TCM Schedule for Friday, June 19, 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 -- Cornered (1946)
A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Dick Powell, Walter Slezak, Micheline Cheirel
BW-103 mins, CC,

Just before Laurence Gerard is struck a second time with a pistol, Luther Adler orders the thug "Casse lui la gueule !" meaning "Beat him up!"


7:45 AM -- Crack-Up (1946)
An art critic risks his reputation and his life to track down a forgery racket.
Dir: Irving Reis
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, Herbert Marshall
BW-93 mins, CC,

Suggested by a short story "Madman's Holiday" by Fredric Brown.


9:30 AM -- Gilda (1946)
A gambler discovers an old flame in South America, but she's married to his new boss.
Dir: Charles Vidor
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready
BW-110 mins, CC,

When Gilda is brought back to Argentina by Tom, she slaps Johnny hard across both sides of his face. In reality, Rita Hayworth's smacks broke two of Glenn Ford's teeth. He held his place until the take was finished.


11:30 AM -- The Big Sleep (1946)
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a society girl's involvement in the murder of a pornographer.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely
BW-114 mins, CC,

The fussy persona that Marlowe adopts upon arriving in Geiger's bookstore has been a subject of argument for years; Lauren Bacall said that Humphrey Bogart came up with it while Howard Hawks claimed in interviews that it was his idea. What both of them failed to notice is that it was in the original book ("I had my horn-rimmed glasses on. I put my voice high and let a bird twitter in it.&quot ; all Bogart did was elaborate on it.


1:30 PM -- The Killers (1946)
An insurance investigator uncovers a string of crimes when he tries to find a murdered boxer's beneficiary.
Dir: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien
BW-102 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Siodmak, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Anthony Veiller, Best Film Editing -- Arthur Hilton, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Miklós Rózsa

Author of the original short story Ernest Hemingway liked the film. Prior to its release, producer Mark Hellinger sent publicity man Al Horwits to Sun Valley, Idaho, to give Hemingway a private screening. Hemingway had a pint of gin in one pocket of his overcoat and a pint of water in the other so that he could sip from them if the film got bad. After the screening, Hemingway held up the full bottles, grinned and said "Didn't need 'em".


3:15 PM -- Nobody Lives Forever (1946)
A con artist falls for the rich widow he's trying to fleece.
Dir: Jean Negulesco
Cast: John Garfield, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Walter Brennan
BW-100 mins, CC,

Humphrey Bogart refused the role of Nick Blake, eventually played by John Garfield.


5:00 PM -- Nocturne (1946)
A police detective refuses to believe a composer's death was suicide.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
Cast: George Raft, Lynn Bari, Virginia Huston
BW-87 mins, CC,

When Police Lt. Joe Warne says, "I like that alibi. It's round, it's firm, it's fully packed.", he is riffing on a phrase often used in advertising for Lucky Strike cigarettes at the time: "So round, so firm, so fully packed."


6:30 PM -- Crossfire (1947)
A crusading district attorney investigates the murder of a Jewish man.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan
BW-86 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Ryan, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gloria Grahame, Best Director -- Edward Dmytryk, Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Paxton, and Best Picture

Despite receiving an Academy Award nomination, Robert Ryan rarely talked about his breakthrough role, because he wasn't too happy about the negative aspects of his character, who was a murderous, anti-Semitic psychopath. In real life, Ryan was a committed liberal progressive who detested any forms of bigotry.



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



8:00 PM -- Hollow Triumph (1948)
A crook on the lam poses as a psychiatrist.
Dir: Steve Sekely
Cast: Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz
BW-83 mins,

Jack Webb's film debut.


9:45 PM -- Mystery Street (1950)
Criminal pathologists try to crack a case with nothing but the victim's bones to go on.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett
BW-93 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Leonard Spigelgass

Frank E. Taylor's first production credit after a career as a literary editor at Random House.


11:30 PM -- Border Incident (1949)
Police try to crack down on the illegal immigration racket.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva
BW-95 mins, CC,

Based on a story by John C. Higgins and George Zuckerman.


1:15 AM -- The People Against O'Hara (1951)
A defense attorney jeopardizes his career to save his client.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien, Diana Lynn
BW-102 mins, CC,

According to John Sturges's inputs for the book of Emmanuel Laborie "Sturges: a filmmaker's story", John Sturges said he was frightened directing Spencer Tracy who was a living legend. At the beginning, he was just stuck on the story-board and choosing good camera angles and did not dare to interfere in Tracy's way of acting. Until the day, Tracy rehearsed a scene, while Sturges was looking at it through the eye-piece of the camera, suddenly took off his jacket and hung it on the camera lens blocking up the director's view. Then Tracy took Sturges aside and told "John, can you stop only worrying about your camera and take care about the actors because the camera is only a hungry machine and it will not be satisfied if you feed it with junk food".


3:15 AM -- Get Carter (1971)
A small-time gangster searches for the truth behind his brother's death.
Dir: Mike Hodges
Cast: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland
C-112 mins, CC,

When Carter (Michael Caine) enters Cyril Kinnear's house, there is a Zulu shield and assegais on the wall. This is an in-joke about Michael Caine's first screen success in Zulu (1964).


5:30 AM -- TCM Presents Elvis Mitchell Under the Influence: John Leguizamo (2008)
Celebrities reveal the classic movies that influenced their lives in interviews with acclaimed film critic/interviewer Elvis Mitchell.
C-28 mins, CC, Letterbox Format