TCM Schedule for Friday, October 9, 2015 -- What's On Tonight: Rogue Body Parts

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is riding the rails. And in prime time, in recognition of the month of October, we get an evening of scary, out-of-control body parts. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- The General (1927)
In this silent film, a Confederate engineer fights to save his train and his girlfriend from the Union army.
Dir: Buster Keaton
Cast: Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley
BW-75 mins,

Based on a true incident during the Civil War. In April 1862 Union agent James J. Andrews led a squad of 21 soldiers on a daring secret raid. Dressed in civilian clothes, Andrews and his men traveled by rail into the Southern states. Their mission was to sabotage rail lines and disrupt the Confederate army's supply chain. At the town of Big Shanty, GA, (now known as Kennesaw, Georgia) the raiders stole a locomotive known as "The General." They headed north, tearing up track, burning covered bridges and cutting telegraph lines along the way. William Fuller and Jeff Cain, the conductor and engineer of "The General," pursued the stolen train by rail and foot. They first used a hand-cart (as Buster Keaton does in the film), then a small work locomotive called "The Yonah," which they borrowed from a railroad work crew, and finally a full-sized Confederate army locomotive called "The Texas," which pursued "The General" for 51 miles--in reverse. During the chase Confederate soldiers were able to repair the sabotaged telegraph wires and send messages ahead of the raiders. Andrews and his men were intercepted and captured near Chattanooga, TN, by a squad of Confederate troops led by Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest (who, after the war, was one of the founders of the Ku Klux Klan). Tried as spies, Andrews and seven of his raiders were hanged (a special gallows was built to hold all eight men). The rest of the raiders were traded in a prisoner exchange. In 1863 the survivors of the mission were awarded the first Medals of Honor (Andrews and the raiders who had been hanged later received the medal posthumously). Although this film is a comedy, the incident was later filmed by Walt Disney as a drama, The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), with Fess Parker--a Southerner, born in Texas--as Andrews.


7:26 AM -- One Good Turn (1930)
Discovering that her agents want to get rid of her partner, a singer decides to give him singing lessons in this short film. Vitaphone Release 1122-1123.
BW-17 mins,


7:45 AM -- The Silk Express (1933)
A young silk importer fights off threats to his cargo during a perilous train ride.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Neil Hamilton, Sheila Terry, Arthur Byron
BW-61 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Houston Branch.


9:00 AM -- Canadian Pacific (1949)
A railroad surveyor faces an Indian rebellion.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
Cast: Randolph Scott, Jane Wyatt, J. Carroll Naish
C-95 mins,

At the beginning when Tom Andrews is in Cornelius Van Horne's private train car, there is a picture of a 4-4-0 engine. This is a print of the Western & Atlantic Railroad engine, "The General" famous for the Andrews Raid during the American Civil War (Buster Keaton's film The General, shown earlier today, is based on this raid.). The General used to be in Chattanooga, TN, but is now housed in Kennesaw, GA.


10:45 AM -- Murder in the Private Car (1934)
A speeding train becomes the setting for murder.
Dir: Harry Beaumont
Cast: Charlie Ruggles, Una Merkel, Mary Carlisle
BW-63 mins, CC,

The play, The Rear Car, by Edward E. Rose, opened in Los Angeles, California, USA, on 6 August 1922, but had no New York run.


12:00 PM -- Berlin Express (1948)
Allied agents fight an underground Nazi group in post-war Europe.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin
BW-87 mins, CC,

The first Hollywood production in Germany after World War II.


1:30 PM -- Terror on a Train (1953)
It's a race against the clock to defuse a time bomb on board a speeding train filled with high explosives.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff
Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Vernon, Maurice Denham
BW-72 mins, CC,

Three years earlier in Seven Days to Noon (1950), actor Victor Maddern had played the role of the soldier who shoots the mad bomber. However here, in a reversal of sorts, Maddern plays the part of the mad bomber.


2:45 PM -- The Tall Target (1951)
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President Lincoln during a train ride.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou
BW-78 mins, CC,

In 1861 the train would have traveled on a number of different short line railroads to get from New York to Washington (the Philadelphia & Trenton; the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore; the Baltimore and Washington, etc.); the Philadelphia, Washington & Baltimore Railroad was not formed until 1902 and it was still in existence (on paper) until 1976. Obviously the filmmakers kept the name consistent to provide continuity and to avoid having to repaint the engine and cars after every few shots.


4:15 PM -- Dark of the Sun (1968)
A mercenary band fights to get refugees and a fortune in diamonds out of the Congo.
Dir: Jack Cardiff
Cast: Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Showbusiness trade paper Variety erroneously reported in its review that this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie was shot in Africa but in fact this movie was filmed out of Africa. The picture's exteriors were lensed in Jamaica in the Carribean as it could not be shot on the dark continent due to political unrest. Ironically, around the same, another picture from MGM, Graham Greene's The Comedians (1967), was set in the Carribean, but filmed in Benin, West Africa.


5:56 PM -- The Man Who Makes The Difference (1968)
A behind-the-scenes promotional short for the action film "Ice Station Zebra" (1968).
C-7 mins,


6:15 PM -- The Train Robbers (1973)
A bandit's widow enlists a famed gunman to return the gold her husband had stolen.
Dir: Burt Kennedy
Cast: John Wayne, Ann-Margret, Bobby Vinton
C-92 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Director Burt Kennedy wanted to cast Jack Elam as Grady. However John Wayne would not allow this, because he felt Elam had stolen too many scenes from him in Rio Lobo (1970).



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: ROGUE BODY PARTS



8:00 PM -- Mad Love (1935)
A mad doctor grafts the hands of a murderer on to a concert pianist's wrists.
Dir: Karl Freund
Cast: Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive
BW-68 mins, CC,

Peter Lorre's first American film.


9:18 PM -- Take A Cue (1939)
In this short film, Charles C. Peterson demonstrates how to play billiards.
Dir: Felix E. Feist
Cast: Charles Peterson, Doodles Weaver,
BW-9 mins,


9:30 PM -- The Beast With Five Fingers (1946)
After a famous pianist's murder, his hand returns to wreak vengeance.
Dir: Robert Florey
Cast: Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre
BW-88 mins, CC,

This was Peter Lorre's last film for Warner Bros.


11:15 PM -- Hands of a Stranger (1962)
An experimental hand transplant leaves a pianist driven to kill.
Dir: Newt Arnold
Cast: Paul Lukather, Joan Harvey, James Stapleton
BW-86 mins,

First film of James Noah, and last film of Joan Harvey.


12:53 AM -- The Bounty (1962)
This silent promotional short presents footage of the "HMS Bounty" for the remake of "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1962).
C-7 mins,


1:00 AM -- The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)
A scientist keeps his wife's severed head alive until he can find a new body for her.
Dir: Joseph Green
Cast: Virginia Leith, Herb Evers, Adele Lamont
BW-82 mins, Letterbox Format

At least a few of Virginia Leith's lines were dubbed by Doris Brent, who played a nurse in this film. Reportedly Leith hated the film so much she refused to return for post-production.


2:30 AM -- Corruption (1967)
When a plastic surgeon accidentally disfigures his model girlfriend, he becomes obsessed with restoring her face.
Dir: Robert Hartford-Davis
Cast: Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Noel Trevarthen
C-91 mins, Letterbox Format

Foreign versions of this film replaced Jan Waters in the role of the first victim with Marianne Morris, who played the murder scene topless.


4:08 AM -- The Story Of A Dress (1964)
This promotional short for "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (1964) focuses on the creation of a costume worn by Debbie Reynolds for the film.
BW-5 mins,


4:15 AM -- Eyes Without a Face (1959)
A surgeon steals young women's faces hoping to heal his daughter's scars.
Dir: Georges Franju
Cast: Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Edith Scob
BW-90 mins, Letterbox Format

When the film appeared in the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1960 it was reported that seven audience members fainted during the surgery scene. Director Georges Franju responded "Now I know why Scotsmen wear skirts."