TCM Schedule for Friday, October 7, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - Terror Classic Movies - '20s Horror

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is showing the nine Dr. Kildare films that star Lew Ayres. And in prime time, TCM is celebrating the month of October with classic terror. Tonight is a treat for horror fans, as the films featured are rarely seen silents from the 1920s. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- YOUNG DR. KILDARE (1938)
A medical school graduate must choose between a small-town practice and a big-city internship.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Lew Ayres, Lynne Carver
BW-82 mins, CC,

Feature directorial debut of Harold S. Bucquet.


7:30 AM -- CALLING DR. KILDARE (1939)
A young doctor treats a gangster and falls for the man's kid sister.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day
BW-86 mins, CC,

The character of Doctor James Kildare was created in a short story by Max Brand, actually prolific author Frederick Schiller Faust, who wrote more than 500 novels, with an estimated literary output of between 25 and 30 million words in novels, short stories and screenplays.


9:00 AM -- THE SECRET OF DR. KILDARE (1939)
A young doctor tries to help a woman suffering from psychosomatic blindness.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Lionel Atwill
BW-84 mins, CC,

The first Dr. Kildare film was titled Internes Can't Take Money (1937) and starred Joel McCrea as the good doctor.


10:30 AM -- DR. KILDARE'S STRANGE CASE (1940)
A young doctor uses pioneering methods to treat a mental patient.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day
BW-77 mins, CC,

Continuity problems -- At about 11 minutes, Dr. Gillespie and Dr. Kildare drink the same glasses of milk twice. Furthermore, the full and empty bottles of milk on the table during the lunch change their positions, and sometimes vanish, between shots.


12:00 PM -- DR. KILDARE GOES HOME (1940)
A young doctor gives up big-city success to help his father set up a small-town clinic.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day
BW-79 mins, CC,

The Max Brand story that was the basis for this film was published in four parts in Argosy magazine in June 1940. The film was released three months later.


1:30 PM -- DR. KILDARE'S CRISIS (1940)
A young doctor's marriage could be called off when the bride's brother is diagnosed with epilepsy.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day
BW-75 mins, CC,

The Medical Society of New York wrote a letter to the PCA protesting the way epilepsy was presented in the movie. They objected to the claims that epilepsy is inherited, that it is curable and that it leads to insanity.


2:48 PM -- EMERGENCY DOCTOR (1956)
This short film pays tribute to all the doctors who put their lives on hold to save the lives of others.
Dir: Harry W. Smith
BW-8 mins,


3:00 PM -- THE PEOPLE VS. DR. KILDARE (1941)
An ice skater sues a young doctor for malpractice.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day
BW-78 mins, CC,

The injured ice skater is played by Bonita Granville.


4:19 PM -- SEE YOUR DOCTOR (1939)
In this comedic short film, a lecturer tells of the problems a man faces seeking medical treatment.
Dir: Basil Wrangell
Cast: Monty Woolley, Robert Benchley, Helen MacKellar
BW-8 mins,


4:30 PM -- DR. KILDARE'S WEDDING DAY (1941)
A young doctor's wedding turns into a tragic event.
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day
BW-83 mins, CC,

The character of Nurse Mary Lamont, the bride to be, appeared in the second Lew Ayres Dr. Kildare film (Calling Dr. Kildare (1939)). This is the last of the seven films featuring the character.


6:00 PM -- DR. KILDARE'S VICTORY (1942)
A young doctor with a broken heart succumbs to the lure of a socialite.
Dir: Major W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Ann Ayars
BW-92 mins, CC,

When Lew Ayres announced he was a conscientious objector to the war shortly after the film was released, hundreds of bookings were canceled because of protests. Loew's ordered that all cancellation requests be granted. When Ayres changed his status (in April 1942) to "non-combatant", many in the film industry stated that a boycott of his films would be intolerant and inconsistent with "Americanism".


7:34 PM -- DOCTOR'S ORDERS (1930)
Several friends stage a phony car accident so their girlfriends will have to nurse them back to health in this comedic short.
Dir: Arch Heath
Cast: Mickey Daniels, Grady Sutton, David Sharpe
BW-21 mins, CC,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TERROR CLASSIC MOVIES: '20S HORROR



8:00 PM -- NOSFERATU (1922)
In this silent film, a beautiful woman risks her life to end a vampire's plague of death and pestilence.
Dir: F. W. Murnau
Cast: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Alexander Granach
BW-89 mins,

The concept in popular culture that sunlight is lethal to vampires is based on this film, which depicted such a death for the very first time in film history. F.W. Murnau knew that he would be sued for borrowing heavily from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula" without permission, so he changed the ending in order that he could say that this film and "Dracula" were not exactly the same.


9:45 PM -- THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)
A carnival performer uses a hypnotized sleepwalker to murder his enemies.
Dir: Robert Wiene
Cast: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher
BW-77 mins,

Writer Hans Janowitz claims to have gotten the idea for the film when he was at a carnival one day. He saw a strange man lurking in the shadows. The next day, he heard that a girl was brutally murdered there. He went to the funeral, and saw the same strange man lurking around. He had no proof that the strange man was the murderer, but he fleshed the whole idea out into his film.


11:15 PM -- UNHOLY THREE (1925)
In this silent film, a ventriloquist masquerades as an old lady to front a crime ring.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Lon Chaney, Mae Busch, Matt Moore
BW-86 mins,

The film was remade in 1930, with the same title and with sound. The remake was Lon Chaney Sr.'s only sound film.


1:00 AM -- THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925)
In this silent film, a hideously deformed man haunts the sewers beneath the Paris Opera.
Dir: Rupert Julian
Cast: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry
C-90 mins,

According to the film's cameraman Charles Van Enger, one of Lon Chaney's most trusted associates, Mary Philbin's reaction to the unmasked Phantom was real--she had no idea what he would look like until that exact moment.


2:36 AM -- BLACK CATS AND BROOMSTICKS (1955)
In this short film, superstitions are examined in the context of mid-20th century America.
Dir: Larry O'Reilly
BW-8 mins,


2:45 AM -- HAXAN: WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES (1922)
Scenes trace the history of witchcraft from the middle ages to the early 20th century.
Dir: Benjamin Christensen
Cast: Benjamin Christensen, Maren Pedersen, Clara Pontoppidan
BW-107 mins,

Maria, the weaver (one of the persecuted witches) was played by Maren Pedersen, whom Christensen allegedly discovered while she was selling flowers on a street corner. Pedersen claimed that she was the first Red Cross nurse in Denmark. During the shoot, Pedersen reportedly turned to Christensen and said, "The Devil is real. I have seen him sitting at my bedside." Christensen was so struck by this confession of modern demonic activity (or at least the belief in modern demonic activity) that he incorporated this anecdote into the film itself.


4:45 AM -- THE PENALTY (1920)
In this silent film, a criminal mastermind plots revenge against the doctor who amputated his legs.
Dir: Wallace Worsley
Cast: Lon Chaney, Ethel Grey Terry, Charles Clary
BW-90 mins,

Lon Chaney had both of his lower legs tied back and had to walk on his kneecaps for his role as an amputee. It was so painful he could only have his legs tied back for a few minutes at a time, and his leg muscles sustained permanent damage.