Alec Guinness day on TCM

Today's featured star on TCM's Summer Under the Stars is Alec Guinness. Perhaps I should have blogged about him yesterday, since the day's first movie, Great Expectations, would be worth a post. But by the time this gets posted to the blog the movie will be over, although you can catch it on DVD. Hollywood may have had better production values when it came to adapting the great works of British literature for the screen, but the Brits had acting, as well as British authenticity.

I think I've stated before that I'm really not a fan of Doctor Zhivago, which is airing at 4:30 PM. That's probably because I read the novel before seeing the movie, which gives the story away at the beginning by taking material from the book's first epilogue and putting it as an expository opening scene. (The book starts with the funeral of Zhivago's mother.)

Doctor Zhivago is followed by the even more tedious Lawrence of Arabia, which is this week's Essential at 8:00 PM. Give me ten minutes of Maurice Jarre's score; that's more than enough.

And then there are the repeats. The Ladykillers, which I was a bit too harsh towards in September 2010, airs at noon. It's not that I disliked the movie so much as I don't think it lives up to its reputation as one of the great British comedies of all time. Heck, two of Guinness' movies today are better in my opinion. The Lavender Hill Mob, which I find fun and less forced than The Ladykillers, airs at 10:15 PM. And at midnight is the wonderfully inventive Kind Hearts and Coronets.

One thing I've mentioned a couple of times before that doesn't have Alec Guinness in it is the short All Eyes on Sharon Tate, which is coming up overnight at about 3:50 AM.