ha! can you imagine?

"American Airlines has a special movie for your enjoyment pleasure. Please contribute $5 for headphones. The horror is free."

There's a really good movie starting on TCM right now that I just discovered recently. It's The Prize (i.e., The Nobel) and it's a Hitchcockian spy thriller much in the vein of North by Northwest. Which is no coincidence since they were written by the same guy - Ernest Lehman.

It stars Paul Newman, Diane Baker, Edward G. Robinson and Elke Somer. Newman is much better in this Hitchcock knockoff than he was in Torn Curtain and he has fantastic chemistry with both Baker and Somer.

Anyway, it seems to be in TCM's rotation now so keep a Tivo eye on it.

It's light but has genuine thrills and twists and everybody looks fantastic and it's shot in '63 so it has that Mad Men look.

You can find the trailer for The Prize here.

I'll mention another upcoming TCM film that I'm set to record: The Doughgirls. This is a very frothy comedy from the 40s starring Ann Sheridan (Scrappy's doppelganger), Alexis Smith, Jane Wyman and Eve Arden. Stellar cast, obviously, but I note it for the fashion conscious as it has some swank looking vintage fashion and some of the most elaborate hairdos from that decade.

Scroll down here and you can catch the trailer.

It stars Paul Newman, Diane Baker

My doppelganger!

My doppelganger!

Exactly so.

She also plays the Very Smart Senator who is mother to the kidnapped girl in Silence of the Lambs.

Also, House's mom.

ION, Dark Victory was way lamer than I remembered. Jezebel remains as awesome as ever.

REALLY, FOX, A PLANET OF THE APES REBOOT?

You’d think that after they got a respected director like Tim Burton and an all-star cast to remake Planet of the Apes once already and it still ending up kinda sucking, that they’d be content to let sleeping classics lie. But this is Hollywood, so Fox is digging up its corpse for sexy time, as per usual.

...

Frank’s Apes script, code-named Caesar, showed how genetic experiments on apes led to their evolutionary eclipse of humans. “Caesar” refers to the genetically altered leader of the simian rebellion, so dubbed because the ape was capable of grand strategic thinking on par with Julius Caesar (whose own surname means “hairy” in Latin). The “Caesar” code name also foreshadowed the script’s plot: Just as the actual Julius Caesar set Rome on the path to the Roman Empire, the experimental ape’s escape sets in motion his fellow hirsute hominids’ (wait for it … ) guerrilla war and subsequent dominance.

It a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the 4th film in the series. Which sounds like Fox is really scraping the bottom of the barrel for material to remake.

It a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the 4th film in the series. Which sounds like Fox is really scraping the bottom of the barrel for material to remake.

Yeah, I was gonna say - Conguest is an odd one to pick from all the Apes films for a reboot.

I don't remember whether that was any good. The second one sucked, but the third one was the best of the sequels, I think. The summer Tim Burton's remake came out, we watched all five movies. It was fun times.

Fox has long recycled basic plots. How to Marry a Millionaire is Moon Over Miami minus the songs. So, if I'm fine with a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes if it's a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall. Otherwise, um, no.