TCM Look-Ahead (Jan. 30)
I am starting a regular feature (going to try for weekly, to be published on Fridays) that looks ahead to the TCM schedule and recommend films for immediate watch or recording. If you are lucky enough to have TCM on cable or on You Tube t.v. or the TCM app, I hope you find this useful.
It's Looney Tunes week on TCM!!
Saturday, 01/31/26
12:15 a.m. PST The Great McGinty, directed by Preston Sturges.
The first directorial effort by the great Sturges after a successful screenwriting career. Timely today, it deals with election fraud and voter gullibility. A down and out, well, basically, bum, ascends to mayor in inexplicable but not completely unrealistic or untimely ways.
Sunday, 02/01/26
11:30 a.m. PST The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, by Powell/Pressburger
The Powell/Pressburger (aka The Archers) war films are interesting. Not virulently anti-war (nor certainly gung ho), the emphasis is on humanity and friendships. This is the masterpiece, a picaresque told over several decades chronicling the military career of the blustering Clive Candy (Archers regular Roger Livesy) as he navigates wars, romances (three women, all played, in an ingenious casting trick, by the wonderful Deborah Kerr), and a friendship with an enemy German officer (Anton Woolbrook). Based on a famous character from a satirical British comic strip, it offers one of the most perfect metaphors for war every captured on film when the guns stop at cease fire on a battleground and the birds are heard to be singing again.
10:00 p.m. PST Greased Lightening, directed by Michael Schultz
Terrific biopic of Wendell Scott, the first Afro-American stock car driver to win at NASCAR. Probably Richard Pryor's best "straight" performance. And Pam Grier, too!
Monday, 02/02/26
All Day! Looney Toons Cartoons!
TCM now owns the Looney Toons category, and to celebrate they are showing some of the all-time greats. These are interspersed through the day, so the best approach is to record them all as they are all pure delight.
01:45 a.m. PST The Magic Flute, directed by Ingmar Bergman
Bergman's magical adaptation of the Mozart opera.
04:15 a.m. PST The Red Shoes, by Powell/Pressburger
On what is a very culturally rich day on TCM, the Archers balletic masterpiece. Simply the most gorgeous color film every made.
Tuesday, 02/03/26
All Day Looney Tunes classics, some coupled with the classic films that inspired them (Apes of Wrath coupled with Mighty Joe Young, for instance). Once again, fire up the DVR!
Wednesday, 02/04/26
All Day! More Looney Tunes.
06:15 a.m. PST Riding Shotgun, directed by Andre de Toth
I am in the bag for de Toth. This tight, tough little western with Randolph Scott exemplifies his no nonsense but often striking style.
08:30 p.m. PST Invaders from Mars, directed by William Cameron Menzies
This weird little sci-fi gem which, if you are of a certain age, probably haunted your childhood. A re-telling of a Boy That Cried Wolf only, you know, with aliens. Director Menzies, the genius production designed of the Hollywood golden age, sadly, only directed two films (this and the great Things to Come).
11:00 p.m. PST The Roaring Twenties, directed by Raoul Walsh
The quintessence of Cagney and Walsh, together at their peak. The story of three boyhood friends who wind up as bootleggers and the strain being in the illegal hooch business puts on their friendship. Prohibition was the engine that drove much of the class 30's American gangster films and Roaring Twenties, coming at the end of the decade, is a kind of swan song and apotheosis of the genre. Cagney is absolutely on fire (he actually blows Bogart, in a co-starring role before stardom, off the screen). This is the film that should have brought him the Oscar, not the silly Yankee Doodle Dandy three years later.
Thursday, 02/05/26
06:30 p.m. PST Five Came Back, directed by John Farrow
It is a light day on TCM except for more Looney Tunes, and I don't know anything about this 1939 survivors on a plane movie. But I am a sucker for survivors on a plane and John Farrow is an underrated auteur. This is actually what TCM is all about at its essence, not the official classics but the undiscovered gems. Count me in.
