TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 4, 2014 -- TCM Guest Programmer Richard Linklater

[Staph]

TCM is starting the day with the more of Star of the Month Melvyn Douglas, then a selection of films by director and birthday boy Edward Dmytryk (born September 4, 1908 in Grand Forks, British Columbia), and an evening of films chosen by Richard Linklater. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Annie Oakley (1935)
The famed female sharpshooter learns that you can't get a man with a gun when she falls for a rival marksman.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster, Melvyn Douglas
BW-90 mins, CC,

Released less than 10 years after the death of the real Annie Oakley, this was he first Western for both director George Stevens and star Barbara Stanwyck. Stevens of course would go on to make one of the definitive films in the genre - Shane (1953).


7:30 AM -- Three Hearts For Julia (1943)
When his wife threatens him with divorce, a reporter courts her again.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Ann Sothern, Melvyn Douglas, Lee Bowman
BW-90 mins,

Joan Crawford was offered the lead role, but turned it down.


9:00 AM -- A Woman's Secret (1949)
A retired singer takes on a protegee only to be betrayed by her.
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Melvyn Douglas, Gloria Grahame
BW-85 mins, CC,

Nicholas Ray and Gloria Grahame met while shooting this film. They were married in Las Vegas shortly after completing the film. They chose Las Vegas because Ray loved to gamble and to allow Grahame to get a quickie divorce (after the required six weeks of residency in Nevada) from actor Stanley Clements. The day the divorced was granted, the two married.


10:30 AM -- The Devil Commands (1941)
A scientist kills innocent victims in his efforts to communicate with his late wife.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Boris Karloff, Richard Fiske, Amanda Duff
BW-64 mins,

Part of the SON OF SHOCK package of 20 titles released to television in 1958, which followed the original Shock Theater release of 52 features one year earlier. This was also one of the 11 Columbia titles, the other 61 all being Universals.


11:45 AM -- Sweetheart of the Campus (1941)
A college dean tries to keep a nightclub from opening too close to his campus.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Ruby Keeler, Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard
BW-67 mins,

Final starring film role of Ruby Keeler (aside from a few television appearances and a couple of cameos in films in the 1970s and 1980s).


1:00 PM -- Hitler's Children (1943)
A German-American girl is forced to enter a Hitler youth program.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Tim Holt, Bonita Granville, Kent Smith
BW-82 mins,

According to Edward Dmytryk in his biography 'It's a Hell of a Life But Not a Bad Living', "A title with the word 'Hitler' in it was considered box-office poison, and the exhibitors asked Associate Producer Doc Golden and RKO to change ours. Doc was stubborn - and he was right. The film cost a little over $100,000, and, running only in England and the Western Hemisphere...grossed, by some accounts, $7,500,000."


2:30 PM -- So Well Remembered (1947)
A mill-owner's ambitious daughter almost ruins her husband's political career.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: John Mills, Martha Scott, Patricia Roc
BW-115 mins, CC,

English actress Hayley Mills made her (uncredited) screen debut as an infant in this film, featuring her father John and sister Juliet.


4:30 PM -- Obsession (1949)
A jealous husband plots to dispose of his wife's lover in an acid bath.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Robert Newton, Sally Gray, Naunton Wayne
BW-98 mins,

Also known as The Hidden Room.


6:15 PM -- The Sniper (1952)
An unhappy man goes on a killing spree.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, Gerald Mohr
BW-88 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt

This movie marked director Edward Dmytryk's return to directing after being blacklisted and serving time in prison for contempt of court, when he refused to name names of his Communist associates to the House Un-American Activities Committee. As "punishment" for his earlier association with Communist groups, Dmytryk was assigned to direct Adolphe Menjou, who had been one of the most fervent supporters of HUAC in Hollywood. Despite their history of political differences, the two got along fairly well during filming.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER: RICHARD LINKLATER



8:00 PM -- Some Came Running (1958)
A veteran returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine
C-136 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur Kennedy, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Martha Hyer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Walter Plunkett, Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "To Love and Be Loved"

"Some Came Running" is taken from the Gospel of St. Mark (Chapter 10:17), which author James Jones used as an epigraph before the beginning of the novel. It reads: "And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Jones also used the image of running to begin the novel's prologue, as Dave Hirsh remembers German soldiers attacking during the Battle of the Bulge; "They came running through the fog across the snow, lumbering, the long rifles held up awkwardly high..."


10:30 PM -- The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
A gang of small time crooks plots an elaborate jewel heist.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen
BW-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Sam Jaffe, Best Director -- John Huston, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Ben Maddow and John Huston, and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Harold Rosson

Both director John Huston and star Sterling Hayden were members of the Committee for the First Amendment, which stood against the blacklisting of alleged Communists working in the film industry during the Red Scare. Huston had never been a Communist, although Hayden at one point had been.


12:45 AM -- Fanny and Alexander (1982)
A widowed actress and her children suffer hardships when she mistakenly marries a conservative church leader.
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve, Gunn Wallgren
C-189 mins, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Sven Nykvist, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Anna Asp and Susanne Lingheim, Best Costume Design -- Marik Vos-Lundh, and Best Foreign Language Film -- Sweden.

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Ingmar Bergman, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Ingmar Bergman

Famous Swedish song-and-dance man Jan Malmsjö, who is playing the evil bishop Vergerus, thought it was strange that director Ingmar Bergman approached him for a role very much different from anything he had done. He asked Bergman about it, who replied: "Well, I sense some hidden dark and evil streaks inside you, Jan. You have it, I have it, all of us have."


4:00 AM -- Forbidden Games (1952)
During World War II, a refugee child creates a cemetery for animals.
Dir: René Clément
Cast: Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, Amedee
BW-86 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- François Boyer

In a television interview ("Vivement Dimanche Prochain", France 2, 17 April 2005) Brigitte Fossey, who played the little Paulette, revealed that the film had originally been shot as a short, and then it was later decided to extend it into a feature film. Unfortunately she had lost her milk teeth and Georges Poujouly (who plays the boy Michel) had had his hair cut to play in Nous sommes tous des assassins (1952). So, in many scenes of the movie Paulette has false teeth and Michel is wearing a wig.


5:34 AM -- David O. Selznick "Your New Producer" (1935)
This promotional short film presents a brief biography of David O. Selznick, showcasing various clips of films he produced.
BW-24 mins,