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Staph

(6,245 posts)
Thu May 19, 2016, 12:07 PM May 2016

TCM Schedule for Friday, May 20, 2016 -- What's On Tonight: Star of the Month - Robert Ryan

In the daylight hours, TCM has a trio of films written by William Inge, followed by an afternoon and evening of Star of the Month Robert Ryan. Enjoy!



6:30 AM -- All Fall Down (1962)
A young drifter's romance with an older woman is threatened by his possessive mother.
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Eva Marie Saint, Warren Beatty, Karl Malden
BW-110 mins, CC,

Eva Marie Saint's character (Echo O'Brien) is the "old maid daughter" of the best friend of Angela Lansbury's character (Annabell Willart), when in fact Eva Marie Saint was a year older than Angela Lansbury.


8:35 AM -- H.M.S. Bounty Sails Again! (1962)
A promotional short following the world tour of the "HMS Bounty", built specially by MGM for their 1962 remake "Mutiny on the Bounty."
BW-8 mins,


8:45 AM -- Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Sexual repression drives a small-town Kansas girl mad during the roaring twenties.
Dir: Elia Kazan
Cast: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle
C-124 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Inge

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Natalie Wood

For the scene in which Deanie tries to drown herself in the lake, Natalie Wood asked Elia Kazan if she could do it in a controlled studio tank because she had a great fear of water - particularly dark water. "I assured her it was a very shallow lake and that her feet would always be close to the bottom," said Kazan. "She said that even if her feet were on the bottom, she'd be in a panic of fear about it. So I asked my assistant, Charlie Maguire, to get into the water with her, just out of camera range, while she played the scene of struggling to save herself. This didn't entirely reassure her, but she did the scene and did it well - then clutched Charlie. 'Cut!' I cried. On dry land she continued to shake with fear, then laughed hysterically, with relief."



10:59 AM -- Alert Today - Alive Tomorrow (1956)
This short film promotes the need for cooperation and neighborliness in the event of a nuclear disaster and associated civil defense procedures.
Dir: Larry O'Reilly
BW-15 mins,


11:15 AM -- Picnic (1956)
A handsome drifter ignites passions at a small-town Labor Day picnic.
Dir: Joshua Logan
Cast: William Holden, Kim Novak, Betty Field
C-113 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- William Flannery, Jo Mielziner and Robert Priestley, and Best Film Editing -- Charles Nelson and William A. Lyon

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur O'Connell, Best Director -- Joshua Logan, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- George Duning, and Best Picture

Rosalind Russell remarked, "'Bill Inge' has sisters who were schoolteachers. That helped him in writing Rosemary so perceptively." In fact, Inge's mother ran a boarding house that at one time was occupied by three women schoolteachers. In his own words: "I saw their attempts and, even as a child, I sensed every woman's failure. I began to sense the sorrow and the emptiness in their lives, and it touched me."



1:22 PM -- Operation Teahouse (1956)
This short promotional film provides a behind-the-scenes look at "The Teahouse of the August Moon" (1956).
C-5 mins,


1:30 PM -- Trail Street (1947)
Bat Masterson fights to make Kansas safe for wheat farmers.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Anne Jeffreys
BW-84 mins, CC,

Bat Masterson mentions to Allen Harper that he has ambitions to be a journalist someday. The real Masterson lived to be sports editor of the New York Morning Telegraph.


3:00 PM -- Return of the Badmen (1948)
A farmer falls for the female leader of a band of notorious outlaws.
Dir: Ray Enright
Cast: Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Anne Jeffreys
BW-90 mins, CC,

This film follows Badman's Territory (1946) and is followed by Best of the Badmen (1951).


4:45 PM -- Best Of The Badmen (1951)
A band of notorious outlaws help a friend against a corrupt federal agent.
Dir: William D. Russell
Cast: Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor, Jack Buetel
C-84 mins, CC,

The name of the Alhambra Hotel and Bar was previously used by MGM in the 1946 award winning film The Harvey Girls starring Judy Garland and John Hodiak. Although her voice was dubbed, Angela Landsbury's character Em performed many a song and dance in the Alhambra. The Alhambra hotel name can still be found today in the U.S. and around the world.


6:15 PM -- The Naked Spur (1953)
A captive outlaw uses psychological tactics to prey on a bounty hunter.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan
C-92 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom

When this film was released in Spain, its title was changed to "Colorado Jim" and the name of James Stewart's character was also changed from "Howard Kemp" to "Colorado Jim", for unknown reasons.




TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: ROBERT RYAN



8:00 PM -- Lolly-Madonna XXX (1973)
Mistaken identity leads two backwoods families into a bloody feud.
Dir: Richard C. Sarafian
Cast: Rod Steiger, Jeff Bridges, Scott Wilson
C-105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Based on a novel by Sue Grafton, apparently before the days that her novels were alphabetical.


10:00 PM -- The Outfit (1973)
An ex-con takes on the mob to avenge his brother's death.
Dir: John Flynn
Cast: Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker
C-103 mins, CC,

Brian Garfield, in an intro to a reprint of the novel this film is based on, notes that it was originally written by director John Flynn as a period piece, intending to be set in the postwar 1940s. That's why such "film noir" veterans such as Elisha Cook Jr., Richard Jaeckel, Marie Windsor and Jane Greer appear in it. The studio, however, decided it would be too expensive to shoot a period picture, so the script was superficially updated, the World War II vets became Vietnam vets, and actors like Robert Ryan, Karen Black and Sheree North joined the cast. The result was that the story was restored to its original conception (the series this book was based on was written and set in the then contemporary 1960s and 1970s). Had the period piece idea gone through, this would have represented a rare case of backdating a character.


11:49 PM -- Portrait Of An Actor (1971)
This promotional short film for "The Last Run" (1971) offers a look at the life of actor George C. Scott.
Dir: Chuck Workman
C-10 mins,


12:00 AM -- The Wild Bunch (1969)
A group of aging cowboys look for one last score in a corrupt border town.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan
C-145 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced -- Walon Green (screenplay/story), Roy N. Sickner (story) and Sam Peckinpah (screenplay), and Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) -- Jerry Fielding

Sam Peckinpah would drive his crew so hard that it sometimes created friction and confrontations between him and certain cast members. Early in the shooting, William Holden threatened to walk off the set if Peckinpah continued to verbally abuse the crew in his presence. Robert Ryan threatened to punch the director after he made Ryan spend ten days in costume and makeup without filming any scenes or allowing him a few days off to campaign for Sen. Robert Kennedy. Ernest Borgnine also promised to "beat the shit out" of Peckinpah if the director didn't allow him some relief from the throat-clogging dust that was affecting the actor's breathing on location. Editor Lou Lombardo would later recall, "Over time, we became the Wild Bunch. I saw what Holden was doing. He was playing Sam. He was running the bunch like Sam ran the crew."



2:30 AM -- Captain Nemo And The Underwater City (1970)
The infamous submarine captain rescues six shipwreck survivors.
Dir: James Hill
Cast: Robert Ryan, Chuck Connors, Nanette Newman
C-106 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Honor Blackman was originally announced for the female lead back in 1968.


4:30 AM -- Executive Action (1973)
Rogue intelligence agents, politicians, greedy capitalists, and assassins plot and carry out an assassination.
Dir: David Miller
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Will Geer, Gilbert Green
C-91 mins, CC,

The first film to openly question the veracity of the Warren Commission's report into the death of John F. Kennedy. Critics were given an eight page newspaper when leaving their first screenings that expounded all the conspiracy theories aired in the film.


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