TCM Schedule for Saturday, October 29, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - Underground Above Ground

[Staph]

From the TCM website:

For the past 10 years, TCM's Saturday late night programming has brought you some of the very best (and deliciously worst) cult films and forgotten treasures. In honor of TCM Underground's anniversary, we now present four such films in primetime. We begin with the TCM premiere of Blood and Black Lace (1964), the Italian horror thriller about a stalker who brutally murders fashion models. In 2004, the Bravo TV network ranked one of this film's sequences as No. 85 in "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments."

Carnival of Souls (1962), directed by Herk Harvey, tells the haunting story of a young woman whose life is disturbed by an automobile accident. Largely unnoticed at the time of its release, it is now recognized as a cult classic. Larry Cohen's It's Alive (1974) focuses on a murderous infant born with fangs and claws. This one had renewed life after its original limited debut when it was rereleased in 1977 with a provocative new ad campaign.

Another cult film, Ted Post's The Baby (1973), focuses on a social worker (Anjanette Comer) with ulterior motives for wanting to interfere in the life of a seemingly mentally impaired young man who is treated like an infant by his family. Critic Maitland McDonagh, writing for Film Comment, described this one as "a bizarre drama of family dysfunction" and included it among "the mot discomfiting exploitation movies in living memory."

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- THE DEVIL-DOLL (1936)
A Devil's Island escapee shrinks murderous slaves and sells them to his victims as dolls.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Lawton
BW-78 mins, CC,

Madame Mandilip's special dolls are costumed as members of vicious street gangs known as the Apache (pronounced ah-PAHSH), who were involved in theft, prostitution, and the occasional murder in pre-World War I Paris. The dolls even perform the Apache dance popularized by the gangs, in which extremely close steps alternate with seemingly brutal punches, kicks, hair-pulling, spins, and throws; it was usually danced to the Valse des rayons (aka Valse chaloupée) composed by Jacques Offenbach. In the 1930s and 1940s, this dance was still performed by professional dancers and can be seen in several films and even cartoons of the period.


7:30 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,

In the Summer of 1952, RKO reissued this film as a double feature with King Kong (1933). RKO "cashed in", as young theatergoers, due to this film's title, were expecting to see a second "creature" film.


8:49 AM -- ELECTION DAZE (1943)
In this comedic short, two members of a children's gang run for club president.
Dir: Herbert Glazer
Cast: Robert Blake, Valerie Lee, Janet Burston
BW-10 mins,


9:00 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,

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). "I saw it in the window, and I just had to have it!"


10:30 AM -- BOWERY TO BAGHDAD (1955)
The Bowery Boys unleash an Arabian nightmare when they find Alladin's magic lamp.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey
BW-64 mins, CC,

Final film of Eric Blore.


11:43 AM -- ALERT TODAY - ALIVE TOMORROW (1956)
This short film promotes the need for cooperation and neighborliness in the event of a nuclear disaster and associated civil defense procedures.
Dir: Larry O'Reilly
BW-15 mins,


12:00 PM -- THE BLACK SCORPION (1957)
Giant prehistoric scorpions terrorize the Mexican countryside.
Dir: Edward Ludwig
Cast: Richard Denning, Mara Corday, Carlos Rivas
BW-88 mins, CC,

This marked the final film for which Willis H. O'Brien designed special effects. O'Brien began his career in special effects while working on the landmark film, King Kong (1933).


1:45 PM -- THE BLOB (1958)
A misunderstood teen fights to save his town from a gelatinous monster from outer space.
Dir: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.
Cast: Steven McQueen, Aneta Corseaut, Earl Rowe
C-83 mins, CC,

The actual Blob, a mixture of red dye and silicone, has never dried out and is still kept in the original five-gallon pail in which it was shipped to the production company in 1958 from Union Carbide. It was put on display over the years as a part of the annual Blobfest, held over a three-day period each summer in Phoenixville, PA, which provided a number of the shooting locales for the film. In addition to displaying the Blob and miniatures used in the shooting, the event features a reenactment of the famous scene in which panicked theatergoers rush to exit the town's still-functioning Colonial Theater, as well as several showings of the film.


3:15 PM -- VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1961)
After a mysterious blackout, the inhabitants of a British village give birth to emotionless, super-powered offspring.
Dir: Wolf Rilla
Cast: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens
BW-77 mins, CC,

The eerie effect of the children's glowing eyes was created by matting a negative (reversed) image of their eyes over the pupils when they used their powers. The blond wigs the children wear had a built-in dome to give the impression they had a larger-than-normal cranium size.


4:45 PM -- THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951)
The crew of a remote Arctic base fights off a murderous monster from outer space.
Dir: Christian Nyby
Cast: Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite
BW-87 mins, CC,

When Scotty mentions having attended the 1928 execution of Ruth Snyder and Judd Grey, another character asks him if he was able to get a picture of it. Scotty answers, "No, they didn't allow cameras, but one guy - " He is interrupted by the Thing's approach before he can finish the sentence. Scotty is referring to Chicago Tribune photographer Tom Howard, who smuggled a miniature camera into the execution chamber strapped to his ankle and was able to take a famous photograph of Snyder's final moments in the electric chair.


6:19 PM -- FOUR MINUTE FEVER (1956)
This short film takes a look at races that involve running a mile in under four minutes.
Dir: William Deeke
BW-9 mins,


6:30 PM -- EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (1956)
Space invaders attack the nation's capital.
Dir: Fred F. Sears
Cast: Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis
BW-83 mins, CC,

The scene of a "destroyer" blowing up is actually stock footage of the sinking of HMS Barham, which occurred on 25 November 1941. To not upset the British public, the Royal Navy decided to withhold an announcement until later; however, in late November 1941 a Scottish medium, Helen Duncan, who had heard of the sinking through a friend, disclosed the sinking during a seance. She was eventually tried under the British Witchcraft Act, the last person before it was repealed.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: UNDERGROUND ABOVE GROUND



8:00 PM -- BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964)
A mysterious killer stalks a design house's models.
Dir: Mario Bava
Cast: Eva Bartok, Cameron Mitchell, Thomas Reiner
C-88 mins,

A landmark film in Italian cinema, as Sei donne per l'assassino was the film that began the 'giallo' genre. The giallo genre, a 20th-century Italian thriller or horror genre of literature and film, usually with mystery elements and often with slasher, crime fiction or, less frequently, supernatural horror elements, remains Italy's longest running cinematic movement.


9:45 PM -- CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962)
After surviving a car crash, a church organist is haunted by the undead.
Dir: Herk Harvey
Cast: Candace Hilligoss, Herk Harvey, Frances Feist
BW-78 mins, CC,

Upon release in 1962 the film was a failure in the box office, but its subsequent airings on late night television helped to gain it a strong cult following. Today it is regarded as a landmark in psychological horror.


11:15 PM -- IT'S ALIVE (1974)
A couple's use of an experimental fertility drug produces a monstrous infant.
Dir: Larry Cohen
Cast: Guy Stockwell, Sharon Farrell, Andrew Duggan
C-91 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

"It's Alive" was filmed and edited simultaneously with another Larry Cohen feature, Hell Up in Harlem (1973), which was shot on the weekends during the production of "It's Alive." This means that many of the cast and crew put in consecutive 7 day work weeks to create the films.


1:00 AM -- THE BABY (1973)
A social worker investigates a strange family.
Dir: Ted Post
Cast: Anjanette Comer, Ruth Roman, Marianna Hill
C-85 mins,

David Mooney shaved his whole body for his role as Baby.


2:30 AM -- THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER (1965)
A bored insurance salesman quits his job to go into politics.
Dir: Timothy Carey
Cast: Timothy Carey, Gil Baretto,
C-78 mins, Letterbox Format

Composer Frank Zappa plugged this film during a "musical bicycle" demonstration on the Steve Allen Show in 1963.


4:00 AM -- WILD IN THE STREETS (1968)
A young man gains significant political influence as the leader of a counterculture rock band with his rallying cry of voting rights for teenagers.
Dir: Barry Shear
Cast: Shelley Winters, Christopher Jones, Diane Varsi
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Fred R. Feitshans Jr. and Eve Newman

According to Larry Bishop, Richard Pryor pulled a prank in which he came to the set naked and shocked Shelley Winters.


5:45 AM -- THE GOLDEN YEARS (1960)
In this instructional short film, bowling is made respectable and appealing to middle-class Americans through modernization and design.
BW-15 mins,