TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 11 -- The Essentials: James Mason

[Bolo Boffin]

6:00 AM
LORD JIM (1965)

After turning coward, a naval officer tries to redeem himself by helping Asian natives stage a revolution.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Peter O'Toole, James Mason, Curt Jurgens.
C-154 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format


8:45 AM
THUNDER ROCK (1942)

A disillusioned writer moves into a lighthouse where some ghostly visitors restore his faith.
Dir: Roy Boulting
Cast: Michael Redgrave, Barbara Mullen, James Mason.
BW-107 mins, TV-G, CC


11:00 AM
THE SEVENTH VEIL (1945)

A concert pianist with amnesia fights to regain her memory.
Dir: Compton Bennett
Cast: James Mason, Ann Todd, Herbert Lom.
BW-94 mins, TV-PG


12:45 PM
THE SEA GULL (1968)

The film adaptation of Anton Chekhov's story of life in rural Russia during the latter part of the 19th century.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: James Mason, Vanessa Redgrave, Simone Signoret.
C-141 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format


3:15 PM
EVIL UNDER THE SUN (1982)

A detective trying to solve a case finds himself on an exclusive island frequented by the rich and famous.
Dir: Guy Hamilton
Cast: Peter Ustinov, Colin Blakely, Jane Birkin.
C-117 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format


5:30 PM
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959)

A professor and his colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.
Dir: Henry Levin
Cast: Pat Boone, James Mason, Arlene Dahl.
C-129 mins, TV-G, CC


TONIGHT ON TCM
THE ESSENTIALS: JAMES MASON

8:00 PM
LOLITA (1962)

Vladimir Nabokov's racy classic focuses on an aging intellectual in love with a teenager.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Shelley Winters.
BW-153 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format


10:45 PM
THE DESERT FOX (1951)

Following his work with the Afrika Korps, Field Marshall Rommell joins in a plot to assassinate Hitler.
Dir: Henry Hathaway
Cast: James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy.
BW-88 mins, TV-PG, CC


12:30 AM
A STAR IS BORN (1954)

A falling star marries the newcomer he's helping reach the top.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson.
C-176 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format


3:30 AM
MAYERLING (1968)

True story of Austria's Crown Prince Rudolph and his tragic love for a commoner.
Dir: Terence Young
Cast: Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve, James Mason.
C-127 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Looking for "North by Northwest"?

That will be on next Sunday, the 19th, on Eva Marie Saint's day. It's followed by a "making of" documentary made in 2000 and hosted by Eva Marie Saint. That will be some fun!

[Bolo Boffin]

2. And there's a discrepancy at 3:30

I get my listings from the monthly schedule. It's easier to reformat. But the daily schedule has this show:

Julius Caesar (1953)

An all-star adaptation of Shakespeare's classic about Julius Caesar's assassination and its aftermath.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: John Doucette, George Macready, Michael Pate.

And on the pages for the actual movies, Julius Ceaser has the listing. Mayerling doesn't. So I guess it's Mason's turn as Brutus you get on Saturday night.

[CBHagman]

3. "The Sea Gull."

I had no idea Mason had done Chekhov, let alone a film. Then again, there are quite a few aspects of his biography with which I'm unfamiliar, although I always did hear he was one of those actors who constantly worried that the next job would be the last.

The Seventh Veil, described by one critic as "a sadomasochistic sundae," is a film I heard about long before I saw it, and definitely belongs to another era in women's rights...or does it, given recent cultural phenomena?