Lake Neuron

I’m watching “The Glenn Miller Story” on TCM. I’ve watched it many times before. It’s hokey as all get-out, it’s just as historically inaccurate as most Golden Age entertainment biographies, and June Allyson’s character is so cheery and supportive she’s almost pathological, even for that era.

But, doggone it, it’s hard not to love the movie. Jimmy Stewart is great as always, and he and Allyson (who co-starred together several times) are a great pair. And Harry Morgan (back when he was still billed as “Henry”) is great as well. He looks quite a bit different from his “Dragnet” and “M*A*S*H” characters!

It’s hard not to get choked up at the ending.

Title	Content
Movie:	The Glenn Miller Story
Director:	Anthony Mann
Release Date:	8 January 1954 (Japan) / Other Countries
Genre:	Biography | Drama | Music | Romance
Tagline:	See it and Hear it as Never Before [1980 re-release]
User Rating:	2,492 votes, average 7.2 out of 10
Runtime:	115 min
Awards:	Won Oscar. Another 5 nominations
Cast:	...
Others:	Additional Details Close Move Title Content MPAA: County: USA Language: English Color: Color (Technicolor) Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1 Sound: 3 Channel Stereo (Western Electric Recording) Company: Universal International Pictures (UI) Certification: West Germany:6 (f) | Iceland:L | USA:Approved (PCA #16668) | Australia:G (alternate rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG IMDBTag: Powered by IMDBTag & imdb.com Sound Mix, Aspect Ratio ...
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To whet your appetite, Turner Classic Movies has posted some great clips of this week’s “Essentials Jr.” movie, which I blogged about yesterday.

Last summer (I think — it could have been two summers ago) Turner Classic Movies ran a Sunday-night series intended to showcase classic movies that could be enjoyed by the whole family. It was called “Funday Night at the Movies,” and it was hosted by Tom Kenny (the voice of Spongebob) with a group of kids in a sort of classic kiddie-TV-show mode.

This year, they have the same kind of family-film showcase, again on Sunday night, but with a very different presentation: “Essentials Jr.,” hosted by Chris O’Donnell and Abigail Breslin (apparently chosen to promote the “Kit Kittridge” movie, in which they both appear). They introduce the movie in much the same way that Robert Osborne and Rose McGowan introduce “The Essentials” on Saturday night. (If I had time, I’d figure out which couple has the greater age difference — Osborne & McGowan or O’Donnell & Breslin.) I haven’t seen any of the intros yet, but I have to say I hate the title — as if any child is going to have even heard of “The Essentials,” much less say “Gee! I wish there were a version of ‘The Essentials’ just for me!”

Well, regardless of the packaging, next Sunday night I will definitely have to tune in to TCM, and I suspect my West Coast brother will do likewise (or at least fire up his TiVo). The next “Essentials Jr.” movie is “Harvey,” with Jimmy Stewart.

Well, I’ve wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it.

My brother once played the lead role of Elwood Dowd in a stage production in Texas.

Title	Content
Movie:	Harvey
Director:	Henry Koster
Release Date:	13 October 1950 (USA) / Other Countries
Genre:	Comedy | Drama | Family | Fantasy
Tagline:	The Wonderful Pulitzer Prize Play... becomes one of the Great Motion Pictures of our Time!
User Rating:	16,070 votes, average 8.2 out of 10
Runtime:	104 min
Awards:	Won Oscar. Another 1 win&4 nominations
Cast:	...
Others:	Additional Details Close Move Title Content MPAA: County: USA Language: English Color: Black and White Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1 Sound: Mono (Western Electric Recording) Company: Universal International Pictures (UI) Certification: South Korea:All (2003) | Canada:G (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Australia:G | Canada:G (Ontario) | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #14694) | Germany:12 IMDBTag: Powered by IMDBTag & imdb.com Sound Mix, Aspect Ratio ...
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One of my all-time favorite movies, “A Face In The Crowd,” will air Saturday night on TCM as part of “The Essentials,” hosted by Robert Osborne & Rose McGowan.

I’ve blogged about it countless times before, but if you haven’t seen it, you need to see it. It’s probably more relevant today than when it came out in 1957. It’s about the corrosive power of fame, especially as it relates to the immediacy of television, as an Arkansas vagrant is turned into a superstar and then begins to believe he can tell his fans what to buy — and, ultimately, whom to elect. Andy Griffith plays the vagrant, Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, with Patricia Neal as Marcia Jeffries, the Doctor Frankenstein who discovers and promotes him, only to realize too late what a monster she has created. Walter Matthau plays Mel, the voice of conscience, who also carries a torch for Marcia in the same way she carries one for Lonesome Rhodes.

If you somehow haven’t seen it, set your VCR or TiVo now. It’s worthy of being called “Essential.”

Title	Content
Movie:	A Face in the Crowd
Director:	Elia Kazan
Release Date:	17 October 1957 (Sweden) / Other Countries
Genre:	Drama
User Rating:	2,991 votes, average 8.1 out of 10
Runtime:	125 min
Awards:	1 nomination
Cast:	...
Others:	Additional Details Close Move Title Content MPAA: County: USA Language: English Color: Black and White Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Sound: Mono (RCA Sound System) Company: Newtown Productions Certification: USA:Approved (certificate #18502) | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15 IMDBTag: Powered by IMDBTag & imdb.com Sound Mix, Aspect Ratio ...
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I have a banquet to cover tomorrow night, but I will have to set my VCR. Turner Classic Movies is starting a new interview series, “Role Model,” in which one successful actor interviews another whom he/she admires. Tomorrow, Alec Baldwin will interview Gene Wilder, followed by un-cut, commercial-free airings of “The Producers” and “Blazing Saddles.”

Title	Content
Movie:	The Producers
Director:	Mel Brooks
Release Date:	10 November 1968 (USA) / Other Countries
Genre:	Comedy
Tagline:	Hollywood Never Faced a Zanier Zero Hour!
Plot Outline:	Producers Max Bialystock (Mostel) and Leo Bloom (Wilder) make money by producing a sure-fire flop.
User Rating:	14,781 votes, average 7.7 out of 10
Runtime:	88 min
Awards:	Won Oscar. Another 2 wins&5 nominations
Cast:	...
Others:	Additional Details Close Move Title Content MPAA: County: USA Language: English / German Color: Color (Pathécolor) Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1 Sound: Mono Company: Crossbow Productions Certification: Finland:K-12 / West Germany:12 (nf) / South Korea:15 / Iceland:L / Argentina:13 / Australia:G (DVD rating) / Australia:PG (original rating) / Brazil:12 / Canada:14A / France:U / Ireland:G / New Zealand:PG / Norway:12 / Singapore:PG / Spain:13 / Sweden:11 / UK:PG / USA:PG IMDBTag: Powered by IMDBTag & imdb.com Sound Mix, Aspect Ratio ...
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Turner Classic Movies is running only Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies this month, as part of its annual “31 Days of Oscar” promotion. But don’t look for “King Kong,” or “His Girl Friday,” or “Duck Soup,” or “My Darling Clementine.” TCM’s “Movie Morlocks” blog has a great post about some of the greatest films of all time — many of them added to the National Film Registry as worthy of preservation — which never received a single Oscar nomination.

I’ve also posted this to my Facebook profile, if you go looking for it later.

If you read this post in time, be sure and catch one of the funniest movies of the 1940s, “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” this afternoon on TCM. It’s directed by Preston Sturges, whose autobiography I was posting about just recently.

Title	Content
Movie:	The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
Director:	Preston Sturges
Release Date:	19 January 1944 (USA) / Other Countries
Genre:	Comedy
Plot Outline:	After an all-night send-off party for the troops, a small-town girl wakes up to find herself married and pregnant, but with no memory of her husband's identity.
User Rating:	1,822 votes, average 7.8 out of 10
Runtime:	98 min
Awards:	Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win
Cast:	...
Others:	Additional Details Close Move Title Content MPAA: County: USA Language: English Color: Black and White Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1 Sound: Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording) Company: Paramount Pictures Certification: Finland:S / Sweden:15 / USA:Unrated IMDBTag: Powered by IMDBTag & imdb.com Sound Mix, Aspect Ratio ...
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I’m watching a great old pirate movie, “The Spanish Main,” on Turner Classic Movies right now. I’d never seen or heard about it before.

It stars Paul Henreid and Maureen O’Hara. Both of them are wonderful, although it’s a bit disconcerting to see Henreid — who is and will always be the noble freedom fighter Victor Lazlo from “Casablanca” — as a ruthless, if good-natured, pirate.

Title	Content
Movie:	The Spanish Main
Director:	Frank Borzage
Release Date:	October 1945 (USA) / Other Countries
Genre:	Drama
User Rating:	297 votes, average 6.1 out of 10
Runtime:	100 min
Awards:	Nominated for Oscar.
Cast:	...
Others:	Additional Details Close Move Title Content MPAA: County: USA Language: English Color: Color (Technicolor) Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1 Sound: Mono (RCA Sound System) Company: RKO Radio Pictures Certification: UK:U / Finland:K-16 / USA:Approved (PCA #10610) / Sweden:15 IMDBTag: Powered by IMDBTag & imdb.com Sound Mix, Aspect Ratio ...
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Weeks and weeks ago, I blogged warning you not to miss “Christmas In Connecticut” when it aired during the holiday season. I was sure TCM would have it on at some time or another.

Well, guess what I missed tonight. I just now saw it in the listings, five minutes after it ended.

Over Thanksgiving week, I watched a few Andy Hardy movies on Turner Classic Movies while I was over at my parents’ house today.

Today, I learned that TCM has a blog, MovieMorlocks. I also learned something else: Micky Rooney made a very, very strange movie in 1992:

[Rooney's character] intends to spend his twilight years reliving that carefree, pre-consciousness state when he was a new born infant. He wants to regress to a state where he can be coddled, bathed, fed and loved – and he has the money to replicate the conditions and environment necessary for his indulgence.

I turned on the TV and, as I often do, looked to see what was on Turner Classic Movies. It was a black and white movie from 1960 starring that noted thespian … Dick Clark:

Title	Content
Movie:	Because They're Young
Director:	Paul Wendkos
Release Date:	April 1960 (USA) / Other Countries
Genre:	Drama
Tagline:	Whoever you are, you're in this picture! Because this tells of youth's challenge to grown-ups who can't understand!
Plot Outline:	New high school teacher tries to help troubled students and falls in love with the principal's secretary.
User Rating:	87 votes, average 5.7 out of 10
Runtime:	USA:102 min
Cast:	...
Others:	Additional Details Close Move Title Content MPAA: County: USA Language: English Color: Black and White Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Sound: Mono Company: Drexel Productions Certification: Finland:K-16 / Sweden:15 IMDBTag: Powered by IMDBTag & imdb.com Sound Mix, Aspect Ratio ...
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