Fantastic April Programming on TCM!

[David47Jens]

The Turner Classic Movie channel has an absolutely incredible selection of movies for April! The emphasis is on comedy, old and new (mostly old), sound and silent, with stars ranging from Chaplin, Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, W. C. Fields, Bob Hope (sometimes paired with Bing Crosby, in their "Road" pictures), Martin & Lewis, Cary Grant, and the Marx Brothers, to lesser-known & rarely-seen artists like Wheeler & Woolsey, Charley Chase, Lee Tracy, Joe E. Brown, and "Fatty" Arbuckle! Oh, yeah, there are a couple of flicks from some guy named Jack Benny, too. (Not to mention "Cabin in the Sky," which features Eddie "Rochester" Anderson!)

A quick glance at the many non-comedy flicks they're offering next month will deliver more than a few thrills for fans of great movies in general, too! But don't just take my word for it, check them out for yourself! http://turnerclassicmovies.com/Schedule/Print/0,,04-2005|0|,00.html And no, I don't get a kickback!

[Maxwell]

The Turner Classic Movie channel has an absolutely incredible selection of movies for April! The emphasis is on comedy, old and new (mostly old), sound and silent, with stars ranging from Chaplin, Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, W. C. Fields, Bob Hope (sometimes paired with Bing Crosby, in their "Road" pictures), Martin & Lewis, Cary Grant, and the Marx Brothers, to lesser-known & rarely-seen artists like Wheeler & Woolsey, Charley Chase, Lee Tracy, Joe E. Brown, and "Fatty" Arbuckle! Oh, yeah, there are a couple of flicks from some guy named Jack Benny, too. (Not to mention "Cabin in the Sky," which features Eddie "Rochester" Anderson!)

A quick glance at the many non-comedy flicks they're offering next month will deliver more than a few thrills for fans of great movies in general, too! But don't just take my word for it, check them out for yourself! http://turnerclassicmovies.com/Schedule/Print/0,,04-2005|0|,00.html And no, I don't get a kickback!

I just took a look at the movies on the list. I think my Replay TV is going to get a workout during the day. I just don't know when I'm going to get a chance to view all of them! There are some movies that are absolute must-sees on my list. I'm going to ramble a bit here as I run through the list of films and stars....

One minor gripe I have is that this Friday, most of the best of the Laurel & Hardy silent 2-reelers won't be shown (Battle of the Century for one). On the other hand, they are showing The Music Box, Sons of the Desert, and Way Out West, all personal favorites of mine.

I'm kind of anxious to see the Charlie Chase films, too. When I was a kid a Chicago lunchtime kids TV show starring "Uncle" Johnny Coons used to show silent movies starring Chase a lot. Chase was a terrific comedy director. He directed under his own name and also under the name "Charles Parrot" <sp?>. Some of the better late-'30s Three Stooges 2-reelers were directed by him.

I'm glad to see that Harold Lloyd's silent films are now circulation. I don't think I saw Safety Last until the '80s or '90s. Lloyd kept them out of circulation while he was alive. I read an interview with him once in which he pretty much said that he wanted people to know that he made talking pictures well into the 1940s. What's really scary about watching Lloyd's films is knowing that he did all of that climbing with the thumb and parts of one or two other fingers missing from his hand, which is why he always wore gloves.

All of my favorite Marx Bros. movies are there. The only ones missing are A Night in Casablanca and Love Happy. A Night in Casablanca had one great gag, but that was about it. Love Happy, though featured Marian Hutton (Betty's sister, who several years earlier had sung for Glenn Miller) and a brief early appearance by Marilyn Monroe, as a prospective client of private detective Groucho. Love Happy was Harpo's movie all the way.

I wish they'd left Free and Easy off the Keaton list. It's absolutely painful to watch MGM destroy everything that made Keaton great.

OTR fans should look for the Lum & Abner films on April 15 and the Eddie Cantor flims on the 18th.

I'm also not seeing Jack Benny's best picture: To Be or Not To Be. I'm not seeing it listed under Benny, Lubitsch, or Lombard. What are they thinking?????? On the other hand, I haven't seen George Washington Slept Here in years.

I also haven't seen most of the output of Olson & Johnson and Wheeler and Woolsey, so I'll definitely be recording those. I'll also have to pull out a VHS tape and record the Jean Harlow movies for my mother. When she was a teenager, she had pictures of Harlow on her walls.

I'll conclude with a gripe, unfortunately. Why didn't they include the shorts that W.C. Fields made, especially The Dentist and The Fatal Glass of Beer??????

Okay, I'll shut up!