TCM Schedule for Wednesday, June 1st: How to Spy on Nazis

[CBHagman]

There's also a birthday tribute to actor Frank Morgan, shown here in one of my favorites (not on the schedule today, unfortunately), The Shop Around the Corner.



Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

12:36 AM Horse With The Human Mind (1946)
We spend the day with Bess, considered by many to be the smartest horse in the movies, as she works with her trainer.
Dir: Harry Loud
BW-8 mins,

12:45 AM Lion and the Horse, The (1952)
A cowboy fights to save a wild horse from its exploitative owner.
Dir: Louis King Cast: Steve Cochran, Wildfire, Ray Teal.
C-83 mins, TV-PG,

2:15 AM Palomino, The (1950)
A society boy tries to help a beautiful woman save her horse-breeding farm.
Dir: Ray Nazarro Cast: Jerome Courtland, Beverly Tyler, Joseph Calleia.
C-73 mins, TV-G,

3:32 AM Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys (1944)
BW-11 mins,

3:45 AM Ride Him, Cowboy (1932)
A cowboy tames a wild horse suspected of killing a man, then rides out to find the real culprit.
Dir: Fred Allen Cast: John Wayne, Duke, Ruth Hall.
BW-55 mins, TV-G,

4:50 AM Around The World In California (1947)
C-9 mins,

5:00 AM Man From Monterey, The (1933)
A U.S. Cavalry officer tries to protect Spanish landowners in California.
Dir: Mack V. Wright Cast: John Wayne, Duke, Ruth Hall.
BW-57 mins, TV-G, CC,

6:00 AM Secrets of the French Police (1932) 58 min
TV-PG Strange crimes committed by a hypnotized woman are solved by a French detective. Dir: Edward Sutherland Cast: Gwili Andre, Gregory Ratoff, Frank Morgan. 58 min, TV-PG CLOSE

7:00 AM Half Naked Truth, The (1933) 77 min
TV-G Half Naked Truth, The (1933) A carnival pitch man turns a sideshow dancer into an overnight sensation. Dir: Gregory La Cava Cast: Lupe Velez, Lee Tracy, Eugene Pallette. 77 min,

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Gregory LaCava. Lupe Velez, Lee Tracy, Eugene Pallette, Frank Morgan. Delightful comedy about wiseguy carnival pitchman (Tracy) scheming to make Velez an instant celebrity; plenty of laughs, and wonderful performance by Morgan as neurotic Ziegfeld-ish producer.

8:30 AM Nuisance, The (1933) 83 min
TV-G Love trips up an ambulance chasing lawyer. Dir: Jack Conway Cast: Lee Tracy, Madge Evans, Frank Morgan. 83 min, TV-G

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Jack Conway. Lee Tracy, Madge Evans, Frank Morgan, Charles Butterworth, John Miljan, Virginia Cherrill, David Landau. Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, unaware she's a special investigator for a streetcar company he's repeatedly victimized. Laugh-a-minute caper only slows down a bit toward the end for romance. Sparkling script by Samuel and Bella Spewack. Remade as THE CHASER (1938).

10:00 AM Cat And The Fiddle, The (1934) 89 min
TV-G Cat And The Fiddle, The (1934) A struggling composer courts a singing star. Dir: William K. Howard Cast: Ramon Novarro, Jeanette MacDonald, Frank Morgan. 89 min, TV-G

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: William K. Howard. Jeanette MacDonald, Ramon Novarro, Frank Morgan, Charles Butterworth, Jean Hersholt. Delightful Jerome KernOscar Hammerstein operetta, filled with sly comedy and clever ideas. Novarro is a struggling composer who forces his attentions on MacDonald; Morgan is ``benefactor'' who comes between them. Songs include ``The Night Was Made for Love,'' ``She Didn't Say Yes.'' Final sequence is in color.

11:30 AM By Your Leave (1935) 82 min
TV-G A bored couple facing middle-age succumbs to wandering eyes. Dir: Lloyd Corrigan Cast: Frank Morgan, Genevieve Tobin, Neil Hamilton. 82 min, TV-G CLOSE

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Lloyd Corrigan. Frank Morgan, Genevieve Tobin, Neil Hamilton, Marian Nixon, Gene Lockhart, Margaret Hamilton, Betty Grable, Glenn Anders. Morgan plays a husband going through a midlife crisis who yearns for extramarital excitement, but wife Tobin finds it first. Unusual subject matter for a '30s film is treated very lightly, though a good cast offers some minor compensation.

1:00 PM Perfect Gentleman, The (1935) 72 min
TV-G A retired military man helps an actress make a comeback. Dir: Tim Whelan Cast: Frank Morgan, Cicely Courtneidge, Heather Angel. 72 min, TV-G , CC CLOSE

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Tim Whelan. Frank Morgan, Cicely Courtneidge, Heather Angel, Herbert Mundin, Una O'Connor, Richard Waring, Henry Stephenson. Slight but likable yarn set in England about a blustering old scoundrel who is constantly embarrassing his vicar son, so he takes to the road and teams up with a female musical hall performer. Pleasant showcase for Morgan and delightful British comedienne Courtneidge in her first and only American film.

2:15 PM Piccadilly Jim (1936) 95 min
TV-PG A cartoonist pokes fun at his widowed father's future in-laws. Dir: Robert Z. Leonard Cast: Robert Montgomery, Frank Morgan, Madge Evans. 95 min, TV-PG CLOSE

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Robert Z. Leonard. Robert Montgomery, Madge Evans, Frank Morgan, Eric Blore, Billie Burke. Fine light-comedy players in P. G. Wodehouse story of father and son's romantic pursuits; overlong.
REVIEW:

4:00 PM Beg, Borrow Or Steal (1937) 72 min
TV-G Con men on the Riviera live by their wits. Dir: William Thiele Cast: Frank Morgan, Florence Rice, John Beal. 72 min, TV-G , CC CLOSE

5:15 PM Henry Goes Arizona (1939) 67 min
TV-G A Broadway tenderfoot takes over a Western ranch. Dir: Edwin L. Marin Cast: Frank Morgan, Virginia Weidler, Guy Kibbee. 67 min, TV-G CLOSE

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Edwin L. Marin. Frank Morgan, Virginia Weidler, Guy Kibbee, Slim Summerville, Douglas Fowley, Owen Davis, Jr., Porter Hall. Modest but charming vehicle for Morgan, perfectly cast as a blustery vaudevillian who inherits a ranch and proceeds to rout the crooks responsible for his half-brother's murder. Good showcase for young Weidler, too.

6:30 PM Keeping Company (1940) 80 min
TV-G A young man's engagement is jeopardized by the return of an old girlfriend. Dir: S. Sylvan Simon Cast: Frank Morgan, Ann Rutherford, John Shelton. 80 min, TV-G CLOSE

WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: HOW TO SPY ON NAZIS

8:00 PM House on 92nd Street, The (1945) 88 min
TV-14 An FBI agent infiltrates a Nazi spy ring. Dir: Henry Hathaway Cast: William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso. 88 min, TV-14 , CC CLOSE

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Henry Hathaway. William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso, Gene Lockhart, Leo G. Carroll, Lydia St. Clair. Exciting, trend- setting documentary-style drama--based on fact and staged on actual locations--about FBI counterespionage activities during WW2: Nazi agents, operating in N.Y.C., attempt to pilfer part of the atom bomb formula. Charles G. Booth earned an Oscar for his original story. Screenplay by Booth, Barre Lyndon, and John Monks, Jr. Look for E. G. Marshall, in film debut.

9:45 PM Night Train to Munich (1940) 95 min
TV-PG A British agent masquerades as a Nazi officer to protect an inventor and his daughter. Dir: Carol Reed Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul von Henreid. 95 min, TV-PG , CC CLOSE



LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Carol Reed. Rex Harrison, Margaret Lockwood, Paul Von Hernried (Henreid), Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Felix Aylmer, Roland Culver. Expert Hitchcockian thriller about British intelligence agent Harrison trying to rescue Czech scientist who escaped from the Nazis to London only to be kidnapped back to Berlin. Stylishly photographed (by Otto Kanturek), sharply scripted by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, who also wrote Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES (which introduced the comic characters reprised here by Radford and Wayne). Based on Gordon Wellesley's novel Report on a Fugitive. Originally released in U.S. as NIGHT TRAIN.

11:30 PM Above Suspicion (1943) 91 min
TV-PG A honeymooning couple are asked to spy on the Nazis in pre-war Europe. Dir: Richard Thorpe Cast: Joan Crawford, Fred MacMurray, Conrad Veidt. 91 min, TV-PG , CC CLOSE



LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Richard Thorpe. Joan Crawford, Fred MacMurray, Conrad Veidt, Basil Rathbone, Reginald Owen, Richard Ainley. Crawford and MacMurray asked to do spy mission during European honeymoon on the eve of WW2. Pure escapism, with Joan more than a match for the Nazis.

1:15 AM Odette (1950) 118 min
A British spy during World War II goes behind enemy lines in France. Dir: Herbert Wilcox Cast: Trevor Howard, Anna Neagle, 118 min, CLOSE

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Herbert Wilcox. Anna Neagle, Trevor Howard, Marius Goring, Peter Ustinov, Bernard Lee. Neagle is excellent in true story of Odette Churchill, undercover British agent imprisoned by Nazis during WW2.

3:20 AM Northward, Ho! (1939) 10 min

3:30 AM Northern Pursuit (1943) 93 min
TV-PG A Mountie tracks a downed Nazi flyer through the Canadian wilderness. Dir: Raoul Walsh Cast: Errol Flynn, Julie Bishop, Helmut Dantine. 93 min, TV-PG , CC CLOSE

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Raoul Walsh. Errol Flynn, Julie Bishop, Helmut Dantine, John Ridgely, Gene Lockhart, Tom Tully. Flynn, a Mountie of German descent, pretends to have Nazi sympathies in order to learn the objectives of Nazis operating in Canada, in this standard but slickly done drama.

5:15 AM Yellow Canary, The (1943) 84 min
TV-G A socialite poses as a Nazi spy to mask her activities as a British agent. Dir: Herbert Wilcox Cast: Anna Neagle, Richard Greene, Nova Pilbeam. 84 min, TV-G CLOSE

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Herbert Wilcox. Anna Neagle, Richard Greene, Albert Lieven, Margaret Rutherford, Valentine Dyall. Above average WW2 spy drama with Neagle feigning Nazi loyalty to obtain secrets for the Allies.