TCM Schedule for Saturday, November 1, 2014 -- The Essentials - Titles from Hamlet

[Staph]

The titles of all of Tonight's Essentials are based on a phrase from Shakespeare. Fascinating how diverse a set of films can all come from the works of a single author. Enjoy!



6:45 AM -- Doctor X (1932)
A reporter investigates a series of cannibalistic murders at a medical college.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy
C-76 min

This is the film for which Michael Curtiz is quoted as saying, "This will make your blood curl!"


8:15 AM -- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1941)
A scientist's investigations into the nature of good and evil turn him into a murderous monster.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner
BW-113 min, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Film Editing -- Harold F. Kress, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Franz Waxman

In the original theatrical version, once Dr. Jekyll is first transformed into Mr. Hyde, he walks up to a mirror in his laboratory. As he stares into it he questions his face saying such things as, "It's my face, yet it isn't" This is followed by him exclaiming, "Can this be evil?" In later TV prints, the earlier lines are missing. They're inexplicably missing to this day. Either the negative was damaged or the cuts were made on purpose.


10:15 AM -- Carson on TCM: Sally Field (2/20/79) (2013)
TCM presents an interview from The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, with Sally Field from 2/20/79.
C-10 min, CC


10:30 AM -- Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942)
A wheelchair-bound doctor fights off a homicidal maniac.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Philip Dorn, Donna Reed
BW-84 min

The movie initially was called "Born to Be Bad" with Lew Ayres again starring as Dr.Kildare. After principal shooting had been completed, Ayres announced he was a conscientious objector to World War II in which America was then involved. Fearing adverse publicity, MGM scrapped his footage, replaced him with Philip Dorn, and changed the title.


12:00 PM -- The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
A woman writing a scientist's biography is mistaken for a spy.
Dir: Frank Tashlin
Cast: Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Arthur Godfrey
C-110 min, CC, Letterbox Format

Alice Pearce and George Tobias appear as a married couple. They were also husband and wife in Bewitched (1964) (1964). Paul Lynde, who plays Homer Cripps, also appeared in the show as Samantha's zany Uncle Arthur.


2:00 PM -- Our Man in Marrakesh (1966)
One of six travelers on a bus is carrying $2 million to pay a local operator to fix United Nations votes... but which one?
Dir: Don Sharp
Cast: Tony Randall, Senta Berger, Herbert Lom
C-94 min, Letterbox Format

The picture has a number of titles in English speaking territories that include 'Bang, Bang, Bang! Marrakesh'; 'I Spy You Spy'; 'Marrakesh'; 'Bang Bang!'; 'Our Man in Marrakesh'; and 'Bang! Bang! Your Dead!'. This film was originally titled 'Our Man in Marrakesh' when released in England but was retitled 'Bang! Bang! You're Dead!' for its American theatrical release in the USA.


4:00 PM -- The Searchers (1956)
An Indian-hating Civil War veteran tracks down the tribe that slaughtered his family and kidnapped his niece.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles
C-119 min, CC, Letterbox Format

Natalie Wood was still a student in high school when this film was being made, and on several occasions both John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter had to pick her up at school on days when she was required on the set. This caused a good deal of excitement among Wood's female classmates.


6:15 PM -- Point Blank (1967)
A gangster plots an elaborate revenge on the wife and partner who did him dirty.
Dir: John Boorman
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn
C-92 min, CC, Letterbox Format

Lee Marvin faked the recoil from the .44 Magnum when he shoots in Lynne's bed. These were in fact blanks, but afterward when shooting in Alcatraz they tried with real bullets and there was no recoil at all. Marvin said to director John Boorman, "Fiction overtakes reality".



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: TITLES FROM HAMLET



8:00 PM -- To Be or Not to Be (1942)
A troupe of squabbling actors joins the Polish underground to dupe the Nazis.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack
BW-99 min, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Werner R. Heymann

According to the book 'The United Artists Story' by Ronald Bergan, " Unfortunately, at its release, Pearl Harbor had been attacked, Germany was sweeping across Europe, and the film's star, Carole Lombard, was killed in a plane crash while on a war-bond selling tour. Therefore, neither critics nor public were in the mood to laugh, finding the picture tasteless and callous. Over the years, however, it recovered its production costs and became a classic."


10:00 PM -- Murder Most Foul (1964)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple joins a small-town theatre to investigate a murder.
Dir: George Pollock
Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles Tingwell
BW-91 min, CC, Letterbox Format

While inspecting the contents of the victim's suitcase, Miss Marple finds flyers for a theatrical production of Agatha Christie's "Murder She Said": this is the title of the first movie in which Rutherford appeared as Miss Marple and is an in-joke as Christie wrote no such play. Some foreign-language prints give the play's title as "4.50 From Paddington", which similarly was never adapted for the stage.


11:45 PM -- North By Northwest (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
C-136 min, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Ernest Lehman, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy, and Best Film Editing -- George Tomasini

It was journalist Otis L. Guernsey Jr. who suggested to Alfred Hitchcock the premise of a man mistaken for a nonexistent secret agent. He was inspired, he said, by a real-life case during WW II, known as Operation Mincemeat, in which British intelligence hoped to lure Italian and German forces away from Sicily, a planned invasion site. A cadaver was selected and given an identity and phony papers referring to invasions of Sardinia and Greece. A British film, The Man Who Never Was (1956), recounted the operation.


2:15 AM -- Bone (1972)
A thief breaks into a Beverly Hills home, and finds the owners are neither wealthy or happy as expected.
Dir: Larry Cohen
Cast: Yaphet Kotto, Andrew Duggan, Joyce Van Patten
BW-95 min, Letterbox Format

Susan Sarandon came in to audition for the Jeannie Berlin part, but was intimidated by Larry Cohen's normally docile German Shepherd, so much so that the audition had to be canceled.


4:00 AM -- Wait Until Dark (1967)
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who've invaded her home.
Dir: Terence Young
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna
C-108 min, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Audrey Hepburn

During World War II, 16-year-old Audrey Hepburn was a volunteer nurse in a Dutch hospital. During the battle of Arnhem, Hepburn's hospital received many wounded Allied soldiers. One of the injured soldiers young Audrey helped nurse back to health was a young British paratrooper - and future director - named Terence Young who more than 20 years later directed Hepburn in Wait Until Dark (1967).

[longship]

1. Alan Arkin is absolutely chilling in "Wait Until Dark"

A good flick.