TCM Schedule for Friday, January 20 -- What's On Tonight: Martin Balsam

[Staph]

Today TCM is celebrating Patricia Louise Neal, born on January 20, 1926 in Packard, Kentucky. Tonight's star subject is Martin Balsam, nicknamed the Bronx Barrymore by Broadway columnist Earl Wilson. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- It's a Great Feeling (1949)
When nobody at Warner Bros. will work with him, movie star Jack Carson decides to turn an unknown into his co-star.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Doris Day, Jack Carson.
C-85 min, TV-G , CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "It's a Great Feeling"

Joan Crawford does a cameo and directs a short speech to Jack Carson before slapping his face. It's the same one she gives to Ann Blythe in Mildred Pierce before slapping her face. Jack Carson was also a star in that film with Joan.


7:30 AM -- John Loves Mary (1949)
A World War II veteran's marriage of convenience threatens his real wedding plans.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Jack Carson, Wayne Morris.
96 min, TV-G , CC

Patricia Neal's first film.


9:15 AM -- The Fountainhead (1949)
An idealistic architect battles corrupt business interests and his love for a married woman.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey.
113 min, TV-PG , CC

Ayn Rand was furious when she heard that Howard Roark's speech at the trial was being trimmed, chiefly because it was considered long, rambling and confusing, especially to Gary Cooper who didn't understand it. She got the studio to make sure that the speech was untouched and in its entirety in the finished product.


11:15 AM -- Bright Leaf (1950)
Two tobacco growers battle for control of the cigarette market.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Neal.
111 min, TV-PG

This was the last film in Lauren Bacall's seven year contract with Warner Brothers.


1:15 PM -- The Hasty Heart (1950)
Doctors try to get a flinty Scots soldier to open up to his comrades before telling him he's dying.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Richard Todd.
102 min, TV-PG , CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Richard Todd

When Lachie asks Yank what he's going to do after the war, Yank replies that he's going back to "...a little place on the Rock River, Dixon, Illinois." This is actor Ronald Reagan's actual boyhood home.


3:00 PM -- A Face In The Crowd (1957)
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa.
126 min, TV-PG , CC

Keith Olbermann's reference to former FOX News host Glenn Beck as "Lonesome Rhodes" Beck is based on Andy Griffith's character in this movie.


5:15 PM -- The Subject Was Roses (1968)
A young veteran returns home to deal with family conflicts.
Dir: Ulu Grosbard
Cast: Patricia Neal, Jack Albertson, Martin Sheen.
C-108 min, TV-14 , CC

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Albertson

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Patricia Neal

The Subject Was Roses was the first film Patricia Neal made after suffering three massive and near-fatal strokes, early in 1965. Neal was in a coma for two-and-a-half weeks and underwent emergency brain surgery. Paralyzed on her right side and unable to talk, she had to learn how to use her limbs again, how to speak again, and had to relearn the alphabet in order to spell the simplest of words. By early 1967, her recovery was so remarkable that it was difficult to tell that she'd suffered a stroke at all, although Neal admitted to still having memory problems. In April 1968, while shooting "The Subject Was Roses" in an old warehouse on Manhattan's West 26th Street, Neal reflected on her ordeal to critic Rex Reed: "I hated life for a year and a half, then I started learning how to be a person again and now I've loved life for a year and a half. And I love it a lot."


7:15 PM -- MGM Parade Show #8 (1955)
Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant perform in a clip from "The Philadelphia Story"; George Murphy introduces a clip from "The Tender Trap." Hosted by George Murphy.
26 min, TV-G



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: MARTIN BALSAM



8:00 PM -- Al Capone (1959)
Chicago's most notorious gangster rules the city ruthlessly.
Dir: Richard Wilson
Cast: Rod Steiger, Fay Spain, James Gregory.
104 min, TV-PG

The real Al Capone died of advanced syphilis which had become neurosyphilis. Due to the production code in effect at the time, the narrator (James Gregory) attributes Capone's death to an "incurable disease".


10:00 PM -- The Anderson Tapes (1971)
After ten years in prison, a thief tries to adjust to improved surveillance methods.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam.
C-99 min, TV-14 , CC

Final feature film of the Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton.


12:00 AM -- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Gunmen hold a New York subway train and its passengers for ransom.
Dir: Joseph Sargent
Cast: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam.
C-104 min, TV-MA

When frustrated by the situation on the subway train, the Mayor blurts out, "Shit, piss, fuck!" These are, in order, the first three of the seven words you can't say on television for which George Carlin is famous.


2:00 AM -- The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1977)
A small Texas town is terrorized by a hooded serial killer.
Dir: Charles B. Pierce
Cast: Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells.
C-90 min, TV-14 , CC

This movie is a semi-documentary based on the real-life string of mysterious killings that terrorized the people of Texarkana, Texas, in 1946. The murder spree became known as the "Texarkana Moonlight Murders" and ultimately would claim five lives and injure many others. The only description of the killer ever obtained was of a hooded man. To this day no one has been convicted and these murders remain unsolved.


3:45 AM -- Experiment in Terror (1962)
A master criminal tries to force a bank teller to help him pull off a big heist.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers.
123 min, TV-PG , CC

Several elements of this film inspired scenes in David Lynch projects. To begin with, there is the Twin Peaks sign at the beginning of the film which served as obvious inspiration for the title card and setting of Lynch's television series of the same name. Also, a scene or two later (the infamous "opening" scene,) when Kelly is in here garage, the killer mentions that he has "killed twice before" - this is something which "Bob," the supposed killer from "Twin Peaks" also mentions. This scene also has uncanny resemblances to a scene in Lynch's Wild at Heart where Willem Dafoe's character, Bobby Peru, has Lula Fortune in his filthy grasp and is talking to her similarly. Later in the film, we find out that the killer in "Experiment in Terror" is actually called Garland "Red" Lynch. The resemblance to David Lynch's name is something which the director no doubt noticed, as he also named a character in "Twin Peaks" after him (Major Garland Briggs).

[CBHagman]

1. Martin Balsam.

Born in the Bronx in 1919.

His IMDB credits:

[url]http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000842/[/url]