TCM Schedule for Friday, October 16, 2015 -- What's On Tonight: Scary Kids

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating the birth of Angela Brigid Lansbury, born October 16, 1925, in Regent's Park, London. In prime time, in recognition of the month of October, we get an evening of terrifying children. I have really, REALLY bad memories of watching The Bad Seed on television -- I won't be watching TCM this evening! But everyone else can enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MGM Parade Show #16 (1955)
Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald perform in a clip from "Maytime"; George Murphy introduces a clip from "I'll Cry Tomorrow." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins,


6:30 AM -- National Velvet (1944)
A British farm girl fights to train a difficult horse for the Grand National Steeplechase.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Stanley Mann, Al Ferguson, Wilbur Mack
C-124 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Anne Revere, and Best Film Editing -- Robert Kern

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Clarence Brown, Best Cinematography, Color -- Leonard Smith, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis and Mildred Griffiths

12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor underwent drastic measures to prove that she was right for the role. Velvet brown was supposed to be a girl in her late teens, going through the natural changes into womanhood. Taylor was told by the director that she couldn't be velvet, as she was rather "boyish". This only provoked Elizabeth more; she ate steak everyday, doubled her portion of meals, and rode her horse constantly to train. In three months, Elizabeth grew three inches, and began to gain the natural curves of a woman. For her efforts alone, she won the role.


8:45 AM -- The Hoodlum Saint (1946)
After finding religion cynical newspaperman tries to help young hoods.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Lucille Curtis, Helyn Eby-Rock, Harry Denny
BW-92 mins, CC,

Angela Lansbury, who could sing, resented that in this and her other MGM films the studio insisted on giving her a voice double. Years later she had stage hits on Broadway in two singing roles, "Mame" and "Sweeney Todd."


10:30 AM -- Tenth Avenue Angel (1948)
A child of the tenements helps an ex-con find a new life.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Phyllis Thaxter, Jack Daley, Tom Dillon
BW-74 mins, CC,

Filmed between March 11 and May 15, 1946, with retakes shot in April 1947, the movie was held back until its nationwide release on February 20, 1948. Moreover, the picture was not given a contemporary New York Times review.


11:50 AM -- Martin Block's Musical Merry-Go-Round No. 6 (1948)
In this musical short film, Tex Beneke, Les Brown, and their Orchestras perform several musical numbers.
BW-10 mins,


12:00 PM -- The Red Danube (1949)
A Russian ballerina in Vienna tries to flee KGB agents and defect.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Janet Leigh, Antonio Filauri, Richard Fraser
BW-119 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt

In early 1947, Irene Dunne, Spencer Tracy and Robert Taylor were set to star.


2:00 PM -- Visiting Italy (1951)
This short film takes the viewer on a tour of Italy, showcasing Rome, Assisi, Pisa and Florence.
C-7 mins,


2:15 PM -- Kind Lady (1951)
A con artist and his criminal cohorts hold an old lady hostage in her own home.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Maurice Evans, Stanley Fraser, Bob Evans
BW-78 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Walter Plunkett and Gile Steele

Moyna MacGill (Mrs. Harkley) is Angela Lansbury's mother in real life.


3:45 PM -- A Lawless Street (1955)
A Marshal's past comes back to haunt him.
Dir: Joseph H. Lewis
Cast: John Emery, Ruth Donnelly, Frank Ferguson
C-77 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Brad Ward.


5:15 PM -- Screen Directors Playhouse: Claire (1956)
A doctor's bride is haunted by guilt over the death of his first wife.
BW-26 mins,


5:45 PM -- The Long Hot Summer (1958)
A drifter with a past brings a wealthy family's problems to a head.
Dir: Martin Ritt
Cast: Tony Franciosa, Orson Welles, Lee Remick
C-117 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Orson Welles had a rough time making the film and caused plenty of trouble. Used to being in control of his own projects, it was hard for him to do things someone else's way. According to Angela Lansbury, "He was always nudging and pushing for things and wanted to change lines, but had to be carefully handled so that he didn't always get his way because his way wasn't necessarily the best way for everybody else in the scene." Welles would irritate his co-stars by overlapping his own lines with their dialogue, ad-libbing, and mumbling to the point where his lines were barely comprehensible. "There was something you couldn't resist about Orson," said Lansbury, "even though he was a son-of-a-bitch at times. I mean, there's no question about it, he was very difficult." Joanne Woodward added in a 2001 interview, "Orson had a hard time. It must have been a terrible, terrible feeling for him to be confronted by all these young hot shots who thought they were so great because they came from New York and the Actors Studio. It was a problem."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SCARY KIDS



8:00 PM -- The Nanny (1965)
A disturbed young man tries to prove his nanny is out to kill him.
Dir: Seth Holt
Cast: William Dix, Pamela Franklin, Maurice Denham
BW-93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The role of the Nanny was originally intended for Greer Garson who first accepted then declined, saying the script would not be good for her career.


9:45 PM -- The Bad Seed (1956)
A woman suspects that her perfect little girl is a ruthless killer.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Dayton Lummis, Adele Taylor, Mervyn LeRoy
C-129 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Nancy Kelly, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eileen Heckart, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Patty McCormack, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson

The book Rhoda claims to have won in Sunday School, "Elsie Dinsmore," was a story with religious themes about a pious 8-year-old who, in sharp contrast to Rhoda, was obedient to her elders to an alarming point, even enduring verbal abuse from a nasty parent. It was written by Martha Finley in 1867.


12:00 AM -- Children of the Damned (1963)
Space invaders impregnate six women with super-powered offspring.
Dir: Anton M. Leader
Cast: Andre Mikhelson, Bessie Love, Gerald Delsol
BW-90 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Based on the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham.


1:45 AM -- Village of the Damned (1961)
After a mysterious blackout inhabitants of a British village give birth to emotionless, super-powered offspring.
Dir: Wolf Rilla
Cast: Barbara Shelley, Carlo Cura, Howard Knight
BW-77 mins, CC,

Sort of followed by Children of the Damned (1963) -- both are based on the same book.


3:15 AM -- The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
A lonely child creates an imaginary playmate with surprisingly dangerous results.
Dir: Gunther V. Fritsch
Cast: Julia Dean, Erford Gage, Gloria Donovan
BW-70 mins, CC,

The book titled "The Inner World of Childhood" mentioned by Miss Callahan, Amy's teacher, is a real work written by American psychologist Frances Wickes around 1930. It was admired greatly by Carl Jung, who wrote an introduction for it in 1931.


4:30 AM -- Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)
A medieval girl struggles to grow up in a world of eccentrics, monsters and temptation.
Dir: Jaromil Jires
Cast: Jaroslava Schallerova, Helena Anyzova, Petr Kopriva
C-73 mins,

Filmed in the Czech Republic, in the Czech language.

[CBHagman]

1. If she turned down the lead in "The Nanny"

Greer Garson had the right impulse. Brr. I remember that movie turning up on TV when I was a kid and I was duly creeped out but didn't see it in its entirety until I was a university student and understood it better.