TCM Schedule for Friday, September 3 -- TCM Birthday Tribute -- Alan Ladd

[Staph]

Today is the 97th anniversary of Alan Ladd's birth, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. TCM is celebrating with a morning of his bit parts in movies of the early 1940s, and an afternoon of some of his biggest roles, including The Blue Dahlia (1946) and Shane (1953). And this evening we begin a month-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, with a trio of movies about Pancho Villa starring Pedro Armendáriz. Enjoy!


4:42am -- One Reel Wonders: A Day In Death Valley (1944)
An installment of James A. Fitzpatrick's Travel Talk featuring Death Valley.
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick
C-10 mins

The valley received its English name in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. It was called Death Valley by prospectors and others who sought to cross the valley on their way to the gold fields, although only one death in the area was recorded during the Rush.


5:00am -- Paid (1930)
A young innocent plots revenge after being sent to prison unjustly.
Cast: Joan Crawford, Robert Armstrong, Marie Prevost, Kent Douglass
Dir: Sam Wood
BW-86 mins, TV-G

The lead role was commissioned for Norma Shearer but she had to withdraw owing to pregnancy.


6:30am -- Brother Rat And A Baby (1940)
Three naval cadets graduate and help each other find jobs.
Cast: Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Jane Bryan, Eddie Albert
Dir: Ray Enright
BW-87 mins, TV-G

Sequel to Brother Rat (1938), the film in which Ronald Reagan met his first wife Jane Wyman.


8:00am -- Captain Caution (1940)
When a ship's captain dies at war, his daughter takes command.
Cast: Victor Mature, Louise Platt, Leo Carrillo, Bruce Cabot
Dir: Richard Wallace
BW-86 mins, TV-G

J. Pat O'Malley's first film.


9:30am -- Cross Country Romance (1940)
A runaway heiress hides in a doctor's trailer for a rollicking trip to San Francisco.
Cast: Gene Raymond, Wendy Barrie, Hedda Hopper, Billy Gilbert
Dir: Frank Woodruff
BW-69 mins, TV-G

Based on a novel by Eleanor Brown.


10:49am -- One Reel Wonders: Important Business (1944)
Joe Doakes takes a train ride to Washington, DC, on "important business".
Cast: Robert Benchley
Dir: Will Jason
BW-11 mins

The next-to-last of 16 Joe Doakes shorts starring Robert Benchley, writer, actor, father of Nathaniel Benchley (author of the novel The Off-Islanders, later made into the film The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966)), and grandfather of Peter Benchley (author of Jaws).


11:00am -- Wildcat Bus (1940)
A broke playboy signs on to help a young beauty save her ailing bus line.
Cast: Fay Wray, Charles Lang, Paul Guilfoyle, Don Costello
Dir: Frank Woodruff
BW-64 mins, TV-G

On August 10, 2004, two days after Fay Wray's death, the lights on the Empire State Building in New York City (scene of the climax from her most popular film, "King Kong") were dimmed for 15 minutes in her memory.


12:05pm -- One Reel Wonders: Wild People (1932)
The Globe Broadcasting Company does a radio broadcast from Dutch New Guinea, with the aborigines as performers.
Cast: Harry Jans, Harold Whalen, Eleanor Thatcher
Dir: Ray McCarey
C-17 mins

Soundtrack includes "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" with music by Fred E. Ahlert and lyrics by Roy Turk and Bing Crosby, "Panther Lady" with music and lyrics by George Frank Rubens, "Frühlingslied (Spring Song)" with music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and "They Give 'em This" with music and lyrics by George Frank Rubens.


12:30pm -- They Met In Bombay (1941)
Rival jewel thieves on the run find love in the Far East.
Cast: Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell, Peter Lorre, Jessie Ralph
Dir: Clarence Brown
BW-92 mins, TV-G

In December 1940, Lana Turner was announced as the female lead.


2:15pm -- The Blue Dahlia (1946)
A veteran fights to prove he didn't kill his cheating wife.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard Da Silva
Dir: George Marshall
BW-99 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Raymond Chandler

When Alan Ladd was called up for military service, production on the movie (then still in the screenplay stage) had to be rapidly stepped up. According to a near-legendary story, screenwriter Raymond Chandler offered to finish the screenplay by working drunk: in exchange for sacrificing his health to produce the requisite pages on time, Chandler was permitted to work at home (a privilege rarely granted to screenwriters) and was provided two chauffeured cars, one to convey the completed pages to the studio and the other for his wife. Chandler turned the script in on time. Many now believe the "drunkenness" was simply a ruse by Chandler to wrangle extraordinary privileges from the desperate studio.


4:00pm -- Shane (1953)
A mysterious drifter helps farmers fight off a vicious gunman.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon de Wilde
Dir: George Stevens
C-118 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Loyal Griggs

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Brandon De Wilde, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Palance, Best Director -- George Stevens, Best Writing, Screenplay -- A.B. Guthrie Jr., and Best Picture

George Stevens originally cast Montgomery Clift as Shane, and William Holden as Joe Starrett. When both decided to do other films instead, "Shane" was nearly abandoned before Stevens asked studio head Y. Frank Freeman who was available. Upon seeing a list of actors with current contracts, Stevens cast Alan Ladd, Van Heflin and Jean Arthur within three minutes.


6:15pm -- The Badlanders (1958)
Western outlaws join forces for a daring gold robbery in this remake of The Asphalt Jungle.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Ernest Borgnine, Katy Jurado, Claire Kelly
Dir: Delmer Daves
C-84 mins, TV-PG

Based on a novel by W. R. Burnett, who wrote the screenplays for Little Caesar (1931), Scarface (1932), High Sierra (1941), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), and The Great Escape (1963).


7:40pm -- One Reel Wonders: Law Of The Badlands (1945)
A cavalry officer is framed for the murder of a fellow officer and vows to bring the criminal to justice.
Cast: Robert Shayne, Warren Douglas, Angela Greene.
Dir: Jack Scholl
BW-20 mins

Action sequences were copied from They Died With Their Boots On (1941).


What's On Tonight: TCM BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE: ALAN LADD


8:00pm -- Así era Pancho Villa (1957)
The disembodied head of Mexico's best-known rebel Poncho Villa narrates several short stories from his own life.
Cast: Pedro Armendáriz, María Elena Marqués, Carlos López Moctezuma.
Dir: Ismael Rodríquez.
C-90 mins

Pancho Villa appeared as himself in films in 1912, 1913, 1914 and 1916.


9:32pm -- One Reel Wonders: Trial By Trigger (1944)
A 20-minute remake of 1938's "Valley of the Giants".
Cast: Robert Shayne, Cheryl Walker, Warner Anderson
Dir: William C. McGann
BW-21 mins

Sixth episode in Warner Bros. Santa Fe Trail series of 2-reel Westerns


10:00pm -- Pancho Villa y la Valentina (1960)
The many sides of Pancho Villa, one of Mexico's best-known rebels, are revealed.
Cast: Pedro Armendáriz, Elsa Aquirre, Carlos López Moctezuma.
Dir: Ismael Rodríquez.
C-84 mins

Villa was born as Doroteo Arango to poor peasants Agustín Arango and Micaela Arambula in the Rancho de la Coyotada, one of the largest haciendas in the state of Durango. Doroteo was the oldest of five children and as such helped his mother care for his siblings after Agustín died. Eventually he was a member of an outlaw "super group" headed by Ignacio Parra, one of the most famous bandits of Durango at the time. It was then that he took the name "Francisco Villa" after his paternal grandfather, Jesus Villa.


11:29pm -- One Reel Wonders: The Battle Of Gettysburg (1956)
A documentary of the bloody battle of the American Civil War.
Narrator: Leslie Nielsen
Dir: Herman Hoffman
C-30 mins

Nominated for Oscars for Best Documentary, Short Subjects -- Dore Schary, and Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Dore Schary

Filmed on site at the battlefield, but with statues and cannons, without any live actors.


12:00am -- Cuando ¡Viva Villa..! es la muerte (1960)
Stories of the life of Pancho Villa are recounted by teachers, prisoners, farm hands and other small town residents.
Cast: Pedro Armendáriz, Elsa Aquirre, Carlos López Moctezuma.
Dir: Ismael Rodríquez.
C-92 mins

Pedro Armendáriz was one of 91 people, along with John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, whose cancer was attributed to their exposure to radioactivity while working on the film The Conqueror (1956).


1:36am -- One Reel Wonders: Madero Of Mexico (1942)
This film chronicles the short political life of Francisco Madero (1873-1913), who tried to bring democracy and land reform to Mexico.
Cast: Paul Guilefoyle
Dir: Edward L. Cahn
BW-11 mins

Francisco Ignacio Madero González (October 30, 1873 – February 22, 1913) was a politician, writer and revolutionary who served as President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913. As a respectable upper-class politician he supplied a center around which opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz could coalesce. However, once Díaz was deposed, the Mexican Revolution quickly spun out of Madero's control. He was deposed and executed by the Porfirista military and his aides that he neglected to replace with revolutionary supporters. His assassination was followed by the most violent period of the revolution (1913–1917) until the Constitution of 1917 and revolutionary president Venustiano Carranza achieved some degree of stability. (from Wikipedia)


2:00am -- Burnt Offerings (1976)
A family moves into a haunted house that seems to be stealing their lives.
Cast: Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, Eileen Heckart
Dir: Dan Curtis
C-116 mins, TV-MA

In the commentary with director Dan Curtis, he says that he actually read the novel 'Burnt Offerings' years before he got the offer to direct this film. Curtis said that he hated the open-ended conclusion of the novel and at the time thought to himself that he would pity anyone who would attempt to make it into a movie. Ironically years later the offer to direct the movie version of the novel came to him and the first thing he did was write an ending that he liked - the one featured in the film.


4:00am -- House On Haunted Hill (1959)
A millionaire offers total strangers a fortune to spend the night in a haunted house.
Cast: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal
Dir: William Castle
BW-75 mins, TV-14

The Ennis Brown House in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1924, and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was used for the exterior shots of the haunted house during the film's opening sequence.


5:30am -- Short Film: The House in the Middle (1954)
Military tests demonstrate the dangers of poor home maintenance in the event of a nuclear attack.
C-12 mins, TV-PG

The point of this 13 minute short seems to be that we should paint and keep our houses clean, so that our homes can survive a nuclear attack, even if we don't. It seems to be the 1950s equivalent of the government telling us to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect us against terrorist attacks in the 21st century.


5:45am -- Short Film: More Dangerous Than Dynamite (1941)
A short safety film about the dangers of cleaning clothes at home with gasoline.
BW-10 mins

Cleaning clothes at home with gasoline?!?!? You have got to be kidding!

[Staph]

1. Introduction to the 100th Anniversary of the Mexican Revolution

In tribute to the centenary of the Mexican Revolution, TCM presents a month-long festival of unique programming that includes several Mexican-made movies and TCM premieres, including works by director Ismael Rodríguez: his Pancho Villa trilogy - Así era Pancho Villa (1957), Pancho Villa y la Valentina (1960) and Cuando ¡Viva Villa! es la Muerte (1960) - in which Rodriguez recounts the facts and legends of the life of the Mexican Revolutionary general; La Cucaracha (1959), a melodrama of the Revolution starring Mexican favorites Maria Felix and Dolores Del Rio; Mexicanos al Grito de Guerra (1943), a history of the National Anthem; Las Mujeres de Mi General (1951), a starring vehicle for the much-loved actor/singer Pedro Infante, an idol of the Mexican people. Another exciting TCM premiere is Viva Zapata! (1952), Elia Kazan's Hollywood biopic of revolutionary Emiliano Zapata as impersonated by a charismatic Marlon Brando.

by Roger Fristoe