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Staph

(6,245 posts)
Thu Sep 25, 2014, 10:23 PM Sep 2014

TCM Schedule for Friday, September 26, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Classic Pre-Code

It's another day of pre-code films, with most of the daylight films starring Loretta Young, and a prime time full of gangster films. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- A Free Soul (1931)
A hard-drinking lawyer's daughter falls for one of his underworld clients.
Dir: Clarence Brown
Cast: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore
BW-94 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Lionel Barrymore

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Norma Shearer, and Best Director -- Clarence Brown

When the final version of the movie went before Hollywood censors, they demanded that MGM cut the scene where Norma Shearer lays on the bed and suggestively asks Clark Gable to put his arms around her. The studio ignored the demand and released the film uncut.



7:34 AM -- Sealskins (1932)
In this short film, an aspiring journalist and her friend follow a lead for a stolen royal seal when they should be working on their attention to detail.
Dir: Gil Pratt
Cast: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Leo Willis
BW-21 mins,


8:00 AM -- Downstairs (1932)
An evil chauffeur seduces and blackmails his way through high society.
Dir: Monta Bell
Cast: John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce
BW-78 mins,

John Gilbert wanted to do this movie so badly he sold the story to MGM for $1.00. Ads for the movie proclaimed "starring Mr. and Mrs. John Gilbert" since the couple was married shortly after the production completed filming.


9:30 AM -- Ladies They Talk About (1933)
A lady bank robber becomes the cell block boss after she's sent to prison.
Dir: Howard Bretherton
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Preston S. Foster, Lyle Talbot
BW-69 mins,

Film has some rather blatant and oddball plugs for Warner Brothers stars. In several scenes photos of Joe E. Brown (whom Lillian Roth sings to) and Dick Powell are seen in the women's cells.


10:45 AM -- Loose Ankles (1930)
A young woman will inherit a million dollars if she marries well.
Dir: Ted Wilde
Cast: Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Louise Fazenda
BW-67 mins,

The play opened in New York City, New York, USA on 16 August 1926 and had 168 performances. The leads were played by Kathleen Comegys and Harold Vermilyea, and friends Terry and Andy were played by Charles D. Brown and Osgood Perkins.


12:00 PM -- They Call It Sin (1932)
An innocent young chorus girl fights the advances of her lecherous producer.
Dir: Thornton Freeland
Cast: Loretta Young, George Brent, Una Merkel
BW-69 mins, CC,

Early in the film, Loretta Young's character refers to herself as "just a farmer's daughter." Fifteen years later, Miss Young won an Oscar for "The Farmer's Daughter."


1:15 PM -- Heroes For Sale (1933)
A veteran fights drug addiction to make his way in the business world.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Aline MacMahon, Loretta Young
BW-71 mins, CC,

Director William A. Wellman used real hoboes for the fight scene and real laundry workers for the laundry scenes.


2:30 PM -- Employees' Entrance (1933)
An unscrupulous department store manager stops at nothing to get what he wants.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Warren William, Loretta Young, Wallace Ford
BW-75 mins, CC,

Based on a play by David Boehm.


4:00 PM -- Midnight Mary (1933)
An abused orphan sinks into a life of crime.
Dir: William Wellman
Cast: Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, Franchot Tone
BW-74 mins,

The original working title "Lady of the Night" was changed after the Hayes Office objected (the title was thought to be obscene).


5:15 PM -- Other Men's Women (1931)
A railroad engineer falls for a co-worker's wife.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Grant Withers, Mary Astor, Regis Toomey
BW-70 mins,

Unusually for a film of this time period, the opening credits are not accompanied by music.


6:30 PM -- The Public Enemy (1931)
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods
BW-84 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- John Bright and Kubec Glasmon

The machine gun attack on Tom Powers and his best friend Matt Doyle actually used real machine gun bullets. An expert with the gun stood on a raised platform 15 to 20 feet away from the target, and when James Cagney's face disappeared behind the corner of the wall, he opened fire and created that tight circle of machine gun bullets.




TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: CLASSIC PRE-CODE



8:00 PM -- Scarface (1932)
A murderous thug shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley
BW-94 mins, CC,

Screenwriter Ben Hecht was a former Chicago journalist familiar with the city's Prohibition-era gangsters, including Al Capone. During the filming Hecht returned to his Los Angeles hotel room one night to find two Capone torpedoes waiting for him. The gangsters demanded to know if the movie was about Capone. Hecht assured them it wasn't, saying that the character Tony Camonte was based on gangsters like "Big" Jim Colosimo and Charles Dion O'Bannion. "Then why is the movie called Scarface?" one of the hoods demanded. "Everyone will think it's about Capone!" "That's the reason," said Hecht. "If you call the movie Scarface (1932), people will think it's about Capone and come to see it. It's part of the racket we call show business." The Capone hoods, who appreciated the value of a scam, left the hotel placated.


9:45 PM -- Little Caesar (1930)
A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell
BW-79 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Francis Edward Faragoh and Robert N. Lee

Speculation has it that a federal anti-organized crime law - The Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organization Act, or RICO - got its acronym from Edward G. Robinson's character.



11:15 PM -- Penthouse (1933)
The mob frames a lawyer for murder, so he enlists a call girl's help in finding the real killer.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Charles Butterworth
BW-89 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Arthur Somers Roche in Cosmopolitan Magazine.


1:00 AM -- Three on a Match (1932)
A woman's childhood friends try to rescue her from gangsters.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Virginia Davis, Joan Blondell, Dawn O'Day
BW-63 mins, CC,

The title refers to the superstition that if three people light their cigarettes with the same match, the third person will soon die. While some attribute the superstition to World War I, where it was sometimes thought that lighting a match long enough to light three cigarettes would attract enemy gunfire, it is now known that a match company "created" the superstition to cut down on sharing of matches and thus increase sales.


2:15 AM -- Call Her Savage (1932)
A Texas gal storms her way through life, brawling and boozing until her luck runs out, forcing her to learn the errors of her ways.
Dir: John Francis Dillon
Cast: Clara Bow, Gilbert Roland, Thelma Todd
BW-88 mins, CC,

According to the documentary The Celluloid Closet (1995) (based on Vito Russo's book of the same name), this was the first Hollywood movie to depict a gay bar.


3:45 AM -- The Hatchet Man (1932)
When he's forced to kill his best friend, a Chinese hit man adopts the man's daughter.
Dir: William A. Wellman
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Dudley Digges
BW-74 mins,

With the closing line uttered, off camera, by "The Hatchet Man" (Edward G.Robinson), "Wherever You are The Hatchet Man will get you", at least a sequel to "The "Hatchet Man" may have been contemplated. Possibly and luckily the upcoming 1934 Production Code helped rule out that idea. He was repeating what he had told him before the statue of Buddah before he ran off with Toya.


5:00 AM -- State's Attorney (1932)
A district attorney's arrogance almost costs him his career.
Dir: George Archainbaud
Cast: John Barrymore, Helen Twelvetrees, Jill Esmond
BW-79 mins,

The story was supposedly based on the life of defense attorney William J. Fallon, who successfully defended 126 homicide cases.


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