TCM Schedule for Friday, June 5, 2015 -- TCM Spotlight - Summer of Darkness

[Staph]

Today is the beginning of TCM's new special program, Summer of Darkness, featuring 24 hours of film noir every Thursday in June and July. This first day has a bunch of wonderful Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart films, including M (1931), High Sierra (1941), and The Maltese Falcon (1941). And late tonight, TCM is showing L.A. Confidential (1997), the modern noir that brought Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce to prominence. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- M (1931)
The mob sets out to catch a child killer whose crimes are attracting too much police attention.
Dir: Fritz Lang
Cast: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Grundgens
BW-110 mins,

The film premiered in 1931. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party took power in 1933, and banned the film the next year. It was then stored in a vault, where it stayed for many years. Audiences didn't get the chance to see the film again until 1966. For its video release 30 years later, it underwent a restoration that included the addition of music and sound effects that wouldn't have been authorized by Fritz Lang (he deliberately kept certain passages quiet) and the cutting of certain scenes. The image had also been altered to fit the 4:3 screen size. These injustices were amended in 2009 for the film's Blu-ray release. I don't know which version of the film that will be shown on TCM.


8:00 AM -- La Bête Humaine (1938)
A railroad engineer enters an affair with his friend's amoral wife.
Dir: Jean Renoir
Cast: Jacques Berlioz, Fernand Ledoux, Jean Gabin
BW-97 mins,

Severine gives Roubaud a Nogent knife, which he is impressed with. The region of Nogent-Bassigny is a centre of French cutlery manufacture. It also the name of a company that makes knives and similar items.


9:45 AM -- The Letter (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson
BW-95 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- James Stephenson, Best Director -- William Wyler, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Tony Gaudio, Best Film Editing -- Warren Low, Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

Sixteen years after he directed this film, William Wyler made his TV directing debut with a live production broadcast Oct. 15, 1956 on Producers' Showcase: The Letter (1956). The cast included Siobhan McKenna, John Mills, Michael Rennie, and Anna May Wong in the roles earlier played by Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, and Gale Sondergaard. Some of the censorship that had restricted the 1940 version was eased for this TV version. For example, Hammond's "Eurasian wife" in 1940 was permitted to be, as in the play and 1929 film, his Chinese mistress.


11:30 AM -- Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
A newspaperman serves as key witness in a circumstantial murder case.
Dir: Boris Ingster
Cast: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet
BW-64 mins, CC,

In the three films generally rolled around by film historians as the 'first Film Noir,' M, Stranger on the Third Floor and The Maltese Falcon, Peter Lorre stars in all three.


12:45 PM -- High Sierra (1941)
An aging ex-con sets out to pull one more big heist.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis
BW-100 mins, CC,

This was the last movie Humphrey Bogart made where he did not receive top billing. The studio thought that Ida Lupino should have top billing given the fact that she had been such a big hit in They Drive by Night (1940) and so her name ended up above Bogart's on the title card. Bogart was reportedly unhappy about receiving second billing but never complained.


2:30 PM -- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
BW-100 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sydney Greenstreet, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston, and Best Picture

John Huston and company tickled themselves with a number of other on-set jokes. As Mary Astor recounted in her autobiography, the cast and crew had a system, whereby Huston would signal for a certain practical joke to be played for visitors to the set. For the benefit of visiting star-struck social clubwomen, the "No. 5" had Humphrey Bogart going into a prepared act with Sydney Greenstreet. He'd start yelling and cursing at him, calling him a fat old fool. "Who the hell do you think you are? You upstaged me, and I'm telling you I'm not having any--," at which point Huston would jump into the act, holding back Bogart's mock rage. Very quickly, the embarrassed and disillusioned ladies would shuffle towards the nearest exit. Meanwhile, the "No. 10" had Peter Lorre coming out of Astor's dressing room at the appropriate moment, adjusting his fly and saying, "See you later Mary."


4:15 PM -- Journey Into Fear (1942)
A munitions expert gets mixed up with gunrunners in Turkey.
Dir: Norman Foster
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Rio, Ruth Warrick
BW-68 mins, CC,

In late August 1942, RKO decided to delay the release of the movie because critics panned it in press previews. By that time, Orson Welles' contract was terminated by a new studio head. As part of the settlement, Welles agreed to recut the last reel and film additional scenes. He added the voice-over by Joseph Cotten at the beginning and end of the movie, and designed the pre-credit sequence.


5:33 PM -- Land Of The Quintuplets (1942)
This short film tells the history of the Dionne quintuplets.
Dir: James A. FitzPatrick
C-8 mins,


5:45 PM -- Johnny Eager (1942)
A handsome racketeer seduces the DA's daughter for revenge, then falls in love.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold
BW-107 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Van Heflin

In one of the bedrooms in Johnny's apartment at the track is a large painting, done in the art deco style, of a reclining blonde woman. Coincidentally, this same painting is featured briefly but prominently in Eyes in the Night (1942), released the same year and also starring Edward Arnold, referred to in that film by Marty as "a blonde tomato."


7:34 PM -- Doin' Their Bit (1942)
As part of their contribution to the war effort, a gang of children decide to stage a show for local servicemen in this comedic short.
Dir: Herbert Glazer
Cast: Robert Blake, Valerie Lee, Buckwheat Thomas
BW-11 mins,



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



8:00 PM -- Nora Prentiss (1947)
An ambitious singer ruins a doctor's life.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Kent Smith, Bruce Bennett
BW-112 mins, CC,

Sheilah Graham reported that Ann Sheridan had an infection in one ear during production, and during the final shots of the film, could only be photographed from one side.


10:04 PM -- Let's Sing An Old Time Song (1947)
This short film focuses on songs that have become standards in American music, such as "The Band Played On" and "Bicycle Built for Two." Vitaphone Release 1593A.
Dir: Jack Scholl
BW-9 mins,


10:15 PM -- Woman On The Run (1950)
A woman searches for her husband, who ran off after witnessing a mob hit.
Dir: Norman Foster
Cast: Ann Sheridan, Dennis O'Keefe, Robert Keith
BW-78 mins,

Based on a story by Sylvia Tate.


11:45 PM -- Dark Passage (1947)
A man falsely accused of his wife's murder escapes to search for the real killer.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett
BW-106 mins, CC,

Humphrey Bogart's complete uncovered face is not seen clearly until 62 minutes into the movie, when his character finally removes his bandages and looks into a mirror. All previous scenes with the character are either shown from his point of view or have his face obscured with shadows or bandages. Between the film's unorthodox "first person perspective" and Humphrey Bogart's negative press from his support of the Committee for the First Amendment established in the face of the hearings being done by the House Un-American Activities Committee led to the film having a poor performance at the box office.


1:45 AM -- Born to Kill (1947)
A murderer marries a young innocent then goes after her more experienced sister.
Dir: Robert Wise
Cast: Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Walter Slezak
BW-92 mins, CC,

Arnett's quote, "Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile...", is from the hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains", lyrics by Reginald Heber.


3:30 AM -- L.A. Confidential (1997)
Detectives clash while investigating political corruption.
Dir: Curtis Hanson
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger
C-138 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kim Basinger, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published -- Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Curtis Hanson, Best Cinematography -- Dante Spinotti, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Jeannine Oppewall (art director) and Jay Hart (set decorator), Best Sound -- Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Kirk Francis, Best Film Editing -- Peter Honess, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score -- Jerry Goldsmith, and Best Picture

Curtis Hanson got a great deal of resistance to having three lead characters. At first he was told to delete Exley (Guy Pearce's character) and Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) and make the film a star vehicle for the actor playing Bud White (Russell Crowe). When he explained why Exley was essential, they told him to delete White and Vincennes. When he insisted that all three were essential, he was given a budget of only $15 million, which meant he couldn't afford to hire a big-name actor to headline the film even if he wanted to; which he didn't: he wanted to hire actors who brought no audience expectations to the kind of role they would be playing. An exception to this rule was James Cromwell, whom audiences would expect to be one of the heroes after seeing him in Babe (1995).


5:49 AM -- Los Angeles "Wonder City Of The West" (1935)
This short film takes the viewer to L.A., with a visit to the Disney studios.
C-8 mins,