TCM Schedule for Thursday, July 6 -- TCM Spotlight: Race and Hollywood

[Staph]

Today in primetime TCM continues their Race and Hollywood series with a look at Arabs in film. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Flight of the Lost Balloon (1961)
An adventurous professor fights to keep his hot air balloon safe on a rescue mission.
Dir: Howard Alston
Cast: Mala Powers, Marshall Thompson, James Lanphier.
C-91 min, TV-PG

An advertising gimmick used for this film was the giveaway of "motion sickness pills" to ticket buyers. The critics had a field day with it.


7:45 AM -- Helen of Troy (1956)
A shipwrecked prince's love for a married queen triggers war between Greece and Troy.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Rossana Podestà, Jack Sernas, Sir Cedric Hardwicke.
C-121 min, TV-G

Noted British actor Edmund Purdom overdubbed in English the lines of French-Lithuanian actor Jacques Sernas on the soundtrack of this film, due to Sernas not having a firm English-speaking voice. Sernas at that point in his career was learning English but had not yet mastered the language. Purdom was not credited with his voiceover talent for this picture, as the film's producers wanted the public to think Sernas did it all on his own.


10:00 AM -- The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
Nuclear tests set a dormant prehistoric monster on a path of destruction.
Dir: Eugène Lourié
Cast: Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway.
80 min, TV-PG, CC

The dinosaur skeleton in the museum sequence is artificial. It was obtained from storage at RKO where it had been constructed for Bringing Up Baby (1938).


11:30 AM -- The Lion and the Horse (1952)
A cowboy fights to save a wild horse from its exploitative owner.
Dir: Louis King
Cast: Steve Cochran, Wildfire, Ray Teal.
C-83 min, TV-PG

Filmed in Zion National Park in Utah


1:00 PM -- Big Jim McLain (1952)
A U.S. agent takes on communists in Hawaii.
Dir: Edward Ludwig
Cast: John Wayne, Nancy Olson, James Arness.
90 min, TV-PG, CC

The German title is "Mathuana". In this dubbed version for the German market John Wayne plays a hunter of marijuana smugglers, not an investigator for the Un-American Activities Commitee ferreting out Communists, as in the original film.


2:45 PM -- Killer Shark (1950)
A fisherman's son tries to prove himself by hunting sharks.
Dir: Oscar Boetticher
Cast: Roddy McDowall, Laurette Luez, Roland Winters.
59 min

A minor effort from Budd Boetticher, who was much better known for his Westerns.


4:15 PM -- Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951)
A warden and his assistant clash over prison reform, triggering a violent riot.
Dir: Crane Wilbur
Cast: Steve Cochran, David Brian, Philip Carey.
87 min

Johnny Cash has said that when he saw this movie he was inspired to write "Folsom Prison Blues".


6:00 PM -- Al Capone (1959)
Chicago's most notorious gangster rules the city ruthlessly.
Dir: Richard Wilson
Cast: Rod Steiger, Fay Spain, James Gregory.
104 min, TV-PG

The real Al Capone died of advanced syphilis which had become neurosyphilis. Due to the production code in effect at the time, the narrator (James Gregory) attributes Capone's death to an "incurable disease".



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: RACE AND HOLLYWOOD



8:00 PM -- Adventure In Iraq (1943)
Americans are captured by Arabs working for the Nazis.
Dir: D. Ross Lederman
Cast: John Loder, Ruth Ford, Warren Douglas.
65 min, TV-G

Goof -- When the squadron of biplanes first arrives and the Captain Carson radios, "We're going in, proceed with flight plan," he is seated side-by-side with his copilot in what appears to be a calm environment. But the exterior shots of the planes show the planes have open-cockpit tandem seats, with the copilot seated behind the pilot.


9:30 PM -- Action In Arabia (1944)
An adventurous reporter tangles with Nazis in the desert on the eve of World War II.
Dir: Leonide Moguy
Cast: George Sanders, Virginia Bruce, Lenore Aubert.
75 min, TV-PG, CC

Desert footage was shot by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack in 1937 for an unmade film on the life of Lawrence of Arabia.


11:00 PM -- Sirocco (1951)
A mysterious American gets mixed up with gunrunners in Syria.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Marta Toren, Lee J. Cobb.
98 min, TV-PG, CC

According to actor Jamie Farr, the movie debuted on Saturday night at the Rivoli in his home town of Toledo. Most of Toledo's Arab-American community turned out to see it. As a scene where Bogart walks though a crowded bazaar begins to fade, an Arab voice is heard shouting, "Ya hallah deen bayak!" which caused most of the audience to collapse in laughter. The non-Arabs in the house did not understand why everyone else was laughing until the line was translated for them: "Goddamn your father!"


1:00 AM -- Trunk to Cairo (1966)
A secret agent takes on Neo-Nazis running a munitions factory.
Dir: Menahem Golan
Cast: Audie Murphy, George Sanders, Marianne Koch.
C-99 min, TV-PG

Filmed in Algeria, and released in Austria as Einer spielt falsch.


3:30 AM -- Sinbad The Sailor (1947)
The Arabian Nights hero sets off to find the lost treasure of Alexander the Great.
Dir: Richard Wallace
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak.
C-117 min, TV-PG, CC

RKO had to scuttle its plan to present this film as a 1946 Christmas-season attraction when a strike at the Technicolor processing plant delayed the making of prints. The wide-release date would be moved up to January 13, 1947, with the Manhattan opening at the Palace Theatre following on January 22, 1947. Needing a black-and-white movie for its 1946 yuletide schedule, RKO chose a film destined to become a holiday perennial: Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946).


5:30 AM -- Now Playing July (2011)
Features highlights of the month's programming on TCM, including festivals and stars.
C-16 min, CC