TCM Star of the Month: George Raft

The January Star of the Month on Turner Classic Movies is George Raft.

20 Raft films will be shown on TCM on Tuesday evenings over the course of the month, beginning on January 7th.

The schedule even includes LOVE IS A RACKET (1932), despite Raft's scenes in that film having been deleted.

As I wrote a couple years ago, over time I've gradually warmed up to Raft and his unique screen persona.  I've reviewed a great many Raft movies, and I encourage classic film fans to check out this schedule, which is filled with some very entertaining films.

Please click any hyperlinked title to read my extended review.

January 7th

SCARFACE (1932)

NIGHT AFTER NIGHT (1932)

YOU AND ME (1938)

SIDE STREET (1929)

LOVE IS A RACKET (1932) (scenes deleted)

January 14th

EACH DAWN I DIE (1939)

THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940)

INVISIBLE STRIPES (1940)

MANPOWER (1941)

TAXI! (1932)

January 21st

BACKGROUND TO DANGER (1943)

JOHNNY ANGEL (1945)

NOCTURNE (1946)

RACE STREET (1948)

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956)

January 28th

JOHNNY ALLEGRO (1949)

RED LIGHT (1949)

A DANGEROUS PROFESSION (1950)

SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)

OCEAN'S ELEVEN (1960)

For more on TCM in January 2025, please visit my post TCM in January: Highlights, along with TCM's online schedule.

Related Post: Book Review: The George Raft Films.

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Tonight's Movie: Nora Prentiss (1947) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

I've recently had the chance to revisit a few movies for the first time in years, the latest being NORA PRENTISS (1947).

I last saw NORA PRENTISS, which was just released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection, in 2009.

It's the story of a bored, respectable doctor, Richard Talbot (Kent Smith). He has a successful San Francisco medical practice with his partner, Dr. Joel Merriam (Bruce Bennett), plus a wife (Rosemary DeCamp) and two children (Robert Arthur and Wanda Hendrix).

Dr. Talbot meets nightclub singer Nora Prentiss (Ann Sheridan) after she has an accident, and very soon he's ready to chuck his entire existence out the window in order to start over with Nora. 

Nora, for her part, is blissfully unaware of just how far Richard will go to be with her: He uses the death of a patient (John Ridgely) with no family to stage his own death in an "accident," never thinking about the fact that he'll never be able to practice medicine again, let alone legally marry Nora. Nora, having thought he was divorcing his wife, is in for quite a shock when she learns the truth.

And, believe it or not, there's still much more to the plot I won't go into here...

As I wrote in 2009, this film gets very dark, but it's also very interesting, with a top cast. I've never been much of a fan of Smith, but he's good here as the depressed, lovelorn doctor, and Sheridan is extremely effective as a woman who loves deeply yet wrongly; it's a fully rounded performance as a woman who is likeable yet quite imperfect.

I'd add the film is rather interesting for its era, as it's quite clear Richard and Nora are having a heated affair and later living together.

Nora would have been much smarter to drop her relationship with Richard, especially with handsome nightclub owner Phil Dinardo (Robert Alda) carrying a torch for her, but if she'd done that we'd have no movie. The excellent final shot, with Phil waiting for Nora in the San Francisco fog, is terrific.

My overall feelings regarding the movie were pretty much unchanged since my last viewing 15 years ago. The supporting cast is where the film especially works for me, with Bennett and DeCamp each excellent. I wish Bennett had had a few more scenes as the initially irresponsible bachelor doctor who proves he's ultimately more mature than his "late" partner, consoling Lucy and putting together the mysterious pieces of Richard's life.

DeCamp is wonderful as a woman who's too tied up in her own life to pay much attention to her relationship with her husband, but when the chips are down and he forgets their daughter's birthday, you can see how much she truly loves both her husband and daughter as she makes things right. That scene particularly makes one wish that Richard had decided to recommit himself to his marriage, as it seems Lucy has awakened to the trouble their marriage is in.

Beyond the performances, the film has some very good San Francisco locations and superb black and white photography by James Wong Howe.

All in all, it's a well-done 111 minutes, directed by Vincent Sherman and scored by Franz Waxman. The screenplay was by N. Richard Nash, based on a story by Paul Webster and Jack Sobell.

The Warner Archive Collection previously released this film on DVD in 2009.

The sharp Blu-ray print is outstanding, showing off the film's beautiful black and white shooting to great effect. Sound quality is also very good.

Extras consist of the trailer; a 10-minute Joe McDoakes short, SO YOU THINK YOU'RE A NERVOUS WRECK (1946); and the Bugs Bunny cartoon THE BIG SNOOZE (1946).

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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The 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival: Day One

The 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival took place from April 18th through 21st, 2024.

As plans gear up for the upcoming April 2025 festival, over the next few days I'll be providing a detailed photographic look back at the most recent festival, supplementing the overview I published last April.

For many of us, as usual, the festivities began the day before the festival's official opening, in this case on April 17th. I checked into my regular festival hotel ahead of a full day's activities up and down Hollywood Boulevard.

That day I briefly popped into Larry Edmunds Bookshop, where revered film historian Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson, her co-author on HOLLYWOOD: THE ORAL HISTORY, were giving a talk.

As has become our habit, my husband and I had lunch at 25 Degrees at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. In this case, we had the added pleasure of a nice chat with Eddie Muller and his wife Kathleen, who were sitting at the next table.

I always make it a point to visit the festival boutique prior to the festival starting, as items sell out quickly. This year I picked up some cute TCM coasters.

I picked up my festival credential...

...and also received this fantastic media gift, a gorgeous coffee table book on Lena Horne by festival guest Donald Bogle.

We were welcomed to the media reception in "Club TCM" at the Hollywood Roosevelt by TCM's Ben Mankiewicz...

...along with Eddie Muller, Jacqueline Stewart, Dave Karger, and Alicia Malone.

Ben also introduced that year's TCM podcast THE PLOT THICKENS: DECODING JOHN FORD.

We had the chance to peruse this year's archival displays in Club TCM...

...starting with a dress worn by Ella Fitzgerald (above) in PETE KELLY'S BLUES (1955).

I was especially thrilled to see a gown worn by Olivia de Havilland in one of my all-time favorite films, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938). It was displayed alongside an Errol Flynn costume from ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN (1948).

Above, a look at the gown as worn by de Havilland in a publicity still. Also on display, seen below, was the original Erich Wolfgang Korngold score for ROBIN HOOD. Seeing it was quite exciting, given that it's my all-time favorite film music.

It was also amazing to see John Wayne's buckskin jacket from HONDO (1953) and his hat from RIO BRAVO (1959):

A display of props used to create favorite animated TCM intros:

That evening we went to the Hollywood Heritage Museum...

...for a sold-out presentation by Kimberly Truhler on the fashions seen in several films screening at the festival.

As always, Kim's talk was fascinating and educational, and it helped ramp up the anticipation for the screenings which would begin the next evening.

It's my hope that the additional festival photos and comments I'll be posting over the next few days will be a fun look back for those who were present -- and that they also might encourage anyone "on the fence" about going this year to make plans to attend!

Related post at Classic Movie Hub: Westerns at the TCM Classic Film Festival.

Coming soon: Day Two, including the first two of the 15 films seen at this year's festival.

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Around the Blogosphere This Week...

...is taking this weekend off.

Instead I've spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of days putting together a series of photo posts on last year's TCM Classic Film Festival.

This is something I've been wanting to do for quite a while, and having extended vacation time over the holidays gave me the time to edit photos and pull everything together. The first posts will be up on Sunday and Tuesday, followed by three more posts over the next few days.

Around the Blogosphere This Week will return on Saturday, January 11th.

For additional recent links of interest to classic film fans, please visit my December 28th column.

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Tonight's Movie: You Can't Run Away From It (1956) - A Sony Blu-ray Review

YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT (1956), a musical remake of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), was recently released on Blu-ray by Sony.

This was one of a trio of '30s comedies June Allyson remade in the '50s, also including THE OPPOSITE SEX (1956), a remake of THE WOMEN (1939), and MY MAN GODFREY (1957), remaking the 1936 Carole Lombard film.

In YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT Allyson inherits Claudette Colbert's role as Ellie Andrews, an heiress whose father interrupts her brand-new marriage to an oft-married womanizer. Ellie goes on the run to get away from her father and back to her husband, and she's aided by reporter Peter Warne (Jack Lemmon), falling in love with him along the way.

This 95-minute film re-sets the story from the East Coast to California, with the bus ride heading through Arizona towards Texas. The remake also has Ellie having gone through a wedding ceremony rather than engaged; her father is threatening to annul the marriage.

It also reimagines the story as a semi-musical. In addition to the title song, which is sung by the Four Aces, and a new song replacing the original film's "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" on the bus, there are a couple other songs and a dance.

I'm generally a fan of June Allyson, but these remakes, made as she was pushing 40, don't show her in her best light, especially this particular film. In the case of YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT, she's simply a bit too old to pull off a giddy heiress with bad judgement. Colbert was about 30 in the original film, and her more sophisticated portrayal simply "worked"; here, Allyson's somewhat childlike performance is more exasperating than endearing. She also suffers from a poor wardrobe for much of the film.

The musical numbers also don't really help. Despite being written by Johnny Mercer and Gene DePaul of SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954), the songs aren't memorable; especially as there's not a great deal of music, I was surprised to learn there was a soundtrack LP!

There's not much reason for Ellie's dance with a scarecrow in a field late in the movie; it does nothing to move the plot forward. Turning the hitchhiking scene into a song and dance number makes a lot more sense, but again, it's simply not memorable. As a fan of both Allyson and musicals, this film frankly came as a disappointment.

Lemmon, on the other hand, fits his role well and is appealing as the ultimately kindhearted reporter who falls in love with Ellie despite her flaws.

I also liked Charles Bickford as Ellie's rough-hewn, wealthy father. By coincidence this was the second Charles Bickford film of the last couple days, after MR. LUCKY (1943). He's the type of actor who makes any film he's in better.

I'm a great admirer of the movie's director - and Allyson's husband - Dick Powell, who directed fine films such as SPLIT SECOND (1953) and THE ENEMY BELOW (1957). YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT has its moments but overall simply doesn't work as well as some of his other films.

The movie was filmed in Technicolor and CinemaScope by Charles Lawton Jr., and a good piece of news is that this Blu-ray print is absolutely gorgeous. You couldn't ask for a better way to watch the movie, and I really appreciated the visual aspect. Blu-ray sound quality is also fine. The outstanding print, along with Lemmon and Bickford, makes the move worth checking out.

There are no extras on the disc, but it does have English-language captions available. As is the case with other Sony discs, the movie begins playing after it's inserted into the player.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Sony for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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Tonight's Movie: The Killer is Loose (1956) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

THE KILLER IS LOOSE (1956), a nifty little 73-minute thriller directed by Budd Boetticher, was reissued this week on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

In this film from a screenplay written by Harold Medford, based on a story by John and Ward Hawkins, Wendell Corey plays Leon Poole, who initially seems to be a mild-mannered bank clerk.

As the movie begins, the bank where Poole works is robbed. Poole acts heroically attempting to fight off the robbers, but it later emerges that Poole was an "inside man" on the job.

When the police, headed by Detective Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten), come to arrest him, Poole refuses to answer his door. A gunfight ensues, and Poole's innocent, beloved wife (Martha Crawford) is caught in the crossfire and accidentally killed by Sam.

Poole is captured and becomes a model prisoner, resulting in his transfer to a minimum security work farm a couple years into his sentence. At this point he breaks loose, killing several people as he makes his way toward Detective Wagner's house. His goal? To kill Sam's wife, Lila (Rhonda Fleming), so that Sam will experience the same sense of loss he's gone through.

I first saw this film in 2009, and while I liked it pretty well, I think with the passage of 15 years I liked it even more this time around. Yes, it has some annoying bits, particularly Lila making a dopey decision near the end, but I was a little more willing to cut her some slack this time around. After all, she's pregnant and her emotions were probably off kilter even before a killer started heading for her home...

Basically, my criticisms from 2009 remain relevant, but I like the positives the movie has going for it so much that I was more forgiving.

The movie has a number of terrific L.A. locations, flatly yet appropriately filmed by Lucien Ballard, and an absolutely terrific supporting cast. Any movie which boasts Virginia Christine, John Beradino, Michael Pate, Alan Hale (Jr.), and Arthur Space in main supporting roles gets my rapt attention.

Christine, playing Mary, the wife of the detective played by Pate, is terrific as always. Christine always makes the most of her moments (HIGH NOON is just one example), and she has a great scene here telling off Lila regarding her unsupportive attitude toward her hubby and his dangerous job.

One would think after Mary's lecture that Lila would stay put in hiding, out of the way of the killer, but apparently she's so filled with remorse she wants to be with her husband...which wasn't very smart. Ah, well. Cotten and Fleming's relationship could have been fleshed out a little more, but given the movie's short running time, they do what they can.

As for Corey, he's absolutely terrifying. The scene where he has a completely flat affect as he shoots a former army colleague at pointblank range really makes the stakes clear. Poole has already killed other people, and when we watch this scene we know he absolutely does not care and will do anything.

It's worth noting that director Boetticher's very next film was 7 MEN FROM NOW (1956), beginning his very successful seven-film collaboration with Randolph Scott.

This Blu-ray print is excellent, with a good soundtrack.

This disc is given a Special Edition presentation with a cardboard slipcase. Extras consist of a trailer, plus a gallery of nine additional movie trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber and a commentary track by Gary Gerani.

Recommended.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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Tonight's Movie: Mr. Lucky (1943) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

Cary Grant stars as MR. LUCKY (1943), just released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

Grant's title character starts out as an antihero: He's a crooked gambler, swindler, and draft dodger named Joe Adams who through a series of circumstances ends up working for a war relief organization headed by wealthy Dorothy Bryant (Laraine Day).

The lovely Dorothy is initially skeptical of Joe, who adopts a phony last name, adding yet another lie to his resume. However, even as Dorothy recognizes Joe's very real flaws, she can't help falling head over heels in love with him. And Joe, partly but not entirely due to Dorothy's influence, takes steps to turn his life around.

I'll leave off any further attempts to explain the fairly involved, complicated plot, which is told in flashback, but suffice it to say that although Grant's character starts out as fairly unlikeable, it's absolutely worthwhile following his journey through to the end. His developing interest in knitting alone is worth watching the movie! But he also finds he has a conscience, and it's a beautiful thing to see unfold.

The film could have maybe shaved a handful of its 100 minutes for a brisker pace, but otherwise this is a very enjoyable film thanks to its two leads and a superb supporting cast.

Day sparkles as the spunky Dorothy, and it's not at all hard to understand why she falls for Joe, despite his "imperfections." Although we perhaps don't tend today to think of Grant as a "mean" type, he did it a surprising number of times; his Joe here fits well coming in between his portrayals of troubled Hitchcock leads in SUSPICION (1941) and NOTORIOUS (1946).

And just look at this list of names rounding out the cast: Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Paul Stewart, Henry Stephenson, Florence Bates, Kay Johnson, Alan Carney, and Walter Kingsford.

Everyone's at the top of their game - has Cooper ever been more charming? - and leaves the viewer wanting more.

The script by Milton Holmes and Adrian Scott was based on a story by Holmes, with a long list of uncredited contributing writers including Charles Brackett and Dudley Nichols.

It was directed by H.C. Potter and filmed in black and white by George Barnes.

The Warner Archive Collection previously released this film on DVD back in 2009. This Blu-ray release looks and sounds terrific.  It was a pleasure to watch this film in every way.

Disc extras consist of the trailer and two radio productions: An hour-long Lux Radio Theater broadcast from October 1943, starring Grant and Day, and a 30-minute Screen Director's Playhouse adaptation which Grant appeared in in January 1950.

A recommended disc.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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Tonight's Movie: California (1947) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

CALIFORNIA (1947) was my second film watched of the past week directed by John Farrow.

It follows Farrow's Alan Ladd film, BOTANY BAY (1953), and like BOTANY BAY, it was recently released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

The two films also have in common that CALIFORNIA was originally slated to star Ladd, but he was in a pay dispute with Paramount Pictures at the time and thus was replaced by Ray Milland.

Milland may seem an unlikely Western star, but he knew his way around both horses and guns thanks to his service in the British Army's Household Cavalry. He works just fine here as Jonathan Trumbo, an army deserter turned trail guide to California.

Trumbo meets up with Lily (Barbara Stanwyck) as the film opens. In a scene highly reminiscent of Claire Trevor's entrance in STAGECOACH (1939), Lily is being thrown out of a Western town as a "bad woman." She's about to be put on a stagecoach heading east when kindly Michael Fabian (Barry Fitzgerald) agrees to let her join him in the wagon train being led west by Trumbo.

Lily and Trumbo are clearly attracted to one another, but they battle over cards and more. Once in California, Lily allies herself with powerful Pharoah Coffin (George Coulouris), not realizing that Pharoah intends to rule California by all means possible, which ultimately leads him to a showdown with Trumbo and Fabian.

I first saw this film in 2008 and remembered it being visually beautiful, filmed in Technicolor by Ray Rennahan. I also remembered it being a meandering disappointment, given the fine lead actors. I was curious to revisit the film for the first time in over 16 years and see what I thought, given the passage of time.

My original assessment pretty much held steady. The movie looks fantastic, all the more so on Kino Lorber's beautiful Blu-ray. Given the production values and top-quality lead actors, the movie should be much better than it is, but it's still a fairly uninvolving 97 minutes.

The film's main problem is the script by Theodore Strauss and Frank Butler, based on a story by Boris Ingster, is all surface and no depth. Stanwyck and Milland do what they can to flesh out their characters, but there's so much left out of the script, in terms of backgrounds and motivations, that they're just not all that interesting.

CALIFORNIA is rather like BOTANY BAY -- it's not a bad movie, it's just not very good either. Stanwyck and Milland fans will want to check it out, especially via Kino Lorber's top-notch Blu-ray print, but it will likely be low on the "rewatch" list after seeing it once.

The supporting cast includes Anthony Quinn, Albert Dekker, Roman Bohnen, Frank Faylen, Gavin Muir, and Eduardo Ciannelli. Familiar faces like Don Beddoe, Frank Ferguson, Stanley Andrews, Harry Cording, Lane Chandler, Will Wright, Ian Wolfe, Francis Ford, and Minerva Urecal pop up in small parts.

For those wondering, Barbara Stanwyck's singing was dubbed by Kay St. Germain Wells.

The extras are minimal compared to typical Kino Lorber Blu-ray releases, consisting simply of eight trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber. The disc does include optional English subtitles.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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