TCM Schedule for Thursday, February 10, 2022 -- What's on Tonight: Comedy on the Rails

[Staph]

During the daylight hours, TCM is showing us Noir films from RKO. Then in prime time, it's all aboard, for Comedy on the Rails, including Twentieth Century (1934) and Without Reservations (1946). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
1h 4m | Crime | TV-14
A newspaperman serves as key witness in a circumstantial murder case.
Director: Boris Ingster
Cast: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet

This film or The Maltese Falcon (1941) are often cited by film historians as the "first film noir," while M (1931) is considered an important precursor to film noir. Peter Lorre stars in all three and Elisha Cook Jr. is in the two American films.


7:15 AM -- The Locket (1946)
1h 26m | Drama | TV-PG
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Director: John Brahm
Cast: Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum

Norma Barzman's lengthy treatment for The Locket (1946), which Sheridan Gibney revised into a screenplay, was inspired by a true event which was recounted to her by financier George Peabody Gardner and his sister Belle. When younger, the Gardners eschewed their aristocratic upbringing partly in reaction to an incident in their youth. As children they became friendly with the daughter of the family's housekeeper. It transpired that the daughter was wrongly accused of stealing a locket, leading to the firing and departure of the housekeeper and daughter. Years later it was learned that the daughter suffered from depression and was implicated in a theft--a consequence for which the Gardners felt their family was partly responsible.


8:45 AM -- The Woman on Pier 13 (1950)
1h 13m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
Communists blackmail a shipping executive into spying for them.
Director: Robert Stevenson
Cast: Laraine Day, Robert Ryan, John Agar

According to Daniel Mainwaring, writer of Out of the Past (1947), RKO head Howard Hughes used this film to get rid of numerous writers, directors and actors. If they refused to work on this project, they were fired from the studio.


10:15 AM -- Cornered (1946)
1h 42m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Dick Powell, Walter Slezak, Micheline Cheirel

The second and last collaboration between Dick Powell and director Edward Dmytryk. Along with Murder, My Sweet (1944), these films transformed Powell's image from that of a light song-and-dance man into a serious "tough guy" actor.


12:15 PM -- Nocturne (1946)
1h 27m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A police detective refuses to believe a composer's death was suicide.
Director: Edwin L. Marin
Cast: George Raft, Lynn Bari, Virginia Huston

When Police Lt. Joe Warne says, "I like that alibi. It's round, it's firm, it's fully packed.", he is riffing on a phrase often used in advertising for Lucky Strike cigarettes at the time: "So round, so firm, so fully packed."


1:45 PM -- Angel Face (1953)
1h 31m | Crime | TV-G
A woman murders her family for their money.
Director: Otto Preminger
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman

At first Otto Preminger refused to direct this movie, because he hated the script. The normally reclusive Howard Hughes personally picked up Preminger in his car and persuaded him to make the movie. "I'm going to get even with that little bitch," Hughes told Preminger, referring to Jean Simmons, "and you're going to help me." He gave Preminger permission to rewrite the script and promised him a bonus if he could finish the picture in 18 days. By that time Simmons' contract with Hughes would have expired.


3:30 PM -- While the City Sleeps (1956)
1h 39m | Crime | TV-PG
Reporters compete to catch a serial killer.
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders

The movie was based on a real murder case that took place in 1946. In that year William Heirens killed three women and left a message scrawled in lipstick on a bathroom mirror after the second murder. In the message, he urged the police to catch him before he killed again. Because of this, the press dubbed him "The Lipstick Killer".


5:15 PM -- Journey into Fear (1942)
1h 9m | Drama | TV-PG
A munitions expert gets mixed up with gunrunners in Turkey.
Director: Norman Foster
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Rio, Ruth Warrick

In late August 1942, RKO decided to delay the release of the movie because critics disliked it in press previews. By that time, Orson Welles' contract was terminated by a new studio head. As part of the settlement, Welles agreed to edit the last reel, and film additional scenes. He added the voice-over by Joseph Cotten throughout the movie, and designed the sequence before the credits.


6:30 PM -- Crossfire (1947)
1h 25m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-PG
A crusading district attorney investigates the murder of a Jewish man.
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Ryan, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gloria Grahame, Best Director -- Edward Dmytryk, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Paxton, and Best Picture

Based on Richard Brooks' first novel, "The Brick Foxhole" (1945), written while he was still a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. One of the many subplots of the novel dealt with homophobia, but that was changed to anti-Semitism and became the focus of the story for the film. The decision was made by producer Adrian Scott, who had purchased the rights to the novel, knowing any depiction of homosexuality would not get past the Production Code Administration.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- COMEDY ON THE RAILS



8:00 PM -- Twentieth Century (1934)
1h 31m | Comedy | TV-PG
A tempestuous theatrical director tries to win back the star he created and then drove away.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly

Howard Hawks allowed John Barrymore and Carole Lombard to improvise freely during filming. "When people are as good as those two, the idea of just sticking to lines is rather ridiculous," he told Peter Bogdanovich in an interview. "Because if Barrymore gets going, and he had the ability to do it, I'd just say, 'Go do it.' And Lombard would answer him; she was such a character, just marvelous." Hawks then told a story about Lombard coming to him one day to complain about studio head Harry Cohn making passes at her. Between them, the director and star worked out a plan to embarrass their boss. Hawks was in Cohn's office, having a serious discussion with him, when Lombard burst in to exclaim, "I've decided to say yes!" As Cohn watched in shock, she made as if to begin removing her clothes. Hawks said self-righteously, "I'd better get out of here if this is the kind of studio you run." A shaken Cohn asked Lombard to leave, and she never had any further problems with him.


10:00 PM -- Without Reservations (1946)
1h 47m | Comedy | TV-PG
A woman writer falls for a war hero who's a perfect match for the hero of her latest novel.
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Cast: Claudette Colbert, John Wayne, Don Defore

Cameo: Jack Benny as himself. About 22 or so minutes in, when Christopher "Kit" Madden (Claudette Colbert) is in the train station, Jack approaches her and asks her if she is Christoper Madden and when she says yes, he asks her to autograph the book she is holding (which she wrote) and asks her to make it out to Jack Benny. He first approaches with is back to the camera, so it's impossible to see who he is, but when he speaks, his voice is immediately recognizable. He then self-identifies to verify the viewer's suspicions, but not until she signs the book and moves on does he turn around and face the camera for the final verification.


12:00 AM -- Silver Streak (1976)
1h 53m | Adventure | TV-MA
A book editor takes a train from Los Angeles to Chicago, looking forward to a restful trip.
Director: Arthur Hiller
Cast: Jill Clayburgh, Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Sound -- Donald O. Mitchell, Douglas O. Williams, Richard Tyler and Harold M. Etherington

When meeting Gene Wilder after having seen Silver Streak (1976), Cary Grant asked him if the script had been in any way inspired by North by Northwest (1959). As Wilder admitted it was correct, Grant then added, "I knew it! Have you noticed that each time you take ordinary people, say, like you and me, then take them in a situation way above their heads, it makes a great thriller?"


2:15 AM -- The General (1927)
1h 23m | Silent | TV-G
A Confederate engineer fights to save his train and his girlfriend from the Union army.
Director: Buster Keaton
Cast: Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley

The first try at getting the cannonball to shoot out of the cannon into the cab caused the ball to shoot with too much force. To cause it to shoot into the cab of the engine correctly, Buster Keaton had to count out the grains of gunpowder with tweezers.


3:45 AM -- Some Like It Hot (1959)
2h | Comedy | TV-PG
When a pair of bumbling, out-of-work musicians, accidentally witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Orry-Kelly

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Jack Lemmon, Best Director -- Billy Wilder, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Charles Lang, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Ted Haworth and Edward G. Boyle

When Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon first put on the female makeup and costumes, they walked around the Goldwyn Studios lot to see if they could "pass" as women. Then they tried using mirrors in public ladies rooms to fix their makeup, and when none of the women using it complained, they knew they could be convincing as women. There is a scene on the train recreating this moment.