TCM Schedule for Saturday, September 23, 2017 -- The Essentials - Western Greed

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials are heading to the wild west, to discover the effects of man's greed in three great films, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), The War Wagon (1967), and The Last Posse (1953). Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY (1945)
Two bumbling press agents seek a real zombie for a nightclub opening.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Wally Brown, Alan Carney, Bela Lugosi
BW-68 mins,

The jungle scenes were filmed on the sets used for RKO's Tarzan series.


7:18 AM -- SPADE COOLEY KING OF WESTERN SWING (1945)
This musical short film chronicles the rise in popularity of Spade Cooley and his unique blend of country and swing music. Vitaphone Release 1361A.
Dir: Jack Scholl
Cast: Tom Wilson, Carolina Cotton, Earle Hodgins
BW-10 mins,


7:30 AM -- THE MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR (1943)
Nazi agents use a headless ghost as a front.
Dir: Ben Stoloff
Cast: John Loder, Eleanor Parker, Bruce Lester
BW-56 mins,

I can't find a single bit of trivia on this film!


8:30 AM -- THE UNSUSPECTED (1947)
The producer of a radio crime series commits the perfect crime, then has to put the case on the air.
Dir: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Joan Caulfield, Claude Rains, Audrey Totter
BW-103 mins, CC,

There is an apparent in-joke when Hurd Hatfield compares Joan Caulfield's Mathilda character to her portrait, saying that she hasn't changed, but her portrait has, a clear reference to his signature film, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945).


10:14 AM -- PICTURESQUE MASSACHUSETTS (1942)
This short film takes the viewer to historic sites in Massachusetts.
C-9 mins,


10:30 AM -- BOSTON BLACKIE'S CHINESE VENTURE (1948)
When he's spotted leaving a laundry whose proprietor has just been murdered, a reformed thief has to find the real killer.
Dir: Seymour Friedman
Cast: Chester Morris, Maylia, Richard Lane
BW-59 mins,

The last of the Chester Morris Boston Blackie series. There was a Boston Blackie television series of two seasons from 1951 to 1953, starring Kent Taylor as Boston Blackie and Lois Collier as his girl Friday Mary Wesley.


11:45 AM -- BILLY BUDD (1962)
Adaptation of Herman Melville's classic tale of a ship's captain caught between an innocent young sailor and an evil officer.
Dir: Peter Ustinov
Cast: Terence Stamp, Peter Ustinov, Robert Ryan
BW-123 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Terence Stamp

Herman Melville had been writing poetry for 30 years when he returned to fiction with "Billy Budd" in late 1888. Still unfinished when he died in 1891, it was forgotten. Melville's biographer accidentally stumbled upon it when going through a trunk of the writer's papers in his granddaughter's New Jersey home in 1919. Melville's widow worked to help complete it, and it was finally published in 1924. Over the years other unsatisfactory versions were published, but it wasn't until Melville's original notes were found that the definitive version was ultimately published in 1962. Ironically Peter Ustinov's film version was released the same year.


2:00 PM -- THE NANNY (1965)
A disturbed young man tries to prove his nanny is out to kill him.
Dir: Seth Holt
Cast: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett
BW-93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The role of the Nanny was originally intended for Greer Garson who first accepted then declined, saying the script would not be good for her career. Jimmy Sangster who wrote and produced the film later said, "I went to Santa Fe and met with Greer, and she said she liked the script, and everything was fine. When I got back to London, we had a message from L.A. saying that Greer Garson didn't think the script would do her career much good. I didn't like to say she didn't have a career in those days."


3:45 PM -- THE OMEGA MAN (1971)
The only human survivor of a biological war fights to end a plague that has turned everybody else into monsters.
Dir: Boris Sagal
Cast: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash
C-98 mins, CC,

The production company wanted a locale that looked like an abandoned metropolitan area, but it was too costly to build. The producer drove through downtown Los Angeles one weekend and discovered there were no shoppers, so the majority of the film's exteriors were shot there on weekends.


5:30 PM -- BOUND FOR GLORY (1976)
True story of folk singer Woody Guthrie, who rose to the top while fighting for the rights of migrant farm workers.
Dir: Hal Ashby
Cast: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon
C-148 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Haskell Wexler, and Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Leonard Rosenman

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Robert Getchell, Best Costume Design -- William Ware Theiss, Best Film Editing -- Robert C. Jones and Pembroke J. Herring, and Best Picture

The pivotal Steadicam sequence that first captivated industry insiders involved David Carradine's amble through a migrant camp. The Steadicam operator, Garrett Brown, descends into the scene on a Chapman crane and follows Woody Guthrie (Carradine) as he gets off a pickup truck and walks past some 900 extras. The sequence, which looks quite simple on film, posed a challenge to operator and crew in that, just as Brown stepped off the crane platform laden with his weighty armature, grips had to simultaneously counterbalance the crane arm to prevent it from becoming a human catapult.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: WESTERN GREED



8:00 PM -- THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)
Three prospectors fight off bandits and each other after striking-it-rich in the Mexican mountains.
Dir: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt
BW-126 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Walter Huston, Best Director -- John Huston, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- John Huston

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

John Huston was fascinated by mysterious author B. Traven, who was a recluse living in Mexico. Traven approved of the director and his screenplay (by letter, obviously), and sent his intimate friend Hal Croves to the location to be a technical advisor and translator for $150 a week. The general consensus is that Croves was in fact Traven, though he always denied this. Huston was happy not to query him on the subject but his then-wife Evelyn Keyes was certain Croves was the mysterious author, believing that he was continually giving himself away, saying "I" when it should have been "he", and using phrases that were exactly the same as those to be found in Traven's letters to Huston. All very ironic, especially considering that Traven was offered $1000 a week to act as technical advisor on the film. It is known that "B. Traven" was a pen name, and Traven's true identity remains a mystery to this day.


10:30 PM -- THE WAR WAGON (1967)
A rancher and a hired gun join forces to take on the criminal who betrayed them both.
Dir: Burt Kennedy
Cast: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Howard Keel
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

During the production, Kirk Douglas was late to the set because he was shooting a commercial endorsement for the Democratic Governor of California, Edmund G. Brown. John Wayne was furious, and was late to work the next day because he was shooting a commercial for the Republican candidate Ronald Reagan.


12:30 AM -- THE LAST POSSE (1953)
Flashbacks reveal how a posse after stolen money returned empty handed.
Dir: Alfred Werker
Cast: Broderick Crawford, John Derek, Charles Bickford
BW-73 mins, CC,

The musical score consists primarily of recycled themes from Columbia serials arranged by Ross DiMaggio.


2:00 AM -- OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (1983)
An up-and-coming businessman is tormented by rats in his brownstone.
Dir: George Cosmatos
Cast: Peter Weller, Jennifer Dale, Lawrence Dane
C-89 mins, CC,

Favorite film of Stephen King.


3:45 AM -- RATTLERS (1976)
A herpetologist links a series of deaths from snake bite to U.S. military testing.
Dir: John Mccauley
Cast: Sam Chew, Elizabeth Chauvet, Ron Gold
C-81 mins, CC,

Filmed in the Mojave Desert of California.


5:15 AM -- THE CORVAIR IN ACTION! (1960)
Technicians herald the arrival of a new car that "delivers the goods as no other compact car can" in this short advertisement.
C-6 mins,


5:15 AM -- THE GOLDEN YEARS (1960)
In this instructional short film, bowling is made respectable and appealing to middle-class Americans through modernization and design.
BW-15 mins,


5:15 AM -- DUCK AND COVER (1951)
In this short film, a monkey's prank on a turtle demonstrates how to survive a nuclear attack.
Dir: Anthony Rizzo
Cast: Leo M. Langlois III, Ray J. Mauer,
BW-9 mins,