TCM Schedule for Friday, October 27, 2017 -- Star of the Month: Anthony Perkins

[Staph]

During the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating birthday boy Jack Carson, born John Elmer Carson in Carman, Manitoba, on October 27, 1910. Then in prime time, it's the last of Star of the Month Anthony Perkins, including two of his best, Fear Strikes Out (1957) and Psycho (1960). Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- THE HARD WAY (1942)
An ambitious woman doesn't care who she hurts in her drive to make her sister a star.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie
BW-109 mins, CC,

Per director Vincent Sherman, the film was actually based on dancer-actress Ginger Rogers' relationship with her quintessential stage-mother, Lela E. Rogers.


8:15 AM -- APRIL SHOWERS (1948)
A family vaudeville act is torn apart by the father's drinking problem.
Dir: James V. Kern
Cast: Jack Carson, Ann Sothern, Robert Alda
BW-94 mins, CC,

Loosely based on the vaudeville career of Buster Keaton, who both saved and outshone his mediocre performing parents. As The Three Keatons, they headlined (and slayed them) all over the U.S., including The Palace in New York. Joe Keaton was nowhere NEAR as loveable as Jack Carson. Warner Bros. paid Buster and his mom (during lean times for Buster) $3500 for the rights.


10:00 AM -- MAKE YOUR OWN BED (1944)
Detectives masquerade as butler and maid to get the goods on a crook.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Jack Carson, Jane Wyman, Irene Manning
BW-82 mins,

At the beginning of the film, Walter Whirtle's (Alan Hale) car has a "C" gas rationing sticker on the windshield. It was red in color and was the largest such gas rationing sticker as underneath the letter is a check-box list of 17 different professions entitled to use it - such as physicians, ministers, construction workers, and even embalmers.


11:45 AM -- THE DOUGHGIRLS (1944)
Honeymooners in Washington get caught up in wartime crowding, with disastrous results.
Dir: James V. Kern
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson
BW-101 mins, CC,

The hotel bill Arthur is handed for $463.47 would be the equivalent of $6,250 in 2015. And that bill was for just one day.


1:30 PM -- TWO GUYS FROM MILWAUKEE (1946)
A runaway prince in disguise takes up with a taxi driver.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Jack Carson
BW-90 mins, CC,

Cameo -- Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall: playing themselves on a plane.


3:15 PM -- TWO GUYS FROM TEXAS (1948)
Two vaudevillians on the run from crooks try to pass themselves off as cowboys.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Dorothy Malone
C-86 mins, CC,

Thanks to director Friz Freleng, this was the first feature film appearance of Warners' most famous cartoon character, Bugs Bunny.


4:45 PM -- ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS (1948)
A singer on a Caribbean cruise gets mixed up in a series of romantic problems.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore
C-99 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "It's Magic", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

This was Doris Day's first acting role, and she was extremely naive about how movies were made. She wrote in her autobiography that the first scenes to be filmed would be aboard the cruise ship, and on the first day, she walked onto the sound stage and asked when they would be leaving for the boat. The crew broke up laughing.


6:30 PM -- IT'S A GREAT FEELING (1949)
When nobody at Warner Bros. will work with him, movie star Jack Carson decides to turn an unknown into his co-star.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Doris Day, Jack Carson
C-85 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "It's a Great Feeling"

Joan Crawford does a cameo and directs a short speech to Jack Carson before slapping his face. It's the same one she gives to Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce (1945) before slapping her face. Carson co-starred in that film with Crawford.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: ANTHONY PERKINS



8:00 PM -- PSYCHO (1960)
A woman on the run gets mixed up with a repressed young man and his violent mother.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin
BW-109 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Janet Leigh, Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- John L. Russell, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy and George Milo

When the cast and crew began work on the first day, they had to raise their right hands and promise not to divulge one word of the story. Alfred Hitchcock also withheld the ending part of the script from his cast until he needed to shoot it.


10:15 PM -- PRETTY POISON (1968)
A young man gets in over his head when he convinces a small-town girl he's a secret agent.
Dir: Noel Black
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld, Beverly Garland
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Anthony Perkins was so convincing in his role as the mentally disturbed Dennis Pitt as he had been in as Norman Bates in Psycho (1960) that it typecast him for the rest of his career.


12:00 AM -- THE CHAMPAGNE MURDERS (1967)
A champagne tycoon's partner suspects his partner's gigolo husband of murders he's been framed for.
Dir: Claude Chabrol
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Maurice Ronet, Stéphane Audran
BW-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Claude Chabrol made this film for an American company, Universal, and with some American and British actors in prominent roles. Each scene for the film was filmed in both French and English versions, with the result that it got widely released in Britain and America. The English-language version was mostly scripted by film critics. Chabrol, who spoke excellent English, was able to maintain complete artistic control over the project.


2:00 AM -- FEAR STRIKES OUT (1957)
Major League star Jimmy Piersall fights to save his sanity.
Dir: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Karl Malden, Norma Moore
BW-100 mins, CC,

When Robert Mulligan felt that the time was right to shoot the breakdown, he gave Anthony Perkins 24 hours notice for him to prepare. To do a scene in which he was required to rant and rave and be very physical was a challenge for Perkins, who by nature was quiet and introspective. Karl Malden recalled, "He was afraid of what he had to do, run and physically climb that fence. So he just had to let himself go and what happened, happened. It rubbed him out." The scene turned out to be one of the most powerful in the film, and most certainly in Perkins' career. "Though he didn't know the first thing about the game and had to be taught how to throw a ball from the outfield," said Malden, "he ended up turning in a stunning performance."


4:00 AM -- THE TRIAL (1963)
In this adaptation of Kafka's classic, a man in a nameless country stands trial for an unnamed crime.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider
BW-119 mins, CC,

The scene of K's office was filmed in the Paris train station, Gare d'Orsay, shortly after it was closed and before it became an art museum.

[Sneederbunk]

1. Tom Cotton a big Perkins fan.

[longship]

2. Do not miss "Fear Strikes Out" -trailer added.

Last edited Thu Oct 26, 2017, 01:27 PM - Edit history (2)

Anthony Perkins turns in an incredible performance.

I remember Jim Piersall coming to Detroit with the Red Sox and his antics there. He was known to climb the screen behind the plate by then.

This film is a minor gem, with Perkins shining, and Malden very good as Piersall's domineering, never satisfied father. Norma Moore turns in a workable turn as Piersall's devoted partner.

Definitely worth a viewing.


Trailer:

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