Tom Stewart — a real person who once suffered the great indignity of being dismissed as a pseudonym for me — sends the following note…
Turner Classic Movies is showing a real rarity at 1:30 AM EST on Thursday. It's James Cagney's first film, Sinners' Holiday (also Joan Blondell's first). It's from 1930, an adaptation of the play, Penny Arcade. Al Jolson saw the play on Broadway (he must have hurried, it only ran 24 performances), bought the rights, and sold it to Warners, with the stipulation that Cagney and Blondell repeat their roles. Both play the secondary roles of the weak son and his girlfriend (Grant Withers stars, a competent actor, but without Cagneys spark). I've been waiting years to see this one. Should be fun (better be, or I'd be very disappointed).
Wow. Sounds well worth catching. And early Friday morning, they're running I Dream Too Much, which was one of Henry Fonda's first pictures — and amazingly, not one of Lucille Ball's. (You forget how long Lucy was around before anyone paid much attention to her.) I've never seen it but it's supposed to be a good one.