TCM Schedule for Friday, October 17 -- 70s Thrillers

[Staph]

Some must-see films today, including You Can't Take It With You (1938), Gilda (1946), and The Day Of The Jackal (1973). Enjoy!


5:15am -- MGM Parade Show #11 (1955)
Judy Garland and Gene Kelly perform in a clip from "For Me and My Gal"; Susan Hayward introduces a clip from "I'll Cry Tomorrow." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins, TV-G

Gene Kelly on Judy Garland: "The finest all-around performer we ever had in America was Judy Garland. There was no limit to her talent. She was the quickest, brightest person I ever worked with."


5:47am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: The Great American Mug (1945)
A look at the typical barbershop today and in the bygone days.
Cast: Harry Barris, Frank Darien, Lester Dorr.
Dir: Cy Endfield.
BW-10 mins

John Nesbitt's Passing Parade was a long-running series of MGM short subjects which ran from 1938 to 1949. All of them were narrated by announcer John Nesbitt, and most of them featured the slow movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 as the opening theme music.


6:00am -- Home in Oklahoma (1946)
A small-town editor and a big-city reporter investigate a wealthy rancher's mysterious death.
Cast: Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, George "Gabby" Hayes.
Dir: William Witney.
BW-72 mins, TV-G

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were married on location at the Flying L Ranch in Davis, Oklahoma after filming "Home in Oklahoma" together. There exists a memorial plaque there today commemorating their marriage.


7:15am -- You Can't Take It With You (1938)
A girl from a family of freethinkers falls for the son of a conservative banker.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart.
Dir: Frank Capra.
BW-126 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Director -- Frank Capra, and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Spring Byington, Best Cinematography -- Joseph Walker, Best Film Editing -- Gene Havlick, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert Riskin

A 1938 feature film usually ran to 8,000 feet of film. Frank Capra shot 329,000 feet for this one.


9:30am -- The Buccaneer (1938)
French pirate Jean Lafitte tries to redeem his name helping the U.S. in the War of 1812.
Cast: Fredric March, Franciska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff.
Dir: Cecil B. De Mille.
BW-126 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography -- Victor Milner

Paramount's shop facility made 63 functional cannons used in the battle sequences.


11:45am -- The Big Wheel (1949)
A mechanic alienates everyone who loves him when he becomes a champion race car driver.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Spring Byington.
Dir: Edward Ludwig.
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Hattie McDaniel's last movie.


1:30pm -- Gilda (1946)
A gambler discovers an old flame in South America, but she's married to his new boss.
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready.
Dir: Charles Vidor.
BW-110 mins, TV-PG

In the scene where 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.


3:30pm -- Rita (2003)
A documentary on the life story and experiences of Rita Hayworth told through film clips and stills, archival footage, dramatic re-enactments and interviews.
Narrator: Kim Basinger.
Dir: Elaina Archer.
BW-58 mins, TV-14

Some legends say the Margarita cocktail was named for Rita Hayworth when she was dancing under her real name (Margarita Carmen Cansino) in a Tijuana, Mexico nightclub.


4:30pm -- The Big Lift (1950)
Two Air Force sergeants find love while flying the Berlin Airlift.
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Paul Douglas, Cornell Borchers.
Dir: George Seaton.
BW-118 mins, TV-PG

The film was made in occupied Germany. All scenes were photographed in the real locations associated with the story, including episodes in the American, French, British and Russian sectors of Berlin.


6:45pm -- Stazione Termini (aka Indiscretion Of An American Wife) (1954)
An American woman tries to break it off with her Italian lover.
Cast: Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, Richard Beymer.
Dir: Vittorio De Sica.
BW-63 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Christian Dior

Film debut of Richard Beymer, best known as Tony in West Side Story (1961).


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: 70'S THRILLERS


8:00pm -- The Day Of The Jackal (1973)
British and French agents join forces to save President De Gaulle from a deadly assassin.
Cast: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Alan Badel.
Dir: Fred Zinnemann.
C-142 mins, TV-MA

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Ralph Kemplen

During the filming of the final sequence where President de Gaulle is presenting medals to veterans, the large crowd of extras were unaware of how close a resemblance actor Adrien Cayla-Legrand bore to the actual President. On the first take, when the President exits his limousine, most of the crowd gasped and an elderly extra, who was playing one of the veteran soldiers, fainted in shock.


10:30pm -- The Stepford Wives (1975)
A recent arrival in suburbia suspects a sinister reason for the local women's model behavior.
Cast: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Tina Louise.
Dir: Bryan Forbes.
C-115 mins, TV-14

Katharine Ross had become such a good friend of Paula Prentiss during the shot, that she found the scene where she stabs "Bobbie" very disturbing. She actually got so anxious during takes, that director Bryan Forbes ended up shaving the back of his hand and doing the scene for her instead.


12:30am -- The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (1976)
A thirteen-year-old girl turns to murder after her father dies.
Cast: Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith.
Dir: Nicolas Gessner.
C-92 mins, TV-MA

Jodie Foster was fourteen at the time of filming and refused to appear nude. Thus, her older sister, Connie Foster, was used as her double in the film's brief nude sequence.


2:15am -- Wicked, Wicked (1973)
A detective hunts down a psycho killer drawn to women with long blonde hair.
Cast: David Bailey, Tiffany Bolling, Randolph Roberts.
Dir: Richard L. Bare.
C-95 mins, TV-14

Film uses a gimmick entitled "Duo-Vision", basically a split-screen effect that lasts the whole film.


4:00am -- Frenzy (1972)
When a temperamental man's ex-wife falls victim to a serial killer, he becomes the number one suspect.
Cast: Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Alec McCowen.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock.
C-116 mins, TV-MA

Midway through the film, there is a famous continuous shot in which the camera backs away from the door of Foster's upper-floor apartment and descends, seemingly without a cut, to the ground level, out the building's front door, and then to the opposite side of the street. The interiors were shot with an overhead track in a studio, and there is an imperceptible cut as a man passes by the front door, carrying a sack of potatoes. This is subtly blended into a new shot of the camera pulling away from the building exterior that was actually used on location.

[Staph]

1. The Big Idea Behind THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE

The Postman Always Rings Twice was James M. Cain's first crime novel. It was rejected by 13 publishers, mainly because of its sexual content, but when Alfred A. Knopf's wife convinced him to pick it up, it became a bestseller.

Prior to publication, MGM offered Cain $5,000 for the screen rights, but he decided to hold out to see how the book sold first. The choice proved a wise one.

Before the book came out, RKO executive Merian C. Cooper sent the manuscript to the Production Code Administration to see if it was suitable for screen adaptation. The PCA notified him that the story was probably unfilmable and he gave the same response to executives from Columbia and Warner Bros.

MGM picked up the film rights for $25,000 in 1934 without consulting the PCA. After several memos from new PCA head Joseph Breen, they decided not to proceed with plans for a film version. In particular, Breen objected to the implications that Frank and Cora shared a sado-masochistic relationship. He also noted the detailed depiction of their plot to kill Cora's husband and the depiction of the dishonest lawyers and insurance investigators involved in the murder case.

Hoping to soften up the PCA, MGM financed a stage adaptation of Postman by Cain in 1936. The production starred Mary Phillips as Cora and former film star Richard Barthelmess as Frank. The young Joseph Cotten played a police officer. The production lasted just 72 performances and was never revived.

A French film adaptation of Postman appeared in 1939 under the title, Le Derniere Tournant, "The Last Turn." It starred Fernand Gravey as Frank, Corinne Luchaire as Cora and Michel Simon as her husband. Pierre Chenal directed. The film was a commercial failure and has never played in the U.S.

In l943, Italian director Luchino Visconti directed and co-wrote an unauthorized adaptation under the title Ossessione. Massimo Girotti and Clara Calamai starred as the illicit lovers. Although critically acclaimed as one of the first "Neorealist" films, it was barred from distribution in the U.S. by the Cain estate and MGM until it was screened at the New York Film Festival in 1976, prior to a limited release here in 1977.

In 1940, MGM sent the PCA a story treatment prepared partly by Gustav Machaty, director of the notorious Czech film Extasé (1933). The new version omitted the sado-masochistic affair and had Cora's husband die by accident. Breen still considered it too sordid for the screen and production plans were dropped once again.

Paramount considered taking the story off MGM's hands in 1943 until they looked at the formidable correspondence file with Breen's comments.

When Billy Wilder passed the censors and scored a hit with Cain's previously unfilmable Double Indemnity (1944), Hollywood started looking for other properties to bring to the screen. Jerry Wald at Warner Bros. put Mildred Pierce (1945) into production, and Casey Wilson at MGM, who had produced several of the family-oriented Andy Hardy films, started working on The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Wilson planned The Postman Always Rings Twice as a vehicle for Lana Turner, who had risen to stardom at MGM in a series of roles capitalizing on her beauty and sex appeal. When she expressed fears about how the public would react to her in such a villainous role, studio head Louis B. Mayer convinced her that she needed to expand her image into more dramatic parts.

In May 1945, the PCA finally approved a script that removed the story's sado-masochistic elements. It also threw heavy emphasis on Frank and Cora's guilt, their inability to enjoy their life together after killing her husband and the just nature of their deaths at the end. Although the lawyers were as corrupt as they were in the original, the insurance investigator became a private eye. In addition, the script suggested that Cora and Frank fell in love before beginning their affair. Nonetheless, the PCA's approval represented a loosening of restrictions on sexuality in Hollywood films.

The role of Frank Chambers was originally offered to Joel McCrea, who turned it down.

MGM casting director Billy Grady had tried to interest John Garfield in the male lead opposite Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls (1946), but the actor had said no. When McCrea refused to appear in The Postman Always Rings Twice, Grady thought Garfield would be perfect in the role.

Production delays on Humoresque (1946), Garfield's next film at his home studio Warner Bros., made the studio amenable to the loan to MGM, particularly since Garfield found the role of Frank Chambers much more suitable.

At some point in the casting process of The Postman Always Rings Twice, MGM considered casting Gregory Peck in the lead.

At the last minute, however, Garfield almost had to pull out of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Toward the end of World War II, he was drafted, and director Tay Garnett considered casting MGM contract player Cameron Mitchell in the lead. Garfield was ruled 4F, however, because of his age and heart problems and was back at work in time to star in the film. Garnett was shocked to see him playing handball a few days after and asked him to lay off, at least until the film had been completed.

Partly as a sop to the censors, Garnett decided to dress Turner almost entirely in white. As he explained later, "There was a problem getting any story with that much sex past the censors. We figured that dressing Lana in white somehow made everything she did less sensuous. It was also attractive as hell…They didn't have 'hot pants' then, but you couldn't tell it by looking at hers." (from Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth).

Another move to appease Breen was Wilson's decision to make Cora's husband more sympathetic, thereby avoiding any suggestion that the affair and murder were justified by his behavior. To avoid offending Greek immigrants, and America's recent allies during World War II, the character lost his ethnic background, and his name was changed from Papadakis to Smith. That opened the door to the casting of Cecil Kellaway, borrowed from Paramount, who gave one of his best performances as the unsuspecting spouse.

by Frank Miller

[lavenderdiva]

2. We're watching 'The Day Of The Jackal' right now-

I've never seen it before, and Mr. ld saw it many, many years ago. Beautiful filming in Paris, and the story is most intriguing!