TCM Schedule for Saturday, November 4, 2017 -- The Essentials - Blackmail

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials feature films about blackmail, including The Big Sleep (1946), The Little Foxes (1941), and The Woman on Pier 13 (1950). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- A MAN TO REMEMBER (1938)
A small-town doctor fights crooked politicians during a polio epidemic.
Dir: Garson Kanin
Cast: Anne Shirley, Edward Ellis, Lee Bowman
BW-78 mins,

The only surviving copy of "A Man To Remember" is a 35mm, original nitrate print in the English spoken language, but with Dutch subtitles and Dutch credits. In addition, written English notes and letters in the film was replaced with the Dutch equivalents. It was preserved by the Netherlands Filmmuseum in 2000 and shown on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Channel in April 2007 and January 2017.


7:30 AM -- THE GOOD EARTH (1937)
Epic adaptation of the Pearl Buck classic about Chinese farmers battling the elements.
Dir: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly
BW-138 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Luise Rainer (Luise Rainer became the first actress and first performer to win consecutive awards for lead roles.), and Best Cinematography -- Karl Freund

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Sidney Franklin, Best Film Editing -- Basil Wrangell, and Best Picture

American-born Chinese actress Anna May Wong desperately wanted the role of O-Lan. Being a close friend of author Pearl S. Buck helped. She tested for the role, but producer Irving Thalberg was unsatisfied. Also, since Paul Muni, a Caucasian actor, had already been cast in the lead, Thalberg knew he couldn't cast Wong as Muni's wife. The Hays Code prohibited actors of different races from playing husband/wife couples on film (this was to avoid offending white audiences in the strictly segregated American South, where there were stringent laws against mixed-race marriages). Thalberg offered her the "vamp" role of Lotus, but a distraught Anna May turned it down.


10:00 AM -- CAPTAINS OF THE CLOUDS (1942)
A mail flyer joins the Canadian air force for fun but has to prove his worth when he goes to war.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: James Cagney, Dennis Morgan, Brenda Marshall
C-113 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Sol Polito, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Ted Smith and Casey Roberts

This was the first Hollywood picture to be filmed entirely on location in Canada.


12:00 PM -- TROOPER HOOK (1957)
A woman returns from Indian captivity to find herself an outcast.
Dir: Charles Marquis Warren
Cast: Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, Earl Holliman
BW-82 mins, CC,

It was the last of the six movies Barbara Stanwyck made with Joel McCrea. The others were Gambling Lady (1934), Banjo on My Knee (1936), Internes Can't Take Money (1937), Union Pacific (1939), and The Great Man's Lady (1942).


1:30 PM -- FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)
A group of space troopers investigates the destruction of a colony on a remote planet.
Dir: Fred McLeod Wilcox
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen
C-98 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- A. Arnold Gillespie, Irving G. Ries and Wesley C. Miller

This movie was filmed on the same stage on which The Wizard of Oz (1939) had been filmed 17 years earlier; the set of Altaira's garden is a reuse of the Munchkin Village set from "The Wizard of Oz".


3:15 PM -- 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
Classic sci-fi epic about a mysterious monolith that seems to play a key role in human evolution.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
C-149 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenters Diahann Carroll and Burt Lancaster accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Stanley Kubrick, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Anthony Masters, Harry Lange and Ernest Archer

Frank Miller, who plays the mission control voice, was a member of the U.S. Air Force in reality, and a real mission controller. He was hired because his voice was the most authentic the producers could find for the role. Inexperienced and nervous, he could not keep from tapping his foot during recording sessions, and the tapping sound repeatedly came through on the audio tracks; Stanley Kubrick folded up a towel, put it under Miller's feet, and told him to tap to his heart's content.


6:00 PM -- BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
The legendary bank robbers run riot in the South of the 1930s.
Dir: Arthur Penn
Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard
C-111 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Estelle Parsons, and Best Cinematography -- Burnett Guffey '

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Warren Beatty, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Faye Dunaway, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gene Hackman, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Michael J. Pollard, Best Director -- Arthur Penn, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- David Newman and Robert Benton, Best Costume Design -- Theadora Van Runkle, and Best Picture

Jack Warner told Warren Beatty that he would only finance the film if it was filmed in the style of the Warner Bros. '30s and '40s gangster movies. When Beatty argued with him, Warner pointed to the Water Tower that dwarfs the Burbank backlot, and told him that it was his name over the studio and his name only. Beatty walked over to the window and said to Warner "They're my initials". Warner relented but hated the final product.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: BLACKMAIL



8:00 PM -- THE BIG SLEEP (1946)
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a society girl's involvement in the murder of a pornographer.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely
BW-114 mins, CC,

The fussy persona that Marlowe adopts upon arriving in Geiger's bookstore has been a subject of argument for years; Lauren Bacall said that Humphrey Bogart came up with it while Howard Hawks claimed in interviews that it was his idea. What both of them failed to notice is that it was in the original book ("I had my horn-rimmed glasses on. I put my voice high and let a bird twitter in it.&quot ; all Bogart did was elaborate on it.


10:15 PM -- THE LITTLE FOXES (1941)
An ambitious woman takes on her corrupt brothers and honest husband in her drive for wealth.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright
BW-116 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Patricia Collinge, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Lillian Hellman, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Stephen Goosson and Howard Bristol, Best Film Editing -- Daniel Mandell, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Meredith Willson, and Best Picture

Bette Davis and William Wyler fought a great deal during filming. Disagreements ranged from Davis's interpretation of the character (Wyler thought she should be more sympathetic) to the appearance of the house (Davis thought it was far too opulent for a family struggling financially), to her appearance (Wyler thought her white makeup made her look like a Kabuki performer.) Davis eventually walked out of production, but returned when she heard rumors she was going to be replaced by Katharine Hepburn or Miriam Hopkins.


12:30 AM -- THE WOMAN ON PIER 13 (1950)
Communists blackmail a shipping executive into spying for them.
Dir: Robert Stevenson
Cast: Laraine Day, Robert Ryan, John Agar
BW-73 mins, CC,

According to Daniel Mainwaring, author of the beloved noir "Out of the Past," RKO head Howard Hughes used the film "I Married a Communist" to get rid of a lot of writers, directors and actors. If you refused to work in this project, you got fired from the studio.


2:00 AM -- DEADLY FRIEND (1986)
A boy tries to save his friend by implanting robotic microchips in her brain.
Dir: Wes Craven
Cast: Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy Swanson, Anne Twomey
C-90 mins, CC,

Wes Craven wasn't attracted to the story of Deadly Friend because Samantha goes on a killing spree when she's revived as an undead monster. Craven was much more interested in exploring the adults around her, all of whom seem to be monsters in human skin. In his own words: "The scares don't come from her, but from the ordinary people, who are actually much more frightening - a father who beats a child is a terrifying figure. That's the one person you're afraid of in the movie...the idea is along the lines that adults can be horrible, without being outside what society says is acceptable."


3:45 AM -- SWAMP THING (1982)
After a violent incident with a special chemical, a research scientist is turned into a swamp plant monster.
Dir: Wes Craven
Cast: Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau, Ray Wise
C-91 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The movie is "a spoof on the mad scientist movies of the 1950s" according to Michael Betzold at website 'Allmovie' whilst Graeme Clark at the 'Spinning Image' website states that the film "could pass as an update of one of those nineteen-fifties mad scientist science fiction movies" whilst 'The Aurum Film Encyclopaedia Science Fiction' states the movie is a "homage to fifties monster-movies and comic-book aesthetics".


5:30 AM -- WHEN YOU GROW UP (1973)
In this short film, children learn about the world of fun that awaits them when they grow up and go to work.
Dir: Jerry Kurtz
C-11 mins,


5:30 AM -- DUCK AND COVER (1951)
In this short film, a monkey's prank on a turtle demonstrates how to survive a nuclear attack.
Dir: Anthony Rizzo
Cast: Leo M. Langlois III, Ray J. Mauer,
BW-9 mins,


5:30 AM -- MATCH YOUR MOOD (1968)
Westinghouse shows women how to improve their lives by decorating their refrigerators in this short film.
C-6 mins,