Piccu's Summertime Movietime Picks: Redux TCM Summer Under the Stars Edition Aug. 21-25

I don’t know if any of you took my suggestions and checked out some of the movies I recommended, but I am going to give you some more this week and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) continues its Summer Under the Stars. I do hope you had a chance to check out Charade, my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie.

Today, Monday the 21st is David Niven day, he is a pretty good character actor, but I have no recommendations for today other than to check out MNF on ESPN or season premieres on FOX with Prison Break and the new show Vanished.

On Tuesday, the star of the day is the beautiful and sexy as hell Rita Hayworth. I just recently watched a couple of Hayworth movies and now I realize why Jack White is obsessed with her. She just oozes sexuality; she is the definition of a bombshell. I fancy Grace Kelly, but when I saw Hayworth in Gilda, I have to reposition my position. At 6:00 AM EST on Tuesday the 22nd, TCM is airing a doc on the life of Rita Hayworth, I haven’t seen it but it will be DVRed. I am also DVRing Pal Joey costarring Frank Sinatra at 12:30 PM EST and Only Angels Have Wings costarring Cary Grant at 4:30 PM EST. I haven’t seen those yet and look forward to them.

Speaking of Gilda, you have to DVR Gilda at 10:00 PM EST. Gilda is a hard boiled film noir also starring Glen Ford. Hayworth plays Gilda, a good bad girl and she does the sexiest strip tease in movie history and only removes one glove. Men have to see this, women can just hate her. After that, check out another film noir classic at 12:00 AM EST at Hayworth stars in Orson Welles’ Lady from Shanghai. This movie gets so twisted and convoluted in the last 30 minutes, you are not sure who has double crossed who. Hayworth has her hair chopped off and died blonde for this role, but she still smolders on screen and has every man wanting her.

Wednesday is Van Johnson day and I have only seen a few of his films, and none have impressed me much. I will be DVRing The Purple Rose of Cairo at 12:15 AM EST because DISH tells me it is a 4 star movie and I try to watch as many of those as I can.

Thursday’s star is Ann Southern and I have never heard of her, so I do not know much about her movies. I will recommend Brother Orchid which is showing Thursday the 24th at 9:30 PM EST. It stars Ms. Southern and two of my all-time faves, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart. Brother Orchid is about a gangster, Robinson, who is the victim of a botched mob hit who then goes to a monastery to recuperate and plot his revenge. It’s a great movie with great stars.

On Friday the 25th we have James Stewart day and there may be no better day this month. I love James Stewart and I have seen a ton of his best performances. I can recommend all the moves this day, but I will tell you the ones I am DVRing and the ones I highly recommend to you. I am DVRing The Shop Around the Corner at 11:15 AM EST. I have never seen this and it is highly rated by critics and is the movie You’ve Got Mail was based on, It stars Stewart in the Tom Hanks role. I must highly recommend the Western classic The Naked Spur. This is a movie that has Stewart in less of his “good” guy role we usually see him in. He is a bounty hunter that catches a big time outlaw and the outlaw continually messes with Stewart’s head as he tries to bring him in. Great Western and a must see.

Then at 10:00 PM EST we have Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In this movie we see Stewart in his more recognizable type of role, naïve but wise good guy. Stewart plays a guy picked to be a senator who is supposed to go to Washington and not make waves. When he arrives in Washington and sees the corruption that goes on, he decides to make a difference. It is a movie that still plays well today and gives you hope that in all the crap that goes on in Washington, hopefully there is one Mr. Smith willing to do what’s right. You need to see this.

The weekend is even better with both Cary Grant and John Wayne days. I have gone on too long for most of you already, so I will post again Thursday or Friday on my recommendations for the weekend. Keep this in mind, you only have a few more weeks before network TV gets started and all your TV shows make watching movies like these hard to do. Do yourself a favor and try to check some of these classics out, you won’t regret it.