TCM Schedule for Friday, May 13, 2016 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month - Robert Ryan

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is showing films about gambling, and in prime time, it's more of Star of the Month Robert Ryan. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Shooting Straight (1930)
A gambler accidentally commits murder and hides under the guise of a clergyman.
Dir: George Archainbaud
Cast: Richard Dix, Mary Lawlor, James Neill
BW-71 mins,

A print of this film survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archives.


7:19 AM -- Yamekraw (1930)
In this short film poor man ventures from his ramshackle rural home to the big city, where a dancing girl in a dive two-times him. Vitaphone Release 1009.
Dir: Murray Roth
Cast: Jimmy Mordecai, Louise Cook,
BW-10 mins,


7:30 AM -- Play Girl (1932)
A young innocent falls for a compulsive gambler.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Winnie Lightner, Loretta Young, Norman Foster
BW-60 mins, CC,

Based on the story God's Gift To Women by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan.


8:45 AM -- Dime With A Halo (1963)
Five Mexican street kids steal from the collection plate to bet on a race horse.
Dir: Boris Sagal
Cast: Barbara Luna, Rafael Lopez, Roger Mobley
BW-94 mins,

This was the last film produced at the Hal Roach Studios.


10:30 AM -- The Great Sinner (1949)
A young man succumbs to gambling fever.
Dir: Robert Siodmak
Cast: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Melvyn Douglas
BW-110 mins, CC,

The starring role was first offered to Kirk Douglas, who turned it down in order to make the independent film Champion (1949), for which he was Oscar-nominated.


12:30 PM -- Gambling House (1951)
A gambler faces deportation when he gets mixed up with murder.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff
Cast: Victor Mature, Terry Moore, William Bendix
BW-80 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Erwin Gelsey.


2:00 PM -- The Las Vegas Story (1952)
When newlyweds visit Las Vegas wife's shady past comes to the surface.
Dir: Robert Stevenson
Cast: Jane Russell, Victor Mature, Vincent Price
BW-87 mins, CC,

The night before the Las Vegas premier of "The Las Vegas Story," Jane and her husband, Robert Waterfield, got into a fight in which he slugged her in the face several times. The next morning, Jane's face was swollen and black and blue. RKO executives didn't want to cancel the premier and Jane appeared at the festivities with a severely swollen and bruised face. A story was given to the press that the intense windstorm the night before slammed an open car door into her face. Despite the believable story, a Newsweek magazine blurb hinted at the actual truth.


3:30 PM -- The Iron Major (1943)
In this true story, Frank Cavanaugh proves himself as a football coach and a World War I hero.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Ruth Warrick, Robert Ryan
BW-85 mins, CC,

The production was shut down from 20 May 1943 to 24 May 1943 when Pat O'Brien went on tour to promote his film Bombardier (1943).


5:00 PM -- Gangway for Tomorrow (1943)
Five people thrown together by World War II review their pasts.
Dir: John H. Auer
Cast: Margo, John Carradine, Robert Ryan
BW-69 mins, CC,

Based on an original story by Aladar Lazslo.


6:15 PM -- Tender Comrade (1943)
Lady welders pool their resources to share a house during World War II.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey
BW-102 mins, CC,

This film was introduced as evidence when director Edward Dmytryk and writer Dalton Trumbo were hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating them on suspicion of being Communists. Despite the film's many flag-waving speeches, the communal living arrangements of the ladies in the film was cited as evidence of how Dmytryk and Trumbo attempted to brainwash unsuspecting American moviegoers with Communist "propaganda". As even more damning "evidence", there was the use of the word "Comrade" in the title.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: ROBERT RYAN



8:00 PM -- Billy Budd (1962)
Adaptation of Herman Melville's classic tale of a ship's captain caught between an innocent young sailor and an evil officer.
Dir: Peter Ustinov
Cast: Terence Stamp, Peter Ustinov, Robert Ryan
BW-123 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Terence Stamp

Herman Melville had been writing poetry for 30 years when he returned to fiction with "Billy Budd" in late 1888. Still unfinished when he died in 1891, it was forgotten. Melville's biographer accidentally stumbled upon it when going through a trunk of the writer's papers in his granddaughter's New Jersey home in 1919. Melville's widow worked to help complete it, and it was finally published in 1924. Over the years other unsatisfactory versions were published, but it wasn't until Melville's original notes were found that the definitive version was ultimately published in 1962. Ironically Peter Ustinov's film version was released the same year.


10:15 PM -- About Mrs. Leslie (1954)
An aging woman recalls the affair that consumed her life.
Dir: Daniel Mann
Cast: Shirley Booth, Robert Ryan, Marjie Millar
BW-104 mins, CC,

Based on a novel by Viña Delmar.


12:15 AM -- The Boy With Green Hair (1948)
An orphaned boy mystically acquires green hair and a mission to end war.
Dir: Joseph Losey
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Barbara Hale
C-82 mins, CC,

Unfortunately for the film's director, Joseph Losey, the eccentric, politically conservative Howard Hughes took over RKO while this film was being shot and, hating the film's pacifist message, did his best to sabotage it. Losey, however, managed to protect the integrity of his project. Screenwriter Ben Barzman, who was also later blacklisted along with Losey, would later recall that "Joe shot the picture in such a way that there wasn't much possibility for change. A few lines were stuck in here and there to soften the message, but that was about it". Barzman also remembered that 12-year-old Dean Stockwell was called into Hughes' office and Hughes told him that when the other children spoke of the horror of war, he should say, "And that's why America has gotta have the biggest army, and the biggest navy, and the biggest air force in the world!" According to Barzman, little Stockwell was so in sympathy with the film's message that he dared to respond, "No, sir!" Even after Hughes started to scream at him, the boy held his ground and refused to do it.


1:45 AM -- God's Little Acre (1958)
A dirt-farmer lets his family fall apart while he hunts for his grandfather's buried gold.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Buddy Hackett
BW-118 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

A 1967 re-release attempted to appeal to the new generation by playing up the sex in the advertisements. The '67 poster featured the drawing of a topless woman underneath a bare-chested man on a bed, as well as a topless (but chaste) photo of co-star Fay Spain that was definitely not in the picture itself! For this re-release, Tina Louise was given top-billing and Michael Landon went from tenth billing in 1958 to second billing this time.


3:45 AM -- Her Twelve Men (1954)
A dedicated teacher turns around the troublesome students at a boys' school.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Greer Garson, Robert Ryan, Barry Sullivan
BW-91 mins, CC,

At the televised premiere of A Star Is Born (1954), Greer Garson was asked if she was with her twelve men tonight.


5:30 AM -- Back From Eternity (1956)
When an airliner crashes in the jungle repaired plane can only hold five of the survivors.
Dir: John Farrow
Cast: Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, Rod Steiger
BW-97 mins, CC,

Remake of the 1939 RKO film "Five Came Back" which starred Chester Morris and Lucille Ball.