Wow, TCM in July is chock full of noteworthy days! Gregory Peck is the star of the month, so that means lots of great movies like To Kill a Mockingbird, Roman Holiday, Designing Woman, and Spellbound. In addition to Gregory Peck, TCM will spend some time spotlighting other great stars like Myrna Loy, Gene Kelly, William Powell, and Doris Day. Every Thursday this month, TCM will be showcasing classic teen movies, everything from Rebel Without a Cause and Beach Blanket Bingo to Sixteen Candles and Risky Business. It feels like this is one of those months where there’s something for everybody, whether you like John Ford westerns or Ingmar Bergman. Now, on to my picks for the month:
Note: All times are Eastern
July 1: TCM kicks off the month with a tribute to a couple of great ladies, Leslie Caron and Olivia De Havilland. Leslie Caron starts the day off with: Glory Alley at 6:00 AM, The Glass Slipper at 7:30 AM, her Private Screenings interview at 9:30 AM, and Lili at 10:30 AM. Then Olivia picks it up with: Devotion (12:00 PM), Dodge City (2:00 PM), To Each His Own (3:45 PM), and The Heiress (6:00 PM). Prime time is the first night of teen movies, this night focusing on movies about juvenile delinquency with: Rebel Without a Cause (8:00 PM), Blackboard Jungle (10:00 PM), The Delinquents (12:00 AM), Crime in the Streets (1:30 AM), Hot Rods to Hell (3:15 AM), and The Wild One (5:00 AM).
July 2: Tonight is a salute to Terry the dog, or as you might know her best, Toto from the Wizard of Oz. At 7:00 PM is the documentary The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 50 Years of Magic, hosted by Angela Lansbury, which offers a great look at the making of the movie as well as the movie’s lasting impact. The Wizard of Oz is on at 8:00 PM and is followed by the documentary Memories of Oz at 10:00 PM. Other Terry movies are: Fury at 10:30 PM and George Washington Slept Here at 12:15 AM. TCM Underground starts at 2:00 AM with a crazy pairing of movies: Blue Velvet and Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (4:15 AM).
July 3: Fantastic day! It’s an afternoon with Gene Kelly with Summer Stock at 12:00 PM, On The Town at 2:00 PM, and An American in Paris at 4:00 PM. At 6:00 PM is an encore of The Wizard of Oz. The prime time star of the night is Marjorie Main with Meet Me in St. Louis at 8:00 PM, Ma and Pa Kettle at 10:00 PM, The Long, Long Trailer at 11:30 PM, The Women at 1:30 AM, and Tish at 4:00 AM.
July 4: Happy Independence day! During the day, there are loads of patriotic classics like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington at 6:30 AM, 1776 at 2:30 PM, and Yankee Doodle Dandy at 5:30 PM. Prime time is all about classic Americana with Bye Bye Birdie at 8:00 PM (one I’ve been wanting to see ever since it was in that episode of Mad Men) and Oklahoma! at 10:00 PM. Tonight’s Silent Sunday Night feature is Buster Keaton’s The General at 12:30 AM, followed by the original French version of Gigi at 2:00 AM. After that, you can catch the Leslie Caron version of Gigi at 3:30 AM.
July 5: Tonight is the first night of movies dedicated to star of the month Gregory Peck and the first round of movies includes: Moby Dick (8:00 PM), To Kill A Mockingbird (10:00 PM), The Keys of the Kingdom (12:15 AM), The Yearling (2:45 AM), and The Paradine Case (5:00 AM)
July 6: Happy birthday to Janet Leigh! Fearless Again (7:00 AM), My Sister Eileen (8:30 AM), Safari (10:30 AM), The Vikings (12:15 PM), Who Was That Lady (2:15 PM), An American Dream (4:15 PM), Three on a Couch (6:00 PM). Then you can spend the evening with some real all-star extravaganzas: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at 8:00 PM, Around the World in 80 Days at 11:15 PM, and The Great Race at 2:30 AM.
July 7: Today starts off great and ends great. First you’ve got with Dinner at Eight at 6:00 AM, A Woman’s Face at 8:00 AM, and David Copperfield at 10:00 AM. Then much later at 3:15 AM is The Third Man, followed by the documentary Shadowing the Third Man at 5:15 AM.
July 8: It’s another night of teen movies. This time, it’s a night of teens at the beach with: Gidget at 8:00 PM, Beach Blanket Bingo at 10:00 PM, Bikini Beach at 12:00 AM, Where the Boys Are at 2:00 AM, and Girl Happy at 4:00 AM. I majorly love the Frankie and Annette beach party movies, so I’m looking forward to this night.
July 9: If you dig movies about doomed romances or Abraham Lincoln, it’s your lucky day! The tales of doomed romance include: the Norma Shearer version of Romeo and Juliet (6:00 AM), Wuthering Heights (8:30 AM), ‘Til We Meet Again (10:30 AM), Love Affair (12:30 PM), Dark Victory (2:00 PM), Sweet November (4:00 PM), and Invitation (6:00 PM). The Abraham Lincoln movies are: Abe Lincoln in Illinois (8:00 PM), Young Mr. Lincoln (10:00 PM), Abraham Lincoln (12:00 AM).
July 10: I’m not a big fan of westerns, so tonight’s lineup doesn’t really appeal to me. But if you like John Ford westerns, there’s My Darling Clementine (8:00 PM), Sergeant Rutledge (10:00 PM), The Searchers (12:00 AM), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (2:15 AM), and Stagecoach (4:15 AM).
July 11: Another pretty stellar day! In the morning, you’ve got Arsenic and Old Lace at 6:00 AM, Boys Town at 8:00 AM, and Baby Doll at 10:00 AM. Kind of a random assortment of movies, but they’re all good. At 2:00 PM is Cool Hand Luke. Then in prime time, TCM takes a trip to Coney Island with Speedy at 8:00 PM, the silent short Coney Island with Fatty Arbuckle, and The Devil and Miss Jones at 10:15 PM. Silents in prime time is always a good thing! This week’s Silent Sunday feature is D.W. Griffith’s Orphans of the Storm at 12:00 AM.
July 12: It’s Gregory Peck night again with Roman Holiday at 8:00 PM, The Valley of Decision at 10:00 PM, Spellbound at 12:00 AM, The Great Sinner at 2:00 AM, Man With a Million at 4:00 am, and I Walk the Line at 5:30 AM.
July 13: TCM finishes up with Gregory Peck with Designing Woman at 7:15 AM, a fun romantic comedy with Lauren Bacall. Worth seeing if you haven’t already seen it. Later at 11:00 AM is Pat and Mike. I don’t particularly like sports movies, but that’s really a great one, one of the best Hepburn/Tracy pairings. I love watching Kate Hepburn rough up the thugs. Guest programmer Robert Wuhl picks the prime time lineup tonight with: To Be or Not To Be at 8:00 PM, The Big Country at 10:00 PM, and Smile at 1:00 AM. I’ve never seen Smile, but it sounds intriguing.
July 15: Spend the morning with Paul Muni! Juarez at 6:00 AM, The Life of Emile Zola at 8:15 AM, and The Story of Louis Pasteur at 10:15 AM. Tonight’s teen movie theme is 80s teen movies: Better Off Dead at 8:00 PM, Sixteen Candles at 10:00 PM, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off at 12:00 AM, Risky Business at 2:00 AM, and Fame at 3:45 AM. I don’t really have anything against most of these movies, but stuff like Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off can be seen on other channels on pretty much any given day.
July 16: It’s Barbara Stanwyck day! The Strange Love of Martha Ivers at 8:15 AM, Cry Wolf at 10:15 AM, Two Mrs. Carrolls at 11:45 AM, B.F.’s Daughter at 1:30 PM, To Please a Lady at 3:30 PM, The Man With A Cloak at 5:15 PM, and Jeopardy at 6:45. Tonight, TCM spends the night under the big top with circus classics Freaks (8:00 PM), Circus of Horrors (9:15 PM), Berserk (11:00 PM), and The Circus Queen Murder (1:00 AM).
July 17: Take a trip to Morocco with Road to Morocco (8:00 PM), Morocco (9:30 PM), The Wind and the Lion (11:15 PM), The Desert Song (1:30 AM), and Outpost in Morocco (3:30 AM).
July 18: There’s a great assortment of movies today. In the morning, there’s Follow the Fleet at 6:00 AM, Good News at 8:00 AM, and It Happened One Night at 10:00 AM. In the afternoon, there’s To Catch A Thief at 2:00 PM and My Favorite Wife at 6:15 PM. Then that night, there’s King Kong at 10:00 PM and The Seventh Seal at 2:00 AM. Personally, I approve of any day that starts with Fred and Ginger and ends with Ingmar Bergman.
July 19: It’s Gregory Peck night again! Captain Horatio Hornblower at 8:00 PM, Captain Newman MD at 10:00 PM, The Guns of Navarone at 12:15 AM, The Purple Plain at 3:00 AM, and On The Beach at 4:45 AM.
July 20: Gregory Peck continues through the morning with Days of Glory at 7:00 AM and Behold a Pale Horse at 8:30 AM. Then it’s time for Myrna Loy! The Truth About Youth at 10:45 AM, Consolation Marriage at 12:00 PM, Thirteen Women at 1:30 PM, When Ladies Meet at 2:45 PM, Evelyn Prentice at 4:15 PM, Man-Proof at 5:45, and the documentary Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To at 7:00 PM.
July 23: This day is a prime example of one reason why I love this channel. Bowery Boys movies all day long, Shirley Temple movies in prime time, then it switches over to Big Bad Mama and Bonnie and Clyde. Where else are you ever going to see Bowery Boys movies, Shirley Temple movies and one called Big Bad Mama all in the same day?
July 24: Key Largo at 6:15 PM. The prime time lineup features movies with mostly black casts: Black Orpheus at 8:00 PM, Cabin in the Sky at 10:00 PM, A Raisin in the Sun at 12:00 AM, Shaft at 2:15 AM, and Sounder at 4:15 AM.
July 25: Another very fun day! During the day, there’s The Awful Truth at 10:15 AM and The Fortune Cookie at 4:00 PM. Then it’s a night of Abbott and Costello movies with Buck Privates at 8:00 PM, Ride ‘Em Cowboy at 9:30 PM, and The Noose Hangs High at 11:00 PM. Tonight’s Silent Sunday Night feature is Throw of the Dice at 12:30 AM. Throw of the Dice is a truly stunning Indian silent film, absolutely worth watching! At 2:00 AM is Two Women, a great movie with Sophia Loren and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
July 27: It’s a night of Doris Day movies with: The West Point Story at 8:00 PM, The Winning Team at 10:00 PM, By the Light of the Silvery Moon at 12:00 AM, With Six You Get Eggroll at 2:00 AM, and Tunnel of Love at 4:00 AM.
July 28: The theme of the night is movies without a musical score, like Fail Safe (10:00 PM), Network (12:00 AM), and Executive Suite (2:15 AM).
July 29: You can’t have a month with a Myrna Loy day and not have a William Powell day, too! One Way Passage (6:00 AM), Kennel Murder Case (7:15 AM), Manhattan Melodrama (8:30 AM), Reckless (10:15 AM), Love Crazy (12:00 PM), I Love You Again (2:00 PM), After the Thin Man (4:00 PM), Life With Father (6:00 PM). And it’s another night of teen movies in prime time. Tonight’s theme: teens and rock and roll. Rock, Rock, Rock at 8:00 PM, Rock Around the Clock at 9:30 PM, Bye Bye Birdie at 11:00 PM, Jailhouse Rock at 1:00 AM, Go Johnny Go at 2:45 AM, and Don’t Knock the Twist at 4:15 AM. Alas, my favorite rock and roll teen movie, Rock ‘n Roll High School, didn’t make the cut:
July 30: Deception with Bette Davis is on at 7:30 AM, I’m looking forward to seeing that one. At 6:00 PM is The Bad and the Beautiful, always a good one. Then it’s a night of concert films with Let the Good Times Roll at 8:00 PM, Elvis on Tour from 1972 at 10:00 PM, and Let’s Spend the Night Together, featuring The Rolling Stones’ 1981 North American tour, at 12:00 AM.
The Hollywood Revue 
Rock n Roll High School! What lovable trash that was. I was always a huge Ramones fan, but I’ll be the first to admit that I use the fast-forward button a lot in that movie! I wonder what it would have been like had Cheap Trick agreed to do it. Would it have been so anarchic? Apparently Dee Dee had one line to say in the whole movie and couldn’t do it, no matter how hard he tried…
Haha, yeah I can see why they only have Dee Dee one line. It’s such an incredibly cheesy and goofy movie, but I love it. And it’s got a darn good soundtrack, too. Hard to go wrong with so much Ramones music. It’s also hard to imagine the movie with anyone else but the Ramones. Van Halen might have been pretty anarchic too, but there’s something about the Ramones that just fits right with the movie.