Best Movies; Turner Classic Movies Review

Sunday the 25th  TCM declares prime time is Meteor Night; SaturdayNight the 24th Movies based on the works of British Author and playwright, Somerset Maugham are featured.  Friday Night it's Gothic Thrillers.

Friday the 23rd, one of the best suspense thrillers you'll ever see 1955's Night of the Hunter airs at 5:00 p.m.  it stars Robert Mitchum who pretends he's a preacher and marries a crooks widow (Shelly Winters) while searching for some hidden money.   It's the only film Charles Laughton ever directed.  He knew he would probably never top it.

This is followed by 1946's moody gothic Dagonwyck staring Gene Tierney and Walter Huston with Vincent Price.   Then at 9 p.m. is Hitchcock's classic Rebecca from 1940 starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders and Judith Anderson.   At 11:15 having nothing to do with the Gothics, is nifty thriller from 1968; Pretty Poison  starring Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld and Beverly Garland. 

Saturday, October 24th airing at 5 p.m.  a night devoted to movies based on author Somerset Maugham begins superbly with a great romantic thrilled;  The Letter which will grab you from it's opening moments and not let go for 96 minutes.  Director William Wyler at the top of his craft directs memorable performances from Bette Davis, Herber Marshall, James Stephenson and more.  Nominated for 7 Oscars the 1940 film is one of the great ones. 

The omnibus, anthology film is a rarity today, but they were a little more plentiful in the 40s after the success of Dead of Night and well received movies like 1948's Quartet.  4 short films based on stories by Somerset Maugham written by playwright R.C. Sheriff  directed by 4 different directors  among the cast at Ian Flemming, Dirk Bogarde, Mai Zetterling, Basil Radford.  are hosted by the author Maugham. The stories and directors are:  The Colonel's Lady  directed by Arthur Crab.  All four stories are in the Men versus Women vein.  It airs at 7 p.m. PST.

1934's the Painted Veil  starts Garbo, Herbert Marshall and George Brent in a melodramatic romantic story about a woman who commits adultery but redeems herself during a cholera epidemic.  If you're a Garbo fan don't miss this.  It airs at 9:15 p.m. on the West Coast.    It's followed by Rita Hayworth as Miss Sadie Thompson a slightly watered down version of Maugham's original story; Rain(because of the censors).  A religious moralist tries to tame and reform a legendary South Seas beauty  . The 1953 film airs on the West Coast at 10:45 p.m. and also stars Jose Ferrer and Aldo Ray.      This is followed by by 1954's Beachcomber starring Glynis Johns as a female missionary who teams up with a drunken beachcomber (Robert Newton) to save the population of a South Seas Island during an epidemic. It airs at 12:30 a.m. PST.

You might note Sunday October 25th at 9:00 a.m. on the west coast, it's John Ford's classic film of John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath starring Henry Fonda gets a showing.  Later at 1 p.m. it's the classic courtroom drama Inherit the Wind from 1960.  It stars Spencer Tracy, Frederick March and Gene Kelly, directed by Stanley Kramer. At 3:15 p.m.  it's Sam Fuller's Korean War classic  1951's The Steel Helmet about some Americans trapped behind enemy lines fighting for their lives.

 Sunday night it's Meteor Night....   That means at 5 p.m. TNT runs the entertaining creature feature that catapulted Steve McQueen to stardom;  1958's The Blob.    The monster arrives from space via meteor, but the town's authorities won't believe the teenagers and the monster grows and grows attacking a movie theater and a diner in famous scenes.   Still a lot of fun.   This is followed by a somewhat successful adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story into a movie called Die Monster Die (1965).  A meteor from space has remarkable powers but creates some unwanted side effects.  Nick Adams plays a young man who meets his girlfriends family and uncovers some dark secrets.  If your in the mood it's an entertaining movie starring Boris Karloff.   It airs at 6:30 p.m.  PST. At 8 p.m. is the 1954 movie Riders to the Stars a dated, talky film written by Curt Siodmak (from an Ivan Tors story) with  Herbert Marshall, Richard Carlson and Martha Hyer.  It's about a space mission to capture a meteor.  It airs at 8 p.m. 

The F.W. Murnau's silent horror masterpiece Nosferatu  from 1922 follows at 9:30 p.m.  It's a beautiful, haunting film starring Max Schreck as the creepy vampire.  This is followed by classic French suspense thriller from 1955 Diabolique directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.  It's still an effective memorable movie and highly recommended.