Ten Minutes till Showtime!

We hope you’ll make it to your local drive-in just as often as possible this summer, but on the chance that you haven’t an ozoner near you, we wanted to tip you off to Turner Classic Movies‘ Drive-in Double Features, running every Thursday night in June.

Many of the featured titles fall just outside the usual purview of Cladrite Radio, but we’re suckers for these movies, and we hope you are, too.

“Double Features” isn’t really the most accurate handle to hang on these Thursday night festivals, as they last all night long. Think of them instead as the sort of “Dusk to Dawn” marathons many drive-ins used to run on occasion back in the day.

The first group of movies, airing tomorrow, June 2, is highlighted by a group of Japanese “giant monster” movies. All times eastern.

8:00 PM
GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS! (1956)
Nuclear tests awaken a prehistoric monster. Dir: Ishiro Honda Cast: Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kochi.

9:45 PM
RODAN (1957)
Miners uncover the nest of a giant pterodactyl. Dir: Inoshiro Honda Cast: Kenji Sawara, Yumi Shirakawa, Akihiko Hirata.

11:15 PM
GHIDORAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964)
Mothra, Godzilla and Rodan join forces to take on a space invasion. Dir: Inoshiro Honda Cast: Yosuke Natsuki, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi,

1:00 AM
GODZILLA VS. MONSTER ZERO (1970)
Aliens try to use Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan to take over the planet. Dir: Inoshiro Honda Cast: Nick Adams, Akira Takarada, Kumi Mizuno.

2:45 AM
DINOSAURUS! (1960)
Caribbean engineers accidentally revive a frozen caveman and two dinosaurs. Dir: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. Cast: Ward Ramsey, Paul Lukather, Kristina Hanson.

4:15 AM
THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969)
Cowboys discover a lost world populated by dinosaurs. Dir: Jim O’Connolly Cast: James Franciscus, Gila Golan, Richard Carlson.

The second set of drive-in features, airing on June 9, also features a bevy of giant creatures, but these are all American features.
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What to watch, March 21-27

So, we’ve been considering for some time offering a weekly round-up of the classic pictures we’re inclined to recommend among those being aired in the week ahead on our favorite network (and surely it’s yours, too), Turner Classic Movies.

We’ll stick mostly to the same years in this listing that we generally focus on here at Cladrite Radio—the 20th century up to 1960 or so—but we reserve the right to step outside those boundaries when we’re so inspired. We’ll recommend whatever tickles our fancy that week; some movies we love won’t get cited, and other that we know are special-interest only will. No squawking allowed (well, you can squawk, but it won’t do you any good).

We’ll try to post this every weekend, usually on Sunday. If you think it’s a good idea and you’d like to see this weekly listing continue, let us know by clicking the Like button at the bottom of this post. If we don’t hear from enough of you, we’ll pull the plug, and no hard feelings.

All that said, here are our TCM recommendations for the upcoming week:

Monday

1:45 PM
THE FEMININE TOUCH (1941)
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Don Ameche, Kay Francis. Dir: W.S. Van Dyke II.
A frothy comedy with two of our favorite actresses.

8:00 PM
KINGS ROW (1942)
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan. Dir: Sam Wood.
Can’t go wrong with Ms. Sheridan, and it’s said to be Reagan’s best work. If you’re going to watch just one Ronald Reagan movie, perhaps this should be it.

10:15 PM
CAUGHT (1949)
Cast: James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan. Dir: Max Ophuls.
Ophuls is one of our ten favorite directors of all time, and this is a crackerjack thriller.

2:30 AM
THE SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Kuninori Kodo. Dir: Akira Kurosawa.
Should be seen on a big screen, of course, but perhaps you have one of those at home.

Tuesday

3:45 PM
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Karl Malden. Dir: Elia Kazan.
A classic, but the changes required by the Production Code grate exceedingly if you know the play well.

8:00 PM
WIFE VS. SECRETARY (1936)
Cast: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow. Dir: Clarence Brown.
Jean Harlow’s the star of the month in March on TCM, and there’s not a picture among the six listed below that we wouldn’t recommend to you.

9:45 PM
RED DUST (1932)
Cast: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Mary Astor. Dir: Victor Fleming.
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Z is for Zelda

We don’t kid ourselves that our listeners and readers can subsist on Cladrite Radio alone.

Heck, no—after all, each of us occasionally finds ourselves without internet access, and what to do then, when you’ve got a yen to do a little reading about life as it was once lived?

Well, we know what we do—we reach for a copy of Zelda magazine, and our vintage itch is immediately scratched.

As is explained on the publication’s web site, Zelda is “inspired by days gone by and our goal is to share glorious tidbits of yesteryear while bringing you features on the best of what’s happening in the vintage-style culture today.”

We’ve read Zelda (heck, we’ve contributed to it), and the above sentiments aptly sum up what this winning biannual is all about. Take it from us, from interviews with the likes of Golden Era actress Marsha Hunt, former Zeigfeld girl Doris Eaton Travis, and Turner Classic Movies on-air host Robert Osborne to recipes (culinary and cocktail), fashion history and advice, music reviews, and so much more, Zelda’s got vintage culture covered from stem to stern.

And just to show we’re willing to put our money where our mouth is, we’re going to offer the first giveaway we’ve ever undertaken at Cladrite Radio. The first six people to email us at zeldamag@cladriteradio.com will receive a copy of the current edition of Zelda (it’s issue #3, fyi), which boasts such fascinating features as a previously unpublished interview with the man once known as “America’s boyfriend,” actor, bandleader (and second husband to Mary Pickford) Charles “Buddy” Rogers; a profile of the once-best-selling (and not a little scandalous) but now largely forgotten author Ursula Parrott; an intoxicating drink recipe that updates the classic Manhattan cocktail while remaining true to the “spirit” of the original; a guide to the proper wearing of neckties; the sage advice of “Ask Mr. Burton”; and so much more (honestly, we’re just scratching the surface here).

So drop us a line, being sure to include your name and mailing address, and if yours is one of the first six entries we receive, we’ll get a copy of Zelda right off to you.

Such a deal!

Kids say the darnedest things

When we were growing up in the pre-cable-television 1960s and early ’70s, there were just three major networks, the educational channel, and, at times, a UHF station available to us.

And in those days, we spent hours watching the output of the Hal Roach studios, in the form of Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy shorts.

We have no evidence to back us up, but we suspect that if you were to ask the average 20-year-old if he or she has ever seen a short from either of those series, the answer would be no.

Which is fair enough, of course. It’s the nature of pop culture to constantly renew itself (we have a theory about that—the Unsealed Sausage Casing Theory—which we will perhaps share with you at a future date). Though we’re unapologetic fans of both the Gang (later known, of course, as The Little Rascals) and Stan and Ollie, we are resolved, as the years pass, not to become cranky geezers bemoaning the fact these kids today have never heard of … well, you fill in the blank.

And let’s face it, it’s not as though these shorts were a part of our own popular culture. Though the Roach studios were a going concern from 1914 till 1960, these particular series date to the 1920s and ’30s, several decades before we showed up.

No, it’s all about exposure, and with the rise in the 1980s of cable television and VCRs and, later, of DVDs and the Internet, no 21st century kid could ever possibly be as bored and desperate for something to distract him as we were back in the 1960s, when, often as not, we turned to these shorts for lack of anything else to watch.

But we remain fond of them, and that’s why it pleases us so to inform you that Turner Classic Movies is paying tribute to Hal Roach and his studio this month. Tomorrow, TCM is celebrating in style with a 24-hour marathon of 53 Our Gang shorts that begins at 8 p.m. (L&H get the same treatment next week). They’ve snuck in one musical short—Gems Of M-G-M (1931), which airs at 3:15 a.m.—that seems to have no Our Gang connection, but it does feature Marion Harris and the Brox Sisters, both of whom can be heard on Cladrite Radio, so we expect it, too, is worth catching.

If, like us, you grew up watching the adventures of Spanky, Stymie, Alfalfa, Darla, and all the rest, you’ll require no further convincing to tune in for at least a few of these shorts. But if you’re younger and are only vaguely aware (if that) of these films, we strongly urge you to immerse yourself in them. Just imagine it’s a Saturday afternoon in 1966. You’re somehwere bewteen five and fifteen years old. It’s too hot (or cold) to go outside, and there’s nothing else worth watching on the three or four television channels you have available to you.

That’ll put you in the right frame of mind to truly appreciate these comic gems.

We’ve got the full line-up of shorts for you below the fold.
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TCM Remembers 2010

Every passing year brings the sad loss of prominent and often beloved figures in movie history.

2010 was no different, of course, and, among those lost, there were talented men and women whose careers began in the Cladrite era: Gloria Stuart, Tony Curtis, Patricia Neal, “Baby” Marie Osborne, Lena Horne, Doris Eaton and others.

As they do every year, the good folks at Turner Classic Movies have put together a video tribute to those departed movie professionals who touched our lives during their time with us. It’s nicely done, and well worth a look.