TCM Schedule for Friday, September 27, 2013 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Future Shock!

[Staph]

We have a day of Joel McCrea, and in prime time, we continue this month's Friday theme of films about dystopic futures. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Colorado Territory (1949)
An outlaw just released from prison is sucked back into a life of crime in this remake of High Sierra.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone
BW-94 mins, TV-G, CC,

Based on the W.R. Burnett novel "High Sierra".


7:45 AM -- Stars In My Crown (1950)
A parson uses six-guns and the Bible to bring peace to a Tennessee town.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Dean Stockwell
BW-89 mins, TV-G, CC,

Final film of Alan Hale.


9:15 AM -- Shoot First (1953)
American officer in England confronts spies and accusations of murder.
Dir: Robert Parrish
Cast: Joel McCrea, Laurence Naismith, Denis Lehrer
BW-84 mins, TV-PG,

McCrea made a conscious effort to appear only in western genre movies from about 1946 with the exception of this movie, Shoot First.


10:45 AM -- Wichita (1955)
Wyatt Earp fights to straighten out a crooked cow town.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges
C-81 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Director Sam Peckinpah plays a bit part as a bank teller in this picture.


12:15 PM -- The First Texan (1956)
After arriving in Texas to escape a scandal back east, a lawyer becomes involved in the independence of Texas.
Dir: Byron Haskin
Cast: Joel McCrea, Felicia Farr, Jeff Morrow
C-82 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

A remake of both The Conqueror (1917) and Man of Conquest (1939).


1:45 PM -- Trooper Hook (1957)
A woman returns from Indian captivity to find herself an outcast.
Dir: Charles Marquis Warren
Cast: Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, Earl Holliman
BW-82 mins, TV-PG,

Based on a story by Jack Schaefer.


3:15 PM -- The Oklahoman (1957)
A Western doctor stands between Natives and a ruthless oil baron.
Dir: Francis D. Lyon
Cast: Joel McCrea, Barbara Hale, Brad Dexter
BW-80 mins, TV-PG,

Barbara Hale is best remembered by those of us of a certain age as Della Street, secretary to Raymond Burr's Perry Mason on television from 1957 to 1966, with TV movies that continued to be produced until 1995.


4:45 PM -- Gunsight Ridge (1957)
A sheriff tries to find the man who killed his predecessor.
Dir: Francis D. Lyon
Cast: Joel McCrea, Mark Stevens, Joan Weldon
BW-85 mins, TV-G,

Watch carefully -- in the final scene where McRae is talking to the girl you can see a car drive by in the background.


6:15 PM -- Fort Massacre (1958)
A possibly mad cavalry commander leads his troops through dangerous Indian territory.
Dir: Joseph M. Newman
Cast: Joel McCrea, Forrest Tucker, John Russell
C-81 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Final film of Irving Bacon, a character actor with more that 500 film and television credits, from 1915 until his death in 1965.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: FUTURE SHOCK!



8:00 PM -- The Time Machine (1960)
A turn-of-the-century inventor sends himself into the future to save humanity.
Dir: George Pal
Cast: Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux
C-103 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Gene Warren and Tim Baar

The original time machine was sold at the MGM studio auction in 1971, the same auction that originally sold the Ruby Slippers. The winner of the auction was the owner of a traveling show. Five years later, the prop was found in a thrift store in Orange, CA. Film historian Bob Burns purchased it for $1,000. Using blue prints his friend, George Pal, had given him years earlier, he and a crew of friends restored it. The restoration crew included D.C. Fontana script consultant and writer on Star Trek and Michael Minor art director on Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Please see www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/props/timemachine.html for further info on this amazing prop.


10:00 PM -- World Without End (1955)
Astronauts returning from a voyage are caught in a time warp and are propelled into a post-Apocalyptic Earth populated by mutants.
Dir: Edward Bernds
Cast: Hugh Marlowe, Nancy Gates, Nelson Leigh
C-81 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

The title is derived from the modern Anglican version of a Catholic devotional doxology: "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."


11:30 PM -- The Omega Man (1971)
The only human survivor of a biological war fights to end a plague that has turned everybody else into monsters.
Dir: Boris Sagal
Cast: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash
C-98 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

The production company wanted a locale that looked like an abandoned metropolitan area, but it was too costly to build. The producer drove through Downtown Los Angeles one weekend and discovered there were no shoppers, so the majority of the film's exteriors were shot there on weekends.


1:30 AM -- A Boy and His Dog (1974)
While fighting to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a boy and his telepathic dog discover an underground society.
Dir: L. Q. Jones
Cast: Don Johnson, Susanne Benton, "Tiger"
C-90 mins, TV-MA, CC, Letterbox Format

According to 'Cult Movies 2', a sequel was planned called "A Girl And His Dog" but the dog Tiger died shortly after the movie's release and the plan for the sequel was scrapped for good.


3:15 AM -- They Only Kill Their Masters (1972)
A small-town sheriff attempts to clear a Doberman of murder charges.
Dir: James Goldstone
Cast: James Garner, Katharine Ross, Hal Holbrook
C-98 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

Peter Lawford, June Allyson and Ann Rutherford were all veterans who spent much time over the years making films on the MGM backlot. Peter Lawford and June Allyson had appeared together in several films, most notably Good News. This film gave them an opportunity to be in the last film made on that backlot before the land was sold.


5:00 AM -- Now Playing October (2013)
BW-17 mins, TV-PG, CC,


5:45 AM -- Viva Maria! (1965)
Traveling players invent the strip tease while mixed up in a Central American revolution.
Dir: Louis Malle
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot, George Hamilton
C-115 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format

This movie was the subject of one of two U.S. Supreme Court cases that led to the establishment of the MPAA Ratings Code. Upon the U.S. release of this "Viva Maria," the movie classification board of the city of Dallas, Texas, banned the movie within the city on the grounds that it was too racy. The American distributor sued - case title: "Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. City of Dallas (1968) - and, on 22 April 1968, won. In its ruling, the Supreme Court stated that censorship aimed at minors was okay, but censorship could not be applied to adults. On the same day, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in a second case, titled "Ginsberg v. New York (1968)," which established that 17 years of age constituted adulthood in cases of censorship. The case involved a New York City luncheonette owner named Sam Ginsberg who was caught selling a "Playboy" magazine to a 16 year old in a NYPD sting operation. The Supreme Court ruled that if the boy had been 17 years old, then Ginsberg would have done no wrong in selling him the magazine. By combining these two rulings, the Supreme Court established the precedent that adult-oriented movies were acceptable as long as "no one under 17 is admitted without parent or adult guardian."