This morning, Monday June 10, at 10:15 AM ET, Turner Classic Movies will be showing the 1939 Hal Roach film ZENOBIA. In the film, Oliver Hardy stars as a doctor who comes to the aid of Zenobia, a sick elephant. Although producer Hal Roach considered Roland Young for the lead, he decided to cast Oliver Hardy in the role when Stan Laurel sued the studio for breach of contract, thus temporarily breaking up the comedy duo of Laurel and Hardy. This was the first feature film Hardy made without Laurel since the beginning of their partnership. ZENOBIA has never been issued on DVD. Here is the hugely misleading poster.
During the Friday-Saturday overnight of June 14-15, at 2:45 AM ET, Turner Classic Movies will be showing the 1971 Henri Verneuil film THE BURGLARS, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif, and Dyan Cannon. Henri Verneuil is the director of such films as GUNS FOR SAN SEBASTIAN and THE SICILIAN CLAN, and like those two films, THE BURGLARS has a score by Ennio Morricone. THE BURGLARS is not available on Region 1 DVD.
THE BURGLARS is full of car stunts staged by the legendary Rémy Julienne, some of which are shown in this television spot.
On Tuesday, June 18, at 6:00 AM ET, Turner Classic Movies will broadcast the 1957 film THE SEVENTH SIN. This film was based upon W. Somerset Maugham's "The Painted Veil," and stars Eleanor Parker, Bill Travers, and George Sanders. It was directed by Ronald Neame (THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE). THE SEVENTH SIN has never been released on any home video format. The Miklos Rozsa score is available on an FSM CD, and can be heard backing this trailer.
TO BOB- Thank you BOB I was planning to mention both those films, when I got home tonight. THE BURGLARS-71- got a network showing a long time ago and was shown in syndication a long time ago. I loved ENNIO'S score for this film, played the LP to death years ago.
Beginning at 8 PM ET on Thursday, June 20, Turner Classic Movies will show a block of seven films starring B-movie favorite Mamie Van Doren. Van Doren was sort of a poor man’s Jayne Mansfield (who in turn was a poor man’s Marilyn Monroe). Van Doren specialized in seemingly lurid crime and “youth-run-wild” films, which, coming from the late 1950’s, were never as racy as their titles or advertising suggested. As Monroe was called a "blonde bombshell," Van Doren was dubbed the "platinum powerhouse." Here are the seven films that will be shown, four of which are not available on DVD:
UNTAMED YOUTH (1957) - 8:00 PM
THE BEAT GENERATION (1959) – 9:30 PM [not available on DVD]
BORN RECKLESS (1958) – 11:15 PM [not available on DVD]
GUNS, GIRLS AND GANGSTERS (1958) – 12:45 AM [not available on DVD]
VICE RAID (1959) – 2:00 AM
SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE (1960) – 3:15 AM [not available on DVD]
TCM this Saturday morning[JUNE 29TH) will show the rarely seen TV showing of MAD MONSTER PARTY-67- a cute funny enjoyable feature length puppet film with nice songs as well by MAURY LAWS.Film used to be shown often in syndication back in the 70's and 80's. But check this rare cable showing if you like tuneful melodies, puppets, corny humor and monster film traditions.
TCM Sunday morning[JUNE 30TH] will show HAMLET-69-This version unlike the 48 version does not get shown much anymore. Got a network showing decades ago and rare showings on the tube since. Nicol Williamson leads the cast.
COMING SOON in JULY ON TCM are a few interesting marathons. one saluting RAY HARRYHAUSEN and another showing a whole bunch of TRUFFAUT'S FILMS which means a lot of GEORGES DELERUE MUSIC. Will list films shortly as we get close to the showings.
TCM in JULY offers plenty of marathons and obscure films movie fans might like checking out, As mention before we will have a CARSON MARATHON-HERE'S JOHNNY- A RAY HARRYHAUSEN MARATHON, A TRUFFAUT MARATHON of dozens of his films on FRIDAYS IN JULY. 10 of these films have GEORGES DELERUE SCORES[MALEFICIO when has this happened on a cable station in one month?] A JOHN BARRY MINI MARATHON ETC ETC. Other treats as well. Let me get started with the upcoming week-MONDAY JULY 1ST-the JOHNNY CARSON RARE INTERVIEWS begin-The guest are-DREW BARRYMORE-KIRK DOUGLAS-MARY TYLER MOORE-NEIL SIMON-GEORGE BURNS.This will then be followed by a mini NEIL SIMON MARATHON- THE SUNSHINE BOYS-75- THE GOODBYE GIRL-77- CALIFORNIA SUITE-78.
TCM begins it's TRAUFFAUT MARATHON on FRIDAY JULY 5TH with these films-THE 400 BLOWS-ANTONIE AND COLETTE-STOLEN KISSES-BED AND BOARD-LOVE ON THE RUN-[DELERUE]-THE GREEN ROOM.[Go back previous page for more JULY info on TCM]
TCM begins it's TRUFFAUT MARATHON on FRIDAY JULY 5TH with these films-THE 400 BLOWS-ANTONIE AND COLETTE-STOLEN KISSES-BED AND BOARD-LOVE ON THE RUN-[DELERUE]-THE GREEN ROOM.[Go back previous page for more JULY info on TCM]
THE GREEN ROOM (LA CHAMBRE VERTE), aka THE VANISHING FIANCEE, is one of Truffaut's lesser-known films. He co-wrote the screenplay based upon two stories by Henry James, and directs himself as an actor for the last time on film.
TCM on SATURDAY JULY 6TH will show TERROR OF ROME AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES-64-One of dozens of Hercules films made from 1958 till the mid 60's, that these days don't get much cable exposure.
TCM on SATURDAY JULY 6TH will show TERROR OF ROME AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES-64-One of dozens of Hercules films made from 1958 till the mid 60's, that these days don't get much cable exposure.
A film like this takes me back to when I was young, watching these cropped and dubbed spectaculars on a black and white TV on a Saturday afternoon. Most of these films never played in U.S. theaters. Embassy Pictures, who had released the original HERCULES, bought up 14 Italian sword-and-sandal films and sold them to TV stations as a package by giving them a standardized theme song for the opening and closing titles, as well as a standard introductory narration attempting to relate the lead character in each film to the Greek demigod Hercules. These films however were not all originally made as "Hercules" films in Italy. Although two of them did originally feature Hercules (and not his sons), four of the films were originally Maciste movies in Italy, two of them were originally Ursus movies, and the other six were just isolated gladiator or mythological hero movies. To tie the films together, a theme song was written that replaced the individual main title themes of each of the films. Here is the "Sons of Hercules" theme:
The fourteen films in the package were:
Ursus, Son of Hercules (Ursus) 1961, starring Ed Fury (a.k.a. Mighty Ursus in England)
Mole Men vs the Son of Hercules (Maciste, the Strongest Man in the World) 1962, starring Mark Forest
Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (Maciste vs the Monsters) 1962, starring Reg Lewis
Venus Against the Son of Hercules (Mars, God Of War) 1962, starring Roger Browne
Triumph of the Son of Hercules (The Triumph of Maciste) 1962, starring Kirk Morris
Ulysses vs the Son of Hercules (Ulysses Against Hercules) 1962, starring Mike Lane
Medusa vs the Son of Hercules(Perseus The Invincible) 1962, starring Richard Harrison
Son of Hercules in the Land of Fire (Ursus In The Land Of Fire) 1963, starring Ed Fury
The Tyrant of Lydia vs the Son of Hercules (Goliath and the Rebel Slave) 1963, starring Gordon Scott
Messalina Against the Son of Hercules (The Last Gladiator) 1963, starring Richard Harrison
The Beast of Babylon vs the Son of Hercules (Hero Of Babylon) 1963, starring Gordon Scott
The Terror of Rome vs the Son of Hercules (Maciste, Gladiator of Sparta) 1964, starring Mark Forest
Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness (Hercules The Invincible) 1964, starring Dan Vadis
The Devil of the Desert vs the Son of Hercules (Anthar the Invincible) 1964, (aka "The Slave Merchants" or "Soraya, Queen of the Desert") starring Kirk Morris, directed by Antonio Margheriti
TCM on MONDAY JULY 8TH will have a beach, youth marathon of films from the 60's. Here is the lineup-THE CATALINA CAPER-67-IT'S A BIKINI WORLD-67-PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND-63-WHERE THE BOYS ARE-60-FOR THOSE WHO THINK YOUNG-64-BIKINI BEACH-64-BEACH BLANKET BINGO-65-The CATALINA CAPER-67 is a very obscure film, the others have been on cable once in a while over the years.It was AIP which brought this sub genre to box office success with a string of films with pop star FRANKIE AVALON and ANNETE FUCINELLI[SPELLING] in the early 60's It spawned dozens of these type films into the mid 60's when they then started to fade away. In came the motorcycle films.
TCM ON SUNDAY JULY 7TH will show a rare TV showing of LA CUCARACHA-59.
LA CUCARACHA was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. The film was released in the U.S. in 1961. It also goes under the title of "The Soldiers of Pancho Villa."
The film's cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa, went on to shoot such Hollywood features as KELLY'S HEROES and TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA.
The CATALINA CAPER-67 is a very obscure film, the others have been on cable once in a while over the years.
There have probably been a dozen or more compilations of Crown International films that have been released by various budget DVD labels over the years, but CATALINA CAPER has not been in any of them. Maybe it's because "Mystery Science Theater 3000" got to the film first, and issued it on DVD as one of their early programs, now long OOP and going for big bucks.
