TCM Schedule for Friday, June 12, 2015 -- TCM Spotlight - Summer of Darkness

[Staph]

TCM is continuing their new special program, Summer of Darkness, featuring 24 hours of film noir every Thursday in June and July. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- The Glass Key (1942)
A hired gun and his gangster boss fall out over a woman.
Dir: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd
BW-85 mins, CC,

The title of this book and movie is most obscure; thankfully its meaning is described by Richard Layman in his book, Shadow Man: The life of Dashiell Hammett. A glass key symbolizes an act or experience which cannot be reversed or forgotten. It is a key made of glass which allows one entry to a room or a building but which shatters after one use. Skeleton keys were used for many years before and after this story to lock doors from both sides; hence, a skeleton key made of glass which breaks in a lock will prohibit the locking of a door and will prohibit one from leaving the room. Hence, once in the chamber one is subject to see one's choice through.


7:30 AM -- Laura (1944)
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb
BW-88 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph LaShelle

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Clifton Webb, Best Director -- Otto Preminger, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt, and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Leland Fuller and Thomas Little

This movie is famous for the haunting "Laura Theme". When asked why she had turned down the part of Laura, Hedy Lamarr said, "They sent me the script, not the score."


9:00 AM -- Ministry Of Fear (1944)
When hidden microfilm comes into his possession, an innocent man is drawn into espionage.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond
BW-87 mins, CC,

Forrester works for the Ministry of Home Security, a genuine British governmental department established in 1939 to defend the UK's civilian population against enemy action.


10:30 AM -- Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Detective Philip Marlowe's search for a two-timing woman leads him to blackmail and murder.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley
BW-95 mins, CC,

RKO was on the verge of bankruptcy when it signed up aging matinée idol Dick Powell to make a series of musicals. Powell only signed under the proviso that he could play a straight dramatic role first, so he was cast as Philip Marlowe. Attached director Edward Dmytryk was initially horrified at this casting decision. With the success of the film, RKO President Charles Koerner abandoned plans to star Dick Powell in a series of musicals and cast him in more hard-boiled detective and action films instead.


12:15 PM -- Danger Signal (1945)
A man suspected of murder charms a secretary into helping him.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Faye Emerson, Zachary Scott, Dick Erdman
BW-78 mins, CC,

From a novel by Phyllis Bottome, who was born in Rochester, Kent, the daughter of an American clergyman, Rev. William MacDonald Bottome and an Englishwoman, Mary (Leatham) Bottome. In 1917, in Paris, she married Alban Ernan Forbes Dennis, a British diplomat working firstly in Marseilles and then in Vienna as Passport Control Officer, a cover for his real role as MI6 Head of Station with responsibility for Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia. In 1924 she and her husband started a school in Kitzbühel in Austria. Based on the teaching of languages, the school was intended to be a community, and an educational laboratory to determine how psychology and educational theory could cure the ills of nations. One of their more famous pupils was Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels. In 1960, Fleming wrote to Bottome, "My life with you both is one of my most cherished memories, and heaven knows where I should be today without Ernan."


1:45 PM -- Detour (1945)
A hitchhiker takes on a dead man's identity only to face blackmail by an unscrupulous woman.
Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer
Cast: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake
BW-68 mins, CC,

This was the first "B" movie chosen by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry, in 1992. Also the first Hollywood "Noir" honored.


3:00 PM -- Mildred Pierce (1945)
A woman turns herself into a business tycoon to win her selfish daughter a place in society.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott
BW-111 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Crawford (Joan Crawford was not present at the awards ceremony and feigned ill that night. Meanwhile she listened to the show on the radio. When she won, she ushered the press into her bedroom, where she finally accepted her Oscar.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Eve Arden, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ann Blyth, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ranald MacDougall, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Haller, and Best Picture

After hearing exaggerated rumors about her behavior at MGM, Michael Curtiz was unsure about casting Joan Crawford in the title role. However, she so badly wanted the role that she offered to do a screen test, something an established star was never expected to do. Curtiz directed the screen test and after watching it, astonished, agreed that Crawford was perfect for the part.


5:00 PM -- Deadline at Dawn (1946)
An aspiring actress risks her life to clear a sailor charged with murder.
Dir: Harold Clurman
Cast: Susan Hayward, Paul Lukas, Bill Williams
BW-83 mins, CC,

The only film directed by legendary stage director Harold Clurman.


6:30 PM -- Johnny Angel (1946)
A sailor sets out to solve his father's murder.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
Cast: George Raft, Claire Trevor, Signe Hasso
BW-79 mins, CC,

Based on the novel Mr. Angel Comes Aboard by Charles Gordon Booth.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM SPOTLIGHT: SUMMER OF DARKNESS



8:00 PM -- The Gangster (1947)
A troubled gangster, who has lost all faith in people, loses his weak grip on life.
Dir: Gordon Wiles
Cast: Barry Sullivan, Belita, Joan Lorring
BW-84 mins, CC,

Based on the story Low Country by Daniel Fuchs.


9:33 PM -- Grandad Of Races (1950)
This short film presents the annual horse race held in the Piazza del Campo in Siena. Vitaphone Release 1950A.
Dir: André De La Varre Jr.
C-10 mins,


9:45 PM -- Gun Crazy (1950)
Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree.
Dir: Joseph H. Lewis
Cast: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger
BW-87 mins, CC,

The bank heist sequence was done entirely in one take, with no one outside the principal actors and people inside the bank aware that a movie was being filmed. When John Dall as Bart Tare says, "I hope we find a parking space," he really meant it, as there was no guarantee that there would be one. In addition, at the end of the sequence someone in the background screams that there's been a bank robbery--this was actually a bystander who saw the filming and assumed the worst.


11:30 PM -- Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951)
A man who spent his formative years in prison for murder is released and struggles to adjust to the outside world.
Dir: Felix Feist
Cast: Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran, Lurene Tuttle
BW-91 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Guy Endore, who served as one of the "fronts" during the time of the Hollywood blacklist until he too was blacklisted.


1:15 AM -- Nightmare Alley (1947)
An ambitious carnival worker attempts to scam his way out of the carnival in this brutal noir.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray
BW-111 mins, CC,

At one point, Stan (Tyrone Power) offers Bruno (Mike Mazurki) a cigar. The name on the box is La Unica, a well-known Cuban-made brand at the time. The brand still exists, but the cigars are now made in the Dominican Republic with Dominican and Connecticut-grown tobacco leaves.


3:20 AM -- The Rock (1967)
This promotional short for the film "Point Blank" (1967) offers a behind-the-scenes look at location shooting on Alcatraz.
C-9 mins,


3:30 AM -- Night Moves (1975)
An L.A. private detective puts aside his own marital woes while tracing a topless nymphet to the Florida Keys.
Dir: Arthur Penn
Cast: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark
C-100 mins, CC,

The chess game on which the title of the film was based was a real game. The game was K. Emmrich (White) vs Bruno Moritz (Black), played in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany in 1922. In the film, we see the position after White's 26th move. As Moseby showed Paula, Black could have finished the game with a queen sacrifice followed by three knight checks, but he played something else and lost.


5:15 AM -- MGM Parade Show #7 (1955)
Ray Bolger performs in a clip from "The Great Ziegfeld"; Debbie Reynolds introduces a clip from "The Tender Trap." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins,


5:49 AM -- Kings Of The Turf (1941)
This short film focuses on Mortimer, a Standardbred horse undergoing training for harness racing. Vitaphone Release 572A.
Dir: Del Frazier
C-10 mins,