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Staph

(6,245 posts)
Thu May 29, 2014, 08:49 PM May 2014

TCM Schedule for Friday, May 30, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Australian Cinema

In the daylight hours, we've got films directed by Fritz Lang. Though recognized today as one of the greats, both in Germany and the United States, he was one of the most personally disliked directors around, a fact that hurt him at times in Hollywood because some actresses and actors would refuse to work with him. In prime time, TCM is finishing this month's Friday night look at Australian cinema. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- MGM Parade Show #1 (1955)
Judy Garland sings "You Made Me Love You" in a clip from "Broadway Melody of 1938"; Cyd Charisse introduces a clip from "It's Always Fair Weather." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins,


6:30 AM -- Metropolis (1926)
In this silent film, a city of the future is threatened with destruction when a wealthy corporate leader enlists a mad scientist to put down labor reformers.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
BW-149 mins,

Much to Fritz Lang's dismay, Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were big fans of the film. Goebbels met with Lang and told him that he could be made an honorary Aryan despite his Jewish background. Goebbels told him "Mr Lang, we decide who is Jewish and who is not". Lang left for Paris that very night.


9:06 AM -- Water Sports (1935)
This short film focuses on various water sports and stunts performed off the coast of San Diego.
Dir: Ray McCarey
BW-8 mins,


9:15 AM -- Fury (1936)
An innocent man escapes a lynch mob then returns for revenge.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel
BW-93 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Norman Krasna

This was Fritz Lang's first film in Hollywood and he wasn't accustomed to labor laws that require meal breaks. Shortly after filming began Lang took a quick lunch between set-ups and resumed filming. Some of the crew members wondering about their lunch break asked Spencer Tracy, who in turn pointed out to Lang that it was "1:30 pm and the crew had yet to take their break". Lang replied that it was his set and "that I will call lunch when I think it should be called". Tracy, knowing that it would take at least 90 minutes to set his make-up, subsequently took his hand across his face and smeared the make-up hopelessly, yelled "Lunch!" and promptly walked off the set with the crew.



11:00 AM -- Scarlet Street (1945)
A middle aged would-be painter falls into the clutches of an unscrupulous woman.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea
BW-102 mins,

This is the first of two remakes Fritz Lang made of Jean Renoir's films. While La Chienne (1931) inspired "Scarlet Street" (1945), La Bête Humaine (1938) inspired Human Desire (1954). Notoriously, Renoir disliked both.


12:49 PM -- The Cinematographer (1951)
This short film provides a behind-the-scenes look at the responsibilities of the cinematographer.
BW-9 mins,


1:00 PM -- Clash By Night (1952)
An embittered woman seeks escape in marriage, only to fall for her husband's best friend.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan
BW-105 mins, CC,

This was Barbara Stanwyck's first movie as a single woman (after separating from Robert Taylor), which also featured the rising young star Marilyn Monroe. Barbara gave a good performance in one of her most memorable films. Despite her emotional devastation, the crew noted Barbara's lack of a diva tantrum, Fritz Lang later said, "She's fantastic, unbelievable, and I liked her tremendously. When Marilyn missed her lines---which she did constantly---Barbara never said a word."


3:00 PM -- The Blue Gardenia (1953)
A telephone operator kills in self-defense but can't remember the details of the encounter.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern
BW-88 mins, CC,

Sally enjoys reading bloody thrillers written by Mickey Mallet - a spoof on Mickey Spillane, whose novels featuring Mike Hammer are just as gruesome as those Sally describes.


4:30 PM -- Glimpses Of Western Germany (1954)
A short tour of still WWII-ravaged Western Germany, visiting Hamburg, Bremen, Munich, and Heidelburg.
Dir: James A. FitzPatrick
C-8 mins,


4:45 PM -- Moonfleet (1955)
A British buccaneer is torn between three seductive women.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Stewart Granger, George Sanders, Joan Greenwood
C-87 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This film was simultaneously produced in two different versions. A CinemaScope version which has an aspect ratio of 2.55:1, and a spherical (non-CinemaScope) version intended to be matted during projection to a 1.75:1 aspect ratio.


6:15 PM -- While The City Sleeps (1956)
Reporters compete to catch a serial killer.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders
BW-100 mins, CC,

Although Howard Duff and Ida Lupino were married in real life, they have no scenes together.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: AUSTRALIAN CINEMA



8:00 PM -- Newsfront (1978)
This film follows the exploits of movie newsreel reporters.
Dir: Phillip Noyce
Cast: John Dease, Wendy Hughes, Gerard Kennedy
C-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Much of the newsreel footage seen in the film is real, including the footage seen early on in which the cameraman was filming the Japanese sniper who killed him.


10:00 PM -- Sunday Too Far Away (1975)
This film focuses on the hard-drinking, hard-working world of Australian sheep shearers in the 1950s.
Dir: Ken Hannam
Cast: Jack Thompson, Reg Lye, John Ewart
BW-91 mins, CC,

The main tagline for the film: "Friday night... too tired. Saturday night... too drunk. Sunday... too far away" is called The Shearer's Wife's Lament.


11:45 PM -- The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978)
An epic about the oppression, explosion, and subsequent flight of a half-caste aborigine in the year 1900.
Dir: Fred Schepisi
Cast: Tommy Lewis, Freddy Reynolds, Ray Barrett
C-122 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Thomas Keneally's source novel The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was based on the life of bush-ranger Jimmy Governor. Keneally has said that if he wrote the novel today, he would not try to write in the voice of an Aboriginal character but instead would write the story from the perspective of a white character.


2:00 AM -- The Devil's Playground (1976)
A semi-autobiographical "memoir" of life in an Australian Catholic seminary for boys and young men.
Dir: Fred Schepisi
Cast: Arthur Dignam, Nick Tate, Simon Burke
C-99 mins, Letterbox Format

This picture was one of fifty Australian films selected for preservation as part of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Kodak / Atlab Cinema Collection Restoration Project.


3:50 AM -- The Making Of Cannery Row (1982)
This promotional short offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Cannery Row" (1982).
Dir: Robert Ward
C-9 mins,


4:00 AM -- Lonely Hearts (1982)
An unlikely romance develops between a piano tuner and a timid office worker.
Dir: Paul Cox
Cast: Wendy Hughes, Norman Kaye, Jon Finlayson
C-96 mins, Letterbox Format

This Australian movie's title was changed to "Lonely Hearts" from its original title of "Close to the Heart" to avoid confusion with the American film One from the Heart (1982).


5:46 AM -- Rowan & Martin At The Movies (1969)
This public service short has two comedians, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, host a show utilizing stock clips of famous celebrities.
Dir: Jack Arnold
C-11 mins,


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TCM Schedule for Friday, May 30, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Australian Cinema (Original Post) Staph May 2014 OP
Two Australian films I've seen, three I've missed. CBHagman May 2014 #1

CBHagman

(16,968 posts)
1. Two Australian films I've seen, three I've missed.
Thu May 29, 2014, 11:37 PM
May 2014
Newsfront played an arts theater I used to go to, but I never made it to a screening, which I regret now (At the time I was less interested in the theme).

I don't think I've ever run across a theater showing The Devil's Playground, but maybe I need to check Netflix for it.

And I'd never heard of Sunday Too Far Away at all!
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