TCM, 6:00 a.m. ET
So it’s August now. Another month of pandemic-imposed confinement. Sigh. Silver linings are hard to come by, but here’s one bright coat on our cumulative coronavirus cumulus: Starting today, and for the entirety of August, TCM presents its annual “Summer Under the Stars” celebration, filling each day with the work of one specific actor or actress. This year’s festival begins with Barbra Stanwyck, and watching several of her movies in a row is a great way to witness, and be knocked out by, her effortless range. The day begins at 6 a.m. ET with 1934’s Gambling Lady, her 18th film in seven years, with many more to come. Seek out just a few, and you’ll see why she’s so amazing. Daytime treats include 1949’s East Side, West Side (at 2 p.m. ET) and 1947’s The Two Mrs. Carrolls (at 4 p.m. ET). But look at what arrives in prime time. At 8 p.m. ET, Stanwyck plays sassy singer Sugarpuss O’Shea opposite Gary Cooper’s tightly wound Professor Potts in the 1941 comedy Ball of Fire. At 10 p.m. ET, she plays a seductive femme fatale corrupting Fred MacMurray’s insurance agent in 1944’s Double Indemnity (pictured). And at midnight ET, in 1941’s Meet John Doe, she plays a cynical newspaper reporter who persuades an affable nobody (Gary Cooper) to impersonate a person she concocted in one of her stories – a person whose popularity becomes both substantial and political. All three movies are great, as are the performances by Stanwyck and her leading men. Oh, and what directors: Ball of Fire, Double Indemnity and Meet John Doe are directed, respectively, by Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, and Frank Capra. And after this, there are 30 days of “Summer Under the Stars” to go…
Decades, 12:00 p.m. ET
Neil Simon’s brilliantly funny play The Odd Couple opened on Broadway in 1965, starring Walter Matthau as slovenly sportswriter Oscar Madison and Art Carney as his fussy temporary roommate, Felix Ungar. It was a smash hit that ran for two years – and after it closed, in 1968, Matthau reprised his stage role in a movie version, opposite Jack Lemmon as Felix. Both versions were comedy brilliance, so there was little chance to hope, when ABC mounted a sitcom adaptation for television, that lightning would strike thrice. Yet it did. From 1970-75, producers Garry Marshall (later of Happy Days and so much more) and Jerry Belson created a TV offshoot, starring Jack Klugman as Oscar and Tony Randall as Felix. Once again, the casting was superb, and ABC’s The Odd Couple ran for the first half of the 1970s, keeping pace with such classic CBS sitcoms as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, and M*A*S*H. Today and tomorrow, Decades presents a two-day marathon of this rarely televised Odd Couple sitcom, so take full advantage. The action begins today at noon ET, with a roster including a flashback “prequel” at 1:30 p.m. ET, and an episode at 4:30 p.m. ET that proves Monty Python wasn’t the only partnership to wring classic comedy out of a dead parrot. And the best is yet to come. More details tomorrow.
HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
Lots of kids, and a few adults, get by with a little help from their imaginary friends. But in this wild movie based on the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens, little Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), a German boy who’s a member in training for the Hitler Youth – and his imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler himself. This crazy, bold, yet audaciously entertaining satire was adapted for the screen by What We Do in the Shadows writer Taika Waititi, who also directs. And, to pull off an amazing hat trick, also co-stars as Adolf. Other stars in Jojo Rabbit include Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, and Stephen Merchant.