TCM Schedule for Thursday, November 20 -- Guest Programmer -- Ray Bradbury

[Staph]

Tonight's guest programmer is science fiction author Ray Bradbury -- a film fanatic -- who knew?!? His favorite films include a couple of classic Lon Chaney silents, along with two of the great films of the 1940s, Rebecca and Citizen Kane. Enjoy!


4:45am -- The Spider and the Fly (1949)
During World War I, a master thief agrees to spy on the Germans.
Cast: Eric Portman, Guy Rolfe, Nadia Gray.
Dir: Robert Hamer.
BW-95 mins

Director Robert Hamer also directed Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), a hilarious murder mystery with Alec Guinness in eight roles.


6:30am -- The Edge of the World (1937)
A fisherman fights to prevent changing times from destroying his family.
Cast: John Laurie, Belle Chrystall, Eric Berry.
Dir: Michael Powell.
BW-72 mins, TV-PG

When he was young, Michael Powell read a newspaper article about the evacuation of the island of Hirta (St. Kilda), west of the Hebrides, and he thought he could make a great film about it.


7:45am -- Thirteen Women (1932)
A mysterious Eurasian tries to murder the 12 boarding school roommates who treated her like an outsider.
Cast: Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, Ricardo Cortez.
Dir: George Archainbaud.
BW-60 mins, TV-PG

Peg Entwistle, who played Hazel Clay Cousins, committed suicide two days after the film’s release. She jumped off the H of the Hollywood sign, then "Hollywoodland".


8:45am -- Whipsaw (1935)
A G-man woos the sole female member of a criminal gang.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, Harvey Stephens.
Dir: Sam Wood.
BW-82 mins, TV-G

MGM executive E.J. Mannix chastised cinematographer James Wong Howe for filming Myrna Loy with mussy hair when she awakens at John Qualen's house, since MGM spent millions glamorizing their star. The scene is in the Turner library print.


10:15am -- The Ambassador's Daughter (1956)
A diplomat's daughter in Paris turns a fact-finding mission into a non-stop party.
Cast: Olivia de Havilland, John Forsythe, Myrna Loy.
Dir: Norman Krasna.
C-103 mins, TV-G

Last feature film of Minor Watson, a gentle character who started in silent films in 1913.


12:00pm -- The Dark Angel (1935)
Three childhood friends are torn apart by love and World War I.
Cast: Fredric March, Merle Oberon, Herbert Marshall.
Dir: Sidney Franklin.
BW-106 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Richard Day

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Merle Oberon, and Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (sound director)

The role of Alan Trent was originally intended for Leslie Howard, who was having an affair with Merle Oberon at the time. When the affair ended, Howard dropped out of the production and Fredric March replaced him - much to the disgust of director Sidney Franklin, who thought Oberon wouldn't draw audiences without Howard as her co-star.


2:00pm -- Dark Victory (1939)
A flighty heiress discovers inner strength when she develops a brain tumor.
Cast: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart.
Dir: Edmund Goulding.
BW-104 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Bette Davis, Best Music, Original Score -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

Bette Davis pestered Warner Brothers to buy the rights to the story, thinking it a great vehicle for her. WB studio chief Jack L. Warner fought against it, arguing that no one wanted to see someone go blind. Of course, the film went on to become one of the studio's biggest successes of that year.


3:45pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Sword Fishing (1939)
A group of fisherman, including Howard Hill, "the world's greatest archer," go in search of marlin off the California coast.
Narrator: Ronald Reagan
BW-10 mins

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel


4:00pm -- All My Sons (1948)
A veteran discovers his father cut costs on wartime military equipment.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancaster, Mady Christians.
Dir: Irving Reis.
BW-94 mins, TV-PG

Based on the play by Arthur Miller. Yes, that Arthur Miller, the one who wrote Death of a Salesman and married Marilyn Monroe.


5:35pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Spotlight (2000)
BW-14 mins

One of those strange films that I can find nothing about -- a fourteen-minute black and white film from 2000?


6:00pm -- Trapeze (1956)
An aging trapeze star and his protigi fall for the same woman.
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida.
Dir: Carol Reed.
C-106 mins, TV-PG

Sally Marlowe was cast as Gina Lollobrigida's stunt double until Marlowe broke her nose on set. Willy Krause, a close personal friend of Burt Lancaster, was asked to fill in as Ms. Lollobrigida's stunt double. He accepted the role.


7:47pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Gym College (1955)
In this Sportscope series entry, members of the Florida State University gymnastics team demonstrate their athletic skills.
Narrator: Peter Roberts.
Dir: Harold Winner.
BW-8 mins

Filmed on location at FSU in Tallahassee, FL.


What's On Tonight: TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER: RAY BRADBURY


8:00pm -- The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
In this silent film, a hideously deformed man haunts the sewers beneath the Paris Opera.
Cast: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry.
Dir: Rupert Julian.
BW-90 mins, TV-G

The Phantom's makeup was designed to resemble a skull. Lon Chaney attached a strip of fish skin (a thin, translucent material) to his nostrils with spirit gum, pulled it back until he got the tilt he wanted, then attached the other end of the fish skin under his bald cap. For some shots, a wire-and-rubber device was used, and according to cameraman Charles Van Enger it cut into Chaney's nose and caused a good deal of bleeding. Cheeks were built up using a combination of cotton and collodion. Ears were glued back and the rest was greasepaint shaded in the proper areas of the face. The sight was said to have caused some patrons at the premiere to faint.


9:45pm -- The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1923)
In this silent film, a deformed bell-ringer gives sanctuary to a beautiful gypsy accused of witchcraft.
Cast: Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry.
Dir: Wallace Worsley.
BW-117 mins, TV-G

Lon Chaney's make-up was his most extreme yet. A knotted wig, nose putty on the cheeks, some false teeth, and fake eye made up his visage. The final touch was a plaster hump which, contrary to popular opinion, was only about 10-15 lbs and did not cause Chaney any back problems.


11:45pm -- Rebecca (1940)
A young bride is terrorized by the memories of her husband's glamorous first wife.
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock.
BW-130 mins, TV-PG

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- George Barnes. and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Laurence Olivier, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Joan Fontaine, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Judith Anderson, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White -- Lyle R. Wheeler, Best Director -- Alfred Hitchcock, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Jack Cosgrove (photographic) and Arthur Johns (sound), Best Film Editing -- Hal C. Kern, Best Music, Original Score -- Franz Waxman, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison

Mrs. Danvers is hardly ever seen walking; she seems to glide. Alfred Hitchcock wanted her to be seen solely from Joan Fontaine's character's anxious point of view, and this effect tied in with her fear about Mrs. Danvers appearing anytime unexpectedly.


2:00am -- Citizen Kane (1941)
The investigation of a publishing tycoon's dying words reveals conflicting stories about his scandalous life.
Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead.
Dir: Orson Welles.
BW-120 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles (On Friday, July 19th, 2003, Orson Welles' Oscar statuette went on sale at an auction at Christie's, New York, but was voluntarily withdrawn so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences could buy it back for just one dollar. The statuette, included in a large selection of Welles-related material, was going to be sold by Beatrice Welles, the youngest of the filmmaker's three daughters and the sole heir of his estate and was expected to sell at over 300,000 dollars.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Orson Welles, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Perry Ferguson, Van Nest Polglase, A. Roland Fields and Darrell Silvera, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Gregg Toland, Best Director -- Orson Welles, Best Film Editing -- Robert Wise, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture -- Bernard Herrmann, Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD), and Best Picture

The camera looks up at Charles Foster Kane and his best friend Jedediah Leland and down at weaker characters like Susan Alexander Kane. This was a technique that Orson Welles borrowed from John Ford who had used it two years previously on Stagecoach (1939). Welles privately watched Stagecoach (1939) about 40 times while making this film.


4:15am -- The Stranger (1946)
A small-town schoolteacher suspects her new husband may be an escaped Nazi war criminal.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles, Loretta Young.
Dir: Orson Welles.
BW-95 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Victor Trivas

The first film released after WWII that showed footage of the concentration camps.

[Staph]

1. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

If you asked movie buffs to select the most memorable scene from the entire Lon Chaney filmography, most of them would probably pick the famous unmasking sequence from The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Despite the effectiveness of this scene, the movie was the most problematic of all the films Chaney made and the most uneven in terms of quality, despite its reputation as Chaney's most famous role.

It is not hard to see why Chaney was attracted to the title character of Gaston Leroux's novel. The dramatic demands of the role and the makeup required for the Phantom presented a physical challenge Chaney couldn't pass up. It also marked a turning point in his career. It would be his final film with Universal Studios. Chaney had just signed a new contract with MGM and already completed the studio's first feature, He Who Gets Slapped, which was an unqualified success.

Universal spared no expense in producing The Phantom of the Opera. They built the first steel and concrete stage in Hollywood which housed the entire interior set of the Opera House, the backstage area, and the grand staircase. (This stage, which still stands today on the Universal lot, is the only surviving set from any Chaney film.) The studio also hired over 250 dancers for elaborate dance numbers supervised by renown dance producer Ernest Belcher and shot the masked ball sequence, among other scenes, in the early two-color Technicolor process.

But the film was plagued by numerous difficulties from the beginning. Chaney clashed frequently with his director, Rupert Julien, whose claim to fame was finishing the directorial chores on Merry-Go-Round after Erich von Stroheim had been fired. The relationship between Chaney and Julien deteriorated to the point where the actor refused to talk to or take direction from Julien. Various scenes, including the sequence with the falling chandelier, had to be re-shot due to inadequate lighting. And after production was completed, a sneak preview for audiences convinced the studio to go back and add scenes with Chester Conklin for comic relief as well as a romantic subplot.

Edward Sedgwick, who had directed several Buster Keaton comedies for MGM, was brought in to complete these additional scenes but, after another unsuccessful public preview, the studio decided to discard the comedy bits, the romantic subplot, and some ballet sequences. A new set of title cards was created for continuity purposes since so many gaps existed in the film's storyline and the film was finally released theatrically.

Chaney's performance in The Phantom of the Opera was universally praised and so were the elaborate sets and costumes but many critics couldn't help noticing the uneven structure of the film. Nevertheless, the film has achieved cinematic immortality due to Chaney's innovative makeup which has influenced numerous makeup artists like Bob Kane (He designed the makeup for Tim Burton's Batman). Some of Chaney's gruesome effects in The Phantom of the Opera were created by using a combination of cotton and collodion for the raised and extended cheekbones, a strip of fishskin attached to the nose with spirit gum for the up-tilted nose effect, and dark eyeliner shading to give him that hollow-eyed look.

Director: Rupert Julian
Producer: Carl Laemmle
Screenplay: Elliott J. Clawson (Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux)
Cinematography: Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller, Charles Van Enger
Art Direction: Ben Carre, Charles D. Hall
Cast: Lon Chaney (Erik/The Phantom), Mary Philbin (Christine Daae), Norman Kerry (Vicomte Raoul de Chagny), Arthur Edmund Carewe (Ledoux), Gibson Gowland (Simon Buquet).
BW & C-91m.

by Jeff Stafford