TCM Schedule for Thursday, October 9, 2014 -- TCM Special Theme - Ghost Stories

[Staph]

During the morning, TCM is continuing films from Star of the Month, Janet Leigh, and in prime time it's more Halloween-themed Ghost Stories. Enjoy!

(And let me apologize for not posting the schedule for last Friday and Saturday. Real life got in the way!)


6:57 AM -- We Never Sleep (1956)
This short film highlights the work of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the U.S.A.'s oldest private detective company.
Dir: Larry O'Reilly
BW-8 mins,


7:15 AM -- Three on a Couch (1966)
When a psychiatrist refuses to marry until her patients are cured, her fiance sets out to do the job himself.
Dir: Jerry Lewis
Cast: Jerry Lewis, Janet Leigh, Mary Ann Mobley
C-109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This was Jerry Lewis' first film with Columbia after a long career with Paramount.


9:15 AM -- Strictly Dishonorable (1951)
An opera star risks disaster when he marries a lovesick fan.
Dir: Melvin Frank
Cast: Ezio Pinza, Janet Leigh, Millard Mitchell
BW-95 mins,

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on December 8, 1952 with Janet Leigh reprising her film role.


11:00 AM -- Twenty Classic Moments (2014)
A look at some unforgettable moments in the twenty-year history of Turner Classic Movies.
C-34 mins, CC, Letterbox Format


11:45 AM -- Reckless (1935)
A theatrical star gets in over her head when she marries a drunken millionaire.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Franchot Tone
BW-97 mins, CC,

Selznick based this on the Libby Holman murder scandal. Star Jean Harlow felt the story had disturbing similarities to suicide of her second husband, Paul Bern. Harlow believed she was cast in the picture in a deliberate attempt to capitalize on that event, and she refused the role at first. In William Powell's autobiography, he says he convinced her to accept the role rather than be suspended.

After the movie was completed and shot as a straight drama, MGM decided to make it into a musical, so production was resumed. This became one of Jean Harlow's few real flops. Its failure pleased Libby Holman immensely.


1:30 PM -- Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Detective Philip Marlowe's search for a two-timing woman leads him to blackmail and murder.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley
BW-95 mins, CC,

Audiences initially stayed away, thinking that "Farewell My Lovely", its original title, was yet another Dick Powell musical. When the studio changed the title to "Murder My Sweet", box office receipts picked up considerably.


3:15 PM -- Blues In The Night (1941)
The members of a traveling jazz band try to keep their leader from drinking himself to death.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Priscilla Lane, Betty Field, Richard Whorf
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "Blues in the Night"

The melody of "The Man That Got Away" was actually written for this film as an up-tempo song called "I Can't Believe My Eyes". Harold Arlen disliked the Johnny Mercer lyric and put it in his trunk unused, only to pull it out years later to give to Ira Gershwin, who wrote a masterful new lyric for A Star Is Born (1954).


4:45 PM -- White Cargo (1942)
A sultry native woman ignites the passions of workers on an African plantation.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Walter Pidgeon, Frank Morgan
BW-89 mins, CC,

Because of the miscegenation aspects of the play (Tondelayo was a black woman), it was on the Production Code Administraiton's "condemned" list of sources not to be considered. A big outcry was heard when the British film, based on the same sources, was released in New York in March, 1930, because it was deemed to violate the spirit of the Hays decree. MGM hired playwright Leon Gordon to adapt his play for the screen; he changed Tondelayo's parentage to half Egyptian and half Arab, and it was eventually given an approved certificate. Still, the movie was placed on the Legion of Decency's condemned list, and the film was banned in Singapore and Trinidad because of its racial implications.


6:30 PM -- The Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Dir: John Brahm
Cast: Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum
BW-85 mins, CC,

The set used in this film for the house of Mrs. Willis (Katherine Emery) is the same one used for the house of Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains) in Notorious (1946).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPECIAL THEME: GHOST STORIES



8:00 PM -- Portrait of Jennie (1948)
An artist discovers his gift when he falls for a beautiful ghost.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore
C-86 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Paul Eagler (visual), J. McMillan Johnson (visual), Russell Shearman (visual), Clarence Slifer (visual), Charles L. Freeman (audible) and James G. Stewart (audible)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph H. August

Producer David O. Selznick initially considered filming this movie over a period of several years, casting a young actress in the role of Jennie and shooting portions of the film over time as the actress actually grew older in real life. (Shirley Temple, then under contract to Selznick, was reportedly intended for the role, had the movie been filmed that way.) In the end, however, Selznick abandoned the idea as too risky and difficult to film properly.


9:45 PM -- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
A spirited widow rents a haunted cottage and builds an emotional bond with the resident ghost.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders
BW-104 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang

The word "muir" means "the sea" in Gaelic. Many times sailors are said to have been "married" to the sea, or that the only woman they ever loved was the sea.


11:45 PM -- Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
A Spanish temptress falls for a haunted ship's captain.
Dir: Albert Lewin
Cast: James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick
C-124 mins, CC,

The first feature film in color for Ava Gardner.


2:00 AM -- A Guy Named Joe (1943)
A downed World War II pilot becomes the guardian angel for his successor in love and war.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson
BW-120 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- David Boehm and Chandler Sprague

There was no way to composite Spencer Tracy's image into the scenes where Van Johnson is flying, so he actually had to be standing behind Johnson and, later, Irene Dunne for the filming of these scenes. The same approach was used for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) (techniques for superimposing one image onto another were not invented until much later).


4:06 AM -- Land Of Orizaba (1943)
This travelogue takes the viewer on a scenic journey on the first rail line built in Mexico.
C-9 mins,


4:15 AM -- The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
A samurai's wife returns from the dead for revenge.
Dir: Nobuo Nakagawa
Cast: Shigeru Amachi, Noriko Kitazawa, Katsuko Wakasugi
C-77 mins, Letterbox Format

Based on a famous Japanese ghost story. Also filmed as Yotsuya kaidan (1925), The Yotsuda Phantom (1949), Yotsuya kaidan (1965) and The Oiwa Phantom (1969).


5:39 AM -- The Head Guy (1930)
Things take a turn for the worse when comedian Harry Langdon is made the temporary stationmaster in this short film.
Dir: Fred Guiol
Cast: Harry Langdon, Eddie Dunn, Thelma Todd
BW-21 mins, CC,

[CBHagman]

1. That's an amazing story about the origin of "The Man That Got Away."

I can't get my head around the notion that the melody was originally for an uptempo song.