Piccu's Summertime Movietime Picks: Redux TCM Summer Under the Stars Edition Aug. 26-28

I have already given you some movies to check out this week on Turner Classic Movies and this weekend may prove to be even better. TCM is in the midst of its annual Summer Under the Stars, in which they pick a star to showcase for 24 hours. I am going to focus on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and what a great couple of days they are.

On Saturday, August 26, we have Cary Grant day. For my money, Cary Grant is the epitome of star and I recommend you check out all his films because he is so good in every thing he does. At 6 AM EST Monkey Business will be shown on TCM. I haven’t seen this, but will DVR it. Besides Cary Grant, you also get Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe, something for everybody in this flick.

As I said, you should watch as much as you can, but starting at 8 PM EST, the fun really begins. At 8, we have Gunga Din, a movie about three British soldiers treasure hunting in the midst of an uprising. This is a great action movie with nice elements of comedy. At 10 PM EST we have Arsenic and Old Lace, a movie about two old women who have been killing lonely men. They are found out by their nephew, Cary Grant and hilarity ensues. This is a movie that is both a macabre film and a screwball comedy at the same time. One of Grant’s best.

Then at 12:15 AM EST we have the Alfred Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest. I do not have to say more, the plot is good, Cary Grant and his co-star Eva Marie Saint are good and the movie is a classic. Finally at 2:45 AM EST we have another Hitchcock classic starring Cary Grant, Suspicion. Grant is a playboy who marries a wealthy woman who begins to suspect that maybe Grant is trying to kill her. This is a great thriller that keeps you guessing the whole way through.

Now we move on to Sunday, August 27, which is John Wayne day. John Wayne is the master of the Western genre. He is everything your elders have told you he was. He was not the best actor, but he held your attention whenever he was on the screen. As with Cary Grant, I recommend you watch as many John Wayne movies as you can because he will make you a fan of Westerns and war movies.

Speaking of Westerns, the movie that broke Wayne big is director John Ford’s Stagecoach. It is being shown at 6 AM EST on the 27th and has John Wayne and a group of stagecoach passengers traveling through the territory battling Indians and “personal demons.” You have a romance, Indian battles, and a showdown involving John Wayne, what more could you want. Next I want to move on to 3:15 PM EST and The Longest Day. This is a movie about the D-Day invasion of Germany by the Allies. This movie is chock full of stars, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Rod Steiger and Robert Wagner. It is 3 hrs long, but it is a great movie to introduce yourself to “war” movies.

At 10:15 PM EST we have Hatari! In this film, John Wayne is a big game hunter and besides the fact that this is a fun movie, the actors did all the capturing of the big game. I still haven’t figured out if the rhino actually wiggled free or if they were supposed to let him free. It is crazy stuff. Then at 2:45 AM EST we have Rio Grande and John Wayne is the head of a cavalry unit that has to squash Indian uprisings. This movie also stars Maureen O’Hara, a great actress that appeared in many films with Wayne. Those two have great chemistry and make every movie they appeared in a pleasure to watch, plus there is some good Injun killing in this movie.

Monday’s star is Hedy Lamar, who I do not know one thing about, and looking at the list, I have not seen one of her movies. I hope to watch at least one, but I have no picks for you, so watch Prison Break. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on TCM, you will see movies from three of the greatest actors ever. Watch as many as you can, or at least make an effort. I promise you, you will not regret it. It’s even better than RockStar:SuperNova.