Classic films on TV

The Treasure of Sierra Madre
Thu 6 at 4:45pm, TCM
Dir. John Huston. 1948. 126mins. Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston.
Three prospectors team up to strike it rich, but as their pile of gold grows, greed overshadows their camaraderie. Bogart gives an excellent performance cast against type as Dobbs, a hothead whose paranoia gets the best of him. Walter Huston, the director’s father, steals the show as the group’s spiritual leader, though he is powerless to save Dobbs or their treasure.

The Thrill of It All
Fri 7 at 9am, TCM
Dir. Norman Jewison. 1963. 108mins. Doris Day, James Garner.
A housewife whose hobby is bottling homemade ketchup becomes the spokeswoman for Happy Soap, much to the chagrin of her husband (Garner). Day is her usual bubbly self, though much more subservient to her man than when she was paired with Rock Hudson or Cary Grant. The film’s comedy borders on satire, poking fun at advertising, TV and the out-of-touch rich. They’re easy targets, but worth a chuckle nonetheless.

Spellbound
Sat 8 at 10:31am, Encore Mystery (East)
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. 1945. 111mins. Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck.
In a lot of ways, this is a traditional Hitchcock murder mystery using psychoanalysis as a veneer, but it’s laid on thickly. Hitchcock was a huge fan of Salvador Dalí and chose him to design the dream sequence of amnesiac John Ballantine (Peck). Producer David O. Selznick wasn’t so thrilled about engaging Dalí, until it dawned on him that the collaboration could be useful in marketing.

Ship of Fools
Mon 10 at midnight, Encore Love (East)
Dir. Stanley Kramer. 1965. 149mins. Vivien Leigh, José Ferrer, Lee Marvin.
At the end of a 26-day sea voyage to Germany in 1933, the ship’s doctor proclaims that “our biggest mission in life is to avoid being a fool.” He and the passengers under his care haven’t even come close to achieving this goal. They’ve made mockeries of their lives, and traveling in close quarters makes their denials and uninformed decisions abundantly clear to the outsider. The characters draw you into their tragedies, and by the time they disembark, their destinies are sealed.

Cimarron
Mon 10 at 10:15am, TCM
Dir. Anthony Mann. 1960. 147mins. Glenn Ford, Maria Schell.
Veteran Western director Mann was hired to remake a popular film from 1931, but even then a successful original could not guarantee returns the second time around. Producers wanted a strict remake, while Mann chose to approach the story from a new angle. This caused such a rift between him and the studio that he quit midway through filming. Charles Walters was hired to finish directing the film but was not credited, making Mann the fall guy when the film flopped.—Shayna Connelly