Wow. So, uh, it’s September, huh? Really snuck up on me.

I ended up getting way too into Summer Under the Stars this year and logging around 90 movies just from watching TCM. There was some really fun new-to-me discoveries– Revelee with Beverly, Gypsy, This Land is Mine, You and Me, The Sand Pebbles and a couple of others. Of course, I also made mistakes, like watching Diana Dors day or about 50% of the Dolores del Rio films. You can see all my ratings over on Letterboxd, though, god willing, in September maybe I’ll watch a TV show or something.

As for September, TCM has a few good, obscure pre-Codes like Goldie Gets Along and Union Depot playing, both of which are worth seeing. Not mentioned below is the evening of the 14th, mostly pre-Code shorts, including several Zasu Pitts/Thelma Todd teams ups that are a lot of fun. The morning of the 16th has a number of fun time-travel tales well worth checking out, too.

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Pre-Code Movies on TCM in September

Please note:

All times listed here are Eastern Standard. This schedule is subject to change (like if someone dies or the world ends– you know how it is).
Plot descriptions and casts lists below come from TCM. See the full listings for the month here.
This month, the channel’s listings seemed to leave off most of their Women Make Film series, which is odd. I will note that they showed Merrily We Go to Hell on the 1st and if you can still catch it, it’s well worth your while.

Date & Time	Film
2nd 7:15 AM	Madchen in Uniform (1931)
	Dir: Leontine Sagan Cast: Lene Berdold , Dorothea Wieck , Emilia Unda . BW- 89 mins,
2nd 1:00 PM	Call of the Flesh (1930)
	A Latin lover fights for the heart of a beautiful convent girl. Dir: Charles Brabin Cast: Ramón Novarro , Dorothy Jordan , Ernest Torrence . BW- 100 mins, CC,
4th 2:15 AM	Arrowsmith (1931)
	A crusading doctor fights his way through tragedy to find his true calling. Dir: John Ford Cast: Ronald Colman , Helen Hayes , Richard Bennett . BW- 99 mins, CC,
10th 4:30 AM	Strictly Dynamite (1934)
	A radio comic runs out of jokes, triggering a desperate search. Dir: Elliott Nugent Cast: Jimmy Durante , Lupe Velez , Norman Foster . BW- 71 mins, CC,
11th 11:30 AM	Show Girl in Hollywood (1930)
	A Broadway songbird goes to Hollywood in search of screen stardom. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy Cast: Alice White , Jack Mulhall , Blanche Sweet . BW- 78 mins, CC,
11th 1:00 PM	Goldie Gets Along (1933)
	A small-town girl schemes to get to Hollywood only to run into the man she left behind. Dir: Malcolm St. Clair Cast: Lily Damita , Charles Morton , Sam Hardy . BW- 68 mins, CC,
11th 6:15 PM	Movie Crazy (1932)
	A stagestruck young actor accidentally receives somebody else’s invitation to test in Hollywood. Dir: Clyde Bruckman Cast: Harold Lloyd , Constance Cummings , Kenneth Thomson . BW- 96 mins,
14th 6:00 AM	Playing Around (1930)
	A tenement girl falls for a smooth con artist. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy Cast: Alice White , Chester Morris , William Bakewell . BW- 66 mins,
14th 7:15 AM	Union Depot (1932)
	An out-of-luck con artist discovers a suitcase full of money at a train station. Dir: Alfred E. Green Cast: Douglas Fairbanks , Joan Blondell , Guy Kibbee . BW- 67 mins,
14th 12:00 PM	Fashions of 1934 (1934)
	A con artist and his beautiful assistant take on the fashion world. Dir: William Dieterle Cast: William Powell , Bette Davis , Frank McHugh . BW- 78 mins, CC,
15th 7:15 AM	Man Hunt (1933)
	A teen detective tries to help a jewel thief’s daughter. Dir: Irving Cummings Cast: Junior Durkin , Charlotte Henry , Mrs. Wallace Reid . BW- 64 mins,
16th 1:45 AM	Turn Back The Clock (1933)
	A middle aged working man gets to relive his life and make himself wealthy. Dir: Edgar Selwyn Cast: Lee Tracy , Mae Clark , Otto Kruger . BW- 79 mins, CC,
16th 5:00 AM	Berkeley Square (1933)
	A young American man is transported back to London in the time of the American Revolution and meets his ancestors. Dir: Frank Lloyd Cast: Leslie Howard , Heather Angel , Valerie Taylor . BW- 88 mins, CC,
18th 6:00 PM	Grand Hotel (1932)
	Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through scandal and heartache. Dir: Edmund Goulding Cast: Greta Garbo , John Barrymore , Joan Crawford . BW- 113 mins, CC,
19th 10:45 PM	Midnight Alibi (1934)
	An elderly recluse shelters a gambler on the run from bogus murder charges. Dir: Alan Crosland Cast: Richard Barthelmess , Ann Dvorak , Helen Chandler . BW- 58 mins,
20th 8:15 AM	It Happened One Night (1934)
	A newspaperman tracks a runaway heiress on a madcap cross-country tour. Dir: Frank Capra Cast: Clark Gable , Claudette Colbert , Walter Connolly . BW- 105 mins, CC,
21st 12:30 PM	Possessed (1931)
	A factory girl rises to the top as mistress of a tycoon, then falls in love. Dir: Clarence Brown Cast: Joan Crawford , Clark Gable , Wallace Ford . BW- 76 mins, CC,
22nd 1:30 PM	Private Lives (1931)
	A divorced couple rekindles the spark after landing in adjoining honeymoon suites with new mates. Dir: Sidney Franklin Cast: Norma Shearer , Robert Montgomery , Reginald Denny . BW- 84 mins, CC,
27th 6:00 AM	Mata Hari (1931)
	Romantic biography of World War I’s notorious lady spy. Dir: George Fitzmaurice Cast: Greta Garbo , Ramon Novarro , Lionel Barrymore . BW- 89 mins, CC,
28th 6:00 AM	Not So Dumb (1930)
	A scatterbrained miss throws a big party to advance her boyfriend’s career. Dir: King Vidor Cast: Marion Davies , Elliott Nugent , Raymond Hackett . BW- 76 mins, CC,
28th 7:30 AM	Street Scene (1931)
	A husband’s violent reaction becomes the talk of the neighborhood when he catches his cheating wife in the act. Dir: King Vidor Cast: Sylvia Sidney , William Collier Jr. , Estelle Taylor . BW- 79 mins, CC,
28th 9:00 AM	Bird of Paradise (1932)
	An island visitor falls for a Polynesian beauty slated for sacrifice to the gods. Dir: King Vidor Cast: Dolores Del Rio , Joel McCrea , John Halliday . BW- 82 mins, CC,

Questions? Comments? Or do you just want to bug me? Leave a comment below!

2 Comments

Janet · September 2, 2020 at 6:29 pm

Sounds like you’ve been very busy Danny! Thanks for bringing these films to my attention. I’ve only seen about half a dozen of these, so I have a bit of catching up to do when I can get hold of these. Unfortunately we no longer have access to TCM in Australia : (

Films on this list that I have seen are some of my all time favourites, including ‘It Happened One Night’, ‘Possessed’ and ‘Grand Hotel’. I also enjoyed ‘Union Depot’ – yes it is an obscure film but I agree that it’s worth a look if only to see Joan Blondell and Douglas Fairbanks Jnr starring together.

madfashionista · September 19, 2020 at 6:09 am

Thanks so much for these guides! I always enjoy reading your blog. I’ve seen ‘It Happened One Night’ too many times to enjoy it but the others are so much fun.