#summer under the stars

Ingrid Bergman (Aug. 29, 1915-Aug. 29, 1982) in a publicity photo for Casablanca (1942).

Here’s 5 to watch during this week’s Summer Under the Stars lineup on TCM.

1. Anatomy of a Murder (1959) at 11:45 pm ET/8:45 pm PT Monday, Aug. 23: There’s lots of wonderful films airing during Eve Arden’s SUTS day, but her wistful performance as James Stewart’s secretary in this courtroom drama is one of our favorites.

2. The Love Parade (1930) at 9:45 pm ET/6:45 pm PT Tuesday, Aug. 24: French actor Maurice Chevalier’s SUTS day brings lots of excellent pre-code fare, including this frothy Lubitsch-directed confection about the amours of a vivacious queen (Jeanette MacDonald), whose roving eye soon alights on Chevalier’s charming soldier.

3. Stage Fright (1950) at 4 pm ET/1 pm PT Wednesday, Aug. 25: This under-rated Hitchcock thriller about a murder in London’s theatrical community is airing during Jane Wyman’s SUTS lineup. Hitchcock’s daughter, Pat, who passed away recently, has a droll supporting part as Wyman’s good-natured chum, Chubby Bannister.

4. ‘Til We Meet Again (1940) at midnight ET/9 pm PT Friday, Aug. 27: If you caught the iconic romance One Way Passage (1932) during Kay Francis’ SUTS day, you might want to check out the remake, which stars SUTS honoree Merle Oberon and George Brent. It isn’t quite as good as the original, but it’s still makes for a great night of movie escapism; plus, Frank McHugh reprises his role from the original as a small-time con man.

5. Finally, we’ll always have Casablanca (1942), which is airing at 6 pm ET/3 pm PT Sunday, Aug. 29 during Ingrid Bergman’s SUTS lineup.

A young Robert Redford

Here’s 5 to watch this week during TCM’s Summer Under the Stars lineup.

1. The Big Heat (1953) at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT Tuesday, Aug. 17: Gloria Grahame’s SUTS day is filled with noir riches. Basically, you can tune in any time during the afternoon or evening for a classic crime film (full schedule here: https://summer.tcm.com/ ), but if you have to pick just one, make it director Fritz Lang’s police procedural in which Grahame plays a disfigured mob moll seeking vengeance.

2. The Candidate (1972) at 1:15 pm ET/10:15 am ET Wednesday, Aug. 18: Robert Redford has starred in/directed several first-rate political films, but this cinema verite classic about a charismatic but vacuous Senate candidate is one of the best films airing during August. It anticipates our own image-driven age, and the final scene is a damning portrait of a man without a moral center (or any morals at all, really).

3. Late Autumn (1960) at 1:30 pm ET/10:30 am ET Thursday, Aug. 19: This beautifully filmed Japanese drama stars SUTS honoree Setsuko Hara as a widow who is trying to find a husband for her daughter (Yoko Tsukasa). Late Autumn is very specific to Japanese culture, but it also has universal themes of love, friendship, and family, and Hara is an actor who can break your heart with just one glance.

4. A Woman Rebels (1936) at 9 am ET/6 am PT Saturday, Aug. 21: Katharine Hepburn’s SUTS day is filled with all-time favorites like Bringing Up Baby (12:15 pm ET) and Desk Set (8 pm ET). However, if you’re looking for something a little different, tune in to this costume drama about the triumphs and travails of an independent Victorian woman. Kate is at her fiery, feminist best; plus, it’s the screen debut of Friday’s SUTS honoree, Van Heflin.

5. The Mark of Zorro (1940) at 10:15 pm ET/7:15 pm PT Sunday, Aug. 22: There’s no better way to wrap up your weekend than with a little classic-movie escapism courtesy of swashbuckling star Tyrone Power. A breathtaking Linda Darnell plays Power’s love interest, and Basil Rathbone is in peak villain mode.

Here’s 5 to watch this week during TCM’s Summer Under the Stars lineup

1. One Way Passage (1932) at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT Monday, Aug. 9: Old Hollywood’s premier romantic weepie stars William Powell and SUTS honoree Kay Francis as star-crossed lovers who have a doomed shipboard romance.

2. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) at 5:45 pm ET/2:45 pm PT Tuesday, Aug. 10: If you’re idea of an afternoon’s entertainment is watching a dysfunctional, alcoholic couple (Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor) verbally destroy each other during a Scotch-fueled battle of the wills then tune in to this Oscar-winning drama that is part of George Segal’s SUTS day. He plays a young man who becomes entangled in Burton and Taylor’s life when he and his wife (Sandy Dennis) are invited over for drinks.

3. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) at 8 pm ET/5 pm ET Thursday, Aug. 12: This ancient epic about a young Jewish prince (SUTS honoree Ramon Novarro) is the last word in silent-movie spectacle.

4. Twelve O'Clock High (1949) at 5:30 pm ET/2:30 pm PT Saturday, Aug. 14: There’s lots of great stuff during Gregory Peck’s SUTS day, such as this underrated WWII drama about an Army Air Corps officer who struggles with what we would call today PTSD. Twelve O'Clock High is an effective rebuttal to many of the he-man heroics in other war films, and Peck gives an exceptional performance.

5. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) at 2:30 pm ET/11:30 am PT Sunday, Aug. 15: There’s lots of great musicals airing during Judy Garland’s SUTS day, but this nostalgic film is a treasured favorite in our house.

Here’s the full Summer Under the Stars schedule: https://summer.tcm.com/

Robert Mitchum on Lake Mead in 1950.

Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple

Louis Armstrong relaxes on the set of High Society (1956).

Kim Novak and Cary Grant at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival.

Here’s 5 to watch this week on TCM:

1. Anne of a Thousand Days (1969) at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT Monday Aug. 2: It’s back to Tudor times in prime time with Richard Burton as notorious English king, Henry VIII.

2. A Man Called Adam (1966) at 6 pm ET/3 pm PT Wednesday, Aug 4: This Civil Rights era drama about a troubled jazz musician is filled with legends like Sammy Davis, Jr., Louis Armstrong, Cicely Tyson, and Ossie Davis.

3. Chimes at Midnight (1967) at 1 pm ET/10 am PT Thursday, Aug. 5: Margaret Rutherford’s SUTS day blesses us with this excellent Shakespearean adaptation from Orson Welles.

4. The Sundowners (1960) at 5:45 pm ET/2:45 pm PT Friday, Aug. 6: If you’ve seen Out of the Past (1947) a bunch of times already (if you haven’t, it’s on at 8 pm ET), try this excellent Outback drama. Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr make a great screen team.

5 The Time of Their Lives (1946) at 4:30 pm ET/1:30 pm PT Saturday, Aug. 7: This comedy about a couple of Revolutionary War soldiers who haunt a New England estate is literally Abbott and Costello’s Citizen Kane (we’re kind of joking, but not really).

Life magazine photos of Bette Davis painting her nails.

Greetings, fellow TCM fans. Our very favorite time of the year is almost here.
This year’s Summer Under the Stars lineup starts on Sunday, Aug 1 with 24 hours of films starring the legendary Bette Davis. The fun starts at 6 am ET with Bette’s fine performance in the gangster expose Marked Woman (1937) and continues with a blockbuster prime time schedule: Old South saga Jezebel (1938) at 8 pm ET, and the excellent historical mystery All This, and Heaven Too (1940) at 10 pm ET.
SUTS continues throughout August with stars such as ‘30s favorite Kay Francis (Aug. 9), noir icon Gloria Grahame (Aug. 17), and all-time great James Cagney (Aug. 30) in the lineup. Here’s the best of the rest for the week of July 29.

Double Wedding (1937) at 6:30 pm ET/3:30 pm PT Thursday, July 29: TCM is celebrating William Powell’s 129th birth date (Powell was born July 29, 1892, in Pittsburgh) with a daytime lineup of his films, which gives viewers an excellent chance to catch a few screwballs with Powell’s frequent costar Myrna Loy. Another Powell-Loy rom-com, Love Crazy (1941), is airing at 1:45 pm ET.

Blade Runner (1982) at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT Friday, July 30: The final night of neo-noir films includes director Ridley Scott’s science-fiction classic about a loner (Harrison Ford) who is tracking human replicants in a dystopian society. A cult classic upon its release, the film has since went on to become perhaps the most influential film of the '80s. It’s not a traditional crime movie, but it was heavily influenced by classic film noir in both plot and style (everything in the future happens in the night and/or in the rain, apparently).

Hollow Triumph (1948) at 12:30 pm ET/9:30 pm PT Saturday night/Sunday morning: Noir Alley will be on break throughout August, but you can bid it a fond farewell with this excellent thriller starring Paul Henreid as a notorious criminal who poses as a psychiatrist.
FYI: Hollow Triumph won’t have an encore presentation on Sunday morning, so you’ll have to stay up late on Saturday or set the DVR.

(a.k.a. Natalie Wood Part Two)

While I had my Natalie Wood makeup on, I did a quick change so that I could squeeze in an extra, bonus cosplay. This is my recreation of Natalie on this Italian poster for This Property is Condemned (1966). I painted this one on my own and while it’s not perfect, I think it’s pretty good for someone who had never painted digitally or used a tablet before a month ago! 

This bonus cosplay is gonna be my excuse to share some of my thoughts on the whole of this year’s Cosplay Under the Stars series.

Until the very end of July, I was waffling over whether or not I wanted to do this challenge again. But when the concept of recreating posters and magazine covers crossed my mind, instead of my usual cosplay, challenging myself with new media was really attractive. Even though I do like the results–and most of you seem to as well–I don’t know if and/or when I’ll do this again.

For context, I began experimenting with styling myself after performers and characters from my favorite movies when I was a teenager. Yes, before social media. (Yes, I’m old.) It was not only a creative outlet, but it was also a fun and different way of engaging with my favorite performers and films. (There’s definitely a way to tie this into being undiagnosed autistic, but that’s another story for another time.)

There is so much I’ve learned over the years by doing this. In some cases, I’ve come to appreciate the creative choices of some of my favorite performers in a new way. In others, I’ve arrived at an appreciation for performers that I didn’t know that much about beforehand. Honestly, if you are comfortable playing with styling and/or photography, I really recommend trying this yourself.

When I got my film studies degree, I saw how underrepresented the analysis of acting is in film scholarship–outside the parameters of star studies that is. And so, being able to connect with what the performers are doing in their roles from the outside in is so enriching. There’s much more depth and creativity in what classic film actors did than they are given credit for. I hope that I’ve been able to convey some of that to you all, even if my blog is not entirely focused on it.

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Now… there is a vocal minority of people who really, truly do not understand what I’m doing with any of these cosplays. My response to them is: ok, boomer. If you’ve never clicked a link to read what I’ve written, if you don’t understand self-portraiture, if you’ve never done makeup, hairstyling, photography, costuming, or acting–then why am I supposed to care about your opinion? (Another thing I’ve come to learn doing this is that prosopagnosia is way more widespread than you think. But, again, that’s another story for another time.)

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The reason I’m not sure if I’ll do this type of cosplay again is that such rote recreation isn’t as fun or creatively fulfilling. When you’re so worried about trying to get enough visual details just right, there’s not a lot of room to explore a performer or their performance, which is most of the fun of cosplays for me. It does seem that a lot less people understand what I’m doing with my cosplays when I’m recreating a mood or the energy of a performance than when I do image recreations–but let’s be honest, at this point in my life I know I’m the human equivalent of pickles and peanut butter–an acquired taste. If I come across a particularly compelling cover or poster in the future or if it would ever be feasible to do this with other people as my models, maybe I’ll have at it again. But, for now, I’ll probably go back to my regular cosplays.

Even so, learning new software and methods was fun in another way! I have to thank my SO for encouraging me to go through with the project and helping me immeasurably with painting work on most of the pictures while teaching me how to do it myself. They also helped me shoot many of these, given my lacking equipment.

All of my photographic equipment. No. Really. (The mirror is because my camera doesn’t have a front-facing display.)

Also, smaller shout out to Curious World, because his youtube videos accompanied me while I did my hair and makeup.

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If you’d like to support my cosplay endeavors going forward, I have a paypal,ko-fi, and a public amazon wishlist. Thank you for all your support and encouragement!

What is Cosplay Under the Stars?

If you’re new here, every August, Turner Classic Movies celebrates Summer Under the Stars. Each day of the month, a different film star gets a full 24 hours of programming. In 2017, on a whim, I decided to put together closet cosplays of every woman featured that month. And so, Cosplay Under the Stars was born.

With only a few days left in this year’s Summer Under the Stars, we’ve finally hit Claudette Colbert day! So, here’s my photo-based recreation of the poster for She Married Her Boss (1935). TCM isn’t playing that today, but they are playing The Palm Beach Story (1942), which will be a much-needed escape!

If you’d like to read a little more about Claudette, I scanned and transcribed an interview with her from the August 1939 issue of Modern Screen.

This is going to be my last regular post for Cosplay Under the Stars this year, but I’m planning a bonus cosplay to go along with a little wrap-up. Keep an eye out for that! (Probably on Sunday, the 30th.)

What is Cosplay Under the Stars?

If you’re new here, every August, Turner Classic Movies celebrates Summer Under the Stars. Each day of the month, a different film star gets a full 24 hours of programming. In 2017, on a whim, I decided to put together closet cosplays of every woman featured that month. And so, Cosplay Under the Stars was born.

We’re now in the middle of 24 hours of Olivia de Havilland on TCM for Summer Under the Stars. There are so many superlatives I could shower on Olivia that I’m definitely going to have to write a whole essay on her eventually! But, for now, here’s my recreation of the July 1947 cover of Cine-Mundial magazine featuring Olivia.

One bit I will mention today is that Olivia’s legacy was not simply her fantastic screen work, but the precedent for labor rights she set on this day in 1943 when she sued Warner Bros. for release from her contract with them. Basically, studios had redefined what a seven-year contract meant so that they could further extend their control over artists. The result was the De Havilland Law, which makes it explicit that a seven-year contract represents seven calendar years. This precedent is still used today to protect the rights of performers.

I wasn’t able to gather much information about the photo featured on this cover, but it was apparently one of a series of publicity shots for the film To Each His Own(1946). Coincidentally, this happens to be the first film Olivia made after the ruling and the film for which she won her first Best Actress Academy Award!

What is Cosplay Under the Stars?

If you’re new here, every August, Turner Classic Movies celebrates Summer Under the Stars. Each day of the month, a different film star gets a full 24 hours of programming. In 2017, on a whim, I decided to put together closet cosplays of every woman featured that month. And so, Cosplay Under the Stars was born.

Today, Summer Under the Stars is celebrating the always effervescent Natalie Wood! This recreation of a Japanese poster for her film Penelope (1966) is my tribute to my girl Natalia.

I watched it for the first time this morning and it’s exactly as adorable as this poster makes it seem. Natalie has just the right amount of Fujiko Energy for the plot. Edith Head’s costuming is as gorgeous as always and I would like to have one of each of Natalie’s costumes in my closet please and thank you.

What is Cosplay Under the Stars?

If you’re new here, every August, Turner Classic Movies celebrates Summer Under the Stars. Each day of the month, a different film star gets a full 24 hours of programming. In 2017, on a whim, I decided to put together closet cosplays of every woman featured that month. And so, Cosplay Under the Stars was born.

In honor of the glorious Dolores del Río’s Summer Under the Stars debut, I recreated this 1936 Earl Christy portrait of her for Modern Screen magazine. Dolores has become one of my favorite film actors over the past few years and I’m excited that there are a bunch of films that TCM is playing today that I haven’t seen yet! I’m most looking forward to The Trail of ’98 (1928) and The Devil’s Playground(1937).

Dolores was a major star not only from her work in Hollywood, but also as one of the foremost stars of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. Sadly, TCM isn’t playing any of Dolores’ Mexican films today. (As someone who has done work in media rights management, I’m sure TCM has reasons that Mexican cinema is underrepresented in their programming.)

That said, spend some of today falling in love with Dolores and then seek out her Mexican films! There are still a lot of films of the Golden Age I haven’t seen, but I strongly recommend checking out La Otra (1946) (probably my favorite Dolores film), María Candelaria (1944), and Flor Silvestre(1943).

What is Cosplay Under the Stars?

If you’re new here, every August, Turner Classic Movies celebrates Summer Under the Stars. Each day of the month, a different film star gets a full 24 hours of programming. In 2017, on a whim, I decided to put together closet cosplays of every woman featured that month. And so, Cosplay Under the Stars was born.

Lana Turner’s Summer Under the Stars takeover is upon us! Here’s my recreation of the September 1941 cover of Movie Stars Parade magazine. Lana’s on the cover in promotion for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), which was released that month. Yes, that is really the photo they chose to run with a promo for a period horror film.

This promotional photo was obviously not taken for the movie, but the choice of the photo given the subject of the article illustrates a disappointing aspect of her stardom. Even today, when people talk about Lana Turner, they zero in on her glamorous-yet-approachable image or her dramatic personal life over her actual work. Frankly I disagree with the assertion that she wasn’t that good at acting. Of course, early on Lana was learning on the job. Though roles that challenged her range were sporadic, looking at her work from the mid-1940s on, she was always on point, she always matched the energy of each film. That’s why I’m glad TCM is mostly playing post-1945 Lana films. Hopefully, some people will take the day to reconsider their flippancy toward Lana and realize she was more than someone who looked good in a sweater!

What is Cosplay Under the Stars?

If you’re new here, every August, Turner Classic Movies celebrates Summer Under the Stars. Each day of the month, a different film star gets a full 24 hours of programming. In 2017, on a whim, I decided to put together closet cosplays of every woman featured that month. And so, Cosplay Under the Stars was born.