Jeanne Crain. He is accused of malpractice and has to defend himself.
9:35 p.m. (AMC)--AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957)--Leo McCarey directed this remake of his own 1939 Love Affair (Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer), this time with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. A shipboard romance has unexpected complications on land. Sentimental, but it has something.
10:00 p.m. (TCM)--SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)--Is there anyone who hasn't seen this film by now? Anyway, it's a remarkable musical, with Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, about the days of silent film. Stanley Donen and Kelly directed.
Thursday, October 1
12:00 a.m. (TCM)--SHOW BOAT (1936)--Paul Robeson is unforgettable singing 'Old Man River' in James Whale's version of the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical about riverboat entertainers. Helen Morgan is also memorable singing 'Bill.' With Irene Dunne, Allan Jones.
*1:40 a.m. (TBS)--RIO GRANDE (1950)--One of John Ford's great cavalry films. John Wayne is an officer with family problems. Claude Jarman, Jr., is his son, Maureen O'Hara his wife.
4:15 a.m. (AMC)--A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)--Andy Griffith, in his film debut, as country boy made into a huge television star. With Lee Remick, also in her debut. Directed by Elia Kazan, script by Budd Schulberg (same team as On the Waterfront).
6:00 a.m. (TCM)--ON THE TOWN (1949)--Memorable MGM musical--three sailors with 24 hours' leave in New York City. Based on the show by Betty Comden-Adolph Green-Leonard Bernstein, with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Vera-Ellen and Betty Garrett. Directed by Stanley Donen and Kelly.
*5:45 p.m. (AMC)--SERGEANT RUTLEDGE (1960)--Woody Strode plays a black US cavalry soldier charged with rape and murder in post-Civil War America. John Ford directed. With Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers.
*6:00 p.m. (TCM)--THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)--See Saturday, at 10:30 pm.
8:00 p.m. (AMC)--JULIA (1977)--See Sunday, at 1:45 am.
8:00 p.m. (TCM)--SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961)--Warren Beatty and Sandy Dennis made their debuts in Elia Kazan's film about a small-town Kansas girl (Natalie Wood) in the 1920s suffering the consequences of sexual repression.
Friday, October 2
12:30 a.m. (TCM)--ROMEO AND JULIET (1968)--Franco Zeffirelli's lush version of the famous love tragedy. Overwrought and simplified, but entertaining. With 17-year-old Leonard Whiting and 15-year-old Olivia Hussey in the leading roles.
2:00 a.m. (AMC)--CHAMPION (1949)--Effective boxing drama, with Kirk Douglas as selfish, ambitious fighter determined to get to the top and stay there. Paul Stewart is his friend whom he betrays. Directed by Mark Robson.
2:30 a.m. (TNT)--VICTOR/VICTORIA (1982)--Julie Andrews masquerades as a man to make a career for herself in Paris night-clubs in the 1930s. Director Blake Edwards wants to say something about sexual roles, but the results seem a little weak. With James Garner. Lesley Ann Warren is painful to watch.
*4:00 a.m. (A&E)--DETOUR (1945)--Edgar G. Ulmer, German expatriate and legendary denizen of Hollywood's Poverty Row, directed this remarkable low-budget work. Tom Neal is a drifter who becomes tragically involved with Ann Savage--and Fate--while hitch-hiking from one coast to the other. Not to be missed.
*9:00 a.m. (AMC)--SERGEANT RUTLEDGE (1960) - See Thursday, at 5:45 pm.
12:00 p.m. (TCM)--A DAY AT THE RACES (1937)--Marx Brothers' foolishness. Set in a sanitarium where rich and hypochondriacal Margaret Dumont is the most prominent patient. Directed by Sam Wood.
*2:00 p.m. (TCM)--A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)--Along with Duck Soup, one of the Marx Brothers' best efforts. Unfortunately, a silly, uninteresting love story occasionally gets in the way. Directed by Sam Wood; with the inimitable Margaret Dumont, also Kitty Carlisle and Alan Jones.
4:00 p.m. (Bravo)--NIAGARA (1953)-- Marilyn Monroe is an adulterous wife planning to kill her husband (Joseph Cotton) on their honeymoon at Niagara Falls, in this somewhat overwrought, but tense film, directed by Henry Hathaway.
6:00 p.m. (TCM)--KEY LARGO (1948)--A brutal gangster (Edward G. Robinson) holds a group of people hostage in a hotel during a hurricane. Humphrey Bogart is a returning veteran. Based on Maxwell Anderson's play, script by John Huston (who directed) and Richard Brooks. With Claire Trevor.
10:30 p.m. (AMC)--Hollywood or Bust (1956)--Frank Tashlin directed this Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis film (their last together), about a simpleton and a gambler out to make it in Hollywood. With Anita Ekberg.