TCM Schedule for Thursday, March 8 -- What's On Tonight -- Lady Killers

[Staph]

An interesting theme this evening -- Lady Killers. Not killers of ladies, but ladies who are killers. Enjoy!

By the way -- have you noticed that a recent troll has been building up his/her post count by "+1" and "agree!" posts here in Classic Films? We must appear to be a quiet, safe place to build up enough posts to go postal and reveal one's self as "death threat guy".


6:00 AM -- The Sellout (1951)
A small-town newspaper editor risks everything to expose a corrupt sheriff.
Dir: Gerald Mayer
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, John Hodiak, Audrey Totter
83 min, TV-PG, CC

The opening credits all appear on newspapers which have just been dumped from a truck and are ready for delivery. The title appears as if it were a newspaper headline.


7:30 AM -- Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954)
A mad scientist uses an ape to murder his enemies.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Karl Malden, Claude Dauphin, Patricia Medina
C- 84 min, TV-14

The famous "gorilla performer" Charles Gemora, who plays the gorilla, also played the gorilla in the original Universal version Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932).


9:00 AM -- Betrayed (1954)
During World War II, a U.S. officer falls for a Resistance fighter suspected of being an enemy spy.
Dir: Gottfried Reinhardt
Cast: Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Victor Mature
C- 109 min, TV-PG, CC

Clark Gable's last picture under his MGM contract. He first signed with the studio in 1930 (he'd first appeared at the studio as an extra in The Merry Widow). By the 1950's his box office was spotty and MGM found it difficult to justify his $500,000 per year salary. Gable too was anxious to enter into far more lucrative percentage deals and would do so exclusively for the remaining 6 years of his life.


11:00 AM -- 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
114 min, TV-PG, CC

While working on the script, writers William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett couldn't figure out from the novel who murdered a particular character. So they phoned Raymond Chandler, who angrily told them the answer was right there in the book. They shrugged and returned to their work. Chandler soon phoned to say that he looked at the book himself and couldn't figure out who killed the character, so he left it up to them to decide. In the original cut, shown to the armed services, this question is resolved; in the film as released, it isn't.


1:00 PM -- They Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
Dir: [Alberto] Cavalcanti
Cast: Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Griffith Jones
101 min, TV-PG

Trevor Howard was cast at very short notice after the actor first cast dropped out.


2:45 PM -- Desire Me (1947)
A war widow falls in love with the man who informed her of her husband's death.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Greer Garson, Robert Mitchum, Richard Hart
91 min, TV-PG, CC

It took Greer Garson 125 takes to enunciate the word "No" to the director's satisfaction. Co-star Robert Mitchum claimed later that this incident was when he first stopped taking Hollywood seriously.


4:18 PM -- One Reel Wonder: Little White Lie (1945)
A story of an adoption and a little white lie.
Dir: Paul Burnford
Cast: Sharon McManus, Marta Linden, Donald Curtis
11 min,

Paul (Donald Curtis) is driving a stylish 1942 Lincoln Zephyr Convertible, the last pre-war Lincoln, and a rare and beautiful bird indeed.


4:30 PM -- The Fugitive (1947)
A revolutionary priest flees a Central American dictatorship.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Pedro Armendariz, J. Carrol Naish
100 min, TV-PG, CC

Based on a novel by Graham Greene. Mel Ferrer's first film.


6:30 PM -- Act Of Violence (1949)
An embittered veteran tracks down a POW camp informer.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh
82 min, TV-PG, CC

All the credits except for the title are at the end of the movie, highly unusual for that time.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: LADY KILLERS


8:00 PM -- Arsenic And Old Lace (1944)
A young man about to be married discovers the two aunts who raised him have been poisoning lonely old men.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey
118 min, TV-G, CC

Some 20 years before filming this movie, actress Jean Adair had helped to nurse a very sick vaudeville performer named Archie Leach back to health; by the time she was asked to reprise her Broadway "Arsenic and Old Lace" role as Aunt Martha for this film, Adair and Leach, now known as Cary Grant, were old friends.


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 min, TV-PG, CC

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


12:00 AM -- Madeleine (1950)
A beautiful young woman stands trial for poisoning her lover.
Dir: David Lean
Cast: Ann Todd, Ivan Desny, Norman Woland
115 min, TV-PG, CC

Ann Todd had portrayed the title character in theatrical productions of the play this film was based on, and had always wanted to play her in a film adaptation. Shortly after she married director David Lean, he agreed to make this film and cast her as the lead as a "wedding present" of sorts.


2:00 AM -- What Ever Happened To Aunt Alice? (1969)
A woman signs on as housekeeper in the home where her friend disappeared.
Dir: Lee H. Katzin
Cast: Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Rosemary Forsyth
C- 101 min, TV-PG, CC

Helen Hayes was considered for a role in this film


4:00 AM -- The Nanny (1965)
A disturbed young man tries to prove his nanny is out to kill him.
Dir: Seth Holt
Cast: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett
93 min, TV-14, CC

The role of the Nanny was originally intended for Greer Garson who first accepted then declined, saying the script would not be good for her career.


5:39 AM -- One Reel Wonder: Andy Hardy's Dilemma (1938)
Judge Hardy teaches his son Andy a lesson about charity while used-car shopping.
Dir: George B. Seitz
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone,
18 min, TV-G

Originally titled Andy Hardy's Dilemma: A Lesson in Mathematics... and Other Things.

[CBHagman]

1. Oh, that subject line!

I haven't seen any of the line-up but for The Nanny and of course Arsenic and Old Lace.