This Weekend on TCM

Updated on October 20, 2010 By Ken Begg 10 Comments

There’s so much stuff for Halloween next week that I’ll focus just on the upcoming weekend.  More to follow.

Friday, Oct 22nd
10:45 AM Topper Cary Grant and Constance Bennett star as wacky ghosts bedeviling the overly staid titular character (Roland Young). Fun screwball comedy.
12:30 Topper Takes a Trip One of several sequels to the above; Bennett and Young return.
HAMMER TIME!
7:00 PM  X the Unknown Very fun blob movie, pretty much a Quatermass movie in all but name.
8:30 Quatermass and the Pit Really one of the great sci-fi films of the ‘60s.
10:15 These Are the Damned Gang leader Oliver Reed stumbles over a secret project involving young children.
12:00 AM Stranglers of Bombay Those darn Thuggies!
1:30 The Boogens Seldom seen, nasty ‘80s monster flick.
3:15 Night of the Lepus.  It’s hare-raising.

Saturday, Oct 23rd
7:00 PM Kind Hearts and Coronets Black comedy about an outcast murdering everyone in his family who stands between him and an inheritance.  Stars Alec Guinness playing all the victims.
9:00 Captain’s Paradise Guinness is a ship captain who has the perfect life; two wives in different ports, one very domestic, the other wild.  Funny stuff.
10:45 The Last Holiday Guinness learns he has a short time to live, goes off on the title escapade.
12:30 AM The Horse’s Mouth Guinness is a crude, life-loving artist.
2:15 The Lavender Hill Mob Guinness stars in this classic heist comedy.
4:00 The Lady Killers Another Guinness black comedy, with a young Peter Sellers, as a gang of inept crooks try to murder a sweet but indestructible old lady.

Sunday Oct 24th
9:15 AM The Star Hilariously bad Bette Davis melodrama in which she’s a past her prime movie star.
5:00 PM Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger Harryhausen!
11:00 Nosferatu The original.
1:00 Not Against the Flesh Interesting sounding Carl Dreyer “sinister castle” movie.
2:30 Return of the Vampire Bela Lugosi plays Dracula in all but name.  Includes a werewolf.  Good stuff.
3:45 Count Yorga, Vampire A vamp menaces (then) modern day California.

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  • Not-So-Great Cthulhu

    That’s rather amusing that TCM is showing “X the Unknown” and “Quatermass and the Pit” back-to-back. If Wikipedia is to be believed, X was intended to be a Quatermass film, but Nigel Kneale wouldn’t allow Hammer the use of the character for it. That may have been just as well, though, since the science in the Quatermass films always seemed somehow plausible while the science in X seemed to be a bit harder to swallow for some reason.

    At any rate, both movies are well worth watching.

  • BeckoningChasm

    Gee, it almost seems as if Saturday has a “theme” or something behind it. I know if I stare long enough it’ll come to me.

    OK, I’m actually just being a smart Alex.

  • zombiewhacker

    I got it! Rob Schneider isn’t in any of them!

  • Rock Baker

    I loved X The Unknown.

    But after seeing it again, I feel Five Million Years To Earth is over-rated. Good science fiction? Sure. But I’m not getting how its the greatest such picture ever filmed. I actually found the two Donlevy entries to be more satisfying films. I’ve never heard anyone else claim that attitude about the Quatermass features, so I guess I’m off by myself on this one.

    I’ve not seen Stranglers of Bombay, or Terror of the Tongs, and I find myself wondering if they are the same movie. Anyone?

  • They are not. One is about the Tongs (and stars Christopher Lee getting an early start on his Fu Manchu performance), and the other is about Thugs. They’re both efficient and pretty fun, and available on a set of Hammer action movies. One of the others is a pirate flick; I don’t remember what the last one was.

  • Rock Baker

    Maybe Night Creatures? Otherwise known as Captain Clegg and starring Peter Cushing as a British version of The Scarecrow. Great, great movie. Maybe my favorite Hammer.

  • It might well be. Night Creatures is great. I gave Sandy a copy of the Disney / Patrick McGoohan version, which immediately went off market. I wonder why they never bothered to make more; the original version in the tin sold out in like ten minutes. Anyway, Sandy could probably get a C-note or more for his copy now.

    Contrasting the Hammer and Disney versions is very cool. Both leads, McGoohan and Peter Cushing, are great screen “thinkers”, but the obvious tonal differences between the two versions; boy’s adventure and horror, respectively, make them a highly fun compare and contrast.

  • Rock Baker

    I would absolutely love to see The Scarecrow again! I haven’t seen it since it was aired on The Disney Channel, so that gives you an idea of how long ago that was. It had one of the greatest theme songs ever, right up there with the Ballad of Davy Crockett. Both really stick with you.

  • Well, since used copies are going for a century and a half, it might be cheaper to travel to my or Sandy’s house and watch it there.

  • Rock Baker

    $150!!!! Ouch!!

    All I have to say about that is:

    My birthday is November 3rd and I accept charity when it comes to my video collection.