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3:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Blonde Crazy (1931 USA): With a title like Blonde Crazy, how can you go wrong? You can’t, of course — especially when the film is headlined by James Cagney and Joan Blondell! Jimmy is Bert Harris, a wise guy bellhop always on the lookout for new opportunities, whilst Joan is hotel maid Anne Roberts, also eager to improve her situation. The two decide there’s easy pickings to be had amongst some of the hotel’s shadier residents — including bootleggers and adulterers — and soon blackmail their way to a tidy $5,000 nest egg. After moving to the big city, however, Bert and Anne discover they’re just as likely to be the griftee as the grifter. Directed by Roy Del Ruth, Blonde Crazy is as lively and fun an example of pre-Code cinema as you could imagine, and features a great supporting cast, including Nat Pendleton, Maude Eburne, Ray Milland, and Louis Calhern.

Thursday 04/14/11

4:50 AM Encore Action
Tekwar: Teklab (1994 USA): I know you didn’t get enough William Shatner last week, so here’s the Canadian chubby’s immediate sequel to Tekwar. I actually haven’t seen Tekwar: Teklab — which in addition to Captain Kirk also features Michael York — but apparently it’s got something to do with King Arthur’s mythical, magical sword Excalibur. Considering the subject matter of the first Tekwar film, this one might have been more appropriately entitled The Sword in the Stoned.

Friday 04/15/11

4:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Man of Two Worlds (1934 USA): Are you sitting comfortably? I hope so, because there’s really no reason to get up from the sofa or even change the channel today: indeed, TCM has so many goodies on offer that you may want to keep a chamberpot close at hand. The fun begins with Man of Two Worlds, an obscure RKO drama featuring Francis Lederer as an Eskimo (I know, stifle your disbelief) who falls in love with the picture of the daughter (Elissa Landi) of the great white hunter (Henry Stephenson) with whom he’s been stalking polar bears. Oh dear, oh dear...you know what happens with these cross-racial romances in Golden Age films, right? Let’s just say there’s no fadeout clinch implying future marital bliss. Man of Two Worlds has no IMDb reviews yet, so you know it’s been a while since it last showed up on television!

7:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Call of the Flesh (1930 USA): Here’s one of those bizarre and creaky early musicals that seemed to be everywhere between 1929 and 1931. It may not be a great film, but Call of the Flesh is worth a look for Ramon Novarro’s performance as hot-blooded Latin opera singer Juan. Hot-blooded senorita Lola (Renee Adoree, not looking terribly well due to a case of tuberculosis) fancies him, but Juan is also the apple of hot-blooded novice nun Maria’s (Dorothy Jordan) eye. Will Maria become a bride of Christ, or will she end up sharing a nuptial bed with Juan? Dios mio! Call of the Flesh is followed at 9:00 AM by The Roadhouse Murder (1932), a routine but rare crime drama in which Jordan plays the girlfriend of a reporter who frames himself for a crime in order to get himself sent to prison, where he hopes to get the scoop of a lifetime. It co-stars both Roscoe Karns and Roscoe Ates, neither of whom packs a roscoe in the film.

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