TCM Schedule for Friday, May 5, 2017 -- What's on Tonight: Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond

[Staph]

In the daylight hours today, TCM is celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a selection of films about Mexico or filmed in Mexico. Then in prime time, we've got five films with cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond. From the TCM website:

Hungarian cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond helped to define the look and scope of such iconic films of the 1970s, including McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) and "The Deer Hunter" (1978), over the course of an five-decade, Oscar-winning career.

Born June 16, 1930 in Szeged, Hungary, he was the son of a famed soccer player and coach, also named Vilmos Szigmond. After earning his master's degree in cinematography from the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, he served as director of photography for a film studio. The turmoil of 1956 Hungarian Revolution spurred him and fellow student Laszlo Kovacs to record the clash between his countrymen and the Soviet occupying forces; together, they fled to Austria before making their way to the United States. There, both Zsigmond and Kovacs worked on numerous low-budget horror and exploitation titles, most notably the epically titled "Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies" (1964).

Director Robert Altman brought Zsigmond to mainstream features with McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), which earned him praise for his muted palette of color and light to emphasis the film's cold, dreary environment. The success of the film led to more work with Altman ("The Long Goodbye," 1973), as well as such iconic films of the decade as John Boorman's "Deliverance" (1972), Stephen Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," which earned him an Oscar, Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz" (1978) and Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter."

By the 1980s, Zsigmond was one of the most in-demand cinematographers in Hollywood, lending his crisp visuals and painterly use of color to Brian DePalma's "Blow Out" (1981) and "Bonfire of the Vanities" (1990) and Mark Rydell's "The River" (1984), which brought him a second Oscar nomination. In 1992, Zsigmond made his debut as director on a Hungarian/Israeli production, "The Long Shadow," but soon returned to cinematography for both features and television, including the HBO biopic "Stalin" (1993), which brought him an American Society of Cinematographers Award, and the TNT miniseries "The Mists of Avalon" (2001), which earned him an Emmy nomination.

As his storied body of work began to reap laurels in the late '90s--most notably, a 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers and a PBS documentary "No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos" (2009)--his career continued unabated, and soon included collaborations with Woody Allen ("Melinda and Melinda," 2004) and a third Oscar nomination for DePalma's "The Black Dahlia" (2006). Zsigmond had begun work on four films at the time of his death in Big Sur, California on January 1, 2016.

(Biographical info courtesy of TCMDb).

Enjoy!


6:30 AM -- THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN (1956)
An American cowboy living in Mexico discovers his cattle is being eaten by a giant prehistoric dinosaur.
Dir: Edward Nassour
Cast: Guy Madison, Patricia Medina, Carlos Rivas
C-79 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The beast was animated using two separate stop-motion animation methods. A two-foot-high armatured, rubber-covered model was moved, exposing a frame at a time. Also utilized was replacement animation, a technique that involved several different models of the same character made of plaster, each slightly different to represent a particular action. When filmed in sequence for a few frames per second, the illusion of motion is achieved. The breathing effect of the creature was accomplished by pumping air in small increments into a cavity of the throat of the two-foot-high model and then releasing it in the same manner. When seen on the screen the throat rises and falls creating the breathing effect. Two large rubber feet were filmed for the shots of the monster walking, which were worn as shoes by a technician.


8:00 AM -- HONEYMOON (1947)
A teen bride eloping to Mexico suddenly falls for an older man.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: Shirley Temple, Franchot Tone, Guy Madison
BW-74 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Vicki Baum, whose 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel was filmed in 1932 as Grand Hotel.


9:30 AM -- IN CALIENTE (1935)
At a Mexican resort, a fast-talking magazine editor woos the dancer he's trashed in print.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Dolores Del Rio, Pat O'Brien, Leo Carrillo
BW-84 mins, CC,

The costumes in "The Lady in Red" number were actually blue, but looked "red" when photographed in black and white.


11:00 AM -- FIESTA (1947)
A Mexican beauty replaces her toreador brother in the bull ring so he can pursue his musical career.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Esther Williams, Akim Tamiroff, Ricardo Montalban
C-102 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green

Esther Williams, in her autobiography "Million Dollar Mermaid" states that during the shooting of Fiesta, her husband at the time - Ben Gage - got drunk and had a run-in with the Mexican police, causing production to be halted as the authorities had him thrown out of the country.


1:00 PM -- THE BRAVE ONE (1956)
A Mexican boy saves his pet bull from death in the bull ring by securing a pardon from the president.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Michel Ray, Rodolfo Hoyos, Elsa Cardenas
C-100 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Dalton Trumbo (Because he was not permitted to work due to the Hollywood blacklist, Trumbo wrote the story - and was nominated - under the pseudonym Robert Rich, who had nothing to do with the film industry and is a nephew of the King Brothers, producers of the film. Although there were rumors at the time that this was the case, the film's producer repeatedly denied the suggestion. It was not acknowledged until several years later that Trumbo had been the writer. He finally received his award on May 2, 1975, presented by then Academy president Walter Mirisch, shortly before his death - although the official screen credit was not changed until many years afterward.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- Buddy Myers (RKO Radio), and Best Film Editing -- Merrill G. White

After "The Brave One' won the Oscar for Best Screenplay, independent producer Edward Nassour sued its producers the King Brothers over plagiarism. It seems the script for "The Brave One' bore an uncanny resemblance to that for "Ring Around Saturn," a stop-motion animation feature Nassour had been working on with a script written by Paul Rader. The rights were originally owned by Jesse L. Lasky, who had wanted to produce it as "Valley of the Mist." The King Brothers settled the dispute by paying out to Nassour the sum of $750,000 in an out-of-court settlement. It turned out that blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo had written the script for "The Brave One" using the pseudonym of Robert Rich.


2:45 PM -- THE TREASURE OF PANCHO VILLA (1955)
An American adventurer competes with the famed Mexican bandit to recover a lost gold shipment.
Dir: George Sherman
Cast: Rory Calhoun, Shelley Winters, Gilbert Roland
C-96 mins, Letterbox Format

Pancho Villa had seized a treasure of 122 bars of silver from a train in 1913; the treasure was allegedly not recovered.


4:30 PM -- THE ROBIN HOOD OF EL DORADO (1936)
A Mexican turns bandit when his wife is murdered.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Warner Baxter, Ann Loring, Bruce Cabot
BW-85 mins, CC,

Based on a book by Walter Noble Burns.


6:00 PM -- VIVA VILLA! (1934)
Rousing biography of the bandit chief who led the battle for Mexican independence.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo, Fay Wray
BW-112 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Assistant Director -- John Waters

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Ben Hecht, Best Sound, Recording -- Douglas Shearer (sound director), and Best Picture

On 19 November 1933, during location filming in Mexico, Lee Tracy, originally cast as Johnny Sykes, got drunk and urinated from his hotel balcony onto a passing military parade. He was arrested, fired from the film and replaced by Stuart Erwin. Original director Howard Hawks was also fired for refusing to testify against Tracy, and replaced by Jack Conway. However, in his autobiography, Charles G. Clarke, the cinematographer on the picture, said that he was standing outside the hotel during the parade and the incident never happened. Tracy, he said, was standing on the balcony observing the parade when a Mexican in the street below made an obscene gesture at him. Tracy replied in kind, and the next day a local newspaper printed a story that said, in effect, Tracy had insulted Mexico, Mexicans in general and the Mexican flag in particular. The story caused an uproar in Mexico, and MGM decided to sacrifice Tracy in order to be allowed to continue filming there.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CINEMATOGRAPHY BY VILMOS ZSIGMOND



8:00 PM -- THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974)
An ex-convict springs her husband from prison to keep their child from being adopted.
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, William Atherton
C-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

During shooting, Steven Spielberg and cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond had breakfast almost every morning to discuss the work for that day. They agreed to give the film a documentary feel and screened numerous documentaries at night to find ways of solving problems on the set. Zsigmond's practice of using mostly natural lighting helped a great deal in that direction.


10:00 PM -- SWEET REVENGE (1976)
A public defender tries to reform a female car thief.
Dir: Jerry Schatzberg
Cast: Stockard Channing, Sam Waterston, Franklyn Ajaye
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The working title of the film was "All-American Girl".


11:45 PM -- SCARECROW (1973)
Two hitchhikers with wildly different backgrounds become fast friends.
Dir: Jerry Schatzberg
Cast: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Dorothy Tristan
C-112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Before shooting, Gene Hackman and Al Pacino both dressed as hobos and hitchhiked through California to get into their characters.


1:45 AM -- WINTER KILLS (1979)
An assassinated president's brother investigates the unsolved crime.
Dir: William Richert
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Anthony Perkins, John Huston
C-94 mins,

The only ever film appearance (and uncredited) of John Warner. Warner was married to actress Elizabeth Taylor (who also appears in the film) at the time the movie was made. Warner was a government official who had served as Under secretary and then Secretary of the U.S. Navy during the Nixon Administration, 1972-1974, before he was appointed in 1974 to head up the federal government's American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. As such, his casting in this film provided a real life political nexus to the real life American politics that the film referenced.


3:30 AM -- MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971)
A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in a remote Old West mining town.
Dir: Robert Altman
Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois
C-121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Christie

For a distinctive look, Robert Altman and Vilmos Zsigmond chose to "flash" (pre-fog) the film negative before its eventual exposure, as well as use a number of filters on the cameras, rather than manipulate the film in post-production; in this way the studio could not force him to change the film's look to something less distinctive.


5:47 AM -- TREASURES FROM TRASH (1946)
This short film presents an unusual Beverly Hills store called the Patio Shop, where trash is turned into art.
Dir: Dave O'Brien
Cast: Dave O'Brien,
BW-10 mins,