Whatever it is, I'm against it

Turner Classic Movies is offering 9.5 hours of merry Marx madness with a Marx Brothers marathon tonight.

It’s a six-pack of pictures featuring Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo.

Here’s the line-up (all times eastern):

8:00pm — Monkey Business (1931)
Four stowaways get mixed up with gangsters while running riot on an ocean liner.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx Dir: Norman McLeod

9:30pm — Horse Feathers (1932)
In an effort to beef up his school’s football team, a college president mistakenly recruits two loonies.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx Dir: Norman McLeod

10:45pm — Duck Soup (1933)
When he’s named dictator of Freedonia, a con artist declares war on the neighboring kingdom.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx Dir: Leo McCarey

12:00am — A Night at the Opera (1935)
Three zanies turn an operatic performance into chaos in their efforts to promote their protege’s romance with the leading lady.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle Dir: Sam Wood

2:00am — A Day at the Races (1937)
A group of zanies tries to save a pretty girl’s sanitarium.
Cast: Groucho [Marx], Chico [Marx], Harpo [Marx], Allan Jones Dir: Sam Wood

4:00am — At the Circus (1939)
The Marx Bros. team up to keep a circus from going bankrupt.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kenny Baker Dir: Edward Buzzell

We can still vividly remember our first Marx Brothers movie. It was 1974 and, having just turned sixteen, we were given permission to borrow the family Volvo to drive across town to catch a double feature of Horse Feathers and Monkey Business. Horse Feathers opens with Groucho’s Prof. Quincy Adams Wagstaff being installed as the president of Huxley College. Following a longwinded introduction by a stuffy faculty member, Groucho steps to the podium and addresses the assembled students:

Members of the faculty and faculty members, students of Huxley and Huxley students — well, I guess that covers everyone.

I thought my razor was dull until I heard his speech. And that reminds me of a story that’s so dirty I’m ashamed to think of it myself.

As I look over your eager faces, I can readily understand why this college is flat on its back. The last college I presided over, things were slightly different — I was flat on my back. Things kept going from bad to worse, but we all put our shoulders to the wheel and it wasn’t long before I was flat on my back again.

Any questions? Any answers?? [breaks into song] Any rags, any bones, any bottles today …

[bangs a gavel on podium] Who’ll say 76? Who’ll say 1776? That’s the spirit — 1776!

The real reason I came to this college was to get my son out of it. Ah, I remember well the day he left — a mere boy and a beardless youth. I kissed them both goodbye….

And so it went. We were thoroughly and completely hooked — on the entire Marx clan, of course, but especially Groucho. Our prized possession to this day remains the autographed photo we received from him after sending him a birthday card on what proved to be his last birthday.

And we remain as devoted to the boys as ever. If you’re a fan, you know what delights tonight’s marathon holds in store. If you’ve not yet been initiated to the bizarre world of the Marxes, here’s your chance.

Remembering a master

Tuesday marks the centennial of the birth of the great Akira Kurosawa, and Turner Classic Movies is marking the occasion by featuring a 24-hour marathon of some of his best movies.

if you’re a fan, you know what an occasion this is; if you’re not familiar with the great man’s work, here’s your chance to do some catching up.

The line-up is below. It’s all worth seeing, but things really pick up with One Wonderful Sunday at 1:30 p.m. You could turn on the TV then and watch until 4 a.m. with no regrets whatsoever. It’s one classic after another — Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro — followed by the marathon’s finale, Dodes’ka-Den, Kurosawa’s first color picture.

6:00am — Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
A young man struggles to learn the ssence of the martial arts.
Cast: Sugisaku Aoyama, Susumu Fujita, Denjiro Okochi, Takashi Shimura Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-79 mins

7:30am — The Most Beautiful (1944)
Japanese women sacrifice everything for the war effort.
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Ichiro Sugai, Yoko Yaguchi, Takako Irie Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-85 mins
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Happy birthday, Ms. Young

image-Loretta YoungLoretta Young, as beautiful an actress as ever graced the silver screen, enjoyed an astonishingly long run, enjoying a career that spanned 77 years, from her first appearance in a silent movie in 1917 to a gig doing the narration for a television program called LIFE ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI in 1994, at the age of 81.

Young, who died in 2000, would have been 96 years old today, and TCM is paying tribute to the venerable star by airing her movies all day long.

I recommend the quartet of Pre-code offerings they’re showing starting at 8 am, and you can’t go wrong with Orson Welles’ THE STRANGER at 1:15pm. But perhaps my top recommendation would be the noir-ish thriller CAUSE FOR ALARM (1951). It’s well worth catching.

Here’s the full line-up:

6:45 a.m. — LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH (1928)
In this silent film, a circus clown falls for a young innocent in love with another. Cast: Lon Chaney, Loretta Young, Nils Asther. Dir: Herbert Brenon.

8:00 a.m. — PLAY GIRL (1932)
A young innocent falls for a compulsive gambler. Cast: Loretta Young, Winnie Lightner, Norman Foster. Dir: Ray Enright.

9:15 a.m. — LIFE BEGINS (1932)
A maternity ward becomes the focus for the patients’, doctors’ and nurses’ personal problems. Cast: Loretta Young, Eric Linden, Aline MacMahon. Dir: James Flood.

10:30 a.m. — HEROES FOR SALE (1933)
A veteran fights drug addiction to make his way in the business world. Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Aline MacMahon, Loretta Young. Dir: William A. Wellman.

12:00 p.m. — SHE HAD TO SAY YES (1933)
A secretary pads her salary by dating prospective buyers for her company. Cast: Loretta Young, Lyle Talbot, Hugh Herbert. Dir: Busby Berkeley.

1:15 p.m. — THE STRANGER (1946)
A small-town schoolteacher suspects her new husband may be an escaped Nazi war criminal. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles, Loretta Young. Dir: Orson Welles.

3:00 p.m. — RACHEL AND THE STRANGER (1948)
A mail-order bride finds herself attracted to a handsome drifter. Cast: Loretta Young, William Holden, Robert Mitchum. Dir: Norman Foster.

4:30 p.m. — KEY TO THE CITY (1950)
Two mayors meet and fall in love during a convention in San Francisco. Cast: Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Frank Morgan. Dir: George Sidney.

6:12 p.m. — Short Film: Loretta Young Biography (1962)

6:30 p.m. — CAUSE FOR ALARM (1951)
A woman fights to intercept a letter in which her husband tries to prove her guilty of murder. Cast: Loretta Young, Barry Sullivan, Bruce Cowling. Dir: Tay Garnett.