TCM Genre movies schedule...

March:

MON 3/2
1:30 PM: Them! ('54): The giant-ant classic.
3:30 PM: The Swarm ('78): Michael Caine vs. a horde of killer bees.
8:00 PM: This is amazing... They're showing the entire Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy back to back, running nearly 10 hours. Just the theatrical editons, though, not the expanded versions. And unusually for TCM, they're actually showing them in the right order. (Oddly, TCM's schedule lists Fellowship as "Horror," where it lumps most sci-fi, but lists Towers as "Epic" and Return as "Adventure.")

WED 3/4
6:00 AM: A Bucket of Blood ('59): Roger Corman thriller with Dick Miller in the lead.
7:15 AM: Macabre ('58): William Castle suspense film with Jim Backus.
8:45 AM: The Brain that Wouldn't Die ('62): Famous from Mystery Science Theater 3000, a movie that got its own title wrong in the end credits (Head for Brain).
Noon: Dementia 13 ('63): Francis Ford Coppola's first mainstream feature.
1:30 PM: The Last Man on Earth ('64): Vincent Price does Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.
3:00 PM: Spider Baby ('68): Black-comedy horror, apparently, with Lon Chaney Jr. and Sid Haig.
4:30 PM: Equinox ('70): Indie thriller directed by future ILM effects master Dennis Muren. Apparently an influence on The Evil Dead.
6:00 PM: Night of the Lepus ('72): Dr. McCoy vs. the Killer Bunnies! (Followed by a short on the Wonderful World of Tupperware!)

THU 3/5
9:00 AM: The Seventh Victim ('43): Val Lewton Satanist horror film.
6:00 PM: Planet of the Apes ('68)

SAT 3/7
10:00 AM: Batman ('43): First chapter of the infamous wartime serial. Brace yourself, it's pretty damn racist, and pretty bad too.
4:15 PM: Psycho ('60)
6:15 PM: Dr. Strangelove ('64)

SUN 3/8
3:30 AM: The Visitor ('79): Arty fantasy/sci-fi film about a telekinetic girl in a battle of good vs. evil, or something. Lance Henriksen's in it, along with John Huston, Mel Ferrer, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
4:30 AM: Tentacles ('77): Giant octopus vs. Shelley Winters.
Noon: Angels in the Outfield ('51): The original version, with Janet Leigh and Keenan Wynn.
8:00 PM: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir ('47)
10:00 PM: Topper ('37)

WED 3/11
6:30 PM: The Sorcerers ('67): Boris Karloff uses hypnotic mind control.

FRI 3/13
8:00 PM: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ('68)

SAT 3/14
10:00 AM: Batman serial Ch. 2.

SUN 3/15-MON 3/16: A "Treasures from the Disney Vault" theme night. Not all of these are genre, but what the hey:
8:00 PM: Darby O'Gill and the Little People ('59)
9:45 PM: Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color: I Captured the King of the Leprechauns ('59)
10:45 PM: Babes in the Woods ('32): Silly Symphonies short.
11:00 PM: WDWWoC: The Story of the Animated Drawing ('55)
Midnight: The Three Caballeros ('44)
1:30 AM: Walt & El Grupo ('08): Documenting a Disney goodwill tour of Latin America during WWII.
3:15 AM: The Fighting Prince of Donegal ('66): Live-action Disney historical film.

WED 3/18
10:30 AM: The Ghost Goes West ('36): Haunted-castle picture with Robert Donat.

THU 3/19-FRI 3/20: A theme night of films directed by Bert I. Gordon.
8:00 PM: Tormented ('60): Ghost story.
9:30 PM: The Cyclops ('57): Giant-monster movie with Lon Chaney, Jr.
10:45 PM: Attack of the Puppet People ('58): John Hoyt shrinks people.
12:15 AM: The Magic Sword ('62): Sword-and-sorcery with Basil Rathbone and Gary Lockwood.
1:45 AM: The Boy and the Pirates ('60): Modern boy transported to pirate days.
3:15 AM: Picture Mommy Dead ('66): Psycho-ish thriller with Don Ameche and Zsa Zsa Gabor.
4:45 AM: Village of the Giants ('65): Giant teenage delinquents terrorize a town! I remember this one.

SAT 3/21
6:45 AM: The Face of Fu Manchu ('65): Christopher Lee in the title role.
8:45 AM: White Zombie ('32): Lugosi as voodoo master in Haiti, in what was apparently the first zombie movie. Right, that's totally a Haitian accent Lugosi has...
10:00 AM: Batman serial Chapter 3.

THU 3/26
10:45 AM: The Manitou ('78): Horror featuring ancient Native American demon. With Tony Curtis and Michael Ansara.

FRI 3/27-SAT 3/28
10:30 PM: Camelot ('67): Arthurian musical.
1:45 AM: Finian's Rainbow ('68): Leprechaun musical with Fred Astaire.
4:30 AM: Lost Horizon ('73): Musical remake of the Shangri-La film, with John Gielgud, Liv Ullmann, Salley Kellerman, and Michael York.

SAT 3/28
10:00 AM: Batman Ch. 4.

SUN 3/29
Midnight: Wonder Man ('45): Danny Kaye's ghost haunts his identical twin.

 

Cool, some deep cuts for those us who are a little tired of the Top 40.

 

Thanks for the list, Christopher.

Kind of cool, airing the Batman serial one episode a week. On Saturdays, too. It would be great if this were to become a regular Saturday morning thing -- one episode of a serial each week. If it does continue, I vote for Captain Marvel next.

 

^^it's actually something they've done before, with an old Zorro serial IIRC. They've also run several movie series in that slot: Tarzan, Bomba, etc. Glad to see it back.

 

The Batman serial is an odd choice, though. It's not just casually racist, as many older films are, but genuinely bigoted.

Other than that, it's a very interesting list. Definitely not the usual. I didn't have time to watch anything on TCM this month (not even One Million BC or When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth ), so hopefully I'll have better luck this month.

Raquel Welch had the advantage of Women's Lib, while Carole Landis had the Hays Code to deal with. Allowing for that, they're definitely in the same league.

 

I remember seeing the Green Hornet serial that way on TCM, though they did more than one episode a week, IIRC.

Not the issue. Landis had a superb figure, but I didn't find her face more than moderately attractive. Nor did she have that particular smolder that Welch has, that intangible allure that's more a matter of attitude than appearance.

 

Thanks again, Christopher.

Some annotations:

SPIDER BABY has to be seen to be believed. Imagine the Addams Family if the family actually murdered and ate their guests. And Spider Baby herself is mesmerizing, especially when she plays with her food. It starts a little slow, but stick with it. (I actually broke down and bought the DVD after catching it on TCM a few years back.)

DEMENTIA-13 stars William Campbell, better known as "The Squire of Gothos" and Koloth, the Klingon commander in "The Trouble with Troubles."

EQUINOX: Legendary SF/fantasy writer Fritz Leiber has a supporting role.

And THE FACE OF FU MANCHU is far and away the best of Lee's Fu Manchu movies. (And significantly less racist than the Karloff movie.)

 

have to remember to catch Spider Baby. its been several years since i saw it. 'Sting! Sting! Sting!'

 

Yeah, we'll have to disagree on that one. I think Landis definitely had her own thing going on.

I'll second that. I've got the DVD, too, and it's definitely a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience.

 

Still, the Karloff film was beautifully designed. The sets and make-up still work after 7 decades.

 

I enjoy the Karloff movie, too, and have a nostalgic fondness for it, but you have to overlook some pretty brazen racism ("Let us kill the white man and take his women!"), and I understand if that's a deal-breaker for some modern viewers.

 

What Karloff movie? You mean The Sorcerors?

 

No, Mask of Fu Manchu from the thirties. I was comparing FACE OF FU MANCHU to the earlier Karloff version.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

I'm looking at TCM tonight, I don't see any LOTR.

 

Are you sure it's TCM you're looking at? Because I just checked, and there was Orlando Bloom shooting arrows and saying "The Horn of Gondor," and I don't think there are many movies that have that in them.

 

I just checked, it's Mutiny on the Bounty.

 

^Your location tag says you're in Canada. Maybe the schedule is different there?

 

USA TODAY says they're running LOTR.

 

Maybe, but I didn't know the scheduling was that different in Canada vs US.

 

^Maybe there was some clearance issue that prevented them from airing LOTR in Canada? I dunno -- it's weird.