TCM Tonight!

8:00pm
Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis. Dir: John Sturges. C-81 mins, TV-PG

9:30pm
Ball Of Fire (1941) A group of professors takes in a stripper on the run from her gangster boyfriend.Cast: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Dana Andrews. Dir: Howard Hawks. BW-111 mins, TV-G

11:30pm
Gunga Din (1939) Three British soldiers seek treasure during an uprising in India.Cast: Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Victor McLaglen. Dir: George Stevens. BW-117 mins, TV-PG

4:45am
Detour (1945) A hitchhiker takes on a dead man's identity only to face blackmail by an unscrupulous woman.Cast: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake. Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer. BW-67 mins, TV-PG Okay, TiVo Time, these are 4 pretty amazing movies.

Bad Day at Black Rock features a great cast and I think it's the flick that put John (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape) Sturges on the map. BTW, rule of thumb, the vast majority of movies that feature Robert Ryan are well worth watching.

Ball of Fire is a classic romantic comedy from the amazing Howard Hawks (who could do anything). It was remade with Danny Kaye as "A Song is Born" and then shown on WPIX in New York a lot, but this is the genuine article. This script by The Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett is still really funny. This was the flick Hawks made right after "His Girl Friday" and it is very nearly as good.

Gunga Din, which was supposed to be directed by Howard Hawks, but was instead directed by George Stevens, is possibly my favorite action flick and definitely my favorite "buddy" movie. It is funny, it is exciting, it is moving and it is cool. I wouldn't trust someone if they didn't like this flick, and though I have seen it dozens of times, I'm watching it again after the Rutgers game, and you should too.

Detour is a classic film noir directed by classic noir director Edward G. Ulmer and starring classic noir actors Tom Neal, Anne Savage, and Claudia Drake. It's interesting, but there were a bunch of actors who fit noir so perfectly that you couldn't believe them in anything else - you just knew they had bigger problems than whatever was cooking in the non noirs. Anyway, in this one a desperate man who has assumed another man's identity, gets mixed up with a femme fatale and it all leads to murder! I sort of wonder if anything like this goes on anywhere anymore...