TCM Schedule for Friday, October 30, 2015 -- What's On Tonight: Val Lewton Horror

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring a nice selection of horror films from Hammer Films, many starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. In prime time, in recognition of the month of October, we get an evening of horror films produced by Val Lewton. Lewton wrote several scenes for Gone with the Wind (1939), such as the Atlanta depot sequence. Then, as a joke, he included an outrageously expensive scene with an elaborate elevator shot of hundreds of wounded soldiers. David O. Selznick read it and loved it so much, he had it put in the film. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- I Am Sam (2001)
A mentally challenged man fights to maintain custody of his 7-year-old daughter.
Dir: Jessie Nelson
Cast: Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dakota Fanning
C-132 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Sean Penn

Dakota Fanning's little sister, Elle Fanning played her at age 3.


8:15 AM -- The Mummy (1959)
A resurrected mummy stalks the archaeologists who defiled his tomb.
Dir: Terence Fisher
Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux
C-88 mins, CC,

A door that Christopher Lee must crash through was accidentally bolted by a grip before the scene is shot. Lee's shoulder was dislocated when he broke down the door, but the shot remains in the movie. Lee's mummy walk isn't entirely acting. Besides the injuries to his back and shoulder, he also injured his knees and shins while doing scenes in the studio-tank "swamp" - he couldn't see where the various pipes and fittings under the swampy water were.


9:45 AM -- Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1965)
Four travelers unwittingly revive the bloodsucking count.
Dir: Terence Fisher
Cast: Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir
C-90 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

In the scene where Dracula is being "resurrected" from a coffin into which his ashes have been spread, from blood dripping down from a poor victim (provided by Klove) Dracula is made to "manifest himself" over a period of about a minute. This was achieved by overlapping "dissolves" of a series of twelve locked-down camera shots, involving first the ashes, then a skeleton, then some body-fat on the skeleton, etc., along with swirling mist, till we finally perceive the full form of Dracula. He doesn't appear fully dressed as is usually the case - the shot moves to outside the coffin and a bare arm reaches out. The vampire's clothes were seen in earlier scenes awaiting his return.


11:30 AM -- Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
Baron Frankenstein puts a wrongly executed man's brain into a beautiful woman's body.
Dir: Terence Fisher
Cast: Peter Cushing, Susan Denberg, Thorley Walters
C-92 mins, Letterbox Format

We are never told in which country the film is set, but the coat of arms on the coach is that of the Canton of Berne in Switzerland.


1:15 PM -- Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1969)
Dracula goes after the niece of the monsignor who destroyed his castle.
Dir: Freddie Francis
Cast: Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, Veronica Carlson
C-92 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Christopher Lee loved to recount the following tale: Hammer was given a Queen's Award to Industry while shooting the final scenes of Dracula impaled on the rocks, with a group of British government dignitaries watching as Lee thrashed around screaming and pouring with gore. After the scene wrapped, a minister turned to wife and said, "That man is a member of my club."


3:00 PM -- Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed! (1970)
Baron Frankenstein blackmails a brother and sister into helping him with a brain transplant.
Dir: Terence Fisher
Cast: Peter Cushing, Veronica Carlson, Freddie Jones
C-101 mins, CC,

The controversial rape scene was added at the last minute, after shooting was nearly complete, because Hammer studio head Sir James Carreras thought the film lacked "sex". Peter Cushing deplored the inclusion of the rape scene and even apologized to his co-star Veronica Carlson.


4:45 PM -- Crescendo (1972)
Research on a recently deceased composer gets a music student mixed up with his dysfunctional family.
Dir: Alan Gibson
Cast: Stefanie Powers, James Olson, Margaretta Scott
C-95 mins, CC,

James Carreras unsuccessfully pursued Joan Crawford for the role ultimately played by Margaretta Scott.


6:15 PM -- Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
Cult members unwittingly resurrect Dracula in swinging London.
Dir: Alan Gibson
Cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Stephanie Beacham
C-96 mins, CC,

Dracula's taunting of Van Helsing in the church ("You would play your brains against mine, against me who has commanded nations?&quot directly references Dracula's dialogue from Stoker's novel: "Whilst they played wits against me, against me who commanded nations, and intrigued for them, and fought for them, hundreds of years before they were born, I was countermining them."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: VAL LEWTON HORROR



8:00 PM -- Cat People (1942)
A newlywed fears that an ancient curse will turn her into a bloodthirsty beast.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Kent Smith
BW-73 mins, CC,

The horror movie technique of slowly building tension to a jarring shock which turns out to be something completely harmless and benign became known as a "Lewton bus" after a famous scene in this movie created by producer Val Lewton.


9:30 PM -- Martin Scorsese Presents, Val Lewton: The Man In The Shadows (2007)
This TCM original documentary looks at the imaginative producer who fashioned a lasting body of beautiful and unsettling films on meager budgets.
Dir: Kent Jones
C-77 mins, CC,

Born in Russia in 1904, Vladimir Leventon moved with his mother and sister to Berlin in 1906, then to USA in 1909. He wrote for newspapers, magazines, novels, pornography, etc.- often using pseudonyms to disguise their origin (the name Val Lewton was one such pseudonym, used first for some novels in the 1930's, then revived later in his career to take writing credit for two movies). In 1933, he got a job with David O. Selznick where he spent many years as a story editor and jack-of-all-trades. Then in 1942, RKO hired him to head their new horror unit, where he made many famous and well-respected B-movies, for very low costs and high profits. In 1946, he "graduated" to A-movies, but increasing health problems, trouble working with big-money Hollywood, and other factors combined to force him to produce only three more movies before his death in 1951.


11:00 PM -- The Seventh Victim (1943)
A girl's search for her missing sister puts her in conflict with a band of satanists.
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Kim Hunter, Tom Conway, Jean Brooks
BW-71 mins, CC,

Notable cast members include Hugh Beaumont (Gregory Ward), who played the father, Ward Cleaver in the TV series Leave It To Beaver (1957-1963); Barbara Hale (uncredited subway passenger), who played secretary Della Street in Perry Mason (1957-1966), pioneering celebrity chef Joseph "Chef" Milani, who ran the famous Hollywood Canteen during WWII, and character actor Feodor Chaliapin Jr (cult henchman), whose best-known role was as the mad monk Jorge De Burgos in The Name of the Rose (1986) and as the Old Man with the dogs in Moonstruck (1987).


12:15 AM -- The Leopard Man (1943)
When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Dennis O'Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks
BW-66 mins, CC,

The black leopard Dynamite also appeared in Val Lewton's Cat People (1942).


1:30 AM -- The Ghost Ship (1943)
A young innocent signs on with a ship whose captain is going mad.
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Richard Dix, Russell Wade, Edith Barrett
BW-69 mins, CC,

Very shortly after its theatrical release in December of 1943, producer Val Lewton was sued for plagiarism by Samuel R. Golding and Norbert Faulkner, who claimed that Lewton based his script on a play which they had written and submitted to Lewton's office at the time "The Ghost Ship" was being developed. Although Lewton had the opportunity to settle out of court, he chose to have the case tried. Despite Lewton's claims that their manuscript was returned unread, the court ruled against Lewton and RKO (a decision upheld at appeal), and The Ghost Ship (1943) was withdrawn from circulation. It remained unavailable for viewing for the next 50 years.


2:45 AM -- The Body Snatcher (1945)
To continue his medical experiments doctor must buy corpses from a grave robber.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell
BW-78 mins, CC,

This film featured the 8th and last on-screen teaming of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Filming took place October 25-November 17 1944, delaying the completion of Karloff's Isle of the Dead (1945).


4:15 AM -- Isle of the Dead (1945)
The inhabitants of a Balkans island under quarantine fear that one of their number is a vampire.
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer
BW-72 mins, CC,

Filming began in July 1944, but was suspended when Boris Karloff required back surgery. It was completed in December 1944. After Karloff had recovered from surgery, but before the cast of Isle of the Dead (1945) could be reassembled, Val Lewton and Karloff made The Body Snatcher (1945), which was released first.


5:30 AM -- Bedlam (1946)
When an actress tries to reform an asylum, its corrupt keeper has her committed.
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Billy House
BW-79 mins, CC,

According to IMDB, the dress Anna Lee is wearing as she mounts her horse is the one Vivien Leigh made from the curtains in Gone with the Wind (1939).