TCM Schedule for Saturday, March 21, 2015 -- The Essentials: '40s Romance

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials features romances of the 1940s, including the gorgeous Now, Voyager (1942). I've coveted Bette Davis' clothes and hats in this film for decades! Enjoy!



6:45 AM -- The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
A villainous doctor creates a killer spray in order to conquer London.
Dir: Dan Sharp
Cast: Christopher Lee, Nigel Green, James Robertson-Justice
C-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

As a publicity stunt, producer Harry Alan Towers had Christopher Lee tour European countries choosing a national beauty contest winner from each one, the prize being a part in the film. However, despite their decorative appearances in Fu Manchu's cave headquarters, none of these beauties was allowed to utter a line as they were not members of Equity.


8:45 AM -- White Zombie (1932)
A zombie master menaces newlyweds on a Haitian plantation.
Dir: Victor Halperin
Cast: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorn
BW-67 mins,

According to friends of Bela Lugosi, the actor always regretted that he had taken the role of "Murder" Legendre for only $800 while the film was quite successful at the box office for the Halperin brothers.


10:00 AM -- Batman: The Mark of the Zombies (1943)
Batman races to stop enemy agents from destroying a supply train.
BW-18 mins, Letterbox Format


10:30 AM -- Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Inhabitants of a beleaguered Western town mistake a plumber for the new Marshall.
Dir: Gerald Thomas
Cast: Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale
C-95 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The main street has a turn at each end to disguise the fact that there was no wild prairie at Pinewood.


12:15 PM -- Man Of The West (1958)
A reformed outlaw is among the hostages when his former colleagues rob a train.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Gary Cooper, Julie London, Lee J. Cobb
C-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Jean-Luc Godard, a film critic before he became a director, raved about the film saying it was the best film of that year. Because of his recommendation, the film has been reevaluated and is now considered a classic western.


2:00 PM -- Nevada Smith (1965)
A part-Indian cowboy avenges his parents' murder.
Dir: Henry Hathaway
Cast: Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith
C-131 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The name "Nevada Smith" was the original inspiration for the name "Indiana Jones"; the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) character's name was originally "Indiana Smith". George Lucas named him "Indiana" after his dog, and "Smith" after this movie. But then it was changed to "Indiana Jones".


4:15 PM -- Cahill, United States Marshal (1973)
A tough lawman has to bring in his own sons for a train robbery.
Dir: Andrew V. McLaglen
Cast: John Wayne, Gary Grimes, George Kennedy
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

John Wayne told an interviewer he gave up caring about the movie halfway during filming when he learned that John Ford was dying of cancer.


6:15 PM -- The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)
A reformed gunslinger's past keeps catching up with him.
Dir: Russell Rouse
Cast: Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, Broderick Crawford
BW-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Based on the Frank D. Gilroy story The Last Notch.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: '40S ROMANCE



8:00 PM -- Now, Voyager (1942)
A repressed spinster is transformed by psychiatry and her love for a married man.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
BW-118 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Gladys Cooper

The facilities and philosophy of Cascade, the "sanatorium" where Charlotte is treated in the book and movie, are based on the real-life Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA, where author Olive Higgins Prouty had once sought treatment. The Riggs Center was notable at the time for its focus on physical activity, occupational therapy, daily talk therapy sessions, and eschewing lobotomies and other drastic medical treatments of the time.


10:00 PM -- Lydia (1941)
An unmarried woman stages a reunion with former suitors to recapture the romance of her past.
Dir: Julien Duvivier
Cast: Merle Oberon, Edna May Oliver, Alan Marshal
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominated
Oscar Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture
Miklós Rózsa

The poem Lydia and Bob quote at the ball is "The Night has a Thousand Eyes" by Francis William Bourdillon, a late Victorian English poet (1852-1921). The text is:

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one:
Yet the light of a whole life dies.
When love is done.


12:00 AM -- Enchantment (1948)
When a well-off family takes in a young orphan, her presence ignites romance and jealousy.
Dir: Irving Reis
Cast: David Niven, Teresa Wright, Evelyn Keyes
BW-101 mins, CC,

"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 24, 1949 with David Niven, Teresa Wright and Jayne Meadows reprising their film roles of General Roland Dane, Lark Ingoldsby and Selina Dane respectively.


2:00 AM -- Ciao! Manhattan (1972)
A one-time underground film star goes home to her mother to recover from years of drug abuse.
Dir: John Palmer
Cast: Edie Sedgwick, Wesley Hayes, Isabel Jewell
C-90 mins, Letterbox Format

The film originally followed the excessively hip lives of Sedgwick and fellow Warhol superstar Paul America, as they lived life in the fast lane (literally speeding down the West Side Highway on massive amounts of amphetamine).


3:45 AM -- Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
Cameras capture the backstage drama as acting students audition for a film.
Dir: William Greaves
Cast: Patricia Ree Gilbert, Don Fellows, Jonathan Gordon
C-75 mins,


5:00 AM -- The Corvair In Action! (1960)
Technicians herald the arrival of a new car that "delivers the goods as no other compact car can" in this short advertisement.
C-6 mins,


5:00 AM -- The Distant Drummer: A Movable Scene (1970)
An education short film that exposes drug use and drug culture.
Dir: William Templeton
Cast: Robert Mitchum,
C-22 mins,


5:00 AM -- The Distant Drummer: Flowers of Darkness (1972)
Filmmakers trace the history of opium and its role in today's drug trade in this short film.
Dir: William Templeton
C-22 mins,