1939

1939 was a phenomenal year in Hollywood. One incredible movie topped another one as future movie classics rolled out of the studios.

That was 70 years ago, and TCM is paying tribute to that year during the month of July. Every Thursday evening, TCM will be showing 1939 movies (listings below taken from the TCM Web site):

The 2nd

• 8:00 PM The Wizard Of Oz (1939): A Kansas farm girl dreams herself into a magical land where she must fight a wicked witch to escape. Cast: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr. Dir: Victor Fleming. C-102 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
• 10:00 PM 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year (2009): This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and insight into what made the year so special. BW-75 mins, TV-G, CC
• 11:15 PM The Women (1939): A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays. Cast: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell. Dir: George Cukor. BW-133 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
• 1:30 AM Ninotchka (1939): A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love. Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire. Dir: Ernst Lubitsch. BW-111 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
• 3:30 AM Babes in Arms (1939): A group of second-generation entertainers puts on a show to launch their careers. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger. Dir: Busby Berkeley. BW-96 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS
• 5:15 AM The Story Of Vernon And Irene Castle (1939): True story of the dancing team who taught the world to two-step. Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver. Dir: H.C. Potter. BW-94 mins, TV-G, CC

The 9th

• 8:00 PM Union Pacific (1939): A crooked politician tries to stop construction of the first intercontinental railroad. Cast: Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Preston. Dir: Cecil B. DeMille. BW-135 mins, TV-PG, CC
• 10:30 PM Dodge City (1939): A soldier of fortune takes on the corrupt boss of a Western town. Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan. Dir: Michael Curtiz. C-104 mins, TV-PG, CC
• 12:30 AM Stagecoach (1939): A group of disparate passengers battle personal demons and each other while racing through Indian country. Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, George Bancroft. Dir: John Ford. BW-96 mins, TV-G, CC
• 2:15 AM The Oklahoma Kid (1939): A cowboy sets out to avenge his father's lynching. Cast: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. BW-81 mins, TV-PG, CC
• 3:45 AM Blind Alley (1939): When a gangster takes him hostage, a psychiatrist psychoanalyzes the criminal. Cast: Ralph Bellamy, Chester Morris, Ann Dvorak. Dir: Charles Vidor. BW-69 mins, TV-PG
• 5:00 AM Each Dawn I Die (1939): A crusading reporter becomes a hardened convict when he's framed. Cast: James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan. Dir: William Keighley. BW-92 mins, TV-PG, CC

The 16th

• 8:00 PM Stanley and Livingstone (1939): An American newspaper searches Africa for a lost explorer. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Nancy Kelly, Richard Greene. Dir: Henry King, Otto Brower BW-101 mins, , CC
• 10:00 PM Beau Geste (1939): Three brothers in the French foreign legion fight off murderous Arabs and a sadistic sergeant. Cast: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston. Dir: William A. Wellman. BW-113 mins, TV-PG
• 12:00 AM Golden Boy (1939): A crooked promoter lures a young violinist to give up music for boxing. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, William Holden. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian. BW-99 mins, TV-PG
• 2:00 AM Gunga Din (1939): Three British soldiers seek treasure during an uprising in India. Cast: Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Victor McLaglen. Dir: George Stevens. BW-117 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
• 4:00 AM Only Angels Have Wings (1939): A team of flyers risks their lives to deliver the mail in a mountainous South American country. Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth. Dir: Howard Hawks. BW-121 mins, TV-PG, CC

The 23rd

• 8:00 PM Of Mice and Men (1939): A drifter and his slow-witted pal try to make their way in the West. Cast: Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney, Jr., Betty Field. Dir: Lewis Milestone. BW-106 mins, TV-14
• 10:00 PM Dark Victory (1939): A flighty heiress discovers inner strength when she develops a brain tumor. Cast: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Edmund Goulding. BW-104 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
• 12:00 AM Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939): A cold-hearted teacher becomes the school favorite when he's thawed by a beautiful young woman. Cast: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Paul Henreid. Dir: Sam Wood. BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
• 2:00 AM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939): An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption. Cast: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-130 mins, TV-G, CC
• 4:15 AM The Old Maid (1939): An unmarried mother gives her illegitimate child to her cousin. Cast: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, Jane Bryan. Dir: Edmund Goulding. BW-95 mins, TV-PG, CC

The 30th

• 8:00 PM Gone With the Wind (1939): Classic tale of Scarlett O'Hara's battle to save her beloved Tara and find love during the Civil War. Cast: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland. Dir: Victor Fleming. C-233 mins, TV-PG, CC, DVS
• 12:00 AM The Rains Came (1939): A Hindu doctor's affair with a British noblewoman is disrupted by a violent flood. Cast: Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, George Brent. Dir: Clarence Brown. BW-104 mins, TV-PG, CC
• 2:00 AM Wuthering Heights (1939): A married noblewoman fights her lifelong attraction to a charismatic gypsy. Cast: Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Geraldine Fitzgerald. Dir: William Wyler. BW-104 mins, TV-PG, CC
• 4:00 AM Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939): A married violinist deserts his family when he falls for his accompanist. Cast: Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Edna Best. Dir: Gregory Ratoff. BW-70 mins, TV-14, CC
• 5:15 AM Love Affair (1939): Near-tragic misunderstandings threaten a shipboard romance. Cast: Charles Boyer, Irene Dunne, Maria Ouspenskaya. Dir: Leo McCarey. BW-86 mins, TV-G, CC

I wanted to buy a ball winder. I'm finally moving beyond Red Heart and similarly mass-produced acrylic yarns that come in pull skeins, and I'm going to need to wind yarn. (And there are all those collapsed, partially used pull-skeins of Red Heart that could benefit from rewinding.) There was a ball winder on Jo-Ann's two days ago, and today a 20%-off coupon from Jo-Ann's arrived in my e-mail. So I went to order and...yeah, Jo-Ann's is out of ball winders.

So I checked out Herrschners, which has more expensive ball winders. And bigger shipping charges. Winder-plus-shipping was going to be close to $50. So I went to KnitPicks. Ball winder for $39.95, and free shipping for orders over $45. So I ordered a 440-yard ball of laceweight Shimmer (alpaca/silk) yarn for $5.99. (I got the Turquoise Splendor.) I'll get ball winder and yarn for $45.98.

But the ball winder is an imperative. The ballband for the yarn I'm using on Jacey's sweater has torn off. Without that restraint, that pull-skein of boucle yarn has blown up to something the size of a basketball. It's now impossible to take this project with me when I go out. I'm hoping the ball winder arrives soon, before this plum-colored tumbleweed rolls around my living room and scoops up both dogs. Frankly, I'm a little afraid to finish this sweater and tackle Sam's, for fear that ballband will break and I'll have warring tumbleweeds...

I spent a small fortune today on "necessaries": A new tire, oil change, emission inspection (which my 14-year-old car passed with flying colors), and tag-fee/ad-valorem tax for my car. The inspection costs more than the ad-valorem tax. And one tire cost more than both of them. And I shopped at Costco to stock up on Diet Coke and get a few Christmas presents for those people you don't know how to shop for. (Chocolate-covered Belgium cookies for the brother-in-law's brother. Stuff like that.)

While I was sitting in the Pep Boys' waiting room--since I couldn't take Jacey's sweater-plus-tumbleweed with me--I worked on the socks I started knitting back in October, then put aside. After the frustrations of working with boucle yarn that hides all your stitches, it actually was satisfying to work on the socks, where I can see what I'm doing. I'm hating those socks a lot less, now. I'll probably use them as my take-to-work project for a while. I'm on the cuffs--they're a top-down pattern--and I can work on them at lunchtime as long as the pattern stays easy.

In other news: I've reread Harry Potter 1-4, and now I've finished #5. (The fifth movie comes out here on DVD in less than two weeks.) I also watched Macbeth--the Sean Pertwee version--from Netflix. And I've watched Elizabeth I with Helen Mirren; I have to look away from the execution scenes.

I'm going to sit up tonight and work on Jacey's sweater while watching DVDs--maybe Monsters Inc., Shrek, Howl's Moving Castle. Non-bloody, non-nightmare movies. Between Elizabeth I and that babycake video I just posted, I've got a brainful of gore and icky images.