TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 6 -- Written by Abraham Polonsky

[Staph]

One of the things that I most enjoy about TCM is discovering new information about the movies -- directors, writers or actors I've never heard of. Today's new-to-me discovery is the classic writer/director Abraham Polonsky. Enjoy!


4:00am -- A Yank At Oxford (1938)
A cocky American student runs into trouble when he transfers to the famed British college.
Cast: Robert Taylor, Maureen O'Sullivan, Vivien Leigh.
Dir: Jack Conway.
BW-102 mins, TV-G

In a scene shortly after arriving at Oxford, Sheridan meets with his assigned tutor, who asks him, "What are you reading?" by which he means what is your field of study. Sheridan, confused, replies, "Well, I am reading Gone With The Wind, but I am only halfway through it." Vivien Leigh, also in this movie, would of course portray Scarlett in Gone with the Wind (1939) which was released the year after this movie. Reportedly, it was known as early as 1937 from a Selznick memo that Leigh had secured the role.


5:44am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Scholastic England (1948)
In this "Traveltalk," we learn about the history of England's historic colleges and the towns that surround them.
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick
C-8 mins

The tour covers Cambridge, Oxford, and Eton.


6:00am -- The Housekeeper's Daughter (1939)
A gangster's moll runs home to mother, with reporters and amateur detectives hot on her tail.
Cast: Joan Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, William Gargan.
Dir: Hal Roach.
BW-80 mins, TV-G

Victor Mature's first film.


7:30am -- The Clairvoyant (1935)
A fake psychic suddenly turns into the real thing when he meets a young beauty.
Cast: Claude Rains, Fay Wray, Jane Baxter.
Dir: Maurice Elvey.
BW-81 mins, TV-PG

Also known as The Evil Mind.


9:00am -- Broadway Limited (1941)
A Hollywood publicity stunt ruins the leading lady's love life and draws the attention of federal agents.
Cast: Victor McLaglen, Marjorie Woodworth, Dennis O'Keefe.
Dir: Gordon Douglas.
BW-75 mins, TV-G

One of the Pennsylvania Railroad Locomotives #1223, a small 4-4-0 steam engine featured in "Broadway Limited", was re-dressed as a NYC locomotive and featured in the Beginning of Hello Dolly in 1969. That same locomotive was featured in a number of other TV shows and movies, and operated on the Pennsylvania Railroad until 1950. She then went on to operate on the Strasburg Railroad from the mid 60's until 1990 when she was retired and put on display at the Railroad museum of Pennsylvania where she still stands to this day.


10:22am -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: An Optical Poem (1938)
Dir: Oskar Fischinger.
C-7 mins

From a user comment on IMDB: Just about anyone who's ever made a music video — especially an abstract one — owes a debt of gratitude to Oskar Fischinger. This short film is a charming rendition of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody set to a dazzling series of colored dots, lines, flashes and vivid visual effects that often look like a Piet Mondrian painting come to life.


10:30am -- Boy of the Streets (1937)
A tough street kid tries to use gang violence to break into corrupt city politics.
Cast: Jackie Cooper, Maureen O'Connor, Marjorie Main.
Dir: William Nigh.
BW-77 mins

Until 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes was nominated for Best Actress in 2004, Jackie Cooper was the only actor to earn a Best Actor/Actress nomination for an Academy Award before his/her 18th birthday. Seventeen other actors have earned Oscar nominations as children, but all except Keisha were in the supporting categories.


12:00pm -- Tomorrow We Live (1942)
A master criminal uses mind control to force an ex-con to commit crimes.
Cast: William Marshall, Emmett Lynn, Ray Miller.
Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer.
BW-63 mins, TV-PG

Richard Cortez (who plays the master criminal in this film) would be the only actor to ever have his name above Greta Garbo when she appeared with him in her first American movie, The Torrent (1924).


1:15pm -- The Guv'nor (1935)
Crooked businessmen install a hobo as bank president, only to discover how smart their mark really is.
Cast: George Arliss, Ivor Barnard, Frank Cellier.
Dir: Milton Rosmer.
BW-83 mins

First film of Mervyn Johns, father of Glynis Johns, and Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (1951).


2:45pm -- The Awful Truth (1937)
A divorced couple keeps getting mixed up in each other's love lives.
Cast: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy.
Dir: Leo McCarey.
BW-91 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Director -- Leo McCarey

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Ralph Bellamy, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Irene Dunne, Best Film Editing -- Al Clark, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Viña Delmar, and Best Picture

Previously made twice, first as a silent film - The Awful Truth (1925), and then as an early talking film - The Awful Truth (1929). Later remade by Columbia Pictures as Let's Do It Again (1953) with Jane Wyman and Ray Milland.


4:30pm -- First a Girl (1935)
An out-of-work actress passes herself off as a female impersonator and becomes a star.
Cast: Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, Anna Lee.
Dir: Victor Saville.
BW-92 mins

A remake of Viktor und Viktoria (1933) starring Renate Müller, and remade as Victor/Victoria (1982)
starring Julie Andrews.


6:15pm -- I Thank You (1941)
Out-of-work actors sign on as servants to a grand lady risen from the performing ranks.
Cast: Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Lily Morris.
Dir: Marcel Varnel.
BW-81 mins

Soundtrack includes Hello to the Sun, Half of Everything is Yours, Oh Johnny Teach Me to Dance, Let's Get Hold of Hitler, and Waiting At The Church.


7:43pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Clues To Adventure (1949)
A John Nesbitt short dramatizing how three separate events led to three of our most important rights in the Constitution: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the banning of "cruel and unusual" punishment.
Cast: John Nesbitt
BW-10 mins

Includes archive footage from Nursery Rhyme Mysteries (1943), The Story That Couldn't Be Printed
(1939) and The Face Behind the Mask (1938).


What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: WRITTEN BY ABRAHAM POLONSKY


8:00pm -- Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)
After killing his girlfriend's father in self defense, a rebellious Native American races to elude a bloodthirsty posse.
Cast: Robert Redford, Robert Blake, Katharine Ross.
Dir: Abraham Polonsky.
C-98 mins, TV-MA

Based on the novel by Harry Lawton, who ran a bookstore in Berkeley, California, and later became a newspaper journalist. He had strong ties with the local American Indian community. He was a co-founder of the Malki Museum on the Morongo Indian Reservation, and helped establish the Malki Museum Press, which publishes books about California Indians.


9:49pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Kings Of The Turf (1941)
This entry in "The Sports Parade" series, shows us how Mortimer, a Standardbred horse, is trained for harness racing.
Cast: Knox Manning.
Dir: Del Frazier.
C-10 mins

The short starts with the birth of a young foal who is standing on his own wobbly feet within thirty-five minutes. The care that trainers have to demonstrate in training the young horse for their ultimate destination on the racetrack is shown, as is their remarkable patience in putting the horses through their paces so that they have the "style, stamina and speed" necessary for the country fair.


10:00pm -- Force of Evil (1948)
A crooked lawyer tries to protect his numbers running brother from a ruthless crime boss.
Cast: John Garfield, Beatrice Pearson, Thomas Gomez.
Dir: Abraham Polonsky.
BW-79 mins, TV-14

In order to show cinematographer George Barnes how he wanted the film to look, Abraham Polonsky gave him a book of Edward Hopper's Third Avenue paintings.


11:30pm -- Body And Soul (1947)
A young boxer slugs his way out of the slums only to fall prey to organized crime.
Cast: John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Anne Revere.
Dir: Robert Rossen.
BW-106 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Francis D. Lyon and Robert Parrish

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- John Garfield, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Abraham Polonsky

To get a more fluid camera movement in the boxing ring, cinematographer James Wong Howe filmed the fight while holding the camera and being pushed by an assistant as he wore roller skates.


1:30am -- Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
Desperate losers plan a bank robbery with unexpected results.
Cast: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame.
Dir: Robert Wise.
BW-96 mins, TV-PG

Harry Belafonte starred in this, the first film-noir with a black protagonist. Belafonte selected Abraham Polonsky, who had written and directed a famous noir, Force of Evil (1948), to write the script. As a blacklisted writer Polonsky used a front, John O. Killens, a black novelist and friend of Belafonte's. (In 1997, the Writers Guild of America officially restored Polonsky's credit.)


3:15am -- The Warriors (1979)
A gang is framed for the murder of rival gang's leader.
Cast: Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright.
Dir: Walter Hill.
C-93 mins, TV-MA

This story of gangs, "sometime in the future", was loosely based on Xenophon's "Anabasis", the account of an army of Greek mercenaries who, after aligning themselves with Cyrus the Younger in the battle of Cunaxa (401 BC) in his attempt to seize the Persian throne, found themselves isolated behind Persian enemy lines.

[Staph]

1. Abraham Polonsky Profile

Abraham Polonsky may be the most gifted artist to have his career cut short by the Hollywood Blacklist of the '50s. One can only say "may" because his exile from Hollywood fell so early in his career -- after only four screenplay credits and one directing job -- it is impossible to know what he might have accomplished had his career not been interrupted. As he himself would acknowledge, his seventeen years on the blacklist cost him his peak years of development as a director. But even with his limited output, his work demonstrates a mature approach to film genre as a vehicle for social commentary. An unrepentant Marxist, he informed his writing with a cynical view of the blessings of modern life in a capitalist economy. As such, his early work was a key influence in the development of film noir, with its near paranoid emphasis on the corruptive nature of city life, and a heavy influence on Francis Coppola's Godfather Trilogy.

Polonsky was born in 1910 to a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants in the Bronx. To please his father, he got a law degree, but worked his way through law school teaching English at City College of New York, all the while dreaming of a writing career. Ironically, the law led him into professional writing. One of his firm's clients was actress-writer Gertrude Berg, and he was assigned as legal consultant for an episode of her hit radio series The Goldbergs. When Berg heard him dictate a scene to his secretary, she hired him as one of her writers. That led to other radio work, including some scripts for Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre of the Air.

Like many American intellectuals during the '30s, Polonsky had turned to the Communist Party in search of answers to the problems facing the country during the Great Depression. By 1939, he had tired of radio work and went to work as a labor organizer, writing in his spare time. His 1943 novel The Enemy Sea marked his first attempt to use familiar genres to deal with political issues; it was a tale about the attempts of Nazis to sink an American oil tanker. The book generated interest in Hollywood, where Paramount signed him to a writing contract.

Paramount had little to offer Polonsky. His only credit at the studio was Golden Earrings (1947), a Marlene Dietrich film that he claims does not feature anything written by him. Hearing that John Garfield was looking for material for his new Enterprise Pictures, Polonsky successfully pitched a story about a Jewish boy who rises from the slums as a boxer only to become corrupted by gamblers. Garfield produced the film as Body and Soul (1947) and gave the writer unprecedented access to the set. When director Robert Rossen felt Polonsky's scripted ending was too ambiguous, Garfield sided with the writer, giving the film its classic ending, in which Garfield faces off against the gangsters with the line "What are you going to do, kill me? Everybody dies!" The result was a huge hit which was also Garfield's biggest independent success. Body and Soul also brought Polonsky an Academy Award® nomination.

Garfield then gave Polonsky the chance to direct his own script, an adaptation of Ira Wolfert's 1943 novel Tucker's People which he filmed as Force of Evil (1948). Polonsky turned in a searing film noir associating the corruption of Wall Street with the numbers racket. Decades before the Godfather films, Polonsky was the first to treat organized crime as a metaphor for American business. By the time the picture was finished, however, Enterprise was broke, forcing Garfield to sell the film to MGM. Force of Evil was rather bleak for Hollywood's most glamorous studio, which may explain why it was buried on the bottom half of a double bill released at Christmas. Critics were impressed nonetheless, and in later years the film has become a cult favorite.

By that time, Hollywood was under investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which was looking into Communist infiltration of the film industry. At first, Polonsky found his work opportunities limited. Over the next three years, he only earned one writing credit, for the Susan Hayward vehicle I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951). That year, he was called before the HUAC after having been named as a Communist by other witnesses. When he refused to testify, he was blacklisted.

Like many blacklisted writers, he continued to work under pseudonyms or by having fronts submit his scripts under their names. He would later claim to have made more money while blacklisted than he ever had before. Out of loyalty to the friends who helped him work, Polonsky never told anybody what films he had written between 1951 and 1968. Even without his efforts, in 1996 the Writers Guild restored his name to the credits for Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), which he had written under the name John O. Killens. Critics have hailed the picture as the last "classic" film noir for its tale of a trio of out-of-luck men who join forces for a bank heist. The script was commissioned by co-star and producer Harry Belafonte, for whom Polonsky wrote scenes depicting the racial injustices of the '50s.

Polonsky finally came off the blacklist in 1968 when director Don Siegel and Universal Pictures hired him to co-script the police thriller Madigan (1968). The film's success brought him back to directing. Instead of making another film noir, however, he chose the revisionist western Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969). Robert Redford starred as an early 20th century sheriff leading an increasingly bloodthirsty posse on the hunt for a Native American (Robert Blake) on the run after killing the father of his fiancée (Katharine Ross). Critics greeted the film as a triumph, and it brought Redford and Ross the British Academy of Film and Television Awards for Best Actor and Actress (in conjunction with their performances in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, also 1969). Unfortunately, it did not fare as well as the box office.

After only one more directing effort -- the 1971 comedy adventure Romance of a Horsethief, which received only limited release -- Polonsky developed a heart problem that kept him from directing. Over the next 25 years, he continued writing, though he was rarely happy with the films that resulted. His last writing credit was for Monsignor (1982), in which Christopher Reeve starred as a disreputable priest. He also did uncredited work on Mommie Dearest (1981) and wrote the screenplay for Guilty by Suspicion (1991), an account of the HUAC investigations based on his own experiences. When director Irwin Winkler re-wrote the script to make the character based on Polonsky, played by Robert De Niro, a liberal rather than a Communist, Polonsky removed his name from the production.

A fighter to the end, Polonsky spent his final years teaching at the University of Southern California, where he refused to speak to fellow teacher Edward Dmytryk, a director who had named names in the '50s. When another friendly witness, director Elia Kazan, was voted a special Oscar® in 1999, Polonsky was one of the filmmakers protesting the choice, informing interviewers, "I'll be watching, hoping someone shoots him" (quoted in "Studio Briefing," www.imdb.com).

by Frank Miller