Completely forgot about this yesterday. My bad. And I’m short on time today, so this is just TCM for this week.

Monday, November 17

2:30am / 1:30am (18th) – TCM – Hamlet (1948)
Laurence Olivier’s version of Shakespeare’s play is moody and dark, as befitting melancholy Denmark. This is the Hamlet adaptation by which all others are judged, though it’s easily possibly to prefer other takes on the play. That’s why Shakespeare is awesome. (Repeats 11/23 at 9:30 EST.)

Tuesday, November 18

6:15pm / 5:15pm – TCM – Ride the High Country
In the 1960s, Sam Peckinpah contributed to the beginnings of the revisionist western, taking complicated heroes and violence to new levels – in Ride the High Country, Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott (who had both starred in many westerns throughout the 1930s and 1940s) play jaded cowboys hired to transport gold who get caught up in a family feud that forces them to confront their own differences and troubled pasts. It’s a fairly simple plot on the surface, but goes much deeper than most westerns of the time.

8:00pm / 7:00pm – TCM – To Have and Have Not
Or, the film that brought Bogart and Bacall together. Or, the film Howard Hawks made after bragging that he could turn Hemingway’s worst novel into a good movie. And he did, largely by ignoring the novel entirely except for the title. Even so, the best parts of the movie remain the ones that highlight the incredible chemistry between Bogart and Bacall. “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve?” Oh, yeah.

9:45pm / 8:45pm – TCM – Adam’s Rib
Speaking of chemistry, how about some Hepburn and Tracy? This is their best film together and possibly the best battle of the sexes film as well. They play married attorneys who end up on opposite sides of a trial involving a wife who shot her husband after he cheated on her. Add in Judy Holliday as the wife, Tom Ewell as the husband, and Jean Hagen (of Singin’ in the Rain Lina Lamont fame) as the other woman, there’s really no way this film can go wrong.

11:30pm / 10:30pm – TCM – Top Hat
Arguably the best of the Astaire-Rogers films, at least if you ask me (many also support Swing Time). Fred chases Ginger, as usual, but she mistakenly thinks he is her best friend’s husband. Antics and fantastic dancing ensue.

1:15am/ 12:15am (19th) – TCM – A Night at the Opera
One of the best of the Marx Brothers’ zany comedies finds them running awry through the world of opera. This is the one that contains the famous “how much stuff can we stuff into a stateroom” scene. And subplot with Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle, but that’s best ignored as much as possible.

Wednesday, November 19

9:45pm / 8:45pm – TCM – A Star is Born (1937)
Janet Gaynor plays an up-and-coming starlet who marries washed-up actor Fredric March; this is the earlier, non-musical version of the more famous 1954 Judy Garland film. It’s just as good.

1:45am / 12:45am (20th) – TCM – Sunrise
I raved about this film last week and suggested you look out for it on TCM. Well, here it is.

Thursday, November 20

2:00pm / 1:00pm – TCM – Dark Victory
Bette Davis at the height of her stardom plays a woman afflicted with a blindness-causing brain tumor. A fine example of Warner Bros.’ high-studio version of melodrama. Also, an unintentionally hilarious appearance by Humphrey Bogart as an Irish (yes, really) stable boy, two years before he really hit it big.

11:45pm / 10:45pm – TCM – Rebecca
Hitchcock’s first Hollywood film. It’s a good film and brought Hitch an Oscar nomination, but I admit a prejudice against it because I don’t like the ending (which is changed from the book). But that’s just me reverting to being a purist.

2:00am / 1:00am – TCM – Citizen Kane
Just pointing out that it’s on. Don’t feel the need to promote it. :)

Friday, November 21

8:15am / 7:15am – TCM – Broadway Melody of 1940
This is not overall a good movie, but it does mark the only time Fred Astaire worked with tap dancer extraordinaire Eleanor Powell. So it’s worth a look just to catch their incredible “Begin the Beguine” routine.

Saturday, November 22

5:45pm / 4:45pm – TCM – Vertigo
We all know how I feel about Hitchcock by now. And Vertigo is in my top five Hitchcock films.

Sunday, November 23

7:30am / 6:30am – TCM – The Lady Vanishes
This is one of my favorite British-era Hitchcock films, as a young woman investigates the disappearance of an elderly friend on a train.