September 2011 Film Recommendations

Be sure to check out It Happened One Night. It's also available on DVD. (Poster from Doctor Macro)

When the weather got really hot, I thought summer would last forever, but August has gone by really quickly!  I can't believe it's time for another month's worth of movie recommendations.

Here's what you might want to check out on TCM this month (all times are CST):

• Goodbye, Mr. Chips (F 9/2/11 5:00 p.m.) Robert Donat plays the title role; it's been years since I've seen this, but I remember enjoying it as a kid
• All This, and Heaven Too (Su 9/4/11 5:00 a.m.)
• It Happened One Night (Su 9/4/11 5:00 p.m.) One of my favorite films--sparks fly when reporter Clark Gable meets runaway heiress Claudette Colbert
• A Letter to Three Wives (W 9/7/11 12:30 a.m.) the town slut has run off with the husband of one of the three wives in the title, but which one?
• The Harvey Girls (W 9/7/11 5:15 p.m.) I'm not a big Judy Garland fan, but I do like this musical, but mostly because of Angela Lansbury
• Follow the Fleet (W 9/7/11 7:00 p.m.) pleasant Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film; fabulous choreography as always
• Lady of Burlesque (Th 9/8/11 12:45 a.m.) surprisingly excellent Barbara Stanwyck mystery; based on a novel written by Gypsy Rose Lee
• 42nd Street (Su 9/11/11 9:00 a.m.) the great Busby Berkley backstage musical
• On the Town (Su 9/11/11 5:00 p.m.) one of those Gene Kelly/Frank Sinatra musicals, but this one has Ann Miller
• Casablanca (Su 9/11/11 7:00 p.m.) You've probably already seen it, but if you haven't, what are you waiting for?
• Niagara (M 9/12/11 8:30 p.m.) Marilyn Monroe wiggles around the resort town driving Joseph Cotten out of his mind; it's so much better than I thought it would be
• You Can't Take it With You (Tu 9/13/11 1:00 p.m.) James Stewart falls in love with secretary Jean Arthur, but his well-to-do parents don't accept her unconventional family, headed by Lionel Barrymore
• You'll Never Get Rich (Th 9/15/11 8:15 a.m.) pleasant Fred Astaire/Rita Hayworth pairing
• Road to Utopia (Th 9/15/11 2:45 p.m.) Bing Crosby and Bob Hope team up, this time for the Alaskan gold rush; naturally costars Dorothy Lamour
• The Remains of the Day (Th 9/15/11 7:00 p.m.) This is a beautiful film, but I don't like the way it ends.  Just warning you.
• A Room with a View (F 9/16/11 12:00 a.m.) Merchant-Ivory adaptation of my favorite E.M. Forster novel
• Dark Passage (F 9/16/11 5:45 a.m.) Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Agnes Moorehead; Bogart escapes from prison, has plastic surgery and hunts for his wife's killer
• Key Largo (F 9/16/11 7:45 a.m.) Edward G. Robinson holds the guests and staff of a Florida hotel hostage during a hurricane; cast includes Claire Trevor, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
• The Major and the Minor (Sa 9/17/11 5:15 p.m.) Hijinks ensue when Ginger Rogers disguises herself as a pre-adolescent to buy a junior fare train ticket
• Mildred Pierce (Sa 9/17/11 7:00 p.m.) Joan Crawford's signature role; a really entertaining noir
• Suspicion (Su 9/18/11 1:15 p.m.) Wallflower Joan Fontaine marries bounder Cary Grant against her parents' wishes; is he a murderer, too?
• Metropolis (Su 9/18/11 11:00 p.m.) classic silent film about the mechanized city of the future; too bad the wealthy are exploiting the working classes
• We Live Again (M 9/19/11 7:00 a.m.) Russian nobleman Fredric March has his way with and then abandons childhood sweetheart Anna Sten only to meet again under very different circumstances
• Rasputin and the Empress (M 9/19/11 1:30 p.m.) only film with all three Barrymores; Lionel is Rasputin, Ethel is the Empress, and John the nobleman who repeatedly tries to get rid of the "mad monk"
• Ben-Hur (Sa 9/24/11 12:30 p.m.) one of the better sword and sandal films; Charleton Heston solidifies his mastery over the "epic" genre
• Love Me Tonight (Sa 9/24/11 7:00 p.m.) Maurice Chevalier/Jeannette MacDonald pairing; not their best, but entertaining nevertheless; co-stars include Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith and Charlie Ruggles
• Oklahoma! (Su 9/25/11 2:30 p.m.) faithful adaptation of Rogers and Hammerstein musical; no, this isn't what Oklahoma is really like, sorry, but the score did provide the state with its awesome state song
• Sylvia Scarlett (M 9/26/11 6:30 a.m.) Katharine Hepburn disguises herself as a boy so she and her father can evade the French police and escape to England, where they meet up with con artist Cary Grant
• Anthony Adverse (M 9/26/11 8:00 a.m.) I really only like this because it has Fredric March in it; otherwise it's really not worth watching
• The Painted Veil (M 9/26/11 7:00 p.m.) Greta Garbo follows husband Herbert Marshall to China where she's romanced by George Brent
• Shanghai Express (Tu 9/27/11 1:00 a.m.) Marlene Dietrich is terribly well-dressed in this pre-code train film set in the midst of the civil war in China
• Woman of the Year (W 9/28/11 11:00 a.m.) first Hepburn/Tracy picture; both are reporters at the same paper who fall in love, but have a hard time adjusting to married life
• The Killers (Th 9/29/11 12:15 p.m.) an insurance investigator tries to piece together the puzzling murder of a former boxer

"Come and meet those dancing feet,/ On the avenue I'm taking you to,/ Forty-second street."
42nd Street is also available on DVD. (Poster from Doctor Macro)

I haven't gotten the chance to see them yet, but Ginger at Sailing Over a Cardboard Sea blogged about Miranda and Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (both airing September 2nd) in her post, "Film: Mermaid Double Feature."

Also, there are more film recommendations at She Blogged By Night.