Chance at Heaven, and other notes

The first week of Joel McCrea's turn as Star of the Month ended with 1933's Chance at Heaven, which isn't on DVD, so I can't in good conscience really do a full-length post recommending it if you haven't seen it. Joel McCrea dumps girlfriend Ginger Rogers in favor of rich flirt Marian Nixon. And then Rogers has a relationship with Nixon that strains credulity, to say the least. I found myself wondering why the three characters didn't just have a ménage à trois. It really would have made the movie interesting, and they might even have been able to get away with it in a pre-Code.

TCM is marking the birthday of Audrey Hepburn today, finishing up with the excellent Wait Until Dark at 6:00 PM. I probably should have done a full-length post yesterday on The Nun's Story, which is airing at 11:00 AM. Either that, or I should have done it for Fred Zinnemann on his birthday last week. This one is on DVD, though, so you don't have to worry if you miss the TCM showing.

The day of Audrey Hepburn films is followed by half a night honoring Lee J. Cobb, the sort of person who gets respect from TCM that he would never get from any other channel on TV. The night kicks off with The Three Faces of Eve, which I think is a TCM premiere -- once again, it's always nice to see TCM getting the broadcast rights to more films from Fox. Cobb plays the psychologist who discovers the multiple personalities of Joanne Woodward. 12 Angry Men at 9:45 PM is overrated, while I haven't seen They Came to Rob Las Vegas (11:30 PM) before. Cobb is probably best remembered for his Oscar-nominated performace as the mob boss in On the Waterfront, which is great even if it does already air often enough on TCM. Maybe TCM could have gotten the broadcast rights to Thieves' Highway, a Fox film about trucking also starring Richard Conte. I thought I had blogged about that one before, but apparently not. At least it got a DVD release back when Fox was putting all their noirs and close-to-noir pictures on DVD.

Last but not least, I have never seen The Wasp Woman, which is airing tomorrow at 8:00 AM on TCM. Even though a lot of these 1950s scifi movies are bad, they're still a lot of fun.